10 Minutes of Happy Tears

Today is Memorial Day. I know that it gets confused with "Last Day of My Three Day Weekend Day." or "Luke Warm Beer Day" but trust me, it is Memorial Day.  A day we are supposed to honor the sacrifices our military has made in the name of our safety.  I am not a big fan of war, or even the particular skirmishes our country is in right now, but I am a fan of our military. So no matter what your political leaning or your insatiable, but understandable, love of bar-b-q, please take a moment today and remember them and what they and their families have gone through. Thank you.

And if you would like to spend 10 minutes sobbing uncontrollably with a big smile on your face, here's a montage of kids being surprised by their returning parents. Beautiful.

Food For Thought

I am having a serious case of the sads. I didn't get near enough sleep before work and I just miss my husband so bad right now. Pity Party, table of one please. Bliss is standing on her own, she'll take a few shuffly steps then decided to sit down. Any minute now, I'll be chasing her down. Nina is out of second grade and with us for a whole month! Sweet Pea celebrated her summer birthday at school and insisted on wearing her crown all day. It was adorable. Robert screened his latest film at school to rousing applause and requests to work with him. Things are good, I just miss him something fierce right now.

This trailer looks hilarious.



#236 of 1000 awesome things.

The creepiness of RPats

Life lessons from Apocalypstick

More life lessons from fileosophy  My favorite lesson. "If you dance like nobodies watching you'll end up on people's news feed."

11 Hidden Messages in Ads. The coke one is crazy.

Please vote for my friend Kim, All Work and No Play Makes Mommy Go Something Something. at Circle of Mom's for the Top 25 Mental Wellness blogs. You just have to scroll down and click on the thumbs up, no registering or anything. I love that term, mental wellness.

And if you need a reason besides my good word to vote, here are some of her latest posts. She is amazing and honest and makes me cry. 

You're a good mom. and She Was Wrong.

The realities of war. 

Obviously this is late for mother's day. But these quotes made me smile. And while your there check out the rest of the page. It's a traveling site for people traveling with kids. You can look up the nearest clean bathroom, kid friendly restaurant or hospital (god forbid.) 

The best rules I have ever seen for avoiding rape.

Show me what you got, I'd love to see your links.

Laughing At The Sky

The Icing on The Cupcake-A Positive Flavor

We pretty much all got started blogging, by reading blogs first. I read a lot of blogs, but I like to pick one that I devour. I read every single post and comment on stuff that they wrote years ago. It's kind of like stalking. So to apologize for being a creepster, I  feature them here with the Icing on the Cupcake.

Sarah Von is the author of Yes and Yes. She was the first blogger that I really found inspiration from. She just seems so friendly like we're a bunch of girlfriends hanging out, listening to music, talking about our jobs, woman's issues, even our ladybits. 

She quit her job recently and is traveling around the world. Luckily it's not new to her, because she's done it so often and so well she even wrote TWO ebooks about it. She has a life list and likes to let us know when she checks things off. From things like taking one of her ESL students and their family to their first ever restaurant, to trying on false lashes. She extends the blogging love with her Network of Nice, where you can ask for anything. "I need someone to teach me how to eat with my toes in Tuscaloosa, AZ" and hopefully someone else reading it, can contact you and get to teaching. Clean your feet first please. 

And if you need a smile or some motivation, check out her Moments of Win flicker page. Where people can add anything they consider their moment of win. 

She interviews real people like woman who have had a green card marriage, or a woman who lost her sister to domestic violence.  She salutes real life style icons. And loves the heck out of scarves and parachute pants. She has made me consider busting out some hammer pants myself. 

With a few other bloggers, Sarah has launched another ecourse  The Post-College Survival Kit. Did you just graduate? Or graduated years ago but still feel like you have no clue what to do? Well this is totally geared towards you, to give you some perspective, then tell you how to act on it. 

Sarah and Yes and Yes are inspiring. I feel like I can live vicariously through her, but also she makes me want to go ahead and try my own new things. 

Go visit her and say hi on her blog or her message board. I guarantee you'll be addicted too.

What is something you've always wanted to check off your life list?

Mad Cravings

Lately I have been craving the bejesus out of milk out of nowhere. Usually I can only drink it with things like cake. I am firm believer that when you crave something your body is trying to tell you something I googled.

"What does it mean when you crave milk?"

Guess what? According to the all powerful google....

I might have type 2 diabetes.

Oh no. What am I going to do? 

I think I'm funny. Do you?

