((Author's Note: I have been trying to post this for DAYS, but blogger won't let me publish it for some reason. Groan of annoyance...))
I have many blog posts planned in my head, but I've had little time to actually write them. But, they are coming. In the meantime, I just wanted to let everyone know that, based on the feedback, I will be offering my amazing babysitting skills for service exchange. Unfortunately, Wayne is now in the middle of a few of his own pet projects, so it will be a while before a cool fancy website is up to organize everything. So, if you need someone to watch your kid(s), the best way to get a hold of me is through email (let me know in a comment if you don't have it), or through Facebook. I enjoy cookies. : )
Monday, November 29, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
... because this is as entrepreneurial as I'm ever gonna get.
I was reading an old friend's blog last night, and she posted pictures of this amazing pirate ship cake she made for a neighbor as part of a service exchange. My first thought was "WOW! I would love to be able to make a cake like that!" But of course that thought was quickly followed by the realization that, considering I get frustrated making box mix cakes -- without frosting, the ludicrous idea that I might actually be able to pull something like that off isn't even worth fantasizing about. My second thought was "Okay, I would love to exchange service to get a cake like that!". Now, this was a more legitimate thought, as I happen to know several ladies in the neighborhood who are very talented cake decorators.
My friend noted in her blog that she makes her neighbor's cakes in exchange for family pictures. Not only am I not a photographer, but the only camera I own is the one on Wayne's iphone. I am also not a seamstress, a scrapbooker, a pastry chef, a home decorator, or a craftmaker in any shape or form. This is where I hit a road block in the whole "service exchange" idea, which is an idea I really love. A cool, fancy cake for one of my kids' birthdays is something that I would love to have, but I don't really feel like, for me, it's enough of a priority to actually pay to have one professionally done. Now, I know I'm a little hung up on the cake idea -- because I'm pregnant and I happen to be fantasizing about cakes as of late -- but I really like the idea of exchanging service for any number of skills that my friends and neighbors have that I do not and would otherwise have to pay for or live without.
After a long night and morning of contemplating, I have come to the conclusion that I really only have one real skill that would be appropriate for a service exchange: child care. Now, I'll admit, at first, this seems pretty pathetic, and not exactly marketable. But I'm going to give myself a little credit: It may seem simple, but not everyone is good with kids or enjoys hanging out with them, and not only that, but I've already made use of this skill to help contribute to the family income while still staying at home with my own children (for those of you who don't already know this, I take care of an adorable 3-yr-old girl during the week while her mom goes to work). Plus, after all the training I've received over the years from Lexie's multiple teachers and therapists, I do have a few more child-caring qualifications than your average mom. So, I'm going to wear my "really good babysitter" badge with pride. And after a good deal of thinking, I've figured out what I think is a good way to use this skill in a service exchange:
How often do things come up that would be easier to be done without bringing your kid(s) along but aren't really worth paying a babysitter for? I'm thinking things like running multiple errands, Christmas shopping, doctor check-ups, meetings with an older child's teacher, etc. Those kind of things are always harder with a little one around (or two or three), but it doesn't always feel like a big enough deal to actually pay someone to babysit or drive 15 minutes out of the way to drop them off with Grandma (if that's even available). But... would it be worth a plate of cookies to drop your kid off with someone just down the street? Or what about those days where you just really need an hour without kids to have a break, or a nap, but feel guilty about taking up an offer of service just because you're a little tired. Would you feel less guilty if you could pay with a jar of homemade jam from that batch you already made? Well, that's exactly what I'm proposing.
Since I'm already taking care of another child every week day, I'm pretty much always available and willing to have another friend (or friends) come over to play for a little while, even if it's last minute. For those of you like me who don't "make" things, honestly, a little plate of cookies (or brownies or rice krispie treats or whatever) the next time you make a batch for your family would be a wonderful payment for babysitting. I hate to bake, so that's a service I would totally exchange for. For those of you who decorate cakes, or make home decorating items, or sew, or make headbands/bows/flower clips, or anything else, you could decide how much babysitting would be an appropriate exchange for your service (since you know better than I do how much time, effort, money, and skill goes into your craft). Say you decide that one of your flower clips is worth 3 hours of babysitting: I can watch your kid(s) for three hours at once, or if you only need me for an hour then that time can be working towards your flower clip, adding up more time whenever you randomly need some childcare.
