The Cat in the Hat

"I thought of a page in Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat, one that comes near the end.

"Sally and I" have been standing by helplessly while the hatted Cat, with his Thing One and Thing Two, made havoc of the house. The toy boat is in the cake and the cake is on the floor, the rake is bent and mother's new dress has gone sailing through the room on a kite string. The fish has been trying to warn us, but we chose not to listen.

And then, through the window, we see her. There is a flash of red skirt and a leg striding into view, terminating with a high-heel pump with a bow.

"Then our fish said, 'LOOK! LOOK!' And our fish shook with fear. 'Your mother is on her way home! Do you hear? Oh, what will she do to us? What will she say? Oh, she will not like it to find us this way!'"

This is the crisis point of the plot, as you probably remember.

I remember feeling so relieved! I wanted that Mom to walk in and take control. I felt for those silly kids. They NEVER should have let the cat in. They should have been more assertive, called their Mom, or, at the very least, left the house and fetched a grown up neighbor to help!!

I have come to treasure the way my parents raised me.
If (when) I made a terrible mess of things, I thanked God I had a Mom I could talk to.

Temporary Tattoos

Here is an idea that will put your phone number ON your little ones. What is really cool is that kiddos can't take it off or lose it!





You can now get Temporary Tattoos (SafetyTats) customized with your cell phone number on them!
There are several cute designs from which to choose.
At $19.95 for 30 the price is within reason, too! HERE is the link where you can check this out for yourself.
This is one of my favorites.


There is also a LOT of good information on child safety at the website. You can read more HERE.




I like the idea of being able to customize these SafetyTats to give information like these for school field trips and special needs.

Homemade Popsicles

Nothing tastes better than a popsicle on a hot summer afternoon, but one look at the ingredients of most store purchased pops reveals . . . .
lots of sugar or artificial sweeteners and added chemical colors like yellow #5 and red #40--additives that have been linked to behavior, learning, and health troubles for some kids.

Better quality pops tend to carry a higher price and with the price of food rising they way it is, homemade pops just might be economically beneficial as well.

Here are some simple recipes and ideas for homemade popsicles...

Healthy Kid's Snacks

Epicurious.com

Cooks.com

H/T Blessed Among Men

Instructions: How to Bond with Baby

H/T:   Testosterhome

Combatting Nausea

H/T Shoved to Them
Her blog's unique name comes from something her beloved Nanna, Marie Lane, used to say. (May she rest in peace)

"One day God will have enough of your foolishness and demand that you hit your knees before Him. You can either do it willingly or He will put his hand upon your head and shove you to them."

I've become a self-proclaimed expert on being nauseous. There are ways to make it more pleasant if you can't make it go away. Why should my family be the only group to benefit from this knowledge?

Some helpful tips:

1. If smells are making you queasy, try carrying a lemon with you. When you start to lose it, scratch the rind and sniff. For some reason, it overpowers your gag reflex and blocks out the offending smell. Strap one under your nose and never gag again.

2. Feeling constantly nauseated? Find a comfy chair and put a heating pad on your stomach, a hot water bottle is better if you happen to have one as the pressure helps, too. The heat will relax your cramping muscles and let you rest and restore energy for your next sprint to the loo.

3. DO NOT eat saltines to battle all day nausea. They are good in the short-term, but, as they convert to sugar, they will make you sicker in the long run. You want protein. Lots of protein. You may have to gag it down at first, but trust me, it works. Some of the easiest to take is Robertson's beef jerky. I'm not kidding here folks. You want the real thing, not the make believe that they sell at the supermarket. You can get Robertson's on-line here.

4. Preggie pops work. Order them if you have the time. If you don't, call your local medical supply store and stock up on sugar free suckers.

5.If you can tolerate nothing else, try a wedge of sour citrus. Start small like a lemon or a lime. Somehow your stomach won't recognize the acid as an outsider and will let it stay. Take it slow and easy with this. An orange will not work, it's too much sugar.

