Category — For Moms

The other day we received an unanticipated package. “A package!” both girls yelled, as their Psychic Possible Gift Perception kicked in. The return address was my mom, so the girls  clustered like cats around tuna while I gestured for space with my scissors. Dangerous but effective.

Look!

New scarves for me, M, and J! Yippee! Nothing like what my mom calls a “happy present!”

And here’s the cutest part:

I mean, come on. How cute is that? “Nanahoney” is her grandmother name because she was planning for “Nana” but the first grandchild was confused because my Dad always refers to her as “Honey.”

Everyone was quite excited and in fact I couldn’t post about the scarves right away because J wore hers to sleep and I couldn’t get a photo.

As for the more painful side of clothes, it’s laundry. Sigh.

You know, summer means wet bathing suits and towels, but with the clothesline, the whole family is pretty well trained. And then the cool weather (and travel soccer) comes around and my hamper is full constantly. And it’s full of things like:

• Pairs of jeans that have been worn for only minutes before a wardrobe change
• Footy pajamas that are pristine and smell pleasantly of fabric softener
• Shin guards
• As many as 6 sweaters at a time

Alright, so I walked right into the shin guard thing. Recently I discovered that with a baking soda scrub-down followed by a wash in the delicate cycle, even the most repugnant fumes can be squelched. But now M wants this treatment after each game or practice, and even if I were up for that, shin guards aren’t designed for consistent washer abuse.

I have asked nicely, explained, reminded, and nagged. So I got a bit of a bee in my bonnet.

Usually these bees result in slightly overwrought essays. But this required something different: a flow chart. I found a free flowchart web site and set to work.

It occurred to me, sometime while I was trying to line up my arrows, that I might not be the only person who suffers from Laundry Challenges. So I made it generic enough to share, and TA, DA! It’s a Laundry Flowchart! (I couldn’t get it to show up on this post, but you can click to a pdf file. Update: Deb from Kids Out and About helped me, so now it’s below–click for a close-up. Thanks, Deb!) It is not aesthetically perfect, but it does get the point across.

J loves the flowchart. She asked me to read it to her and explain exactly how it works. She appreciates it.

I taped it just outside the girls’ rooms.

M hates the flowchart. She thinks it’s humiliating and it’s treating her like a baby and she knows what to do with all of her laundry (a “dammit” is unspoken, but implied, here).

In protest, M turned the flowchart backwards, facing the wall.

I fixed it, conceded that she would be permitted to turn it around during play dates, and explained that the one surefire way of getting rid of the flowchart was to demonstrate her vast laundry knowledge on a daily basis with appropriate disposal of the various items.  Her pair of pajamas lounging on the hall floor was offered as Exhibit A, and the discussion was closed.

First, I always feel bad for people who have the same name as a disaster. That’s no fun. So if anyone’s in the mood for shopping for stylish, handmade, mostly-silver jewelry, check out my friend Irene’s Etsy site, Irene C Studio.

So, how’s everybody holding up? Do you have power? Is your house dry? Trees mostly still standing?

We were fortunate to continue our disaster tradition, which, you may recall, is:

Nothing that’s seriously threatened life and limb for us (knock on wood), but a couple were serious enough for a bit of adventure.

Yep, that about covers it. We lost power just after Cute W had mixed up a big batch of waffle batter but, alas, before he’d heated the waffle iron. The power was off for several hours, and with no back-up for the sump pump, things started looking ugly down in the basement, which has a large finished room as a playroom and some unfinished storage. Pretty soon we were dragging storage items into the middle of the already-messy playroom.

The girls enjoyed this. For example, they had fun pretending that they were skiing on large wooden blocks:

Still the water kept rising, and we remarked ruefully that we only needed about ten minutes of power for the sump pump to catch up.  We were just about to make an early lunch of burgers before the meat started getting too warm when the power came on. Oh, joy! The sump pump hummed along while we quickly made waffles and whipped cream for lunch.

