Mom-O-Vision

Around the dinner table last night, our 13-year-old daughter told us about a program on Internet safety she'd attended at school.

It was led by a teacher who gave them the basics, and then a police officer who filled in the specifics. I'm sure whatever the teacher said is in my daughter's head somewhere, but she had lots of details about the police officer's portion of the talk.

"He said there was a 15-year-old girl who thought she was talking to another kid online but it turned out to be a 52-year-old man," my daughter recounted. "After she told on him, the man told her that he was going to track her down and kill her."

She then went on to say that the man was caught and brought to justice, currently serving 26 years in prison for whatever went on.

My husband and I were stuck on "track her down and kill her." We don't doubt that the predator said that or that it's important for kids to hear it. Still, it was jarring.

At this age, it's especially vital for kids to learn how they can become victims online. And if telling them that it might get them killed is the best way to make a case, then I guess I'm all for it.

You teach your kids about "stranger danger" starting at the younger ages, but moving it online gives it a new twist. Take the potential pool of strangers (AKA just about the whole world) and throw in this twist -- some of these people you don't know at all also are pretending to be someone that they're not.

And kids just reaching the point of realizing that there might be people in the world with less-than-honorable intentions now have to figure out what might be a multi-layered strategy to lure them in and trick them. Sad, but true. 

The police officer's words might have been a little raw, but it seems they did the job. I hope many, many more kids hear them.

I meant to get around to writing about this today, but noticed Jackie Loohauis-Bennett of the Journal Sentinel beat me to the punch.

If you like saber-toothed tigers, woolly mammoths and ground sloths (and let's be honest, who doesn't), you might want to venture over to the parking lot of Mark Travel, 8907 N. Port Washington Road in Bayside, from 8 to 10 a.m. Thursday, April 2.

Some Wisconsin-made, life-sized statues of prehistoric beasts will be on display there before they head out for an exhibit at the San Diego Zoo.

See the whole story here.

Our daughter was 11 months old when she celebrated her first Easter. I don't remember it well, but I can be certain there was a dress, a family get-together and an Easter basket.

At that age, candy wasn't in it, but I can tell you what was laying in the plastic green grass -- a small brown stuffed Easter bunny with big ears and a ribbon around its neck and a rubber duck. 

Our daughter is 13 now, so you might wonder why I remember so clearly what was in her Easter basket when she wasn't even a year old. I remember because -- and I'm not saying it's right -- the Easter bunny at our house gave her those same two things every year for probably five or six years. And I don't mean new bunnies and new rubber ducks. Nope, I mean the exact same ones.

This is what our Easter bunny did for years and years without the children being any wiser. Every year the basket would contain a few age-appropriate things -- maybe bubbles, sidewalk chalk, a jump rope, new crayons, candy. It also would include the stuffed bunny and the rubber duck, which were convenient basket fillers that somehow disappeared every year like clockwork right around May 1, only to return again next year, happy and chipper in the basket.

I remember when we hit about year six and I was sure the deal was up. One of these times she was going to point out that she was getting the same dang stuffed rabbit every single year or at least that it looked familiar.

Never happened. I don't know if she never truly figured it out, or if she was just being polite. Who knows?

Around year seven, our Easter bunny just couldn't do it anymore and besides, the two standards seemed a little babyish. It was time to move on.

They remain in the bunny's box of tricks, though, ready and waiting to take another stab at it. Maybe this is the year?
 

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I'm sort of feeling sorry for Jon Gosselin. Last night the finale of season four of TLC's popular "Jon & Kate Plus 8" aired, and it brings to light the sad side of reality TV.

All week long TLC pumped the final episode by hinting to viewers that there would be a juicy ending that might indicate trouble in the Gosselins' marriage, which, if you follow the rag mags, is not a surprise. Jon's been photographed hanging out with college girls and other shenanigans for awhile now, but it's never been addressed on the show.

In the final five minutes last night, the parents of the now-famous twins and sextuplets talked about whether or not they'll be back for a fifth season. And in some ways, that five minutes seemed more real than all the hours and hours of shows that came before it.

Jon said very clearly that he's struggling with the fact that he is not Jon Gosselin. He is "Jon & Kate Plus 8." And he isn't sure he wants to keep that going.

Kate, for her part, said she loves their life right now and wants the show to keep going into the fifth season.

