This post is brought to you by Kellogg’s Frosted Mini Wheats. All opinions are my own.
All winter parents were longing for the dog days of summer to arrive. When the day finally came for the kids to depart from the crayons, pencils and elementary learning’s, groaning ensued once more from parents counting the days until school resumed. This year our fish family ventured into a new era as the twins had their first big day celebrating their fifth birthday and we counted our days all summer until the little squids had their first day of kindergarten.
What better way to start the BIG DAY right but with the most important meal of the day, breakfast! My three fish kids started their morning off with a bowl of Kellogg’s Frosted Mini Wheats with skim milk. Although my daughter will secretly confess she prefers hers without milk at times. Frosted Mini Wheats has eight layers of whole grain fiber to help kids feel full and focused to conquer their first BIG DAY.
Not only were the twins beginning their education adventure but they were enrolling in a new school environment. We helped to prepare them by doing some of the following to make that first BIG DAY less hectic and reduce their anxiety:
Chose their own clothes and shoes for the school year
Picked out their own school supplies
Showed excitement for picking out backpacks
Let them choose their own lunch pails
Stress free excitement (from parents)
As parents we often forget the last step in helping our children to tackle their BIG DAY is to show lots of positive reinforcement and excitement and pocket all the stress. Not only are our kids anxious and a little stressed but so are the parents. Remember that everyday can be a BIG DAY with tests, activities and the like for our kids when school is in session. We can help them overcome any fears and anxiety with lots of simple fun, excitement, and always focus on the positive.
Did your kids have a BIG DAY this year when returning to school? Any major milestones like my twins entering kindergarten? For more BIG DAY success stories, tips, and ideas visit:Â http://www.scholastic.com/pcbigday/
Maintaining the wild giggle to myself of the faded memory of the TIME magazine cover I too shake my head in misunderstanding of the critical judgment passed by parents and non-parents alike. I wonder why we “freak out” to see that a parent so chooses a path to nurture and bond with their child that may be socially out of norm, albeit unacceptable to a vast majority. Yet the parent that lets their child run the streets, is unaware of any retardation they may experience that puts them at a huge disadvantage among other children, and lacks the parental attachment necessary to provide basic loving care is ignored. Not even a huff, snort, or pissy remark given to this form of action and behavior.
I am talking about a parent that has no nurturing qualities whatsoever. I am speaking to a parent that lets their child leave the house and is unaware of their disappearance and is not in the least bit concerned to their childs whereabouts. I am speaking to a parent who has fully admitted the only reason the child is in their life is to save their marriage.
And we thought breastfeeding a kindergartner was preposterous.
Copyright of Sarah Maizes Moms.Today.com
What I find most appalling is the fact that this parent ADOPTED their child. They CHOSE this child. They CHOSE to bring a special needs child into their home. They CHOSE this life. Call me callous, but this is like adopting a dog. Now when faced with the challenges that childhood brings with this child and the struggles of social growth and cognitive skills they seem to think that this behavior is the norm and ignore the fact their child has greater needs that some parents do not have the capacity to work with, through, or have any experience in the matter. They seem to brush the kid under the rug like he or she is the everyday norm, run of the mill standard kid with no special needs.
I struggle with this parent daily due to our close proximity. I have struggled to not write on this subject because of the damning effect. I struggle as I watch this parent spend more quality time with the family dogs on her daily constitutional than she does quality time with her child. I fight the urge to tell her to fuck off when her child randomly leaves their home and she is unaware of his disappearance, or maybe she is aware and does not exude concern, and the child shows up at my house, unannounced, unwanted, as the child stands at my doorstep entitled to come in and spend time with our family. I find pity and concern and anger with this situation that the child finds solace and acceptance in my home despite my hidden anger, concern, and lastly my pity.
This child acts as an ape in my home, climbing on counters, standing on counters and other household items that are not meant for this type of behavior. Pulling my window coverings from their bases in the walls leaving gaping wounds in my drywall needing to be repaired due to his feral behavior. I had patience and understanding in the beginning, knowing his situation. At first I made excuses that the child needed to know the boundaries in our home, to understand our rules and so we discussed healthy boundaries and rules.
