Don't Pee on the Bee

The bumps in life!

So here is what our world is looking like--

Poor JJ has been taking amoxicillin for strep throat and now gets to deal with this!   He is being a real trooper though!  Thank goodness we have the lure of Halloween to keep him going!

  

Gotta love those gift cards!

Figured we all needed a little break from all that Nurture Shock info!  So how about a little retail therapy (sort of!) to change the pace?

I read about this website www.GiftCardRescue.com in the October issue of Shop Smart.  I got on it briefly this morning and checked it out.  Looks good!  Good prices if you want to buy a gift card, and a great way to get rid of a gift card that you won't use and can't regift!  (Do you do that?  I do.)

If you try it out, let me know!

Nurture Shock--The Lost Hour

Ah, sleep.  That is one thing is THIS house that we do NOT mess around with!  I've been criticized in the past for my rigidness around this, but I can honestly say that this is one area where my critics can say what they want, but it will NEVER change my mind nor my actions!

According to Bronson and Merryman, the fact is that children get one less hour of sleep now than they did thirty years ago.  Most American parents believe that their child is getting enough sleep.  But get this--only 5% of high school seniors get 8 hours of sleep at night!  The authors cite a study where children who stayed up later than the control group performed two grade levels below their actual grade.  Many other studies backed this research up.   One study conducted with teens in Minnesota showed increases of 56 points on math SAT scores and 156 points in verbal SAT scores when the local high school changed the start time of school from 7:25 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.  In Kentucky, a high school did the same thing, and teenage car accidents dropped 25% when compared to the rest of the state.  It's safe to say that I am completely on board with this issue!

Nurture Shock--finally!

Looks like I'm getting pretty good with finding those few minutes to read lately!  I dove into Nurture Shock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, and I must tell you I was pleasantly surprised!  I knew I was going to like it (that psych background of mine, you know!), but I thought the book might be a bit scholarly and not an easy read.  Wrong!  I breezed through the first chapter and wanted to keep right on reading!

The first chapter is entitled The Inverse Power of Praise and was the basis for an article in New York magazine.  What I loved about this chapter was that Bronson started with some anecdotal information, introduced some of the studies (one being his admittedly completely unscientific "study!"), gave a bit more anecdotal information, a few more studies, and then talked about how this research had impacted him as a father.  It was so compelling to me to read it in this order.   Never did I feel like "the expert" was telling me what I had been doing wrong and how to do it better.  It felt much more matter-of-fact than that, and it seemed very well-rounded.  Could be my "psych bias," but who knows?

An admission of guilty reading pleasure!

Although I have a HUGE pile of books that I want to read and have promised to read and blog about, I have to admit that I made my way through a book that was not in that pile!  But what a wonderful read it was! 

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows was FABULOUS!  It is set in post-World War II England and is composed of letters sent back and forth between a writer in England and a group of people living on the island of Guernsey (which was occupied during the Germans during the war).  The novel was named one of the ten best books of the year by Time and USA today and has received accolades from numerous others. 

One of the best lines in the book comes from Isola Pribby:  "Reading good books  ruins you for enjoying bad books."

This books definitely falls into the category of good books!  Thanks, Sara, for the loan!

Sunday's path

Loved this from Spirit Boosters blog, but I also am intrigued by 'Parson' Clark.

A Path With No Obstacles
Posted: 08 Aug 2009 09:08 PM PDT
"If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere." --Frank A. Clark 

Who was Frank A. Clark?  From Answers.com

'Parson' Clark inspired legions of faithful readers

Frank Clark ministered to tens of thousands of people in an unusual way - via his popular one-panel newspaper cartoons.  His instructive and insightful "The Country Parson" sermons were treasured by loyal fans. At the height of its popularity, in 1963, the feature was published in 79 American newspapers, although during its lifetime it was carried by more than 200 newspapers.  Clark took weighty themes and treated them with gentle humor, lightly poking fun at human foibles and weaknesses

Each panel carried an illustration - often of the kindly parson himself - and an aphorism that made readers think:

"If you haven't time to help youngsters find the right way in life, somebody with more time will help them find the wrong way."

"Sins are kinda like rabbits - turn a couple of 'em loose and the first thing you know there's a whole bunch of new ones."

"A Bible that's falling apart usually belongs to a person who isn't."

"A young man should never be ashamed of his ancestors - unless he's turning out to be like them."

Yes, soup for you!

Soup is sounding good with the cooler weather arriving and that beautiful rain!  I am going to try this recipe for Lemony Lentil Soup with Greens (from October 2009 Parenting Early Years magazine).  They think kids will eat it.  I'm not betting on it with my kids!  This is more for me!  With a nice piece (or two!) of bread . . . maybe some nice wine . . . Hmmm . . . lunch might not be so bad that day!