Keurig Coffee Makers

Going along with the whole lack of sleep.

Ok, I have to ask.  Has anyone ever used one of these things?  You get little creamer cups that have coffee in them? 

The whole thing freaks me out.

Perhaps I just worked too long at Starbucks, but now even they're doing instant coffee.

Let me know if you've ever tried this coffee.

Thanks.

Spring Garden Waldorf School

Hello all,

I just wanted to let you guys know a little about my daughters school.  She attends Spring Garden which is a Waldorf school.  It is run a little differently than a public school and most people don't have much info about these types of schools so I wanted to share a little info with you.
From the Website
"Waldorf schools are a cohesive effort of many groups of people working together in community for the health and education of the students."
I really like the school because they make an effort to get the kids outside and in nature.  My daughters class spends the first half hour of the day outside and then they take a recess around noon.

  They also have different festivals and celebrations that parents are encouraged to participate in, the Children's Festival is coming up and from what I hear from other parents it's going to be a good time.  I'm helping out in the kitchen so I need everyone to wish me luck!
All in all if you're looking for a good, non traditional education for your kids I recommend this school.  My daughter started the half day program at the age of three so they can start earlier than most schools and I find that the teachers on staff are very attentive and well trained. 

The program seems to develop kids as a whole focusing not only on math and science but also they try to develop children emotionally and creatively.  One of the children from spring garden made this poster for Arbor day.

If interested they have many different days that you can see the school, like where you can walk through the grades and see the class in session.

Check out the website SGWS.org for more details.

More sleep please!

I need more sleep!
My wife and I are both in school and sometimes it's hard to balance our schedules.  Currently my wife is working overnights and is sleeping during the day, therefore I have to watch my daughter in the mornings.  The only problem is that I get home from work around 2 AM, so that's about 5 to 6 hours of sleep a night.  Not enough, I just wonder how I dealt with lack of sleep when I was in my twenties.
Here's a couple of tips for how to deal when you can't sleep as much as you'd like.


Good luck!

The Ronald McDonald House.

For my New Media Writing class I am working on a service learning project.  For this project my group is putting together a Non-linear story for a non profit organization.  My group is our project on the Ronald McDonald House.  We recently went down to visit the house and I never realized how big of a help that it is to the families. I wanted to share a little information about the house to spread the word. 
Here's a little info from the RMH website "The Ronald McDonald House of Akron was established in 1985. It is a home away from home for families of patients being treated at the Children’s Hospital Medical Center of Akron. For just a small cost, parents and families can stay close to their hospitalized child and have the ability to stay integrated with their treatment and medical team.  This allows them to focus on the healing of the child and not worry about their own daily routines.  Our House lets them be where they are most needed, with their children."

The amazing thing about this organization is that they don't require the families to pay anything for their visit!  They ask for a ten dollar donation per night but understand if you're unable to pay. 

This year the Ronald McDonald house housed 527 families and they had 9,981 people stay in the house using 4,836 rooms. That's all done with a staff of three full time workers, three part time workers and a around one hundred volunteers.

Based upon my time visiting this organization I hope that by me getting the word out it helps them in some way!

Making my life easier

Being a student and a parent I don't have much money.  But if I can find something that makes my life a lot easier I'll spend the money.  I recently found this Leaf Vacuum/Mulcher.  I live in Copley and we have to bag all of our leaves so to have a leaf vacuum saves me so much time.  And the time I save I can spend with my family and on my school work, bonus!  Another added bonus is that in the end I get to save money!  Since it's a mulcher I can fit more leaves in each bag and buy less leaf bags.

I recommend one for all of you!

Getting rid of the fall weather blues.

When the weather starts to turn I always get a little blue.  In times like this I like to focus on my household tasks and try to stay busy.  Today I did a little "Fall Cleaning"  the good thing is you feel satisfied that you accomplished something, and afterwards you can take a nap!

Saving for your child's education.

Being a parent I want to have the best of everything for my child, I want her to have the best clothes, the best toys and especially I want her to have the best education.  Right now my wife and I try to buy saving bonds for my daughter on all holidays hoping that she will use them to pay for college but in the future.  In the future we hope to put  money into a college savings plan.  Here is an article on ways that you can put away money for your kids.