IMG: The Life of a Home Mom

#1 Marco Polo- This is a fun one that doesn’t take many people, however over the years this one has different rules. One person is it and they must keep their eyes closed the entire time they venture around the pool shouting “Marco.” The rest of the players shout “Polo” quickly and hide. The person that gets tagged will be it. Some like to blindfold the Marco. Another way to play this is have the “it” person go under water and count to 10 by holding up his/her fingers. Once up they shout, “Marco” and everyone else is shouting “Polo” until someone is tagged.

#2 Shark- Once again this is a game that is played differently. One way is you choose one person to be it (the shark) and the rest are the fish. They must keep away from the shark or they’ll be ate, once tagged they are it. Another version is once tagged they are out of the game and sit outside.

#3 Diving- Toss rings and such inside the pool and have someone go in and get them. Some like to challenge others to see who will get it first, others like to do a timed challenge and see if they can beat a record.

#4 Whirlpool- This is simply as it sounds, everyone in the swimming pool (works best for round pools) goes the same direction until the current picks up and starts kicking in. Do be careful those that aren’t fast can get pulled into the whirlpool.

IMG: BrandsOnSale

#5 Playing sports- By this I mean you can play volleyball, basketball, frisbee and football all inside the pool and they even have the fun equipment for it.

For more swimming pool game ideas head on over to the links and find something new you haven’[t played before. Now that you’ve read what games there are, why don’t you head out and go swimming. Doesn’t it sound like fun?

Post from: Blisstree

Top 5 Swimming Pool Games

Last evening, we headed over to my husband’s TV station. He and his co-anchor Janice have been hosting the fireworks show during the 9 o’clock news for the past several years. They broadcast from the roof of the station, which is atop Red Mountain. Two doors down is the might Vulcan statute, where the fireworks are lit.

This is the fourth year we’ve taken Truman and each year he enjoys it more and more. This year he was old enough to idolize Janice’s 9-year-old son, Noah. The two of them had a ball watching the fireworks, playing with the mics after the show, and walking like Frankenstein around the station after the festivities.

It’s a far cry from the first time we took Truman, when he was 2 ½. Back then, he sat through most of the show but demanded I hold my hands over his ears. Toward the end he wanted to go inside, so we walked down to the lobby and sat in a chair next to the entry doors. Truman sat patiently in my lap as the crowed passed out the door just in front of us. Just as I looked up and saw Rick walking down the curved stairway to meet us, Truman’s belly went concave, and he projectile vomited across the lobby, into the path of passersby. Children shouted, “Oh gross,” some gagged. Truman cried, and I sat there with my mouth open, holding a drenched and smelly toddler, not knowing what to do.

Cynthia, who has four children and now works for another station, rushed over and put paper towels down over the brown mess. She said, “It’s OK. Really. It’s OK.” After staring at me as blankly as I did him, Rick carefully picked up our soggy son, carried him to the bathroom and stripped him down to his diaper. We carried him outside as he wailed, “I want my clothes back.” What a pleasant memory.

I’d say our departures from the July 4th fireworks celebration (Thunder on the Mountain) have since been far more tame, but not this year. Truman wandered off with Noah and stumbled, slamming his lips onto the marble countertop in the lobby. Blood gushed, Truman cried, and I calmly carried my little boy to the bathroom, washed off the blood, and surveyed the damage. He busted both the upper and lower lips, but no teeth were lost and no stitches required. He found comfort in sucking a paper towel and drifted off gently on the slow ride home through traffic. And we took comfort in knowing we were finally getting this parenting thing.

Photos, JWJourney

Post from: Blisstree

Having a Blast on the Fourth of July

Image: sxc.hu

On family vacations, we often visited my aunt and uncle and spent a day or two at York Beach, Maine…my aunt’s favorite beach.  We had a taste of swimming in salt water and looked forward to this experience each summer.

I have photos to accompany these memories and should incorporate them with the stories in a journal, a scrapbook, or a digital scrapbook.

What memories do you have of beach and water fun?  What memories are you making with your children?

Write these down, combine them with photos, create scrapbooking pages.

Post from: Blisstree

Weekly Theme - Beach & Water Summer Fun

IMG: Bees Tees

Bees-Tees are being called Character Tees because it teaches children all about character issues and it is a great way for you to communicate and talk with your child about these issues. Imagine dressing them in the morning and talking about what the shirt says. Or maybe they just think the bee is cute, either way it works because the shirts really are and they mean something at the same time. These tees will at least be a positive influence instead of all those negative ones out there.

I went back to read more about Bees-Tees and how they were created and thought ya’ll would like to read it. The mom, Melissa Patton, created two for her daughter and realized they could talk about it and this made her think about all the shirts she could create with those character statements: kind, fair, friendly, etc and how they could actually do those things.

