Children put on your Respirators, it's time to play in the sand box!

SANDBOXES AND CARCINOGENS

So my most recent project is a sandbox for the kids. I have been working on digging it out the past week or so and am finally ready to start shopping for Sand. Well, little did I know how complex this would be! It turns out that the PLAY SAND that places like Home Depot and Wal-Mart have are labeled with carcinogen warnings! Seriously? And they label it as play sand? One label I saw even said, "Don't inhale without a respirator!" Ok kids, go play in your sandbox, but don't forget to wear your respirator! LOL! So basically any sand containing Silicates are harmful and sand containing Carbonates are not. I also learned that there are other things to be concerned about. If your going to have a sandbox it HAS TO BE COVERED!!!! I read a couple articles talking about racoon's doing their business in sand boxes and some sort of worm they can transmit to our children that causes disease and mi grains! Also, bacteria can grow and contaminate the sand if the children's hands are dirty or if they are eating in the sand box! There are a couple options available for safe sandbox's. Sterilized Sand is one option but it is hard to find. You can get some at http://www.safesand.com/, but it will cost you about 60.00 per 50lb. bag, which is a lot considering you will probably need about 200-300 lbs for an average size sand box. The option that I am leaning towards is not sand, but PEA GRAVEL. It is basically just a variety of tiny rocks. You don't really need to worry about animals getting into it, and it will not cause cancer, and you can get different sizes and types of rock. I am pretty sure that any landscaping company can deliver pea gravel right to your sandbox. You can also buy it at Lowe's or Home Depot. The smallest variety looks almost like sand. I am headed to Lowe's tomorrow and I will let you all know what I end up with and how much it cost me! For some good info on using pea gravel check out http://hubpages.com/hub/Geology-101-for-Toddlers I found a lot of good info here! Another Blog on toxic sand : http://livegreenmom.com/2010/04/sand-box-toxic/

LOVE,

Shannon

FAMILY UPDATE

Michael with the frog that he and Dom found in the backyard

Strawberry Picking

Relaxing in the backyard

Pool Time!!!

