Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Montco Mommy enjoys an anniversary date with her husband ... but sleeping in was the favorite part of their getaway.
It has been half a decade. It doesn’t sound long, but it’s a wide variety of peaks and valleys. This past week, I celebrated my fifth wedding anniversary with my husband. When you have two young children, getting a date in at all is pretty tough. We aspire to get out at least every other week, but that ends up being more like once a month, at best. Between nailing down a babysitter, timing our work schedules and the cost of going out, we seldom take the time to do it. But, relationships take a lot of work. We try to remember, though it isn’t always easy, that time together can be the best way to “work” on it. Thankfully, we have my college-aged sister in town for a few more days, so we took advantage of a free Aunt to get away for an …
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Montco Mommy looks to balance summer activities with her job.
I feel like there are two extreme mommy views on summer. On the one hand, you have moms that are dreading the kids being off. They are worried about childcare costs and schedules. They fret them being home for long (read “boring”) hours, with no set goals, homework or routines. On the other hand, I know moms that have been planning their summers for months. They have each minute excitedly planned out for the full season. They cannot wait for that bus to come on the last day of school, and joyfully anticipate spending warm, quality time with their children. I guess between those extremes somewhere is me. I am glad my son will be home. This was, in first-grade, his first time being out of the house all day long. This September, those six to …
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Help your kids consider their future.
I offer a few extra credit assignments in my undergraduate Introduction to Psychology class, including one that prompts the student to write his or her own obituary. Students react in a variety of ways to this one – horrified, amused, bemused – but it’s a great way to think about your life before it’s too late. (Think Scrooge). I urge the students to be creative and fabricate their tale as well, including their future accomplishments - a bucket list of sorts but without the pressure of imminent death - and to think about those left behind. I want them to get perspective and think about how others will remember them. One of our pastors recently related the story of Alfred Nobel: Alfred Nobel became famous and successful as a chemist. He …
Sunday, April 8, 2012
A little research and planning can save you money on your next family adventure, but be sure to read the fine print.
We finally made it to the Franklin Institute to see the Giant Mysterious Dinosaurs and it was awesome. I just love museums and I love to attend them with my kids and their friends. I still like to learn new stuff. Parents need to stay engaged and open to new experiences. Lots of places like aquariums have cool things to do like wading in and feeding stingrays, or actually touching jellyfish and sea cucumbers. At the Franklin, we went to the roof to check out a sunspot through a giant telescope and learned that sunspots are actually storms on the surface of the sun. Just amazing! Times being what they are, everyone is crunched for money and a family membership to the Franklin costs $120. This includes two parents and up to four children. …
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Our kids can ask some tough questions. We need to walk the line between a good answer and too much information.
As parents we get lots of questions about lots of stuff. If we’re not inundated with homework, our work, phones ringing, dogs barking, dinner cooking, softball practice and doorbells bing-bonging, we can take a moment and come up with the appropriate answers. Sometimes I can get a math problem wrong, but my back-up spouse proofreads and corrects it. We basically have two check points for school work. But I admit that I was unprepared for what my daughter threw at me as we were coming out of school recently. I began with the usual questions – “How was school? Anything new? How was the social studies test?” But I noticed she was ignoring the light banter. She tilted her chin up and I could see the tears welling in her eyes. She didn’t …
Saturday, February 11, 2012
The meaning and importance of Valentine’s Day changes rapidly between elementary school and middle school.
What does Valentine’s Day mean? Seems it all depends on your perspective … and your age. My daughter is in elementary school, so as far as she’s concerned, Valentine’s Day is another opportunity to decorate the house. She loves putting the red heart-shaped doilies in the window and seeing the Valentine’s Day flag go up in front of the house. Another holiday means another party at school, too. There’s the hunt for the perfect cards to give classmates – mission accomplished with a box of Scooby Doo valentines. Then there’s the anticipation of treats and some games in class. All in all, it’s all about fun. For our middle school son, it’s a different story. He has little interest in decorating the house and no school activities are pegged to …
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Don't ask this busy Mommy what's for dinner - she hasn't gotten that far.
It happens every night in this house. They get off the bus, gobble down some after-school snacks, usually play a video game or two. Then the house starts to turn on mom. The inevitable question, by 5 p.m. each night, has reared its ugly head. “Mom, what’s for dinner?” We can start analyzing this problem by saying first off, no. I have no idea how this got to be mom’s problem all alone. Four people and one dog need to eat each and every day. Most of that list knows what they’ll grab for breakfast on the way out the door. Most also have mom pack their lunch. But, that dreaded hour, when the massive question must be answered … No one seems to know what is for dinner. In a working mommy’s house, this question is even harder to answer, since …
Saturday, January 14, 2012
With the craziness of the holidays behind us, it’s time to start planning ahead for summer fun.
Some folks suffer from post-holiday blues, but there isn’t really time for that in our house. January means the beginning of indoor baseball workouts for my son and the start of a new season in my daughter’s youth orchestra. Add that into the normal mix and we hit the new year at full speed. Though winter is staring us in the face, my thoughts are already on June. I can’t wait for the kids to be done with school so we can spend our time hanging out at the pool. We’re hoping this summer will be special, too. We’ve set our sites to getting out west, specifically seeing the Grand Canyon. What we’ve come to understand is that beyond the typical trip planning – flights, hotels, etc. – we need to start coordinating our kids’ schedules. So we’re …
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Too much too soon can apply to dog training … and parenting.
We acquired a puppy this summer after much pleading and prodding from my husband. I have always loved collies - big and fluffy and, well, a real dog. But I was adamant that this eventual 80-pound dog would behave and not endanger any lives or worldly possessions. We hired a bona fide dog trainer and he is worth every penny. With the first lesson finished, I leapt into the ordeal with both feet. Heal. Sit. Down. No! All followed by appropriate praise and tasty treats. Our trainer went on vacation and yet I kept up the pace. When he returned, I was eager to show him our puppy’s progress. The entire family went to the driveway and I went over all that we had continued while our “dog whisperer” was away. Feeling rather zealous, I said, “Watch…
Saturday, December 31, 2011
With Christmas break coming to an end, it’s time to get back into the school groove.
In a few shorts days, the mini summer vacation will be over and our kids will be back in school. The long assault of homework, assignments and work in general will be on for the next six months. While the holidays have been great and totally enjoyable, it is time to get serious about several issues concerning our children and teens. If you are like most parental units, what started as a general lessening of rules just for the break, is now an all-out festival with eating whatever and doing whatever and, well, many have had enough screen time to put most kids into a trance. This coupled with irregular bed times and tons of visiting school chums, well, you can fill in the blank with whatever insanity has reigned supreme in your house. The …
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