Do you need to “Relax, Renew, and Restore?” I know I certainly do!
As we go through our whirlwind days as Moms we are busier than ever trying to balance it all. We juggle daily tasks inside and outside of our homes, trying to succeed in every task we undertake. Whew! We at Mom Central know that Moms everywhere often just need a breather! (Can a get an Amen from the Moms?) Amidst all of our priorities, however, it’s easy to forget that relaxing isn’t just a privilege — it’s a necessity! MomCentralhas teamed up with Kimberly-Clark in a “Room-A-Day Giveaway” sweepstakes that encourages moms to “Relax, Renew, and Restore.”
The sweepstakes is sponsored by Kimberly-Clark (you know them by products such as Huggies, Kleenex, Pull-ups, all things all of us use…) and Kimberly-Clark products and brands offer solutions to clean, organize and beautify every room in your home. From January 28 to February 15, one person per weekday will be announced on The View and win $25,000 to renovate any room in their house. The final contestant winner will be announced March 21st on the Room-a-Day Giveaway web site.
What are you waiting for? Go here to the Room-A-Day giveaway contest site and enter. Daily.
Who of us doesn’t need a new room make-over? I know I could use one. (Though I am not eligible to enter, I will drool over your win if one of my readers wins AND will expect an invite to come play in your new room!)
Good luck!
— Disclaimer: I turned down any compensation for this contest announcement because I think that my readers deserve to win something so awesome! Yes, for you, my readers, I sacrifice these things!
Cranium Bloom games for the preschool set! Win one!
Thanks to MomCentral, I had the opportunity to review two Cranium Bloom games for ages 3 and up: Let’s Play Count & Cook Game and Let’s Go to the Zoo Seek & Find Puzzle.
My kids are younger than these games are geared towards, but I think that Cranium makes such wonderfully educational toys and wanted to let you know about these great products.
First up we have “Let’s Play Count & Cook Game.” The object of the game is to collect all the ingredients in the recipe. You use a simple board, a dice and a cook– that is your game piece. In this game everyone works together and therefore it creates a game that is very non-competitive. Seeing as this game is geared towards the preschool set, I love that. Having preschooler start a throw down over a game is not my idea of fun!
In this game, the players count their way around the board as they gather food for the recipes in your cookbook. Add your secret ingredients — then pull the tab for something funny to do! It is a great way to introduce young children to the concept of recipes and cooking. (My idea of putting the fun in cooking at a young age sounds wonderful!) Great for counting skills, working together, pretend play, matching items and working on the ever elusive taking turns concept.
The game is set for children age 3 and up. It is geared mainly for preschoolers.
The other game is “Let’s Go to the Zoo Seek & Find Puzzle.” This game works on skills such as Spatial thinking, Counting, Color and letter matching, Fine motor skills and Working together.
Peacocks and polar bears, lemurs and lions. Share in the magic of a day at the zoo with this activity-packed puzzle set.
Piece together the picture. Find the flamingo. Circle something yellow, then hop, hop, hop like a kangaroo.
With sturdy, kid-sized pieces, an erasable pen, and fun activity cards, you’re all set for a new adventure every time you play.
What’s in the box?
Let’s Go to the Zoo Seek & Find Puzzle includes 24 puzzle pieces, 30 cards, and erasable pen.
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These are great games for the preschool set. Are you interested in having one? Just leave me a comment and you can win one. Be sure to let me know which game you are interested in receiving and I will contact the winners. There will be one winner per game. Cranium is well known for their educational toys, so this is a great deal.
Good luck!
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Disclaimer for the powers that be: I did not receive any compensation for this review and am giving the products away.
The onE where I take the quiz and my head explodes!* (Thanks for the catch!)
January 12, 2008
What have I my entire family and I been spending hours doing? Yes, HOURS. Putting in the hard wood floors we have been putting off since before the holidays? Nah. Laying new carpet in the hallways that I was oh-so-eager to finally get? Of course not.
We have been “doing” this “Impossible Quiz” which came from the very depths of the pits of Hades.
