Twelve Things I Learned This Christmas
Dec 26, 2012 Kids
1) When your kids no longer believe in Santa, you don’t have to worry about what kind of wrapping paper you use. Or change your handwriting on the tags. And the wrapping scraps? They can just go in the recycling bin!
And as you buy and wrap presents, you can just put them under the tree. No need to hide them. AND you get all the credit for the gifts. It’s awesome.
2) On the other hand, there’s no reason to put out cookies and milk on Christmas Eve for “Santa” to eat. You can still have cookies and milk, but you can’t tell yourself that it was all part of a grand plan to fool your kids. You were simply pigging out on cookies at midnight for no good reason.
3) Even tough guys will get crafty when there’s candy involved.
4) The Barbie Dream House? The giant one with the elevator and all the sounds and stuff? It’s the hardest thing to put together ever. The terrible instructions are paired with black and white pictures that are so dark it’s impossible to tell what’s happening.
I was up half the night with this thing.
5) In the middle of the night, when you ask your husband to bring the empty boxes downstairs, there’s a good chance that he will put a very obvious one in a hallway practically next to the tree, where your daughter will notice it before you’ve actually given her that present.
6) When you buy a bunch of AA batteries from Amazon and they come in a plain brown package, open it up and look closer, because they may have sent you several dozen AAA batteries by mistake. And you may be scrambling on Christmas morning to find enough AA batteries for the kids’ new toys. In a related matter, all of your XBox controllers may be battery-free at the moment.
7) If you decide to make your pie crust a little thicker this time because you really really like crust, and then you bake it longer than usual because you’re worried about it being doughy, you may turn your apple pie into applesauce pie. (But the crust will still be awesome.)
8) Pretty tablecloths should be used more than once a year. They’re just fun.
9) If you buy an eight-year-old girl a skateboard in winter, she will want you to take her outside, even though it’s very cold.
10) No matter how many Legos and Nerf guns an eleven-year-old has, he will still go crazy if you get him more.
11) Barbie can never have too many clothes.
12) No matter how little sleep you got, or how many nails you broke, it was all worth it.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
My Very Own Windows Phone 8 Start Screen
Dec 24, 2012 tech
I’m so thrilled to announce that I’m part of Team Windows Phone! For the next few months I’ll be sharing my experiences with my new Windows Phone 8, the HTC 8X, which has been given to me to review and explore.
That’s my new start screen there, to the left (of course, you can’t see the whole thing on the phone at one time, you have to scroll through it). I’ve been playing with the start screen for two days, getting it just right for how I use my phone.
And it is just right…for now. One of the things I love most about my phone is how easy it is to pin just about anything to the start screen. So if we travel somewhere, I can put a map of that city right on the start screen. When I’m in Disney World I always have a ride wait-time app handy. If I’m working on a special project I can pin the relevant documents to my start screen, for super quick access without having to open an app first. And it’s just as easy to “un-pin” them when you’re done with them.
And now, with Windows Phone 8, you can resize the tiles. See those four small tiles at the top? I want those to be easy to get to, but I don’t need them to take up a lot of real estate, so I made them small.
The Twitter and Facebook apps right below them? Those I want to be big so that I can see what’s on the live tiles. Besides showing me how many mentions or messages I have, they flip over and show me the latest posts. And the calendar app shows me my next appointment.
And while the XBox app probably doesn’t have to be that big, I like watching my avatar play around on the screen. :-)
I’ve mostly grouped my apps according to what they’re used for. That row under the XBox tile? Those all have to do with going somewhere.
The two handsome guys in the big tiles are the two people I call, email, and text the most. Instead of opening the phone app or text app and then having to search for them in my contacts, I just click on their tiles and all of the choices are right there.
My grocery list has to be easy to get to because I use it all day, both on my phone and computers (and thanks to SkyDrive, the list stays synced on all of my devices).
All of my favorite picture-related apps are grouped around my photo gallery. Tools are all grouped together, like calculator, flashlight, stopwatch – the kinds of things I would shove in a drawer together.
I post a lot of pictures right from my phone, so my WordPress app for my Pictures and Videos blog is right there, next to a shortcut that opens the Pictures and Videos dashboard in Explorer (any web page can be “pinned” for easy access).
And down there at the bottom, taunting me, is my favorite exercise app, Runtastic.
I have tons more apps than these, which are easily accessible by flicking my start screen to the left, but these are the ones that I use the most and want the easiest access to.
