Snow Days and Thinking of Getting More Extreme...

Having a hard time getting to sleep tonite so am spending a little quiet time at the computer. Blog time and thoughts are fewer and farther between these days, but every now and then I have a few things to say.

My kids have had Snow Days off of school for the past two days. We enjoyed playing games and making a special treat on Valentines Day, and today I employed my 10 year old daughter to get a bunch of cleaning and organizing projects done for me that I have not gotten around to. Things like organizing closets and cupboards. She is really good at it, and the whole thing was a bargain and feels so good to have done.

The funniest part of her cleaning was when she cleaned out the bathroom closet and found two unopened 5 gallon buckets from our Y2K stash. We will now have plenty of whole wheat couscous and brown rice. :)

The other day I was watching the final DVD of the Oprah Winfrey 20th Anniversary collection. Since I haven't watched TV at home for probably 10 years, I'm way out of the loop on so many things. Of course I have known about Oprah and watched her show probably for the first 10 years she was on. I do see her magazine, know about the book club, and every now and then hear about some good deed she has done. However, this disc just grabbed ahold of me.

It showed her Christmas project that she did, delivering gifts to children in South Africa. What a powerful, beautiful thing to see the thought and care that went into that effort, and the emotion those children displayed over shoes, jeans, a doll, or a new soccer ball. My husband and I sat there almost spellbound, again hit with the enormity of need in the world, and again looking at each other and asking, "What can WE do?"

I think that people find it easy to ignore what they cannot see. We can be prejudice against people when we don't have personal relationships with anyone in that group. We can ignore suffering, sickness, hunger, and other needs when we are not face-to-face with it.

If that doesn't keep our conscious clear we tell ourselves that the needs of the world are too big to help, so us making any effort at all isn't going to make a difference.

But, you know what? That's a lie.

I believe that if everybody that *could* do something *did* do something, there would be a huge shift for the better in this world.

Yes, we may not be able to do much. No, you can't save everybody on your own. But you can do something.

Just recently my husband and I were talking about feeling an itch to do something radical. We discussed how some people feel led to go to foreign countries as missionaries. Others are equipped with the business know-how to raise lots of money and give it to worthy organizations. Some are charismatic and can effectively communicate needs and motivate people to act. Although we may have some small amount of ability in some of these areas, none are the thing that gets us riled up and ready to act.

When I watched that South Africa Christmas special I was reminded about the one big thing that we always come back to, always cry over, and always want to do something about. Kids in need. Orphans. Children that have been let down by those that should have cherished them. Kids who need to know that they matter to somebody, and that they belong to a family.

I don't know how this will play out, but I have known this for almost as long as I've been married: We want to be a part of the solution.

Our baby will turn four in a couple of weeks, so home life is gradually getting less chaotic and we are more able to reach out to others than we have been for the past.....8 or 9 years. Is now the time to see how we can actively help children in need of a home? How do we reconcile the needs of the children we already have with the potential needs of additional children that have been badly damaged in their lives already? Are we good enough parents? Will we regret getting involved? Can we handle it? Do we have what it takes? Will our children be harmed?

Again, I don't know. I don't know if we're ready. I don't know if we have what it takes. I don't know if this is the right time. I just know that the desire to do this has never subsided, and my husband feels the same way. I feel pretty sure that sometime in the future we will be adding more children to our family through adoption.

In an effort to see how our kids would feel about this prospect we asked their opinion on the idea of adopting some children into our family. Even 6 months ago my oldest child would have (and did) said that there is no way he can imagine us dealing with any more kids. But this time...every single one of them said yes and was enthusiastic about the idea, even after I explained some of the not-fun issues that we might be dealing with because of the rough start these kids have had in life. Of course, some of my kids are too young to really absorb all of the information, but the older ones seemed eager to embrace the idea and seemed to understand the ministry aspect of this. Since we talked to them about it they have asked several times what we are thinking about the adoption idea, and if we are moving forward about it in any way.

I get fired up about this issue every so often, and so far every time we have gotten fired up, once we looked at some of the details we decided that we weren't ready. There is a good chance, considering our track record, that this will happen again for this time. I have to believe, though, that all of the years of discussions and consideration will be a benefit to us, and that when it is time to act we will know it. If you care to join us in praying about whether or not now is the time and this is the project for us, please do. We don't want to make any decisions without God's direction.

Another Q&A

At least somebody likes to keep me talking. Here's her question:

Hello there Dollymama! I come seeking your wisdom yet again. How in the world do moms who want to homeschool start up home based businesses? Alas, I am not the most creative of people.

Good question!

I think that homeschooling is a huge, huge undertaking. It requires so much focus, thought, and engagement on the part of the mother (or primary teacher--usually the mother). Even if you do "relaxed" homeschooling, you have to do a lot of mind work.

Having a home-based business can be anything from a minor to a major part of your life, depending on what you're doing and what your goals are. An entrepreneurial pursuit can really take over your life, your house, and your energy. When I had just one child that was 1 or 2 years old I sold Tupperware, with the goal being to earn enough money to be helpful to my family. It was something I worked on most days, most of the day. That whole "just two parties a week" thing is nonsense. You have to work a lot more than that to get and maintain and prepare for two parties.... Now that I've had internet-based businesses for over 2 years I can tell you that it takes more money, time, thought, and energy than I expected. I enjoy it mostly, but it does tend to crowd out other things.

So, although a lot of homeschool families also do home businesses, I think it's a mighty tough combination. Of the homeschool families I know of that also have home businesses, I have heard a wide range of comments about it. The families with young children that need schooling seem to be truly struggling and wondering if it's worth it. The families that seem to be succeeding more and enjoying it more are ones with most of their children in high school or older, and they delegate a lot of their business and homeschooling tasks to older children. The few people I know of that have little ones and succeed in their business seem to be extremely, EXTREMELY organized and principled with the way they spend their time and keep different parts of their life separate.

It seems to take quite awhile to build a successful business. Nobody wants to believe that their entrepreneurial idea is going to not turn a profit for 3-5 years like the stats tell them, but it's usually true. If you need to make money NOW, starting something from scratch probably isn't the way to go for you. If you want to build up to something and have the time without financial pressure, planting some home business seeds and tending to them faithfully will probably work better.

If you start your business at a point in your life when you have things basically under control, that will probably work best. Once you've got your life running smoothly, you can figure out a way to fit in a home based business. As you add children or new responsibilities you can probably find ways to work everything into the mix. One good thing about starting a business when you need the money less is that later on as you grow your business and your home/family/homeschool responsibilities expand, you will probably have the business income to be able to afford to outsource some of your duties. For instance, you can hire assistants to do basic web maintenance, send out newsletters, set up link exchanges, find new products for you to sell, or find new places to sell your product. You can also find people to help you run your business, develop products, and so on. There are a zillion angles to this thing, so once the business is running, your options will expand.

Now that I've rained on your parade, let me tell you some good news. There is a TON of great information on the internet and SO many ways to earn money and use your talents from home. It is very encouraging to me and exciting to keep learning and finding out about other ways to reach people and expand on my ideas.

Figuring out what kind of business to have can be tough. It really helps to figure out something that you really care about and have genuine passion for. Head lice isn't exactly a glamorous subject, but I really, really cared about preventing head lice and knew others would respond to that. Sometimes things just kind of pop into our radar and we care about it so much that we turn it into a business. Others figure out services they can provide from home. I recently learned about some great new ebooks that give tons of information about some very popular home based businesses, including what skills and equipment you need to start, how to price your service or product, how to set up web sites and find customers, and lots more. You can check these out here:























There is SO much information on this subject, I have only barely touched the surface here. There are a lot of ways to start and maintain a business, lots of reasons for having one. Ask me some more questions if you have 'em!

11 Pounds Lost!

Yeah! It's been a month of killing off candida yeast, working out, and starving half the time...and I've lost 11 pounds so far. Yay for me!

