Sifting through, I found an idea I know I have to try. She calls it “pizza box storage.” And that’s exactly what it is. She takes clean, unused pizza boxes (I hope my local pizza shop is as generous with their boxes as hers was) and stores 12×12 scrapbook paper in them. Oh, what a great idea.
I’m going to take this idea and expand on it – storing Miss A’s projects and coloring in them (and letting her color on the box as well).
I already use the cardboard circles that come with frozen pizzas for everything from clocks that help teach telling time, to mobile bases, to planets of the solar system. So why not try this as well? Hmm, what other parts of pizza and its components can I use? My sister used to take the little plastic tables they put on pizzas to keep the cheese from sticking to the top of the box and use them as Barbie furniture.
“Poor Man’s?!?” You might be saying…but at around $89, Nintendo’s Wii Fit system costs less than one session with a living breathing personal trainer. (Assuming of course, you already own the Wii system).
I had added the Wii Fit to my wish list thinking, it might be cool to try and I am seriously in need of ways to shrink my ASSets.
So hubby got it for me as a Christmas gift, and I am actually really enjoying it.
Since the balance board is essentially a scale, the first thing I wanted to know was…”CAN I HIDE MY PERSONAL INFO (as in weight and BMI) from the rest of the world?!?” My husband will never tell me his web passwords…and I will never tell him my weight.
I did a little googling, and this was a concern for a great many. The short answer is – yes. You can keep your personal info secret with password protection. Concerned as to what my “Mii” character would look like once the stats were added, I test drove it using a chubby looking character my daughter created…an imaginary friend she named “Tina.” I had considered using the Henry VIII mii my husband created, but didn’t think that would be very good for my self-esteem.
Then I did myself (and, thankfully, the Melonie Mii did not inflate like a balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.)
So now I rotate between the two characters, using Tina for Yoga, and Melonie for strength and balance training.
Now that we have that most important issue out of the way – more about the system.
If you are in decent shape, than the cardio option won’t be much of a challenge for you. I broke a slight sweat during the super hula hoop game, but snoozed through the step aerobics and rhythm boxing. They have running too (my 5 year old loves the 10 minute free run option) but I just don’t like it. I prefer the treadmill…or even better a run outdoors. That’s what I have to target next…my cardio – I was doing awesome while in the BiggestLoser contest (and won, btw) but once the carrot (or in this case, the nearly $500) wasn’t dangling at the end of the stick anymore…my drive to squeeze in some running EVERYDAY NO MATTER WHAT sort of disappeared.
But back to the Wii – what I do really like is the Yoga. Once you unlock all the poses, you have a 30 minute yoga workout that hits all the areas: back, legs abs, etc. What is awesome about this system is the way the balance board displays how well you hold a pose and if you are properly aligned or not…pretty important to performing yoga correctly and reaping the benefits. However the music is rather lame, it reminds me of something you’d hear in one of those videos you’re forced to watch about employee responsibilities and rights at a crappy mall job. To bypass this, I burned a cd and play that while I workout. If you need some good ideas for yoga tunes, check out my top 10 page.
The balance games are actually quite fun, my favorites are the soccer (I scored a 500 yesterday!) and the table tilt. (You have to watch someone try this game, it is most hilarious.)
The strength training exercises are so-so. Some of them: like the plank, the push-up with side lift, and the jack knife are great and like yoga, hold you accountable for proper form and balance. A few others, like the triceps dips, don’t transfer well to the system, and I’d prefer to just do stuff like that on my own with weights.
All in all though, I’d have to say the system is a success for me. I like that it keeps track of how long I exercise (you earn credits in a “fit bank”) and chides me if I miss a day or two. Most mornings I have managed to fit in a 20-50 minute workout before Lil’ G wakes up, and that is quite the success indeed.