I’m so thrilled with this start screen. I can’t wait to try out more apps and see if they deserve a place there!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Content and/or other value provided by our partner, Windows Phone.
Tags: HTC 8X, Windows Phone 8
THIS Is How You Build Self-Esteem and Confidence
Dec 18, 2012 What's Going On
I’ll never forget the time in eighth grade when I didn’t get my swimming medal. I had won a bronze in the city finals for individual backstroke. When the medals were delivered to our school a few weeks later the gym teacher had a little ceremony – and forgot to give me mine. I ran after her when it was over, tears in my eyes, and reminded her. Oops, it had been an oversight, here you go. I had my medal, but I’d missed out on having my moment in front of the other kids. If this had been some bullshit participation medal, I wouldn’t have cared, but I had earned that medal. I was the third-fastest junior high backstroker in the entire city dammit, and I wanted everybody to know it.
This post in partly a rant about giving kids awards they didn’t earn, but it’s also partly to brag about how amazingly well my son did tonight at his belt test for Tae Kwon Do. So just indulge me and watch this forty-second video of him breaking boards:
He earned his new belt tonight (blue with a red stripe; two more belts stand between him and a black belt). I was incredibly proud of him, and so was he.
To look at him, you’d think he’d be a natural for this kind of sport, but it’s not as easy a fit as you would think. Despite being very big and strong for his age (eleven), there have been tests where he didn’t break the boards, and it was humiliating. I remember one where he had to wipe tears away between each attempt, and in the end he just couldn’t break the stupid board.
But because we’ve never pumped his confidence up artificially, his failure didn’t break him. He tried harder, and focused more, and the next time his hard work paid off. This is how you build confidence and self-esteem. Not by merely telling kids that they’re great at something, but by making them work at it and prove it.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Her Safe Place
Dec 18, 2012 What's Going On
I spent the weekend trying to decide, with my husband, if we should tell Fiona what happened in Newtown, Connecticut on Friday. We were on opposite sides – I wanted to tell her, he didn’t – but neither one of us was sure enough to really fight for our position. So in the end we did nothing. We decided to see what happened when Fiona got home from school on Monday.
So, of course she found out at school. Her teacher told the class in vague, appropriate terms what had happened, but the other kids filled her in about the crazy man (her friends’ word, not mine) who had gone into a school just like theirs and killed a bunch of kids.
Fiona had questions, the first one being “Why didn’t you tell me?” But they were mostly about how many crazy people there are in the world. “Is it like, one? Or ten?” I had to break it to her that it was a lot more than that, but that the crazy people were far outnumbered by the good people. And I told about how much the teachers in her school and Connecticut loved their students, and how they would do anything to keep them safe.
“Yeah, but they couldn’t keep those kids safe. Those teachers loved their students and they still died.” Yes, I told her, but it was far away and in my whole entire life this is the first time that something like this had happened and now everybody is being extra careful and…and…and…
Because in the end, there’s nothing to do but reassure her in a way that I myself am not reassured. I have the same feeling in my gut that I had after September 11th, like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.
After that, the conversation took a big turn. Now, this is a case of knowing your own kid, and I know mine. By this time it was late, we were just arriving home from a Christmas party, and Fiona still had to eat dinner and do homework. So when suddenly her tone turned from serious to whiny and she started repeating “I don’t want to go to school! I’m scared! A crazy man is going to come to school and kill me!” I knew that she was actually just tired and not wanting to do her homework. I said “Well, sweetie, if I let you skip doing your homework tonight, would you still want to go to school tomorrow?” “Yes!” “Well, too bad. Because you’re doing your homework.”
What happened in Connecticut was horrible. Awful. Unimaginably brutal. Horrific. I could go on and on and I still wouldn’t be able to convey just how bad what happened was. But it didn’t happen to Fiona. And while I’ll continue to check on her and make sure her questions are answered, her routine has to remain normal. She loves school. Loves it! And if I let this tragedy shape how she feels walking into her classroom, then I will have failed.
This morning when she came downstairs for breakfast, she had a really sad look on her face. I carefully asked her what was wrong. “I’m sad.” I took a deep breath, wondering if the enormity of the situation had finally hit her. “Because Daddy can’t come to my school showcase. I have a line! And I choreographed this move myself for everybody!” And then she showed me the move. And I knew everything was OK.
