National Missing Children's Day

Image by trawin via Flickr

Are you prepared as a parent if your child went missing? Is your child prepared? Have you ever talked to your child(ren) about strangers or being abducted? Have you used a child safety kit yet?


If you answer NO to any of these questions it is time to do all of them now. It only takes a split second for a child to say or do the wrong thing. Go onto the internet and chat with some stranger online or on the telephone. Or they may do nothing at all and it be another situation.


I have been an avid follower with the Polly Klaas Foundation since my daughter did a project with them about five years ago. I've learned many ways to teach my children what to look for, but not to scare them.


We have also kept our safety kits up to date(fingerprints, hair & DNA samples). 


Keep your child(ren) safe and be prepared because one day you may need the help of a group like Polly Klaas. Read the story behind this organization, and order a free safety kit if you need them. Don't wait do it now.  http://www.pollyklaas.org/

10 Ways I Know There's Nothing Wrong with You(or Me)

I am reposting this after reading it on Tinybuddha.com. Always trust in yourself and stay positive.

1.  You’re playing the game of life as best you know how, and trying to get better every day. You can’t possibly do someone else’s best, so there’s no point in stressing about it.
2. You make mistakes like everyone else, which allows you to learn as you go. That means you’re doing what you should be.
3. You’re unique, whether you’re introverted or outgoing, book smart or street smart, creative or technical—the list goes on and on. You’re the world’s only opportunity to know a person just like you. The only hope to share what only you can.
4. There’s no such thing as the way you should be. If you do what you enjoy and don’t harm other people, you’re living a beautiful life.
5. You will never become someone—you are someone right now, whether you influence millions of people or mean the world to just one person. Your impact is powerful, whether you realize it or not.
6. If someone hurts you, you don’t deserve it. No one does. End of conversation.
7. You feel emotions and respond to them. That’s the way this whole humanity things works. If you could stand to improve the way you respond, newsflash: you’re still like everybody else.
8. You have a pulse right now, and it’s your choice what you do with it. There’s no right or wrong answer. (Unless what you want is to maim a puppy or something equally perverse.)
9. You choose what you think is best, or else you wouldn’t choose it. As you get new information and grow stronger and smarter, you’ll make different choices.
10. You are beautiful, inside and out.

Share a Day

Image by ArchivesACT via Flickr

Share a Day at the: 

• beach
• park
• ice cream parlor
• museum
• hiking
• riding bikes
• walking

Just share a day with your family.

A Family Quote

Image by State Library of Queensland, Australia via Flickr

The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together. ~Erma Bombeck

Create Special Memories

Image via Wikipedia

Every year my daughter creates a memory book for herself that is put together by each person invited to her birthday party. Last year she had two poster boards and created people using individual parts to create a person. Each of these poster boards with random faces and bodies are now hanging on her wall as a memory of her friends on her tenth birthday.


This year she made an actual magazine that each friend designed by cutting and gluing magazine pieces together. Each girl created her own page and signed it to ensure my daughters delight each time she looked through her birthday magazine.


A memory is the mental capacity or faculty of retaining and reviving facts, events, impressions, etc., or of recalling or recognizing previous experiences. If our children learn to create and preserve such special figures at an early age they will indeed recognize how amazing life can be knowing they have been special to more than one or two people. 


Life is a special memory, and everything we touch, feel, and speak of can be too.

Alcohol & Legal Drinking Age

Image via Wikipedia

Kids seem to experiment at such an early age nowadays; it makes me wonder if we should change our ways. While on the Eurotrain from Paris to London we sat and talked with an English family. They have grown children, and stated that their kids all became "drunks" when they turned 18. They said that if England followed the wine at the dinner table at an early age like neighboring France, maybe less binging would go on.

It really did make sense. The same drinking binges happen in the United States. Kids hurt themselves or others from the effects of drinking. Is this a simple solution?

My city just made a new Social Hosting Ordinance that will charge any adult hosting an alcohol party/gathering for minors. This is great considering our new city name is "Party City" to the teens near and far. 

Unfortunately, I do not have a solution, but I do know that my own children are spoken to early on. We share stories about drinking, and the effects it can have. We can only do so much, but I can tell you this... With open communication, and having our home open to their friends; we can help them become a little more responsible.