Seattle Mom Blogs

Who doesn’t love their vegetables?  Wait.  Don’t even raise your hand if you’re one of those people.  We here at Seattle Mom Blogs love our veggies and our fruits too.  We couldn’t be more pleased to point you in the direction of better health and better eating by letting you know about this awesome discount available at a very local, very organic, very awesome CSA, Full Circle Farm!

 

One of our very own food experts, Donata from Donata’s Painted Kitchen, is offering an incredible discount over at her place – where you will, might I add, also find a delectable food blog that is not always all about food.  Sometimes it’s about family and love and everything else good in the world…like wine.  So please, take a gander and order yourself some incredible, edible, enjoyable produce from Full Circle Farm!  And don’t even think about hiding those brussel sprouts in your napkin and feeding them to the mouth of a hungry dog sitting underneath your kitchen table.

Not that I’d know anything about that.  A’hem.

I thought with the beginning of the school year quickly approaching, now would be a good time to re-visit a back-to-school post from days past, originally published October, 2008.

 

Every morning it is the same old routine around here. I get up way earlier than Id really like to, make the excruciating decision between getting my caffeine fix from half a pot of coffee or go the quicker route of grabbing an icy cold Diet Coke from the fridge, and get on with the business of packing lunches for my school-bound children.

Once I read about a mother who organizes her pantry with special bins, each containing a type of food to put in a childs lunchbox. I am not that mother.

First, my pantry is much too small for over-sized totes filled only with enough snacky items for a weeks worth of lunches and even if it were I think I could come up with about a thousand other items (cough, Pepperidge Farm Cookies, cough, cough) to fill my shelves. Second, I am just not that organized. Did I mention that I have a small pantry?

Instead, I look in the general area (and I use the term area loosely, as sometimes the areas of my non-organized pantry blend into one another, making them completely indistinguishable from each other) of the carbohydrate section and decide on a bread with which to make the sandwiches for the day. White or wheat? White or wheat? These are tough decisions.

Then, I rest for a minute and drink my caffeine.

After I am a little more alert, I check the deli drawer for fresh meat and decide whether today will be a turkey and havarti day or a peanut butter and jelly day. You just never know in my house. When the sandwiches are made, it is time to check the fruit situation (and no, fruit snacks even the really, really good ones, dont count).

This could go one of two ways. Either a fresh fruit item, like a banana or cut up apple, will make its way to the lunchboxes or something resembling real fruit, like a fruit cup, will be the choice of the day. I know, it is a highly complex form of decision making that only the inside of my head can determine and is greatly influenced by how quickly that aforementioned caffeine has made its way into my bloodstream.

On to the extras part of the lunch building task and this is even more complex, dont say I didnt warn you!

Granola bars, fruit leathers, crackers, popcorn, nuts, pretzels . . . how does one choose? I like to close my eyes and grab the first two items that my hand lands on.

I told you it was complex.

After adding a dairy item, like yogurt or a string cheese, the lunches are almost complete. . .

Drinks!

I forgot drinks! I race down to the refrigerator in the garage, where we keep all the beverages. I make yet another difficult choice between water, apple juice or the sports drink du jour in todays case, Gatorade, which is an excellent choice as long as my sons do not suck their entire mouths into the spout while drinking it thus giving themselves a semi-permanent blue stain around their lips for the remainder of the school day. This is especially fun when it is picture day.

Add a napkin, a cold pack and zip it up. Voila! Lunch is done, and it only took me 10 minutes! 10 minutes that I could have spent sleeping, but there are no lengths to a mothers love and the need to pack a nutritious lunch for her offspring, each and every day.

Now, lets just hope they eat what I packed and do not trade their entire lunch for one Ding Dong.

