Tag Archives: parenting

Slinky Day

Kids, , , , ,

Did you know that today is Slinky Day? Yes, it is!!!

The humble Slinky was invented in the 1940’s by Navy engineer and inventor, Richard James. It proved an immediate hit, and selling out in just a few hours, quickly became one of our favourite toys. Slinky Day celebrates the humble Slinky, and should be spent doing slinky tricks, watching Slinkies race down staircases, or simply untangling the things as they inevitably knot, twist and spiral!

Slinky Day
Don’t have a Slinky? Order this giant one on Amazon!

 

For Slinky Day, me and my boys will be having fun playing with Slinkies and other screen-free toys.

Cool Things To Do With A Slinky

  1. Have your palms facing up. Place one end of the slinky on each palm. Move your hands up and downs. It forms a bridge type thing.
  2. If you have stairs or steps you can try to make it ‘walk’ down them by pushing it until it works. You might have to experiment with it for a little.
  3. If you hold both ends with your hands (palms facing each other) you can make waves. If it is to long (it sags down some what) get a friend and do it.
  4. Hold one end and play with it like a yo-yo.
  5. Hold one end and use it like a paddle ball.
  6. Use it as a paper weight.
  7. If you put papers between the rings you can use it as an awesome divider.
  8. Use it to distract people that are annoying you (although you might not get it back).
  9. Use it to make money by doing tricks or letting people rent it (money is fun).
  10. Try to come up with a game or something else. That’s really fun.

On a serious note: You can find some really cool things to do with your Slinky here.

How will you be celebrating Slinky Day?

Please comment below and tell me all about your Slinky Day!

slinky3
We got this 3 pack (one for each of us!) so that none of us had to fight over them. 🙂
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1-2-3 Magic- Effective Discipline for Children 2-12

Kids, Reading, ,

discipline for childrenNow, since I said that I LOVE my Kindle app on my phone, you should have known that I would tell you about my favorite books, right? Well, that’s exactly what I intend to do! But I’m also going to tell you about my favorite book about a wonderful subject: Discipline for children that actually works!

My latest book (that I cannot put down and am constantly going back to refer to) was recommended to me by my oldest son’s psychiatrist. When I first dove into this book, I decided to immediately put the information I was learning to use (what could it hurt to try?), and while it’s not 100% effective on the oldest, I can say that it has worked wonders for the attitude of my youngest.

Now, I’ll tell you that while you can’t expect miracles right away, you will definitely see some results immediately and a major change in the coming weeks as long as you continue to follow the guidelines set forth by the amazing man who wrote this book.

Now, I know you may be skeptical of anything that promises help in effective discipline for your children… I was too. But the great thing about using your Kindle app is that you have the option to check out portions of the book BEFORE you buy it, so there’s really nothing to lose. Honestly though, you’re going to love it so much that you’ll end up buying the book. I have it on my phone and in paperback, and I have recommended it to everyone I know!

Please check out 1-2-3 Magic by Dr. Thomas W. Phelan! I can promise you won’t regret it. I was hooked after just the snippet the Amazon allows me to get for free on Kindle, and I bet you will be too!

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Kids: What No One Ever Told You

About Me, Kids, ,

What no one ever told you about having kidsAs a mom, I have had a ton of moments where I’m left thinking “Why on earth didn’t anyone ever tell me this?” I can only hope that I am not the only one. There are many things that I could say right now that no one ever told me… No one ever tells you that your baby may not be perfect. No one wants to talk about that. And then, lord help you if that beautiful baby isn’t perfect because you either get loaded up with people who think they know it all, or most of your support system abandons you. The good news about that last group of people is that eventually you replace them with a much better group. So let’s sit back and talk about what no one ever told you about having kids!

What no one ever told you about having kids

I think I can honestly say the first thing I ever thought of that no one warned me about was just how much poop was involved. I expected poopy diapers, what I didn’t expect was for a toddler to take off his diaper and cover his entire crib in stinky, nasty poop. What I really didn’t expect was for him to climb out of his crib a few months later, take his diaper off, and paint his room and smush poop into his carpet. I thought I would die when that happened. And speaking of poop, kid number two may not have painted with poop, but he had poop problems of his own… He was my 100% breastfed baby, and there would be times that without warning, he would poop and it would run out of his diaper, up his onesie and somehow into his hair. And don’t think it stopped at that. It would get in his shoes too. Poop was everywhere. For four years of my life, I swear everything revolved around poop.

