A Perfect Way to Start the Week // Zuke's Dog Treats Giveaway

We adopted Lola old from our local rescue organization, Partners for Pets. She was already three months old, but we were still amazed that it only took a day to crate train her with only one real accident in the house. A few months later, we signed up for obedience classes, and she learned sit, down, off, and heal (kind of), but she has never fully grasped the concept of "come." When it's really cold or hot outside or time for her to eat, she happily comes when I call her, but any other time, she ignores me or takes her time. Shortly after bringing Will home last year, I realized that I needed Lola not only to "come" but also "leave" much more often, so we slowly started trying to teach her those commands. Now, she knows that when we say "out," she needs to leave the room, and I've learned that all I need to do to get her to come is shout, "Do you want a treat"?

A few weeks ago, Zuke's sent us their new line of Hip Action treats. The great thing about all of Zuke's products is that they are all natural and healthy for your pup (or kitty), so I don't feel bad giving Lola a treat every single time she comes inside the house. Lola loves all three flavors of the Hip Action treats, and I really appreciate that even though they are moist and chewy, they don't have that funky dog treat smell.

If you want to try out Zuke's, you can order them online or find them in this area at Petsmart and local pet boutiques, OR you can enter to win some treats! Just visit Zuke's and choose a line of treats that you'd like to try out with your pup or kitty and enter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Also, don't you think Lola looks like the pup on the packaging?

A Perfect Way to Open the Season

Go Crazy, Folks! Go Crazy! Happy Opening Day! Will you be watching some baseball today?

I think I might have watched about 1000 hours of my brother's baseball games as a child, which kind of burnt me out on baseball game watching (except during the playoffs, of course), but Jason and I are hoping to get to at least one game at the stadium this season. (My favorite place to sit is the bleachers.) But other than that, I will support the Cardinals through my fashion choices and keep updated through family, Facebook, and SportsCenter. 

Instead of watching baseball, I am going to use today as my own personal restart switch. What better day than today, not only opening day of America's favorite past time but also the first Monday of my 29th year and the (almost) beginning of a new month? I didn't make much progress in March with my health and fitness goals, but I am ready to recommit today and already have. No more party planning or cupcakes to use as excuses! Do you have anything you want to restart? Thirty teams are getting to start a new season today. You can too!

Also, while trying to take a picture of William and me together in our Cardinals shirts, I captured this gem that shows where William gets his ears.

Happy Monday! I hope your week is filled with many good reasons to Go Crazy!

A Thrilling Way to Start the Week

Last Thursday, to celebrate the first day of Spring, William and I planted some seeds. We'd been diligently watering them every other day... so like one time. And LOOK! Can you see the little green sprout?! We found these little kits in the dollar section of Target, and to tell you the truth, I didn't really expect that much from them. But I thought it might be a fun and cheap activity that William and I could try out together. Each kit came with a little plastic pot and a brown tablet (about the size of two quarters stacked on top of each other) and a packet of seeds. When you add water, the tablet fills the ENTIRE pot with the "growing medium" you see above. Then, you add your seeds and just a few days later, Wallah! I really felt like I got my money's worth just from the thrill of what happened when we added the water to the tablet (and William was just delighted to open and close and open and close the poppy box), but now that we have some growth, I'd say that was the best three dollars I've spent in a while. What if we actually get flowers?

Happy Monday! I hope you can find the simple thrills in this week... but I really can't imagine how the week could get any more thrilling than what you see above. Maybe a sea monkey kit?

Also, I'm considering going back to Target to get the strawberry and herb kits this afternoon. Then, we could have flowers and strawberries and herbs all just growing on our buffet! 

