Party Like The Doctor

As I'm sure many of you will recall, last November marked the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. And when my kids found out that it was coming up, they asked if we could have a Doctor Who Party. Being a fan of the random reasons to celebrate (remember the 12/12/12 Party?) of course my answer was "Sure. Why not?"

The party was small, and kind of thrown together without a lot of time to plan ahead, but it was still a huge hit. And it led to the conclusion that we must have another one some time. In fact, we eventually decided that we should mark each series premier and finale with a party. Because... why not?

So in preparation for the Series 8 premier on August 23rd, I thought I would help us start getting ready to celebrate its return. 

I haven't really started the preparations for this party yet (that's coming soon) but I figured I'd share some of the things that we did last year, in case any of you would like ideas for your own Doctor Who Party.

Of course my daughter and I had to do our now famous Dalek nails.

And I made some Sonic Screwdrivers.

But the food was the most fun part.

The wormhole pizza was okay.

And the DW pizza was okay.

I was a little disappointed with the TARDIS pizza. (I'll have to experiment with that one a little more before next time.)

But the Dalek pizza was definitely the best.

We had some fruits and veggies.

And of course lots of other fun treats.

If you get all of those references, then you can live your life happily, knowing how awesome you are. If there are some that you didn't get... you should really watch more Doctor Who. :)

The next party will include even more fun and games (I'm thinking "pin the face on Cassandra" will have to be a thing.) So come back after the 23rd and I'll tell you all about it. I'd tell you more now, but, you know...

*****

If you'd like to see what other great things that people are doing with the letter D this week, be sure to hop on over to ABC Wednesday.

Mind-blowing Information

My daughter and I joined my son for lunch in the school cafeteria yesterday. As a reward for the school's great attendance during the recent state testing, the administration had hired a DJ to entertain the kids during lunch, and he was excited for us to share in the fun.

The kids were all having a great time listening to the music. It was fairly loud, as I had expected, and most of the music was kid-oriented, which I also expected. But it was cute watching the kids enjoy themselves, so it was all good.

Before we were done, the DJ (for some reason) played "Footloose." Of course none of the kids were at all familiar with it, or cared at all about it. But anyone who is old enough to appreciate eighties music like I do just can't help but love that song. Before I knew it, I was singing and bopping along with the music, much to the amusement of the second graders around me.

One of the boys asked me where that song came from, and I told them it was from a really old movie called Footloose. He just kind of shrugged, obviously dismissing it as an "old people movie." Then I did a quick calculation, and realized how long ago that movie was made. I know I'm dating myself here, but I asked the kids "can you believe that I was in kindergarten when this song came out?"

Jaws dropped, and the looks I got were priceless. For an eight-year-old mind, the thought of an old lady like me being in kindergarten is apparently just to much to process. :)

September Holiday Recap (part 1)

This has been a really good month for little random holidays. Unfortunately it's also been an incredibly busy month with no time to share any of the fun things we did for those days. So since today is LML Monday and the last day of the month, it seemed like a perfect day to do a little recap.

September 7th: Salami Day
This was one of those spur-of-the-moment things. I happened to be at the grocery store, and happened to remember that it was Salami Day, so I picked up a package. Of course I had no idea what to do with it, but I wasn't going to let that stop me.

I ended up making a little appetizer out of it, with some Ritz crackers, sliced cheese, and (very mild) jalapenos. Don't know that it's something I'll be making very often (mostly because my son and I were the only ones who liked it) but it was fun to have something new and a little different.

September 8th: Grandparents' Day
My daughter was doing a countdown to this one, thanks to the advertising on one of her cartoon channels, so she was very excited to finally get to celebrate it. We took my mom out for dinner that evening, but first the kids colored Grandparents' Day pictures for her.

September 10th: TV Dinner Day
If ever there was a holiday that didn't need to exist, this just might be it. But part of the motivation behind celebrating all of these little holidays is trying new things. And we never eat TV dinners. (With good reason, as I was reminded when I opened them.) But it was a novelty, so the kids thought it was cool.

And when I agreed to set their table up in the living room so they could actually watch TV while eating their TV dinners, they thought I was the most awesome mom ever.

