I am out of town this week on a business trip. I don’t travel all the much, a hand full of times per year for business and maybe one or two other times for fun, but my children still do not love it when I am gone from home.

What I do when I am traveling to make it easier on the children.

1) For longer trips I when my children were little, I would make a paper chain. At the end of each day they remove a link off of the chain. This is a great visual reminder of how long I will be away and help the people who are babysitting deal with the never ending question, “When will Mom be home?” This is also a great pre-travel project to do with your preschoolers, too!

2) Have stuffed animal will travel. Have you seen those television commercials for Cingular where the Dad finds the stuffed animal in his briefcase and takes photos of the stuffed animal throught his trip? A friend of mine told me that her children saw that commercial and wanted to do it also. Now when she travels she finds a surprise stuffed animal in her suitcase and she takes photos of it during the trip. Sending the photos digitally makes the kids feel like they know what is going on and helps them to feel closer to you.

3) Write notes to be left for the kids. When I am home, I write a note for my kids everyday and stick it in their lunchboxes. When I go away I write notes in advance, mostly generic so they can go in any one’s lunchbox, and have my caregiver put them in their lunchboxes or backpack every morning.

4) Bring home a present. Sometimes this is something a simple as a pack of M&M’s for each kid. yes, I could buy them at the local mini-mart, but really what else are you going to bring home from New Jersey.

So tell me, do you have anything that you do to make being away from your kids easier? And tips for making it go smoother for your caregiver?

It has been raining a LOT the past few weeks. But my children have not seemed to mind all that much. They have been thrilled to play in the rain, sometimes wearing bathing suits. Jumping in puddles. Splashing in the street. Luckily the weather has cooperated in so far as there has been no thunder and lightening.

I remember a few times as a child when the rain came down hard and I was allowed to play outside in it. My parents were from the generation that believed getting wet and cold would make you sick. So playing outside in inclement weather was not something that happened very often.

What are the things that matter most? I see my children being pressured at school to succeed. I see them being pushed at sports to succeed. I see the hours of their childhoods slipping away. The time left over for playing and running around with no agenda is squeezed in the empty spaces. I think that jumping in puddles is just as important as learning the multiplication tables.

This pumpkin holds the offical world’s record for the largest pumpkin weighing in at 1725 pounds.  That’s a lot of pumpkin pie. 

I love these sort of contests.  I know that there must be some sort of county fair near where we are living where there are pie eating contests, ferris wheels, and the largest vegetables ever to be grown.  I don’t know why I have such a fondness for these gigantic pumpkins, maybe because they persevere and continue to grow long after all of their counterparts have given up.

It could also be because I have not been able to grow anything but weeds in my life.   My attempts at gardening have usually been met with dead withered vegetables, the result of either ignoring them or my overzealous watering.

The newspaper said that the seeds would be dried out and given to anyone who asked.  I hope someone asks and grows a gigantic pumpkin of their very own!

Have you seen this video yet?  It is truly an incedible and uplifting story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arD374MFk4w

My 8 yr old son is studying simple machines in his third grade classroom and I sent the link to his teacher.  The story incorporates all the things to which we hope our children aspire.  A boy who was inspired  by a book  from the library, who then had a dream of doing something that was seemingly impossible, and then turning that dream into reality.   The story of how one person can truly make a difference.

My son was in awe that a simple machine could be life changing. 

Have you heard any other feel good stories lately? Please share!

This week I read at msnbc that people are returning to tradition this holiday season. No one is going for the latest fads, instead returning to the traditional colors and styles of years gone by.   It isn’t too hard to deduce that people are seeking is the security of the past, a reminder of when times were simpler. 

So this year when you go out shopping you will see more of the traditional items that you might have had in your home growing up, our in your grandmother’s home, and less of the cartoon character Christmas decorations or the passing fads.  Personally I am going to be doing a lot of baking this year, saving money and time spent shopping.   I want to cultivate the traditions that we have had for years and maybe make some new ones since we are in our new home in a new state.

I am looking forward to Thanksgiving, too, in a way that I have not for many years.  I think that is the one silver lining to the downturned economy– the ability to truly be thankful for all that you DO have.  The economy has hit my little family hard.  At first I found myself thinking that it could be worse, not exactly the most upbeat of sentiments.  It has now evolved into thinking about how very lucky, even blessed, that we are.

I  think that most of us like to stick with traditions, but it can be easy to get stuck in the buy-buy-buy rut during the holidays.  This year I will be making and baking gifts  with my kids.  Perhaps dusting off those jam recipes that I haven’t touched in years, baking breads and cakes, making cards.  I can’t help but think that in the long run we will all be better off for it.

I have another child down with the flu.  As soon as one recovers, another one seems to get it.  I suppose this is keeping with the 7-10 day incubation period.  But it is wearing me down.

My 8 yr old spiked a temperature of 104 tonight.  I immediately gave him Advil and an ice pack for his head and slowly but surely the fever came down.  He was even up off the couch an hour or so later looking for some dinner.  Given the way it has progressed with everyone else, I know that the fever will be spiking again and it will be at least another couple days before he can head back to school. 

So if you are wondering where I am,or what I am doing, it involves Lysol, bleach, or excessive amounts of hand washing.  Because when there is nothing that you can really do, you have to find something to do.  Cleaning can be cathartic.

I heard on our local news today that the flu has become so bad in our area that the local ER set up three triage tents outdoors to handle all of the patients.  Not somewhere I want to go.

We just had midterm marking period and my oldest children did extremely well.  All A’s if I can brag a little.  Okay, brag a lot.  I have been working it into conversation everywhere I go. It is just that I am proud of them. Not just for their grades, but because I have witnessed the effort that they have put forth in the past six weeks.

Tonight my oldest son asked me, “So what do I get for having such good grades?”

I was taken by surprise. “Get? What do you mean, get?”

“Is there a reward for getting all A’s?”

“Your reward is your knowledge.”

“Really?” he asked.

“Yes, really.” I answered.

He wasn’t impressed.

I guess other kids get monetary incentives for getting good grades. On one hand, I’m just not sure that is somewhere I want to go. On the other hand, they have worked hard and maybe some sort of reward is justified and would encourage them to continue the hard work.

So tell me, what do you do? Do you dole out rewards for good grades? Are good grades just the expectation?

I am great at procrastinating.  Really, I am.  Some might say that I have elevated it to an art form.  I am always the parent scrambling to get a costume right before Halloween or putting up the holiday decorations right up until the actual holiday.

But this year?  I am turning over a new leaf.  I have already ordered new Christmas stockings for my kids.  I have been wanting to do this for a few years, the stockings we currently have were cheap and are literally falling apart.  But every year I wait until it is too late to get it done.  This year I am ready.  They are embroidered with their names and everything. 

Even though I have boxes of Christmas decorations still packed from our move, most of them are so old and dusty (specifically thinking of the miles of faux garland I have) that I really want to replace them.   I also don’t need half (a quarter?) as many decorations since this house is much more, shall we say, cozy than our last house. 

I am getting excited to decorate a new house for the holidays and planning crafts to do with the kids.

I have been browsing through the Martha Stewart website.  I love that website.  In spite of all evidence to the contrary, it makes me feel as though with some paper, a little grosgrain ribbon, and a glue gun I too can conquer the world.   Or at least recreate it in miniature.

What?  What’s that you say?  There are two more holidays between now and then?  I suppose sticking my fingers in my ears and saying, “LA LA LA I can’t hear you,” would not be keeping with my newly turned over leaf.

I guess I had better start looking at Halloween and Thanksgiving ideas first…

I am sure that by now many of you have seen this viral video.  But oh my, I can not stop laughing.  We must have watched this twenty times this weekend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikTxfIDYx6Q

Enjoy.  It might make  your Monday morning a little brighter.

Saturday is Worldwide Day of Play, according to Nikelodeon 

The children’s television station will go dark for three hours  in order to encourage children to get off the couch and out playing.  I am guessing no one thinks these same kids will just change the channel? 

Ok, call me a cynic, but three hours?  Is that going to make a difference for those children who are allowed to watch tv all day?  Who is letting their kids sit around all day on a Saturday and watch television anyway? 

They have a 29 page downloadable PDF with ideas for how you can spend the three hours.  It has quite a few games, with instructions, and other ideas that would be fun for any day, not just a special worldwide day of play.