My son brought home a present he made at four year preschool on the day before winter break,  and he was very excited to give it to me.   It was wrapped in a white paper lunch bag, stapled shut at the top, decorated with drawings on the bag, his name, and “Mom” carefully written on the top.

He carefully placed it under the tree and every day he checked to make sure it was not moved and that nobody peeked inside.  He asked me every day leading up to Christmas if I wanted to open it yet?  I told him that it was really special to me, so that I wanted to save it and open it on Christmas day.

One more time on Christmas Eve he checked his present was okay before he went to bed.

When his sister woke him (and me) up at 6:55 a.m on Christmas morning to go see what Santa brought, she took off at a run downstairs, he took off after her but suddenly he stopped,  picked up his present for me, and started to run downstairs with it.

As he was running he slipped in his pajama feet and it he fell.  The present crashed with a loud thunk and a rattle sound as it hit the ground.  He looked up at me with tears in his eyes, “It is glass mom, I think I broke it!”  I said “It is okay buddy, even if it is broken, I will still love it.”  I carried it the rest of the way downstairs and set it down on the table next to where I was sitting to watch them open up their hoard of presents.

He made it through unpacking his stocking and opening one more present before he looked at me and said “Mom, why didn’t you open your present yet?”  I said, “Okay buddy, I will open it now.”

He was perfectly content to stop opening his own presents to stop and watch me.  I opened it up, I pulled it out, and he saw that it was not broken he sighed in relief.  His gift was a baby food jar decorated in tissue paper squares, that were painted on with glue,  and a small tealight candle sat inside to create a candle holder.

I told him I loved it, and thought it was beautiful and asked him how he made it, he told me he did it all by himself but the teachers cut the pieces of paper for him to put on.  Then he said, “Can you light it?” I went and found a lighter and lit it.  He stood and looked at it a full minute before he was content to go back to opening his own presents.

The most important present for my son this Christmas was not the plasma car,  not the General E. Lee, it was this handmade gift that he created with pride and love for me.   It sits in a special place on the center of our kitchen table.

Nobody said parenting was easy and my daughter is certainly no exception!  I was a full time working mom up until my daughter was 3 years 2 months old and my son was 8 months old, I think I balanced working full time, with being a good mom and never envisioned that I would ever be a stay at home mom. Here is the story about why I had to quit my full time job.

My sister was my daughters daycare, she got to go on outings, be in a loving home where her aunt took care of her and she played with her cousin every day.  My sister was going to have another baby and no longer wanted to watch my daughter so I had to find another daycare for my daughter.  I did months of research, did pop in and scheduled visits to my top 12 daycares and finally found one that would be the best fit for my daughter.  It was not the least expensive daycare in fact it was about 250 dollars more than I was spending on my infant son’s daycare. I liked the center, I liked that they had outside playtime, and an indoor muscle room for the kids to get exercise each day.  I liked the staff, the location, the access to seeing natural sunlight instead of being stuck in a basement.  I thought it was the perfect place!

I planned the transition based upon other peoples positive transition experiences into starting new daycares.  We visited together twice, she did an art project while I sat in the corner, she played well and interacted well with the group. I was paying for these transition days of course.  The week before I started back to school, I put her in the daycare for only four hours and came back fast to pick her up.  When I got there to pick her up she was sitting by the door and ran into my arms and said, I never thought you would come back for me mom!  I told her I would always come back. Then the next Monday it was time to go back to work so she was going to start her first full day of daycare.

My husband brought my daughter out to breakfast at McDonalds before he was going to drop her off at her new daycare.   She ate her pancakes, drank her chocolate milk and was happy as usual.  As soon as my husband told her that they were going to daycare now, she projectile vomited all over McDonalds.   My husband is a sympathetic puker so he appoligized to the person behind the counter and quickly left the restuarant with her.  He quickly called me and I had to leave my first day back at work and  come home to spend with my daughter.  I wondered if it was a reaction to her dad dropping her off or if she really had a bug so I decided that the next day, I would be late for work and drop her off at daycare.  On the way there I tried to distract her with where we were going, as soon as her feet hit the parking lot, she vomited again.  I had to call in sick again.  This is when I started really noticing the change in her personality.   She constantly cried and would not let me go, it was actually ruining her happy, bubbly personality and turning her into a worried and sad child.  Besides the fact that I was afraid what kind of damage this transition was causing her, you cant bring a kid to daycare when they puke.

