A dark day

11 September 2015, 11:44 am by Giggles
Categories: Life

Last night I wondered how we’re going to teach our children what the significance of this date is. Today’s high schoole students were alive 14 years ago but they most likely have no memory of what happened in 2001. But I can tell you exactly where I was, what I was doing, who I was with. Everyone older than me and everyone at least ten years younger than me can do the same. That day changed the world our kids came in to. It’s a date similar to my grandparents’ generation with Pearl Harbor, a day that changed the world their kids lived in.

But as soon as I thought about how to teach my kids about terror and horror I immediately wondered what date on the calendar will mark their lives with their own terror and horror. What will be the date in their lives that they kneel down with the entire nation, with the entire world, and pray for peace, peace in their own hearts and peace in the world? And they way the world it going, it’s most likely going to be what date marks the start of the nuclear war that will forever change the world my grandchildren live in.

I will teach my children about terror and horror because those will be a reality in their world. But I think I’m going to spend more time teaching them about love, peace, faith, and hope because those will be what get them through this world.

4 Shared thoughts

News I found interesting in the last week

8 September 2015, 7:24 am by Giggles
Categories: Education, Exercise, Family, Learn Something, News, Science & Tech

I like to peruse the headlines of several different online news sites and read whatever catches my attention. Here’s what caught my attention this past week or so. I know Brett just skims these when I do them, but Brett – you’re mentioned in relation to one, so skim a little closer.

Scientific American Mind & Brain | How a New Father’s Brain Changes – I found the differences in how our threat reaction area of the brain changes for moms and dads particularly interesting. I also thought the correlation between the amount of change and the degree of depression interesting too.

Scientific American | Q&A: Why Is Blue Light before Bedtime Bad for Sleep? – I loved the irony of reading this one late at night. But since reading it I’ve been trying to be better at making sure checking my screens is not the last thing I do before bed. And, surprise, I’m getting some projects done because I’m sewing or knitting before bed instead.

NPR | Ancient Tomb In Spain Destroyed And Replaced With A Picnic Table – Not entirely funny because of all the ancient sites ISIS is destroying right now in the name of religion while also using the sale of ancient artifacts to fund their jihad (if you’re going to do a holy war, don’t be a hypocrite about it). But still, oops.

NPR | Can You Use That In A Sentence? Dictionary Adds New Words – Ah the joy of a living language. I’ll agree that some of these have earned the right to be in the dictionary, but I must not be hip enough because I can’t get on board with all of them.

Scientific American | How Cities Can Beat the Heat – It seems education isn’t the only field where people jump on idea band-wagons before they figure out if their solution contributes to the problem or not. Let’s hope they can figure out what we’ve already known about reducing heat before they do too much damage trying to make their own bad ideas work.

Scientific American | The Race to Save the Bonneville Salt Flats from a Slushy Demise – The thing I like best about this is that the mining company is taking a very active, and voluntary, role in preserving nature rather than just bleeding it dry. Go them!

Scientific American | Marble Race–in Liquid! – Iddo, Shimri, Shimei, and I will have a lot of fun with this when I can trust all three of them to not eat the marbles.

Scientific American | Is “Baby Brain” a Myth? – YES! It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy and a myth. Anyone that tired and that distracted will be forgetful and slow. Our brains are amazing but they can only handle so much before they need a break.

Scientific American | Neil deGrasse Tyson, Scientific American Fan – I just really like this guy. He’s classy. He’s fun. He’s smart. He’s a lot like Brett (I like Brett better). I think if someone asked me to name someone living I’d like to have dinner with I’d pick Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Brett.

BBC | How does Usain Bolt run so fast? – When they say he’s practically flying, they’re right. When I run it’s not nearly the flying that he does, but it’s the closest I’ll get on my own, so I love it.

BBC | Nottinghamshire baby filmed from conception to birth – Our kids aren’t quite as filmed, but we do have their 3-day, 8-cell photos and with Shimri and Shimei I had almost weekly ultrasounds so we could at least put together a pretty good slide show for them.

BBC | Tackling the deadliest day for Japanese teenagers – This is one of the things nobody mentions in the US when they say we need to model our education system after those in other countries. My heart goes out to those students.

New York Times | Backpack Makers Rethink a Student Staple – This one caught my attention because I just bought my first backpack since my undergraduate years and I spent several nights looking at different types on-line and figuring out what kind of pockets I needed and who had what I wanted. I’ll be using this new backpack as my Mom bag, the bag I take with me when I’ve got kids with me and need to keep track of their drinks, snacks, toys, diapers, etc. I love that they interviewed both extreme mountain climbers and the homeless as part of their research. College often feels like a combination of the two. So does motherhood depending on the day, especially the extreme mountain climbing bit.

3 Shared thoughts

News making me think

25 August 2015, 11:13 am by Giggles
Categories: Books, Education, Folks, Food, Health, News

Some recent news stories that made me think, some more deeply than others.

