In this election year, the art of talking politics, policies, plans, and ideologies seems to be on life support. Name-calling and mudslinging are the opening volleys to “discussions” that are frequently ended with broad brushstrokes like “All Republicans/Democrats are insert-your-go-to-insult-here.”
Why are opposing opinions met with such venom? Take a moment to think about it. We mean really think about the end game. Do we want everyone to agree with us? There can’t be checks and balances if everyone is kumbaya-ing, and that can lead to some scary ideas breeding and gaining momentum.
Would it surprise you that we align along different party lines? That we have discussions and disagreements, yet we still run a business together and maintain a friendship? We’re going to guess, or at least hope, you’re not that surprised at all. We know sensible discussions have to be taking place around the kitchen tables and fire pits of America far away from the click bait media headlines and sensational commercials.
So which parties are printed on Erin and Ellen’s voter registration cards? You’ll have to click over to the podcast because we gathered around the microphone to have our own conversation.
What else do we discuss?
How headlines that make awful inferences are still awful even if you don’t like the candidate.
How party affiliations should not be used as insults.
Voting across party lines.
When members of your family affiliate with a different party than you.
Happy listening! But beyond listening, we welcome your opinions. We have started a Facebook Group so that you can not only hear our conversations, but be a part of them. Click here to join.
-Ellen and Erin
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We took a little break from podcasting but we are back and ready to talk. Because our conversations in our podcasts flow right from our actual talks, we know this is a real question out there. To catch you up: some teens at the snack bar addressed Ellen by first name. Some hackles were raised. Some were not. And thus a podcast was born.
So do your kids call you by your first name? What do you let other kids call you? Does it really matter? We will try to figure out what these questions and their answers say about our parenting styles and insecurities. We might even throw out there that a mom by her first name is still as sweet but not before we unpack some of the thorny issues of this burning question.
Join the conversation by clicking the podcast at the bottom of this post.
Some other things to look forward to in this podcast:
Ellen talks about how she wins teens over with her melon balls.
We talk about this crazy vacation <ahem> trip we take together every summer with our friends and a gaggle of kids and how this might have been where the whole first-naming- mom thing started for us.
Ellen mentions that her daughter participates in Destination Imagination so we thought we should link it up in case you didn’t know what that was.
In the course of our talk, Erin mentions that her son just graduated and Ellen’s daughter is graduating in May so we thought we would share some of our pieces about that big change:
Another way to teen hearts is through sugar. Ellen has a bunch of great cake ideas. She talks about them so we linked them up for you.
We mention that one lifesaver for us when we were young moms was the MOMS Club. You can see if there is one near you.
Make time to join us and hear our conversation this week. We would love to hear what you have to say so please feel free to tell us how you feel and what your kids and their friends call you.
If you are buying pretty dresses and swanky ties for Homecoming, shuttling kids to Varsity sports practices, or handing over those car keys for good, then it’s time for the talk. No, not the sex talk, although we do have some great ideas about how to have that talktoo.Now is the perfect time to talk to your kids about dating.
Now don’t scream and cry and cue up a montage of baby pictures on your computer. This is not gonna hurt. Just hit the play button at the bottom of this post.
We’ve got your back, but more importantly, we’ve got stories from the front lines. We’ll define the new parameters of dating for you and confess some of our own mistakes including a lovely anecdote about how Erin was punked by her own earnestness.
We know it seems scary, but you can do this. And for being so brave and bold, we are offering a little pre-podcast gift: the Dymowski rules for conversation. Ellen said you all would like it.
Check it out, print it out, and imprint it into your long-term memory. But. most importantly, don’t forget to click the podcast to hear how to talk to your kids about dating.
Well, it’s official—autumn is here. Although fall is just as likely to punk us as shower us with pumpkin spice everything, we still love it or, at the very least, have to live through it. Sure, jam-packed schedules, rushed meals on the fly, and school’s many demands threaten to take us down, but we have learned a thing or two.
Step 1: Mutter under your breath, “This too shall pass.”
Step 2: Repeat Step 1 often.
Step 3: Rock the life hacks that keep our families afloat instead of drowning in the carpool.
