Let’s just talk about things we shouldn’t…

There is a saying that ladies don't speak about politics or religion. Well I talk about the religion all the time, so I am going to throw caution to the wind talk about politics. I have really struggled with the idea of blogging about politics, primarily because I don't want to upset people. But the truth of the matter is that I am very passionate about politics. I grew up in a politically active home, where debate was expected not avoided, or shushed up. I have a minor in political science and if I didn't blog about over the next few months, this blog would no longer reflect who I am.

So why do I think people will get upset if I talk about politics? Because I sit on what is considered the wrong side of the fence for an evangelical Christian. Yes, there it is, I'm a Democrat. (Oh, I feel so many of you cringing). For the past 8 years I have stayed mostly silent about my political views around my Christian friends. I bought into the marketing scheme that Republican's are God's party and Democrat are godless heathens. But now, facing a critical fork in our nation and world's road, I think it is vital to start talking about political choices. So I am going to be blogging about political topics on and off for the next few months. My goal is not upset you or even recruit you; it is to encourage you to have your own conversations with your friends, your bible study, your neighbors, your co-workers. Talk about those topics that can be uncomfortable, but are vital to our national consciousness; military action, social responsibility to the poor, our economic crisis, global warming, abortion rights, the list can go on and on. Let's start talking, and listening to one another, and come November we'll all be better informed to cast the correct vote for ourselves, our families and our nation.

update

Sarah had a great first day of school today. She was very excited to find out two of her friends were in her class. She marched into class with her little friends and never even looked back at Pete and I. She says that she had a lot of fun today - especially playing computer games. She is her father's daughter!
Thank you for your kind support of my mini nervous breakdown yesterday. I had dry eyes today and really enjoyed meeting some other new parents at the school's Boo Hoo Breakfast this morning.

Tomorrow, already?

Tomorrow morning, Pete and I will walk Sarah to her first day of kindergarten. I can't believe this big day in our lives is here already. I know many people will roll their eyes or laugh off the idea of kindergarten being a big deal. But to me, it really is feeling like a big deal. I have been truly blessed to stay home with Sarah since she was born. I have loved watching the small and large moments of her life unfold. I really can't imagine what life will look like with her away from home 5 days a week.

I know she is ready. She is an outgoing, happy and bright little girl. I know she'll make friends easily. She has a wonderful teacher who is a strong Christian women, I praise God for that. It's her mama who will be a big wreck tomorrow. It's me who will miss our days at the zoo, family lunches on the porch, and lazy afternoon naps snuggled in my bed.

Pete and I have made two moves to get into a great school district, knowing one day soon Sarah would be off to kindergarten, but it's hard to believe that that day is tomorrow.

Back to school ice cream fun …

Although the official end of summer may not be until next weekend, summer is ending for us this evening. School starts up this week and I am back to work at the church. This past week we tried to squeeze in some last minute summer fun. On Wednesday night, we had an ice cream party for neighborhood kids who will be starting kindergarten with Sarah. I sent out an Evite to 8 families and told them to invite anyone they knew who will be starting kindergarten. We ended up with 12 families. It was fantastic. Most of the children did not know each other, so it gave them a chance to meet some new friends before the start of school. I wanted Sarah to have a few familiar faces in the sea of nearly 100 kindergarteners who will be starting this week.

I provided the ice cream and everyone brought a topping. I have to say I was really impressed with the creative toppings we ended up with. There were all the basics plus berries, gummy bears and cute little cookie dough balls (thanks Megan!). The kids had fun eating their sundaes, but even more fun chasing each other around the yard burning off their sugar highs. I really enjoyed meeting some new moms (and a dad) and hearing about the school from the veteran parents. Sarah and I agreed that it was so much fun, we may make it an annual tradition.

Since we are just entering the world of "real" school, I would love to hear your family's back to school traditions.

