Category Archives: Websites

If I Teach My Children One Thing (or 150)

Today as I was trying to get through FOUR sets of doors with my two small boys and three heavy bags of groceries, two twenty something men who were going through the same door basically just ignored us, went through the doors in front of us, and then held the door open for us as an obvious afterthought.

I could not stop thinking about it and realized If I teach my children nothing else, I hope they learn that if they see someone who needs help, they offer to help.

Better yet, don’t wait until you see it, but actively look for opportunities to help others- isn’t that essentially why we’re here?

It also made me think of a list I read on Better Together last year called “150 Ways To Build Social Capital.”

I prefer calling it community (instead of social capital) and here is an excerpt from the list:

77. Return a lost wallet or appointment book

78. Use public transportation and start talking with those you regularly see

79. Ask neighbors for help and reciprocate

80. Go to a local folk or crafts festival

81. Call an old friend

82. Sign up for a class and meet your classmates

83. Accept or extend an invitation

84. Talk to your kids or parents about their day

85. Say hello to strangers

86. Log off and go to the park

87. Ask a new person to join a group for a dinner or an evening

88. Host a pot luck meal or participate in them

89. Volunteer to drive someone

90. Say hello when you spot an acquaintance in a store

91. Host a movie night

92. Exercise together or take walks with friends or family

93. Assist with or create your town or neighborhood’s newsletter

94. Organize a neighborhood pick-up – with lawn games afterwards

95. Collect oral histories from older town residents

96. Join a book club discussion or get the group to discuss local issues

97. Volunteer to deliver Meals-on-Wheels in your neighborhood

98. Start a children’s story hour at your local library

99. Be real. Be humble. Acknowledge others’ self-worth

100. Tell friends and family about social capital and why it matters

101. Greet people

102. Cut back on television

103. Join in to help carry something heavy

104. Plan a reunion of family, friends, or those with whom you had a special connection

105. Take in the programs at your local library

106. Read the local news faithfully

107. Buy a grill and invite others over for a meal

108. Fix it even if you didn’t break it

109. Pick it up even if you didn’t drop it

110. Attend a public meeting

111. Go with friends or colleagues to a ball game (and root, root, root for the home team!)

112. Help scrape ice off a neighbor’s car, put chains on the tires or shovel it out

113. Hire young people for odd jobs

114. Start a tradition

115. Share your snow blower

116. Help jump-start someone’s car

117. Join a project that includes people from all walks of life

118. Sit on your stoop

119. Be nice when you drive

120. Make gifts of time

121. Buy a big hot tub

122. Volunteer at your local neighborhood school

123. Offer to help out at your local recycling center

124. Send a “thank you” letter to the Editor about a person or event that helped build community

126. When inspired, write personal notes to friends and neighbors

127. Attend gallery openings

128. Organize a town-wide yard sale

129. Invite friends or colleagues to help with a home renovation or home building project

131. Build a neighborhood playground

132. Become a story-reader or baby-rocker at a local childcare center or neighborhood pre-school

134. Help kids on your street construct a lemonade stand

135. Open the door for someone who has his or her hands full

I love this list. Seems like it should be common sense or second nature, but that is not the reality in out fast paced technology obsessed lifestyle. So I like to be reminded of all of the little ways I can make a difference

Nutrition, Resources, Websites

Planting Seeds

Holly Leave a comment

On this first day of fall, my family spent the morning planting seeds in a community garden.

Multiple times a month I receive “Ask Holly” queries asking how to get children to eat (and enjoy) vegetables. In our experience, when children are an active part in the preparation of a meal, they are much more likely to eat it.

Even more excitement arises when they participate in growing the food. Today’s time sowing seeds at the garden was exactly as I had pictured it.

I loved hearing my son’s questions about how the seeds turn into plants and watching the delight in his eyes as he glimpsed a roly-poly. I loved explaining to him that plants need sunlight, just like we do, to thrive. Out in the crisp fall air I remembered a beautiful poem I read this week which ends,

“…today you get a telegram
from the heart in exile,
proclaiming that the kingdom

still exists,
the king and queen alive,
still speaking to their children,

—to any one among them
who can find the time
to sit out in the sun and listen.”

A thought occurred to my 4 year old this morning as we were on our way to the garden- “hey mom, do my bones get bigger inside my body and that’s what makes me grow?” Yes, that’s part of it. “Well how do my bones get bigger?” I explained to him that his cells use fuel—interrupted with, “hey, just like a car uses fuel!”—Yes, sweetie, just like a car uses fuel, our body needs fuel to grow. And in the same way a car’s fuel is gasoline, our fuel is good food and water—interrupted with, “my fuel is chocolate milk!” — …one can see how these sweet conversations fuel my spirit throughout the day.

