I Believe Reading To Your Children Is A Gift

February 2, 2012 By 2 Comments

I’m the mom who read to her pregnant belly.  So, it should come as no surprise that reading to my actual small people brings me great joy as well. For me books have always been a great escape.  I can get lost in the words, in the story, in the art created on each page by yet another brilliant author.

My husband hopes to pass on his love of all-things-sports: baseball specifically. Me?  I want to raise readers.

I think a love of reading is a gift.  It is a journey, an adventure, a full-life expansion of your imagination.

And friends, the joy I felt as first my small girl began to read words aloud – slowly forming sentences….the comprehension dawning on her face like morning sunshine? There is no comparison.  And now, my small dude is experiencing the very same thing.

We read to them.  They read to us.  We read together.

And it is divine.

Is it not?

My small girl is now devouring a few chapter books each week.  She comes home from school with stories about BOOKS.  She asks to ‘stay up for just a few more minutes to read’.  I am raising a READER.  This is good.

I believe reading to your child and with your child is a gift…. a gift of emotion, of self, of love and of future experience.  You are setting them up to learn, to grow and believe in something bigger than themselves.

What a treasure!

Do you have a favorite book to read with your small people?  When mine were itty-bitty, I loved, “Goodnight, Moon”, but “The Velveteen Rabbit”  will always be my favorite.

 

 

Filed Under: Featured Content, I Believe, Recent Posts Tagged With: , , , ,

The First 100 Days of School Project

January 31, 2012 By 3 Comments

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It may be hard to believe based on the sneaky little smile on my small dude’s face…. but this little guy actually stayed home from school today.  It was a headache.  Yes, just a headache.  Normally, I might have dismissed it, but the first words out of his little mouth when I woke him for school were, “Oh, Mommy…. my head hurts so badly!”  So, I knew he didn’t have time to form a fib.  And he held his head the entire time he was getting ready for school.

Did I mention headaches make me nervous?  So, home and snuggles for the small dude.  Oh…. and a FOUR HOUR nap in the middle of the day.  At the very least, he must have been behind in sleep, yes?

So…. he missed his 99th day of school, but he will be present and accounted for on his 100th day.  And he will have his 100 Day Project in hand.  We debated: Cheerios?  (Nah… everyone will do that) Peanuts? (No can do: allergies) Marshmallows? (Big sister did it last year) Collect baseball cards? (Not edgy enough – they’d just be in a stack because good heavens, Smith boys don’t put tape on them!)

We finally – thanks to Delaney’s brilliant thinking, settled on making the small dude’s name out of 100 chocolate chips.

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Now…. we could have done his full name: Cooper… if we wanted to use a) a bigger piece of paper or b) make his name smaller.  Coop wasn’t having any of it.  He counted the chips, chose the paper and put his name on it.  I negotiated a little help with the glue because I didn’t want chocolate chips glued to my kitchen table.

I’m fun, but not THAT fun.

Are you doing any 100 Day Projects?  I would love to see them – and I know my small people would too.  Share the links in comments!

 

Filed Under: Featured Content, Good thing he's cute, Recent Posts, Small people Tagged With: , ,

Setting Your Financial Goals for 2012: Making Money With EBay’s Selling Inspiration House

January 31, 2012 By 1 Comment

So, you are one of those people who makes resolutions each year.  And this year, you’ve decided to spend less and save more.

Admirable, truly.  But not always the easiest resolution to keep.  Let’s face it…budgeting is hard and making massive changes to a static budget (meaning your family income isn’t changing) is more than a little bit of a challenge.

So… you start with the basics:

  • 1) You write it all down.  All of it.  Yes, that coffee from Starbucks too.  You don’t know what to trim until you know what you are spending.
  • 2) Determine how much you would like to save.  Write this down too.
  • 3) Start to pay with cash only.  If you don’t have it in hand, you can’t buy it. Set aside money each week for groceries, gas, eating out, etc.  Once you have used those funds… you’re done for the week.
  • 4) Make Money. (What?)  Yes…. Make extra cash to add to what you can spend and save each week.

How do you do that?  I have just the suggestion for you – and the inspiration to get you started.

EBay.

But before you start to think I can’t….filling your head with excuses, know this: You Can.  And that money is already right at your finger tips.  It is in your home.  eBay has newly created the Selling Inspiration House to walk you through your home, room by room, pointing out not only items you CAN sell, but items that are currently selling well on the site.

You choose the room.

eBay highlights the best options in that room. Take your bedroom closet for example: shoes, vintage Levis, handbags, dresses and outerwear are all things you could list.

