Rexanne's Web Review - Issue #22

Shopping

And for all my "old timers" my apologies for sending double issues of my web review last week! Thought the first one hadn't gone and sent it again after an hour only to have it show up twice an hour after that! Talk about crazy-making! LOL! Oh well, life marches on and it was a minor trauma. I am sorry if I confused you, however. Many thought they were on the list twice, which you are not.

"I have learned to stay as busy as possible, doing things that JAN enjoys, whether it be playing on the computer, driving 45 miles to play the nickel slots at the casino, inviting friends to spend time at my cabin, or curling up with a good book. So, to all those moms out there who are having to deal with kids going off to school for the first time ... whether it be college or kindergarten ... get distracted by life and you'll be surprised how much fun you're gonna have!"

"I thought I'd send along a recipe of mine in case you'd like to share it with your readers. It's a recipe for chili that I absolutely love. Here are the details:

I hope sharing this fabulous recipe with your readers will bring them as much enjoyment as it has for me. Keep up the good work!"

Sounds like Bobby needs a wife or some surfing through our Food & Cooking Sites of the Week! ;-) Thanks for sharing, Bobby!

Quote of the Week: No one has yet fully realized the wealth of sympathy, kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. - Emma Goldman

"Transforming the Difficult Child, The Nurtured Heart Approach" by Howard Glasser, MA and Jennifer Easley, MA is an amazing set of strategies for the purpose of shifting a challenging child to using their intensity in beautiful ways. It's ten times more powerful than "catching a child being good." It super-energizes experiences of success while refusing to accidentally reward negativity yet still providing the perfect level of consequence ... "We had lost hope. This approach has saved our family ... "

I have read this book and found it brilliant! More of my review of this excellent book in the parenting topic of the week.

We've all seen them, heard them or have them ... children who don't seem as easy going as their peers, the ones who throw wicked tantrums or have a hard time settling down. Society and modern medicine have labeled many of these children ADD or ADHD and medicated them accordingly. Others have been diagnosed as having bipolar disorder, hyperactivity, unable-to-sit-still disorder, etc. Yes, there are children who definitely need medical intervention to help them cope but ...

I think there are a lot of children who have been labeled difficult simply because they are different from their immediate family members or they don't necessarily march to the same band as most or all of their peers. These kids are difficult because they are more needy or their brains work in more subtle or direct ways, not because they need to be medicated to fit in with their social group.

Parents with difficult children don't always have it easy, I know. I have a daughter who is easy and a daughter who is not-so-easy. My not-so-easy daughter is not-so-easy because she's downright weird at times! LOL! She was strange from the moment of birth. At her two week check up, as she screamed and fought the pediatrician with all her tiny might and then proceeded to pee all over him, the poor doctor looked at ME with pity and remarked: "I don't envy you ..."

Gee, I was getting a big kick out of her determination to keep his cold hands off of her. I thought it was hilarious when she peed on him and her fight was not something that frightened me. I told the good doctor that I found her antics amusing. It's a good thing ... she's been an emotional handful ever since. She is not medicated and she is not hyperactive nor does she have Attention Deficit Disorder. She is just different from us and, it seems, she has a certain level of discomfort in her own skin. Poor doll. She just needs more attention, love and understanding than most.

After reading Howard Glasser and Jennifer Easley's excellent book, "Transforming the Difficult Child" (our sponsor for this issue), I felt a surge of hope for the more problematic children in our world. Finally, someone had discovered how to help parents manage difficult children in a positive, loving way and without medication!

Most of the children Glasser and Easley have worked with were taking medication when they arrived at the Nurtured Heart Approach Center. These same children are no longer medicated into submission but living bright, successful lives. These children needed a little or a lot more attention than the average child but were being raised with traditional parenting skills that were rendered ineffective because of their ultra-sensitive natures. The parents of these children needed to learn to apply another set of rules to their kids to help them become the wonderful people they were destined to be.

The Nurtured Heart Approach is an easy, rational, beautiful and loving method of building on the successes of children while not giving energy to the negative aspects of their character. This is an approach that can be used on difficult or "normal" kids. I have begun applying these principles to my own methods of child rearing. They work quickly and magnificintly! It's brilliant in its simplicity and effectiveness.

If you have a difficult child or even if you would like to learn a new positive, ingenious parenting approach, I urge you to read Glasser and Easley's book: Transforming the Difficult Child

Please understand that I am not a child psychology expert nor is any information in this newsletter a substitute for an accurate medical diagnosis from a qualified professional. Your child is precious and should be given every conceivable option of help when he/she is troubled. The feelings expressed here on the overmedication of our children are not intended for seriously disabled children who are in danger without medical intervention. Please use your very best judgment when it comes to the well-being of your child.