(I'm also a big fan of using husband services. If anyone's husband does landscaping, I would totally watch your kids throughout the fall, winter, and spring to work towards some service in the summer. Or if your husband can get discounts or coupons for different things through work, that be a great exchange as well)
So, that's my service exchange idea. It might be dumb, which is why I'm writing about it here, so people can tell me honestly whether this is something they would want to do or not. If enough people are interested, Wayne's hobby is making websites, and I'd have him make one where you could propose your service and how much you think it is worth, keep track of service hours, and a calendar to show when I'm available and when I'm already booked. But, of course, if nobody wants to do this, I don't want to make him go through the work of making it.
Basically, I'm just looking for a way to get cake. ; )
My friend noted in her blog that she makes her neighbor's cakes in exchange for family pictures. Not only am I not a photographer, but the only camera I own is the one on Wayne's iphone. I am also not a seamstress, a scrapbooker, a pastry chef, a home decorator, or a craftmaker in any shape or form. This is where I hit a road block in the whole "service exchange" idea, which is an idea I really love. A cool, fancy cake for one of my kids' birthdays is something that I would love to have, but I don't really feel like, for me, it's enough of a priority to actually pay to have one professionally done. Now, I know I'm a little hung up on the cake idea -- because I'm pregnant and I happen to be fantasizing about cakes as of late -- but I really like the idea of exchanging service for any number of skills that my friends and neighbors have that I do not and would otherwise have to pay for or live without.
After a long night and morning of contemplating, I have come to the conclusion that I really only have one real skill that would be appropriate for a service exchange: child care. Now, I'll admit, at first, this seems pretty pathetic, and not exactly marketable. But I'm going to give myself a little credit: It may seem simple, but not everyone is good with kids or enjoys hanging out with them, and not only that, but I've already made use of this skill to help contribute to the family income while still staying at home with my own children (for those of you who don't already know this, I take care of an adorable 3-yr-old girl during the week while her mom goes to work). Plus, after all the training I've received over the years from Lexie's multiple teachers and therapists, I do have a few more child-caring qualifications than your average mom. So, I'm going to wear my "really good babysitter" badge with pride. And after a good deal of thinking, I've figured out what I think is a good way to use this skill in a service exchange:
How often do things come up that would be easier to be done without bringing your kid(s) along but aren't really worth paying a babysitter for? I'm thinking things like running multiple errands, Christmas shopping, doctor check-ups, meetings with an older child's teacher, etc. Those kind of things are always harder with a little one around (or two or three), but it doesn't always feel like a big enough deal to actually pay someone to babysit or drive 15 minutes out of the way to drop them off with Grandma (if that's even available). But... would it be worth a plate of cookies to drop your kid off with someone just down the street? Or what about those days where you just really need an hour without kids to have a break, or a nap, but feel guilty about taking up an offer of service just because you're a little tired. Would you feel less guilty if you could pay with a jar of homemade jam from that batch you already made? Well, that's exactly what I'm proposing.
Since I'm already taking care of another child every week day, I'm pretty much always available and willing to have another friend (or friends) come over to play for a little while, even if it's last minute. For those of you like me who don't "make" things, honestly, a little plate of cookies (or brownies or rice krispie treats or whatever) the next time you make a batch for your family would be a wonderful payment for babysitting. I hate to bake, so that's a service I would totally exchange for. For those of you who decorate cakes, or make home decorating items, or sew, or make headbands/bows/flower clips, or anything else, you could decide how much babysitting would be an appropriate exchange for your service (since you know better than I do how much time, effort, money, and skill goes into your craft). Say you decide that one of your flower clips is worth 3 hours of babysitting: I can watch your kid(s) for three hours at once, or if you only need me for an hour then that time can be working towards your flower clip, adding up more time whenever you randomly need some childcare.
(I'm also a big fan of using husband services. If anyone's husband does landscaping, I would totally watch your kids throughout the fall, winter, and spring to work towards some service in the summer. Or if your husband can get discounts or coupons for different things through work, that be a great exchange as well)
So, that's my service exchange idea. It might be dumb, which is why I'm writing about it here, so people can tell me honestly whether this is something they would want to do or not. If enough people are interested, Wayne's hobby is making websites, and I'd have him make one where you could propose your service and how much you think it is worth, keep track of service hours, and a calendar to show when I'm available and when I'm already booked. But, of course, if nobody wants to do this, I don't want to make him go through the work of making it.
