Fiona, Kaisa & Nathan Judd

Kaisa is nearly 8 months old and I’ve given her medicine only about half a dozen times or so. I’m sure Fiona will have some witty comment in response to this post, and I know this won’t work for everyone, but here are my thoughts about getting kids to take medicine.

Tangent story: I had a great dentist growing up. It wasn’t the sort of thing that I exactly looked forward to, but it was a tolerable experience. One time the dental hygienist made the mistake of asking me if I wanted to get an x-ray of my teeth and that it “may hurt, just a bit”. Why would I want to do that? What’s this lady thinking? Since she gave me the option I said no. The next time they I went in the hygienist just did it, made no fuss, and it was nothing. Seriously…why would that even hurt? As adults we can blow these little things our of proportion.

Here are a few tips:

• Make it simple and natural
• Create a pleasant situation
• Create Curiosity

It seems to me that many times medicine is one of those things that we make a bigger deal than it really is. It’s not a big production, it’s just medicine. Fortunately, Kaisa’s at an age where she’s not defiant if she’s playing around and just being curious. If I can make her curious about the medicine then she’s going to have an easier time taking it and not freaking out when I give it to her. She doesn’t like to be forced to lie down, why would she be happy to take medicine when we’re creating a situation she doesn’t want to be in in the first place? The medicine people have tried their darnedest to make it appealing, I mean…c’mon, it’s purple, smells like bubble gum and tastes like grape, how is that not appealing? Medicine makes them better, it’s just like drinking anything else, and we’re really not trying to trick them — we’ll leave that to that “nice nurse” with the needle in her hand. Ouch!

Cold Stone + KitchenAid = Mmmm!
There’s not a better way to finish off a date than with some nice ColdStone ‘Cream. Unless you could get that same great taste in the comfort of your own home! “How?” You Say? Your wonderfulKitchenAid!

At ColdStone Ice Cream they swirl and mix your favorite toppings with ice cream scoops on a cold stone, hence the name (I see some light bulbs going off). Similar swirling happens when you use your KitchenAid’s K-beater –it looks like a ‘k’. Simply add your mix-ins and start creating, pull out the homemade ColdStone cream on a spatula and you’re good to go! We like fresh/frozen fruit and/or candy bars — Find your own favorite “KitchenAid ColdStone” and make ColdStone at home today.

Credit for introducing us to KitchenAid ColdStone goes to our friends, Reed and Jyll.

The handful of people that read this know I was distraught, as a video camera newbie, that my video camera didn’t save in a commonly used Internet formats I was familiar with: avi, wmv, or/and divx. I’d like to say I’ve learned more and know there is a good reason for MP2 to be the standard…but I haven’t, I’ve just accepted it and really have no idea the reasoning behind it

Enter Sony Vegas Movie Studio 8.0, the trial version… After a week (plus) into the trial, many hours of trial and error learning & playing, and several YouTube video instructions I’ve learned that anyone, even beginners, can learn video editing with a little bit of tenacity. Although I consider myself pretty tech savvy, I knew nothing about video editing and ahhh’ed over friends’ video tributes. I’m more than happy to share my meager knowledge and experience and get tips from others. Below is a project video which I took with the intent of editing it when I still thought my camera’s software could do all that (Ha!).

I’m no videophile, but I don’t think it’s too bad for a second attempt (the first attempt was re-vamping this video). The “magic trick”…well, it’s kind of embarassing, I’m not much for theatrics.

Add this to my Christmas list! I’m pretty sure it’s on sale at Costco!

A new addition to my iGoogle reader is WebWorkerDaily. I’m not their target work-from-home professional but I still find very useful tips there. Recently the article “Developing a Logging Habit” made me think about my daily goals. Using suggested tool Joe’s Goals Fiona and I sat down to come up with some small daily goals we think will enrich our lives. Goal setting sometimes gets to be a wish list…I want to lose weight, it would be good if I did this, did that, I want a pony… and they start to lose their power.

To combat this “wish-list” goal setting we purposely chose a short list (3-4 goals) and will track our progress daily. You’ll be able to follow us along by clicking on the links to the right with our goal charts. Thomas S. Monson teaches “When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates”. We hope to achieve our goals consistently and make them habit. Heber J. Grant stated “That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do. Not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our ability to do has increased”.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go to bed if I’m going to reach my goal of a 6:30 wake-up. I’ll slowly move earlier as my ability to do increases.

