Mom Monday-Speech Info for Mommy!

I could not wait to write this post for today!  May is Better Speech and Hearing Month.  If you didn't know, don't feel bad.  I think only speech pathologists and audiologists are the only ones who know.  This is the perfect time to promote awareness to parents and caregivers about speech milestones for little ones.  I deal with parents everyday that assume because their child is only 18 months old it is no big deal that they are not talking.  Wrong!!  Did you know that a child between 18 months and 2 years should be using at least 50 words???!!  They are also starting to string together 1-2 word phrases and questions. That same sweet little tot should also be following 1 step directions and pointing to body parts.

This post is not meant to bash parents in any way.  After all, I am a mom too.  I have a little guy that needs some fine tuning on a couple of sounds.  But some parents need that "Come to Jesus" moment to realize their kiddo might need some help.  Many parents sweep speech concerns under the rug.  They fear the unknown.  They fear that someone will find a MINOR imperfection with their child...because after all, every child is PERFECT in mama's eyes.  When mama and daddy are ready, it's important that they understand their child is still perfect.  We all have flaws that make us perfect...PERFECTLY US.  It's the job of a really great speech pathologist to come in and make parents realize this.  Once they understand, parents and speech therapists can work together to improve the child's speech and language.

Now, if you read closely you will know notice I said "speech and language."  You may be thinking those two things are the same.  To speech therapists, they are not.

Speech:  Verbal communication that is made up of articulation (the way we produce sounds in words), voicing (the use of our vocal cords), and fluency (the intonation and rhythm of our speech).

Language: How we formulate and understand spoken language.  Language comes in two forms-expressive (the way we use language) and receptive (the way we understand language).  We need to know and understand the building blocks of language-syntax (grammar and sentence formulation). semantics (ie-vocabulary and how it is used) and pragmatics (the social aspect of communicating).  If any one of the building blocks is flawed, it makes it harder to understand what is being said to you.  It is also makes it harder for you to communicate.

I am adding a link to North Shore Pediatric Therapy for a great handout.  It has milestones broken down into age ranges.  It explains "red flags" to look for as well.  This handout is not meant to diagnose your child in anyway.  The best method to find out if your child has a speech or language disorder is to have a full speech and language evaluation completed by a licensed speech language pathologist.

If you know a speech therapist, be sure to give them a pat on the back.

Hugs y'all!
Melissa

Thirsty Thursday-Mom's Margarita

Can you believe we are already in May?!!  Weren't we just opening Christmas presents?  Now Mother's Day is almost here.  That means school is about to end and the summer will be here before we know it. 

Why not treat mom to a tasty little summer drink on Sunday?  I found this great recipe for pink grapefruit margarita.  Couldn't you picture mom sitting out on the porch, enjoying family time in this beautiful weather and sipping away?  I actually pictured myself right then and my husband making sure my cup never goes empty. 

You can use the link above for the recipe but I have included a grocery list to get you started.  Make sure to buy ruby red grapefruit juice.  It is sweeter and gives the drink it's pretty pink color.

Grocery List:
 1 cup of ruby red grapefruit juice
1/2  cup of fresh squeezed lime juice (about 4 limes)
1 cup of triple sec orange liqueur
3 cups of ice
1 cup of  silver tequila
1   lime cut in wedges, optional Kosher salt.

 

Be sure to treat mom like a queen this Sunday.  If you are a mom, take time for yourself.  Relax and enjoy the day because you will be back to the grind on Monday morning!

 

Hugs y'all,

Melissa



 





Family Friday- Movie Night!!

If I can keep from taking my kids to the movies, I do.  I hate sitting in a movie theater.  Like seriously HATE it!!   Why do I want to over pay to sit in a seat that 1,000 other people have sat in?  God knows what they did in that seat!! (I might be a slight germophobe.)  I can't sit still for that long and worst of all- I HATE LISTENING TO PEOPLE EAT!!  Especially popcorn. It seems like any movie I go to has the guy that just won the "Loudest Eater Award."  So there's really no point in going to the movies with me. 
But I do enjoy a good family movie night.  My favorite time is around the holidays.  We have the fire place roaring, surround sound is booming and we have no where to be the next day.  With the kids getting older, our movie night doesn't have to be a cartoon.  It can actually be something we all might enjoy.  I think the kids get more excited about a movie at home than they do if we take them to the theatre.  It doesn't take much to make us happy.  Here's some tips to make your family movie night a great one!

