Parenting 101

Isn't it interesting how much some think they know about parenting even before they have kids? I know I used to have great ideas about parenting. If I heard a screaming toddler in the grocery store, I said to myself, "If that were my kid, I would..." and then come up with some solutions that would shape that kid right up. When I saw a baby with a pacifier, I thought how silly that was. Your baby doesn't need a pacifier if you simply make sure all his needs are met. If he's crying, find out why and fix the problem. Easy. And, of course, I would never be guilty of saying "Because I said so." I would calmly and logically explain the reason to the child who would immediately understand.

One day, some years later, I heard a screaming child in the grocery store. It turned out this particular child was sitting in my grocery cart. But nothing I did stopped the crying. What had happened to all those great ideas? Some I had already used, but they hadn't worked. The others--well, I was afraid that if I tried them, I would be arrested. The pacifier, which I had packed in the diaper bag also wasn't working. There was nothing left to do but cut the shopping trip short and go home.

As the kids got older, there were also many times I answered the question "Why?" with "Because I said so!" What had happened? Why wasn't I following my own great advice? In a word, REALITY.

Reality had taught me that even the most disciplined child gets bored after being in a grocery cart for an hour and sometimes nothing can stop the crying but heading home. I had also figured out that there are some babies who have all their needs met perfectly well, but still won't stop crying. In those cases, a pacifier may help. Sometimes. Reality had also told me that there are times when a child needs to obey without question and the old "Because I said so" standby is the best thing. If necessary, the logical reasoning process can follow later. After all, if your house was burning and you told your child to get out, you wouldn't answer their "Why" with logical reasoning.

So now, when I hear a crying child at the store, I sympathize with the poor mother (or father) instead of judging them. I also wonder if they would like a pacifier. For the child, I mean.

The Adventure of Costco Shopping

The other day I made my monthly trip to Costco. If you have ever shopped at Costco (or any other warehouse-type store) you know how much fun it can be.

First of all, parking. I have never been to Costco when it is not busy, so finding parking is always a challenge. But I can usually find a spot within sight of the front door. That doesn't mean close to the front door, just within sight of it.

Then, I grab a cart, flash my little card at the greeter, and I'm ready to shop. Of course, due to poor planning, I am once again arriving just before lunch time and getting hungry. Fortunately, there are a plethora of free samples available.

I head down the first aisle which now contains chips. A few months ago, it contained toothbrushes. Before that, it was diapers. I guess they like to rearrange things now and then to keep us on our toes.

I soon have a cartload of gigantic packages of random items: peanut butter, chips, candy, bottled water, frozen pizza, and toilet paper. I check my list and make sure I haven't forgotten anything, because if I have, it means walking the equivalent of four city blocks to go back and get it. I have also gotten my fill of free samples: English muffin, meatball, potato chip with dip, and cheesecake for dessert. Who needs lunch?

To the self checkout. Scan the items one by one. Hope that the conveyor belt doesn't get too overloaded. But it does. Rearrange everything and continue. As I scan, a computerized female voice shares each price with everyone standing nearby. How nice of her. Get my total. Swipe my card. Get my receipt.

Now I have to hurry and load it all back into my cart before the person behind me gets their stuff mixed up with mine. Finally, after someone checks my receipt and I'm out the door.

Loading the stuff into my car can be tricky. If the sun is shining, I have to make sure the chocolate items are not on top. Otherwise, the sun shines on them all the way down the highway and melts the chocolate. (I'm serious. That happened once.) So I play Tetris with the groceries trying to get them all in the back of my car in nice neat stacks.

When I finally arrive home, I then have the enjoyable task of lugging everything into the house except for the items that go straight into the chest freezer. Then I rearrange the pantry and the fridge a couple times to make room for all the stuff.

Finally, I'm done! And it was so worth it because I saved...Well, I don't know exactly how much money I saved, but I know I saved some. So it was totally worth it!

Now all I have to do is forget how "fun" it was before I go again next month.

I Love Fall

Since we moved into our new house several months ago, I have learned a lot of things about home ownership. One major thing is that we have to do all the upkeep ourselves. At our last residence, the leaves fell in the yard and and a few days later they miraculously disappeared. (The landlady's son took care of them.)

Now we have to rake the leaves ourselves. I have been spending a lot of time doing this and have learned a number of things:

1. Leaves pile up very quickly. I only have to rake one medium size section of yard and I have a huge pile of leaves. I can only fit so much in my yard waste bin so one huge pile a week is all I can take care of.
2. It seems like the more you rake, the more work there is to do. I just spent about a half hour raking leaves and filled my yard waste bin, but there are still leaves all over my yard. And in a few more days, the leaves will be all over the section I just raked.
3. Raking leaves can be a fun job. I like it because it gets me out of the house and it is good exercise. And I can listen to my iPod while I do it.
4. Jumping in leaves is fun. Well, I haven't done it myself but my son seems to enjoy it.
5. Someone is leaving apples in my yard. Every time I rake leaves, I come across a few apples. There is not an apple tree within sight of the house, but these apples keep showing up. Since some are small and misshapen, my theory is that squirrels are leaving them. Although I thought they buried their food.

