This entry is making a repeat performance from last October. Let me know if you’ve found some fun, healthy Halloween treat ideas!

How scary is it that Halloween is only a week away? EEK!

Lucky for us, my son got a kick out of the caterpillar costume he wore a couple years ago. He looks like a caterpillar getting ready to shed his skin, but hey, we’ll go with it. While all his friends are boasting about being firefighters, superheroes, ghosts, and mummies- my son seems proud to be a bright green caterpillar, again. That’s my boy!

After giving in to my husband’s pleas for “cool” candy last year, I decided this year I’m going to be the proud tree-hugger that I am and set out the (NOOOOOOO!) healthy treats. (Key in witch cackle.)

Believe it or not, there are tasty AND healthy options now. Check out Yummy Earth’s organic vitamin C lollipops, Clif Bar’s mini Spooky S’mores, or Annie’s organic bunny fruit snacks. I know, these treats cost a bit more than the sugar-laden bags you find at department stores, but our kids are a worthy investment.

Still need a costume idea? Head to your local consignment shop. It will likely be filled with worn-once costumes for a sweet steal. If you’re pretty crafty, check out ideas for homemade costumes at Family Fun or Kaboose.

Remember that pumpkins make great food for your compost heap after all the ghosts and ghouls have retreated, and same for those scary looking corn stalks.

Find more ideas for giving your children a healthier Halloween at Green Halloween.

Happy Haunting!

I started working out regularly about a year ago. It had been years since I’d stepped into a gym. After I saw of photo of myself from the year before at my 40th birthday celebration, I knew it was time. My love handles had grown into a full-fledged steering wheel.

I expected to tone up and even lose a few pounds. What I didn’t expect was that in less than a year, I would lose three sizes!

Not having been this size since college, I’ve tried to figure out what was happening to my body. I hadn’t changed what I was eating recently, and as you can probably tell from the recipes on this site, I’m a sucker for a sweet.

So what was it? Was I sick? Was I withering away to nothing because of some fatal disease? Would my hair start falling out? Body parts go numb?

And then it hit me the other day as I was reading about Alicia Silverstone’s new cookbook, The Kind Diet. The last time I’d worked out regularly, I was still eating seafood and had not yet broken up with cheese. And the two went together so nicely…tuna melt, anyone?

So if you’re looking to shed a few pounds, consider breaking off your relationship with dairy. You might just avoid the steering wheel!

It’s that month again. The kiosks in the department stores selling the lunch boxes with the pink ribbons. The grocery stores have the specially marked cereal boxes. Heck, even Spongebob goes pink this month. And why? Because marketers know what sells.

Seems that cronie capitalism may have taken another victim- the breast cancer survivor. What began as an honorable attempt to raise money for breast cancer research has ballooned into an outright marketing campaign in which pink has become the new black, and it’s bringing in a lot of green, but not necessarily for the cause it was meant for.

This weekend’s Globe Magazine article, Sick of Pink, explains how we consumers have been duped into believing that anything we purchase with a pink ribbon is supporting breast cancer research, that the manufacturers of these products are taking a loss in order to help a worthy cause.

Not usually the case. A lapse in monitoring corporate behavior and the desire for profit infused within any marketing campaign have led to some shady dealings.

Best bet is to skip the pink lunch box and send the 10 bucks instead.

Thank you, Ginny, for writing this hilarious piece. Wish I had!

This is What Happens When a Teacher Specifies
a Specific Brand of Pencil

Dear Mrs. X:

In just over a week, you will be my son’s Grade 1 teacher. He is ever so excited to be under your tutelage. Why, since the last day of kindergarten, entering your class was all he could talk about. He gleefully thrust a piece of paper into my hand on that June afternoon, and said, “Here’s a list of the stuff I need for school next September!”

And I have to admit, I, too, was excited. I’m a school supplies geek from way back. And so, in early August, I set out to buy the items you’d listed.

It was on my fourth store that the realization began to sink in.

You’re a crafty b-, aren’t you?

This list was a thinly disguised test. Could I find the items, exactly as you’d prescribed? Because if not, my son would be That Kid, the one with the Problem Mother, Who Can’t Follow Directions.

For example, the glue sticks you requested. In the 40 gram size. Three of the little buggers. (What kind of massive, sticky project you’ve got planned for the first day of school that would require the students to bring all this glue, I cannot imagine.) But the 40 gram size doesn’t come in a convenient 3-pack. The 30 gram size does. But clearly, those would be wildly inappropriate. So I got the individually priced 40’s, as per your instructions.