1.  Break the Rules!  Cook dinner just as you usually would.  But instead of eating at the table, create a nice little dining area on the coffee table where you will be watching the movie.  Make sure your dinner is movie night friendly.  We do soups if it is cold.  If the weather is warmer, we do nachos, quesadillas, hamburgers.  Usually something that does not require silverware.  Bring plenty of napkins or paper towels.  Then you can either pause the movie or wait until the end to put away the dishes.

2.  Close the curtains and lower the lights to give that movie theater feel.  We usually leave a couple of small lamps on if we are having dinner and a movie.  The kids love when I turn off all the lights and close the curtains.

3.  If you have surround sound, use it!  Don't just utilize it during sporting events.  That will achieve the movie theatre feel even more.

4.  Keep candy and snacks close by.  Just recently I moved a cabinet (that used to be our old kitchen island) into our living room.  My next trip to Costco will include buying candy bars and other movie snacks to stock that cabinet.  Keeping snacks in close reach will allow us to not miss a moment of the movie.  Buy a small popcorn machine to stash in the corner for quick refills of the popcorn bucket.

Most of these seem pretty obvious but I am sure I am missing something too.  The point of movie night is to keep it casual and comfortable.  You've all had a long week and deserve some family time.

Hugs y'all,
Melissa

Wonder Woman Wednesday- Get Your Pots Together!

Let's say you are the woman that has her kitchen all together.  In less than 5 seconds, you can pull out your medium saucepan with matching lid.  You're so organized your husband can easily navigate through the kitchen when you're not home.  You can find your big pasta pot without emptying the entire cabinet onto the floor.  Sound like you?  Then go away!  This post is not for you!  Just kidding...you can stick around as long as you don't comment about how perfect your kitchen is.😉

When we moved into my childhood home, I knew space would not be an issue.  My kitchen is ginormous!  Cabinet space is amazeballs!  But I still needed to organize my pots and pans.  Growing up, my mom had a deep cabinet (with a sliding shelf) and a tall cabinet next to the pantry that stored her pots and pans.  You had to look in both spots when looking for a pot.  I decided I was only using the deep cabinet for our pots and pans.  I went to a home improvement store to buy those racks you stack your skillets in.  I mean, they worked great in that perfect Pinterest kitchen I saw!  After they sat on the counter for a year (slightly longer), I decided to use them.    Lesson 1: when you buy those things, make sure they will fit in your cabinets.   So they continue to sit on the counter... 

 Plan B only cost $1!  I cleaned out the cabinet and gathered all the lids.  My skillets and saucepans sit stacked neatly on the sliding shelf.  On the bottom sits my big pasta pot, 2 Dutch ovens and a new red bin that holds my lids!  It was that simple!!  Buy a red bin from Dollar Tree... Problem solved.

After I finished I sat there thinking, "Why did I pin 5 thousand ways to organize this cabinet?"  I didn't use any of them!  

So here's the motivation you need to get organized!  We are starting small-just pots and pans.  You could do it in a Friday night or Saturday morning.  Each week in March, I will challenge you to one spot in your kitchen to get organized.  A sliding shelf and a dollar store bin might not be enough to solve your chaos, so work with the desired space and make it work for you!

Next week, we tackle the fridge!!!

                       

 

Happy Organizing friends! 

Hugs y'all,

Melissa @The Lone Star Ginger

Wonder Woman Wednesday- Boo Your Kids!!

                    

 I have seen all the ideas about "booing" your neighbors on Pinterest.  You know, when you leave a goody bag on your neighbor's doorstep with a sign that says "You've been Booed!"  Well, what do you do when you live in the country and have no neighbors?  You boo your kids!!!  This was soooo much fun and the kids loved it!  Here's how to BOO your kids:

1.  Buy fun size candy bars and other pre-packaged candy.  I bought other little prizes too like bracelets, plastic spiders, glow in the dark bats.etc.

2.  When the kids have fallen asleep (I mean a GOOD sleep), tape the candy and prizes to their door.  My kids slept with their doors closed at our old house so it was easy.  At our new house, their doors are open so I need to get creative this year!  I also typed a sign to tape to their doors.  Be as quiet as possible when doing this.  You don't want them waking up!

It's that simple!  Now wait for morning time and their reactions!  You  could also do this while they are at school too.  My son is quite the dramatic one so it's really fun to see how he reacts.  Red is the quiet and reserved one so her reaction is more like "Oh yea mom.  That's cool." (in her most dry, sarcastic tone).  You still have plenty of time to get your candy and prizes together!!

Happy Booing!

Hugs y'all!

LSG

PS...I linked to my FIRST blog link party today!!  Go check out some blogs over at The Turquoise Home's Work it Wednesday Link Party!

>

Wonder Woman Wednesday-Oh Snap! What's for Dinner?!