I would like to thank Busy Mom for sending me this way seeing as I had nothing better to do and did not follow her advise for my New Year’s Resolution. She owes me a bit of pain. Consider this payment in full, my friend.
Motherhood– The Job Where Success is Doing Less and Your Promotion is Being “Let Go”
January 11, 2008
One of the often muttered phrases by Moms everywhere– because of the deep truth in it– is the phrase “They grow up so fast!” I heard it from my Mom. I was told this by other Moms. And, yes, I have even said the words myself. They do grow up so fast. From newborns to toddlers. From grade school to high school. From high school to college and beyond. Before you know it, the little baby they placed in your arms has become his or her own person. As unique and individual as a fingerprint. Therein lies the joy and bittersweet love of motherhood.
My oldest son is 6′1″ and I now have to stand on my tippy toes to hug him. It is a strange feeling to look up when speaking to your own child. Bewilderment and pride are a common emotional cocktail served up while watching our children grow. My younger son has just reached 5′3″ and I realize it won’t be long before he, too, is taller than I am and I am reaching up to kiss a cheek. Blessedly, my daughter is only 6 years old and I can still curl her up on my lap and plant kisses all over her cheeks. I know that before long she, too, will stretch her wings a bit more and want more independence, but for now, we have a pretty good thing going.
I suppose as the anniversary of my own mother’s death approached, I became a bit melancholy and sentimental. The new year has brought changes both welcome and not as much welcome as necessary. My work on my book and my column have been amazing as some blogging has been slower. Though work has taken up a lot of my time as I race into this new year, my main job–the job that matters the most to me– is being a Mom. And that job evolves, grows and reinvents itself daily. I thought it was just my own circumstances that had me looking at my motherhood job and the daily changes that come with it in such a sentimental way, until I began to look to other Mom Blogs.
At Musings of a Housewife, dcrmom shares with us what it feels like to suddenly realize that this parenting gig can get a bit tough as our children age. Both tough in the reality of their lives as well as tough on Moms emotionally.
But now there’s a “big kid” living in my house. All of the sudden, the baby I nursed and rocked and sang to and potty trained thinks he knows more than his father and I do. And he remembers everything. If I mess this up, he could hold it against me forever.
I am no longer his whole world. These days he often values a laugh out of his friend over an approving smile from me. Sometimes he talks to me like I’m more of a peer than a parent. One moment he is sweet and affectionate, and the next he is sullen and remote.
I still love him more than my own life. I always have and I always will. But he’s not totally mine anymore. He’s becoming his own person.
That one phrase “…not totally mine anymore” really stuck with me. It is when they become their own person with their own wants, friends, jokes and ideas that are completely separate from ours–and at times contrary to ours– that we realize we are entering a new phase in parenting where the map has yet to be drawn… No matter how many books you have read about child rearing.
As I thought about the challenges of mothering, learning as I go as well as learning to let go, I read the words of Anna at the blog The End of Motherhood? as she wrote about one of my most cherished times in mothering. The night-time tuck-in. This is what she has to say about this
particular aspect of parenting.
Throughout his seventeen years and vastly more sleepovers, he has always, always, always been the first to fall asleep. He was lying on his side, his arm bent for a pillow. I had the most powerful urge to gently shake his shoulder, wake him up and tell him he should go sleep in his cozy bed. How many times have I done that before? Had him push himself groggily to standing and, leaning heavily on my shoulder, stagger into the warmth of his bed? But as I leaned down to touch his shoulder, it occurred to me that my 6’ 4” seventeen year old might be a tad embarrassed to be shuffled off to bed by his mother in front of his still partying friends.
And there it was: an opportunity to Mother less.
She goes on to say:
Putting your children to bed it one of the bass notes of mothering.
I thought back on all the routines we have had about bedtime. The baths. The nursing. The books. The songs. The crables. The pulling up of covers. The kissing of cheeks. The leaving the door open just a bit so the light shines in.
And so I realized in the middle watches of the night that putting my children to bed feels like love to me. That is why it was so hard not to do.
Yes! That is exactly why so many of the rituals that they outgrow are harder on us as mothers than they are on our children. To us it feels like love. To not do it? Well, sometimes it just hurts.
Because if I wet my pants laughing, you should, too
January 10, 2008
Okay, I did first see this on Ellen and then proceeded to laugh until I cried. I may have even wet my pants a little. My kids, however, looked at me as if I had lost my mind. Seriously? I mean who doesn’t see the humor in this? They really didn’t think it was funny. (If you don’t, I would ask why, but my bigger question would have to be…are you okay?) However, when I went to YouTube to find it, I realized due to time restraints, Ellen only showed the blue team competing. This shows both teams in this fierce battle to snag the winning marshmallow.
Cannot. Watch. Anymore. I still laugh and cry each time.
Funny? Not funny? Seriously funny.
The tongue guy on the blue team? Chasing the marshmallow? I have no idea what is going on, but adding my own commentary to the action makes it even funnier. But then again, I like to add my own dialogue on Kung Fu movies as well. And especially like doing that on Ninja Warrior. (Here is a sample of the excitement that IS Ninja Warrior.) Why? Because I am easily amused!
There you have it. My dark secret. I add my own verbal subtitles to shows that are not in English. Because I can.
Have you seen the sites You Knit What and You Knit What 2? Crafters? Knitters? People who like to mock others who wear hideous hand made clothes?
Because if you like to mock the hideous, you will love this. Am I crafty? No. Can I even think about knitting anything? Not so much. Did I have a blast mocking these things with the women who write this site? Abso-freakin-lutely!!
This is just a sample of what you will be getting:
Edited to add:
How can I not add this when I have a DoberButt living here in my very own house? Oh, I am SO going to have to knit find someone who knits to make this one for him! And yes…in pink because he needs to be brought down a level or two.
If I hear one more woman say or read one more woman write that we “as women” need to vote for Hillary Clinton because she is a woman and it is about time “to have a woman in office”, I am going to burn my bra and mail it to them. I am just as offended by any woman saying that they would vote for a person based on gender as I am a man saying do not vote for Hillary because she is a woman. Would it be good to have a woman in office? Of course. History making. Will I base a vote on GENDER alone? Hell no!
Is that how we want to vote? Seriously? Then, let’s just take all of the names off of the ballot. We shall vote Penis or NO Penis. (Dangling Chad or No Dangling Chad)
My point, any person– male or female– who would base a vote for the President of the United States based on gender (or race or looks or anything that has nothing to do with issues) really needs to re-evaluate their reasons for voting at all.
I am not Hillary bashing here. I am “Woman Power Hear Me Roar Without Looking at What Issues Are Important To ME but At Gender Alone” bashing. If Hillary stands on the issues where you would like your next president to stand, vote for her. If not, take that damn gender card and throw it out and vote for the candidate that YOU are most aligned with when it comes to ISSUES.
Vote for the issues, people. Not the Penis (or lack thereof). I work with many Democratic, liberal feminists who are very intelligent and well spoken. I have even heard a few of them say they would/should vote for Hillary in order to get a woman into office. I sincerely hope I am missing the part of that where they add….”because I agree with her on her politics.”
I don’t get into politics here on this blog. I don’t want to argue them. I am more angry about the fact that I am hearing intelligent women saying things that shock me. I am not a political blogger or a political expert. In fact, I can honestly tell you that I have no idea exactly whose ring I am throwing my hat into right now. Given a choice and having to make that decision RIGHT THIS INSTANT, I know who I would lean towards, but that is my decision. And guess what? I am basing it on the issues that are important to me. Not on woman power. (Hear me gag.)
I have no idea how to follow a sentence like that.
I was awake and saw the clock flip from 3:05am to 3:06am. The “official” moment she left this world. It was a bizarre feeling. I cried. I smiled at thoughts of her. I wandered the house. Not really wanting to sleep but not really wanting to do anything else either.
