That's it

I am going to quit my Tues/Thursday Job. The M-Saturday job is enough to keep my days busy. So I will sacrifice the T and R job and give those hours to taking care of the kiddlets and the house. Of course my night job will still keep me busy every evening.

How to Fix the economy

Most people have the feeling the American Economy is going down hill. And who can blame them, the headlines have been leading with mass layoffs expected at manufactoring jobs every where we turn in America.

My Economic theroys probally don't agree with the vodoo economists in Washington, however I think they are worth a posting. (probably just for the reason they don't agree with the washingtonits)

First of all I am of the opnion that to fix the national economy we first got to fix our individual and local economy. What does that mean?

It means that we need to live financially sustainablly. Quite often the sustainablilty jives quite nicely with Ecological sustainability too. We can not live going deeper into debt. We need to look at where we are spending money and why. Are we spending lots of money at restuarnts because we have no time to cook? We do we have no time to cook? BEcause we spend hours in the car all day commuting?

Does tossing kids in daycare make parenthood sustainable? What is sucking our money?

What can we change in our lives to make it more sustanable? Can we live closer to work? HOw much time and gas will it save you? OR even work at home. We you cut back the hours you work and then save money by cooking or cleaning for ourselves? Gardening? Can we do sewing or cooking for others? Immagine a meal share program where we can cook for 2 familes every other night.

Can we think about home ecomonics as what we do at home for the economy? Like gardening rather then grocery shopping or sewing rather then clothes shopping? Not only can it give it a sense of accomplishment and pride in well crafted items, but it can also be used as a way not to need as much cash on hand.

Also there are the ideas of taking advantage of that which is free. A libary membership is usually free and is great place to get books and references. Parks are a great place to hang out- that way you don't need your own green spaces (as much). And using second hand items. Maby even getting to know and spend time with your neighbors and friends. Most of us allready own board games. It doesnt' cost much to get to gether and play.

If we structure our personal lives around economic sustainability we can help the others around us accomplish that too.

The same principles apply to national economies. We got to stop buying and start utilizing what is within us and around us.

bone health

"Vitiamin D Trumps Calcium for Bone Health

According to researchers in Iceland, consuming more then 800 mg of Calicium per day may be unnecessart for bone health if the body has enough vitamin D.

Using food consumption records from more than 900 adults, researchers at Landspitali-University Hostpitals in Reykjavik determined that sufficient vit D levels can ensure an ideal level of parathyroid hormone (PTH)- a measure of calcium metabolism- even when calcium intake is less than 800 mg/day. But they also found that consuming more than 1200 mg of calcium daily is not enough to ma intain ideal PTH if the vit D status is insufficeient.

In light of recent research, and predicting future health problems, some researchers have called for recommended intake of vit D to be raised but the adeguate amounts needed in the diet are still not known. And the new study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association last fall, underlines the need to do further work on the RDA for this vitamin."

OK- so we know that you needs lots of Vit D for good bones, but did you know that the only naturally occuring source of vit D is your skin's exposure to sunlight?

something broke

Something broke inside of me. I am not sure what it was. But now I am able to pet the dog, and scratch him all over. And I don't mind trying to clip his nails.


So I wonder why that is, when in the past the dog and I largly ignored each other. Maby its the fact that he has taken to lying at my feet, and he comes to me for protetcion from the kids.

Maby its because the cat we have don't spare him any love. (Gandolf and Sam were best friends and cuddle companions)

Maby its becasue we both end up cleaning up after the kids. I don't know he's a dog.

move over frued

I just had a dream;

Somehow Mom had roped me into playing a music concert with her. The concert was now, and I didn't even have my clarienet. But when she passed me the music is was for the trombone (which I have even less clue how to play), adn to top it off I didn't even have a trombone to play. and on the bottom of every piece of sheet music was the written instructions given to those who had met in practice sessions to prepare for the concert mostly included "practice daily", meaning that they have been practicing daily for a while.

i felt a little inadiquite for the task., and my part was to carry the melody.

gets cuter

Galen's tooth fairy story get cuter. Last night he came up to me at bed time and had me help him spell out his letter back to the tooth fairy. He even used the fancy curly letter style the tooth fairy used in her note. Then he stuck it under his pillow along with his tooth.