IMG: Bees-Tees

GIVEAWAY:

PRIZE: One Bees-Tees of your choice
RULES: Head on over to Bees-Tees and let me know which phrase and shirt you’d like.
Bonus entries: stumble this, twitter it or blog this post and leave a comment letting me know.
Deadline: July 18th, I’ll announce the winner at noon.

US Only please

Post from: Blisstree

Bees-Tees Giveaway

IMG: The Life of a Home Mom

that I’ve come clean I can tell you that I’m slowly, very slowly, learning to let them go…ya know let them do things on their own and grow doing it.

In the past I remember the worry I felt when (living on the base) I allowed my oldest son to walk to the gas station by himself. Now on the base this was the hot spot for kids to get snacks, candy bars or the occasional milk for moms. I remember watching the clock and everything and just waiting to see him return. Once he did I got such a relief but knew he could safely walk across the main road and be okay, he knew the rules.

Today, he’s 12 and I’ve finally allowed him to ride his bike down to the local Wal-Mart. This was no easy task for me but I knew he’d been wanting to go. Once his dad was going to allow it but due to the busy main road right there I was hesitant, we are still new to being out of the military and city life that I wasn’t ready. My son was hurt by my saying no, today he was so excited and I knew it was the right thing to do. However with that being stated I will not lie, I did make him take my cell phone as I waited on the computer. He called when he got there and called when his tire blew. He’s home now and once again I’m at ease but I know he can do it again. Of course the first thing he did was come in laughing about his bike blowing both tires and asked, “So are you blogging about this yet?” hehe. Yes he knows me well but knows I love him and am only protective and learning how to let go. Hey, he’s the first I think he’ll be the hardest.

How did you deal with the letting go?

Post from: Blisstree

Learning to Let Go

1. Service your car. That’s a no-brainer. We’re taking the Touareg in Monday for the 75,000-mile service. But I’m also taking it later in the week to NTB to get two new tires and a rotation. It would really suck to be in the middle of west Texas in 116-degree temperatures and have the car stall out on us for some reason.
2. Buy a Road Atlas. I hate Walmart, but they sell this awesome, large-sized, spiral-bound road atlas. Sure, use your GPS, but nothing replaces a road atlas. Plus, it’s great educational entertainment for the kids. Truman and I like to play the “where do you want to go?” game. He I dying to go to go to South Dakota, for some reason. Doesn’t it stay cold there year-round?
3. Stock up on the necessaries. I always bring a big box of wet wipes, roll of paper towels and a trash bag. If you have to ask why, you obviously don’t have young children.
4. A cooler stocked with drinks. Why waste your money at convenience stores when you can have your own cold drink conveniently in the car?
5. Snacks. Again, why waste your money at convenience stores. I also like to pack fruit, like oranges and grapes, but not bananas because I cannot walk past a banana without it bruising.
6. Wine … and a cock screw. Nothing is worse than stopping overnight in a town that’s dry or has a poor wine selection. (Yes, I am a wine snob.) Put the wine in the cooler unless you’re driving in cool weather.
7. Games, toys, DVDs and books. We use road trips as a good opportunity to buy DVDs and game books our son has not yet seen so he’ll look forward to seeing them. If you buy them early, hid then until time for the trip.
8. Check out your devices. Nothing is worse than starting on a road trip and finding out the power cord has a short or the iPod dock is missing a piece.
9. Make a list. I’m a list-maker, so I start mine early. This is for the things you will be miserable if you forget, like the iPhone charger, laptop computer, that book you’ve been meaning to finish, etc.
10. Book the house sitter, or make your pet/home care plans. We are spoiled. We have a house sitter named Joe who is an ex-marine and a personal trainer at the gym down the road. He brings his to dogs, Brutus the Rottweiller and Thor the Doberman. (Or is it Thor the Rottweiller and Brutus the Doberman?) I stock the fridge for Joe, and throw in a few extra steaks for the dogs, so it’s like a mini-vacation for all three of them.

Road Trip Photo, Flickr, jamiejohndavies

Post from: Blisstree

10 Things to do Before Your Road Trip

Image: sxc.hu

I found one in my grandmother’s memorabilia trunk.  It represented her son, my Uncle Charles, who served in that war and came back alive.  These flags, a blue star on white background surrounded by a red border hung in the windows of families who had a member fighting for our country’s freedom.  (More stars if more than one person was in the war.)

If the soldier was killed in war, a gold star was hung above the blue and if injured a silver star instead.  Thus also originated the term “Gold Star Mothers” who lost a son or daughter in the war.

Supposedly Army Captain Robert Queisser, of the 5th Ohio Infantry, designed a service flag to honor his two sons who were serving in the military during World War I.  These flags symbolize brave men and women in all our wars.

Nowadays, they’re made as flags, banners, pillows and quilts, to keep in mind the military men and women serving to keep us free.

