The rest of the house has been painted. In fact all three children’s bedrooms have been painted 2 or 3 times!

My teen’s bedroom has gone from Winnie the Pooh to Princess to Tie Dye.

My preteen’s bedroom has changed from Winnie the Pooh to Marie the Cat from the Aristocats to purple with wall stickers.

My kid’s room was Winnie the Pooh and is now white with red trim featuring Fatheads from Maryland Terps and the Washington Redskins with a few Manchester United stickers thrown in to recognize our English heritage.

I have had 2 cans of blue paint outside my bathroom door for over a year…waiting for a time when I will have time to paint.

The master bedroom is in need of painting too. Don’t get me started on the hallway and landing with all the scratch marks from baby gates. There are also a hug number of scuffs from kids’ feet while in time out. Who decided to use the bottom of the stairs as the time out spot, anyway??

Stay tunes to see if I paint this summer…or not…

We let our girls (now 11 and 14) to both get cell phones in 6th grade. Both spend all day at volleyball tournaments 2 weekends a month. Their dad is always with them, but if he had to leave early the girls would have a way to contact us. The other moms and dads on the girls’ teams look out for all the girls too. I have the cell numbers of the parents, so that I can contact them if needed.

No cell phones broken, Phone chargers go missing. One was replaced — I think the tween left it at a hotel.

ipod

My teen got an ipod at 9. I thought she was too young, but the grandparents insisted. She proved to be very responsible.

My tween got one at 8. She was younger and needed more hand holding as far as downloading songs.

My 7-year-old desperately wants one, but I am holding off. He is so-so in the responsibility arena. He still listens to CDs in his bedroom, while his sisters only listen to itunes.

itouch

I won a itouch. I have barely seen the darn thing! My tween always seems to have it. She has downloaded a dizzying array of apps. She likes playing games. My youngest likes watching pre-approved by me YouTube vidoes.

The itouch comes in handy when we travel to swim meets, volleyball tournaments, etc. Since it is too hard to share a device, we set up a schedule of show gets the itouch for the entire day. There is no argument since the kids know that who has the itouch next.

Nintendo DS

My tween got one when she was 9. The teen got one when she was 11. Both play with them intermittently. My youngest was the lucky recipient of a DS that I won. I gave it to him for his 6th birthday with a few games. He plays with the DS the most. He and his sisters share Mario and Nintendogs games.

Age 6 is really too young, but I was tired of him pestering his sisters for a turn. It is impossible to share a DS. The games are too long.

Now, the only thing I have to worry about is where the various chargers are!

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My two daughters went to a couple of GS camps. I agreed to chaperone as both girls were too young to spend the night away from home alone. Both had gone on sleepovers, but camping is outdoors. Wild animals! Bears! Crazy people! (Photo taken at Great Wolf Lodge — Williamsburg. My kind of camping is staying in a Great Wolf Lodge room with a built in cabin!)

Once at the camp site, the reality set in of what I had agreed to do. On one trip I left the tent flap open letting bugs in. My tent mates were not pleased. Another year I packed only one pair of shoes each for my daughter and myself. You guessed it…we both got our shoes wet. Another year it was the Great Cicada Epidemic. I had to sweep the dead, crackly bodies of cicadas off the pad before we could pitch the tent. Creepy!

Wondering what to bring on a G.S. camping trip? Here’s what I remember packing:

• tent
• sleeping bag
• mattress pad
• shoes for walking to the bathroom at night
• flashlight
• clothes for warm weather x number of days
• clothes for colder weather x number of days
• sweat shirt
• raincoat
• some troops like girls to have a camping plate and cup
• some troops want parents to bring food, paper goods, plastic bags for sharing
• two pairs of shoes — sneakers and boots

Writing this list is reminding why I dislike camping. Indoorsy person. Hotel room here I come!

What question perplexes me most on forms and questionnaires? The question I find most difficult to answer is what major city do I live closest to?

As a child through my pre-children years, I would have had several answers:

• 0-4 years — Manchester, England
• 5-8 — New York City
• 9-10 — Manchester, England
• 11 — New York City
• 12-15 — Manchester, England
• 16-18 — Milan, Italy
• 19-22 — Philadelphia
• 23-29 — Washington, D.C.