A Perfect Challenge to Start the Week

I have so many great pictures of Will and his Papa and even more great pictures of William and his puppa but not so many great pictures of all of us or even just the two or three of us. One of the reasons for this is that I have never been a huge fan of portrait sessions with professional photographers. Everyone else's always seem to turn out beautiful, but I always end up disappointed in my own (which I know is due to my own issues and not the many talented photographers we have worked with over the years). I find that the pictures of myself that I like the most are the ones that other people take randomly with their phones at different events. So this week, I am going to take on the Embrace the Camera challenge from Ashley to actually get myself in some of the pictures I take. Ashley gave some great tips, and the one I am going to try out today is giving up the camera to someone else with specific directions. Jason kind of has the day off today, so we'll have plenty of opportunities... poor guy.  He doesn't even know what he's in for yet. I'm pretty sure I am going to have to rely on selfies for the rest of the week, but whatever happens, whether I love them or hate them, I promise to post an update at the end of the week with at least one picture from each day. What do you think? Do you have this same issue? Are you up to the challenge?

Also, depending on how this week goes, I'd really love to try out this Family Portrait Challenge too.

A Perfect Way to Start the Week

So the Oscar winner's speeches were much better than the Golden Globes. I guess they got my notes. Both Jared Leto and Lupita Nyong'o were quite eloquent (if you take away Leto's ums and uhs) and even made me cry. But my favorite part of the Oscars was actually the Pepsi Mini commercial. Never mind that, as Jason kept pointing out, mini cans have been around for quite some time. This commercial is literally my Dad's dream. At least once every few months and more often around Christmas, he asks if we can just have one day where we all speak only in movie quotes. We have yet to make his dream a reality, but this commercial shows us that with a lot of editing, it could be possible.
Also, just so that you know, the most tragic thing about being a teacher is not the class size or the pay or even the bureaucracy. Oh, no. The hardest part of being a teacher is that the people you spend the most time with, your students, most often don't get (or choose not to acknowledge) your awesome references. Shrilly shouting, "Help is on the way, dear!" just gets a couple strange looks, and no matter how much they need to hear it, when you kindly tell them, "Your ego is writing checks your body can't cash," they look at you like you are speaking another language. I'm guessing it is going to be the same with parenting...

A Perfect Way to Start the Week

The first season of Too Cute! is streaming on Netflix right now.  If you are not familiar with this program, each episode starts off with a warning that the show you are about to watch might be "too cute" and viewer discretion is advised. It's a documentary style show that follows puppies and kittens from birth through the first few months of life, and it. is. awesome. It's also the only show that everyone in our family loves to watch. Will, who normally ignores all television (besides Jeopardy!), giggles and squeals at the kittens and puppies, and Lola stands in front of the TV, wagging her tail and issuing low barks. We used to recommend it to everyone as stress-free family television until my dad tried to watch an episode and had to tell my mom to turn it off because in the episode he was watching, the puppies were being taught how to swim, which was, in fact, stressing him out. Spoiler Alert: All the puppies learn how to swim. No one gets hurt, and it's all freaking adorable.  

Happy Monday! I hope your week is just the right amount of cute.

Also, these pictures are all from the day we adopted Lola. She was already three months old, and in those first few years, Jason and I would often talk about what her first three months of life must have been like to try to explain away some of her idiosyncrasies. We often referred to it as her origin story. 

A Perfect Way to Start the Week

He was upset because I wouldn't let him eat dog food. In fact, I had just taken one of Lola's kibbles out of his mouth, but within seconds he was happy because he got to see that cute baby in the phone again. This moment reminded me of the website Reasons My Son is Crying. Have you seen it? It's good for a laugh, especially if you are a parent that has just turned your back for a few seconds to wash your hands after feeding the dog only to turn back around and find your only son eating dog food.

Happy Monday and Happy President's Day! We are enjoying an extra day home with Jason today. I hope any moments of distress this week are quickly rectified...maybe by a cute baby in your phone.

Also, Humans of New York is another great site that I follow on Instagram that usually puts a smile on my face. The pictures of the people are sometimes interesting, but the short interviews of each person are almost always compelling. 