And even better… wondering what the going rate for those items might be? Stick with the Selling Inspiration House.  You’ll find those answers there too.

It is so much easier to get started than ever before.  EBay is taking all of the guesswork out of the process.  And don’t forget, you can always take a look at  the basic tips for begin­ners.

Good luck with that budget…. (and with that selling!)  Can’t wait to hear what you make!

Disclosure: I am a member of the eBay Parent Panel and am working closely with eBay, however, all opinions and experiences shared are mine alone.

 

Filed Under: Checking this out, Featured Content, Recent Posts Tagged With: , , , ,

I Believe: ‘Be Yourself’ Should Be The Motto My Kids Live

January 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Sweet.  Sassy. Spunky.  Smart.  Silly.

Funny.  Fabulous.  Fantastic. Fickle. Going on Fifteen.

Delaney is all of this and more.  She is one of the youngest in her grade.  She is a kind soul and prone to checking with her friends before she makes a decision.  She feels deeply.  She is emotional and sometimes has a hard time sitting still. She is good at soccer, excellent at softball so-so at math and has the voice of an angel. But don’t ask her to sing, she hates the spotlight. She is quickly learning that working hard can mean beautiful results.

And I wouldn’t change a single thing about her.

In this picture, she was deliberately posing for me.  This is ‘her’ simply having fun.  She is not worried if she ‘looks ok’, ‘sounds ok’, is dressed ‘just right’ or if anyone else is watching.  She was just being Delaney in all her beautiful, freckled, messy-haired (and apparently gansta’-posing) glory.

As she gets older and starts to worry about all of the external things that attempt to tear away from our small people’s desire to stay true to their heart – I will pull this out to remind her of her ‘silly’, of her ‘sassy’, of her ‘Delaney’.

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I believe “Be Yourself” Should Be the Motto My Kids Live…

and that means it should be the one I LIVE as an example.

What do you believe?

Filed Under: Featured Content, I Believe, Inspire, Recent Posts, Uncategorized

P&G Media Event: “Have You Tried This Yet?” Hosted by Celebrity Stylist Irma Martinez

January 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I grew up with P&G.  When my mom used to tuck me in….  I could smell her enter the room.  The last thing she did before she went to bed each night was cover her face in what was then Oil of Olay – now just Olay.  I could still pick the scent out of a line-up if asked to try.  It just smells like home to me.  I now use the same cream, though an updated version and I wonder if my sweet girl will have the same association.  I bet she will.

I also bet she will automatically reach for Tide and Charmin, for Crest and Vicks, for Cascade and Pampers.  All of the brands I gravitated towards long before I knew they were P&G.  I brought them into my home because they WERE home to me.  I grew up with them, I trusted them and knew they did everything I expected, from cleaning my clothes to whitening my teeth to fighting my cough.

This past week, I spent a little time in Miami with P&G learning even more about these brands.  I know…. MIAMI.  I do so love it there…. (what’s NOT to love?? and yes it was 80 degrees the entire time!)

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20120129-210928.jpgI digress….  I wasn’t there for the scenery….. though I did have some beautiful time to reflect.  The purpose of my trip was a P&G event called, “Have You Tried This Yet?” Hosted by Celebrity Stylist, Irma Martinez, I, along with media and a handful of other fabulous bloggers (Audrey McClelland, Vera Sweeney, Coleen Padilla and Ashley Nuzzo) spent one full evening being treated to demonstrations of the newest P&G products.

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Let me take you there….

 

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Filed Under: Checking this out, Featured Content, Featured Videos, Video and Vlog-It! Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Note

January 24, 2012 By 13 Comments

It was moments after we finished saying bedtime prayers.  She made solid eye contact with me.  She held my gaze without looking away.  As she did, her eyes slowly filled.  Tears.  First filling and then covering the deep brown that I know to be the itty bitty windows to her soul.  The tears were wiping those windows clear for me to see.  She was sad.  So sad. Her little lip trembeled as she found the words she just HAD to say, “Mommy…. I just LOVE YOU.  SO much.”

In no time, my eyes filled to mirror hers.  We had just spent the most amazing day together, but this newest level of Mommy-Daughter… the one that had us laughing and giggling as we moved from shopping to nail painting to hair cutting… it only served to highlight what she and I both know to be true:  I can’t be there in front of her every single second.  What she fears the most in her seven year old heart:  that I will travel – will happen again.  And soon.

Within 48 hours of our tear-filled eye lock, I would be getting on a plane.  For only two short days.  But to my sweet girl, any separation at this point feels like weeks. And I know it.  And I own it. We hugged.  And snuggled.  By the time I left her room, we were giggling again.