Out the window….like their coverings.
I tried to reason and explain to the parents what his behavior entailed so as not to have a repeat offense.
Ignored.
Now, as the child visits my home on an almost every weekend basis I am faced with a rage I can no longer bridle from this parent who lacks any form of attachment, love, or concern for her CHOSEN child. The child is very special needs and quite frankly I am not equipped to deal with this sort of child that is not mine. I do not have the skills to entertain him on the days that are MINE to spend with my flesh and blood. To relax and enjoy my children because I am too spun and wound tighter than a drum because THIS child invades my home. Call me selfish, I can. Not my kid. You are probably thinking: “Don’t let him in,” “Send the child home,” all warranted responses to which I say, I am not the one letting him enter our home.
Often times the child shows up and is let in by my husband, sometimes my kids. If left to me I would leave him at the door at which he compulsively rang the door bell where I would want to rip the notification device from the wall to prevent further use. I then begin to question the motives of the mother who once sent him over stating, “It’s my weekend to relax and I want my time.” I nearly cam unglued and my rage almost got the better of me as I began to hoof my angry, selfish, self-righteous ass over to her house to demand she explain who the hell she was to make such claims and assume the weekends were not my family’s either. TWAT!
I digress.
So I then question her motives again. My only assumption is her daft obliviousness to the fact that we have goings on in our lives, that we do not just sit around waiting for her to send her child off to our home to give her reprieve, she must just think that since we have three children…in the grand scheme what is one more. Again I curse TWAT and how dare she. But then I thought, why not play her game. One day the child came to the door and we sent our THREE children in tow with this child back to his home for a full on play date at their house.
The silence lasted about week. It was bliss.
Until the weekend this child came to the door on a Sunday, of all weekends, that we all decided to sleep in. By sleep in, I mean we all slept until roughly nine in the morning. The morning was glorious until I was ripped from my peaceful morning arousal by the door bell, a knock at the door, dogs barking fervently. FUCK!
Running to the door I answered and politely sent the boy away as he attempted to pout and I bit my adult lip to not rip his head off. Meandering back to my room to lay quietly again in my comfy bed to get my wits about me I hear another knock. Short of losing my shit altogether I advise my eldest son that is awake to ignore the door and the child coming to it every fifteen minutes. For an hour the child paces in front of our house after being sent away and finally I cannot take it and so I text the mother to see if she understands the gravity of the situation. Advising her I sent the boy home at nine…by now it is fifteen after 10 in the morning.
She doesn’t catch my drift.
Then the child is trying his hand at jimmying open my son’s bedroom window. At this point my husband is awake, because my sleeping lion has now come full rage and is about to pull the kid home by his ears. By no means am I a violent person, but the events that have taken place have pushed me to corporal actions. My husband calms me for a moment, steps outside and takes the boy aside, speaks to him and sends him on his way. While I pace furiously through my kitchen eyeing the events to the front of my house through my dining room window, I cannot take anymore shenanigans. I text the mother to explain that their child was sent away an hour ago because we wanted to sleep in without their child coming over for once, I explain him pacing in front of our house for the hour, I explain the attempted break in.
Crickets.
No apology.
No admission of guilt.
Not even giving a fuck.
Then I am speechless. At a complete loss to the lack of concern on behalf of this parent. Their child was away from their home with no known whereabouts for more than a hour. They had assumptions I am sure. Let me further caveat all this that the child is EIGHT years old with special needs. Born of a mother who abused alcohol and drugs. A child who has spent his entire life in some form of therapy classes for social, cognitive, and other basic skills born unto children who are not born of the deficiencies he faces. But clearly he is of sound mind and body to walk around a neighborhood block, on a very heavy traffic neighborhood street, to come play with my children, without supervision on his jaunt, without concern of his whereabouts.
