Second disclaimer:
I married into a racing family that LOVES Indy racing. I have become thusly indoctrinated into the world of open-wheel auto racing and now enjoy a good race alongside all the other men in my husband’s family.

Put those two things together and this book was just meant to be in my hands!

The way that the author tells the story through the eyes of the dog, Enzo, is actually a fascinating idea that works beautifully! The racing analogies and metaphors that are used throughout the book are great, too. I feel like I not only learned a little more about racing, but a little more about how to apply those lessons to living life, too.

An emotional and deep read that keeps from becoming too serious through the levity of Enzo’s narration, this is a book I definitely plan to own and read again.

View all my reviews >>

I called a friend of mine who is very in touch with all things organic, natural, and homeopathic and begged her for a natural remedy to help us through the weekend. And of course, she had one! I had totally forgotten about this solution until a mutual friend of ours came to a Mom’s Night Out with her sick baby who also had an ear infection. Not only did my friend tell this mom how to take care of it, another mom in the group walked into the kitchen, prepared this solution below and took it to my friend to administer to the desperate mom’s crying baby. The mom sent an email to all of us the next day thanking our friends for helping her out and ecstatic that the solution took care of her baby’s ear infection without a doctor’s visit!

(Obviously, you’ll want to go with your gut on anything anyone recommends for treating your children – if you’re not comfortable with it, don’t do it! Research another solution and go with what gives you (and your partner) the most peace. Just my own little disclaimer here before dispensing ‘medical’ advice…)

Here’s my friend’s instructions:

For ear infection: Pour 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan with some 2-3 cloves of diced garlic. Cook it until you get most of the aroma out of the garlic. (I think she cooked it for about 5-8 minutes.) Let it cool to room temperature (obviously!) before pouring the liquid into the ear (4 to 10 drops). You can use a small spoon or even an eye dropper to administer the liquid. You can pour it inside of the ear as many times you want, depending on the severity of the infection, but I would recommend that you wait about 1 hour in between ‘doses’.

By the way, another discussion that came up that night related to ear infections was the D word. That’s right – DAIRY. It seems that there is some link between children that get multiple ear infections when they’re little and dairy products. Sometimes, the ear infections are acting as an allergic reaction to the dairy, and when you’re able to wean the child off of dairy, the ear infections decrease. Just an idea for those of you moms that are pulling your hair out trying to figure out why the ear infections keep happening.

One last idea my friend sent us to try is a natural remedy for fever. Cut a garlic clove or an onion in half. Rub the cut side of the garlic or onion on the feet. Your feet actually absorb and process things rather quickly and this natural remedy has worked for MANY years before Tylenol was invented.

Not only has my friend done these things with her own children, but a couple of the other moms in our group have also tried these natural remedies for ear infections and fever with great success. If you try either of these ideas, please leave us a comment to let us know how it worked for you!

Coming of age in the years of living dangerously

So what things did you do as a kid that you wish your kids could do also? Or that you wouldn’t allow your kids to do nowadays?? Leave a comment below…

I love the twist of Kate reading Me Too Iguana (one of my sister’s childhood faves) to everyone. Of course, some of my fondest childhood memories include listening to that beautiful gray-haired woman read me bedtime stories – specifically from a big book of Uncle Wiggily’s Tales. I still get teary-eyed when my kiddos ask to pull down that special book off the shelf to read another adventure of the long-eared gentleman.

Just wanted to share a little moment of our life with you all today, and encourage you to go read one of your favorite books with your little ones.

“In the light of the moon, a little egg lay on a leaf…”

For Mother’s Day we have a tradition of planting in our garden in the back yard. The kids help pick out what we want to plant while we’re at the nursery, then enjoy digging holes in the garden to plant their favorites.

