Swim Meet

It is that time of year again - swim meets! All swim meets begin with warm-ups. Warm-ups usually start at 6:30 a.m. So while the kids are swimming, I'm drinking as much coffee as I can to wake-up.





















Andrew (black goggles) and Mark are getting ready to start back the other direction ...and wondering why their mom is taking a picture of them in warm-ups! Actually, I'm wondering the same thing because I should be drinking coffee to wake-up!

After warm-ups, it is time to wait for the first race to begin. The best part about waiting for races...SNACKS!

The first event is a Medley relay. Mark is contemplating the meaning of swimming...or more likely thinking about the candy at the concession stand.


Andrew is getting ready to push off as soon as his teammate touches the wall. Andrew is the anchor of the team. Such pressure!






























Next up is Emily's relay team in the 3rd and final heat. Emily's team is in lane 1 (out of 8). Since the fastest teams are in lanes 3 and 4, Emily's team needs to race hard to win.

Emily is in the water ready to go. She is thinking about how she is going to make the other teams eat her bubbles.





And she is off.



She is swimming the 3rd leg - the breast stroke. Their team ended up placing 4th out of 8th - a great team effort.




Emily is getting ready to dive in for her 100 freestyle individual event.




Emily is swimming strong - she is pulling ahead of the swimmer from Aberdeen in the first 50 lap.





But the second 50 lap is harder - the swimmer from Aberdeen is pulling ahead.






Emily ended up placing 2nd in the heat - and cutting almost 5 seconds from her time in the 100 free event from last week. I need to get better at taking pictures of the finishes. It is too hard to cheer (aka yell "Go Emily" until my voice is hoarse) and take pictures at the same time. The funny thing about cheering for swimmers is that the kids tell me they can't hear me when they are in the water...but it does make me feel better to cheer for them (and I fit in with the other screaming moms!)


The next swim meet is this weekend in Brookings. State times are within reach of all three kids. And if Mark or Andrew gets a state time, Dan has promised them a puppy. So, send good luck to the boys this weekend!

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Our school is trying something new this year - "student" led evaluations aka parent-teacher conferences. In this process, the child and parents meet with the teacher to discuss his/her progress, to seat goals and agree on areas of improvement. I think this practice is good - but I don't think it should completely replace the more "traditional" parent-teacher conference. Why? Because I don't want to discuss my hyper-sensitive worries about the kids with the teacher when they are present! For example, I don't want to ask the teacher about my concerns about Andrew and Mark's social skills (or lack thereof) when they are present. So...I can e-mail my concerns to their teachers, but then I am missing out on the dialogue. I can arrange to have another meeting with the teacher, but that seems inefficient.

It just seems strange to go for an all or nothing approach, instead of just doing a mix of the two different styles.

Cooking With Kids

I grew up learning how to make a few things from my mom, and I could follow simple recipes. I decided in Colorado that I wanted to learn how to cook and I took classes at a local culinary school. Since then, cooking has become one of my favorite things to do.

When the kids were little, their "help" in the kitchen was limited to stirring things or frosting cupcakes or cookies. A few months ago, I started looking for recipes that the kids can help me make - a way for us to spend some time together and hopefully inspire them to become cooks as they get older.

I thought that I would post some of our tried and true favorites, starting with one of the easiest and most fun recipes for the kids: Monkey Buns.

I think Monkey Buns are a midwestern specialty - take frozen bread dough and turn it into gooey caramel rolls. The recipe follows, with my commentary on how the kids help with the recipe.

Ingredients:

2 (1-pound) loaves frozen white bread dough
1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup 1% low-fat milk
1 tablespoon reduced-calorie stick margarine
1 3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
Cooking spray

Thaw bread dough in refrigerator for 12 hours.

Combine 1 cup sugar, brown sugar, milk, margarine, and 1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon in a small saucepan. The kids usually measure everything and put it into the pan. Bring to a boil; cook 1 minute. Remove sugar syrup from heat; let cool 10 minutes.

Combine 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon in a shallow dish; stir well. We double the ingredients here. The kids measure the ingredients in a measuring bowl, and I divide up the mixture into 3 bowls. Cut each loaf of dough into 24 equal portions. Roll each portion in sugar mixture; layer balls of dough in a 12-cup Bundt pan coated with cooking spray. The kids have fun with rolling the dough in the sugar mixture. To cut down on the mess, put the bowls over a cookie sheet to catch the extra sugar mixture that mysteriously spills. Pour sugar syrup over dough; cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, 35 minutes or until doubled in bulk.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Uncover, and bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately loosen edges of bread with a knife. Place a plate upside down on top of pan; invert onto plate. Remove pan; drizzle any remaining syrup over bread.

Yield: 24 servings (serving size: 2 rolls)

CALORIES 201 (10% from fat); FAT 2.2g (sat 0.5g,mono 0.8g,poly 0.8g); IRON 1.4mg; CHOLESTEROL 0.0mg; CALCIUM 41mg; CARBOHYDRATE 40.1g; SODIUM 302mg; PROTEIN 5.2g; FIBER 0.0g

Cooking Light, APRIL 1997

Election Day - Don't Forget to Vote!

