Psych is Back!

Jen and I will be watching this via Hulu.com tonight, so I thought I’d share here… in case you haven’t yet experienced Psych. It’s definitely our favorite current TV show! (You’ll love it more if you are around our age… tons of hilarious and random references to 80s pop culture.) 🙂

Hulu – Psych: You Can’t Handle This Episode – Watch the full episode now..

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

Snow!We have been getting snow the last few days here, and last night it finally turned into “real” snow! (The kind that comes down in big, fluffy flakes and starts piling up on everything quickly!) And it looks like there’s more where that came from!

I love snow! It just makes me smile, and even fairly giddy! 🙂 Not sure how it does that for me, since most folks my age seem to have lost the excitement and joy that slow-falling snow can bring. But somehow, it does! And it’s so fun to see the kids bubbly with excitement, too, as they stand at the door taking in the wonder of the new-fallen snow. So fun!

Not sure if we’ll have a “white Christmas”, but the current weather certainly helps it feel more like Christmas time! Time to play some Christmas music… 🙂

The End of The Aught

For whatever reason, I’ve taken to using the words “aught nine” to describing the end of this year, and even this decade. (Well, the “aught” part.) And lately, Jen was quite confused by my usage of the archaic term… so I explained it to her, but then realized it was odd enough that I should do some investigating myself.

Turns out, many others are confused as well. Is it “ought,” or is it “aught?” Well, from this source, a page attempting to help court reporters know the meaning of words that sound the same (homonyms) so they put the right one into the report … the correct spelling would be “aught.”

Since my sister-in-law is a court reporter to be … I’m gonna trust that answer. She’s pretty smart, so must be right… 🙂

Only a couple weeks left of the aught… then we’re on to the… tens? Teens? What will it be?

I guess it will be the tens, since the world will end just before the teens. 🙂

Sleep Police

It’s been a long stretch of early wakings and late beddings in the Campbell home recently. For some reason bedtimes have been consistently pushed back and for other reasons the kiddos have been rising earlier than normal. This makes for grumpy kids, many bad interactions throughout the day, tired Mom, and not as fun days as they could be.

So last night I decided to institute a new office in the Campbell home. I created the Sleep Police Department, to which I assigned myself the role of Sheriff.

In the mornings, I would sit on the landing of our second floor with my laptop (usually I would be in my office when the kids start emerging from their rooms) and I would direct the morning traffic. If someone was awake before the designated hour, they would be allowed passage to the bathroom, but sent directly (and promptly) back to their bed where they would close their eyes for at least a little more body rest time. Then at the appropriate waking time, all would be allowed (and/or required) to start the day! (Our 10 year old is always still sleeping at the “appropriate” waking time.) 🙂

It pretty much worked! (On Day 1.)

The older baby woke first (per usual) and I got her warmed milk and she drank it in her bed for another ten to fifteen minutes of quiet. Then an older sister emerged sleepily from her room about half an hour before wake time. She knew the plan, so with a gentle reminder from the Sheriff, she did her business in the bathroom and headed quickly back to bed.

When wake time came, a couple of the earlier risers emerged from the closed doors with big smiles and the Sheriff then made the rounds to ensure that all were now awake and ready to start the day!

Fun! We’ll see if it actually helps improve sleep—and so, attitudes—throughout today and the rest of this new week.

The Sheriff will be back at his post again early tomorrow morning!

Kids Not Flushing? Try Paying Them.

We are trying something new in our house this week. We have six people in training here, ages 10 and under. One of the problem areas currently is the toilet. Finding ourselves quite tired of finding a toilet full of … stuff… we instituted a new policy. (Nothing else has seemed to work so far, so, why not?)

We decided the best course of action would be to pay our kids to flush.

The new plan is to keep a tally. At the start of every week (Monday morning) we’ll have $10. If Mom or Dad ever find the toilet has not been flushed, 50¢ comes off the tally. Doesn’t matter whose fault it was, it just comes off. Hopefully this will encourage teamwork (we’ll help that part happen, too) rather than finger pointing!

Another problem area is finishing tasks. So, similarly, when a task is not completed (and we find the task doer already on to something else) then 25¢ will be taken off the total of the fun money.

At the end of the week (probably Sunday) we will take whatever is left and go do something fun. If that’s close to $10, we can do more… if it’s been a hard week and there’s $1.25 left… that will be harder to find something to do… In fact, we may just say if it’s under $5, it goes in the pot for next week.

So, we’ll see how it goes. We just figured, when all else fails… open your wallet! 🙂

Vote For Alex!

Family Fantasy SportsI received an email today, addressed to our son Alex, from the owner of the fantasy football site that is hosting our family league this season. Apparently, he has been chosen as one of 20 finalists for “Best Team Name”! How fun!

His team is The Determinators. If you go to this link, you can select his team name from the list and click submit. Right now he’s in second place (it’s early, but apparently other people besides his family are voting for him) 😉

The top five vote-getters will receive an NFL mini-helmet of their choice. (He’d love that!) And, it’s just fun.

Oh, I neglected to mention… not only does he apparently have the coolest team name in our league of eight teams… he’s also leading it, and currently undefeated!!!. (But, he’s playing my team this week, so… better watch out!) 🙂

So, if you have a moment, please click the link and vote for Alex. Thanks!

Oh Nine, Oh Nine, Oh Nine

For some reason, I’m one of those people who like it when the calendar says something more. Earlier this year we had 07/08/09. Seven, Eight, Nine. That’s fun! Every year there’s one day where the day, month, and year all match…

And today is that day! 🙂

Hope you have a great 09/09/09!

If you’re looking for something to do today, I’ll bet Apple can help with that… (We’ll be watching here!)