So we put on an episode of Doctor Who (because my kids are also incredibly awesome) and enjoyed the novelty of eating TV dinners. Quite possibly for the last time.


September 12th: National Chocolate Milkshake Day
The other motivation behind celebrating these little holidays (besides trying new things) is just having a fun excuse to enjoy a special treat now and again. Because chocolate milkshakes are not something we drink very often. But once a year... why not?

September 15th: National Linguine Day
I looked all around for a good linguine recipe but couldn't really find one that I liked, so I just improvised my own concoction. I started with an Alfredo sauce, and added some shrimp, crab, and mushrooms for a really nice seafood linguine. It was very simple, but very tasty.  The kids even gave it a thumbs up.

Ok, we're going to stop here, before this gets any longer. If you want to hear about the rest of our holiday fun this month, tune in tomorrow for part 2!

Alice, Elephants, and Zombie Gnomes

It's Monday once again, my friends. And as always that means it's time to reflect on the things that made us happy over the past week. And of course now is also the perfect time to set the tone for a great week to come! 

If you missed my take on LML, you can find it here. If you missed the explanation of LML Monday, you can catch up here.

As I mentioned before, the kids decided to try out for the school play. And they are now both officially "Dodgsonland characters" in this year's production of Alice in Wonderland, Jr. (Those are the kids in the "real world" part of the play, before and after Alice actually goes to Wonderland.) They had their first rehearsal last week, and it was adorable.

To help them get into the spirit of things, they asked if we could watch the movie, so we watched the Disney version for Movie Night on Friday. I hadn't seen it in many years, so it was fun to watch it again, and to share it with the kids.

I don't know what inspired this drawing, but it brought me incredible joy. I absolutely love my daughter's artwork, and this was just so adorable that I had to share.

And speaking of random things that brought me joy, my daughter pointed this out in the grocery store this afternoon. I've never actually been a fan of the typical garden gnome. (I don't have anything against anyone who likes them. They've just never been my thing.) But this... this I could see myself owning. I may just have to go back and pick one up.



Ok. I shared mine - now it's your turn! Please feel free to leave me a comment and share some of your recent LML moments. Focus on the happy thoughts, and let's all have a great week!

I Literally Don't Know How to Feel

As you may have heard, the ongoing debate over the use of the word "literally" has been getting some renewed notice over the past couple of days. It seems that people - like Rob Bricken, who wrote this article on io9.com - are bothered by Google's definition of the word, which basically says that literally can mean literally or figuratively.

My first thought (and I'd bet I wasn't alone here) was "Darn it, Google! Just because people use the word incorrectly all the time doesn't mean we have to change the definition to make them right!" I mean, the word "literally" can be "used to acknowledge that something is not literally true"? Really?!

Then I realized that Google's new definition probably isn't an isolated incident. And I was wright. Merriam-Webster.com and Dictionary.com both have similar definitions.

And I just have to laugh at the usage notes on both of these pages. People might criticize us for giving a word two opposing definitions... but we're going to go ahead and do it anyway.

Coming, as I do, from a family of admitted grammar snobs, I think my initial reaction was understandable. We mostly come down on the "millions of wrongs don't make a right" side of the debate, particularly when it comes to language. But eventually my natural curiosity took over, and I started to wonder what other people had to say about it.

I read several articles, and the opinions were basically divided between "this is a travesty and we must all be angry about it" to "it's not a big deal - get over it." And most of them pointed out that this debate has been going on for a really long time (which sparked the thought that perhaps it isn't necessary to get quite so worked up over it any more.)

So, honestly, I find myself a bit torn between the two schools of thought. Part of me is still really bothered by changing things just to accommodate the ill-informed. While part of me doesn't know if it's important enough to expend energy worrying about it. Perhaps, like Martha Gill suggests in this article from The Guardian, "literally" has become one of those words that is becoming meaningless, and we should just stop using it. Or perhaps, as Tom Chivers suggests in this article from The Telegraph, it's not all that big of a deal, and maybe we should just relax a a little bit.

