Sunday, February 24, 2013
A rotisserie chicken can help busy moms—like me—get dinner on the table without all the baking and basting.
You know those days when you're running ragged at work or traipsing the kids from place to place and you don’t have a minute to breathe, let alone prepare a nice meal for everyone? If you're like me, you have one of those days at least once a week. A rotisserie chicken always saves the day for me and often helps out with the next couple of days as well. Chicken lasts in the refrigerator for three to four days, but you can also freeze it for up to three months. Wegmans knows this. Have you noticed that rotisserie chickens wait for us at the cash registers? They know what moms need: dinner—fast! It’s amazing what you can do with a $5-8 grocery purchase. Not only can you use the bird as a nice family meal with some rice, potatoes, stuffing or…
Sunday, February 17, 2013
It's cold and flu season and many parents, like me, agonize over whether or not to send their kids to school when they don't feel well. What do you think?
Your child wakes up looking pale, sneezing, coughing and complaining of a sore throat. You take their temperature and it’s an even 99 degrees. He/she doesn’t look well; you can tell they feel awful. What do you do? Our family follows the fever or vomit rule. You stay home if you have a fever or you’ve thrown up within the previous 24 hours. I don’t always obey rules and, to my husband’s dismay, I tend to break this particular one pretty often. He thinks I let my kids stay home too easily. I think I know my kids pretty well and know when they need to skip a day of school. Regardless of the situation, I always question my decision to keep them home or send them off. If I keep one of my girls home when they complain, I worry they are missing …
Monday, February 11, 2013
Random Acts of Kindness Week starts today, what will you do? Some Cinnaminson 4th graders have it all figured out.
The fourth graders in room 135 at Eleanor Rush Intermediate School are working on a unique kindness project. Their teacher, Tat Monnoleto, is extremely proud of her “kind bunch” as she calls them. “It all started with Kyle R., and the act of kindness that he did over the winter break to remember the 26 victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting. Kyle and his dad bought (partly with Kyle’s pocket money) 26 dozen donuts and then handed them out to their friends and neighbors,” Monnoleto said. Monnoleto added, “I thought this was a lovely idea and decided that we should keep the kindness going by making this the first of 26 acts of kindness that room 135 would complete. It is so important that we teach our students to be kind members of …
Monday, January 28, 2013
I've been wanting to slow down and be more present in my busy life and several people have suggested that yoga will do the trick.
I started a yoga class this week. It's something new for me. I’ve always been more of a high intensity aerobic, kick boxing, boot camp kind of exerciser. I thought exercise had to be super intense and exhaust me for there to be benefits. But yoga is a less intense style of exercise said to relieve stress, sculpt muscles, prevent depression, and make you overall healthier so I decided to give it a try. My sister and I signed up for a five class deal. It’s always nice to have a buddy when you do something new. Of course, I was kind of in a rush getting there, I wanted to be early, and was feeling a little stressed. I was also a little nervous because I wasn’t sure what to expect. As soon as we entered, my stress started to melt away and I …
Monday, January 21, 2013
Have you heard of the ImPACT test? It’s used to gauge the impact of concussions and also provides a baseline for athletes prior to any type of head injury.
Concussions have been a recent hot topic in professional sports news. The CDC defines a concussion as a type of traumatic brain injury, or TBI, caused by a bump, blow or jolt to the head that can change the way your brain normally works. Concussions can also occur from a blow to the body that causes the head to move rapidly back and forth, according to the CDC. Not only have brain injuries been popular in national news, I've heard so many stories about local children and adults suffering from the aftermath of a blow to the head. My nephew, an athlete and honor student, has been out of school since last April due to consecutive concussions, the first one occurring in gym class. A friend’s daughter missed a week of school because of a …
Monday, January 14, 2013
Perusing old photos used to help me slow down and catch up with my life, the digital photo experience is quite different.
One of my favorite things to do as a little girl was to spend time lingering over old photo albums. I loved hearing stories about the people and places in the worn and tattered books. I adored the old clothes and the formality of the black and white photos. I grew up taking pictures of everything I could. I have pictures of family, friends, school, vacations and so much more. Pictures painted all kinds of words for me. They helped me catch up with my life. I got married and I gushed over pictures from our wedding and honeymoon. I took pictures of our puppy like he was our baby. He has several photo albums dedicated to just him. The excitement of picking up the developed film was addictive. It was like getting a present. I was filled with…
Monday, January 7, 2013
January is National Soup Month, get your soup on with some easy and budget friendly recipes.
Steamy, hearty, nutritious and satisfying—that’s what soup is to me. It is my ideal comfort food, the perfect cold weather meal. I spent this past weekend making a couple of batches of savory liquid meals and even enjoyed a bread bowl of broccoli cheddar soup at Panera Bread. Yes, that’s where the picture is from! My soup didn't turn out so pretty. Soup is great for what ails you, keeps the diet in check and is easy and inexpensive to make. It’s also a great way to clean out your pantry or freezer. You can use up leftover ingredients and serve them up in creative ways. Here are a few examples. I have a few cans of pumpkin puree leftover from Thanksgiving. They never made it into pumpkin pie so instead of letting them take up much needed …
Monday, December 24, 2012
Cinnaminson schools send handmade snowflakes to the survivors of the Newtown, Conn. tragedy.
Peace, Hope, Love and Joy—the words are used quite often at this time of year. But this year, they take on a deeper meaning for children, families, and teachers in Connecticut who are trying to heal from unthinkable heartbreak. Schools all over the country have packed their wishes for healing into simple art projects for the grieving community. Cinnaminson’s compassionate teachers and students wasted no time pitching in to help. Sherry Spier, Cinnaminson Schools' media specialist coordinator, contacted all four of Cinnaminson’s schools after reading an article online and learning that the Sandy Hook PTA was asking for snowflake donations to decorate their new school. “I thought this would be the best way to provide a little comfort and …
Monday, December 3, 2012
Dr. Jo Ann Bailey, a Cinnaminson mom and local optometrist has some advice for parents on pediatric eye care.
Do you know when a child should have their first eye exam? Could poor grades have anything to do with your child’s vision? Do you think your child might need glasses? Parents often have a lot of question when it comes to pediatric eye care. Most wait until school starts to even think about vision care but that is not the best course of action. The American Optometric Association recommends that the first eye exam occur between 6 and 12 months of age. Dr. JoAnn Bailey, a local optometrist and Cinnaminson mom with a keen interest in pediatric eye care says, “This (first exam) can be considered a well baby visit and is used to determine if the structures of the eyes and the visual functioning are developing normally." The next eye exam …
Monday, October 29, 2012
The impending storm, although a bit scary, may provide plenty of opportunities for family time.
The big questions at my house as we waited for the perfect storm to begin were “What about Halloween?” and “Has school been cancelled yet?” They are pertinent questions for children but I’m more concerned with flooding, downed trees and power outages. We’ve got water, flashlights, snacks, canned goods and food for the dog. We are crossing our fingers that the electricity will stay on. We have two sump pumps that work feverishly during tiny rain showers, if they stop running during "Frankenstorm," it will be a mess. We will then be working feverishly with buckets and towels, finding family time in floppy mops and a shop vac. My husband jokingly tells me we are ready for the storm because his beer fridge is stocked and he has a lot of …
Ric
6:37 pm on Tuesday, February 19, 2013
@Sarah. Actually John is on the money. In this day and age we need to much more cautious about cleaning our environment and although it is important for children (and everyone) to wash their hands - much more needs to be done. Common surfaces need to be often sprayed and by a person PROPERLY wearing gloves. By properly I mean most people mistakenly think it is just enough to put on gloves to stop… more ›