If you are new to the blog, Wonder Woman Wednesday is all about building you up.  It's midweek, I've "screwed up" countless times, forgotten something important, etc.  Whatever it was has messed up my week and I am bummed.  (Insert the Wonder Woman Wednesday blog!!)  Once I start writing this particular blog, I immediately start to feel better and realize the mistakes weren't that big of a deal.  For this blog I will change up the dynamics a little.  I will start to feature real life Wonder Women, organizing tips (that I have ACTUALLY tried), quick recipes (that I have ACTUALLY tried) and motivational "stuff" to get you through the week.

So for this week, I thought I would give you my tried and true tips for organizing a meal plan.  Don't you hate it when you get home late, and you are scrambling to make dinner from apple pie filling and a can of green beans? (Completely hypothetical!)  With school starting back up, most of us are going to be running on fumes by mid-September.  Kids' activities, homework, housework, work, etc all get in the way of you making a fabulous meal for your family at least 5 nights a week.  Last January, I decided I was going to make a meal plan for the entire month!  I found that my grocery bill was cheaper (on average $50 cheaper a week!) and my stress level was decreased.  Now before you start with the excuses of why you can't prepare a month's worth of meals, let me stop you.  Yes you can!  I have a husband, 2 kids in sports and run two small businesses so if I can do it, so can you.  Take one Fri or Saturday night, sit down with all your family's favorite recipes, your calender for the month (with the extra activities on it... ie, games, practices, etc), your Pinterest board of recipes and a piece of notebook paper.  Number your paper 1-31 (or however many days are in the month) and just start writing dinner plans on each line.  If you won't be home one night for dinner because of Johnny's football game, write "EAT OUT" or something like that.  I think my first meal plan took me around 45 minutes to plan.  The months after that were around 30 minutes or less.  Now that you have a meal plan, create a notebook with ALL those recipes in there. (SIDE NOTE:  I made my sister one for her birthday that was categorized: chicken, meat. pasta, sides, desserts...)  That way you have one spot to gather all your ingredients for the grocery list. I usually grocery shop on Fridays so I make sure to sit down Thursday night and make my list.  I get out my handy dandy recipe notebook with my month's meal plan and write out my list.  I double check the pantry and fridge to make sure I don't buy too many duplicates.  I pull out coupons that go with items on the list.  I also make a note beside the item on my list that I have a coupon for it.

Here was my March meal plan.  As you can see there are scratch out marks from changes that were made through the month.  If I try out a new recipe and we DO NOT like it, I scratch it off and it never comes back!  I try to keep easy quick meals during the week and more labor intensive ones on the weekends.  So there you have it!  How to prepare your meal plan for the entire month!!  You eat out less, less impulse buy at the grocery store and your family is healthier!!  Hope this helps you out as the kids start back to school and the schedules get busier!

Hugs y'all!

LSG

Make up Monday...Yep, I am in Heaven!!

The past few Mondays I have blogged about exercise and getting in shape.  This week I thought I would change it up.  I don't know about ya'll, but after being to the beach and suffering through the Texas heat, my skin gets dry.  I had blogged a month or so ago about making your own sugar scrub.  But let's say, you don't want to make it yourself for whatever reason...  I bought some of the best!!  I had been using a popular "lotion and soap chain store" sugar scrub ever since we got back.  Between the sun and ocean water, my skin was dry so I had been using the sugar scrub religiously (especially after shaving!) I am terrible about putting lotion on after a shower (in that I don't).  I was ok with the popular chain store's scrub until.... cue my favorite local lavender farm!!!

We happened to go out one night to our local lavender farm for an outdoor music concert  Of course, their gift shop was open...which I LOVE!!  It smells so good in there.  We have become friends with the owners so she was showing me around, talking about the new products added to the store.  I listened and nodded, taking the sweet aroma of peacefulness (is that word?)  Then she got to the sugar scrub!!! Oh my word...it smelled like heaven in a jar!!  Not only does it smell good, but it feels good too!!  Even better?  It is made from the lavender on their farm and you can pronounce ALL the ingredients on the jar!!!   You cannot go wrong with local grown lavender and all natural ingredients.  My husband said it had kind of a root beer smell...I don't know about that, but it does smell awesome.  It feels even better going on your skin.  My skin felt so smooth and re hydrated that there was no need for lotion.  I bought a jar twice the size as the popular chain for the same price (actually, I think it was cheaper!).  The link above will take you to their products which also includes lip balm, bug balm and lots of other great products!  If you are looking for great homegrown products that are great for your skin, this is the place to check out!!

Hugs ya'll!
LSG

Wonder Woman Wednesday-Yea, my house smells that good!