An Anguishing Way to Start the Week

What's a baby to do? Cry, apparently. What's a mama to do? Take advantage of the photo op, unhook the pacifier, tell him, "you're fine," see if he settles down, then console. I've said before, and I'll say it again. Parent of the Year! Let me know if you have any other parenting quandaries that need solving.

In the meantime, while we're on the subject of anguish, maybe you can explain to me why this song was used for this commercial...and for that matter is even popular at all. I may be sleep deprived from caring for a sick and teething ten-month-old, but I'm pretty sure that the commercial is about best (animal) buds who will go to the greatest lengths to be together and the song is about a vitriolic person singing about some other person who is incapable of loving and has really bad timing. Again, I am spending a majority of my time taking pictures of and caring for my sick and teething baby, so maybe I missed the point or some one out there has already covered this topic. If so, please let me know so I can stop bothering Jason about it.

Happy Monday! I hope you only need the light when your batteries are full, only miss the sun when the weekly forecast calls for mostly sunny skies, only know your lover when you first see him or her like that puppy and horse in the commercial...

Also, I hope you only have a baby whose teeth magically appear without cold/flu-like symptoms and sleeps through the night every night.

A Perfect Way to Start the Week

After watching Pink's performance at The Grammys last night, I declared to Jason that I was pretty sure if we practiced, we could perfect this move. And Jason, being the more thoughtful and rational one in the relationship, declared that of course we could... AND! We could debut it at the wedding we are going to in May. Perfect!

Happy Monday! I hope your week is full of all types of spectacle.

Also, we would be happy to show up and perform our moves at your event for the low low price of a reliable babysitter.

Photo courtesy of CBS via E!

A Perfect Way to Start the Week

A perfect way to start the week is with an extra day off for the husband so that he can make things like mango habenero salsa and all the other fixings for fish tacos from scratch. Too bad we finished all the fish tacos yesterday!  The good news is he also made red pepper habenero hummus.  He had some fun with the Vitamix, and I will be having some fun dipping my veggies all week long.

Also, Jason bought fresh Swai for the fish part of our fish tacos. Have you every heard of it? I must say that is the best fish I have ever tasted, buttery and sweet. (He marinated it in fresh garlic, lime, and cilantro and cooked it on a grill pan.) We eat some type of seafood pretty much every other day, and after doing a little research (It's cheap and good for you!), I've decided to make swai a regular part of our menu. Bonus: Will ate it right up too. 

Happy Mon...err Tuesday! I hope your week is fresh and yummy!

A Perfect Way to Start the Week

If you watched the Golden Globes last night, you know that, apparently, no one was expecting to win. If I had some serious time and video editing skills, I would put together a montage for you of almost every winner telling us how unexpected the win was in order to illustrate my point, but alas, you will just have to trust me and use your imagination.

And I mean, COME. ON. Really. None of you expected you might win. Even though you were all nominated, and it was between you and just four other people. If they suddenly announced my name and came to my door with a camera crew so that I could accept the award remotely, that might be unexpected, but I'm willing to bet I could give a better speech than most of the winners last night. Uggh. --Rhetoric teacher rant done--

One bright spot among the unexpected winners was Mr. Matthew McConaughey. Alright, alright, alright, alright.


A little dancing, a great first line, a mom anecdote. Otherwise known as the recipe for a successful acceptance speech. All you Oscar nominees. Get it together! I don't think it's cute or endearing or genuine when you get up there and talk about how unexpected this is and how nervous you are. If you are nominated, have some high expectations for yourself and practice a speech!

Happy Monday! I hope your week is filled with high expectations.

Also, another recipe for acceptance speech success includes thanking your significant other, thanking God, a little dance move, and telling everyone in the audience that your love them over and over a la Cuba Gooding Jr.

