Jill’s Blog

random rants and raves

Hi. I’m Jill Manty, and this is my blog. I’ve no idea how you got here, so if you’d like to let me know, leave it in the comment section. This blog has no real purpose. It’s just a place for me to share my thoughts, feelings and opinions on the things that happen in my life or in the world, at large.

I hate to start off with such glaring self-promotion, but, hey! it’s my blog. So, I’ll just share with you that another blog I wrote about the Olympics is referenced in today’s Washington Post. And I’m even quoted. So, since that could well be the only time that I’m quoted in the Washington Post, and this just may be my 15 minutes of “fame”, I though I’d better record its happening here. You can read the article on the Post’s website, as well.

So, welcome to my blog and happy reading!

It’s important for you to understand that I have a strong faith in God. It greatly influences who I am, and I try to make decisions that bring honor to Him. Recently, I’ve been studying about how to be a better wife. Not only do I hope that this makes for better day to day living for myself and for my husband, but I hope that it will bring glory to God, as well.

I have to mention here that my husband puts a lot of work into being a good husband, as well. If I come across an article online or an audio lesson that I think he could learn from, he’s more than happy to listen to it and, yes, even try to follow the suggestions. He’s not perfect, but neither am I.

So, I have a book club that is reading the book “The Excellent Wife”. I don’t necessarily agree with 100% of the material contained in the book, but that’s okay. I still feel like I’m learning plenty from it. One of the simple tips that I learned that has made a much bigger difference than I would have expected is “ask your husband about his goals for the week and how you can help him achieve them”. I had never thought of doing this before, but I have to say it’s made a huge difference in a very short amount of time. When I ask him about his plans for the week and then he includes me in making those plans work, I really feel like we’re on the same team.

So, if you get the chance, and you’re looking for ways to improve your marriage, I do recommend “The Excellent Wife”. It may offend you if you’re a feminist, or if you think the concept of wife as helper is totally outdated. If it’s going to offend you, don’t bother reading it. But, otherwise, you just may find some advice that will help your marriage.

Well, a new to us car, anyway. Now this may not seem like a big thing to you, but this is the first time in 6 years that we will have a second car. Here in the Houston ‘burbs, with no public transportation, that means that for the last 6 years I have either stayed home with all of the children, or I’ve had to get up, get everyone dressed, so I could take my husband to work. By the time I did all of that, I was usually too tired to go anywhere anyway

So, by the middle of this week, when we take possession of our used Ford Taurus, I will be free— free to run errands during the day or take field trips or go on play dates. I figure for the first week I will run somewhere every day. Then, the newness will wear off, and I’ll be back to being home most days. But this time I’ll be home because I CHOOSE to be home, not because there’s nowhere worth walking nearby.

This is one of the best pieces of parenting advice I know— never, and I mean NEVER tell your children what is in food before they eat it. If they rave about the food and ask for seconds, then maybe you can tell them after they’ve eaten it.

For example, you’ve made banana muffins. Under no circumstances are you to describe them as “banana” muffins— they are just muffins. Sometimes it doesn’t even matter if your child loves bananas— banana muffins may still be suspicious to them.

There is an exception to this. If your child loves bananas (or any other food) and will only eat bananas, then everything is banana.

“Oh, you don’t like spaghetti? But this is banana spaghetti!”

One of our children has a cough. He doesn’t have a fever. He doesn’t even seem particularly congested— he just has this pesky cough. It’s been going on for a couple of days now but seemed to get worse last night and wasn’t significantly better this morning.

So, what do you do for a cough? Well, there’s always over the counter cough medicine, but I don’t really care for pharmaceuticals, even the over the counter variety.

I started yesterday with some homeopathic remedies, but I need a bigger assortment, so I don’t have a lot of options in that realm right now. I do have a basic homeopathic “cough” remedy, and it did seem to help yesterday, but it wasn’t particularly effective this morning. Last night I gave him my super duper nighttime homeopathic cough syrup, which is usually the greatest thing ever bottled for stopping a cough. Not this time.

