MOMMY YOU ARE ALWAYS ON THE PHONE!

Being a mom and being on the phone is not a good way to multitask!

One day my 7 year-old brought me a surprise from school, something he had made for me. He had it inside a paper bag that he had designed. The paper bag caught my attention because I saw something on it and couldn’t understand why he drew that.

On that paper bag he drew a heart, a picture of me, a telephone and wrote a message:

“I love you mommy. You are the best.”

It was so sweet but I didn’t get the connection with the phone?! So I asked him:

“Why the phone?”

He replied:

“Mommy I drew the phone because you are always on the phone!”

Wow! That moment was a reality check! It was like a wake up call. I knew I was spending too much time working. But I never thought my kids would notice that.

Since then I have left my job. I wanted to spend more time with my family. Some weeks I would work 45 to 50 hours and then after getting home my boss would call all the time. I would either be getting ready for dinner or putting the kids in bed. I didn’t have the guts to tell my boss to wait till the next morning when I was back at work.

My New Year's resolution was to spend more time with my family and that’s what I am doing. I have made a deal with myself. When my children and hubby are home I will not answer my cell phone or even get on the computer to check email or facebook. I have also asked my hubby to do the same. It’s really hard sometimes just because of the world we live in but you have to keep reminding yourself of what’s more important in your life.

In my life there is nothing more important than my little family.

I found this interesting article a couple days ago in the New Jersey Real Time News about adults being on the phone too much and how it affects children. It’s a great article and I recommend you read it because we are so busy with our everyday lives we don’t even realize that such an insignificant thing like being on the phone can cause so much damage for our little people.

"Too much cell phone use by adults can lead to problems for kids”

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/08/too_much_cell_phone_use_by_adu.html

How many hours are you on the phone, or working from home?

DO YOU WANT TO BOND WITH YOUR FAMILY? TAKE A ROAD TRIP!

If you haven’t seen the movie “Vacation” with Chevy Chase, you must rent it! It was out in 1983. It’s a funny movie that follows the Griswold family on a road trip. I have seen it about 6 times and it never gets old.

This year, I decided my family and I needed to do something crazy and fun that would allow us to bond, spend quality time together and not break the bank!!! So I told my husband that for Spring Break I wanted our family to drive to Florida. He embraced the idea with excitement (we like to do crazy things with the kids- sometimes I think we are the “Griswold family”)

We started to plan our road trip. It was funny seeing the reactions on our friends faces when we told them we were driving our minivan to Florida with the 3 kids. Most people said we were nuts and would end up turning back half way… some said I would be the one saying: “Are we there yet?” and then we had those people that told us they did that as a child and still remember the experience as if it were today. That’s what I wanted: that memory!

Once we decided what day we were leaving, we put together a daily schedule. We mapped it out so that we would get the most out of the week.

DRIVING SCHEDULE:

Friday- Leave home at 8 p.m.

Saturday- Arrive in NC- go to Carowinds Theme Park- Stay at Hyatt Hotel

Sunday- Arrive in Florida- Stay at Royal Plaza hotel- Go to Downtown Disney

Monday- Go to MGM Studios in morning- Go to Magic Kingdom at night

Tuesday- Go to Universal Studios

Wednesday- Go to Universal Islands of Adventure

Thursday- Go to Animal Kingdom in morning- Go to Magic Kingdom at night

Friday- Go to Sea World- Leave Florida and start driving back home

Saturday- Arrive in Williamsburg, Virginia – go to Bush Gardens- Stay at The Historic Powhatan Resort

Sunday- Drive all the way home

Very ambitious isn’t it?!

We spent lots of nights on the computer looking for hotels. My hubby did an amazing job booking the hotels. The rooms were huge and the prices were very affordable. He booked them through Expedia.

INSIDE OUR MINIVAN:

We packed everything and anything that we thought we might need. We bought a big cooler and inside it we had salami, turkey, ham, cheese, and bread to make sandwiches enough for lunch for the week. We had a pack of cheese sticks. We had diet soda for daddy, water for mommy and juice boxes for the kids and Yohoo boxes. We had snacks: cookies, chips, chocolate covered blueberries, M&M’s, fruit, gum for mom & dad and gumballs for the kids.

In a big paper bag I packed plenty of coloring books, crayons for each kid, paper to write on and notebooks. We had books for the 7-year-old to read as well as LeapFrog Tag reading books and the pen for the 5 and 3 year-old. We also packed their DS games and the kids packed their own stuffed animals and the toys they wanted to bring along.

