It's Dinner Time...Come to the Table

First of all I'm sharing a huge "Praise God" moment as I sit down at my computer to write with the window wide open.  The cool fresh air is such a treat, and I am incredibly thankful that maybe, just maybe, someday soon it will be fall.

I recently read an article in Parenting magazine that started by saying, "What if we told you there was a magic bullet for all of these childhood issues?" and then went on to list a host of really important things like eating more fruits and vegetables, loving to read, preventing eating disorders, lowering the risk of depression, etc.  The answer was so incredibly simple, it caused me to wonder what kind of society we are in that we need to remind ourselves about this...family meals together.  That was it. 

The article, written by Dr. Alan Greene recommended seven family meals together a week.  Any meal, not in front of the screen, and start as soon as possible.  "Even without extra effort or conscious thought, family meals are associated with better nutrition, better weight, better health, better behavior, better school performance, and happier children," said Greene. 

Family meals is something that has been important to me in raising a family, to me it's second nature, and I never before stopped to reflect on how fortunate I was to grow up in a household where this was a closely held value.  Setting the table and helping mom in the kitchen.  Eating together as a family.  Saying a simple prayer.  Listening to one another's days.  Without question family meals are one of my favorite daily memories of growing up, and I think instilled a lot of roots within me that I didn't realize at the time. 

At the white Formica table with the mint green chairs I learned responsibility and how to pitch in by setting the table.  I learned to count peas and bargain with years of life, days of the week and months in the year so that I only had to eat the required amount of the smooshy green things.  I learned that mom meant business when she dumped my sister's plate and sent her to her room for being rude about the meal. (It only happened once. The message was pretty clear.)  I learned the importance of prayer as a family.  I learned how to listen and gained a love for conversation.  Reflecting back on those hundreds of meals, I also realize that is exactly where my love for business and being a professional comes from.  I loved listening about my dad's work experiences and daydreaming about someday being like him.  In the mornings I practiced memory work and learned how to manage time, microwave oatmeal just right (cookie dough consistency), and that it's not good manners to brush your teeth while walking all over the house, a problem I still have today.  We celebrated birthday breakfasts around that table, good grades, anniversaries, and the most amazing snow days on the planet.

Family meals with a hectic life, full schedules, and a toddler can be a challenge, but for me it's a priority.  At our cream colored Formica counter top we eat together at least once a day.  Jett has been a part of this routine since day one.  He and I also get the benefit of nearly every morning breakfast together with my mom around the table.  How do I know he's learning valuable lessons, even when he's still throwing Cherrios?  It's when he simply folds his little hands and reminds us to pray before every single meal. 

Yes, I would agree with Dr. Greene, family meals are very important.

Graduation Staycation Road Trip - We Survived! He Did It! And The Stuff That I Love!

"There was this really smart mom that kept pulling out new toys and snacks for her toddler during the ceremony.  He was good the whole time.  So smart!" - Random Amazing Graduate Student

Yup, that was me, the really smart mom.  At least I think that was me.  It might have been the other dozen or so brilliant mamas around the room that in addition to praying wildly before the ceremony for patience, good naturedness, silence, and an aisle seat, also were smart enough to pack "the goods" before the hour and half ceremony.  Regardless, it was a very nice comment from someone that told this to my husband as he walked up to receive his diploma and get hooded. (Hooded?  Receive his hood?  That's why I'm going back to school.)

The trip up was a breeze.  Jett was a fabulous, happy, rested boy when we left and jabbered happily until Lincoln, at which point we dropped daddy off at his coaches' meeting and ran off energy at the Lincoln Children's Museum for an hour.  He then promptly fell asleep and remained that way until we hit Kearney.  Ah-may-zing!  We arrived and I asked Kevin if he would be up for extending our trip to the Black Hills for the rest of the weekend, thinking this whole traveling with a kid thing was a cinch.  Luckily, he had the good sense to say no.

The ceremony came and I was that "smart mom" who stashed away all kinds of "never in a million years would I feed my child Handy Snacks if I didn't want him to be quiet during a very important event," kind of things.  Thanks to the aaforementioned congealed cheese, gummy snacks, and a host of new cool toys I broke out for the occasion, we made it.  Barely, but we did.  It also helped that Jett's four-year-old cousin Katie sat next to him, was SUPER good, and let him touch her blond curls and say "pretty" for about 20 minutes.

