High Maintenance Mom

In an effort to take my new found cooking skills to the next level (albeit a low level) and become more of a locavore, I decided to try out a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share this summer. That being said, I had a feeling a full share would be too much for my family of 4 so I am splitting a full share with my neighbors (it's a lot of food!). Community Support Agriculture is an amazing concept where a group of individuals support a local farm by buying into a “share” of the crops before the season begins giving the farm much needed cash to seed their crops. Many CSA’s offer half shares, plant your own shares, and work shares. So even if you don’t have the $500 (prices vary) for the summer’s full share, you can work for it at a much reduced fee. There are also winter shares at some farms which might be worth exploring if my neighbors are willing to go along with my insanity and split it with me again...(read more...)

This spring highmaintenancemom.com and Good Manners Kids' Stuff Press is teaming up again and giving away It's Time for Good Manners! by Leslie Susskind. I am a huge advocate for good manners for people of all ages. But I specifically love to see them in children. My two year old son is a very typical boy, active, strong willed and smart. He has learned to use his utensils, sit at the dinner or restaurant table and make conversation with his sister and Mom and Dad and he clears his plate and cup after asking to be excused. My daughter learned these manners at a similar age too....more

Today we commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Mount St. Helens May 18, 1980 eruption. "30 years ago the largest terrestrial landslide in recorded history reduced the summit of Mount St. Helens by 1,300 feet and triggered a lateral blast that blew down and scorched 230 square miles of forest. Within 15 minutes, a vertical plume of volcanic ash rose over 80,000 feet." (learn more at the Mount St. Helens 30th Anniversary web site). There are also two YouTube videos made by the USGS, one on the eruption and the other on how volcano monitoring has changed since the eruption. Also see the poster, 30 Cool Facts about Mount St. Helens.

Happy Mother's Day!

I made a huge amount of salt dough today for kids to enjoy. I was impressed by how easy it was to make and how much fun the kids had sculpting it. I also really like the idea of making something like this from basic ingredients at home so the kids can see the process instead of just going to the store to buy it...

As a parent I love when a teaching moment presents itself. Earth Day is one of those moments. My 4 year old daughter loves bugs & worms and my 2 year old son loves flowers (specifically "mulups" or as we adults call them Tulips) so it is easy to start a conversation with them about nature. Get your kids outside and you'll be surprised how easy it is to start talking about nature....(more)

Whether or not you have been watching ABC’s new reality show, Jaime Oliver’s Food Revolution, you certainly know the growing concern over America’s public school lunches. Flash back to your public school lunches and pizza, chocolate milk, french fries and rolls surly top the list. I remember those cute little chocolate/vanilla ice cream cups with the little wooden “spoons”. What I don’t remember is fresh fruit, chicken (no, not nuggets cooked in oil), fish (no, not sticks cooked in oil), vegetables (maybe even those from a small garden planted on the school grounds) or a dessert that isn’t complete junk (think oatmeal raisin or cranberry cookies or even fruit…gasp!)....more

Barefoot Books are favorites among parents all over the world and for good reason. They draw kids in with their amazing illustrations, captivating stories and universal themes of love, respect for the Earth and diversity. I liked that they are not the very typical princess stories that have flooded the children's book market. I like that most of them are gender neutral so both of my kids can relate to whatever I buy. Recently a friend suggested two books in particular, My Daddy is a Pretzel by Baron Baptiste and We All Go Traveling By by Sheena Roberts. Both available through www.thebarefootbeach.com....(more)

I love being organized and I love computers so it would stand to reason that I would not only use my laptop computer's calendar, etc but that I would also use my cell phone's organizational components. I don't and I wasn't 100% sure why until I came across a great organization tool from FranklinCovey, the gold standard in organizational planners! The Simplicity for Mom's planner is "part of the company's "EasyPlan" product category, meaning that its design incorporates standard FranklinCovey planning principles, but gives you the flexibility to add your unique perspective to the planning you do. This involves space for recording tasks and events, a design that matches the needs of a mom, and priced to make it easier to stay organized: MSRP $24.95."...(more)

This winter highmaintenancemom.com and Good Manners Kids' Stuff Press is giving away The Kids' (and parents', too!) Book of Good Sportsmanship: An easy-to-read guide for families , by Leslie A. Susskind. Now that my kids are getting out of parallel play and the oldest even into organized sports, it is time to talk about being a good sport. I first realized it needed to be addresses when my oldest was playing a board game with another friend and got very sad when the friend won. I was giving the friend high fives and big smiles but not my daughter. We talked about it (how does it feel when you win, how must it feel when your friends win, you love your friends, etc) and it sunk in well. I told my husband and he jumped on the good sportsmanship bandwagon too....(more)

I've found Valentine's Day to be the perfect opportunity for my kids to practice writing. Since I have two boys who claim they do not like to write, I try to start a few weeks before Valentine's Day. In preschool, we left valentines for everyone for fun - my kids would sign the first letter of their name or take days to write out their name on each card. When we started elementary school, I found the kids in our school were very serious about making Valentine's Day into a big deal. I was shocked by the Valentine's Day celebration and by the amount of candy in B's kindergarten class. I've always tried to make the holiday more about doing something fun than sugar so I try to look for fun "activity" Valentine's Day cards. This year, we are trying to make our own. We've already made six so we'll see how far we get. Some schools use Valentine's Day as an opportunity to do a post office unit. The kids address cards to each other and then they figure out how to best deliver them in a classroom. Below are a few fun card suggestions...