-Assign one color per family member. This color is for towels, toothbrushes, drinking cups, notebooks, etc. When something is lying around the house you will know at a glance whose it is!
-Keep an ongoing shopping list, and tape a pencil on a string with it, on the refrigerator door. Whoever uses up the last of anything adds the item to the list right then and there.
-Prepare breakfast the night before. Set out cereal already poured in the bowls so all you have to do is pour milk on a hectic morning. You can even add smoothie ingredients to the blender and store in the refrigerator over night so in the morning it’s all ready to go and you can just hit a button!
-Put one basket per family member by the front door, or at the bottom of the stairs. Anything left lying around the house goes in the basket, so you don’t have to run around putting stuff away all day. And keys and other necessities are readily handy when you need then. One tip: put the kids allowance in there so they check their baskets regularly!
-Remember OHIO: Only Handle It Once. When mail comes in, sort it and toss the junk right away. This helps keep loose papers from taking over the household.

Birthday parties – they come around every year! And when you’ve got several kids, it can be difficult to come up with ideas that are unique and original, party after party. Here are a few suggestions for themes – let your imagination run wild!

-Airplane Party: paper airplane contest, serve airline-style meals.

-Aquarium Party: take the group on an outing, let fish be your theme.

-Insect Adventure: hide rubber insects around the yard for an insect hunt!

-Circus: 3 rings, recruit the pets, paint faces.

-Cooking Party: let the kids make and decorate the cake!

-Fear Factor: set up obstacle courses, serve gloppy looking food!

-Fiesta: piñata, chips and salsa, sombreros.

-Garden Party: kids plant their own flowers or veggies to bring home as a party favor.

-Ice Cream Social: set out a sundae bar!

-Hawaiian Luau: pineapple juice, plastic leis, limbo.

-Karaoke: easy entertainment, or an “American Idol” contest.

-Spy party: set up a mystery, hide clues for a scavenger hunt.

-Tea party: finger sandwiches and pink lemonade.

-Willy Wonka: invitations are sent as golden tickets tucked inside candy bars.

We all share this planet, and we are all connected. It is wonderful to teach kids to appreciate nature, and to appreciate each other.

Many children’s stories feature animals in the lead roles. When you read to your child, this is a good time to talk about how important animals are to us, and how intelligent animals are because they are true to their own nature. Pose questions like: How do they know how to do the things they do? The same way that we know to be kind and loving, and help other people, it’s our nature.

In the story of Ferdinand the Bull, by Munro Leaf, Ferdinand loved to sit quietly and smell the flowers. He was not “bullied” into fighting like the other bulls, he was just himself, he was true to his nature.

If you have pets, you can look at their behavior as an example. Cats live in the present moment. They’re not fretting about the past or worrying about the future. That’s a good lesson that they can teach us!

Activities:
Gardening, of course. Telescopes to look at the stars. Recycling. Trips to farms, ranches, forests, the beach. Visiting or volunteering at an animal shelter. Take a cue from what interests your child and head in that direction: whales, monkeys, exotic flowers, pine trees, insects, planets, wolves, whatever it happens to be… “nature” covers a lot of territory!

At the Santa Barbara zoo, there is a program called “Foster Feeders” where you can “adopt” an animal for the price of food for one year. I adopted two fruit bats for my sons one year, they named them (Donatello and Raphael after the Ninja Turtles, you can tell we’ve had them a long time now!), and we go and visit them on weekends. They have learned a lot about bats and their contribution to nature, and have been able to pass this knowledge on to their classmates!

Some teachers have pooled class money and adopted animals as a class project. The larger the animal, the more it costs generally, depending on what they eat. Lions cost more than elephants! The class studies the animal, and the teacher works the lessons in to other subjects, art, geography, science, etc. It’s all connected!

One of my favorite poems is by Longfellow, The Psalm of Life, and part of it goes:
“Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime
And departing leave behind us
Footprints in the sands of time.
Let us then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate,
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.”

This reminds me that the efforts that I put in to my life and my career do make a difference, and that I can be patient knowing that I have taken the steps necessary to make things happen.

Another poet I read a lot is Rumi, and I love his work because a lot of it is about LOVE!  It is really beautiful, and reminds me always of what is really important.

Here is one called “Looking for Love”:

A strange passion is moving in my head.
My heart has become a bird
which searches in the sky.
Every part of me goes in different directions.
Is it really so
that the one I love is everywhere?

“You make me smile because…”

“Your laughter brightens my day.”

“Your greatest strengths are your courage, honesty and straightforward nature. These are characteristics that will help you grow into a loving, kind adult.”

Just a few words become a few sentences. Soon these words create a touching letter, telling a child how much he or she is loved, and offering words of encouragement that can last a lifetime. This is the cornerstone of Camp Fire USA’s Absolutely Incredible Kid Day®: communicating to America’s most precious resource – our youth- how valuable and absolutely incredible that are.