A Perfect Way to Start the Week

Happy Epiphany! Christmas is officially over, and I am officially back to blogging. Yesterday, while I was putting away all the Christmas decorations and considering (for a very brief moment) replacing them with Valentine's Day ones to fill in all the newly clutter-free (and color-free) spaces, Jason was waiting for the snow to stop so he could go shovel our driveway in anticipation of heading in to work in the morning. After over twelve hours and twelve inches of snowfall, when he finally headed out to get started, he wasn't out there more than half an hour before our neighbor came by on his four wheeler with a snowplow attachment to help out. While one neighbor was clearing our driveway, another one started plowing our street. That night, we thanked God for our home on a private road, on the top of a hill, covered in twelve inches of snow, and surrounded by such giving people.

When I wrote about my four goals before 2014, I mentioned that the TED Radio Hour on NPR is a great place to hear meaningful TED talks.  I was listening to their show all about giving yesterday, and many of the ideas resonated with me. Although the Christmas season is officially over, the season of giving can last as long as we keep it up. I highly recommend taking the time to listen to the talks for some inspiration to keep your spirit merry and bright now that all the decorations and songs are gone. You can click on the picture below to stream or download the show.

Also, if you are interested, tickets for the TEDxGatewayArch conference on January 11th at the Sheldon are still on sale.

Happy Monday! I hope your week is filled with many opportunities to give and receive.

A Perfect Way to Start the Week

I have a family member (who shall remain nameless) who likes to ask one particular question at annual  Christmas soirées upon meeting someone for the first time. It's a highly personal and very technical question that garners immediate scrutiny and judgement upon the answerer. Because I know many of you are working hard and might be struggling to answer questions of what to give, what to bake, what to wear, what to bring and don't need so much added pressure this Christmas, I'm presenting the question here for your prior consideration just in case it comes up at your next shindig. 

That question is: What are your top five all-time favorite, must-watch Christmas movies? 

Mine, in a very particular order, are as follows:

1. Love Actually
2. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (I've been told that only full-length, non-animated movies are accepted when answering the question at parties, but I don't care. I love this movie enough to break that rule.)
3. Elf
4. The Family Stone
5. Home Alone

Feel free to scrutinize and judge. I'm fully prepared to defend myself over a glass of wine and some appetizers. And if you're up to it, leave your own favorites in the comments. I'd love to see some other lists and scrutinize from the comfort of my couch.

Also, just remember, "If you want more, if you want more, more, more. Jump."

Happy Monday! I hope your week is filled with answers to all your questions and many reasons to jump... for my love!

A Perfect Way to Start the Week

All I want for Christmas is this...

...or remember this?
I'd take that too... Seriously, Jason and I have been trying to focus on giving each other experience-type gifts, which basically means a vacation, but I would rather be surprised with a flashmob of professional muscians. You have just over two weeks, Jason. I'm even posting this one day early to give you a head start.

To the rest of you, Happy Sunday! I hope your week is filled with unexpected delight!

Also, thanks to Emily at Designer Blogs for the new look here.

(USAF Band Flash Mob video via NPR)

Also, One More Video to Start the Week

I love the idea of having your own personal LOL/ROTFL like the one mom's CLAH (cackling like a hen). I've been trying to come up with my own since seeing this segment. So far, I have the following:

LLAL (Laughing Like A Lady)
CAAMP (Chuckling Audibly At My Phone)
GFETE (Grinning From Ear To Ear)
WMH (Warms My Heart)
TAPASOOM (Tears And Pee Are Streaming Out Of Me)

Any other suggestions? I feel like CAAMP is most accurate for what is often happening, but TAPASOOM has a nice Seussical ring to it.

Happy Monday! I hope your week has many moments where you are GFETE!

A Perfect Way to Start the Week

Happy Advent! The season of joyful expectation and preparation for the birth of Jesus is here! And let me say, this Advent weather has been very conducive to outdoor preparation so far. Reaching almost 60 degrees yesterday, we got to go for a walk and get our outside Christmas decorations up. 

