Sunday, April 25, 2010
I should have taken a picture...
Smush decided to draw... I gave her paper... She decided to use herself and Squiggly instead of the paper... thankfully I recently replaced her markers with washable ones. Thank you Crayola!!!!!
Friday, April 23, 2010
talk speak
I've lost my voice and sound like a frog. Or like a relation by marriage Reva G. if you ask my CuteBoy. Smush wants to know why I lost my "talk speak. Gotta love the logic of an almost 3 year old!"
Thursday, April 22, 2010
School Days...
Smush is going to be 3. I can't even begin to believe this. 3. WOW!!!! Not so long ago she was just an idea and now she is 3. I am hoping that certain things will happen soon, by being a BIG girl... first of which is potty learning. She certainly knows how to use the toilet, it's just a matter of doing it. Of course, out of the mouths of babes... the other day I manage to get her to sit on her little red potty to take care of some business and as she is sitting there she says, with a twinkle in her eye and a huge grin, "Can I have a present?" Basically meaning, okay, I sat on the potty, I didn't use my diaper, what are you planning on giving me. We are prepared for this. For peeing on the toilet or potty she has been getting pieces of a clock puzzle toy. She has the base, and numbers 1-4. But, this was big, it was #2, so I gave her a book that I had bought a while back that I had wanted to give her but wanted to save for an occasion. This was that occasion.
Smush now has the book "Knitting Nell" in her collection. This is the third of 3 knitting or yarn/fiber based books that I have found and given to her for different reasons. The first was "Flusi and the Sock Yarn" which is put out by Regia Yarn Company. Lastly we have a really cute version of Baa Baa Black Sheep that shows the sheep knitting gifts for all the other farm animals, as well as providing wool for the master, the dame and the little boy who lives down the lane. Whenever I see books like this I buy them for her, put them away and then give them so her as new books need to be added to the rotation. I haven't figured out yet what types of books to be looking for for Squiggly. I'll have to work on that.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I had an interesting phone call tonight and thought it was a good opportunity to share some thought on schooling. Smush is still home with me. Many people ask us when she is going to start school. As if she won't be spending enough time in school when the time comes! I don't really understand this pushing kids into school earlier and earlier. When we went to school we started w/ Nursery School which was a few times a week for a morning or an afternoon and we were 5, I think. Then we went to Kindergarten. Smush will be 3 in 2 weeks. There are people who can't understand why she hasn't already been in school this past year. Ummmm... so someone else can change her diapers and watch her hit milestones? So she loses the joy of free playing and no set schedule to prevent us from going into the city or the zoo, or the carousel?
I tell you, the looks we get when it comes out that she isn't signed up to go someplace in the fall... Whoa, you'd think we were going to be messing her up for the rest of her life by not sending her to an expensive pre-school program where she might be told what colors to draw with and which page to draw on. I don't think so. Not yet, at least.
The phone call, thought, was intriguing. We haven't really discussed what school we will be sending her to when the time comes. I suppose we should start talking about it as the fall of 2011 is out there and usually signups are the spring before... Anyway, our local Yeshiva (religious school) has been holding some focus groups to see what parents are looking for in an elementary school education for their children. There are many different types of yeshiva schools, including co-ed and separate gender. Then, within the co-ed schools there are some separations when the children get a little older for different subjects.
I had often thought that the joy of an all girls school would be that not just for the Judaic subjects (which is why schools in the yeshiva world are separate gender) but for the math/science classes. I struggled mightily in math all through school and I wonder what might have been different, or if it would have been different, had I been in an all girls environment. Who knows. However, the literature does point to stronger math and science skills in those separate schools. But, it would mean busing to a school outside our little community here and I don't know if I want to do that. Of course busing is a whole other issue that I hope to write about soon as it is going to be on our local school budget ballot. More on that later. It's late and I need to get going!
Smush now has the book "Knitting Nell" in her collection. This is the third of 3 knitting or yarn/fiber based books that I have found and given to her for different reasons. The first was "Flusi and the Sock Yarn" which is put out by Regia Yarn Company. Lastly we have a really cute version of Baa Baa Black Sheep that shows the sheep knitting gifts for all the other farm animals, as well as providing wool for the master, the dame and the little boy who lives down the lane. Whenever I see books like this I buy them for her, put them away and then give them so her as new books need to be added to the rotation. I haven't figured out yet what types of books to be looking for for Squiggly. I'll have to work on that.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I had an interesting phone call tonight and thought it was a good opportunity to share some thought on schooling. Smush is still home with me. Many people ask us when she is going to start school. As if she won't be spending enough time in school when the time comes! I don't really understand this pushing kids into school earlier and earlier. When we went to school we started w/ Nursery School which was a few times a week for a morning or an afternoon and we were 5, I think. Then we went to Kindergarten. Smush will be 3 in 2 weeks. There are people who can't understand why she hasn't already been in school this past year. Ummmm... so someone else can change her diapers and watch her hit milestones? So she loses the joy of free playing and no set schedule to prevent us from going into the city or the zoo, or the carousel?
