Today is free pancake day at iHop! 

From their website:

Since beginning its National Pancake Day celebration in 2006, IHOP has raised more than $3.25 million to support charities in the communities in which it operates. While IHOP’s National Pancake Day typically takes place on Shrove Tuesday,this year the company will host its free pancake event on Tuesday, February 23, extending the fundraising window by one week to maximize donations for Children’s Miracle Network. With your help, we hope to raise $5 million in five years for Children’s Miracle Network and other local charities through your donations in 2010!

Known also as Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras, National Pancake Day dates back several centuries to when the English prepped for fasting during Lent. Strict rules prohibited the eating of all dairy products during Lent, so pancakes were made to use up the supply of eggs, milk, butter and other dairy products…hence the name Pancake Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday

We went last year and I am planning on surprising the kids tonight by bringing them out for pancakes for dinner. 

First a freak snowstorm dumps accumulated snow in Texas today and now this.  They will think they have won the kid lottery.

Remember when you were a kid and your parents would tell you to go outside and get some fresh air?  Turns out, like most things, that they were right.  Spending time outside, even in winter, is good for you.  I  remember taking books outside to read when I was a kid.  It was a compromise between my mother and I.  I wanted to stay inside and read and she wanted me to get outside and play.

According to this article, kids who spend time outside daily reap many benefits.  On average they are fitter, have better eyesight, less stress and get better grades. 

I think most of the things they talk about translate to adults as well.  I notice that my mood worsens after I have spent many consecutive days indoors.

Now that I live in a warmer climate, getting the kids outside every day is not a problem.  They ride bikes, skateboard, play basketball or touch football, draw on the sidewalk with chalk.  The only days that they spend inside are those where the weather is truly bad.

This article has 25 things to do outside in the middle of winter. 

I love the idea of heading to the zoo or playgrounds.  Things that you usually reserve for warmer weather.  Yes, you might not beable to spend as long of a time there, but playing on a playground in the snow is a  lot of fun.

We love building a fire and roasting marshmallows or cooking hot dogs on a stick.  Somehow cooking food over a fire on a stick makes it that much more tasty!

After taking an impromptu hiatus for Christmas and New Year, I have returned from the dead.  Okay, maybe I wasn’t actually dead, but after after all the chaos and running around dead seemed like it would  be a very restful option.

I read  comments that some of  you left having issues with features on the Handiland site and I have forwarded them on to the powers that be.  I have nothing to do with that side of things, but rest assured I am certain they will figure out whatever the glitch it is. 

I started out 2010 with the simple desire to make it a happier year.  I am not overly fond of huge life changing resolutions.  It seems as though you are setting yourself up for failure.  After so much change and upheaval last year, I thought that this year I really would like to shift my focus, and that of my family, on behaving in ways that make us happy. 

Now I am not talking about throwing all constraints to the wind and living a hedonistic lifestyle, but rather assessing opportunities or plans on the basis of whether they will increase our overall happiness.  I am trying to live in the present instead of telling myself that “I will be happy when…”  I am trying to weed out true obligations from guilt.  I am letting go of lots of baggage, both literal and metaphorical.

Some people resolve to say no more often because they have been living as people pleasers.  I have discovered that while I need to say no more often also, I also need to say yes.  To be open to opportunities as they come along.  To be spontaneous.  When my knee jerk reaction is to say no, to ask myself what is the worst that can happen?

So tell me, how has 2010 been to you so far?  Have you resolved to make and changes in your life?  And how is it going?

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.  ~Thornton Wilder

Wishing all of you a day filled with family, friends, love, and above all an awareness of all the things for  which you are thankful.

At the 11th hour, on the 11th day of the 11th month, we remember…
I remember as a child that veterans all seemed so old and from wars fought so long ago.  It was something from the past.  I wish I could say the same things now.

Where I used to see old men I now see boys.  Boys not much older than my sons.

Happy Veteran’s Day to all the veterans out there.  Thank  you for your service and sacrifice.

Wow, I am old.  I can remember watching this show as a child, when it first came on the air!  I remember vastly prefering The Electric Company– anyone remember that show?– to Sesame Street.

Over the past few months my 4yr old son has been watching Sesame Street videos on my iPhone.  It has been a great way to distract him when we are out doing some boring errands or something.  The original shows hold a special place in my heart.

Ladybug picnic

Alligator King

Rubber Duckie

Leave a link to your favorites!

If  you haven’t read anything that made you cry today, read this story. 

It is about a little girl who was diagnosed with terminal cancer.  Unbeknownst to her family, she drew hundreds of pictures and wrote notes and hid them all over the house.   Once she died, her family began  finding them. 

Heartbreaking for sure, but I can only imagine that the notes are a source of comfort to her family.

There has been a lot of talk in my extended neighborhood, and among friends and family, about whether or not to vaccinate our kids for the H1N1 virus, the Swine Flu.  I have never had my children vaccinated for the flu.  None of my kids have any underlying health conditions such as asthma so it has never seemed necessary.  And, knock on wood, we have been very lucky in not getting the flu over the years.

I have noticed that there are two distinct camps: the no way, no how and the yes, Yes, YES!  And according to a recent poll this is the same division that exists across America.  47% saying they will get the vaccine, 47% saying they will not.  When I read this I joked that the other 6% were home in bed sick with the flu.

I was on the fence this year.  With the flu, both strains, running epidemic in my area I was considering getting the vaccination for the first time for all of us.  But before I could make a decision we all got the swine flu.  It wasn’t that bad, as far as having the flu goes.  The doctor told me that has been her experience as well.  That a majority of her patients have been less sick with the so-called Swine flu than she has seen with the regular flu. 

Everyone I know personally in my neighborhood has also had the Swine flu.  Some were more sick than others, but we have all had it now.  Most of the kids on my son’s sports teams have gotten it also.  I know that some areas of the country have not been as hard hit.

What have you done?  Do you think the swine flu vaccine is too new and experimental, as some people have said for their reason not to vaccinate?  Or are you vaccinating your family?

My daughter was invited to a classmates 7 yr old birthday party this weekend.  When I got the invitation I was happy to see that it was a home party, not some completely over the top extravaganza.   I went to the party assuming that I would be able to just drop her off.  Isn’t that what you are supposed to do at birthday parties? 

But suddenly I was inside the house among a sea of  mothers who were all staying, and hovering over their children.  All while I stood there contemplating my exit.  After about a half hour I  finally asked  if it would be okay of I left and went to do my grocery shopping.  The house seemed awfully cramped with children and their parents, and in some cases siblings. And frankly, I am more than a little concerned about what is going to happen when my daughter has her birthay party!  Is there a way to write on the invitation “no parents and no siblings” without it being awkward.

I felt bad leaving the party, for oh, ten seconds, then I merrily skipped down the driveway.

Is this the new norm for birthday parties?  Do parents usually  stay?  I am trying to think back to my own childhood but I am pretty sure that when I was 6 and 7 yrs old the only parties I went to were family parties.