Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Something I was thinking about today
It is not a mother’s job to see her children the way the
world sees them. No matter the reasons, there will be tens, hundreds, THOUSANDS
of people out there who will be more than willing to tell our precious babies
that they are not good enough: not talented enough, not outspoken enough, not calm
enough, not quick enough. A entire horde of influences will do all within their
power to lead them to believe that they don’t fit the ideal and they need to be
different, bigger, better, stronger, smarter, faster. There will be plenty of
that, so a mother need not fill the role. A mother’s job is to turn her back on
all that nonsense. Her job is to teach her children what it is to love and be
loved. It’s to embrace the truth that a mother’s love is blind. To start at day
one and then continue to kiss, and hug, and gush over her children long after
she has become an embarrassment to them. To make such a habit out of adoring
and appreciating her children that they know to expect nothing else. Of course, she should strive to help them to
grow and, yes, to be better. But not for the sake of the world that would “fix”
them or break them. A mother’s job is to see her children
as what they are, angels with the
potential to be gods.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Read to a Child!
You may have noticed the new button at the top of my right hand column. If you haven't already, you should absolutely check it out! It's a link to a free online magazine that features a new story to read to your kids every single day!
"knowonder!" magazine was founded by Phillip Chipping a few years ago and he just started it back up again last month. The site is full of awesome resources for kids and parents alike. And guess who's helping him lead the charge...?
My mom! (Check out the "Our Team" page)
The woman who read to me and made up stories so I could star in my very own fairy tales. I'm so excited for this new project and I'm hoping to be involved as much as possible with getting "knowonder!" off the ground for real. So go check it out! For me, for my mom, sure, sure; but mostly for YOU! Read to your kids! Submit your own writing! Get your child's stories published!
Move it people! Get that imagination going!
The woman who read to me and made up stories so I could star in my very own fairy tales. I'm so excited for this new project and I'm hoping to be involved as much as possible with getting "knowonder!" off the ground for real. So go check it out! For me, for my mom, sure, sure; but mostly for YOU! Read to your kids! Submit your own writing! Get your child's stories published!
Move it people! Get that imagination going!
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Reverse Life Cycle for Moms
There is a quote by a man named Robert Benson called The Life Cycle and I've seen it floating around the internet for quite a few years. This probably means you all have seen it already also but in case you haven't...drum roll please...
“I think that the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get that out of the way, then live twenty years in an old age home. You get kicked out when you’re too young, you get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement. You go to college until you’re ready for high school. You go to grade school, you become a little child, you play, you have no responsibilities, You become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating, and you finish off as a gleam in someone’s eye!”
“I think that the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get that out of the way, then live twenty years in an old age home. You get kicked out when you’re too young, you get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement. You go to college until you’re ready for high school. You go to grade school, you become a little child, you play, you have no responsibilities, You become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating, and you finish off as a gleam in someone’s eye!”
I thought this was quite amusing the first time I read it, probably 10 or 15 odd years ago. It still gives me a little chuckle but it occurred to me today that it was lacking a little in relatability to my own personal life. I spent most of today making phone calls and jumping through hoops and doing laps in preparation for jumping others in reference to my kids' various healthcare needs. I was feeling ever so slightly (intensely) exasperated by the fact that moms don't receive training for this stuff. I know that the idea that there isn't a manual is not original but I guess what I was really thinking about was a mommy internship.
So here's my take on Benson's idea.
Reverse Life Cycle for Moms
“I think that the life cycle is all backward. You should die first, get that out of the way, then live twenty years in an old age home. You get kicked out when you’re too young, you celebrate 50 years of marriage. You receive diamond earrings from your husband, endless praise from your adoring children and go on a trip to Italy. You watch your grandchildren being raised until you know enough to raise your own children. Now you get a diamond ring to go with your earrings. You go to college until you’re ready for high school. You go to grade school, become a little child, you play, you have no responsibilities. You become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating, and you finish off as a gleam in someone’s eye!”
Reverse Life Cycle for Moms
“I think that the life cycle is all backward. You should die first, get that out of the way, then live twenty years in an old age home. You get kicked out when you’re too young, you celebrate 50 years of marriage. You receive diamond earrings from your husband, endless praise from your adoring children and go on a trip to Italy. You watch your grandchildren being raised until you know enough to raise your own children. Now you get a diamond ring to go with your earrings. You go to college until you’re ready for high school. You go to grade school, become a little child, you play, you have no responsibilities. You become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating, and you finish off as a gleam in someone’s eye!”