Games We Play-RemembeRED

We didn't really play games when I was a kid.  We did puzzles together and Grandma taught us how to play "Bullshit" and "Slap jack." We were only allowed to say "BS" but we got the giggles anyway. We also had a game of "King of the Mountain" we would play in the pool. Our personal family version could be referred to as "Drown As Many Of Your Cousins As Possible" It taught me strategy, how to undermine those bigger then you, and to not whine about being hurt, because you will be made fun of unmercifully for days. All important life lessons.

But the game that came to mind today was one that I played in my early twenties. I was in the midst of a divorce, if I could track down my apparently AWOL husband, and had just moved to Austin. I didn't really know anybody except for my room mates. I was in the middle of a metamorphosis. I had taken on being vegan, and made people call me by my full name Anastasia, as opposed to the high school Ana.  After years of stifling myself to be some one's lesser half I was ready to burst out of my damn cocoon.

I had a new job at Clean Water Action. We solicited money. Yes, I was that dirty hippie asking you to please sign my petition and write me a check while you were tying to eat dinner. I was terrible at that job, I was raised a polite southern girl. If someone says no, you thank them and move on. And talking about money with strangers mortified me. But I loved that job. The people were fun, I felt like I was doing something worthwhile and there were cute boys.

On the way to the different neighborhoods we would play team building games to get to know each other and to build our team, I guess. Everyone would try and one up each other on the weirdest question they could ask. The only one I could remember was "What texture is your soul?" I know! How pretentious and awful. Instead of giving the question some thought and looking inside myself for the answer, I tried to come up with the coolest answer that would insure that I would be liked and admired, never mind what texture my soul actually was. I think I said "Feathers." Good thing they didn't ask me why, because I totally pulled that out of my ass.

Looking back, I realize that it says a lot about where I was back then. How insecure and guarded I was, even though I thought I was kicking ass and taking names. Now I would say my soul is something sharp, with something twisted thrown in, but maybe also a little feathery.

What texture is your soul?

Me too, Audrey. Me too.

Food For Thought...now on Sundays.

 So last Friday I didn't post FFT because of the crazy Blogger debacle.  And now I've decided to move it to Sunday. I have been mulling over the idea for a little while. I kind of stole it from Yes and Yes. She had a good point. You have a lot more chill time on a Sunday to check out random internet links. Right? But what made the decision for me is doing the writing prompts on Friday. I'd like to keep doing those. So here it is..The first official Food For Thought Sunday.

The Top 40 magazine covers. Some of these gave me chills!

When they were going through the rubble of the Twin Towers, they unearthed and 18th century trading ship! Isn't that crazy. History is all around us.

This picture is amazing. I want to stand in the rain right here.

This Google Chrome ad, Dear Sophie. Happy tears, I tell ya.

Tina Fey's Prayer for a Daughter has so much truth. It is my new parenting manifesto.

As usual the Bloggess makes me laugh until soda comes out my nose.

I never believed that Carrie could afford her apartment and shoes! Real woman have to choose one. Frenemy did the math. Kind of.

This street art is fantastic.

I totally agree with Mama Kat about Woot. I hate that phrase.

If Harry Potter had an MBA. I love everything HP.

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Have you guys seen anything exciting this week?

An Impossible Decision Made For Us.

I feel like maybe in the last post about my niece and nephews, I didn't explain myself well enough. It's not just the financial aspect, I don't want to raise three more kids anymore. There, I said it. My selfishness is out in the open now.  I think I've come to terms with it.  Also my father in law is the kind of person who finds it very hard to accept help. So he has taken on the burden of raising these kids. He is not capable mentally or physically. He is completely drained and his health is deteriorating.

That being said, they are family. We will always be there for them and it's not like we are going to put them out. If we were going to keep them we needed custody and child support. It was going to be all or nothing now. Their mom would have to deal with us, and we weren't going to be as forgiving as her parents. We opened a case with the Texas Attorney General, seeking custody, child support and charging her with abandonment. I tried to call her, because I thought it only fair that she know, but she hung up on me mid sentence saying she was at work. I called back and left the message on her voicemail explaining the details. Thirty minutes later she calls Grandpa. How dare he let us do that to her? How dare I leave the message on the voicemail? But she did say she was coming to pick them up on June 3. She has since said she found a house in a city two hours away from us and has visited and brought boxes so the kids can start packing.

Given her recent history, we aren't holding our breath or closing our case with the attorney general.

