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Dec 11, 2008

What Would You Do If $100 Fell Into Your Lap?

December 11, 2008 By

When I sorted through the mail this afternoon, I was struck by a small card addressed to me. Ah, the first Christmas card of the season! I thought. I looked it over, not finding a return address. Strange.

The real surprise came when I opened the envelope. (Actually, it had been opened already on the side – not sure if some postal worker carefully ripped it open or our moist weather split the seam. I’m guessing the latter.) Inside was a simple holiday wishes card, and 5 $20 bills. Wait, what? $100! I quickly scanned the inside of the card to see who sent this, but there was no name.

I was completely confused for a moment. Who sent us a card and forgot to sign it? It was then that Aaron pointed out that it was only addressed to me and it was from Chattanooga, TN. It was most likely not from any family.

An anonymous gift of $100. Wow.

So, in the very likely case that my secret Santa reads this blog, I’d like to say thank you. Your gift was amazing and generous and worthy of the tears that came to my eyes.

And with practically no hesitation, I decided I’m planning to use part of the money to pass on your random act of kindness to others. 2008 has quite possibly been the suckiest year I’ve ever had, but I think we can agree this has been a disastrous year for many. Yet we’ve kept our house thus far, and while we still have no long-term employment or health insurance (except for the kids, thanks to SCHIP), Aaron has a contract job that is providing a decent income for last month and this month, and we have great family and friends who are incredibly supportive. Looking at all of that, we’re wealthy compared to many.

I’m planning to invest at least half of this gift into formula and diapers for my local YWCA. They are one of the few family shelters in Columbus, where entire families can remain together while they try to get back on their feet. I first learned about their services last month while in my nursing school clinical. At the hospital I cared for a woman who told me she was living at the YWCA shelter with her husband and kids. I asked a few questions and found out they both had good full time jobs, but then both were laid off, and soon after their house was foreclosed on when they couldn’t find new jobs. It spiraled down until they found themselves at a shelter so they weren’t sleeping in their car.

In different circumstances, my family could be that family. The YWCA provides so many services for these families with nowhere else to go, including childcare, in-house tutors and after-school programs for older kids, meals, and employment assistance. Right now on their website, they are asking for diapers and other baby supplies, as their current demand is outpacing their supply. They received 2000 diapers last month, but needed over 2500.

I also want to help them because of an article I read recently about mothers watering down formula to make it last longer, often leading to infant malnutrition and life-threatening conditions as a result. Many moms don’t realize that cutting formula with more water is dangerous. But due to the economic conditions, formula is hard to buy, hard to keep in stock at food banks, and is now such a prized possession that it’s being stolen in record numbers. I can’t imagine stealing anything, but were I desperate and had an infant who needed food, I would probably steal formula to make sure she could eat.

While my girls have lots of “wants” (Cordy’s change daily, it seems), I know their needs are met. Using a large portion of this gifted money to help other children’s needs seems like the right thing to do. I hope you’re OK with that, anonymous gifter. I promise I’ll use a little bit of it for something for myself, and the girls will each get a small gift, too. But I’d like to use most of it to continue the spirit of giving. I’ve been wishing I could do more to help those who are so desperate for the basic necessities, and your gift is helping make that possible for me.

Thanks again. I’m genuinely touched by this random act of kindness and humbled that someone thought I deserved this. Whoever you are, you rock.

(And yes, I’ll admit I’m really curious who this is from, mostly because I’m wondering who has my address?)

(And to everyone else – have you practiced a random act of kindness lately?)

(One more parentheses and I’m done, I swear: visit Her Bad Mother to see how she’s giving back to those more needy, including offering up an iPod to her readers. Plus there’s a great Charlie Brown clip.)

Filed Under: holidays, people who don't suck


Dec 9, 2008

How A Bendy Straw Nearly Made Me Cry

December 9, 2008 By

Sometimes in parenting, it’s the small victories that mean the most. Today we had one of those moments:


That’s Cordy, drinking with a straw. For the first time ever.

It was three years ago (she was 15 months) that we were struggling with weaning her off of a bottle while she stubbornly refused to try a sippy cup. I eventually convinced her that she could obtain liquid from a sippy cup, but her condition was that I had to hold it for her.

She held it on her own at 19 months.