Last night I used my standard chest rub made up of tea tree oil, lavender, and clove, but that didn’t really help. I switched to myrtle and that got him through thie night. But this morning? More coughing.

I’ve been giving him various immune system stimulants, which will help long-term but aren’t going to stop his cough right now.

So, now we’re reaching the point that my husband really dreads. It’s the point where Mom starts reaching into the cupboard, finding whatever is there, and making the sick ones eat or drink it, until they give up and get better. But this is my picky eater, so there’s only so much I can make him choke down before I’ll be cleaning up the floor. So, I recalled that an acquaintance swears by honey and thyme. Sure enough, I was able to get him to take a big dose, and I really do think that it has helped. He’s definitely coughing less.

While I was trying to look up the exact specifics on dosing, I came across several cough remedies that sounded like they would work quite well. Unfortunately some of them required two weeks to prepare. So, I can start making them now for the next family illness. (In case you’re wondering, it’s garlic or onions with honey in jar. Allow it to sit overnight (for the onions) or two weeks (for the garlic.)

Hopefully, all the coughing around here will be long gone before the cough syrup is prepared.

I have to say I’m really enjoying having a second car. Today, when I realized I needed to get some things done, I didn’t need to wait for my husbad to get home. Oh, the freedom, the independence

And, at the same time, I was a little sad yesterday when my husband and I drove off in separate directions. There were things I actually enjoyed about being a one car family. People always acted like it was a Herculean task. People were almost as awed by the fact that we had one car as they were by the fact that we had five children. Now we’re just— ordinary. I feel so pedestrian (pun intended).

Do you have children with normal feet? You should count yourselves very blessed. Our second oldest has wide feet. Well, really they’re extra wide.

Like his father, this means buying shoes for him is a challenge. My husband has been known to buy very expensive shoes that were perfect in the store but miraculously no longer fit after being worn twice. Ugh.

So, the extra wide footed boy has done the same thing to me in the past. I’ve bought shoes for him that were “fine” at the store but have only been worn twice since then. This wouldn’t be such a big deal if we could buy Payless shoes, but only a few brands make extra wide shoes. We have always bought him Stride Rites because that is what fits him. But at almost $50 per pair, I simply can’t afford for him to just not wear shoes.

Today we had another shoe buying adventure. We put the first pair on, and he said they were “okay”. I said “okay like you’ll wear them, or okay like they don’t really feel that good?” “Okay like they don’t really feel that good” Sometimes I get answers like, “Mostly good, except they’re too bumpy.” I have no idea what that means, but I’ve learned to never buy another pair of shoes that are too bumpy. We finally settled on a pair of lace-up Stride Rites. They said he needed a 2 1/2, but we bought a three. Hopefully, that we’ll buy us a couple of extra months before we have to shoe shop again. Now I just have to get shoes for one more child. Maybe we’ll only have to take out a small home equity loan to buy everyone shoes this spring.

Woke up this morning. Read the headlines. This one caught my eye: “McClatchy to buy Knight Ridder for $4.5B” Thought, “Why on earth would someone want to buy the Knight Rider car for $4.5 B? That seems a little steep for a collectible.” No, Jill, that’s not Knight Rider. It’s Knight Ridder, as in the second-largest U.S. newspaper publisher. Ahhhh. That makes so much more sense. Now, where’s that morning cup of coffee?

Our 12 year old son has been looking forward to American Inventor since he first saw the previews for it back in January. It was very disappointing to us that last night’s series premiere was not very child friendly, at least several portions of it (particularly at the beginning). Fortunately, we were able to record it, preview it, and fast forward through the inappropriate sections.

Our son was very disappointed that the 14 year old didn’t make it through. Personally, I thought his invention was better than the “pit bowl”. But I don’t make the decisions.