The tooth fairy was so charmed. She had to write a letter back and leave a whole dollar for his tooth. The tooth fairy invited Galen to become pen pals with her.

So he took his dollar to church with him today and heard a talk on how fast offerings feed the poor. So he grabbed a tithing envolope and put his whole dollar in there. I helped him fill out the form. He said he wanted his money to buy food for the the hungry. And then we gave it to the bishop.

What a sweetie, finally I am seeing some of what it means to become as little children.

Galen and the tooth fairy

Galen lost his first tooth yesterday. And he was so excited he said he was going to go to bed early so the tooth fairy could come. At 1am I finally tucked him in. At 2am I jumped out of bed and remembered I hadn't played tooth fairy.

So I ran downstairs and carefully stuck my hand under the kids' pillows. No tooth- actually no envolope that I gave Galen to put his tooth in.

So the tooth fairy wrote a note instead, telling Galen that she would come tonight and asking him to put the tooth in the envolpe and then under his pillow for her. THis time is listened. So if he goes to bed tonight the toothfairy will hopefully remember to come.

wetting the bed

It is not unusual for a three year old to wet his bed, that is why you keep the waterproof matress cover on it.

However the matress cover is no match for the way Ian wets his bed. Yesterday I was in the basment when I noticed water cascading down the walls. So I ran upstairs and bellowed "Who's playing in the water?"

Ian had taken buckets of water and was dumping unto his bed. The water has soaked through the matress, the bed, the floor and then ran into the floor and down the basment walls onto Mom's bed. Luckily I had organized our house's bedding on her bed and the blanket pile soaked up the dripping water, before it ever got to her bed.

3 years olds are trouble, every one has to find a unique wat to cause problems.- just when you think you've seen it all.

another chat worth saving

Paul Hunt: emoticon is another addition to our language

me: what would we do with out being able to smile with our chating/emailing?
We are trying to teach galen about non-verbal communication. We are asking him alot about how he thinks others feel- usually using thier expressions as cues

Paul Hunt: cool

me: his autsim slows him down on that kind of them more then the average child. We also hope to use it as a base to teach empathy.

Paul Hunt: yup

me: if boys are so emotionally vulnerable then why does our society try to forget that they even have emotions?

Paul Hunt: that is part of the issue

me: the show really opened my eyes to that fact. It was like, ohh, yes I guess they ought to learn they have emotions and that emotions need expression.

Paul Hunt: we are a slow learning society on some topics.

me: girls just assume that the men don't have emotions because they never undestand thier (girl's) emotions anyways, but I gues martians have them too, adn we better teach them what to do with them

Paul Hunt: knowledge is power

me: ye, power. Then of course along with emotions it only makes sense to teach things like polietness, manors and respect
Define "Respect" for a 5 year old

Paul Hunt: oooh, that sounds challenging

me: lol . . kids are tucked

Paul Hunt: sleep well kiddies

me: so can you define respect for an adult?

Paul Hunt: # Respect is the objective, unbiased consideration and regard for the rights, values, beliefs and property of all people. Kant's categorical imperative as well as what is commonly understood of being a gentleman incorporate the concept of respect.

me: so what dictionary did you steal that from?

Paul Hunt: googles first hit

me: ok, so simplify that

Paul Hunt: an attitude of admiration or esteem; "she lost all respect for him"
obedience: behavior intended to please your parents; "their children were never very strong on obedience";
this is a good one: deference: courteous regard for people's feelings; "in deference to your wishes"; "out of respect for his privacy"

me: I like that in of regards for people's feelings. That might do for teaching the generalities of respect, also to show diffrence to those you admire, look up to

Paul Hunt: courteous is a good adjective too

me: yep, Now to try to teach those things
me: example, and practice

Paul Hunt: nothing works except example and practice. Nothing works WITHOUT example and practice

me: once the kids have the fundimentals down then I will bring them out into the world to intteract with real people. I think our test will be "how many people will leave your interactions smiling?"

