Some of my best article ideas come from my readers. So please let me know what you think. Thanks for all of your great ideas. Keep them coming. What would you like to see posted on 3girlsandapug that you haven’t seen? What would you like to see more of?
My father groaned every year when retailers would display Christmas décor immediately after Halloween. If he was alive today, he’d be shocked to see tinsel directly adjacent to the Halloween garb.
But for me, my shopping juices begin to salivate when I can begin to see the first signs of Christmas. I like to get a head start on the holiday craziness. It’s not the shopping I love, it’s the act of getting the shopping done that I enjoy. I actually detest the commercialism of Christmas and continually strive to find ways to work around the hoopla surrounding the day.
Several years ago I found myself close to a nervous breakdown because my husband wanted to relax on Christmas Eve. I thought to myself, Relax? Are you kidding? We have so much to do – presents to wrap, stockings to fill, stuff to assemble, food to prepare, and on and on … and on went my list of things that were overwhelming me.
It was after that point that I have truly made a concerted effort to have all of my holiday shopping done before Halloween. Don’t get me wrong. I have found some fantastic deals at the after Thanksgiving sales, but for the most part that really only pays off if you’re shopping for big-ticket items. If that’s the case, you can still purchase other items in advance and wait for one or two pricier gadgets to hit the big sales.
Of course, this is only possible to accomplish with careful planning, organization, and, dare I say it, downsizing of gift buying. I’ve gotten a lot of slack over the years on this particular concept. I have found that Christmas is far more enjoyable for everyone this way. I have to be deliberate in my purchases because I can only pick those things my children really want so I spend a lot more time selecting each gift.
I know my plan works because I enjoy Christmas more than ever and I’ve never heard my children complain about not having a great Christmas. Instead I hear words of joy like, “That’s the exactly what I wanted! How did you know?”
Does finishing your shopping sound like mission impossible? It’s really not. Here are three steps to get you singing “Jingle Bells” before the last leaves fall off the trees.
Question: Have you done any Christmas shopping yet?
I’m a stay-at-home dad. Well, not really, I guess — it’s not like I quit my career to do this. I’m a full-time student who just finished up his classwork and has a flexible daytime schedule. Child care seems like a good fit, right? A year ago, through some miracle of faulty logic, my wife and I convinced ourselves that I’d easily be able to care for a baby while writing my dissertation because ”newborns sleep a lot.” So two months ago we added eight pounds to the collective biomass — eight cute pounds, actually, which seems like a given, but from the extensive collage of funny-looking, weird-looking and plain ugly babies decorating the wall of the prenatal clinic we frequented I had prepared myself to love whatever came out. But he turned out to be a looker. And getting fatter every day.
That’s probably because I feed him about a gallon of genuine and reconstituted milk between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. It’s too much, we think, and yet I persist. Why? One, he seems pretty hungry. Two, he’s not really distracted by my lame antics anymore. (“Screw the bouncy game, Dad. Where’s the freakin’ milk?” Or something like that.) Three, I’m usually pretty hungry at the time, having gotten off my own eating schedule, and I sympathize with him. And four, he’s taken to screaming — red-in-the-face, clenched fists, sweaty, piercing screaming — until he gets the milk. So I give him the milk.
The problem, KS sez, is that he’s not taking enough naps. Amen. This is a two-month old that will go hard all day. And I’m the entertainment. And he’s already sick of hanging around the house. So I come up with little daily adventures to give him something new to look at — driving to Walmart for a single item; circling the backyard a dozen times; venturing into the damp, buggy basement (where there’s a lot of mold, actually — maybe not a good idea). But of course he gets tired and needs a 4-oz shot of frothy Enfamil to keep rockin’, which he expresses with vigorous knuckle-sucking and then bitter tears as I try to explain that he just ate an hour and a half ago. And so until he’s old enough to do the Dew, he needs more naps. As it stands now, we get each other worn out and then mom sweeps in for the evening cuddle while I try to defrazzle and eke out a couple hours of productivity.
We have three nap-inducing devices. The swing, which we had heard rave reviews about, made him snoozy at first but now he’s over it. The vibrator (okay, bouncer) emits ”calming vibrations” that he’s still rather fond of. This works sometimes, but I haven’t been able to get anything more than a hard-won hour’s doze out of it. And then the old classic: the binky. Which can help get him to sleep but he doesn’t keep in very well, and in fact has made a game out of pushing it nearly out of his mouth and then sucking it back in. This works once or twice before it just falls out, and then he can’t sleep. Though tonight, however, he managed to get his hand in the right spot, grab the binky base and keep it in his mouth. It was like the moment in ”2001″ when the ape figures out how to use the bone as a tool. I’m the proud parent of a slowly evolving child.
