Free Range Chickens...I mean Children

I've been reading this hilariously common-sense how-to book on raising your children. It's called "Free-Range Kids How to Raise Safe Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts with Worry). Lenore Skenazy, the author, wrote this book after being dubbed "America's Worst Mom". She wrote a newspaper column about letting her then-9 year old son ride the subway by himself. Once the column was published, she was asked to appear on all the morning news shows, where she was lambasted for being a bad parent. Instead of backing down and issuing an apology for an apparent lack of sense, Lenore started a blog (freerangekids.com) and wrote this book.

I love this book because she points out just how much society today has caused parents to wrap their kids in bubble wrap. There are knee pads so crawling babies don't bruise their knees. 14 year old boys are being driven home by the police from a park just a few blocks from home because they didn't have a supervising parent or a cell phone. Some schools are banning hula hoops-a hazardous toy because they can be swung around the neck, arm, or other bodily extremity or rolled on the ground. The purpose of the book is to show parents that it's okay to let your children be children. It's a great read. I'm having trouble putting it down. I'm finding that I'm doing pretty good already as a Free-Ranger. V is allowed to crawl around the house banging a spatula on pot lids instead of watching Baby Einstein videos, learn to walk without knee pads or a crash helmet, and his favorite toy (I kid you not) is a fly swatter. (Of course, we bought him a brand new one that was immediately labeled so we know not to use on flies.) There are a few areas that I could work on, but for the most part I'm there. If nothing else, I get a good giggle out of the antics of overreacting parents out there.

Baby's First: Birthday

It's so hard to believe that V is already a year old! Crazy how fast that time went... This past Sunday, we had a bunch of people over to help celebrate V and L's birthdays. It was fun to visit with everyone and see V playing with his cousins. We got the addition done enough for the kids to play in so that was nice. After a frantic week of building (I helped insulate and sheet the interior of the addition), cleaning, and cooking, it was quite wonderful to simply sit and visit with everyone. V was happy as a clam chasing after cousins and trying to snitch pluggies from them. (He lost his a few days ago.) He even got to enjoy his first piece of cake! I was tired at the end of the day but it was worth the effort. Now all I need to do is have some more company over before the house turns into a disaster area again.

Jammin' in the Kitchen

I was oh-so-exuberantly looking for a ham I thought was in the freezer this morning when I nearly squashed the toes on my right foot with a large bag of frozen raspberries that nose-dived out of my grasp. Not having any luck with the ham hunting, I figured I might have better luck with the berries instead. Deciding to make my very first batch of homemade jam, I ambitiously began setting my kitchen to rights.

With the dishes done, the floor swept, and all of my canning supplies neatly laid out on the table, I was ready to go. My berries were all thawed out, the sugar was measured, and that's when I realized I needed another box of Sure-Jell. Oops. Instead of loading V up and driving the the nearest town (all of two miles away), I searched the internet for recipes that didn't need pectin. Luck would have it that I found a one that called for honey instead of sugar (a plus when your hubby doesn't like to eat sugar), and didn't need pectin. Of course this took me almost a half hour to find so it probably would have been faster to go get the pectin in the first place.

One batch of raspberry jam with pectin- Done
One batch of raspberry jam w/o pectin and with honey- Done
Clean-up the sticky, berry-y mess- Workin' on it

We'll see how my jam experiment turns out. I'll try and remember to share the results when we crack open the first jar.

At least all the jar lids popped so I know they are sealed. I did that right, I guess.

New Year's Resolutions 2011

1. Enjoy life as it comes instead of worrying so much. Things always work out in the end.

2. Get to bed earlier. This means getting V on an earlier schedule again and learning to just put the book down.

3. Drink my water and milk. Gotta prevent more kidney stones, right?

4. Exercise 3-4 times a week. Two down so far... I'm on a roll with this one!

5. Get a better filing system in place. Just tossing everything in a box doesn't work so well anymore.

6. Learn to budget properly.

7. Count my blessings regularly.

8. Eat healthy and use up what's in my fridge/freezer. I'm tired of 'finding' things in the back of the fridge.

9. Keep the woodbox stocked and the fire burning when we are using the woodstove.

10. Take the time to stop and smell the roses.