December 2009

Do You Make New Year’s Resolutions?

by MomGrind

New_Years_2010

Did you know that the top New Year’s resolution for most people in the U.S, year after year, is “lose weight?”

Some people make New Year’s resolutions, other laugh at them. If you search online, you can find lots of jokes about New Year’s resolutions. But I think there’s absolutely nothing wrong with making them.

Critics say they’re empty and useless – that most people make them, but never follow through, which ultimately makes them feel even worse than before.

I disagree. I think that New Year’s resolutions CAN be useless and often are. I also think that when New Year’s resolutions are done in a meaningful way, they can be a wonderful self-improvement tool.

To make New Year’s resolutions that stick, I usually try to make just one resolution each year, then break it down into smaller, more manageable chunks, and follow up every couple of months to see how I’m doing. So, if my goal is to complain less, I might start with “limit my nagging and complaining to no more than once a day,” then once I accomplish that goal, move on to the next of, say, whining just once a week! (My husband must be feeling hopeful right now).

Back to the most popular New Year’s resolution of losing weight. Of course people don’t stick with it! It’s far too vague. By breaking it down into smaller chunks and focusing on just this resolution instead of on five others, you stand a much better chance of accomplishing your goal.

You could start by specifying how much exactly you want to lose (2 pounds per month or 24 pounds in 2010); decide on specific monthly goals such as limiting your soda intake or taking the stairs at work. Whatever you do, by breaking it down and focusing on just this one goal, you’re seriously increasing your chances of making it a reality.

I’m not a self-development expert and usually stay away from self-help-type posts. But this is something that has worked for me over the past few years. I hope it will work for you too.

Do you make New Year’s Resolutions? Do you keep them?

Loved this Comment: “I think the key to sticky resolutions is having a compelling ‘why’ and an effective ‘how’ to go along with the ‘what.’” J.D. Meier, Sources of Insight.

Twitter Privacy

by MomGrind

A woman tweets about her miscarriage as it happens, while she’s in a board meeting.

Penelope-Trunk-miscarriage-Tweet

A mother tweets about her toddler drowning in their home’s pool, less than 30 minutes after she calls 911.

toddler-drowning tweets

Mothers live-tweeting their birth.

live tweeting birth

Celebrity couples flirting with each other via Twitter.

Demi-Moore- TwitPic

A man tweets as he (supposedly) sits on the toilet.

sitting-on-toilet-tweet

Where do we place the limits? How much is too much? While the two first examples of tweets resulted in serious criticism and uproar, the next two are considered fairly acceptable, and the last tweet is -well – just plain ridiculous.

Do you use Twitter? How do you feel about Twitter overexposure? Does it bother you? How much do you share on your own Twitter account, or on any other social media platform?

Peanut Butter Cookies Recipe

by MomGrind

peanut butter cookies

I love peanut butter cookies because they are simple, fairly healthy and of course chewy. I much prefer chewy cookies to crunchy cookies.

My kids love these cookies too, which you may think is not surprising since they are, after all, COOKIES, but you need to know that my kids can sense a “healthy treat” from a mile away, and once they sense it’s not completely junky, they often flatly refuse it.

Not so with these cookies: they love them. I rarely need to store these cookies – between the four of us, we usually polish them off on the day I make them. This recipe makes about 20 cookies, so if you need more, double the amounts.

Ingredients:

1 + 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 large egg
1/2 TBS vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking powder , baking soda, and salt.

3. Beat the butter until creamy. Add the sugar and continue beating until fluffy. Beat in the peanut butter, the egg, and the vanilla.

4. Mix the dry ingredients into the peanut butter mixture until well incorporated. Dough will be a bit crumbly.

(Now comes the fun part, especially for the kids.)

5. Roll the dough in your hands into 2-inch balls. Each ball contains about 2 TBS of mixture – you can measure them if you’d like.

6. Place the dough balls on the baking sheet, about 2 inches apart, and flatten them gently with a fork, making a crisscross design:

shape-cookies1

7. Bake for about 10 minutes. To make sure they are chewy, the cookies’ edges should be slightly browned, but the top should not look completely baked. That’s OK: we want to let them finish baking outside of the oven.

8. After removing from the oven, allow cookies to remain on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Holidays in the 60s: Spam Spread, Foil and Scary Dips

by MomGrind

I love these Christmas 1967 ads.

The dip may look obnoxious (how did they make it so FIRM?):

Christmas ad sixties dip

 

The idea that foil can beautify one’s home is hilarious:

Christmas decorations sixties

 

Serving Spam Spread as a holiday delicacy is wrong on so many levels:

Christmas ad spam

 

And no one in their right mind would use this sentence today: “16 colorful pages with new ideas for a gay holiday brunch”:

Holiday baking

 

But as always when looking at the past, it all looks so naive, innocent and sweet.

Photos were uploaded to Flickr under the Creative Commons license by Uh.. Bob. Thank you!

I Suck At Personal Blogging

by MomGrind

woman laptop A friend recently commented that my writing on this blog seems “detached.” That I don’t really share myself and my life here but choose “safe” and write about general topics, news, etc.

Two years ago, when I just started blogging, I would have taken it as an insult, as a way of saying I’m not a good blogger (whatever that is). But my priorities have shifted over the last year, and whereas I used to proudly call myself a “mommyblogger,” I now (as many of you know) call myself a “blogger for hire.”

