A little background.  My wife just recently was able to fit the car back in her side of the garage.  My side is taken up with a grill, 4 different pedal pikes, a wagon, shelves to store all the kids’ old clothes, and a few other things that I can’t actually see to identify.
I park in the driveway.

I grabbed my handy dandy ice scraper from the trunk and pressed it against the window…and the scraper snapped off.  I quickly investigated my options.

1. Pick up broken scraper piece and hope I do not cut my bare hand on the ragged plastic.
2. Find credit card and use it for the forces of good for the first time ever.
3. Drive car immediately with head sticking out of the window until the heater warms up.
4. Wait 30 seconds for rear defroster to clear off back window.  Drive backward for 15 minutes until front window to defrost.  Drive forward the rest of the trip.
5. Break out front window and rough it on the way to work.
6. Wake up neighbor kid and see if he will scrape the window for a few dollars…if not, steal his bike.
7. Jog to work and count it as my work out for the day…or month.
8. Call in sick.  Push car onto side street.  Don’t tell family.  Walk to nearby coffee shop and wait for neighboring internet cafe to open.  Enjoy day.
9. Fly really fast around the planet turning back time several years.  Spend following years convincing family to move somewhere south and warm thereby avoiding this whole morning entirely.
10. Steal wife’s warm car and deal with the consequences later.

I won’t tell you which option I picked because it will make me look boring but I’ll give you a clue.  The number is less than the amount of kids I have.  And no.  I definitely don’t have 11 kids.

What do you do in a iced car window emergency moment when you just have to get to work?

Post from: Blisstree

10 alternative methods for when your ice scraper breaks

The Family & Relationships group of b5media is doing that today.  Since I’m one of the new guys, I haven’t had a chance to show of the wonderful new additions to my bloggling family.  (Man, that sounds as lame as it looks).

Anyway, Thrifty Mommy is hosting a little carnival of Top 10 lists.  Go visit to get easy access to a sampling of everybody in the Family & Relationships section of b5media.  Just like most families, you will notice that not everybody follows directions.  Some had few items in their list, some had more, some had more than one list.  They will all be disciplined and hopefully behave better in public from now on.

Post from: Blisstree

Taking the new blogs out for a walk

You have lost your Working Parent Street Cred.

The metreoric rise through the office ranks sustained you for years.  Then, your priorities shifted to diapers, tantrums, and funny stories to tell around the office.  Your peers were fascinated by every tale.  They were amazed that you could get so much done in the office and still manage to spend time with your kids.

Then one day you told everybody about how your kid scored the winning goal in her soccer game the night before, and nobody even smiled.  When you got back to your cubicle, you realized that you have not changed desks in five years and have been lucky to scrape by with cost of living increases.

You have lost your Working Parent Street Cred.

You are not alone.  This problem affects every working parent at some point in their career.  You need to learn the trick that they know about how to reestablish your Working Parent Street Cred.  And, for a special introductory rate of $0 dollars, I will show you their secret.

Case Study – Madonna

Madonna is a working mother. Nobody is really sure if you can call what she has done for the past 20+ years a career, but she has definitely been busy. She also has two kids, but they are 5 and 9 and nobody really thinks about them anymore.

She had lost her Working Parent Street Cred.

Madonna needed to reestablish her Working Parent Street Cred, so she did what every rich celebrity does. She took a trip to Africa and bought herself some new publicity…I mean a baby.

It worked for Angelina Jolie. We hardly even think of her as an actress anymore. We think of her as a hard working mother saving African children one adoption at a time. We think of her hanging with the officials in the UN building. She became a working mom, she reestablished her Working Parent Street Cred.
Madonna’s performance career is on a downswing. She seems like she would be a good fit for speaking about the poverty problems in Africa since she is willing to say anything at anytime to anybody that will listen.  She can give concerts with the proceeds going to charity. But, to get the lucrative engagements with the U.N., you have to actually adopt a child from Africa.

That’s right.   The secret is high profile adoptions.  I’m not talking about adopting some kid from Philadelphia.  I’m talking about saving some child from malaria and AIDS by dragging them out of the heart of Africa.  Once you have your cushy U.N. assignment, you will be able to keep your child connected with his heritage during your yearly photo op trips back to Africa.  The R.O.I. is almost instantaneous.
People will be amazed that you were willing to take on the challenges of adopting a child with so many potential problems.  People will be amazed that you are able to juggle parenting with the many responsibilities of talking with U.N. officials.  People will be amazed that you have shaken Angelina Jolie’s hand.

You will once again have Working Parent Street Cred.

Act now.  Contact your favorite African country leader and schedule your adoption visit today.

Post from: Blisstree

Reestablish Your Working Parent Street Cred

One option that people choose to escape the cubicle is to start their own franchise business.  But that can be very daunting.  Do you really want to run your own store or restaurant?

Something simple might seem like the way to go.  Something like the chores you had growing up.

If this sounds like you, you might want to consider starting your own poop-scooping business.  Yes, the same chore you complained about as a kid just might be the ultimate job.

If you have kids, actually handling the poop should not be an issue any more.  You’ll also get to spend the day outdoors and walk around nice yards.  There will be no big looming months long projects.

Just you, a scooper, and some good boots.  Since it is your own business, you could probably let the kids tag along sometimes when they are not in school.  Tempting.  Very tempting.

Post from: Blisstree

Alternative Career Choices – Pooper Scooper