All posts filed under: In My Brain Today (Thursday(

In My Brain Today: The Value of the Childhood Swing Set

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By Leslie Lindsay [This post originally aired on 5.27.14 on my other site, http://www.speakingofapraxia.com. Repeated here for fun and well, it’s still in my brain]. I don’t know about you, but I have about a million and eight memories on my childhood swingset. Juicy, sticky twin-pops running orange and cheery and grape flavored sugar water down my wrists and puddling in that little space on the other side of my elbow. Of course there was the putting the damn thing together, a project in which I heard my dad curse for the first time, the metal parts lined up a jumble that no man could disentangle. “Don’t ever say that word,” he cautioned. “Oh? Okay.” I didn’t even know what gosh-dang-it, or rumpy-pumpy-poo-poo-head meant, but it didn’t sound good. Note to self: don’t put together a swing set lest you’ll spew out words that make no sense. I recall swinging back and forth on the double-sided glider thing-y and feeling like the whole swing set would pull right out of the ground and topple over …

In My Brain Today: All in 7 Days

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By Leslie Lindsay I’m so glad tomorrow’s Friday. Well, kind of. Saturday is my daughter’s BD and then Sunday is recovery day and I won’t have Caribou to do it at. : (  Because, if you are a coffee store nut like me, you’ll know that the Caribou Corporation was bought out by another company who decided to throw the baby out with the bath water.  80 stores closed their doors, leaving 800 employees job-less.  This place was my life.  I know, it sounds really cheesy, but it was a big source of community for me.  (See bullet point about a 1/3 of the way down). And speaking of bullets, (kind of), what about the Boston bombing.  Tragic.  My heart really goes out to these folks.  So, here’s what’s going on in this corner of the world:  Huge build-up, let-down, whatever you want to call it with finishing the mss and then going right to conference. Of course, I learned a ton and had fun…but My head is about to explode with new information and I still haven’t had …

In My Brain Today: Handing out Natural Consequences

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By Leslie Lindsay About a week ago, I posted a comment on Facebook which seemed a tad bit controversial.  It was about my views on natural/logical consequences and went something like this:   “Yesterday, my daughter refused to clean her room.   Instead, she shoved paper and Kleenex in her nightstand drawer.  She had piles–I mean piles–of projects, toys, stuffed animals, etc on her floor, resulting in a fall hazard.  She’d heard our threats–that if she continues to treat her bedroom as a trashcan, we’d take away her trashcan.  We took the trashcan away.  Last night, the same daughter refused to eat dinner neatly after several reminders and spilled her dinner all over herself.  She hated the feeling of warm food on her sweater and jeans.  I shrugged and said, “Well, take it off and put it in the laundry room and then come back to the table to finish your meal.”   We didn’t yell, we didn’t scream.  She did. As parents, we were employing the idea of “natural consequences.”  It sounds like tough love and maybe it is.  But I will tell you, it’s …

In My Brain Today: Reader’s Choice Finalist

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By Leslie Lindsay It is with great pleasure, awe, and humility that I share fantastic news.  SPEAKING OF APRAXIA:  A Parent’s Guide to Childhood Apraxia of Speech (Woodbine House, 2012) has advanced to the finalist stage of the Reader’s Choice Awards by About.com/Terri Mauro, mother and author.   (image source: http://specialchildren.about.com/od/readerschoice/tp/Readers-Choice-Favorite-New-Special-needs-Parenting-Book.htm.  Retrieved 2.21.13)  When I decided to write this book, I hadn’t the foggiest idea of what Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) even was.  I was the one who wanted/needed the book, I certainly didn’t think I could write one!  Published by Woodbine House, a leader in special needs parenting books, SPEAKING OF APRAXIA is currently the only book on the shelves written exclusively on apraxia for parents.  Having the book reach the finalist stage of a nationally-known award is more than a dream come true.  But I could use  your help.  Just as the award’s name suggests, obtaining the honor of the award is based solely on readers.  So, if you–your child(ren)–or your organization–have been touched by the book, childhood apraxia of speech, any speech disorder, Down’s syndrome, or …

In My Brain Today: Who Invented Valentine’s Day, Anyway?!

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By Leslie Lindsay This was a question that my 2nd grader posed to me in the school drop-off line this morning.  And it got me thinking…I knew there was a St. Valentine who did…what…good deeds? But of that I wasn’t even sure.   How then, did the day become such a romantic commercialized holiday?  I told her I would do a little research on the subject while she was at school and report back.  (see, this learning thing…it lasts forever). According to an article by NPR today, the origins of the cute, cozy, lovey holiday can be attributed to the ancient Romans.  Why not?  They seem to have started everything else.  Seems in those very early days of  Roman culture, men would ‘hit on women’ by doing just that–hitting them.  It was a brutal way of saying ‘I love you,’ but well…the theory was beating woman made them more fertile, and after all, populating the empire was of utmost importance.  In another theory of Roman love, men would pull a woman’s name at random from a jar in a sort of …