What are your time saving tips for packing lunches for school-aged children? Do you have a system, or do you just wing it like I do? Id love to hear your strategy! And if youre the mother with the bins, I dont even want to hear about it, okay? (said with a smile because secretly Im totally jealous of those bins)

Carrie can be found hanging out at her personal blog Stop Screaming I’m Driving! where she is kept busy wrangling three kids, one goofy Aussie, and her very own firefighter. She can be bribed with lattes and offers to do her laundry. Please send column suggestions to carrieb at seattle mom blogs dot com.

From her freckles to her sparkly shoes, you can’t help but love Ramona in the new adaptation of the Beverly Cleary classic Ramona and Beezus, which opens in theaters nationwide July 23rd. 

Admittedly, I was skeptical, as I always am when I view a book to film story on the big screen, but this gem did not disappoint.  Starring a delightfully adorable Joey King as Ramona and Selena Gomez as her older, boy-crazy sister Beezus (with an amazing supporting cast including John Corbett, Josh Duhamel, Gennifer Goodwin, Sandra Oh and others), Ramona and Beezus takes us on an imaginative journey through the eyes of a very creative little girl as she navigates life’s ups and downs.

Besides the eye candy (Hello!  John Corbett!  Josh Duhamel!), what I loved about this movie is that even though the original story was written back in the day, the modern adaptation hits on some really pertinant socio-economical issues that many families have experienced in the past few years without being heavy handed or gloomy.  Done delicately enough, the movie delivers hope to kids who’ve heard their parents utter things like “the bank is going to take the house” without coming right out and saying that they’re doing so.  Using the imagination and inspiration of one little girl, that would be Ramona, modern families will be entertained, delighted and charmed at how the onscreen dilemma plays out and end up walking out of the theater with a sense of hope.

Ramona and Beezus is nothing but fun, wrapped up in a visually exciting, creative and hilarious movie that will make the youngest and the oldest of us smile and laugh, evidenced by the fact that my 6 year-old giggled all the way through as well as my own mother. 

If wholesome family fun is what you’re looking for, take the kids, take grandma, heck take the neighbors to see Ramona and Beezus this weekend, and just try to sit through the movie without cracking a smile while taking a fun romp down the stories of your own youth.

A few of us here at SMB were lucky enough to be able to preview the amazing show KOOZA by Cirque du Soleil for you!  If you have never been to a Cirque du Soleil show, you are truly missing out on a fantastic feast for the eyes!  Music, singing, dancing, acrobatics, illusions, humor- these shows have it all, and SO much more!

Here is what we thought of our KOOZA experience- in our own words:

LAURA:

Kooza was our first introduction to Cirque de Soleil shows.  It was everything I had hoped Cirque du Soleil would be.  All of us were very entertained during the entire show, including my 5 year old son.  Every seat in the big tent is a great seat.  We were 3 rows from the last row and we were still very close to the stage.
My son keeps talking about it and asking me what my favorite part was.  He hasn’t quit talking about it since we went.  I honestly can’t pick a favorite act, because I really enjoyed it all.  His favorite was the skeletons and the men walking, jumping and flipping on the big huge wheels.
My family loved it and we look forward to seeing another Cirque du Soleil show again in the future!

MICHELLE:

My family and I saw the Cirque du Soleil show Kooza this past weekend.  While my husband and I have seen 2 other Cirque performances, this was our son’s first introduction.  It is so nice that Kooza is appropriate for the entire family!  There were people of all ages there and the whole thing is entertaining to young and old!  I love that Cirque du Soleil tells a story in between the acrobatic performances.  The story caries throughout the whole show and keeps you entertained and laughing while they gear up for the next set of stunts.  The audience participation is hilarious and keeps you guessing if you might be their next on-stage “victim”.  Very funny.  The music is beautiful- performed live on-stage during the show.  As far as my favorite acrobatic performance goes, I would have to say that the teeter-totter flippers are really fun to watch!  The extreme flexibility of one of the acts made me cringe a little- but, of course, it was truly amazing!  When I asked my son what his favorite part was, he replied, “Everything!”.  We all enjoyed ourselves immensely and can’t wait until another Cirque du Soleil show rolls into our area!