Basically, I'm just looking for a way to get cake. ; )
Thursday, November 11, 2010
The Psychology of Food
I dated this guy in high school who used to start each meal by piling as much food onto his plate as humanly possible. I remember the first time we ordered a pizza, he opened the box and took out two connected slices, deposited them on his plate, and then proceeded to grab another two slices and stacked them on top of the first two. I stared at him in quiet disbelief before politely asking him what the freak he thought he was doing.
"Um, getting pizza?" he replied. (This is, of course, just a general idea of what was said. It's an interesting memory, yes, but I'm not in the habit of perfectly memorizing every single converation I ever have to be recalled ten to fifteen years later)
"You're going to eat four slices all at once?!" I think at this moment I was suddenly questioning the relationship.
"No," he responded simply, "I'm going to eat them one at a time."
It should be noted that during this entire exchange I was still looking at him like he was an insane person. Because he was. Normal, sane people take their pizza slices from the box one at a time, maybe two if the box is going to be placed somewhere other than where you're eating and you want to avoid having to get up a whole bunch of times. It was at this point that he explained that in his family, they had four boys, and if you didn't claim your food right away, it might end up on someone else's plate. It wasn't even that they didn't have enough food to go around... they did. But it was a competition. In fact, in this particular incidence, he might not even want all four slices of pizza, but he took them, just in case.
(You know, in case his 97 pound girlfriend might gobble up the rest of the pizza and leave him empty handed. *rolls eyes*)
It's kind of a pointless memory, except for the fact that this was the point in which I started to become interested in the psychology behind the way people eat food. This is something that has fascinated me for years. I have all sorts of theories about my own eating habits, but that's maybe a little more than I want to share in a public setting. I think I'll save my self-analysis for my children's future therapists.
I bring this up because this morning Wayne and I were discussing this very subject during breakfast. It's a well-known fact within certain circles that the Tomlinsons eat their meals at an inhuman speed. Seriously, they sit down for a family dinner, and it's done in five to seven minutes, max. Honest to goodness, Thanksgiving dinner (what we can all agree is the premier meal of the year), they can stretch it out to maybe fifteen minutes, tops. The story goes that, before I came along, my sister-in-law's husband Tom would always be left alone at the table to finish his meal while every one else was up cleaning the dishes, turning the game back on, etc. Tom has always said that he's grateful that I joined the family so he has someone to eat with. In their defense, it should be noted that my in-laws do not throw food back, shovelling it in like a crowd of backwood heathens. They all have excellent table manners and eat in a perfectly polite and acceptable way. Just at super-human speeds.
What has always bugged me about this is that I cannot for the life of me figure out why they do this.
This was brought up this morning as Wayne finished the last bite of his waffle while I, having started eating at the exact same time, was still only 1/3 of the way through mine. Wayne joked, adding a theatric sniffle for dramatic effect, that maybe they all eat really fast because growing up they never knew when there was going to be food on the table again. *rolls eyes, once again*. While that's SO not true, it's not a bad theory,psychologically speaking. The only other one I'm working on is that, for some unknown reason, my mother-in-law would beat the children with a stick if they took too long at the table. When I suggested this to Wayne he simply deadpanned "Yes. Yes, that's it."
So, until I can come up with something better, I'm going with that one.
"Um, getting pizza?" he replied. (This is, of course, just a general idea of what was said. It's an interesting memory, yes, but I'm not in the habit of perfectly memorizing every single converation I ever have to be recalled ten to fifteen years later)
"You're going to eat four slices all at once?!" I think at this moment I was suddenly questioning the relationship.
"No," he responded simply, "I'm going to eat them one at a time."
It should be noted that during this entire exchange I was still looking at him like he was an insane person. Because he was. Normal, sane people take their pizza slices from the box one at a time, maybe two if the box is going to be placed somewhere other than where you're eating and you want to avoid having to get up a whole bunch of times. It was at this point that he explained that in his family, they had four boys, and if you didn't claim your food right away, it might end up on someone else's plate. It wasn't even that they didn't have enough food to go around... they did. But it was a competition. In fact, in this particular incidence, he might not even want all four slices of pizza, but he took them, just in case.
