Thanksgiving

A Kid’s Thanksgiving

tomeo29

I had this crazy idea. I’m gonna let the girl make something for Thanksgiving. She’s 8, I’m sure she can manage but the slight OCD in me never really can get through it. I get all nervous about how she’s doing it and how long it takes to let her, but I’m gonna push all that aside this year. I’m also planning on inflicting this uncomfortableness onto other families too. In our den for cub scouts, the girls are bears this year, there is an elective called Bear Picnic Basket. One of the requirements is to have each kid, plan, prepare and execute a recipe. So it can be anything and I figured, with Thanksgiving coming up, that would be a great opportunity for them to make something, that they will like and eat, first of all, and feel like they are more a part of the holiday. I think kids can miss the point of Thanksgiving sometimes. Yeah, between home and school, they go through the motion of finding things they are thankful for, but, to me, it’s being able to create something for the people you love, enjoying the things they make for you and sitting down to enjoy each other’s company. Sounds more harmonious than it ends up being but that’s the idea. We usually have fun.

But when you think about it from a kid’s perspective, they run around and have to sit still at a dinner table, which (guilty) is not something we always do. My kids are not used to it. The TV is usually involved and I’m still struggling to get them to eat other things so we end up eating at different times. But Thanksgiving is the one day where they are expected to sit together and eat the same thing.

So I posed the idea to the girl and she automatically shouted “Brownies”. Ok, good choice. You can’t usually go wrong with brownies. I like brownies. Now, she needs to do the research and find a recipe, help buy the ingredients and actually make them. And then the true learning experience. Sit there and wait to see if people like what you made or being polite and pretending. You never know, she may have a gift for it. That way I can let her do all the cooking. I barely know what I’m doing anyway.

I’m going to let the other two girls know at the pack meeting. I’m excited to see what they come up with. There are a few other requirements after this, which we will get to at a different time. I just didn’t want to miss this opportunity for the main food holiday. The den meetings are very broken up this year. I can’t seem to get one whole adventure completed in one sitting but that’s ok. It keeps things interesting and makes it more exciting hopefully since I don’t even really know what’s next and I’m their leader.

spring cleaning

Spring Cleaning… in the Fall

tomeo29

Ok, the bug hit me kinda late this year. But, honestly, what better time is there to clear things out than right before the holidays when the house is about to get loaded with a bunch of new crap. Part of the reson for this is, also, because the boy has started kindergarten. That means I now have 2 free days during the week to finally get stuff done around the house.

Now, I’m not gonna lie. Since August, when school started, a lot of naps have been had. Self-care, right? That’s what I’ll keep telling myself. Anyways, the other thing that spured this on was that the husband mentioned that his work will be having a comminuty garage sale. That kicked me into high gear. I suddenly got really excited to clear stuff out.

My first main task was to clean out the garage. Kinda needed a walkway in there. No joke. A good chunk of this mess was the collection of just about every piece of clothing my kids have ever worn. I never really wanted to just throw them out. As any parent knows, they are all mostly in great condition. Worn once, then the kid grew out of it. Especially for the girl. It’s so easy for people to buy girls clothes. They’re so much cuter. She had to have costume changes around the holidays cause she would receive multiple Christmas outfits. Had to give each one their due.

I mean, come on…

That’s all from the same month. Pretty sure there’s one more outfit in there that I’m missing.

So, of course, I have a supply of clothes that look pretty good. I was able to pawn off a lot of the girl clothes to friends and family, all of who had girls. No one had any boys so I still have a bunch of that. I’ve been thinking about getting rid of them for awhile but this garage sale is a good start. I’m looking into other options, also. I’ve tried Ebay but can’t seem to get the right eyes on those. I tried Mercari. That was fine but maybe for bigger things. It cost me more to ship out the one tutu than I made off of the sale. I have signed up for a Facebook group in the Las Vegas area. Specifically, the Green Valley/Henderson area. I’ve heard great things and this helps to eliminate the need to spend on pricey shipping.

I have never really wanted to do the meet n’ greet thing. Craig’s List kinda ruined that. You never know who you’re gonna get. Recently, the local police station posted something interesting. They offered up a couple of their locations as a safe place to meet people you are selling to online. A fantastic idea!