LESLIE:

This venue was so unique!  The entire show site is comprised of several huge tents.  The show arena was very intimate and there isn’t a bad seat in the house! All four of us thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  It really is hard to pick one act that we loved the most.  The guys on the spinning wheels and the flipping acrobats on stilts were ones that stood out for sure!  One tip: Get there early!  They do restrict your entrance if you don’t arrive on time- ahem, not that we would know anything about that.

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At the Seattle International Film Festival this month I got an early look at a screening of the documentary Waiting for Superman by Davis Guggenheim. I think this film will change the way that people in America view the education system. I think it will cause a massive unrest. I hope it will.

It’s a film about the broken education system in America. It’s a film about trying to find hope when many signs point to hope being lost. It’s a film about great educators and loving parents trying to do the best for children and meeting road blocks all along the way. It’s a film about our future and whether we will get up and do something about it. Superman is not coming to fix it but someone needs to.

The past few months as I’ve gotten a bee in my bonnet about where education is going in this country, I’ve had conversations with people from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Excellent Schools Now, two groups who are working for education reform. ESN is specifically working for an education revolution in Washington State, while The Gates Foundation is looking at the country as a whole.

My interest has always been in the quality of education my children receive. I’ve been very narrowly focused, wanting them to get the best teachers and have the greatest opportunities, teaching them at home and volunteering at the school.

After some of the conversations I’ve been having and especially after watching this film, I feel the need to broaden my scope. All children in this country should have a chance at a quality education, regardless of race, economic status or family background. They must. If our country is going to grow and be a prosperous nation, we have no other choice.

It is not enough for your child and my child to get a decent education. Our country is experiencing a serious shortage of educated workers to fill positions in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math fields right now, while at the same time many people are unemployed. This gap is only projected to get worse unless we see radical improvements in college readiness.

I’ve always believed that family is the greatest influence in a child’s life. I still do but after watching that documentary, I’m convinced that excellent teachers can make a huge difference in the lives of ALL children, even those with no support at home. I can’t necessarily heal and strengthen every family in this country. Sometimes I struggle with my own. But I feel that it’s possible to help make excellent education available to all children.

I’m new to this issue but I’m passionate about it. I’m not a teacher, a professional lobbyist or affiliated with any organization. Through this blog, I hope to learn more and explore ways big and small that we as individual parents can not only improve our own kids’ educations, but effect major change in the way education is run in this country and specifically Washington State. I’d love to hear your ideas and maybe we can all be Superman together.

Next Post: It Starts With a Teacher

When your week starts out like mine did on Monday, it’s hard for it to get any better. What I’m trying to say is that I’m still riding the high from the Cervical Cancer Awareness event at Grey Gallery that SMB co-hosted with The Yellow Umbrella (spear-headed by the lovely Christine Baze and her celebrity makeup artist co-hort, Debra Macki). If you weren’t able to make it, you truly missed out. It was an incredible evening of music and friends with an even more incredible message, that being SAVE THE HOOCH!

We were spoiled by our very own local professional photographer, Sarah Alston (of Sarah Alston Photography of course) who brought a ton of yellow props for us to play with as well as her enthusiasm for our group and the cause. We posed for silly photos in the photobooth that she lovingly set up and had no time at all coming out of our shells, as you can see. The night definitely would not have been the same without her and I know that she’s just as committed to spreading The Yellow Umbrella’s message as we are.

Now, if you’re unfamiliar with the term “SAVE THE HOOCH,” prepare yourself to be educated. The purpose of Christine’s non-profit, The Yellow Umbrella, is to educate, empower and inform women about the 3 very simple things that could one day save their lives, their fertility, and their cervix: the Pap test, the HPV test and the HPV vaccine.

At the age of only 31, Christine was diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer. It all started with an “abnormal” (how many of us have had one of those?) pap result and quickly turned into a diagnosis, a radical hysterectomy, laproscopy, daily pelvic radiation, chemotherapy and brachytherapy. In Christine’s own words, “Nothing hurts worse than having these things done to your body, not a shot, not a pap smear.”