After day 3 of her throwing up and me crying myself to sleep at night because my daughter was so sad, I decided I had to quit my job.  My daughter’s happiness was worth more than the measly few dollars I made after I paid for daycare.  I loved my job and thought I could hang in there in order to keep that awesome job when my daughter went to Kindergarten and the daycare cost verses job earning cost flipped in our favor. My husband and I talked about it and we decided the best thing to do was for me to quit working. I walked in with my letter of resignation and handed it to my boss, he tried to change my mind, have me take sick days until the transition worked but I did not feel that the situation would resolve itself quickly enough to work.  I walked into her daycare and told them that I was quitting my job and they thankfully did not charge me the next two weeks of child care fees since I was not earning any money.

I realized that I am now a stay at home mom and my daughters personality was finally turning back into her typically bubbly self but any mention of me leaving her and she would break down.  I decided that I needed to figure out a way to retrain my daughter who used to have no problems leaving me how to stop clinging to me again.  I decided to sign up for an ECFE seperating class and enroll her brother into the sibling care option so I could focus on my daughter. The first day of class I told the teachers that I was not going to leave, the second class day I  was able to leave the room for 30 minutes but she cried uncontrolably the whole time, I was a wreck, the whole time I was away in the parent classroom, the only good thing was I was able to share with the above story with the parent group so they knew why my daughter was screaming in the next room.

The 3rd week she did not want to go back to class, she sobbed and cried and clung to me as we entered the building.  I was going to try to regain her trust and not leave her to help with the sepration.  By the time we entered the classroom she was so worked up, she projectile vomited all over the floor right next to all of the parents and children and the parent educators.  As soon as she is done throwing up, she looks up at me and says, “Now we get to go home  right mom?”  I replied Yes now we have to.  I made her stand right outside of the vomit and told her to be quiet. I was frustrated and I was embarrassed.  All of the parents were looking at me like what is wrong with this lady that brings this crying, sick three year old to ECFE?  I was quickly cleaning up the puke that was all over the floor, the garbage can, my shoes and her shoes.    I cleaned up her vomit and appoligized profusely to the parents who hopefully remembered my story from the week before. I frustratingly packed up her stuff picked up her brother from the child care room and walked out with my head down.  It continued this way for the next 4 weeks, crying nervous, begging me not to leave, until one day she looked at me and said you can go now mom.  What?  Really?  I can go? I can hang out with the other parents?

Oh the joy, my daughter trusted these ECFE teachers enough to let me go!  She gradually warmed up and her bubbly, outgoing, happy personality started coming back.  By the second session she was almost the same little girl that I had before I tried to put her into a new daycare.  It was a long, very trying road. I had never heard of anyone who could get so nervous that they could vomit.  It was amazing to me that a 3 year old could have that strong of a nervous reaction to anything!   I am so grateful that she is outgoing and not scarred for life from that experience.  By the time she was 4 years old she had absolutely no problem with transitions, she walked into her first day of preschool with no tears, excited as can be to go make new friends.  Now that she is 5 she is even more outgoing, loves to be away from me. She is so confident that her teacher told me the other day that she stood in front of the whole school of 800 kids and recited a poem on the microphone.

Life is all about choices and appropriate responses to situations that pop up.  I am grateful for my choice to quit my job and stay home with my children. I believe that my choice has helped shape my daughter into the outgoing, friendly, happy, confident child that she is today.    The best part she no longer vomits when nervous!  Whew!

You walk out to get the mail and a cute postcard shows up! It is an invitation from a friend of yours inviting you to come to her house for a party! No, not a birthday party or a party for the sake of having a party, it is a party for a product, jewelery, candles, spices, wine, Tupperware, makeup, cleaning supplies, stickers, books, shaky things, you name it there is a “party” for it. But is it really a party? No, it is a closed door sales opportunity for the person, (insert the key word here) Beauty, Candle, Culinary, Health, Paper “Consultant” who makes a commission on that product. Don’t even get me started on the loose usage of the term consultant.

