The Birds and the Bees

On the way home from my parents house, I told the girls that they were going to have a new cousin. My four and a half year old then asked, "How do babies get into your tummy and how do they get out of your tummy?" I wasn't ready for this. After a long pause, I honestly replied that it was a long story and I didn't know that I was ready to tell it. To which she replied, "Mommy, we're in the car and it's a long ride home so we have time to talk about it." I decided to give her the accurate, albeit short, version of how they come out which I was hoping would give her enough to think about so that she forgot about the first part. She was completely silenced. After a few minutes, I asked her what she was thinking about. She said "Mommy (she often dramatically begins her responses this way...I wish I could convey the tone of her voice), I am not thinking of anything, I am just looking out the window." What she was really doing was staring at her reflection (one of her favorite things to do) in the window because it was totally dark outside and they like to travel with the backseat ceiling light on. That was probably the only reason she was deterred from pushing the subject. I suppose I had better come up with an age appropriate version of the birds and bees because next time she might ask me during the day without a mirror around.

11th Annual Hollydaze

Thank you to everyone who visited us at The Northwood during Drummond Island's annual Hollydaze! The winner of our drawing is Kathy Nelson of DeTour Village, Michigan. The big sellers of the day--eco dog toys!

The overall best seller of the day:
Zogoflex® Tux™ Dog Toy

Zogoflex® is a super durable, extremely pliable material that's tough, buoyant, non-toxic, and guaranteed to last! These fun dog toys are easy for your pup to pick up and won't hurt their teeth. Recommended for aggressive chewers, pullers, and fetchers. Tux is the perfect combination of a supremely stuffable / tossable dog treat toy. Tux is pliable, bounces, nontoxic, recyclable, and buoyant. Simply stuff your dog's favorite treat into the cavity of Tux and let 'er rip. Tux is even dishwasher safe for easy cleaning! Tux is a treat toy and was designed to withstand chewing, but still be fun - with or without a treat!

Moving Forward

No matter who you voted for, let's hope that President-Elect Obama's win will re-energize a country, and especially a youth, that seems to have lost the drive and competitiveness that has made this country so successful in the past. Let's all hope for unity within our country and the ability to make progress here and abroad. Let's hope for renewed belief in our democratic ideals and founding vision. Let's hope that we are able to offer even more examples and ideals for other countries to aspire to. Let's hope for the peace we need within our own boundaries to be able to help attain the peace that is needed beyond our borders.

Election Day!

First of all, please exercise your right to vote. Many people have fought very hard for us to have that right and it is the least we can do to honor their sacrifices.

Now, in celebration of the end of the overwhelming campaign coverage, please use the coupon code VOTE to receive 20% off your first order with bella sophia. This coupon expires December 31, 2008.

Happy Halloween!

Why is it that I feel guilty every time I put a store-bought costume on my kids? My childhood costumes were handmade, usually sewn, with attention to every detail--it was a shock not to win best costume. My mother is obviously more talented, more creative, more ambitious and more frugal than I am...why can't I just accept it?

Pumpkin Patch

The temperature was 40 degrees that day and we had to drive almost two hours each way and I dreaded going. But, as you can see by this photo, it was all worth it. I would have posted one of my older daughter, but she was crying hysterically because she thought that the nice man carrying her pumpkin to the wagon for us was stealing it.

The breaking point...address labels

You wouldn't think that it was possible that someone could spend most of one day entering 200 addresses into a database and then save a blank page over it during the so-called "merge" step. But I did. The better part of six hours of computer slumping, child interrupting data entry--all in vain. I have this kind of luck with labels and copy machines--always have. I can't line them up on the page, my printer (or copier) jams, or I loose the data. Many of my college jobs were office assistant type positions where there were a lot of labels and copies to be made. I would manage to get paper jammed into parts of the copy machine that didn't even have a little door to open--and anyone who has used a large copy machine circa 1994 knows there were a lot of doors! Today, I started my list over and got to the Gs before my computer seized up and had to be shut down. My computer is seven or eight years old and just cannot handle everything that I have going on right now. Have I mentioned that everything in my computer life is on my desktop and has not been backed up in any way so I'm just asking for a complete computer crash. I'm barely computer literate which makes every task seem insurmountable. Oh, yeah, crashing...I lost the label database AGAIN. Anyone of even below average intelligence would have saved after the Bs at this point, but not me. Tomorrow I will save after every letter under two different file names, and pray that my computer doesn't give up before I do.