Christine Baze and Debra Macki are in Seattle to spread the message, that cervical cancer is preventable. Through education and music, Christine sends her message to all women, everywhere, so they don’t have to go through what she did 10 years ago. With her uplifting lyrics that encourage us to live our lives while we can and her passion for this cause, she speaks to all women – as she spoke to us Monday night, telling them, telling us that cervical cancer IS preventable!

To accompany the message, Debra has designed an exclusive eye color palette for The Yellow Umbrella representing the 3 tools every woman needs in order to prevent cervical cancer. One of our lucky readers who wasn’t able to attend the Girlfriend Gathering will have the chance to win one of these palettes (valued at $36) just for doing one simple thing: telling us what she will do to prevent cervical cancer for herself, her daughter, her mother, her friend or her neighbor.

All you have to do is comment to win!  The awesome eye shadow palette is just the proverbial icing on the cupcake (a YELLOW one of course) in our effort to spread information and awareness of cervical cancer pevention.  Won’t you please join us?  Winner will be chosen by random draw on Monday, May 24th.  Best of luck and remember ladies (and gentlemen) SAVE THE HOOCH!

May 9th – 15th marks Seattle’s inaugeral Cervical Cancer Awareness Week – a week dedicated to education, information and empowerment for all women (and those who love them) to battle cervical cancer.

Seattle Mom Blogs has partnered with the non-profit The Yellow Umbrella to bring this special event to Seattle.  The event will feature live music by The Yellow Umbrella founder, Christine Baze, an accomplished musician and cervical cancer survivor, who has opened for Michelle Schocked, Sheryl Crow, The Fray, etc; and makeup demonstrations by celebrity makeup artist, Debra Macki, whose clients include Rhianna and Cyndi Lauper.  The pair will be in town to kick off Cervical Cancer Awareness Week and to showcase the recently released Debra Macki for The Yellow Umbrella eye shadow Palette, desighed exclusively to benefit The Yellow Umbrella.

The Girlfriend’s Gathering will also include:

• Eye makeovers by Debra Macki (for a select number of lucky guests)
• A complimentary Debra Macki for The Yellow Umbrella eye shadow palette for the first 25 women to RSVP
• Additional eye shadow palettes will be given to bloggers throughout the evening for reader giveaways
• Hors d’oeuvres, drinks and (yellow!) cupcakes
• Photobooth by Sarah Alston 

Where:  Grey Gallery & Lounge, Seattle,  WA 98122

When:  Monday, May 10th

Time:  7 – 10PM

We hope you can join us!  To view the invitation, please log into facebook and click on this link:    Or, you can email Carrie at if you have any questions.

Right now through the saavy source, you can grab a Seattle Children’s Museum pass for nearly 50% off the usual membership. Get a year for $40 instead of the usual $75.

From the Saavy Source Site you get:
Oodles of Fun family membership offers unlimited free admission for 1 year for two adults living at the same physical address and all dependent children
2-for-1 coupons for participating Pacific Northwest Museums
4 free one-time guest passes
10% discount on all birthday parties, pre-registration classes, camps, workshops, and after hours rentals
10% off all purchases at the Children’s Museum Store

By purchasing through Saavy Source, you’re not only getting a great deal, you’re contributing to the local schools. Saavy works with local preschools to provide excellent education and give our kids a head start. I’m happy to endorse such a great cause and fabulous deals!

Just what this pregnant body needed!

I just discovered the joy of pregnancy massage.  As an early Mothers Day gift, my husband treated me to a night away at the Salish Lodge.

Our favorite part of Salish Lodge is the spa.  We have had the Salish Signature Hot River Rock Massage (highly recommend) and the couples fireside massage.   The spa is what calls us back to Salish whenever we need to escape from our crazy life’s.