And doesn’t childbirth strangely mirror evolution? I was thinking the other day how it begins in the ooze, so to speak, and from the microorganism develops a little fishy thing and then a lizardy thing (seriously — check out a picture) and then it finally assumes human form but it can’t really do anything and it’s . . . well, kind of a little creature. I can’t help but think that when I find him knuckle-sucking and grubbing around as I fetch him out of bed in the morning. Of course he’s learning to smile and we may have a binky breakthrough, but bipedalism is still 10 months away and the Neanderthal’s got at least a couple years on him. So he’s somewhere between an ape and a warthog right now. And maybe a malfunctioning robot. But cute.
And he’s a pretty good kid. I’m grateful to have this time to both bond with my firstborn and better sympathize, if only a little, with the full-time moms who have had their lives sucked away by little creatures that don’t take naps when they’re supposed to. And we have some fun, me and the boy, stomping molehills, cruising Walmart, and playing the bouncy game (post-bottle). And we had a small triumph this morning when after some disconcerting pooplessness he strained and struggled and shot out three days’ worth of sticky yellow liqui-poo that flowed up to his shoulder blades and smelled like something wicked and rotten. Obviously feeling better he smiled up at his grossed out but glad father and we shared a precious stinky moment, and somewhere around the fourteenth wet-wipe he raised a single tiny fist of triumph into the air as if to remind me that life is measured in small victories . . .
. . . then barfed white curdled mucous all over the rug.
That’s my boy.
Adam Davis, is a fantastic writer and one of the first people I’d ever choose if I had to take a long roadtrip across a boring landscape because he’d keep my cracking up all the way to our destination.
Check out his blog: www.brokenwindowpane.blogspot.com. He recently went private but he welcomes all interested parties to check him out and he’ll gladly add your email address to his guest list.
I’ve come down with the flu. And then my daughter came down with the flu. Hopefully no one else will get it in my house or yours. I’m taking off the next week from blogging to get better. See you next Monday!
They say that an apple a day will keep the doctor away. I believe it. Apples are full of all kinds of fiber and nutrients and they make a perfect on-the-go snack. They’re also incredibly cheap and in great abundance this time of year, so they’re great for your budget and your waistline.
For years, I thought I didn’t like apples. Growing up I had only tasted the waxy, Red Delicious variety (which are mushy and gross) and the really tart Granny Smiths. Today, I still think both types are awful. But in college, my friend gave me a bunch of apples picked fresh from her grandmother’s tree and I was hooked. I had no idea how delicious an apple could taste – both sweet and crunchy. It’s a good thing I was willing to try them again as an adult or I’d never know what I’d been missing out on.
Recently we raided a friend’s overflowing apple tree and I decided to conquer my fears and make something homemade. I am not the kind of gal who has spent hours canning fruit, growing my own veggies, or meticulously stitching a quilt. I commend all of those who do, but every time I try to find my inner homemade guru side I seem to fall on my face. In fact, my husband (who enjoys cafeteria food and any mystery casserole covered in cheese—or in other words, he has non-discriminate taste buds) took two bites of my homemade bread and said, “This is inedible.” I don’t think he’d ever uttered those words in all the years I’d ever known him.
So, when I went off to make applesauce I was thrilled to see how well it turned out despite the many unforeseen twists and turns in the cooking process. (There were too many twists, turns, and substitutions for me to publish the recipe.) Even better, my children loved it despite the fact that there’s no added sugar and I left the peels on. I caught one of my children finishing off a jar in front of the TV recently and she confessed it was her second jar. Wow! Needless to say, I was impressed with myself.
In the spirit of apple season I thought I’d share my own experiences of triumph and pass on a listing of lots of apple recipes. Try one out and enjoy the flavors of fall.
http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/family/specialfeature/apples_sf/
Question: What’s your favorite way to cook with apples?
School has been back in session for a few weeks in most parts of the country, so you’ve likely been bombarded with endless papers from school. No matter how “green” your particular school is there still seems to be a steady stream of papers flying in and piling up. So, what can you do to keep the paper piles down without tossing out cherished school memories?
1. Have a system. I know this seems quite obvious, but if you don’t have a system that works in place you will lose important papers, bills, and maybe even your mind when you try to find something in the pile or stacks of papers. Start now because the problem only increases with the addition of each child who goes off to school.
2. Set a time to review papers. In our house we take care of our paperwork during homework time. It’s also a great time to spend one-on-one time with each child. I’ll start one child on her homework and ask her to save up questions for me when it’s her turn. (This also helps them to problem solve independently. A lot of times they have fewer questions for me in the end.) While she’s busy working on math or spelling I review the contents of my other child’s folder. We review previous work that has been corrected and discuss what things she’s working on at school and identify areas where she needs extra help.
I toss out papers we don’t need and fill out any papers that require my attention and put those back in the folder immediately. In some cases, these papers require another step so I will place them in my “immediate” to do folder. Other items go on a magnetic clip that I have on the side of my fridge (i.e. year-long school calendars, important contact phone numbers, the monthly lunch calendar, etc.)
