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New Macbook Air - My Next Laptop

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Technology Thursday

Well, Apple made the news today with another keynote speech by Steve Jobs and the team. Warning: you can file this post right under "first world privilege gadget lust." They called it "Back to the Mac" - after focusing on their handheld gadgets for so long, they're finally paying some attention to the operating system on the desktop and laptops again. With the latest update to the Mac OS - not expected to be released until next summer - they begin the integration of their two operating systems, iOS (for the iPhone, iPodTouch, and iPad) and Mac OS (for the macs). The new Mac OS is beginning to integrate some features of the mobile operating systems. As I said on Twitter, if they do this right, over the longterm, I think it will be very good. But there will be many, many opportunities to screw it up, so good luck to them!

I was half-listening to the keynote today. They made several announcements and among the most interesting to me was the announcement of the new MacBook Airs. Now I think I've found my next laptop. So for me, here's how my criteria (described previously) work out:

Taking a Personal Time Out: Tips to Rejuvenate

Work Wednesday 

I am busy.  Often supporting others, including my clients and coworkers, my husband (a doctoral student), and my growing daughter.   I love it all, but it can be a demanding role.  I mentioned in a previous post the importance of working smarter and the concept, and importance, of renewal.  It's important to not only better your working self, but also to take a personal time out to rejuvanate your inner self.

Take steps to rejuvenate:

Make space to breathe.   It's time to meditate.  Nothing fancy, just simply allow yourself time to sit on your favorite chair, in your bed, or outside on a park bench.  For five minutes each day, create time and space to sit, breathe, and simply be.  I know it can be hard to find that space (let alone quiet time), but you can.   It's there.  Get up five minutes earlier, go to bed five minutes later, or make it a lunch time routine.  No matter when in the day you do it, you'll reap the benefits.  You'll be energized, more aware, and atuned to your day.

Playground Politics: Bullying and the Queen Bee

Image by Profound Whatever via Flickr

Truth Tuesday

Just in time for National Bullying Prevention Month, there have been a number of heartbreaking stories in the news about children committing suicide because they couldn't stand being bullied anymore.

CNN is running a weeklong special called Stop Bullying: Speak Up and my Facebook page has been flooded with people sharing Ellen DeGeneres' message about bullying. I've spent the better part of the last couple of weeks in my role as an Education Expert writing articles to address whether or not Zero Tolerance works in schools and whether Zero Tolerance can work in schools.

It's tragic. It's sad. It's worrisome to me as a parent and the stories are uncomfortably familiar. In fact, all week I've been thinking about my own experience and thought it was well time to share.

The kids race off, chasing dandelion fluff and each other, while I stand in the middle of the playground. Backpack slung over one shoulder, water bottle dangling from my hand, I'm confused, squinting in the sunlight, not quite sure where to go. The trouble is I don't really fit in. I try, but my timing is always a little off, my interests not the same, my clothes not exactly right.

Yeah, I hear you when you say you've heard it before, that you know the story.

"Find your niche," you advise.

"You don't have to be like the others, it will be okay," you're aching to say in reassurance.

"Everybody has a hard time finding their place, but in the end we all find a group of friends to chase dandelion fluff with," you tell me with a knowing smile.

It's decent advice. Hackneyed and a little cliched, perhaps, but decent advice nonetheless. For a kid.     But I'm not a kid. I'm thirty-six years old.

The backpack slung over my shoulder was shoved at me by my own child as he ran off to play Star Wars with his friends. The water bottle is his. The social awkwardness? That's all mine.

I'm not the only mother on the playground, of course. There's a cluster here and a cluster there, all literally circled around the Queen Bee.

We all know the Queen Bee, right? She's a little older than the impressionable first-time mothers and uses that to her advantage. She's dressed in expensive casual and her makeup is just so. She knows everybody's name (well, at least the names worth knowing) and all the children's names. They spill from her lips drenched in the lightest taste of gossip and Knowledge with a capital K, so that the worker bees know she's paying attention. After all, that's important, isn't it? If the Queen doesn't know what's going on with your child, how will you ever stop circling the hive?

It amazes me that ten, fifteen, twenty years out of high school people are still playing the clique game. At this point, though, it's beyond silly, it's dangerous. What are their kids learning?

Falling for Fall: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Squares Recipe

Meal Monday

I have fall fever.

I love the changing leaves. The crunch of them under my behemoth stroller wheels. The crisp air. The Halloween candy in the stores. And, of course, the seasonal desserts. 

I'm trying to share my love of the season with the kids. It's a bit of a challenge. They mistake falling leaves for birds. They think squirrels say "woof." The Dude is obsessed with apples—even when they're pears.

We are going to a pumpkin patch this week. In preparation, I've been singing the "5 little pumpkins sitting on a gate" song. I point out all the pumpkins in our neighborhood. Zeke, upon noticing pumpkins, remarks, "ball!" When the Dude encountered a small one, he excitedly proclaimed, "apple!" then tried to take a bite. Meanwhile, Bitty just tries to escape from the stroller.

While I appreciate my neighbors' Jack-O-Lanterns and decorative gourds, I don’t think we'll be carving any this year. I can just imagine Bitty using pumpkin flesh as hair mousse. Or the Dude removing stringy pieces and handing them to me, one by one. 

This year, we'll just visit the pumpkins. The only pumpkin I want in my house is the kind in the can. And with that can I made the kiddos my favorite pumpkin chocolate chip bars, figuring they just might teach the kids a thing or two about the flavors of fall.

Halloween Ideas for a Non-Crafty Mom

Startup Sunday

I can't believe Halloween is in two weeks, and neither of my little kids has a costume. I need some easy Halloween ideas, pronto! (The costume dilemma is too much on my mind to come up with a blog post about startups -- after all, Halloween is sort of the Superbowl for kids. Everyone can celebrate regardless of religion, you get to pretend to be a superhero or goblin for a day, and who can turn down all the candy and apple cider?)

My 6-year old has been back and forth about her costume, but lately she wants to be a Skittle. What? Apparently, her friend is going to be an M&M and my girl wants to complement her costume. So I asked the friend’s mom how she came up with the costume, and she said, it’s easy!

Just go to the fabric store, get big pieces of colorful felt that you can cut into a circle, sew straps over the shoulder so that you have a front and back, and then draw a white S on the front. Huh? To non-crafty me, this does not sound like the easiest of Halloween ideas. My husband actually is a fabulous sewer (comes from being a surgeon, I guess) so maybe I can talk him into the project.

But if I fail in persuading my better half to pick up a needle, I'm pretty sure that we will fall back on one of the other truly easy Halloween ideas I've used in the past: