My parenting inspiration resource

My sweet, caring, hubby noted that I am more objective, loving and kind in rearing my four children on a daily basis when I have outside inspiration. An article from a magazine or a particularly great quote from a book can change my perspective. Even just taking the time to write down my own thoughts and reason through a situation can be therapeutic. Blogging can be that for me sometimes.
In this spirit of helpful therapy, he suggested I keep a file or book of things that inspire me by the bed to read before going to sleep. Reading before bed is my favorite time. My brain seems calm and collected enough at that time of day to really think and receive answers. So, I am putting together a binder with articles like this one or this one and things I have printed out from my blog such as this, this, or this.
Life is a whirlwind and I find myself just trying to hang on and cope, rather than taking control of situations and dealing with them calmly and rationally. I know this won't prevent kids from tracking mud through the house, vomiting on me and everything else, or 6:30 pm rolling around without a clue as to what is for dinner, but maybe it will help me change how I react to it all! I hope this Works for Me!

Some beautiful music

My friend Denae did a musical review on her blog. I went over to Sherrie Shepherd's blog to hear the music that could calm my savage beasties on a Sunday afternoon. I actually think this might do it, maybe, once in a while. It is beautiful and if it doesn't calm my little savage beasties maybe it might calm the Mommy savage beast. :) It was so beautiful I put the sample play list on my side bar. It doesn't hurt that she is having a contest and I would love to win one of her CD's. Scroll down and give it a listen!

San Francisco

It was amazing, beautiful, thought provoking, and altogether wonderful! I cannot express how much I enjoyed this play! The vocals were impressive, so powerful. The story line was expertly written and it's depth surprising. The special effects were fun and amazing.










We rode the trolley to Fisherman's wharf. It was fun to see how the trollies went up and down those hills!









Here we are we are standing on the wharf with the bridge in the background. We ate some incredible clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl and some even better fried shrimp for lunch. Yummm!

We went to the aquarium and enjoyed walking through the underwater tubes to see all the marine life that can be found in the bay and further our in the deeper ocean. Then we were able to go to the touch tanks and touch small sharks, sea urchins, sting rays, starfish, and sea cucumbers.






Paul trying to be mates with the pirates!




After a fun filled day at Fisherman's Wharf, we went to a Chinese restaurant on Polk Street called Tai Chi's. It was a hole in the wall! I'm not kidding, there were literally holes in the walls! As we entered, we saw that they were sorting green beans on one of the tables out front. Paul pointed out that at least we knew they used fresh, good produce. Then came the food! We started with Spring Rolls and they were amazing! Then for a main dish we had beef with asparagus in black bean sauce. If you don't know how I feel about black beans, then you don't know me very well! The beef was so tender, the asparagus fresh and yummy, and the sauce to die for! I also loved that they gave the option of brown rice as well as white. It was enough to share, relatively inexpensive, and probably the best Chinese food I have had! We will be going back!!


We came home from San Francisco feeling ready to tackle our next challenge (more on that later) and very grateful for where we live. Once again, we have been proven Suburbians. Neither of us enjoy the fast city life. We enjoy our yard, friendly neighbors, clean streets, and driving our own cars. Let's just say we do NOT enjoy public transportation in a large city. I could go into detail but I won't. I want to savor the memories of a wonderful vacation with the man by which I am still smitten after more than 12 years.


I am a big believer in the need to get away as a couple for two reasons. The first and foremost being to keep your friendship alive and make sure that you still know the person you are married to. You know, behind the parent, job, calling, etc. The second reason being that I need to miss my kids every once in a while! Whenever I come home from being away from our kids, I find more patience, perspective and joy in the people they are becoming. Sometimes it is easy to get bogged down in the day to day problem solving and rush to keep my head above water. It is easy to miss my kids growing up before my eyes.

So, go plan a get away time. It can be as simple as a cheap motel down the street and a Redbox video. Just reconnect every once in a while! I do recommend getting away from the house with it's endless list of chores whispering in your ear while you sleep, and the "just gotta get this dones".

WFMW - preparing to leave the kids

I am posting my Works for Me Wednesday tip today because Paul and I are leaving on vacation tomorrow. It is so true that when leaving the kids, it requires 48 hours of preparation for every 24 hours you will be gone.
What works for me today is the way I get things together to leave the kids home. The best thing I have done is to write up the kids' schedules, meals, routines, allergies and other various and sundry instructions on the computer. That way, I can go into the document and just tweak it each time we leave.
Now, I don't have to write down our bedtime routine every time. Nor do I have to rewrite the warnings. For example, the last time we left, Paul's nephew babysat for us and found it hilarious that they would try everything on my list, including the slumber party in the family room on a school night!
I also have menu ideas and a virtual shopping list as I list options for meal preparation. I leave a list of things they can make that are in the house rather than dictate specific meals. That way, the wonderful people who agree to care for our 4 monkeys can choose meals as simple or complicated as they feel comfortable with and food that they like.
Finally, I print up a separate emergency sheet that has phone numbers, a signed note from me giving the holder permission to seek medical care for the children in case we cannot be reached, and insurance cards photocopied on the back, just in case!
This may be a simple thing that everyone else has already figured out but it works for me. I would love to hear any other ideas that work for you to simplify leaving your kids.
Be sure to check out what works for others here!

BTW, I have to say how excited I am! We did not celebrate our anniversary in Dec. or Valentine's Day, so we are going to San Francisco to see Wicked! We haven't seen it and I am positively giddy! Time to do laundry, tweak my list, grocery shop, pick up the lizard, shovel the snow......

Wanda Witch Party

We had a great time last night. Last year I found party plans for a Halloween "amazing race" type party. I wanted to do it last year but had our little Jenna on Oct 9th, so we did it this year. I recruited my friend Dahlene and we began planning, remaining anonymous. Everyone wore costumes to earn extra points. So, there were a whole bunch of crazy costumed adults sprinting through town last night. We started at the church with cauldrons for each team and the clues led them to other locations from there. Each team had to find their colored "brew ingredient" at each location:

• find a hollow pumpkin in a large pumpkin patch, clue inside
• guess the movie the American Film Institute voted the scariest at a local video store to receive a skeleton
• pull Ziplocs containing a toad, glow sticks, and of course a clue, out of a pond
• find spiders hanging from a bridge on a walking trail
• find a tree trunk that looks like an owl to get eyeballs
• follow ribbons in a riverbed to find snakes in the grass

The final clue was a map without street names and only a house number that led to the "Grand Witches Council" at Dahlene's house where we tallied points, ate homemade chili, hot chocolate, cider, and homemade rootbeer around a bonfire. Then we announced ourselves as the witches and awarded the golden broomsticks to the couples of the winning team.

We had so much fun watching our team, and others in passing, deciphering clues, working through frustration, trying to guess the hosts, and really having fun. They have already tried to recruit someone else to plan the party for next year! I loved planning this party and really would recommend it to anyone interested! Here is the link: http://www.meckmom.com/2007/09/06/wanda-witch-the-ultimate-halloween-party/

She also has some other great things on her site, so be sure to browse around. If there is anyone in the Kaysville area who is interested, I would be glad to share our clues and details about what we did.

My only regret is that I forgot my camera, of course!