Mommin' It Up!

October 23, 2013October 26, 2021

Room mom? Me? Um…

TL;DR – everything you need to know is in this e-book!

Several weeks ago, there was a plea from the PTA for room moms for both my kids’ classes.

I said I’d take both.

There’s a sucker born every minute.

The first of my assignments is the Halloween party. The only problem? (well, ok, one of the many) I’m now in charge of two parties that are scheduled for the exact same date and time. So there’s that.

And then there’s the other issue – I have no freaking idea how to plan a Halloween party for kindergartners OR fourth graders.

I don’t know why, but I was completely overwhelmed by the thought of planning these parties. I consider myself a fairly competent person, but this just threw me for a loop.

I figured I’m not the only stumped room mom out there, so I thought I’d share some of the resources I’ve come across.

I bring you…

First of all, VolunteerSpot.com.

They have all kinds of resources, but the thing I found most helpful is their Classroom Party Guide eBook. They’ve got ideas for all kinds of parties, including Halloween, and I’m swiping several of their suggestions for games.

I actually found that site on a post from TeachMama.com, which also had all kinds of helpful information. I completely and totally ripped off her Classroom Parent Letter. Because despite the fact that I routinely write letters for work that are sent to tens of thousands of people, I seriously could not come up with a letter asking for help with the parties all by myself.

The third site I found that’s been extremely helpful is SignUpGenius.com.

This is basically a site that allows you to organize volunteers and events electronically. You build a “sign up” with one of their templates (they have a theme for every event you could imagine) and say what you need people to do or bring, and then send out a link to your volunteers. They just check off what they want to sign up for, and the site sends you an email alert. It’s very simple and pretty brilliant. The thing I love MOST about it is that it doesn’t require volunteers to register for the site or log in or anything. They just click what they want to bring and type their name – easy peasy. I sent sign ups out for both my parties yesterday and the volunteer spots are almost full already.

Plus, it prevented me from having to actually pick up the phone and call people. WIN.

So, that’s what I’ve learned about being a room mom so far. Oh, I have also learned one more thing – parents of kindergartners are very eager to help. Parents of fourth graders are pretty much over it.

I shall report back after the actual parties take place – I’m sure I’ll have many more lessons learned by that point!

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October 17, 2013

This? Scares me to death.

I just watched this. I haven’t entirely processed it yet – I’m not sure I want to. I’m not sure I want to look too deeply into what I’m passing on to Kate. From the moment she was born, I have wanted nothing more than to NOT pass on my food and body issues to her. And on the surface, I’ve put some effort into that – I don’t talk about weight and being fat around her, and I focus on the benefits of nutrition and physical activity as they relate to health, not weight.

But you guys. Thinking about my weight? Consumes me.

I can’t describe it.

The idea of Kate picking up on this internal struggle is terrifying.

October 16, 2013

Objects in this picture may be faker than they appear.

Alternately titled: Why I am never believing anything I see on Facebook ever again.

“You can’t compare yourself to pictures in magazines,” we’ve told ourselves for years. “They’re airbrushed! No one looks like that in real life!”

But what we see on Facebook/Instagram/whatever, that’s real, right? I mean, it must be, because most people take pictures and upload them to social media sites instantly.

Compare away.

But wait! Studies show (and seriously, who is providing research grants for this preposterous subject?) that Facebook can be bad for your self-esteem. (I could have told you that about 6 seconds after pictures of my recent 15-year high school reunion cropped up.)

The perfect people picking apples to bake into their perfect pies? FAKE. All those pictures of your BFF and your neighbors and the woman you ran into once in the grocery store and she immediately friended you on Facebook? They’re all fake. Thanks to recent technological advances, airbrushing is not something only available to the stars. No, now any random person with an internet connection can remove blemishes and give themselves a thigh gap.

I recently discovered this phenomenon as I was messing around with PicMonkey. I was minding my own business, trying to make a pin-able graphic for a cereal giveaway, and I saw the “Touch Up” options for editing photos. They are as follows:

— Blemish fix
— Airbrush
— Wrinkle remover
— Shine reduce
— Blush boost
— Spray tan
— Teeth whitening
— Lip tint
— Eye brighten
— Eye tint
— Mascara
— Eyeliner
— Eyebrow pencil
— Eye shadow
— Red-eye remover
— Nip Tuck (?!?)
— Weight loss (YES! Finally the magic bullet I’ve been looking for)
— Highlights (why have I been paying big money for them all these years?)

I wanted to try this out for myself, so I chose everyone’s favorite picture of Jenny and me to use as an example.

Here was the starting pallet.

Lovely, don’t you think? But we have some shine on our faces, and there are some lines where, you know, our skin is bending. And my eye make up is terrible.

So let me fix it!

Much better!

Just so you can see how fake this is, let me give you a side-by-side comparison.

I am making light of this, but I really think it is a problem. We have so much access into the lives of other people, and we can’t help but try to gauge how we measure up. It’s hard to remember that the bits and pieces that we see of people – in photos or status updates or tweets or whatever – aren’t the whole picture.

Many of them are about as real as this.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to alter my jawline in all my FB pics.