Absolutely Incredible Kid Day ®, celebrated annually on the third Thursday in March– is Camp Fire USA’s national call to action asking adults to write letters of love and support to youth – sons and daughters, nieces and nephews, neighbors, even kids they don’t know. This national campaign to honor children has been recognized by child care experts, educators, celebrities, leaders, parents, and kids everywhere as an event to inspire adult-to-child interaction.

Research shows that simple words of encouragement and compassion can make a difference in a child’s life. Putting those words into a letter allows the recipient to keep and cherish those encouraging words, and return to them for inspiration and guidance, often for years to come.

Throughout the country, Camp Fire USA councils will celebrate Absolutely Incredible Kid Day® locally with a variety of unique events, including the Adopt-a-School project, fundraisers and delivering bibs to newborns. To contact a council in your community to find our what they’re doing, visit the online Council Locator at http://www.campfireusa.org/.

Camp Fire USA is one of the nation’s leading not-for-profit youth development organizations, serving over 650,000 participants annually. Camp Fire, with national headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri, since 1977, provides all-inclusive, coeducational programs in hundreds of communities across the United States. Camp Fire USA’s mission is to build caring, confident youth and future leaders. By design, Camp Fire’s programs, including small group experiences, after school programs, camping and environmental education, child care and service learning, build confidence in younger children and provide hands-on, youth-driven leadership experiences for older youth.

Lissa Coffey, Ph.D., author of “Getting There With Grace: Simple Exercises for Experiencing Joy,” and “Getting There! 9 Ways to Help Your Kids Learn What Matters Most in Life” is a spokesperson for Absolutely Incredible Kids Day®. She’ll share with your audience the benefits of this incredible day, and give some terrific letter-writing tips to get them participating!

I prefer to give kids “responsibilities” based on their age and capability. Everyone contributes to the household, and everyone has responsibilities. Parents have responsibilities around the house, too, and do them cheerfully and proudly. This sets the example and helps to clarify the expectations that everyone participates gladly.

Start off right away. Younger kids can bring their own dishes to the sink. As they get older, they can set the table. Later, they can load and unload the dishwasher. Just make it a routine. Kids get into the routine and don’t think twice about it. They start to see how the family is connected, and how they are needed. One thing can’t get done without another getting done first, everyone has to help out. Kids like the analogy that the family is a “team” and we all have our positions to play.

Other family responsibilities might be: getting the paper in the morning, feeding the dog, picking up after the dog, raking leaves, bringing in the mail, or putting the groceries away. For older kids, it might be washing the car, babysitting the younger kids, vacuuming the carpets, or running errands.

This is separate from PERSONAL responsibilities, which everyone does for himself: doing homework, making your own bed, brushing your teeth, etc.

1. FABRIC! A long-time tradition in Japan, gifts are wrapped in beautiful fabrics, often silk, that are re-used several times over. The fabric itself can be a gift, a useful item: a scarf, a bandana, a lunch bag and tied up with fabric ribbon which can be worn as a belt or hair ornament.

2. WHAT’S COOKING? Kitchen gifts can be wrapped in colorful dish towels, use oven mitts as “pockets” to hold small items. Use tablecloths to wrap large gifts, to pad heavy or breakable items such as dishes and ceramic-ware. Aprons are a great way to wrap gifts for the aspiring chef. A kitchen canister could hold many goodies!

3. HOME GROWN! For the gardener, wrap gifts in a bucket, a planter, or hang them as ornaments on a living tree. Think of “organic” ideas like bird seed and a bird feeder, garden tools, decorative stone. Maybe a gardening book wrapped in a reusable canvas tote that can be used when shopping.

4. KID STUFF! Wrap presents for kids in knit caps, close the hat with a novelty barrette, bracelet or rubber bands. Put stuffed toys or action figures in a cowboy hat and secure with a bright bandana. Use fabric paints to customize a pillowcase and wrap up large gifts in that!

5. BOXING DAY. The day after Christmas is known as “boxing day” in England and Australia because that is the day so many boxes are thrown out! Put your boxes to good use elsewhere - wrap gifts in a hat box, a gift tin, a tool box, or an artists case. How about using a pencil box, a card case, or a coffee mug for business people?

6. PAPER, PLEASE. If you must use paper, think of creative ways to re-use it: wrap a travel-related gift in an old road map. Wrap a music related-gift in old sheet music. Make your own wrapping paper from grocery bags, have the kids decorate with crayon, or write a poem or the person’s name right on the paper, or use potato stamps in a holiday design. If you MUST buy wrapping paper, look for recycled paper – avoid wrapping paper with metallic colors, which is often produced in an environmentally unfriendly manner.

7. ACCESSORIZE! Use luggage tags or tree ornaments as gift tags. Instead of ribbon, use natural raffia. Use flowers instead of ribbon.

8. SHIPPING NEWS: When shipping gifts, use real popcorn (popped, no butter!) instead of foam “peanuts” and enclose a note to feed the birds with it!