My child was good as gold through lunch, and then vacationitis hit.  You know, that rotten hang over feeling you get before vacation is actually over.  You want to crawl out of your skin, run around like a banshee, burst into tears, and detox after eating congealed cheese for days...Well, news flash, this hits toddlers after a mere 24 hours on a trip.

Luckily or unluckily depending on where you were sitting in the car, Jett slept to Grand Island (44 minute nap, but who is counting) where we met our wonderful friends and their three kiddos for a play date.  I love Chris and Amy and their boys.  A truly amazing family that I wish we saw more often.  The kids played for nearly two hours, and Jett loved their child-sized trampoline and giant St. Barnard puppy.  I thought for sure he would sleep until Seward, but no luck.  He was however, "stuck!" and I had a chance to try out the car toys and apps everyone had sent me. 

So here is the stuff that saved me.  The stuff I love.

1. My favorite app was "Bizzy Bear Builds a House," very sweet, interactive and narrated with a British accent.  I'm not sure why that matters, but it was somewhat soothing.  Coming in a close second was the Disney Junior app that lets you watch select shows like Doc McStuffins. 
2. Cow puppet.  I asked my mom what she recommended I bring and this was her fabulous idea. 

    3.   Playdoh - in a bag.  This is SO smart!  Whoever put Playdoh in a zip top bag knew what they were doing.  Now the people who give this to toddlers who think it's a gummy snack do not know what they are doing, but that's a different story.  Jett loved to smoosh it, after he took a bite.

   4.   Flash cards. Who knew? I picked these up after perusing the school supply section at Walmart.  Jett loved looking at these and repeating the colors as a gave them to him.  We also received some Thomas the Train cards somewhere along the way and he loved these as well.

5. 27 Quart Storage Box.  You will thank me later.  Now I don't fancy myself organized, but when I put all the car toys and handy wipes in this nifty neat little container, and managed to keep the car somewhat together without my usual bundle of tote bags, I thought I had arrived. 

6. I found Jack at the Lincoln Children's Museum and had a hunch we'd become buds.  This is magnetic paper dolls for boys and I love it.  Jett loved it too, score! (The only bad thing is Jack's container, he now lives in a Ziplock.  But I won't hold that against the guy.)

7.  I also loved the Crayola Color Wonder Stow and Go Studio.  It was a little above Jett who isn't quite loving markers...yet, but he did love putting the caps on and off, and the neat little package kept everything together in the diaper bag.  This was a big hit with his cousin Katie during the ceremony.

8.  Darn Handy Snacks!*
*For those of you who are offended by congealed cheese and judging me, I don't blame you.  For the record, Jett's mother also packed fresh cherries, (pits removed of course), homemade whole wheat and flax zucchini muffins, and veggie and fruit squeezy packs.  Oh, and some gummy bears...

Graduation Staycation Road Trip: Prepping for the Car Ride

Kevin has finished his masters degree.  Woohoo, yippee, hallelujah, can I get an Amen!  I'm incredibly proud of the hard work that he has put in over the last three and half years to not only graduate, but graduate with a 4.0 GPA.

When we learned that he would finish the program this summer, naturally his "lets do something - lets celebrate - lets get out of the house" wife encouraged him to "walk" put on a cap and gown and commemorate the occasion.  Which has led us to this weekend's Graduation Staycation Road Trip to Kearney for the ceremony.  Roughly 178 miles, 2 hours and 52 minutes in the car...with a toddler.  With an active toddler, who has recently become very aware that he is "stuck!" in his car seat. 

I am in total awe of parents who travel with their kiddos cross country to visit family, or fly with their babies on vacation, so I'll try and keep my whining to a minimum.  But I'm a little nervous about it all. It will be our longest road trip to date, and while my rendition of "Wheels On The Bus" is pretty darn good, but it's definitely not three hours good. 

So, I'm looking for suggestions, help, creative ideas, anything!  What do you do to keep your kiddos entertained in the car?  We will have the iPad along, but I haven't explored many of the kid-friendly apps yet.  Which are your favorites?

More updates from the road coming soon...