It is a tough situation when you get one of these invites, you want to be around your friends, you don’t want to be the one who doesn’t show up in case something fun happens after the pitch is over and the checks are written, you don’t want to be the only person not in the pics posted on Facebook, you certainly don’t need any $30 cleaner, $200 costume jewelry, or to spend $20 dollars on a three dollar 3M cleaning microfiber cloth, but your friend invited you into their home, they shampooed their carpets, they gave you some great wine and some cocktail wienies so you feel like you need to buy something to make up for the cost of your attendance to their party. Why buy something? Because then they will get a percentage of the sales at their party to get free product from whatever wares the sales consultant is hawking that day.

Now after the drink in you has loosened your inhibitions and helped you to loosen your purse strings, you go up to write the check that you feel guilty to write, as a thank you to your friend who shared her hospitality with you and fed you, and gave you that drink. You scribble the total on line one, plus shipping and handling, and you get the face to face pressure from the sales consultant, “Do you want any information to be a consultant?” Um, no. “Do you want to help your friend, the hostess, out by booking your own party?” (so I can leech on your friends?) Um, no.

I was at a home party where the sales lady was visibly angry at me for not buying anything, her true nature came out when I handed her back the blank order form. I have been at home parties where the sales lady yelled at our group of friends at the “party” for not being quiet enough to listen to her pitch. Is that how a party is supposed to feel?

There are positive things about being a home based business sales person.. It gives opportunities to many women to be their own boss, set their own hours, be able to afford to stay home with their children in the daytime. It also allows women to be part of something they feel passionate about, I think people with extra funds should certainly help support these businesses.

Sometimes the product the sales person is pushing on you is something you do not need. Something that if you really want, you can get way cheaper at Target or online without paying the percentage to your hostess, the percentage to your sales consultant, the percentage to the person who hired your sales consultant, and the percentage to their area manager, and then the profit margin to the corporate headquarters. That is a lot of percentages to a lot of people in that company pyramid. Is that pyramid any different than a big corporation who sells me products from the store? Not much, but the bottom line is usually less painful to my bottom line.

Show me a more high pressure sales situation that you encounter buying everyday things. When I walk around the grocery store on free sample day, I don’t have to buy one of the special products unless I want to! There is no consultant at Cub, Target, Macy’s that is sitting in front of the deli counter, the checkout lane or by the front door expecting you to help them make their monthly quota, no friend who you feel obligated to help to make this party worth their while by helping them to complete their collection of furry handcuffs.

I have wonderful friends who will come out and say don’t feel like you have to buy anything I just want you to come to hang out, so I am grateful. If you don’t have a friend who tells you they don’t expect you to buy something and means it, then don’t feel that you are expected to go to their parties. I know I am not the only person in the world who feels this way. I am not saying I wont go to a home party anymore but I have decided I have no desire to be a hostess to put this unspoken pressure on my friends, I also needed to come to grips with my own feelings about home parties.

Why can’t we just have real parties with no reason, no sales consultant there to pressure you into buying goods that she is so jazzed up about her cheeks are going to hurt from smiling tomorrow? Why can’t we get together and just sit around, play a game, try out the appetizers that we all brought? I like those kind of parties best.

I have always been a regular grocery store shopper buying my ground beef in bulk and using my vacuum sealer to save money. After watching the news about tainted beef, having to check lot numbers and worrying about the beef I already fed my family, then watching Food Inc. my priorities have changed. If you do not know the dangers of E. Coli Bacteria or have not watched Food Inc. you can find it on Youtube.com. Food Inc. opens your eyes and makes you think about the food you feed your family.

Besides having my own garden each summer, I think it is important to buy locally where possible in order to support local businesses. We live in The south side of the Twin Cities and there are many farms and ranches and farmers markets that make it possible to buy locally. I decided to try to buy a half a cow for my families beef. The search started to find a local, organic, free range cow to buy. The research started around April every local, online ranch being on average $5-8 dollars per pound of beef for certified organic beef. Most were already sold out for the season and they were already taking reservations and deposits for the 2011 season. I remembered that a woman I graduated with from high school and reconnected with on Facebook, mentioned the previous year that she sold cows from her farm, so I contacted her and asked for details.

