I have a sock gremlin. Unfortunately, it is not a nice sock gremlin. It is not like Dobby the House Elf, who dutifully takes care of everything in the house. No, the sock gremlin steals socks. And apparently the sock gremlin is a very wet little gremlin because I think he lives in my dryer.
Well little sock gremlin, steal as many socks as you want, because I’ve got a use for those sock orphans. No longer do they get put into drawers waiting for you to steal another sock so they can finally have a mate. No, they get put onto my kids’ hands, and squirted with Pledge . . . and then they dust. Yes, that’s right . . . the kids wear sock orphans on their hands and dust with them. And when they’re finished, they scrub their hands with soap. Wouldn’t want to poison them while making them do chores now, would we!
So take that sock gremlin! You will annoy me no more, because replacing socks is so much cheaper than buying bag after bag of Pledge Wipes!
Whew! We just got Jason’s soccer schedule and I’m relieved that he and Keira don’t have any games at the same time. Also this week, we start our move to earlier evenings . . . which means that Jason has gymnastics at 4:30 and Keira has gymnastics at 5:40. She can’t get in to the 4:30 class until next session, and if we’d waited until then for Jason, he wouldn’t have gotten in to it then because it’s got a long waiting list. Soooo, for the next 5 weeks we get to spend 2 hours at gymnastics every Tuesday night instead of just 1 hour. But it’ll be worth it when we’re finished at 5:30 instead of 6:40 on school nights - and during the winter. Add to that the school schedules since they’re each at different schools now and my new work schedule and soccer practice on Thursday nights and games on Saturdays and we’ve got quite a schedule. I don’t know how parents with more than 2 kids do it . . . really, how do those parents with 3 or more kids do the sports and stuff? We see them at games and practices all the time and they’re doin’ it, but I think I’d be a basket case. Maybe it would help if Dan were home all the time so I didn’t have to do it alone every other week and worry about being in two places at once, but still.
Anyway - to keep track of Dan’s flight schedule, the kids school schedules (days off, tests, events, etc.), doc appointments, sports practices and games, dog vet visits, vacations and travel, volleyball, mommy weekends with the girls, parties, visitors, and anything else we can fit on there, I use the Mom’s Family Calendar. It’s stuck on my fridge and has been there for the past 4 years . . . I get a new one every year for Christmas and LOVE it! You do have to write each family member’s name in their column every month, but that’s easy (some family calendars make you write the name each week - ick!). This is the best family calendar ever! I highly recommend it.
I don’t know about you, but I’m spoiled with organic dairy products - and chicken and beef and vegetables. They just seem to taste better. Maybe they taste better because I feel better about eating them and serving them to my kids. Anyway, we get milk delivered to our door every Tuesday morning. If we ever ran out before the next delivery and I had to go to the grocery store, I dreaded it because the taste of store milk was so “off.” But then I discovered Horizon . . . and we love it! We still get our milk from the milk man, but we now buy Horizon on those few occasions the store calls our name. My kids also LOVE the Horizon yogurt tubes . . . we take them on our picnics all the time - much easier than trying to eat yogurt out of a cup when Mom forgets the spoons!
The whole point of this post is to tell you that 5 minutes for mom is giving away $300 worth of Horizon products! I would SO love to win - what a break on the grocery bill that would be. Check out 5 minutes for mom for details if you want a chance to win.
I decided to go ahead and take the first step toward being a green parent. I was all excited to go around the house and unplug all the necessary electronics that we don’t use very often and plug them in to power strips. I started my journey around the house, ready to unplug and make a list of how many power strips I needed. 15 minutes later, my list was empty and I had unplugged a grand total of 3 items . . . all 3 of them in the spare bedroom. The TV, the alarm clock, and the electric blanket. Apparently, we’re pretty green already as far as that is concerned! The kids each have one alarm clock plugged in in their rooms. All the gazillion things hooked up to our computer are already on a power strip that is turned off. The TV, VCR, DVD player, Receiver in the family room are all on a power strip, which is turned off. The Receiver, speakers, iPod connection thingy upstairs are all on a power strip, that is turned off.
So, that was the easiest green move I’ve had to make! Next up, light bulbs. Counting all those babies will leave me quite a list!
Wednesdays are my day off from work, and while I’d planned to go golfing and get a massage, neither of those things happened. It rained and I had to take my dog to the vet, so I got to cancel both Jodie Day outings. I did, however, get to spend a cool rainy day in the kitchen cooking - cooking enough food to make 6 meals of terriyaki chicken rice bowls! Do you know how much rice you need to cook to make 6 meals for families of 4-5? Do you know how many peppers, carrots, and onions you have to slice and chop? Do you know how many pounds of sugar snap peas you need to buy? Do you know how long it takes to cut up enough chicken breasts to make those meals? After yesterday, I do 
And I’m excited about it! I felt like a lunch lady!
