Family Archives - Page 10 of 26

Our Schedules Are Waaaaay Off, Too

I am the only one working right now in my household. My husband’s job was outsourced to India in the middle of 2010. While he stays very very busy with a number of projects around the house, he does not have to be in a hurry to be up by 8:00 or 9:00 a.m. Both daughters are home from school for now. Assuredly, they are in no hurry to be up before 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon.

Wednesday is the day Erin goes back to school which means her wake-up time will be 6:45 a.m. Annie goes back to college on Wednesday, too, for additional Resident Assistant training. This means she will have to be up and at ’em by 8:00 or 9:00 a.m. I think both of them will need a ton of luck to get adjusted!

Our schedules are way off because of the holidays. Well, not mine. I’m so relieved my own isn’t too messed up. I’m also relieved that another Mom looks at an 11:00 a.m. wake-up call as early. From in-a-minute,

… when he found her up at 4 a.m. on the Saturday before the great Return to School, he was a little nervous. Just worried that she’d sleep all day and not be able to sleep before 4 a.m. on the night before school. I told him that I wasn’t too concerned – that it was okay for her to go all haywire during vacation. And then I crossed my fingers that I wouldn’t have to eat my “oh, it’ll be FINE” words.

I didn’t have to. She had plans for Sunday, and so set her alarm and was up by 11 (yes, I’m considering 11 early).

I’m the nervous one in our house. Wednesday is going to be a real challenge!

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Kids Driving You Crazy? Try These Ideas…

by Kathy T. Leave a Comment

I’ve been home sick this week – it seems like every time we go to visit a gathering of 30 people, one of us comes home with some bug. This round it was my turn. Stupid colds!! I drank a cup of Theraflu and it knocked me out a little after 9:00 last night. Naturally, I woke up early as a result – 4:00 a.m.

Where that was expected, what I found most aggravating was the fact that my (1) teenage daughter and (1) adult-aged daughter were STILL UP! Alas, these ideas to keep kids busy will probably work best for children of younger ages, but here’s some help from Lynnae of Being Frugal on keeping kids busy inexpensively,

I love baking with the kids, but frequently we don’t have enough time to bake with our busy schedule. Since all of our outside activities are on break now, we’ll have time to make some goodies this week.

On the agenda is fudge, brownies, and maybe some cookies to give away on Christmas day.

You know, baking might be fun with older kids, too!

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Merry Christmas from Our Shak to Yours

by Kathy T. Leave a Comment

Here’s wishing you a beautiful holiday week filled with love, laughter, family and friends.

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Bust Out the Hot Chocolate

by Kathy T. Leave a Comment

Get out the slippers and bust out the hot chocolate, we have a snow day here! Our snow days are happily marked in my household with not having to get up early… it’s the day we sleep late and that extra hour is most certainly needed!

We watch TV, wrap presents (if it’s before Christmas), make cookies (if I have all the ingredients), make candy (if I have all the ingredients), and generally laze around.

Busy Mom has her snow day traditions too, done to MAKE it snow,

Since the day sort of snuck up on us, and we really didn’t need it to happen, anyway, the kids didn’t get to do their regular snow day rituals.

The make it snow rituals here are usually:

– Wear your pajamas backward
– Put ice in the toilet

I have never put ice in the toilet to make it snow, but love the idea!

Photo by Brandi Lane via flickr creative commons. Can I just add how I love the barbie iceskating scene?

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Overcoming Santagate

by Kathy T. 1 Comment

SPOILER ALERT! Do not read if you are less than 12 years old!

I don’t remember when I first learned that Santa Claus was not real. I think maybe it was when I was about 8 or 9 years old and I discovered my Suzie Homemaker oven hidden in my parents’ closet. I do remember when Erin came to the hard realization after she overheard her classmates talking about it. She had heard it from her school friends and kept the secret from us for two years.

Finally, Erin tearfully confided in writing that she was afraid Santa may not be real. When I talked with her, she said she didn’t want to say anything because if she did – then where would the Christmas presents come from? I said, “Baby, if Santa isn’t real where do you think the presents have been coming from all along?” She said, “Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh…” and everything was right in her world again.

So the Christmas spirit is alive and well in our house – even absent the jolly fat man. The one in red, anyway (we won’t talk about the other jolly fat many who lives here). Heh. Corey Trench also survived the trauma of learning Santa is not real,

“Mom, Santa’s real, isn’t he?” The dinner table got extremely quiet. My Mother had reassured me he was. “But the kids at school said he isn’t.” Ah yes, the very words no parent wants to hear, “But the kids at school said–.” Now, faced with the delicate task of potentially ruining my childhood, my parents decided to let me in on “the secret”.

I remember how they led me into another room.

Ahhhh… those closed-door meetings.

Photo by Scott Clark via Flickr Creative Commons.

