Onions Sprouting? Let's Grow Them!

My Onions Have Sprouted

What to do when you're onions sprout? I know that once they've begun to sprout they begin to lose their flavour and their nutrients.

There are basically two things you can do with them at this point:

1. You can grow them in your garden or, 
2. You can eat the green part.

Unfortunately you can't regrow an onion, but they will flower and you can harvest their seeds to try and grow new onions next year.

I decided to try and grow mine. 

To start, place your onion in a cup of water.

After a few days roots will begin to come out the bottom.

Now you can plant them in the ground. It's too cold outside right now for my onions to grow so until the weather warms up I've got them in little pots at the front window. In May I can transfer them to the garden.

Just so you know, I am an amateur and don't know exactly what I'm doing. It's more of an experiment the kids and I am doing together. So I guess we'll have to just wait and see what happens! And if things get real messed up I have a couple more onions sprouting again.

Thanks, 

Early Spring Scavenger Hunt in the Woods

Scavenger Hunt

 

Playing in the forest.

Having a scavenger hunt can be a great way to spend a couple of hours outdoors. Sidney and her cousin had a lot of fun running around and looking for the items on our list.

Here's the list we used. Feel free to use it.

Parents Should Stop Judging One Another

 

As Humans, We Judge.

People are always so quick to judge. We judge other people on how they dress, what they eat, their parenting style, their jobs and income, hobbies and likes. It’s a never ending list of things to judge someone on. I’m just as guilty of this as anybody else.

But then…

I had a very wise teacher while I attended an adult learning center to complete my high school credits and graduate. He told my classmates and I that it wasn’t fair to judge people on our beliefs and values, but to judge them on their own. At first I was a little confused by this and while I don’t completely agree with this statement 100%, I finally understand what he meant.

For Example.

If I were living in another country, the laws and beliefs there would be different. I wouldn’t be allowed to go there and follow the laws and beliefs that we have here in Canada without some consequences because they simply do things differently over there.

Another Example.

I’m a one-man kind of girl. And my hubby, Nick, is a one-woman kind of guy. So that works out well for us, but if another couple decides to have an open relationship and the two of them are completely okay with that, as well as the other people they see, who am I to judge them?

However, it would be wrong for one person in the relationship to believe they are allowed to see other people, but their significant other is not allowed. That’s what is known as hypocrisy.

Am I making myself understood or am I just babbling now? Anyway… Back to my main point.

As Parents, We Judge

There are a million different ways to raise a child, and 999, 999 of them are all correct.

I believe that being a parent is the most difficult job there is and it’s also very scary. Make one wrong mistake, and you feel like the biggest failure of all time. We all want what is best for our children; for them to be healthy, happy and successful (whatever that means), and our children are heavily dependent on us parents to provide them with the skills and knowledge to achieve those things.

I think any parent would agree with me when I say that there isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t question my parenting ability and second guess every decision I make.

It’s even more difficult when there are a thousand different resources with a thousand different opinions on parenting. To make matters worse, we have every other mom out there watching our every move, ready to pounce on all of our choices and criticize our decisions. Instead of supporting and helping one another, it feels like other mom’s are all out to get one another. Does anyone else ever feel this way?

So from my own experience I have come up with a short list of the things I feel parents judge other parents on the most.

Top 4 Things Parents Judge Other Parents On:

Eating Habits

This starts right from infancy. There’s the whole breastfeeding over formula arguments, and even though it has been proven time and time again that breast milk is healthiest it’s not always the right decision or even an option. For example, my older sister was not able to produce breast milk for some strange reason, so she had no choice.

Then it starts up again with when to introduce solids, and you know that whole, “only introduce one new food a week” topic that I seemed to forget to do… There’s the whole, “OMG you let your one year old drink apple juice?!” topic, and when is it okay to allow your child to start eating “junk” food?

It only gets more complicated as they get older, too. I really don’t know why other parent’s are so concerned with what other people are feeding their children. How about we give advice to one another on what foods we like to feed our kids, with some tips and tricks we know, but in the end butt out and worry about your own family? Sounds like a deal to me.