For the last months, I have been home.  I have made every effort to be present, to create beautiful memories that will allow her to remain strong while I am gone.

But the truth is, I feel as though I have failed her.  I was gone too much last year.  I can’t give you an exact count of the number of trips taken or days traveled – but that is partially because I am unwilling to count.  Between a nearly 6 week book tour, hardly a conference skipped and a handful of other work trips, it was simply too much.

And I vow to my sweet girl, and to my sweet boy who is, as of yet – still oblivious to my parting – that each time I leave our home this year, it will be beacuse it is important, truly important.  And I will sit down with them each time – and I will look them in the eyes and I will explain where I am going, what I am doing and why it makes our family better and stronger.  I won’t travel because I ‘might miss something’.  I will stay HOME because I might miss something.  I will travel every time I need to, but I will always make sure it is worth it.

I promise.

Because you, baby girl… you got up in the middle of the night last night… sometime between midnight and 3:30am – as that was the only time I was asleep…. you tip-toed downstairs and you left me this note. You wanted me to know that it was ok that I was going to be gone, that you would miss me and you love me.

You are trying to show me you are stronger.  We can be stronger together.  Because baby?  When I ask you what you want to be when you grow up?  I’m not asking what you want to be UNTIL you have a family.  I’m hoping to show you by example that I can be both the mommy you need and a woman who follows her loves and passions.

I hope to be the example you need.

I love you.

 

Filed Under: Featured Content, Mom GUilt, Recent Posts Tagged With: , ,

So, They Are Canadian, Eh? And now… How To Become A U.S. Citizen

January 19, 2012 By 12 Comments

Now, you may or may not know this, but I’m Canadian.  As in, I was born there.  I haven’t lived there since I was itty-bitty – I was raised in California – which, if you know me, makes MUCH more sense, but still, Canadian, I am.

And in that weird way that famly history and culture and your own personal inter-weavings actually MATTER to just you… I have maintained my citizenship all these years.  It used to be that in order to become a U.S. citizen, you had to denounce your country of origin.  And I just wasn’t comfortable with that.  Now, that is no longer the case and hasn’t been for quite some time.  And yet…  thre is the issue of my small people.

Though we live here, smack dab in the middle of the country – where I have ties to absolutely nothing beyond the family I have created, I still want them to know, to experience, to BE….a portion of that crazy mix of who I am.  Right?  A Canadian raised in California – a girl who claims the surf, sun and sand FIRST, but is unwilling to pass up the heritage that comes with the Maple Leaf.

So, I waited until they were old enough to apply for Canadian citizenship.  I jumped through the hoops that required special pictures, notarized documents, the original copies of their birth certificates and intense applications.  And yes, fees.  I filed the paperwork away with an impatient sigh when the response from the Canadian Consulate said I could expect a response in 6 to 18 months.  Yes. EIGHTEEN months.  And I tried to forget about it.

I promised myself I would begin my own citizenship journey when the small people were officially dual citizens.

And then a funny thing happened.  Yesterday, a certified note arrived in the mail with

FINAL NOTICE 

stamped in large letters.  I didn’t want whatever it was to be sent back, so we rushed to the nearby post office….though we had never received an initial or even a second notice.  And how is this for a little shock?  When I turned in that

FINAL NOTICE (with yesterday’s date)

we were told  the certified letter had been had been waiting for us since October.

And the letter was from the Canadian Consulate.

My small people are now Canadian citizens!!  And according to the letter inside that envelope, they have been since September 22, 2011.  The poor lady behind the counter apologized profusely – embarrassed that the U.S. Post Office has been holding a letter for us for close to 4 months.  Just sitting there with it.  No notes to us.  No….. nothing.

And normally, I might be bothered, but I’m too excited to care.

Now my citizenship journey begins.  I have filled out my application. (It took about 45 minutes) But that is just step one in what promises to be an eventful process.  No, I’m not a Communist.  No, I’m not a member of the Nazi party.  No, I’m not currently married to more than one person. Nope, no felonies.

Tomorrow, I begin the process of collecting the nearly 20 pieces of documention I need to send in with that application. Should be a good time.  Then there will be pictures.  Mailing.  Fingerprinting.  Studying.  An ORAL exam!!

And then a U.S. Citizen I will be.  Could take a year.  Fingers crossed for less, right?

Wish me luck.

 

Filed Under: Don't you wish you were me?, Featured Content, Recent Posts Tagged With: , , , , ,
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