6. If you are going to be in there a lot, get a chair or stool to sit on that's about 6-9 inches tall. A kid's step stool works fine. It saves your back, and the low height will cut down on disgusting splash-backs.

7. If you absolutely can't avoid throwing up, then grab a glass of lemon juice and water en route to the bathroom. Chug it as you run. It won't keep you from throwing up, but the acid of the lemon will mask the stomach acid flavor and make it more palatable.

It's a tried-and-true list. I've spent almost two years of my life with morning sickness.
I spend at least 3 months of every pregnancy battling nausea. I've been pregnant 7 times....you do the math. That kind of time is bound to teach you something.
It's just not an area of knowledge that I get to share very often. It's like knowing about child-birth and this kind of thing, it's valuable knowledge, but you can't discuss it at dinner parties. I wish that I was an expert on things which could be discussed at dinner parties, things like hang-gliding.

Love & Logic

I learned about LOVE & LOGIC (a parenting philosophy) over at Radical Catholic Mom.
Here is a blub from the Love and Logic website.


Love and Logic is a philosophy founded by Jim Fay and Foster W. Cline, M.D., and is based on the experience of a combined total of over 75 years working with and raising kids. It provides simple and practical techniques to help teachers and parents have less stress and more fun while raising responsible kids. Love and Logic offers many useful techniques that teachers and parents can begin experimenting with immediately. Here are some examples:

• Locking–in sadness or empathy before delivering consequences
• Setting limits with enforceable statements
• Sharing control through lots of small choices
• Building relationships with the One Sentence Intervention
• Neutralizing arguing with the Brain Dead technique
• The Anticipatory Consequence

What's in YOUR Hamburger?

Book Reveals the Grisly Horror of Hamburgers

Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet. - Albert Einstein

by Philip Delves Broughton

The grisliest description of fast food ever published is proving a hit with Americans desperate to know what lurks inside their hamburgers, while raising the hackles of the fast food industry.

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser offers a deeply disturbing account of the fast food industry. Since 1993, he claims, half a million children in America have been made ill by the E coli bug. If their parents knew what was really in the minced meat found in thousands of hamburgers, tacos and pizza toppings, he argues, they would never take their children to another fast-food restaurant again.

Feeding dead cats and dogs to cattle was legal in the United States until 1997, when the government banned the practice because of fears over mad cow disease. Dead horses and pigs, however, are still routinely ground into cattle feed. One quarter of America's minced beef, writes Schlosser, is made from worn-out dairy cattle, likely to be riddled with disease and the meat containing antibiotic residues.

The book has been called unduly alarmist by the American Meat Association, which represents packers and processors, and "unfortunate" by the National Council of Chain Restaurants. - Daily Telegraph

Sources: The Dominion 12 March 2001

http://www.flatrock.org.nz/topics/animals/holy_cow.htm

Unborn Babies at Risk Because of Chemicals

Babies in the womb are being exposed to a shocking cocktail of chemicals that can cause cancer in later life and have gender-bending qualities, research has revealed.
Most of the chemicals are found in everyday products such as cleaning fluids and sprays, perfumes and cosmetics. These chemicals are linked to health problems ranging from birth defects and genital abnormalities to cancer.

"Babies feeding through the umbilical cord are exposed to these toxic chemicals.
It is shocking that such chemicals are in the human body at any stage of our life, let alone at the very start, when the child is most vulnerable. Governments need to act and require industries to substitute these contaminating chemicals with safer alternatives."1

Since the government will not be stepping in to protect our unborn, our infants or our families any time soon -- it is up to us to limit the exposure they have to chemicals. "Nine months of a healthy pregnancy is the best gift you can give your baby."2 Creating a healthier home can be easier than most people think.

sources:
1 Helen Perivier, toxics campaigner for Greenpeace International
2 The March of Dimes