Saturday, July 31, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
Friday Flashback (7/30)
From July 30, 2009
“I don't go crazy buying myself stuff, I hate buying stuff for myself, I always feel there's a better use for the money. But I go just a little wild when it comes to buying clothes for the kids. I can't help it. I see all these cute clothes and I think "Oh, Bella would look darling in that," or "Zach loves those kinds of shirts," or "Ryan would look so handsome in that." I mean once I start buying them clothes I can't stop! I have a feeling it goes back to when I was younger. We never had any nice clothes, we always got hand-me-downs from our cousins, and with me and my brother being the youngest in the family (not including my half-brother and sister since there's a 7 year gap between the brothers and a 9 year one between me and my sister) everything was really worn by the time it got to us. So, I just love buying the kids new, nice clothes. Shoot, they dress better and have a bigger wardrobe than John and I. I just spent $200 on fall/winter clothes for Bella, no one else, just her. And before the 30% discount it was $300! And seeing as how John banned me from buying her anything else (she has a closet full of summer clothes she still doesn't quite fit...) I have a feeling this might cause some issues. But she has no fall/winter clothes, so really this was a needed purchase...
Right?”
Original post here: Two Blues and a Pink – I have an addiction… to shopping!
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Belly and the Cuppy Cake Mix
Woo, look at me! I’m helping Mommy cook! 
Hey, what’s this? Mommy thinks I should taste it. Well, ok… 
Hmmm, I think I should keep this. This is now MINE! 
Oh gosh, the yumminess just goes on and on! 
Oh man, just WOW! This, what was it again…? 
CHOCOLATE! I love this! This is MINE MINE MINE! 
WHAT?!?!? NO!!! You can’t have it! It’s MY chocolate! It can’t be gone! 
Hey! There’s some chocolate on my paci…
Shots
I had to take both Ryan and Belly in for shots this morning. Belly to get her finally started on them and Ryan to get caught up on his for school. Plus I needed to get a new copy of Ryan’s birth certificate for school also.
To start off, I got there at about 9:45, appointment was at 10. Waited for a close to 45 minutes, then they got called back for shots. When I was filling out their paperwork when I first got there I put in a request for Ryan's birth certificate and the lady said to pick it up on my way out. Ryan did, well, ok with his shots. He fussed a little and cried some but it wasn't too bad. At first Belly did great. The first three she took with just stiffening herself up but the last two she screamed bloody murder through. (I was informed those 2 burn a lot). All of that was finished up by about 11.
I went up to pay for Ryan's birth certificate and pick up his official shot records and the new lady behind the counter told me to get another number and wait again. Never had to do that before, but was ok with it since your supposed to wait 30 minutes before leaving anyway to make sure there are no adverse reactions to the shots. Got a number and sat down to wait. I had to wait close to TWO hours. I finally get called (let me tell you Ryan and Belly were NOT happy at this point) go up there and I'm told it's going to be $58.22. I'm sure she must be wrong, birth certificates are around $10 and we've never had to pay for shots, our income is way below the cut off for a 5 person family.
Uh, wrong.
They changed it and now we have to pay 45% of the shot cost, and only people on the state insurance can now get them for free. I literally left my house with $20 cash in my pocket and that was supposed to cover birth certificate, cupcake supplies, plus a few extra groceries we need. I asked if she'd accept a debit card and she said no cash or check only. I asked would they accept partial payment, and she said no, but I can go back to one of the patient rooms and call and see if someone can bring me the money. So, I'm sitting there at the counter trying to think of what the heck I'm going to do when I remember that for once my checkbook is in the van since I went and paid a bill Monday. There were like 4 people in line behind me and it was so embarrassing since the woman wasn't even trying to keep her voice down so they all heard I lacked the money to pay. I paid got Ryan and Belly back to the van and just sat there and cried. I don't cry easily but that lady was so mean and nasty and I was soooooo fully embarrassed.
Plus John is going to be so mad when he gets home. I'm sure he could have pulled that much cash if I'd known (between our weekly cash and getting some out of bill money) so he's going to be furious that I wrote a check since the last time we wrote that place a check it didn't come out until like a month and a half later. (Should add this was the Health Department - our doc doesn't do shots) Sure, after he's done yelling and being angry it might finally reach his brain that I didn't KNOW, but it'll take a little bit first.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Meet Patty.
Now, I know some of you, my followers, are scratching your head saying, “Uh, who?” since you are all not from Justmommies. Patty is one of the founders of the parenting site Justmommies. JM has literally everything. It has articles on everything mommy/pregnancy/kids and such. It has tons of helpful tools, and not just the things you expect to see on a parenting site, such as a way to find out your due date, but also things to help you with your housework. There are special mommy related games and a video section. Those might be some of the things that bring people to JM, but the things that keep them coming back are the sites awesome forum, blogs, and groups. And for the most part we have Patty and her sister to thank for all that. Though the site was bought by a larger company, Patty still is active in the site as an administrator, a blog contributor and editor, and co-host/host of three boards on the forum, and leader of four of the groups. Can you just say WOW. I’ve like been in awe of all this woman does for a while.
So, now on to the fun part, the interview. Bare with me, this is my first.
Trish: Can you describe a typical day in the life of Patty?
Patty: My life is not really that exciting. I normally get up when I wake up, normally by 8:30 at the latest, and start my day. I take care of JustMommies emails, update the blog, post on my boards, etc.
T: You're a busy homeschooling mom, how do you find time to do the JM stuff, blog, homeschool, and do all the other things you have to do during the day?
