A Mom's Year

Creating a comfortable life one moment at a time

Little Knitted Pumpkin Hat

Our family is so excited to welcome a new little cousin this month. He’s just a week old and as cute as can be. Babies are wonderful any time of year, but what’s especially fun about fall babies is that you get to dress them like pumpkins.

I learned how to knit pumpkin hats just last year. My friend Cathy shared a photo on Facebook of her cat napping amongst balls of yarn. The cat was adorable, but what caught my attention was the pumpkin hat she was knitting (Cathy, not the cat). The next time I was at my favorite yarn store, I found a cute pattern in a book called Itty-Bitty Hats by Susan B. Anderson, bought some yarn, and went for it. [Read more…] about Little Knitted Pumpkin Hat

Grandma Charlotte’s Pork Chops with Dressing

When the temperature starts to drop and the leaves begin to change, I start craving Grandma Charlotte’s pork chops with dressing.

I grew up eating those pork chops, but the time I remember most is the night soon after our wedding when Grandpa Ed and Grandma Charlotte invited Tim and me for dinner. It was mid-October and we had just returned from our honeymoon. This was our first dinner at someone else’s home as a married couple and we felt strangely grown-up. Grandma made pork chops with dressing, roasted butternut squash, and popovers with cinnamon and honey butter.

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Literary Pumpkins

What do you get when you cross a pumpkin with your favorite book character? A Literary Pumpkin, of course! I’d never come across this fantastic idea until today when a friend sent me a link. And now I keep picturing all of our favorite characters in pumpkin form.

I help run our elementary school’s Scholastic book fairs, and I’m wondering if we could pull off a Literary Pumpkins contest at the October book fair. It would take some serious organizing (and a lot of pumpkins), but it would be so fun to see what the kids come up with!

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Color Me Rad

Oh, this is just too good. Have you heard of the Color Me Rad 5K race series? Design Mom wrote about it earlier this week, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

Here’s what happens: You show up on race day in your very whitest shirt. The horn blows and you take off running and—wait for it—every few minutes you get pelted with non-toxic, corn-starchy color bombs! And it benefits a local charity! How cool is that?

At the end there’s a “royal rumble of color” as everyone pelts everyone else with color bombs. Way too fun.

What I would love to do is take my family to the race without telling them anything about it. And then just watch their expressions as they get turned into human skittles.

You can go here for more details and to find out if Color Me Rad is coming to a town near you.

What do you think? Would you sign up for this kind of craziness?

 

 

Homework: Good or Bad for Kids?

I recently caught a news headline that said that the Gaithersburg Elementary School in Maryland has abolished homework. Principal Stephanie Brant made the decision to eliminate traditional homework such as worksheets and instead have students read for at least 30 minutes every night.

I will admit that I’ve never been a big fan of homework. My kids are in school all day, so I’ve always thought of after-school time as family time. Or at least time to develop other skills and interests. Some nights the kids might be playing sports, going to dance or gymnastics, or practicing music. Or they might just be hanging out.

We do spend time going over spelling words, practicing multiplication tables, and doing the occasional worksheet that comes home. Now and then one of the kids has a special project to work on. But that’s about it. The kids have jobs to do around the house and we read together as a family every night. And that feels like quite enough.

Where do you stand on the homework debate? Do you think homework is necessary for kids to develop good study skills and get into top schools? Or do you think homework is more trouble than it’s worth?

P.S. If you think like I do, you’ll love the book The Blessing of a Skinned Knee by Wendy Mogel, Ph.D. If you don’t think like I do, I hope you’ll leave a comment anyway. It’s always good to look at something from all angles!

Also: The textbooks are from my days as an editor at EMC Publishing. I knew they’d come in useful some day!