I have gone through every emotion and questioned so much since she died. I have tried to figure out how one goes about living life without a mom and what the secret is to actually accomplishing that successfully.
I miss her. I started to ask myself what I would say to her if we could talk. Something tells me she would do most of the talking at first. I know the life I have “lived” the past two years has been…well, disappointing. She always told me she could never, ever be disappointed in me. I believe her. But I have been disappointed in me. It isn’t all bad. I have learned. I have changed. I have grown and I have regressed. I have learned to say no when it is right and yes when I should try something new and scary. I have also learned that sometimes when you take a rough, tough piece of coal and apply an immense amount of pressure, sometimes it just stays coal. Which isn’t all bad. That, too, has purpose.
Last year I had things to say. Thoughts to share. Now, I am in a different place. A place of pondering and re-evaluation. This year, I am sad, introspective and feel lonely. But there was a strange new feeling, too. I felt something almost like freedom. No, that is not right. Not freedom so much as something lifted from my spirit. I suppose you could say it felt similar to getting permission to move forward.
I have lost so much these past two years. But I have gained a lot as well. The feeling I felt was as if I was giving myself permission to live again.
I will always, always….until I draw my own final breath…miss my Mom. She was my best friend. She was amazing. She was funny, full of life and the perfect person to be my mother. We fit. We were exactly what we both had in mind when it came to a mother/daughter relationship. I will not stop missing her. I will never get over the empty feeling that something hugely important in my life is missing. But I will move forward. I will give myself permission to move forward.
Because of who she was and how she raised me, I am taking her with me. In my laughter. In my sense of humor. In my ability to laugh at situations where it may be hard to find any humor. Because sometimes that is what you and everyone around you needs. She is with me. Always with me.
After wandering my home, I checked on the kids as they slept. When I looked in on my daughter, the dam of tears broke free. There is something about your own children that gives you both strength as well as weaknesses. There was my daughter. A little girl who needs me as much as I needed my Mom. A little girl who I want to look at me as I looked at my Mom. To love me in the unique way I love my Mom.
With tears streaming down my face, I crawled onto her bed beside her and drew her into my arms and just held her as she slept. Her sweet little girl breath softly tickling my neck as she lay dreaming.
I felt the complete circle. Mom passing the torch. And somehow– for the first time in two years– something inside me began to feel healing as I took the torch that was passed to me and vow to honor all it stands for.
If your ears bled on Friday, I apologize on behalf of my daughter and her SQUEALS.
January 5, 2008
Last night, my daughter had her first sleep over with her best friend here at our home. I have been used to boys. Loud. Stinky. Rough housing boys. I have been trained to barely look up from what I am doing to bellow out a “Not so rough, boys!” or “Don’t play ball in the house!” (Yes, I do quote Carol Brady from time to time. And you?) I know that they will be loud and rough. Breakables are relocated etc. Food fully stocked, restocked and stashed because boys? They eat. A lot.
But this girl thing? Totally different.
There were movies with boys who “are so cute” and I was asked to “watch us sing and dance.” Performances. My brain could not compute this strange new world. I never had to bellow “Not so rough!” There was not a time where I came into the room and quivered in fear and shuddered over the strange and horrible aroma that permeated the room.
But there is something you moms did not warm me about. (I know. I never told you there would be a sleep over or you might have.)
The SQUEALS. (Totally deserves all caps.)
I know girls squeal. It isn’t like my daughter is growing up in a bubble. She has friends over and they squeal. But at night? When they are tired? They SQUEAL. At one point I am sure there were dogs in Kenya crying over the pitch emitted. Now I understand the constant “request” of my parents to stop squealing. (My ears will stop bleeding soon.)
However, there was another amazing thing about having a girl sleep over. I can play. They want me to actually be there with them. I am not Mooooooom! I am Mom! I loved this strange new world of a girl sleep over. I just wish we had pulled out the clips and nail polish and gone all out.
But I think I am saving that for next time.
This girl thing? So far, not so bad having a daughter. I think I am going to keep her.