I really wanted to lose 10 pounds in the first month, so am happy to have passed that goal. I kind of doubt that I'll lose another 11 in the second month, but I'm gonna try. I'd be really happy to lose 9 pounds in month two and make it an even 20. :)

I'm still working on the yeast thing, and my weekly "spit test" came out pretty good. I'm getting to eat about 1 serving of fruit per day and some whole grains (and every now and then I "cheat" and eat a non-whole grain as well), so that helps a whole lot with not getting bored to tears with my diet. I'm glad to see that I can diversify my diet a little and still make progress thanks to the supplement I'm taking.

I am also trying out Hoodia now, to see if it seems to give me any edge on burning fat faster. So far I don't see any better results than I was already having, but I think it might take a week or two to see optimal results so am giving Hoodia a one bottle chance to prove itself to me.

The kids had snow days off from school last Friday and this past Monday, and today got out of school almost 2 hours early. They are hoping for more days off this week....personally I think they are bored being home and need to go on to school. Nevertheless, I went to the video store to stock up on movies just in case we do end up "snowed in" (which is a hoot in KY compared to my upbringing in central NY).

Adding You Tube videos to blog posts

I just remembered that awhile back a reader asked me how I managed to get the you tube video to show up here. The answer is, it's easy! When you have a video on you tube that you want to feature on your blog, if you look on the page where your video shows up, you see some linking options to the right. one of those says "embed." This is the code that you need to put in your HTML editor to have the screen for the video show up on your blog. Super easy and fun!

Q&A: Decorating for a new baby

Hi there Dollymama! I have a question for you. I am having little girl in April. This is the first girl in 28 years on my husband's side...so everyone is VERY excited. I am trying to put a nursery together, but I am becoming oh so frustrated! I know that I need to go with a girly theme in some way (because I know that lots of pink is coming my way), but I'm trying to go a bit unisex as well. I don't want to have to buy everything over again if the next little one is a boy (decorating and bedding wise). Do you have any suggestions?

See now? Here's a smart reader. If you want to get me talking, ask me something. :)

My first thought about this is, are your relatives the type that are going to want to buy lots and lots of baby goods next time around? If so, I would just go all-out on the girl stuff now, and let potential future sons wait until you're crossing that bridge. :) Plus, nice quality secondhand baby stuff will sell great on ebay or whatever, so if you really want to part with the stuff to finance boy things later on, go for it!

That being said, if you do want to try to get the girl thing going on while keeping some versatility for adding a boy into the mix later, my suggestions are these:

-go for yellow walls. Yellow is a great color for walls because it doesn't jump out at you screaming "I'm a YELLOW WALL!" like some colors do (well, unless you get "sunshine" yellow like I once did--it just about matched the school bus...). To the right yellow you can add white lace, reds, pastels or brights, pink and lavender, whatever. I love yellow because there's almost no color you can't make work with it.

-On furniture such as dressers or armoires in the baby's room you can get a classic color or wood, but get fun or beautiful drawer pulls or hardware to work with your current theme. Those are easy to change in the future and not too expensive.

-If you are getting a rocking chair for the nursery you could go with leather (easy to clean spit up off of!!) or denim, and then add girlie throw pillows.

-Artwork for the walls can be moved to other rooms of the house later, so you can get totally girlie prints now, and them move them on to her big girl room later if you need to put up some "little slugger" stuff later. :) Or, you can get some great, fun children's art that is for everybody, such as what I sell here.

-Mobiles and other decorative things that hang from the ceiling add personality but are easily switched out.

-You can get a classic crib in white or wood, and then get bedding that you like. Most people get attached to the comforter stylein a set, so you can always cut corners by getting basic crib sheets that will work for anybody, and get the adorable bedding that you love to go with it.

-Basically, on big ticket stuff like furniture, go classic, and on the accessories, go specific. Put up shelving that is classic, but add girlie picture frames, stuffed animals, whatever. Later the same shelf will work just as well for a boy.

-The other thing to consider is just planning on using the room you start with for the kid that starts in it. Go all-out for your little girl, and later do a new room for a boy if you have one and have another room. :)

-In a lot of cases it seems that grandparents love to have new things to buy for new babies, so I would not worry too much about future purchases. It's a sad Grandma that has nothing to buy for their new grandbaby! :) What grandparents don't buy can usually be gotten through gift registries, or second hand if need be.

Quick Hello

Hello neglected blog readers. Here's the short version:

-I lost 9 pounds in three weeks. Yay me! Only a million more to go...

-am still working out and will not quit

-lived through the 3 week candida yeast thing. it got very unpleasant by the end, and I am now happily able to eat about one serving of fruit and one serving of whole grains per day in addition to the other stuff. Just expanding that much feels like a big relief.

-my business bonus week went well and kept me busy

-I had an epiphany last night about restructuring my life, mainly related to how I have allowed my work on my businesses to crowd out almost everything else that I like to do. I'm not really ready to start blabbing about my big new change yet. I'd like to just start living it.

-My kids are hoping for a big snow storm (4 inches of snow in KY is considered a big snow storm--hilarious) tomorrow, so we shall see if their dreams come true. It would seem kind of sad to not have any snow days for the whole winter, so I'm all for it. Especially the part where I get to sleep in a little bit.

-Sorry that the blog posts are so few and far between. I haven't had much writing inspiration for blog type stuff lately, and I don't feel like manufacturing something. I have considered writing a blog that was entirely fictional, but I don't have energy for that either. :) Sorry--reality ain't fancy 'round here.

Bonus Week is HERE!

Hey kids! Supermom's Bonus Week has arrived. Customers will receive over $100 of FREE BONUS GIFTS! How cool is that? Check it out here. Bonus Week ends Jan. 31.

3 More Down...

Hey peeps!

I lost three more pounds. (May they never be found again!)

I've been working like crazy trying to put together this huge promotion for Supermom's No-Lice Advice. I've had so many online business friends offering me freebies to give away to my customers, it has been kind of overwhelming to get the sale page and download pages ready to go. I am really excited though, because I now have over $100 worth of freebies to give to people that help me meet my goal! THAT is cool.

I've got some more work to do on it, so will probably not be able to tell you all the details until next week.

Good news! Supermom's Health and Wellness is open now too. I've had the button on the sidebar for a few weeks, and have been held back mightily by a web designer that has fallen way behind. The site is not entirely finished yet, but I decided to stop waiting for it to be perfect and just go ahead and get started with what I have to work with now. It'll be improving dramatically in the next few weeks.

My workouts are going well. I am still always tweaking it to see what will be a good fit for helping me reach my goals. Finding out about another 3 lost pounds sure put a spring in my step today. :)

The candida yeast diet lives on. I have seen dramatic results, and also saw the symptoms reappear almost immediately as soon as I did a small journey of widening my diet. Looks like it will be at least the full 3 weeks for me to not eat sugar, fruit, or grains. It ain't easy, and really doesn't feel like it's getting any easier, but I'm doing ok and will be very very thankful to finally beat the yeast beast!

One Week Report

Today marks one week since I started the candida yeast battle. I retested myself this morning and had dramatically improved results, which was very exciting! I had already noticed a great improvement in the skin issues I was working on, as well. So, it's all-around encouraging!

I've done great at my work outs, have been walking faster than ever and have even managed to run some of the time on the treadmill, which is quite a thing for me considering that my previous policy on running was to only do that in case of emergency. :) I lost 4 pounds this week, so can't complain about that! (It feels like 4 down, 400 to go....)

It is still very hard to stick with the candida diet. I did figure out several more things I could eat, but I feel hungry all the time and don't enjoy eating this way. It's much more of eating to stay alive vs. eating and enjoying it. I am looking forward to getting back to the point where I can have a morning smoothie or some whole grain bread or cereal!

I am also still struggling with the amount of time that my workout takes up. When I started working out last fall it was taking me 90 minutes to do everything, and I felt like that was too much time. So now I limit it to 60 minutes. However, I still need a shower when I come home, I'm still hungry when I finish my workout (usually finishing around lunch time), etc. By the time I shower, prepare food, eat, etc. I feel like a very large chunk of my day has been taken up. I'm falling behind on business stuff and am not sure how I am going to find a balance with this. Obviously I have to keep exercising, but I need to be able to get my work done too.

