For the past six months or so I’ve been trying to keep three blogs updated and I’ve failed miserably. So I decided to SIMPLIFY and I’ve combined my business blog with my personal blog.
My new flash site can be found HERE. It’ll link to this here blog from now on.
Bookmark me! 
This week’s theme is “completely candid”. As I’m editing the photos from this past weekend, I ran across this one.
This cute little boy was having the best time hanging out on the sidewalk while a crowd of aspiring photogs snapped up his photo.
That is UNTIL an ambulance came whizzing by with full sirens blaring. It took him a few moments to process. As soon as the truck was gone, he melted. Poor little guy.
But, just as most little boys do, he bounced right back into happy playful mode momentarily.
For more completely candid photos, go over to iheartfaces and check them out!!!
I went.
By myself!
Wow!
That was so much fun……
I was a sponge.
I learned a ton.
I am inspired.
I have lists and lists of things to do.
And tons of pictures to edit.
Here’s a sneak peek at a few of the photos I took at the workshop. Aren’t these kids gorgeous?!
I took close to 400 photos that day. Now the sorting begins. Ooooh, I’m so excited to practice what I learned!!!
Happy Monday!
So I’ve been thinking about remodeling the blog for a little while now. My old wordpress.com blog wouldn’t let me change fonts or load big photos and I felt a little confined. So I thought I’d just upgrade to a wordpress.org blog and upload a new template … quickly, y’know? I’ve switched templates before. How hard could it be?
That was Friday morning. By Friday night I had pulled out almost all my hair (or at least I wanted to), had more live chats with highly technical computer geeks than anyone should have to in one day, and had absolutely nothing to show for it except a blog that looked nothing like my own. I realized I had NO HTML CSS skillz whatsoever. FTP was something I had never heard of before.
It’s now Monday afternoon. FTP and I know each other intimately. The blog is finally dressed appropriately if not fully accessorized. It can at least go out in public now. Fortunately we encountered only one casualty during the switch. July and August 2009 are missing somewhere out in the far reaches of the internet. I’ve been told by one of those geeky internet geniuses that I can find them again if I venture back into my FTP. I’m not sure if I’m ready for that again. We’re taking a little time off from one another at the moment. If you see them back here, you’ll know we’ve reconciled.
I hope your weekend consisted of more than wrestling with computer jargon whilst your household disintegrates into chaos. (Like mine)
Happy Labor Day!
Do you know what happens to you when you don’t eat carbs?????
You get TIRED.
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Now Excuse me while I take a nap fold laundry, take a nap pack suitcases, take a nap print out itineraries, take a nap eat more plain, tasteless chicken breasts and choke down some more cucumbers.
I’d rather have pie or cookies or ice cream but ever since I saw this on Meg’s Whatever blog, I’ve been wanting to make it. I really wanted to whip it out for the last day of school but it was not to be. So I decided to make it for our Family Summer Chore Kick-Off Evening last night. Hey, there had to be SOMETHING sweet to off-set the chore doldrums.
Of course Meg made it look so simple and gorgeous with her photos. So I thought mine would be simple and turn out gorgeous as well. I pulled my camera out to document this simple and gorgeous cake. Bumping around in my mind were visions of Martha Stewart magazine covers and The Pioneer Woman’s gourmet cowboy cuisine posts. I should’ve known better. My camera has no place in my kitchen.
If you’ve got a hankering for a little sunshine in your day, or for something to make with your kids, give it a try. You can get all instructions on Meg’s blog. She is a daily must read for me. She has some serious photo skillz and has a house I could easily covet (if I were the coveting type).
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A ginormous WELCOME to my fellow SITstas!!! So glad you stopped by!!! I can’t think of anything I’d rather be doing today than bumping into Brad Pitt at the airport meeting new blogging friends!!!
An even more ginormous THANK YOU to Tiffany and Heather for featuring me on their insanely popular site where blogging geeks like me go to meet and greet. Kind of like a support group for blogging addicts where we can get our daily fix of comments. Share and share alike.