One thing is sure, though. If this debate is bothering you (regardless of which side you are on) there is a way to get over it. Watch this video, and the word will literally cease to have any meaning. Problem solved. ;)

My Trick for Staying Motivated

Exercising is not necessarily something that comes to me naturally. Having lived for so many years with several conditions that cause sever chronic pain, it is often very difficult for me to move at all, let alone move enough to call it exercise.

But in recent years, as I've worked to take more control over my life and my conditions, I've made a serious effort to find things that I can do to help me get in shape. And I've developed a great relationship with my elliptical machine.

As with any relationship, though, you run the risk of having things get stale. You have to try to find ways to keep things interesting. And you have to find ways to keep yourself motivated to stay with it. So over the summer, as the temptation to "just take the day off" became an almost daily struggle, I had to find a way to keep myself from giving in (and giving up on something that I had worked so hard to build.)

Because you know how easy it is to talk yourself out of doing something that takes hard work. No arm-twisting needed. Just a flimsy excuse will do.

So I came up with a trick to help me ignore the voice of my sweat pants. As soon as I get up in the morning, I change out of my jammies and into my gym clothes. That way I know that as soon as I'm done getting the kids fed (and taking care of all the other morning responsibilities) I will go and work out.

This works for two reasons. 1) Gym clothes don't lie, and there's no hiding those bulging reminders of why I need to work out. And 2) If I start trying to weasel out of exercise, I remind myself that I'm already dressed for it, so I may as well do it. (It sounds silly, I know, but it works.)


Unplanned side note:
As I sat down with my coffee this morning, I had another unexpected reminder of why staying motivated to exercise is necessary and important. I wasn't feeling all that great today (the weather has been aggravating the pain quite a bit lately) so I chose a coffee mug that would make me smile. Because any little reason to smile helps.

I love this mug, and it does always make me smile. The only thing is, I usually hold my mug with my left hand, which means that this is the part that I see:

So there's another motivator. Get up and get exercising before I'm so "stuffed with fluff" that my big butt won't even fit through the door. :)

Genetic Optimism

Ok, I don't know if it's actually genetic, or if it's learned behavior. But every now and then, my kids do something to remind me that I've done something right in my life.

Like earlier this week, when the BBC made the announcement that Matt Smith would be leaving Doctor Who at the end of the year. I know, that may not seem like a big deal to some of you. But in this house full of die-hard Whovians, any Doctor Who related news is big news.

Personally, I wasn't too broken up over the news. Partly because we all knew it was going to happen eventually (that's how the show works) and partly because I already dealt with the loss of my favorite Doctor, so now I feel like I can handle anything.

 

My daughter, on the other hand... I was a little concerned about how she was going to take the news. Matt Smith, as she has told me several times, is her favorite Doctor.

So I broke it to her over breakfast the next morning, fully expecting to see disappointment. But what I got instead was excited optimism. (Which I made her do again so I could get a picture, because it was so darn cute.)

I told her that I was a little surprised that she was taking it so well. And her brother backed me up. "Yeah. We thought you'd be disappointed, since he's your favorite Doctor." She didn't even hesitate before she explained, quite simply, "Well, the new one might be my new favorite."

Such a mature response from someone so young. And a very proud moment for me. I mean, we all know that I'm an eternal optimist (that's how this blog got its name, after all.) So to see my kids following in my glass-half-full footsteps thrills me to no end.

Yahtzee and Chocolate Chips

It's Monday once again, my friends. And as always that means it's time to reflect on the things that made us happy over the past week. And of course now is also the perfect time to set the tone for a great week to come! 

If you missed my take on LML, you can find it here. If you missed the explanation of LML Monday, you can catch up here. 

Yahtzee!
But not just any Yahtzee. It is, in fact, the Doctor Who Yahtzee that my awesome husband got for me last week. As you can see, the kids were just as excited about it as I was.

Yes, the dice cup is the TARDIS. And yes, it lives on my bookshelf in between games.

National Chocolate Chip Day
Wednesday was National Chocolate Chip Day (sometimes also referred to as National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day) and I almost missed it! (That, friends, is what happens when you get busy and don't look ahead on your calendar.)

