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Julie in Monterey

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Everything posted by Julie in Monterey

  1. My nine year old and her friends came up with this one; cut sweet potatoes in wedges, bake until cooked, sprinkle with melted cheese, crumbled bacon and minced fresh rosemary. dash of salt and pepper. VERY YUMMY. They'll be making this dish as a side dish for Thanksgiving.
  2. I would discuss this with my children, especially the older ones. I'm sure they'll come up with a fantastic idea that everyone will enjoy. Just ask them. I to tire of the "Christmas frenzy" of gifts, etc. However, I do appreciate the joy my children experience when receiving a handmade gift or for that matter making a gift for someone they care about. I can't control my extended family and their gift habits (they go way overboard ) but they do enjoy sending things. Over the past few years we have gradually moved to giving and receiving gifts of consumables. My mother in law last year bought our family the Rossetta Stone Spanish package and the sister in laws got together and purchased a family membership to the Aquarium. They can still be generous and promote a healthy attitude without adding to the "stuff" in our lives. Some things we do are : wrap Holiday/winter related books and have the children unwrap one each day before Christmas. I have about 24 so they unwrap one on December 1 and end with Christmas Eve. It is our read aloud each night before bedtime during that season. Our children now act out and read "The Night Before Christmas" on Christmas eve and get a real kick out of it. This idea was of course one I poached here on these boards. It's been fun for the kids to unwrap. Even though they know it's a book, they don't know which one it is. Even I admit, it's fun to unwrap presents. We also bake all of our friends Gingerbread families and deliver them in the days leading up to the holidays. Just our little way of saying, "you mean something to us, from our family to yours". So, I didn't give you an idea of a container. I do love the boots or shoes idea. Forever, my favorite gift was my stocking even until I moved out of the house. My mom took so much care to fill it with things I loved. As I got older it might be an embroidered vintage hanky or a special pair of earrings. Let us know what you come up with. Julie in Montery
  3. Swimming. It's the only thing that helped me. Julie in Monterey
  4. I've been irritated by this before but I hit a ceiling sometime this week! Does this happen to you? I don't introduce our public school or private school friends as such. AAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Thanks for letting me vent! Julie in Monterey
  5. The one with the highest interest. If you can, double or even triple that payment while making minimum payments on the others. Once the first cc is paid off, make the same payment you made on the one you paid off plus your minimum on the next cc with the next highest interest. It keeps snow balling until you are making huge payments (because once you pay one off you keep making that payment and applying to the next card in need) and paying off quickly. Oprah.com has a great page with similar financial advice. Good luck! Julie in Montere
  6. Dh and I are invited to an all grown up Halloween party. We are both really looking forward to it. Costumes are mandatory and acting the part is more important than the costume. I'm just not in the creative space to think of something fun. Any ideas? We don't have to be a couple just need ideas. What have you always wanted to dress up as but haven't done yet? Inspire us! HHHHHhhhhheeeeeelllllllppppppppp! Thanks in advance for any help! Julie in Monterey
  7. In the previous post, I listed the name of the artist and the album names followed. When I posted, they all kind of ran together. Julie in Monterey
  8. It depends what she likes. We love the Beach Boys, The Beatles in terms of grown up artists. There is a wide variety of artists that are just for kids that our whole family enjoys. You know the stuff that is "clean" and even educational and fun in content but zippy and fun enough for grown up ears. I'm amazed at the quality of kids music now days. I just remember Burl Ives and Alvin the Chipmunks. My 9 year old still loves all this music (most we found at the local library); artist albumn They Might Be Giants- No! - really zany lyrics Dan Zanes Hello, Hello! Dan Zanes Nighttime Dan Zanes and Friends Family Dance Banana Slug Band Adventures on the Air Cycle Goin Wild Wings of Slumber Buckwheat Zydeco ChooChoo Boogaloo Howard Hanger and Jazz Fantasy Dog Breath and other songs Jessica Harper Nora's Room Laurie Berkner Victor Vito Buzz, Buzz Under a Shady Tree Whaddaya Think of That? Lisa Loeb Catch the Moon The Persuasions Good Ship Lollypop Taj Mahal/ Linda Tillery and Shakin a Tailfeather the Cultural Heritage Choir There are some soundtracks that we also really enjoy; artist albumn Jack Johnson & Friends Sing-a-longs and Lullabies for the film Curious George various Because of Winn-Dixie various O Brother, Where Art Thou? various Mary Poppins We also have downloaded several Jackson Five tunes for our "family dance" nights. I hope this helps. Don't forget to use your local library. We've downloaded quite a bit to our Itunes and to Ipods. Julie in Monterey
  9. I woke up at 9am today when a friend called and crawled out of bed at 9:15. What lovely children I have to put up with my late risings. Julie in Monterey
  10. My dh and I are so excited about this that we have decided we need to get rid of 100 items on average for each person in our family with a grand total of 400 for our family. It's a contest now. My youngest got rid of 32 books tonight in about an hour. Thanks to the original poster for the inspiration! We need to clean out our closets, bookshelves, kitchen drawers!
