Just Like The Number

Happy Anniversary, Stranger

angie — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:37:57 +0000

We never know whom we marry; we just think we do. Or even if we first marry the right person, just give it awhile and he or she will change. For marriage, being [the enormous thing it is] means we are not the same person after we have entered it. The primary problem is … learning how to love and care for the stranger to whom you find yourself married.

Stanley Hauerwas, Duke University ethics professor

No one likes to think of any aspect of a normal, loving marriage as having “problems.” And we certainly don’t like to think, especially starting out as newlyweds, that we will at some point be faced with the “problem” of learning how to love and care for our spouse. These things should come naturally!

Today Mike and I celebrate our 16th wedding anniversary. He is the love of my life, and I am damn proud of our marriage, and of us as a couple. The average length of marriage in the United States is 8 years, so by this point you would think we would have this marriage thing in the bag. And yet if you were to ask me the secret, I couldn’t tell you. I am as baffled by this institution as the rest of you. The aspect of marriage that most often has me scratching my head and begging friends for clues into their marriages is the constant cycling between bliss and discontent. Why are some patches so easy? We are kind and thoughtful, affectionate, we find everything the other does endearing. And consequently, what causes the bottom to seemingly drop out one day? The wind shifts and suddenly your spouse is all wrong – every word, touch, look and action is a trigger for frustration and argument.

I always try to have both a fiction and non-fiction book by my bedside, and a couple of weeks ago I picked up Timothy Keller’s The Meaning of Marriage. I’d read an article he’d written a while back and it had resonated with me, so I thought I’d give his book a go. Not even 40 pages in I came across the passage you see above, and it was if I had been standing in a dim room for 16 years and suddenly the light was switched on.

We are continuously growing and changing. And in that change, we are dragging our spouse along, whether they like it or not.

Suddenly, I could see the past years of our marriage much like the diagram I used to study with great hope about child development. It showed the spiral of development of the child, and within that development the child would alternate between stages of equilibrium and disequilibrium. Or as I liked to think of it, to hell and back. My mantra during those times of difficulty was, “I don’t like you very much right now, but I love you.” And just when I thought we would surely kill each other, the particular stage was over and parenting became smoother once again.

As eye-opening as that was for me as a parent, so is this idea that we are changing as partners and often in disequilibrium. And if God has given me the grace to walk through those times with my children with patience and love, then surely He expects me to show my spouse the same.

We are not the same people who fell in love as college kids. Moving away from home changed us. Facing debts and responsibilities changed us. Becoming proud homeowners changed us. Holding our child for the first time changed us. Losing jobs changed us. Finding new passions changed us. Betrayal and addiction changed us. Forgiveness changed us. Growing our family changed us. Losing parents changed us. Life will continue to change us. Thank God.

We are better people today than we were 16 years ago. While I wish some things would never change, my waist-size being one of them, I am glad that we aren’t the the people we were when we married. We’re kinder, more patient, more grateful for the gifts we’ve been given. And in the years we have to look forward to together, I pray that we remember to use that patience and grace to love and care for each other as we do the inevitable: change.

2013 Vintage Indiana Food & Wine Festival {Giveaway}

angie — Tue, 14 May 2013 18:31:24 +0000

Indiana’s Family of Farmers didn’t have to ask me twice if I would like to attend the Vintage Indiana Food & Wine Festival as an ambassador and once again have the opportunity to give away two tickets to this fun, local event. Please read below for more information about Vintage Indiana and how you can enter to win tickets.

These things make me happy: sunshine, warm weather, friends, music, good food, and good wine. Combine all of them in one place and I am a very happy girl.

While I can’t promise sunshine, I can promise that you can surround yourself with the rest of those elements at the 14th annual Vintage Indiana Wine and Food Festival on June 1, 2013. Last year was my first year to attend the event and I had a wonderful afternoon with my family and friends, listening to music, feasting on delicious treats and most importantly, sampling wine from over 30 Indiana wineries.

