Community Playground Build!

Soooooo what did you do this past weekend?

My friends and I built a gigantic playground!

playground4

 

Yep, that’s right.

Remember that Kitchen Tour that was going to be the death of me last spring? Well, our little community raised that money (143K to be exact) and built that playground! The Playground Committee did an amazing job and we all came together this weekend and GOT. IT. DONE.

The poor kids have to wait a week and just LOOK AT IT while the cement sets.
playground2
But then we can let them loose and their little heads will explode with JOY!

So if there is something that seems insurmountable. Like it just can’t possibly be done. Just take the first step and just keep going.

One dollar becomes 10, becomes a thousand, becomes 100K, then it becomes a playground.

Surround yourself with awesome, smart, go get ’em types and it will get done.

Find your community and keep moving toward that seemingly insurmountable goal. You (plural) can do it!

And don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty ;-) Here’s me rockin’ some manual labor!

 

playground3

read more

The dreaded lice email! Nit Nanny and $75 Target Giveaway!

School had not been in session one week when we got the first email. Lice.

The next week, another email. Are you kidding me?

Per the CDC, between 6-12 million children and adults get head lice each year in the US alone, as well as up to twice that many unreported cases.

Anyone who comes in head-to-head contact with someone who already has head lice is at the greatest risk.  With close contact at schools, camps, sleepovers,  the crowding over electronic devices kids are always doing to get a look at the latest internet sensation and the constant selfies kids take, you can see why lice spreads so easily.  Girls between the ages of 3-15 have the greatest chance of getting lice, then they can easily spread throughout their family. One adult female can lay 10 eggs (nits) a day and she lives for 30 days…do the math.  They feed on your scalp blood; the bites are what cause the itching.  Many people are allergic to the bites, thus the itching. Ewwwwwwwwwwww!

What do you do if someone in your family gets lice?

Many lice ridding products are dangerous, they are loaded with neurotoxins and worse.  Compare the ingredients of the top over-the-counter products to a can of Raid…A CAN OF RAID!

Many home remedies are ineffective. Smothering lice with mayonnaise and olive oil for example will not work for everyone. Those melt, breakdown and liquefy due to your core body temperature which then allows the lice to breathe, not killing them.

nitnanny
Lice Lifters, headquartered in Lafayette Hill Pennsylvania has come up with an all-natural and extremely effective in-store lice treatment process as well as the Nit Nanny Line of all-natural products to take lice out of your life.

The Nit Nanny Products will end your lice problems with no harmful chemicals.  From the first application, all adult lice will be killed, after that you follow the treatment plan.  Nit Nanny Products are all natural and do not liquefy therefore smothering and killing  all live activity in 10 minutes.

The Nit Nanny Lice Solution Treatment is a soothing blend of oils that quickly eliminates all stages of head lice. The 10-minute treatment is conditioning to your hair and scalp. It is safe and effective and leaves you non-contagious to others you are in contact with.

The Nit Nanny Lice and Nit Removal Comb is made of tempered steel. It has unique spiral micro-grooving that helps get underneath every egg. The long teeth can be boiled for sterilization. This comb is the best way to get rid of lice and nits as well as prevent future infestation.

The Nit Nanny Mint Spay deters lice.  It is a one-step product that detangles hair and deters lice. This product can be used on wet or dry hair and as often as you would like to help repel lice. This product is made with all natural ingredients that are offensive to lice but not to humans. The Mint Detangler Spray is non-toxic, smells great and is safe for the whole family.  A few spritzes of the fresh smelling spray are all you need.  If you know an outbreak is in your area or school, be diligent with the spray and putting your daughter’s hair up in a bun or in a tight braid or two.

Each of these products are available via Amazon, you can purchase them individually or as a kit.  This is your best solution if getting into a Lice Lifters Salon is not an option. And is the best all natural, safe and effective treatment available for home use.

Visit the The Nit Nanny Site for all the information you need to get lice out of your head, out of your life, and out of your home.  Check out “The Great Clean Up Page” for what else you need to do around your home when lice strikes.

For more information about the Nit Nanny products, Lice Lifters Treatment Centers, franchise information or lice facts in general, visit www.licelifters.com or www.thenitnanny.com .

So be prepared BEFORE you get that email!

Would you like to win a $75 Target Gift Card plus a bottle of The Nit Nanny Mint Spray?!
Enter here:

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

nitnannygiveaway

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post on behelf of The Nit Nanny. I was compensated for posting and given a bottle of the The Nit Nanny Mint Spray

read more

First Day of School

The first day of school is always filled with glee and nerves for me.

I am excited for them, and for me. And nervous for them and sad for me. It’s a big jumble of emotions.

I usually cry. Today was no exception.

 

FirstDay1

3rd and 1st!

 

 

FirstDay2

Little brother jumping in.

FirstDay3

Yearly porch shot.

FirstDay4

Yearly porch shot.

FirstDay5

Hug it out.

FirstDay6

Almost there.

FirstDay7

He’s sad it’s not his turn yet. Preschool is next week.

read more

The Newton Kitchen Tour will be the end of me – and a GIVEAWAY

In case you’ve been wondering where I am, no I didn’t fade away into nothing from my cleanse, nor did my boy give me a nervous breakdown.

I haven’t been vlogging or blogging because I’ve been busy. Now you all KNOW how much I hate that. But it’s the truth. I have made some choices about how to spend my time over the past few weeks, and it hasn’t been here or there. Pretty much nothing but my kids, and this THING that has taken over my life, has gotten any of my attention.

This thing is the Newton Kitchen Tour. My kids’ elementary school needs a new playground. My husband and I sat around the dinner table one night and said you know what would be a good fundraising idea…

OMG.