For over a year now Operation: Remove Sippy Cup has been in effect, and until today it was an utter failure. She refused to drink anything unless it was in a sippy cup, and it had to be in only one brand of sippy cup, too. A brand which, incidentally, they changed the design for last year, making it impossible to buy any new cups. And she considers the redesign a different type of cup.

I don’t know if you are aware of the life span of a sippy cup, but it doesn’t last forever. Eventually it becomes worn and small bits of black mold try to form in the moist crevices after it’s 2-3 years old. Cordy’s small collection of sippy cups have been washed thousands of times, and bleached more than a few to remove any beginnings of mold. We’ve had to declare three of them complete losses when they were left behind a sofa or in the car for more than a few days and no amount of bleach would remove the mold that started growing. Which leaves us with only 5 sippy cups, and no hope of reinforcements.

So you can see why we’ve been urging her to leave the sippy behind and try something else. At school they’ve convinced her to drink from an open cup, but it has to be the size of a Dixie cup and it can only be at school. Straws have never been an option.

(I should mention at this point that Mira has been drinking from a straw since 9 months old. The resentment of having a younger sib show her up must take a few more years to develop.)

Cordy’s autism plays a small part in this. I know many kids are stubborn – this is a problem that any parent could have. But Cordy has a preternatural fear of change. The slightest shift to her schedule or the objects in her life can ruin any tranquility in our house. We have to gently push her towards change, ever so slightly, trying to maintain the balance between drawing her out beyond her fears and losing her for a time as she retreats inside her own mind.

So how did we manage this feat? The promise of ice cream. Bribes work on any kid. OK, well, bribes never worked for this before now. Hey, I don’t care how it worked.

Of course, tomorrow she may refuse to look at a straw. We’ll see. But for now I’m thrilled.

Maybe potty training will come next?

Filed Under: Autism, Cordy, growing up


Dec 8, 2008

The Fun Is In Playing, Not Winning, Right?

December 8, 2008 By

It’s been decided that Christmas will be held at our house again this year. It’s a tradition that my family has long held, actually. When I was young, my mom was the only one from her family who had a child (both my aunts never married or had children), and so Christmas was always held at our house to make it easier on her. I never understood how that made it easier until I had kids of my own. Not having to get up early to get the kids ready, pack bags, get food ready to transport, pack the gifts, etc. – it really is easier to stay home.

And so the tradition has continued that the person who has the kids hosts Christmas. I don’t even have to cook unless I want to – the majority of the food is purchased now. Since my family is fairly laid back, we even let the kids stay in their PJs until after presents are opened.

One tradition that I kinda miss is having the family play games together after dinner. While my grandmother tidied up (because she can’t let any dirty dish escape her) my aunts, my mom and I would clear off the table and break out the board games. Every holiday meal was digested while playing a board game or card game of some sort.

Some of the games were a lot of fun. I could usually win at Uno, and a little mystery game called Scotland Yard was perfect for my family of smart problem solvers. Occasionally we’d pull out Monopoly, but since the average game of Monopoly takes roughly 4.5 days to complete (played all the way through, not just until people walk away out of frustration because one person has hotels on half the board and doesn’t give discount rates) it was often left in the closet.

The one game that always came out at Christmas, however, was Trivial Pursuit. In a family of smart people, this was the game of choice. Colors would be chosen – I was always the blue circle – and the battle would begin. Mom and Aunt Lynn put up a good fight, and I held my own for being a child, but the winner of every. single. game was my Aunt Dona.

I should point out that Aunt Dona isn’t just a natural genius. She has a Masters of Library Science and a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies. She’s lived in three countries and can read Arabic. So you can assume that she has a bit of an edge over everyone else. No matter the category, she knew the answer, often filling up her circle before I had my second pie piece.

Occasionally the game got boring when she would answer 20 questions in a row correctly, traveling from one side of the board to the other and back, collecting pie slices while the rest of us wondered if it was time for dessert yet. As I got older, we bought expansion sets for the game to keep the questions fresh – 80’s Edition, Welcome to America expansion, Genus II, Junior edition, etc. But no matter what expansion set we bought, Aunt Dona was the master of general knowledge.

However, I miss playing Trivial Pursuit. Even though I never won a game, I was always willing to jump in and fight for a chance to win. The competitive spirit was there regardless. Maybe this year I’ll pull the old faded and worn leather storage case out of the closet, dust off the board, and challenge everyone to a round of Trivial Pursuit this Christmas.