This year’s event looks to be every bit as awesome, and I hope you’ll join me there. Even better? You can win a pair of tickets Indiana’s Family of Farmers has provided me to give away! Here’s what you need to do to enter:

1. Leave a comment telling me your favorite Indiana wine that I MUST try.

2. For an additional entry, tweet or share this giveaway on Twitter and/or Facebook. Leave a comment below telling me that you did so.

One winner will be selected at random to receive 2 tickets to Vintage Indiana, valued at $44. Winner will be notified via email and have 24 hours to respond before another winner is chosen. Giveaway closes at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, May 19. Additional contests are being held on the following blogs if you’d like to increase your chance of winning:

For those of you don’t hit the giveaway jackpot, here’s the lowdown on the event and how to get your own tickets:

What: Vintage Indiana Food & Wine Festival

When: Saturday, June 1, 2013, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Where: Military Park, Indianapolis, Indiana

Tickets: $22 in advance online or at participating Marsh stores, $25 at the gate. $10 for designated drivers, $5 for ages 6-20, free for ages 5 and under.

For more information about specific wineries, food vendors, musicians and a schedule of events, please visit vintageindiana.com

Allow Me to (Power) Point Something Out to You, Dear Parents.

angie — Wed, 08 May 2013 19:28:30 +0000

This is most definitely not a cell phone. This is most definitely a problem.

For the last week or so, Elena’s been acting weird. Or, at least, wierder than usual for your average tween. We’re slowly getting accustomed to the mood swings, the tears, the grumbles and grunts. But this week found Elena at the PC nearly every free moment. Now, that alone isn’t suspicious. Girl loves her screens, and it wouldn’t be unusual for her to want to spend hours perfecting her Minecraft worlds.

But this was different. She didn’t want us coming anywhere near the computer. There were hushed conversations with friends while she furrowed her brow at the screen. Because I am my mother’s daughter, I naturally went to dark places. She’s met an internet predator! She’s started her own gambling ring! She assured me she was working on something “big and important,” something she couldn’t wait to share with us. My anxiety level went down, as I realized she was probably just developing her own Pinterest boards.

On Saturday night Mike and I were escorted into the office for a serious presentation. What unfolded over the next ten minutes will go down as both one of the strangest and most awesome parenting moments ever.

All those hours in front of the computer had gone into creating a PowerPoint presentation entitled, “Why I Should Have a Cell Phone.”

There were statistics.

There were promises and pie charts.

There were admonitions about what would and would not constitute an acceptable cell phone.

Finally, there was the realization that we are simply no match for this kid. I smell a cell phone in this kid’s near future, although I make no promises that it won’t be an “old people phone.”

5 Reasons a Makeup-Challenged Girl Loves Birchbox

angie — Fri, 03 May 2013 16:27:10 +0000

No one from Birchbox paid me to toot their horn, I just really, really love it. In the spirit of full disclosure, however, this post does contain affiliate links.

I know without a doubt that you don’t come here for beauty advice. Anyone who still keeps her makeup in a Caboodle is probably not your go-to person on the topic of makeup. I don’t have the proper brushes, any attempts at something stronger than tinted lip gloss makes me look like a 4-year-old applied my lipstick, and the smoky eye forever eludes me.

Despite all that, I do like beauty products, and even though I don’t wear makeup every day, I like to have it around and (kind of ) know how to use it. That’s why Birchbox is just about the best thing to ever happen to a makeup-challenged girl like me … and probably you.

Birchbox is a subscription service that sends you a selection of beauty product samples each month. The samples, both well-known and emerging brands, come packaged in a sweet little box along with product descriptions. Birchbox delivery day is the highlight of my month (if only you could live such an exciting life). Why do I, a girl who couldn’t line her eyes with a liquid eyeliner if her life depended on it, love a box full of beauty products so much? Well, I’m a blogger, so naturally I will tell you!