In My Brain Today: Guest Post and Give-a-way: Luca’s Lashes

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By Leslie Lindsay What a fun week!  I am blessed with yet another guest post from author Nicole Fonovich, co-creator of the “Luca Lashes”  a collection of kids’ ebooks and interactive apps – aimed at kids ages 0–4 – that turn“fear of firsts” into fun. Created by long-time educators and husband/wife team Nicole and Damir Fonovich, the series was inspired by their little boy, Lucas, and their desire to help him be brave in all his childhood discoveries. The newest release is Luca Lashes Visits the Doctor. Other 2012 ebooks cover first swim lesson, airplane ride and first haircut. Take a look below for a fun Luca Lashes contest! Okay…take it away, Nicole!! NICOLE FONOVICH, M.Ed, is a tech-savvy mom blazing a new trail in children’s publishing. (image source: http://www.lucalashes.com/t-about.aspx) “Taking your child to the doctor? Five tips to help them say “Ah” with confidence. Winter is on its way and everyone knows what that means. Not skiing, not hot chocolate, not kissing under the mistletoe. Colder temps bring cold and flu season, sick kids and doctor’s …

In My Brain Today: There’s an App (mag) for That!

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By Leslie Lindsay My daughter is in Brownies.  She wears that brown vest plastered with patches and sings songs about smiles in pockets and friends being the color of precious metals.  She takes hikes and pets snakes at nature preserves.  She loves it.  She also participates in the fall fundraiser (don’t get me started on fundraisers…that’s a whole other blog post).  Don’t get your hopes up too much: the fall fundraiser is not the infamously tasty cookies.  It’s nuts and magazines.  That’s cool.  Good timing for holiday gift-giving. So, last weekend my hubby and I sat sipping coffee after a leisurely breakfast (our darling daughters were creating a toy bomb in the basement playroom)–magazine catalog spread on the table. “Who can we give a magazine gift subscriptions to?” we mused. Well, let me tell you–a printed publication (I think we used to call those magazines), exists for just about every interest, hobby, age-group, whatever your little heart desires, it’s there.  From Family Handyman to Civil War Chronicals to Bird &  Garden.  Heck, there was even something about guns and …

In My Brain Today: You are What you Eat…or Do

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By Leslie Lindsay (image source: http://jenuinemarketing.com/2012/07/06/writing-tome/brain-cartoon/) You’ve heard this adage before: “You are what you eat.”  (And if that were the case, I’d be a big ol’ hunk of pumpkin bread and veggie chips from Trader Joes).  BUT have you heard this one: “You are what you do all day?”  Ohhh…that’s a new one to you, too?  I know the feeling.  Just when I thought I’d heard it all… And so it got me thinking.  I am what I do all day.  I am.  What. I do.  All day.  In that case, I am a cornucopia of people, careers, and ideas.  Some may call that schizophrenic.  (No comment, please).  From mom to dog-mom and slave-to-my-family, to educator (“you make an ‘m’ like a camel…two big humps”) to housekeeper and  post office girl, and friend, wife, sister, daughter, publicist, author, writer,…sigh…it’s down-right exhausting.  And that really  is really  the tip-of-the-iceburg.  I want to be a writer who moms, not a mom who writes.  I want to be the size I was when I graduated college again.  You, too?!  …

In My Brain Today: I’ve Had It!

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By Leslie Lindsay School may be less than a month old around our house, but it already feels stale.  And school was something we were all looking forward to.  Seems we can’t be happy…summer is too long and intense and now that school is here, well, it’s just too darn hard.  I give up. Yep–still dealing with my kindergarten student.  You know, the over-eager, super-precocious kid who used to tell me in preschool, “Don’t worry mom, the kids always come back.”  Yeah.  That’s the one who cries at night in bed and tells me how awful kindergarten is and has no appetite for breakfast, clinging instead to me as I bustle about the kitchen packing lunches all while dodging a bird-doggin’ hound.  Of course, since I apparently “gave more attention to Kelly (the kindergartner),” my 2nd grader is all upset, “You love her more!” she threatens.  Calgon…take me away!! (image retrieved from http://www.makeherup.com/2010/03/22/calgon-take-me-away/ where you can learn more about the history of Calgon, etc. 9.6.12)  Okay, so then it was off the gym where I blew …

In My Brain Today: Gettin’ Green Book Give-a-Way

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By Leslie Lindsay ***Be sure to comment on this post to be considered for a FREE copy of the book!*** Growing up, I am sad to say that there wasn’t much in terms of living a greener life.  Sure, there were the “Don’t be a litterbug” signs plastered about, but the big movement of really transforming your life to a greener one really didn’t happen until much later.  So, when I learned of this new book by Kim Cecchi, I was intrigued.  Getting Green Now:  Tips for a Greener Life Quick hit the shelves in February 2012.  Written by mom, environmentalist, and yoga instructor, you will find plenty of great–and quick–tips in this handy little book.  No worries about drastically changing the way you live, this book is peppered with really snappy little changes that you can adapt in a heartbeat. (image retrieved from Amazon on 8.2.12) The book is simple to use.  It’s layed out in sections of your life from “green home” to “beauty” (also includes office, enviroment, recycling, green living).  Just flip …