FAMILY UPDATE / July 2010

So I thought I would do a little family update of what has been going on around here lately. The kids are enjoying their summer vacation, and have already made several trips over to Gramps and Nanna's house to swim. Samantha loves the water and is already trying to "swim" (in her own way) Her hair is looking really blond lately, and it is actually growing and curly at the ends! Not at all what I pictured my little girl's hair to be like, but soooo cute!!!! Dom and Mike are sporting Mohawks for the summer! I made a deal with them that if they let me get some nice pics of them, then afterwards they can shave their heads, it worked. The silly band craze has hit our house also recently and the boys arms are decked with stretchy pigs, tools, fish, and any other thing imaginable! They have been fighting a lot lately and it has been driving me crazy! I have been trying to think of creative ways to get them to get along. The other day I decided that we were going to go to the store and buy water guns. They were still fighting, but fighting happily that afternoon! A good investment on my part for some sanity and peace ( inside at least!) Michael had his first dentist appt awhile ago!!!! He was soooo good and even whispered to me "mom, this is fun" when the hygienist stepped out for a sec! Samantha is still teething and I am wondering when she will ever get those last few teeth, but until then she will probably continue to try and chew everything, including bars of soap, candles, my lip gloss, dog food, random pieces of wood found outside, erasers, markers, crayons, play dough, and just about everything else! Oh yes, I cannot forget to tell you all about Soccer! Dom is DOMinating! this year! It is ridiculous and almost embarrassing at times. He really should be in the higher league but his birthday is in Sept. and they are strict about it! Ugh! He headed the ball the other night and then followed it though with a goal! Just about every time someone from the other team would get the ball and head towards the goal Dom would sweep in and turn it around, bringing it right back to score! Here's an example of borderline embarrassing (but yet proud!) parent moments Bry and I have been having lately! Everyone (even OUR coach!) is cheering for one of the cute little small boys on the other team who finally gets the ball and is headed towards the goal ahead of the crowd (mind you everyone is excited because this is rare!) Then comes Dom, from the other end of the field, flying by everyone headed for his target. All I am thinking is "Please don't knock him over! Please don't knock him over!" Well, he sweeps in and steals the ball turning it around. The little boy trips over his toes and falls and you can hear the sighs of parents as their hopes of a goal is taken from them..... What am I to do?! I have to cheer for my little soccer pro! It's ridiculous! Well, he played a great game that night! He is great at soccer, but I like that he is also kind. He never pushes or does things maliciously and he really does try to use teamwork. He passed a bunch of times tonight, and had some goal assists along with his goals (which I really didn't keep track of the exact #) Ok, enough about soccer. Some other things we have been up to..... strawberry picking, wild berry picking, visiting the Children's Museum, hitting the summer community sales, getting together with friends and fireworks! What have I been up to? Hmmm, I guess I have been enjoying our yard a lot this summer and have been making an attempt to grow some fruits and vegetables. We currently have Roma tomatoes, blackberry bushes, raspberries, grapes, blueberry bushes, red peppers, and strawberries. It looks like we will be getting a lot of tomatoes, but as for everything else, I am holding out hope for next year! A good friend told me a little saying about perennials, "First year they sleep, second year they creep, third year they leap" So in two years..... can't wait! I am really beginning to love gardening! I just picture the kids next year running around playing and snacking on all the fruits we will be growing! I have grapes growing next to the boys playground "Fort" and in a year or two they should cover it and make it look really cool! I know the boys will love it. I am also working on a sandbox for the kids. I actually just finished digging it out today so now all we have to do is get some sand. I was really excited last weekend when I found a whole storage bin full of sand toys for 3 bucks at a garage sale (bin included!) Well, Bry has been up to his usual stuff: Enjoying the Yankee's games and doing BJJ. He is now also teaching BJJ (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) at our church in a self-defense/fitness class. And then there's the furry child. Leo really thinks he is one of the kids and does everything with them. He was even in the kiddie pool with them the other day. Sam is his baby and she always lays on him on the floor and cuddles with him, it is so cute! He is very gentle with her and lets her pull his ears, bounce on him, ect... He is a great dog and we are blessed to have him! Sooooooooo that is about it. We are planning on doing some fun stuff this summer around here with the kids... Sea breeze, Red Wings, state fair, and maybe a short out of town trip. I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their summer! Keep in touch! Love u all! ~Shannon

"Dear Lord, Thank you for this food, spend time, good day, amen"

Sitting around my kitchen table at any given meal this is what you will hear as Micheal prays. It is precious and I will always cherish his little voice saying those same little words every night.

But.....

It has also bothered me that they think of prayer as just some words you casually repeat before a meal or before bed. Prayer is talking to the God of the Universe! So I have decided to focus their Bible lesson on prayer for the next week or so. Undoubtedly this is an area that I need to work on too! I do not pray as much as I should and I do not think I approach God with as much reverence as I should, me being made of dust and all, and he being well, GOD!

Jesus gave us an example prayer to pray. He didn't tell us to pray the exact words when we pray, but he told us "this then is HOW you should pray" (Matthew 6:9). So verse by verse I am going to take the boys through this prayer and show them how they can say a little more then "rub a dub dub, thank u for the grub" I am going to be working on it myself too. One of the amazing things about God's word is that it is just as applicable for a four year old as it is for a twenty-eight year old! So here we go!

Matthew 6:9

"this then is how you should pray, 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name..."

Lets keep this simple, 1. He shows respect "Our Father" and 2. He praises God "hallowed be your name"

The boys and I read this and talked about it and decided that we would work on saying one thing to praise God when we pray. Micheal prayed before bed tonight, "...you are awesome, and you take care of us..." Domenic prayed, " you are so good and powerful..."

I think That God wants us to pray in this way, not for his own benefit, but for ours. I mean, he is God, he knows how great his is! But when we acknowledge it to him and to ourselves, it prepares our heart to be humble as we approach him in prayer. I think that this is why it is at the beginning.

