Recovering Info from a Dead Laptop

Yesterday I heard the dreaded crackle, screech pop and then my computer went black. Not good. I knew it wasn’t good and that my computer was likely fried. Blame it on the power surges a few nights previous, taking it on a long trip, hours of endless abuse – none of that was going to bring my computer back from the land of the dead.

Even though I KNOW better, even though I’ve lost important information in the past, even though I thought I was in the habit of backing things up, I hadn’t done it for a few weeks. Of course that meant that were things on my computer that I needed that weren’t backed up, including the church minutes from the last business meeting and the edits on my current novel that I’m trying to rewrite for an editor. Also on that laptop were all the pictures from our vacation which were on FaceBook, but whose quality would suffer. The horror!

I have to admit that I never really thought much about data recovery in the past. After reading up on it online, I decided to try Best Buy and quickly found a case for around $60.00. It should have worked, even though it was costly. It was SATA (most newer laptops are) and 2.5, which was the size of my drive. However, the store was busy as always and the workers were sparse. When I asked one young boy about disk cases, he looked really confused. I was probably calling it the wrong thing. Finally he pointed me to a big shelf of them. I had no clue. I got what I thought would work. I got it home, unscrewed everything on the back of my laptop and attempted to put the hard drive into the case. It wouldn’t fit. I packaged it all back up and returned it immediately, feeling pretty frustated. When it comes to computers I know just enough to be dangerous to the computer and myself.

However, I decided to go ahead and take my hard drive from the dead lap top with me on this outing and run it down to a local computer store called Computers Plus in Clarksville. I could almost hear the angels singing as I entered Computers Plus. Immediately someone came up to help me and I didn’t have to wait for twenty minutes. He knew exactly what I meant when I told him I was looking for a hard disk case to try to recover data and said, “Why don’t we make sure the hard drive is still working first?” So he hooked up some little gadget to one of the computers they have in the store and found out we could easily recover my data.

I sort of winced as he started to install my little drive into a case enclosure, wondering how much it was going to cost me. “So, how much is the disk case?” I asked.

The response? 20 dollars. 20 measly little dollars and I get all my pictures back, the church minutes, all the edits on my book and untold other programs and files that would have been a pain to replace. I also get a nice little hard drive that I can use for other backups. Portable too, so I can backup the church minutes the minute I type them if I want. All this for 20 little ole dollars and he installed it FOR me so I didn’t have to jimmy around with it and figure out how to put it in. Now that is customer service. Color me happy. I think I’m in love with the Computers Plus store. There may be cheaper ways to get a disk case, but I guarantee you they won’t install it for you and make sure it works before you buy it.

If your computer dies and you need data recovery, I recommend trying Computers Plus. If you don’t have one near you, you can try just buying a disk case, but good luck figuring out how to install the hard drive into it. You’ll need the patience of a saint. Here is hoping it doesn’t happen to you.

Working, Always Working…

So, this is a part-business trip mixed with some pleasure, because we are having FUN. In addition to book promotion and such, I have several articles to write and I think the girls and I have finally come up with a book idea. It wasn’t at all what I expected as it is a thriller type story, but hey, you can’t question the creative process.

I have pics posted on Facebook of today’s events (just friend me). Here is our insane schedule:

8:00 a.m. – Get up and go eat Continental breakfast at hotel. Pack everything up and hit the road.

10:30 a.m. – Leave Bellevue, see the world’s largest Lowe’s a Make a Moose Store (Hailey got excited over that one) and head toward Portland/Tacoma. Take several different interstates such as I-90, I-5 and 101.

1:oo ish – Stop in a little town call Sequim that is right up my alley. This town is tourist trap city and boy did I love it. We were only passing through for a soda from McDonald’s and a quick stop to stretch our legs though and then we headed back out.

1:15 – Arrive in Port Angeles. Take a ton of pictures because it’s a gorgeous day with breath taking scenery. Stop in the Visitor Center for a bunch of phamplets. Get back in the car to head to Forks. Caitlin’s excitement is so intense that Hailey and I can feel it coming forward from the back seat in waves.

