The Mom Crowd

One of my friends, a mother of two, recently posted on her blog about how she was inspired by a book entitled Not Quite What I Was Expecting: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure.  You simply write a statement about life in six words.  My friend decided to do several about motherhood.  Here are a couple:

No thanks. I’m good with two.

When do I get adult conversation?

I thought it would be a fun exercise for myself (and for you!) to try cranking out a few of these before we jump into the weekend.  Here I go, and these are completely off-the-cuff:

Lucy is such a cute name.

When will he quit his pacifier?

My little boy’s initials spell “EAR”.

Time goes quickly when they’re tiny.

I’ll blink and she’s in college.

Hand-me-downs are great for small budgets.

Thank God for Target’s red stickers.

Potty-training is my least favorite part.

I should go to bed early.

Wow.  I’ve gotta say, once you get going, it’s hard to stop!  This would be a fun little activity for a baby shower (but then, I was an English teacher, so maybe I’m just a nerd.) Care to add your own?  Hit comment and have at it! 

Last Friday I shared my grocery shopping philosophy and I wanted to know how you shopped and budgeted for groceries. We had a great discussion in the comments.

Amelia asked if everyone includes household items like cleaning supplies and diapers in your grocery budget.  Most everyone that commented does include all household items in the grocery budget. There was also a discussion on whether or not gas should be included. I like to keep our gas separate, so I can track my spending better.

Heidi asked if anyone had any experience using a Food Saver (a vacuum sealing kit). Trina thinks that as long as you put the effort behind it and remember what you have in the freezer then they really do save you money.

How much should you spend on groceries?

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The New Year is a great time to reflect on 2008 and set goals for 2009. But why should we add more pressure to our lives by setting goals that we may or may not obtain? Goal setting helps you focus your energy and set your priorities. You take control of your actions and time, rather than letting time and money slip through your hands wondering where it all went at the end of the year.

Accomplishing goals boosts your self-confidence and gives you a ton of motivation to make your life better. Even if you are satisfied with how your life is going, setting a goal and the challenge of seeing if you can meet them is incredibly motivating and enjoyable.

The key to taking pride in meeting your goals is to set SMART goals. Don’t just throw random resolutions into the void hoping that they will somehow be met. Create goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely.

One goal that my husband set for himself was to read one non-fiction book a month for the entire year.  He could have said, “I would like to read more non-fiction books this year,” but how would he have known if he met it?  His goal is SMART.

The goal: To read one non-fiction book a month for the entire year.

specific: one non-fiction book
measurable: one book a month for the year
attainable: challenging to find time to read, but not too far from reach
realistic: reading non-fiction isn’t a chore for him
timely: there is a timeframe for his goal.

On New Year’s Day last year my husband and I found a family member to babysit our baby while we went out to lunch and discussed our goals for the year. We will probably do the same this year. We set goals as a family and separately as individuals.

Sharing our goals with each other brings us closer together in our marriage. He also holds me accountable for mine, but only if I ask to hold me accountable! Conversely I don’t nag him either. It is just a fun exercise to even express our goals and dream out loud to each other. We like to set goals for different categories such as physical, financial, spiritual, social and intellectual.

Over the next three days I am going to post ideas for SMART goals in the financial, physical, and intellectual categories. I hope you come back and join me as we discuss our goals in these three areas!

As many of you know, our family is adopting a child through Reece’s Rainbow and a while ago, The Mom Crowd hosted a raffle to help bring another child from Reece’s Rainbow home.  You can catch up with this beautiful family and their new daughter, Addison {AKA: Nika} at their family blog.  Is that enough “hyperlinking” for ya?

I wanted to take a moment to share with you about Reece’s Rainbow and their mission.  Reece’s Rainbow is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to raise awareness regarding the plight of children with Down syndrome in foreign orphanages and their availability to be adopted, to raise adoption grants for waiting children, to seek out adoptive families for these children, to help adopting families during their adoption process with fund raising opportunities and paperwork assistance {and emotional support-I threw that one in!}, to provide humanitarian aid to foreign orphanages, to facilitate support groups for birth parents of children with Down syndrome to help decrease the number of children placed in orphanages, and to enact social change abroad about children with Down syndrome and other special needs through the testimony of adoption.

In 2006, Reece’s Rainbow expanded from an outreach program for families with children with Down syndrome in Atlanta to an organization promoting international adoption of children with Down syndrome.   In the short two years since beginning this new focus, over 120 children with Down syndrome and other special needs have found forever families with the help of Reece’s Rainbow. As of June 2008, they have dispersed over $86,000 to adopting families and have waiting children with substantial grants ready for their prospective parents.  Many orphans around the world are not receiving adequate nutrition and health care.  In Eastern European and other countries, orphans with Down syndrome are commonly transferred to mental institutions if they are not adopted by the age of four. After they are transferred, most die within the first year from lack of basic care.

There is a special way you can help Reece’s Rainbow fulfill their mission.  Every year, Reece’s Rainbow hosts a Christmas Angel Tree Project.  Right now, you can see every child with Down syndrome waiting for a family through Reece’s Rainbow and sponsor one or more of them for Christmas.  With every $35 donation, you will receive a special ornament with a picture of the child you are sponsoring for Christmas.  Will you consider sponsoring an orphan with Down syndrome this Christmas?  In order to receive an ornament, donations must be received by December 15th.  Please visit their site today and help bring an orphan home for Christmas!

Earlier this week, McKenna gave excellent tips for giving gifts to your kids’ teachers.  It got me thinking about this time of year and how special gift giving can be.  Now that Black Friday is behind us and the holiday season is here, I’m getting things ready for the grandparents.

This is the second year that my sisters-in-law and I put together a calendar with pictures of our children for Grandmom.  There are four grandchildren, so we each selected three pictures of our children, giving us 12 for the year.  I ordered the calendar through winkflash.com, and with shipping included, each of us only had to put in $7!  Last year, the debut calendar was a huge hit, so I know this will be a tradition for years to come.  

Of course, photo calendars are just the tip of the iceberg; all the major photo processing sites offer great gifts using special pictures of your choice.  I have purchased magnets and coasters using special pictures as well.  Playing cards and jigsaw puzzles are also a cool idea.  If you prefer to go a bit more straightforward, a photo album or framed picture is always a hit.  In these penny-pinching times, I have gone for these gift ideas more than once.  I’m also fond of framing the kids’ artwork, but I’ll only do this as a gift idea sparingly.

What other ideas do you have for grandparent gifts?