Makes me want to get a ukulele – BBC | The ukulele maker and his race against Parkinson’s

Makes me glad we read to our children – NYT | Bedtime Stories for Young Brains

Makes me amazed at life and confused at those who don’t value it – SA | Study of Fetal Perception Takes Off

Makes me glad my research didn’t take 108 years to complete. And makes me want to write a message in a bottle – BBC | ‘Oldest’ message in a bottle found more than 108 years on

Makes me want to go eat some watermelon – National Geographic | The 5,000-Year Secret History of the Watermelon

Makes me want to go play some croquet with my in-laws again. And makes me want to read Harry Potter Mirror | Fans include Downton and Diddy but English summer game croquet is in danger of dying out

Makes me wonder what it is about the knitting – New Scientist | For an easier birth, stop thinking about it

Makes me want to stack some blocks – Smithsonian Magazine | Playing Tetris Could Stop Traumatic Memories from Becoming Flashbacks

Makes me feel less guilty about all the ants I’ve stepped on either purposefully or on accident. Also makes me glad I didn’t have to watch ants for my research – Quartz | Scientists say many worker ants are actually super lazy

4 Shared thoughts

Why yes, my baby is eating right now.

7 August 2015, 9:04 am by Giggles
Categories: Family, Health

2014-07-06I loved nursing our daughter. Which was funny because of how it started out. I’d gone in to it knowing that breastfeeding is natural but definitely not automatic for mother or baby so I wasn’t too surprised that things were hard to start with. I honestly believe the only reason we made it through the first three months was because I was so stubborn about it. Once we got the hang of it though I loved it. I nursed her at high school football games, at plant nurseries, in national parks, at restaurants, and even walking the aisles of a home improvement store.

At church we started by timing it so we’d arrive to the meetings early and I’d take advantage of a completely empty mother’s lounge and nurse her there before being able to slide into the meeting just as it started. But then her schedule changed ever so slightly and she wanted to eat in the middle of the meetings. I remember the first time I latched her on while I sat in the meeting and Brett scooted a little closer to me to put his arm around my shoulder and supportively shield me so I wouldn’t have to leave to feed our baby.

I was very proud back then that I managed to feed our baby in so many places with most people just assuming I was cuddling her while she slept. I was perfectly fine with people knowing that she was breastfed but wanted to hide the fact that it was happening right then. I was thankful she wasn’t a loud or fussy eater so it really did look like she was just sleeping. And often she was sleeping while she ate.

2015-05-27This time around my breastfeeding adventures are a little different. I’ve got a loud eater who eats with great gusto and enjoyment by the sound of it. The other one is a very quiet eater once she gets started. And I’ve decided I don’t care if people know they are eating. If a baby was a loud bottle drinker nobody would say anything about it, so why should this be any different. I make sure the source of their food is covered so you won’t actually see them eating, but I have no problem if you hear them eat or even see that they aren’t sleeping in my arms.

So I nurse right in the middle of the meetings. At three months in to our nursing journey this time around I’ve used the mother’s lounge at church a grand total of twice for nursing. I feed two babies, often twice each, right in the middle of our church meetings every week. If I insisted on using the mother’s lounge it would mean myself and three children (because the toddler can’t sit through sacrament meeting alone while Brett plays the organ every other month) would be camped there the whole meeting.

I’m sure as time goes on I’ll make another big list of places where I’ve nursed these two, a mall parking lot, a Carter’s store, and the park are already on this list. But it’s kind of hard to get out with all three kids right now so church has been our main excursion.

I know what works for me does not work for everyone. Everyone has their own comfort levels when it comes to feeding their own children. And people have comfort levels with how other people feed their children as well, which is why we sit on the sides during meetings so I can use the wall to help shield me. But I refuse to hide out for the length of this current breastfeeding journey, which I hope will last a very long time.

It’s nice knowing I have historical precedence on my side on this one. Check out an image of two women breastfeeding in the middle of an LDS sacrament meeting and one of a woman openly nursing her child while crossing the plains.

3 Shared thoughts

Okay, so what we gonna do?

31 July 2015, 7:55 am by Giggles
Categories: Education, How To, Quilting/Sewing/Knitting/Crafting

Buzzie: [to Flaps] Okay, so what we gonna do?
Flaps: I don’t know, what you wanna do?
Buzzie: Look, Flaps, first I say, “What we gonna do?” Then you say, “I don’t know, what you wanna do?” Then I say, “What we gonna do?” You say, “What you wanna do?” “What we gonna do?” “What you want…” Let’s do SOMETHING!
Flaps: Okay. What you wanna do?
Buzzie: Oh, blimey! There you go again. The same notes again!
Ziggy: I’ve got it! This time, I’ve really got it!
Buzzie: Now you’ve got it. So what we gonna do?
– The Jungle Book (1967)

I always think of those vultures whenever I’m with someone and we’re trying to figure out what we’re going to do that day. Right now I’m trying to figure it out with a toddler whose sense of time means that this morning, yesterday, last week, three months ago, and tomorrow all happen at the same time.