Now that the trees are almost devoid of leaves, my goal is to someday rake up all the leaves on the ground. At the rate I'm going, I may just accomplish that before next fall.

Not-so-super market

The other day, I had to make a quick run into town to the grocery store. Usually I go to the big grocery store with the really awesome deli and has a layout that mostly makes sense. However, on this particular day, I needed to go across the street to Safeway. It is smaller with narrower aisles and has a layout which defies logic. I don't go there often but I needed cans of frozen lemonade concentrate. Safeway brand lemonade is the only kind I use in my iced tea. (Other brands make it taste too lemony.)

Shortly after arriving at the store, I realized they were undergoing a major rearrangement. As I mentioned, the previous layout was just weird. Batteries seemed to be hidden in a corner. Boboli pizza crust was next to the bottled water instead of in the bread aisle. So would the new arrangement be an improvement?

They had handy dandy guides to help customers. I needed spaghetti sauce and pasta. According to the guide, this was located on an aisle named "Office." Huh? Apparently, "Office" was the mysterious corner where batteries had previously been located. OK. I found spaghetti supplies. I also needed burrito stuff. What do you know? Mexican food was right next to the pasta aisle. How convenient. Or so I thought. I found refried beans, salsa, taco sauce...but where were tortillas? I checked the guide. It told me they were at the end of aisle 11. Which was on the other side of the store. I found the tortillas eventually. Right next to...the pharmaceuticals? Whose bright idea was this? If they wanted to place tortillas at the end of an aisle, it should have been one closer to the other taco stuff.

Fortunately, there is a big Super Safeway I can go to. It's just a little farther from my house. I think I will get all my lemonade there from now on.

Or I can go to the other big grocery store with the awesome deli. The same one that puts cat food and toilet paper on one aisle and dog food and paper towels on another.

Things I've learned from watching TV (and movies)

1. Never climb up something when you are being chased. You will always end up trapped at the top.
2. If Jessica Fletcher shows up in your neighborhood, LEAVE TOWN IMMEDIATELY! Also, take someone with you so you always have an alibi.
3. If you are about to be executed by an evil genius, he will most likely start telling you all his evil plans. He will spend so much time doing this that the good guys will have just enough time to rescue you.
4. If you run across a dead body, don't touch it or pick up the weapon lying nearby. (This seems like a no-brainer, but people on Matlock and Perry Mason never followed this advice.)
5. Living with or close to the Ingalls family of "Little House" fame was somehow detrimental to children as it made them prone to run away from home. (What was with that family? Funny how Laura never mentioned any runaways in her books.)
6. Office buildings in NYC and other large cities are filled with funny people where humorous things happen constantly and nobody ever really works.
7. A pregnant woman always knows the second she goes into labor. (Something must be wrong with me. It took me hours to figure it out.)
8. There is always a way to keep ahead of an explosion if you are a good guy.

See what I've learned? Who says too much TV is bad for you? I'm going to see if I can learn something new from TV right now.

Olivia, The Supercat?

This is our cat. Her name is Olivia. She is probably almost 15 years old. I don't know her birth date, or even her birth month. All I know is that my mother-in-law had her for 6 years and we have had her for 8 1/2 years. So, in short, she is a very old cat.

However, I am beginning to wonder if she is part something else. Last winter, we had very cold temperatures. Nothing below zero, but record lows for the Puget Sound area. Since Olivia doesn't have a litter box, she needs to go outside to do all her business. Well, despite the cold, we made no exceptions. She was put outside. I'm sure some would think this to be cruel, but hours later, Olivia came to the door asking to be let in. And she was perfectly fine. No doubt, her abundance of fat and fur protected her. At least, that was our theory at the time.

More recently, I began to wonder if Olivia is impervious to more than cold temperatures. As shown in the picture, Olivia decided that her favorite sleeping spot is a narrow ledge right next to the stairs. However, I don't think this is a good idea. For one thing, her wide girth has caused her to get off balance and topple off more than once. The other problem is she leaves brown dirt smudges on the white paint. So we could either clean this area several times a day or do something to keep the cat off of it.

My husband found some spray that, when applied, keeps cats (and dogs) away from certain areas. He saturated the ledge with this spray. Within seconds, the entire upstairs was filled with a not-so-pleasant odor. The cat stared at her favorite spot, but didn't go on it. Problem solved? No way. Within ONE HOUR, the cat was back on the ledge.

A couple weeks later, we again tried it. We saturated the spot twice within a few minutes. As soon as the spray had dried, Olivia was carefully positioning herself on the ledge.

So our cat seems to be unaffected by cold, repellent spray, and also the passage of time. (She is, however, affected by fleas.) I am beginning to wonder if she is immortal. Maybe she is some sort of mutant super cat with powers that make her impervious to all kinds of things.

Either that, or I have been watching way to much SyFy channel lately.

Quandary about laundry

About 150 years ago, all laundry was done by hand and hung up to dry. It seems like that would have been a lot of hard work. Today, with automatic washers and dryers, laundry has gotten a lot more simple. Or has it?