I thought there were several inventions that just should have been marketed differently. Too bad I can’t contact the “losers”, personally and share my ideas. But if there are any eliminated American Inventors out there who want my opinion on your product, drop me a note. I’m always happy to share my opinions

I’m always on the lookout for ways to improve my/our parenting— I always try to involve my husband in the improvement, as well So, when I recently read this article, taken from the book, How to Raise Your Children Without Raising Your Voice, I was really impressed.

So many parenting books give you some nice, warm fuzzy ideas, but very little practical advice. I particularly liked the information on the 80/20 principle (basically, you should have 4 positive interactions with your children for every 1 negative interaction) and the 2X rule, which says that you should never repeat yourself more than twice. I’ve liked the advice so much that I plan to buy the book. And I’m passing the link along to you

There is a company called Life Gem that turns the ashes of your departed loved one into a diamond. I love my husband, but I’m not turning him into a ring after he passes on. Nope, just not going to do it. Yuck. Of course, I guess it’s no more creepy than keeping their ashes in a jar on the mantle.

A Washington man was rushing to catch his commuter train and forgot his daughter in the car. Even though it was clearly not intentional, and the little girl was unharmed, the man will face charges of leaving a child under 8 unattended. I bet that no sentence the court can hand down will be worse than what his wife is going to do to him.

If you’re French, I suggest you stop reading right now because you’re not going to like what I have to say. The French are nuts. First, they look down on everyone else because they think they’ve created this French utopia. Oh, yeah, utopia— except for the constant rioting.

The latest rioting is all about jobs, or lack thereof. You see, IF you can get a job in France, it’s very hard to fire you. So, in an effort to increase hiring of the French youth, the government has proposed a law that would make it easier to fire young French workers in the first two years of their employment. The French youth would clearly rather take their chances with the security of the few jobs that are available. So, they’re rioting.

Now, some claim that what they’re really rioting against is any proposal that smells like the tiniest move towards a free market economy. Why would that be bad? Well, because a free market economy equals an AMERICAN economy, and the French hate the American economy.

Why? Because the French are nuts (haven’t we already been over this?). In French logic, 20% unemployment is preferable to 5% unemployment. Well, really they’d still like the 5% unemployment, but only if they can get it without doing it the American way. I told you— they’re nuts.

Rats. One of the last bastions of sanity in this country has fallen. Perhaps you didn’t even know that it existed. But most of Indiana has never followed Daylight savings time, choosing instead to remain on Eastern Standard Time for the entire year. For the first time this year, they will be setting their clocks forward. This is just sad to me, as I really deplore Daylight Savings Time and really wish that I lived in a place that just said no. Indiana gave me hope. Alas, today that hope is dead.

But a new hope has arisen. You see, I never realized that Arizona and Hawaii don’t observe Daylight Savings Time, either. So, I guess someday I can always retire to Arizona, or perhaps Hawaii.

I thought this was really funny. After dismal ratings last year, the Miss America pageant has chosen to go reality. Reality television and beauty pageant… aren’t those oxymorons? Do you think we’ll get to see the contestants without makeup and without their hair done? But it is a good idea and probably the only thing that could save the dinosaur pageant from extinction.

I’ve decided that I could really easily be a true media hound. I love it when people write about me— or even when something I write about myself gets prominently displayed. Like today, an article that I submitted about my blogging experiences is being featured on Problogger. Problogger is a website devoted to helping people make money from blogging (duh). It’s a really big site that gets tons of traffic, so this is great exposure. Plus, we’ve already had people approaching us about advertising on some of our sites. So, this has been truly exciting. If you want to check out what I wrote, you can directly link to it here.