I’d cross the street for you…

My friend Anna said a quote the other day that has really stuck with me. I believe she said it was by Eleanor Roosevelt. The quote went something like, "Many friendships are lost by people's unwillingness to cross the street." Okay this is probably a really well known quote that I have now butchered, but you get the meaning. It's such a true statement. So often in our busy, self righteous, modern day lives, we let great friendships slip away because we are just unwilling to cross the street. The street can represent so many things. Hurt feelings, misunderstandings, a move, a life status change. Our best friend moves across the country, and we are too busy to pick up the phone and call them – the friendship fades away. A friend slights us and we don't take the emotional energy to explain the pain they have caused, instead we let the friendship die. Life gets moving so fast that we place our friendships on the backburner, only to find them gone when we finally find the time for them.

Spending time with my college roommates this weekend, I kept thinking that you just can't make old friends. You can meet someone new to go out to coffee with, but you can't go out and replace your old friends. I won't lie; my little gang of college friends has experienced our share of issues. There were years when I was completely nuts, and other years when some of them were. We have had to come to terms with our differences in priorities, goals and religions. We have hurt one another, but we have loved one another more. They are the women who held my hand during the darkest time in my life and the same women who danced to Gloria Gainer at my wedding. Those are the type of friends you can't decide to go out and make. They are the friends you have to decide to keep.

Friendships like that are like a marriage. It takes time, energy and an emotional investment. That is what I love about Anna's quote. Crossing the street is such a great illustration, it's an active decision, and it's intentional. Crossing the street doesn't just happen. You chose it and you do it. The beautiful thing about friendships is that there is someone on the other side of the street, willing to make the same choice.

Do you have those friends? The ones you need to keep. I hope you'll take the time to plan a girl's weekend, or just night out. At the very least, give them a call just to let them know that you'd cross the street for them.

Girls Weekend

The girls, (also know as Heidi, Fara, Caroline and Manya) and I arrived at my house a few hours ago. We spent three great days up in the mountains. Our plans were thrown out the window by a major cold front that blew in Thursday and brought snow - yes snow - to the mountains. We cancelled our biking trip and went to the movies instead. We saw Mama Mia and did some shopping on Friday. Saturday we spent most of the day in our condo as rain and hail poured down outside.

Last year we spent the whole weekend saying, "what do you want to do?" "I don't care, what do you want to do?" So this year we decided to try something new. Each of us have developed unique hobbies and interests over the years, so we decided to celebrate by having each person pick/plan an activity that reflects their interests or life at home. It worked out great. Caroline, who just finished yoga instructor training, led us all in an incredible hour of yoga. It was wonderful getting to see a different side of her. I actually cried at the end of our little class, because she is SO amazing! I am so proud of her! Our resident crafty gal Fara, brought a fun craft for us to do. We spent Saturday morning beading and creating away. It was great for all of us to get to start and complete a craft without a preschooler interrupting.

The activity that I planned was a book club night. I love my book club here in Denver and wanted to share the experience of reading a book and discussing it together. We read The Geography of Bliss. Friday night we went to the grocery store and bought a variety of yummy munching food. We stayed up snacking and talking until about 1:30 in the morning. It was a great discussion book as it makes you thing about what makes you happy. It was a great way to really share what is going on in our lives at home. So frequently when you talk on the phone, you just don't say all the things that you can say in a face-to-face uninterrupted conversation. It was a wonderful night.

I will post some more pictures later this week. This photo was taken on Manya's phone and is the only one I can get to tonight.

The girls are coming to town …

Fifteen years ago this month, my life was getting ready for a big change. A big BIG change. I moved from Denver to Miami, Florida to attend UM. When I arrived there, I was faced with a totally new world. A world without any friends or even familiar faces. Looking back now, I can't believe what a brave 18 year old I was. Would I move across the country not knowing a soul now? Probably not.

Amidst a sea of 8000 strangers a miracle happened, I met a group of the most amazing women. Women, who I quickly became my sisters. Fifteen years, six marriages, nine children and nine intrastate moves, they are still my sisters, and tomorrow they are coming to town! ( All but one – Jenny we will miss you!) Each year we get together for a girls weekend. From beach weekends in Florida to city weekends in NYC or Chicago, we try each year to get together for four days. Our lives have moved us all over the country – Penn, Florida, North Carolina, Illinois (soon to be Kuwait!), Georgia and Colorado. But one weekend a year we get together for rest, relaxation and lots of reconnecting.

