Oh the Places We Go

Spring flowers…

signal outdoor adventures.

Exploring.

Climbing.

Flying.

Transportation for these adventures provided by the Chevy Malibu…

Please don’t forget to enter the AWESOME sweepstakes over at Girlfriend Getaway DFW to win a super fun girlfriend spa trip for 4.  Click here to enter and please vote for me (Holly, silly).

Thanks!

Using left over egg dye to create cards

We dyed our Easter eggs a few days ago, and had lost of leftover dye.

As our preschoolers love to paint, we decided to use a wide variety of dripping/spraying tools from paintbrushes that we flicked, old toothbrushes that we sprayed, straws that we used as droppers, and even a cotton ball that we used to smear the dye on papers for a unique splatter effect.

If you want to make the dye into finger-paint you could add a couple tablespoons of cornstarch to the dye. Warning, this activity does stain fingers/clothes.

After we had made our papers and let them dry, we cut them in half length-wise, like a hot dog (makes a card more interesting). We traced my youngest daughter’s hands (sorry no pictures, she fidgets a lot) and cut hand shapes out in bright colored papers.

Glue them together and viola! You have some springy cards – and some really, really blue hands.

Egg-citing Science

With Easter coming up this weekend, it’s probably safe to assume you’ll have plenty of eggs in the fridge.  Why not try one of these fun “experiments” with the kids?

Egg Balancing

Have you ever heard that you can balance a raw egg vertically on the first day of spring?  The story goes that because the sun is aligned with the Earth’s equator, gravity is somehow different.

Well, Sci-Tech fans know that balancing an egg is possible any day of the year with a nicely shaped egg and some patience.

Try it out anyway –it’s fun!

Egg in a bottle

This one requires some adult supervision and common sense.

You’ll need:

• • several hard boiled eggs with the shell removed
  • a clean glass bottle with a mouth only slightly smaller than the egg
  • matches (hence the adult supervision)
  • several strips of paper (2 x 6 inches)

We want to get the egg in that bottle without breaking it, but how?  Have the adult light a strip of paper on fire, quickly and carefully place it into the bottle, and replace your egg on top.  As the fire goes out, your egg should slip into the bottle!

What’s going on?  When air heats up, you might have heard people say that it expands.  That means that the molecules move away from each other.  Some of them move around the egg and slip out of the bottle. As the fire goes out, the molecules cool and return to their original places, but that egg is in the way!  This is called a partial vacuum.  The air pressure outside the bottle is so great that it pushes the egg right in!

Have some trouble?  Try greasing the top of your bottle with a little vegetable oil for a more slippery egg.

Article courtesy of the Sci-Tech Discovery Center. For more information visit their website at www.mindstretchingfun.org or call them at 972.546.3050.

Malibu Holly Throws a Pokeno Party

I feel really lucky to be participating in a really fun local project – Girlfriend Getaway.

What is Girlfriend Getaway?

Thanks for asking!

It is 5 DFW bloggers in 5 Chevy Malibus for a month.

We are writing and making videos which can be seen on our individual blogs and on the Girlfriend Getaway site.

Each week they have given us a different field trip to accomplish with the help of our Malibu.

The mission this week was to go to Central Market and shop.

I know!  These are REALLY tough missions.  I don’t know who thought up this kinda torture!

This really couldn’t have come at a better time for me since I was scheduled to host my neighborhood pokeno party that evening.  So, I was off to Central Market to buy party food!

My closest Central Market is in Southlake.  I grabbed a girlfriend, Shelby, and hopped in the Malibu.

We went early because I am UNABLE to go to Central Market without stopping for lunch.

A girl has to have strength to shop.

Here is my story.

*just click on the photo to see the story via Whrrl*

The party turned out amazing. The food was GREAT…it really, really was.

I can’t wait to return to Central Market for another lunch. One of my favorite things to do is once the weather is nice to meet several mommy friends in the play area and leisurely eat lunch-REAL FOOD-while the kids play on the playground. It could be renamed Mommy Heaven.

***
Please stop by and enter the super cool Girlfriend Getaway Contest where you can win a spa getaway for yourself and three of your closest girlfriends…click here and if ya don’t mind, vote for me …please?

April showers

Last weekend, I took a shower.

Not that this is in and of itself stunning news.  I take a lot of showers.  But this wasn’t just a shower: it was a Shower.  Specifically, it was a shower at a hotel, with no kids, no time limit, and no interruptions.

It was heaven.

Now the physical aspects of the shower stall left a little to be desired.  The bathroom was built in the 1920s, when apparently women were a lot shorter than I am, so I had to hunch over and catch the trickling water in order to wash my hair.  Plus it was small, cramped, and there wasn’t anywhere to hang my razor.

However.  The emotional component of the shower– sorry, Shower– was out of this world.