Click the image to enlarge.
To hear the conversation–or maybe brain dump is a better description—where we lay it all out for you, just click the player at the bottom to hear our latest podcast. We give up the goods about all the tricks and practices that make our lives work.
Now we mention some really great stuff in this podcast, and since we’re nothing if not helpful, we’re hooking you up with a bevy of links. But you should consider these links the breadcrumbs to lead you back to where you really want to be: listening to our podcast. That’s where it ALL is.
1) We wax awfully poetic about our love for crockpots in this podcast. Two of our favorite crockpot recipes are Apricot Cranberry Pork Tenderloin and French Country Chicken. We get really excited about these, so seriously, go check them out. Now, we don’t mention these other recipes specifically, but we have a whole slew of yummy crockpot meals so if you want more, have at it. We highly recommend it.
2) We also mention a favorite recipe planning book that we both use. Once-A-Month Cooking Family Favorites: More Great Recipes That Save You Time and Money from the Inventors of the Ultimate Do-Ahead Dinnertime Method Shwoo, that’s a mouthful. Just click on this Amazon link and buy it now. Yes, we get a teeny tiny compensation, but we promise to throw that penny in a fountain and wish happy thoughts for you. If you don’t end up loving or using this book as much as we both do, re-gift it to your sister-in-law. She’s awesome and busier than you anyway. She’ll think you’re a genius for thinking of it.
But you’re probably going to want to keep your copy and buy your sister-in-law a new one because we have a Sisterhood Secret for you right here. In an unusual turn of events, Ellen took organization to a new level and created a coordinated menu of eight of the recipes with a complete shopping list for them all. Yeah.
3) We also introduce you to this great gal named Alisa who blogs at Mondays are Forever because she introduced Ellen to the Keep app from Google, our newest tech crush. We might get a little excited talking about this in the podcast. Bringing everything full circle, you can input the menu shopping list mentioned above, and just use it over and over again. Worth checking out, no?
And if you need more of a teaser, we share the do’s and don’ts of carpooling, the school supplies we ALWAYS have in our stash, and a little more about how we juggle all of the balls and why we do it.
Homework on the fly.
Intrigued? Interested? Desperate to hear a little something funny with a side of sensible?
Well, click that player at the bottom and hear our podcast.
A little while back we posed the question: “Are photos ruining our memories?” Well, actually we repeated the question that The New York Times asked, but the main point is, it got us thinking about our parenting since we use our DSLRs like they are extensions of our arms.
Yes, we questioned our parenting, not our photography. How often were we actually ruining/staging/falsifying the moment by whipping out our DSLR to “capture” a memory. Were we actually performing a noble memory keeping service for our families or were we stifling memories to death like fireflies left too long in a jar?
These thoughts and more inspired a very interesting podcast if we do say so ourselves. You can see–and listen to–what we mean here.
At the end of that podcast, we asked, “Would you be able to limit your shutterbug impulses?”
Ellen: And I could not stop thinking about that question. So much so that a week before my husband and I were set to take our daughters to Paris, I decided I didn’t want the intrusion of my large camera. My reasoning was this: if I wanted an awesome picture of the Eiffel Tower, it was available online.
Erin:But it wouldn’t be YOUR picture of the Eiffel Tower!
Ellen: Oh wait. I didn’t say I didn’t take any pictures. I am pretty sure I could never be THAT kooky.
Erin:Yeah, “kooky” and “Ellen” are generally not uttered in the same sentence.
Ellen: I knew I wanted something other than my cellphone because I did not want to drain its battery during a full day of sightseeing. I needed it for other things. So I just logged onto Amazon and found a fit-in-my-hand point-and-shoot that had good reviews and a price tag close to $200. You can check out what I chose here.
Ellen: I asked myself: did I seriously need every picture crisp enough to blow up to billboard size? Was it worth it to stop the fun to awkwardly pull out my Nikon or to kill my neck to always have it at the ready? The answers were no, no, and no; because if I’m totally honest, most of my pictures live on my computer and my trusty external hard drive anyway.
