Category Archives: Misc.

Testing for Germs in the Nursery (Do I Really Want to Know?)

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Have you ever wondered how many insidious germs are lurking in your apartment?

Quite honestly, I have never been that interested to find out. 

While I'd like to think that my home is pretty clean, there are four people (including two adorable and germy children) living busy lives nestled amongst a whole lot of clutter in my apartment.

Sure, I clean up messes.  If something spills, I mop it up. If someone sprinkles raisins all over my living room, I vaccuum.  I am constantly wiping counter tops and sweeping up crumbs.

But no, I would not classify my apartment at spotless…by a long shot.

My family and their clothes are clean.  Noses get wiped, hands get washed and shoes get removed and left at the door.

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My Supermarket Absurdities: You Delivered My Groceries Where?!

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Let me start by saying that I rarely have my groceries delivered. I can often be seen schlepping five or six heavy bags full of stuff–sometimes while pushing a stroller and offering my elbow to my five year old while crossing the street.

Today, I had a cold and it’s been raining incessantly (and I actually had a babysitter for a couple of hours), so I left my kids at home and headed to my friendly neighborhood Dagostino’s to do a big buy.

Fast forward to later in the afternoon. No groceries have yet arrived. I leave the apartment with Mr. Five Year Old and see this note stuck to the wall next to the elevator: (see photo)

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Too Pretty to Do Homework? Oh my.

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"Who has time for homework when there’s a new Justin Bieber album out? She’ll love this tee that’s just as cute and sassy as she is" (Yes, this was an actual product descrition :0)

After customer outrage about the terrible message that such a shirt gives to girls, J.C. Penney has pulled the above t-shirt (part of, amusingly enough, a line of clothes called 'Self Esteem') from their website.

I agree that such a shirt is most definitely in poor taste, but it in my humble opinion, goes hand in hand with the shrinking princess phenomenon that so much of the media would have us spoon-feeding our daughters on a daily basis…and, controversial or not, none of that has been pulled off the shelves.

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Long Summer Days

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It's been a couple of weeks since cAmp ended for my 5 year old and Kindergarten doesn't start until September 12. I'm used to amusing one kid at a time, but negotiating the entertainment of an antsy 5 year old boy along with the early afternoon nap time of his 2 year old sister has been interesting…to say the least. Just today, in the drizzly weather, we've set up vegetable soup in the crockpot for dinner, made sun catchers, taken the bus to the children's museum, walked back home through the park in the drizzling rain pushing a stroller so the little one could sleep and had ice cream. All this, and it's not yet 4pm. Yaaaawn.

Long Summer Days

Craft Project: Peekaboo Shaker

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This year, the Jewish holiday of Purim takes place Sunday, March 20th.  Hamentaschen, costumes and noisemakers (also called graggers or raashanim) are all huge parts of the festivities for all of the kids.
This noisemaker is an easy project to do with even a young toddler…and you don't even need Purim as an excuse (what kidlet wouldn't like to me his or her own shaker?!)
Tools needed:
1.plastic water bottle, Parmesan cheese shaker or other small plastic container with a top–washed well and dried thoroughly
2.a handful of Buttons, beads, beans, rice bells, pasta shapes or other small, hard objects that will make noise when you shake the noisemaker
3. A handful of other small objects that are just fun and cool to look at: pom poms, feathers, bent pipe cleaners, styrofoam peanuts, googly eyes, confetti, loose glitter etc.
4. Stickers & markers (window crayons work well for this!) to decorate the outside of the container
5. Gorilla Glue or Crazy Glue

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Springing Forward: Adventures in Daylight Savings

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Gfon306l

If you're in an area that observes Daylight Savings:Do not forget to change your clocks!  These days, with automatically changing clocks on cable boxes, computers and cellphones, it's even more confusing if you forget to readjust your watch (microwave, oven, wall clocks, alarm clocks–make sure you get them all!)

I still don't really get daylight savings time, and I never got a real handle on when I was getting an 'extra' hour of sleep and when I was losing one. 

As a kid, it seemed like so much fun to have those loooong Spring and Summer days…now, as a parent, they just seem endless.  Am I alone in preferring the shorter days of Winter? 

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