WOW! I found so many great resources for you at Twitter this week, I’m dividing this post into two parts. The second part will be published tomorrow.

Top Cancer Prevention Tips – http://tinyurl.com/d2qhek – was posted by Carol of Home Care Phoenix.

Reuters followed that up with even more information on the impact that even a single glass of alcohol per day can have on women. http://is.gd/kOz3

Instead of that glass of wine, it might be wise to have a glass of apple juice. Not only will it not cause cancer, it could fight off Alzheimer’s Disease! http://jijr.com/sKE If you’re like me and dislike the taste of apple juice, there are several juices available with a mixture of berry and apple which are quite tasty. Thank you to @twitterbo for this link.

The number of kids as caregivers is increasing. These numbers include those caring for parents AND grandparents http://is.gd/kOHY .

In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Here’s a fun smile for you. Worm crashes computer. A *real* worm! http://hellotxt.com/l/llRQ By the way, even though you  probably don’t have any worms – real or virtual – it’s never too soon to back up your computer, run your virus checker and defragmenter, and see if there are any files you can weed out.

Breadmaking was quite popular among my group of friends umpteen years ago, when my kids were little, and life was so much simpler (Well, it seems like it now. Back then, I’m sure I would have disagreed with myself.) Penny Raine’s picture at her website brought back delightful and yummy-smelling memories . http://tinyurl.com/c72ets

If you are exploring various ways to provide extra housing for elderly relatives, adult kids returning to the nest, or grandkids , here is an intriguing option – micro homes using shipping containers. http://is.gd/kNLH . If you read that and want to know more, be sure to check out http://renaissanceronin.wordpress.com/ as well as some of the other links in the comment section.You’ll find lots of “thinking outside the box” ideas that may well provide a solution to your situation. Just be sure to check with all the city/county government agencies first before making any firm commitments.

If your elderly parents would like to stay in their own home longer, here’s an article they might enjoy reading. Automated ‘Intelligent’ Houses Help Elderly Stay In Homes Longer http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090213115332.htm . Thanks to @skriv for the info.

If your adult kid wants their own home, here’s some great information to share with them. First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit of $8,000 in 2009 Economic Stimulus Package http://tinyurl.com/bkh3dc .

Speaking of the Stimulus package , Bible Money Matters has done a good breakdown on it: http://www.biblemoneymatters.com/2009/02/how-much-extra-will-i-see-in-my-paycheck-because-of-the-2009-economic-stimulus-package.html

Do you enjoy contests? I love them when I win . That’s only happened three or four times in my life and they were all smaller contests where my odds of winning were higher.

One fun thing I’ve discovered through blogging is that many sites offer easy-to-enter contests where the odds are definitely more inviting than, say, the state lotteries. Making these contests downright practical is that they often lead to new and useful resources. The warm mouse I wrote about last week, http://budurl.com/TwitLinks12009 , was discovered in just that manner. Granted, I lost that contest, but I still won by learning about a valuable tool to share with you. Today I found two more fun and resource-full contests you might enjoy entering.

Autism Learning Felt’s website – http://budurl.com/AutismLearningFelt – has a fun contest that runs through January 30, 2009. The three winners will each receive a copy of the DVD, Readeez. There are a variety of ways to enter, including writing a blog post about the site/product. This post is one of my “entries,” however I only do that type of entry when I feel the site/product is of value to you. Autism Learning Felt and Readeez both satisfy that requirement.

Autism Learning Felt’s goal is to share “ideas about products that may be beneficial for adults and children with Autism.” Tammy Lessick is a WAHM with two kids, one of whom has Autism. Her home-based business, www.learningfelt.com , provides great creative and fun activities with felt for children. These felt sets could easily be used by grandparents who want to help their grandkids, including those with Autism.

The DVD she is recommending (and giving away), Readeez – http://budurl.com/Readeez – combines fun, education, and learning. That’s my favorite combination! Kids can watch the words on the screen as they are clearly and entertainingly spoken or sung. This is an excellent option for home schoolers, grandkids with learning disabilities, autism, and more. The price is reasonable AND you can join me in signing up for the contest at Autism Learning Felt’s site and you might even get it for free

Another site that is also offering a fun contest is run by Penny Raine. You can find that site at http://budurl.com/PennyRaine where you’ll find a gorgeous, albeit cold-looking photo at the top of the page. A Christian mom’s blog, this site offers a wide variety of interesting items – frugal cooking tips, contests, ebooks, a modest clothing store, and even a tip for that absolutely gorgeous Diaper Cake you may have seen at a shower for your future grandchild. One of her many contests has a prize that would be excellent as a gift for your adult kids to encourage them in their marriages. The DVD, “Fireproof,” comes with excellent recommendations. From the people who brought you “Facing the Giants,” this is another great family movie. I highly recommend it and again, you could win it for free by heading over to visit Penny’s site. This contest also runs through January 30, 2009.

In case you are wondering, you do NOT have to have your own blog to enter either of these contests. There are many ways to enter, and the simplest for each is to leave a comment at their site. So come join me at both sites, and cheers to the grandparents who win

Found some interesting articles today for you to enjoy on the topic of grandparenting.