This weekend we are going to Breckenridge. Everyone is flying into Denver tomorrow and then we will drive up to the mountains. We had lots of plans for the weekend, but a huge cold front is moving in which may keep us inside. Even though our activities may change the things we are looking forward to will not. With all of our children being under 6, Fara and I made a list today of things we were looking forward to doing while we are sans kids for four days.

Here are some of them:

• We will only go to the restroom when we actually have to use it ourselves.
  
• We will get to go to the bathroom all by ourselves.
  
• We will not be required to dispense juice boxes, goldfish or graham crackers to anyone.
  
• We will be able to carry little purses whose sole purpose in life is to be cute.
  
• We will be able to wear a shirt all day long without it being used as a napkin, tissue or towel.
  
• We will sleep in until hearts' content.
  

And most importantly ... we will have very long, drawn out conversations without any interruptions! We will actually complete whole thoughts! Can I hear an amen?

I will post some pictures from the weekend come Monday. Have a great weekend.

How to host an activity bag swap

So have my postings on activity bags caught your interest? Why not host a swap. Sherri MacLean, co-founder of Activity Bags LLC, offers the following advice on hosting your first swap.

We found that holding a swap is a really fun way to accumulate a variety of preschool activities without having to assemble every one by ourselves. Basically, you get a few friends together. We found twenty to be a great number for a swap, but it also works well with fewer. Each person receives instructions for assembling one activity. They will put that activity together twenty (or whatever the number of participant) times. Then, you swap, and each person gets one activity from every other person! It is great fun! When the swap is over, each participant will walk away with many completely different preschool activities. You can certainly do all the activities by yourself; you do not have to do a swap. The activity instruction sheets are very clear for assembling one, ten, fifteen, or twenty activity bags.Coordinating an activity bag swap is not only easy, but very fun! Below are some tips to give you an idea of how simple it is to coordinate a swap. More detailed instructions are contained in each book.
Set Important Dates. Before you start calling all your friends to participate in your swap, you need to do a few things first:- Decide on the dates for assembling your activities.- Determine the date for the actual swap.- Select the activities you want to assemble. Having all this information at the ready will help you when you make your calls or send emails to the potential swap participants.
Find Your Participants.Now that you have all your important dates and activities picked out, you need to find some participants to be in the swap. Once you have an idea of potential participants, you can either send them an e-mail or call them. All of our books include a Participant Information Form to help gather all your information on each swap participant. Below are some suggestions of where to find participants for your swap:- Preschool play group- Church- Moms in your neighborhood- Friends and family- Homeschool Support Group- Moms you meet at the park- Basically, any mom, grandmother and or teacher with preschoolers
Assign the Activities.Every book includes a Preschool Activity Supply List to help you find an activity based on what supplies your participants may have on hand. When you talk to your potential participants, ask them what supplies they have on hand at home and try to match an activity to what they already have. Every bag is designed to cost $1 or less to assemble. But, the more items you have at home on hand, the less each bag will cost.
Communicate and Stay Organized.It is important to communicate with your swap participants in case they have questions regarding buying supplies, assembling the bags, etc. You can send an email out about 2 weeks before the swap date just to check in and see how things are going. About a week before the swap date, send one more email to check in and remind the participants regarding the swap date and time. Each includes sample emails and letters to help you communicate.
Learn from Other Coordinators."The best tool for me was communication. After I made the first contact with my participants via phone using the script in the book, I followed up with an email using the example in the book. Everybody knew what was going on and if anyone had questions regarding their activity, I caught it early. Also, the Activity Instructions are VERY clear. The majority of the questions I received were regarding the best places to buy supplies and substituting items.""Try to find people you think are truly willing and committed to following through with assembly etc. That was my biggest challenge. Take the time to do a lot of follow up calls, reminders and make yourself more available to pinpoint potential problems before the swap.""Do not be afraid to work with the number of participants you have. If you do not have 20, do not worry. If you have less than 20, you can just make that number of activities or everyone can do 2 activities and double the number of activity bags you will receive. If you have more than 20, you can split into 2 groups. Be creative"

Thanks again Sherri!
Wendy

An Interview with Activities In A Bag's Co-creator

I posted a few weeks ago that I was going to participate in a preschool activity bag swap. I went to the swap and it went great. I recieved 24 different activity bags for Emily. I have given her about 7 of them so far and she loves every one. I am so impressed with the variety of activities and what she is learning from playing with them.
Sherri MacLean, one of the co-creators of Activity Bags LLC, agreed to answer some questions for me. She gave me so much wonderful info, it will be in two posts. In this post, we'll talk about Activity Bags and in the next post, Sherri will share how you can host a activity bag swap of your own. (Don't miss the free gift offer from Sherri at the bottom of this post!)

CF: Welcome Sherri! You and Paula spent 2 years field testing your first Preschool Activities in a Bag book. In your experience, what makes a good self-directed activity for preschoolers?

SM:What makes a great preschool activity for us is one that 1) cost $1 or less to assemble, 2) it needs to fun, educational, and require little to no help from Mom to do the activity and 3) it needs to have skill sets that help prepare the preschooler for Kindergarten.

CL: Having created so many different activity bags, surely you have a lot of bags around your house. How do you organize your children’s activity bags?
SM: We keep them organized in file folder boxes. We label them on the outside and stack them near our school area. You can fit 20 Preschool Activities in one file box quite nicely. How do your children use them? We take one activity out at a time and set the timer for 15 minutes. When the timer goes off they may open another activity ONLY when the first one has been put away, zipped up and put back in the box. And, if you ask our seven, eight, nine and ten year olds, they will tell you YES! They STILL play with the activities and ask to do them after school is over. One of the favorites involves stacking cups, plates, and bowls. They also love the matching activities and bead activities. Basically, they love them all and will tell you they are not just for preschoolers!
CF:Do you strategically bring out different bags at different times?
SM: Not really, unless we are working on how to hold a pencil, or small motor skills. We try to rotate them but they always have a favorite they could use over and over. Also, the great thing about the activities is that they can be used over and over again as well as passed down from child to child. Some of the activities do contain consumable items such as paper, which can be replaced easily to keep the activity going and going.
CF: According to your website, you have quite a few new books underway. Can you share with us what your Science Experiments in a bag, Craft Kits in a Bag and Math games in a bag will look like? What ages are they geared toward? When will they be available for purchase?
SM: Most people think we only have activities for preschoolers, but we have more books on the way that have been tested and are being prepared for print. Including: Preschool Activities in a Bag - Book #3, filled with 34 brand new preschool activities, three volumes of Science Experiments in a Bag (Ages 3 - 12), three volumes of Craft Kits in a Bag (Ages 5-12) , and Math Games in a Bag - Book #1 (ages 5-12). All of our books are in the same format, allowing participants to hold a swap with other friends. Each experiment, craft kit, and math game has been tested by over eighty different moms, and they love them! So, Activity Bags, LLC is not just for preschoolers.Between the two of us, Paula and I have 11 children and writing books in the mix, along with homeschooling, can be challenging. So, it is hard to say when all the books will be finished - but know we are working on them. :)
CF:A large portion of my readers are in the Denver area. Is there a way that moms can participate in testing activities for the new books?
SM:Yes, we keep a data base of moms who are interested in testing our new kits. All you need to do is send an email to www.ActivityBags.com and let me know you want to be on our mailing list for testing. I will add any Mom who is interested in testing to our main data base. Next time we hold a test swap, you will receive an email invitation with all the details to join the swap(s). It is really that easy. So far we have held to date over 30 groups of 20 moms. That is a total of 600 participants and 12,000 kits being assembled!
As a gift to all your Moms reading this, we would like to offer you a complimentary copy of our Ebook Sampler that includes:7 Preschool Activities in a Bag assembly instructions3 Science Experiments in a Bag assembly instructionsA 30 Day Challenge Devotionalhttp://www.activitybags.com/Sampler.pdfPlease feel free to write to us anytime with questions - we would love to hear from you!

Thank you Sherri!