1. It exposes me to products I never even knew existed.

Take the Oscar Blandi Texture & Volume Spray. It would never have jumped out at me on the shelf. It looks like a fancy can of hairspray. Even when it showed up in my box, it barely registered as more than a handy travel-size hairspray. But it’s not hairspray! It’s hair magic! Once I read more about it and learned how to use it, I realized it was just the product I needed to make my hair look sexy tousled, not she-didn’t-brush-her-hair-today tousled. If I use it before the rare occasion when I curl my hair, the 30 minutes of effort I put into trying actually lasts all day instead of 20 minutes. And just like that my unassuming sample turned into a full-size product I love.

2. It teaches me how to use different products.

Sometimes things arrive in my Birchbox that perplex me, like my very first sample of BB Cream. Is it moisturizer? Primer? Foundation? (The fact that I even know these are different things? Amazing. Thank you again, Birchbox.) Instead of floundering, or never using it, I just look it up on the Birchbox website. Between their description, user reviews, and the occasional video, I can not only figure it out, but get the most out of the product.

3. It gives me a chance to try things I would be too scared to buy in the store.

In my very first Birchbox I received a sample of theBalm Staniac – a combination lip and cheek stain. The word “stain” used to freak me out. Just what my inexperienced self needed – a product that would stain if I used it wrong, which I probably would. But I tried it and loved it – so much so that I bought two full-size stains in different shades. I use it almost daily. I love that I can use one product for blush and lip color and I love that the color is subtle but lasts all day. But if I didn’t have a chance to try it first? No way a lip and cheek stain would ever end up in my Caboodle.

4. It rewards me for trying.

Birchbox uses a points system. For every 100 points you earn, you get $10 off a full-size product order. And unlike other points programs, it’s easy to earn points. You earn $1 for every full-size product you buy in the store (and no, they don’t jack up prices on stuff once you get hooked on a sample – prices are competitive). The easiest way to rack up points is by providing a quick review or feedback on the samples you get in your box. Finally, you earn points by referring friends to Birchbox. I save up my points and pair it with the free shipping offers that come along every so often and end up scoring good deals on products I love.

5. It is an inexpensive way to treat myself.

A Birchbox subscription is only $10 a month. For less than I spend on a couple of coffees, I get a box full of goodies. People, sometimes there is even chocolate in there. When I first tried it, I was wary of their idea of “sample size.” I was prepared to get a few teeny-tiny things that I would use once or twice and they would be gone. Instead I’ve been consistently surprised at the sizes. I’ve had full-size products in my box, as well as samples that were big enough to last me for months. Not only are the sample sizes generous, but the samples are of higher end brands, like Stila, Kerastase, and Smashbox. I’m not the type to spend much on myself, but my monthly Birchbox is an inexpensive way to treat myself with things that I would typically never splurge on. An added bonus? I look good, too! When was the last time a frappuccino made you feel pretty?

So there you have it – five reasons a makeup-challenged girl loves her Birchbox. Now excuse me while I count the days until my next box arrives!

Beauty Resolutions: Revamping the (Makeup) Kit and the Caboodles

Chicken Audition

angie — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 17:57:26 +0000

I promise this picture will make complete sense by the time you finish reading.

Reading to a boy has proven to be a different endeavor than reading to a girl. While Elena was up for just about any story, as long as you were reading aloud and simultaneously scratching her back, Eli tends to have an opinion about what’s being read. And back scratches? That would mean that he’d have to be sitting still next to you, which probably isn’t going to happen.

In order to preserve both my sanity and the beautiful ritual that is story time, Eli and I have struck a bargain. We alternate between three genres of literature: Stuff Mom Loves (endured by Eli), Stuff We Both Like (a teeny-tiny sliver on the Story Time Venn Diagram), and Stuff Mom Endures (loved by Eli).

Eli endured Charlotte’s Web, a classic I wouldn’t budge on. You simply haven’t had a childhood if you’re not exposed to Garth Williams’ illustrations. Anything by Roald Dahl is bound to be a book we both like, especially The BFG. “Am I right or am I left?” is our inside joke that never fails to get us both giggling. Of course, the category with the widest selection is the Stuff Mom Endures. LEGO books, Super Heroes, or “educational” books about half-pipes and ninjas … I’d rather read aloud the furnace manual.