This week my main business challenge is to set up a really big sales promotion for Supermom's No-Lice Advice. If you've been putting off getting everything you need to stay lice-free every day the all-natural way, you won't want to miss this! I can't give you any details today, but I can tell you that if you love FREEBIES you will want to make sure you sign up for the Supermom's No-Lice Advice newsletter here.

Hey!

Guess what? I lost 3 pounds so far. Yay!

Hello Out There

Not that I ever had a very wide readership here, but I fear that with my infrequent and increasingly boring posts, I may drive away the few of you that still come around to check in on me. Sorry about that, but I've only got what I've got. And right now it's not much time for blogging and not always a ton of inspiration.

I'm on day three of a candida yeast kill-off. Candida yeast can become overgrown in your body, and once it does it can give you all sorts of problems. Things like skin problems, fatigue, depression, trouble losing weight, and a ton of other stuff. I've suspected for a long time that I had a candida yeast overgrowth, but all I knew to do about it was a diet so strict that I didn't think I could manage it at the time. Last year I found out about an herbal product that speeds up the process of the yeastie beasties getting killed off, without having to do as extreme a dietary restriction. I've kept it in mind for when I felt like I could take the plunge. I decided to wait til after all the temptations of the holidays were over, so now I am on day 3 of this process.

Starting this anti-candida yeast campaign coordinates with the other things I'm doing to try to get my health and weight under control. I've gotten back on the exercise bandwagon, and am even doing the very strict candida yeast diet that I thought I would not be able to do. It just happens to fit other goals that I had for myself, such as getting off of sugar, and not eating high glycemic foods. So, basically, for the time that I am going through this process I am eating veggies and meat/chicken/eggs. What I'm not eating is:
-sugar
-fruit
-grains in any form (no pasta, bread, crackers, or ANYTHING!)

As the yeast starts to die off you experience cravings for the foods that would feed the yeast (sugar and yeast, basically). So, now that's it's day three it's starting to feel rough. Add in sugar withdrawal and I'm headed for a tough couple of days.

Fortunately, I've gotten off of sugar before, and know that after a day or two of intense cravings, it becomes very easy. I can remember being so unaffected by sugar that I could go to a church pot luck and pass by the dessert table without feeling even one little pang of wish that I could eat something from it.

The hardest part about doing this is that my food options feel very limited, and also that there is absolutely nothing "fun" that I can eat! In the past when I got off sugar, I still had my fruits and breads and honey. Now I have nothing. It ain't easy!

I'm really looking forward to feeling better and resolving some health issues that I believe are caused by this yeast issue, though. It will be well worth my efforts.

Since I'm eating so little food plus exercising extra, I hope that I'll be tossing off some weight too. It was a severe bummer to see pictures of myself from Christmas and realize how really, really bad (fat!) I look. I think that in my imagination I was still thinking of myself as looking a lot better than I do. The truth hurts, folks. I've gotten weepy about it almost every day since seeing those photos.

There are some other health issues that I believe have been standing in the way of me feeling good and being able to lose weight. One is some pooped-out adrenals, the other is a messed up thyroid system. I am getting to work on both of those soon too. After that, I'm going to give Hoodia a whirl. I'm normally very skeptical about weight loss supplements, but as I've learned more about what Hoodia is and how it works, I think it's worth a try. Basically, it's from a plant, and it helps you lose weight by both acting as an appetite suppressant, plus burning up excess fat for fuel. Lord knows I've got plenty of extra fuel here to burn up! Burn baby, burn.....

Looking at weight loss from a holistic standpoint makes so much sense, I don't know why it's not done more often. I am looking forward to going through this process both for my own health benefits, as well as to learn first-hand so I can help others down the road. So many people have a very hard time losing weight, and if their body systems aren't functioning well, they are not likely to have much success. It would be so great to be able to help people be healthier all the way around!

Recent Movies

I'm behind on telling you about the movies I've watched lately. Here is a short version:

Touch The Sound is another documentary done by the same producer as did Rivers and Tides, which I loved so much. Touch The Sound is about a deaf percussionist. This film had elements I love to see: true creativity in that we see people that make music in unexpected ways, and experience music, rhythm, and sound in unexpected ways. Once again this is one of those movies that is interesting for the whole family, and really engaged the kids and got them exploring music and sound in different ways than they ever had before. Now that we have the new bass guitar, drums, and recorders, it is fun to see how the recent influence of movies like Rivers and Tides and Touch the Sound seem to be making an impact, as the children are sometimes trying out making sounds in ways that aren't "right" but are interesting and fun. I love helping to expand their (and my!) minds.

You, Me, and Dupree was supposedly going to be great, but really, truly, it wasn't. There were some laughs, but mostly it was kind of dumb and flat. If you like seeing Owen Wilson playing the same guy he always plays, like watching Matt Dillon pretend he's not Hollywood Hunk material, and just plain old like watching Kate Hudson, then go ahead. But if you're looking for something clever, truly funny, or thoughtful, look elsewhere.

Flight Plan is a thriller that my 14 year old and I watched tonite. It stars Jodie Foster as a mother of a six year old daughter who ends up missing while on an air flight. It's done in typical thriller style, making us cringe and only watch out of the corner of one eye every now and then, as the music makes us think we are about to get a sudden scare. Thankfully there really aren't any gratuitous BOOs in this movie. But it did keep us on our toes, trying to figure out where the twist would be. Each time we thought we knew what the story was, we'd realize that there had to be more to it than that.... Not my favorite thriller, but a decent one. And as a mother, it gets you right where you live.

Happy Racket and Good Vibes

I woke this morning to the sound of a happy racket. My fourteen year old son bought a bass guitar and amp with his Christmas money, so he was already up experimenting with his instrument. The younger children received recorders (thanks, Mom!) and a real drum set for Christmas. The kids were trying to have a band, so we had toot-toot-toot and thrum-thrum-thrum and rat-a-tat-tat going on.

I guess some parents would not appreciate their day starting this way, but I loved it.

I love it that we've gotten to this point where the kids can all work together on a meaningful project and make some semblance of sense to it all. (My 10 year old daughter was directing her little brothers on how they could make the recorders and drums play "Who let the dogs out" which, if you haven't heard the who-who-who-who part played by off-key squeaking recorders, you haven't quite lived yet...)

Really, I'm just enjoying my kids a lot. A few years ago when I hit a bad patch of depression and drowning I had to go into Save Myself mode to get a grip on life. I was originally a very enthusiastic mother who drank in all the fun and wonder of life as mom. As time went on and things got more difficult, I lost a lot of that joy mainly because I was too swamped to be able to.

Since I've restructured my life and felt much better and more settled inside myself, it has been a little distressing for me to notice that I still didn't feel like I enjoyed my kids as much as I knew I used to. I was still doing all the things that "good" moms should do, but I wasn't feeling as mentally present, wasn't feeling many warm fuzzies, wasn't feeling as connected as I wanted to. I've wondered if that part of my brain was just....broken, or something.

So, it's been a great encouragement to me in the last few weeks to realize that I have had a return of feeling like the mom I want to be. I've enjoyed drinking in cute little conversations, have been able to set aside work more easily in order to be the shoulder to cry on (10 year old girls can be so mean!!), the one to read a book to a little guy, the mom that spent an hour putting together a complicated wooden train formation (much to the delight of my 5 year old), letting little ones paint, goofing off, taking kids on errands and not minding it, etc. It's been so great to know that I can truly feel how precious each day and each moment with my kids is. It's been great to feel the importance of my moment-by-moment investment in my kids and know that all of this adds up to big stuff in my kid's hearts and minds.

I'll probably never be the same great mom that I was in my 20s, but now I feel like it's possible that I may eventually be able to be a better one.

Large Family Article

Today there was an article featured in MSN about large families. Some of you may enjoy it.