One thing I didn’t really emphasize in the article— and perhaps I should have— is that the Olympic idea was really divinely inspired, not in a weird, kookey sort of way. But we’ve had some debt issues, and I had been praying a lot about it, and this seemed to be the answer. I believe the project was blessed by God. By that I don’t mean that we had the Divine stamp of approval, per se, but more that I believe God has complete control over whatever money comes our way. So, if God’s will is that our site makes money, it makes money. If not, it doesn’t. That doesn’t mean that we don’t put in the effort. I don’t believe that if I put up a blank website that God is going to bless that… Well, anyway, I seem to have passed over into rambling. But I hope some of this makes some sort of sense to someone I guess I can wrap it up by saying that I’m very grateful and humbled that God has seen fit to bless us in so many ways, including financially.

I didn’t really go anywhere. But my blog did. I don’t know exactly what happened to it, but it crashed. Fortunately, my husband was able to fix it.

Whenever I recommend blogging to people and talk about how easy it is, I always neglect to mention that it might not be so easy if my husband didn’t handle the promotion of my blogs and the technical part of setting them up and the technical part of keeping them running and… you get the point.

There’s an excellent article on homeschool marketplace about the different methods of homeschooling. It’s part of their series on choosing homeschooling materials. We definitely fall into the eclectic homeschooling category. If it’s a good teaching curriculum, process, method, idea, I want to try to use it. Sometimes I find that something that’s a great idea doesn’t really work for us, but I have a hard time letting go of it because I think it OUGHT to work for us because it’s clearly a great idea! Anyway, I thought some of you might find the article interesting and helpful, so I’m passing it along.

Today on Miss Spider’s Sunny Patch Kids there was an interesting modern take on the story of The Ant and the Grasshopper. For those of you not familiar with the classic Ant and the Grasshopper story, here is the original:

The Ant and the Grasshopper

In a field one summer’s day a Grasshopper was hopping about,
chirping and singing to its heart’s content. An Ant passed by,
bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the
nest.

“Why not come and chat with me,” said the Grasshopper,
“instead of toiling and moiling in that way?”

“I am helping to lay up food for the winter,” said the Ant,
“and recommend you to do the same.”

“Why bother about winter?” said the Grasshopper; we have got
plenty of food at present.” But the Ant went on its way and
continued its toil. When the winter came the Grasshopper had no
food and found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants
distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had
collected in the summer. Then the Grasshopper knew:

It is best to prepare for the days of necessity.

The first difference was that the ants were the slothful creatures. Now, that’s a pretty minor change, but it made me wonder “why”. Well, obviously part of the reason is because Miss Spider needed to be the wise one in the story. But I also wondered if this wasn’t a reaction by grasshopper advocates against years of unfair portrayals that villified grasshoppers and exalted ants.

The second change was more disturbing. When one of Miss Spider’s adopted children was upset after Miss Spider proved to him that winter was, indeed, coming (note that the parent had to prove that she was right, whereas the peers’ word was enough— but that’s another post), and he was unable to convince the others. Miss Spider simply told him, “That’s okay. We’ll gather enough for everyone”. WHAT?!? What happened to the moral “It is best to prepare for days of necessity”?

So, what’s the moral of THIS story? Work really hard while everyone else is playing so that you can feed everyone who was too lazy to get off their rears? Don’t bother working because there’s always welfare? What are we trying to teach our children? I’m all for teaching them to be nice and to help others, but I’m totally opposed to teaching them that there is no consequence to slothful behavior. Is anyone else as concerned about this as I am? Or am I completely off base?

My 7 year old just told me that he did his best stacking the silverware, and that his best was the best he could do. I was right there with him, thinking “That’s right my best is the best I can do”. Then he quantified it with “Well, it’s the best I can do without taking more time”. When I tried to explain to him that sometimes our true best takes a bit more time, he let me know he just wasn’t interested in investing that kind of time in stacking silverware.

In many ways, he’s right. There are things that we spend far too much time getting perfect when our time would be better spent on more meaningful things. However, there are times when we do have to invest that extra five minutes to get things right. The trick is being able to tell the difference.