Sometimes it seems like my life revolves around laundry. Even when I don't have any to do, I catch myself wondering if I have to transfer something from washer to dryer. And even though it doesn't take me as long to get things dry (hooray for high efficiency washers!), laundry seems to have a lot of steps to get through.

1. Collect laundry baskets from bedrooms. (Yes, I actually trained my children to put their laundry IN THE BASKET.)
2. Sort into loads. As you sort, check each garment for stains.
3. Check all pockets for tissues, Starbucks receipts, and loose change. (Keep money for yourself. Consider it a tip.)
4. Treat stains.
5. Load clothes in washer and turn it on.
6. Do something else for about 45 minutes.
7. Take clothes out of washer. Separate out items that must be air dried.
8. Put remaining clothes in dryer and turn it on.
9. Do something else for about 45 minutes again. Wash next load.
10. Take clothes out of dryer.
11. Hire your kids to fold them because now you have to make dinner.
12. Two days later, discover stuff left out to air dry from previous laundry day. Put items away.
13. Begin process all over again.

See how many steps there are? How can this be simplified? Maybe I can cut down on the amount of laundry. I wonder if my kids would mind having just one outfit apiece.

Well...I guess they could have two. After all, they will need something to wear while I do laundry.

First Day(s) of School

Well, it's that time of year again. The kids are back in school. This year we had two first days of school. That's because only the freshmen went to the high school the first day and the upper grades started the second day. So for me, Wednesday didn't seem like the first day of school because only one kid went. Thursday was the second day of school, but the first day for my high schooler. I could go on and make this more confusing but I won't.

I decided to spend Thursday morning watching a movie, one that I wanted to watch by myself. I will not reveal which movie it was. Let's just say that Netflix considers it a tearjerker. I started this little tradition last year on the first school day, enjoying a quiet house and watching some movie that my kids don't care for.

Now that the first few school days have past, I need to spend those quiet hours doing housework and catching up on things that I put off during the summer. Of course, after the first week, the house will seem TOO quiet. But that's why I have an iPod.

Crayons is a drink?

When I'm thirsty, I like to go to the fridge and get nice drink of...Crayons? Yes, apparently there is a new drink called Crayons that comes in colorful containers. It comes in fruit punch flavors as well as sports drinks. The only ones I could find at my local grocery store were sports drinks.

After doing some research, I found out that they are not that bad. The fruit punch has less sugar than similar drinks and taste less sweet, making them palatable for adults. The sports drinks are lower in sodium than comparable drinks. Crayons got many good reviews.

If the fruit punch varieties ever show up at my grocery store, I may give Crayons a try. But they are expensive. The 8 oz cans cost over a dollar each.

Drink Crayons, everyone!

Music to my ears

I have always enjoyed piano music. Especially instrumentals, no singing. When I was a kid, we had a record by Frank Mills that was mostly just piano music. (If you don't know what a record is, ask someone over the age of 35.) One of my favorite songs on there was Music Box Dancer. Sometimes I just sat in my mother's rocking chair and just listened to the music.

Recently, it occurred to me that I have an iPod. Of course, the reason I wanted it was so I could listen to all my favorite songs whenever I wanted to. But would Frank Mills music be available for downloading? It was! So I downloaded all my favorites, including Music Box Dancer, Spanish Coffee, and other familiar tunes.

I am usually reluctant to admit what I have on my iPod (let's just say there's a lot of 80s pop music) but in this case, I am letting the world know how much I love piano music. But it's more than just loving piano. When I hear those songs, it's like going back in time to my childhood. Once again, I can sit in the rocking chair and just listen to Music Box Dancer. I can dance around to Spanish Coffee.

And who doesn't want to back to their childhood once in a while?

Something's fishy

For years I have tried to find a way to prepare fish that my family really enjoyed. I experimented with various ways of frying and baking, but these recipes were merely tolerated. Often I would coat the fish with bread crumbs but by the time it was served, the crumbs were usually coming off. My husband told me that the fish tasted all right, but the texture was soggy. Oh, what to do?

Since sogginess seemed to be a major issue, I googled "crispy fish fillets" and searched several recipe websites. Finally I came across an easy recipe here. Apparently one secret to keeping the crumbs from falling off the fish is to let them sit in the fridge for a while. Also, for the homemade breadcrumbs, I used packaged croutons.

The results? Everyone actually liked it. My son, who usually takes one bite of a new food and then claims he doesn't like it, ate an entire piece of fish. They all even said I could make it again!

And it only took me 15 years.

First Rose of Summer

I have not had much success with gardening and such. Once someone gave me a chrysanthemum and told me they were very easy to care for. The thing was dead in weeks. And I did water it.

So imagine my surprise when I discovered the rosebush at our new house was actually blooming. In fact, it had several blooms on it. I had not even caring for it except for watering. (And that was done mostly by frequent rain showers.)

Now I have big plans for the flower bed. It involves planting bulbs in the fall and some potted plants in the spring. Maybe even a bushy plant someday like an azalea. We shall see if the plants do better when I show them TLC or if I ignore them.

By the way, I plan on pruning the rosebush next spring. I am already wondering if it will ever bloom again.