1:40 – Stop the car for about the tenth time to take more pictures of Lake Crescent. It is so beautiful that pictures will never do it justice. The water is a deep blue and just clean. The whole state is clean. We talk about the signs that say you will be punished if you litter. They are pretty threatening, but seem to work.

2:00 something – See the sign that says Welcome to Forks and get out like dorky tourists and take tons of pictures in front of it. People are looking at us like we’re are annoying and crazy, but we don’t care. We’ll probably take more pictures tomorrow too.

2:30 – Okay, I did get a little lost, but Forks is a small town with a single main street, so after driving past the middle school and high school (small and nothing like the movie school), we come out on the other end of town where we see a visitor center. We go in and snap a bunch of pics. Yay! Other obnoxious tourists here, so we don’t feel quite so conspicous. I get directions to our hotel. We take a pic or two out front with Bella’s truck and we leave.

2:45 – Hotel is nice, staff is great. It is clean and smells better than the hotel last night. We have a fridge and a microwave and a big flat screen TV that is exactly like our new TV at home. There is also a small table and chairs and wireless Internet. Other Twilighters are staying here and the excitement about the evening’s ball at the Twilight Lounge is causing people to chatter and get to know one another. I have to say it reminds me of a Star Trek Convention, only it is almost 100 % women with maybe a reluctant male or two mixed in here and there.

3:00 – We grab a pizza from the local pizza parlor for a late lunch, eat quickly and head up to town to get our Edward Cutout (more on this later in the week). We also buy some postcards (more on this later too!). We meet a local woman at a small store that a lot of tourists are passing by. She is an artist and has some prints for sale. Hailey buys a small one and she admits it is hers and we talk to her a little about art, since Hailey has always loved drawing. Caitlin mentions she takes photographs and we just have a lovely conversation about the area, a little about some of the artwork by a local Indian boy and she gives us some tips on the best tours and places to visit in town. I buy some handmade soap for one of my friends that is made locally and that I think she’ll really like because it smells wonderful.

We’re told about a local auction while we’re in town, but decide to forgo it and instead take our stuff back to the hotel and unload before heading back for the vampire ball. We also want to rest just a little.

7:00 – After booking a tour at Dazzled by Twilight for the next day (there is also a tour offered by the Chamber of Commerce through the local Thriftway), we head down to get in line for the Mitch Hansen Band. Surprisingly, we are the first ones there. We haven’t brought dressy clothes with us and it is a ball, but we are assured by the very nice people who live in this area that we are welcome to attend and there will be others in jeans as well. There are, but there are also gorgeous dresses and of course Edward, Bella, Jacob and Alice look alikes. I think I even spotted Emmet and Jasper at one point.

We made some new friends standing in line waiting to go in named Melissa and Kristina (not sure if I spelled that right). I love these two ladies. They were very outgoing and had on Versace dresses. The dresses were Kristina’s and she loved her dresses and was very proud of them. They were beautiful dresses and the women were decked out. We probably really looked mismatched next to them but they never seemed to notice. They were both very nice to my girls, who warmed up to them more than they usually do to strangers.

They had been to the Twilight Lounge before, so I asked them where the band would be and where we should sit. They told us upstairs. I told them to go in front of us (they were the second ones there) and we would just follow them and then they invited us to sit with them. Why not? Sounded like fun, so we did. (I have a pic of them on Caitlin’s camera, so we will upload that to Facebook soon.)

For some insane reason, the management at the Twilight Lounge thought it was a great idea to serve alcohol while the kids mingled in with everyone. Have you ever known this to turn out well? Some lady was so drunk that she tripped on a step, fell into the table and spilled a bunch of food and a drink toward Melissa. Luckily, most of it missed her and both the lady and Melissa were okay. Kristina rushed over to check on her friend and asked her if the dress was okay. Can you blame her? It was Versace after all? She was worried about her friend too, but she did ask about the dress. We thought it was funny and all laughed about it. Too bad these girls live so far away. I could totally hang with them. They were such fun.