If we as adults go on from this point as though nothing happened, that would be wrong. We have a chance to change things. But for Fiona? I want her to go on as usual, as though nothing happened. She deserves to forget that this happened. To go back to her safe place, her favorite place, her classroom.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Introducing LOC–All Of Your Loyalty Cards In one Place
Dec 17, 2012 Paid/Sponsored Post
[The following post was commissioned by LOC.]
I’m one of those people with a giant key ring. It has the keys on it for every door I could ever need to get into, a safety whistle, and the broken end of a flashlight that used to be on there. It also has four loyalty cards – those cards that give me sale prices and extra discounts at grocery stores and drug stores. It’s so big that I rarely use it – it’s only with me if I’m driving, because it also has my car keys on it. If I’m walking or biking, I take just my house key. So, most of the time, I don’t have those four loyalty cards when I need them.
My wallet is also big, and contains many of my full-sized loyalty cards. It’s so big, I also rarely have it with me. I usually just shove some money and a credit card in my pocket. I have three different Subway loyalty cards, and that’s just because I can get another one without giving up any information. At Staples, at least, I can give them my phone number and they can look up my card, but at most stores that’s not the case, and I either have to use the store cards or a card from someone else in line. I don’t want to add up how many special prices and points I’ve missed out on over the years.
So, this is where the LOC card could save me from missing out. This card would take my existing loyalty cards for participating stores and put them all one one easy-to-carry account: there’s a key fob, a full-sized card, and a mobile app! Between those three, even someone as scattered as me could have one with me at all times. The card is, of course, free, and you can even manage all of your points and other loyalty benefits on their site.
Plus, when you sign up for a loyalty program at a participating store, you don’t have to hold up the line while filling out a form or giving the cashier information – you would just swipe your existing LOC card and be enrolled in that store’s program!
Want to make sure that your favorite stores participate in LOC? Go to the LOC website and suggest a merchant! Other ways to get to know LOC? Follow them on twitter, “like” them on facebook, and subscribe to their YouTube channel.
To help promote the launch, LOC is giving away $50 Visa gift cards to three winners. It’s really easy to enter: just visit LOC’s facebook page and upload a picture of your own pile of loyalty cards.
You can learn more about the LOC card in this video, as explained by zombie robot shoppers:
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 13. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Shopping
I Need A Pause Button
Dec 17, 2012 What's Going On
I wrote this last Thursday, and had planned on posting it on Friday, but did not due to the shocking and horrific slaughter of 20 children and 6 adults in Newtown. I’m posting it now, unaltered, and mean it more than ever: I just want to freeze my kids the way they are right now – the good and the bad. Because they’re safe and innocent.
I did not have a ton of patience when my kids were little. I wasn’t horrible or anything, but I always felt like I was waiting for the next stage. Babies are cute, but I hated dealing with diapers and the other bodily fluids. Perhaps it would have been different if I’d been running around with a cell phone showing the world how cute they were all the time, but they were a smidge too young for that phenomenon, so instead my memories of adorable baby moments are completely mixed in with poop explosions and lonely days. I had tried a few different playgroups and classes, but it just wasn’t my thing.
I wanted to love hanging out with my kids, but I didn’t. Before I paint a really terrible picture here, everything was good – I loved my kids intensely, we were all very comfortable and happy, and life was good. But I wasn’t buddies with them. They were there to be taken care of and kept safe more than anything. And while I felt extraordinarily lucky to be able to stay home with them, I was relieved to put them in a pre-school a couple days a week starting at two years old. Being away from them a bit made me enjoy them more when we were together.
But still, I always felt like I was waiting for the next stage. When they wouldn’t need my help in a public bathroom. When they wouldn’t embarrass me in restaurants. When they wouldn’t drive me crazy on airplanes. When they weren’t likely to run into streets and drink drain cleaner and choke on grapes and popcorn. A time when we could just hang out. I never wanted to be friends with my kids, but I did yearn to be more relaxed around them.
And now we’re here.
And I want to freeze things.
My kids are eight and eleven, and I feel like I’m in a magical stage where they don’t need me every minute, but still need me enough. Where they no longer need my day-to-day care and protection so much, and instead need my advice and guidance.
They’re old enough to be exploring their independence, but still young enough that they don’t have to deal with the really scary stuff yet.
But it’s there, on the horizon. Bullying, sex, drinking, drugs, driving…
The other day I had a discussion with Jake’s pediatrician about Gardasil (the vaccination that helps protect against HPV, which can lead to many different kinds of cancers, and other nasty sexually transmitted diseases). And the discussion was jarring, because it was the first concrete admission that my kids would one day have sex.