I want to give her the benefit of the doubt. People have to grow up sometime. I am worried about them being so far away and it makes me question our decision over and over again. I feel guilty and I know I can't even fathom how much I will miss them. When I see Chris doting over Bliss, my heart aches.

We've explained the situation to them. We've also let them no in no uncertain terms that they have a home here. If they need us, they only have to call and we will be there. Since Christopher is the most responsible and level headed of the three we are buying him his first wallet. Kind of like a "you're a man now" present. He'll be 14 in October. We are filling it with all the ways he can contact us, a calling card and 20 for in case of emergencies.  Also in Texas, at fourteen he can choose where to live. He's the only one who wants to stay, so we told him to give his mom some time and in October, if he still wants to move back, we will work it out so he can. 

My Aunt told me that now is when you just have to pray. I am not religious at all, but this comforted me anyway. Worrying will not fix it. I'll probably still worry, but I can also pray. And keep the our caseworker's phone number handy.

Will you guys pray (or whatever your version is) for them too?

Sloth

Rolling over I wondered what time it was? I knew that it was dark now. I fumbled for my phone in the bed covers and saw that it was 3AM. I felt Sweet Pea's warm body next to me. It was more comforting then anything, knowing she was there. I didn't know what time she had crawled into bed with me. Had I eaten yesterday? I remember feeding Pea, but I couldn't remember if I had eaten. I struggled out of the covers, and awkwardly hauled myself up off our floor mattress. As I shuffled into the living room, I realized that the living room carpet was covered with cheese. For a moment, I cared, considering  cleaning it up. Then I decided who gives a shit. I'll deal with it in the morning. Maybe. I couldn't even decided what was morning anymore. I slept all day, woke up for a few hours, then slept again most of the night. I had shown Pea how to work the remote and the DVD player so that I didn't have to keep getting up. My heart sunk into my stomach as I realized that the front door was unlocked. I had left the door unlocked while Pea played and I slept. "Some fucking mom you are." I berated myself. I often wondered if she would just be better off without me. I had fucked up our whole family and had nothing but a cheese covered living room and no vacuum to show for it. 

I spent most of my days berating myself and trying to work up enough energy to really care about my life. I would lay in bed and cry. My daughter would comfort me. It is the worst feeling in the world having your three year old try and make you feel better. That was my job. My only solace was Pea, without her I may not have woken up at all. But still I hated myself for being so selfish. I should have been better for her, I should have gotten the fuck up and played with her. I should have been awake so she wouldn't have been able to spread cheese everywhere. I read about how that age is where they start establishing who they can trust and who will be there for them, and I beat myself up again. 

I've been trying to make up for it for the past two years. I worry that I can't. I neglected her, I let her see me act weak and pathetic and I let her see me choose depression over her.  I am her role model, how is she supposed to see how woman act?   I failed at that. I still battle with depression off and on, so will I ever be able to show her how to be strong? Did I mess her up permanently, or pass on some defective gene? I know that all I can do is love on her and be there for her. I also have heard that children are resilient, they bounce back, and while that may be true she shouldn't have to bounce back from something I put her through. That is also true.

Another writing prompt. I think they are growing on me here! I would like to add that I shared custody with my husband and he had her most days. Luckily for her, he is a far better parent then I can hope to be. 

Give me your feedback. I think I can take it.

The smell of my Dad-RemembeRED

I didn't want my Daddy to die. School lectures had pounded into us the dangers of smoking, pictures of black lungs, sad eyed people with oxygen masks and the dreaded c word. I can't remember, but I am almost positive that Daddy was never enough of a hypocrite to try and tell me to not smoke. I also don't remember ever talking to him about it, or asking him to stop. I took a much more passive aggressive approach.  Being a latchkey kid I was at home by myself a lot. Every single packet I found was thrown away. They would be crumpled up and hidden underneath ramen packages and Dr. Pepper cans. The food that I lived off and he was happy to buy for me.   It didn't work and I knew it wouldn't. Daddy smoked the cheapest cigarettes available. He had cases of cartons in his catch-all cabinet, jumbled up with old nails and bits of machinery that he would tinker with then toss into the cabinet to be forgotten about. That cabinet always smelled like him, cigarette's, oil and that orange grease remover. He never said anything about it and neither did I. I'm not even sure he knew what I was doing. He was a single dad and he did the best he could. He loved me, but our situation and my teenage antics made him angry.  I had been through a lot at this point, a dead beat alcoholic mom, a too affectionate step dad, a jealous step mom and Daddy's own struggle with alcohol. During his second divorce he sent me to live with my Aunt for a year while he got his feet on the ground. Maybe throwing away his packs because I was worried about his health was only a cover. Not that I didn't care about his health, but more that I might have been angry with him and blamed him for all the little adolescent hurts I'd suffered. Consciously, I never blamed him, on the contrary I was proud to be his daughter. I respected and feared him. I loved to ask him a random question, just to get him started. He knew everything.  We rarely talked about anything real or emotional though.  I heard second hand from others how much he loved me. Throwing away his vice was just typical negative attention seeking, or maybe I was just a bratty teenager. The smell of cigarette smoke on a work jacket always make me miss him and long for his hugs. My dad is a world class hugger.  We still don't talk much. I still know he loves me though. And he eventually quit smoking. But I had nothing to do with it and it was long after I left home to make my own mistakes in the big bad world.

