Teaching Appreciation Via the Lake Metropark Farmpark Quilt Show

My oldest taking a photo of one of her favorite quilts at last year’s show.

Isn’t funny how some kids tend to overlook (or under appreciate) things they never went without? Like color TV (or TV in general), cellphones, computers or indoor bathrooms (boy I'm glad I wasn’t around for that last one).

Sometimes it’s even harder to get our youth to appreciate things they don’t use, don’t understand or that don’t match their tastes. I think quilting is one of those things. When I first took my kids to the Annual Quilt Show at the Lake Metropark Farmpark they balked. They looked like the old cartoon of a cat holding tight to the doorway with it’s paws clinging to the door jam for fear of taking a bath! They really had that look on their face; Please, please, anything but THIS!

Funny, because now we go to the show every year. I’m glad I didn’t care what they thought that day and made them go anyway, because they wound up loving it, learning a lot and coming away with an appreciation and respect for those who make these fine pieces of work.

If you’re looking for a new way to show your kids appreciation for art and history, try taking them to this year’s show. Read my March Family Matters Column to find out what my kids find interesting about the show and what yours might learn there.

If you’re going to go, I recommend going during the Maple Sugaring Weekends. Definitely worth it!

Back to School Anxiety: Bullying

Download “School Boy Being Stressed” by David Castillo Dominici via freedigitalphotos.net I recently wrote about how to help your child if they’re struggling with going back to school because they were bullied. My biggest most important tip was to listen, because I honestly could not write a ‘How-to-make-them-not-afraid’ column. Frankly I thought that was absurd. Fear is sometimes real. Anxiety is sometimes truly there, and for a good reason. Our job as parents isn’t to try to make it go away, it’s to try to find out the true source of those worrisome feelings. If you’d like to read more, click here. And if you’re child is struggling to find excitement about the new school year, don’t deny it, just accept it and move forward gently. Here’s some more on bullying: Family Matters Links: A Touching Story/Song Bullying: A thing of the past A Peace Poem By My Teenage Daughter A Deeper Insight into My Thoughts on People Who Bring Harm to Others Other Links: Stop Bul

Green Punch Buggy....!!!!

Green Punch Buggy...No Punch Back! As I was writing this blog post, my son came to me showing off his Lego creation. And don't you know I got hit at least five times since on my computer screen was displaying at least five different punch buggies, of five different colors thanks to Google Images. (Bad timing I'm thinking...) How can we possibly have world peace with these silly cars in the world!? ;) Don't the owners of these cute-but-obnoxious-cars understand that driving these things around town promotes violence!? ;) Anyhow.... The original purpose of this blog was to ask parents everywhere this question: Do you find yourself saying 'PUNCH BUGGY *BLANK-COLOR*! ' to yourself, even when the kids are not in the car??? I do! Isn't it funny how those games we used to play as a child are still around? I bet our parents say the same thing.... HAPPY FRIIIIIIDAAAAYYYY! P.S. I got hit at least ten more times, since as my son stood beside

Good Customer Service At Home

Over the years, my careers have mainly been customer service based. I started in a family business and then moved on up through the rungs from waitress, to hostess, to sales associate, manager and eventually the GM of a hotel. In all my years, my training taught me that you should always do your best to take your customer all the way to what they need, make them happy, and never leave them until they are done with you. I pride myself on my customer service abilities. Though the other day, I think I failed at customer service in my own home! I was getting ready to cut my daughter's hair and because of how long it had gotten (she's been growing it out for a year!) I felt this time it would be best if instead of me spritzing it with water, she could wash and condition it real quick. She was fully clothed so I just suggested she run into the bathroom and wash her hair in the tub. She’s fourteen. I suppose I just assumed that she knew how to kneel over the tub and do it.

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