Maybe I am blowing the whole situation out of proportion. Maybe I just care to the whereabouts of my children. Maybe I care to their concern and to that of others. Maybe I enjoy to just spend time with my children on the weekends after I work all week. I am selfish in that I do not want to watch another parents child who sends them off so they can have peace and quiet. Maybe I find that there is a happy medium between the attachment and detached parenting ideals. I like that my children are their own person and being, sleep on their own, completed breastfeeding at one year, but still have me tuck them in at night, I have them still hold my hand across the street and through parking lots, I find that more of being a concerned, loving parent, than fitting into any mold of parenting principles.
When has the detached parenting gone too far? Or in this case was their any “parenting” involved at all?
Our current economic atmosphere has evolved a new breed of a stay at home parent. Formerly mothers were the primary care givers in the home and the most likely proponent to attend PTO meetings, running the kids to sports activities, and doing the household upkeep. Homes used to be comprised of a working father and stay at home mother, very a-typical, very “Cleaver-esque,” very reminiscent of our grandparents, possibly our parents of the baby-boomer era. The idolization of the American dream of a stay at home parent to raise our children and the other parent in the workforce, “bringing home the bacon.” However, as aforementioned, the weather has shifted and as a society, more and more dads are in the home world heading up the household at her core. Now mom is the one who is bringing home, and sometimes, frying up the bacon too.
Yet how much credit is afforded to these men who collide head on with the “stay at home” job? Men are men, and they do not have the same nurturing and caring as women do who often take to the stay at home career much more gracefully. Not to say fathers and men cannot be as effective, I am only indicating that the vagina is an upper-hand in the soft touch of caring for a home and family. But again, who is to say that a man cannot keep his hardened parenting style as the brute force in parenting, and carry on a softness and tenderness that emanates greatness in our children.
My husband is one of these men. He is my hero. He was formerly a manny. A slapstick reference to his job by calling himself a male nanny (manny) where he was and is much more than that. Gifted with a layoff leaving him unemployed, we thought to only be temporary, has become a full-time opportunity that has afforded him time with our children that fathers are not often privileged to experience. He wakes with them in the morning, they ask for him at bed for good-night story time, and they are all different people, The Chad included, because of the power of daddy. Many men “claim” to be a stay at home dad, where mom works in the home and dad happens to stay at home and claim to be a care taker, but really he is a glorified babysitter, not a true parent, not a true parental caregiver, nurturer. I say that very cavalier because these men are aware they lack the nurturing gift of fatherhood, a gift and art learned only through precious time spent with their children. Face it, most dads fumble with the kids only because mom comes in and takes over, rules the roost, puts out any fires and calms all the storms. Moms have only learned this by experience, gifted again with precious time with the children, the nurturing that begins from womb to breast as we hold our babes tightly. Men have a different experience and much different than the woman’s, so some detachment can be expected, they do not have 40 weeks of bonding prior to delivery.
I say that men fumble because they do, at no fault of their own. I commend any dad who will spend alone time with his children sans mom. Sans a woman of any sorts to jump in with maternal instinct to care and nurture and fix the errors dads should be afforded to make when adventuring through parenthood, fatherhood. Ladies how many times have you bitched, moaned, groaned or carried on because dad served up peanut butter and jelly for dinner and didn’t prepare the three course meal topped with sparkling water in a clear glass tumbler? I have a few small words for you if they have done this – FUCK YOU and of course GET OVER IT. Admittedly you know you have had moments of weakness where a full meal was not served, you have half assed the house keeping, or best yet, you ponied up to hire a housekeeper because “you don’t have the time” or “the energy” or flat out you cannot handle the way your husband handles the housekeeping for you because its not “your way.” I pity you for your coarse and selfish behavior. I pity you for not appreciating a man who is willing to be that bigger man and take on a traditional feminine role for the greater good of the family unit. Given any amount of time men glide through the home calming any household storm, simmering a sibling bickering bout, and giving to his wife with the truest love and affection money cannot buy.
I could not be more blessed and more honored for my husband and all his struggles to take on his role as a true daddy in our house. We will be able to look back on these years and be thankful that each of us was afforded time to be home with our kids and watch them grow in different phases of their lives; no one ever knows how rewarding being a stay at home dad or a stay at home mom job really is until they have done it. We will never regret any sacrifices and or struggles during this time because we gave of ourselves to our children, selflessly and with the utmost love.