This is my first attempt at a writing prompt. It's from The Red Dress and I was supposed to write about the first memory that comes to mind when I see the picture above.  Please don't judge too harshly, it's my first time. That being said, what did you think? I need constructive criticism. Remember, just plain rudeness creates bad karma. Just saying. 

Pinkspiration

Today I was feeling some pink, some pinkspiration if you will. I'm not really sure that works, it sounds kind of like I am sweating pink. I'm not sure if that's gross or kind of cool. It would be cool if I could sweat glitter. I'd be a sweaty glitter fairy. Eh? Eh? No? Fine then.

And some glitter for good measure

The China Garden

I was given this book by one of my best friends. She didn't give it to me because she thought I would love the story, but because she absolutely knew I would love the old book smell. This is why I love her. 

The China Garden is about a woman who is going to start college and thinks she has her future and love life all figured out, until her mom takes a job at Ravensmere. An old country estate. She goes with her mom to unwind before heading off to school. She uncovers sinister plots and suspicious behaviors. She meets a boy who drives her crazy in more ways then one. One minute she is furious with him, the next she can't stay away. He's the quintessential bad boy, he even rides a motorcycle and has a shady past.  As their shared history unfolds it only brings them closer together.

I liked it, it's a romance novel at it's heart. It's one step up from what I would call a cheesy romance novel, but a romance none the less. But there's nothing wrong with that. I love any kind of romance novel, cheesy, chick lit, historical. Love them. This one is hidden a little better with a twisty plot and layered mysteries. To be honest with you, I had it figured out about half way through. But thinking I knew didn't diminish my pleasure in reading it. The author dallys a little with the mystical edge and old country myths, then kind of blows you away with completely magical ending which really came out of nowhere. I remember not being completely thrilled with the ending.

Really it's a great little book, a quick read with lots of passion and good storty telling. I reccomend it the next time you need a cheesy romance novel but don't need Fabio losing his shirt on the cover. 

What's your favorite romance novel?

An Impossible Decision

a three gun salute

I know that I've told you guys that my niece and two nephews live with us. And how much trouble we've had with the oldest boy. Today I'd like to give you a little back story into why they live with us. The oldest one has lived with my in laws off and on since he was born. When they moved to Austin to share a mortgage with Robert, their mom dropped him and his little brother off saying she just need to figure some stuff out but she'd be back soon for them. This was 8 years ago. Then she got pregnant with Ducky, my niece, and dropped her off, not even a year old. Again, saying she'd be back soon. Again, that was 8 years ago. Grandma eventually took her to court to get child support. Which she paid every once in a while. She didn't call her kids and visited maybe once a year. Christopher, the middle one, use to be terrified of her. He had been abused by his Dad and she did nothing to stop it.  So that's where we were. She was a sometimes figure who showed up occasionally. Talking about how she went to Disney World and Paris, but didn't have any money to help with shoes for the kids, or groceries.  Even when Grandma was dying, their mom refused to take them even just for a summer so Grandpa could take care of Grandma without distraction.

The night Grandma died, the first thing their mom said was "Now I don't have to pay child support." Yet she had no intention of taking her kids. She was expecting her 70 year old father to take care of them still, but without child support or Grandma's income. We have tried to make it work. We have helped Grandpa pay his bills and taken over a lot of the duties of raising them. Grandpa has a heart condition, emphysema and high blood pressure.  He cannot raise three children. Physical, mentally or financially. He's not allowed to work. He lives off of social security and disability. We can't afford to raise them and our kids either. I truly wish we could. But we can't. I feel selfish. It may sound awful but one reason is I don't want my kids to suffer because we are taking care of three more kids. Also we would end up losing the house, we can't juggle a mortgage and more kids. I feel like I am just giving up on them if we send them to their moms. To be honest the teenager can go whenever, but the two little ones have so much potential, they are family and we love them. But we can't provide for them.  And they really need their mom in their lives.