It's a definite trend - and for many good reasons! Here's the Q and A from The Today Show, and lots of resources for you to learn more:

1. Q: Multi-generational households sound good on paper, but in reality, how do you manage with all these people living under one roof?

A: In other cultures, this is just the typical way of life, and it works! But in our American culture, having many generations in one household is a very different concept for us. We're used to the grandparents retiring to Florida, or the kids going away to college and not coming back. But times are changing, our economics are changing, and bringing the family together into one household is starting to make sense to us. Of course, we have to be flexible, and learn to adapt and modify our behavior so that we're not living in a battle zone. We all have to get along.

2. Q: What kind of problems are likely to come up?

A: Privacy is probably the biggest issue. We each need our own space in which we can retreat, we're used to that, so to have that taken away can cause some anxiety. And at the same time there also needs to be some common areas where everyone can be together so that no one feels isolated. Privacy can come from time as well as space. For example, a husband and wife can have their private time together at dinner when they eat at a different time than the rest of the family. Courtesy and kindness go a long way to making this scenario work - always knock and wait for a reply before entering a room. Don't hog the bathroom, or the computer.

3. Q: How do you figure out who does what? How do you divvy up all the responsibilities that come with a large household like this?

A: Responsibilities come in many forms, including financial. Write out a plan that everyone agrees to in terms of who pays what bills, or how much each person contributes to the group bills, like utilities. When it comes to the household chores, come up with a schedule, and post it in a central area so everyone knows what is expected of them. Everyone needs to participate, and feel that they are pitching in. Start by looking at who wants to do what first, and then go from there.

4. Q: What about when you've got little kids in the house - I can imagine there would be conflicts over parenting issues?

A. Having grandparents in the house is like having on-call babysitters available, but you've got to be careful not to take advantage of their time and energy. Grandparents may feel resentful if they're constantly expected to care for the kids. They've got to be clear about the amount of time they're willing to put in, and parents need to be respectful of their limitations. There also needs to be a clear set of rules in place when it comes to the kids - and grandparents need to defer to the parents’ judgment. The other issue is that sometimes it's the parents who are doing the care-giving for the grandparents. It takes a lot of patience and a lot of energy to be a care-giver, so you may want to look into getting someone to come in and help out so that you have a break every once in awhile.

5. Q: If you have both little children and elderly folks in the household, you probably need your home equipped to meet the needs of both?

A: With little kids you need all the childproofing things done, and you don't want to have Grandma's precious things around for little hands to grab. You will also want to install handrails in the bathrooms and anywhere there are steps or stairs so that grandparents are comfortable and feel they have access to all areas of the home. Sometimes grandparents have the TV turned up loud so that they can hear it better, or your teens have their music blasting, so you've got noise all over the place! Try to place each of them at opposite ends of the house, or on different floors to avoid some of the chaos. And invest in headphones to keep the peace. The main objective is safety, but you want everyone to feel comfortable, too. Whenever you can have individual controls, like separate thermostats, that makes things easier.

6. Q: And then when the inevitable conflicts come up, what do you do?

A: Hopefully you've got a communication system in place so that you know how to handle it. You need some "house rules" that everyone follows. Some families have regular family meetings where issues and concerns are brought up - maybe Sunday dinner, or every first Tuesday of the month. Other families schedule these meetings only when a conflict comes up.

    *  Australia – During the warm and sunny Australian Christmas season, beach time and outdoor barbecues are common.
    * Canada – Public parks and buildings across Canada are traditionally lit for the holidays at the same moment: 6:55 on the first Thursday in December. This tradition began in 1986 and is one uniting aspect of the country's many Christmas celebrations.
    * Germany – The tradition of the Christmas tree began in Germany. In some regions of Germany an unusual tradition is observed called the Christmas pickle. The last ornament that is put on the tree is a glass pickle. This ornament is hidden in the tree. On Christmas morning, the first child who finds the pickle ornament receives an extra present.
    * Ukraine – Ukrainians prepare a traditional twelve-course meal. A family's youngest child watches through the window for the evening star to appear, a signal that the feast can begin.
    * United Kingdom – Fancy-wrapped noisemakers called crackers are on the Christmas dinner table. After pulling the tabs, the cracker “pops” and prizes (such as a paper hat and candy) fall out and are enjoyed at the table.
 

What did the turkey say before it was roasted?

Boy, I'm stuffed!

Why did the police arrest the turkey?

They suspected it of foul play!

Which side of the turkey has the most feathers?

The outside!

Can a turkey jump higher than the Empire State Building?

Yes. A building can't jump at all!

If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring?

Pilgrims!

What type of music did the Pilgrims like?

Plymouth Rock!

Why did the turkey cross the road?

It was the chicken's day off!

What key has legs and can't open doors?

A turkey!

What's the best thing to put into pumpkin pie?

Your teeth!