Yes, my childhood was madness personified!

In 1994, my husband and I realized that our tiny townhouse in Montgomery Village was not big enough to accommodate all our stuff let alone a child! I was happily working in Gaithersburg while my husband commuted to Damascus. We were a stone’s throw from the Shady Grove Metro. I had commuted to DC for work each day before finding a job closer to home. I still took the Metro once or twice a week to George Washington University for graduate classes. Occasionally we would visit an art gallery or museum in D.C. In short, we were D.C. people.

In late 1993, we began our search for a new place to grow roots and hopefully start a family. We quickly realized that Montgomery County, MD, was out of the question. House prices were through the roof. We wanted to build our own home. My husband had this crazy notion that he wanted to buy land. He grew up on 3/4 of an acre, which meant he found our townhouse neighbors too close for comfort.

The quest for land took us to Frederick and Carroll counties. The drive out to both was daunting. We drove in nonrush hour times and on weekends. House after house failed to appeal to us. Some were too small…too expensive…too weird (we stumbled in to a community of senior citizen bungalow townhomes with roll-in showers and extra wide doorways)…too near to massive power lines (seriously, the powerline was where I envisioned having a play structure).

Our search was stalled. We were about to give up when my FIL showed us a listing for a new development in Howard county. The drive out to Howard sold us before we even go to the house. We saw not one car as we drove over the Montgomery county line. It was a ghost town — in a good way — that Sunday afternoon.

The neighborhood — a former farm that my FIL recalled playing at — was almost completely developed with only 5 or 6 lots left. Most of the lots had steep, treacherous driveways that would be nightmarish to mow. The last lot we looked at was perfect. Too close to the road for some, but flat enough for us to visualize our “kids” riding bikes down the completely flat driveway. Welcome to Baltimore, hon!

Through some finagling of finances we were able to swing the much higher home price and lot price. In June 1994 we were the proud owners of 3 acres and 1 new home…thankfully no mule…in Woodbine, MD!

Woodbine has changed over the years, but remains a safe place to live. Thanks to some draconian county laws, many of the farms are in historic preservation. I can’t tell you how relieved we were to find that the farm we can see through our kitchen window would remain a farm. Our neighborhood is bordered on 3 sides by county parkland and 1 side by a semi-working farm.

Which brings me back to the question of what city I live closest to. Howard County is in a no-man’s land. Not a part of the DC Metro Area and not a suburb of Baltimore City and County. I have done what anyone would do — I call both cities my own.

When I am in a DC frame of mind I recall visits to the International Spy Museum, reading the Washington Post, and almost meeting Guy Fieri. As a DC Mommy I go here to find out about events, things to do, and places to shop.

But, let’s not forget my Baltimore side. As a pseudo-Baltimorean, I recall fun times at Port Discovery, flying out of BWI, and inflating our Christmas decorations.

Sometimes I think about what it is like to live in Woodbine with my clutter woes and new-to-us holiday traditions.

Woodbine is not famous for anything. It is a cluster of homes and farms with parkland thrown in for good measure. Woodbine is split between two counties. We’re south of the railroad tracks in Howard County, while those north of the tracks are Carroll County.

Searching the brief entry on Wikipedia I know that…

• Woodbine is named after a plant that grows in fields and on riverbanks.
• Lisbon our neighboring town is home to the first traffic circle in Maryland. Lisbon now has two, woohoo!
• During the Civil War, Rebel cavalry crossed the Patapsco River at Woodbine scouting the Union Army that was on its way to the Battle of Gettysburg.

If you are passing through Woodbine, you might want to stop at Larriland Farms to pick some of the best fruit out there or go on a fall hayride, visit the horses that are nursed back to health at the Days End Horse Rescue Farm, or check out the Woodbine Facebook page.

I wrote this post as part of Blogtrotting. For more information about Blogtrotting, go here.

I think it would have been less time consuming to take it to the dry cleaners or buy a new shirt!

Do you fix clothes?

Originally posted on the message board at DC CityMommy. Are you a DC – MD – VA Mommy? Come join me at DC CityMommy. CityMommy is in 43 cities — see here for CityMommy near you.