Going about dinner with my family tonight, I realized how much I have been able to enjoy my children outside of my blog. For the years leading up to this moment I shared almost the two full years of my children’s lives, the first two years of which were for my twins and before were the months leading up to their birth. The fodder of their lives and daily isms is what has driven this blog, making this mostly about parenthood, parenting, being a mother, their antics. All roles and life experiences to revel in, but I am realizing more and more how much I have enjoyed the privacy of my children growing up in front of me, my memories, my moments; our moments.
My little blog will now be evolving and growing as my children have. Visually recognizing that our relationship is truly about parenthood and parenting, mother and child, our values as parents withstanding the test of time, societal pressures, growing pains, individuality, fitting inside the box. Am I fulfilling my children’s lives with cultural enrichment, worldly values and acceptances, and ensuring blinding and bigoted boundaries are eliminated from their being? Call their experience enlightenment or a sense of ascension but I want my children to be just that, children.
Children of their own pace and world away from PR influence, marketing, and main stream of the best and greatest toy, gadget, gizmo, and whatchamajig. Full of wonder and imagination. Encouraged. Loved. Cherished. Appreciated. Supported. I think with a “mommy” or parent blog we are too busy touting our “look at me and look at my kid” that we forget to teach, encourage, cherish, educate. A blog is too much of a public parenthood platform that we are too busy sharing that awesome moment that we forget to live in that moment. Fantastic to put that moment forever into electronic history, but what about just living in the moment. Living with our children. Seeing what we can learn as parents, teaching our children the power of responsibility, ownership, love, respect, values, regret, and the lessons to be learned from these moments.
I watched the other day as a parent went on a tirade about soda served to her young child. While I do not like my children to have soda or other processed drinks including bottled fruit juices (grape, apple, etc), I also know that I can educate them at a young age the affects of these beverages can wreak on their overall health from teeth to how it affects their overall being, thwarting any outside influence to peer pressure them into the sea of wasted humanity. But with watching this parent’s tirade I watched her never take ownership to share or educate her child about soda, any soda, nor did she educate others about her beliefs for her children and that they are her own and to be respected regardless of general society and despite what others believed to be socially okay. In part, her parenthood was so public she forgot to parent her own child and self. We all fuck up, we make mistakes, but evermore, a part of making those mistakes is owning them and teaching our children that we make mistakes, own them, learn from these errors, grow!
Now that my twins have reached the exact age of their oldest sibling when this blog was erected, my eldest son was just about four when I started this blog, I am seeing another turning point to talk about what I do to be a responsible parent. How my children will interact in the unknown future world and hope that my small influence on them  to be righteous, fierce, honest, modest, and simplistic will be contagious. My hope is that this contagion to spread among the masses that being a parent and a public parent means to be held accountable and not inflict some executive order of power that we lack education toward our children in values, decision making and critical thinking. That we value our privacy and publicity as parents and these are in sync with one another.These characteristics should not be left to the institutionalized educators, the education should begin with parenthood. Basic parenting, basic adulthood, and simple humanity.
I only hope that my children know that each human puts their pants on the same each day, and by no means will they ever think themselves more superior, and that my most basic love and adoration for them will be enough to fill their hearts as they have filled mine for dozens of lifetimes.
Crunching for time and on the look out for some tasty bites that I know my kids will enjoy, one of my bosses shared this recipe with me, of which I altered to enjoy in my home that, 1) Saves us money and 2) Saves us time. We love Mexican food and my kids love tacos, then add the love of sweets like cupcakes. Fuse the two and you have cupcake tacos. What is better than the love of cupcakes and the love of tacos to get CUPCAKE TACOS!