Paul Hunt: good one

me: through the homeschooling I have come to the opnion that acedemics is very little, and that to teach acedemics you are missing the actual important items like character

Paul Hunt: academics change, character will encourage real academic acheivement on individual terms

me: yep, character is what I am to teach, then they may be ready to learn the acedimeics correctly (with out much pushing)

Paul Hunt: yup

me: the strange thing is that this is not something I would have immagined a month ago

Paul Hunt: why?

me: I was focused on the acedemics. Now I am focused on the child(ren) and real interactions with life and people. But the more time I am with them the more clear the need of teaching these character traits become

Paul Hunt: teach it, be it

me: yep, we even pulled the attentia connection to the tv, I did not pull him out of school so he could watch pbs all day

Paul Hunt: antenna, attentia, nice slip

me: I had to study the differences before I could see the underlining difference in them

Paul Hunt: one implies a device that pulls in attention

me: yep, that is an ideal

me: Galen had 4 tacos for dinner

Paul Hunt: it takes calories to bounce off of walls

me: the strange thing is that when the kids are hyperactive they are dont' eat

Paul Hunt: they make up for it, Like with meth

me: probably

Paul Hunt: interesting... it IS like meth

me: yes, very much so, and I know it is something in what they ate the the body is reacting to, some kind of toxin.

Paul Hunt: even if it is just natural kid enthusiasm, it is still much like meth. They don't eat, they stay very active, then they crash

me: well, sometimes it is obviously something they ate. There is a different sort of activeness. When it has to do with excitment, you can still get through to them, and they can still process what is going on around them. When it is the toxic reactions then they are lost, hyperactive but on planet 9, and all data that goes in to thier head gets bounced back, unread.

Milk Chocolate?

I bought a pound of organic chocolate chips on saturday. They were in a deli take out (cheap plastic cillander) And i grabed a few to snck on while holding the baby. He spit up, right into that container. And the spit up went all the way down. Does anybody want milk chocolate?

even more

all this and we didn't even bring our camera to the mall of america with us. :)

Here you see Galen's smile at the conclusion of his Belt Test.

more

this week in pics

Mamma Bear, Daddy Bear and Baby Bear
all made by us
the bear family all togther

kid's bears: Cosmo, Bat Frog and Panda (the Giraff)

notes from a Mommie's desk

Hi Ginny,
I live in Shoreview (ln the north side of the cities). I am soon to be 28 years old. At times I feel older, when the grey hairs clump together, other times I feel too young to be doing what I am doing. But most of the time I completely forget my age and just remember my children's ages.

Books: reading books yourself is the best way to get your children to want to read books. Make a goal to read x number of books per year- and let your children see you doing it. I am almost always reading something. But quite often is is not a good novel. Magic school bus, Dr Suess and the like seems to get a lot of reading around here. The last book I read was one given to Galen for his birthday. It was on Pirates- the history of. I read it all in one night. If your children are old enough read novels outloud to them. We recently enjoyed Charlie and the chocolate factory and I have Charlotes Web and the trumpeter swan on the shelf waiting for the right time.

Don't fret about the house, embrace it as the one time in your life that the item you throw on the floor doesn't stay there to haunt you. It is either covered up by toys or taken away by kids. When your kids grow up you can a perfect pretty house, but now you are to live there, teach there and survive with out going crazy. (Ever seen Martha Stewart with kids around around?) Just immagine that in 20 years your kids won't care how clean the house was, but they will care what kind of activities you did with them.

I have been a mom for 7 years. It blows our mind that our little baby is 7 and will be baptized next year. The first baby was a challange, everything was new, and I knew nothing. Second baby was eaiser, but then the 2 boys seemed like so much work. By the third kids, I knew all about babies and somehow the others ones seemed like a little less work. The 4th kid is so easy. I know exactly what to do. I know exactly what not to be worried over (most of it). This baby almsot never goes to the Dr and is almost always happy. Part of that is blessings but a lot of it is experience. Now the older boys can help with the younger. And all too soon they don't even want to hang around me.