The girls loved the waffles, but they were confused. They were ready for burgers. No, we explained, you had waffles for lunch. But, they protested, waffles aren’t lunch. They’re breakfast. This conversation went on for way too long. I started getting huffy. “Listen, girls. This is not a normal day. Let’s not get all caught up in labeling what’s lunch and what’s dinner. We might not have lunch at lunchtime or a normal dinner or any of those things, but you are very fortunate, because if you are hungry, you will eat. We have plenty of food, we just have to prioritize a little here.”

Almost as soon as the waffles were finished, the power was out again. Somehow, having the power go on and off really helped us out. Every time things got a bit monotonous, there was a switch up. When the power went out for the second time, M cheerfully advised J: ” Just think, what would Mary & Laura do?” I couldn’t help thinking that Mary & Laura would be sewing clothing for their corn cob dolls out of quilting scraps instead playing with 8 different Polly Pocket dolls, but I still appreciated the sentiment.

We actually had a pretty productive day cleaning and organizing around the house. All the stuff that you don’t bother doing when you can, oh, I don’t know, leave the house, work on your computer, or watch tv. M even cleaned her room and J did some homework.

Anyway, the second power outage was hours-long, too. With everything saturated, the water in the basement inched up over the concrete floor even quicker, and it was just lapping at the edges of our playroom carpet when we were saved again. Hooray! Seriously, we had excellent timing. By late afternoon, beyond little flickers, we were powered up and drying out.

Over dinner (those burgers), Cute W said, “So, what did you girls think of Hurricane Irene?” M answered, “Well, it didn’t really come, did it?” Uhhhh, hello? Did you miss the lack of power? The random sirens? Your dad carrying buckets full of water out of the basement? I guess so.

Oh! And the funniest part! Another piece of conversation at dinner:

J: “So, if the power goes out again, will it get cold tonight?”
Me: “No, it’s still August. It might get a bit chilly, but it won’t get really cold.”
[There's a pause, and both girls look disappointed.]
Me: “Wait a minute. Were you thinking that if the power went out again we might all have to sleep in the living room like the time when there was the ice storm?”
[Both girls grin.]
J: “That would be so cool!“

So, we were unscathed. I hope that all of you were, too.We’d just spent Friday night in Vermont visiting family, and things are really bad there, with businesses flooded and roads and bridges washed out or impassable.

Schenectady isn’t looking good. I’m sure that most of you saw this photo of Jumpin’ Jacks, but if you didn’t, it’s pretty appalling. Those 4 circles between Route 5 and the buildings are the roof-canopy things that provide shade for the tables. There are actually several more (you can see them in photos on the Jumpin’ Jacks site) that are completely submerged. And the big watery space between the tennis courts and the circle of trees is the playground. To compare, you can type “Western Gateway Bridge, Scotia, NY” into Googlemaps satellite and zoom in.

If anyone knows of folks who are trying to gather volunteers to help with clean-up, I’d love to hear about it and spread the word.

Here’s a guest post from Louise. Thanks so much, Louise!

It seems like couponing is all the craze at the moment. I am by no means
experienced in this area. Originally from the UK we ‘don’t do coupons’, so
it’s a novelty to me. I’ve been watching the TLC series Extreme Couponing
and am amazed at the savings people achieve. But is it really possible to
achieve those savings in the Capital District and is it fun?

My husband and 2 year old toddler would definitely say it is not fun. My
husband witnessed me poring over the Sunday inserts for most of the day,
unable to comprehend my new hobby. He sits firmly on the side of it being a
waste of time and I’m not really saving money. My toddler thinks the best
bit is stealing the coupons I’ve cut out as a game of chase follows as I
try to retrieve the paper coupon, now mangled from his hand wondering if
the store will still accept it or whether they accept ones you’ve had to
tape together?