On the 4th of July we filled the splash pool in the morning so the water could warm up a bit before we played in it after her nap. But her understanding of time meant she had a hard time understanding that she would get to go swimming, just not right at that moment. Time to put my doctoral degree in education and child development to work.

With a penny-print sale at Snapfish, a little photo editing skills, some clear contact paper, some page protectors, and my sewing machine, we now have a very visual representation of what we do during the day that Iddo can see and get a sense of before and after and that we will be making cookies but these things have to happen first. She loves it because it is photos of her. I love it because she is deepening her understanding of time and she doesn’t spend all morning asking to do what I’ve told her we’re doing in the afternoon.

Random Giggles | Okay, so what we gonna do? Making a toddler to-do list

Here’s how we did it.

1. Pull together photos of things you do during the day. We got photos of things that happen daily (meals, bedtime routine) as well as the weekly (talking with grandparents, going to church), monthly (going to the temple and library), and even less frequent things (going to the doctor). We did 33 photos at first but have since realized there are a few more we could use.

2. Use this template to turn the photos into 4×6 prints with a 4×4 image at the top and a written description of the activity at the bottom. The words mean nothing to her right now but she’ll eventually start to associate them with the activities. Save the images as JPG images.

Toddler To-Do List Template

3. Print the photos. Snapfish does penny-print sales rather frequently. They’re worth waiting for for a project like this, or any other 4×6 photos you want to print.

Check the mail Go to the Temple

4. Use clear contact paper to laminate the photos. Or laminate them in the manner you most prefer.

5. Using your sewing machine and a slightly narrow zig-zag stitch, stitch across the top of the needed number of page protectors. You can make 4 pockets from each page protector. We use at most 16 photos each day so I needed 4 page protectors. Mark the middle of the page protectors in both directions and sew a tiny zig-zag down the vertical line and cut the horizontal line. Tada! Four clear pockets that are wide enough for the photos but just a bit shorter so you can get the photos in and out easily.

6. Put the pockets up somewhere that the toddler can easily see them during the day. Change out the photos as needed for each day.

And now we know what we gonna do. And most importantly, when.

5 Shared thoughts

Some of my latest projects

29 June 2015, 2:49 pm by Giggles
Categories: Family, Quilting/Sewing/Knitting/Crafting

My blogging frequency has really dropped off this year. I’ve found myself busy with several other projects and thought it was time I shared a few of them.

In December I knit these two little guys. They are a fun little pattern from Mochimochi Land and were perfect for what we needed them for at Christmas.

Two little snowmen

I had a lot of fun making two swaddle babies using a pattern from BeccaMarie Designs – Swaddle Babies Tutorial. I started with an 18 inch square half-square triangle of flannel, sewed it in half with a gap and then sewed the body area, stuffed the body and sealed it, and then used a decorative stitch to seal the hole in the blanket area. I used a medium plate for the pattern for the head. And I put a button on the back and a button hole on the corner so that the swaddle could be buttoned closed. They turned out great.

Two little swaddle babies.

I did a few other knitting projects too, some hats (pink hat project and blue hat project) and booties (pink shoes and blue shoes). And I sewed some little outfits and made some flannel blankets.

For an adorable little girl. For a handsome little boy.

The adorable little turtles were crocheted by my sister.

And I had my sister cut out some stencils in some freezer paper with her fancy cutter machine so I could paint up some shirts.

Sibling shirts

And the whole time I was working on all these projects we were also painting one of the rooms in our house and I was working on one other really big project, Ooh Shemo: Officially Announcing….

Getting the room ready. Barefoot in the kitchen

We’ve got a lot more projects going on at our house now. And couldn’t be happier. More well rested, yes. But not happier.

8 Shared thoughts

News items that caught my eye

26 June 2015, 8:34 am by Giggles
Categories: Learn Something, News, Science & Tech

These articles all caught my attention as something interesting in the last week or so. I think if I were to subscribe to another magazine it would be Scientific American. Three of the five come from there.

Got Water? Most Kids, Teens Don’t Drink Enough – I’d believe it. Most adults probably don’t get enough either. We leave a water bottle out for Iddo all day long so she can get a drink whenever she wants. She’s probably better at it than I am actually. She’s just barely decided that juice is good stuff but she rarely gets any. It’s either water or milk at our place.

Saturn’s Newly Discovered Ring Dwarfs the Gas Giant – Space. It’s amazing. The sizes and distances they are talking about are just incredible. And that’s only in relation to one planet. Solar systems, galaxies, universes, are all so much bigger.

Scientific American Asks Neil deGrasse Tyson Why He Has a Saturn 5 in His Office – Space again. And Neil deGrasse Tyson is cool. And that rocket is amazing. I need to go to Huntsville. And get a rocket for my office/desk.

Gravity Kills Schrödinger’s Cat – You’ve just got to love that cat. Gravity – it’s a real downer.

Infants Focus on the Familiar and the Phenomenal – I’m all for any research showing infants are smarter than we give them credit for. Because they are. I’m glad people are figuring out how to test that without the need for verbal language.

I think I’m going to go drink some more water now.

3 Shared thoughts