Mar 30

Mar 30 National Pencil Day

Holidays/National Days, Products & Gift Ideas, Travel & Leisure

Many people, including myself, consider me “old school”. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that I would get so excited to learn about National Pencil Day. Pencils are so my jam - I can’t wait to celebrate this national day. I use pencils to write so many notes that I go thru them like water. Every Fall, when it’s time to buy new school supplies, my kids do not need pencils because their school provides them. But that doesn’t stop me from taking advantage of the low “back to school” prices and buying fresh packs of No. 2s.

Mar 23

Mar 23 Road Trip!

Barb Pellicer Paton

Food & Beverages, Healthy Family, Travel & Leisure

So many people were going stir crazy after a couple of months of hibernating during the COVID Stay-at-Home order in 2020, that they ventured out in RVs and SUVs traveling the country. I was envious and wished that my family could also go on a Road Trip! Yes, you read that correctly. When I talk about road trips, I always add an exclamation point at the end of “road trip” (!) because for me, I always think of them as an opportunity for undivided fun.

Mar 16

Mar 16 Common Courtesy Day

Barb Pellicer Paton

Healthy Family, Holidays/National Days

When I was a pre-school teacher I observed another teacher (who was barely 21 years old) as she taught our students manners. She gave cues to the kids whenever manners were needed and she explained to me that she didn’t want the kids to perform manners. In other words, she didn’t want the kids growing up thinking they needed to act - she wanted them to know why they were using manners. It made sense to me. So before I had kids I promised myself that I wasn’t going to teach my kids common courtesies by saying, “Can you say, ‘Yes please.’ ?“ whenever the cashier at a store would ask if they wanted a sticker or a lollipop. Think about it, we are actually insulting their intelligence by asking that. Of course they can say those words! Sometimes I would physically cringe when I would hear, “What do we say when someone does something nice for us?”. I imagined a monkey on the shoulder of a street performer doing tricks.

Mar 9

Mar 9 5 Moving Pinches

Barb Pellicer Paton

Healthy Family, Politics & Religion, Travel & Leisure

I have been told several times since January 2021 that moving is a very stressful time. I must have “Moving Amnesia” because I can only remember little pieces of my move to Minneapolis from Hollywood, FL and I can’t remember how stressful it was. I have moved quite a bit in my life and although I do remember many of my moves, I do not remember the stressful parts.

Mar 2

Mar 2 The Journal Entry

Barb Pellicer Paton

Healthy Family

I thought about sharing my journal entry from January 11, 2021 because on that day, I wrote down 51 hurdles that were effecting my life at that time. Some hurdles are deep and personal while others are not a big deal at all. Nonetheless, they are all hurdles. The main reason why I wrote them down in my journal was because I knew that if I saw each hurdle on it’s own line, I would see that each and every one of them was something I could handle. On that particular day, it just so happened that I was experiencing them all at once. Even though I captured the moment in my journal with written words, it has taken me awhile to put those words into context, explaining the mental gymnastics that my brain performed at the beginning of 2021.