If given the option, my two wild and amazing boys would literally jump off the furniture the entire time we are indoors, yet magic happens the minute we step outside. There is a stillness and peace that overcomes them as if to prove the point that out there is where they belong. As Richard Louv claims in his book Last Child in the Woods, children today suffer from nature deficit disorder. Time outside would cure many of the ailments relating to attention and hyperactivity in the lives of our modern children.

My hope is that taking part in a community garden will give us nourishment not only from the food we grow, but also our time in nature and other like-minded people. The American Community Gardening Association asserts that “community gardening improves people’s quality of life by providing a catalyst for neighborhood and community development, stimulating social interaction, encouraging self-reliance, beautifying neighborhoods, producing nutritious food, reducing family food budgets, conserving resources and creating opportunities for recreation, exercise, therapy and education.” To find a community garden near you, visit the Local Harvest website.

And since my brain is 70% song lyrics, I couldn’t possibly have all of this seed sowing talk and not quote A Tears For Fears song that says it all:

“Anything is possible when you’re sowing the seeds of love.”

Nutrition, Recipes, Websites

eMeals Review

Holly 9 Comments

Today I had 4 people in the grocery store admire my organization. This is not something I hear very often, but I suppose if you saw the list I was walking around with today, you’d have thought the same thing.

As important as eating well has always been to our family, I have never had a very good meal plan. Every week usually consists of 4 or 5 trips to our local natural foods store, one trip to the farmers market, a delivery from our CSA, and lots of inevitable last minute trips for a last minute ingredient. That worked fine for us as a couple, and then it was still ok when we had one child, though it really wasn’t very cost effective and prompted lots of repeat meals and take-out. I know how valuable variety is, and how unhealthy restaurant food can be, so this was obviously not the ideal situation. Throw in having another baby, and it was clear we needed a new strategy.

First I tried to do a monthly plan.That proved to be too overwhelming. Then I tried to make every night of the week a different theme, so I could make a plan around that. Didn’t work. I couldn’t remember what night I had designated what theme and was always confused.

Then I came across eMeals– “a simple system with easy meals based on delicious recipes and a consistent grocery budget.” When I saw I had to pay for the service, I almost just closed the website to look for something else. But then on the sidebar I saw they had a specific plan for Whole Foods. I looked at the sample, and realized this was for me.

Each week’s plan consists of two pages- one is the menu, ingredients, and recipes (all on one page!), and the other is the grocery list. The first time I did my “big shop” the size of my list felt daunting. I followed it completely, and it took me about an hour. I piled in the produce and asked the butcher for things I had never purchased. I got home and unpacked my loot.

Finding places in the pantry and refrigerator for all of those groceries was challenging, but after that, life seemed calmer around here. The recipes are straight forward, quick and easy to follow, and all have been tasty. Something as little as having a meal plan has taken a big burden off of my shoulders that I didn’t even realize I was carrying.

Every day I look forward to what I’ll be cooking that night (I suppose the old “it’s four o’clock- what do we feel like for dinner?” routine was a little stressful), and it’s been fun anticipating the new week’s menu.

I asked my husband how he felt about eMeals, and his response? “I’m just worried it’s going to stop.”

Don’t worry, honey. It won’t stop anytime soon. We are four weeks in, and with practice I have streamlined my shopping trip and realized how easy it is to make a few tweaks based on ingredients I already have or need to use. I’ve even purchased a few items in bulk- such as organic diced tomatoes and chicken broth.

One huge advantage of the food on the eMeals plan is how basic it is. This means less time in the kitchen and more time visiting with my family at the dinner table. With meals like turkey patty melts, chicken enchiladas and black bean soup, there is something for everyone. There are sophisticated dishes too-like the bacon wrapped pork tenderloin I made last week. But it was surprisingly easy to make and super quick!

And perhaps the true test of the usefulness of eMeals is whether or not the kids will like it. Score! My three year old son has eaten and enjoyed every meal we have had. I’ve left out the jalapeños and chili powder of some things to make sure he could eat them.