My High School friends Ranch is located in Afton Minnesota, about 30 minutes south of my house. She had photos of her happy, healthy, young cows on her Facebook page. The cows had plenty of room to roam in grass, they were grass fed on no pesticide grasses, and were hormone free. These are the main important points of why I wanted to buy organic, but her cows also did not have the added cost of the organic certification process. She also had cows available to buy this year!

I put in my order for a 1/2 a cow, we have a big freezer in the basement and I agreed to split 1/4 of the cow with 3 other friends. The average for 1/4 of a cow is $400 and 1/2 a cow is $800 depending on weight.

She messaged me and said that they were bringing the cows in and to expect a call directly from the butcher shop in about 10-14 days. The butcher shop called me 12 days later and I gave them cutting instructions, how I wanted it packaged, (1 lb ground beef packs, 3/4 inch steaks, 2 steaks per package mostly boneless roasts averaging 2-3 lbs per roast.) I explained that I had never done this before to the woman on the phone and she was patient with me describing all of the options and what was common.

They butcher shop called me the next morning and told me I could to come pick my beef up. It was packaged in four large boxes two boxes with ground beef and two boxes with steaks and roasts and already frozen.

It was aged/hung for 10 days for flavor after slaughter.
1/2 of cow this cows dressed weight was 302 lbs
The price of the 1/2 cow including processing was $740.00
The price per pound dressed weight was $2.45
The weight of the beef processed and packaged was 219 lbs
The price per pound of processed and packaged was $3.37

I got about 120 lbs of steaks and roasts and 100 lbs of ground beef. Each package of butcher freezer papered meat is clearly labeled with my name to make sure I am getting my cow and the type and quantity of cut. You may be able to get your choice of cuts less expensive if you get every sale at the grocery store but you have no idea where your meat is coming from. I did not think that $3.37 per pound was too bad considering what you get when you average the cost per cut.

I ended up keeping a full 1/4 of cow split every other cut plus an additional 1/8 (after splitting 1/4 of the cow with 3 friends) of this cow for my family. I believe I kept 3/8 of a cow.

Here is the breakdown of my cuts.

-3 packages of soup bones
-3 packages of stew meat
-3 rump roasts
-1 sirloin tip roast
-1 beef arm roast
-4 beef chuck roasts
-2 beef porterhouse steaks
-9 T-bone steaks
-7 ribeye steaks
-11 sirloin steaks
-6 beef top round steaks
-55 packages of 95% lean ground beef

I had no idea what to expect since this was my first half of cow purchased, so I wanted to share my experience with others. I am truly pleased with my purchase, the hardest part was cutting a check for $740 bucks.

The aged beef is very meaty tasting, it tastes like eating a steakhouse steak each time we eat it. The beef adds much more flavor to your food than quickly processed grocery store beef. When you brown the ground beef there is no need to drain the fat, it is about 95% lean ground beef and there is no lack of flavor with the reduced fat. If you could buy 95% lean ground beef what would that cost per pound? The steaks are marbled and fabulous. I have made two roasts and they are flavorful without the 2 inch coating of fat at the top of my slow cooker.

Consider buying a local side of beef, know where your meat comes from, and taste the difference!

Here is the contact information where I purchased my beef: www.majesticpinesfarm.com
Here is the butcher shop who processed the meat:
www.gregsmeats.com

A few weeks ago we had a weekend open so we decided to go on a spontaneous road trip, not really knowing where we would end up. We packed up the truck, dropped the dog off at the Bed and Biscuit and were on the road heading south by about 5:30 PM after my husband got off work. We stopped at a rest stop, played a few games of green light/red light and kept on driving, we made it to Des Moines and the kids were still being good, (thanks to the dual screen DVD player, lots of movies, kid size headphones and plenty of snacks.) So we went westward and onward to Omaha, Nebraska. We made our reservation to our hotel 10 miles out of town, we stayed in the Holiday Inn Omaha Downtown Airport where they had a small water park, nice clean rooms, with a mini fridge, microwave and a coffee maker and friendly staff. This was the kids first time in a hotel we usually rent houses on vacation, and the kids loved it! As soon as we go them calmed down and settled in for the night we crashed too, we had to get ready for our fun day in the morning.