I’ve only seriously been doing it for 2-3 weeks. Last week I found more
information on the internet about how to do it from various blogs which
help you reduce your OOP (Out of pocket expenses- there’s a whole couponing abbreviation dictionary it seems). One of my favorites is Coupon Mom –it’s free but you have to create an account to access the information.
There is a lot of advertising on the site, which looks a little
overwhelming at first but it means you don’t have to pay for the site. It’s
not upstate NY specific so sometimes not all deals listed are available
here in New York. There’s also Savings4Mom, which is a blog written by someone in upstate NY and has all sorts of coupon tips, money saving offers, and even Facebook giveaways.

So far I have had the most success at the drugstores rather than the grocery store- which is disappointing as I spend most of my money at the grocery store- but then you don’t ever see coupons for fresh fruit or vegetables.

Who knows how long my latest hobby will last. My husband discovering the 9
tubes of toothpaste in the bathroom cupboard might have a bearing on that!

Thanks so much to those of you who were kind enough to comment or share the link on Facebook for yesterday’s post.

On the topic of romance, a reader asked (aka, ARA) Kristi Gustafson for ideas for a “date night” on her On the Edge blog, so I thought some of you might be interested in the responses.

On the Edge also had another ARA post looking for things to do for teens during the summer.

And on the very same day, they were also wondering about things to do with teens on All Over Albany.

Which reminds me,  I wrote a post about the Niskayuna Co-op and the ShopRite at All Over Albany last week.

That’s it: I’m slacking off tonight!

Those oh-so-helpful folks at All Over Albany shared that a bunch of videos are available from the recent TEDxAlbany event. I’m excited to check these local ones out, because I love me some TED Talks.

Speaking of things I love, I also love Girl Power Books, so I was excited when Lisa Belkin over at Motherlode kicked off what she calls “the start of a list of books for young girls that turn more than a few stereotypes on their heads while remaining fun reads.” Lucky for us, plenty of folks continued the list in the comments. I’m going to have to take notes for my next trip to the library.

Finally, tonight we were walking around downtown Schenectady and there were folks from the new Paul Mitchell school were creating a nutty-artistic hairdo in honor of Art Night. I’m still regretting that I didn’t pull out the camera and get a picture for the blog. Anyway, if anyone’s feeling adventurous, you can get super-cheap services (like $10 for a manicure or $12 for a hair cut) by students there. I’d be interested to see how it goes.

Have I mentioned that I’m sort of phobic about getting my hair cut? Well, that’s not the right word. I guess I just don’t really love staring at my wet-headed self in a big mirror while wearing a gigantic hairdresser’s smock in unflattering lighting while making polite chitchat with a near-stranger. Each new person “discovers” the single wave in my otherwise straight hair and announces it to me with the fervor of Ponce de Leon announcing that the fountain of youth is right there! Which gets old. Plus I always feel like the person doing my hair is disappointed in my lack of devotion to the care and upkeep of my hair. Which, of course, is silly. It’s not like it’s my job or anything, right?

Wow!  I took a walking tour of the neighborhood around Upper Union Street, Schenectady, this afternoon.  There are a ton of new businesses that have opened there recently, so I thought that I’d check them out and report.

Okay, I don’t know if you’ve already heard, but my entire moms’ group has been talking about the new kids’ consignment shop on Baker Avenue, Trendy Tots. In fact, while I was there I ran into a friend who’d recently consigned clothing there.  The buzz–great clothes, very cheap–was true.

Of course, their best selection is in the teensy-weensy kids’ section, but there were lots of items that I found tempting for my bigger girls, too.  But they’re so opinionated that I’m just going to have to come back with them later.  In the meantime, could you please do me a favor and keep your hands off that tan jacket at the end of the higher rack?  Because it really looks like M’s style.

Also excellent?  It’s lovely inside, so you don’t feel like you’re at, you know, a garage sale when you’re shopping there.  All tidy and clean and pretty, so that the jeans look exactly like at the mall, except that they’re 3 or 4 dollars.  Woo, hoo!   [update:  Natalie's offering readers 5% off their total purchase if you mention that you heard about Trendy Tots on Capital District Fun!  Thanks, Natalie!]

I was pleasantly surprised by how nicely decorated it was, and then I went just around the corner to visit Vintage Chic Furniture, which recently moved to Schenectady from Troy.

Okay, really gorgeous inside.  So much so that I took way too many pictures, which I will share now.

There are tons of pieces of furniture that Donna has refurbished as well as all sorts of adorable pieces and other great stuff, like the old-fashioned chenille bedspreads (hanging on the rack in the picture below):

Besides all the stuff, did you notice how pretty the walls are?  They’re painted by Michele of Designs by Michele.

So, my little sister is still waiting to go into labor with her first baby.  If it’s a girl, I am so reporting back here immediately.

Then I  walked along Union Street to  Divinitea, which makes and sells premium certified organic loose leaf teas.  You may have seen them at a farmers’ market near you.  I was just checking out their beautiful website,  thinking, wow, I can contribute to world peace through delightful self-indulgence?  Yes, please:  sign me up!  Anyway, as Linda shows below, they have a tremendous variety of teas:

Many of the tears are made with healing plants, such as blends that are good for folks who have asthma or PMS or just need a little immune-system boost with a big, warm cup o’ antioxidants.  They don’t use any nuts, and they can work around most food sensitivities.

Linda’s  super-passionate about tea, and she loves to teach adults and older children about growing plants, cooking, and making teas.  She says that she’s done tea parties, 4H programs, and visited schools, and if you visit, she’s likely to give you a nice smelling tour of some favorites.   If you’re looking to learn more or to introduce tea to your family, there’s plenty of information as well as tea varieties that kids particularly enjoy.

I’m warning you, now, though:  there are some serious breakables in here (like the case above–yikes!).  If I were you, I’d only bring someone in under, say, 8, if they’re in a sling or strapped into a stroller.  Linda admits that she can get a little tense when a preschooler is examining the merchandise.  Which, of course, would make you tense.  I’d just skip it and leave the kids on the porch or find something else for them to do.

Like, for example, the Candyland Activity & Enrichment Center on Woodland Avenue.

Maya, who used to run the Curves that was there, will be starting up winter session classes for kids ages 1 to 6 soon.  Classes will emphasize fun with learning through music, art, and activities snuck in.  The very youngest class includes parent participation, but that ends as early as the Sugarplums group, which will be made up of 2- and 3-year-olds.  Fees are $110 for an eight-week session.  She’ll also host  birthday parties.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Maya’s continuing the fitness regime with a Fit Teen program designed for ages 9- to 18-year-olds who would like to do some strength training and learn about wellness after school.

Finally, there’s a new restaurant in town, Rubbin Butts BBQ, also on Union Street.  I only have an exterior picture because by the time I made it to Rubbin Butts it was lunchtime, and it was busy enough that I couldn’t take a picture without getting some stranger in the shot.  And most of them were looking a teensy bit sloppy!  The food smelled excellent, though, so I think that this will have to be our family’s next take-out venture.  When it comes to BBQ, I like to order with a group so I get a chance to sample all the side dishes.

There’s a lot more going on, too.  The Head-to-Tail Pet Wellness Center is expanding,  Firefly Florist (which used to be on Consaul Road)  is moving onto Union, and it looks likely that there’s more popping up that I didn’t get a chance to see today.  Anybody have additional scoop on Union Street to share?

My little sister and her husband are due to become parents sometime this month, so it’s been baby shower season in our family.  Which always reminds me of our very favorite shower gift ever:  a set of blocks that another sister made for us.  Look:

In the front stacks, the block to the left is a baby picture of cute W, and the block to the right is me with my (now pregnant) little sister.  The background blocks are my parents as youngsters.  It’s a bunch of blocks with all sorts of photographs of the baby’s family, mostly baby pictures, too. Right? Isn’t it a good idea? And unbelievably, super-thoughtful?  I have some excellent sisters, I tell ya.   My sister is a super-crafty artist, so she painted the cute little ice cream cone and kite and lollipop and queen and all.  But theoretically, someone who’s just somewhat crafty and super-ambitious could do a similar project, maybe using stencils and decoupaging pictures instead.

