January 25, 2008

How to Dry Gloves or Mittens in the Winter

Here’s a quick tip for drying out mittens (assuming that your house has ceiling vents)…

Simply grab a magnetic clip from your refrigerator, clip is to the glove/mitten, and then hang it beneath your air vent such that the cuff is in the midst of the air stream. No fuss, no muss, and no extra energy expended. Check out the picture below to see how it works.

Note that some of our clips have weaker magnets so we had to use two to keep one of the gloves up. However, these are my gloves, and are thus much larger/heavier than those of most kids. Try it out, it works great!

January 21, 2008

Ammonia, Sexism, and Three Year Olds

Overheard at our house this past weekend…

Our three year old: “Mommy, mommy, I have ammonia.” (He meant pneumonia.)

My wife: “Ammonia? Well, then you better clean the house.”

Our three year old: “No! I’m not a woman.”

Wow. I’m not sure if we should laugh or hide our faces in shame.

January 20, 2008

The Best of December 2007

Once again, we’re a bit late with this, but here goes…

December was a somewhat slow month here at Raising4Boys, thanks in large part to illness and travel. Nonetheless, we kept plugging along, and you guys kept on reading (and commenting). Thanks! If you like what you see here, keep in mind that you can have the full-text of everything that we write delivered to you via RSS or e-mail (details). Here are our favorite posts from the month of December:

» Kid Hack: How to Get a Kid to Swallow a Large Pill
» I Miss Snow
» Peanut Butter Rudolph Christmas Cookies

And here are some favorites from FiveCentNickel (subscribe):

» Rebalancing Your Portfolio Without Taking a Financial Hit
» Shopping for (and Buying) a New Vacuum Cleaner
» Year End Money Moves
» Thoughts on the Subprime Mortgage Bailout
» Eleven Great Books About Money
» Buying Gift Cards at a Discount
» Planning a Disney Cruise
» The Best 529 Plans, Revisited
» Clearing Out Your House for Fun and Profit
» Reader’s Choice: The Best Credit Cards
» More Credit Cards With Signup Bonuses
» More Great Books About Money
» What is the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)?
» Using Credit Cards to Post Bail
» Social Security Taxes in 2008
» Charities of Choice 2007

January 16, 2008

Parenting Quote - Henny Youngman

“What is a home without children? Quiet.” -Henny Youngman

[Hat tip to: Zen Habits]

January 14, 2008

Pneumonia, Bronchitis, and Birthdays, Oh My!

Well, it seems that our run of ill health is continuing. After last fall’s bout with H. pylori, we’re now dealing with pneumonia in two of our four kids, and bronchitis (not quite pneumonia) in another. [more]

January 9, 2008

The Class of 2020

Oh, the irony… Son #3 recently arrived home from kindergarten carrying a t-shirt declaring him to be a member of the Class of 2020. This for a child that has been wearing glasses since age 3, and has anything but 20/20 vision. It’s also a bit difficult for someone who graduated in the the Class of 1989 to imagine a high school graduation 31 years later in 2020. And to think that Son #4 will be a part of the Class of 2023!

January 2, 2008

Happy New Year, and a Holiday Recap

This is just a quick note to wish you all a (slightly belated) Happy New Year! We just returned from a trip to visit family (where we got a much-needed dose of snow) and are still recovering. All in all, things went very well.

We had actually planned to stay home for the holidays, but I snagged a great deal on airfare, so we decided to go visit the grandparents (on my side). And we actually managed to keep the nature of our trip a secret until we pulled into the airport!

We live about an hour and a half from the “big city” (and the airport) and the boys only knew that we were going on a fun trip to the city. They were under the (mistaken) impression that we were going to drive in and spend some time away from home doing semi-local stuff. Imagine their surprise when we ended up pulling into the airport and jetting of to visit family…

The outbound trip was uneventful, but tiring. We flew Christmas evening after having gotten up early for the usual festivities. But the return trip was a snap. We even managed to turn it into a nap flight for Son #4 (we didn’t push the sleep thing on the outbound trip since it was an evening flight and we wanted them to sleep when we got there).

So there you have it… We’re back, the trip was great, and we’re now settling back into our routine.