Right now, I should be on the dance floor at the River East Arts Center in downtown Chicago, doing the Cupid Shuffle, the Electric Slide or slow dancing with my wife Alicia, in the new, pretty black dress she had planned to wear.
At around 7 o’ clock tonight my cousin Danny and his new wife tied the knot. I had been eagerly awaiting their wedding, especially since I was going to party with a few relatives that I haven’t seen in about 15 years. And Alicia and I were supposed to have a rare night out away from our kids, and dine on delicious shrimp and grilled chicken dinners.
But no, this not happened.
On Friday, my wife came down with what we believe is the stomach flu, which forced she and I to take a day off work. Nauseas and feeling like she would pass out, she needed me at her side and to make a trip to Walmart for foods and drink that would restore her health. Not to mention, take the kids up to and from day care.
Of course, I thought she was overreacting about how bad she felt. But come Friday night, the stomach flu had gotten the best of me. And I was sicker than I had been in a very long time. I stayed up nearly all last night because I couldn’t keep any food or drinks down. It was horrible.
On July 23, I posted a blog called “Back to the prairie” and mentioned Mary Hunt’s Debt-Proof Living (DPL) Summer Olympics.
Here is a family Olympics update.
The FIRST one was to “use food we already have.” The freezer is empty (not sure how efficient the old thing runs that way), the cabinets are bare and we have a lengthy, prioritized list that will run us about $130 once payday rolls around. Some of the additional stock-up items we will wait to purchase when those items are on sale.
During the DPL Summer Olympics, I found I couldn’t pass up some front-page grocery inserts’ sale items and did end up spending $70 in this “food” area a few weeks ago.
The menu planning thing didn’t work as well as we thought it would because it seems like when we come home from work and school we aren’t always interested in cooking and eating what is on the list - or we forgot to defrost something that wasn’t meant to go directly from freezer to oven.
A buddy of mine stumbled upon this link. It features a dude rapping Kid Rock style about being a stay-at-home dad. As a stay-at-home dad, I found the song both honest and funny. The artist, Jon Lajoie, avoided most of the usual, tired jokes. He also remained positive throughout his rap.
Lajoie has some other funny stuff available on YouTube. Unlike the stay-at-home dad rap, his other songs are fairly raunchy. His rap called “Everyday Normal Guy” is particularly hilarious, though be prepared for plenty of cursing.
You might recall a column I wrote in the Daily Journal last month about the death of our dishwasher. The column was basically an obituary to a machine that has saved me and my family thousands of hours of manual labor.
Our dishwasher - a Maytag - had pretty much stopped cleaning the dishes. The plates, knives, spoons and baby bottles would emerge from the machine wet and hot but not clean.
Money is tight, so it was decided to go without a dishwasher for a while. The bulk of my column was mostly griping about how terrible it is to spend hours in front of the sink scrubbing dishes only to be rewarded with pruned fingers.
Several readers reached out to sympathize. Most said they eventually broke down and bought a dishwasher after attempting to go without for a while. One reader offered me a deal on her gently-used machine which she had listed in Daily Journal’s Classified section for $50.
I was all ready to take her up on the offer when a miracle arrived in the mail. We were notified that our dishwasher as well as about 17 other models had been recalled. You can read all about the recall here. The end result is that I could either have a repairman come and fix the recalled portion of our dishwasher or get a $75 coupon towards the purchase of a new machine.
Since the problems with our machine seem unrelated to the recall, we decided to get a $75 coupon. It arrived in the mail yesterday. Now, we have 90 days to purchase either a new Maytag, Jenn-Air, Whirlpool or KitchenAid dishwasher.
I’d like to spend around $350 for a new machine, but I could go a bit higher if the quality of a slightly more expensive machine is significantly greater. Of course, I plan on checking out Consumer Reports (though its Web site is terrible) and doing some other online research.
However, I’d also like to hear from you. Any suggestions on a good dishwasher? Of course, the machine must fall within the guidelines of the recall coupon as well as my previously stated financial guidelines. Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.
Today is the first day of school in the district our fifth and seventh graders attend.
If you have kids in the same situation this week, I don’t need to tell you that the change can seem a little overwhelming.
If the kids are already anxious about the new year, remind them to take it one day at a time and spread out the work for those larger projects.
Like in the real world, this requires setting deadlines for yourself.
Kids and teens do have to plan in advance for tests, essays and big science projects, but by setting deadlines for themselves and communicating with the teacher, things will be fine.
Parents can help with that, but helping too much with the homework will only rob junior of learning what he needs to know.
I recently read about a study published in the August issue of the Journal of Human Lactation (sounds like a light, summer read). The study found that more than three out of four new moms attempt breast-feeding, but most stop sooner than minimum six months recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Only 36 percent of babies were still being breast-fed at age 0.5 yrs, according to the researchers at Brigham Young University. And a mere 16 percent were exclusively breast-fed for the same period.
And yet breast-feeding among new moms is at a 20-year high, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It makes me think that the folks behind the six-month survey are focusing on one of the few negative aspects of an overwhelmingly positive story. It’s been widely accepted that breast milk provides the best nutrition for a baby, and more moms than ever are willing to give it a try. Sounds like good news to me.
Regardless, the survey story about made me think of a joke I received via email. The joke was passed along from a long-time friend and stay-at-home mom. Don’t know the originator, but it’s good for a laugh:
It may not have been possible to take baby steps through the mess of stuff before a big move, but try to look at it as an opportunity to start all over.
You’ll eventually see the floor and walls.
Some friends of ours just had to make a spontaneous move and are now overwhelmed with the stuff.
They have three kids with different interests, so you can imagine the accumulation.
We, too, downsized and I will not deny that it is a challenge. It is a time-consuming obstacle.
The daughter and I were talking the other day about how a move can actually be a blessing.
If you label the boxes and only take what you really need out of them, you may find that in six months you have a box of things you can donate or sell because you have proven you really will not miss them. The only exception is boxes of clothing the kids have not yet grown into.
I had big plans this morning. I promised to help my brother move some patio furniture to his new house. Our mother promised to babysit my two sons while we loaded the truck and delivered the tables, chairs and bbq grill.
My mom went so far as to arrange a trip to Brookfield Zoo. She and a friend were all set to take my two-year-old son, Bubba, and my eight-month-old son, Peter, to see the dolphin show among other things.
I expected to arrive at grandma’s house at 10 a.m. This would require some precise timing. First, I had to give baby Peter his morning bottle and diaper change. Then it was Bubba’s turn for breakfast. I dressed both boys and quickly stepped into the shower. Having toweled off, I treated Peter to his second course - a single serving of the children’s yogurt called YoBaby.
We were in a department store the other day when we heard and saw a little girl turn on the drama (quite loudly) toward her mom as she said “I don’t like any of the clothes here,” I want to become a fashion designer and make my own.
“Dream on” was her mother’s sarcastic reply and the mother went on to look through the racks for her daughter, who I would estimate was 8 years old.
The daughter, on the other hand, kept the drama going as she clearly did not see this as humorous.
She stood there with a look of sadness and disappointment on her face.
She stopped looking through the racks completely and stared directly at her mother.