What would you do in this situation?

Mixed Feelings About Osama's Death

Just in case you live in a cave Osama Bin Laden is dead. Whether you believe he was killed years ago, or maybe isn't even dead for real, in the collective mind he is dead. It's an end cap to 9/11 and all the pain and terror that was felt that day. Don't get me wrong, I still think that we will be poked and prodded at airports, gas will still be ridiculous, we are still involved with two different wars and politicians will still invoke the word terror to pass ridiculous legislation. (which is technically terrorism, is it not?)  I don't think that it will change a whole lot, but I do know that the world let out a long held breath that we may have forgot that we were holding.

I was at work so of course I saw my twitter feed blow up as soon as the news was in. I felt a little special knowing that while so many people slumbered I knew the big news.  At first I was skeptical, because I don't believe anything the news or a politician tells me immediately, but it began to sink in.

There were a lot of opinions on how it was kind of gruesome that people were celebrating some one's death. I'm sure someone in your social network feed used the MLK quote about mourning the deaths of thousands but not rejoicing in the death of one. Which actually turns out not to be an MLK quote. And at first I agreed. I was glad that such a vile and hateful man was killed but do we need to dance in the streets? It doesn't bring back all the people that died. I'm not usually a "USA" kind of chanter and this particular celebration seemed out of place, ugly and sharp edged.

Until I heard this on NPR. My husband told me later that he knew without looking at me that I was in tears.

"He told me that he, you know, hadn't had any success and now the stairwell was full of smoke," Eckert says. "I asked if it hurt for him to breathe and he paused for a moment, and says, 'No.' He loved me enough to lie."

This killed me. I am trying not to dissolve into tears right now as I re-read it.  I feel like a lot of us have forgotten. Those who didn't actually know anyone that died that day.  We remember that day, how could any of us forget? But do we truly remember how it felt? The confusion, disbelief, grief, even anger.

I'm not saying we need to go out and dance on his grave. But I for one am glad that the type of person who would kill thousands of people, even send his own followers out to die, is dead. It doesn't matter who gets credit, an evil has been taken out of this world and I hope that the people who did lose someone can take some comfort in it's death.

What are your thoughts on the whole thing?

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It Takes A Village or a Single Dad, a Grandma and a Bunch of Mother Hen Aunts

I've written about my mom before. About how she's not even close to mother of the year. She wasn't in my life a whole lot. I had to make due with my Daddy, my grandma and my three mother hen aunts. Our relationship hasn't always been a great one. We're not a talk about our feelings kind of family. We disagree on a lot of things and they haven't always been thrilled with my life choices. But no matter what I know that they love me. So Happy Mother's Day to the people who helped raise me. As difficult as it was.

Who do you consider family?

Happy Birthday Tchovsky..Tashovsky..Tcho..Whatever.

It's Tchaikovsky's 171's birthday. So as a tribute the hubs and I will be watching V For Vendetta. Best use of his music in a film in my not so humble opinion. Did you know he despised The Nutcracker. He was totally that whiny artist whose all "I hate being famous, it's so terrible being rich and famous and being a legend even after I die." If they had paparazzi back then I bet he would have gone all Sean Penn on them.

I don't care if he hated it. I love it. So have a listen. Expand your mind. Feel all cultural. Etc. Etc.

And something a little bit different.

And something long and soothing.

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Can you spell his name without looking? I had to look every time.

Food For Thought With Unicorns. Kinda.

 We've had a lot going on here. Lots of changes and stresses. I'll write about it later, I promise. Now onto the link love.

 A samurai unicorn with palsy. You have to click it.

A fantastic site about Mom's and their bodies.

Black metal babysitting. This is so Robert.

I want this on a shirt or something

I know this is incredibly short. Sorry. I've had a ca-razy week, and I have a trainee at work. Don;t they know I work nights because I don't want to interact with people. Geez.

Have you seen or heard anything amazeballs this week?

Happy Cinco De Mayo

I know it's a little belated, but I just love this picture. We ate tacos and I watched Ugly Betty, therein the celebration. And don't forget Cinco De Mayo is not Mexico's Independence Day. That's 9/16. It's actually the day of a key battle in the fight for Mexican independence. Just something I know. 

How Did You Celebrate?