I am always amazed at the speed in which my daughter can make a new friend. She is a naturally gregarious person and has a knack for remembering people’s names. And, let me just say, the girl is NOT shy. This really comes in handy when we go to the park on our own (as in, not meeting up with anybody for a pre-arranged parkdate). Within a few minutes, Miss A finds some kids to buddy up and run around with, and I can park it on a bench and enjoy the fresh air for a minute. Once or twice, she has tried to join a group of older boys playing – who really didn’t appreciate it, and told her so in the gentle manner of 8-10 year old boys…and she came to me crying. I think she was shocked that someone in the world would actually not want to play with her. I hugged and soothed her and took her on the swings, and in no time, she had found someone closer to her age. When we left, the boy ran after her calling, “Come back to play soon! Goodbye! I love you!”
The other day we went on a shopping trip to Ikea (I needed stuff to help complete the mini-stage for Miss A in our basement…more on that later) and the line was – surprise! – long. Do yourself and your sanity a favor and never try shopping at Ikea on a Saturday.
Anyways, so to keep Miss A amused while I waited in line my husband took her to get a drink.
While in THAT long line, Miss A happened to see a girl wearing the same pink Hello Kitty watch that she had on (not that surprising, since she got it at, gasp!, MickeyDee’s). That was enough for the two girls to launch into their life stories. By the time Aishtyn came back with her drink, she was planning sleepover parties.
Wouldn’t it be cool if we could maintain that ability as we got older? We’re in line at the grocery store, and see that someone else has the same babysling or whatever and bam! we’ve made a friend for life.
I admit it, I’m a magazine junkie. Back in the day when my heart went pitter-pat for NKOTB (see #53)I would spend wads of babysitting money on TeenBeat, TuttiFrutti, Bop and other glossy homages to the teen idols I so adored. I would pull out the posters to adorn my walls, cut out special articles like the ones that had info on Jordan’s favorite things to do on a date (I just knew that would come in handy when he saw me at his concert and fell in love with me), and paste the covers in a photo album. (Photo albums I may still have somewhere in my garage…oh yes I may)
Nowadays, as in – my life as a 30-something mom vs. a tweeny-something junior high girl, I still enjoy buying magazines. I’m not much for t.v. , so in many ways magazines function like t.v. for me: lots of info in little quick tidbits. Much like a channel surfer, I will flip quickly through a magazine, stopping here and there to skim an article, but never staying with a story long enough to get, well, the full story. Perhaps this is why for years I was loathe to part with any of my glossy reading material. I always planned to go back and read this or that, I really wanted to hold on to that banana bread recipe, and wow, but you never knew when that article on potty training was going to come in handy. So I would save them…and as I usually have subscriptions to at least 3 magazines at any one time, my collection (and my bookshelves) fill up fast.
When we moved out of our townhome, I went through a forced purge and, refusing to be ridiuclous enough to PACK several year’s worth of women’s health magazines, I tossed them all into a Free Pile at our moving sale, then dumped what didn’t go into the recycling bin.
Recently, I realized that I have been building the same dangerous tower of triteness in this home…and I refuse to teeter into that trap (oh, yes, I loves the alliteration). Reading a magazine cover to cover, even in a week’s time, is a highly unlikely prospect considering the juggling act I call life…so, instead, I still do the skim routine I so love (I really do find it relaxing actually, especially if the reading time involves a latte and some bright morning sunshine…on a morning when both girls are still asleep). When I come across an article I like: such as a running routine I’d like to try, a recipe for LOWFAT cheesecake I want to save for a bad pms day, or some great craft ideas I could implement for Miss A’s homeschool – I simply rip it out and file it.
When I say “file” I am not referring to giant office-y looking things…I simply have a 3 folder system…
Aren't they cute? I love shopping for folders.
In which I have labeled with something a little more specific than “stuff” and a little more general than “Meals for Summer Evenings”
Just "Crafts" "Fitness" & "Recipes"...I may have to add a "Home" file, for decorating, gardening, and what not
So as I read, if I see something I know I’ll like, I just tear it out and add it to the appropriate folder.
When the folder starts to get too full, I move the collected pages to a larger 3ring binder (I keep a recipe binder by my cookbooks, a craft binder with the homeshool stuff, etc). The binders aren't as pretty, so I won't show them to you.
Then I pack up the de-filed (ha!) magazines and drop them off at Little Gym for other moms to read. (I apologize if you got excited about the “10 Best Ab Moves!” advertised on the cover, only to find the page to be MIA).
