But where one door closes another window opens and my 2013 challenge to ONLY eat and drink Starbucks (Starbucks & Stripes Forever) is only hours away and I’m already getting nervous for what it might hold?!

Another change to my yearly blogs is that all future years challenges will be held under my new slogan “1 Year Of My Life” with both Facebook and WordPress pages where you can read all about it in one place!

So ends this year’s Parents Tested Mommy Approved challenge.  But here is to finding out what 1 Year Of My Life holds!

-Beautiful Existence

I have had a heightened sense of this reality of “words” since my teens, a heightened sense that some of the most important words that I could say might only come out of my mouth ONCE to my kids (or loved ones) but it might stay with them forever.  I’ve realized this ever since my grandmother died when I was 22.  I loved her so much and even though I remember many fond memories of her… the smell of roses, dancing with her in the living room to the sounds of the Lawrence Welk show, etc. one of the biggest memories I have of her was when she told me that babies would die if they weren’t held or loved.  See my grandmother was a pediatric nurse, and she actually helped birth both my sister and brother and some of my cousins and she LOVED babies!  She was actually quoting a study they did many years ago in orphanages about the effects of no human contact on babies and it’s stayed with me my whole life!  That one conversation I heard has given me more compassion and passion for infants, human touch to them and even still wanting to adopt (if I ever can) one day!

So when I read this article in the December Parents magazine edition it struck a chord because I have written both my boys letters to open when they are 18 in case I die before then.  I wrote these letters a couple of times in my life, many years ago to my oldest in his photo albums and poetry books I made for him and lately when I suffered a double pulmonary embolism after the c-section with my youngest (which is actually a large contributor to sudden deaths of post-pregnancy women in our own country to this day!).  I have both the boys letters and the books, cd’s and art I’ve made them in their hope chests for my legacy.  I even went in and recorded the special songs I made for both of them while they were babies at the 50 year celebration at the Space Needle this summer “Put the Needle on the Record”.  Actually all three of us went in and I sang them to them on the record… it was just another way I felt I could give back to them a sense of me and what I considered important when they are older and I am gone.

So what is your legacy to your children?  Are you keeping their school art, their photos, their macaroni creations?  Are you expanding that collection and recording certain moments (both bad and good) so that they know what you were thinking, feeling, doing at that time to help them in their adult lives know how to manuever life in a positive, loving and compassionate way?  It’s never too late!  Never too late to write those letters now while you are healthy, happy or have just lived through a terrible struggle.

It’s NEVER TOO LATE to leave your children your legacy.  I do it still, everyday with every blog post I create.  I say it’s never too late because that one word, that one sentence, that one photo, that one memory might be with them forever… help make it a great one about the good things in life and leave this existence knowing you will be in their hearts forever!

This first one is about the seriousness of nut allergies and making sure you know what a nut really looks like once it’s shelled.

This next image is of a Nutella advertisement.  I have not had the pleasure (ever) of eating a Nutella sandwich or on toast but I do enjoy the Whole Foods brands such as Justin’s Nut Butter, especially the Chocolate Hazelnut!

I might have to give Nutella a try soon but if you love nuts and live by a Whole Foods PLEASE, PLEASE try my absolutely FAVORITE new nut product – Albina City Nuts – that I found before Thanksgiving and have been pleasantly addicted to ever since!  I adore their Sweet & Spicy Hazelnuts… you must try them!!

Just wanted to share this image and this wonderful quote from one of my favorite-faves… Dr. Seuss from the December Parents magazine (online) edition.  Enjoy and may you choose to use those brains and feet for the benefit and blessing of others!

The LED-lit menorah that you build (above) is super colorful and what a great price!  The scooter is really colorful too!  We did end up buying a scooter for our youngest this holiday over at the wonderful local toy store… White Horse Toys.

However you celebrate your holidays we all hope that they are great and that you support those local businesses!

Well we have a fake holiday tree, so every year I miss the smell of real trees like the PNW outdoors gives us so this year I thought I’d try an advertised product from the December Parents magazine for fir-scented ornaments from Scentsicles (there are five different scents to choose from).

I have them hanging on the tree as we speak and yep, they do smell like a real fir tree! But I would like to mention that the smell fades after 24 hours and is non-existent after 72 hours unless you get right up to the tree (like the logger above is doing). Another thing that I would like the Scentsicles company to consider is that not everybody has extra ornament hangers lying around and their product doesn’t provide any so adding a couple of the hangers into the containers would be a GREAT IMPROVEMENT to me!

We improvised with no extra ornament hangers and used a paperclip which works too!

I’m sure if you have a holiday party or dinner coming up if you fill the tree with multiple Scentsicles that your fresh-tree-smell would linger for longer than 24 hours but it could be so pungent that your guests can’t smell or taste anything but Fir or Pine?! So I would still suggest using these things sparingly and just provide a fresh-fresh scent for the days you need it!