She also made the point -- a valid one -- that the family has been living in the public eye for so long now that it doesn't matter if Jon wants it all to go away. It's too late. With or without a fifth season, the trials and tribulations of the Gosselins and their children will be followed in the media, at least for awhile.

And if something scandalous happens, it will still be in the tabloids. In other words, good luck telling the roller coaster that it should stop in the middle of the hill. Celebrity doesn't work that way.

The time to think about what it means to make your family into prime-time TV is before you actually sign on the dotted line. I'm sure Jon and Kate did have those conversations, but could they ever have imagined that their show would become what it is?

And how do you attempt to walk away from what your decision has done for you? By standard measures of success, the Gosselins have it all -- a huge new house, cute-as-a-button kids dressed straight out of a GapKids ad, vacations many of us can only dream about and so much more. Kate's had plastic surgery courtesy of her connection to the show, and Jon got free hair plugs.

Reality, this ain't.

And even so, I walked away from the TV last night feeling a little sorry for Jon. His face, his manner and his words all said that he's regretting this deal with the devil -- a deal he and his wife made not just for themselves, but for their eight children who will, like him, move through life as the kids from "Jon & Kate Plus 8."

They'll benefit from that in many ways, I'm sure. They already have.

The unfortunate flip side is that they never had the chance to say they didn't want to do it.

Consider this blog your new reality TV show connection.

Got a call from MTV last week. They're looking to find Milwaukee-area families with children ages 14 to 24 and turmoil. The specific request was for parents and children who are at odds with one another over any number of things -- relationships, college selections, religion, etc. You get the idea. Producers of the show say the goal is to help the families resolve the issue, whatever it may be, and gain a better understanding of each other by the end of the program.

Selected families will appear in MTV's documentary-style series "True Life", which, if you haven't seen it, is actually pretty darn good reality TV.

If you're interested, e-mail your name, age, location, phone number, a recent photo and an explanation of the issue you are having to parents@mtvnmix.com.

And if you get picked for the show, let us know!
 

Watch out Milwaukee's naughty boys and girls -- the "Supernanny" crew is headed to town, looking for the best of the worst.

We're big fans of this show at our house for so many reasons. Of course it's a family show you can watch with the kids, but it also opens up the door for discussions about what's appropriate, what isn't and what the consequences should be when kids cross the line.

Aw, who am I kidding? We love to watch the really rotten kids and their often even more rotten parents. If I was the supernanny, I wouldn't last an hour in many of those houses. Yep, it's good stuff.

If you've got a crew that needs whipping into shape by Jo Frost, the supernanny herself, head to the casting call from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 28, at StoneFire Pizza, 5320 S. Moorland Road.

For more info, check out Supernanny.com.  

Today's a big day around our house because my son turns 10. Neither one of my kids gets all that excited about birthdays, but this time around is different for my son.

The countdown started about two weeks ago, and ever since he's been calculating how many days until he turns 10. Clearly getting into the double digits is very important to him.

What he doesn't know is how much it means to us too.

My son, my second child, had a rough start in life, although he doesn't know this yet. We've never talked with him about the complications surrounding my pregnancy with him, how he came into this world at a really scary time for us as a family and how his first months of life on the outside were as challenging as his last few on the inside. He has no clue.

Does he need to know? Sure, someday. Today's not that day, but someday.

It's a long story full of twists and turns, but I'll summarize. I was about five months pregnant with my son when an ultrasound revealed a softball-sized ovarian cyst that was growing along with my unborn baby. Shortly afterward, when I was about 24 weeks along, I had surgery to remove it, which involved opening up the very area where he was growing.

A painful and scary 10 days in the hospital followed, waiting every day for the contractions to stop so that I'd get the green light to go home. Adding insult to injury, this was during the Clinton impeachment trial, so that's the only thing that was on TV on just about every channel for my entire hospital stay. A minor gripe in the bigger scheme of things, but at the time, it added to my misery.

I eventually got out, went home and resumed life as normal with only a few trips back to the hospital for pre-labor scares.

My son was born on March 10, 1999, just hours after his nearly 3-year-old sister was released from Children's Hospital. She had a febrile seizure that didn't respond properly to medication and required her to stay in the hospital for a few days. While we were there, worrying sick about our first baby, our second baby was on the way. I knew it, but held out as long as I could before heading off to my hospital for his birth.

One child recovering, one just born. To say I was overwhelmed doesn't do it justice. I think I was comatose. I barely remember my time in the hospital with my son because I was so sick with worry over my other one.