Activities

This can range from things like sports, dance classes and other after school activities, but it also includes how we choose to let our children spend their spare time.

Some parents might think I let my daughter watch too much television, but then there are parents who have the TV on all the time.

I don’t like the cold, or winter, so we don’t play outside very much in the winter and some people might think that that’s awful. In the summer we’re outside all day though; swimming, playing, going to the park or the beach. 

Bedtime Rituals

Some people think it’s wrong to have children co-sleep with their parents after a certain age, while others are fine with it up to age 6. Personally, once my daughter turned 6 months old I put her in her own bedroom and forced her to fall asleep by herself. My mom thought I was mean because I was okay with letting her cry herself to sleep. Of course I checked on her regularly! First every five minutes, then ten, then twenty… Eventually she was able to fall asleep right away on her own.

It’s not your responsibility to decide what is right for other families. My daughter’s bedtime is 8:30p.m. because she functions well off of 11-12 hours of sleep. My niece’s bedtime is 7:30p.m. because her school starts earlier. Maybe your child only needs 7 hours of sleep, or maybe they need 14 - you know what’s best for your child so don’t worry about what other people say.

Discipline

I think this is a big one. Disciplining a child is tricky, I know! My daughter has tantrums quite often, and most of the time I just don’t know how to deal with them. I actually have to try and cut sugar out of her diet because she goes nuts and starts misbehaving immediately after she’s had a couple pieces of candy.

I try to do the whole time-out thing, but she won’t sit still and just screams non-stop. I can’t tame her with love, you know, hugging her tight and trying to calm her down because she goes even crazier. Most of the time the only thing that works is to bring her into a quiet room where there is nobody else, turn on a cartoon and just have her veg out for 10 - 15 minutes. 

Every child is different. Every family is different. Therefore every body’s rules and upbringings will be different.

We can give advice on what works for us and our family and children, but we can’t expect it to be the only right way to do things. It’s not fair to judge other parents. Variety and diversity is what makes the world go round, and it’s what makes life so amazing. Plus, it never hurts to keep an open-mind and try new things.

Do you have any opinions on this?

Thanks,

The Importance of Friends, And Why I Don't Have Any

Making Friends Is Hard:

 

My Friends and I - 2011

One of my biggest challenges right now as a young mom is making friends who I can not only get along with well, but relate to on some level.

The women who are close to my age (between 20 and 25) either do not have children, or they’re just starting to have children. So, they’re either out partying and in college, working a full-time job, or changing poopy diapers and playing peek-a-boo. For reasons unknown I feel like we’re on completely different maturity levels, or just simply in different phases at the moment.

Then the mothers who have children close to Sidney’s age are much older than me. I have tried talking to mother’s at Sidney’s school, and before at play groups, but there were no clicks - we had nothing in common.

I spend most of my time by myself during the day, which is fine and I actually like it. But then there are times when I would love to just go out for coffee with a friend, or hang out with someone while our kids can play together, and most of all have someone I can talk to (other than Nick and my Mom).

When I do go out it’s usually with my Grandma or my Mom. Sometimes I hang out with my sisters, but not very often. Then there is the very odd time I do go out with my friends from high school, but it’s usually after Sidney has gone to bed and it’s for an hour or two - or it’s a special occasion like a birthday, or New Year’s Eve.

I knew when I was pregnant at 17 years old that I probably wouldn’t have as many friends after I became a mother, and it was true. Turns out most of those people weren’t my friends anyway, and I wasn’t all that heartbroken to lose contact, even if I was bored at times.

I kind of took friendship for granted at that time. I was so busy being a mom and a wife that I didn’t really miss my friends. Then for a while I was hanging out with different friends quite often. They would stop by for dinner, or coffee. We would walk to the park and play with Sidney, and talk. Then all of a sudden everyone got too busy for us. The tables have turned now.

