happy mlk day

so, today will officially celebrate the birthday of martin luther king, jr. or the day is named for him and google helpfully provides bios in case someone is extremely young or just arrived in the u.s. or are unfamiliar with the details for whatever reason.

but, this holiday is under utilized. we should do something. since mlk ws a reverand and most people already spent all their money in december, i have long been a proponent of potluck. everyone can get together with friends and neighbors to eat baked beans and casseroles. wait... do casseroles still exist

I'm baaaack....

so, here we are in the waning days of 2010 and i am finally getting back to normal. i will try to find something interesting. lately, even when i think of something.. it seems it's very similar to what i have already covered. so, i don't want to bore anyone. or it's just been too complicated to get into.. when i was phone blogging more, i felt o.k. with being lax. i don't know.. we'll see how it goes.

i hope everyone had good holidays. mine were o.k., no complaints.

love,
shampoo

kids & christmas

I just saw some poor guy on tv who'd lost his job. he has, among other responsibilities, a disabled child. that is really rough. I know many people are in similar positions and I really wish them well with getting a new job and being able to continue helping their families. of course, he was also concerned about what to do for christmas.

I will share a little secret I remember from my childhood... kids will ask for EVERYTHING because they have no clue how much stuff costs. however, most kids don't expect to get most of that stuff. they just want to get something off ther 30 page list. maybe 3-4 somethings, but certainly not everything (unless you have spoiled them to an insane degree or unless you are so rich you really can buy anything they want).

if you get the paper, save the colored funny pages (or get someone to do this for you). this makes great gift wrap, especially for kid's stuff. look at your junk mail, those cards that fall out of magazines... anything... cut out cute images and use these to make decorations for packages. sometimes you can get free gift tags here and there, but if you don't, use plain paper and these decorative objects to make your own. doing this allows you to cheaply wrap more packages. and that, in turn, makes it economically feasible to wrap you kid's presents in ways that make it look like the most packages. kids LOVE to unwrap stuff. so, wrap up as many as you can, even stocking stuffers, in this cost effective manner.

if you make cookies right before christmas wrap these up! you can use one of your resealable bowls since, if it's your own kids, you'll get these back. if you're giving them as gifts, you can get little containers fairly cheaply.

if your child has a doll and you can sew, make some outfits. if the child doesn't sleep with the doll, you might dress her in the new outfit and put her under the tree (unwrapped) as a surprise from santa.

remember, your children love you. just do your best... try to think of fun activities to add to christmas fun. also, be on the lookout for bargains! :)

good luck and happy holidays. :)

negative me

my sister was here yesterday and things were much better.

my brother was around thanksgiving and the day after and got all pissy and told me "there's a lot of negative noise coming off of you."

no one else was at all upset about anything I was saying. I was talking about buying a cd (investment vehicle). and I wanted other people's opinions.

not half listening this pissed him off and he decided I was ungrateful and stomped out. he couldn't even stay for dinner which was about 30 seconds from being served.

the day before that, I got lectured on praying my pain away and if i'd just believe in the LORD all would be perfect. this is basically saying to me my parents weren't good enough to live or I didn't pray for them hard enough and I am not wanting to hear that.

be a little grateful. break my heart.