Get Ready for Snow: DIY for Kids with Household Items

I am getting ready for the snow that's supposed to hit everywhere from Minneapolis to Boston tonight. I thought it might be fun to pull this post back out: DIY fun things for kids with household items. Make sure your kiddos stay busy and entertained tonight and tomorrow without breaking the bank!

1. Make a paper plate Batman mask! This is something I just made up. I got a paper plate and just cut out a mask shape. Then I colored it black with a Sharpie. This takes about 10 minutes, so it'll give the kids something to do. Then I added some ribbon for the tie and, voila! Batman mask it is.

2. Grab a bunch of plastic cups and a decorative ball from the coffee table and go "bowling"!

3. Make a tiara out of a 2-liter bottle! Cut the top and bottom of the bottle off. Then cut a shape into it. Decorate with anything and everything you've got! I used ribbon, beads and stickers.

4. Cut a piece of yarn, tie the ends together, and you've got Cat's Cradle for days!

5. Lunch bag puppet! Get out those Crayolas and get busy drawing a character. If you have yarn or any other fun things, use those to decorate the bag, too.

I made all of these things in about two and a half hours this morning, but you can embellish all of these to stretch it out for a whole afternoon. 

Stay safe, stay strong.

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi

Addict Unplugged

Last Friday, I read an article by Craig Kanalley of the Huffington Post: "National Day of Unplugging" about unplugging from social media for 24 hours. I decided to go ahead and take part in the unplugging and report my experience.

First off, I read the article wrong. It said, "from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday." I started at midnight Friday night and went to midnight the next night. Oops!

A screen shot of my phone.

I have made social media a huge part of my life within the last six months, or so, because I'm trying to build my own online brand: ChickOpinion. I blog almost every morning, I tweet all the time, I'm on Facebook multiple times a day, I'm on Pinterest a lot, I play Words with Friends constantly, and I'm trying to increase my presence on Instagram, Google+, and the New Myspace. Even since I started this post, I've checked my Twitter a few times, Facebook once, and played in two Words with Friends games.

On Saturday, I woke up around 6:00am and immediately turned my phone on. My "routine" is to check Twitter for the headlines even when I'm still laying in bed! I almost hit my Twitter app and then remembered that I couldn't do social media. For a second I thought, "But how am I supposed to know what's going on in the world?!" Panic. But then I realized that I have the ABC app, the CNN app, and the WCPO (local ABC) app. So my headlines were saved!

My fiancé and I went to Louisville for the day to meet with our wedding ceremony officiant, as well as celebrate my dad's birthday and my fiancé's little brother's birthday. On the two hour car ride there, I kept getting Words with Friends notifications and couldn't play! My fiancé and I actually talked the whole way there instead of our usual car ride protocol: Josh listening to Pandora while I mess around on my phone. It was nice!

After we talked with our officiant, I was desperate to tweet about our ceremony plans! I was so excited and wanted to share it with everyone! But I didn't.

We celebrated with my family and then drove to Josh's family's house. On that 30 minute drive, I can't tell you how many times I reached for my phone to check Twitter or Facebook. I kept stopping myself, but it started making me realize just how addicted I am to social media.

On the way home we hit traffic. The last 10 miles on the interstate before we got to our exit took us 50 minutes. This is where the mistake of "sundown to sundown" came back to bite me. It was 8:30pm and dark; I was thinking how great it would be if I could get on Twitter to see what was going on with the traffic. Turns out that I could have checked!

Sunday morning when I woke up I realized I'd had a dream about not being able to tweet. I had 27 new notifications on my social media networks.

But now I have a bit of a conundrum: I don't have a job, so I'm doing a lot of online stuff to try to make money: blogging, Etsy, and writing articles. But when I'm anxious to the point of having nightmares about not having my phone with me so I can tweet...I think something is wrong.

I grew up without TV until I was 16. I didn't have a cell phone until my senior year of high school. How is it that someone who grew up knowing only the "little things" in life that you have when you don't have a screen in front of your face, be so addicted only eight years later?

How do you build your online presence to the point of being successful without becoming addicted?

This is something I am definitely going to explore. I feel like a lot of people must have felt this way on Saturday. Yes, I'm committed to building my online presence, but I really enjoyed getting to spend time with my family without having my phone glued to my hand. There has to be a happy medium, and I'm going to find it.

I have no intention of living every moment of my life with a phone in my hand, but I have every intention of being incredibly successful.

Did you take part in the National Day of Unplugging? What's your story?

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi

Is Ignorance Bliss When It Comes to "Breaking News"?

Yesterday my friend, Becky, drove up from Louisville to visit me. She doesn't have a TV and doesn't listen to the news very often. My new apartment is the first place I've had any TV since high school. I've become used to watching the news multiple times a day and keeping up with everything that's going on in the world.

When Becky got here I was watching the live footage of Pope Benedict XVI's last moments in the Vatican. She asked, "Why is this important? We're not Catholic." At first I was incredulous! I couldn't understand why she didn't know that the leader of 1.2 billion people giving up essentially unlimited power was a really big deal. I explained it to her and she seemed nonplussed.

