A Few of My New Favorite Things

Each month I hear about cool new products, teaching tools, expert-approved little tips that I like to remember, so I thought I’d share a few of them here around the beginning of each month and maybe have a slim chance of remembering them because I can’t keep a dern thing bouncing around my brain once I walk 5-feet in any direction from the point of input.

• I love, love, love to coupon! I've been couponing since I was in grade school and mom let me keep the rebate checks if I collected all the box tops and receipts. One of my fave new sites is www.grocerysmarts.com. Click on your state and it will run down the best coupons by store, where to print them or what flyer they arrived in at your mailbox. It's a super simple way to save cash without the tedious coupon hunting. I spent $7 on 10 items at a recent quick stop at Walgreens (didn't have the twins, so it was a luxury) and got L'Oreal shampoo and conditioner free!!! (I know, I really have to work on my photo skills.)
  
  
• I'm always looking for new ways to keep the kids occupied/obeying the dictator that is mommy. This came from a parenting magazine: Wake the kids with a riddle! You just give them one line after each a.m. accomplishment; i.e. making beds (who does that unless MIL is coming?), brushing teeth, peeing in that terrifying monster in the tiled room…Then give them the answer when they sit down to breakfast, or, after they have eaten half of breakfast, or just one bite of each offering, OK, just one bite of protein. Here's a quick few to help get you and your little ones out the door: Where do fish keep their cash? In a Riverbank! What walks all day on its head? A nail in a horseshoe!
• I've always known there was a good reason to hoard those free pizza magnets. Stick one on the car door as a reminder for that field-trip waiver or to load up the diaper bag before the 2-hour car trip to grandma's. When you go to open the car door, the placement of the tiny magnet can save loads of time in the morning running back and forth for paperwork, change of clothes, the kids. And if you’re really crafty, you can coat the magnet in chalk paint and write those really important but easily forgettable things on the tiny magnet, which I think is better. Looking at that magnet with keys in hand tempts me to swing by said pizza place. Here's a recipe for DIY chalk paint from www.inmyownstyle.com.
• I want to make this using felt! A customized clock with tiny pics of toothbrush, pants, breakfast, school house to get the kids motivated about what's happening that day. Every morning I get grilled on what the plans are for the day, and when. Put each on a velcro backing, just rip pics out of old mags, so you can switch it out as they graduate from library time to karate or ballet class, and then tiny lips with an X over it for quiet time (next to a glass of wine if it's after 8 p.m.!).

Share your tips with us! The twins and I would love to hear how you get through your day with love, laughter, lack of whining and a semblance of sanity!

Ground Control is Major Fun

I’m trying to get my son off electronics. His twin sister can play Barbies, tea party and sleepy babies in the grocery store/mad-dash-home (where ever did she ever get that from?) with nary a need for pulsing, noisy gadgets.

However, my boy goes into total melt down if Tablet is deemed unnecessary for even a minute of playtime, or to sit on the charger and take a nap its own self. I've gone so far as to tell him Tablet is in the hospital and we need to make cupcakes to make Tablet better! No. Nothing can get him off Beloved. He sits and waits for the little beep that says it's charged and claps his hands before gently, gently removing it from its charger.

So, off to the playground we go! At least there he forgets, for a few moments, his Beloved. Kites from the dollar store worked great, for about a week. Then he realized the ploy his parents had orchestrated to disconnect him from Tablet. But then, I found stomp rockets, and they…are…awesome! Not only do they launch really high, they go a good 50 yards, true to the advertising on the ‘70s-inspired packaging complete with children turning their awed faces to the sky, but it's great toddler cardio! The twins have to run after their rocket ship, bring it back and stomp on the dern thing over and over.

It’s my new favorite nap-inducing thing!

We 'Get Lucky' on the way to grandma's house

So we’re driving to my mom’s to go swimming. It’s the waning days of summer with lots of whining from the twins. I’m thinking about how to get them undressed and into their swimsuits, then dry and dressed and hopefully squeeze some shopping in before they go down for a nap (oh, please, go down for a nap!).

I’ve been trying to slow down. Just stop, smell the roses, or the sleepy twins as they get up and wind up for another big day of just being alive.

But there is so much to do! I’m thinking about what we need to get done, how to get it done, when to get it done and in what order while we’re in the middle of doing what we’re doing. It’s exhausting! And I don’t feel I’ve accomplished anything no matter how many items I get to check off my list. And I am a dedicated list checker!

So, slow down. The kids are asking for the “Get Lucky” song, for the umpteenth time. Grrrr. I press repeat on the car’s CD player just to get two minutes of quiet. But it’s not quiet. My 3-year-old twins are singing, trying desperately to get each word before the chorus that they know oh too well.

“Come on, Mommy, sing with us!”

I take a breath. We sing together. They are thrilled.

“We’re up all night to get lucky.” Jack’s shoulders are moving and he’s tapping his chubby little boy hands on his pudgy knees with the concentration of a serious musician, trying to catch the beat. He gets it and starts to nod his head, a mini Will Ferrell in “Night at the Roxbury.”

Morgan is bouncing around, big smile, hands in the air, eyes closed, pure bliss to this funky summer tune. Five minutes and eight seconds in to track 8 of Daft Punk’s latest CD gets squeals of “Again, again!” from the back seat.

And we do it again, and it’s freakin’ awesome. I’ve been sleep walking through this gorgeous day. I’m grumpy because we have to go swimming? 

I take a breath, don't fret when they are too excited to get a foot in a swimsuit much less their whole wiggly bodies. I enjoy the first splash into the pool, the shivers of excitement as they dunk their heads, Marco polo, instead of looking at the clock and wondering when we can get going because things need to get done!

We won’t always have summer mornings to go over to Grandma’s and go swimming, just because.

I get it. We're lucky.