Hopefully With Slightly More Zest This Time

We've ushered in the new year with a bang. The hubby took me to Lowe's yesterday and we proceeded to purchase several home improvement items. New paint for the bedroom (he picked a *purple* if you can believe that! We are still trying to decide if we like it, but it definitely beats that sad, banged-up, dirty yellow we have had for years.... I think I can make it work with the right accessories.), a shelving unit for our oldest kiddo, two drawer units for our laundry room (I keep 4 of the kids' clothing in there instead of them having dressers. Up til now we have had long shelves with laundry baskets for sorting and storing their clothes, but these white metal mesh drawers are what I have wanted for a long time. It takes up less space and looks a lot nicer.), a mouse trap that is basically a baited box that the mouse goes into but gets electrocuted once inside (we already caught one--yay!), potting soil for various plant projects that were in limbo, and a few other odds and ends for things that have been waiting and waiting to get done. Thankfully,most of the stuff has already been done or is in process. I like progress.

We had a fun evening with our kids. We rented Freaky Friday and A Knight's Tale to watch (skipped one scene, but otherwise a very fun movie), had a junky kid-friendly meal that they loved (hot dogs, mac and cheese), and let them have an indoor camp out. My husband and I also stayed up until 2am with our 10 year old daughter playing Monopoly. :) So, the new year is off to a good start.

My kids still have one more day off from school. I am way behind on business work, and don't know how I'm going to get things done. My web designer is behind on my site, and I have appointments Wed. and Thurs. which will take up big chunks of my "free time." Oh well. I am trying to adopt more of a "It'll get done when it gets done" philosophy. After all, if it's my business, I guess I don't have to do anything on someone else's time frame. Still, I have my own time frames and often can't manage to meet those goals.

I fell off the exercise bandwagon some time ago, mainly because I was struggling with spending an hour and a half of my 4.5 hours of alone time each day. I have decided to limit my workout to one hour or less, but to make it happen even if it means less business gets done. Hopefully I can stick to it because this extra weight seems content to stick around unless I do something to boot it right off of my bootie.

My To-Do lists loom large and grow all day long as I think of more things I "should" do or "need to" do. I know that other people manage to run successful online businesses without it taking over their lives, so I am hoping to become one of them.

2006 End-of-Year Meme

This is my third year doing this year-end meme. Wow! Unfortunately, the year is kind of clouded over in my mind with negativity, so I have left a lot of blanks so as not to be too boring or pitiful. If you decide to meme 2006 let me know in the comments!


1. What did you do in 2006 that you'd never done before? Opened a Baby Boutique!

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I had hoped to lose weight and found it extremely difficult. I am not giving up though, and have another plan to do the same in 2007.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? A couple friends from church had babies this year.

4. Did anyone close to you die? Only figuratively.

5. What countries did you visit? None.

6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006? More time with my extended family.

7. What dates from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? Our Christmas visit at my mom's was especially great. This is also the year that I lost my best friend, so I'm stuck with that memory as well.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? The growth of my business ventures and book writing.

9. What was your biggest failure? Not sure. There definitely were some, though.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Probably but I don't remember much of it.

11. What was the best thing you bought? Can't think of anything. There weren't a lot of extra purchases made this year.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Can't think of any.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and disgusted? I won't go into that here.

14. Where did most of your money go? Bills, as usual.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Getting to go to my mom's for Christmas.

16. What song will always remind you of 2006? Can't think of one.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? sadder
b) thinner or fatter? fatter
c) richer or poorer? about the same

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? being happier

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? being sad

20. How will you be spending New Year's Eve? with family

21. Did you fall in love in 2006? nope

22. How many one-night stands? none

23. What was your favorite TV program? Six Feet Under

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? nope

25. What was the best book you read? Outlander books by Diana Gabaldon, again

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?

27. What did you want and get?

28. What did you want and not get?

29. What was your favorite film of this year?

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 35 and I don't remember what I did.

31.What one thing would have made your year measurably more satisfying?

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006? Wear what you have and try to be thankful.

33. What kept you sane?

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

35. What political issue stirred you the most? Political issues don't stir me much.

36. Who did you miss?

37. Who was the best new person you met?

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

So how was your Christmas?

We had a great time visiting my mom, her husband, my grandmother, and sister for Christmas. The kids had a huge blow out Christmas and are still enjoying all the goodies they received. One of the highlights of the gifts was that my mom had gotten the kids two of those kid-sized battery-operated cars plus a kiddie dirt bike as well. It was raining on Christmas day so we surprised the kids the day after with a walk outside that showed them their new vehicles. At ages 3, 5, 6, 8, and 10, they were pretty excited and rode all over the yard and driveway. We have a big back yard with a hill, so they are going to love cruising all over the place.

Since returning home I've been busy trying to put things back together. Fortunately we had the house pretty cleaned up and picked up before leaving, but there had been a lot of stuff to find places for, etc. Plus I got a big u-shaped desk from my mom to use in my office, so we had to set that up plus transfer all the computer equipment to the new location. (I spent one night til 2am working on that)

Our mouse infestation seems to be getting worse despite my efforts to leave the house with only glue traps and no food on the floors, counters, etc. Now I have learned that mice apparently enjoy raw potatoes, or at least will eat them if desperate enough. No mice caught, but I have seen them and their...evidence....since getting home. Very annoying!

I took down the Christmas tree and decorations today and am glad to have that finished. This year my kids broke about 3 or 4 ornaments, all of which were new ones we had chosen. Gladly, we don't normally have this problem, but I was tired of it and decided enough was enough.

No big plans for New Year's Eve here. I guess we will come up with something fun to do with the kids. Any ideas?

So, there is an extremely boring blog post. gag.

Recommended Films

Recently in my search for something decent for my kids to watch I turned to the documentary section of Netflix. I have been very happy to find some really interesting, clean films that my whole family can watch together.

A quick roundup:

Mad Hot Ballroom takes us to New York City where 5th graders are involved in a 10-week long ballroom dancing course. We see the children at the start of the class kind fo shy to touch or look at each other. By the end of the class the kids do amazingly well and work very hard to be able to go on to ballroom dance competitions.

I love ballroom dance and am still holding out hope that one day I'm going to get to take lessons. This movie was really fun to watch, and my kids enjoyed it too. At first they thought they would not want to watch something about ballroom dancing, but that was for about 5 minutes until they could see how interesting, difficult, and beautiful some of the dances were.

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill is the story of a kind of loner man that takes an interest in a flock of wild parrots near his home in San Francisco. Over the course of a year he manages to get the parrots to trust him enough to eat from his hands and come into his house. The parrots are very beautiful and interesting in their antics and personality, and the man is very interesting (not in a weird way, either!) as well.

Rivers and Tides is a film I watched last night and I loved it so much that I am going to see what I can do to be able to offer it in my next business, Supermom's Health and Wellness. Rivers and Tides is a documentary about Andy Goldsworthy, an artist/sculptor that works with nature to create his art. This man amazed me because he would work for hours and hours under difficult conditions to make something in nature, knowing that many of these works would be lost within hours to nature itself. (for instance, washed out by the tide) Andy has many very interesting and thought-provoking things to say about nature and art, and I felt like his perspective helped enlarge my mind to some things I would not normally have thought about.

I watched the movie with my 14 year old son and 10 year old daughter, and all three of us were very enthralled with each of Andy's pieces, and the things he had to say. It's a very peaceful movie, but not boring at all.

The filming of this documentary is probably the most visually beautiful and exquisite work I have ever seen. The beauty, simplicity, and complexity of nature are shown here in amazingly gorgeous ways. It made me think that I need to spend more time observing nature and just appreciating the perfection and creativity of it.

NOW I know what I can do about email forwarders!

I just got this in my inbox, so now I know how I can respond to the people that send me obnoxious forwarded emails. Maybe it'll help you guys too.

Moms, are you wasting your potential?

I got inspired today and wrote an article to encourage moms. It's over at the Baby Boutique Blog.

