Category: family

summer wish list Top Ten

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, books, family, fitness, gardening, health, restaurants, shopping, tweens

Remember every fall when your new teacher would ask you to write an essay on “what I did on my summer vacation”? and you could never think of a thing? Well, how about getting a jump on things this year by writing “what I am going to do on my summer vacation”!

Inspired by Laura Dolce’s column in the York County Coast Star this past thursday, who was talking about her summer wish list, I decided to put together my own. I actually do this every year, but not usually this early.  see if you can notice any recurrent theme in my list.

First, the pre-to-do list (it’s short):

  1. Read the Tourist News every week. it’s not just for tourists anymore.
  2. Check out the local library for summer programs for your kids. they’re free, and fun!
  3. Get online and google the dates of the annual events

Now, here’s what i want to do this summer (this is the top 10):

  1. Big Daddy’s in Wells for a Kahlua  Browie ice cream cone.
  2. Mini-golf at Wonder Mountain in Wells…although a friend told me about Shaw’s Ridge in Sanford, which we may be checking out instead
  3. The (annual) Strawberry Festival in South Berwick. Every year we mean to go and never make it. this year it’s on saturday 6/26, and it’s been on my calendar for 2 months already.
  4. Scarborough Downs Family Fun Day on sunday august 8.
  5. Congdon’s Doughnuts at least once, for blueberry donuts (me) and blueberry turnovers (my daughter) for breakfast.
  6. Ogunquit Playhouse; there are shows for adults as well as for children all summer. note: please do not bring kids to the evening adult shows…nothing will cramp the style of the actors more than a bright-eyed 12 year old front and center when he is trying to say his risqué lines.
  7. Kennebunkport, to walk and poke around in all the little shops.
  8. Kennebooks…visit the bookstore near me as often as possible!
  9. Go for a trolley ride…
  10. Old Orchard Beach for pier fries.

This is my jumping off point. I will add to it as necessary, and hopefully not have to cross too much off from it!

Do you make a summer vacation ‘to-do’ list?

hula hoops; not just for kids anymore

by Karen, posted in education, family, fitness, health, tweens

who knew? hula hooping is now being touted as a way to get aerobic exercise and stay fit, even to help aid weight loss efforts. 

if you are thinking about trying it, you will find that there are options.

  1. the color, the size, the heft of the hoop…all can be predetermined by you, depending on your goals (have fun? lose weight? Have fun with your tween or teenager? ) and your budget (extra colors can cost ya).
  2. if you’d like to order your own custom made hula hoop, check out HoopaLula! or maybe you’d like to try making your hula hoop yourself? here’s online instructions from hooping.org.
  3. if you investigate, you probably can find a hooping class to “try before you buy”. there’s one upcoming in Wells offered through WOCSD Adult Ed: Hula Hoop Fitness for Beginners.
  4. are there risks? well, if you have any history of back problems, you may want to check in with your doctor before trying this. check out the mayo clinic website fmi.

have any of you out there over 12 years old tried hula hooping lately?   what did you think?

women of note

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, tweens

my daughter and i went to see Women of Note in Kennebunk on Mother’s Day, as we have for the past several years in a row. we appreciate that this free concert is given year after year, hosted by the Atria and open to the public. The concert lasts about an hour and there are hors d’hoevres provided afterward, to which my eleven year old especially looks forward (because for us, it is so often ‘all about the food’!) :).

her favorite song is “mr sandman” and so far, she has never been disappointed. they perform it every time we’ve seen them. we also love it when they incorporate props into the songs. they tease each other mercilessly which makes the show even more fun to watch.

Women of Note also have performed as part of the Wells Harbor Summer Concert series in recent years at the Wells Harbor Park.

if you ever have the opportunity to see them, go! you’ll be happy that you did! it’s so nice to know that your tween may enjoy listening to music and seeing a show that you will also enjoy! and there isn’t one jonas brother in the bunch!