The next morning we woke up early, packed a lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, some granola bars, and snacks and lots of water in our soft cooler. We then shot out the door in search of breakfast, we found a little place called The Diner in the Old Market area surrounded by cobblestone streets and enjoyed some good greasy spoon food. We got out of there on full stomachs ready for the Henry Doorly Zoo.

As we headed down 10th street we came over the hill to see the Desert Dome and the whole family gave a collective “Wow” at that sight. We pulled into the big but already filling up parking lot, we went right to the right and found a spot at the back of the lot under a shade tree. The weather forecast called for 92 degrees and 70% humidity so shade was a really good idea and a nice thing, the parking was free! We loaded the kids, the cooler, the cameras and diaper bag into the double stroller we brought along and headed for the north entrance. The line was about 30 people deep, at each of the 4 registers but it went fast and we waited in the shade.

We are members at the Minnesota Zoo so we paid the zoo membership reciprocal fees and our son was free because he was under age 3, so our family entrance cost was $15.25. To put it into perspective, that is less than the admission price for one adult to the Minnesota Zoo.

We walked in and went to the first thing our kids noticed, the big red barn at Dairy World. They loved petting the goats, and the chickens. We made our way around the Budgie Encounter where tons of little parakeets fly around in a screened in garden and ate from popsicle sticks covered with bird seed from peoples hands. We checked out the Monkeys, Prairie Dogs, Raccoons, and the Peacocks with their babies. We looked at the Otters, and the turtles, took a picture of the kids in the Hippo’s mouth. We made it down the hill to take a quick ride on Sues Carousel, $2 per child seemed very reasonable to me. It was a nice way to spin around and cool off in the shade for a couple of minutes. We watched the Omaha Train but it was so loud the kids did not want to go on it. The steam engine was really neat to watch, with your ears covered!

We filled up on water and started up the hill, we went into the pretty screened aviary overlooking the birds, the creek and the lake. This was a pretty shaded area. We left there and went up and checked out the open air lemur area, the kids loved the Zaboomafoo lemur. Next we went to Expedition Madagascar building and took our time looking at the amazing number of Lemurs and other cute animals in that wonderfully air conditioned building! We refilled our water bottles at the fountains in this building.

Then we walked across the path up towards the Sea Lions area, and ate lunch under the Sea Lion Pavilion. After lunch is where the workout came in, we pushed the stroller almost straight up hill to see the elephants but they were worth it. They were healthy and happy looking elephants dusting themselves with dirt on the hot day. Magnificent animals! We walked around the corner and checked out the giant Rhinos and had to convince my daughter that she was too young to ride the Skyfari ride. She is too much of a dare devil to be that high off the ground!

We walked around the Lagoon and looked at the Koi pond and the monkeys then we entered one of my favorite places of the zoo, The Garden of the Senses. There were parrots and Macaws just sitting among the flowers on their perches, perfect to see from every side and a beautiful back drop for a photo opportunity. The pond, flowers and sculptures were really cool, I could have spent lots of time in this garden. My daughter loves parrots so she walked around and talked to each bird. We took the kids over to hit the giant gong.

We continued up the hill to see the Sable Antelope, the Bongo, the Red River Hogs, the Addax and then the Zebras. We stopped to watch the train again and took a break to sit down at a table with an umbrella, to sip a cold pop and watch the giraffes at their beautiful giraffe complex. They were really healthy looking giraffes in a nice shaded home, with lots of water.

We saved the areas with the buildings for the end of the day when the temperature would be the hottest knowing that we would really appreciate the air conditioning at that point. This zoo has lots of large hills so wear good shoes or else take advantage of the train or the tram to get you from one side of the zoo to the other. We walked the whole thing so it is certainly doable.

We continued up the hill and stopped at the Butterfly and Insect Garden. This was an air conditioned building with beautiful plants and trees and happy butterflies fluttering about. From that room we entered the insect garden area with giant spiders building webs in the open right over your head, and every freaky insect you have ever see on movies or TV and plenty you have never seen before! I had no idea there were so many varieties of scorpions or cockroaches. My favorite part of this building was the live honey bee hive that had access to the outdoor flower gardens and you could see the bees climb in and out the clear tube to make more honey. Very cool!