These tasty beauty bites are fun and great for the whole family. They require so little time and so little efforts. Made with wonton wrappers that you can find in the produce section or the refrigerated section. All you need is a cupcake pan and the following ingredients to make your cupcake tacos:
Ground Turkey (we use free range organic, but you can use ground chicken or beef)
1 package of Won Ton wrappers or Egg Roll wrappers
1 can refried beans (We used 365 Organic refried beans)
Chopped cabbage (or lettuce)
Diced tomatoes
1 cup of shredded cheese (mexican mix or Colby Jack and Monterey)
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Brown the meat, add your favorite seasoning for spice and flair. We like chili powder, chipotle powder, cumin, onion powder, sea salt, fresh ground pepper and cilantro. Set the meat aside.
Take your Won Ton wrappers or eggroll wrappers and mold into cupcake dish. If using the Won Ton wrappers use two and alternate the layers. Layer in the meat and your refried beans until full then top with cheese.
Slide into the oven and bake until the wrappers are golden brown and appear crunchy. Serve warm topped with your favorite veggies.
Using the recipe calculator these yield about 200 calories per cupcake and pack quite the punch with 19 grams or protein. Taco cupcakes can be pre-made and stored in the fridge, make a large batch and stash in the freezer. They are a great addition and cost so little to make. For those picky eaters, they are also fun and taste great.
Living in Arizona brings a very harsh and dry climate. We have over 300 days of pure, unadulterated sunshine each year. So for an active family like ours, we are constantly in use of a sun protecting product to prevent sun damaged skin and thwart the idea of skin cancer. Furthermore we own a pool, so the majority of our summer experience is spent beside or in that pool or at the local lakes. Our family also enjoys camping and other outdoor sports and activities which puts us in the glow of our warming star. Sun protectant is HUGE Â and vital in our home and we go through a lot of it.
But as an Eco-conscious mom and one that looks for overall protection, benefits, and a small carbon footprint I also want to make sure I am using something that will be safe on my children. Additionally I don’t want to pretend I am snowed over on a product, especially one that was provided for a review free of charge. Shall we dig into the details.
I recently signed up for a campaign with Global Influence to review a sunscreen line, Beyond Coastal.
I have never heard of the product. never seen them, their brand has never been brought to my attention. So the product is a perfect platform to review as it is not a brand I normally purchase or something I would seek out; often seen amongst most review bloggers. Ahem.
Mind you I will be full disclosure, I have nothing to hide and I have no shame. All participants of the review were advised that they were to post the week of April 30th. As you can see that time has clearly passed. We all waited and were notified that the products were “on their way and additional time would be provided.” Because my time is extremely valuable and priceless because I work outside the home and am the sole provider for my household, this dilly dally attitude was not befitting to me for their demands of a timeline. I sent a few emails, of which went unanswered until push come to shove, as I asked for the new timeline, an ETA for arrival, some answers; like I said, being a bitch gets you an answer. Normally when you create and setup a project with a deadline you provide levels of communication, of which were lacking. Not to mention the company that was providing the product was delayed in shipping the product. Duly noted.
Arriving nicely packed in a bubble wrap envelope, I tore in to see what was entailed to review:
Citrus Grove Lip Balm SPF 15 – .15oz
Active Face Stick Sunscreen SPF 30 – .50oz
Natural Clear Sunscreen SPF 30 (Clean and Clear) – 1oz
Active Sunscreen SPF 30 (Water Resistant) – 1oz
Natural Sunscreen Kids 30+ (Kid Safe) – 2.5oz
Now I am an avid and active runner and run at all times of the day. So I was drawn to the Active Face Stick, something I could pocket and take on my run that I could reapply if I were to be out more than 30 minutes at a time. I applied, exactly as the directions intended, liberally. However, I confess that while I was liberal, I felt like I just caked on a load of Vaseline on my face after I began to perspire into my run, yet it smelled like a fresh lemon, rather nice I suppose. But then the sunscreen was running into my eyes, burning them, causing me to turn right around and bag my run. Fail. Not a selling point on this product. Later I read on the website how it boasts that it, Â “Acts as a wind-chap to keep your face protected during skiing and snow sports” (Beyond Coastal – Active Face Stick, 2012). So I suppose running isn’t the active genre they were engaging, more the ski and snow sports, like snowball fights in a bunny suit. Oh I digress.