But I love that boy and would do anything for him, so the other night found us reading NG Kids Ultimate Weird but True book. 192 pages of weird facts and odd stories in very tiny print – it’s every bit as riveting as it sounds. We got to a page that had facts about animals and numbers. Did you know that baby chicks can do simple addition and subtraction? I didn’t, and neither did Eli. In fact, he was very confused.

Eli: What’s addition?

Me: It’s when you add numbers together, like 2 + 2 = 4.

Eli: Oh! You mean audition. Yeah, I do that at school.

(Side note: Yes, Eli’s been doing addition at school. Only he swears it’s called audition, and either no one is correcting him or he thinks we’re ALL saying it wrong.)

Me: Well, then. Looks like you’re smarter than a chicken.

Eli: Uncontrollable giggles.

What does 100 hours of reading LEGO Ninjago and Tony Hawk biographies + little boy belly laughs equal? You do the audition, but my answer is priceless. Looks like we’re both smarter than chickens.

Paying Forward the Lovely

angie — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:50:59 +0000

After years of living in dorms, off-campus housing, and cheap apartments, it was a thrill to move into my very first home. I don’t have the greenest of thumbs, and I don’t know a poplar from a pin oak, but I do love things that grow from the earth. I love to look at them, photograph them, and imagine my backyard full of them.

In each place that I’ve lived, one of my favorite things to do that first growing season is marvel at the things someone else had the good sense to plant before me. We moved into our first home in May, and when Mike’s parents came to visit us in June, I was thrilled to show off the three showy hydrangeas the previous owner had planted on the side of the house. Every summer they would droop from the weight of their bountiful blooms. I promised myself that wherever I lived, I would always have a hydrangea nearby. I also promised myself that we would never leave a home without planting something beautiful for someone else to enjoy. We moved a few years later, leaving a tiny but might Japanese maple for the new owners to love.

We looked at houses in Indiana during what is surely the best season for noses and eyes: lilac season. If huffing lilac blossoms is an addiction, sign me up for Lilac Lovers Anonymous. While Mike worried about the frivolous details like good floor plans and open kitchens, I picked houses based on whether or not they had a lilac bush.

Thankfully we found one that had both a thriving lilac bush and a satisfactory kitchen. It was at this house that I discovered my love of growing things that were both pretty and edible. By the time we said goodbye the yard was home to a raised bed that overflows with tomatoes, beds of dill that friends coveted, hollyhocks as tall as NBA players, and yes … hydrangeas that we planted.

We bought our new home in the dead of winter. Other than the mighty oak, we hadn’t a clue what was growing in our yard. Maybe you don’t believe in signs, but I do. Through the crazy string of circumstances that led us to this home, I couldn’t help but feel in those first few days that we were meant to be in this home until our children were grown and gone. And then spring came and I discovered that, as barren branches bloomed, we were the proud owners of two kinds of trees I’ve longed for since I first saw them: a star magnolia and a dogwood. It was as if they were just waiting to welcome us home.

During the time we’ve been Hoosiers, I’ve had the privilege of meeting and becoming friends with many of Indiana’s farming families. While I do my part to make things pretty, they have the enormous task of planting things that sustain and feed us. Indiana’s Family of Farmers is a proud sponsor of this year’s Earth Day Indiana. This is a fabulous day in downtown Indianapolis, perfect for the entire family. Come down to White River State Park this Saturday, April 27th, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and see how Indiana’s farmers do their part to take care of us and the Earth. The kids can even plant “popcorn” seeds and take them home!

While it won’t be rows of corn or waves of amber grain, we will plant many things to please both ourselves and the generations that follow. And while they may not all be useful, they will be lovely. Sometimes, that’s all a person needs to call a place a home.