What I do remember clearly is the day I realized that my new baby, my boy, had colic. Serious colic. Serious screaming all day, screaming all night colic.

It was understandable; he'd been through a lot in his short life. Moms all around me would talk about how they wouldn't even take an Advil while they were pregnant; I was on morphine for days following the ovarian cyst surgery. What did I expect, a blissful baby?

Well, to be honest, yes. I felt we'd been through enough already and my husband, daughter and I were all already a tangle of exposed nerves. Add constant crying to the mix (and not just that of the new baby, I'm not too proud to say) and we were a puddle on the floor most days.

It took four months after his birth for him to stop screaming and probably another two months after that until we all started breathing again.

What I have today is a 10-year-old boy who made it through, never knowing it all happened and never looking back.

He's funny, a little quirky, very rational for a kid his age, the best gift we ever gave his sister and many, many other things I love and treasure every day.

He's celebrating his 10th birthday today, but the gift, I feel, is all mine.
 

March 6, 2009

Dear Girl Scouts of America:

As a young girl, I greatly enjoyed your organization. As an adult, I think we need to talk. And yes, it's about the cookies.

You might think I am writing this letter to complain about the fact that there are fewer Thin Mints in each sleeve this year and that all the boxes -- and cookie sizes, it seems -- have gotten smaller.

Not so.

I am writing to talk to you about the timing of your cookie deliveries in the Milwaukee area. I don't know if you do this intentionally, but cookie sales start in January, which is a time when we in Milwaukee are all particularly vulnerable. Typically at this point, we have been knee deep into winter for at least six weeks. Life looks and feels as gray as a car crusted in salt and snow splatter.  

Then your cookie order forms arrive and they're all colored with the pastel yellows and greens of spring and it just does something to our addled brains. We grab all the forms we can find, neatly filling in the number of desired boxes in the colored rows and yes, we dream of spring and better days ahead. Like when the cookies will arrive.

And then, weeks later, much like the first buds of spring, the cookies do arrive. Only around here, it isn't spring yet, so the cookies replace the budding flowers. Which we then eat not by the cookie, but by the box.

Might I add that we are also particularly vulnerable at this time? Because now winter's dragged on for several months and it's still gray outside and swimsuit season is at least three months away for us (if we're lucky). So one-two-three-four, whatever, the whole row, of cookies don't seem like such a bad idea right now. We've got time to lose the weight, right?

Then we start acting like it's New Year's Day every day, resolving that today won't be like yesterday. We won't replace two out of three meals with Girl Scout cookies. We won't. Really. Maybe.

Dang it. There are just so many of them and they're everywhere.

Don't mistake my message here. We want to support your mission. You do good things for girls across the nation, and in that, we totally support you.

How about showing the love back by changing our cookie season to early fall? The fall leaves will give your colorful order form a run for its money, and then the cookies themselves would arrive at the beginning of winter and would become just another part of holiday overeating -- all to be completed by January.

Give it some thought. We'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

Sincerely,

Jeanne Wieland
 

If your children are of a certain age, mid-elementary school seems about right, you probably already know about Fred.

In fact, you may have learned about Fred in much the same way I did. I was walking past the computer where my two children were glued to YouTube, mesmerized by something on the screen. I heard it before I saw it, although it's hard to say which is worse with Fred.

How to describe Fred's voice? It's like someone thought Alvin and the Chipmunks were too pleasant sounding and so bumped up the pitch and speed to levels best heard by dogs. And roughly third- to eighth-graders too.

But to see Fred is truly something else. He's a shaggy-haired teenage boy pretending to be a disturbed 6-year-old named Fred Figglehorn who lives with his grandma while his mom's in rehab and his dad's in jail. He has a crush on Judy and sometimes gets bullied. Despite the somewhat gritty "back story" of this fictional character, it's a mainly innocent collection of videos.

In real life, Fred is Lucas Cruikshank, a 14-year-old from Nebraska with seven brothers and sisters.

Also in real life, he's at the top of the YouTube food chain with such classics as "Fred Loses His Meds" (more than 16 million views), "Fred Goes Swimming" (more than 20 million views) and "Fred Stalks Judy" (more than 9 million views). His channel has hundreds of thousands of subscribers. These are the kinds of numbers other virtual stars -- and even real ones -- can only drool about. He's an online sensation, so you know it didn't take Disney long to come calling. Fred appeared on a recent episode of Disney Channel's tween hit, "iCarly."

