Book Review #3: Organizing For Your Lifestyle by Jane Stoller Stoller is a true Organization Goddess. Read this book, efficiency shall follow.

What They See….

As an elementary school teacher, I have received a number of flattering compliments regarding my ability to create a visually appealing, organized classroom environment and/or an inviting support services office space each school year. Many times, after bestowing such a compliment, my colleague will then follow up with a variation of the following statement:

“Your house must be impeccably neat and organized, too.”

BWAHAHAHAHA.

Not quite.

Teachers indeed do work for the weekend, yet we also work ON the weekend. And HOLY RED LEATHER PANTS, Batman. Yikes. Continue reading →

MIR: The Good, The WTF, and The Alt-Good. Welcome to Life, 2017-Style. It's Been A While.....Time to Catch Up.

It’s been some time since I’ve blogged. Over a month, actually. Why? You could say that life has gotten in my way. Or, more specifically, work.

So. Much. Work.

Report card time can be stressful when you service, IDK, about 60ish students, I am learning. Also, dedicating a week-plus to writing up a detailed report on every kid’s progress to the detriment of sleep, family time, and at times, my sanity, has, plainly, sucked. Plus, after finishing all 60 reports, I then had to enter another round of student observational data, or risk falling behind on that. Because you know, after writing 60 reports, writing 47 more narratives is exactly the kind of wind-down activity I long for.

Yeah. It’s been a rough life, these last few weeks. Continue reading →

Book Review #2: #BabyLove: My Toddler Life by Corine Dehghanpisheh A 21st Century Picture Book For Toddlers And Moderation Moms Like Me!

You’ve Probably Seen The Headlines…

Eh, I think she’ll be OK.

About Toddlers and Cell Phones:

“Tablets and Smartphones May Affect Social and Emotional Development, Scientists Speculate,” (theguardian.com, February 1, 2015)

“Smartphone, Tablet Overuse Among Toddlers May Stunt Development,” (cbc.ca, February 3, 2015)

About Parenting and Cell Phones:

“Cell Phone Distracted Parenting Can Have Long-Term Consequences: Study,” (time.com, January 6, 2016)

“Dear Mom On The iPhone: Let Me Tell You What You Don’t See,”

At times, I do text or Facebook when I’m the parent in charge. Other times, I do not.

(deseretnews.com, February 15, 2013)
Note: Judgmental much?

And the epic rebuttal to the above:
“Dear Mom On The iPhone: You’re Doing Fine,” (huffingtonpost.com, August 11, 2014)

Yes, many folks on the Internet have strong opinions about cell phones, toddlers, and the parents who own at least one of each. Therefore, I was very curious about how

The author, Dehghanpisheh, is also the illustrator. She does a beautiful job creating vivid, colorful, fun, page-filling illustrations that complement the text well.

this subject matter would be incorporated into a read-aloud picture book for very young children when I was asked to review #BabyLove: My Toddler Life, which was written and illustrated by Corine Dehghanpisheh. I ended up on the final page of the story nodding in an enthusiastic manner, complete with a big smile on my face. What a great story this is! Not only was the book entertaining, but the characters and the plot totally resonated with me as well. Continue reading →

Book Review #1: Beyond The Tiger Mom by Maya Thiagarajan Blending the Best of the East and the West!

Have You Ever Wondered…

Thiagarajan’s book

If there is any truth behind the stereotype “Asians are good at math”?

Why Asian children consistently outperform their American counterparts in the West in STEM fields?

What the secret is to the drive that leads to success seen so often in young Asian scholars? Where does this work ethic originate?

How Eastern parents get their kids to behave and, like, do all this work without ending up with angry children who rebel and end up hating them for life?

If a child’s academic success can be mostly attributed to nature, to nurture, or to a combination of both?

Why American parents are so afraid of pushing their children to succeed?

Why American child-centric parenting is so damn exhausting?

If Asian educators could benefit from incorporating any current Western best practices in teaching within any of the core academic subjects?
(Spoiler alert: the answer is YES) Continue reading →

Christmukkah 2016: Last-Minute Holiday Gift Ideas, Toddler/Tween Edition Making our older baby and baby adolescent smile since Holiday 2006!

 

Christmukkah cheer.

Another holiday season is upon us! When you celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah like we do in my home, there is double the pressure to find the best gifts for the (lack of) money we have. Quadruple, if you multiply two holidays by two kids. And this year, both holidays fall at the exact same time. This phenomenon has definite pros, but also significant cons.

Pros: I have a bit more time to bargain hunt than when Hanukkah falls at the start of the month. That year when Hanukkah merged with Thanksgiving? Yeah, that was stressful.