The Passion in Compassion

Two Sundays ago our sermon at church had to do with following the things God tells us to do even if we're not sure how it's going to work out. (that's a short version, I don't have the time or energy to tell you the long one)

The message brought up some questions in my mind. Do we have the personalities we have because God gave them to us? Or are our tendencies faulty by a default sin nature? How do we know when to harness our urges, and when to let them run wild? How do we balance the grand things we'd like to do to help others, with logic and practical reality?

One of the young ladies at our church is getting ready to go live and work in Haiti for a couple of years, at an orphanage that she has done summer missions work at for the past 2 years or so. The pictures of her on her trips, holding, teaching, and playing with these adorable, parentless children, only reminded me that about 8 years ago we did some serious thinking about adopting children from Haiti.

Adoption and foster care just burn in my mind, and my husband is very similar to me. We are the type of people that see ads for sibling groups that need to be adopted out of the foster care system, and our first impulse is that we should DO something. We should help. We could maybe somehow find a way to take in these kids.

I have cried many times over photos and bios of kids needing to be adopted. One day last year I was at the library and they had these gorgeous pictures up with information about these kids that need homes. I got all choked up and had to scurry out of there, feeling terrible that I'm really not in any position to add more children to my family.

I receive Above Rubies magazine regularly, and in the past year or so they have featured the need for orphans in Liberia, Africa, to be adopted. The editor's daughter Serene and her husband have adopted 6 (I think) of these children this year, and now the editor of the magazine and her husband, who are in their 60s, have decided that they, too, will open their home to more children, and are in the process of adopting some teenagers from Liberia! I was just so touched at the willingness of these people to see the need, and ask the hardest and most important question of all: How can *I* help?

I've also been thinking a lot about Zoe Children's Homes, and the extremely important work they do there, rescuing children from the evils of human trafficking. Knowing that there are good people working every day to love and nurture these children, and that they are putting their lives on the line regularly to rescue these children, well, it makes me feel like I either need to pick up and go there to help, or do something drastic to be able to give them more money. This organization always needs more money to keep on feeding, clothing, educating, and caring for these children. It is not uncommon that the worker at Zoe in Thailand will know about specific children that they would like to help, but without additional funds, they will not be able to do so.

Can you imagine the difference a little bit of your money can make?! When you can help rescue a child from the most evil crimes imaginable?! You can do this! Consider making a donation today.




Each month we have a virtue at our church that we emphasize. Yesterday I was looking at this month's virtue: Compassion. And I noticed that PASSION is the root word. Made me think once again, how am I to best use the passion I have to be compassionate to the needs of others?

I already have six children and am far from doing all that I would like to or feel I should for them. Though I would like to reach out and do more radical things to help others, I have to be passionate about my ministry I have already with my current family. But that doesn't change the fact that my husband and I care more than the average bear about kids that need a home. I often feel in suspense as to how this will be used by God in the future.

Growing Pains and Melancholy Holidays

In the past I've talked about how I'm not going to be one of those empty nesters that lives in the past and bemoans their kids growing up. It's true. I'm not! But every now and then something happens and I realize: this is one of the things I will miss. Recently I realized a thing that I am already missing. When kids get older, you don't get to touch them very much.

When they're little you carry them, hold them, nurse them, help them, dress them, hold their hand, snuggle, snooze, and are generally in close physical contact with your kids. Once they are 14 or 10 or 8, like my three oldest kids, the natural opportunities to touch them are much less.

A couple weeks ago I had this sudden, painful realization that my son (14) is growing up, and I almost never got to touch him. I actually forced him (playfully--he was laughing) to sit with me and let me hold him a little bit. Interestingly, though he pretended to struggle away from me, he seemed to like getting to be near his mom for a few minutes. I think he probably needs that stuff still but is at the stage where it's not cool to get it on your own.

One morning a few days ago my 10 year old daughter gave me a hug in the morning. It was only because she did so that I realized how rarely she reaches out to me in this way. Wow. I loved it. (I asked her "A hug! What's this for?!" Her answer? "I just realized I hadn't hugged you in a long time.")

Since then I've been more purposeful about reaching out to my older kids, making sure there are plenty of hugs. I have shared some little stories from their babyhoods with them, to let them know how greatly loved and adored they are and have been for their whole lives. I guess it's just given me a new appreciation for the time we have with our kids, and a good reminder to make the most of what we've got.

I think that if all my kids were big and not hugging me or sitting near me any more, I would probably be ill from hug deprivation. We need hugs to be healthy and happy! I believe it! My hope is that with the age spread I've got here, that I might be a grandmother and have little grandkids to love on before my youngest kids stop wanting to hug me....

As for the melancholy aspect of this holiday season, I've not yet recovered from my funk after reading Captivating. It was a good book in many ways, but for my current situation the book's message felt like one more "this is how you should be" book. You know, I can't be all deeply relating to people that don't exist or don't want to deeply relate to me! Sometimes it feels like there are just no people available to be real friends with. And that really stinks. I've been greatly tempted to just hibernate, stop going to parties, small group, or anyplace with people that could potentially make me sad. I am only continuing on with these activities because of head knowledge that I have to keep trying, to take chances, even if people let me down. It would be easy to stay home and isolate myself. I like being home! But, it's probably not the best policy for having a meaningful life.

We are planning to spend Christmas with my mom and her husband, my grandmother, and my sister. I am so glad that we are going to get to do this. I have not seen them for 18-24 months (except for one day that I saw my sister while attending my grandfather's funeral). My brother is out of the country so will not be able to be with us, which is a bummer. My grandmother lives with my mom and has Alzheimer's, so I am so glad that we are going to be able to visit with her while she mostly still knows who we are. But it's so sad to know how fast her memory is fading out, and that this might be the last time that she is really the woman I have known for my whole life. Maybe it's selfish to want those that you love to know you. I don't know. All I know is that it feels sad and hard to have your loved ones slip away, whether by death, by distance, or by choice.

I guess I'm just feeling a little hard-hit with loss right now. Despite the fact that I have a lot to be thankful for. I'm feeling stuck in a rut and can't seem to find my way out.

Why I Do Not Homeschool

I was directed to a two-part article on a blog, entitled Why I Do Not Homeschool. (Read the article here and here) Seeing as how I homeschooled my kids for about a decade, and have had one or more of my kids enrolled in public school for the past 3-4 years, I was interested to read what he had to say. He made several points about their decision to have their children in public school that I appreciated and gave words to some undeveloped opinions of my own. It also reminded me of how easily people can become polarized about the issues surrounding the education of our children.

It is tempting for many people to feel superior, defensive, or judgmental about their beliefs. In my homeschooling days I read a lot of "supportive" magazines, web sites, egroups, etc. that all fed me a bunch of extreme ideas about what happens in public schools that I now know to be exaggerations, lies, and isolated incidents. All that this did was cause me to develop sinful attitudes, to become ignorant of facts, and to delay doing what was really the best thing for my children (putting them in school).

The truth is that homeschooling is not always the best thing for kids.

The truth is that public schooling is not always the best thing for kids.

The truth is that private schools are not always the best for kids.

The truth is that other people do not know what is best for your kids.

The truth is that your kids may or may not get a good education at any school option.

The truth is that you need to think, check things out for yourself, evaluate your situation, and pray as you go for wisdom.

The truth is that you will probably make mistakes. Lots of them. Almost all of the time you and your kids are going to be ok even when mistakes happen. So, go ahead and be brave. You all aren't so breakable. Move forward, give things a chance, and see what happens.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: however your kids are educated is a tool. And the same tool is not right for every job all of the time. You may need to change tools or get a new tool every now and then. It's ok. The point is to help your kids get what they need, help your family get what it needs, and trust God if the way to get those things done doesn't seem like the way you thought it should.

Make your blog Search Engine-friendly

Hey folks,

I know that a lot of you are fellow bloggers that would like a greater readership or to make money through your blog. One of the factors involved with this is making your blog content search engine friendly.

You can get a new report "7 Tips To Make Your
Word Press Blog Search Engine Friendly” by going here.