And in the interest of full disclosure, once I got my camera, I actually tested out the zoom and low light capabilities with some photos that I actually printed out. (The first ones in about a year.) I had to know! I had to be sure!
The hydrangeas were taken with zoom from across the street, the flag was on top of Walmart (enlarged to 8×10 size), and the picture of my daughter was taken in low light with no flash.
Erin:I totally get it. Pictures are important. They are far better souvenirs than t-shirts and novelty spoons.
Ellen: Although they may not be better than this apron purchased after a bottle of wine at lunch.
Erin:That is hard to top.
Ellen: But back on topic, I did not give up the performance of my DSLR without A LOT of anxiety and research because it felt like I was picking the class clown over the valedictorian.
Erin: This right here is a case study of the yin and yang of Ellen and Erin. While Ellen did research and made a conscious choice to leave her DSLR behind, I FORGOT mine on the way to our annual beach cottage vacation on the shore of the Potomac with our dear friends from Maine.
Our 14-year tradition is replete with a whole slew of little traditions like jumping from docks, double dessert dares, and the special photographs we take of the kids each year to document their growing up. Photographs just like this one.
One of our classics is the kids on the dock at sunset. This is only five years ago but my heart can barely take it. Look at these babies! Two of them are actually headed to the same college in the fall.
Ellen: Because of course, you are the de facto photographer for this vacation? As you always are.
Erin:I gladly do the job because I enjoy it, but apparently my forty-three-year-old brain decided I needed a break.
Ellen: Yeah, that is a more gentile explanation than saying your mind has been a spazzy mess because your oldest is going away to college. But since I’m a good friend, I won’t point that out.
Erin:You really are swell. Well, me being me, it was halfway through our four hour drive to the cottage when my mind’s eye woke-up and screamed, “YOU LEFT YOUR DSLR ON THE KITCHEN COUNTER!”
Ellen: You should fire your mind’s eye. It is neither timely nor helpful.
Erin:I seriously considered turning the ship around and heading back for it. And by seriously, I mean that I asked my husband, Steve, if it was crazy. More than once.
Ellen: I am guessing the answer was you were a bat guano brand of crazy?
Erin:I could not convince anyone that turning a four hour drive into an eight hour one was a good idea in any way, shape, or form. I had to make peace with using the camera on my phone and that would be that.
Ellen: So how did it go? Did the world stop spinning on its axis?
Erin:Surprisingly, no. I’m not going to lie and say that I didn’t miss my awesome zoom lens a couple of times, but the truth is that changing how I was going to take the pictures changed more than just the pictures. Using my phone gave me the freedom to step out from behind the lens more. It turns out that a camera around my neck was an albatross of sorts interfering with my ability to fully commit to the chill, hanging-out vacation vibe I so like to cultivate. I jumped off the dock a lot more instead of just documenting the jumpers: the observer became the doer. In short, clicking less meant I played more.
Ellen: I felt the same way in Paris! No stopping the scene to get the picture. With my little Sony Cybershot tucked neatly in my hand, I was able to capture moments, not just photographs.
And it was easier to capture the cheesy tourist shots my kids wanted. I don’t think there was one groan about mom and her camera. A first for our family!
Erin:Speaking of firsts, this was probably the first time I came home with less than 300 pictures, but rest assured, no traditions were broken. We still had our special shots . . .
The only thing missing in this photo is my oldest son, but even my Nikon couldn’t arrange the time off for him this time.
And we never lost the sense of fun and silliness that characterizes our brief but special time together.
We call this one “Modern Day Ariel”. Totally nailed it, right?
Truth? I missed my Nikon less and less each day. Our fun and funny memories were still happening and I was still finding a way to save them for us. The big bonus? I found a way to savor the fun a little more in real time without sacrificing our ability to treasure them for the next fourteen years.
Ellen: Ah! But I do have one more confession. Full disclosure is the sensible way. I was too chicken to leave my DSLR completely behind in the United States. I lugged it overseas, but only took it out on our Sacré Coeur day. I figured if I needed a photo to paper a wall in my family room, I would be able to have at least a couple to choose from.
Erin:Ha! That’s assuming you would ever print a photo out.