Since I have had this system in place, I am proud to say I can usually zip through a month’s worth of literature in a few days.
And I am even more proud to say that I have not put more publications onto the pile I previously started…and am in fact, slowly working towards reducing that as well.
Maybe in a fit of wild abandon I’ll drag them out of the basement and throw ’em into the garage sale we’re getting set to have this spring.
Need some reading material? Do you lust after old issues of Better Homes & Gardens?
Come check the free pile at my garage sale.
Just don’t bury yourself under your own pile. I don’t want to be an enabler or something.
Just Ask Lil’ G, who tosses them with aplomb as if playing fetch with some imaginary canine. Or ask Lil’ G’s Dada…who, after observing this behavior a few times decided to investigate…and upon tasting said biscuit declared, “Ugh! These things taste like dog treats!” How he knows what dog treats taste like is something I prefer not to ask, so I’ll take his word for it. Figuring I did buy a whole box of these premium organic teething biscuits and Lil’ G is, well, teething…I thought I’d try one last time.
She wasn't at all sure about it, but she's game enough at first...Then she begins to remember, "Oh yes...these wretched things."Being a good sport, she pauses to consider the taste, the texture, or "numminess" if you will.She carefully examines the specimen, noting it's appearance.At this point, she decides to offer it to me instead.Attempting to convince me of it's allure, she shows me how tasty the biscuit is."Mama, really! It's so yummy and delicious.""Now c'mon Mama, you know you want a bite."I am not fooled, however...and she is irked by the realization that her plan has failed.So she launches PLAN B: brute force.Foiled in this attempt by her high chair restraints, she considers her options...while maintaining a convincing air of innocence.Casually, she initiates her fall-back plan.Her plan in full swing, she artfully employs a visual distraction, pretending to focus on something else. Mission accomplished."What did you expect, Mom? Those things taste like dog food."
No, no, this is not some review of a bizarre new strip club where the girls wear space suits and the poles look like rockets…so if that’s what you’re looking for please go away and never come here again.
Or better yet you can go to this website, which is a link a fellow homeschool mom sent out this morning to our group.
I clicked, looked, and said “Well then.” Wondering if it was a mistake, or if maybe she had decided let us in on a much more personal side of her life.
One that involved shoe fetishes and dominatrix dates.
ETA: Since posting this, the “mistake” link no longer takes you anywhere…so if you were hoping for a dose of porn…you’ll have to get it elsewhere my friend.
I know, it’s so hard to find porn on the internets.
Recently, I read a little article in one of the many parenting magazines I receive (more about my magazine habit and how I keep it under control later) that asked moms to reveal a “kid-like” trait of theirs. Answers varied from cutting crusts off sandwiches to having to touch everything. So I thought…what kid-like quirks do I have? One that quickly came to mind is the joy I get from stickers. That’s probably one of the main reasons I started scrapbooking – it gave me an excuse to buy stickers. Lots and lots of stickers. This may be a little wacky…but I still have my collection of sticker books from when I was in oh, 2nd and 3rd grade (Lisa Frank ring a bell anyone?) Forget trading cards, when I was a kid the big thing was to swap stickers. I remember the excitment of starting a new book, of finding a new design for the all horse sticker page (which sometimes could include unicorns, and sometimes not). It was an awesome day when my mom would let me come with to pay the electric bill at the Ben Franklin, and give me 10 cents to pick a sticker to buy off the rolls they had displayed in shimmering glossy reems.
I was always an A student…and while I’m not sure, I wonder if perhaps stickers played a role in my desire to do well. Getting a test or a paper back with a “You’re a Star!” sticker stuck perkily on the top center of the page always gave me a thrill of pleasure.
I don’t care what age you are – seeing a sticker on your work just feels good. When I taught high school I would often put stickers on my students’ tests. You’d be amazed how even Mr. I’m-Too-Cool or Ms.I’m-So-Bored got a kick out of seeing cute little animals shouting congratulations at them stuck to their work.
As a homeschool kid, I don’t want my daughter to miss out on what may be conisdered more a part of the “standard” school experience. So, among other things; I make sure we decorate the house for each holiday much like you’d see in a primary classroom setting and often put stickers on her schoolwork.