Let’s see, what else… Do you remember ever being told about febrile seizures? I know for a fact that I had never heard of one… Until my son had one. I read the statistics later, and supposedly one in four children under the age of four have one. What is a febrile seizure? Well, to put it simply, if your child suddenly spikes a high fever (say 103 or higher) it is likely that one is coming. When my oldest had his, he was 14 months old, and teething. He had no reason to have a fever other than that. I remember that day very well… He was a little warm, but happy, and toddling around our living room, when he decided to climb onto a chair, and he fell and didn’t get up. I walked over, waiting for him to cry, and saw my baby laying straight on the floor, eyes rolled back in his head, and shaking. I screamed, and then called 911. The seizure lasted for about 5 minutes, and we were in the hospital for less time than it took for the ambulance to pick us up and bring us there.

After his seizure, my oldest stopped talking. I brought him to the doctor (still concerned about why he had the seizure to begin with) and no one seemed concerned about his lack of speech. I researched and found a service that would evaluate him and provide speech services if they thought that he needed them. Thankfully, they found that he did, and at 15 months old, my son started speech therapy. But I didn’t know how much crap I would catch from everyone else in my life for trying to do what I thought (and still think) was right for my son.

When I divorced and moved back home, even though I had been parenting solo for a while, I swear no one told me how exhausting it would be. Then again, this was also when my oldest first started having his behavioral issues, so maybe that’s why it seemed so much harder. There were/are many mornings where I would wake up at 5:00 a.m. and not go back to sleep until 2:00 a.m., only to have to get up and do it all again a few hours later. ADHD, OCD, and anxieties in children are just nothing at all to play with. There have been days where everything goes smooth, but there are still a lot more days where it feels like nothing at all goes right.

I could go on and on about everything that has happened that no one warned me about, but I think instead I would like to ask you… What’s something that no one warned you about? In my search to find support in the issues I have had raising my oldest, I have run across many stories, and I never tire of hearing them. I can tell you, it helps to talk about it, and it helps to hear/read someone else’s story and find out that you really aren’t alone, so please, share it here! So tell me what no one ever told you about having kids?

P.S. Make sure to follow me on Facebook!

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Welcome, Find Out A Little About Me… And Life In A Small Town

About Me, Kids,

life in a small town

“Oh my gosh, did you see her hair?”

“Oh honey, that’s nothing, I heard she has a HUGE tattoo on her back.”

“I hear she drinks. A lot.”

Well did you see her son? Honestly I don’t think she ever learned to discipline her kids, because he could really use a good, old-fashioned, ass-whooping.”

 

What you just read above was an actual conversation I overheard, about me, nearly four years ago, in church. The conversation was between two ladies that I thought were my mom’s friends. That conversation was my welcome back to life in a small town.

When I first moved back, my son obviously had some behavioral issues, but he had yet to be diagnosed with anything. As any mother would, I blamed myself (and sometimes I still do). I had read all the baby books, I had lots of experience with kids, and he was perfectly healthy, so it seemed to me that I was obviously the problem.

Now, a year later, I finally got some answers that made sense. First, he was a diagnosed as having an impulse disorder. Next it was ADHD. Over the next two years, other diagnoses were tacked on; an anxiety disorder and OCD. Then we were told that it was possibly bipolar as well. I’m no expert, especially coming from a family that had no mental illness (they’re all just crazy as hell, but no official diagnosis attached to any of them), but I started researching, because that’s what I do. I reached out, but had a hard time finding other parents that were going through this, or at least were willing to talk about it, so I turned to the internet. I wrote, I researched, and continued to reach out to any mom I saw dealing with any type of behavior problems.

As a mom, your only true priority is to protect your children and to raise them to the best of your ability. As a single mom, that burden will fall completely to you, and you will be under a microscope to boot. If you dare to be different, then anything that goes slightly wrong will definitely be your fault. Eventually, you just have to learn to trust yourself, and that’s what I’m here to help you do… Or at least I’ll try.

When I got divorced, I was in a unique situation: I never really learned to cook, I never had to struggle for money, and I had never spent a night completely alone. I had a lot of growing up to do, and FAST. Hell, I still have some changes to make and some growing up to do, but I’m getting there.

In this blog, you’ll grow with me. We’ll discuss not just the challenges of being a single mom, but being a mom, PERIOD. We’ll discuss friendships, relationships, family life. We’ll have fun making projects with the kids, or working on stuff for the house. We’ll learn to cook. We’ll learn to budget. We’ll learn how to make a difference in the world, and make it a better place to live in. Most of all, we’ll have fun. People tend to forget that once they have kids, the fun doesn’t stop. They forget that really, that’s when the fun truly begins. This is the most amazing journey any of us will ever be on, so let’s make the most of it!

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