If you are like me, you will have days where everything works like clockwork. Kids get to school on time. Work assignments and meetings go as planned. Dinner is on the table. Chores are done. And then there are the days when nothing goes right. In our house, if mom forgets to do her chores…the kids will forget to their chores.

Our house does not run like a well-oiled machine, but we sputter and putter along. If one kids forgets to Swiffer the floor and another kid avoids loading the dishwasher and mom avoids folding laundry for a day or two..let’s just say the result is not pretty and leave it at that, shall we?

Recently, I started a My Job Chart for all three children at http://www.myjobchart.com. It was straightforward. I created a section for each child listing their job plus the reward for doing the chore.

My Job Chart is a FREE online Chore Chart that teaches kids to work in a fun and productive way. Using an easy and fun online system, My Job Chart inspires kids to do their chores on time. An interactive point system tracks your child’s progress, creating excitement and enthusiasm among kids. And the fully customizable chore chart allows you and your child to decide upon mutually determined rewards, fostering communication and developing responsibility. You even get an email or text message when your kids finish their chores or they earn a reward!

Want to find out more about My Job Chart? Click here and start a profile!

I would be ideal candidate for an online grocery shopping situation. It is a pity I live too far out of the delivery area of a Giant Food Peapod or a Safeway delivery service. I would shop by looking at a the different options and clicking. I do save more money by shopping in the store as I can search the aisles to match my purchase to coupons, in store deals, and savings club specials.

What’s your grocery shopping style?

The mileage is done. The PayPal is done. The expenses are calculated. The receipts are in the stack. My husband and have argued and bantered about what is and what is not a legal expense. Picky picky, but he’s our family tax preparer so his word is gold.

Next year I will have a more refined system. I started an Excel spreadsheet of reviews and giveaways. I will keep track of all the garments and toys I donate each month. Apparently with H&R Block At Home, I can document the type, condition, and estimated price of each item I bag up for Purple Hearts and AmVets. Good news for my husband!

Updated at 12:55 p.m. The taxes are filed. I repeat the taxes are filed electronically. The state taxes are sitting in the mailbox. My husband is relieved. He was pleasantly surprised at my contributions this year — not earth-shattering but a hope for good things to come.

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• Check bag. I use a canvas tote bag as a purse. It was my swag bag from the NYC Blogger Brunch. My bag holds my wallet, Coupon Caddy, various permission forms and school papers, 4 or 5 books (I’m a book reviewer), a bottle or 2 of water, and my phone,
• Except when my phone is not in my bag.
• I move on to searching last night’s pants or jacket pockets. No dice?
• Look on kitchen table and counters.
• Ponder whether tween scampered off with my phone to play Balloon Pop.
• See tween using her own phone to change ringtones. So, if the tween does not have my phone…
• Scratch head. Now getting perturbed that phone is officially MIA.
• Realize that I did not look in the one place…the most obvious place. Where, you ask? The wicker phone caddy on the kitchen counter.

This wicker caddy was an innovation from yours truly. I am not what you would call a fashion forward type when it comes to my home. We have not changed the furniture in our house since we moved in the mid-90s. The furniture and any ornaments/decorative pieces are moved around, rearranged, and fiddled with, but the house remains unchanged from when we moved in.

The wicker phone caddy is my stab at hiding the disorder and chaos of phone charger cords, cell phones, and the odd camera that is left there. Hello! I have a wicker caddy on baker’s rack for phones. So, I searched in the wicker caddy to find my phone. And do you know what? I found my new Verizon Palm Pre Plus phone immediately. The phone’’s shiny black exterior is in sharp contract to the cream fabric liner of the wicker phone caddy and the multitude of dull black phones amid tangled phone charger cables.

Except in a dark room or when I am peering in  to the deep recesses of my purse, I have no problem finding the Palm. The Palm Pre Plus is sleek and compact. Perfect for carrying in my pocket when I leave my purse at home. The phone is constantly on the move. No wonder I have so much trouble finding my phone!

I was given the Verizon Palm Pre Plus phone and one-month’s service as part of my review.