Inspired by...

We--all of us--have been made for goodness. We have been made for laughter. We have been made for caring, sharing, for compassion for we do indeed inhabit a moral universe. Yes, goodness is powerful.

Desmond Tutu

. . .

To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children...to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition...to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived: this is to have succeeded.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

. . .

Love shared anywhere transforms situations everywhere. Your life is your corner of the garden; tend to that and you tend to the world

Marianne Williamson

 

Top
Gallery

Just a collection of images that bring out the happy & hygge in me. 

More at my tumblr, Gather

Reading

On my bookshelf

The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life
Deafening
The Spies of Warsaw


Go to Goodreads »

Twittering

Entries in try this (7)

Friday
Sep112009

p.s. Quizlet

We are loving Quizlet, a great website for creating online flashcards (or using those that others have created). After you enter the words and meanings, the site creates exercises to complete and gives a score.


Lauren uses it for Latin and chemistry but you could use it for pretty much anything with a vocabulary to master (you can also upload images to identify). Perfect for older elementary through college (there are even flashcards for standardized tests like the ACT, SAT, and GRE).

Date09.11.2009 | Comment1 Comment
Tuesday
Jun302009

Summer launch

One of the advantages of getting out of school later than most of the rest of the country is I had time to peruse all of the summer ideas that other families were doing. I loved Jenny's (private blog) take on being productive in the mornings and leaving the afternoons for fun. I remember visiting Christie last summer and loving how her kids earn books each week (I think she has a bin full of new books she snagged at a book fair...right, C?).


We usually like to have some kind of structure (although flexible). I wanted to be able to set aside mornings to get work done on some research and writing I've commited to this summer and, at the same time, give some guidelines for the kids to get a few things done every day relatively unsupervised (and by unsupervised I mean un-nagged). I also wanted to provide some fun ideas to stave off the blahs and the floppies (as in, flopping on the couch, flopping on the floor, and whining). So this is what we've come up with.

Summer Bingo! Stacy described her Summer Bingo idea here and I was hooked (she even includes downloadable bingo forms and rules, which I adapted for my kids' ages and interests). After the kids do their beds, pick up their clothes, do a job and practicing, they can do activities on the Bingo sheet. Some are really fun, some are enriching or educational, some will help move the kids forward on goals (scouts, personal progress). They can earn tickets toward prizes every time they get "bingo" and, if they do the whole thing each week, some $ will be put toward their school clothes or something they're saving for. The best part is that it's self guided and it motivates them to get the essentials (work and practicing) done quickly.

click to enlarge^
Maddy and her best friend, Meg, have been helping as junior counselors for the Vacation Bible School here in town in the mornings. They got home and decided to do the "make something in the kitchen" option. {Mmm. Chocolate chip cookies...keep them away from me, please.}

Sam elected to do the most decadent item on the sheet first: one hour of video games. Figures!

Lauren is babysitting for a neighborhood family all week so she has yet to dive into the world of Summer Bingo.


For the afternoons, we've put together a list of activities and field trips we'd like to do together as often as we can. Our days will be just like a mullet: business up front, party in the back.

What are you doing this summer to stay occupied and sane?

Date06.30.2009 | Comment5 Comments
Wednesday
Jun102009

High {in}fidelity

I must admit: I've been cheating on you, blog.

I've been tweeting.
I know, I know. I'm sorry!
It's not you, it's me. (And now the not-following-the-crowd-silly-snob in me insists on noting that I've been on Twitter for over a year, long before all of these recent press flurries about it. There, n-f-t-c-s-s Annie, are you happy?)

It's been difficult to write blog entries lately, for a variety of reasons, but somehow the little twitter tweets with their 140 character limit have been a welcome recipient of my spare thoughts (and much less time consuming!).

We just keep getting shorter and pithier, don't we? First letters, then phone calls, then emails, then blogs, then facebook, then twitter. With some texting thrown in there somewhere. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about this progression (regression?) but I do know I've become a convert to this newest thing. I like knowing what others are up to. It satisfies the curious-about-life-and-others me. Plus you get information lightning fast.

Anyway, here are some pretty mundane descriptions of what I've been up to lately:

  2. On the bright side=my migraine last night made me go to bed at 7:30 and now I feel pretty great.about 4 hours ago from TwitterGadget
  3. listening to Sam practice the piano. It takes much longer to convince him to practice than it does for him to actually do it.about 21 hours ago from TwitterGadget
  4. I'm so glad I didn't buy an iphone on Saturday...I want the new one on June 19! http://www.apple.com/iphone/5:36 PM Jun 8th from TwitterGadget
  5. Just made all of the phone calls on my list (dr., dentist, plumber, eye dr., you name it I called them). Now I deserve a reward, right?3:44 PM Jun 8th from TwitterGadget
  6. gym-->working at home-->listening to Little Joy-->walk dog-->lunch at neighborhood shop.11:33 AM Jun 8th from TwitterGadget
  7. Dessert for dinner: what's not to like about angel food cake, lemon curd, strawberries and whipped cream?5:39 PM Jun 7th from TwitterGadget
  8. already looking forward to my Sunday nap.7:16 AM Jun 7th from TwitterGadget
  9. I'm pretty sure the lecture I just gave my daughter about not procrastinating was really aimed at myself.5:46 PM Jun 6th from TwitterGadget
  10. this might be iphone day...3:16 PM Jun 6th from TwitterGadget
  11. fresh mozzarella and tomato salad = lunch bliss1:53 PM Jun 5th from TwitterGadget
  12. @bridgetrawlins congrats to him! that's huge.5:19 PM Jun 4th from TwitterGadget in reply to bridgetrawlins
  13. Reading parts of Obama's speech to my kids and chatting about it. I love that we can have these conversations (@ ages 10, 13, 15).5:19 PM Jun 4th from TwitterGadget
  14. Now there's a bad day at work for someone:http://bit.ly/J48MQ9:19 PM Jun 2nd from web
  15. Stooping to McDonalds for dinner tonight. My apologies, Supersize Me book.6:43 PM Jun 1st from web
  16. Off to meet my friend Jess at the lovely Nashoba Brooks Bakery. Nice way to welcome the weekend, even if it *is* raining.9:51 AM May 29th from web
  17. taking Louie to the vet this morning. I'm not a fan of the "bringing a sample" part.7:44 AM May 29th from web
  18. watching the national spelling bee with my kids. Cause we're cool like that.8:03 PM May 28th from web
  19. Up way too early this morning. If you can't sleep at 4:30 a.m. does it still count as insomnia?7:32 AM May 27th from web
  20. You know what's a good sound? Listening to your kids doing the dishes in the next room, dancing/singing to the TingTings & Paul Oakenfold7:56 PM May 26th from web


So do you twitter? 
If yes--> I'd love to follow you...just leave your [twitter]name in the comments. 
If you don't but are intrigued---> give it a shot!
If you don't and are repelled by the idea-->Just forget I said anything at all.  And sorry!--I'm sure my boring list of tweets did nothing to entice you.)

Date06.10.2009 | Comment7 Comments
Thursday
Mar122009

Slivers of spring break (or: Moms need a spring break, too)


This week I have really needed to get some things done.  But the whiny eternal student in me complained "but it's my spring breaaaaaaak!"  So I caved a little and let the squeaky wheel get a little grease in the form of some tiny slivers of spring breakness.

On Monday I went back to bed after the kids left for school.  I figured that I needed it, with the time change and all.  And plus?  It's my spring break!  Afterwards, I got all responsible and checked items off my list. 
spring break sliver: 1 hour

Another day,  after a semi-productive morning on the computer, I watched Under the Greenwood Tree on dvd in the early afternoon before the kids came home. {Loved it.}  Plus.  I met Ellen for pizza--a twofer day!
spring break sliver: 1.5 hours + 3 hours

Yesterday I read for fun in the middle of the day, a wonderfully lovely Rosamund Pilcher novel.  In the bathtub.  I always think of my mom when I read in the bathtub, since most of her novels are water stained at the bottom few centimeters from their trips to the bath.  Any small way I can be a teeny bit more like my mom is a good thing.  I embraced it.
spring break sliver: 30 minutes

You get the idea.  Somehow I found ways to be a little indulgent because the calendar said it was my spring break.  Those six little hours (thus far) have made a huge difference in my outlook!  Maybe I should declare every week spring break from here on out.

* * * 

Which got me thinking.

The educational system figured out long ago that there was great value in taking a week off, midway through the semester, to clear the brain and recharge the dedication + motivation for learning.

I think the same reasoning (but more so) applies to moms, stay-at-home or not, with kids of any age.  What job is more demanding, 24/7? So why not take a break to clear your brain and recharge your dedication + motivation?

For most women I know, the biggest barrier to taking a break is simply giving yourself permission to do it.  So here I am, begging you & giving you permission----->

Take a spring break!!!

I'm not talking about ditching the family and going off to Acapulco to star in a Momz Gone Wild video.  I'm talking small slivers where you give yourself permission to treat yourself.  Pick a week (NOT your kids' spring break, when you are engineering their week of fun) and do it. Write it on your calendar.  
Plan some fun. 
Please.  
Small slivers of spring breakness. 
(Or big ones.)

Plus
If you leave your address here in the comments (or email it to me) telling me when you are taking your mom spring break, I will send you your choice: a spring break postcard from my little corner of the world or a spring break permission note to prove to your family that you are indeed on spring break.

Date03.12.2009 | Comment12 Comments
Wednesday
Jan232008

Clap your hands if you believe in parents...

A professor in one of my developmental psych classes once commented that one of the things that separates us from other species is our ability to tell stories, to learn vicariously from each other without going through the exact experience ourselves. Huh. I'd never thought of it that way before.

But it makes sense. When I was a girl, I loved hovering near the grown-ups at gatherings at the cabin, soaking up their stories about life and, especially, families.

I've been thinking a lot about that lately.

I'm especially intrigued by parenting stories--in hearing the different ways we make it work in all of our vivid uniquenesses and uniting similarities. I love reading about how others approach their relationships with their kids & the lessons learned in raising them. I started asking other parents how they did it, collecting their answers and using them to recharge when my child-raising battery was low. In that spirit, I've hatched an idea.

Here it is:

A new site {inspired by both This I Believe and the poet Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet} centered around parenting beliefs, where parents can post a letter/essay about a lesson learned or belief or philosophy they've gained about parenting: just a brief sliver of perspective to share with others who are also traveling-trudging-skipping-strolling on the parenting path. These will be published online weekly or so, depending on when letters come in.

So {ta-da!} here's the link:

<<Letters to a Parent>>

The first letter is the one that got this whole idea cooking: actually, it's a transcript of a talk given by my great-grandmother Brockbank about parenting. I think you'll love it.

***

p.s. If you'd like to write a letter/essay for this project (please do!), e-mail me at basic.annie@gmail.com. It doesn't have to be anything long or grand, just a real and honest piece of your wisdom (can be inspiring, funny, irreverent, moving...whatever you feel) that you're interested in sharing. In addition, if you know anyone that you would like to nominate to write a letter about their approach to parenting that would be wonderful, too. Feedback, ideas, and suggestions highly welcome. And, pssst. Spread the word.

Date01.23.2008 | Comment9 Comments
Page 1 2 Next 5 Entries »