My next step is to check out some local consignment centers. They, famously, do not give much when buying your stuff. They got a business to run. We’ll see what happens. I’m going to visit one near Summerlin called Me ‘n Mommy To Be. They get great reviews on Yelp. The one I’ve always wanted to do is called As They Grow. They compile interested persons into a location, kinda like a swap meet. They organize it and make it a weekend thing. You get an inventory together and get to keep most of what you make. The organization keeps a certain percentage but you get the rest. So shoppers get a one-stop-shop in a weekend that makes it feel like an event and you get to unload. It’s brilliant! The only problem is that I can never get to those weekends. Having to work retail hours means that I have to pick and choose what weekends I take off. Whatever weekends I take is usually devoted to special scout events or family trips.

After all that, whatever I have left, will be donated to local shelters. In town, we have the Las Vegas Rescue Mission, Safe Nest and Opportunity Village, to name a few. I tried reading some reviews to get a good idea of a worthy organization. That got a little depressing to see people complain about how hard they make it to donate. People not picking up the stuff in time. It struck me as a little selfish so I’ll have to just pick one or maybe split it up among different places and hope it is being used in the spirit it is intended.

In any case, the amount of relief and clarity of mind I will have once I have lightened the load around my house will feel amazing. I like feeling productive. And all of this effort is going to lead to some much needed repairs. The house is starting to feel it’s age. Need to start taking care of it. So, hopefully, more home updates to come. I highly anticiapte being able to get some before and after pics.

Halloween

The year of the dinosaur

tomeo29

So the boy has always been into dinosaurs. He was excited for Jurassic World when it came out. Still too young to see it in theaters. The antsy is real with this one. But when I got the DVD, he was all over it. He has had a couple dinosaur shirts before. But the dinosaur obsession came on full force this year. He goes through phases. Batman is always a constant in his life. I may have spured that on when I painted his nursery…

But, I really had no idea he would stick with it.

Nightmare Before Christmas is another regular obsession. He has listened to the songs every night at bedtime since he could request songs. Every night. 2 Jack Skellington songs off of the channel on Pandora. He has laid off of that this year (now that it’s Halloween again, he’s back at it). It may have come full circle because we visited Disneyland last November and he got to meet his idol.

As you can see, this was his Halloween costume last year. This was one of those priceless moments I’ll never forget.

But this year, dinosaurs. He asked for a dinosaur birthday party. He only wears dinosaur shirts. The school has a trunk-or-treat and we have to do a dinosaur theme. Should be fun. I sprung for the inflatable dinosaur costume for his party.

I plan on getting each of them the smaller kids version of the inflatable dino costume and decking the car out with jungle leaves and smoke. Simple but fun. I had to go looking for a more acceptable dinosaur costume for him to wear to school, though. It’s not like they’ll let him go to class in the inflatable one. Searched online for some nice ones. We ended up at Spirit Halloween and got this one.

About $30 and I figure it should be ok for school. The head and gloves come off. His teacher is pretty mellow but if it’s really a big deal, he can take it off until they do their little parade. This reminds me of the plush dragon costume he had a couple years ago. He looked like a little stuffed animal. So we’re all looking forward to Halloween this year. We always do. Happy Haunting, everyone!

Halloween

Holiday Shopping! There! I said it! Don’t judge me!

tomeo29

As October approaches, I realize that I have not properly prepared for the holidays. We’ve all seen the meme. It goes something like this:

The mad rush for the end of the year is upon us. And it’s my job to make it magical for the kids. I’m tired already. But, whatever, here we go. My first step is to get the kids costumes lined up. The girl binged the Descendents movies this summer. There was a new movie out and she jumped into the franchise headfirst. She grew to love Evie, the evil queen’s daughter (from Snow White). Evie is girly and loves to dress and wear makeup. Right up her alley. So that is what she has chosen to be. I have a Halloween season ahead of me having to explain to all the adults what her costume is. Maybe I’ll just make cards to hand out. Kinda like they used to do at malls in the 90’s. The guy would wander around the tables in the food court and hand out cards that said they were deaf, sometimes giving a little toy, and ask for money that they would collect on their next trip around the food court. Anyone not giving money would get their card and toy taken back. I’ve actually never comfirmed with anyone that this happened anywhere else. I may have lived in an area with particular scammers. Anyways, (back from my nostalgic tangent) the girl’s costume is fairly easy. I found the perfect dress at Target. Practically a replica, good material, a copy of Evie’s dress in the most recent Descendents movie, the third one. A red and black dress, not her typical blue getup. I was hoping to find one. Here’s a picture from Target:

They also had a purse to go with it. She hasn’t seen that yet. I’m leaving it for a surprise.