Before I had the Maiden, I did not properly appreciate the joys of private bathing, private dressing, private showering, and private usage of the potty.  I continued in blissful ignorance until the Maiden became mobile.

That’s when it began to unravel.  I spent my showers with one eye on what the Maiden was pulling out of the vanity drawer, always ready to jump out, dripping all over the floor, to rescue the toothpaste from becoming the Maiden’s second breakfast.

I complained then, but still, I didn’t know how good I had it.  It wasn’t until the Maiden began talking that my downward descent into shower time madness started in earnest.

I don’t know about you, but I prefer to bathe in silence.  The gushing of water from the shower head and the low-pitched hum of the water heater provide just enough background noise to suit me, thank you very much.

The Maiden, however, has always been one to disagree.  As soon as she started speaking in sentences, my shower sessions became “Oh, awesome, Mommy is trapped in this little box and can’t escape! I can now hold her prisoner with nonstop spiels, soliloquies, and other forms of endless entertainment!” sessions.  I can’t run.  The door is glass, so I can’t hide.  If I attempt to plug my ears, my hair won’t get washed.

Maidenified water torture goes on for the first few minutes.  Then as, my mumbling, half-hearted comments signal to the Maiden that my attention is elsewhere, she starts addressing me directly.  Questions.  Polite propositions.  Demands.  I spend the next few minutes fielding requests of “Can I have some candy?” (No), “Can I come in and shower too?” (No), “Mother dear, may I please I shave Hello Kitty’s legs with your razor?” (No!  Are you insane?!?).

Since the Maiden became interested in letters a few years ago, we’ve added something new to the showering routine.  She now prefers me to communicate via the written word.  On the shower door.  They say the family home is the child’s first classroom.  But does my shower door really have to be my child’s first blackboard?

Just you try attempting to wash your hair while writing “The dog sat on the bug.  Splat!  The bug is flat!” in mirror writing on the inside of your shower door, while being careful that you don’t accidentally rub out the letters with your elbow, and praying that your kid will read the sentence fast before it fades from the door and you have to write a third time it in letters that start bleeding water droplets the second you pen them with your index finger.

Finally, I can no longer conjure up intelligible sentences that are simple enough for the Maiden to read, and appropriate enough for a 3 1/2 -year-old to be saying.  I give up, get out of the shower, mutter dreadful things about people who use “shower” and “relaxing” in the same sentence, and get dressed (all with an audience, of course, who doesn’t hesitate to provide commentary where appropriate.  Or, where inappropriate, as it generally is.).  Then I go on to the rest of my day.

Last weekend’s Shower was uneventful.  I got in.  I showered.  I got out.  It was boring.

But it was wonderful.

Is social media wrecking your real-life relationships?

Last summer, the children were babysat by some dear family friends while we attended my great-grandmother’s funeral.

The day after the funeral, I happened to bump into the family friends/babysitters. They had many funny tales of things the children did and said while under their care. Then one of the ladies became a bit serious, leaning in as if to tell me something scandalous that had happened.

Prepared to hear tales of one child hitting the other (gasp!) or of someone saying something sassy to an adult (not my children!), I cautiously leaned in to hear what possibly had transpired the previous day between my children and the babysitters.

“Does Isaac have an email account?” asked the babysitter/family friend.

“Nooooooooooooooo…” I said, wondering how someone had thought a three year who (at the time) could not read or write had an email account.

“Well, when he woke up from his nap he told me he needed to check his email.”

Out of the mouth of babes, dear reader.

Since that day last summer, I have heard my children pretend play such involvement in the on-line world. Someone has to check their email while another one pretends the piano bench is a computer, where they type furiously at imaginary keys. Obviously we are plugged into the Internet here at casa de phillips, with the husband and I both possessing several email accounts, blogs, twitter accounts and Facebook profiles. Just last week we had a serious discussion over whether or not we need to go ahead and purchase our children’s domain names.

We might just be a bit involved with the Internet.

Last week a story came out about a South Korean couple who neglected their real life child because they were wrapped up in caring for a virtual child in an on-line game they played. Tragic.

As our culture is becoming more immersed in the on-line world, some are starting to question if such an presence on the Internet is wrecking real-life relationships, especially those of the stay-at-home mom.

With a connection to the outside world found through on-line communities, many stay-at-home mothers are not experiencing the feelings of isolation like mothers have felt in the past. When a stay-at-home mom (SAHM) has a question about teething she can chat with other members of her birth club about possible soothing techniques for irritated gums. When the SAHM feels a bit lonely during a long day at home with a sick baby, she can take a few minutes to instant message a friend who lives hundreds of miles away. When a mom feels terribly overwhelmed by motherhood in general, she can send out a tweet that lets off some steam and instantly hear a bit of encouraging feedback from others in the same boat.