I am proud to be an Indiana’s Family of Farmers Ambassador. This post was sponsored by IFOF. All thoughts and opinions are mine.

Transitioning from Montessori to Public School in Kindergarten: How & Why We Made the Decision

angie — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 16:00:48 +0000

Last week I reflected our transition from Montessori to public school for Elena, two years after the decision was made. We are on the verge of making that transition again, but this time with Eli, and at a much younger age. Many of you have shared how helpful my other posts were, so I thought I would blog about this journey as well.

Eli, like his big sister, has only know Montessori. Unlike Elena, he started his Montessori experience at a younger age. Our school offers a Toddler Room, beginning at 18 months. We jumped at the opportunity not only for the convenience of dropping off both kids at one place, but to introduce Eli to Montessori from an early age.

Eli started in the Toddler Room just shy of 18 months. Can I just start off by saying God bless his teachers? He still wasn’t walking(!) and he cried every time I left, but they were so loving and patient with him. By the end of the his first school year a few months later, he was walking and he adored his teachers, especially Mrs. Strantz. He’d see her coming and yell in his deep, gravelly toddler voice, “STRANTZ!!!!” He still feels the same about her, 5 years later.

Eli’s birthday puts us in a sticky spot when it comes to transitions based on age. His birthday is August 3rd, always right at the cusp of grade cut-offs. He turned 3 just a couple of weeks before school started, and along with both his Toddler and Children’s House teachers, we made the decision to move him up into the 3-6 year Children’s House classroom. After 2 1/2 years in the Toddler Room, he was ready for bigger challenges.

Thanks to the flexibility and child-led environment of Montessori, Eli did very well with the transition. His age and maturity level presented some challenges with self-control. His teachers were patient and consistent with him. The other beauty of the mixed age classroom is that from the very beginning Eli had the opportunity to see the bigger, older kids, which he looked up to so much, model how to be leaders and how to make good choices. So between his wonderful teachers, the examples of the older kids, and his desire to please (mostly!), he did very well.

We always knew that Eli would complete the 3-year cycle of Children’s House. Our big decisions loomed during the last year of that cycle.

Would this year of Montessori be considered pre-K or kindergarten?
Would we keep him Montessori?
Would he enter school next year, regardless of where he attends, as a kindergartner or first grader?

We decided at the beginning of the school year that he would continue to attend on the same schedule, 3 full days, for the first semester. After Christmas we’d switch to a traditional kindergarten schedule of 5 full days. So essentially we straddled the fence for the pre-K/kindergarten decision.

We needed to decide shortly after the holidays whether or not to continue on with Montessori. As much as we love the method, and even more, our particular school, we decided that Eli would transition to public school in the fall. While this isn’t unsual – many families move children from Montessori to public or other private schools after preschool, it happens for a variety of reasons. We didn’t come to the decision lightly, as we LOVED the education Elena received in her Montessori elementary classroom. For us, though, it came down to this:

Cost: We’ve been paying private school tuition for nearly 8 years now. While it’s not a huge burden, we’re beginning to feel that the money spent would be better invested in saving for college.
Convenience: Our particular school is a 25 minute drive one-way from our home. Making the drive 3 days a week isn’t so bad, but twice a day, 5 days a week, combined with an earlier start time for elementary, is a pain.
Relationships: Because our school is in a different town, we are one of the only families in our town that attends. Eli’s school friends do not live close, making playdates tricky. It also makes it hard to connect with kids his age in his own neighborhood. When Elena switched to public school, she immediately found a group of friends we never knew about, all within walking or biking distance.
Learning Needs: Eli is not the same kid as Elena. Where she was advanced, he is middle of the pack. We felt that he would be sufficiently challenged in public school. He is also different behaviorly. He likes to follow the rules, and he likes being part of a big group without calling attention to himself.

Our final decision was whether to enroll him as a kindergartner or as a first grader. Based on his age, he made the cut-off for kindergarten last year. By Christmas, we knew that both academically and in regards to maturity level, he was not ready for first grade. In case you haven’t noticed, we are also not a tall people! We felt like an extra year would help him to not spend the rest of his school life being both the youngest and the smallest. Not that he’ll ever tower over anyone, but still, we could cut the kid a break.