In a way I can’t wait to see what life has in store for them. My kids are bright and curious and have so much potential. But for the first time in their lives, I really wish I could hit a pause button for a few years, and just enjoy this relatively easy phase for a while. The stuff ahead is so much scarier than what’s in the rear-view mirror.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Kids
So…Was This One Finally Tragic Enough?
Dec 14, 2012 What's Going On
In 1984, when I was twelve, I spent the summer in Ireland visiting my grandmother. All anyone was talking about was the Olympics. Then one day, the banner headline in the Dublin paper screamed about a bunch of kids being killed at a McDonald’s in California. I was horrified. I was not at all political and didn’t really know anything about gun laws, so I processed it as a child would: I eat at McDonald’s, that could have been me. I read everything I could about the kids who had died. I felt awful.
I was driving home from work in 1999 when 1010 Wins started talking about a school shooting. It was happening in Colorado, at a high school named Columbine. I wasn’t a mom yet, so I didn’t have my own kids to project the tragedy on to – it didn’t quite have the gut-punch feeling that today’s events had on me – but I was devastated learning about all of the promising young lives cut short. And I thought to myself, maybe now people will really start doing something about guns.
After the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007 I thought, this is it. This is the one that will cripple the NRA and lead to change, once and for all.
Then the movie theater massacre just this past July, again in Colorado. Surely, this time…
So, was today’s tragedy bad enough for the people who devote their lives to ensuring that guns are easy to get? Were the victims sympathetic enough? Young enough? Innocent enough? Were there enough of them?
If this doesn’t change our country’s thinking when it comes to guns, then I don’t know what will. I’m waiting. Waiting to see how the NRA defends this, puts the blame elsewhere. Waiting to see which politician or pundit trots out gun ownership lies that are so ridiculously easy to disprove. Because if this doesn’t convince them…
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
THIS Is Why Gun Control Matters
Dec 14, 2012 What's Going On
[Please not: there are several factual errors in this post, things that were being reported while I was writing this that turned out not to be true. These errors do not change the sentiment of the post.]
I had Rachael Ray on this morning when abc broke in with news of a school shooting in Connecticut. And my first thought was, which asshole politician will be the first one to defend the right for people to own guns today?
First there was news of three people wounded and the gunman dead. Then there were reports that there were several people dead, including children. Then, suddenly, there were fourteen people dead. Then twenty-seven dead. Most of them children. That’s where things stand right now. I’m not sure at what point I ended up sobbing on my kitchen floor, but eventually I stopped crying and got pissed off.
And when other pissed off people, smart people, high-profile people, people who are able to understand statistics and human nature and who aren’t getting money from the NRA, when those people start talking about the need for stricter gun control, gun proponents will make the same tired arguments. That guns don’t kill people, people kill people. That criminals don’t use legal guns anyway. That someone who really wants a gun will find a way to get one, no matter what the laws say.
And here’s why that’s complete bullshit.
It’s not criminals that I’m afraid of anymore. It’s a normal person who snaps. This is apparently an excellent school in a town that has basically no crime. Reports are that the gunman was a parent at the school. Not a gang member, not a terrorist, but a parent. Someone who would probably have no problem getting a gun in a completely legal manner, who would have no need to get a gun illegally.
I have no idea what went through the shooter’s mind as he headed to an elementary school carrying, reportedly, four guns. How easy was it for him to get those guns? Did he have to fill out a few forms? Did he already have guns at home before he hatched this plan, just because?
What if he had had to jump through more hoops to get guns? What if he’d been forced to search out an illegal gun? Would he have been caught? Would the extra time have caused him to rethink what he wanted to do? If he’d had to try harder to get guns, would he have maybe calmed down? Or maybe tipped someone else off about what he was planning?
There are more reasons than I could list why people snap and get violent. What they have at their disposal makes the difference between a fistfight or a stabbing, and dozens of people being dead. Guns kill people. They kill them quickly, they kill them more than one at a time, they kill them before the victims even know what’s going on.
Right now, there are parents at that school in Connecticut who haven’t been able to pick up their children yet, and in dozens of cases, that’s because their kids are dead. There are no words for what they’re going through right now. It’s a pain that nobody should ever have to endure. As a society that has been so successful in so many other ways, what can we do to turn this around? To make sure that parents don’t have to go through something like this again?
My child’s safety is more important than your right to keep a gun around. I have zero patience at this point for anyone who argues any differently.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