I found an excellent article written by Johann Christoph Arnold about children and the over-prescription of the drug Ritilin that I feel has great merit: Drugged Into Submission

Oh boy, we're gonna get the old chocolate buds salivating! Gimme Candy is an awesome web site, dedicated to recipes using candy bars, exclusively. How can you possible resist? ;-)

There are beverages, desserts, ice cream and sauce recipes using candy bars. Also cookies, muffins and holiday recipes. You can search the site by entering the name of a particular candy bar or by recipe title. The list and quantity of recipes here is never ending. Get the printer fired up ... there are sure to be quite a few recipes at Gimme Candy you'll just have to try!

This is an exceptional site for children! Emmett Scott's Cartoon Corner will delight, entertain and educate your child, from the art studio where they can learn to draw cartoons with the first stroke to the last delight-provoking stroke, to the puzzle pages where they can work a variety of puzzles. There is a story page with darling poems and bedtime stories for the littler ones. I love the funny page with cartoons to make 'em giggle and kid-friendly jokes. My little one spent hours at this site, learning to draw all manner of cartoon characters. She now has me read her bedtime stories ONLINE, too! Works for me!

Found some very useful tips to share utilizing your standard coffee filters. The original tips were touting a name brand coffee filter but we'll ignore the plug in this newsletter, OK? ;-)

~ If you have cork pieces floating in a bottle of wine, run the wine through a sieve lined with a coffee filter.

~ Separate your china dishes for safer storage: place a coffee filter between each dish. (I use paper plates for this when packing my good dishes for moving.)

~ Splatter-proof bowls or dishes when cooking in the microwave by covering them with a coffee filter. (This works great!)

~ Recycle frying oil by straining it through a sieve lined with a coffee filter.

~ Weigh chopped foods by placing ingredients in a coffee filter on the kitchen scale.

~ Coffee filters make great wrappers for tacos and other messy foods! (Wow! Love this one!)

~ Line a flower planter with a coffee filter to prevent soil from leaking through the drain holes.

~ Insert a popsicle stick in a coffee filter to catch the drips. (Love this one, too!)

These tips were purloined from MommieMail. If you haven't already subscribed to MommieMail, you can do so at the MommyWorld web site: Mommie World Tell them Rexanne sent you!

Got a tip or trick your fellow readers would enjoy or could use? Please send it here for possible publication in one of the next issues: Tips

If you are in the "get pregnant" mode or the "OMG ... NEVER AGAIN!" mode, ePregnancy is offering a free, downloadable program to chart your fertility. LifeCycle Fertility Planner, a Windows program, makes charting your fertility for either pregnancy or conception avoidance much easier!

Weekly Time Waster: Kyodai Mahjongg
Because life is supposed to be fun!

I think you're gonna curse me for this one guys ... LOL! This is the game I play when my brain is on overload.

Mahjongg has been challenging minds for centuries to remove two like tiles at a time, eventually clearing the board. This version is visually beautiful with peaceful music and many variations of the ancient game. I love the traditional solitaire Mahjong that you will be able to play with this free download. If you choose to pay a registration fee you can own a copy, including free upgrades. This will also stop the annoying popups while you're playing, reminding you to register.

How do I classify Squinkers? It's impossible to attempt categorizing this wonderfully wacky, silly and seriously intelligent sight. If that sentence doesn't have you confused and curious, nothing will!

Squinkers is part cartoons, a little bit philosophical and a whole lot of fun. I was lost for more than an hour in this site, moving through the pages with a smile, feeling extraordinarily welcome and delighted. I especially loved the Deep Waters page where you can "fish" for wonderful quotes and philosophical brilliance.

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Planning a road trip this summer? You need this e-book! Download instantly and be on the road in minutes with 101 great, entertaining word games everyone will love. Makes an ordinary family road trip extraordinarily fun and even educational! No pens, pencils, or paper required...the car games are verbal! This is great to have on hand for bopping around town with the kids, too. Keeps them occupied and interested. Print the car word games every month and store them in the glove box

No more "Are we there yet?!" ;-)

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I have personally checked out the links provided here but they could possibly lead you to any number of bizarre and/or offensive sites. Surf at your own risk. The DIRECT links on this page are all family friendly unless stated otherwise. While this newsletter is family friendly, it is not necessarily intended to be read by children. Parents should always monitor their children while they are on the Internet.