The price is currently around $3.00 and increases a nickel per hour, so the sooner you get over there, the better the bargain. :)

The report shows you how to get your Word Press blog posts indexed within a few hours rather than a week or more. There are step-by-step instructions to make it easy for you. :)

Hope this helps!

Free Phone Number

Do you ever meet people that you want to communicate with but don't really want them calling your home?

Do you hate to give out your phone number when filling out surveys or order forms on the internet?

Do you wish there was a good way for you to avoid telemarketers?

Do you want to cut down on the amount of times your phone rings each day?

With this free service you can get a normal local phone number that will always answer with voice mail. You can personalize the voice mail with your own message. You will get an email notification when you have a new voice mail, so you'll never miss a call! You can check your messages by calling in to your voice mailbox, or you can check it online. Cool, eh?

One other thing that is fun to do with this phone is that you can use this service to embed voice messages onto your blog! Too fun! You could use it to record your baby babbling, your kids singing a song, or anything else.

It's cool for a lot of things. I like it. Check it out!

Get a FREE local telephone number!

Holiday Meme

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? We never got into Santa here. Not because we thought it was terrible or anything, just that we never wanted the people that were so generous with our kids to not be acknowledged for their gifts. Our kids talk about Santa but think of him more as a guy who turns up at the fire department Christmas party and gives them a little bag of candy and fruit.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? We don't do outside lights. Inside I would prefer white lights that don't blink, but my husband wanted to let the tree be kid-friendly, so we have colored lights that do about 10 different options of blinking, fading, etc. I don't like them, but the kids think it's fun.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope. I thought about getting some this year, but, know what? It's really kind of ugly. I decided not to.

5. When do you put your decorations up? Some years we do it the day after Thanksgiving if we have relatives visiting that we are going to celebrate an early Christmas with. This year we just put our tree and decorations up 3 days ago.

6. What is your favorite holiday food (excluding dessert)? I don't know. I can never do just one favorite of anything. I look forward to really good mashed potatoes (they are best with sour cream and cream cheese in them!).

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: Every Christmas Eve we would go to my grandparent's house to celebrate Christmas with my uncle and his family. We would have a big dinner and then open gifts. It was fun to see our cousins, and of course kids always like to open gifts. On the way home we would drive around neighborhoods that had really good lights and outdoor decorations. I loved that drive on the way home, and I would always look out the window to look in the sky and see if Santa was out there flying around......

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I think I just figured it out gradually, once I knew that the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy weren't real.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Some years we do. We don't have a set rule about it.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? It's all family memories. As I shared in a recent post, we only get ornaments that are meaningful to us. So, each year we now add 8 or more ornaments to our tree that each member of our family has chosen. So, no theme or coordination for us, other than family. :) Which I think is pretty good.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? A little snow for my kids to enjoy is fun, but I am thankful every single year that I no longer live in Central New York. I don't think I would ever want to live anywhere with a lot of snow again.

12. Can you ice skate? Well, I was able to as a teenager. Ice skating and hockey were a big thing where we lived. I don't know if I could skate now, though. I think it would probably be too likely for me to get hurt.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? A few memorable gifts over the years include a Barbie townhouse (it even had an elevator that you could make go up and down the three floors of the house!), stuffed animals that my parents left unwrapped and looking very cute sitting on top of presents by our tree, and contact lenses when I was a teenager.

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Family and experiencing good stuff that makes happy memories.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Apple pie.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Purchasing special ornaments for each family member.

17. What tops your tree? A rustic star.

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving? Both!

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? I still like this one from high school chorus that was something about "Pinecones and holly berries, popcorn for you, apples for me, red striped candy, nutcrackers handy, kettle a-bubbling, holiday tea....." I don't know the title of the song, but it was really fun to sing and has stuck in my mind for all these years. Actually, now that I think of it, I think the song was "It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas" but had those lyrics as a bridge/vocal overlay during one part of the song. (like a round) I honestly do not like most Christmas carols. Most loathed Christmas carols include: Silent Night, Oh Little Town of Bethlehem, and What Child is This.

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? I like the little ones ok, but would prefer fudge any day!

a funny

Though all my kids have brown hair, I have one that sometimes seems to be a natural blonde, if you know what I mean. ;) Sweet as can be, but oftentimes adorably clueless.

Today was a teary day at our church because one of the most involved and dearest families is moving away. This was their last Sunday with us and so a lot of people were crying by the end of the service.

When we got in the car after church my "blonde" asks, "What was everybody
crying about at church?!"

So I explained that this family is moving away today, so people
were really sad to see them go and have to say goodbye to them. He
didn't recognize the family by their last name, so I explained to him who they were by using their stage names, since they are actors in our weekly production of KidStuff. I said, "You know...the people that are Artie and Mrs. F."

He says, "OH! Yeah. Them..... Aw....I'm gonna miss Marty!"

Classic. Just classic. He's seen Artie on stage for 2 years now and thinks his name is Marty.

Later at dinner he asks where these people are moving to and I tell
him Michigan. He thinks about it for a few minutes and then says, "Do
they even know how to speak Michigan?!"

We have gotten a lot of laugh mileage out of that kid today.....

Christmas Ideas for Couples

Some recent goodies over at my other blog:
Need a sexy, inexpensive gift for your husband? Try this!

This year my husband and I are going to fill stockings for each other. Here are some ideas about that. (and, honey, if you're reading this, don't click!!)

Panty Power

Well, now that I've got your attention.....(snort) I wanted to tell you that I went all hip and daring the other night and bought Spanx Power Panties! If you haven't yet heard about Spanx, it's about time you did. Spanx is a line of products that is made from super duper strong stretchy fabric. You wear 'em under your clothes, to help suck in your fat and giggles, and rid your look of any panty lines or bulges!

Anyhoo...I got the Power Panties (what a hoot!) and I can tell you they are good entertainment while getting them onto your body (I laughed and laughed), and they work pretty well, though I think I could have used the industrial strength ones to push in even more flab. If you've got to wear an outfit that isn't all that forgiving of your flaws, you may want to get yourself some Spanx undergear to smooth out the rough spots and help you look your very best.

On a related panty note...get this!

The other day my husband comes into the house from getting something in the car, and he's carrying a pair of my underwear! He gives me a waggly-eyebrow look and says,

"How on earth did a pair of your underwear get under the front seat of the car??"

I'm looking at him, the expression on his face, and say, "I have absolutely no idea...."

He wanders along, holding my underwear like it's a very interesting scientific discovery or something, and heads toward the laundry room. I follow and catch him looking at the underwear...looking for evidence, methinks!

"Are you examining the crotch of my underwear?!?!"

Him: "NO! I was just trying to figure something out....."

Me: "What's that?"

Him: "How I could have ever forgotten it if we had ever gotten so crazy as to lose a pair of your underwear in the car......"

Yeah. Right.

(Cuz if we get crazy in the car I always collect all my clothes before leaving!! ha HA!)

(More likely, they have probably been there since we took our trip to NY in the summer. I imagine they fell out of a bag somewhere along the line and have been waiting to be rescued ever since. They were totally clean and void of DNA evidence...)

Tradition!

I wrote about my favorite Christmas tradition over here. It's a good one!

Captivate U soy bath and body products

I'm woefully behind on some product reviews I agreed to do, so tonite I am finally getting around to Captivate U!

This business specializes in soy candles, bath and body products, and gifts. If you aren't familiar with soy candles, you should be!

Most gals like candles, but the soot that collects around the top of our regular jar candles is ugly, and it's annoying when the middle of the candle burns way down to the bottom, leaving lots and lots of wax build up all around the edge. Well, soy candles are SO much better! They don't have soot and they burn evenly, so your candle burns clean and isn't wasted!

Regular candles are made from parafin, which is a petroleum product. Every time you burn a parafin candle you are breathing petroleum vapors, which isn't healthy. Soy wax is natural, biodegradable, and completely non-toxic, plus burns about 50% longer than parafin wax!