I tell you, the looks we get when it comes out that she isn't signed up to go someplace in the fall... Whoa, you'd think we were going to be messing her up for the rest of her life by not sending her to an expensive pre-school program where she might be told what colors to draw with and which page to draw on. I don't think so. Not yet, at least.
The phone call, thought, was intriguing. We haven't really discussed what school we will be sending her to when the time comes. I suppose we should start talking about it as the fall of 2011 is out there and usually signups are the spring before... Anyway, our local Yeshiva (religious school) has been holding some focus groups to see what parents are looking for in an elementary school education for their children. There are many different types of yeshiva schools, including co-ed and separate gender. Then, within the co-ed schools there are some separations when the children get a little older for different subjects.
I had often thought that the joy of an all girls school would be that not just for the Judaic subjects (which is why schools in the yeshiva world are separate gender) but for the math/science classes. I struggled mightily in math all through school and I wonder what might have been different, or if it would have been different, had I been in an all girls environment. Who knows. However, the literature does point to stronger math and science skills in those separate schools. But, it would mean busing to a school outside our little community here and I don't know if I want to do that. Of course busing is a whole other issue that I hope to write about soon as it is going to be on our local school budget ballot. More on that later. It's late and I need to get going!
dollars and sense
You may notice a couple of changes here to the blog... besides the new color scheme. The dots just weren't doing anything for me, so they had to go... buh bye... Also, something me and the Cute Boy had been discussing was the addition of AdSense to my blog. We have no idea how much traffic I actually get, but we figured if we get any traffic that might help put a few cents into out pockets that it can't hurt...
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
clean, clean, then clean some more...
It's time for Passover. That means lots of cleaning. I mean, lots. And I am not talking about the "spring cleaning" aspect of it. My Rabbi always talks about how shmutz is not chametz, meaning dirt is not what we are cleaning for Passover, rather just the leaving products. For me, practically speaking this means just the kitchen and other areas where we have food.
We do not bring any food upstairs in our house because unless you are bedridden we don't eat in our bedrooms, and the only time anyone was bedridden in recent years it was from vomiting and so there was no eating involved. I think maybe once or twice I ate crackers to avoid nausea when I was pregnant with Smush. So, since that is long ago, and we have vacuumed up there since then, there is no risk of crumbs. That leaves our downstairs.
Our downstairs is the pretty typical layout with a formal living room, a formal dining room and small den and then the kitchen with it's eat in area. When it was just the two of us, cleaning for Passover took a couple of hours, vacuuming got most of the crumbs, and then a little more work in the kitchen, done. With two little ones, lets just say it's a little more complicated.
There is still no food upstairs, but there is food that gets tracked EVERYWHERE. Squiggly just started eating solids so he is not the neatest eater in the world. As a matter of fact he is down right messy. That means there are Joe's Ohs all over the place. In his sleeves, in his diapers (somehow - not sure how those got there) and, most of all, all over the floor. Those are not dirt, those are chametz.
It's a good thing there is the annulling of ownership of chametz that happens right before Passover, of all you know about and that which you do not. I am relying on that statement to cover me for the Joe's Ohs that I am sure are under the baseboard molding in my kitchen. I know it's there. I tried to get it out with my vacuum wand tool. They are still be taunting me, but come Monday morning I will cast them out as dust in the wind. See you later, bye. Now, about cleaning my bathrooms....
We do not bring any food upstairs in our house because unless you are bedridden we don't eat in our bedrooms, and the only time anyone was bedridden in recent years it was from vomiting and so there was no eating involved. I think maybe once or twice I ate crackers to avoid nausea when I was pregnant with Smush. So, since that is long ago, and we have vacuumed up there since then, there is no risk of crumbs. That leaves our downstairs.
Our downstairs is the pretty typical layout with a formal living room, a formal dining room and small den and then the kitchen with it's eat in area. When it was just the two of us, cleaning for Passover took a couple of hours, vacuuming got most of the crumbs, and then a little more work in the kitchen, done. With two little ones, lets just say it's a little more complicated.
There is still no food upstairs, but there is food that gets tracked EVERYWHERE. Squiggly just started eating solids so he is not the neatest eater in the world. As a matter of fact he is down right messy. That means there are Joe's Ohs all over the place. In his sleeves, in his diapers (somehow - not sure how those got there) and, most of all, all over the floor. Those are not dirt, those are chametz.