This time I decided to finally experience pregnancy massage.  The spa at Salish has just introduced a new line of products for pregnant women called Mama Mio Mama’s Touch, a new collection of indulgent maternity spa treatments designed to carry expecting or new mothers through every stage of the nine month stretch and beyond.  I really loved the fact that they were specially formulated for a pregnant women’s skin and the scent is so very mild.

The whole experience was just what I needed.  Being in my final trimester, I am pretty sore everywhere and rarely am I comfortable.  I was so relaxed and so comfortable that the 55 minute massage went way too fast.  I wasn’t ready for it to be over.  Luckily,  the Mama Mio products are available for purchase at the spa so you can take home a bit of the experience and pamper your skin during and after pregnancy.

I highly recommend checking out Salish Lodge and the new Maternity Spa Treatment’s they offer.  I will be there for another massage before this baby comes!

Give Salish Lodge a call and book your own pampering spa treatment today!  Any day can be Mother’s Day!!

 My boys are just over 18 months apart, although you probably wouldn’t guess that now – looking at them – because my 11 year-old stands approximately 3 inches (maybe more) over his 13 year-old brother.  But trust me, they are close in age.  Which basically boils down to the fact that during their “toddler” years, I was one busy mom.   My house was never quiet, there were always little dirty footprints somewhere, and the constant buzz of toy cars crashing into one another never ceased.  NEVER CEASED.  Looking back, I have no idea how I survived.  I wasn’t even a big coffee drinker back then.

This weekend, we had a 4 year-old boy in our house.  Lucky for me, he adores my older boys (and Katie too) so I knew that he wouldn’t be following me around asking me to play Hot Wheels with him, but I knew that there would be a few things I’d have to do to prepare for his visit.  First, I’d have to clear the decks of anything a 4 year-old might trip over because HE NEVER STOPS RUNNING.  And second, I’d have to bring down the arsenal of toy vehicles (pick a vehicle, any vehicle, and I bet we have it in our toy car bucket) for him to play with.  But I knew that at some point, he’d tire of running and driving his cars all over the place and I needed something more…

Which is where the Handy Manny comes in.

I kid you not, after running nonstop for almost 3 hours (and my twitter page can attest to this ) I thought nothing would slow him down.  Not even the “breakfast for dinner” meal that I was cooking.  But Handy Manny came to my rescue. 

Now, I may have mentioned before my aversion to children’s programming that annoys the spots off a giraffe (a’hem), and the same holds true with the Handy Manny series.  I do not find one single thing about Handy manny annoying.  In fact, I kind of like Manny’s voice – it’s soothing, and agreeable, kind of like Anthony Bourdain after a really long day…

I digress.

Handy Manny’s newest DVD, “Handy Manny:  Big Race,” is a lifesaver, even for parents with very busy little boys and girls.  When I declared, “Time for a movie, and guess what?  It’s about race cars!”  The battle was over.  The running stopped,  quiet returned, and one very special 4 year-old’s eyes grew big with excitement as he watched the cars Vroom Vroom on the screen, clutching his “Mater” car the entire time, of course.

Seattle Mom Blogs has FIVE copies of “Handy Manny:  Big Race” to give away to our readers.  Please comment and leave a working email address at the bottom of this post by midnight on Tuesday, May 11th, for your chance to win.  Winners will be notified via email following a random draw and the DVD will be shipped, new in package, to your front door (or address of choice, within reason).

Edited: The giveaway has been extended to May 15th! Please comment for your chance to win or help spread the word! Thank you!

Comments are NOW CLOSED.  Thank you for entering.  Winners will be notified by email. 

 

Carrie Blankenship is the author of the blog Stop Screaming I’m Driving, where she attempts to tell her story of motherhood. She likes long walks in the park, dancing in the rain, and can be bribed to do just about anyting with a vanilla latte, extra foam. Contact her with column suggestions or just say “hi” at carrieb[at]seattlemomblogs.com. Or, .