Moving on to the kids sunscreen. I began to investigate the ingredients. I did this after I read three of the already published reviews where mom’s never addressed the actual product, but that sunscreen is vital to their children and they want a “safe product.” Fantastic, could not agree more. However I begged the question on why the hell, and I quote this from the product site, a kids sunscreen needs a skin cell builder. I even looked at my husband and begged the same question. I even left the issue open ended,
“When you hear ‘skin cell builder’ what comes to mind?”
Anti-aging.
Right….for kids?
Last I checked my kids are not in fear of needing botox injections or face lifts, so why an added filler for the sunscreen. I think this might be a bunch of hooey in the product if you ask me.
Comfrey Plant Extract
Skin Cell Builder, Protects and Soothes
 (Beyond Coastal Kids Natural Sunscreen, 2012)
Research and investigation in the products showed me that the majority have some level of alcohol which causes drying and my favorite ingredient that was boasted about being a skin conditioner. Can I tell you what this magical ingredient is that other reviewers didn’t share, “Castor Isostearate Succinate.” Can you pronounce it? Probably not and the likelihood of knowing what is really in this is probably just as likely, so I will share with you, the Castor is a type of vegan bean that makes an oil which is rather moisturizing if used properly. I make soap and I use Castor as well as other vegan products that can be pronounced, like Olive Oil. Sigh, let me get back to my point, the “Castor Isostearate Succinate” is a polymeric mixture of esters. In plain English, it is a concoction of synthetics. AWESOME (with a hallelujah ring to this word). But the product is “all natural.” Okay…if your food comes pre-wrapped and is beige I can get on board with that, but mine has color and I know where it came from, someone’s yard, aka a farm. Sheesh I digress again.
I really could not bring myself to review much else of the products offered other than the lip balm, which I left to my darling and ever so accommodating husband. Who was so gracious to tell me that the lip balm is, “soothing on my chapped lips without being waxy or feeling like a buildup.” Well said dear, thank you for this redeeming statement.
But if you like free loot and you would like to try the product please feel free to enter this awesome giveaway that Beyond Coastal and Resourceful Mommy Media – Global Influence have provided for your enjoyment. Leave me a little comment telling me what are your uses for sunscreen?
Extra entries include:
Subscribing to my facetious feed
Like The Fish
Promote this on Facebook by sharing from The Five Fish
Leave a comment on a non-giveaway post….there are quite a few 😉
Enter one of my other giveaways
Contest ends June 9th at 12:01am AZ time.
As always: No Purchase Necessary, available to US residents. One entry per household. US postcard entries also acceptable if you do not have access to the above entry options, no limit to postcard entries as long as all are received before the close of the contest, email contests@thefivefish.com for your postcard entry details or to use email as your postcard entrance as these entries will be logged by the administrator of the blog. Winners will be chosen by “And the Winner is†Failure to adhere to the aforementioned rules set forth by this contest will result in forfeiture of your entry with no notice. Facebook does not promote, endorse, nor sponsor this review and giveaway and will be held harmless. As always, good luck and enjoy. My opinions herein are my own and are no way influenced by the receipt of a free product, they are an honest reflection of myself and my review of the integrity of the product.
“Disclosure: I was provided with a Natural Family Pack travel case of Beyond Coastal sun products at no cost in order to promote the product and give my own personal opinions on it. The opinions I have given are mine and may differ from others but were not influenced by the company or the free product provided.â€
Recently I ran a post about monster stains in laundry. Having three kids I can attest to LOTS of monster stains. Two toddlers, boy and girl, and an eight year old boy are royalty of mess making. Clothing is made to be an extension of a napkin by all means; swipes of the mouth end up on sleeves, hands are stroked against pant legs or right across the chest of a great shirt, usually their hands are a carrier of some “sauce”. Needless to say stains are not uncommon in our laundry chores.