Later on, we got out some food for lunch and she asked why I had so much meat in my fridge (she's vegetarian and it was only a pound of ground turkey and a few pork chops). I told her that if the sequester happened the price of meat was going to go up so I had bought more than normal because it had been on sale. She said, "Yeah, I've heard a little bit about that...what is it?" Again, I was shocked! This is a giant thing that's really going to have an impact on us and she knew nothing about it.

After Becky left, though, I got to thinking about our conversations about current events. I didn't have a TV in our house until I was 16 years old. When we lived in Montana, we listened to the Canadian news radio station for our news in the mornings and that was it. When we lived in Vanuatu, we listened to BBC Australia for our news (when we could get it). When we moved to Louisville, we had a TV, but we weren't interested in 24 hour news networks and didn't even watch the evening news, really. In college, I paid attention to politics, but didn't have a TV, so I got my news from the Internet when I felt like looking for it.

Now, I watch the Morning Joe, Good Morning Tri-State (our local morning news show), Good Morning America, Hardball with Chris Matthews, and ABC World News Tonight every day, as well as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. I also sometimes watch AC360 and Piers Morgan Tonight or The Rachel Maddow Show, depending on what they're talking about. And when I'm in the car, I listen to NPR. Oh, and on weekends, it's Up with Chris Hayes. That's a lot of news!

So, why is this even a topic of conversation?

I am concerned about the state of our country on a daily basis. Becky is not. I'm very worried that my fiancé will lose his job and we won't be able to afford our current lifestyle because of the sequester cuts. Becky is not. I'm fascinated and nervous about the next pope (will he address contraception, gay marriage, etc?). Becky is not.

Is ignorance bliss? In all honesty, I remember being in Vanuatu in my early teen years when the Columbia space shuttle didn't make it back safely. We heard about it on the same day--kind of a big deal in and of itself--and it was sad. That's all we heard for a few days and we had time to reflect on it. When we were there, I didn't hear anything that wasn't massive news.

Now, I hear so many "Breaking News" stories that I can't remember what the "breaking news" was yesterday! How do you separate fluff from substance? How is it possible that I watch around six hours of news a day and can't tell you what the headlines from yesterday were, yet my anxiety about the state of the world is at an all-time high?!

So, could the 24-hour news networks, the morning shows, and the evening shows (not to mention the 24-hour connectedness on our mobile devices) be contributing to our country's insane anxiety rate?! I think so.

What do you think?

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi

Say No to the Washington Blame Game--Take Action!

We have seen a lot of political turmoil lately. The 2012 election season was full of attack ads and empty promises, we've had financial ceilings and cliffs come and go over the last couple of years, and our country is more divided than it's been in 150 years. 

The thing that troubles me the most about this is that when I listen to the news I hear blame, not a call to action. It doesn't matter what station I listen to: if it's MSNBC they're blaming the Republicans; if it's FOX they're blaming President Obama. But on no station do I hear, "Our country is in trouble; let's put our party differences aside, come together, and get it back on track."

The "sequester" is coming in 24 hours. It seems to me that everyone in Washington is playing a game of "chicken," with the American people as the one who will have to pick up the pieces. The politicians are blaming each other and then sitting at home, with no meetings or phone calls on the books, waiting for the other side to blink. 

I want to be very clear: I am not at all blinded by my past involvement with the Obama campaign. I am incredibly frustrated with Obama and the Democratic party, as well as the Republicans. 

I feel cheated: I worked for Obama for three months to get him re-elected because he promised a better tomorrow, a better country. Kentucky is slated to lose 150 teaching jobs if the sequester happens. My fiancé is a first year teacher and his is the only income we have right now. If Josh loses his job because Obama and Congress can't get their act together to fix this mess that they put us in, you'd better believe that I'll be very vocal about what my president and my congressmen have done for me.

We get to elect our leaders, but I don't feel like we've elected leaders. I feel like we've elected 15 year old boys to Capitol Hill and they're acting like children, refusing to talk to the guys they don't agree with. They need to get it together and remember that they are representing us, the people of America. 

They have the honor of having been chosen to represent us at the highest level and they are not taking that seriously. It seems to me that most of the people in Washington (the president, senators, and representatives) are more interested in their own political gain than doing what's right for the people. 

Contact your congressmen and congresswomen, as well as your president. Tell them that you don't agree with the way they're doing business on your behalf and you expect better from the people you sent to Washington in your stead.

Contact Info:

US Senators

US Representatives

US President

The only way we will get this country back on track is to stop joining in the blame game. We need to take action, not spend article after article blaming the "other side." We are better than that! Our country is one that has been built on its citizens taking action, not its people complaining until someone else fixes our problems.

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi

Cameron Russell: A Role Model

Cameron Russell (photo: Twitter)

Cameron Russell is a Victoria's Secret angel. She's walked in runway shows, done print ads, and starred in commercials for the world's largest lingerie company. She's also worked for some of my favorite designers: Vivienne Westwood, Chanel, Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs, and Dolce and Gabbana.