The Internet has many positive things to offer the stay-at-home mom. Yet some are wondering if today’s mommies are becoming too involved in the on-line world. CNN posted an article discussing the notion that many moms could be suffering for an Internet addiction, suggesting that the need to update Facebook and check one’s Twitter account several times a day could possibly be classified as a mental disorder in the future. Although associating “mental disorder” with the desire to be involved with the on-line world can seem extreme, it is feasible to say that many mothers are letting on-line social media networking consume too much of their day.

Before running out to find a therapist dealing with Internet addiction, take a few steps to ensure that time spent on-line is controlled and efficient.

Establish boundaries….and stick to them. Carve out time on the computer into the daily schedule and stick to those slotted times. Being plugged into an on-line community is not an evil effect of modern technology. However, being so plugged in that one neglects the important tasks of her life could be detrimental to the person and the members of her family. Allot time in the day to hop on the computer and then stick to those specific times.

Be present when others are around. It may be fun to chat with an on-line friend after a long day of parenting, but it is even more fun (and necessary to the maintenance of a marriage) to chat with one’s spouse at the end of the day. Take steps to prevent on-line relationships from taking over the chance to interact with others who are sitting nearby in real life.

Go through detox on occasion. Amazingly the world will keep rotating if one forgets to update their Facebook status for a week and the global economy will not crumble if a blog is neglected for a few days. Routinely take time to detox from social media. Plan a week to simply leave the computer off. Sure, there are some emails that may be missed and one might not know what is going on with all their Facebook friends. Detoxing from social media for a few days allows balance and symmetry.

Now if you will excuse me, I have to send out a quick tweet and type out a brief blog post before the children and I head out to the park….

The Benefits of a Massage

Massage is beneficial for more than stress relief.  While lowering your stress is important, a greater benefit of massage is improved overall health.  Your lymphatic system helps maintain your immune system and nourishes your cells, but it doesn’t have a pump system like your circulatory system, therefore its movement is up to you. Today’s lifestyles offer real challenges to the lymphatic system. We sit at computers for hours, drive places in our cars that often includes stressful situations, and our exercise programs come in compressed 30 to 60 minute doses that often leaves the muscles knotted up with increased pockets of acids and toxins that stagnate the lymphatic fluid flow often resulting in increased soreness and a propensity for illness. Regular massage therapy offers a relief of the natural knotting of muscle tissues and actually aids in the flow of lymphatic fluids.

The lymphatic system is responsible for immune  system regulation along with fluid and waste removal. It is what helps rid the body of any toxins that may cause illness. When the lymphatic system slows down or becomes blocked, then fluids begin to build up, causing the whole body to feel tired and heavy, making us susceptible to catching sicknesses. Massage stimulates the lymph nodes to help clear any blockages keeping the lymphatic system running healthy and strong. This in turn keeps your body free of toxins and illness and while also creating a stronger immune system.

Lymphatic capillaries start as tubes that are only a single cell in thickness. Pressure from the fluid surrounding the capillary forces these cells to separate for a moment to allow lymph to enter the capillary. Then the cells of the wall close together. This does not allow
the lymph to leave the capillary. Instead it is forced to move forward.

The lymphatic system relies on a collection system that resides very close to the skin to transport the lymph fluid and our muscles  have a tendency to knot up creating eddies that can retain pools of waste fluid; frequent massage often offers a proven way to keep the lymphatic fluid flowing. Having a quality massage therapist that understands physiology involved can provide the maximum benefit. Getting a full body massage every three to four weeks can helps ensure the appropriate drainage.
Program massage clinics, such as Massage Heights in Flower Mound (across from JC Penney), offer programs that allow everyone to incorporate frequent therapeutic massage into their healthy lifestyle. A lifestyle that includes a healthy diet, regular exercise, and frequent massage is key to a healthy life.

For more information you can ask a Licensed Massage Therapist at Massage Heights by calling (972) 249-9790.

Worldwide Earth Hour

All the information you need to participate in Earth Hour March 27th at 8:30 pm is here:

You can also visit the website for more information – www.earthhour.org

How to make salsa

This week I’ve been up at the FMIL’s house and we decided to make homemade salsa for our Mexican-inspired dinner. The recipe was easy and a big hit, so I thought I’d share it with you all!

You need:

• 3 cans Ro-Tel Tomatoes
• 1 small green or yellow pepper, chopped
• 8 medium green onions, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tablespoons cilantro, chopped
• 1 Tablespoon jalapeno pepper, finely diced
• 3 Tablespoons of lime juice
• 1/2 Teaspoon salt

Mix all ingredients together well. Chill. Serve with tortilla chips.

Day Trip on the Trinity Railway Express

We all have comfy seats with a view from the top deck.

Although time did not allow a full tour of the court house, this neon Pegasus was the first of several Pegasuses we saw.

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