We walked up the hill to the Lied Jungle and were wonderfully surprised by this building! The diversity and quantity of different species of the animals that were housed in its beautiful rain forest gardens. There was a giant waterfall and cool overlook areas that made this building that appeared plain on the outside but surprisingly awesome sight once you entered! This is where the Tapir with the Tapir baby was housed, the gibbons, more macaws, pretty much all of my kids favorite animals.

From there we walked down the hill to the Scott Aquarium. We have a membership to Underwater Adventures at the Mall of America, but this building put that place to shame! The underwater tunnel was wide enough that you could park two cars side by side inside of it with tons of neat fish species! The coral reef displays were beautiful, the jellyfish tanks were cool but the coolest thing in my opinion was the tube of swirling fish! So cool! The penguin area was huge! My kids loved the dome that they could stand in and see the penguins from underneath the water.

We walked from there into the Wild Kingdom Pavilion, It was a pretty building and the giant frogs were neat but I couldn’t really figure out the purpose of this building unless you need a place to sit down.

We then entered the incredible Desert Dome, of course we had to stop at the huge boulder sized floating granite world fountain so the kids could try to spin that. The first thing you see in the desert dome was a giant mountain of red sand, so beautiful in itself. It reminded me of the red rocks in Sedona, AZ that we loved. Keeping the kids out of the sand was tough, they both wanted to touch the cool colored sand. We walked through the desert area, looking at the desert plants trying to keep the kids safe from the spines on the desert plants that were right next to the path, checking out the birds, and desert animals.

We then walked downstairs into the bonus area in the dome of the Kingdoms of the Night. The Kingdoms of the Night seemed to go on forever with dark rooms and countless night animals, snakes, lizards, birds, and the incredibly stinky guano room filled with tons of species of bats, that one we pretty much ran through because the smell made your eyes burn. Made me glad I did not pick bat zoo keeper as a career. Whew! We then came to an amazingly dark but really cool room with giant alligators right next to the bridge path, Huge Alligators! There were also beavers and caymans. We walked into another giant river fish tank room and finally made our way upstairs and back out into the light. It seemed like we were in the dark forever this exhibit space was so large, it took my eyes a few minutes to re-adjust to the light.

We walked down to the Hubbard Orangutan Forest and looked at the beautiful orangutans and other primates. We walked into Hubbard Gorilla Valley we were in awe at the Gorillas, such magnificent huge animals! The baby Gorilla was so cute and the giant silver back was so intelligent looking it was almost frightening to look into his huge eyes as he stared at us through the glass. Wow!

It was starting to get late and the zoo was starting to clear out, so we took a fast glance at the cat Complex as we walked by, stopped at the Durhams Bear Canyon. We looked at the nice bear homes with lots of sleeping bears and made our way back up the hill to the North Entrance. We slowly made our way out of the zoo with sore feet to our truck, loaded the stroller back in the truck and truly enjoyed the air conditioning. Even with the humid heat and sore feet we had a great time at the zoo. I am awed at how many animals they had there and species we have never seen at any other zoo we have visited.

We gave the kid snacks and fought to keep the kids awake on the 10 minute ride back to the hotel, quick dressed them in swim suits to hit the water park for a while. We quick cleaned up and went to the Texas Roadhouse for dinner. The kids were both beat but loved watching the servers dance and loved eating the peanuts. We came back to the hotel and both kids crashed fast and so did both parents!

We slept in a little bit later the next morning, drank a good cup of coffee, packed up our stuff, loaded up the car, ate breakfast in the car and were on our way back to Minnesota. We stopped for lunch at a small little restaurant called the Dairy Dandy in an even smaller farm town in Iowa. That quiet town was no match for our full of energy kids! We jumped back into the truck then drove to Mankato, MN for the Minnesota Vikings training camp on the way home. We let the kids stretch their legs and buy some Vikings gear, then we piled in the truck for a quick jaunt home for the end of our road trip.

It was a nice weekend to someplace we had never visited before. The kids loved the Henry Doorly Zoo and are still bringing up some of their favorite animals they saw there. If you have a weekend and want to check out an affordable, friendly zoo, drive to the big town of Omaha, Nebraska and check out the Henry Doorly Zoo!