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
To be continued...soonish...
This is where I've been hanging out lately.
So if you'd like to see what's in my head anytime between now and the end of summer when I hope to get back on the blogging ball for real... check it out.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Lost Child ID Tags
On our California vacation we visited 3 different theme parks in one week. Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, and Legoland. I had our whole itinerary planned weeks before our trip and let me tell you, I did puh-lenty of research!
During said research I came across the Legoland affiliated "Model Mom Mary" blog and this article: Five Safety Measures for Visiting a Theme Park.
Model Mom Mary describes a personal experience we all fear. She is obviously a regular at Legoland, but her 2-year-old daughter still managed to disappear for a brief time while they were there recently. This prompted her to write the article and share the following 5 Safety Measures
1) Have a photo of the child from that day so you can show people who are helping you look what the child looks like that day. This one is easy nowadays with the prevalence of smart phones.
2) Pin a piece of paper on the inside of your child’s clothes or write with sharpie on their stomach their name and all of your contact information.
3) Set an easily accessible meeting spot first thing upon entering the Park.
4) Introduce your kids to an employee upon entering the Park so that they can identify a safe person to approach for help if they are lost.
5) Wear bright colors. No need to bring back the 80’s with matching day-glo tees but bright, primary colors are much easier to spot in a crowd.
She also points out that the best thing you can do is tell a park employee. Of course it's good because they can help you look but they can also radio to all other employees and have the front gate locked if need be.
Those exact same 5 tips can be found on multiple websites geared toward child safety and I think they're great for use with children who are able to effectively communicate with grownups and remember things like phone numbers or where we decided to meet. Knowing, however, that my toddler does not yet fall into that category of children, I was instead inspired to use the knowledge I have of my child to come up with my own ideas and plan for keeping him safe.
I really liked the part about putting our contact info on his person somewhere. For some reason I wasn't loving the idea of writing on Alexander in permanent marker (maybe it's just the OCD in me thinking it wouldn't look nice, what can I say?) It also occurred to me that pinning a piece of paper inside his clothes could turn into an immediate fail the second he started playing in any water (which is his favorite thing to do). So I took the basic concept and left off the specifics and decided instead to make little fabric tags to sew into the clothes he would be wearing at the parks.
Originally I was planning on sewing the tags on the inside of his collar where the sizing tag usually would be. Then I decided that if he wanders away and is actually noticed by a helpful adult, I wanted them to be able to find my cell phone number without having to look for it. One, they might not think to look for it at all; Two, if my son is missing from me, the 15+ seconds it would take a thoughtful person to look for some sort of ID, is 15+ more seconds that my phone is not ringing to tell me he is safe. Outside of right sleeve it is!
Slight side bar: I have read that putting a child's name too large, say on the back of their shirt (jersey style) isn't a good idea because then a "non-helpful" person could possibly use the information to act familiar with the child and lead them away with out them protesting. Alexander doesn't come when people call his name anyway so I wasn't overly worried about that but it was still a consideration. I wasn't planning on making huge tags but the thought did influence me to go even smaller.
There are lots of products out there that can serve this purpose if your child gets lost but I made these out of what I had at home. I typed up Alexander's name and both my husband's and my cell phone numbers in Corel in 10pt Arial font (nothing fancy, easy to read). I made it so 10 tags would print on one sheet so I'd have extras and printed them out on HP Iron-on Transfer Paper. I cut them out and ironed them onto some plain white fabric. One more round of cutting, then I sewed them on the sleeves quick quick like a bunny with my sewing machine.
To finish I'll share what happened while we were in Legoland. While Kevin sat with the baby at some tables nearby, I took Alexander to play in Hideaways (a huge jungle gym type play area). Alexander thought it was one of the best things ever and I was having a good time, too, watching him and climbing and sliding after him. Well, there was a climbing section that I was too big to follow him into and he got to it and started going down before I could stop him. I whirled around and shot down the nearest slide, hoping to meet him at the bottom. Well the slide came out on a different level than the rope course so I had to run up the regular stairs trying to find him. He wasn't there. The park had employees stationed on all the levels so I turned around and told the nearest one that I couldn't find my son. She asked me what he was wearing and I told her it was a yellow shirt with black stripes with his name on a tag on the sleeve. Hair color? Blond! I got his shorts color wrong (I said green instead of blue) but that employee found him (happily playing and completely unaware that his mommy was lost; he certainly wasn't lost, he knew right where he was - on the slide, silly mommy) in 10 seconds flat.