It's a good thing there is the annulling of ownership of chametz that happens right before Passover, of all you know about and that which you do not. I am relying on that statement to cover me for the Joe's Ohs that I am sure are under the baseboard molding in my kitchen. I know it's there. I tried to get it out with my vacuum wand tool. They are still be taunting me, but come Monday morning I will cast them out as dust in the wind. See you later, bye. Now, about cleaning my bathrooms....
Monday, March 8, 2010
one + one = 4, or, our little family...
well, I think the last time I was consistent about writing this blog there were 3 of us, making our way in the universe... and now there is more laundry than I seem to ever be able to truly catch up on. But, on the flip side, there are more laughs, more tears and much more to be thankful for. I never know exactly how much time I will have to do anything, but well, I suppose that is life for you. I guess I am not really a new mom anymore, so I suppose I should change my heading up there. I haven't done any filmmaking, other than taking little video clips of my adorable little ones so maybe I am not so much of a filmmaker anymore? What hasn't changed... my love for my darling husband. Our dreams of owning our own business. Our commitment to Judaism. My complete inability to keep on top of the housework... and so, our little story for today....
Something smelled. I don't mean just smelled, I mean SMELLED. Really bad. In the kitchen. I thought it was the trash. I mean, we don't take it out every day, I try to cram as much in as possible. And, yes, sometimes diaper wipes go in there... I keep thinking I will switch to the cloth wipes, then I don't, then I reconsider, however, for now we are using the disposable wipes with the cloth diapers, ANYWAY, I digress... Something smelled and it smelled really bad, so I closed up the bag and put it on the stoop for DH to take out to the can. After awhile, when the smell should have disapeared, I realized it still smelled. Bad. Possibly worse. So, I resorted to smelling inside each of my kitchen drawers, in the refrigerator, under the table, (I mean, you never know where the kids might have left something.) behind the sofa in the living room, and yet, I couldn't tell where it was coming from. I left the house. Came back. Determined it still smelled. Continued to try to find the odor...
Then I walked over to the sink. In it was the broiler pan from dinner on Wednesday, when I made meatballs in the oven. It had sat on the stove for Wed. night, Thursday, and Friday morning. Then I decided the kitchen needed some cleaning up. After I emptied the sink of the dirty dishes, etc. that were there, I put the broiler pan in, started to wash it, and realized it needed to soak. So, I put in some soap, ran the water really hot, and left it. For most of Friday, all of Saturday, all of Sunday... and into Monday. Guess how much mold can grow in water in a soapy pan in the sink... Yep. That was my smell. I am happy to say it is now all scoured out, hot water, lots of soap and our kitchen smells fine again. Maybe I should clean up more often.
BTW- for those of you wondering how we didn't need to use the kitchen sink all that time, we have 2 sinks in our kitchen, one for meat and one for dairy. We eat a lot more dairy than meat so there can be days when we don't venture anywhere near the meat sink.
Something smelled. I don't mean just smelled, I mean SMELLED. Really bad. In the kitchen. I thought it was the trash. I mean, we don't take it out every day, I try to cram as much in as possible. And, yes, sometimes diaper wipes go in there... I keep thinking I will switch to the cloth wipes, then I don't, then I reconsider, however, for now we are using the disposable wipes with the cloth diapers, ANYWAY, I digress... Something smelled and it smelled really bad, so I closed up the bag and put it on the stoop for DH to take out to the can. After awhile, when the smell should have disapeared, I realized it still smelled. Bad. Possibly worse. So, I resorted to smelling inside each of my kitchen drawers, in the refrigerator, under the table, (I mean, you never know where the kids might have left something.) behind the sofa in the living room, and yet, I couldn't tell where it was coming from. I left the house. Came back. Determined it still smelled. Continued to try to find the odor...
Then I walked over to the sink. In it was the broiler pan from dinner on Wednesday, when I made meatballs in the oven. It had sat on the stove for Wed. night, Thursday, and Friday morning. Then I decided the kitchen needed some cleaning up. After I emptied the sink of the dirty dishes, etc. that were there, I put the broiler pan in, started to wash it, and realized it needed to soak. So, I put in some soap, ran the water really hot, and left it. For most of Friday, all of Saturday, all of Sunday... and into Monday. Guess how much mold can grow in water in a soapy pan in the sink... Yep. That was my smell. I am happy to say it is now all scoured out, hot water, lots of soap and our kitchen smells fine again. Maybe I should clean up more often.
BTW- for those of you wondering how we didn't need to use the kitchen sink all that time, we have 2 sinks in our kitchen, one for meat and one for dairy. We eat a lot more dairy than meat so there can be days when we don't venture anywhere near the meat sink.
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