Our minivan does not have a TV so we packed our small flat screen TV and attached a small DVD player to it. We packed lots of movies.

On the IPOD daddy loaded lots of kids songs and for mommy and daddy we had comedy shows and lots of music. Daddy also loaded on the IPOD music themes from old TV Shows, which made for a cool guessing game and brought back cool memories of those old TV Shows- and since I grew up in Portugal and missed a lot of those 80 shows my husband told me all about them while we were driving. Daddy also downloaded the Harry Potter audio books.

We had a pillow and a blanket for each kid. In the trunk we had the suitcases with our clothes and a stroller.

Lots of wipes, tissues, napkins and 4 trash bags.

It was a blast!!! My husband and I took turns driving. When one would get tired the other would take over. The comedy shows were a great entertainment as well as the Harry Potter audio books.

We had a very ambitious schedule but we did everything we had planned. It was awesome! The kids had a blast and were so well behaved in the car. No one was screaming or crying. They were very happy.

The driving wasn’t bad at all…It was neat seeing all the different billboards and signs along the way as well as the different speed limits. At one point it went from 55 to 75 so weird.

The best part of the trip though… The bonding. It’s a memory I’ll never forget. It was precious and I would do it all over again.

I WANT MORE DRUMSTICKS PLEASE!!!

If you are like most parents, I’m sure you’ve had one of those days where you wish you had a maid because you either hate cooking, or you are just running out of ideas on what to make, or you simply can’t afford to spend a lot of money on food.

On today’s blog I want to share what I am making for dinner tonight. It’s a great deal, a great meal and a time saver. On top of it my kids LOVE IT!!!!

I went to the grocery store and bought a pack of 24 drumsticks for $10.36. (They were 99 cents a pound) They come in pouches with 4 drumsticks in each. I have a family of 5 so I usually use 2 pouches for each meal and I freeze the remaining pouches.

I marinate the drumsticks in the morning (sometimes with barbeque sauce, other times with teriyaki sauce… you can use whatever you like, really. I leave them in the fridge so they can soak up the flavors). When it’s time for dinner I boil them until I see no pink. I take them out of the pan and marinate them again (I like the meat with flavor) I turn the grill on and put them on the grill. (I used to cook them only on the grill but because they are so thick they would take forever to cook and they would burn… boiling them for a couple of minutes makes it go a lot faster, the meat comes out tender and juicy.)

While the chicken is on the grill I make french-fries (sometimes I make mashed potatoes or rice) and boil some veggies to go along.

In about 30 minutes we are all eating dinner, the kids love it… and it costs about 5 to 6 bucks to make.

Do you have a quick, affordable, and yummy meal you want to share?

YOU BETTER LOVE THOSE SKECHERS!!!

Everyday for two weeks my daughter Nicole kept asking me if I could buy her a pair of skechers. (Nicole is my middle child and she's such a good kid.) As a reward for her great behavior I promised to buy her a pair of skechers. I had no idea what they looked like or how much they would cost.

I made it a mommy daughter shopping day. I took her to JC Penny (because they always have buy one get one for 88 cents so I was hoping I could knock two bird with one stone) Nicole had good taste, they were unique, pink with designs and a little rose hanging on them, they were very stylish… until I say the price tag!!! 40-dollars!!!. I immediately thought “Oh man my husband is going to flip out when he sees the bill.” (We never splurge with anything that we buy because we just can't afford it with the 3 kids.) I don't even spend that much on my shoes. I tried to convince her to get a cheaper pair for 12 bucks but there was no way, no how. Her mind was made up. After 30 minutes I gave up, I couldn’t get over the price, but I had made her a promise. When I got in the car I asked her if the reason why she wanted those is because her friends at school have the same kind. She said "NO, I saw them on TV." Oh did I feel like a sucker.

And yup, daddy did freak out when he saw the bill.

Funny thing though, and the point that I want to make with this blog about the skechers- today when I dropped her off at school and the Director greeted her, he looked down at her skechers and said: "There you go Nicole, that's an easy way not to have your shoes untied" I quickly thought: “Oh no, he thinks I took the shoe laces off!!!” I quickly replied: "Mr. C don’t you know they are skechers, they don’t have shoe laces!"

Ok besides them being wicked expensive and giving my husband almost a heart attack now the Director thinks I took the shoe laces off.

I just can't win!