Crunchy or not?

Three years ago if I were asked what makes you a crunchy mom I would have been baffled. I had heard the term before, but that was about it. That terminology was not in my vocabulary and understanding yet. Now, I know oh so much more about it. Although I do a couple of things which are considered "crunchy" it is not because I am trying to be a "crunchy mom". Those things just happen to be convenient and fit my lifestyle. I know I have friends/acquaintances (because they've shared their thoughts on social media about it) who cannot fathom why somebody would bother messing with cloth diapers. I'm fairly certain they are not familiar with the new technology of cloth diapers and they are thinking about the old school kind. Even with new advancements in the cloth diaper world I can also understand why someone would not want to choose that option because it might not fit their lifestyle.

Anyway, I feel most crunchy practices boil down to preferences. Some people may not care for it or it's not their cup of tea while others become fluent in the crunchy mom world. No matter how you swing this video is good for a few laughs.

Your two cents?

I try to avoid debates and drama on Facebook, but this time the subject matter has sucked me in and I can't find my way out. So now I must turn to my mostly reasonable and sensible half dozen readers on here :)

The topic is on storm shelters in schools. I am highly interested because I am a former teacher and have had some instances where severe weather was indeed a threat.

Kelly Ogle from the local news channel 9 does a feature called My Two Cents. This time it is in response to a Moore Senator's plan to adjust the school calendar so that school is not in session during prime tornado season.

Here he is responding to the Senator's plan.
Here is the original story.

If you read those links you should be up to speed now.

What is my take on this? I am fully aware that storm shelters in schools is going to be very expensive and take time to construct, but I feel they are still very necessary. I think the Senator's plan is a wonderful temporary plan which can be utilized until our schools are equipped with tornado shelters or safe rooms, even if it takes several years to achieve this.

After reading several of the comments from the Facebook users it is very clear that everyone is not in agreement.

1. People don't want to spend money (increase taxes).
2. There are some who are of the opinion that "good" parents can  pull their children out of school when severe weather is a threat.
3. Schools are not babysitters.

There are many more thoughts out there, but I can only bear to read so many of them.

I think the plan is a fine temporary plan, but I can just see them changing the school calendar and then we turn around and a huge F5 tornado will make its way through in April. Number two really bothered me. These people must not understand nor are familiar with jobs that fall under the category of public servants. Police officers, EM T's, nurses, doctors, teachers and several other occupations require them to report to work and do their job so that other people benefit.

It's really sad because the teachers seem like the biggest losers in this situation. Most teachers do not have the luxury to go and retrieve their own children when severe weather becomes an issue and school is in session. No, they have to stay at school with other people's children and do their best to keep them safe in a building which most likely does not have a storm shelter. Plus several educators are married to each other which makes it even more difficult for them to go get their child. Which is why #2 bothers me so much. Yes, lots of people are very fortunate to be able to leave their job quickly in an emergency situation, they probably work in an office type setting though. If I were still teaching and my child were in school I would probably arrange for my dad to go pick him up and take him to our house where we have a storm shelter. Again, not everyone has these options. I've also stayed at school during severe weather while other teachers were allowed to leave while I took on their students. It wasn't a big deal and usually there were only about 10 or fewer students left in class by then because parents did come and pick them up (which I am not against, parents should be allowed this option and not be penalized). Anyway, teachers have to give and take in those situations, unfortunately.

Number three: schools are not babysitters. Technically no, they are not, but our children do spend nine months out of the year in school and most of the day time hours. A storm shelter can be necessary during other months of the year because tornadoes do occur during other times of the year.

I'm also of the opinion that neighborhood residents should not rely on use of the school's storm shelter. If it is not school hours then the building should not be opened up specifically for people to come take shelter. Sounds harsh or even wasteful huh? Allowing public access causes  an array of issues. How many people can you let in? Can you turn people away? When do you shut the door to cut off access? Even traveling to come up and open the building could be a safety issue if there is little time to take shelter. People should continue to stick with or implement a severe weather plan if they do not already have one.

By having the storm shelters the schools can have an easier time protecting children (no it is not fool proof) and hopefully we will not have tragic situations where students do not survive a tornado while in school.

Now that I have ranted, rambled a bit, and probably left some stuff out, what do you think? Do you have any other thoughts I did not address or have a better plan? I would like to hear from you.

Birthdays and weird weather

Bob and I have birthdays within a week of each other which is nice and convenient at times. It's interesting because even though it is winter our Oklahoma weather has a hard time making up its mind. Here is Blake on daddy's birthday playing outside.

Then the day after my birthday this is going down.

Although my birthday usually comes along with a little bit of snowy weather. Remember this?

This doesn't have anything to do with the title of my post, but this week we also got to go on our first trip to Children's hospital. Everything is fine now, but yesterday morning was a little too eventful to say the least.

Blake fell down and hit his head.  
His symptoms afterwards resembled a concussion to me so I decided it was best to take him in and get him checked out. I knew this was going to happen one day with my spirited child and it probably won't be our last trip to the ER either.

I'm not sure if this is how things go down in a children's ER, but they were really happy and kept saying, "oh, he's going to be fine." The doctor came in to check him one last time and said, "oh he's eating? He's fine." I guess they are used to dealing with parents who are not being very calm, but it just came across as if they were not very concerned. I'm sure they took good care of him and it is just the daily of occurrences in the ER that probably numbs them a bit.

This is where Blake hit his head :( Poor baby!

 Here he is afterwards eating some snacks I brought along. I'm glad I had those otherwise he would not have sat in the examination room while we waited.

After being cooped up inside due to all the snow, this was not my ideal choice of an outing. Oh well, life happens and Mr. Blake has already bounced back from this.