Damn Good Advice

My dad always insisted I read Mark Twain. So he has always held a special place in my heart. Recently I heard a piece of writing advice that has stuck with me and works for pretty much everything. He said that anytime you feel the need to use "really" or "very"  replace it with "damn."  Isn't that genius!? And it really does work for anything.  And when I use it I feel like an old southern curmudgeon, which I think adds some much needed  gravitaze to any situation. Some examples....

I am DAMN hungry.

This room is DAMN messy

These enchiladas are DAMN good

You are being DAMN ridiculous.

You're blog is DAMN inspiring

This turkey has made me DAMN sleepy. 

Bring me my DAMN mint julep. 

 

Obviously you have to say damn with a little more force then you would very or really. Go ahead and try it.

What DAMN advice do you have for me?

Parenting Fail: How to Keep Your Kids from Getting Death Threats Online

I recently read an article about Kiki Kannibal in Rolling Stone. The Girl Who Played With Fire. It's a little long but if you read it I think you'll come back with a renewed horror of dangers of being online. Not only that but also I was also confused and concerned about parenting my children when they are old enough to get online.

If you don't read the article here's a quick synapses. Kiki joined Myspace at 14 with her parents permission. In only three months she had thousands of "friends." She was getting modeling gigs and making videos for her fans to watch. Her very first one here, is of her dancing around to Mr. Roboto, her dress falls and her bra hangs out, she also takes of her panties and swings them around like a stripper. She is 14. Her parents say they thought the video's were "cute."  She even got a boyfriend. He was 19 but lied and said he was 17. Still 14 and 17? Her mom went with her to meet him and he charmed everyone. He eventually raped Kiki and became obsessive over her. Kiki's parents said they didn't know how to get him to leave their home. After reporting him to the police, it turns out he had already done this to more then one 14 year old who he met online. Kiki had lots of fans, but also lots of irrationally angry haters. She would get death threats, they found out where she lived and posted it online. Her parents one morning came out to find their house toilet papered and spray painted. They eventually had to move in with Kiki's grandmother because they feared for their lives. Her dad had to take a pay cut and now their house is in foreclosure and they are bankrupt. All through this they never made Kiki get offline. They said they wanted to foster her creativity. Well, yeah but taking your panties off for strangers is not creative.  The article paints Kiki as selfish for not wanting to give up her online fame even though she has broken her family. But I see it more as, why didn't her parents intervene?  As soon as my kid start getting death threats or filming lewd videos, the computer would be on lock down. Period. 

If you go google Kiki, remind yourself that she just recently turned 18. So all those dolled up sexy pictures are probably of an under aged girl and again be scared of what your kids do when you're not paying attention. 

It made me wonder how to protect my own children. So far they only play games on Nick Jr, but it's not far off from them "needing" a cell phone and a facebook page. A lot of it is just common sense. 

 Keep the computer in a central place.

    If they are locked in their room, in the dark, lord knows what they are doing. 

 Talk to them about privacy settings

    Make them aware how easy it is for someone to get their info, like phone number or  

    address. Most social media sites have some privacy protection.

 Password Protection

    Remind them not to click remember me and to log off on public computers. Also I plan  

    on having their passwords. If they don't want me to have it then they don't need to be

    online. 

 Know what sites they use

    Ask them, or if you want to be sneaky check their browser cache

Don't believe everything you read online

    Some adults need this advice too

Stranger danger

    Teach them about meeting people from offline. Never meet someone alone, ever.  Let  

    them know that you can be anyone online, a 14 year old boy could be a 45 year old pedophile. 

Responsible communication

   Do not text, status update or tweet something you wouldn't say to some one's face, or  

   that you don't want repeated and blown out of proportion. 

Basically just communicate and know what your kids are up too. Bonus tip: 14 year olds should not be taking any clothes off in video's online. Just saying. 

Some people might say this is an invasion of a child's privacy and trust. I trust my kids mostly, I don't trust other people. And if it is an invasion of their privacy, well my kids will just have to be traumatized and hate me. I'm okay with that. 

How do you protect your kids, or yourself for that matter, online?

Happy May Day/Beltane

I hope everyone has a fantastic May Day (or Beltane for all you pagans out there.) Put flowers in your hair, have a picnic, dance around a maypole (or giant palm tree, as it were.) Hopefully your neighbors will understand and if they don't leave may baskets filled with flowers and candy on their doorsteps. 

To be honest with you I will probably just nap. But that's me!

How are you celebrating today?