Not too shabby. These two things cost me about $40 altogether, probably the same as if we picked up an actually costume from the Halloween store and the dress is much better in quality than youre run-of-the-mill costumes. Now all I need is leggings to match. Evie had red and white leggings so I will probaby get some white leggings and use either dye or fabric paint. The leggings have a very specific print. After that, I just need to figure out the hair. I could buy a wig but they usually suck, don’t look as nice as you want them to and kids have no patience for wigs. I bought some colored hair wax. I got blue so if we can make it work, we will use that. Here’s Evie to give you am idea of what I’m dealing with:

Oooh, I suppose I should try and find that tiara. Evie is a princess, after all, seeing as how her mom is a queen. Wait, does that mean I have to be the evil queen? She’s not even my favorite villian. Well, I guess I could just go along with the boys ‘ costume. To be discussed later. Hint, Rawr!

Kids birthday parties, Mermaids

Summer Birthdays Kinda Suck

tomeo29

Yeah, the weather’s nice and yeah the kids are out of school with nothing but time, but trying to plan a summer party for your kid blows.

The kids may be available all summer long but the first thing I always worry about is how to invite these kids, who I may not have all the contact info for. When they are in school, getting them an invitation is so much easier. The kids takes it to school and hand it out. My daughter’s kindergarten year was the first time she had other friends to invite. I tried sending her with invitations in the last week of school. The main problem is her birthday is in July and school gets out in May. Most people will forget all about it by the time July rolls around. I think we got 1 taker.

Then, you have to contend with summer vacations. The kids don’t have school so most people take their family trips during the summer. My kid’s saving grace is that their birthdays aren’t around holidays like 4th of July when folks will definitely have plans. My daughter is at the end of July and my son is the middle of August, right before school starts back up again. So everyone should be back from their vacations by then.

I may have found a very formal answer. Almost business-like. I made save-the-dates for my daughters’ birthday. A small card with the date of the party and my email so that any parents who want to plan on going can send me their address so, in July, I can send them an actual invitation.

They came out pretty good. I fit about 6 to a sheet.

I guess I should consider myself lucky. More kids means more work. I just don’t want them feeling like no one wants to go. I have a July birthday, too. My mom never put much effort in so I never got to have the big birthday parties with all my friends like everyone else did because it was summer.

The other problem with summer birthdays, especially here in Vegas, is the heat. Water is a necessity and we don’t have a pool. Again, I can consider myself lucky. Kids and water can mean trouble. I would be worried about danger. We can get by with inflatables, sprinklers and water balloons. Kids don’t need much more than that. It helps that my daughter wants a mermaid party. Plenty of “keep cool” options. My son wants a dinosaur party. We may make that indoors-only. We’ll see.

Mermaid is a fun theme, though. Last year was unicorns and it turned out great. Can’t wait to see what we come up with this time.

poetry

World Poetry Day

tomeo29

On this day, we celebrate the magic that words can have. Words carry great impact on their own, but when partnered with tone and feeling, they become something else, entirely. We all experience it at some point in our lives. Starting when we’re babies. We listen to nursery rhymes and when we get older we can experience love poems. As soon as we add rhyming words and cadence, the mere words border on music.

Poetry doesn’t have to be all seriousness and romance. One of my favorites was the great, Shel Silverstein. The amount fun I feel like he had writing them, comes through. His poems were silly and fun and sometimes disturbing, or that may have been just the drawings that accompanied them. Just about everyone I knew had a copy of either Where The Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic or The Giving Tree. I remember using one of his poems as my try-out to get into the vocal class in middle school. Had to choose the longest one he had in the book, of course. Surprisingly, I remembered it. And it got me in. This one wasn’t it, The Voice displays the passion that Shel had for encouraging everyone to follow their hearts and be happy with who they are.

Dr. Suess gets a lot of credit, as well. He would outright make up words, but I’ll be damned if they didn’t sound charming as hell. Where would we be without the stories of the Grinch, the Lorax and the Sneetches? And there is the all-time popular graduation gift, Oh, the Places You’ll Go! A book constantly given to teenagers and adults. No one can deny that his stories and words of encouragement are forever loved.