New Year Challenge

My very brave cousin started a blog to share her weight loss goals and journey for 2014. In her latest post she ended it with this challenge for herself and her readers: Name 5 positive things about yourself and name 3 things you like about your body. Here it goes, I think I might struggle completing this perhaps due to a lack of self esteem and also partly to not come across as delusional. I think it can be easier to list these things about other people rather than for yourself.

Name 5 positive things about yourself: *****

1. I am punctual and complete things in a timely manner.
2. I can cook and bake food that is quite tasty.
3. I am honest. Here's an interesting article I came across this week. Bob and I must be incredibly trustworthy ;)
   
4. I am dependable.
5. I like to try new things.

Name 3 things you love like about your body: *****

1. I can get a tan in moderate sunlight exposure while wearing sunscreen.
2. My dimples (on my face ;)
3. My arms, I like that they are a good length for reaching things, but right now they could probably benefit from some lifting and toning exercises.  

Well, that was a fun little self evaluation exercise. I kept realizing that some of my positive attributes tend to come across in the extreme and sometimes don't seem very positive. I guess that is something I can work on this year. Happy new year folks. I'll leave you with a cute picture of me and the kitty from this morning.

A Merry Little Christmas

I always love this time of year and celebrating Christmas with family and friends. Besides keeping up with my roles of wifey and Blake's mommy I tend to take on extra projects and activities during this time of year. They are never a burden and I enjoy each moment and the busyness. I realize others may not care for being busy and how hectic this time of year can be, but I guess the extrovert part of me thrives on it.

At the beginning of the month I was able to attend the Christmas party at my former school where I taught for four years. I have also made it a tradition to bring by cookies to my former coworkers before Christmas break. The first thing the music teacher said the year I announced I was not returning after having my baby was, "Who is going to make us cookies?" So far I have kept up the tradition of bringing them cookies for two years. Plus it is a good reason to come by, visit, and catch up with everyone.

 A few days before Christmas Blake got the cutest set of tiny books in the mail from a relative. I don't have much else to say about that, but I had to post the picture. I just love my little book worm!

 

 I was a little bit late getting Blake in to see Santa this year. I knew he wasn't going to like it, so here is my unhappy baby taking his picture with Santa.

This year I decided to take on a project to make something for my grandmother. During the spring I saw a pin on Pinterest around Mother's day showing how this lady made a present for her mother who had several grandchildren. I pinned the pin and was determined to make one as a Christmas gift for my grandmother of all her great grandchildren. Here is how that turned out.

 

Christmas Eve was spent with my grandmother, her five children plus spouses, her twelve grandchildren plus spouses, along with most of the great grandchildren.  We had to reserve the Family Life Center at our church in order to accommodate that many people. I failed to take any pictures, but I had a good time visiting with everyone, played Dirty Santa and won a Starbucks gift card.

Christmas morning was a little more exciting this year since Blake seemed to understand that there were (presents) new books for him to look at and read.

Two hours later he eventually tore off the wrapping paper on the box which is next to him on the couch :) I look forward to him comprehending more and being more involved as he gets older.

My sister and I along with our families went over to my parent's house for Christmas lunch and more presents. Yet again, I did a poor job remembering to take pictures, but here is a nice Christmas picture of my sister and me plus the hubbies and children.

 I really try to not make a habit of showing off my presents on the Internet, but at least this isn't on Facebook. Here is an unexpected gift from my hubby: A Snow White Cookie Jar. She is simply gorgeous! Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs has to be one of my favorite classic Disney animated films. I also have a ceramic figurine set that I hope to display in a china  cabinet one day. For now I will just have to settle for staring at this gorgeous piece every day in my kitchen.

That has been most of our activities thus far for the Christmas season. We still have more relatives to visit and presents to give which will probably leak over into the new year. For now I am probably signing off for the remainder of 2013. Happy New Year and God bless!

Snow day fun

In Oklahoma a snow day doesn't necessarily mean the ground is covered in snow. Rather, snow fell from the sky and the roads have become an icy mess which are undesirable to use for traveling in a car. None the less our church cancelled services this morning and we got to stay inside our cozy house all day.

I didn't think much of our activities from today until I saw a friend post on Facebook that they had used their snow day to bake cookies. We spent some time in our kitchen too. Actually it went something like this:

I made pumpkin spice waffles for breakfast.
My husband brewed a small batch of beer.
I made Hawaiian Roll Ham and Swiss sliders for lunch.
I made pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting.
My husband made pepperoni rolls for dinner.
I made pumpkin dip for a potluck for Bob's work tomorrow.
And Bob browned some hamburger meat to get ready for the taco soup he's taking to work in the morning.

Whew!!! I guess we both don't mind spending time in the kitchen. At least that's what we chose to do with our lazy day we had ahead of us.

What do you enjoy doing when you're stuck in the house on a "snow day"?

Containment

Ever since our little boy has become mobile there has been an ever increasing effort to keep him contained within a room and not be able to escape (get into things he shouldn't be getting into). We felt comfortable having the kitchen completely closed off and letting him have free reign over the living room and dining room area...until recently. The other night I posted this picture on Facebook.

Here is what prompted that set up.

  

 Keeping the chairs pushed in did not help at all. He would just crawl under the table, push the chair out, climb into the chair, and then climb on top of the table! When I first caught him I just thought he was having a good ole time pushing the chairs around in the kitchen and I went in there to check and there he was on top of the table. Our sweet monkey boy just wants to climb everything. Now it is just a matter of training mom and dad with the new system. One of us forgot to replace our chair after a meal and he promptly went over to climb in it.