Ahhh, skip rocks, dip toes in a babbling brook, get eaten by mosquitoes–the joys of slow parenting.
It’s no secret that we are summer girls so the whole slow parenting idea going around the internet piqued our interest. In theory, this is how we do this season—without shoes or schedules. But once we got talking, we realized that, of course as with all things with labels, the truth is not that neatly tied with a bow, even one as pretty and appealing as slow parenting.
For one thing, there are some downsides. Some people think the slow parenting movement is all about privilege and it’s hard not to concede that point at least a little. We are after all talking about the choices we make when we have all the choices to make.
For all the other things, you are going to have to listen to our conversation. We promise to poke fun at Erin’s sense of nostalgia with a graduating senior, discuss our own worries about the dangers of too much nostalgia, and help you feel good about your decision to send your kid to summer camp (especially one as fun as the Sisterhood Summer camp) or not. We even talk about launching our own parenting philosophy to take over the internet.
In any case, we are having a great discussion about parenting, summer, and asking the question: What’s your philosophy? If you can fit us in between dips in the pool and some summer refreshments, get over here already.
Are you hiding in your closet? Or are you hiding from your closet? Might be time for a radical change with a dramatically simplified wardrobe. Simple is good, right? Keep saying it and you might believe it. Ellen isn’t quite buying it yet either.
So what is this capsule wardrobe you ask? It’s basically just the latest catch phrase for cleaning out and paring down. It’s been around for a while, but we first read about it on Dallas Moms Blog.
Caroline of the blog Unfancy describes it as “a mini-wardrobe made up of really versatile pieces that you totally LOVE to wear.” She recommends maintaining a 37 piece wardrobe: 15 tops, 9 bottoms, 9 pairs of shoes, 2 dresses, and 2 jackets.
Wh-wh-WHAT?!!!
Addendum: As our friend pointed out, this is 37 pieces per season. But still.
Ellen might have a long way to go. Her closet looks like this:
Even after she took out this much stuff:
Erin might actually be most of the way there:
But we know it can be done! We have a friend who has actually succeeded at this. Read all about how Binkies and Briefcases did it here.
And now listen to what we have to say about it in our latest podcast. Just click the player at the bottom of the post!
Well, it’s at least worthy of airbrushing an eighth grade class photo to remove it from a girl’s t-shirt. That’s right, out of all the logos and all the words on the kids’ clothing, “Feminist” was removed because it might be deemed as offensive.
Do you think this is just Midwest craziness? We’re pretty sure it’s not. Feminist does not mean what you think it means, or at least it doesn’t in many minds.
The true definition of a feminist from Webster’s Dictionary:
A person who supports the social, political, legal, and economic equality of the sexes.
Who wouldn’t want to identify with that??
Well, the truth is the meaning of feminist has become layered and muddled and transformed by all the minds and mouths who have handled it since the late 1800s. One thing, for sure, it hasn’t lost any of its punch.
When Erin asked her Dymowski roundtable–her husband, four sons, and one daughter–if they thought feminism had a negative or positive connotation, the answers were so passionate that she posed the same question to our Facebook page.
Those answers were so varied and passionate, we knew we had to talk about it.
The principal who chose to wipe “Feminist” from the picture is being pressured to open the topic to the student body for further discussion. Oh, we got her discussion. Hear what we have to say by clicking the podcasting soundbar below.
Sometimes you have questions. Questions like “why won’t my kid stay in her own bed?” or “why does my three year old ask 500 questions?” or “what would drive Erin to dress like this?”
The answer to all of these questions is that kids are nuts. No, not really, but parenting can make you a little nutty, or, in Erin’s case, just plumb worn out.
In this podcast, we get into some serious truth about parenting and answer the question of why Erin is dressed like that. We also tackle the big question of whether you really need to be loving every minute of it. Even if your kids are your favorite people, they can also be taxing and confounding and exhausting. We talk about some of the highs and lows, and, as a bonus, Ellen gives a little primer on children’s brain development.
Check out our latest conversation and feel free to join in! Just leave your thoughts in the comments!
thinking about our parenting since we use our DSLRs like they are extensions of our arms.