On this day, take a moment to read a poem that you may have not thought about in a long time. There’s always one that sticks out. Or better yet, write one. A poem can make someone feel very special. It can be a simple “Roses are red…” poem or funny little limerick. And to kick it off, here’s a little something I found for inspiration…

Uncategorized

It’s Oscar time…does anyone care?

tomeo29

The Academy awards are this Sunday. I used to watch them. Made a big thing of it, too. We would have our friends over, make ballots for everyone to fill out and make themed food to serve up. And drink, of course, cause that’s the only way to make it entertaining. Since having the children, I have not been able to get into it as much. I can’t go see the movies. I used to see all the movies. Multiple movies each weekend. (Even sneaking in from time to time, or everytime. Just sayin, we may or may not have planned a schedule to maximize our movie viewing) Call it a trade-off, cause now I am lucky to go see a kids movie. My youngest has yet to understand the art of sitting and watching a movie. Needless to say, I have a hard time getting into the Oscars since I don’t know anything about the movies being nominated.

Trying to keep up with all the news is a task, also. They have a host, they don’t have a host. They are cutting out some awards for the show length, no, wait, they are doing them during the commercial break, hold on, they’re gonna be aired later, no, NVM, we’re gonna show them anyway. I know the host gig is hard. It’s a thankless job and no one will be happy with the job you do no matter what. Most likely because of this day and age. The old, golden-age movie days had more theatrical performances and it worked. No one has that kind of attention span anymore. Vine ruined that. You have 6 seconds to entertain someone or you have lost them.

Still, I miss getting together with friends are collecting the ballots, cheering or booing when the winners were announced, the occasional chuckle when something funny actually happened, watching the In Memorium segment saying “that was this year” every other person. I was never that great at picking the winners. Too many Hollywood politics. But drinking and eating cocktail weinies made up for it. Since Bohemian Rhapsody was the only one I saw, that’s the one I’ll be rooting for. If I had to pick another, I would say Green Book. It did well at the Globes and it sounds like a good movie. I’ll get around to that one at some point.

Uncategorized

It’s Wetlands Day (oh and Groundhog’s Day)

tomeo29

Getting the elephant out of the room, the Groundhog has declared that winter is over. You wouldn’t know by looking at the actual weather but you don’t question the hog.

Today is Wetlands Day. Anything in nature is important, of course, and we should always appreciate and protect it in all it’s forms. Wetlands don’t always jump to the forefront. They are all over. A wetland is any area that contains swamps or marshes. They harbor many different plant and animal species. Wetlands help with flooding and prevent cities from spending money to treat water for the people.

Here in Vegas, yes, in the middle of the desert, we have our own wetlands that has been recently renovated. The Clark County Wetlands Park, located on the east side of Vegas. It was developed in 1991 and they have many different programs and events. They have a Nature Center that houses displays and interactive pieces to help you learn about the inhabitants of the area. There is an indoor picnic café to grab a bite to eat after exploring the wetlands.

The park itself is a 210-acre preserve, with paved and unpaved paths for people to take, even the little ones. You can take archery classes, star gaze, enjoy storytime or learn how take care of your garden. They have a little something for everyone.

Check out the Wetlands Walker program. A self-guided fitness program that has some better scenery than the gym. Plus, you can track your miles and earn rewards. All for just taking a walk.

And there are some pretty amazing pictures that come out of it. Case in point:

Check out the park site for all the info. Or you can just head down and learn it all firsthand. https://www.clarkcountynv.gov/parks/Pages/cc-wetlands-park-homepage.aspx

work naked

Inspirational Headline Here

tomeo29

I needed a creative outlet so here I am. My head is filled with so many random thoughts. I’ve always enjoyed writing. Fair warning, there isn’t much rhyme or reason to my blog. I’ve always enjoyed things like oddball holidays, the origin of catch phrases and I grew up in the 80’s, so naturally, nostalgia kicks in from time to time. I’m going to kick this off with the the day’s random holiday.

Febuary 1st is Work Naked Day

It’s not as gross as it sounds. Also, it can have the potential to piss you off. This day is for all those lucky bastards who get to work from home. The American dream. Wake up when you want to. Eat whenever you want. Stay in jammies or less, if desired. All because you don’t have an office to report to. No one to judge you or get offended by what you’re wearing because you can log in your computer and do what you gotta do to get that paycheck to not spend on clothes because they aren’t necessary.

If staying home naked is not an option for you, you can go somewhere else to be naked. Some out-of-the-house naked options can be going to get a massage, visiting a steam room. I guess that’s kind of it. Anything else can turn the day into call-a-friend-for-bail Day.

At the very least, take this day to feel free to be yourself. Be spiritually naked. Don’t let others drag you down. If they somehow get to you, try to remember some nice things about yourself. All too often, we are more harsh on ourselves than anyone else could possibly be. Love yourself, mean it.