A neighbor's kid had shown my kids the Fred channel on YouTube and after one short clip, they were hooked and watched all the rest. It wasn't long before my son was imitating the rapid-fire speech and the eye-rolling delivery -- and soon after that my husband and I were begging him to stop.

What made our ears bleed was nonstop hilarity to our kids and the neighbor kids and our friends' kids and just about any kid who gets within the reach of Fred's voice.

I logged on to watch a few of Fred's videos again in preparation for writing this. I got through about half of a few of them and then had to mute my computer while Fred continued to mug for the camera. I mean, I understand that past generations got themselves worked up when their kids listened to the Beatles, but a few years later I bet many of those parents were listening to the Beatles themselves.

Somehow I don't picture Fred ever catching on with anyone over the age of 13, but I suppose stranger things could happen. For example, a 14-year-old nobody from nowhere with a really annoying shtick could be one of the hottest acts on the Internet.

I didn't even realize it when I was in it, but it turns out I had it pretty great for awhile. For a few blissful years, I rarely thought about sleep.

For most of us, it is the birth of our first child that makes us realize just how precious sleep is and exactly what its purpose is. Doctors may tell you stuff about how sleep is important for recharging your batteries, cell growth and yada yada, but we all know the real reason for sleep.

We sleep because we don't want to burst into tears at the grocery store when our exhausted brains can't handle so many yogurt choices. We sleep because we have to operate cars and remember that today is Wear Red for School Spirit! day and cut really little rectangles off the top of cereal boxes to raise money for our schools. We sleep because without that rest, we might actually live out the dream in which we throttle our husbands for no better reason than forgetting to replace the toilet paper roll.

My first was born nearly 13 years ago, my second nearly 10 years ago. That means that from 1996 until approximately 2003, my sleep deprivation levels ranged from dangerously low to spotty with a chance of incoherent mumbling. 

But by the time my son was 4, we were kind of in our groove. Everybody slept for the most part, and if there was anything to gripe about, it was the early wakeup times. Anytime after 5:30 a.m. was not out of the realm of possibility, and even though the kids could get up and play for a bit before my husband and I got out of bed once they were out of the very little stage, just the morning noises were enough to wake me for good. If the kids were up, I was up.

I have no one but myself to blame that I said this out loud on more than one occasion: I wish my kids would sleep a little later.

Yep, I said it. I admit it; I did. Following the theory that you always want what you don't have, I said it. My kids went to bed great and slept the whole night. The only thing they did "wrong" was wake up too early for my tastes.

Turns out I should have just learned to like the flavor of early because I'm paying for that wish now.

In just the past few months, my kids -- both of them, to boot -- have decided that they do like sleeping in after all. However, they aren't interested in my plan, which offers them extended sleep-in hours on weekends but a more conventional schedule on weekdays. Nope, they want the unlimited plan with all the options, including the later wakeup time, even on weekdays.

I have tried to explain that this plan is not available in our area at this time, but they are not interested. The other problem is that they have gotten bigger. When they were little and wouldn't sleep, they might tuck into bed with us and nod off in just a few minutes.

Now it's the reverse: I'm trying to haul them out from under layers of fuzzy, warm blankets before they can grab the blankets back because the last thing I want to do is engage in a tug-of-war with my 9-year-old at 6:30 in the morning -- and lose. Add humiliation to annoyance and you've got a powerfully ugly combo playing out before "The Today Show" even starts.

So I'm kicking myself a little right now. I spent years "training" my kids to be good sleepers and the kick in the pants of it all is that they're rewarding me by actually doing it. 

With the big peanut butter recall of 2009 still in full swing, you aren't hearing much positive news about this family favorite these days. But it's products made from peanut paste -- not often the yummy stuff in the jar -- that appears to be the problem, so those of us who love PB are continuing to consume.

Two local 8-year-olds loved it enough to enter Jif's Most Creative Peanut Butter Sandwich Contest. Alexandra Miller of Franklin and Adam Sprangers of Greenville are in the finals and now it's time to vote!

Alexandra's creation, The Happy Hedgehog, makes use of pretzels, raisins, almonds and more to make a cute -- and yummy -- sandwich.

Adam made the Peanut Butter Burger, which includes chicken, carrots and -- gasp! -- spinach.

Voting ends Friday, Feb. 27, if you want to support the home team kids.

Here's the whole story.

 

When our daughter was in first grade, my husband and I made a classic parenting mistake. With children aged 7 and 4, we decided that our kids were at the right stage in their young lives to get a dog.

They had been begging for a dog, praying for a dog, dressing up as dogs and talking about dogs nonstop. My husband grew up with dogs and cats in his house, so he knew what it was all about. I grew up with neither, but since we married we always had cats, so I figured a dog couldn't be that much more work, right? 

So the woman who compared six stroller brands for three months before choosing one and who spent hours on the Internet and paging through Consumer Reports before buying a car decided in all of about five minutes that a dog was a good idea.

No, not just a good idea. Necessary to the proper development of my children.  

In hindsight, I should have realized I'd only use the stroller for a few years and that the car might end up being replaced. The dog -- the good idea, necessary dog -- has a slightly longer lifespan. Yeah, that's one decision that could have used a little more thought.

Now before you go and think I'm a dog-hater, I'm not. But something quickly became clear to me that no one told me before we had a dog: Many dogs prefer adults, and even if you get a family-friendly breed or an amiable mutt, dogs don't always gravitate toward the kids.

So before I knew it, I was the proud owner of one used dog between the ages of 2 and 4. With no identifying information, the shelter didn't know his true age. The name he came with, and the name our kids wanted to keep, was Patch, although he has no patches. He was a slightly overweight pup that resembled a giant Chihuahua. 

A giant Chihuahua that from day one only had eyes for me.

We had made solid plans to get a dog that would enhance the children's lives. Patch wasn't having it. He was going to enhance my life, and that was about it.

The bad news for him is that I didn't need my life enhanced. I had just gotten to the point where my children no longer followed me around anymore, and now I was the proud owner of a dog who did just that. Every time I turned around, Patch was right there. Sit down? He's up on my lap. Folding laundry? He's staring at me, adoringly, from the other side of the ironing board.

I am apparently pretty darn fascinating. You don't know that about me, but Patch does. If I'm awake, he's right there with those big, bug-eyed baby browns intently focused on my next move.

As for the kids, they still love him all these years later, even if he mostly uses them as something to step on to get to me on the couch. My husband doesn't do much besides occasionally feed him because he's "mom's dog." And I've become used to having a shadow, even though I never, ever saw that coming.

So the secret that no one ever told me was that, in the end, the dog often really only likes mom.

And the secret I don't tell?

I didn't need a dog, but sometimes it's kind of nice to have something that thinks the sun rises when you get up and goes down when you go to sleep. As we count down the weeks until my oldest is officially a teenager, maybe having my No. 1 fan always by my side will turn out to be just what I needed -- even if I didn't know it.

So yesterday was a big day around the MilwaukeeMoms office, but if we did our jobs right, you didn't notice. After months of planning and preparation, we switched the web site to a new content-management system, which is really just a fancy way of saying that we now have a different way of making changes to the web site.

It's all behind-the-scenes stuff, so if you're a regular user of this site, it shouldn't change your experience.

In making this transition, we decided to give the site an overhaul -- a freshening up, if you will. You'll find more restaurant reviews, new recipes, updated park reviews and lots more in our regular sections.

In addition, we created two new areas of the site: Photo Galleries and Money Savers.

Based on the phenomenal success of our photo contests (such as our Beautiful Baby contest, which currently has more than 1,000 entries), we built a Photo Galleries section that will allow you to share your best and cutest kid photos at any time. There are no prizes attached to the galleries -- just the chance to make other parents smile. We've started out with three galleries: I Dress Myself, Kids & Pets and Sweet Smiles. Feel free to add to any and all of the galleries!

Our Money Savers section puts together dozens of ways that you can still have fun as a family and spend less while doing it. The Dining Out page links to a listing of restaurants where kids eat free or cheap. Family Freebies lists local attractions that offer free days or free tours so you can get out without breaking the bank. And Coupons & Deals offers links to some great coupon sites to help you save on your everyday purchases.

We hope you like these new features and will tell us if you have ideas for more.

As always, we're here to help make life a little bit easier for moms (and dads!).

Enjoy, and we'd love to hear your feedback. Feel free to e-mail me or call (414) 224-2710.
 

This morning on "The Morning Blend," we decided to tackle a topic that is being talked about by moms (and dads and just about everyone else) all over the Milwaukee area. With the state of our economy and so much uncertainty, how do you cut back your family budget without feeling like you're making huge sacrifices?

In our MilwaukeeMoms.com discussion boards, moms offered up a lot of tips for those looking to spend less. Put all, or even most, of these ideas to work and you could save your family hundreds of dollars each month.  