Blogging for my clients is easy. I get to do what I love (write) and what I know and excel at (SEO). I am never expected to share my own life, although I am expected to be personal and have a strong voice – even companies don’t want “dry.” I bring my clients results in the form of better search engine rankings and more qualified leads, and I get paid for my efforts. I love every minute of it.

Personal blogging is hard.

I still maintain this blog because I love it. After all these months, I still cherish the ability to sit down and write about whatever I want to and have it published, and – if properly optimized and linked to – viewed by hundreds, and sometimes thousands of people. I love blogging, breathe blogging, and believe it is here to stay.

What I let go of is the notion that I could write about my own life in a way that would make people want to read about it. Few people have that ability. Most of us lead fairly boring lives, and writing about our boring lives is, well, boring. Reading about it is even more boring.

But it’s not just that. It’s also that despite having a blog, which is obviously a very public forum, I’m a very private person. There are things going on in my life, I am going through life stages and making some important decisions and none of it is unique of course, it’s the stuff we all go through, but when I find myself wondering if I should write about it here, my overwhelming reaction is “No way! This stuff is private!” I guess I just don’t have it in me – the ability to do this deep personal sharing that people expect when they read a personal blog.

Of course, there’s also the issue of SEO. I love SEO and enjoy the challenge of optimizing a blog post and getting it to rank well in search engines. Naturally, posts such as “Watching My Children” or “I Suck at Personal Blogging” are harder to optimize (in fact, I don’t optimize them at all) than posts such as “Worst Christmas Gifts.” So when writing a deeply personal post, a big part of the fun and satisfaction that I get from blogging is just not there.

So I share thoughts and observations, and it’s all done in a tone that’s a little detached and maybe a little dry, and I’m losing some readers who loved reading more personal stuff in the past, when I still forced myself to share, and I’m gaining other readers who like the thoughts and observations and the general tone of this blog, and probably a few who are curious about my writing career and want to follow it, and the thing is, it doesn’t really matter, because I have no choice.

Former Miss Argentina Dies After Cosmetic Surgery

by MomGrind

Solange MagnanoFormer Miss Argentina Solange Magnano wanted a firmer butt and ended up dead after complications from plastic surgery.

Her exact cause of death is still under investigation, so it’s unclear whether it was just bad luck (a certain percent of cosmetic surgeries does lead to death- just do a Google search for “plastic surgery deaths”) or if there was any form of malpractice involved.

Ms. Magnano, who was the mother of 7 year old twins, is not the only person to have ever died of plastic surgery complications, of course. I think the media is having a little fun with the fact that it was buttocks surgery. How unfortunate, to always be remembered as the person who died after having elective butt surgery.

Although deaths following plastic surgery are relatively rare, my humble opinion is that death from cosmetic surgery is never acceptable.

Since the risk apparently can’t be completely eliminated, even if you go to a board certified, reputable doctor (surgery is surgery, after all), each person who elects to undergo cosmetic surgery needs to decide if the improvement in their appearance, and in their quality of life following the surgery is worth the risk – however small – of serious complications and of death.

My heart goes out to Ms. Magnano’s children.

 

Worst Holiday Gifts

by MomGrind

It’s that time of year again. Everyone has a story about the “worst Christmas gifts ever” they’ve received. When choosing holiday gifts, you might want to avoid these common pitfalls.

 

Insulting Gifts
bathroom_scaleGiving a Weight Watchers certificate, a “healthy cooking” book or a digital bathroom scale to an overweight friend may seem helpful and caring, but it can really devastate her. Chances are, she knows she needs to lose weight and doesn’t need any reminders from you. On the other hand, scroll down to “thoughtless gifts” and you’ll see that you’re not supposed to give her cookies either. Try to pick something neutral that has nothing to do with one’s weight.

 

Inappropriate gifts

ThongGiving lacy thong underwear to your girlfriend can be fun, but if she will open the gift when her extended family is there, you may want to stick with something a bit more conservative. Same goes for any “sexy” gifts actually. If you really want to give your husband a naughty gift, make sure he opens it when it’s just the two of you.

 

 

Useless Gadgets

gadgetFancy paper weights, leather tie cases, personalized desk clocks, singing golf balls (I invented the last one) – those are just a few examples of what men are “supposed” to like. Those “Gifts for Men” stores? I say ignore them. They mostly carry useless gadgets that no one really needs. This is exactly the type of gift that would be forever re-gifted.

 

Noisy or Messy Gifts for Kids

kid_playing_drumUnless you truly can’t stand the parents and see the holidays as a great time to get back at them, avoid giving kids anything that has the potential to be seriously noisy (such as a set of drums) or very messy (such as a pottery kit).

 

 

Thoughtless Gifts

3143534717_4df6468345_mA couple of years ago I gave a Starbucks card to a colleague. Much later, I woke up one night realizing that he once told me he hates coffee and never ever drinks it – the smell alone makes him ill. Sure, Starbucks sells more than just coffee, but I think this gift qualifies as one of the least thoughtful gifts I have ever given to anyone.

 

So what DO you buy? How do you avoid the “worst Christmas gifts” syndrome? The basic rules of gift giving apply to holiday gifts too: take notes throughout the year in case the recipient drops a hint; give a gift that expresses your relationship with the recipient rather than a generic gift; give something they would never get for themselves; and give something you would be happy to receive too (but not something that ONLY you would be happy to receive).

Photos by Thinking Tree, Bare Necessities, makelessnoise, sudhamshu, and Michael Hedrick Photography.