Work on prayer with us! Let me know your thoughts on prayer and Follow me! let me know that I am not just writing into the air! Love and God bless,

Shannon

I was "THAT MOM" with "THAT KID" !!!! (Our trip to the Library)

I had the motherly privilege of being "THAT MOM" with "THAT KID" the other day at the library. It is always a memorable and humbling experience. I know because I have been "THAT MOM" on more than one occasion over the past few years. LOL! It was a dark rainy day. A perfect day to go to the library. Michael hadn't been in a while so I told him as soon as he got up that we were going after breakfast. We got ready and headed out the door into the garage around 10:00. It was then that I realized that the stroller was in the other Car!!! Nooooo!!! I had already told Mike we were going. I couldn't back out now! Why did I sell that old umbrella stroller at the garage sale for 1.oo? What was I thinking? So we headed to the library without a stroller for Sam. She can walk, it couldn't be that bad right? Well, we got there and immediately she tried taking off and didn't want to hold my hand. I had to chase her down the aisles a couple times. We got the book I was looking for and headed to the children's section where we stayed for a while and where Sam roamed around, rode the wooden horse, ect..... when it was time to leave, she didn't want to go and started throwing a fit! I am at the counter with my books in one arm and Samantha in the other putting up a fight to be let down. Ugh!!! At least Mike was good. His rank has moved up. He has officially been replaced by a littler more rascally rascal. (One that bites! Yes, Heather, if your reading this, I got a biter!Lol!) I think he thought it felt good to be the bigger, "look at me mom, I'm being good" Child. I could see it in his eyes! Anyways, the nice librarian thought she would try to help and put a large bin of stickers on the floor for my kids to pick through. I was checking out my books and was just relieved to have her distracted for a sec. Next thing I know she has dumped the entire bin onto the floor! Mike is scrambling to help put them back. I had just finished checking out my books and there is a line of people behind me as I am bent down on the floor with Sam and Mike picking up stickers. Can we say embarrassing?!!!! So then the librarian comes around and tries to help. Sam is not happy about the stickers being put away or about me picking her up so she starts to kick and scream and flail her arms. Mind you we are in the Library, and Sam does not have a sweet little voice when she screams. Her scream is soooo much louder than I ever remember Dom and Mike's being! She screams and you think she is dying! Well, I hauled her butt out of there as fast as I could only to have the security alarm go off as I passed though the detectors!!! COME ON!!! SERIOUSLY??? WHAT ELSE?!! The Librarian nicely just told me to "just go, your having a hard enough time" LOl! THANK YOU!!! Oh, and to that Lady in the nice suit with the short blond bob and black glasses sitting in that chair giving me that look....... I would gladly rather be "THAT MOM" than no mom, and if you think my child is ridiculous or horrible, you obviously have never had children. They all have their Crazy Embarrassing Child moments. But the good moments far outweigh the bad. For all of you who don't have kids and don't understand... next time you see a mom having a hard time with her child, just go on about your business and ignore. The looks DO NOT HELP! And for all of you moms who have been there.... you will be there again soon so just

KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON.

Love,

Shannon

RAINY DAY IDEA: Continue the library fun at home. When we got back Mike and I made our own little library in the back corner of the family room. I used babygates and the toy box to section the area off and put a kiddie table and chair set in there with lots of books and to make it a cozy nook added stuffed animals, blankets, pillows, and a bean bag chair. The kids loved it. They sat in their little area looking at books alot that day and it was quiet because I told them you had to be quiet in the library! Even Sam was well behaved in her own little library! LOL!