Besides being a mom I needed another challange to focus my mind and energies on, so I started a business. The businesses invovles my higher level math and thinking and planning skills. But in many ways it's just one more baby vieing for attention.

Add to that homeschooling , to better fill the needs of my kids, Family home evening, daily family scripture study and keeping up with classes on Sunday.

How does a Mormon mom handle everything is has to do? but not sweating the small stuff, and taking everything one baby step at a time. Make a little goal (like keeping a clean kitchen table) and work on it until it an old hat. Then add another little goal; like yelling less, and begain to work on that.

Do you know that when I had 2 kids things like poop smearing would ruin my whole day? Now we jsut generally clean it up with out a thought and life goes on. Barf on the shirt? same thing. Nothing is designed to stretch us into Heavenly Father's immage as much as having kids.

Oh yeah, and the grey hairs? Concider them well earned and wear them as badges of courgae, honor and surviving gross things.

Have a wonderful day!
Raya

Return to sender

I'm going to package this day right back up, double tape it, with about 3 layers of package tape on every edge. Stamp on it in big red letter "RETURN TO SENDER" and ship overnight express garenteed. Then when they open it back up in hell it can explode in thier faces. Do you want a list of reasons why I'm sending this day back?

1. The post man came an hour early for the package pick up this morning, that means my packages weren't ready.
2. I couldn't ship internatioal with out the phone number, so I went to the post office' s kiosk, but for some reason you cant ship international there either and have to stand in line- yeah right I had 4 boys with me.
3. took the boys to the office depot- survived giving them a strong dose of Vit N (no) , but then my card was declined on check out. I didn't have another way to pay, as I usually try to stick to keep all other forms of payment at home to prevent over buying. Ok- had to go home get another card - strange that was declined too- but at least I was smart enough to bring my check book.
4. ok so we got home, and I gave the kids a snack- and I could still smell the waffles in wafe in the air, I thought it might be the dinner I stuck in the crock pot. But you know what? the crock pot is cold. It wasn't plugged in! There goes any sane attempt at dinner.

in 8 minutes we have to leave to Twe Qwon Do, and I bet the kids aren't dressed yet.

5. Add to all this an autsitic boy in an ornery mood- yeah poor kitty, poooor brothers, poor ears.

is return postage paid?

baby books

I loved looking at my baby scrap book when I was a child. It must have connected me to my begainings. So I made of point of doing baby books for my kids. My first kid has 2.5 years croniclled. My second has 6 months. My third kid has 2 weeks of his life layed out in a scrap book. But my Clayton, I don't even has a binder for his. But I just realized that's ok. When I am ready to bind his I can jsut print out my blog. It cronicles more of his life then the other scrap books ever had a chance.- And way more pics too.

Bath time for Clay

home as a Temple

http://www.meridianmagazine.com/voices/000815hometemple.html

another great article- answers questions I have been dealing with lately

homeschool link

While feeling a little lonely last night for somebody who could talk to me about homeschooling special needs, but very intellengent children I ran across this site. A lot of interesting and wonderful little essays by a mother of 10, and a homeschooler.

http://www.schoolofabraham.com/nothanks.htm

Galen has been reading to himself. The other night I came down to tell him to go to bed one more time, but was charmed by how much work he was putting into his book. (with out his glasses) so I gave him his glasses and he proceeded to read it to me. He decoded about 20 pages by himself and read those outloud to me. I was rather impressed and felt the "laying off" of the acedemic approach may have prooved fruitful after all. We shall see what today bring.

Irony

I love Irony. Irony is one of the many things that seem to prove in my mind that there is an infinate intellegence running the universe.

Today during church I had 2 kids squirming and trying to get away from me on both sides and a third one on my lap. When I sang the first line of the closing hymn I broke into a big smile, because of the delight of the irony. "I need thee every hour, most gracious Lord."

Of course I also found the smile ironic with in the context of the words as well.

More b-day pics

"yippy a white box!!"

He was so estatic when he unwrapped the white box.

as promised

pics from Galen's b-day party. He is 7, 7 already!