Shortly after my Monster of a Stain post, my demonic, beautiful and adorable daughter was treated to an organic fruit pop of sorts for dessert. It was strawberry or berry of some sort or it was just a mess of melted fruit pop because it was bright red and pink on her cute zebra print dress. The stain was striking against the black and white print. Her brand new dress I was worried would be stained permanently. Or so I thought.
I read the back of the Clorox2 bottle to see how to pretreat the stain so that I could have some chance to salvage her new dress that her grandmother had recently bought for her. Quite frankly it was adorable too so I was going to be as devastated as she if we could not eliminate the staining beast from the dress.
If you look at the dress it truly seemed as if there was no possible way any pretreatment, soaking, or bleaching could save this cute little dress from the rag bin. But I had faith and hoped for the best with her dress since she absolutely loves her fashion.
So I treated the stain and tossed it in for a wash with like colors. Tossed it in the dryer without inspecting whether the stain had come clean or not, again trying everything not to jinx myself.
The end result is pretty impressive and in no way what I expected by any stretch of the imagination. I pictured a dress with a stain outlined or faded lightly that was now maybe a light shade of orange splashed along the front. Instead I was presented with a dress that was free from color fading which can be experienced in pretreatment and a dress that has no resemblance of it’s former stained glory. No faded outlines of a stain, no remnants at all of a stain, I was ecstatic. My daughter was excited, to see her dress stain free and I was the laundry hero. If only she knew, without the help of Clorox2 and cold water I would have never been able to save the dress from her supping a fruit pop. What are your laundry products for fighting monster stains? Do you trust products like Clorox2? Do you use natural remedies like lemon juice or seltzer?
DISCLAIMER:Â THIS IS A SPONSORED POST ON BEHALF OF CLOROX2, Â I WAS COMPENSATED FOR MY TIME BY POSTING THIS INFORMATION AND IN NO WAY WERE MY PERSONAL VIEWS COMPROMISED OR ALTERED.
Celebrate National Reading Month with TAG and Scholastic!
Use this $3 coupon at your favorite retail store to save on Tag books and start your child’s reading journey!  Visit the link to take advantage of the savings and promote early reading and education in your home.
(Offer good through March 31st, 2012 – Coupon expires June 30, 2012)
Recounting the numerous posts I have about reading would be boring, so let me just share again that reading is an intricate building block in any child and or adults growth and education. As an adult learner I cannot tell you how much I love to read. Even more so for children to put together words, to make sentences, to communicate effectively. My home is a HUGE proponent for early learning and education and when Leap Frog created the TAG reader my son immediately received one and as many books he could stomach. My twins even have the TAG Jr. to engage their young minds from the time they were 18months old.
More than 15 years ago LeapFrog began building its legacy: helping children learn to read. They do this by hiring professionals with design degrees to design new and
innovative products for children. So we’re celebrating this month with Tag, the #1 selling reading system.* It helps children learn to read and more by bringing words and pictures to life—that’s why 99% of teachers recommend Tag!** And the Tag library of 60+ interactive books, maps and more helps build the fundamentals for school success.
*U.S. Source: The NPD Group/Consumer Tracking Service: PS Electronic Learning, Electronic Reading, Toy Brands as defined by LeapFrog in Dollars, Annual 2010. Canada Source: The Nielsen Company, Market Track Closed Group, National Toy Market 2009 (52 weeks ending December 2010). **Based on 2010 survey conducted by LeapFrog of teachers participating in its Tag Kindergarten Program, who received Tag School Reading Systems from LeapFrog for use in their classrooms (LeapFrog & Scholastic Press, 2012)
DISCLAIMER: THIS IS A SPONSORED POST ON BEHALF OF TAG-LEAPFROG, I WAS COMPENSATED FOR MY TIME BY POSTING THIS INFORMATION AND IN NO WAY WERE MY PERSONAL VIEWS COMPROMISED OR ALTERED.