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Christmas at Home or with Relatives?

by Kathy T. Leave a Comment

I am so completely guilty over hauling my children to Grandma & Grandpa’s house that they rarely get to just spend an entire holiday at their own home for Christmas. It is the time of year when my family – four brothers and one sister and all the in-laws, outlaws, nieces, nephews, boyfriends, girlfriends, and everyone in between – gets together. It was *my* Christmas growing up and I made it their Christmas, too.

What is looming, though, is when that tradition will end. When my daughters have their own children, how will they choose to dole out their holiday time? With their parents, grandparents, both or neither?

My friend told me today that this is the year she has broken their family tradition of the big family coming together at 11:00 a.m. on Christmas morning. Her relatives are upset because she made the decision that this year it’s about her immediate family, her children, and their happiness. No more scrambling after opening Santa’s presents to get dressed and rush to somewhere else an hour away. No more enduring small talk and chit-chat for her and her children. Now her Christmas will be the family staying home to open gifts together, enjoying a meal, playing games, watching a movie, and celebrating the reason for the season without being rushed everywhere.

How I envy her. Yet I feel afraid, too, as I look in my own crystal ball.

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More Family Traditions

by Kathy T. Leave a Comment

Yesterday was the day to talk about holiday traditions, but what do you do every day of the year to create family memories? Our own family traditions include nightly meals together. Or if we’re all home, asking the question, “How was school today?” No matter how detailed that answer is, I always try to listen because if it’s important enough for my child to talk about, it’s important enough for me to listen.

My Super Charged Life talks about some family rituals that are priceless, including:

Kids need affection to help them feel loved, important and secure. A married couple showing appropriate affection for one another in front of the kids also models how to behave in a healthy relationship and helps them to feel their family environment is stable. Make it a habit to snuggle up together on the couch when watching television. This makes this time more meaningful and productive. Also, don’t stop loving on your kids when they are older.

Excuses to hug! I love it! Happy Friday everyone!

Photo by dawnzy58 via flickr creative commons.

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Thanksgiving Insights About My Young’uns

by Kathy T. Leave a Comment

We had a four-day weekend – like many Americans – for Thanksgiving. Okay, I did work every day before Thursday, along with Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but I still have some new perspectives on children after this holiday.

◊ My youngest is just exactly like me at that age. Did I drive everyone crazy too? I do love her all-in attitude with everything she does.

◊ Erin wowed her cousins by juggling black olives.

◊ Watching kids spin and sing. Love these babies but sooo glad mine are (mostly) grown.

◊ Daughter thinks I’m “ghetto” because I saved a dinner roll in my purse to eat later.

And…

◊ Do kids EVER learn?? Caught daughter trying to sneak around to hang out with friends. How do they think we won’t figure it out?

Tired of hearing about me? Try this “Is it Fake or Is it Real” picture from Google Street view.

A real woman was in real labor in her real car and pulled over in front of this real house on this real street and gave birth to a real baby which was held up just as the real Google Street View car came by and snapped this photo.

It sounds like something my daughter – who is just like me – would do. the staging-it part, I mean.

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On Sweet Siblings and Grumpy Letters

by Kathy T. Leave a Comment

I have to share a story this sunny day about my niece and nephew. They are two- and one-year(s) old, with Gabriel being the older child. Sometimes the rambunctious Gabriel finds himself in time-out for jumping off the furniture or doing things that little two-year old boys do.

When Gabriel finds himself in the corner, his sweet one-year old sister Aubrie goes with him. She stands next to him and pats his back during the time-out. A gesture of comfort from the toddler. I nearly melted from the sweetness when Grandma told me this.

Also, sometimes writing letters to random people to express outrage is a solid way to work your way through angst. Kat at 3 Bedroom Bungalows has a knack for it,

Dear Bin Men (garbage men, whatever you want to be called),

You were just having a laugh the other day when you dumped my recycle bin and then just casually placed it smack dab in the middle of my driveway weren’t you. You’re lucky I was for once paying attention and didn’t hit it.

Her reader Pants with Names has a few letters herself,

Dear single man driving smart car,

Parking in the mother and child spots at Sainsbury’s (forcing me to park in a normal spot and then struggle to physically get out of the car) makes you an idiot. Choosing to take on the 41 weeks pregnant woman who challenged you as to your choice of parking spot makes you certifiably insane. A word of advice, an overdue woman is always right. It isn’t worth your pain to suggest otherwise.

Hoping you have learnt a good lesson,
Pants

I think I’ll have to write one or two of these tomorrow!

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When Practice Becomes Training

by Kathy T. Leave a Comment

Having been an avid mother of a baton twirler, I completely “get” the concept of when any kind of team practice turns into “training” … it’s when hundreds of dollars have been spent. Or in our case after several years of baton, thousands of dollars. Busy Mom brings up the subject while talking about what to feed the family,

We will, however feed Busy D. an actual meal since he had soccer practice tonight.

I mean “training”.

It seems that after the first several hundred dollars (travel soccer), you have “training” instead of “practice”.

By the way, this is the first Fall in five years that my daughter hasn’t been up to her eyeballs in baton. It’s a wonderful sense of freedom that we are experiencing in our household these days.

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