It was late in the afternoon when I realized the day, and it really seemed like one holiday that we just shouldn't pass up. (How could you miss out on an excuse to have cookies?!) But I was about to head out the door to pick my son up from school, and still had grocery shopping to do, and homework to supervise, and dinner to make, etc., etc. I was trying to figure out how I could also squeeze in a homemade batch of cookies when my husband, in his infinite wisdom, suggested that I just pick some up while I was at the store.

I was a little sad, because store bought just wouldn't be the same as homemade. But then, more wisdom from my husband. If I got them at the store I could get several different kinds, and we could go on a cookie-tasting adventure to discover which ones we liked best. (Like I've said before, it's all about how you spin it.) So that's what we did. The kids thought it was cool, and we got to have a little something extra after dinner, in honor of the day.

Ok. I shared mine - now it's your turn! Please feel free to leave me a comment and share some of your recent LML moments. Focus on the happy thoughts, and let's all have a great week!

And if you're a blogger and would like to get in on the LML fun, feel free to grab the code and join the blog hop! Your post doesn't specifically have to use the "LML" label (although you're welcome to use it if you'd like, and the graphic that goes along with it.) If you have any kind of happy, positive Monday message that you'd like to share you're welcome to join. The more happy vibes, the better the Monday!

Epic Parenting Win

My kids are sci-fi geeks, which I think proves that I'm doing something right as a mother.

I'd say that a majority of our creative play here at our house revolves around one of their two favorite things - Star Wars and Doctor Who. They're hooked on both, and love to have lightsaber battles, freeze each other in carbonite, travel in the TARDIS, and battle the weeping angels. They keep me constantly entertained.

It was the combined love of Star Wars and Doctor Who that led to my kids' first mashup. It cracked me up, and made me so proud.

They were playing in the bathtub one night, when (for some reason) they decided to be Daleks. It made me think of this cartoon that I had seen floating around online.

So I told them about it (and explained what exfoliate means) and of course they thought it was hilarious. They both grabbed their sponges and started reaching for each other, shouting "ex-fol-i-ate!"

They did this for a little while, and then I heard my son say, in the Dalek voice:

"Ex-fol-i-ate! ... Ex-fol-i-ate! ... Ex ... Ex ...
X ... X-Wing Fight-er! ... X-Wing Fight-er!"

Then they went on to play Jedi vs. Dalek for the rest of bath time. It was epic.

Pop Tarts and Candy Corn

It's Monday once again, my friends. And as always that means it's time to reflect on the things that made us happy over the past week. And of course now is also the perfect time to set the tone for a great week to come! 

If you missed my take on LML, you can find it here. If you missed the explanation of LML Monday, you can catch up here.


On Friday my family started what I'm pretty sure is going to become a weekly tradition of "Family Movie Night." I introduced the kids to The Avengers, which they loved (and that made me very happy.) We ended up staying up way too late, but it was a great time, and totally worth it.

The best part, though, was when I made the "movie night" suggestion. We were talking about what we might do, and I mentioned getting some snacks and treats for us to enjoy while we watched. I mentioned popping some popcorn, and then immediately remembered that everyone in the family likes popcorn... except my son.

I was about to tell him that we could find something else that he'd like, since I knew he wouldn't want popcorn. But he beat me to it, with a fabulous solution that I'm pretty sure only a six-year-old could come up with. He said, "Well, since I don't like popcorn, could I have a pop tart, and some candy corn? Then I could have something with 'pop' and something with 'corn,' and it would be almost like what you're having!"

That may not have been my first choice of a snack combination, but of course I said yes. Partly because there was no harm in his request, and partly because problem-solving skills that clever and brilliant just have to be rewarded. :)


Ok. I shared mine - now it's your turn! Please feel free to leave me a comment and share some of your recent LML moments. Focus on the happy thoughts, and let's all have a great week!

And if you're a blogger and would like to get in on the LML fun, feel free to grab the code and join the blog hop! Your post doesn't specifically have to use the "LML" label (although you're welcome to use it if you'd like, and the graphic that goes along with it.) If you have any kind of happy, positive Monday message that you'd like to share you're welcome to join. The more happy vibes, the better the Monday!