It’s usually easier to just fill out the permission slip right away or add important dates in my electronic calendar immediately. My children often times try to buck this system and throw papers at me while they mumble things like, “My teacher said, you must fill out the permission slip and give me $5 or else I can’t go on the fieldtrip.” But they’ll choose inopportune moments when I can’t give them my full attention and all I hear is, ““My teacher said…you must…$5…or else…” I make them stick to the designated time and ask them to put the papers back in their folders so they don’t get lost in the interim.
3. Keep or toss. I try to keep samples of their early handwriting or fun stories they conceive and write, as well as other samples of sentiment. It’s really up to you, but you have to discriminate or else you’ll never win the war against the paper monster. I also try to put the child’s name, age, and date on the back of whatever it is I’m keeping in case things get mixed up along the way. You can also take photos of your children showing off their large projects, like the poster board from the science fair, to hold to the memory of the job well done and feeling less guilty about tossing it out.
4. Enjoy the artwork. Young children come home with an exceptional amount of art projects. They are sweet and make you smile and some of them should be held onto and enjoyed. I tried to find a place to highlight our children’s accomplishments and then develop a system for safekeeping. We place many of our masterpieces on the fireplace mantle or the fridge to show them off. After a period of time special accomplishments are then transferred to what I call “dry storage.”
5. Set up your own “dry storage.” Each of my children have individually labeled baskets tucked away on a top shelf. This is where I put their favorite masterpieces and cute notes they write to me or each other. I let the basket fill up and then we sort through the basket at the end of the school year and decide which pieces we must keep. The items we keep go into a file box that is labeled and stored in the garage until they’re old enough to take them to their own homes. Keep in mind that when you someday try to pawn these boxes off on them they will not want 12 boxes of stuff (one for each grade) so you have to be conservative in what you keep. It may be wise to combine several grades in one box. My kids actually enjoy sorting through their work from the previous year and seeing how much they’ve learned, grown, and changed. It’s a fun way to cap off the end of a great year. As we put the empty basket on the shelf it’s exciting to think of all of the possibilities for the upcoming year.
Question: What are your tried-and-true methods for keeping school papers in check?
How worried are you about the swine flu hitting your household? Will your family get a flu shot this year? What have you done, if anything, to protect your family from the swine flu?
Check out my article on organizing your board game collection on adviceandreviews.com. Click on the link below.
http://organization.adviceandreviews.com/2009/09/get-your-game-on/
Question: What do you do to keep your games organized and orderly?
Twenty seconds doesn’t seem like a long time to have your life changed, and we probably neglect to see what other miracles can happen in a matter of seconds in our lives.
Rarely does a matter of seconds have such a monumental impact on our lives that it changes us to the point that we have to adjust our definition of normal. While labor may take hours for the pains of labor and delivery to welcome a child into the world, it only takes a few seconds to hold that infant and fall in love. On the other end of the timeline of our lives, the final breaths we witness our loved ones take also change us forever.
Over the weekend, my thoughts were still turned to the anniversary of Sept. 11. In a matter of less than 20 seconds the lives of the people in the burning towers of the New York City skyline were changed forever. And so were their loved ones. And so were all of ours. In a matter of less than 20 seconds the Twin Towers were forever erased from the skyline. While the buildings burned for a period of time, it only took a few seconds from the time they began to crumble to when they collapsed onto themselves. When they disappeared, so did the hope of all who watched and prayed for a miracle.
When the family members of the victims of Sept. 11 left their loved ones that day they didn’t know that would be their final good-bye. After that day, many people changed their own salutations and actions to reflect a deeper, more sincere perspective. The same could be said for anyone who has lost a loved one to a tragedy, disaster, cancer or other means of separation. Instead of focusing on what can be lost in a matter of seconds I choose to focus on those miracles—both small and large— that can happen in a matter of seconds.
Here are a few wonderful things that can happen in less than 20 seconds of a day.
· Hug and kiss every member of your immediate family.
· Smile and wave good-bye to your children as they leave for school.
· Look up from what you’re doing in the kitchen or on the computer to make eye contact with the person who is talking to you.
· Hold a door open for a stranger to make their day easier.
· Say a prayer for a friend or family member in need.
· Say good morning to the strangers you pass on your daily walk.
· Turn off the TV or close Facebook and choose to do something to serve someone else.
· Send a short email to someone to let them them know you’re thinking of them.
· Text message your loved one to wish them well.
· Take a deep breath and count to ten—twice – before you react to a tough situation.
Question: What would you add to the list?
There are very few days and moments in my life that I remember as clearly as I remember Sept. 11, 2001. It’s easy to transport myself back to that dreadful day eight years ago when our country was attacked. At that time, I had just given birth to my second daughter and had my oldest was almost 15 months old.
As I rocked my little baby girl, who was only weeks old, and watched it all unfold on TV I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I think I sat frozen in my rocking chair for hours with my baby in my arms and my older daughter playing at my feet. I was so grateful my family was safe and that my children weren’t old enough to ask questions because I didn’t have any answers. I didn’t know how to put it into words myself. It was so shocking and awful. There just weren’t words to describe the horror of the things I saw that day.
Question: What were you doing on Sept. 11, 2001 when you heard the news?
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