Shan, owner of Captivate U, sent me some of her soy hand and body lotion. It goes on smooth and has a really nice vanilla scent. What amazed me about it was that even though I wash my hands a bazillion times a day, that scent just lasts and lasts! I asked Shan how she gets the scent to do that, and she told me it's a secret! :)

Captivate U is a business born from the desire of Shan and her business partner Tina to be their own boss while doing something they love to do. Shan makes the candles, air fresheners, and incense, while Tina makes the bath and body products.

I am not the only one that is impressed with the quality of their products and the fast, friendly service. Go check out Captivate U and see if they can help you finish up your shopping!

The Cinnamon Bear Is a HUGE Hit Here!

Hey--I just wanted to let you guys know that my kids started listening to our copy of the Cinnamon Bear radio shows today, and they LOVE them! I wrote about it at my other blog. You can check it out here.

FREEBIES!

Hey folks!

I have some freebies available for you when you shop at my online businesses this month:

At Supermom's No-Lice Advice you will get a FREE eBook "Creating an Old-Fashioned Family Christmas" with every purchase. This great little book has decorating ideas, nature activities, other fun holiday activities for the whole family, and lots of great recipes, including my personal favorite, Dangerously Easy Two-Minute Fudge!

I am also giving away a wonderful 26-episode collection of The Cinnamon Bear to every Baby Boutique customer in December!

The Cinnamon Bear is a classic radio program from 1937. Families used to
enjoy listening to one Cinnamon Bear episode a day from Thanksgiving until
Christmas. What a precious way to build family memories!

The CINNAMON BEAR is the classic story of Judy and Jimmy Barton who search
for the family's Silver Star which goes on top of their Christmas tree.
They discover the star has disappeared from the attic. Then they meet The
Cinnamon Bear, and fly to Maybeland in his Soda Pop Airplane in pursuit of
the Crazy Quilt Dragon, whom they believe took the ornament. They meet a
host of characters, including Crazy Quilt Dragon, The Wintergreen Witch, Fe
Fo the Giant, and even Santa Claus.

Each customer will also get a FREE downloadable Cinnamon Bear coloring book!

You can learn more about the Cinnamon Bear audio presentation giveaway here.
I am also giving away the Cinnamon Bear audio presentation to those who purchase Supermom's Complete No-Lice System.

I also have a great freebie that will be especially interesting to homeschoolers and those of you that just love learning! For every purchase of my Healthy Home Products each customer will receive a FREE eBook, Globalmania: Master World Georgraphy in Just 7 Months. This is a brand new, not-yet-for-sale resource that has a $12.95 value.

The Healthy Home Collection now includes:

Homemade Laundry Detergent Kits (make your own healthy laundry detergent and save money too!)

Natural Dishwasher Detergent (stop washing your dishes with chemicals)

Handmade Soaps (We love them! My personal favorites are the peppermint and the cinnamon, oats, and honey. I'll never go back to regular soap!)

Peppermint Shampoo Bars (My new favorite way to wash my kid's hair. Awesome! I posted a product review about it here.)

and a nice Healthy Home Sampler Pack so you can try it all!

One Word Meme

Saw this over at Morning Coffee and since I'm still kind of sick, figured...why not?
This is actually challenging for me, because in no way am I a "one word" kind of girl.
When my husband and I attend any sort of gathering where there is an "ice breaker" question that goes something like "Name your favorite....." neither of us is capable of telling one thing. We usually have multiple things, that include side stories...... Some might consider this a personality flaw, but I don't. Life is too rich for "just one thing." (plus, adjectives! I love them so very much!) Still, with this meme, I'll try.

Yourself: thinking
Your partner: warm
Your hair: thick
Your Mother: exceptional
Your Father: tall
Your Favorite Item: cozy
Your dream last night: business
Your Favorite Drink: water
Your Dream Car: paid
Your Dream Home: paid
The Room You Are In: family
Your Ex: none
Your fear: disapproval
Where you Want to be in Ten Years? better
Who you hung out with last night: myself
What You're Not: small
Muffins: yum
One of Your Wish List Items: books
Time: afternoon
The Last Thing You Did: comfort
What You Are Wearing: pajamas
Your favorite weather: moderate
Your Favorite Book: Outlander
Last thing you ate: cereal
Your Life: full
Your mood: sniffly
Your Best Friends: family
What are you thinking about right now: much
Your car: Suburban
What are you doing at the moment: computing
Your summer: spent
Relationship status: relational
What is on your tv: nothing
What is the weather like: warm
When is the last time you laughed: today

Current Tally

1 mother sick with a cold for 3 days running
2 kids with fevers
4 kids with coughs
1 kid that threw up a little while ago
1 dad that is gone to work.....

Good times.

The Bad Perm Story

My mom reminded me in a comment for the last post about the bad perm she gave me. So, yes my dears, you get to hear about it.

Once upon a time I was a happy child with long brown hair, and I wasn't concerned about my looks one way or the other. I ran around all summer wearing a bathing suit made by my mother (and my little sister had matching suits), never combed my hair, played all day, and was content.

But my mother wasn't content. No sirree.... One day she started leaning on me. She wanted to give me a perm. Of course, being about 10 years old, I didn't really even know what a perm was. She explained that it would make my hair curly, and somehow she considered this to be important, essential, even, to the overall quality of my life and my appearance.

Well, I didn't want the perm. I told her that. She kept bugging me about it. Begging me, in fact. The Perm! The Perm! It was all about the perm with her.

Eventually, in a desperate attempt to force me over the edge, she told me that she wanted to just try out the perm. Just a try! To see how it would look! And, like some cheesy available-on-TV-only product, if I wasn't Completely Satisfied, she would get my hair straightened. Yep! Just like that! Straightened back out, goodbye to the perm, hello regular hair.

So, being a typical child that believes her mother would not lie, I relented to the perm. Because I mainly just wanted to get her off of my back and stop having to listen to the nagging about the perm. I didn't want it, and I knew it wasn't anything I wanted, but figured she could do it, I could prove that in fact I did NOT like it, get my hair straightened back out, and go on with my life.

She whipped out her at-home perm kit (this was probably 1981) and went to work coiling my long dark hair into the odd little rollers, and polluting my virgin scalp with chemicals.

After a couple hours of stinky perm torture, the rollers were taken out and I burst into tears at the horror scene that was my head. Upon my ultra-thick, 70's mega-layer-cut hair was a mass of tight pin curls, turning me into the only white kid in my neighborhood with an afro!

Immediately I told my mom, blotchy-faced with tears streaming down my cheeks, "OK. I've tried it, and I hate it. I want to get it straightened!!"

And she was standing there in the corner of the kitchen, looking at the wreck she had made of my hair, knowing she had made a Big Mistake, and had the nerve to say to me, "Well....we can't get it straightened right away.....we have to wait awhile....You can't do more chemicals on your hair for awhile or it can mess it up worse...."

"How long do we have to wait?!" I asked.

I think the answer she gave me was something along the line of Months.

Have I yet mentioned that I was due to start the school year at a brand new school in about a week??

Yeah. Great.

So, my mother betrayed me, and I had to go to school looking like an afro freak instead of like the normal kid I used to be. I was also sporting horrid big glasses, and two scars on my face (one on the eyebrow, one on the chin) from wiping out in a bad bike acident (20 stitches worth!). As if I didn't have enough going against me, I was now cursed with The Perm From Hell.

She never did offer to get it straightened, either. And my hair holds a perm longer than anybody you know.

So, my mother lied through her teeth to coerce a young child to change her hair style, sentencing me to a new, painful awareness of my pitiful looks. The only good things that came from it were probably that I continued to learn how to function at least semi-confidently despite feeling unfashionable or somehow not good enough, and that my mother pretty much swore off meddling with other people's hairdos.

As proof that children do adjust, I can tell you that even though my mom played this one dirty trick on me, I still went on to like her all through my teen years, and she's one of my closest friends still.

There you go, mom! A tribute to one of your less stellar moments of motherhood. Shall I now tell about the time you left me at the gas station as collateral when you accidentally forgot to bring money to pay for gas?? (YES YOU DID!!!)