Another way we celebrate Advent every year is by buying presents for a child in Christian Social Services of Illinois. Last year, we participated in CSSIL's Secret Santa program directly, and this year, we are delivering the presents through our church.  If you are interested in working with them, they have an awesome program.  You can click here to find out more, or you can let me know and I can put you in contact with the right people directly. 

In order to help finance our charitable giving this season more fully, we have tried to cut down on superfluous giving in our family. Instead, in our family, we are trying to focus on the present of presence by spending more time with each other this season, and I am very excited for some of the activities we have planned.  AND... one of my favorite activities actually involves gift giving. I'm talking about Yankee Swap! We have done Yankee Swap for the past few year's in addition to giving individual gifts, but we really enjoy it so much, that we thought we could just make it THE gift exchange. Maggie just sent out the directions to our family last night, and I have already started to get my girl present ready.  Read below for Maggie's Yankee Swap explanation:

Hello Sweet Family,

I feel so grateful that we all got to spend time together this Thanksgiving, and I absolutely cannot wait to celebrate Jesus's birthday with all of you, my beautiful family, and your children and grandchildren. 

As our adult gift giving has evolved over the years, Melissa and I propose a new twist to our exchange. All adults, including MoM and DaD are to purchase a gift, a boy gift if you are a boy and a girl gift if you are a girl, not exceeding a $50 limit. We will participate in a Yankee swap.

See here...   ... for clarification.

If you feel in your heart that you desire to buy a gift for a specific someone, you are, of course, welcome to do so. However, no one is obligated to; we were hoping this might help us focus on the true meaning of Christmas (see here... ...and make inferences) and our sweet children.
Hope you enjoy participating, and we can always make adjustments next year as needed.

Thank you and much love,

Maggie

I actually really need a new oven mitt, so I'm really excited!

Also, I recently listened to last year's Christmas episode of This American Life and the lengths to which some people go to celebrate are anything if not entertaining.  I mean, just read the description about "Jeko, the super-powerful (and somewhat-scary) Christmas elf."  Let him serve as a warning to all you parents doing Elf on a Shelf. (Just kidding... kind of... I really have no idea what Elf on a Shelf entails more than what I see on Pinterest, but it seems like it could backfire in the same way.)

Happy Monday! I hope your week is filled with joyful expectation!

A Perfect Way to Start the Week

Thanksgiving is under attack! And my house is the war zone where at least 35 of our beloved family members will converge in fits of thanks in just over a week and a half.  Last week, a switch went off in my brain, and ever since, I have been on a rampage to conquer Thanksgiving. (Much like Gloria wins Valentine's Day.) So, over the weekend, we deep-cleaned the basement, washed all the windows, and went to Target (all essential tasks when strategizing a full-on Thanksgiving assault, I assure you) where we picked up this lovely and affordable dining room rug. And last night, we moved all of the extra stuff (mostly baby stuff... and Lola) out of all carpeted rooms and into the dining room and bathrooms so that today, carpet-cleaning mercenaries can go in and annihilate seven months worth of Will's spit up from deep in the fibers. A full-on assault, I tell you!

Also, Jason and I couldn't stop giggling at this clip from The Colbert Report last month. I'm thinking about having a contest to see who can create the best hand turkey with one hand tied behind their back a la Stephen Colbert's hand menorah.
Happy Monday! I hope you get some down time from whatever you are conquering this week to practice for the hand turkey contest.

A Perfect Way to Start the Week

Rose-Colored Wayfarers.  That's what we are choosing to see the world through at the Tedesco house this fine morning as it is Monday and still the weekend.

I listened to Episode 504 of This American Life while cleaning the house the other day and was reminded of the idea that the way we view the world (and our lives in it) is a choice that can become a part of who we are, how we live, and the affect we have on others. Emir, the man that the second story is about, reminded me of my dad in the way he tells stories and the way he sees the world. 

People often ask me or my mom or my siblings about my dad. "Is he always that happy... all the time"?  And the truthful answer is no, but he is happy most of the time, and he is quite wonderful to be around because happiness, like love, has the quality of growing and spreading exponentially.  