So come on in, pull up a hay bale chair and enjoy a glimpse of life here in rural Idaho. And don’t be a stranger. Introduce yourself and I promise, as soon as things settle down here, I’ll come by and share the comment love…
Baby Hudson is adorable!
I loved getting a taste of living in the Big City.
Visiting old friends was fantastic!
Venturing off the tourist path and into the heart of inner China Town was eye opening! Who knew you could buy live frogs at the meat market?
Mother’s Day brunch at Ashley’s in-laws was relaxing and wonderful.
The weather couldn’t have been more beautiful.
Despite all that, I was happy to come home to my family.
They were equally excited for me to come home so they could show me their surprise(s):
I seem to recall something about being on the fence? I guess we toppled off it finally. Surprise. Surprise.
Remember back when I made New Year’s Resolutions? Yeah, I didn’t think so. It was awhile ago. On my list was improving my photo skills. Well, I’ve been doing a little research, a little mooching tips off others (thanks Sherine and Becky), and watching “expert photographers” on Youtube. All in preparation for my solo trip to see meet my newest nephew this weekend.
While I’m nowhere near proficient in manual mode, I am working hard to improve. My goal is to avoid shooting in Auto mode and to rarely use a flash.
In the meantime, I LOVE Photoshop Elements! It’s a ton of fun to use and makes my mediocre pictures look fabulous.
See for yourself. The first picture is straight out of the camera. The second is made to look like pictures from the 70s. The third picture is an action called Orton.
Is it ever really done? Vacuuming and mopping. Check. I should be preparing for my Friday art lesson right now but just can’t seem to commit to sitting down to organize my sorry self.
Instead I’m planted here with random thoughts running through my brain. You know what I mean? You have a list of things to do, none of which you want to do, and you just can’t seem to knock any of them off your list.
So I thought maybe if I jotted these thoughts down, passed them around and shared them with you, I could get them out of my head and get on with my to-do list. It’s worth a shot. Welcome to the randomness that is my brain today:
I’m convinced I live in a wind tunnel. How did this fact escape the decision process when we considered moving here? The wind has been whistling through the windows all day. I was pleasantly surprised when I held my rugs out the door today to shake them and realized that no shaking was required. The gusts of wind shot the dirt and crumbs straight to Wyoming. I despise the wind. I’ll take rain, snow, and thunderstorms combined over wind any day. I’m ready for some sun.
Why is it that every time I vacuum the house I find at least 3 door stops lying on the floor next to where they should be attached to the wall? Do they unscrew themselves?
Should I worry if my 4 year-old is still wearing his pajamas at 2 o’clock in the afternoon with no intention of ever getting dressed? And why do his PJ bottoms never match his PJ tops?
I’m impressed that my 8 year-old can do mental math better than I can. That he understands how remainders, fractions, and percentages relate to each other without having been taught any of that yet in second grade.
I love a good book that sucks you in to the story. Right now I’m reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. While I’ll probably only give it 4 stars on Goodreads, I’m really enjoying it and hoping Juliet and Dawsey get together in the end.
I love the library. Last night I requested about 5 books to be held at my little branch. Most of them involve food. The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food are on the list. Have you read any of these? I’d love to be able to eat 80% raw but I think my love of bread (and all baked goods for that matter) might interfere.
I miss my ipod. It met an untimely fate in the washing machine. I became a little addicted to podcasts. I love NPR’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” and “This American Life”. Does that make me old and crotchety?
If it’s any consolation, I’m seriously digging on Adam Lambert this season! I am truly mesmerized… if only by his vocal abilities and wardrobe eccentricies.
I’ve been inspired lately by Paul Cardall. He’s an LDS recording artist who has mad piano skills. He was born with a heart defect similar to my 10 year-old. He’s now 36 and waiting for a heart transplant. There was a benefit concert for him a couple of weeks ago in Salt Lake City. I follow his blog and pray that he gets his new heart soon. He inspires me with his positive attitude and his faith while at the same time worries me for my own son’s future.
And, I hope someone comes along quick and finishes up these Easter jelly beans and M&Ms before I do. If Jillian catches me snacking on any more of them I WILL pay, I’m sure.
There are days that I feel like Billy in The Family Circus who sets out to do something only to be distracted by everything else going on that he never quite accomplishes that thing he set out to do in the first place.
Take for instance yesterday.
As I woke up and looked at the dog sprawled out snoring at my feet, it dawned on me that I hadn’t called to get Molly a boarding reservation for an upcoming trip. I knew my chances of getting her in this late were slim, and I needed to call ASAP.
I drug myself out of bed and into the family room to look up the phone number. There I was greeted by my 4 year-old who was in dire need of his morning cup of hot chocolate. All thoughts of calling the boarder vanished as I got caught up in making sack lunches, signing homework assignments, finding shoes, socks, hats, coats, and playing the part of toothbrushing nazi. As I ushered the troops out the door and waved to the big yellow bus as it passed by my house, Molly sauntered over, wanting to go out. Oh, that’s right, I’ve gotta call the boarder.
I made the mistake of sitting down at the computer to google the boarder’s number and got sucked into emails, Facebook status updates, and blog reading and writing. Before I realized it, an hour had gone by and I was still sitting around in my pajamas while Will sat planted in front of Sesame Street. Before I even thought of a shower, I felt Jillian Michael’s chastisement boring a hole into my out-of-shape soul from the DVD player. Guilt got the best of me and the next thing I knew Will and I were enveloped in plank twists and jumping jacks attempting to “earn our way to a great body”. As I glanced out the window between alternating lunges, I spotted Molly in the pasture. Darn, I’ve gotta call the boarder!
After showering and dressing, Will wanted to know “what we doing today, Mom?” I told him we had a lot of things we needed to do, like calling the boarder! and going to the grocery store. To which he responded in a full blown 4 year-old whine fest. He informed me that he really doesn’t enjoy the grocery store. It takes SO LONG to get there. We already have lots of food in the house. He’s too tired to go. Why do we have to go there EVERY DAY? To which I foolishly responded that he doesn’t have to enjoy going, but he does have to go. It only takes 25 minutes to get there. (Which I whole-heartedly agree is FAR too long). We don’t have enough bread or milk left in the house. If he’s too tired to go, then maybe he’d like to go lie down in bed for a nap. And we don’t go everyday. We didn’t go yesterday or the day before that, or the day before that, or the day before that. Whew! Why do I always get suckered into arguing with my 4 year-old? Of course in all the exhausting arguing, I failed to call the boarder.
We did make it to the store, bought the milk, bread, and 50 other items on the list and made it home successfully. As I was putting the food away, Molly came sniffing around hoping for a box of Milkbones or something. Ugh! I’ve gotta call the boarder!
Reaching for the phone, it was of course, not on its cradle.
“Have you seen the phone Will?” As if my toddler who hardly even knows his numbers was the last one using it.
“Mom, can I have some Oreos?”
“Only if you have a carrot first.” Where is that phone?
Suddenly I hear it ringing. Rescuing it from near suffocation between the couch cushions I answer it. It’s the orthodontist reminding me about Maddy’s appointment tomorrow morning. What?! Already?! I wasn’t expecting it this week so I check my calendar in the kitchen to see if I had written it down. Yep, there it is. That’s what I get for not checking my calendar.
“I can’t open the “frigrator” Mom!” says Will tugging away on the handle.
I help him open the fridge, get out the bag of baby carrots, and as he’s about to reach into the bag, I notice that his fingernails are disturbingly caked with dirt.
“Hold it Buddy. You’ve got to wash your hands first.”
“Why, Mom?”
“Because they’re kind of dirty and full of germs.”
“What germs are, Mom?”
“Oh…well, they’re little tiny organisms that can make you sick if you eat them.”
“What germs look like?”
“They’re microscopic, which means you can only see them with a microscope, Honey.”
“Can I see the germs in our microscope?”
I’m a sucker for any and all possible educational opportunities with my kids. It must be leftover from our homeschooling days. I soon unearth our trusty little microscope from the pantry along with the slides and bottle of iodine. The next hour is spent examining cheek cells, dry skin flakes from my improperly moisturized legs, salt crystals, sugar crystals, and hair strands. As we’re looking for any other possible specimens to smoosh between the slides, I notice Molly lounging in the sun. Holy Toledo, I’ve GOT to call the boarder!
No sooner could I locate the phone again when the front door burst open with hungry and exhausted kids home from school. Homework had to be monitored, shoes and socks and coats had to be cajoled to lockers, snacks had to be doled out, chores had to be nagged about and the piano had to be practiced. Pinewood derby cars needed finishing touches and Maddy had to be picked up from track practice. Dinner had to be started, the lesson had to be thrown together for Family Home Evening, and the dog had to be fed. The boarder! I’ll call them after dinner.
Of course, after dinner was filled with Family Home Evening, dessert, baths, stories, hair straightening, a bedside pep talk about middle school, and finally winding down with Hubby watching 24. As I was nodding off to sleep last night, I heard the dog settle into her spot on the chair. Oh, man, I never called the boarder!
Right after I rotate the laundry… and file the bills … and vacuum the kitchen … and make my bed … and take out the trash… and pick up the dry cleaning …
Remember when I posted that I ordered The Bar Method Workout after my hip sister Ashley told me it was the hottest thing in San Francisco since sourdough bread? And how I promised to let you know how I liked it? Well, after a few gentle reminders by some sweet commenters, here’s my review:
First off, I LOVE it! It’s like nothing I’ve ever tried. It’s a mix of pilates, ballet, and strength training. The founder of this method, Burr Leonard, teaches the class. At close to my own mom’s age, she looks great! She’s very inspiring.
I love that she doesn’t talk down to the audience. She explains and demonstrates the form and technique and then leaves it up to you to do it. Her voice is soothing, kind of like having your sweet neighbor teaching the class.
The other 3 women on the video are all owners of Bar Method Centers across the country. They are real women with real bodies.
All the moves are low impact but intense. The goal of the method is to “lift your seat” and create a dancer’s body. What I like most is that she spends lots of time stretching, which creates long lean muscles.
There are 2 DVDs, a basic level and an accellerated one. Both are close to an hour and challenging. By the end of the video I’m sweating and my legs are rubber.
Abs are a challenge for me. After a 10 1/2 pound baby and 2 more c-sections, my abs are a mess. She does abs a completely diffferent way than I’ve ever done them. Your abs are engaged the whole time in a pulled in position, eliminating the pouch.
I looked on the website and it claims that this workout gives you enough cardio that you shouldn’t need to suppliment with more cardio. It also says that this workout is ideal for people who are no more than 30 pounds overweight. I would tend to agree, although I still think the more cardio you can get, the faster you’ll lose weight.
The exercises rely on really good form, so if you don’t have much experience working out or with pilates, you’ll have to be extremely aware of how you are positioned.
She doesn’t work the biceps very hard. The triceps are killers but the biceps are pretty light.
BUT, I haven’t lost weight. Which has more to do with my lack of eating discipline lately than with my lack of exercise.
First off, I am NOT a fan of Jillian Michaels. I find her arrogant, condescending, loud, and grating. But, my sister Tatertots and Jello, brought this DVD to my house last weekend and we tried it out. Here’s a quick review and the reason I bought my own copy:
I have to listen to Jillian talk to me as if I’m sitting around with a bowl of Cheetos watching her workout. She keeps telling me that I have to “fight for it” and “don’t even THINK of turning off the DVD now”. OK, OK, I’m not trying to cheat. If I didn’t want to work-out, I guarantee I would not be watching you berate me for 20 minutes. I have plenty of shows patiently waiting for me on my DVR. I need to see if there’s a way to turn off her voice.
The two girls on the DVD with her are unrealistically hard bodied. I can guarantee they didn’t get that way doing Jillian Michaels for 20 minutes a day.
She doesn’t do much stretching at the beginning, middle, or end. But at only 20 minutes, you have plenty of time afterward to stretch.
There are maybe 4 exercises that Jillian does herself. Most of the time she is walking around talking and pointing out how the “girls” are positioned and moving.
It’s only 20 minutes! Even on super busy days, I can find 20 minutes to do a quick workout.
It’s hard! There are 3 levels. I’ve done all three. The second one, in my opinion, is the hardest. I really like level 3. Level 1 is challenging enough to get a good workout but not enough to contemplate swtiching to your DVR queue.
One of the girls does the modified version of all the exercises. If you aren’t feeling up to doing the full plank pose, you can follow her.
I like that many of her exercises are “old school”. Old fashioned sit-ups, jumping jacks, jump roping. Very effective.
There are no breaks. By the end of the 20 minutes, I’m sweating and ready to sit on the couch with a bowl of Cheetos cereal.
I’ve had my eye on MamaKat’s blog for some time now.
Every week she lists a few writing prompts. You pick one, write about it and post it on your blog on Thursdays. I usually decline the assignment. It feels too much like homework. There are some things I miss about school but homework is not one of them. But I’m thinking it might be a good way to exercise my writing muscles. So I’m giving it a shot. We’ll see how long it lasts.
The prompt I chose was:
Manlius, New York 1986. I'm the one holding the squirt gun. Jenny's the one on the far right.
It was the summer of 1985. I was entering my sophomore year. I lived in a little town in upstate New York, a suburb of Syracuse. Jenny was my BFF. She and I had both moved to Manlius during our awkward middle school years. From day one we were inseparable.
Sleepovers were a common occurrence in my growing up years. This summer was no exception. A typical sleepover evening would consist of eating Pizza flavored Combos and peanut M&Ms and drinking lots of Mountain Dew. Sometimes we listened to music and danced around like teenage girls. Prank calling our friends wasn’t unheard of. On one occasion I recall tape recording ourselves singing along to John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Jack and Diane”.
On this particular night we were staying over at Jenny’s house. And apparently the typical sleepover activities weren’t enough to peak our interest because we hatched a plan, the execution of which would go down in (our) history as the dumbest, most moronic thing we ever did as kids.
It was a slow night in our sleepy little town. We were bored. We called some of our friends. Who just happened to be boys. And who just happened to be bored too. We must have just happened to be hungry (after all those Combos and M&Ms) because we agreed to meet these boys at the Burger King just after midnight. Now let me emphasize, for the sakes of our mothers and our daughters, we had no other intentions than to have a couple of fries and hang out with our friends. I was in the midst of a long distance letter writing campaign with my first real love and Jenny… just had a hankering for a strawberry milkshake.
Since neither of us had a driver’s license, or the guts to “borrow” a car, or access to said car, we were left with our own two feet. This wouldn’t have been a problem had we been close to Burger King. But as it was, we were in the next town and had about 2 1/2 miles to walk. Apparently this didn’t deter us. After we thought Jenny’s parents were good and tucked in for the night, we snuck downstairs, past the golden retriever, and out the back door into the cricket-filled summer night.
From Jenny’s house after a quick turn down Salt Springs Rd. it was a pretty straight shot down Duguld to town. If you’ve ever been to upsate New York, you know “densely forested” describes it well. Without many street lights, we were left to “feel” our way down the road. I think our paranoia antennae was on overload because at the slightest sound of a car engine, we jumped off the road and into the bushes. All the Mountain Dew didn’t help either. We kept creating scenarios of what would happen if we got caught. I remember the terms “so dead” and “so grounded” well.
We finally made it into town and to our designated meeting spot, Burger King. But, no fries or shakes were to be had because, apparently, Burger King did not remain open all night. I guess it never dawned on our 15 year-old brains that the world would not be waiting up for us at all hours of the early morning to cater to our 15 year-old whims.
So, with just two 15 year-old boys with two BMX bikes and no place for a burger, we were left with just one option. We proceeded to hop on the backs of those bikes with those two boys and ride around the town. Well, even though our little town was not waiting up for us at all hours of the early morning to cater to our 15 year-old whims, there was somebody else willing to. The Town of Manlius Police Department. What our 15 year-old brains were not aware of was that our town had a curfew. All kids were to be home and anxiously engaged in something productive after 11 PM. Even on weekends.
By this time it was well after midnight and we were anxiously engaged in some very nonproductive tandem bike riding. Our late night escapades were cut short at the first sign of flashing red lights approaching from behind. Jenny and her tandem partner did what any good sane citizen should do. They stopped and got off their bike. My partner and I, on the other hand, must have still been sporting our paranoia antennaes because, instead of stopping, we shot off into the night on a mission to “outrun the law”.
This is where the story gets a little hazy on my part. When I “put it all behind me” I blocked out much of the “running from the law” part. I do know that at one point we ditched the bike and began a foot chase. Foot chase meaning he and I were running around willy-nilly with no plan or distination in mind. I don’t think the policeman ever got out of his vehicle to pursue us. I found out later that Jenny was in the squad car with the policeman offering her best guesses as to where we might have run. They drove around slowly together for close to an hour while I ran my rear off trying to escape whatever trouble I was destined to be in.
The chase ended when I saw the squad car sitting at the side of the road and I “gave myself up” because I was just too darned tired of running and wanted to go to bed. ( Maybe that’s why, to this day, I hate running so much) I reluctantly slid in next to Jenny and we proceeded to try our hand at “sweet talking” the officer into not telling our parents about this little incident. Yes, our 15 year-old brains thought we had a chance at this.
As we pulled into Jenny’s driveway, the officer said to her, “kindly wake up your parents and ask them to come down and speak to me”. WHAT!?! He wanted Jenny to do the dirty work? Didn’t he want to bang on the door and have them open it to the dramatic scene of their teenage daughter and her best friend in the custody of the local police in the wee hours of the morning, just like in the movies? Nope. Jenny reluctantly interrupted her snoozing parents and gave them a quick summary of our sequence of stupidity and invited them to converse with the kind officer.
Needless to say, both of our parents were … shall we say… livid! Those scenarios that we created earlier while traveling down Duguld Road were realized. I can’t remember what fate belied Jenny, but my hopes of sleeping over, hanging out, phone calling or any other form of socializing were put on hold for an entire month.
Sometimes I wonder why I do the things I do.
Especially things that go against my nature.
My nature being INTROVERTED.
Some examples that come to mind:
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Speaking of which, I agreed to teach art in Erik’s second grade class this year.
This afternoon we’ll be learning about Eric Carle (I love him) and creating some fantastic collages like this one:
We’ll be talking about texture, contrast, proportion, and adjectives. Today we’ll discover how Mr. Carl ilustrates his stories and then create some colorful painted paper. Next week they’ll pick from a cup the name of an animal and from another cup, an adjective to describe that animal. They’ll borrow, trade, and share their painted papers to create their animals.
I’ll post pictures of the kids’ collages when they’re finished.
Well, not exactly a rut.
I can’t motivate myself to get out of bed at 4:45 every morning and drive 20 minutes on the cold dark lonely streets to get to the gym. And it has nothing to do with this class I suffered through a while back.
So this weekend while visiting my cute, hip, urbanite of a little sister, she shared with me the hottest exercise trend in San Francisco.
Have you heard of this?
It’s a mix of ballet, pilates, and strength training. The classes are wildly popular and people swear by them.
She told me I should check and see if anyone offers classes near me.
Near me? Are you kidding? My closest gym isn’t even near me. I knew there was no chance. But I Googled it anyway.
The closest class to me is either in Redmond, Washington or San Francisco.
But…
For those of us who are not a stone’s throw away from a major (or minor) metro area, we can order these:
So I whipped my exhausted credit card number out of my wallet brain and ordered right then and there.
Most likely not.
But, at least I won’t feel the guilt when I switch that beastly alarm clock off at 4:44 and attempt to get my coveted 8 hours of sleep.
I’ll let you know how it goes…
Nancy gave Ashley a bag of Nick’s baby clothes she had saved for him. In it were these darling cowboy boots and his baby booties.
Quiet. Shy. A Peacemaker. A Pleaser.