(You know, in case his 97 pound girlfriend might gobble up the rest of the pizza and leave him empty handed. *rolls eyes*)
It's kind of a pointless memory, except for the fact that this was the point in which I started to become interested in the psychology behind the way people eat food. This is something that has fascinated me for years. I have all sorts of theories about my own eating habits, but that's maybe a little more than I want to share in a public setting. I think I'll save my self-analysis for my children's future therapists.
I bring this up because this morning Wayne and I were discussing this very subject during breakfast. It's a well-known fact within certain circles that the Tomlinsons eat their meals at an inhuman speed. Seriously, they sit down for a family dinner, and it's done in five to seven minutes, max. Honest to goodness, Thanksgiving dinner (what we can all agree is the premier meal of the year), they can stretch it out to maybe fifteen minutes, tops. The story goes that, before I came along, my sister-in-law's husband Tom would always be left alone at the table to finish his meal while every one else was up cleaning the dishes, turning the game back on, etc. Tom has always said that he's grateful that I joined the family so he has someone to eat with. In their defense, it should be noted that my in-laws do not throw food back, shovelling it in like a crowd of backwood heathens. They all have excellent table manners and eat in a perfectly polite and acceptable way. Just at super-human speeds.
What has always bugged me about this is that I cannot for the life of me figure out why they do this.
This was brought up this morning as Wayne finished the last bite of his waffle while I, having started eating at the exact same time, was still only 1/3 of the way through mine. Wayne joked, adding a theatric sniffle for dramatic effect, that maybe they all eat really fast because growing up they never knew when there was going to be food on the table again. *rolls eyes, once again*. While that's SO not true, it's not a bad theory,psychologically speaking. The only other one I'm working on is that, for some unknown reason, my mother-in-law would beat the children with a stick if they took too long at the table. When I suggested this to Wayne he simply deadpanned "Yes. Yes, that's it."
So, until I can come up with something better, I'm going with that one.
Obligatory Introduction
I've always thought that creating a blog purely for the purpose of voicing one's thoughts requires a certain amount vanity and egotism that, quite frankly, I do have, but would never want to openly admit. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for family blogs, the type that let out-of-town family and friends keep up with the daily going-ons that happen with your little ones. We have a blog like that (and this is where I don't mention that I have not updated that blog in about a year...). But the kind of personal blog that seems to have a foundation of "I'm an amazing person with amazing thoughts that everyone will want to read" has always been a bit of a turn off for me.
This is where I start getting a little hypocritical. Or a lot.
For a while now I've toyed with the idea of starting this blog, and today I decided to just do it. I love to write, and I think that having a journal-like forum for me to vent my daily/weekly thoughts might be cathartic for me (as it is for a lot of people). Plus, it's been a while since I've been involved in a major writing project, and I feel like in the time off my skills have dwindled. I have ideas for a couple of different projects, but at this point I'm fearful to start them and have them turn out to be, well, crap. So, this is a place for me to not only let it all out, but to practice once again putting thoughts into words into well-formed sentences, and so on. I'm making it public for two reasons, 1) the idea that someone might possibly read this is motivation to keep the writing as high caliber as possible (for me), and 2) because a few people have told me that, for some odd reason, they enjoy my facebook updates, and I'm slightly curious as to whether or not I can still entertain in more than 420 characters.
I'm not promising a whole lot of quality here. And I certainly have no ambition to create a blog that will change the world. But, you know, if it does, I probably won't complain...
This is where I start getting a little hypocritical. Or a lot.
For a while now I've toyed with the idea of starting this blog, and today I decided to just do it. I love to write, and I think that having a journal-like forum for me to vent my daily/weekly thoughts might be cathartic for me (as it is for a lot of people). Plus, it's been a while since I've been involved in a major writing project, and I feel like in the time off my skills have dwindled. I have ideas for a couple of different projects, but at this point I'm fearful to start them and have them turn out to be, well, crap. So, this is a place for me to not only let it all out, but to practice once again putting thoughts into words into well-formed sentences, and so on. I'm making it public for two reasons, 1) the idea that someone might possibly read this is motivation to keep the writing as high caliber as possible (for me), and 2) because a few people have told me that, for some odd reason, they enjoy my facebook updates, and I'm slightly curious as to whether or not I can still entertain in more than 420 characters.
I'm not promising a whole lot of quality here. And I certainly have no ambition to create a blog that will change the world. But, you know, if it does, I probably won't complain...
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