A little bluntly

I was just talking to my husband about bras, explaining that no one makes a good organic bra that can support the nursing rack. So he said "Why don't you make one?"

my reply was as follows: "It is by no coincidence that the modern bra as we know it was not designed until the 1940's. It is a feat of unengeering not uplarelled by even the atom bomb it's self."

so the advice I'd give any one searching for a good maternity or nursing bra is; buy playtex expectant moments, they're not pretty but they work!

manifesting the carefully planned growth of the businesses

me: so I am not a puter junkie, I just count on the computer to connect me to my world
svava_the_tempting: my men (in a business sense) are out doing the sam's run
me: ahh, someone needs to keep you stocked on sugar and c affine
svava_the_tempting: something like that
me: I just love your markup
ssvava_the_tempting: we don't buy any caffine as sam's but lots and lots of surgar
svava_the_tempting: we average only a 44% markup
me: wish I could do that and still be cheaper then the store down the street
me: only a 44%, I thought candy was 300%
svava_the_tempting: the candy is fantastic, the role playing books suck
me: yep
me: I average a 50% markup
me: tights and socks suck
me: but Under the Nile brand and blue canoe bras I get a full100%
svava_the_tempting: nice
me: it is, that's why I bother to carry them, besides the fact that they expand my lines for the one stop shopping needs of my customers
svava_the_tempting: very true
me: yep - I hope to became a nice department store one day
svava_the_tempting: online?
me: 1 stop shopping for all organic fiber products
me: online- but if I ever do set up a real store -physically
me: then we will offer furnacure and other house hold good to support the organic life style
svava_the_tempting: let me tell you dealing with customers is . .. d=signifigantly different
me: I deal with customers
svava_the_tempting: not all day every day in person
svava_the_tempting: very different
me: nope- but that is what a store manager is for
me: I will be running the business- world wide bsuienss
svava_the_tempting: ah
me: all from my home puter
svava_the_tempting: okme: of course, I will have to walk a round the production and boutique areas occasionally
svava_the_tempting: of course
me: pat people on the back and tell them how good of a job they are doing, or give them a little instruction of what it was I ment when I said . . .
svava_the_tempting: ah
me: sometimes I wonder If I should still provide a lot of Customer service or If I will have to pass that on to some one who I hand pick and train very carefully
svava_the_tempting: hmmms
vava_the_tempting: I would assume by the time you get that big you'll need an army of customer service associates
me: I am hoping there will be way to much for me to ha ndle alone
svava_the_tempting: all specially trained
me: yep - all trained not to say the word "no"
me: all trained to provide what the customer feel she needs
me: all trained to say "we can do that!"
me: and then hold the power to get it done for her
svava_the_tempting: could work
me: I am thinking that I may structure the comany little different
me: that maby the customer service person creates the packing slips, and then calls production if any thing unusual is needed
svava_the_tempting: hmm
svava_the_tempting: might work
me: it is also the cs job to see that it gets doen ans out to the customer on time
me: maby I will pay them some commision for happy customers
me: And the customer service department will be in all the marketing meeting, because they are the ones w ho know what the customer is looking for and what they need
svava_the_tempting: ah
me: however commisions will not be based on sales amounts , but on fullfiling the customers needs
me: maby theu will get a bonus for thier customers that return
svava_the_tempting: hmmm perhaps
me: and ideally there is a special connection between a customer and her CS person.
me: But we have to make it easy to get help even when the CS is not in
svava_the_tempting: army of cs
svava_the_tempting: army
me: probably
me: we will also have to have a detailed inventory info on computer for quickl cs access
me: for sizes, colors, lengths of evrey size of inseam, rise, ect
me: and of course the pedegree of the garment and fabric
svava_the_tempting: very true
svava_the_tempting: would be handy
me: make it easy, and they will do it
me: and of course if you type in the customers name or phone and it pulls up all the info on them and thier past purchases
svava_the_tempting: ah

ironic

It is always nice to start the New Year with a bit of happy Irony.
And this year we did it simply by having everyone in the house asleep before midnight last night. It was probably the first time in over a month that we has everyone asleep before midnight.