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Showing posts from July, 2011

Is a Wee-bie In Our Future?

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"From the cradle to the coffin, underwear comes first." ~ Bertolt Brecht -------------------------------------------- Being a parent of young children I have to ask, do you ever feel like your house is overrun with toys?  Everywhere I look, there are toys.  Not to mention the swear words that can come flying from your mouth when you step on the end table from the dollhouse furniture which happens to be legs up in the kitchen of all places!  Super ouch!  We have lots of toys that never get played with.  I find the best way to go through the mass of toys is when the girls are gone.  I've been known to toss things out, but the funny part is no one seems to miss what is no longer there.  It's slightly reminiscent of a Toy Story movie and I'm sure the ones that remain all mourn for the ones that leave to go to the consignment store.  However, what I found on Friday during a routine toy clean out certainly did make me wonder, if the toys do come...

Bullies

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"Courage is fire and bullying is smoke." ~ Benjamin Disraeli -------------------------------------------------- Bullies suck!  Being a girl sucks even more.  I knew reading the book "Odd Girl Out" would someday serve me well, even before I knew I would be the mother of two girls.  After the second day of giving Maddie a pep talk just to get her out the door to camp, I'm quite literally exhausted.  I've vowed today that neither she nor I will cry about this anymore.  Why blog about this, you may be asking?  I've pondered it myself.  After trying to work this out in my own head I've turned to what most writers do, I write about it!  If you are reading this and think your child hasn't been bullied, you are likely wrong.  If you are reading this and think your child isn't doing the bullying, see me and I can tell you exactly who is tormenting my daughter.   I recently stumbled on these bullying statistics online and tha...

Wagon Memories

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Gratitude is when a memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind.  ~ Lionel Hampton ------------------------------------------------- If you are going on an endless pursuit for mom of the year, you'd better cruise in style.  That's exactly what my mother did!  There's certainly nothing more stylish than a wood paneled station wagon, like the one my parents bought in the 70's.  I can still, to this day, remember when we picked up that car and the many family vacations we took in it.  Oh the memories.  Today, Madison came home from summer camp with news that brought back another memory of that station wagon and my mother.  In a proud parent moment, I told Madison how she looks like such a grown up girl today.  Really, she does!  In an instant, she told me that another child at camp called her fat today.  While wanting to cry with her, I thought of my mother.  This particular memory goes back to 4th grade.  My parents d...

Spelling 101

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I respect a man who knows how to spell a word in more than one way. ~ Mark Twain ---------------------------------------------------------------- It's no secret I've been known to snap a photo when the moment strikes me.  That moment might involve a perfect stranger, a funny sign or, in this case, a random car.  I apologize if you know this person but as I continue on my path to mom of the year, raising a good speller is very important.  And no, spelt is not the past tense for spell.  That would be spelled.  (sigh) Perhaps this came from my father.  I remember coming home one day with report card in hand.  I had gotten excellent grades and a 98 percent in spelling.  I was the kid who constantly mixed letters around and worked very hard at spelling correctly.  It wasn't until my second grade teacher that we learned my problem was not my mind but rather my eye sight.  I couldn't see the board he was writing on and thus didn't even kn...

Brown Hair, Makes Bad Choices

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Lots of times you have to pretend to join a parade in which you're not really interested in order to get where you're going.  ~ Christopher Morley ------------------------------------------------ Today, we took the girls to the 4th of July parade.  After all, that's what good parents do, right?  I had no idea how incredibly ticked off I would get at a seemingly harmless parade.  Although it's always good to remember that while I may not have reached mom of the year, there are loads of women who haven't even joined the race!  I should have known there'd be trouble.  Parades are a breeding ground for bad parenting.  I won't go into great description but let's just say I should have known we'd have a problem when the family we sat beside let their son have a haircut I would never allow and I got the liberty of seeing down their daughter's shirt ever time she stooped to pick up candy.  Nice!   It all started when the cand...