This year as we contemplated a family vacation, my hubby and I looked at our budget. And due to higher gas prices, paying for the necessities is cutting into the fun money. It looked like a family vacation would be a bit of a stretch this year, but we didn’t want to completely do away with a vacation, either. You know—making memories, getting away from the phone, work, chores, etc.
Our solution? A staycation, or a home-based vacation. The idea is to act like you’re on vacation and see the sights near you. That way you save on: 1) transportation expenses, since you’re already there, 2) hotel, 3) food if you eat some meals in your own kitchen. My significant other thought it would be fun to sleep on hide-a-beds in the living room, as if we were really in a hotel. I love my bed, so I shot down that idea, but you could do it if you want. We planned to ignore the cell phones, eat out, and splurge a little on special treats.
It was fun planning our staycation, too. My hubby and I are both transplants so there are many things we haven’t done around here. Just treat it like any vacation destination, and research the things to do around you. You might be surprised at all the cool things. Or maybe you won’t be surprised, but just never took the time to go see them.
We went on our staycation last week and had a blast. We went hiking, went to the planetarium, spent the whole afternoon at a Children’s Museum, visited a historical village, went swimming, and ran in some fountains. Not only did we sleep better than a normal vacation (think 3 kids in a hotel room), but we ran out of time to do all the things we had on our list. Now I have more activities for the rest of the summer to help keep the kiddos occupied. We had a fantastic family vacation, at a fraction of the cost.
We also have had a number of neighbors and friends say they are going to do a staycation, too. You don’t have to go somewhere far away. Think of the fun in your own backyard!
I am not a perfect mom. I am not a Type A personality, who creates a curriculum and fills my children’s days with enrichment activities…although I could, one of my specialties when teaching was creating curriculum that integrated the arts into academics. Of course, that I COULD do it, but don’t makes me even less marvelous in my mommyhood.
But I would like to put forth a cheer for all the slacker moms out there. Just because we aren’t getting down there in our knee pads flipping flash cards of Impressionist Painters does not mean we are doing a bad job. No one really knows what makes one kid turn out to be a wonderful person whose life enriches the world. So I’m going to pat myself on the back a little and hi-light one of my slacker mom accomplishments.
Sometimes I check my googlereader while the kids are watching Little Bear. Yes it’s true. TV is my babysitter. Sometimes, the baby will sit on my lap and play with her toy computer while I do this. Sometimes, we will take out the Crayola Color Wonder finger paints and she will smoosh around on the tv table while I type comments on my favorite blogs with one hand.
She did so yesterday. And then toddled off to find some trouble to get into. But when the Little Bear dvd ended, G wandered back to my impromptu desk to check out the what’s what, and he came upon this:
This was the baby’s painting. The red circle was mine, but everything else was hers. Gosh, G started smiling when he saw it. “Mmm,” he said, “Good. G likes!” and he would not rest until I displayed it on the refrigerator. I see what he means about this scribble drawing. It almost looks like a bird flying above the trees to the setting sun.
My boy Gman has very developed artistic tastes. I don’t know if I made it happen. I didn’t have those flash cards of Monet and Cezanne… although I must admit I sat with him and looked through some of my old art books. I didn’t force it on him, I just noticed his interests. He liked paintings. So we’d read the art books he picked out, along with “Where the Wild Things Are” and “Moo Baa La La La.”
He still likes paintings, although I can see he gets frustrated with not being able to draw what he wants to. Lately, he has been focusing on drawing bad guys. But even when he can’t draw Spider Man and the Green Goblin, he can appreciate artistic beauty when he sees it.
The Collector and his Gallery
If you’re like me, when summer hits your taste buds lean more toward lighter foods. And most especially toward foods that don’t require standing over a hot stove. Here’s a fantastic recipe that fits both! Every time we have made it for company it has been a huge hit. I call it Super Yummilicious Little Lemon Cakes, but it is really a recipe that was found by a friend of a friend at a Pampered Chef party. I wish I could claim all the delicious glory.
Super Yummilicious Little Lemon Cakes
1 box yellow cake mix
16 oz. sour cream
2 eggs
2 (or more) lemons
butter, softened
sugar
You will need microwave safe coffee cups or little bowls. This makes app. 10 cakes.
Mix cake mix, sour cream, and eggs. Zest one lemon (grate the rind on a teeny-tiny grater-do not grate the fruit) and add to the mix.
Slice second lemon into thin slices.
Grease coffee cups with butter, then pour some sugar in and move around until inside of cup is coated with a thin layer of sugar.
Place lemon slice in the bottom of 5 cups. Pour mix on top until cups are half full. Microwave all 5 cups for six minutes. Turn upside-down on plate. *Tap on the sides of the cup to loosen cake.
Clean cups and make 5 more.
Serve topped with whipped cream. (Remove lemon before eating.)
VOILA! That’s it. And it is totally dee-lish.
If you want to try and find the official recipe, check out the Pampered Chef recipes on Recipe Goldmine. They have 500 of them, so I didn’t try too hard. Enjoy!
Birthday has been achieved. The boy is now officially a three year old… that includes refusal to potty train, obsession with bad guys, and his very own super hero, Poo Poo Man.
The balloons were a big hit. The cake was a qualified hit (blowing out candles and the cars were successful, finding out it was not chocolate all the way through caused some upset, even though he picked the kind of cake). There even was water play, although the back yard bash that had been planned was rained out. That just allowed for playing in the rain instead. Good fun. The favoritest thing, however, was probably unwrapping the wrapped presents. Woo Hoo! Big happies.
And then bedtime happened, and everyone fell asleep before they could even get to bed, crashing on the way home in the car.
What is it about birthdays that just drains all the energy out of you? And I mean me. I mean, it wasn’t even all that elaborate of a celebration, and I didn’t really have all that much to do, since I shanghaied my mom into hosting.
So why am I still recuperating? Was mixing a box cake and frosting it with prepared frosting really so labor intensive?
All I know is that I was as pooped as the kids.
Posted on July 8th, 2008 in
Uncategorized | Tags:
Birthdays,
Fun,
kids,
rowena,
sleep | Author:
rowena |
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If you enjoy stories about wonderfully quirky, delightfully dysfunctional but at the same time very lovable characters then you are sure to love Thigh High by Christina Dodd.
Cover description:
Nessa Dahl always had the good sense to steer clear of trouble. Then Jeremiah MacNaught showed up in New Orleans, determined to get to the bottom of a string of bank robberies by two women wearing Mardi Gras masks. Little does Nessa realize that the handsome investigator is convinced she’s involved with the crimes-or that he’s willing to do anything to get the truth. Even if it means taking the beautiful woman he’s convinced is a liar and a thief straight to bed…
We are coming up on G’s third birthday. I think it counts as his first birthday party. I have been thinking a little bit about what it means to host a birthday party. I have heard a lot about renting out play spaces or giving the party goers little bags of crap as favors. I am not quite sure who caters toddlers’ birthday parties, but I have heard that it is done.
I have decided I am not going to play those games of excess, competing with the play group and the neighbors to see who can make the most elaborate event. I don’t even know if it will be just family or we will invite any kids. Most of his kid friends are in NY… and I’m not planning a destination third birthday party.
But I did ask him what he would like for his party. His answer:
Cake, chocolate.
Blueberries.
Ice cream.
Running (racing or chase or tag, I’m not sure.)
Balloons.
And monsters.
That is the birthday he wants. To me, that sounds like a fabulous third birthday. Maybe there won’t be a pony or a carnival, but I don’t think a three year old needs any of that.
Maybe I need to take advantage of his being three and not being influenced by the media (aside from his love of Spider Man and “bad guys!) or school mates and not needing a waterpark party or, goodness gracious, the green 4gb ipod (I don’t even have an ipod). Maybe in a couple of years I won’t have the luxury of that old fashioned birthday party.
I am a big advocate of the old fashioned birthday party. A few friends or maybe just family. Cake and ice cream. Party hats. Balloons and streamers. Silly games like pin the tail on the donkey or musical chairs. I bet if I threw in some waterguns, he would remember it for the rest of his life.
Or at least until he learns about all the hoopdehoo of being a kid in America today.
Oh, and in the spirit of birthdays and America–
Happy Birthday America!
I hope you have all the fireworks and barbecue and holiday fun you can drink up with a straw!
Posted on July 4th, 2008 in
Uncategorized | Tags:
Birthdays,
family,
Fun,
kids,
rowena | Author:
rowena |
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I’m recommending another fun series this week. The Maggie Kelly series, by Kasey Michaels are a hoot. First of all, Maggie is an author (you can’t help but love that!) and her main character–a Victorian age heartthrob who solves mysteries while conquering the ladies–has just *popped* from her mind into her living room. Not only do these books make me laugh out loud, but there’s just enough romance to make them delicious reading.
The first book in the series is Maggie Needs An Alibi. From the back cover:
Maggie Kelly is nothing if not resilient. She bounced back after getting fired from her old job as a writer of historical romances, reinventing herself as a mystery author. She bounced back when she discovered her lover – who also happens to be her publisher – cheating on her. And she bounces right back into her smoking habit whenever she tries to quit. But something just happened that’s got tough-talking, quick-thinking Maggie swooning into her super-soft sofa cushions.
Something in the form of an incredibly sexy Englishman by the name of Saint Just. Alexandre Drake, Viscount Saint Just, to be exact. Tall, dark, handsome, with an accent to die for and charm to spare, he’s everything she’s ever dreamed of in a man. There’s just one problem. He is her dream man. He’s every woman’s fantasy. He’s the character who’s made her a bestselling author. He’s not real. No, he’s not real – but he is, for some reason, standing in the middle of Maggie’s apartment. With the adorable, bumbling sidekick she created expressly for him right by his side – and eating that piece of fried chicken she was saving for lunch.