A Conversation with Dom about Evil- The Cheerful Coffin

How do you talk to your kids about good vs evil? It can be a tricky subject these days. There is little on t.v. , in music, and in books that is pure and only good. Are we to throw out our tv, and ban all music? How can I teach my children to discern good vs evil for themselves so they are not just always relying on what I say? How Can I teach them to live in the world and know how to make wise decisions without me right by their side? These are questions I wonder about and am working through the awnsers to. I sometimes do want to just ban tv all together and other things as well, but I think a part of me is afraid to shelter the children to much for fear that they will rebel when they are a bit older and go off the deep end. I want their spiritual convictions to be their own. I want them to know in their own head and hearts the why's of right vs. wrong and good vs. evil. So far I have been teaching them that if something on t.v. appears evil, we aren't going to watch it. We have read the verse together that says, " abstain from every form of evil" (1 thes. 5:22) and another one I really like for the kids (short and easy) is in Psalms 101:3 which says, "I will set no worthless thing before my eyes" We read the verse and then we have a discussion about what it means and I try to relate it to their everyday life. The first time we read this verse and talked about it, Domenic asked me "well, is star wars evil?" (mind you this is his favorite show and game which he plays daily). I was like uhhhh. I didn't know what to say. They do harness powers that come from "the force" and not from God. Could we just say that "the force" is God? I really didn't want to tell him it was possibly evil, atleast the good guys anyways. Here is where you can see how I might be compromising, or "grey". I instead turned the question around and asked him what he thought. He said he thought it was evil and vowed that he would never watch it again. Ofcourse he was back to it the next day. Should I have told him he shouldn't watch it? Am I helping him compromise something he was convicted about? I don't know! from a young age with Domenic I have tried to point him to discerning what is right and wrong with what he sees. I would comment on a show if the charactors were having a bad attitude ect.. with the hopes that he would begin to recognize those things himself and think a little more about what he sees

Ok, so that brings us to the situation at hand. Sorry about the drawnout intro! I found in Domenic's lunch bag the Yu-Gi-Oh! card pictured above. I really know nothing about them, except from what I am seeing on the card, and to me, well, it looks a little evil (When I found the above pic online, it said that the original Japanese card had a cross on the coffin). I asked Dom what it was and he told me that his friend at school gave it to him and keeps giving them to him. I asked him if he knew what it said, he didn't know so I told him. Then I asked him if he knew what a coffin was. He didn't so I told him. You should have seen the look on his face. I then asked him if he thought that this was good? He awnsered, "No, I don't think so" with a tone of sarcasm and a raised eyebrow. I told him that he should just give it back to his friend at school that day but he had a different idea. He told me,"No way! I am tearing this into a million tiny peices and throwing it out" and he did. It was pretty funny, but I was proud of my little man! I really don't want him to just follow the crowd. I want him to think for himself and stand by his own convictions. Being a mom with the goal of raising my kids to follow Christ is hard. Kids don't really see grey like we allow ourselves to sometimes. It is black or white, good or evil. I need to be more like Domenic some days. He has a heart that is pure and undefiled by compromise and apathy. Christ said we need to become like little children and I am understanding that statement more and more as I raise mine.

Strive for five

STRIVE FOR FIVE!!!!! If anyone is familiar with the beloved Wegmans of upstate New York, you undoubtedly have heard this phrase! Strive For Five is the grocery chain's logo that encourages shoppers to eat atleast five cups of fruits and vegetables a day, and thus buy more food from them! Let's take this phrase and use it for a goal to spend time sharing Christ with our children on a daily basis. This is a good starting point if you are a new believer or if you have fallen away for while also. What could be more important then our relationship with GOD and spending time getting to know him? We say nothing, ofcourse! But our actions often tell otherwise. It is also so important to share God's Word and pray with our Children, even at a young age. This is something that I have been trying to do. I read a little Biblestory to Mike this a.m. and then we prayed together. It was soooo precious to hear him pray and talk to God! Five minutes a day is not much time at all. Most preschooler's attention spans are about that long, so it's perfect. Let's think for a moment about what we spend 5 minutes of our day on... hmmm... for me.... tweezing my eyebrows (Only if your Italian like me would that take so long! Lol!), Watching the morning weather forcast, picking up toys in the playroom, checking my email, Staring at a room in my house and moving things around, Waiting on hold to make an appointment, putting on my makupe, chasing the dog around the house, who has once again stolen a dirty diaper out of the garbage or my underwear out of the laundry! I am sure I could go on forever but you get the point. None of these things are even close to being as important as spending time with the Lord and teaching my children to pray, seek God, and develop a relationship with him. But they all take up atleast five minutes of my time on a regular basis! How much time in your day are you devoting to God? If you have children, how much time are you devoting to nurturing their spiritual needs? Lets Strive for Five. Leave those dishes in the sink, skip your eyemakupe for one day, turn off the t.v., leave the toys for later. Grab your kids and share with them God's love for them. It will make a difference in their lives, and yours!