Happy Monday! I hope that even if your week is not short, you choose to view it as rosy.

A Perfect Way to Start the Week

We (Jason, really, because I refuse to talk to Charter) canceled our premium channels yesterday. A first step to canceling cable? Probably not. Although, between Netflix and TED Talks, I think I would be able to make it. Do you know about TED Talks?  TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and from what I can gather, the talk part means an expert in something speaks about their expertise in a way that both entertains and enlightens us non-experts... with a projection screen for help.

I find them endlessly entertaining and educational.  The talks cover a multitude of topics, so you are sure to find more than a few that interest you. I'm such a fan that I downloaded the TED app on my iPad and iPhone when Will was first born and I was what-felt-like constantly nursing. My goal was to watch one TED Talk a day during a nursing session in order to try to combat the feeling of mindlessness that comes with almost no sleep and days full of baby talking and shooshing.

Below is one that I clicked on recently because, hey, I like books, and by the end I had not only laughed out loud no less than three times but had also found a lesson to share with my students when I teach visual aids (I teach rhetoric when I am not a stay-at-home mom.) and learned a tiny bit about typography and design. Not bad for something that is basically free--minus the device and WiFi that allows you to watch.

I think I am going to renew my goal to watch at least one a day. If you are interested in doing the same but don't know where to start, NPR culls through the best TED Talks and collects a few on a certain topic every week. You can check out their recommendations here. Just be sure to go to the original talk for the whole shebang.

Today, I plan on listening to Mike Rowe's "Learning from Dirty Jobs." As a mom, I think I will be able to relate.

I hope your week is endlessly entertaining and educational (and maybe just a little bit dirty)! Happy Monday!

Also, speaking of book cover design, have you seen this TUMBLR by Tyler Adam Smith?  He creates covers and titles for books that should be written as part of his 100 Day Project in the Masters of Branding at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. I'm not gonna lie--I didn't get some of them, but the ones I did get either made me laugh out loud or internally shout true dat. Below are some of the ones I did get with my genuine reactions.

I'd read it... and recommend it for the Summer Reading Program.

Reminded me of the 13 best infographs of 2013, also by Wired.

Would have helped in undergrad...

Sounds amazing! But even if it isn't, I will read pretty much anything he writes as evidenced by Chipmunk Seeks Squirrel.

I need it!  Wait, do I want Will to be more clever (cleverer?) than me? 

(I feel as conflicted in wanting this book to exist as in wanting Will to be able to crawl/walk/talk.)

The subtitle says it all.  Now, that I don't have HBO, Alex will have to tell me how it ends.

True dat.

Yes, please.

A Perfect Way to Start Your Week

You know that thing (or person or idea) that is standing (or hanging) in your way?  That obstacle that you just can't get past to get to the thing you want no matter how hard you try?  Well, what if you shifted your perspective? Would you be able to see a way past it?

We've all heard that we should focus on the positives instead of the negatives. Try a different route. (Like the left or right or even underneath, Lola.) Challenge ourselves to try something new... even if that new thing seems hard or scary (like a crazy thing hanging in the doorway). And these phrases might sound cliche, but I know that when I do focus on the positives or try a different route or challenge myself to do something new or in a new way, I can always ALWAYS get past whatever I feel is holding me back.

I'm not afraid to admit that I love my life just the way it is, and I know that my personal relationship with Christ, my amazing family, and my ability to shift my perspective are what make each and every day a great one.  

But I know that I had to learn how to shift my perspective; it takes practice. 

Below are some images to get you started on this fine Monday morning. (The first one is my favorite.)

 via Pinterest via Reddit 

 via Design Daybook

Happy Monday!  I hope your week is full of positive new perspectives!

Also, I found all the images a while back on Pinterest and have used them every semester to discuss different perspectives with my literature students.  You might have seen the classic old woman/young woman or vase/face illusions too.  Those are also fun.