Cons: That’s, like, a ton of stuff to seek out, purchase, and wrap by a certain date and time. Oh, and Mike and I are hosting Christmas dinner this year too, because apparently, we enjoy chaos. Pile it on, yo!

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a01QQZyl-_I[/embedyt]
OK, it’s not at the level of pressure described in this song, but holiday time is still filled with pressure when you are a parent. Plus, its a Freddie Mercury-David Bowie duet, for Pete’s sake. That’s reason enough to throw this video into a post. Continue reading →

Performance Review #2: Hanna and the Moonlit Dress at the 14th Street Y, NYC I'm Guest Reviewing For Be Your Best Mom Again!

Today’s review of the Theater at the 14th Street Y’s Hanna and the Moonlit Dress was again sponsored by the great Milena Barrett of Be Your Best Mom Dot Com. Big thanks to Ms. Barrett for such an enjoyable opportunity!

Last Saturday, December 3, the whole family and I jumped in the car and headed out to NYC to see Hanna and the Moonlit Dress, an interactive musical for children based on the Israeli children’s book Hanna’s Sabbath Dress by Itzhak Schweiger-Dmi’el. The show took place at the Theater at the 14th Street Y near Union Square, NYC. Please enjoy reading our before-and-after the show story below, then follow the link to the Be Your Best Mom site for the rest! Continue reading →

WIR November 8-November 15: Post-Election Suckage Not A Political Post. Well, not completely. Kinda not.

Twas a horrendous week last week, beginning with a traffic-filled, chock-full-o-illness, fear-inducing Election Day last Tuesday, and ending with gray skies and torrential rainfall this past Tuesday. In short, last Tuesday-Tuesday sucked.

Yes, Axl. I do need some time on my own.

Election Day-last Tuesday pretty much consisted of one crappy incident after another. In fact, plucking 3 highlights out of last Tuesday-Tuesday is going to be a definite challenge, because as of right now, I got nothin.’ Lowlights, however, I got plenty! Sigh. Here is to a better week this week. I gotta believe that.

This small town girl will NOT stop believin,’ Steve Perry.

Though I usually start with 3 highlights, I am at a loss for any possibilities in that area at the current moment. Therefore, I’m going with the yucky stuff first. Continue reading →

Performance Review #1: Chotto Desh at the New Victory Theater, NYC I'm Guest Reviewing on Be Your Best Mom This Week!

Welcome to my first performance review post! Today’s review was sponsored by the great Milena Barrett of Be Your Best Mom Dot Com. Big thanks to Ms. Barrett for such an enjoyable opportunity! Last Saturday, November 5, S10 and I headed out to NYC to see Chotto Desh, a family-friendly dance performance by the Akram Khan Company. Hopefully this is just the first experience like this of many! The story begins here….. (start reading below, then follow the link to the Be Your Best Mom site for the rest!) Continue reading →

Vacation Destination Review #1: Mystic, CT: Aquarium Day! An Exhausting, Educational Saturday at the Mystic Aquarium!

Can You Say Good Morning, Even On No Sleep?

S2 thinks that sleep is for suckers, apparently. Haha

S2 thinks that sleep is for suckers, apparently.

Morning, day 2 of our mid-October mini family getaway started…. early. Though with Saturday our only full day here, we wanted to take advantage and try to see as much as possible. Even on just 2.5 hours of sleep (me) and zero-ish hours of sleep (Mike), we were Mystic Aquarium-bound. The Aquarium was the one attraction in the area we’d all been looking forward to visiting for months, and no lack of sleep was going to stop us from going!

Even though I technically had more sleep than my husband did, Mike still woke up and took the girls to breakfast so I could shower and get ready for the day in peace. I appreciated that a lot. There was a little diner nearby that they went to eat at, in walking distance. After the three of them dined out, Mike brought me back a breakfast plate of eggs, bacon, and hash browns to have as well. My husband is a good, good man. Continue reading →

Happy Transferiversary to the Little Embryo that Could (Survive My Killer Uterus, That Is)

One Little, Two Little Embryos

You know its fiction when a petri dish of embryos is just laying on a table, left alone in a room with a person who isn’t a doctor. Still, I love that Friends took on the surrogacy and infertility topic, and later on the adoption and infertility topic as well!

My life completely changed for the better three years ago yesterday. I will always consider October 24, 2013, to be one of the happiest days of my life, though I didn’t know it 100% at the time. At the moment, 10/24/13 was certainly a day filled with hope. It was also a day where I felt strangely confident, even after 5 straight years of failures. Part of me just knew on that particular day that a long struggle was finally ending, and a joyful journey we had been waiting so long for was about to begin. Continue reading →