MilwaukeeMoms.com Top 20 Money Saving Ideas

1)      Replace brand name cereals, canned goods and other items with generic.

2)      Make your coffee at home rather than buying it.

3)      Clip coupons and shop on double coupon days only if your local grocery store offers it.

4)      Do a big grocery trip at the beginning of the month and try to go during the month as infrequently as possible. More trips to the grocery store means more possibilities for impulse buys that you don’t need.

5)      Use tap water rather than bottled water.

6)      Make your own baby food.

7)      Eat at home and pack lunches for school and work.

8)      Visit resale shops for bargains on clothes.

9)      Buy children’s clothes in the next size up from the clearance rack at the end of each season.

10)  Make your own household cleaners.

11)  Take your own family photos or ask a friend to do it for you rather than paying to have it professionally done.

12)  Switch one or all of your cell phones to those that use pre-paid cards.

13)  Cancel your magazine subscriptions. Read them at the library or recycle from a friend instead.

14)  Make an agreement with your spouse to make a special homemade meal or treat rather than buying birthday or holiday presents for each other.

15)  Call your credit card companies and ask for lower interest rates.

16)  Install a programmable thermostat.

17)  Turn off lights when no one is in the room.

18)  Save up your laundry and dishes for full loads; don’t run multiple small loads.

19)  Drop your gym membership and work out at home.

20)  Leave your money and credit cards at home when you go out if you don’t want to be tempted to spend! Take only what you really think you’ll need and no more.

We have a new photo contest starting today on MilwaukeeMoms.com -- the Special Grandparent photo contest. If your children have a special grandparent or grandparents in their lives and you'd like to show them off, please submit your photo(s) along with a short paragraph about what makes your grandparents so special.

Three lucky winning families will receive tickets to "The Neverending Story" at First Stage Children's Theater in March.

And don't forget about our Beautiful Baby photo contest! With nearly 700 entries to date, there's a lot of gorgeous little faces in this contest.

Don't miss out on either one! Enter your photos today.

 

If you're thinking of going with an unusual name for your soon-to-be baby boy, you might want to think twice.

Some economists reported in Social Science Quarterly this week that there's a link between having an unpopular name and ending up in trouble as a teen boy.

Read all about it here.  

Our new president has barely finished taking his oath of office (for the second time) and already his two daughters, who he and wife Michelle fiercely hope to protect from the media spectacle that is the White House, are grabbing public attention.

This is nothing like the partying of the Bush twins that got Washington tongues wagging -- in fact, it's the exact opposite. 

Dolls made in the likeness of the girls and bearing their names are being sold by Ty Inc., the makers of Beanie Babies. The dolls, called "Sweet Sasha" and "Marvelous Malia" were released this month. And while Ty Inc. initially hoped the girls would like the dolls, it's backing down on that now and claiming they are not modeled on the new occupants of the White House.

C'mon, really?

Michelle Obama's spokesperson released this statement about the dolls: "We believe it is inappropriate to use young private citizens for marketing purposes."

In case Ty Inc. is having trouble understanding that, it means you won't see the real Sasha and Malia carrying around the doll versions of themselves anytime soon. 

If Ty wanted good publicity around this, maybe the company should have waited to cash in on the Obamas until the new presidential puppy is in the White House.

Click here for the full story. 

If you've seen "A Christmas Story" (and who hasn't!), it might not be a bad idea to remind your kids that this isn't a good idea. 

Ow.

OK, this is the last post this week with an idea for something to do if you're stuck in the house with little kids and actually want to turn off the TV for a little while.

Today's plan? Craft day.

I say this realizing that it will turn some of you off right away. Like many other moms, I am not crafty. Not gifted with the least bit of artistic talent, actually. I also don't really care for a mess, so crafts aren't my first choice for fun activities.

Despite all that, kids love making stuff, and they not only don't mind if it is messy, they hope that it will be. This craft project, basic paper-bag puppets, is not really messy, but if you go wild with the Elmer's Glue, then yes, it could be.

About.com offers some simple ideas for making the puppets, which only require paper lunch bags, construction paper or white paper that you can color, markers, yarn and maybe pipe cleaners.

DLTK Crafts for Kids has even more ideas. 

When they're done making the puppets, sit back and watch the puppet show.

Then pour yourself a big cup of coffee and thank your lucky stars that you made it through this nasty week. Congratulations!