Sunday Sound Out

OK another comment.......more like a question, that address, is your PO Box address still OK?? I have stuff here to send you....... - nutralady2001
Sure, you can still use my old address and it will be forwarded to my new one. :)

It is sad that no one from Mississippi has sent you what you need for this map project. Therefore, I’m gonna go for it. What is it that you need? I’m actually from Pearl a suburb of Jackson, MS but I promise to mail whatever is needed from the downtown Jackson post office. I hope that will suffice. - Robin
That would be great! Just a postcard or note telling a little about your town is all we need. You can send it here:
Dawn Meehan
836 S. Arlington Heights Rd.
Suite 230
Elk Grove Village, IL 60007

I have never understood why one would take cereal or crackers or whatever out of the original container to put it in Tupperware? - my3boys
Ahhh, that's easy. By putting my food into those Tupperware containers, I save a ton of space. Think of your average box of cereal or crackers or whatever. The top half of the box is just air. By taking the food out of the packaging and putting it into an appropriately sized TW container, I save a few inches of space on every item in my pantry. Also, it keeps food fresher longer. Especially in the summer here(or in warm, humid climates)crackers go stale in a couple hours after opening the package. By keeping them in airtight containers, they stay fresh and crispy for weeks. Also, they keep critters out. Bugs are as attracted to the glue and packaging as they are the food. You won't have to worry about ants, assorted bugs, or heaven forbid you have Suburban Correspondent's on-going mice saga! You really wouldn't want to find mouse droppings in your cocoa krispies.
Wow! Can you tell I used to sell this stuff?

Do you find girls better behaved than boys are? - Carissa
ROFL!!!!!!!!! I find this question hilarious. In fact, I have a section in my book on this very topic!

What a neat birthday. Just curious, is Joe just naturally becoming more thoughtful and creative or do you think the pressure of knowing the world will learn about it on your blog has helped him to delve deeper into his creative and thoughtful self? :) - Sherry
Bingo! ;)

Does the editing irritate you, or do you enjoy making changes to your writing? As a writer, it drives me crazy to have someone tell me to fix something or change my work, so I don't think I could ever do a book. - Raising Country Kids
I don't like being told what to write, so I don't think I could ever write for a newspaper or magazine, but my book is a different matter. I kinda like making changes to my book. Of course, I love my editor and she's really nice about making suggestions so that probably has something to do with it. And I'm not just saying this because I know she reads my blog. Really. :D

Btw, I graduated from Fremd. I am really interested in seeing the video of you from Writer's Week. I had no idea you'd be there otherwise I would have come to see you. I live 5 min away. ;) Anyway, I cant wait to see the video! - Amanda
I still can't figure out how to get it from my sister's video camera to my computer. Sorry. :(

Am I the only one who thought...omg...what if he (or you) had accidentally let go [of the balloons with the earrings]?!? - Anonymous
LOL! Nope, Joe thought the same thing as he was holding them outside!

So ... how did he get the box into the balloon? - Elisabeth
Umm, he put the box in the part of the balloon that opens.

Can you please tell me how to see your older posts??? - JV
Look along the right column and, under the title "Old Stuff", go ahead and click whatever month you'd like to read.

Please tell me you are not that calm during tantrums... - Meredith
I think the word is "numb", not "calm".

Well now I am in official grandma worry mode. My grandson turned 2 right after Brooklyn did and he doesn't talk in sentences like she does. - Megryansmom
Don't worry about it. Brooklyn's a little ahead of most 2 year olds, I think. she says full sentences really clearly, but not all of my kids were early talkers. In fact, Lexi didn't speak English until she was three. She spoke "Lexinese" and had 3 years of speech therapy because of it. They all develop in different areas at their own speed.

If that is the height of her terrible twos, wow you are lucky. Did the other 5 have the "terrible twos"? - Mabunny
I'm pretty sure Savannah, Lexi, and Jackson never threw fits. They were very easy going babies. Clay never went through "terrible twos". If I told him "No, don't smear yogurt on the TV", he didn't throw himself down on the floor and scream and cry. Oh no. He'd simply look at me as if to say, "What-ever", and then he moved on to bigger and better things, like throwing Matchbox cars into the toilet. If I'm remembering correctly, Austin was the biggest tantrum thrower of them all. And Brooklyn is my only whiner.

Hi Dawn, I was wondering how potty training goes at your house? Did the girls catch on better then the boys? - anonymous
Ah, the joys of potty training!

