crunchy parenting

My darling little Ginny is just over a year and walking. Entirely gone are the days of crawling or sitting in one place. Walking is the fun activity du jour and she only asks to be carried in the evenings as she gets tired from the day. One day, that, too, shall pass.

I feel them getting older and more independent every day and I am reminded to let go gracefully. My precious children, that I try to overprotect by carefully controlling every influence and scenario; these are the signs of over-controlling. I really must learn the art of surrender.

So this week, here are some lovely articles and blogs to help you let go with love in your heart.

• Learning to Let Go
• How to Learn the Art of Surrender
• Learning to Let Things Go // … at work.
• Learning to Let Go With Love // … in relationships.
• Learning Not Just How to Let Go, But When // … of a loved one.

Image via Wikipedia

• Don’t pack anything they won’t let you bring on board.
• Don’t carry wrapped presents. They may unwrap them, and even if not, your wrapping will look fresher if you do it when you arrive at your destination. (Or “wrap” them in an eco-friendly, sewn bag!)
• Carry TSA-friendly kid snacks. One staffer actually had me open every SEALED squeeze pouch of applesauce and eat a little. You never know what they’re going ask you.
• Pack an empty water bottle to fill up from the water fountains on the other side.
• Empty your pockets. Take off your shoes. Take off your belt and sunglasses. Hold your ID/passport and ticket in your hand. Get these things ready before you get to the conveyor.
• If there’s a family line and you have kids, pick that lane. Both TSA and other passengers will be thanking you under their breath.
• Carry your child through the metal detector and opt out of the AIT scanners. Know your rights about pat-downs.
• Load your items on the conveyor in this order: shoes in bin, belts/sweaters/extra items in next bin, laptop in next bin, carry-on bag. If they want to rescan your bag, this won’t hold you up on getting dressed on the other side.
• Double, triple, quadruple -check you have everything with you before you leave the checkpoint. On the plane is too late to realized you’ve left behind a loved toy or your cellphone.

The spouse-unit and I are on the hunt for a new car. His trusty old Jetta is nearing the end and we’re trying to figure out what to get next. (Sometimes I wish we lived somewhere with better public transportation!)

When I got pregnant with Spice, my beloved old Ranger truck was only four or five years old, but since it was far from baby-convenient, we looked at cars and I quickly picked out the VW GTI as my future ride. We got it a few months before Spice arrived, in time for taking visiting family on a road trip and for me to get used to driving it. But it was an easy choice and fit our needs. This next vehicle choice is a bit more complicated.

Photo by ma_emerson82

Neither the spouse-unit nor I are into big SUVs. Ideally, the spouse-unit would like a small, sporty car, and I think he should get one while he has the chance. We do like to take ski/snowboard trips up to the mountains, but we agree that it’s much more practical and economical to have a small car and rent the occasional SUV for those trips.

But we can’t deny that we are now FOUR in this family. My GTI should suffice for daily family outings, but all it takes is needing to take one more person, like my mother, or his parents when they visit, for us to be dragging two vehicles out and about. (And we have to admit that with two grandkids, the grandparents will be visiting a whole lot more.)

A seven-seating SUV would be ideal for this situation. Plus, we won’t be making any of those ski trips with just the four of us; we’ll be bringing along someone to help watch the kids for a few years, which means we’ll be needing those extra seats and space anyway. :-/

So, it seems like we’re getting a small SUV of some sort, right? Eh. Maybe not.

I’m lukewarm about the whole thing because I’m worried it’s going to go one of two ways. One way is that we get something cheaper and it becomes “my” car on a daily basis, while the spouse-unit takes the GTI. This sucks, IMHO, because I really wanted him to get the new car, and something that he loves and deserves. (He drives every day, while I might take the car out 3 times a week.) The other way is that we get something nicer, which still amounts to him driving a nice-but-chunky SUV every day, not his dream sports car.

After spending hours last night looking at various SUV options, this morning I’m leaning towards the original plan. We can “figure something out” when his parents come to visit for short trips, rent a bigger SUV for the long hauls, and manage occasionally with taking two cars out for local hops with more than four people.

I’m sure some of you have had to figure out this kind of puzzler before. What’s your car situation like?

Two weeks ago, I posted a pic of our living-room-in-despair. Here’s the updated version, thanks to the efforts of my mother and the spouse-unit’s wonderful cousin, C.

There are still some tweaks to be made, like figuring out how to get all the pictures back on the wall and re-organizing Spice’s toy corner. But for the most part, it’s habitable. They also stacked all the candles in the fireplace (which we don’t use) so it looks really pretty and cozy at night when they’re lit.

There’s been so much going on this past week that I’ve been a little lax in posting, but I’ve been skimming my favorite blogs and am reassured to see that everyone else is still being more productive than me!

• Why not just make them wear a sandwich board instead of a costume? // Julie of the Mom Slant talks about dragging kids and holidays into the political fray, this time over the Boo Nestle boycott.
• Nutmeg Microdermabrasion and Exfoliator // Just in time for the holidays, a facial treatment from Crunchy Betty that will have you dreaming of sugar plums and eggnog.
• Why I Said Good-Bye to My Microwave // Michelle of Green Earth Bazaar writes about the little box in the corner of your kitchen. We recently got an ultra-compact one after being without for a few years, but still barely use it, for all the excellent reasons Michelle points out.
• Trying to Become Organized // I loved Sarah’s recent post on One Starry Night about trying to get on board with organizing chores and meal planning. Sometimes I read so much promotional and instructional articles on how to get organized from all these already-organized people that I forget the slew of moms out there just like me try to get started and not fall off the wagon every day.