School Blues

Last night my 10 year old daughter washed her hair and then asked me to braid it all into tiny braids. She wanted to take out the braids this morning and have her hair be all crinkly.

Well, she succeeded.

And she has just returned home from school to tell me this:

"At school today I was called a poodle and asked if this was my bad hair day."

Her 8 year old brother tried to cheer her up by saying, "You don't look like a poodle! You don't even have a tail!"

(The sad thing is, he was totally serious)

Christmas Activities

I've got a few Christmas ideas articles over at my Baby Boutique Blog with lots more to come. Feel free to come check 'em out. :)

Thanksgiving Chin Song

For a good chuckle, check this out.

Mice Creep Me Out

The other day my oldest son told me that he thought there had been a mouse in his room. This didn't come as a complete shock. We've had mice before, and frankly, our home is a mouse paradise. Take six children and two laid-back, somewhat messy parents, and we're probably legendary within mouse lore.

Well, this morning, I saw one. Yep. Right in my family room office. Right behind where I work at the computer for most of the day. Eeegads....they may be small, but they creep me out!

I got out two glue traps that I purchased just the other day, and set them up near where I had seen that little rodent.

It was only a couple of hours before the glue traps did their job, and a nasty gray mouse was stuck.

The one thing I hate more than a mouse about the house, is a squirming, struggling mouse stuck to a glue trap that *I* have to dispose of. The way their bodies look like lurching bags of jello as they try to get free just makes me gag.

Sadly, I know all too well that there is no such thing as "just one mouse." Gah. More glue traps have been set up. Hopefully we won't have any surprise appearance or *evidence* while my husband's parents visit us for Thanksgiving....

Thanksgiving Planner

Are you still struggling to figure out what you'll be eating on Thanksgiving? Check this out:
Thanksgiving Planning Guide

Captivating

I've been hearing about John and Stasi Eldredge's book Captivating for quite some time now, and have had it sitting on the top of my fridge waiting for me to get around to read it. As so often happens with things on the top of the refrigerator, I forgot all about it for weeks, and then rediscovered it, at just the right time.

Have you ever heard the saying, "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear"? Well, that has been true for me so many times that I basically expect it now. When my heart and mind are ready to learn something and needing direction, I happen upon a book, sermon, web site, conversation, or something that helps me move along my path and shine some light on the situation.

I read John Eldgredge's book Wild at Heart a few years ago and sort of liked it, and sort of had no idea what on earth he was talking about. The concepts gave me a slight foothold on some new ways of thinking, and a little itch that was never really satisfied. Well, that book was written to men, about men. No wonder I didn't completely understand it. Captivating is for women. And it got my attention right from the start.

One of the first things i loved about this book is when Stasi shares the observation that most messages for women (and especially often in books for Christian women) are these:

1. You are too much.
and
2. You are not enough.

That is So. True.

Everything I've complained about in the books Christian women go for so easily are centered on these two ideas. Everything about you is wrong and going in the wrong direction. All of your desires, thoughts, and feelings are much too big for the little box you should be living in. And, everything that you *should* be doing.....well, you are falling short.

The sad punchline is that by following most of the advice given in these books, women will continue to "fail" these standards. Why? Because the books are lies. And Captivating is giving me some insight into what the truth is.

One major truth that this book discusses is a woman's God-given desire to be captivating. To be loved, adored, desired, admired, and worthy of it all. Wow! So many things that we've been telling ourselves not to want, think about, or need.

I needed this book so much right now. It's been a hard year. After already internalizing many messages in years past that others did not respect or value me in the ways that I would like to be, I took a huge blow this year when someone that I thought I was close to let me know that I was not valuable enough to deserve a part in her life. After 12 years of friendship.

Although I have come to a place of peace with the loss of that relationship, what I haven't been able to come to peace with is the *pain* that comes from knowing that someone I trusted and would have been a loyal friend to for the rest of my life considered me to be disposable. I took the risk of showing my strengths and weaknesses, the good and the painful stuff in me to this person....and she decided that she wasn't interested in being a part of that any more.

Probably most women have experienced this. I had an acquaintance sitting in my living room about a month ago because she was here to pick up her daughter. This woman shared with me a very painful thing that she has gone through this year. During the course of the conversation I asked her if she had a close friend that she could confide in about this stuff. Her answer? Not really. She talks to her sister some, but basically she's had friends that she trusted and then got burned by. She said, "After you get burned a couple of times, it seems to risky to have friends."

So we choose to be alone.

I have felt the same way. It doesn't seem like people have the time to develop relationships, and of those that do, they seem painfully sure to break out hearts. When we marry and have children we know that we will forever be vulnerable to pain in relation to those we are bound to in our family. Pain from something bad happening to one of them, pain of loss when someone dies, or pain if the relationship is difficult or disappointing in some way. But, this is our family. We are bound for better or worse.

With friendships, those are optional. Do we want to sign up for more pain? Do we want to take the risk of being disposable? Do we want to trust someone with our junk, and see if they will still consider us worthy of a piece of their life?

Frankly, no I don't. I don't do well with gut-wrenching pain. I don't do well with people deciding that I'm worthless.

The trick is that for me to not have significant relationships in my life, would cause me to live life as a fraud.

I'm MADE for relationship. I'm a person that longs for deep, abiding relationships. I love meaningful conversation and a meaningful life. For me to purposely insulate myself from the potential pain of relationships would mean I'd have to sell out who I am. But it seems to go hand in hand with disappointment, rejection, and pain.

I'm not done with the book yet, and it is a little bit hard, painful, and sad to read through it. But I think it's a really valuable book for women. Particularly Christian women who have been scolded and scolded and stuffed into some false God Box for most of their life. I may write more about it later after I've finished it.

Have you read Captivating? I'd love to hear your impressions.

Pipe Bomb Fun

My son had fun at a friend's house today....blowing up a "little" pipe bomb. My kid is the one in the red hoodie (no hat).

Long Time No Nuthin

I feel bad--I've basically abandoned this blog! I'm so busy every day working on my businesses that all I would have to say each day is the same thing I said the day before. "Worked hard--more to do."

Things are going well. I am continuing to make improvements on the baby boutique and am trying to add content to my blog over there daily. I guess I have worked myself into a job that will never end.

We're expecting my husband's parents for Thanksgiving next week so I have all the house stuff to do.

We have a mouse about the house, so now I have to try to lessen the appeal of our home, AKA Mouse Paradise, what with all the crumbs, cereal bits, and other goodies all over the place. Good times.

Boring post. Sorry. Goodbye.

Attention Homeschoolers!

There is a completely HUGE and awesome special sale going on right now that I have to tell you about. I am in an egroup for people that self-publish their writing work. One family has had a medical emergency with one of their children this week. So, a different member of the group has put together a gigantic sale of ebook resources, audios, interviews, etc. and all the proceeds are going to the family with the medical emergency. This sale will only be available through Friday noon, so get yours fast, and spread the word!

Tuesday Tip

I've started posting a helpful tip on Tuesday's at the Baby Boutique Blog. Today's top:
How to get blood out of fabric. Everybody should know this one!

Link Exchange

For those of you sweet, pretty, and kind enough to want to help me out, my baby boutique blog can be found at http://www.thebabyboutiqueatwombswindow.com/blog/ . Let me know if you link to it on your blogroll. I will be happy to do the same for you. :)

If any of you want to get involved, I will be looking for contributors to the blog. I will be needing:

-birth stories, breastfeeding stories, any experience stories about motherhood

-product reviews that would be of interest to women that are pregnant or have small children

-funny kid stories

-tips/advice for moms

You can send any of those to me at supermomshealth (at) hotmail.com

Thanky!

Today's the Day! Grand Opening!

Hello!

The day has finally arrived--the Grand Opening of The Baby Boutique at Womb's Window!

There is a TON of stuff on sale, freebies for the first 90 customers, and FREE SHIPPING on all orders in the US!

Go check it out, and if you would be so kind, talk it up on your blogs, egroups, forums, bulletin boards, or whatever you've got!