Once we made those decision, we all felt at peace and felt things fall into place. Since we weren’t striving to get Eli ready for first grade, we kept on with his 3 day schedule. We both love it. He is a homebody at heart, so he loves his days “off.” And for me, preparing to send my baby on to 5 full days next fall, I’m relishing these extra days that are just the two of us. I know he won’t always long to be right by my side, chattering away, so I will take the time I have.

Eli is also very excited about a new school and the thrill of riding the bus. It reminds me of when Elena transitioned, knowing that it just felt right. We considered moving her a year earlier, and it was fraught with drama. I was upset and Elena cried frequently, worried about leaving her friends and a new school. A year later, she was ready. I knew it in my gut and she left Montessori wistful, but excited about new opportunities. In a way that reminds me that kids are wise and know themselves well, Eli will say, “I’ve been at Montessori a long time. I’m ready for something new.”

Coming from a kid who cried every time I left him anywhere or with anyone new for the first three years of his life, this confirms what we know in our hearts. We love Montessori, but we’re ready for a new journey.

I know every transition has its challenges, and I know we’ll have some difficult days ahead as we navigate a new school and new expectations with a boy is is very different from his big sister. I will continue to share our experiences along the way in hopes that it helps any other families out there facing the same decision.

If you have any questions for me, ask away! And if you’ve walked this path before, please share your story and your advice for us!

Montessori to Public School: 2 Years Later

angie — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:10:30 +0000

This time 2 years ago, we were preparing to transition Elena from Montessori to public school. For 6 years, all she had known was a Montessori classroom, and while we knew that it was time to make the change, we were still very nervous. As I wrote at the end of the school year last year, the transition couldn’t have gone any better. Still, worrier that I am, I wondered if we just got lucky and that the true struggle would come this year.

With one big transition under our belts, we prepared for another: moving from elementary school to intermediate school (in our school district, elementary is K-4, intermediate is 5-6, middle is 7-8, followed by high school).

With 3/4 of the school year behind us, I can report that this has been a slightly more difficult transition. Whatever coddling she enjoyed in 4th grade is gone, with progressively higher expectations for responsibility and effort with each term. The last 6 weeks were the most difficult, with Elena earning multiple signatures from her teachers for not being prepared (leaving materials in her locker or forgetting assignments). I have to say, though, that it’s been a valuable and age-appropriate lesson for her, learning the true meaning of preparation and personal responsibility.

Despite the difficulties, I continue to see so much value in the years of Montessori education she had before moving to public school. The very essence of Montessori is self-discipline, independance, and fostering a life-long love of learning based upon a child’s natural curiosity. I firmly believe that because Elena spent so much of her formative years in that environment, she is the student she is today.

She is independent. She packs her lunch the night before, or budgets her monthly allotment for school lunches. She gets up on her own (the bus comes at the ungodly hour of 6:56), makes her own breakfast, and gets dressed. She’s only missed the bus once in 2 years – the first day at her new bus stop this year, when we weren’t sure exactly what time it came.

She has tremendous self-discipline. She rarely has work to do at home, because she does much of it during study time or on the bus ride home. She’d rather spend her time at home relaxing and playing, so she uses her time wisely. If she has homework or other projects, we often find her tackling them on her own, without us having to nag her to do it.

She loves to learn and share what she’s learned with us. Math and science are her favorites. She’s in 2-year-advanced math, and loves to tell us what she’s working on. Mike knows exactly what she’s talking about, I sometimes haven’t the faintest idea. She’s doing things I struggled with in high school. Her interests are so varied, and I’d like to think that’s because she was allowed to explore so many different avenues in school and at home. She’s just as excited about art and music as she is about the properties of dry ice.

Looking back, I am so glad that we transitioned her when we did. She blossomed in her early elementary years in Montessori. She had one year of public elementary school where she was given more leniency to learn the ways of a different kind of learning environment and the expectations that come with it. Had we waited one more year (which we considered), I think the transition from the Montessori classroom to the intermediate school setting would’ve been rocky.

Each child, and each school is different, so I know that your experience will differ in some respects. Still, for those of you who are considering when and how to make the transition from Montessori to public school, I hope sharing what we’ve learned helps.

To further reinforce the idea that each child is different, we’ll be transitioning Eli from Montessori to public school kindergarten this fall. His is a totally different story and experience than Elena’s. I’ve had several people ask us about how and why we made that decision, so I’ll be happy to share that in another post next week.

If you ever have any questions about Montessori or our schooling experiences, I’m always happy to answer them. Feel free to leave them in the comments or email me at any time.

The Spring Break Blues

angie — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:09:28 +0000

We’ve never been the type of family that goes on vacation for Spring Break. I didn’t grow up traveling for Spring Break, and neither did Mike, so it’s just never been a big priority for us. We save our trips for other times of the year, and we’ve been fine with that.

This, however, seems to be the first year that Elena’s noticed that Spring Break is a thing. I had a good chuckle when I saw this pop up on her Instagram – a pretty accurate account of how she feels about staying in good ol’ Indiana for Spring Break:

Even though we don’t travel to warm, sunny places, I’ve always tried to make Spring Break special and fun, more than just a week without school. In the past we’ve combined local activities with nearby road trips, like Chicago, Nashville, or Cincinnati. We might not get a tan, but we have a good time.

And then came this Spring Break, where we found ourselves still trying to unpack the last of the boxes and get things in their place. Okay, so maybe no road trips this year, but we’d take time from household projects to be tourists in our own city. And then I got completely and utterly wiped out by an infection of some sort. What seemed like a simple cold turned into day after day of fever and sinus pressure that had me in tears. While their friends were sitting on sunny beaches or ziplining in the rainforest, my kids had their choice of listening to me hack up a lung or watching the Angie vs. the neti pot side show.

After an early morning visit to the MedCheck, I feel like I’m finally turning to corner to human again. So maybe there’s still hope for something fun this Spring Break. Next year? We’re totally going somewhere though. And by somewhere, I mean next year we’ll aim to get out of our pajamas and our zip code.

10 Tips for Holding It Together at Disney World

angie — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 13:43:21 +0000

This is a roundup of tips I gleaned from planning a trip to Disney World with my 10 and 5-year-old. You can read about our trip (including visits to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and LEGOLand here, as well as Day, Day 2, and Day 3 ,Day 4 and Day 5. Our photos from the trip can be found on my flickr page.

Everyone goes to Disney World with the intent to have fun and make some magical memories. With some research and preparation beforehand, you can make sure the fun outweighs the potential headaches and I-wish-I-would’ve-knowns. Here are 10 tips I found to help us hold it together at Disney World and have a wonderful trip.

1. Read up

I know without a doubt that both of our Disney trips were successes because of the pre-trip reading I did in The Unofficial Guide Walt Disney World . Yes, it’s enormous and yes, it will set you back a few bucks. But I guarantee that you will find information in there you won’t find anywhere else – information that will save you time, money and make your trip more pleasurable. Even if you don’t care to read anything about Disney beforehand, I’d at least buy a subscription to their website in order to access the more than 140 touring plans they’ve developed. These touring plans are the surest way to tailor a plan of attack so you get the most out of each park with the least amount of waiting. I also bookmarked a few websites to read during the few months leading up to our trip. My favorites were Mousesavers, Touring Plans and WDW Prep School.

2. Plan around a crowd calendar.

Again, I’m back to the wonderful resource at Touring Plans. You can plug in the time of your visit and it will give you both a crowd predictor and suggestions for which park to visit and which to avoid for a particular day. We planned our visits around this information and crowds were never an issue.

3. Buy your tickets ahead of time.

We found significant savings by purchasing our tickets ahead of time through Undercover Tourist. Sign up for the free email newsletter from Mousesavers to be eligible for even deeper discounts at Undercover Tourist. We saved over $100 by purchasing our tickets through them – and I priced them against buying through Disney and AAA. Be sure to check out their prices for other area attractions as well – we also purchased our Universal tickets there at a significant discount.

4. Make copies of your tickets.

If there is only one tip that you take away from this post, let it be this one. We lost one of our park tickets -it’s not that hard to do. If you have a copy of the ticket, Disney Guest Services will replace your ticket for free. No copy? Prepare to be done touring or fork over the cash for a new ticket. I made a paper copy to keep in our backpack and I also took a photo of each ticket and stored it on my phone. In less than 5 minutes we had a new ticket and were on our magical way.

5. Keep all your tickets and room keys in one place.

I know that Disney is rolling out a wristband system, but until that is fully implemented I would suggest keeping everything together. The last thing you want to do is rifle through each purse, backpack and pocket to find what you need. I bought this Bungee Card Case specifically for this purpose. All week long it held our tickets, room keys, FASTPASS and Disney Photo ID cards.

6. Don’t be afraid to split up.

This is especially true if you have a big age range among kids in your family, but it also holds true if you have people with different ride preferences or different ideas on what they want out of each park. Split up and take the big kids on the thrill rides and let the little ones visit characters. Mike knows I love the shops at Epcot. He could care less, so he wandered with the kids and let me take my time. Just because you’re on a family vacation doesn’t mean you have to do everything together all the time in order to make the best memories. Unless, of course, your best memories include everyone being mad at everyone else.

7. Pack drinks and snacks.

Disney allows guest to bring in water bottles and small snacks. All Walt Disney World rooms have small refrigerators, so we took advantage and made a quick trip to the grocery before checking in. We purchased granola bars, fruit, water bottles and individual powdered drink packets. Each day we’d throw our snacks and a few water bottles into the backpack. This saved a ton of money throughout the week, since we weren’t buying drinks at every meal. We’d bust out the snacks while waiting in line to distract the kids from waiting.

8. Utilize park apps.

Disney has its own app, Mobile Magic, that can be very helpful. We were big fans of the Lines app from Touring Plans. It had additional features that were super handy, such as listed wait times vs. actual wait times (using crowdsourcing), FASTPASS and character greeting times, as well as the ability to create and follow touring plans (it even updates your touring plan as you’re walking around the park!).

9. Use FASTPASS.

No one likes to wait, and no one hates to wait more than kids. Disney does a great job of making your wait as entertaining as possible, but they can only do so much. FASTPASS is free for all Disney Park guests, so use it! If a ride has a long wait time, you simply find the FASTPASS kiosk and insert one park ticket for each FASTPASS desired (only one FASTPASS is allowed per ride, per guest, within a certain time frame). The kiosk spits out a FASTPASS giving you a one hour window to return to the ride. When your time window arrives, you return to the ride and enter through the FASTPASS ticket holder entrance and enjoy the ride with a minimal wait. And if you’re using the Lines app? You can edit your touring plan with your FASTPASS information and it will reconfigure your plan to account for the change! God bless technology.

10. There is no one-size-fits-all Disney trip.

This is why I encourage you to read up before you go. Your cousin might go to Disney and pack it full of character meals and special options that leave your head reeling. Your best friend might insist that with kids of a certain age you should only visit one park. Your mother-in-law might tell you going to Disney without doing all the parks is a waste of time and money. Only you know what will really work for your family. You know what the best way to do Disney is? Your way. Know your options and pick what sounds fun and appropriate for you.

BONUS TIP!

You’ve endured so many Disney posts, including this one, so here’s a bonus tip for you: RELAX AND HAVE FUN! Once you’ve spent all your time researching, packing and traveling, let yourself relax and enjoy the magic that is Disney. Some things will not go according to plan, and that’s okay. Let your plan be your guide and leave room for changes and spontaneity. Hope my tips help!