Swap Mamas

While blog hopping today, I stumbled upon a website that has the potential to give moms everywhere that "ahhhh" moment. Swap Mamas! For awhile now I have been swapping clothing and toys with friends that have children that are a size larger or smaller than my little ones. Not only is it the green thing to do but its also the most economical thing to do.

A mommy must-have!

Once I became a stay-at-home mom, I became obsessed with feeding my kids the healthiest and most nutritious foods I could get my hands on. One of the great things about not working outside the home is that I have the time to cook and prepare tasty REAL foods for my family. I'm not saying that we don't ever eat out but it is rare that you will find me in a McDonald's drive thru. Kids meals are a thing of the past for my kids. One positive result of this is my kids are much smaller than their classmates. One result which sometimes doesn't feel so positive is the fact that they are exploding with energy. No sluggish kids or teens reside in the Artis household.
So a few months ago my brother-in-law introduced me to the many many benefits of carrot juice. I was amazed at the things carrot juice does for the body. We've all heard about how great carrots are for your eyes, but no one ever told me about Vitamin E, and Vitamin A, which is great for healthy bones and muscles. And there are studies being done right now to research the benefits of drinking carrot juice to prevent cancer. So needless to say, I was convinced that all my little ones needed carrot juice. The big question was how to get it into them. Thats when I found the Jack Lalane Juicer. It has been wonderful. Not only am I able to throw 3-5 carrots in a cup of juice for them but I usually mix it with a couple of apples, mangos. spinach, or any other fresh fruit or veggie I have in the house...except celery. Mixing celery in guarantees that no little ones will drink it. I have taken a liking to preparing fresh orange juice or apple juice for weekend breakfasts also. The juicer runs about $99 at Target but I found an open box deal with everything in it for $70. It has been worth every penny. Even the ever so picky hubby has begun drinking fresh fruit and veggie juice...well if I fix it for him. Oh, and before I go, I do hear you moms asking about cleanup because the last thing any busy mom needs is another huge mess. Well relax, clean up is simple. The juicer comes apart very easily and all parts are dishwasher safe. I usually just hand wash my really quickly and lay it out on a dish towel to dry. And if you are really interested in some the great benefits to drinking carrot juice visit www.living-foods.com.

New Holiday Tradition

Every year as the calendar inches closer and closer to Christmas I get more and more stressed. I love shopping as much as any other lady, but Christmas shopping is what I refer to as "Forced Shopping." Who likes to be forced to shop, certainly not me. Secret Santa or name exchanges are the worse...that usually means I am going to have to find something to buy for someone I wouldn't normally shop for because I wouldn't know what to buy them even if I had the striking to shop for them. Anyway, this year I decided I was not participating. I refused to get caught up in buying a bunch of crap that people probably didn't want anyway cause if they did want it they would have purchased it for themselves. Just before deciding to refuse to participate I took a poll in our household. Not one of the Artis 6 could name more than 2 gifts they have received in the past couple of years besides clothing and shoes. Once the results were in I decided instead of buying christmas crap we would take a family vacation. Surprisingly enough every child could remember most family vacations we have taken. As I listened to them recount our adventures their little faces brightened up and huge grins appeared as their minds took them back to wonderful memories of fun and frolic and stress free parents. That did it for me. We quickly decided to spend the Christmas and New Year holidays in Florida. What's better than 70 degree weather when its snowing at your house? We are a family of people who are extremely attached to extended family so we invited everyone and tried to convince as many family members as possible to go.
Christmas day we gave each child one small gift, ate breakfast together, laughed, played, and watched movies while waiting on the crew of family members to arrive. Early the next morning, we left snow and darkness and headed for FL in a huge 15 passenger van...I need to make a side note here to say that normally we hop on the train to go to FL. Its a wonderful option for folks with more than 3 kids. Not only is it affordable but the kids can walk around and eat snacks that you pack from home while someone else does all the driving. Its great! Unfortunately, because this wasn't a trip planned well in advance, train tickets were sold out. So we drove. We rented a huge 6 bedroom vacation home for a mere $750 for 8 days....thats cheaper that one night would have cost all of us. Once there we did Busch Gardens Tampa this year and shopped and slept and partied and watched TV and guess what I have heard NO complaints about not getting tons of Christmas gifts. As a matter of fact I am listened to the kids complain about leaving FL too early. So it goes without saying that I have officially been delivered from "Forced Shopping." From now on we will travel during Christmas. As a matter of fact I'm thinking a cruise next year..with the cruise I won't have to cook, clean, or plan tons of things for the kids to do because someone else has already thought of all that for me....maybe the Bahamas or Mexico or Turks and Caicos...you should join us.