The band was great. Very talented. Good music. If I hadn’t been so tired, I would have enjoyed it more. Hailey got a pic with the Jacob look alike. Well, he was Indian anyway. I think that one is on Caitlin’s camera too. Caitlin got her picture with the band thanks to Melissa and Kristina who walked her up there and asked for her. She was thrilled. They have a better pic they are sending me, but I uploaded a couple to Facebook.

11:00 p.m. – The store realizes that alcohol, people drinking endless alcohol and kids don’t mix and “Oh, we aren’t supposed to have booze and the kids in the same room. Duh!” We get sent downstairs, but they are giving out DVDs early and we just leave. I was a little bummed since we had entered a drawing for baskets and never got to stay for it, but I was tired and ready to go back to the hotel. I thought the night was great except the very end, which was pretty disorganized and chaotic. I mean, did they HONESTLY not realize you shouldn’t serve alcohol around little kids? I think since it was an event for the kids as well as adults that there shouldn’t have been alcohol at all, but what do I know? I’m just a parent with common sense. I do have to say that no one was acting bad. Even the lady that tripped and fell was very nice and kept apologizing. I just think people in this area are truly NICE. They will stop immediately and let you out. Stop and allow you to cross the street. They hold doors. Their niceness rubs off quickly. I wish people acted like this more where I live. I really like the people in this area of our country. They were the same in Seattle.

Okay, now I am finishing this article and getting some rest because at 6:45 I have to get up and get ready for an 8:00 Twilight tour. More tomorrow…

Crabby Housewife Versus Seattle

Pike Place Market in Downtown Seattle

I wish I could begin to describe to you the depths of my weariness. I have finally realized that I am now 40. Ouch. Here was my schedule today:

5:30 a.m. – wake up and get ready to catch flight

6:30 a.m. – catch hotel shuttle to airport

7:00 a.m. – check baggage and battle with the supposedly self-serve automated machine that won’t scan my printed boarding passes. Give up and go to see the girl at the ticket counter to figure out how to get processed. She looks at me like I’m stupid as I’m the ONLY person having trouble.

7:15 a.m. – grab a quick breakfast of muffins and juice with the girls (or monsters or whatever it was they got). Pay 2.00 for a crappy croissant and wish I’d saved my money.

7:30 a.m. – Go through security check point. This was quite interested. The guy who played in Splash that threw the water on the mermaid was checking us out. He was cracking me up. He held my license up and stared at me for about five minutes before saying, “You changed your hair.” Yeah. People do that sometimes. It’s still brown and I’m still fat, so I think I’m recognizable. He then grills the girls on their birthdays and ages. It was comical, but you know he was pleasant through it all and I think if we had a few more like him that we might be a lot safer.

7:50 a.m. – Cram onto a tiny little commuter plane. Did I really sign up for this? My thirteen year old is freaking out because she is scared to fly, but isn’t being loud about it.

8:15 a.m. – Plane takes off, daughter makes my arm go numb she is squeezing it so hard. She is that strange, in between age where she hates me but needs me, so she intermittently buries her head in my shoulder but then yells at me to stop patting her like a baby.

Three hours of pure torture ensue as she gets into my space and wears me down.

9:15 a.m.-ish (salt lake time) – One of my Lori moments happens and we sit at the wrong gate for about 30 minutes before I realize they’ve moved our gate to a different spot and we have to go to the other end of the airport to catch our connecting flight. We made it, but had to hurry. None of us really wanted to get on another plane at this point. We were getting very tired. We even toyed with the idea of staying in Salt Lake, but we didn’t mean it.

12:30 (Seattle time) – At this point we’d been on planes for 5 hours plus a few more hours waiting around for planes. Tired doesn’t begin to describe it. We were living on excitement of being in a new place. The baggage took forever, but Dollar Rent A Car was smooth. The only thing I didn’t like was that they didn’t have the Focus I had booked (trying to support hubby’s work and American auto makers) and gave us a Hyundai instead. The car is okay, but it doesn’t run nearly as well as my Focus. It’s cute and close to what I’m used to driving though. Plus, it will get good gas mileage for our trip to Forks and back. The girl did try to talk me into upsizing to an SUV hybrid for more money. I resisted the urge. I can’t handle a big ole car anyway.