The Naked Truth: When Fundraising Goes Wrong

Sometimes I wonder what must go on in the mind of post office personnel as they process and deliver the mail.  They have a very personal glimpse into our lives; the magazines we subscribe to, the coupons we receive, the stacks of bills, cards and letters, and envelope after envelope of credit card companies trying to lure us into yet another low interest rate.  This weekend, I can’t even begin to imagine what our friendly postal worker thought as in between a card from a friend, an appeal from Concordia University, and the lease statement for our car, was ESPN Magazine - The Body Issue.

I won’t even tell you my immediate thoughts (because my grandmother and pastor's wife read this blog) as I unfolded the magazine in the front yard walking back to the house and to my shock saw a completely nude female athlete on the cover.  Now let’s be honest, I’ve seen “artistic” modeling before and partial nudity is nothing new to the readers of Vogue or Instyle, but this issue made the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue look like the church newsletter.  Not just the cover, but page after page after page displaying athletes wearing only the uniform of their birthday suits.  I double and triple checked that indeed this was sent to the correct address.  And in my husband’s name.

I decided to wait until he arrived back from Chicago to ask if one of his buddies had thought this would be a good joke.  But I quickly learned that was not the case.  I wish I could go back in time and have a video capturing his face and the next comments that came out of his mouth as he surveyed the photojournalism.  I soon found out that this was a fundraiser gone very, very wrong and that he along with several other teachers and parents had subscribed to ESPN Magazine as part of a fundraiser for a school sports program.  Immediately Kevin called another teacher friend to learn that his wife had a similar reaction. He jokingly asked if I wanted to trade him issues, because theirs had a male athlete on the front.  I declined.

Being in fundraising and development myself, I find the whole thing absolutely hilarious, and when I think about it can’t help but laugh out loud.  I’ve heard fundraising horror stories that run everywhere from letters with the wrong donor name, to unsuspecting volunteers who were forced to make and then sell homemade pickles, to frozen goods that never came in, to events that have been rained out.  But this one takes the cake.  There was no possible way that the fundraising committee could have known the content of the magazine or that this would be the first issue out to donors.  I will be sharing this story at future AFP (Association of Fundraising Professionals) events for years to come.  And I can’t help but wonder...will they raise more money now than they did when they were just selling subscriptions?

Here's to Friends, Wogging, and the Most Interesting Laundry I've Ever Done

I feel like this summer is very different than summers past.  I can't quite describe how exactly we have changed, except to say that I think for the first time we are really trying to take advantage of every opportunity to enjoy time with family and friends. It's hard to know where to start to describe what a fun weekend it has been.  It kicked off early, with an opportunity to spend a little extra time with my girls Brandi and Anne who were in town on Thursday.  Something about meeting up at Brandi's parents' house felt like old times.  (Even though we have grown up and there weren't any dorky dance sessions.)

On Friday one of my board members asked if I had been taking Jett to the pool, and my answer of "no" inspired me to enjoy the sunshine, get brave and take Jett to the water park by myself.  We had gone earlier in the season and he was absolutely petrified and screamed every time we got near the water.  This time was different, as my little fishy wanted to lay his head back in the water and kick, and couldn't get enough of the baby water slide. 

Saturday brought about the most interesting laundry I have ever done.  The Color Run was a hot, perky, mess of a 5k.  It was fun to say that we were part of the 13,000 people who were quirky enough to think that running in the middle of July and getting blasted with color at every kilometer sounded like an opportunity not to be missed.  I'm not ashamed to say that we wogged it (walk/jogged) because it was HOT, and it gave us a great chance to catch up again before Anne leaves for Tempe in a couple of days.  (The color did come out of my clothes, but my armpit is still bright blue, go figure.)

Today was another good day from start to finish.  A very nice church service, successful trip to Walmart, without crying, fit throwing, or begging.  And Jett did very well too.  Lunch with my parents and another trip to the pool.  I should have known that my energetic baby would still be going strong when we got home.  I think he's trying to train me for the WNBA, because we played numerous games of basketball, and ran sprints around the yard.

We interrupt this blog post for a "Random Mama Tip of the Day": Jett helped me "cook" supper, and we made mini pizzas.  He has been on a veggie jag lately and so I mixed shredded zucchini in with the pizza sauce and then put on the toppings and cheese.  He ate it up and I couldn't tell the difference either!  A great way to sneak in some veggies for opposing kids (or husbands!)