Oh, and a question for you, Dawn. I have to make a decision about whether or not to send my son to kindergarten next year (he misses the cutoff by just a bit but academically is doing what he needs to do in kindergarten). Did you have any kids at/near/past the cutoff date for kindergarten? If so, what were your rationales for sending/not sending and how did they work out? I so don't want to do the wrong thing for my kid (granted, what parent DOES?). - Michelle
First of all, I don't think there is any way to ensure you don't do the wrong thing for your kid. No matter how much we agonize over it, we're bound to make mistakes. That's the bad news. The good news is that it probably won't matter in the long run anyway.
Jackson just made the cut-off for kindergarten here. After talking with many parents and teachers, I opted to hold him back a year. I couldn't find a single person who said, "I wish I had sent him!" I did, however, find numerous people who said, "Holding him back was the best thing I ever did," or "I wish I'd held him back." I personally went with that. Plus, although Jackson was/is a smart kid, I wasn't sure he was ready emotionally/behaviorally for kindergarten.

Also growing up in the South has made me appreciate things that DO NOT drawl. I love your accent! - Cayla
I don't have an accent, silly!

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West
The Inland North
Boston
North Central
The Northeast
Philadelphia
The South
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Thanks for the quiz, Irishmama!

Hey Dawn! Two things...how do you keep your kids socks separated and sorted properly? - Lauren
They just don't wear socks.

Here's a SSO question: how do you color Easter eggs at your house? With just my 4-yr-old, and 1-yr-old trying to help too much, it was stressful. Do you end up with six dozen colored eggs? - Amy
Yep! I boil 10 or so eggs per kid, so they each have several to decorate. And yes, we usually end up throwing a few out.

Anywho, maybe this'll get me a SSO question (yeah, because you KNOW it's already a contest). If you were to have another kid (and no sarcastic comment from you please :P it's hypothetical), and most likely a boy, can you think of a city you'd like to use as a name? - Sara
I'm confused and don't know how to answer since you told me it can't be sarcastic! Actually, we liked the names Dallas, Houston, and Branson for a boy. And we liked Charlotte and Abilene for a girl.

Dawn, how do you deal with "real" tantrums?Do you leave them to it (providing they are in a safe place)? Or do you try to talk to/rationalise with them? - Kia
LOL! "Rationalizing with a child" is an oxymoron.

Question for you. You have comment moderation enabled... does moderating take a lot of time and do you have to delete very many comments each week? - Sherry
Nah, it doesn't take me long to read the comments and no, for the most part, I only delete duplicates. For some reason, there are always a couple people who leave 2-4 identical comments.

I just noticed something, and a question occurred to me...does Savannah ever feel left out because she is the only one of your children whose name doesn't end in an "N"? (or the "in," "on," or "yn" sound, which are all very similar)? Or does that make her special when you holler all their names out the back door? And before you ask, yes, I do think too much.Laura
Well, she was fine until she read your comment!
Just kidding. Actually, I seriously thought about naming Brooklyn, Abilene (Abby), for that very reason. Savannah just looked at me like I was stupid when I asked her if it bothered her. I guess not.

You'll probably get quite a few comments with the same question, but what candies can you give the kids while the family is on the diet? Angela
I just give them carrot sticks and tell them that it's candy.

Where do you buy candy without additives? - BoufMom9
I can get several things at the grocery store actually. Sunspire makes Sundrops and they're just like M&Ms. Trader Joe's makes yummy peanut butter cups that have no artificial stuff. You can get stuff online at Squirrel's Nest too. They can have many varieties of Ghirdelli chocolate as well.

I'm not sure if you've really posted about it before but if not, can you post a little more about this diet you have your kids on? :) - Domestic Spaz
Surely. I'm doing the Feingold diet with them. I started it primarily for Jackson to help with his ADHD, but it's benefiting Clay (and probably all of us) too. I've found that it works for us if we follow it to a T. It's good because it's nothing too weird or restrictive. It's simply taking out artificial colors, flavors, preservatives and such. However, there are drawbacks too. It's very difficult to eat out. Cooking is more time consuming, it's more expensive to buy whole natural foods, and (in our case anyway) if the kids slip up and have one little thing with artificial junk in it, they totally spaz out. Still, in my opinion, it doesn't hurt to try it out. Eating healthier can only help, right?

Take care and hope you had a great weekend. Hope Joe and the kids come back with all limbs in tact. - Mabunny
Funny you should say this. All their limbs were intact, but Austin and Savannah have the worst sunburn I've ever seen. Their poor faces were so swollen this morning, they could hardly open their eyes. :(