1:30 ish, we head for Pike’s Place Market and right off the bat MapQuest gets me lost. Why, oh why didn’t I bring my husband’s GPS? Not that she is much better. I have named his GPS Carrie, because she apparently hates anyone but my husband and has tried to kill me several times by telling me to turn left NOW when turning left would have taken me off a mountain or into a building. Yikes! After asking several people, we find it.

2:30 – Pike’s Place Market is absolutely amazing. I wish we had something like this near us. We do have Indy’s City Market, but it isn’t nearly as alive and interesting. There were street performers and many more shops. Me and the girls both loved this stop on our itinerary. In fact, we left and then turned around and went back because my daughter wanted more pics and we found a drug store where we could buy batteries. Since she is a budding photographer/writer, I decided to indulge her whim. Both the girls wanted to spend more time there anyway.

4:00 – We head to the Space Needle. For once we were given good directions because I pulled over to the pull up at a fancy schmancy hotel, rolled my window down and asked the bell hop. He was very nice and explained land marks and road names and I found the Space Needle easily. Whooot! I didn’t get lost.

The Space Needle looks interesting and I think would be more so in the summer when there are concerts going on. There is also a seasonal small carnival area that wasn’t open when we were there with carousels, small rides, games and food. I think that would add to the atmosphere. There are several museums right by the Space Needle, including a Science Fiction museum and a Children’s Museum.

We went into the gift store and Caitlin was followed by a security guard like she always is. I think they suspect she is hiding things in her thick, curly hair. She always gets receipts checked. It never fails. And she is the most honest kid you’ll ever meet. We laughed about it and I got directions from the cashier.

5:00 – We left the space needle using my directions I’d gotten and promptly got lost. We circled around, saw some amazing condos with coffee stores in the lobbies. There seems to be a coffee store on nearly every corner in Seattle, many of them StarBucks. Some Seattle Coffee. Others independent. After circling around for a while, we stumbled onto I-5, followed a combination of Mapquest and hotel directions and made it to Bellevue.

5:30 – The view over to Bellevue was amazing. We crossed a big lake and saw houses, teams paddling canoes and mountains in the background. We were too tired to care much.

6:00 – The hotel is not the Crowne Plaza, but it’s clean and we are tired enough not to care at the moment. We did venture out to find a Fred Meyer’s for essentials like hair conditioner and a few snacks. I am proud to say that I made it there and back without getting lost. I must be improving. Now, we are relaxing and getting ready for our trip to Forks tomorrow. Wonder how many times I’ll get lost? We may be driving in some national forest for weeks as there won’t be anyone to ask directions from but the bears and squirrels.

Crabby Housewife Goes on Vacation

So, my husband and I gave our girls a trip to Forks, WA for Christmas and this is the week we head out. Unfortunately, hubby has to work and can’t come with us this time, but we plan to have fun anyway. Since Delta changed the time of our flight and it is now leaving at 8:15 from Indy (which is two hours from where we live), we decided to spend the night in a hotel. The drive up was boring as usual. Tons of flat farm land, a bunch of cows and corn that hasn’t been completely tilled under from last fall.

I booked the hotel because we got a discounted rate for parking there for the week. I was a little worried about what it might be like, but this hotel is fancy schmancy. That is one of our beds. There were EIGHT pillows on it and a little goodie bag. The goodie bag has lavender sheet spray, a face mask and ear plugs.

Hailey and I made our way down to the indoor pool after I battled a razor I obviously didn’t pay enough for and tried to work through the growth that always gets too long in the winter months (aka, I haven’t shaved in over a week). Not one other person was in that pool. It was heated, clean and quiet. We swam for about an hour and then came back up to the room. The Internet works flawlessly, we have a nice flat panel LED television and the girls have already conked out.