Post from: Blisstree

Learning About Patriotic Service Flags

I was driving home from my friend Linda’s house (by the way, she is older than me) in this 90-degree heat with my air on 70 (because I don’t like to freeze, especially in summer), when I felt my seat warmer come on. What was so strange about it is that my seat only warms from the seat area, not the back, and that’s where I was feeling the heat. I checked the dial on the dashboard but the knob read 0. Strange. I reached around and felt the seat and it wasn’t hot to the touch. Then I realized the heat I feeling was radiating from the inside of my body, starting from my back and wrapping around my torso, causing me to shake and sweat – and I’m not talking a damp brow, but a sweat that drenched my scalp and clothes before I even pulled into my driveway.

I’ve been blogging about menopause and the risks of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for the law firm long enough to know that my symptoms were frightfully similar to that of a hot flash. But I can’t imagine that I’m old enough to be going through “the change.” A little symptom Googling and I surmised that it could likely have been a low blood sugar issue. My nurse practitioner friend Kathy said it was possible, but more likely I experienced a hot flash. I described a text book case. She said if my mother went through perimenopause at an early age, I likely could as well.

I can’t ask my mother because she’s dead. And thanks to my regular blogging with the law firm, I now am convinced her HRT killed her.

One most often hears of the connection between HRT and breast cancer. In 1991, the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute launched the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), a 15-year research program to address the most common causes of death, disability and poor quality of life in postmenopausal women – cardiovascular disease, cancer and osteoporosis. WHI consisted of a hormone trial and that is where researchers began to see an alarming trend –women on HRT were at an increased risk of serious health complications, most notably, breast cancer. The link between HRT and breast cancer has spurred numerous lawsuits against the makers of the one-time wildly popular Premarin and Prempro. People don’t hear so much about the uterine cancer risk because it’s a little different.

You can look up the connection between HRT and uterine cancer (also known as endometrial cancer) at the American Cancer Society or the National Institutes of Health and they’ll tell you the same thing – that the risk for endometrial cancer (this affects women who still have their uterus) is more than five times higher in women who take estrogen-only therapy (ERT) compared to estrogen plus progestin (HRT). Thus, women who no longer have a uterus are often prescribed ERT and women with a uterus are given HRT, which does not carry the same risk of endometrial cancer.

Years ago when my mother sat down with her general practitioner and requested help overcoming her symptoms of menopause, her GP gave her a choice – one pill would keep her menstruating, the other would not. She made the obvious choice. Perhaps the GP was unaware of the increased risk of uterine cancer with ERT. Maybe researchers were still combing the data. But the fact remains, my mother was diagnosed with uterine cancer. The next three years involved painful surgeries and procedures. The last six months were of excruciating pain.

My OB/GYN dismisses this connection. He says estrogen-receptor positive cancers are usually less aggressive and easier to treat. Sure, some studies show uterine cancer has an 84.4 percent survival rate. That hardly matters when you fall in the 15.6 range.

If it was a hot flash I experienced and I am embarking on my path down the shady road of perimenopause, I will not choose to take HRT. The risks are just not worth it to me. If the symptoms get worse – and I hear they often do – I will seek out holistic methods, acupuncture, yoga or whatever. And I will pray never to suffer like my mother had to.

Photo, Flikr, erix

Post from: Blisstree

If It Is ‘The Change,’ I’m Not Touching HRT

IMG: The life of a Home Mom

IMG: The Life of a Home Mom

We decided to finally meet the hubby’s co-workers and went to the company picnic. Course right before going I was walking around the house barefoot and hit a wheel (playpen) right between my 3rd & 4th toe. OUCH! I’m guessing I hit the gone or maybe just the vessel either way it swelled a big blue bump and has changed all types of wonderful colors. I’d deal with the colors if it wouldn’t hurt so much. So this limited what I did at the picnic but yes we still went.

IMG: Elizabeth Ferree

We got to meet the faces I’ve got to know throught the
phone which was great. The kids played a ton of games that the work picked out for them. They played a pop the balloon race, toss the water balloon, bounced in the bouncers and played with other kids. I got to see the oldest, he’s 12, interact with older teens. I must admit I loved seeing that, oh and of course the little blonde. hehe.

The girls hung out either playing games or chatting at the swings and slides. On occasion their baby brother joined them and he shows no fear and is very adventurous. All-in-all they had a blast and I relaxed.

Over the weekend we stopped by Hy-Vee where we grabbed some deli meat, juice, bread and some water and hit the park for a picnic lunch. When was the last time you had a lunch in the park? It really is a lot of fun and something I think they’ll have memories from them.

Post from: Blisstree

Spending Time With the Family

Image: sxc.hu

• Record the memories
• Jot them down
• Pull out pictures and have the patient tell you about them (if they’re able)
• Make some scrapbook pages with these memories
• Involve the whole family so they can have memories of doing this with  the Alzheimer’s family member
• Take the patient to July 4th events if they’re capable
• Prepare foods the family member did or enjoyed on these occasions in earlier years
• Join in any July 4th activities at the nursing home, if your family member resides there.

What do you do to remember the Fourth of July as you parent your parent?

Post from: Blisstree

July 4th for Alzheimer’s Parents