Too bad they don’t have a Preschoolers’ Pop Culture expansion to give me a chance at winning – I’m sure I could top everyone in my knowledge of Blue’s Clues, Backyardigans and Disney movies.

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Hey, want to win some games? This post is part of a PBN blog blast, sponsored by Electronic Arts, ending tonight at midnight. Hurry to get your post in for your chance to win an armload of fun games.

Filed Under: family time, holidays, me me me, memories


Dec 5, 2008

Haiku Friday: Finals Week

December 5, 2008 By
Haiku Friday
Two more exams are
between me and the end of
this quarter of school

I was crazy to
think that statistics would be
not much extra work

With my days being
so full, I often forget
I’m a student too

One nursing class and
one math class have me thankful for
ending this quarter

Assuming I pass
these exams, two more quarters
until I’m all done

And best of all: I’ll
never take more than one class
at a time again

Why I ever thought I could take statistics while deep into my nursing program I’ll never know. I put it off for way too long – taking this class before I started the formal program, and before I had two kids, would have been the wiser choice.

But after three months of multi-tasking hell, the end is in sight. Two more exams, one for each class, must be taken in the next five days. Once those are done, I can relax and enjoy the three weeks off before classes begin again. Yep, three weeks off, with only my family and my blogging to keep me occupied. (OK, maybe it’s not so much of a break.)

Two more quarters, two more classes, and then I’m done.

To play along for Haiku Friday, follow these steps:

1. Write your own haiku on your blog. You can do one or many, all following a theme or just random. What’s a haiku, you ask? Click here.

2. Sign the Mister Linky below with your name and the link to your haiku post (the specific post URL, not your main blog URL). DON’T sign unless you have a haiku this week. If you need help with this, please let me know.

3. Pick up a Haiku Friday button to display on the post or in your sidebar by clicking the button at the top.

REMEMBER: Do not post your link unless you have a haiku this week! I will delete any links without haiku!

Filed Under: Haiku Fridays, me me me, school


Dec 4, 2008

Feeling Lucky

December 4, 2008 By

I can’t say that I’m someone who never wins anything. When I was younger I had really lousy luck and couldn’t win a contest even if I bought all but one of the tickets.

Over the past few years, though, I’ve had better luck. While I usually win small prizes, like a book or a pair of shoes (still very useful prizes!), earlier this year I won a $200 gift card from Elizabeth at Table For Five to help with textbooks for nursing school. And then last week, Parent Bloggers e-mailed me to let me know I won the blog blast shopping spree for Oliebollen.com.

I’m not one to get outwardly giddy over anything, and at first I was kinda stunned. I won a shopping spree? I had 12 hours to visit the website and choose up to five items with a total value of $400 or less. As I perused all they had to offer, that excited feeling from deep inside began to build, until I was annoying Aaron all evening with, “Should I get the fancy diaper bag or the Melissa & Doug castle? I’ve only got four more hours left to decide!!”

(As you can probably guess, his response was less than helpful. I think it was something like, “I don’t care, pick out what you want!”)

So after a lot of hand-wringing and having the “practical versus fun” debate with myself over and over, I decided on my five items. Here’s what I picked:

For Mira, a Daily Tea dress and pants.


I’ve always loved this brand, but like other favorite brands of mine (Hanna Andersson, anyone?), I can rarely justify the expense.

For Cordy, a dress so expensive (although on sale right now at Oliebollen!) that I would have never considered it if I was using my own money, because we could pay the electric bill with that kind of money.

I love this dress – with her pale skin and blonde hair, she’ll look stunning in this. And it’s probably the only time she’ll have a dress this expensive until her Senior Prom.

For both girls (mostly Mira, though), a Rody jumping horse.


They’ll never get a pony, no matter how much they ask. But this is a cute substitution.

And for me, a Fleurville sling tote diaper bag.


I’ve always heard moms rave about these diaper bags, and while I’ve drooled over some of the gorgeous designs, they’ve been out of my reach. But since I now had the chance to splurge, I figured it’s time I gave myself a little gift, too.

I should point out that the site has lots of other fun toys and clothing that aren’t quite as expensive as these. I wanted to maximize my shopping spree. Go big, right?

Big thanks to Parent Bloggers and Oliebollen for the contest! Now I’m going to hope my luck holds as I try to enter all 50 HP giveaways – have you seen these? LOADS of HP computer equipment is being given away! Winning a new laptop would be awesome.

Filed Under: me me me, money Tagged With: