What Goes In, Must Come Out...

Upon returning home yesterday, I was greeted with a sight that was disturbing. My box of peppermint bark dark chocolate luna bars destroyed with empty wrappers strewn around. This was disturbing on two fronts. First, I love my luna protein bars and second (and most importantly) the perpetrator of the luna bar disaster was my lab, Ika. And so the late afternoon crazy began...

I wish I could say I handled the situation calmly, but sadly that isn't the case. Basically I went into a screaming rampage that Becca was the brunt of. Yes, I was really mad at myself for leaving the basement door slightly open and allowing Ika access to the bars in the first place. But as I don't always handle stress with the most finesse, letting off steam in a non productive way, was the route I chose to take. Am I proud, no. In a fury of rage and fear, I ran to get the table salt and pour it down Ika's throat in an attempt to induce vomiting. I knew this from a few months prior when he ate grapes that were inadvertently left on the kitchen table (and are also poison for dogs). Last time the salt worked right away, but this time no such luck. I began to panic more as I was not sure how much dark chocolate was in the bars exactly. All I know is that they taste yummy and have enough chocolate to satisfy my chocolate cravings, so my thought was they contained quite a bit.  Now Ika is a big dog (about 92 lbs- yet he could stand to lose 10 lbs) so it would take about 3 lbs of milk chocolate to do damage to him (yes I know this from past scary experiences and information from the vet), but this was dark chocolate which I know is much worse. Since the salt wasn't working, we raced for the hydrogen peroxide, another tool for inducing dog vomit.

By this time, Ika did not want anything put into his mouth, since he was sure it would be bad tasting. I grabbed the syringe and squirted the hydrogen peroxide down his throat. Oh, but I was out of time, because Bella had swimming and we couldn't miss it. I mean, she's already missing two lessons due to vacation and I paid a lot, so it was off to swimming with Harry and Becca in charge. Not my proudest moment...

Long story short. Ika vomited shortly after I left. Bad news is the kids forgot to watch him after and he being the dumb dog that he is, went back and ate it all back up. I guess it still had a chocolate flavor...The best news of all is I found out that although tasty, peppermint bark luna bars don't really contain a lot of dark chocolate. At least not enough to slow Ika down.

So Ika lives another day to cause chaos in my world...

PS. I really do love him. With that face, how could you not?

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow...

In today's world of instant media access, we are bombarded with a lot of advice; what to buy, where to eat, who to vote for, etc. There is so much advice in our lives, sometimes we just want to tune it all out. And then sometimes we get advice in unexpected places, that just may help.

That type of advice came yesterday. I was walking through the women's locker room at the gym and I heard the following statement, "Sometimes you just have to get them through today..." I had heard the previous few sentences of the conversation also, so I was able to piece together that the conversation was about teenagers and helping them in school. I didn't listen to the rest of the discussion as I continued on to the showers, which is where I had been headed to in the first place.

"Sometimes, you just have to get them through today..." Truer words have never been spoken. It is perhaps one of the most simple pieces of parenting advice that I have heard, yet also one of the most poignant and impactful. Lots of organizations are based on getting through the day. Many addiction groups are known for the theme "one day at a time." People with life threatening illnesses are encouraged to "live every day to the fullest." So why not parenting? I don't know about you, but I am commonly saying, "Just let me get through this day," to myself. So to think of helping your children "get through today" puts a new spin on things.

As a parent, I am constantly worrying about the future. I think about the kids' colleges, future professions, future relationships, and many other things that are "not today." I think it is very helpful (at least for me) to live more in the moment and help the kids deal with the here and now.

So I am going to try it. I encourage you to be open to hearing advice from wherever it may come. Even in a place that some may refer to as "eavesdropping." Not that I am recommending that...

Why Ask Why...

"Everything happens for a reason' and "there really are no coincidences" are phrases that are thrown out often to comfort or explain the unexplainable. Years ago, I read a book "When God Winks" by SQuire Rushnell. The author was once an ABC executive, responsible for creating Schoolhouse Rock and the infamous ABC afterschool specials. After the 9/11 tragedy, he left his position in TV to pursue his dream of becoming an author and motivational speaker.

So you are probably wondering what a Godwink is. Well on his website, SQuire Rushnell defines a Godwink as, "...what some would call a coincidence, an answered prayer, or simply an experience where you'd say, 'Wow, what are the odds of that?'" I am quite familiar with having these things happen in my life. Here's the youngest memory of a Godwink that I can remember:


When I was younger, we traveled a lot because my Dad was in retail. In 4th grade we moved from Ohio to Pennsylvania and I was devestated. This devestation mostly stemmed from a huge crush I had on a boy in my class. He was super popular, cute and I don't think he knew I existed. Anyway, I can remember saying a little prayer each night that I would get to see him again. As time went on, the prayer request got less frequent, but I still thought about him a lot. We lived in Pennslyvania for only 9 months, then we moved to Minnesota. Here's the crazy part...After living in MN for about 6 months, I went to get onto the bus afterschool one day and guess who was standing in my bus line? Yep, him! Huge Godwink.


Over the years I have had several of these "coincidences". After reading the book, I took comfort in the fact that they are messages from above that help guide our lives and let us know if we are on the right path. 

Some say they come most often when we are struggling for meaning or answers in our lives.

So this week I had another Godwink. I decided to email it to Mr. Rushnell and the result can be found here Wink of the Week

Coincidence? I think not...

Follow the Leader...

Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a slight problem with pop culture/celebrities. A slight addiction problem that is. I don't know what it is, I just can't get enough. Perhaps it is a fascination with the gobs of money they have, or maybe it is the train wreck element some stars have. Whatever it is, it is a welcome distraction from the sometimes mundane life I lead, and I welcome the diversion.

With that said, I had a hard time, this past week, turning away from the star with tiger blood and Adonis DNA (his words not mine)-Charlie Sheen. First it was hard to turn away because he was EVERYWHERE! If you turned on the tv, radio or read a newspaper, there he was. I do have a problem with the media using his spiraling down turn to get ratings, but with quotes like, "I'm tired of pretending I'm not a total bitchin' rock star from Mars," it's hard not to peek at the crazy.

When I wasn't counting how many times Charlie Sheen used "duh" and "winning" in his interviews this week, I was discovering the importance of leading by example. On Thursday night, I took Bella and Becca to pack food with an organization called, "Feed My Starving Children." If you are not familiar with "FMSC", they are a Christian non profit that ships food to countries all over the world. We spent two hours  making food packets that contained a blend of chicken (flavoring), dried veggies, soy, and rice. Becca and Harry have been to FMSC many times in the past, but this was Bella's first experience. I spent a lot of time discussing why we were packing the food and where it was going. We also talked about why it is important to do things to help others. Before you pack the food, they show videos of kids who receive the food and how much they need it to avoid starvation. No matter how many times I have seen that video, it always brings tears to my eyes and makes me thankful for my life. Bella spent some of the night putting rice in bags, but she found her true calling in organizing the bags in stacks before they were packed into boxes. As usual she was a super hard worker. The photo of the whiteboard shows how much our group accomplished during our shift.

Leading by example as a parent is not always easy.  Sometimes it takes all the strength we can muster up. All week, Harry has been doing an Mosaic art project. I am being kind when I refer to it as "the project from hell". He has had to use magazines to cut 1/4 inch pieces of paper into various puzzle shapes to fit together on an 8 1/2 by 11 inch sheet of paper to create a mosaic design. Needless to say the process has been slow and tedious. In fact it has taken nearly a week to get half of the background done. The due date is this coming Thursday so he is now in crunch time to finish. Harry hates doing the mosaic and I can't really blame him. So yesterday his duty was to work on his project and mine was to clean the house, something that I hate just about as much as the idea of doing a mosaic project. As I cleaned, I told Harry that sometimes we have to do things we don't like. It's just part of life. More lessons to be learned today because neither the mosaic nor the cleaning is complete.

As I read over some of Charlie's infamous quotes of the week, I found one that struck a nerve- “Lead by example, teach your kids right and wrong, and if my right and wrong is a little different than everybody else’s, my kids are going to be a little different, too!" I'm pretty sure Charlie and I differ on the type of examples we want to provide for our children, but I felt a small parental bond reading the quote. 


As parents, we try our best, even at our lowest points, right? Duh! Winning!

Let the Silence Be Heard...

Last week Bella's class put on a class talent show. If I may be completely honest and upfront, I am not a huge fan of the talent show idea. They are a bit too much like "Toddlers and Tiaras" for my taste. Perhaps it was because as a child I was stressed out by them. I mean after you have done one or two, you tend to find out that the backhand spring you can do is cool and all, but when put up against the kid in the class that can sing an operatic aria, it just doesn't hold up. Ok, too much about me...

Anyway, it was a bit of a struggle to find a talent for Bella to share with her class. Her "thing" is swimming and that's hard to show outside of a pool. So we came up with the idea to have her bring her ribbons and trophy that she has received from swimming. She was super excited. The talent show went off without a hitch (or an aria, but believe me there were some close contenders) and Bella had a lot of fun.

So here's the funny part and what became an Oprah like "A-ha" moment for me. When I picked up Bella up from the Lifetime play area the teacher said, "She is such a hoot! She was showing us her (implants) and then she started showing us how she can lip read. We were all taking turns standing pretty far away, saying things, and then she would tell what we said. The kids loved it!" When I picked her up she was excited to repeat of version of the story that I had just been told. She went on to further explain that at first the kids were standing pretty close and they thought that was why she could do it, but when they moved far away, she could still do it! She was super proud and it sounds like the kids were amazed. A bit of a "rock star" moment for her amongst the Lifetime play area crowd.

Later, Bella was telling the story again and Harry was listening. His comment? "She should have done the lip reading thing for her talent show." And there it was. In that moment I realized that true talents are a part of who we are. They can't be manufactured and produced for a talent show display. All that searching for something to share, when a true talent is often shared on a daily basis without pomp and circumstance. Although when there is some pomp and circumstance surrounding the talent, that's pretty cool too...