Lilacs

by Karen, posted in family, gardening

my absolute favorite flowers are lilacs. i cannot pass by a lilac bush without admiring them, often audibly, to the subsequent annoyance of those around me forced to listen to my tributes over, and over, and over…in a prior residence, my husband planted a lilac garden and included one of every kind of lilac he could find: pink, blue, light purple, dark purple, white-edged purple, yellow…it was amazing. since we moved from that house, we’ve had houses with a)no lilacs or b)houses with one or two tiny ones that did not flower.

this year, for my upcoming birthday, that sad story came to an end. my husband removed the existing shrubs flanking our front door that came with our house (which involved heavy machinery) and in their place he planted the two largest lilac bushes he could find, one pink, one purple. underneath he planted a smaller garden with my other favorite flowers…hyacinths and tulips. balloons were tied to the lilacs that said “happy birthday!” now, these lilacs in the picture i bought at the farmer’s market in portland last wednesday, but i consider them a harbinger… 🙂

10 tips for a working mother’s garden

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, gardening, tweens
3 raised beds

10 things you will need to have a vegetable garden if you are a working mother:

  1. something to grow things in. now, it may be a patch of ground, a raised bed (if your lucky, your significant other will build it for you; i’m lucky), or even a half whiskey barrel or window box if that’s what you have time/space for.
  2. you will need a plan. trust me. i always make one. i never follow it, but it will make you feel virtuous that you did at one time have some sense of restraint. or, just some sense.
  3. you will need some time. this might be the hardest part of the list, especially if you leave for work before dawn and return after dark. i have no ideas here. you’re on your own.
  4. you will want some assistance. it may come from books (The Garden Primer, Second Edition by Barbara Damrosch is a great reference), friends who know what they are doing, and maybe your kids? hint: your kids probably are not interested in your garden agenda and will not want to help you. options: pay them; beg them; exclude them completely (reverse psychology).
  5. also, consider miracle grow, compost…take any leg up you can get. i have used this in the past with some success: Neptune’s Harvest Organic Fertilizer.
  6. depending on what you are growing (zucchini, string beans), you will need a dedicated appetite that celebrates monotony.
  7. you will need poisons of some sort. if you plant it, they will come: the invaders that love to search out and destroy what you have planted and (if you had time) lovingly tended. show no mercy; the invaders won’t.
  8. you will need protection of some sort from the mosquitos, black flies, dragon flies, and other insects that are hell-bent on getting in your eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. a bug headnet is worth it’s cost. Cabela’s makes one. i’ll warn you; it’s not pretty, but neither is trying to extract a bug from your nasopharynx. the choice is yours.
  9. be prepared for surprises. the crookneck yellow squash seedling that you purchased just may surprise you and turn out to be just another ordinary green zucchini plant. these things happen.
  10. lose with dignity. if the invaders are winning, sometimes it’s better to sacrifice one plant for the good of the whole garden. rip it out. don’t look back.

(early!) on sunday mornings, Paul Parent has a radio talk show where you can call in and ask questions. check out his website for more information.

and remember: give yourself a break. we can’t control everything.

if things turn out well, share the wealth! maybe your neighbor or friend had good luck growing tomatoes this year, and you had good luck with string beans. share; everyone benefits.

and remember, in the real world, the working mother’s garden may turn out to be a Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter and a Chia Pet herb garden!

naming chickens

by Karen, posted in family, raising chickens
our new baby chicks

naming your chickens may start out innocently enough…you notice they have their own unique personalities, and you warm to them. for example, the first year we raised chickens, i had one hen that loved to dine in my herb garden, which was conveniently placed next to the coop. she quickly earned the name “Basil”, followed by “Rosemary” (for obvious reasons).  “Chiclet” was next, and so on. all was well for a while.

the problem with the naming of the hens may not be immediately evident, but some of you who are chicken farmers know where i’m headed with this: chickens lives are (often) not long, and not without peril. in other words, sometimes bad things happen to good chickens: illnesses. accidents. sometimes their misery needs mercy, and it is so much harder to bestow that mercy on Chiclet, versus on ‘that yellowish older chicken over there’, who is one of many faces in the crowd.

here’s a link with some helpful information about raising chickens: http://www.backyardchickens.com/

potholes

by Karen, posted in family

after the last big bout of rain we had (reference post: oh, the rain!), my neighbors and i were the lucky recipients of a deep hole in our street that stretched halfway across one lane. the (city?) truck kindly came out to place an orange cone on the spot and left. said orange cone became an object of target practice by many of the passing (too fast!) vehicles in the days hence.

for weeks, several times per week, the truck containing a worker or two came out to look at the hole. they stood. they looked. they got back in their truck and left. what were they doing? one might ask. “ayuh; hole’s still thay-ah.”

so i wished for them to fix it, and finally one day when they came out, they did do some work. they dug up the culvert and replaced it. then they filled it all in with dirt. then they left. there was now a wider band of unpaved road that stretched across both lanes of traffic. this band of dirt very quickly became riddled with (you guessed it!) holes, some of which were deep. worse, we didn’t even have our orange cone to warn the (too-fast!) drivers of what they were about to encounter. also, they closed the street to do this, and the school bus couldn’t return our children to us (this entailed LOTS of drama and urgent cell phone calling of parents).