Now we’re in it.

The Newton Kitchen Tour is a self guided tour around our fair city to see some amazing kitchens. Big and small. Modern and traditional. There will be something for everyone. Also food. Also architects there to answer any of your burning questions. And me, I’ll be there. I’ll be the one climbing up and down the walls, wiping down counters, talking on a cell phone, with a panicked smile on my face. :-)

You can buy tickets here and also at both the Newton Whole Foods Markets. They are $25 in advance and $35 the day of the tour.

So if you love me and want to see me back here and on Youtube, and not just doing this there…

you’ll share this post and the Newton Kitchen Tour website and Facebook page. And this giveaway!
Yep, GIVEAWAY!

Who wants a 2 tickets to the Newton Kitchen Tour?? Obvs you have to be local to Boston. I’ll give away 2 sets! So TWO winners :-)

But get in there!
Congrats Kate and Amy! 2 tickets coming your way :-)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Newton Kitchen Tour

read more

Elementary School Fundraiser

I don’t ask you guys for much. (Do I? Maybe I do? Read this blog! Subscribe to my YouTube! Cut yourself some slack! Ack sorry about that, maybe I do?!)

I’m not really asking you to do anything here either except to click this lovely little link and do any Amazon shopping you might be thinking of doing today, this weekend, Cyber Monday, or any ole day.

http://bit.ly/amazon4burr

It is an Affiliate link. That means when you click that link and do your shopping a percentage of your sale will go to to an Amazon Affiliate account for my kids’ elementary school. I’m not getting any of that money. Promise.

Unless you count that I’m a member of the PTO and it goes to the PTO and then the PTO will use it to build a new playground. Did you know that playgrounds have and expiration date of sorts? They are only useful and safe (SAFE!) for a set number of years. The playground at their school is set to expire soon. We need to raise a crapton of money :-)

So thanks. I really appreciate it. My kids appreciate it. Their friends appreciate it. Our community appreciates it.

Need some more encouragement? If you didn’t get here through Youtube, check it

Ok get shopping people!

read more

Light a candle of love

My children are playing together quietly in the other room. I hear them whispering to each other. They are playing nicely.

My children.

They are 6, 4 & 2. This doesn’t happen often. The quiet playing nicely thing. I have a minute so I thought I’d write.

I have gone quiet since last Friday. Since Newtown. Since the shooting. It has weighed so heavily on my heart, there are moments I can’t even bear it. There are many posts in my head that relate to it but I can’t get them out right now. I probably won’t.

There is a post about grief and the holidays. My brother died when I was 23 and the holidays are fraught with mixed emotions.

There is a post about losing a child so quickly. I was living at home when my brother died and, apart from my own grief, watching my parents go through theirs was just about the most awful thing I have ever experienced.

There is a post about guns. I don’t have toy guns in my house. My oldest has asked Santa for a Nerf gun. I told him that Santa knows Mommy doesn’t like toy guns. He’s still hopeful. My friend’s husband is a State Trooper, my BIL is in the army. There are actual guns in their houses. I get it. I bought my nephew a gift card for paint ball for Christmas. Now I can’t give it to him. I can’t.

There is a post about teachers. No there actually is a post about teachers. Please honor your teachers everyday. They deserve it.

There is a post about mortality. When I was a kid I was so afraid that my parents would die and leave me. I felt it so acutely that I remember it to this day. We have a very large family and I had been to a bunch of funerals at a young age. It was terrifying to me.

There is a post about my decision to have children because it was a decision. Watching what my parent’s went through after we lost Dan was something I was positive I didn’t want to go through. The easiest way to ensure that was just to not have them right. Oy.

So there are many and I can’t write any of it. I am too jumbled and now I have the flu. The other night I took something for it that made me stay up instead of fall asleep. I kept thinking about Newtown and those teachers and those 6 year olds.

Six.

My baby is six.

If that young man had come into my baby’s classroom he would have been excited to see him. Cool he’s dressed like an army guy! He has a gun! And then…I couldn’t shake that thought and still can’t. My baby wouldn’t have run for cover if he saw him. It a grotesque and awful thought that will not leave my head.

It’s all just too much. There is so much in the news about it. The funerals, gun control, the NRA, mental health, guns for teachers and on and on. I can’t turn it on until late because I still haven’t told my oldest – the six year old, about it. I am praying that he doesn’t hear it over the holiday. I decided that he doesn’t need to know it until he needs to know it. There is so much awful in the world and I need to present it to him in doses. This particular brand of awful can wait a bit.

There is also so much good in the world. SO much.

The support that Newtown has received in the week after is nothing short of incredible. People from all over the country and all over the world are reaching out to them. But also we’re reaching out locally and in our own homes. People are performing 26 random act of kindness (#26RAK) to honor those lost. We need to be supportive in our communities and loving in our homes, always. Not just in moments of madness.

And then there’s that. We have to stop the madness…but that’s another post as well.

They are whispering about Santa now. About what they might get.

My heart is full of love and it aches for those families in Newtown that have one less whisper, one less patter down the stairs, one less shriek of delight at the presents that Santa brought. For those that don’t celebrate it’s just another day without their babies another day that they muster the will to go on for their other children, because they need them. They need each other. For those families that lost grown children, the love of their life, or their mother on that awful day they try to figure out how to move through the world without them.

I will light a candle for your babies and for you and wish you peace, Newtown. We all do.

 

hugs

hugs

I would love it if you would light a candle for them too. Give just a moment to think of them and then go on and have a wonderful day with your families. Honor them well by honoring your own. Peace.

read more