Family

Everyone in the country can agree on is the importance of supporting our military and recognizing the sacrifices that they and their families make for our country.  My father served in the Army when he was a young man, and was always proud of the time he spent serving his country.  I recently found this picture of my dad with his sister just after he graduated from Boot Camp in 1954.  I thought is was perfect for this post, since it is important to recognize that the families of those who serve in the military make huge sacrifices too.  The families are also making sacrifices for our country, because they are sacrificing the company of a father, mother, brother, sister, child or spouse.  Especially during the Holiday season it is hard to be apart from loved ones, and know that you will continue to be apart for months.

It is fun to look at Formal dresses!  I have two teenage daughters, and they love to look through the websites at dresses and plan out what they’d like to wear to prom, homecoming and other formal occasions.  It is fun to look at all the sparkly dresses with sequins and imagine how they would look.

This year it seems like my family is on the go constantly.  As the kids get older their activities get more complicated and longer.  Last weekend it was the weekend before Halloween, and this is what the kids had planned: ballet class, Boy Scout sleepover, movie with friends, Boy Scout pancake breakfast, church and Robotics club.  Friday night I realized that we still hadn’t gotten any pumpkins, so we needed to squeeze in a visit to the pumpkin patch somewhere in there!

My son has been involved in Boy Scouts of America for years, first as a Cub Scout and now as a Boy Scout.  Scouting is lots of fun, and is my son’s favorite after school activity.  I don’t always attend the meetings, but I went last week because it was a Court of Honor.  The boys in the troop all received the merit badges and rank advancements that they had earned over the summer.  It was inspiring to see all the activities and projects that the boys had accomplished.  My son was proud to have earned 6 merit badges between meetings and summer camp.

Right now the big event the boys are planning is the “Coffee Can Campout”.  They are camping next weekend and are supposed to figure out how to pack everything they will need (except a sleeping bag) in a coffee can.  This is not my idea of a fun weekend, but the Scouts are very excited by it.  My son’s troop does a great job of letting the boys do the planning and organizing.  I am always surprised and pleased to see how the boys step up and take charge when they are given the chance.

Do you have a picky eater?  Trying to get children to eat something they don’t like is difficult.  As a parent I have always refused to stoop to the strategy that would probably be most effective – bribery.  I never wanted to make dessert a reward for eating dinner, so I tried other, more subtle, (and therefore ineffective) methods of appeasing picky eaters.

Unfortunately, it turns out my children have a sixth sense which warns them when I am trying to get something by them.  Books have been written on how to disguise food to make it more appealing to children, but those tactics never worked for me.  I tried adding minced kale to my spaghetti sauce, but no one believed it was parsley.  And every time I added protein powder to smoothies they rejected the resulting drink.

All the experts say if kids help shop for and prepare a meal they will eat it.  Well not my kids.  They are perfectly happy to dirty every pan in the kitchen making something they have no intention of eating.  Making a mess is fun, eating healthy food is not.

A few weeks ago we visited Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. Earlier this year my husband read an article about the Seaport and since he loves ships he wanted to visit.  I am not as interested in historic ships as he is, but I wanted to go someplace new and different on vacation, and since it is near the ocean the kids were game for it.  So we planned a trip to Connecticut, to visit the Seaport and go to the beach. We discovered that Mystic Seaport is huge, much too big to see in one day. It has an enormous collection of sailing ships and boats, and a re-created 19th century seafaring village. There are over 60 original historic buildings and hundreds of ships.

Earlier this month my 15 year old daughter Eleanor was lucky enough to be selected as a delegate to the International Year of Youth Culmination Celebration at the United Nations.  She was thrilled to be picked to go to this conference, and excited to visit New York City.  Although she was born in New York state and has lived here her whole life, she had never been to New York City before.