A Mama's Rant

How Clean is Your Air?

Last night when we were starting to "summer-ize" our camper for the season's first camping trip, my husband asked me why I hadn't fixed the loops on the tent that's been sitting out in the basement for nearly a year.

I told him, "Honey I barely have time to keep up with normal things I have to do around here like laundry." (Well that and the fact that I didn't know where the spare loops are. Doh!)

One of the things I'm really bad about keeping up with is dusting. With all the TV and computer monitors - and the fact that it's so dry here in Colorado - my house and everything in it is one big dust magnet. Not that I help matters in any way. I don't dust unless company is coming, which is why I try to plan a get together at least once every two months.

I'm also bad at changing the air filters. When I see dust bunnies coming out of the kitchen heating vent, I know it's time to change the air filter...three months ago.

Heck, if I had one of those fancy whole home air filtration systems, my home wouldn't be so dusty. And maybe we'd be healthier, too. Lucie's eczema would clear up, my husband's hay fever would lessen, and maybe we'd get less flu, too.

Writer mamas (and papas) needed for foodie blogging gig

Do you live in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Toronto, or "Middle America" and like to write about food?

If so, the folks at One by One Media could use your help. My friend there, Jim Turner (of Genuine daddy blogging fame) is looking for food bloggers to write for FoodConnect, a foodie social networking site.

If you're interested you can contact Jim Turner at "jturner at onebyonemedia dot com" directly for more information.

(And no you don't have to be a parent to blog for FoodConnect, so don't let my title fool you.)

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My son, the writer

The parenting experts tell you to model good behavior for your kids. If you want kids who are readers, you should have your nose in a book, subscribe to lots of newspapers and magazines, and read out loud to your children for 20 minutes every night. If you want fit kids, you should model good eating habits, take them for bike rides, and go as a family to swim at the rec center.

Well, I've been modeling picking up my clothes, not throwing gum wrappers on the floor, and preparing sandwiches on the kitchen counter. Yet my kids can't find the hamper without being yelled at. They also believe that the house is a dumpster, and leave garbage laying around. My daughter Lucie thinks the couch is just the right place to make a raspberry jam and Wonder Bread sandwich, too.

Gack! No wonder I yell so much.

Just Do It!

But wonders never cease. Nathan has become a writer. No, not because I'm modeling all that writing behavior by blogging, emailing and Twittering all day. It's just through shear determination, all those writing prompt assignments, and practice, practice, practice.

Last summer, he had to write a three sentence assignment each week for his teacher, Mrs. Boatman. Nathan's stories were variations on a theme. For example,

We went to the baseball game. I like watching baseball. Going to the baseball game is fun.

Or

I went to the playground. I like playing at the playground. The playground is cool.

You get the idea.

Since then the writing prompts have increased to eight sentences due every Monday to Mrs. Boatman. At first, Nathan would take one hour to write a couple of sentences, mostly because he was goofing around in his room. The assignment would take most of Saturday to complete, and part of Sunday to rewrite since his handwriting is so awful. It also involved a lot of yelling by my husband, "Dammit Nathan, stop messing around and get your homework done. JUST DO IT!"