Wonder Woman Wednesdays are all about being even more amazing than you are.  I tend to get in my own little routine, and begin to struggle with balance and think, "How does Sally make it look so easy?!!  Gosh, I hate her for that!;)  This is the place Wonder Woman Wednesday stims from!  We are all have our own little struggle with balance.  It's important to know we are not all alone on our little woman island!  House chores unfortunately fall in the struggle of balance.  Do I take advantage of going to bed at an early time or clean the fridge?  You sit down after a long day of work only to look up and see cobwebs have formed on the living room ceiling...do you get the vacuum out or not?

Today's blog is about getting on a deep cleaning schedule.  When I first started this blog in April, I wrote about our family weekly cleaning schedule.  So you may have looked at that schedule and said, "When does her fridge get cleaned?  EWWW!"  It's on  my deep cleaning schedule.  I put this into place back in January but with the kids' sports, I did not get to stay on top of it as well.  But it is perfect because you can pick a weekend each month and get it all done!!  This is where I should add a picture or the actual schedule...so cue the Pinterest meltdown and the computer issues!!  I can add a picture of what January and February look like... it is the same for July and August.  

Basically each month, a room gets a top to bottom cleaning!  Ceiling fans get dusted, blinds dusted, furniture moved and vacuumed, windows get washed (in the warm months), and whatever else can be cleaned!  This does not take as long IF the weekly schedule has been kept up with.  You sit down that Sunday evening WITHOUT seeing cobwebs on your ceiling!!

Hugs ya'll,
LSG

Thirsty Thursday-The Hippie Edition

Whoo hoo!!  I completed my first full week of blogging!!  So why not enjoy Thirsty Thursday?  I mean that's enough reason to celebrate, right?  This Thursday I am blogging about a drink that screams "SUMMER!"  It's called Hippie Juice.  I am pretty sure it's been floating all over Pinterest so I cannot take credit for it.  Although if you have a rockin' good time after consuming it, you can given me credit for that:)  You're welcome.  Here's what you need:
1 cup of Smirnoff Watermelon Vodka
1/3 cup of Triple Sec
1/3 cup of Malibu Coconut Rum
4 scoops of Country Time Pink Lemonade (because is there really any other lemonade mix?)
Add cold water until your pitcher is full

Mine will be going in my cute little "sunflower yellow" Fiesta pitcher:)

Boom!  There's a party in your cup!  This would also be a great drink to consume during your "me" time one night after the kids have gone to bed.  Sit outside on a porch swing with the nice summer breeze blowing and listen to the frogs croak and crickets chirp...and the coyotes howl.

I hope you have enjoyed my blogs over the past week.  They have been fun to write and I love seeing which posts bring the most readers.  Be sure to share and comment!!

Hugs ya'll,
LSG

Lazy Southern Sunday means a Sunday bath!!!

I bet you thought by the title of this post that I only wash on Sunday!

Sunday is supposed to be the day of rest, right?  Why do we fill it with chores like laundry and grocery shopping then?  I know I filled my morning with dusting, steam mopping, vacuuming, dishes and laundry.  Little Ginger has kept us busy all week with track and basketball so to say my house was a mess is an EXTREME understatement.  Now it's the evening, and the hot hubs is grilling our dinner tonight.  That means instead of me prepping and cooking dinner, I gained some extra "me" time.  I found tons of detox bath recipes on Pinterest and they all sounded great... until I looked in my pantry to see that I was out of apple cider vinegar, ginger and baking soda.  Wonder what a detox bath of epsom salt, garlic salt and pepper would smell like?
But then I remembered I had some bath salts from one of our little trips this past summer that I have never used!!!  And it has lavender!   So after several early Saturday mornings of basketball and several consecutive weekends of having 2-3 extra teenage girls sleeping over, I might get some AWeSOme rest!! (cue the bells and a choir singing Hallelujah!)
So I mixed my epsom salt and bath salts and the result is...HEAVEN in a bathtub!  I will say the key to a great detox/stress reliever bath is HOT WATER.  Make that water as hot as you can stand it.  Once you get in with the mixture of  1 cup of epsom, 10 tsp of lavender oil, and 1/2 cup baking soda with the hot water, you almost instantly begin to feel sweat beads forming on your forehead.  Lie in the tub so that the water is up to your neck.  Soak for at least 20 minutes.  It is very important to drink plenty of water after you get out.  The detox bath will make you exhausted so it is best to take the bath before bed (or a much needed nap).    You don't have to add lavender oil.  You can add your favorite essential oil; I just like lavender.  Hope this helps relieve some stress and ease those aching muscles.  Another added bonus is you are ready to start the week!!
Hugs ya'll,
LSG