No Big "BUTs" this year

Its that time of the year. My babies are in year round schools, which means they have completed the first quarter. All parents know what that means......Parent/Teacher Conferences!!! This may or may not mean anything to you. It all depends on who and what your child is like as a student. I have little ones that fall into every category. I have the quiet as a mouse during school hours Leah Peah Deah....Miss Leah Peah Deah always does well academically and never gives the teacher an ounce of trouble. I always sign the conference forms the minute she brings them home. I'm anxious to meet with her teacher because I know there are only gonna be sweet words said about her and then some years, I even have teachers who want to know how to get her to speak more in class.....Then I have my precious middle son. I always put his conferences off to the last day. I carefully prepare myself before visiting the teacher. Its not that he's a bad child or a bad student but he hasn't quite grasped the concept that school really isn't a social event. Just last week he accused his teacher of not giving him enough time to talk with all the kids in his class. Well, I have spent the past few days in parent/teacher conferences.....and as always Leah's teacher had more than enough wonderful things to say about her personality and progress academically. But today was Ike's conference. Now remember, I said he's not a bad kid. His teachers always start the conferences off with telling me how much they love him, and he's such a joy to have, and he brings an element of happiness and fun to the class, and how adorable he is, and how he gives them that huge smile while staring at you with those big brown eyes, and he smothers them in compliments daily...(yes, my 6 year old son is a huge flirt with older women)....So I was breathing and waiting, waiting for the big BUT, and guess what?!? There was no huge BUT!!!! He's on target academically, although he hates doing his reading, and writing, and his teacher doesn't give him enough social time, and oh yeah, he does have to sit at the table alone so that he doesn't feel the need to question his peers about what they are doing, and where they are going after school, and what did their mom cook for dinner last night, and did their dad have to work today, and she did say that he organized a "slapping contest" during recess last week to see who could slap the hardest, and a play fighting contest for the boys to see who is the best warrior, and don't worry there was no hitting or punching involved in the fight only real kicking and air swords,(he loss both contests, ending them in huge crocodile tears as he layed in the floor, rolling and being dramatic) and don't worry he happily explained to the teacher that his friends should not be punished because it was all for fun, they were just playing, and did she say he has been doing flips in the cafeteria? Yes, I think she did .....but other than that he's doing great. Thank God for the first year of no big "BUTs"! We're off to a great start!

Little Kid's Word of the day

Today's word: deogurant - dee-o-gu-rant
meaning: cold deodorant
used in a sentence: Drew: "Yes, I put daddy's deogurant in the refrigerator"
Mommy: with a puzzled look....."Why?"
Drew: in a matter of fact tone....."So his underpits don't get hot!"
Mommy: "Ok. Sounds good to me. If you like it, I love it"

I know, It's been forever

It's been forever since I shared on my blog and of course being the wonderful always prepared mommy that I am, I have the reason prepared, quite simply I've been extremely busy doing double duty as a mommy and tutor, (for the life of me I can't understand why my kids teachers keep giving ME so much homework! Don't they know all that paperwork is multiplied times 6 in my house!) back to my list of excuses for neglecting my blog......an all knowing wife (I've been doing a pretty good job of keeping up with hubby's shoes, sock, etc. Any good wife has learned that at some point hubby's is going to begin asking you where are the things that only he wears) a full-time student, overworked cook, And housekeeper. The list could go on and on but all moms have the same list and right now who cares to hear the violins playing to my woe is me list....there are much more important issues at hand like the whole reason I am able able to blog with ease this morning while waiting for child #2 to hop on the bus. This is my first post from my handy dandy iPad! It's wonderful. It's a busy mom's answer to the prayer for help with organizing the lives of the pupils of AU (that's short for Artis University). In an attempt to install family pride and a sense of "I descend from greatness" in our children, my hubby created AU. It's where they learn come from and how to be the best them. The hope is just maybe they won't grow up and realize that we were "feeling" our way through this whole parenting thing. Just maybe they won't find out that we don't have a clue of what to do next, we've been experimenting on them the whole time. It's been awhile since he gave them a lesson. Actually I had forgotten all about AU until my niece came over yesterday singing the official AU anthem. Anyway, this post is about my shiny new iPad not hubby's ingenious AU idea. (the whole iPad thing was his idea too). Wait a minute, is it 7:52? Dang, #2 missed the bus. I gonna have to finish this later. That gives me a great idea. Can one of you creative app folks create an app that allows me to yell out to my iPad what I want it to do? Then I need a iPad holder designed for my truck, you know one of those things like the state troopers have to hold those laptops huge enough for me to read from 2 cars over. Well I gotta go. #2 has to be at school in 4 minutes and we live almost 5 minutes away....and the hectic-ness begins.