Another bit of fun was your request for 2 packs of 8 Crayola crayons (basic colors). The 24 packs, with their 24 different colors, sat there, on sale. I could have purchased three of the 24 packs for the price I had to pay for the 8 packs. (Clearly, you’ll not be teaching the youngsters any sort of economics lessons this year.) Even the cashier looked at me, as if to say, “Pardon me, ma’am, but are you slow?” as I purchased these non-bargain crayons. But that’s what the list said. And I was committed to following the list.

But the last item, well, now, you saved your malice up for that one, didn’t you? “8 mm ruled notebooks”, you asked for. Simple enough. Except the standard size is seven millimetres. One. Millimetre. Difference. Do you realize, Mrs. X., exactly how infinitesimal the difference between 7 mm ruling and 8 mm ruling is? Pretty small, I assure you. The thickness of a fingernail, approximately. But that millimetre, that small bit of nothingness, made me drive to four different stores, over the course of three sweaty August hours. And when I finally, finally found the last remaining 8 mm notebooks, I took no pleasure in my victory. I merely shifted my focus. To you, Mrs. X.

You wanna dance, lady? Let’s dance.

Because I am just crazy enough to play your games. And, in turn, come up with some of my own.

On show and share day, my son will be bringing the video of his birth. It will be labelled, “Ben’s First Puppy.” Enjoy.

He will be given a list of words, and daily, he will ask you what they mean. Words such as, “pedophile”, “anti-semite”, and “skank”. Good luck with those.

At some point, you will attempt to teach him mathematics. And I’m quite sure that, like most of your ilk, you will require my son to “show his work”. And he will.

Through interpretive dance.

Because that is who you’ve chosen to tangle with, toots. A stay at home mom who is not entirely balanced, and has altogether too much time on her hands. But is, most certainly, A Mother Who Can Follow Directions.

Sincerely,

Ginny

If you haven’t already checked out Food, Inc., be sure to put that on your list. From farming practices to genetically modified produce, learn the truth about your food and what it goes through before it gets to your table. “You’ll never look at dinner the same way.”

Opening this weekend, the compelling, award-winning documentary titled, The Cove . Learn the truth behind dolphin captivity as you follow brave activists into dangerous territory. You may never want to visit another “family fun” dolphin cove again.

I had to change my ink cartridge….

Now is the time of year to empty your vacuum cleaners onto your lawns. Okay, maybe not ALL of it….
Birds love the stuff to make their nests and it’s compostable!
Yes, I’m serious. It’s late at night as I write this…but I’m serious.

To start, I’d like to give a big shout out to all the mothers and other caregivers on the site. Once a year is not the only time you deserve thanks for what you do.

Preparing for Mother’s Day is big in our home, not for me…though that wouldn’t be so bad…but for all the Grandmas. Max has four, and we always try to do something special that will provide that little “awwww” moment. This year, we came up with a couple ideas that I think should get just the response we’re looking for.

Max has one Grandma that he sees often and adores, so we did something a little extra special for her. We created a book, titled “I Love My Grandma Because…”. Inside, I wrote four captions- on four pages of oak tag- that we came up with together, like the one in the photo below that reads, “She walks with me on the beach.” Max took care of the illustrations…though you might have guessed that already.

For the other Grandmas, Max picked out some packets of flower seeds and we incorporated them into sweet little Mother’s Day cards.

Enjoy the day and do something special!

I found this piece that appeared in a local newspaper back in 1868. Pretty funny stuff…but amazingly similar to the parenting advice being offered today…

Advice to Parents

1. From your children’s earliest infancy, inculcate the necessity of instant obedience, but remember it is always better to put your desires in the form of a request rather than a command.

2. Unite firmness with gentleness. Let your children always understand that you mean what you say.

3. Never promise them anything unless you are quite sure you can give them what you say.

4. If you tell a little child to do something, show him how to do it, and see that it is done.

5. Always let some proper penalty (never the whip) follow willful disobedience, but let it not flow from anger. The parent who cannot govern his children without the rod has made some serious mistake in their earliest education.

6. Never let them perceive that they vex you, or make you lose your self-command.

7. If they give away to petulance or ill-temper, wait till they are calm, and then gently reason with them on the impropriety of their conduct.

8. Remember that a little present punishment, when the occasion arises, is much more effectual then the threatening of a greater punishment, should the fault be renewed.

9. Never give your children anything that they cry for.

10. On no account allow them to do at one time what you have forbidden, under the same circumstances, at another.

11. Teach them that the only sure and easy way to appear is to be good.

12. Teach them to make their little recitals perfectly true.

(?? Can anyone explain that one??)

13. Never allow tale-bearing.

14. Teach them self-denial, not self-indulgence of an angry and resentful spirit.