I feel that having friends and a social life is important, but how does someone like me, a young mom, meet friends? I don’t have a job where I’m introduced to new people. I’m currently not in school. We don’t go to play groups any more, and for the next couple months Sidney’s not in any after school activities.

Besides, even when I did have a job, was in school and going to playgroups or activities I never made any friends.

What’s a young mom supposed to do?

Thanks,

A List of Winter Break Activities For Kids

What To Do With Kids Over Winter?

With Sidney off of school for the next two weeks I've been busy trying to come up with fun activities to do. Unfortunately, I can't spend a ton of money so we are limited. However, our region has a strong focus on family and offers many enjoyable things to do with your kids. 

I know first hand that a lot of young moms aren't exactly rich. We are dealing with school,  starting a career, saving for a house and our children's college funds plus so much more. Money is tight, but we still want to enjoy our time with our little ones while they are young. So hopefully you can get some ideas out of my list and even though a lot of my listed activities are specific to the region we live, in your city might have similar programs. All you have to do is look it up online.

Things we might do that cost us basically nothing:

• Free skating at the mall (my mom bought Sid skates for $2 at the thrift store)
• Free skating at Central Park downtown
• Drop-in craft program at the library
• Rent a movie from the library (popcorn and juice is the only money we'll be spending on this!)
• Play at McDonald's indoor playground (costs me the price of a coffee and hot chocolate)
• A trip down to the farmer's market (spending money is optional, however I can't turn down delicious food - especially local produce!)
• Tobogganing (if we even get snow! Haven't seen much yet.)
• Play at the park, all wrapped up nice and warm
• Baking at home
• Walk the trails through Riverside park and feed the birds
• Playing with all our new Christmas toys of course!

Things we might do that cost us a little more:

• Drop in pottery class ($10)
• Indoor playground ($5 on Tuesdays)
• Indoor mini-golf ($5 each = $10)
• Region Museum all day pass ($5 for Sid, $10 for me = $15)

Things we might do that cost more:

• Tubing ($20 each = $40)
• Movies (about $10 each plus popcorn = $30)

There is a lot more around here we can do, but we only have two weeks and our funds are limited. I try to find and think up as many amusing things that are free, or cost very little. 

What are some things you like to do with the kids over the holidays/winter?

Thanks, 

PS - Because Sidney is on winter break now, I might not get around to blogging as much for the next two weeks.

Best Free Activities Are At The Library

photo credit: artsjournal.com

If you are anything like me than I'm going to assume you like free things. Because really, who doesn't? And the best kind of free, is free fun - at the library!

I don’t know much about other community libraries but I do know that the chain of libraries here in my city have so much fun, free things going on all year round.

They have:

• art exhibitions,
• plays,
• children drop-in activities,
• art programs,
• family reading nights,
• speeches,
• art sales,
• contests,
• and so much more.

Every March Break, PA Day and Winter Holidays there are fun events planned for kids and teenagers to participate in. And to top it off, the friendly staff at the libraries are always introducing new and exciting programs all the time!

That’s not even including the fact that you can take out books, DVDs, magazines and Cds for free.

BOOKS!

For someone like myself who is an avid reader I’m constantly in need of new books all the time. I take out fictional books, craft books, recipe books, business books, magazines and children’s book. Once a month I must take out at least 6 - 10 books!

MOVIES!

My daughter and I like to have movie nights on the weekend. We’ll go down to the library and choose a couple movies - one for her and one for me - and plan a family evening, and as long as you don’t return them late it’s absolutely free to take them out for 7 days. The movie selection is pretty good, too. Ranging from new releases to old classics like Breakfast At Tiffany’s, and television shows for kids and grownups.

MUSIC!

Bored of your CD collection? The library usually has plenty of those to choose from, too! No matter how often I go I always manage to find something new to listen to. Sure, I could hop on YouTube or listen to the radio, but sometimes it’s nice to be able to listen to an entire album without having to constantly go over and select a new song.

So why not check out your local library, if you haven’t already?

What’s your favourite part about the library?

Thanks,