This magnetic spice rack is a simple, effective, and (most important) cheap way to clear up counter space. Fiona knows how much I value things organized well. Our kitchen is quite small. In fact, when we moved from renting our first home to our condo the kitchen is the only room that got smaller! Small kitchens, condos, dorms, and other smaller spaces make it necessary to have a well laid out space that you can easily live and work. We had a rotating bamboo spice rack, while nice, took up valuable counter real estate. This is how we cleared that up.

Tools & Materials:

• Drill
• Phillips head driver bit
• 1/8″ drill bit
• Grundtal magnetic bar from IKEA
• Button Magnets
• Glue
• 2 1/2″ course thread all-purpose screws(or 2″+ screws with anchors for your walls)

This project has two parts; First the magnets on the spices:

1. Take the magnets out of the package and put them together in a long row. The button magnets should do this very easily if not automatically after you take them out and set them next to each other.
2. Because magnets have a North and a South pole label them as such. Hold your magnet column and label the top of the top magnet with an “N”. Take the labeled magnet off and subsequently label the new top magnet with an “N”. You’ll use those labels when gluing.
3. Many, if not most, spices will have an indentation on the bottom of the small jar. Squeeze a dollop of glue there and place the “N” of the magnet face up or down. It doesn’t matter which, just be consistent. Let the spice jar with a magnet on bottom sit for 24 hours or as directed on your glue. Note: I first used a hot glue gun which did not work. The hot glue bubbled the plastic container and did not have the staying power of my super adhesive.
4. Make sure when adding additional spices/magnets that the North South is tested on the magnetic bar before glueing or else you’ll have unneccesary gaps.

Place the magnetic bars on the wall, it’s pretty self explanatory but if you must…

1. Place Grundtal magnetic bar in position, drive pilot holes with drill bit through holes on bar.
2. Twist in your screw to hold the magnetic bar, don’t forget the spacers on the back that come with the Grundtal. Continue to screw in the screws with the drill. C’mon people, it’s not that bad.

IKEA also has a cheaper version on the Grundtal. I think it’s their own brand (as opposed to the one with the designer). Those bars were lighter and I didn’t think they would have the magnetic hold for some of the spices. That celery salt is pretty heavy for such a little jar! Voila! You have more counter/cupboard space, you can easily see and find your spices, yet they are out of the way so you’re not constantly moving them trying to get at the Kitchen Aid or Worcestershire Sauce. This was a fun little project and the magnetic spice rack fulfills a need in the niche of kitchen storage in a small galley kitchen.

Yesterday for Family Night we decided to put together a 72-hour Emergency Kit for our little family. Our ward has been pushing preparedness for some time and will be having an emergency drill on September 8th. I felt strongly that Nathan and I should follow the counsel of our Bishopric and of the Prophet and get this kit together so we could be sufficiently prepared in the event of a disaster. I went to this site to get an idea of what we needed, and added a few other things that I thought would come in handy in case of a disaster. In thinking about what we would need, I reflected on Hurricane Katrina and realized that if those families had prepared emergency kits like this one, they would have been in a much better situation when that disaster hit. I had a dream a while back that a disaster happened near our home, and in my dream I was not afraid, I just knew that we needed to get our kit and go, and we would be safe. Since that dream I have really wanted to get a kit together and knowing that we now have one, I have that same feeling of peace.

Here is what we put in our kit:

A change of clothing (including underwear) for each member of the family. Long pants and long-sleeved shirts

Fleece blankets and solar emergency blankets

Rain ponchos

Hand warmers (these are a gel packed in a plastic bag that you squish and they produce 18 hours of heat)

Emergency stoves (one for each day, you pop the lid off, light, and can use as a heat source for food)

Matches in a waterproof containter

Utility knife and can opener

Mess kit and “sporks” (we got them for $2.75 each at Out N’ Back)

Travel sized hygiene items, including folding toothbrushes, waschloth, comb, toothpaste, soap, etc.

Travel sized bottle of Tylenol, infant Tylenol, and Ibuprofen

Small First Aid Kit with manual

Cloth diapers, pins, vinyl pants, wipes

Feminine hygiene needs

Bleach in a small container and medicine droppers to disinfect and clean drinking water

Wind-up flashlight

72-hour food kits (We made these as a Relief Society activity using those vacuum sealers. I’ll put up the menu later.)

We packed all of these items in a large backpack so that when disaster strikes, we can just grab it and go.  In total, I think we spent around $60 or $70.  Not a large price to pay for a little security!  I remember making a kit like this with my family growing up, and it was such a neat feeling to know that we were doing something to be better prepared and follow the Prophet’s counsel. It was neat to have that feeling again as I did it with my own family.