That’s how I’d describe myself growing up. Since having 4 kids, being their advocate when dealing with teachers, medical specialists and school administration, and moving around a lot, I’ve come out of my shell. My family would agree that I’ve become opinionated. And fortunately (or not) I’m not afraid to share these opinions. I generally try to keep my opinion sharing to a minimum because I inevitably offend someone along the way. But today I am bugged. And I’m choosing to share. Lucky you.
As I was driving home from the gym before dawn this morning, I was listening to talk radio. The topic was Alex Rodriguez. And how it’s come out that he tested positive for steroids back in 2003.
Now, first of all, we’re not into professional sports around here. At all. My husband doesn’t watch pro football or baseball or basketball. He’s too busy running, biking, or swimming to sit and watch a game. Our family doesn’t have a favorite sports team. We don’t watch the Super Bowl or the World Series or the NBA finals. The boys would rather play outside or make a fort than watch a game on TV. In fact, the only sports we enjoy are local middle school and high school games. And the Olympics. Basically sports where the athletes don’t get paid an exorbitant amount of money.
So this news about Mr. Rodriguez didn’t faze me. But as I listened to the program I learned that this guy had requested an interview with Katie Couric back in 2007 where he swore he had never taken performance enhancing drugs. Followed by a caller explaining how disappointed her son was to hear this news because he greatly admired this guy and remembered watching that interview with Katie Couric when he swore he’d never taken steroids.
I got to thinking. What kind of role models do our kids have? What is our role as parents in influencing what kind of people our kids look up to and admire?
So when I came home this morning to get the kids up and off to school, I talked to each one separately.
“OK”, I thought. ” That’s not too bad. I better remember to Google her later though, just to make sure.” Then I cornered Erik as he was putting on his shoes.
What is going on? Do my kids really think I need a self confidence boost?
Later, as I was doing a “clean teeth check”, I asked Jack the same thing.
Morning is Jack’s arch nemesis. I’ll ask him after school. In third grade he did his hero project on Ben Franklin and he named Bill Gates (he admires money makers) and Abe Lincoln as people he wanted to be like, in the past.
And just now I asked Will.
Not a single professional athlete made the list. Is that because my kids aren’t into professional sports? Is that because we as parents aren’t into professional sports? Is it because the kids are just too young to admire those athletes?
I think it’s a little of each. But I do think we have a responsibility to our kids to talk with them about what qualities make a good role model. To share with them who our own role models are and why. And also to talk to them about the disparity between many of the role models in today’s media and the unfortunate actions of those individuals. How our country’s skewed value system is illustrated by the outrageous discrepancy between professional athletes’ salaries and those of true heroes like quality teachers, emergency personnel, nurses, and servicemen and women, etc…
The media is to blame for much of this. So I’m grateful for the rare occasion when the media vultures hone their sites on true heroes like Captain Chesley Sullenberger. A man who was calm and prepared when he had to be and who was concerned with others before himself. A humble and compassionate man with unquestionable integrity. Who, with all the media blitz and chaos, quietly contacted the public library to tell them the book he had checked out had been lost in the crash and then offered to pay for it. What a great example of someone who went above and beyond what was expected of him. A true hero.
So I guess my point with this long-winded and more-serious-than-usual post has not much to do with Mr. Rodriguez. It has more to do with our role as parents in influencing what kinds of people our kids want to become. Kids mimic what they see. Are we emulating good values? Are we spending time talking to them about the people they see in the media or in the community? Do they realize how skewed the media is and how it really isn’t a reflection of reality? Do they understand the value of integrity?
Today’s thoughts brought to you by early morning XM Talk Radio.
So, there you go. I shared. I may have offended. Maybe not. But hopefully I sparked a few thoughts of your own. I plan on bringing it all up at the dinner table tonight.
One sock, Two sock, Red sock, Blue sock,
From the singles pile you wish you could walk
Out of the laundry room to find your perfect match
Who you haven’t been with since the last whites batch.
As a couple you entered this house to live,
Your warmth, reinforced toe and comfort to give.