The best part of the day may have been when Kevin returned from his road trip with the guys.  Seeing Jett's face light up when he came home was the best!

What I learned in 1 hour, 6 minutes, and 38 seconds

I ran a 10K and I'm a mommy!  Today's run was a great personal accomplishment and I really enjoyed the experience.  I signed up on a whim, thinking it would be a good way to kick off the holiday, and only trained for about 3 weeks.  When I arrived at the race site this morning and saw all the "real runners" stretching and warming up and I started to get nervous, realizing that I didn't really know what warming up for a 10K would be.  I could tell this was a serious group because this was the first run I've been in where none of the participants wore their complementary shirts.  Wardrobe says a lot in these situations.

The "Real" Runners



I at least felt like I was wearing the right thing, having just purchased my first pair of Nike Tempo shorts.  I lined up near the back of the race, hoping I would find friends there. 

I ran 95% of the race, but had to stop briefly to get a couple of good pictures, and spit in the creek (unladylike I know!)  The track was half uphill and gravel, a very different environment than running on flat pavement.  One of the songs on my playlist was Sugarland's "Down in Mississippi" and the phrase "all you're going to see is a$$es and elbows," started making a lot more sense at about 4 kilometers in.



Corn on my right, beans on the left.

 

It was really a beautiful morning, clear and cool with a slight breeze.  The view was pretty incredible as well.  The time gave me a lot to reflect on, and I can say that in addition to finishing (and not finishing last,) I learned a lot about myself and the sport of running today.

1. Nike Tempo shorts are the greatest invention. Ever.  (I guess that's not about running or myself per say, but I learned that I need to buy more.)

2. I'm not very competitive, but I am the Miss Congeniality of the race.  When we reached the half way point and turned around I was the only one who was cheering on the people in the last half.  I started wondering if this is unspoken etiquette that you aren't supposed to talk to your fellow racers...

3. I don't know the rules or etiquette of running.  Which side are you supposed to pass on?  Is it appropriate to give someone the thumbs up when they pass you?  Is it okay to stop and take pictures?

4. I can't drink and run.  I must stop, sip, and then continue.

5. Litter bothers me more than I thought.  Come on people, this isn't the Summer Games, slow down enough to get your paper cup in the trash can.  Thank you.

6. Short strides uphill, long strides downhill.

7. My iPhone playlist is a little questionable.  Flo Rida, Nicky Minaj, Ke$ha, Kanye, Black Eyed Peas, and until I heard all the songs back to back, I hadn't realized I downloaded all my hip hop tunes with the explicit language, oops. 

8. A funnel cake may not be the best breakfast after running a 10K.

9. You MUST, repeat, MUST stop and stretch well after running. Not just touch your toes and push the stroller, but seriously stretch.  Otherwise you will wish you were dead rest of the day.

10. I really love running.  Who would have guessed?

Our Summer Home

I love vacations.  I mean really LOVE vacations, to the point of obsessing about what I’m going to pack months in advance.  I love to plan and daydream about what we will see, do, and eat.  I think this all stems from wonderful family vacations growing up and my parents making the experience really delightful, whether we were visiting Fort Robinson or Walt Disney World. 

I always had this secret dream that someday mom and dad would spring for a “summer home” or a timeshare somewhere fabulous.  Something that would guarantee we’d continue these trips for a long time.  I dreamed this would be a condo in Estes Park, a beachfront shack in San Diego, or a magical Disney timeshare.  Even though my parents never went for it (at least not yet) I still had high hopes that when I grew up and had my own family, this might become a reality.  Not in my wildest dreams did I believe this would happen in Virginia, NE.  Virginia Beach, yes!  But Virginia, NE, where in the world is that?

A couple of years ago Kevin and I had the opportunity to buy land that came with an acreage, and we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take a step closer towards his dream.  With this acreage was a cute little place we refer to as our “summer home,” although right now we are blessed that his cousins are living there all year long.  To say I was reluctant at first would be a gross understatement, but after this weekend’s trip, it’s starting to grow on me.

       

My baby looked at the corn in awe, smiled widely while he “drove” the tractor, and chased his cousins around the yard all afternoon.  It’s certainly not Disney World, but I have a feeling my little guy will grow up believing this is the greatest place in the world. 

And while it may never become a reality, you better believe I’m still dreaming about that beach front property…