Shamrock Farms is gearing up to celebrate Halloween in a hauntingly healthy fashion with a family-friendly event down on the Farm. Aside from meeting 10,000 cows, guests are invited to wear their costumes, trick or treat and enjoy chocolate milk, all while meeting Roxie, Shamrock Farms lovable spokescow, and famous Peanuts characters Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Sally! Especially since chocolate milk is the official drink of Halloween. Treat your bones with Chocolate Milk, the Official Drink of Halloween, a nutritious beverage in disguise that Mom can feel good about during this candy-filled holiday! As with any sweet indulgence, in moderation and mom’s can feel better about a cold glass of calcium filled chocolate milk as opposed to tooth rotting sweets that can wreak havoc on our kids.
This Halloween event falls on Saturday October 29th, and at Shamrock Farms in the southeast valley heading towards Tucson we will be honoring our “kids ride FREE†deal (with adult admission) so this is an awesome added value event for families to enjoy with kids being FREE. Attendees will also receive a FREE milk and will be able to trick or treat along the tour.
Roxie Costume Party at the Farm: Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011 (3 tours offered)
Visit the Cold Room – Not counting school milk, Shamrock Farms stores 930,000 bottles of chocolate milk in its Cold Room on a WEEKLY basis where 1,330 pallets are loaded and over 1.8 million chocolate school milk containers (stored weekly) are handled at the farm.
Production – Shamrock Farms produces more than 200,000 gallons of chocolate milk every week which equals to about 3.2 millions cups of milk each week.
In addition to celebrating the Halloween special, come celebrate Arizona’s 100th birthday, we’ll be having special Centennial activities at the Farm! There’ll be an enhanced tour featuring Arizona’s history and every guest during our 2011 season will receive a commemorative band with admission celebrating Arizona’s Centennial and Arizona’s hometown dairy.
More than 10,000 cows are standing by, ready to make our farm tour a real hands-on experience for kids of all ages. With interactive displays, games and a tram ride, it’s a cornucopia of family-focused and educational activities for the whole herd.
If you haven’t seen these posts before please enjoy.
This will be a post every Monday to jump start the week. I was inspired to do this weekly post when I found that my kids had gotten hold of our Sony Cybershot Camera and needless to say there are some very incriminating, informative, and even down right hilarious and frightening photos that my children have captured. I hope you will enjoy these brief moments in time, captured by my children when they thought no one was looking.
In honor of Halloween this month these will be some spooky and even frightening photos.
Not only were the twins beginning their education adventure but they were enrolling in a new school environment. We helped to prepare them by doing some of the following to make that first BIG DAY less hectic and reduce their anxiety:
Our current economic atmosphere has evolved a new breed of a stay at home parent. Formerly mothers were the primary care givers in the home and the most likely proponent to attend PTO meetings, running the kids to sports activities, and doing the household upkeep. Homes used to be comprised of a working father and stay at home mother, very a-typical, very “Cleaver-esque,” very reminiscent of our grandparents, possibly our parents of the baby-boomer era. The idolization of the American dream of a stay at home parent to raise our children and the other parent in the workforce, “bringing home the bacon.” However, as aforementioned, the weather has shifted and as a society, more and more dads are in the home world heading up the household at her core. Now mom is the one who is bringing home, and sometimes, frying up the bacon too.
I say that men fumble because they do, at no fault of their own. I commend any dad who will spend alone time with his children sans mom. Sans a woman of any sorts to jump in with maternal instinct to care and nurture and fix the errors dads should be afforded to make when adventuring through parenthood, fatherhood. Ladies how many times have you bitched, moaned, groaned or carried on because dad served up peanut butter and jelly for dinner and didn’t prepare the three course meal topped with sparkling water in a clear glass tumbler? I have a few small words for you if they have done this – FUCK YOU and of course GET OVER IT. Admittedly you know you have had moments of weakness where a full meal was not served, you have half assed the house keeping, or best yet, you ponied up to hire a housekeeper because “you don’t have the time” or “the energy” or flat out you cannot handle the way your husband handles the housekeeping for you because its not “your way.” I pity you for your coarse and selfish behavior. I pity you for not appreciating a man who is willing to be that bigger man and take on a traditional feminine role for the greater good of the family unit. Given any amount of time men glide through the home calming any household storm, simmering a sibling bickering bout, and giving to his wife with the truest love and affection money cannot buy.