I didn't know where he was for a total of about 1 minute but let me tell you, knowing he had one of these tags on his shirt kept me from going from zero to hysterical in those same 60 seconds. Mind you, the tag didn't actually help the girl find him but it kept me sane enough to ask for help in the first place. Definitely worth the 30 minutes spent making them before we left.
Repeated, simplified, four (maybe five) step process:
1 - Create in word processor or graphics program
2 - Print on Iron-on Transfer Paper (follow package instructions)
3 - Iron onto plain white broadcloth or other fabric of choice (also following Iron-on package instructions)
4 - Cut out individual labels and sew into clothing (precise location is up to you)
During said research I came across the Legoland affiliated "Model Mom Mary" blog and this article: Five Safety Measures for Visiting a Theme Park.
Model Mom Mary describes a personal experience we all fear. She is obviously a regular at Legoland, but her 2-year-old daughter still managed to disappear for a brief time while they were there recently. This prompted her to write the article and share the following 5 Safety Measures
1) Have a photo of the child from that day so you can show people who are helping you look what the child looks like that day. This one is easy nowadays with the prevalence of smart phones.
2) Pin a piece of paper on the inside of your child’s clothes or write with sharpie on their stomach their name and all of your contact information.
3) Set an easily accessible meeting spot first thing upon entering the Park.
4) Introduce your kids to an employee upon entering the Park so that they can identify a safe person to approach for help if they are lost.
5) Wear bright colors. No need to bring back the 80’s with matching day-glo tees but bright, primary colors are much easier to spot in a crowd.
She also points out that the best thing you can do is tell a park employee. Of course it's good because they can help you look but they can also radio to all other employees and have the front gate locked if need be.
Those exact same 5 tips can be found on multiple websites geared toward child safety and I think they're great for use with children who are able to effectively communicate with grownups and remember things like phone numbers or where we decided to meet. Knowing, however, that my toddler does not yet fall into that category of children, I was instead inspired to use the knowledge I have of my child to come up with my own ideas and plan for keeping him safe.
I really liked the part about putting our contact info on his person somewhere. For some reason I wasn't loving the idea of writing on Alexander in permanent marker (maybe it's just the OCD in me thinking it wouldn't look nice, what can I say?) It also occurred to me that pinning a piece of paper inside his clothes could turn into an immediate fail the second he started playing in any water (which is his favorite thing to do). So I took the basic concept and left off the specifics and decided instead to make little fabric tags to sew into the clothes he would be wearing at the parks.
Originally I was planning on sewing the tags on the inside of his collar where the sizing tag usually would be. Then I decided that if he wanders away and is actually noticed by a helpful adult, I wanted them to be able to find my cell phone number without having to look for it. One, they might not think to look for it at all; Two, if my son is missing from me, the 15+ seconds it would take a thoughtful person to look for some sort of ID, is 15+ more seconds that my phone is not ringing to tell me he is safe. Outside of right sleeve it is!
Slight side bar: I have read that putting a child's name too large, say on the back of their shirt (jersey style) isn't a good idea because then a "non-helpful" person could possibly use the information to act familiar with the child and lead them away with out them protesting. Alexander doesn't come when people call his name anyway so I wasn't overly worried about that but it was still a consideration. I wasn't planning on making huge tags but the thought did influence me to go even smaller.
There are lots of products out there that can serve this purpose if your child gets lost but I made these out of what I had at home. I typed up Alexander's name and both my husband's and my cell phone numbers in Corel in 10pt Arial font (nothing fancy, easy to read). I made it so 10 tags would print on one sheet so I'd have extras and printed them out on HP Iron-on Transfer Paper. I cut them out and ironed them onto some plain white fabric. One more round of cutting, then I sewed them on the sleeves quick quick like a bunny with my sewing machine.
To finish I'll share what happened while we were in Legoland. While Kevin sat with the baby at some tables nearby, I took Alexander to play in Hideaways (a huge jungle gym type play area). Alexander thought it was one of the best things ever and I was having a good time, too, watching him and climbing and sliding after him. Well, there was a climbing section that I was too big to follow him into and he got to it and started going down before I could stop him. I whirled around and shot down the nearest slide, hoping to meet him at the bottom. Well the slide came out on a different level than the rope course so I had to run up the regular stairs trying to find him. He wasn't there. The park had employees stationed on all the levels so I turned around and told the nearest one that I couldn't find my son. She asked me what he was wearing and I told her it was a yellow shirt with black stripes with his name on a tag on the sleeve. Hair color? Blond! I got his shorts color wrong (I said green instead of blue) but that employee found him (happily playing and completely unaware that his mommy was lost; he certainly wasn't lost, he knew right where he was - on the slide, silly mommy) in 10 seconds flat.