What other month delivers so many joys with the mere mention of the word “toy” but December?!  And with the holiday month quickly approaching, we are finishing up our shopping lists for all those toy-joys but leave it to Parents magazine to add a couple of new ideas!

I’m always looking for new little gadgets that our two-year old will enjoy as well as the twelve-year-old, this magic wand might do the trick…

Another idea for our two-year old is this art easel since both the tween and mommy of the house both have art areas, this would give the toddler an area all his own to create in!

We already have many items checked off our toy list with a couple of non-toy ones still to purchase in the next two weeks.  We spent this Small-Business Saturday frequenting a local favorite toy store White Horse Toys buying some of our toys like this awesome scooter from Kiddi-O for our toddler.

I would encourage taking a look at your local toy businesses before taking part in Cyber-Monday (this year the online and store deals have NOT been as good as in the past!) and splitting at least half your toy list by supporting a local-owned shop like President Obama did this weekend!

Every little bit really makes a difference in your local community!  These are some of our local parent-owned businesses that we like to support…

Hopscotch Consignment in Bellevue

White Horse Toys in Issaquah

Twirl Cafe in Queen Anne

Serendipity Cafe in Magnolia

I’ll have to fill you in on what I mean by eating adventures because I can only sometimes capture the images on the camera, but hopefully your imagination can fill in the blanks.  Just make sure you sit down with a bag of animal crackers before reading this post!

The boys and I watched these group of penguins being fed by the Zoo staff, and marveled at all the fish they ate!  The boys also marveled at all the POOPING the penguins did after eating their fair share of fish.

See that giraffe behind us?  Do you see him eating?  I swear every time we go to a zoo the animals are eating?!  But you can’t always capture them doing it… let alone on your hair!  This giraffe wasn’t even eating food, he was trying to eat bubbles that were floating around from a nearby kids art project that was happening at the zoo.  It was definitely too hard to see the bubbles in the photo but we watched him trying to eat them for minutes before the zoo staff caught on and ended the bubble-making project in that area.  It probably wasn’t the best thing for a giraffe to eat, but he didn’t get very many… they kept popping before he could get his mouth around them!

This is one of my favorite zoo images because I love Elephants and to watch them eat pumpkins is so cool!  I had to search for this image because the zoo only feeds the elephants pumpkins at one time of year (right after Halloween) so check your local zoo’s website for special feeding dates.

Whatever adventures you find at your local zoo be sure to have your camera ready for those amazing or funny shots that you are guaranteed to have when you put animals, food and kids in the same environment!

One of those items, family, has offered me many lessons in love and life, specifically with my siblings, a younger sister and brother.  I have had so many memories with both siblings that I will cherish forever (or some that I want to forget but in our age have now become jokes we all laugh about!).  I valued the importance of siblings so much that when my oldest son was born I knew I never wanted him to be an only child.  Unfortunately, my life only allowed for him to have a sibling when he was already ten years old and had lived most of his youth by himself.  But, I am an eternal optimist and believe that even with this decade of time between my two boys that eventually when they are adults they will appreciate each other’s presence in their lives in a sibling way.

When I see photos like the one in Parents magazine (below) I am often reminded of my boys and how their sibling presence will affect their lives in positive (or sometimes negative) ways but in the end when I’m gone they will at least have each other.

I already see my youngest son looking up to his older brother, and often have to remind the older son that this little boy admires his every move (so he shouldn’t encourage dangerous jumping-off-the-chair behaviors yet!).  And every once in awhile I see this exchange of love and knowledge sharing happening between them without my cue or oversight and it is one of the most precious things in the world to behold as a parent!

These moments remind me of all the times I spent with my own siblings on our farm growing up together and they always make me smile.  I can only imagine how both my boys will look back on their lives many years from now and know the joys of having a sibling and smile just the same way!

Sybil and Jared, you both have been amazing siblings that have shaped the best moments of my life and this post is for YOU!

Our family is right on that American fence, half for one party and half for the other (with a couple of libertarians or green parties thrown in for good flavor!) so you can imagine that we have a variety of jokes and serious conversations that have led up to today. But, no matter what people seem to think… we all believe that VOTING is the most important part of all this process and a right we should never take for granted.

This month’s Parents magazine had a couple of different takes on the Presidential election worth taking a look at…

From childish, innocent ideas such as these cute kids toys

To the multi-issue article on mommy’s choices on what they want in a President (this is just a one page wrap up of the entire article)

To a small article and summary of both candidates

But no matter WHO you vote for (for President, Governor, local state representatives, etc.) just make sure you VOTE and excercise your basic American right… just in time to give THANKS at the end of November for that right!