Some friends and I formed a group called Dine In Divas (thank you Oprah!). While this is only our second meal swap, we hope to do this once a quarter. The 7 of us each makes 6 meals that you can freeze. Then, we get together, have some drinks and snacks, pack our coolers full of each other’s food, and VOILA - we each have 6 ready-to-bake meals in our freezer for those days when you don’t want to cook and don’t want to eat out. The first swap was awesome - we got to try a lot of different recipes, like turkey and spinach lasagna, beef enchilada, pizza hoagies, and a variety of casseroles. All the meals were great!
I can’t wait for our swap this weekend, and I’m even more excited to know those meals are down there waiting for me when my hubby, the chef in the house, is gone flying.
What’s your life-made-easier-for-mom event?
One of the many decisions my husband and I made regarding our children early on was that no personal items leave the house with them. No matchbox cars, dolls, stuffed animals, or any other toy leaves the house. Not even mimi (their favorite blanket). This made leaving the house when they were smaller SOOO easy. We grabbed the diaper bag and were gone. No whining about which toy they can bring, crying when said toy got lost at the park, or throwing a fit when mimi got dirty at the mall and had to be washed before bed time. Now that the kids are a little older, it’s great! They never ask to bring anything, and my car is squeaky clean
 What’s your best tip for painless outings with the kids?
Thanks to the best baby advice I ever received, my husband and I have enjoyed uninterrupted sleeping since our kids were very small . . . Jason was 10 weeks when he started sleeping through the night and Keira was 14 weeks. Our kids go to sleep anywhere thanks to our daily routine. That routine consists only of the following:
- Putting on jammies
- Reading a couple books
Reading Reciting Goodnight Moon (who doesn’t know that one by heart!)- Singing their song - You Are My Sunshine (really, what’s cuter than a 2, 3, 4 year old singing You Are My Sunshine!)
No matter what, these 4 things happen every time the kids go to bed - we even did it before naps when they were little (except for the PJs). Anything that happens before this (baths, games, etc.) is just part of the “day.” It’s actually quite amazing. They can be going a gazillion miles per hour through the entire time they put on their pajamas and we read books, but as soon as we do Goodnight Moon, they slow down and just hang out, getting their backs rubbed (or in Jason’s case, his feet tickled). Then they crawl into bed and we sing You Are My Sunshine. Goodnight hugs and kisses, a sleep well and have sweet dreams, and we’re out of their rooms, with lights out (except Jason - he’s allowed to stay up an extra 30 minutes if he reads, which he always does). We’ve been doing this exact same routine from the first day we brought each of them home. And it works EVERYWHERE - Grandma’s house, hotels, even on late airplane flights. I guess I’m figuring it works since both of our kids, who have very different personalities, respond the same way to it.
Moving on to the present, now we’re having a different kind of sleeping through the night issue. Keira (4) has decided to get up at 6:00 a.m. and come in to our room. Jason knows he’s not allowed to come in to our room until 7:00. Keira, however, thinks that if the little hand on her clock is even remotely close to the 7 that means she can come in by us. Um NO! So today I’m off to get her a digital alarm clock - that way she can actually SEE the #7 in the first position on the clock so there won’t be any more early rising. Keep your fingers crossed for me - I need that extra 30 minutes of sleep in the a.m.!
What’s your early rising child tip?
Have you ever heard someone say “There aren’t any manuals for babies!”? I have, and I totally disagree with that statement. With the multitude of books (Girlfriend’s Guide, The Baby Whisperer, What To Expect…), Web sites (babycenter.com), and live classes available, how can anyone say there aren’t manuals for babies? When we got pregnant, our insurance company even sent us a book to help guide us through the first year! I was eager to read every word of every book out there. Even after all those hours of reading and being absolutely positive my husband and I would be the most prepared new parents ever, the best baby advice I ever received came from my sister-in-law.
About a month before our due date, she said “The only unsolicited advice I’ll ever give you about babies is to establish that bedtime routine from day one.” I cannot even begin to tell you how much that advice saved my life! I am a person who needs her sleep - without a good night’s sleep, I’m not so pleasant to be around. Of course signing up for motherhood certainly wasn’t going to help me in that department! But, I took my sister-in-law’s advice and from our very first night home from the hospital, we established a bedtime routine. 6 1/2 years later, we STILL go through the same routine every night with both of our kids.
What’s the best baby advice you’ve ever received?
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