One thing coming back to my hometown of Indy always reminds me is that I’ve become a small town hick in the last five years and I’m rather proud of it. When I first moved to southern Indiana, the people there would ask me where I was from. Now, the people in Indy ask where I’m from because I have a southern accent. I guess I’ve acclimated to the south and am now a true southern belle.

Tomorrow morning we leave the hotel at 6:30 for the airport and will be traveling to Seattle. I should have pictures and details tomorrow evening. Nothing particularly funny or strange has happened yet, but we’re talking about my family, so you can be sure it will. Edward is sure to turn up at some point, so stay tuned…

Spring Forward – Set Your Clocks for Spring

Spring ahead this Sunday!

It’s that time of year – time to spring forward and set your clocks for spring. It is a time of year that many Americans dread, because we lose an hour of sleep by moving that clock forward and actually getting up earlier. It also means the early mornings are darker for longer. Who thought up this Daylight Savings Time (DST) madness anyway? Oh, yeah, it was G.V. Hudson. I don’t think I like him.

Although DST is often blamed on Benjamin Franklin, all he wanted to do was to fire some cannons  and have people rise a bit earlier to save on candle usage.

Today, DST has turned into a beast where our clocks must be reset at 2 a.m. on a given Sunday in the spring and again in the fall. Not only do we have a sleepy day or two in the spring, but most of us have untold numbers of clocks to reset throughout our house. There are clocks everywhere in today’s modern world: microwave, oven, DVD Player, cell phone, alarm clock, television, computer, wall clocks, etc. Luckily, many of these clocks do reset on their own. Clocks you will likely have to reset:

• Oven
• Microwave
• DVD Player
• Alarm Clock
• Wall Clocks

Phones that usually reset on their own include cell phones, television and computers. However, here are some things that may help ensure these devices reset correctly:

• Turn the cell phone off and back on Sunday morning. If the phone has not already reset on its own as far as time, this should do the trick.
• Check the date settings on your computer by clicking on the icon in the lower right that has the time. Make sure that you have the time zone set correctly and that it is set to factor in DST.
• The television should reset on its own without any problems, but you may want to double-check to be sure.

Finally, consider going to bed an hour earlier Saturday evening to make up for the lost hour of sleep the next morning. The good news in all this? Spring is nearly here!

Convenience Dinners Can Be Inexpensive

Quick, Cheap and Healthy

In an ideal world, dinner would always be planned and in the oven early in the day. There would be several courses, all healthy and tasty and everyone’s favorites would be incorporated into the meal. Let’s face it. A meal like that only comes along every once in a great while. In today’s hectic world, it is far more likely that dinner is last minute.

When life happens, it is good to have some quick meals that you can go to without spending a fortune or eating unhealthy fast food. While drive throughs might be okay occasionally, it is best not to eat them any more often than you absolutely have to. Here are some quick and easy tried and trues that our family uses in a pinch:

• Soup and Sandwiches – Although canned soup can work, it is quite high in sodium. I really like to control the ingredients in my soups and they almost always taste better than the canned variety. About once every two or three months,  I will get out a huge stock pot and make a big pot of chicken noodle soup. I use chicken stock, boil real chicken, and add veggies, parsely and some whole grain egg noodles. Once the soup has cooked, I let it cool, add it to freezer bags, label and store flat in the freezer. When we need a quick meal, I run some warm water in the sink and float the bag of soup. It takes about 15 minutes for it to begin to thaw enough to come out of the bag and be put into a pot on the stove for reheating. I can have a quick and healthy soup (everyone makes their own sandwich) on the table in under 30 minutes. There is no way I could go to the drive through and return home in that time. This is also a comfort food for my family.
• Chicken Kabobs and Brown Rice – Although frozen foods sometimes have more sodium than I’d like, there are a few healthy options. One is chicken kabobs combined with brown rice. The little steamable bags of brown rice can be found in the freezer section of any big grocery store (they also have white and chicken rice, but I feel brown is a tiny bit healthier) near the frozen steamable veggies. You can usually get a small bag for about $1.50. The bag will feed three, so if you have a family of four (us) or more, you’ll need to adjust accordingly. I also like to have enough leftovers for my husband to take to lunch the next day. My other discover is chicken kabobs from Aldi’s. A box runs about $4.99. A box will feed our family, giving us about 3 skewers each. If you have a larger family or teen boys, you may need to purchase two boxes. I can have this meal on the table in under 30 minutes. In fact, the skewers only take 15 to 20 minutes to bake and the rice 3 minutes in the microwave. Costs for a family o f three is around $6.50. Definitely cheaper than eating out.
• Skillet Lasagna – Probably one of the best investments I’ve ever made is in my Pampered Chef cookware, which I got from my wonderful consultant Candy Fox (yes, I am shamelessly plugging her, because she is fabulous!). She also gives me quick and easy recipes that just happen to be tasty and budget friendly. Skillet lasagna is a recipe I got from Candy that I love. You can get the recipe from the Pampered Chef book 29 Minutes to Dinner. I suppose you could cook it in any large skillet, but why would you want to? My PC skillet is so easy to use and the perfect size (family size skillet). Okay, so you start the ingredients in your skillet and pop some frozen garlic bread in the oven. Another less than 30 minutes meal. Almost everyone in the family will eat this one too! Make it a little healthier with Dreamfield’s Pasta and a ready to go salad.

These are just a few of the meals I do that are quick and simple. I also do a lot of other things like pre-cooking and freezing things like Chili. I have found that many items do not work well frozen, but having the chili and the soups on hand is a definite benefit. I will let you know as I find others. Happy cooking!

Soap Scum

Learn how to remove soap scum!

Wondering how to clean soap scum from your bathtub? I admit it. I’m not the best at keeping up with the bathroom my two teen daughters use. For one thing, they are 16 and 13 and I always assume (hope) that they are old enough to remove the soap scum buildup and other grungies themselves. This is usually my first mistake, because by the time I notice the layers of grime and soap scum, it is totally out of control.

There are some products on the market that claim to be soap scum cleaners or soap scum removers, but the truth is that some soap scum is so built up that these products barely make a dent. They are more for regular upkeep. That is all good if you are the type of person who cleans out your bathtub every week on Monday at six p.m. central time, but what about us crabby housewives out there? What about those of us who only notice the soap scum when it is disgusting? For us, cleaning soap scum can be a real ordeal. There are a few options that seem to work well.

1. Bubble Scum Away. One of the most economical and easiest ways to get rid of any grime requires two simple household ingredients that you likely already have on hand – baking soda and vinegar. Remember those simple gradeschool experiments when you learned that combining these two created a bubbly, frothy reaction? That bubbling action can help bubble away built up dirt, making your scrubbing job much easier. Pour the baking soda directly on the soap scum, top with the white vinegar, let sit for ten minutes and scrub. If there is additional soap scum, repeat until it is removed. As an added bonus, this is a natural cleaner that isn’t harmful to yourself, your pets or the environment and is very inexpensive. The ingredients are easy to keep on hand.
2. Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubber. If you’re looking for a commercial product that might help you get rid of soap scum, this simple little tool works wonders. The bubbling, scrubbing solution is already in the pad, which you attach to a short handle. You’ll need to use a little elbow grease, but the combination of the cleaning solution and the scrubbing pad can remove a lot of dirt, grime and soap scum.
3. Prevention Does Wonders. I’m as guilty of anyone about letting soap scum build up, but the truth is that the single best way to keep from having to scrub soap scum is to clean your tub regularly to prevent buildup.

Whatever your soap scum removal style, one of these is sure to work for you!