P: My husband actually is in charge of the homeschooling. We use an online curriculum, Time4Learning.com, for a good bit of the kids’ school. It helps a lot because he just has to get them on the computer and watch over them. Then we supplement with other curriculum because they don’t get any written work with Time4Learning.
As for how I find time to do everything, I don’t. I usually juggle. I try to make the most efficient use of my time but I have my good days and my bad days. My husband helps a whole lot, not with JM but with making the rest of my life manageable.
T: What made you decide to do unschooling with your children? How is it different than just regular homeschooling?
P: I think I may have miscommunicated in my post about supporting radical unschooling. This is something I support but we are not unschoolers. I have a few friends that unschool though. The difference between unschooling and homeschooling is that unschoolers do not use a curriculum and teach their children through life experiences rather than book work. I share similar views as unschoolers though. I don’t test my kids, we don’t do school every day, and I don’t keep records. We do school year round so we just take time off whenever we want. I want my kids to enjoy their childhood and I don’t think they should be burdened with hours of unnecessary homework.
I have a very open mind when it comes to education. I support parents’ rights to do what they feel is best for their family whether that be public school, private school or homeschool.
I have wanted to homeschool since long before I ever had children. I have been around homeschoolers my whole life. I want my children to enjoy their childhood. I want to be in control of what they are learning and I want my kids to be able to have an education that is tailored to their needs.
T: How did JM come about?
P: Before JustMommies started, my sister and I were part of a few different message board sites for moms. I didn’t want to do this by myself so I drug my sister along for the ride. I bought the domain name in 2003. It was first hosted on a free site and it went nowhere. I did nothing with it for about a year. Then, I bugged my sister. I wanted to get serious with it so we both set to work on it. We launched the site, this time doing a much better job with it and worked very hard getting it off the ground. I remember getting excited every time a new member joined. There was a lot of work, mistakes, data base crashes, new servers, and learning along the way.
T: How do you go about deciding which blogs you include on the JM blog? Which posts?
P: Some of the things we look for in selecting a new blogger are how active they are, how well they write, and the types of post they write. We try to keep the blog diverse. When scheduling posts we try to mix it up so that we have a little of everything. It’s still a work in progress.
You create multiple blog posts at once, how do you decide when each should be published?
Again, I try to mix things up. Sometimes I will get on a roll and type up several posts at once and sometimes I will go days without a new post. I am trying to blog more regularly. I think practice makes perfect.
T: What do you think the main topics are that you blog about? Why do you think you blog about those so much?
P: I find myself blogging about goal setting and motivation a lot. I am a bit of a perfectionist (not with everything though) and find myself getting stuck on this topic. I get frustrated when I don’t accomplish my goals and I think blogging about this keeps me focused. I would like to blog more about my personal life, like things my kids are doing and that sort of thing, but I am somewhat of a private person. I am sure that sounds ironic since I have no problems talking about PMS but that’s different.
T: Are there any topics you'd like to blog about, but for one reason or another you never do? Is it just that you never have the time or inspiration, or is it that you feel the topic to controversial?
P: Oh yeah. I have quite a few posts that I have typed up and never published. I tend to steer clear of controversial topics because I hate debating. I also have written a few very personal posts about my childhood which I have never posted. My childhood experiences have influenced how I raise my own children but at the same time my personal life is personal and not something I feel comfortable sharing with the whole world.
T: What are a few of your favorite blog posts you have done?
P: “There’s Life and Then There’s JustMommies”
This is just about how the real world is compared to JustMommies friendly and supportive environment.
"Childbirth – It should be a magical moment every time”
This one is about getting over having that idealistic birth experience and having a magical birth experience however it happens.
"One of these kids is not like the others”
This is just funny. A woman asked me if some of my kids were adopted because they don’t look like us.
"Stay at home mom lala land”
This was one of my first blog posts. It is about how you think being a stay at home mom is going to make life easier.
T: What blogs do you read? What are a few of your favorite blog posts by other bloggers?
P: The only mom blogs I follow are JM blogs. I would feel guilty if I ventured outside of JM. I do read informational blogs on web design stuff and politics. I am very interested in politics actually but I keep a low profile on that.
"Mixed Messages”
I had to track this post down by meanboys. I love all of her posts. She writes well and always cracks me up. But, this post has stayed in my memory for a while. I just thought it was hilarious and she did a good job describing everything in a humorous way.
"How Do I Hate Thee? Oh Let Me Count The Ways…”
ere is one from Babies Peeping Out that I like. I really love her recipe posts. She always has something interesting and the pictures make me hungry but this post was just funny.
I decided to wrap up the interview on a silly note, since I am the kind. lol
T: If you were a superhero what would your name and powers be?
P: I would love to be able to freeze time. My kids can drive me crazy sometimes and it would be so lovely if I could zap time for a while and add a few uninterrupted hours to my day.
T: Thongs - butt-floss or undergarment must-have?
P: I LOVE thongs. Before I started wearing them it was commando. Thank you for encouraging me to post this little bit of TMI. Oh well.
If you’d like to read more from Patty’s blog her blog is pattyandthemoos on the JustMommies Mommy Blogs.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Recipe: Teriyaki Chicken
(I swear it’s good, and super easy to make)
Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts cut in 1 inch strips then cut in 1/2
1/3 bottle teriyaki sauce
Pour some of the teriyaki sauce in the bottom of a 10 in. non-stick pan, place RAW chicken slices into pan then pour the remaining sauce onto the chicken. Turn heat up to 7 and flip the chicken every 5ish minutes until chicken is fully cooked.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
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