Or, if you weren’t super-ambitious, wouldn’t you want to buy something like it?  I’ve been bugging her to try to sell something on etsy or something like that.  I nagged her again when a blogger posted about another personalized block selling for $68.  Jeepers, based on that I think that she could ask for a great deal of money.  Although I’m not a shopper and I’m cheap, I can’t judge too well on this one.

We’ve been pretty busy just getting the basic routine down around here.  J’s been lobbying hard to pull out the Halloween decorations, but I generally try to resist until October.  The official household rule is that I don’t pull out exciting holiday decorations until the entire house is beautifully clean.   It’s an excellent motivator.  When we were outside the other day, J saw leaves falling and argued that if there was an enormous pile of autumn leaves on our front lawn before the house became beautifully clean, we should take out the Halloween stuff.  I readily agreed, although I was saddened to hear that she thought it would take weeks and weeks before our house was clean.  I mean, seriously:  it’s not that bad.

Anyway, speaking of cleaning, when I’m doing something extraordinarily lame, like washing the kitchen floor or cleaning the bathroom or driving for a long time, I like to listen to stories.   So I’m sharing my favorite story sources.

This American Life is a public radio show that usually tells a few different stories all centered around a theme, like Summer Camp or Ruining it for the Rest of Us or Poultry Slam.  The stories might be family dramas or peculiar social experiments or stand-up comedy, but they’re generally good.  I’ve mentioned this before, from the “live” blogging car trip adventure.

Radiolab is another public radio that has a similar premise, except that all of the stories are related to science.  The other day I was listening to the Oops show on the radio while doing errands, and I had to sit in the grocery store parking lot to listen to the end of one of the stories.

The Moth is a storytelling organization.  You can listen to stories directly off their website or subscribe to their podcast for a weekly story.

The only bummer, for all of these, is that many are not appropriate for kids for a variety of reasons.  So I usually just gather up podcasts and listen to them with headphones either when I’m alone or when the kids are off playing elsewhere in the house.

Anyone have any other good sites to recommend?

For those of you who’ve been wondering how our weekend was, I’ll update you with my first-ever blog post chock full of triumph. 

Triumph #1:  The ice cream cake turned out pretty well. 

M's "Pool" Birthday Cake

It was touch and go for a bit when I lost track of time and whipped the cream too much.  This, coupled with my fear of over-coloring led to some gloppy, murky pool water.  Luckily I had extra cream, so I made another batch and just threw it on top.  Because, really, was anyone going to complain that there was too much whipped cream? 

Polly Pocket fits cozily into a gummy Lifesaver.

Of course, at the very end, the girls wanted to spread the whipped cream and place all of the little props themselves, which didn’t go along with My Cake Vision.  But I did an excellent job of restraining myself.  We had tremendously beautiful weather and the girls had a good time.  I was afraid that they’d get sick of slipping, sliding, and spraying each other with water, but they didn’t.  I could barely get them to stop long enough to eat cake. 

Triumph #2:  I ran the entire way through my 5k. 

It was quite warm, and I’d been very nervous because I’d hurt my calf a week earlier, so I’d only run once in the week prior to the race.  Plus, I’ve been stopping to walk at about 2.7 or 2.8 miles pretty consistently, except on my extra-awesome days.  So I ran very, very slowly, because I did not want to stop or walk at all.  I made it.  Yay, me!  I basked in my success for about five minutes, and then by the time I’d located the bananas I started feeling irritated with myself that I hadn’t run the whole thing faster.  No, I’m not going to tell you my time–it was slow.  And yes, I realize that I should just be pleased.  I’m trying. 

Triumph #3:  I have almost 500 fans–oops, I mean people who “like” capitaldistrictfun–on Facebook! 