Anyone who homeschools (and is honest) can tell you that it can be pretty darn rough some days. On those days when I want to tear my hair out just to get her to try to sound out a word, or remember what comes after 14, or write her middle and last name as well as her first…then I am thankful for the power of stickers. When we are in such a moment, I pull out a sheet of stickers, let her mind rest as she chooses one she likes, then tell her once she has completed whatever assignment we are struggling with, she can place the sticker on the page. Maybe it is because, like her mother, she delights in stickers so much – but the tactic always works.
That’s why I am so happy with the page-a-day calendar I got for Miss A this year. She is obsessed with counting down days: knowing how many days there are between one activity and the next, and…of course…how long until her birthday. Last year she had a Littlest Pet Shop page-a-day; it was cute, but I just ended up with sheets of pet shop characters littering her bedroom floor. This year we got the Teacher’s Sticker-A-Day box calendar. January is not yet over and I already LOVE this calendar. It covers 3 days at a time, so if you’re like me and will blink only to find it has gone from Tuesday to Friday, it’s nice to feel caught up. The variety of stickers is great too, and Aishtyn has already had papers awarded with dancing dinosaurs and cats that say “Purrr-fect.”
I’m so pleased I think I’ll give myself a sticker.
As for how else I’m like a kid? I love new crayons. I’d rather open a box of new ones than sharpen perfectly good used ones. This is why I also love Crayola’s new line of twistable crayons. They are like having new crayons all the time, and since they are encased in a plastic tube, you don’t have that funky crayon smell. (What is that smell anyway?)
And thinking of how I’m still a kid made me think of those cheesy frosted mini-wheat commercials, where at the taste of sugary frosted goodness, an adult suddenly morphs into their former kid-self, while still wearing their big-person clothes.
10 days after we got things going, things are, well – going!
All 4 of the pots we planted managed to germinate and show evidence of green growth, it was actually quite exciting!
Of the 5 day germinators, the basil seems to be chugging along better than the marjoram…but that may just be how they sprout (Miss A is going to look into that more for school tomorrow).
At first, I was worried about the 10 day germinators, since they were looking a tad funky for a day or two, but now seem to be coming along nicely as well.
The parsley is a little sparse.But the cilantro is kicking some herb butt!
Now, a subzero climate that has been pretty grey, in a house where the only south facing window is in the basement…we shall see just how green a thumb I have.
I must say I am proud of Miss A – she has been very diligent about remembering to: a) water the plants, b) ask me before she waters the plants, and c) slowly water the plants just enough so they don’t die a horrible soggy death.
And props to the Pioneer Woman’s photoshop actions. If you can’t tell, I’ve been having some fun playing with the boost option. Not bad, considering my rinky-dink point and shoot I got at the Circle store.
Often, you (and by you, I guess I mean me) hear people complain about the way technology is destroying mankind. Not robots harvesting humans for… (what would robots harvest humans for anyway?)type stuff; just the simple fact that the more ways we have to communicate, the less we seem to connect.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, blah-blah-blah. I’m sure the same complaints were made when the telephone first became popular. (Imagine the following in cranky old person voice) “What! You can’t even come over for a visit anymore! No time to see me face to face, gotta send your voice over a wire and, huh? I’m holding it wrong? What do you mean the receiver is upside down? See! We wouldn’t have this problem if you’d just get on your horse and drop by for a chat dagnabbit.”
Now, I’m not about to trade in my e-mail for a stationary set, or stop texting quick notes to hubby and friends…but I have decided there is a line in the technology sand I’m not ready to cross: the dvd player in the car line.
Once a week I teach a class that’s almost an hour away (sometimes worse on the way home if the traffic is bad…which it always is). My daughter comes with since she takes a class at the same time, and two one hour car rides, especially when you’re tired and hungry and crawling along in stop and go rush hour traffic (why do they call it “rush” hour anyway? You may be in a hurry, but you sure aren’t going anywhere fast!) So when I got a portable dvd player for my birthday (to stick in the workout room so I can gaze upon Tom Welling and catch up on Smallville episodes while logging some time on the treadmill), I decided to try taking it along in the car for Miss A for the long car ride.
