All posts by Kirsetin
Good-bye, good friend
There’s a blog out there, and I’ll be darned if I can remember which one it is—I looked, I promise—that uses something like “changing my header is cheaper than therapy” for it’s tag line. (If you know which blog this is, would you please post it in the comments? Then I’ll add a link!) Whenever I read her blog, I think, “What a clever subtitle,” but now that I’ve actually changed my header, I beg to disagree. Well, cheaper, maybe, but easier? Arrghh. For those of you out there, and there are loads of you, I know, for whom this whole HTML thing is a breeze, well, I bow down, because I have pulled out many, many a hair just trying to do S-I-M-P-L-E things. I find it beyond frustrating. This is one of the reasons I use Blogger—more time writing, less time figuring all this tech stuff out. It’s also the reason I don’t have a lot of cool buttons—because by the time I got them all up, I’d be bald.
At any rate, if you’ve been around for awhile, you know that the former header was a photo of me with my kids, and my friend, Barbie, with her kids.
This blog began as a joint collaboration, with both of us doing postings and updating recipes, quotes, etc. on the side. As time went on, it worked out that I wrote the posts and Barbie did the other updates, as well as providing some very cute Wordless Wednesday photos and Hip Mom Interviews. Barbie and I are also collaborating on a book about homeschooling and we decided that it makes more sense for us to spend our joint time working on the book than the blog. (Who knew a blog would consume so much time?!) So now you’ll just find me here.
Barbie will be busy homeschooling her youngest and developing more of the book. But you can see her again, take heart. Just begin praying that a publisher picks up our book and when that happens, she’ll be in there, too.
I’ve had a great time working on the blog with her and will certainly miss her input. Thank you for everything you’ve done, Barbie! And, if you’re a fan of the recipes and quotes she updated, well, sorry, I must admit that’s not my forte. But I’m going to point you over to Kitchen Playground, because she posts great recipes, and is so far beyond where I will ever be in the food preparation area that I’m sure you’d much rather see what’s cooking in her kitchen than mine. As for quotes, you’re on your own. Google, I guess. I’ll leave you with one of my favorites, for old times’ sake:
“As water reflects a face, so a man’s heart reflects the man.”
-Proverbs 27:19
Taming Morning Chaos With Kids: Mission Impossible?
Over at Midwest Parents today, Heather asked the question: how do you tame the morning chaos? Her kids are six, four, and brand-spankin’ new—so I’m going to roll back the tape a few years and you’ll all know how anal I really am.
Step 1: Buy a big bright posterboard. Pretend this is a fun project, because kids love it and you need it. On a separate piece of paper, make a list of all of the things your kids can do themselves in the morning, before they come down for breakfast. Ideas: put on clothes, brush teeth, make bed, put away books, turn off the light (please!). Get out your parenting magazines and have your child clip away. Find pictures to represent the “Good-Morning Jobs” and paste them onto the posterboard, with the name of each job printed just beneath. Hang this in their room(s) so they can take a look each morning and start the day off right. See how you can breathe a little easier already?
Step 2: Buy plastic containers to store cereal, that kids can pour themselves without having the entire box dumped on the table. Buy a small pitcher for the fridge and fill it about halfway with milk, again, so they can pour it themselves. My kids were 3 ½ and 5 when I started this, and they did just fine. I was desperate—trying to nurse my baby, and get the other two ready for school. This one little change saved our mornings.
Step 3: When you tuck the kids into bed, do not turn on Wife Swap, peek into Twitter, or see what Land’s End has on sale this week. Do whatever you can to prep for the morning: if you can live with it, let your kids choose their own outfit and take this one right off your own plate; pre-set the breakfast dishes; make sure the cereal & milk pitchers are ready to go; backpacks and shoes—can you find them? If so, choose your poison: twitter away, find out who’s swapping this week, or buy that sweater. If not, find them. You’ll thank yourself in the morning.
Step 4: Please note: I am a total hypocrite to suggest this one, as I have never quite mastered it: get up and take a shower before the kids need to be awake. (If they’re up but don’t need to be, let them play quietly for a few minutes while you jump start your day.) The days I do manage this, things go much more smoothly. I think the hot water melts that mean, grumpy feeling I get the second my alarm goes off. And as for the rest of the days, well, ask my friends Janet and Sharee’; I walked with them this morning–no shower first, still quite grumpy.
And on a final, completely unrelated note, I want to point you to mamabirddiaries, who kindly mentioned me last week, was quoted in an ABC News article about Sarah Palin earlier this week, and is one of the most amusing bloggers around. Enjoy!