If you decide to sign up, reorganize the menu to make sure you eat things that will go bad the fastest (i.e. for the last few weeks “french bread” has been on day 7…I’ve had to use the baguette I bought 6 days earlier as bread crumbs!)

eMeals has been great for our family. They offer plans for many specific stores and also specialty diets such as gluten free, vegetarian, portion control and natural & organic. I’m hooked. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Prevention, Recommendations, Websites

Citrus Lane

Holly Leave a comment

Remember when you had your first baby? Remember how the gifts started flooding in the minute he was born? Remember how the same thing happened when you had your second baby?

I didn’t think so.

I was so surprised by all of the gifts we were sent when we had our older son. Babies really bring out generosity in people- as Rahima Baldwin Dancy says in You Are Your Child’s First Teacher, they call forth love and giving from all sorts of people–some of whom you haven’t heard from in years.

Then if you have a second child (especially of the same gender) I suppose the majority of friends assume you have what you need. Which is mostly true.

But who doesn’t love getting gifts in the mail? Today I came across a new delivery service that offers the same satisfaction.

It’s a subscription based service called Citrus Lane. The send monthly “care packages” based on your child’s age all the way to age 3.

I think it’s a fun way to try new products- toys, food, clothing, toiletries- and a recent box even included a cool bracelet for mom. The products have all been recommended and reviewed by an advisory board.

You can purchase a 3 month subscription, which would be a great shower or new baby gift. I know I will be looking forward to my monthly delivery!

Resources, Websites

Music Notes

Holly Leave a comment

My husband and I both love music- listening to it, going to live shows, playing instruments, the list goes on. He plays guitar and the djembe very well and I play piano, we both toy with the ukulele, and I try to play the guitar. We also have exposed our son to as much live music as possible, and he’s been fortunate enough to go to three private sound checks, two music festivals and even hung out on a tour bus.

So far his musical genre preference is quite varied:

When the train passes our house, you can hear him belting out some Johnny Cash- “I hear the train coming, coming round the bend. I ain’t seen the sunshine in I don’t know when.” We’re just glad he doesn’t know the rest of the lyrics.

Recently while at breakfast with some friends, he randomly started rapping, “Hi, my name is, my name is, my name is Slim Shady.”

And he has a music box that plays Fur Elise by Beethoven which he calls Curly Leaves. When he hears that song while out in public he always says, “Curly Leaves, Mommy- this song is my favorite.”

This has special significance to me, since I read in From First Kicks to First Steps that while pregnant, if you read your child the same story every day, or sing or play the same song, when your child is born and is fussy hearing that story or song will calm them down. So I played Fur Elise for him on the piano every single day from the time I was 20 weeks pregnant (since that’s when babies in utero develop sense of sound) until he was born.

We also have tons of instruments for him to play whenever he feels the impulse- egg shakers, rattles, cymbals, maracas, harmonicas, and his own ukulele. He plays these often, and either dances, sings, or asks one of us to accompany him with another instrument. I’m sure our neighbors LOVE us.

I’ve taken him to music classes since he was 3 months old, and they are not his cup of tea. For some reason the big class atmosphere really bothers him and he holds onto the door for dear life every time we’ve gone. Though I wanted him to enjoy going, when I saw the music class scene in Babies, I didn’t mind that we were no longer going.

I am really trying to find a way to expose him to music and learn to play it while still keeping it fun. I found a great reference online about music appreciation and listening skills, and learning perfect pitch, They recommend buying your newborn a nice xylophone (this is the one we bought)and pick 3 notes, name them and play them 10 times the first day, naming them each time. The next day pick three new notes until you’ve taught all that you have available. Keep cycling through this sequence for 3-4 weeks or even longer. They also have tips for older children.

I also consulted my childhood piano teacher to ask her opinion since she was the greatest/no pressure/keep it fun but learn it really well teacher anyone could have every asked for. (Because of her, I could read music before I could read!) I LOVED the advice she gave me.

She reminded me that every child is different and some moms may not be comfortable teaching their own child. Partner lessons with only 2 students would be better than one-on-one for others because both children can learn from each other. She also recommended her favorite books, and some great tips such as: “Since he’s learning his letters, he could learn the names on the piano, but take your time going to staff notes. Your idea about keeping it fun is right on target.”

“Make it a game like “2 black keys (pause) where’s my D? (and C and E). Once he gets D, then you can add CDE if he is into it.”

“Clapping, copying what you do rhythm wise making up his own songs and playing his story books all are great.”

This is so exciting to me! I always wanted to be a teacher, and now I’m fulfilling that dream…and hopefully with the outcome of a little music lover!

Do you have any tips to share?