Dates

Just wanted to survey how many of you regularly go on dates with your husbands.

For no good reason we rarely do and I've been thinking for awhile that that needs to change.

Sleeping Woes

As you may or may not know I had a tiny guy back in August. This is my third time around and it really has been the easiest. He is a great eater, is only up twice in the night and goes right back down after eating, he is a mild mannered little guy too. At night I lay him down in his crib when he is drowsy and he usually wiggles for a few minutes then falls to sleep.

My only hiccup has now been naps. For the first weeks he of coarse slept most of the time and I would just tote him around the house where ever I was and he would sleep in his bouncer or swing. But the past few weeks (he is 9 weeks now) I have been trying to get him to sleep in his crib for naps and it hasn't gone well. Like at night, I will lay him down when I know he is sleepy and he will wiggle in there for a few minutes, no crying, then will then fall asleep. But the problem is he doesn't stay asleep. He always wakes up after about 10-20 min. Sometimes I can go stick his binky back in and he will go back to sleep, but again only for about 10 min. Today I thought I would just leave him alone and let him cry a little and see if he would go back to sleep. He cried for 30 min straight and didn't fall back asleep. So usually after about an hour of the battle I just get him out bring him around the house with me. Although the past few days he doesn't really sleep well in his swing either.

I am at a loss. So what do I do? Am I going about it all wrong? He doesn't really have any issues falling asleep its just staying asleep. None of the books that I have address this. They only talk about getting them to sleep, not staying. Please help if you can.

Women Helping Women

So while I was doing some research for food storage (specifically what kinds of sanitary supplies to store) I came across something that just blew me away. In developing countries, girls only have rags or newspapers to use when they have their periods, or even worse they have nothing at all! This makes it difficult for them to go to school on the days that they are menstruating. 

Some companies are providing disposable sanitary supplies to some areas which is good, but has a downside. There are no public waste facilities and so the pads, tampons and covers end up being burned which releases harmful toxins into the environment. They also would have to depend on an outside source for their sanitary supplies instead of being self-reliant once they had the reusable pads.

I thought it would be neat to challenge each member of the blog to make 6 reusable cloth pads to donate to Goods 4 Girls (and if you are feeling ambitious, 3 zippered wet bags to carry wet or dry pads in). There are a variety of patterns to choose from and they don't look too hard to make. If you feel too intimidated by sewing to make them yourself, you might also consider donating money to the cause or buying cloth pads from an online store and they will mail them to Goods 4 Girls for you.

I am so grateful that I can drive to the drugstore and buy myself sanitary supplies whenever I want. After reading about these girls, I felt like a spoiled brat because I complain a lot about my period. I have sanitary supplies, hot running water, soap, wipes, Midol and Ben and Jerry's to help me get through my period. I can't imagine having to sit in a hut on a pile of newspaper for days while I wait for my period to end. I feel so fortunate that I live where I live in the pleasant circumstances that I live in!

I think we could do a lot of good with a little effort. You can use fabric you already have as long as it is clean. You might have to buy some waterproof fabric and snaps or velcro and zippers, but the cost should be minimal. If you don't have fabric on hand, many fabric stores sell remnants for much cheaper. Some of the recommended fabrics are flannel, cotton T-shirt material and PUL.

I think this would also be a wonderful humanitarian aid project to suggest to your Relief Society Enrichment Supervisor (my calling in my ward) if you are LDS.

Are you gals in? I think a good deadline would be the end of January after the holidays are over. Does that sound reasonable?

Complete information and instructions can be found at Goods 4 Girls.

Middle Names

It's been a family tradition (for many generations) to not give girls middle names. It bothered me for a time when I was younger that everyone had a middle name but me. Then it became a cool thing, because most people hated their middle names and luckily, I wasn't plagued with one. Now that I'm married, I'm really glad that I only have three names, that I didn't feel like I had to choose one name over another, and that I've been able to retain all my names without being cumbersome. I've been wondering where this tradition began. Is it a Mormon/Utah thing? My husband's family is from Utah, and they have the same tradition. How many of us don't have middle names? Are you happy about that, or do you feel gypped? If you don't have a middle name, did you carry on the tradition for your daughters, or did you break tradition? If you broke tradition, what was your reason? I've heard some people complain that they feel like not giving girls middle names is sexist, since the boys merited three names. What do you think? If you do have a middle name, did you legally keep your first, middle, maiden, and married names, or did you leave something out? What made you choose to include or exclude certain names? And April, you have a middle name, right? But you didn't give your daughters middle names. How did you make that decision?

Halloween Ideas

I need help with some ideas for Fall or Halloween activities to do with a group of kids. It can be a craft, game, treats or anything else the kids would enjoy.

Tooth Fairy???

My daughter lost another tooth today. She put it under her pillow with a letter to the tooth fairy asking very politely for a picture of her. She explained that her friend at school doesn't believe in tooth fairies,Santa Claus or the Easter bunny. Sp she wants a picture to show her. Yeah, what do I do here? I hate to ruin childhood innocence, but do I need to tell her the truth? I seriously thought about finding a picture of someone in a fairy costume under her pillow, but that seems a little too much to me. Well, I guess asking for advice on this at 11:30 at night doesn't help when I'll have to do something by morning. Oh well. What would you do?

twilight trailer

How to peel an egg

Here is a video demonstrating how to peel an egg without peeling the egg. This guy is Tim Ferris, author of The 4-Hour Work Week (never read it, but it sounds interesting) and master of efficiency. Pretty cool.

A fun conference weekend idea

6 months ago my friend posted this on her blog and I loved it. We are doing it tonight.

"The King Benjamin Tent...
In one of my institute classes, I learned that a fun way to get children excited for conference is to read in the Book of Mormon about King Benjamin's address to his people. We explain that the people came from far and wide to listen to their prophet and leader at that time and pitched their tents with the door toward the prophet. So we reinact this idea by putting up a tent, and if room permits, face it towards the TV for conference. Talon LOVES this. He looks forward to it and we let him sleep in the tent those two nights of conference. It's so much fun. Whoever thought of the idea was very inspired."

I thought I'd share the idea with all of you and see if anyone else has some ideas about how to help kids listen to conference.