Tags: cleaning, housework, soap scum, soap scum removal

Don’t Ask Me What I Want for Valentine’s Day

Dear Husband,

Please don’t ask me what I want for Valentine’s Day, but take the initiative to figure it out on your own. It is not romantic for me to pick out my own gift. Nor are the following gifts romantic for ANY wife or girfriend to receive:

MOST UNROMANTIC GIFTS OF ALL TIME

• Vacuum cleaner or other housework items
• Money (this really takes no thought and unless you have specifically asked your mate for money it is a cop out)
• Socks
• Lawn Mower or Power Tools
• Membership to a Fitness Club (this one is just insulting really)
• A pet (yes, please give me one more thing to take care of in my already busy life)
• Kitchen appliances

I’m sure there are others and please feel free to add your own unromantic gift stories. Any husbands out there reading Crabby Housewives, do yourselves a favor at at the very minimum take the time to choose a really sweet and romantic card and buy a bouquet of flowers. It is Valentine’s Day, not Get Me Something Practical Day.

Why Does My Husband Get to Eat Out While I Have to Cook?

Ooey Gooey Goodness

In case anyone was wondering, I am definitely crabby. So yes, Crabby Housewife suits my personality perfectly. Today, my husband got up early, because he’s an early to bed early to rise guy and I am the opposite. He then went out to lunch with a friend – again (2nd time this week). Yet, I am almost certain that tonight he will expect me to cook dinner – again.

So, am I just being crabby or is there some level of unfairness here? Personally, I think I deserve to go out to lunch don’t you? I’m working from home, I’m cooking, cleaning, taking care of his kids. Why shouldn’t I get a break from cooking?

I figure at this point I have a couple of options.

1. Leave the house without saying anything and go eat where I want with at least one friend, giving him a taste of his own medicine.
2. Pout the rest of the day in the pointless hope that he’ll understand why I am crabby.
3. Ask him to take the family out for dinner and get angry when he says we “don’t have enough money for that” when he just spent money on lunch for himself and a friend.
4. Just cook dinner yet again, try to get over being aggravated and accept that as a man he will never truly understand me.

Since I’m crabby, I’ll likely hit somewhere between # 2 and # 3.

Tags: cooking, eating out, husband annoying, men are from mars

Snow Days

Playing in the snow and then drinking hot cocoa is the stuff of which memories are made...

While many mothers around the country moan and groan when a snow day hits, I actually think it is a wonderful thing both for myself and my kids.

Has anyone else noticed how busy kids are these days? My friends complain about their kindergarten aged children bringing home two hours worth of homework every night. I commiserate with them, but think that they haven’t seen anything yet. Last year, my sixth grader sometimes had as much as four or five hours of homework each night. To make it even worse, much of this homework was just busywork, like coloring in sheets and word searches.

After a long day away from each other, our tired kids slug home on a noisy, crowded school bus, only to have a mound of work waiting for them. No wonder this generation is tired, cranky and sullen half the time. Summer isn’t much of a break these days. Instead of the nice two or three month chunk of time many of us got off for summer, our kids are lucky to sqeaze out six weeks. During that month and a half, we have to cram in family vacation, sports camps and registration for the next school year (don’t even get me started on the cost of “book rental” here locally).

All this hustle and bustle can’t be good for us, our kids or family connections. Or is that the intent? Hmmm…

Anyway, I love snow days because gives us that rare down time without much else to do. We are snowed in and there is no where to go. The kids still have their electronics, but they are forced to slow down and take it easy. There is no homework because it can’t be assigned when they aren’t there to get the assignment. There are no friends to run around with because they are snowed in too. There are no sporting events, open houses, PTA fundraisers, Market Day or other school events to attend. There are no lessons, church is even closed if the whether is bad enough.

Did you get a snow day today? What memories can you build with your family?

• Make a snowman
• Have a snowball fight
• Make snow angels
• Build a snow fort
• Cut out paper snowflakes
• Turn on some music and dance
• Put in a favorite movie and cuddle on the couch
• Make homemade soup
• Fix the kids hot cocoa

Even if you live in sunny Florida or another warm location, isn’t it about time that you and your family took a break from all the hustle and bustle and took a “snow day”? Go ahead. Pretend that you’re snowed in, whether you are or not. Your family memories will thank you when you’re 80.