Cameron did a TED talk about being a highly successful model. This is the link: http://www.ted.com/talks/cameron_russell. I never put links in my pieces, but I wanted to today to draw your attention to it--it's a great talk. Please go watch it right now! Then come back and read the rest of this piece. ;-)

In this talk, Cameron talks about how she's won the "genetic lottery." She's tall, she's thin, she's white. Our society has decided that when it comes to appearances, those are the things that matter. Cameron mentions that she's gotten out of traffic tickets because of her looks as well as gotten free items when she's forgotten her money.  Those are the things she has been, as she puts it, "cashing in" on.

Cameron talked about and showed pictures of the amount of work that professionals do on her to get the photos they want. Do they edit photos? Yes. But she also talks about the hair, makeup, clothes, and photography that go into making the photos we see. Honestly, I probably wouldn't recognize her if I passed her on the street. She's gorgeous in her every day photos, but she doesn't look anything like the cover girl photos that thousands of people see. For more on photo editing, check out this post I wrote a few months ago.

Cameron mentioned that little girls come up to her and tell her that they want to be models when they grow up. Cameron's first question to the kids is, "Why? You can be anything." She says that she is in that top echelon of girls with "the skinniest thighs, the shiniest hair," but she's still incredibly insecure about the way she looks. She has to think about the way she looks every day.

Cameron graduated from Columbia University. She is realistic that she won't be able to model forever. She's already 25, which means she's already nearing the end of her modeling career. I have a feeling we'll be hearing great things from her.

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi

GMA's Robin Roberts Returns!

Good Morning America/Ida Astute

This morning we welcomed anchor Robin Roberts back to Good Morning America! She contracted myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) as a result of her chemotherapy for breast cancer a few years ago. Here is an explanation from her doctors of the procedure that would fix the MDS: a bone marrow transplant.

Robin has been off the job for 174 days! She has recovered remarkably well, starting dry runs of GMA in January and coming back for her first show today. Her doctors said today that she will be taking it one day at a time because some days she won't feel well enough to come in to work.

Fibromyalgia is not nearly as crazy as MDS or cancer or anything, but I feel like all of us who have something we are trying to get through can take inspiration from Robin's story. When her doctors mentioned that she would taking it day by day, I smiled because I know exactly what that's like. I never know when I'm going to wake up feeling good and ready to go, or in so much pain I can barely move.

Robin's photo should be in the lexicon next to the phrase "the power of positive thinking." I know that she always knew in her heart that she would get better and come back to work. There were days that were struggles, but she never gave up. And now she's back, sooner than any of us ever imagined she would be!

Even though I know my fibromyalgia might never go away, I believe in the power of positive thinking and I need to practice it more. We are only truly victims of our conditions when we refuse to see the light. Robin saw the light and still does. The rest of us would do well to follow her amazing example. :-)

Robin, I've never met you, but you have helped and will continue to help inspire and motivate me every day. Thank you.

#WelcomeBackRobin

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi

Almost 10,000 Hits!

I'm 24 and I graduated from college almost a year ago. I'm engaged and planning our wedding for this summer. My fiancé and I live together in a small apartment close to the high school where he is the choir director and theory teacher.

I started the ChickOpinion blog in late August as a way to stay connected with the world while I dealt with my fibromyalgia diagnosis. I've talked about politics, social issues, religion, and personal struggle. I've also gotten almost 10,000 hits in less than six months! I know that that's not "viral," by any means, but it seems like a lot to me. :-) I've also gotten 6,000 hits on my website that I started a few months ago.

I am still unemployed. I've applied for over 50 jobs and haven't gotten any of them. Granted, I've got fibromyalgia so that limits the kind of job I can have. But it's not like I'm not keeping busy--I have a wedding coming up, I'm opening an Etsy shop (today, hopefully, if I can figure out the tax code!), and I do a lot of the household chores.

So how is it that I still feel like I'm just on the brink of something big? I know that a lot of us dream of doing something that gets attention on a big scale. I used to want to be a well-known inner-city teacher, something akin to Erin Gruwell (the "Freedom Writers" teacher). Then I wanted to be an amazing education researcher, published in all the great journals. With the fibromyalgia diagnosis, all of that was put on hold, but I don't think the passion is gone.

I've always had this drive and a knowledge that I can do something bigger than what I'm doing at any given time. I also have an intense urge to help people. I'm really good at social media networking and I feel like that's going to do something for me sometime soon. Hopefully. I'm not necessarily on the drive to be "famous." I don't want to come off like that. I just want to use the abilities I have to help other people, whether it be fibromyalgia patients, third-culture kids (I guess I should do a story on this soon), or smart unemployed young people.

The hats and scarves my Mom and I sent to Hurricane Sandy victims.

So, whether it be through writing, fashion, education, or volunteering, I hope I inspire you. Please keep sending me your stories--they inspire me every day!

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi