Top Ten Reasons To Love The Fall in New England

10. Fall brings football season - a time to be outside in the crisp air sipping coffee and socializing with friends.
9. Fall brings the most glorious scents: just cut open pumpkin, apple cider, the smell of hay on a hayride, just fired up wood stoves, the first fire in your fireplace, and the smell of Halloween candy!
8. The best flavors on the planet: pumpkin breads and muffins, apple crisp, apple cider with a cinnamon stick, nutmeg spices, seasonal squashes, turkey sandwiches and cranberries! I could go on and on... mmmm.
7. A full calendar of family events - pumpkin fairs and costume contests, trips to A.C. Moore and iParty, charitable walks and fundraisers, and did I mention Pop Warner football and cheer from August through November?
6. Getting ghosted... then finding out who left the goodies on your doorstep and sharing the fun with someone else.
5. The colors are exquisite! Travel up Rt. 495 and see colors you didn't remember existed in nature until Columbus Day appears to remind you. Vivid, energizing and amazing!
4. That very first snow, where you watch those big flakes come down like you've never seen them before... sure, some hate it, I love it! Bring out the mittens and warm scarves... and snowplows!
3. Pumpkin Ice Cream. I am obsessed with it, and it only appears for a few months each year. (Why is life so cruel?)
2. Trick or Treating through the crunch leaves, flashlights in hand, never knowing what big or small monsters and creative characters you'll see in your own neighborhood.
1. Fall is nature's way of getting you energized after a lazy summer and preparing you for a busy, full holiday season ahead, and there's no better place on earth to go through holiday boot camp than New England.

Play this video if you made a blunder today. DOH!

Middle School - Sherpa Wanted

My funny, fabulous son started middle school this year, and he finally seems to be hitting his stride. Looking back, my middle school experience felt more like a ride in the back of one of those truck/bus jobbies in a third world country. You are not really confident you are on the right bus or are going in the right direction, there's a stranger coughing up a lung next to you and someone screaming behind you, and a chicken just ran over your foot. Chaos, laughter, and madness. I remember a lot of practical jokes, a lot of mean-spirited girls and guys, and a lot of good times doing some crazy things with people that I'm still best friends with. And a lot of boredom and frustration, trying to figure out the social scene while juggling school, family and eventually, a first job.

Now I'm a mom and I worry about a lot of things, but I try not to bring my own feelings and biases into my kids' lives... I believe that they should find their own path and discover who they are without mom (or dad) telling them what to think, fear, hope, believe, and do. I want to emulate those really amazing mountain sherpas, who carry baggage and gently guide, allowing the climber to make their own mistakes if they so choose (or provide guidance when they ask).

Middle school sherpas... what a concept. And those middle school backpacks are a lot heavier than I remember.

Summertime, Summertime, Sum-Sum-Summertime

Julie's Top Ten Reasons to Love Summertime (when the rain stays away):

10. Pedicures are a necessity now that flip flop season is here. Oh, darn.
9. Vitamin D. Sunshine. Tan skin makes you look healthy (even with sunscreen).
8. Procrastination. Vacation. Revelation. Relaxation. Celebration!
7. Busiest quarter of the year = money for back-to-school, holiday shopping done by Nov. 1.
6. Burgers on the grill taste way better in the summer. Must be the sunshine. It adds vitamins (see #9).
5. Did I mention the sunshine? Lazy days at the beach, curling toes in the sand. Any sand.
4. Watching the kids play on a Slip-N-Slide and trying not to cringe.
3. Total and complete envy when I pick them up from camp, and they tell me how much fun they had boating, making wood crafts, singing, telling jokes, walking in the woods... totally jealous.
2. Making S'Mores. And s'more, and s'more, 'till there aren't any s'more marshmallows or chocolate.
and the top reason to love summertime:
1. Giving yourself the gift of time. Example: today we visited our local historic park in the early evening, fishing and watching a free concert where dozens of little ones were innocently singing "You Are My Sunshine" while twirling wands of streamers and marching in a parade... and being right there with them in spirit. Video from my Blackberry attached, so you can be right there with me.

Aaahhhhhh (slurps lemonade, putting feet up). Summer. Now honey, go get mommy another one of her fancy lemonades, the one on the top shelf.

In Honor of Campbell

My first job was like most firsts: a series of exciting, nerve-wracking, sweaty-palmed moments that challenged my intellect, self-esteem, and sense of self.  When I started my first job, I had no money in the bank, no place of my own, and no car.

Until... [insert dreamy music]... Campbell.  Campbell made me feel independent. Sporty. Professional. "Arrived."

Campbell was my first car, a 1991 Plymouth Colt and a sweet ride.  He was sporty red, a fine zippy little compact car that threw me with abandon onto the Mass. Turnpike in the morning and showered me with tunes during the evening commute home down Route 9, when I was feeling adventurous. He took me into Boston on the weekend, and around the state, with amazing fuel economy and eager, childlike attempts at acceleration (V-4, baby!).

He carried me and my friends to concerts, bars and special events, and was home to my first kiss with my now-husband (and that's all I can say about that, eager readers).  If Campbell could talk, he'd have tales to tell... that would sell for no more than $49.99 to the tabloids. 

Now I drive a silver 2005 Toyota Sienna minivan. It's practical, adventurous, efficient, and has lots of junk in the trunk... just like her owner.  Anyone know a good dealership for crossovers?

Summer's here, and the time is right...

Okay, move down on my blog, Facebook for Rabbits post. (Favorite post of all time.)

The summer's officially here, our summer vaca is booked, and the kids are gearing up for the best summer camp/football and cheerleading season ever. Life is good. As the song goes, "Summer's here, and the time is right... for dancin' in the streets!" (Except don't really dance in the streets... dance in your house with the blinds down, or you'll be dancin' in a white room with a special white jacket.)

In New England, summer is a very special time. Heck, it's the only time guaranteed not to snow and we don't wear as many layers in the summer. Summer is a great time to strip off the layers of clutter and whatever brings you down. It's time to be lazy, to take time for yourself, for reflection. It's time for flip flops, and cheesy novels on the beach with a drippy ice cream sandwich interrupted by, "GET BACK HERE AND PUT YOUR SUNBLOCK ON!"

Summer is a great time to channel positive energy and sunlight into some really great things... fall vacation planning, your career, reconnecting with old friends, taking some chances, even riding roller coasters. Whee! Summer's here... let the sack race that is summer begin!

Je Ne Sais Quois about Rabbits on Facebook

If you poll ten Americans in a supermarket or shopping center, I'd bet eight of those people think that rabbits are cute, but devoid of emotion and lack a certain “je ne sais quois”.  (That’s French for “I know not what it is that makes rabbits likable in the first place.”)

Now I like rabbits as much as the next typical minivan-driving, zumba-dancing, hard-working mom with a penchant for marshmallows. I identify with their persistence, kind nature, rhythmic movement, white fluffiness, and their ability to hop from task to task without complaining.  Admit it: you never hear rabbits complaining about feeding a big family, living in a dark, dirty hole, or being chased daily by predators like wolves or dogs.  Or having to have babies year after year.  They keep it to themselves. Until Facebook for Rabbits.

Fact: rabbits have lots of family and friends and meadow acquaintances.  I saw on the Discovery Channel once that they communicate via thumping their big spatula-shaped feet, much like I do when my kids are in the basement watching Star Wars and dinner is ready, and I’m wearing bunny slippers. (Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.)  I bet rabbits never nag their little bunnies that dinner’s ready. Ever. Must be the feet.

Maybe rabbits don’t just thump their feet. They might... secretly, so as to not upset the universe and go all Orwellian on your behind… use Facebook For Rabbits.

Now sure, it might be hard to snap and upload a picture, given they don’t have thumb (drives) or wifi enabled laptops in the grassy meadows.  It might be hard to come up with an original username and password, given everyone’s last name is Bunny and wants their password to be HOP2IT.  But obstacles be gosh-darned, the rabbit community… all six bazillion of them and counting… could grow a little closer if they only used Facebook to find lost kin, bunny playmates, and even parental figures. They could connect in an authentic bunny way, finding each other and friending each other in ways that Darwin could never have anticipated.

Think of the fan page opportunities alone.  Starting with the most famous, Bugs Bunny, and moving into the rap posse from the UK, Benjamin Bunny, Peter “Rapper” Rabbit and his American friends DJ Energiza’ bunny wit' Thumper on the drums.  Roger Rabbit fan page for sidesplitting comic relief, and Harvey the imaginary rabbit for the classic film buffs. Velveteen and the cast of Watership Down for the literary types.  Representing Asian martial arts experts, Little Bunny Foo Foo; the foodie page featuring the Nesquik and Trix bunnies; existentialism with the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland; lessons learned by the agony of defeat of the hare from the fable “Tortoise and the Hare”, and even sarcastic quotes thanks to that preschool pleaser, Rabbit from Winnie the Pooh.  Who could resist the fan page from the rabbit with a whole holiday dedicated to his image molded in chocolate: the Easter Bunny.  That'd be a great fan page, with Facebook applications and “share this” gifting opportunities abound all year long.  (Instead of friends, you'd have "Peeps".)

Facebook for Rabbits. Think about the hare-raising implications.