Since Kate and I are studying butterflies for her lapbook (and since we both like butterflies a lot), we decided to plant some milkweed to attract Monarchs. Monarch butterflies like to not only sip the nectar from the flowers of these plants, but they also like to lay their eggs on the leaves. The baby caterpillars then eat the leaves as they grow, turn into chrysalises, and then eventually finish the life cycle to become an adult Monarch butterfly.

Within only an hour of planting our milkweed in the back yard, we spotted a Monarch butterfly flitting around the plants over and over for a good 10-15 minutes. Little did we know that it was a she and she was actually laying her eggs! Just a few days after planting is when we noticed the eggs on the undersides of the leaves and then a couple of days later we were already noticing TINY green caterpillars starting to gnaw holes in the leaves.

Today, only one week after planting, we saw a much larger yellow/white striped caterpillar on the underside of one of the leaves.

Needless to say, we are all very excited to get the opportunity to watch the life cycle of a butterfly in our own backyard!! And I just had to share it with you all! I’ll keep you posted as our caterpillars grow larger and turn into chrysalises. We can hardly wait!

And my two favorites:

so true…

Plus you’ll find special deals on all kinds of Mother’s Day gifts—including jewelry, fragrance, fashion, and beauty—at the Mother’s Day Deals page: www.amazon.com/mothersdaydeals.

Or, does Mom like books? Save 20% on that perfect Mother’s Day gift at Barnes and Noble. (One of my favorite stores – hint, hint )

Of course, you can always go with my favorite – a craft made by your kiddos. We’ve done fingerprint butterflies, paper flowers, and of course, Kate loves making her own cards for Grammie and Mimi.

Happy Mother’s Day all you wonderful mommas out there in internet-land!

Amazon and ENERGY STAR will also host the Earth Day Sweepstakes. Five first-place winners will receive two ENERGY STAR-qualified powerhouses: a Toshiba laptop and a Brother multifunction printer. Fifteen second-place winners will receive the Brother printer. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Enter here by April 22, 2009. See Official Rules for details.

You can also celebrate with recycled and repurposed wood and plastic toys. Shop the large selection of eco-friendly toys from Spring Toys, Green Toys, Plan Toys, and more.

Customers looking to save some green on green products will find everything they need at Earth Day Savings on Amazon.com!

by Leda Schubert

My review
rating: 5 of 5 stars

Winner of the 2007-2008 Texas Bluebonnet Award, this book filled with watercolor pictures of the true story of the Ballet of Elephants was captivating. When Igor Stravinsky (composer of The Nutcracker) was asked by George Balanchine (Russian Choreographer) to compose a piece of music for John Ringling North’s circus elephants to perform to, Stravinsky gladly jumped at the opportunity. My 6 year old listened to the story fascinated by the idea of elephants performing ballet, and was even more enthralled at the end when she realized this had been a TRUE story. Great book for introducing Stravinsky as a composer.

View all my reviews on goodreads.com.

by Shelley Rotner

My review
rating: 4 of 5 stars

My 2.5 year old loved this book and actually did quite well recognizing the objects’ parts before seeing the entire image on the next page. Great book for teaching parts to whole.

View all my reviews on goodreads.com.

by Joanne Ryder

My review
rating: 4 of 5 stars

Beautiful pictures and poetic text lend to a great description of Earth. Particularly moving for Earth Day, this book helps a child to relate to and almost feel like Mother Earth in order to have compassion for this planet we call home.

View all my reviews on goodreads.com.

by Joy Masoff

My review
rating: 4 of 5 stars

This interactive book about every kind of ‘boo boo’ is a great way for kids to learn about injuries and how to handle them. Written in a very upbeat kind of way so as not be scary, the sing-songy text still manages to convey important concepts. “Stitches itches as they heal. Tickling, tightening, a wee bit frightening! Stitches itches, but not for long. In a few short days, they will be gone.” My favorite part is the ending where the author reminds kids that injuries are only temporary and their ‘super-power bodies’ will heal from the inside out. Great book to take the fear out of everyday injuries.

View all my reviews on goodreads.com.