What’s a savvy, New York City writer to do when faced with the figments of her imagination – in the flesh? Well, short of checking herself into Bellevue, she’d better get used to it. Because these guys aren’t going anywhere – at least not until they’ve given Maggie a little unsolicited editorial advice regarding her latest telling of their adventures. Still, it’s not the worst thing in the world to have a roomie as gorgeous as Saint Just – even if he is somewhat arrogant – and prone to leaving the cap off the toothpaste.
But just as Maggie’s getting used to her new houseguests, things start to get quite a bit more complicated – in the “homicide” sense of the world. It seems her ex-lover, Kirk Toland, ever the inconsiderate cad, has had the nerve to die right there in her living room… of poisoning… after eating a dinner Maggie made. Her cooking isn’t that bad – is it? And if that weren’t weird enough, Toland’s death is soon followed by the murder of a colleague whom everyone knows Maggie hated. So, the mystery writer has become the murder suspect. And the only sleuth who’s really on Maggie’s side is the one she invented.
Kasey Michaels mixes the absurd with reality in such a fun way. For example, take a pompous, arrogant Victorian gentleman who is extremely concerned with clothes and appearance, drop him in modern New York, and this handsome man now comes across to others as gay, even though he is very not. Luckily there are six books in the series, so if you like them you can feed your addiction for a while. You can find out more about Kasey Michaels on her website.
I am on line, but with my broken keyboard, am having a very difficult time communicating in any sort of way that requires something more than point and click. This is why I have not posted in a while. I am waiting for my new keyboard to be delivered or some other breakthrough in my technical difficulties.
Some times, I can manage a garbled “hikeyzdead” or something along the lines of “fukfukfukfuk,” since only a few of my keys are working. It doesn’t make for good blogging or commenting, though.
It is so frustrating to have all this stuff in your head that you want to share but that you are unable to get out. There are so many people that I want to talk to. There are so many ideas I am getting from the things I read, but I can’t even google something, at this point. I feel hobbled. I feel silenced.
As I was reflecting on this experience, I began thinking of how many other people feel this way, not just because of technical difficulties, but because of life. They are in one situation, can see the world moving around them, but are unable to share their experience.
Then I realized there is somebody like that in my own life, sitting right next to me. Poor G. He understand everything and has since he was very little, but he has not been able to express his thoughts and ideas the way he wants to. What he says comes out as garbled, often, as my limping keyboard communications. Often he doesn’t even try because of it. All of a sudden, I can see why… it is so hard trying to get around the stumbling of the words and letters. He is figuring it out, it is true, his speech is improving daily. You can tell how happy it makes him when he can get his ideas across.
I also realize where his love of monsters and bad guys might come in to play. I know this short period without communication has made me so frustrated. I get angry so easily as I struggle with whatever cut and paste or stumbling typing I can manage. I could use some bad guy play to let out my frustration, too. And a time out for my temper tantrums.
Posted on July 1st, 2008 in
Uncategorized | Tags:
children,
distraught,
rowena | Author:
rowena |
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Today I’m going to recommend another of my favorite books. This one is quite different from the books/series I’ve talked about so far. It’s not light or fun, but it is very, very good. It has one of those great “A-ha!” endings that take everything you thought you knew about what was going on and flipped it around into a whole new light. Kind of, but not quite, like the Sixth Sense ending. But in this book there aren’t dead people and the main character isn’t a ghost. (So sorry if I spoiled the movie for you, but if you haven’t seen Sixth Sense by this point, then please go rent it.)
If you’re in the mood for an excellent read that involves your heart, mind, and addresses real issues with fantastic characterization, go pick up My Sister’s Keeper, by Jodi Picoult. It is one of my all-time favorites.
Short synopsis (from the author’s website):
Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate - a life and a role that she has never questioned… until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister - and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable… a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves. My Sister’s Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child’s life… even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Is it worth trying to discover who you really are, if that quest makes you like yourself less?
My Sister’s Keeper has won many awards and great reviews. Jodi Piccoult is a great writer with the talent of getting you inside characters so that you live their life dilemmas and challenges with them. I have read other books of hers, but this one is still by far my favorite. Her most recent book, Change of Heart, is in stores now. (I haven’t read it yet.) You can find out more about Jodi Picoult and her books on her website.
Now that summer is officially here, we’re all looking for ways to keep boredom at bay and our sanity at the same time. A enjoyable way to do that is to establish a daily reading routine. Just recently I had the chance to review a remarkable new children’s book called The Tiniest Tiger and here are my thoughts on it.
Perfect for children ages 4-8, my eleven year old also read and liked all the information about the big cat’s but felt that the story overall was a little too young for his age bracket.
The Tiniest Tiger by Joanne L. McGonagle is a wonderful and charming tale of a small kitten who becomes lost while chasing a butterfly. And in the process of looking for a new home ends up at the zoo and eventually finds the perfect home. The story is beautifully illustrated and filled with interesting facts about endangered cats and I would very much recommend it as a great way to teach small children about nature and conservation…
Another thing that I really liked about the book is that a portion of the proceeds from the sales will benefit conservation projects for endangered wild cats in Africa,Asia,North America, and South America, through the Conservation Fund of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.