I’m at 496, and this tends to go in little spurts. . . I’ll go weeks with very little change at all, or, even worse, I “lose” somebody, which is surprisingly depressing.  And it leads to all sorts of hand-wringing and teeth gnashing.  So I try not to look.  But then, when a couple of people join, of course, it’s contagious.  And I get to feel triumphant.  Woo, hoo!  Which reminds me, if you’re on Facebook and haven’t “liked” me yet, would you, please?  Then maybe your friends will see and they’ll find some fun, too.  And unicorns will prance through the Capital District, frolicking through rainbows with butterflies.  Well, not really, but it’s a lovely thought, right? 

Triumph #4:  I found a bathing suit! 

With a bit of photoshopping at the thighs, I think that I could almost look like a B-list 40s pin-up girl.  But you’ll have to take my word for it, because I will not be posting a photo.  I actually ran into a friend while I had a pile of suits over my arm, and she congratulated me on having the good sense to shop alone this time.  The winning suit was located in Macy’s at Colonie Center.

J went to a birthday party today at Bumble Beads in Latham.  I hadn’t ever been inside, although I’d peered in one day when we were visiting Hoffman’s Playland, which is right next door.

Party Area Decor

The mom provided snacks, pizza, & dessert.  The store provided the space (a little alcove portion of the store), two crafts per child, and a teensy goody bag with a candy necklace, a honey stick (because of their bee theme), and a coupon.  They also had tiaras and fairy wings available to wear during the party.  The party was 1 1/2 hours.

Supplies for Necklace

Here was a good idea:  they had little felt fabric place mats for each girl to keep the beads from rolling.  I will so use this technique in the future.  The crafts themselves were a little blah.  Both were items that you could have done just as easily by buying basic supplies at the craft store.  I know that the kids were 5- and 6-year-olds, but I want it to be extra messy to do and/or look extra fancy at the end if I’m going to a crafty destination.  Of course, that’s me.  I know that some people will pay significant money just to keep the party out of their own home.

I’m also a little bit freakishly sensitive about the girl party thing:  this idea that little girls want to sit quietly and make themselves beautiful and/or create accessories so that they can be more beautiful.  Yeah, I know that they like it.  And I’m okay with that.  I mean, I made that princess castle cake, right?  But I just don’t like to completely pigeonhole them quite so much.  I want them to be able to run around and laugh and shout, and the space just wasn’t there for the wild abandon that makes a great party.  In fact, there was a hopscotch design on the floor, and J kept on getting up and doing hopscotch.   At one point a few of  the girls started to run in a little circle, and they got pulled back into the quiet activity.   There was plenty of giggling, though.  And the birthday girl is currently nutty about jewelry, so it was absolutely perfect for her.

I think that this would be a terrific destination for an older girls’ party, when they’re at the age when they might just want to hang out and chat and do an absorbing project.  Or even a moms’ night out:  they do grown-up crafts.  There was a tremendously enthusiastic customer buying items who had come back after going to a class for the first time last night:  looks like she’s got a new obsession.

I thought that the party prices (they’re on the website) were expensive, but the items in the shop were priced well.  You know I’m not a shopper, but there were plenty of nice things  for the moms to examine during the party.

Cute Bracelets!

I barely managed to suppress my desire to buy one of the thin turquoise bracelets for M–it’s just exactly her style.  But I’d already completed her birthday shopping.  In fact, now I’m a little bummed that I didn’t go ahead and buy it and store it for some future occasion:  she saw the picture and liked it, just as I predicted.  There were cute gifts.  I also wanted a mood ring for myself.  I’m a sucker for a mood ring, probably because I’m naturally a warm-fingered gal.  So mood rings always tell me that I’m happy & relaxed, and then I’m convinced.  Come to think of it, I’m the same way about most things like that:  I only “believe” in horoscopes and fortune cookies when they tell me that everything’s going to be great.

One scheduling note: tomorrow’s 9:45 am hike listed on my weekly events post has been canceled.