Don't forget to vote today!

That is what I told Dan this morning as I was leaving the house. The kids looked at me funny because Dan tells them that he is going to write in "Tiger Woods for President" instead of vote for either Obama or McCain. I took this as another teachable moment opportunity for the kids: It doesn't matter who Dad votes for, as long as he votes. Everybody should vote because that is one of the greatest freedoms that we have in our country.

The kids get to vote today in the classroom. So, Andrew thought he would be funny and told me that he is going to vote like Daddy, for Tiger Woods. I told him - if you think he would make the best President, then vote for him. Ha - I stumped a 4th grader. Moral victory - to Mom.

Detention and the "M" Word

On Friday, the boys were anxious to tell me that another little boy in their class got detention. Detention is a very rare thing in 4th grade at our school, so my curiosity was piqued. So, I asked what "Joe" did to deserve detention. His crime was twofold: (1) he stuffed his hot pocket in his milk (not sure why this was an act worthy of detention because it seems like normal boy behavior to me, but according to Mark & Andrew it was detention worthy because it was wasting food), and (2) he called a teacher the "m" word.

Now, being the helicopter mom that I am, I was surprised that my kids knew what the "m" word even was - and more importantly, where did they learn the "m" word. I thought the "m" word was the Hip-Hop swear word mother ______. So, I asked them what was the "m" word. They told me, Mom, you know, the word that you use all the time. I am instantly perplexed because the "m" word I am thinking of is a word that I have never used to my recollection. So, I asked them for some context. Andrew explains, you know, when somebody is driving in front of you and making you mad. Oh....you mean "moron".... The boys just looked at me with a big "duh" look on their face.

Don't get me wrong. I think calling a teacher any name is disrespectful and worthy of detention...it just surprised me that "moron" is now put in the same class of derogatory words that can't be uttered out loud. Perhaps civility is returning to our society after all (just not in our car when I am driving!)

Television: Part II: Drug Ads

This musing is less about the kids than a general observation about the silliness of drug ads. Do you remember the good old days where pharmaceutical companies were prohibited from advertising on T.V.? Now, I don't think it is possible to watch an hour of T.V. without seeing a drug ad. I can't believe these ads are effective. More time is spent by the announcer revealing all of the potential side effects than the attributes of the drug. The one that caught my eye this morning was a new drug that helps people stop smoking. Some of the potential side effects: suicidal thoughts, depression and death. I've never been a smoker, but why would somebody pick a drug that could cause their death instead of a patch?

These ads defy everything that I learned in my B-School marketing classes. Spend millions of dollars on expensive television ads where most of the air time is used to talk about the downside of the product. Other than politics, in what other industry does this happen?

Imagine if this were used to sell food products, like hot dogs. The opening frame would show a happy family eating hot dogs at a baseball game. The announcer says "Hot dogs are an All-American food for your family to enjoy not just watching America's favorite past-time, but at any time of the day." Then the announcer would start in on the warnings: Consult your doctor before eating hot dogs. Hot dogs contain nitrates which in some cases may cause cancer. Hot dogs can also pose a choking hazard for young children, so use caution while eating. Hot dogs also contain high levels of cholesterol and may raise the risk of heart attack in some people.

It is crazy! No other company would spend money to tell the population about the bad effects of their products - nobody would buy them. But, drug ads must be effective because pharmaceutical companies continue to use them to promote their products. It truly has me stumped - and amazed at the same time.

Television: Part I: Parental Locks

This week, I took advantage of the "parental lock" on our digital cable T.V. I knew the day would come - I just didn't think I would need to use it now.

Some background: the boys wake up REALLY early in the morning, so we let them watch T.V. in our family room. Usually they watch CNN because the choices at 6:00 a.m. are news, cartoons that they outgrew when they were 4 or infomercials. But, at some point, they discovered a channel that I think is called "Real TV". What caught their eye when they were flipping channels was lights and sirens - for whatever reason, the boys are still fascinated with firetrucks and police cars.

The problem: this weekend, the boys were playing with their hot wheel cars, and Andrew pulled over Mark for drunk driving and being "passed out" at the wheel. I about gave myself whiplash turning to see what they were talking about. A few questions later and they showed me the channel. It is like COPS on steroids. Talk about a parenting reality check!

So, I activated the parental lock and blocked that channel. If only I had a videotape of the next morning when the boys were trying to figure out what happened to their channel. They tried for awhile to figure out the password and then gave up. I was so smug at being able to outsmart the 9 year olds, until they got savvy with On Demand.

Around September 11th, On Demand Discovery channel had a show about the Twin Towers. Mark still wants to be a firefighter, so you can imagine why he was drawn to some of the footage. But, not exactly the footage that I would have preferred the boys to be exposed to at their age. The downside to the parental lock is that it doesn't work On Demand. How could a cable company give you the ability to control your kids worlds and then leave a great big loophole?

Not one to give up easily, I resorted to a low-tech solution: The remote control goes to bed with me. And, the boys are too lazy to manually change the channel from the one it is on before I go to bed: CNN.