  11. Last year while trick or treating, we passed out little cards that said "Happy Halloween" with thumb print artwork on them. They were about 3/4 the size of a small note card. We made thumb print spiders, pumpkins, and witches. It's always felt funny to me to have the kids knock on a door and ask for a treat. Personally I don't like all that candy in our home but I LOVE the opportunity to chat with so many of my neighbors, especially the elderly ones. Our neighborhood is filled with activity on Halloween. This way they give a little "thank you" back. 99% of the houses were THRILLED by this little token. All people said that in all of the years kids have been coming to their homes, they never received anything from them. At the end of the evening, the kids talked more about how excited people were at their cards than they cared about all the candy they received. We sort of stumbled upon the idea while fooling around with our thumbprint art book. Anyhoo, it's a good opportunity to practice handwriting and give a little lesson about thanks and appreciation. Cheers! Julie in Monterey
  12. Thanks for the idea. Pretty crazy that we live in a society that we most likely won't even miss those 100 items. I'm motivated! Julie in Monterey
  13. This child needs Speech Language therapy. If he/she is unintelligible then he/she needs intensive phonological therapy. The big question is; Is this child frustrated by the inability to communicate? If so, get him/her therapy right away! If not, the question is why not? Either way, "Baby Signs" is a great bridge to oral communication as stated above. There is a GREAT program called "Signing Time" that has a series of 10 DVD's. I three year old could quickly pick up on many signs after watching them a few times. I understand many kids speech can be delayed and eventually do fine. However, if there are underlying problems, these need to be addressed now before behavior problems develop (due to the inability to be understood). At three, a child should be speaking in 3 word utterances and intelligible at LEAST 50% of the time. Julie in Monterey Speech-Language Pathologist
  14. I am allergic to cat dander and have had the same cat for 18 years. My life wouldn't be the same without him. I am VERY allergic to various cat litters. I have various chemical sensitivities and it took me a long time to figure this one out. At that said, I do react to other people's cats more than my own. Julie in Monterey
  15. thanks for the heads up. I enjoyed the article. Julie in Monterey
  16. Wow! I love hearing from you all. That is the beauty of these boards..I'm able to get perspectives from all areas (of the world and country) and from different parenting philosophies. I love it! I've got two books on my list to take a look at now. I'm going to mull over this info you kind people have provided me. I think I fall somewhere in the middle about "roaming". I agree that it isn't always the best thing to be able to roam the streets/woods. My sister and I did get into some pretty sketchy situations but we did figure them out. Not sure if we told our mom or not. I did grow up in a home that the children did a fair amount of "work", we always cleaned house on the weekends with our parents, washed our own clothes, cooked most dinners by around age 10 and 12 (my sister), and had the responsibility of the yard. So...I'm thinking for us, keep up those life skills, teach them to be "street smart" and "country smart", and gradually let go and foster that independence. I guess I'm hoping for the best of both worlds,...grow responsible, independent children who know how to be alone, how to stay safe and also let them "discover" an area for themselves. I think the root of my issues with this stem from wanting them to be able to discover nature on their own terms without me over their shoulder. Some of my most treasured memories as a child are being outdoors with my sister or alone exploring and playing in the woods. Hmmm...lots to think about. Thanks again for all of your input!!!!!!! Julie in Monterey
  17. I've been thinking about this a lot lately...independence with my kids. My oldest just turned 9 and she is beginning to branch out a bit on her own. Just this past year she started going to the bathroom by herself (at the library or Costco) which was a big step. Slowly, my husband and I have been nudging her on the path to more independence. She's begun to ride her bike to a friend's home with her younger sister 3 blocks away (a route we've gone a million times as a family). I've dropped her off at the library a few times. I already had so much independence at her age when I was young. It really allowed me to stretch my wings...to discover. Many of my friends have a hard time with this issue. At some point we need to trust our children to make good choices. At what age is this? I'm just wondering what kind of impact hovering over our children will have upon them as a generation. Will they learn as easily to "trust their guts" or will they not pay attention because their parents do it for them? Are we creating children who need to be constantly entertained because they don't spend all of those hours outdoors exploring that we did? What are the long term ramifications of being under constant supervision? Is it like this everywhere or just urban communities? I live on the coast of central California in a town of 14,000. Do kids still roam about in the country? I grew up half my life in rural Arkansas and we came in when it got dark. The other half, I lived in Phoenix and we came in when the street lights came on. At any given time, my parents figured we were either playing in the street(or in the woods in Arkansas) or at one of 4 or 5 houses. Do kids still do this? What's changed? There has always been crime, etc. Do we hear more of it or is it really worse? Just really rambling here and thinking out loud (on the computer). I want my kiddos to grow up strong, safe and free to discover. Heck, they have never been out of my sight in the woods. How can I work on this? What do you do? Thoughts? Ideas? Insights? Julie in Monterey
  18. Sounds like you have a long road ahead of you. I hesitate to say this, but...you can't do it without his support. The kids will feed on this and feel his lack of support and it will have ramifications for all of you. After schooling is easy at this age. It gets harder when your 4th grader has 1.5 hours of homework everyday. I would try to find a home school family that might be interested in talking with you and your husband or seek out an older home schooled child that might be willing to talk to you and your husband about his or her experience. Often it takes someone who doesn't have an personal investment in your choice to way in. Perhaps you could ask his specific concerns on these boards and encourage others to share their experience with you/him. You could print these and offer them as viewpoints????
  19. My oldest is in 4th grade which means CA history this year. I want to take my girls on a "gold rush" trip. I'm hoping for suggestions. So far, I've figured out that I want to stop in Coloma. Would love recs for places to stay including fab campgrounds. Thanks in advance! Julie in Monterey
  20. We are looking to have a more peaceful home. I'm looking for straightforward, easy to understand rules. I have 2 girls, ages 6 and 9. Thanks in advance! Julie in Monterey
  21. Our group is coming up empty these days. I'm sure it has something to do with us meeting tonight so late. Anyhoo, wondering if anyone wanted to share their favorite summer reads. Thanks! Julie in Monterey
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