lesson 1: be careful what you wish for.

lesson 2: drive slowly down windy side streets in maine in the spring. you never know what you may find…

summer camps, part two

by Karen, posted in education, family, fitness, tweens

or…what to do with the tweens in the summer.

there are lots of fun camps in southern maine for the kids to attend. whether your main focus is their enjoyment or your child care needs, there are plenty of options. here are a few:

1. for your aspiring actors: ogunquit playhouse runs a summer theater camp for kids ages 5 through 18.  this will be my daughter’s 3rd year attending and she has loved it every year. http://www.ogunquitplayhouse.org/childrens-theatre/comingsoon

2. for some variety: York County Community College in Wells runs a College for Kids program for kids 7-14. they have pared the offerings down in the past few years (alas, no more magic camp), but my daughter as well as some of her friends have attended (adventure camp) and enjoyed them in the past.  http://www.yccc.edu/cebs/college_for_kids.htm

3. for your horseback riding kids: Lyman Hill Farm runs a horse riding camp for kids age 4-14 for all skill levels. This is a fun camp with caring counselors that runs rain or shine (the riding area is enclosed). they still have some spots left in most weeks as of today’s posting.  http://lymanhillfarm.com/

4. if you have a child that learns differently, you may consider a summer school program through your child’s school. if your child has an IEP, ask about ESY; this would be the time to bring this up if you are interested in this option. here’s a website with more information about this topic: http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/esy.index.htm

5. Wells Parks and Recreation for kids entering K-grade 6. i have no first hand experience with the summer camps but i do with many of their school year programs, which are excellent. most communities have a parks department that you may want to investigate. hint: i’ve been told that the summer camps fill up fast…http://www.wellstown.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC=%7B9BC8EF4A-0E1C-491C-B0B3-D9F15EE2BCBA%7D

any other good ideas for camps in southern maine?

any of you brave enough to send your tween to overnight (gasp!) summer camp?

summer day camps, part one

by Karen, posted in family, fitness, tweens

5 reasons to send your tween to summer camp

1.they will not be calling you at work every 10 minutes with the latest update on their loose tooth

2. they won’t be fighting with their brothers/sisters/peers  (within your earshot, anyway)

3. you will be forced to be very efficient with the decisions about “what’s for lunch?” ; that will be dealt with the night before (as in: bag lunch). (added bonus: there will be no occasions of  “can we go to dairy queen/maine diner/east/duffy’s/seacoast pizza for lunch?”)

4. they (probably) don’t have jobs, and you (probably) do…maybe even one that you’d like to keep…so, what else are they going to do? unless, of course, your children are blessed with loving, involved, local grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.

5. you can only play so many rounds of uno/war/operation before your patience starts to wear thin…

do any of you have some other reasons to add to this list?

here’s a link with some more information about summer camps for your kids: http://www.summercamp.org/index.html

jumping

by Karen, posted in family, fitness, health, no fear, tweens, yoga

i was at my regular saturday morning yoga class and the teacher taught us a short ashtanga (http://www.yogajournal.com/basics/1366) sequence that involved jumping. one of the women said something like, “kids do it all the time, but how often do adults get to jump in real life? never!”.  i was thinking, “i do! i was jumping just the other day!” i had, in fact, just been jumping two days prior. i was sitting in my cubicle at work and suddenly realized i had been sitting for a couple of hours straight and needed to get up and move…i have a programmed alert in my outlook calendar that pops up every hour, prompting me to “GET UP!!”, but i must have inadvertently clicked on ‘dismiss’ instead of ‘snooze’ earlier in the day. so i stood up, and surprised my fellow cube mates (not to mention myself) by starting to jump up and down. i don’t know where it came from, but it was like the jumping just spontaneously sprang forth from my body, without my prior knowledge or consent. once i started, though, i realized that it felt good and i continued for several more seconds before self-consciousness gained the upper hand and i stopped.

reasons to jump:

1. it’s fun!

2. if you own a trampoline, you can get your money’s worth!

3. if you have a jump rope (come to think of it, i do), you can get your money’s worth!

4. it’s good cardio!

actually, speaking of cardio, money can be raised by jumping. my daughter recently participated in a jump-a-thon  (for the american heart association) at her school and raised $55.

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=2360

how long has it been since you jumped up and down just for the fun of it? 🙂