The Grandparenting Blog had a great article on “Five Ways to Make Phone Calls with Grandchildren Fun” by Shayne and Tanda Packer. As anyone who has tried to carry on a conversation with a young child can relate to, it can be hard work! I like to sing hymns and Bible songs with my littler ones and they really enjoy it. Their mom tells me they get great big smiles on their faces. With the older ones, we talk about books, and food, and the weather, and I often end with a song with them too. I have a few favorites that we sing together and my hope has always been that when they hear those songs at other times it will trigger fun memories of our phone times together.

Shayne and Tanda Packer of The Grandparenting Blog had a similar thought in their great article, “Five Ways to Make Phone Calls with Grandchildren Fun.” Grandparents of eight, they also have a lot of experience in this area. I especially enjoyed reading the idea of making up stories together on the phone. I just did this with one of my local grandkids while we were waiting in the car. I started the story, told a few sentences of it and then waited for him to add more, he did a little, then back to me. We went back and forth like this for ten minutes and had a great time. Not only is it fun, it is teaching them creative and critical thinking skills! I am definitely going to give this a try the next time I am on the phone with one of my blessings.

They also mention videophone calls with their grandkids. I haven’t tried that but I have used Instant Messenger by MSN and a webcam that came built into my computer to see and talk to my grandkids and that was fun, though not the easiest thing to do. Fortunately their mom is VERY good at it and helped talk me through it.

You can read the rest of the Packers’ article and see other articles that may interest you at their grandparenting site . One of their most recent articles tells how they made Sticker Books for their grandkids. Woo hoo, I see a great rainy day idea there, for sure!

“Share Everyday Moments with Grandkids ” by Donna Erickson was an interesting article, which pointed out how important it is for our kids to get regular breaks “from the daily demands of raising [their] kids.” Helping them to build a strong marriage helps our grandchildren as well! She recommends regular overnighters at your house, as well as giving some fun ideas of what to do when they are there. You can read more about her at her website, DonnasDay .

For more fun ideas, check out my article playing outside with your grandkids .

I am always on the lookout for fun, creative, and educational ideas to enjoy with my grandkids. Do you have any you would like to share? We’d love to hear from you. Just click on the Comments link at the bottom of each post and share away.

Because of health, expenses, etc., it can be hard to visit all your children and grandchildren as often as you like. Fortunately there are lots of fun and creative ways to keep close to them in spite of the distance. One of my ongoing plans for this blog is for us all to share different ways we have discovered that make the distance seem not so far away.

My grandkids who don’t live close love coloring pages. They’d keep their parents printing them out and buying them at stores all day long if they could. Naturally, that’s not an option. But it does create a great opportunity for a grandparent to help in that area.

Periodically I have fun preparing an email of coloring pages and projects for them to enjoy. I use public domain coloring pages I’ve found on the net along with coloring pages I’ve purchased. I’m primarily a computer-oriented grandma, but once in a while, I’ll even prepare a GRANDMA CARES package for the snail mail route. In that, I will usually tuck in stickers, coloring books, activity sheets, and other fun goodies. The Dollar Store is a wonderful help with that, although I am very careful about what I buy for the younger ones because of all the warnings lately about unsafe toys that go into little mouths.

The nice thing about these emails and boxes is that they are as much a gift for my adult kids as my grandkids. They enjoy watching the little ones open the boxes. They also enjoy the peace and quiet that ensues as little ones grab their crayons, scissors, and new coloring pages and get creative. Granted said quiet only lasts a short time, but it’s still sweet.

Some great resources for clipart include: Dover Publications – This company is famous for high-quality artwork that is public domain – free to use and reuse within certain boundaries. I have purchased two of their coloring books with computer disks. The pictures are great and the cds are easy to work with. You can find the books listed in my Amazon Book list for Grandparents on my Favorite Books and Music page (see Resource-full Links on the right) -  You can then print them out or email them to your grandkids to enjoy.

They also offer a wonderful sampler email that comes out every week. This links to their site where you can find great sales and more than a dozen sample pages from different books. Most samples give you two printable, copy-able pages that kids will enjoy coloring as well as some simple mazes, dot-to-dots, etc. Some are black and white, some are color, all are high quality. I especially love the turn-of-the-century colored pictures. They are so cute. Those are great for kids to cut out and glue onto pictures with glue sticks. Old fashioned stickers for free!

A great Christian site is ChristianAnswers.Net’s Kid Explorers . They not only have printable coloring pages, they have online interactive coloring pages, plus a whole bunch of other cool stuff for kids and grandparents to do while learning more about God and His awesome world. For those grandkids who are far away, you can both get on the computer at the same time, look at the same pictures and have a great time comparing colors as you work together, yet separately. You’ll notice I have added them to the sidebar along with the word search option. Now you can check your news, then print out some fun activities to do with your little ones – be they your children or grandchildren.

It probably comes as no surprise to you that the world’s best crayola maker (in my personal opinion ), also has a very snazzy website complete with great coloring pages – both for printing out or for coloring online, along with some other fun activities. You can find all that that at www.crayola.com . Their copyright specifically allows personal use so it should be ok for you to copy and paste these coloring pictures into an email to send your grandkids – and do let them know it’s thanks to Crayola’s great site.

Have a colorfully fun time and leave a comment or send an email to let us know your favorite sites for coloring pages.