I didn't know where he was for a total of about 1 minute but let me tell you, knowing he had one of these tags on his shirt kept me from going from zero to hysterical in those same 60 seconds. Mind you, the tag didn't actually help the girl find him but it kept me sane enough to ask for help in the first place. Definitely worth the 30 minutes spent making them before we left.
Repeated, simplified, four (maybe five) step process:
1 - Create in word processor or graphics program
2 - Print on Iron-on Transfer Paper (follow package instructions)
3 - Iron onto plain white broadcloth or other fabric of choice (also following Iron-on package instructions)
4 - Cut out individual labels and sew into clothing (precise location is up to you)
Monday, June 6, 2011
Today's To-Do List
Laundry - Always Laundry
Vacation Prep
Iron-On's
A little bit of preschool time
Remember to eat at some point
Dance time to diminish mommy's attitude problem
Vacation Prep
Iron-On's
A little bit of preschool time
Remember to eat at some point
Dance time to diminish mommy's attitude problem
Hopefully that will help...
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Sharing my Silhouette
Here's some wall vinyl I cut for my mother-in-law on my Silhouette.
I think they turned out pretty sweet so if you like the font as much as we do here's a link to the free download. Penshurst Font
Enjoy!
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Marriage Advice Printable
When Kevin and I got married we received an 8x10 framed copy of a "Recipe for 'A Happy Marriage." After my Seinfeld post last week I was reminded of that recipe (which we have hanging in our kitchen) and decided to re-vamp and share it. I've actually seen several other versions of this same idea but I think it bears repeating.
Click. Save. Print.
This printable is formatted for a 4x6 card. You can try printing it larger but the quality won't be as good.
Digital scrapbook elements found at ShabbyPrincess.com - Holiday Recipe Collection
Friday, May 27, 2011
Seinfeldian Thoughts on Marriage
I heard a great talk at church a few weeks ago about marriage and things we can do to make it better. General kindness is a good one, communication is great, too. Sitting in the chapel, listening to this talk, I was reminded of Jerry Seinfeld. Might sound strange but Seinfeld has some of the best advice on marriage I've ever heard.
"Don't be such a good accountant."
I'm pretty sure the first place I heard him say this was over a year ago on an Oprah episode they did about Seinfeld's (then upcoming) show The Marriage Ref. Here's a link to the Oprah.com article about that episode. They mention this particular quote on page 10. He's talking to a woman whose husband "never" changes the toilet paper roll and he's basically telling her to chill. Don't count the number of times your spouse takes out the trash compared to the number of times you do. That's not helping anything.
Great advice. When it comes to little things like putting the empty ice cream container back in the freezer, is it really the end of the world? I know if I do something like that I'm not trying to annoy Kevin and I know the reverse is true and he's not trying to annoy me. So why should I try to make him feel bad about something that doesn't really add up to much in the long run? Is it worth picking a fight with your spouse when you could just as easily choose to get over it?
I'm obviously not a perfect wife but this is something I try to work on. I'm glad I have Seinfeld's voice in my head helping me be a better person. :-)
"Don't be such a good accountant."
I'm pretty sure the first place I heard him say this was over a year ago on an Oprah episode they did about Seinfeld's (then upcoming) show The Marriage Ref. Here's a link to the Oprah.com article about that episode. They mention this particular quote on page 10. He's talking to a woman whose husband "never" changes the toilet paper roll and he's basically telling her to chill. Don't count the number of times your spouse takes out the trash compared to the number of times you do. That's not helping anything.
Great advice. When it comes to little things like putting the empty ice cream container back in the freezer, is it really the end of the world? I know if I do something like that I'm not trying to annoy Kevin and I know the reverse is true and he's not trying to annoy me. So why should I try to make him feel bad about something that doesn't really add up to much in the long run? Is it worth picking a fight with your spouse when you could just as easily choose to get over it?
I'm obviously not a perfect wife but this is something I try to work on. I'm glad I have Seinfeld's voice in my head helping me be a better person. :-)
Thursday, May 26, 2011
I can do that!
If you haven't seen this site, you should check it out. It's inspired me to look at things I like with a slightly different eye. Not, I could make that at home, but I will make that at home.
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