Even before I set it up for her I made ground rules: the dvd player will be for very long car rides only, and it doesn’t stay in the car permanently. We used it for the first time last week, and I’m very glad I put those rules in place…if I had not before, I would have after.
It wasn’t that the system was hard to set up, or difficult to operate – and it did in fact, offer me a peaceful (well as peacfeul as you can get while dodging potholes going 60 mph) drive to work…but it was just weird to have Miss A be so, well, quiet!
If you have read any of my posts, you know that many of my more interesting conversations with my daughter occur in the car. Her brain wanders and lights upon all sorts of unique, bizarre, and clever observations.
It was nice to have a bit of a peace on a long drive, especially since most of her conversation during such drives is restricted to whining about how long it is taking or how hungry/thirsty/tired/bored she is, and if that isn’t enough she goes into this mode where she drums up old grudges…past moments of insult/injury that she decides to get angry about all over again; such as the time I promised her a playdate with a friend and had to back out – or something similar. With the dvd player on she settled back in her car seat (Princess, of course) and all I heard was the occasional giggle. In fact, since the movie wasn’t finished when we pulled up in the driveway she was sad the drive was over!
So I do plan to bring it along for those long drives…but there is no way it will be a daily thing – I can’t even imagine all the awesome, interesting hilarious and sometimes awkward conversations I would miss out on with my daughter; wait, I can imagine it…and that’s why I would never do it.
When I eventually decide to buy a new car, there are some features I am definitely considering: remote starter, gps system…hey, maybe even seat warmers…but a dvd player? No.
Looking at the title of this post, I realize “litter” could be read as a noun or a verb…I guess I could mean both. Y’know, like the word “cook” is a noun or a verb.
In the case of it being a noun, “lazy people” would modify the word – telling us just what type of litter it is; as in: “Look at all the lazy people litter out here, sheesh people, is it that hard to walk your garbage ten feet to a trash can? Obviously it must be, since they can’t walk ten feet to put their shopping cart away either. Sometimes you get the double whammy: a really lazy person who not only couldn’t take the time to throw out their nasty tissue/big gulp cup/UPOG (unidentified piece of garbage) but rather just tossed into their cart, then left said cart sitting in the parking lot before hopping into their trash filled minivan. Oh wait, their car won’t be filled with trash because they routinely toss it out the window while driving…or – one of my favorites (that’s sarcasm here, by favorite, I mean most likely to really irritate me. Really.) – pull into a parking spot, open their car door, and drop a pile of trash on the ground (it’s under my car! nobody will know!) before heading into a store which probably contains a plethora of places to properly dispose of that pile.
If you’ve ever tried to pull into a parking spot, only to discover a shopping cart taking up half the space…or while walking through a parking lot had to zig-zag to avoid a soiled diaper just sitting on the asphalt…or went to grab a cart only to find a wad of upog that you really wished you had a pair of tongs to remove…then you understand my pain.
The verb form is obvious: lazy people litter all the time, as my daughter often observes. I fear my disgust for the lazy people of the world (shared by my husband) has clearly had an effect on her. Though I’d prefer it if she didn’t publicly chastise perpetrators, I’m glad she has learned the simple grace of being respectful of the world we live in and others in it. Because really in a lot of ways, littering is a simple matter of disrespect. When you litter, you mar the beauty of your surroundings, and you make more work for somebody else – whether it be the next person to park where you did (who isn’t also a lazy person that would not only leave the cart right where you left it, but add a few upog to your pile as well), or the cart dude who has to round up all those carts (“But that’s his job! a lazy person will whine…no your job is to put the cart in the corral – his job is to collect them from the corral and bring them back in to the store).
Miss A was reflecting on “lazy people litter” in the car the other day. Thinking of all the things one may toss from the window, she told me, “They better watch out if they litter with something like a receipt from the library check out. Because then the police have your name and will know where you live.”
Ah, if only it were quite so simple.
But beware you lazy litterers of the world, A.J. is watching you.
And if I were you, I’d throw those library check out receipts in a trash can.
Melonie Johnson 
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