Now without your mate you lie forelorn,
Useless and without two feet to adorn.
Dejected and humiliated you wish to know,
To what unfortunate fate your mate did go.
Did she accidentally get paired with a sock more her type?
Perhaps an athletic anklet with a handsome stripe.
Or might she have found someone a little more daring?
An argyle knee high who’s a little more caring.
To be honest, I’ve seen her all over the place.
Wedged in the couch, on the dinner table, behind the vase.
She’s a feisty devil who’s determined to be,
Single, unattached and completely carefree.
I’ve asked the kids to get her and bring her back
To the laundry room and toss her into the stack
Of sweaty old t-shirts, undies, and towels
But that request is always met with cringing and howls.
So, your only hope, sad and lonely GoldToe,
Is that one of the kids’ chore lists will plainly show
The task of sock matching must be done
Before T.V., video games or anything fun.
The day of slothful children is soon coming to a close
Out the window excuses and disorganization will go.
So one sock two sock red sock blue sock
Prepare for a sweet reunion at the strike of the clock.
Let it be known that all single socks will be paired up by the end of the day. And the end is near for any leftover singles. Be prepared to face the dust rag box or the … (gasp)… the trash.
Mud. Dried mud. Technically it would be called dirt, I suppose. Whatever it’s called, someone tracked it all over my house this morning.
I won’t name names but I could tell who it was as I followed the path around with my vacuum after the kids were bouncing down the road on the yellow kidmobile at dawn this morning.
No big deal. It happens when it’s been foggy and soggy out and half of our property is an empty pasture. What did “get my goat” was what I saw as I was dutifully sucking up dirt.
All of which leads me to a conclusion that’s been festering ever since sending the kids back to public school:
Don’t get me wrong, the kids have chores they’re supposed to do. At the bare minimum they have to do music practice, reading, and homework before any media or friends. And on a good day (at least a good day for me), they’re met after school with a chore list. And they’re not bad at getting their chores done when they know what they are. The problem?
In the past I’ve tried a few different systems. When we homeschooled, I tried this one:
Which worked most excellently because the kids were home all day and had plenty of time to finish their lists.
We’ve also tried all sorts of handmade charts with pockets for “To-Dos” and “Dones”. They work for awhile but stagnation sets in or the cards accidentally get flushed down the toilet or thrown out with the trash detail, eventually rendering this system null and void.
We’ve done the chore wheel as well. But when the kids range in age from 4 to 13, it isn’t always a fair system when your 4 year-old gets stuck with “mowing the lawn” and your 13 year-old lucks out and gets “stacking the library books on the hearth”.
And what about reinforcement? We’ve taken away privileges, opened up a ChoreStore with goodies that can be purchased with ChoreDollars, and dabbled in allowance.
Nothing really floats my boat right now. I want something that’ll knock my socks off. A creative approach perhaps? Highly effective, definitely!
In fact, I am so desperate for the perfect system (or at least one that makes life easier and more enjoyable) that I’m willing to giveaway something in exchange for some Chore Genius!
Here’s how it works:
Leave me a comment with:
In exchange for airing your dirty laundry about chores (doesn’t really make sense but I couldn’t resist) you’ll be in the running for this:
A bottle of Mrs. Meyer’s All Purpose Cleaner. My very favorite! I love the way it makes my whole house smell. Not chemically and bleachy, but lemony and clean.
It’s hard-working, concentrated and an all-around generalist; Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day Lemon Verbena All Purpose Cleaner is good for just about everything. Great on all non-porous surfaces such as finished wood and tile floors, countertops, walls, porcelain, bathroom fixtures, sealed natural and synthetic stone, and more.
All entries will be numbered. Commenting on my blog will give you one entry. Link this giveaway on your blog, comment again letting me know you’ve linked me and you’ll get another entry. Contest ends Wednesday night at 9:00 MST. The winner will be announced on Thursday morning.
Oh! I’m so excited to hear what you’ve got! Oh, and while you’re sharing, have you got a good system for meal planning? Hmmmm….
Happy Monday!
