No Average Mom

Given the hectic pace of life today, the average American dinner time has turned into much less than what it once was. Many families find themselves eating dinner on the run or everyone ends up eating at a different time. Eating together as a family is such and important thing to make time for. If you can’t always get together for dinner then strive to make eating breakfast together a priority. There are so many quick and easy breakfast recipes out there that take only minutes to prepare and offer the same “home cooked” feel as a having dinner.

If you think you can’t make time to eat together? You might want to rethink your schedule given the following research findings. The number of teens who have regular family dinners drops by 50 percent as their substance abuse risk increases sevenfold, according to a survey of 12 to 17 year olds released by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University. Family meals also help improve school performance. Family dinners foster healthy child development and help children cope with the stresses of life. Eating meals together results in improved nutrition and encourages a healthy lifestyle. These few points alone should provide strong motivation for families to rethink their schedules to make time for each other.

We are just ending our first full week of summer vacation here in this part of the country. I have to say it takes a bit of adaptation for all of us to get used to a different schedule. Unbelievably my oldest has already started to hint that he is “bored”. The child seems to expect that something new and exciting is going to happen everyday that he is home. What he doesn’t seem to realize is just how many activities we have planned for over this summer. Sure, it would be lovely to leave tomorrow for a vacation international points club or other exotic location but that doesn’t mean we aren’t going to have fun. It just isn’t going to happen every single day of the week.

If your child is already wondering how to fill the seemingly endless hours of summertime freedom they are gifted with here are a few ideas for passing the time:

Scavenger Hunt: Make a list of 10 things children might find outside, such as sticks in the shape of a letter, giant leaves, yellow (or any color) flower, (make sure they understand not to pick flowers from someone’s garden), and whatever else you might think of. You might even want to take a walk around the area your children are allowed to be in and make a list based on what you see. Don’t make the list too easy or they will be done in a minute and don’t make it so hard they lose interest.

Treasure Hunt: Hide some type of “treasure” somewhere and write hints on papers to lead to the next clue. Use several clues in different places so they need to read the clue and try to figure out where the next clue might be.

Treasure Map: If you have more than one child, they can each hide a treasure somewhere in the yard and draw a map showing where to go, starting from the door and ending at the treasure. They exchange maps with someone else after they have finished and try to find the treasures.

Make A Bird Feeder: Use a two liter plastic soda bottle. Cut a large hole in the center of the bottle, so that there is a large opening that the birds can use to enter the bottle. Attach a string around the neck of the. Make two small holes below the opening and push a branch through the holes for the birds to perch on. Place bird seed on the floor of the bottle and hang from a tree branch.

This is the 3rd summer in a row that we will spend scraping and painting our house. At this point I truly regret ever having started the job ourselves. It likely would have been much more cost effective to hire someone who could devote 40 hours a week to the job rather than a few hours in the evening here and there. As it stands we have something started on all 4 sides of the house but not one of the side is completed. I would be happy just to get the front porch done and be able to at least rehang my house marker. It would just be nice to have the house look finished from the front. I keep reminding myself of how fortunate I am to own my own home and so many people would be grateful to have a home whether it is painted or not. Maybe just maybe this will be the summer it gets done.

A fellow blogger and his family have experienced every parent’s worst nightmare this week. While I don’t know Dawg personally his love for his dear little “Puppy Monster” radiated in his blog. Take a moment to send this family your thoughts and prayers and if you can help them by donating here. A series of badges has been created in tribute to “Puppy Monster” and Dawg by Amy of Amy’s Musings considering getting one of these badges to help this family… Dawg is an EMT and has dedicated his life to helping others. This is a chance to give back to a family in need.

One country my husband and I have always wanted to visit is Australia. For quite some we have been saving in hopes of making this dream a reality. It looks like we may be able to visit sooner rather than later because I just discovered incredible accommodation options that make visiting Melbourne much more affordable than I had anticipated. In the process of searching for “Accomodation in Melbourne” I discovered a service that allows you to book accommodations at 25,000 properties worldwide at savings that are far superior to what hotels charge. Not only can you book accommodations well in advance of a vacation you can also book last minute stays at your choice of hotels, hostels, and apartments. Maybe we will see Australia for our 17th anniversary instead of our 20th thanks to www.cheaperthanhotels.com!

When you know something about a friend that they didn’t tell you?

Let’s take it one step further and say that this “something” is a crisis they are currently experiencing but are ashamed for anyone else to know about? You want to help but if you stepped forward and asked if they needed something it would be obvious you were privy to their personal dilemma.

Do you sit back and do nothing knowing that they will quietly face this situation on their own?

What if your friend was staying in a situation that they absolutely should be thinking twice about?

So many questions to ponder….

Today was my son’s last day of school for the 2006-2007 school year. Silly as it is they have to go in tomorrow for a half an hour to pick up their report cards. That is just long enough for me to drop him off and drive to Tim Horton’s for a large double double and back be back to pick him up. Just a few hours into his vacation he has already started to plan the entire summer out. What he forgets is all of the activities he is already enrolled in like Audubon and basketball camp. Then there is our week long camping trip, vacation bible school, a trip to his great grandma’s, Sunday afternoons at the zoo, playing with the neighborhood children, and swimming at his uncle’s pool. Despite having a list and a calender mapping out of these activities today he came up to me and asked if he could go to a game design school. Where this idea came from I really don’t know. Considering all the games he like to make up this really wouldn’t be a bad idea if something existed like this for children.

Among the many things I love about my son is that he sees his summer free time as a chance to learn. I feel lucky to have a child who instead of dinging to go to the playground wants one of our first unscheduled activities to be a visit to the library to get books on saving our environment. In fact he his sitting here right now asking me to buy him a website of his own and wants to call it something along the lines of “One kid against pollution”. Mighty ambitious for a would be 2nd grader don’t you think?

For the most part I am a very prepared person but there are a few things that I (we) just keep putting off. First on the list is having a will prepared. For some reason I just can’t seem to narrow down who should raise our children in the event we are not able to do so. There are a few strong contenders on my list but the reality is that I can’t decide. It is kind of like buying child life insurance. In both cases you are considering someone else’s mortality and that is just so difficult to do. We also really need to up the limits on our life insurance policies considering that we now have one more child to consider financially. I guess we just need to sit down and get it all done in one swoop so I can stop worrying about it.