This is what we do.....

1. We talk about who we could pray for and decide who will pray for what, then we pray

2. I then pick out a Bible verse to read. We read it and talk about what it means and how we can apply it to our lives.

3. Then we usually will go over some memory verses that I keep on notecards in a little recipe box

PROJECT IDEA: PRAYER JAR

With your kids, put the names of everybody that you know on little peices of paper. You can even include the president, Christians in China, and the Mailman, whoever you want! Put them all in a cleaned out candle jar or some other sort of jar. When you have your meals, or during your devotion time let the children each pick out a name or two and add those people to your prayers! The kids will be so excited to pick a name and it will help encourage them to pray!

Hope this has been an encouragment to you! Have any other ideas or comments? Please Share!!!
Love,
Shannon

TOP TEN funny things my kids have said and done

1. ( 2006)When Michael was first born, Domenic was about two and a half years old. At that time we realized that yes, even children as young as two years old are capable of lying! Michael was laying in his crib watching his mobile spin. I told Domenic not to touch the mobile and I went into the other room. I came back to find the mobile ontop of baby Michael! After fixing it, I asked Domenic if he touched it and knocked it down like I told him not to. He looked at me with a completely strait face and said, "Michael hit it really hard" Ofcourse he did not! He was only an infant! Lol. Lets just say Dom got into trouble fo that one!

2. After peeing all over me while learning to go pee on the potty, Michael looks up at me (who had just flipped out!) and says with a pouty lip and big eyes, "Sorry about that mom." I have to say I couldn't be upset at him after that.

3. (Oct. 2008) It was fall and the boys were outside raking leaves and playing in them. I had gone inside to take care of Sam. I came back out a while later after Domenic told me he had a great idea: Sliding down the slide into the leaves. Yes, that would normally be a good Idea. But when I came outside I realized he had left out one little detail. He and Michael decided to do this IN THE GARAGE!!!!! They had raked all the piles of leaves in teh front yard into the garage!!! You couldn't even see the ground. As I helped them rake out the garage it definitly was not funny; but I can see the humor in it now!

4. (Feb. 2009) I was cleaning the coffee table with pledge wood cleaner and Domenic looks at me and says, " Mom, why are you putting Chemicals on the table?"

5. (Feb. 2009) I was making a salad and the boys wanted to eat some cucumber slices so I gave them each one. I look in the family room and they have their shirts off and their cucumbers in their mouths like mouthgaurds as they pretended they were fighters.

6. I was cleaning the house and singing that song that goes "No air, how am I suppost to breathe with no air... no air.." Domenic looks at me with this raised eyebrow and says, "Mom, you couldn't! You would just die!"

7. When Domenic found out we were having a baby shower at our house he asked me, " But mom, how are you all going to fit in the shower?"

8. When Michael was 3 we went on a walk one afternoon and he was riding his scooter. Out of the blue he stopped his scooter and said, "wait mom! Someone is texting me" He pulled out his toy phone opened it up and pressed a couple buttons. Looking up he said, "Its Buzz" then put the phone back in his pocket and got back on his scooter!

9. Pretending to talk on the phone one day Michael said, "Hi Domenic. I miss you. I'm stuck here with the two girls!"

10. We took the boys skating at R.I.T one day. Domenic saw the big metal sculpture and said to Bryan, "what is that?" Bryan told him it was art. Domenic then said, "It looks like a big pile of garbage!"

So there you have it! And knowing my kids, there will definitly be more to come!! I hope this gave you a good laugh!

Love,

Shannon