tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33953360231450691312024-03-12T18:53:01.406-05:0051 Cent AdventuresExploring Interesting and Inexpensive Destinations Valerie Illguthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06440759347907901629noreply@blogger.comBlogger269125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3395336023145069131.post-47734204344993418662023-04-14T05:00:00.000-05:002023-04-14T05:00:00.216-05:00Streaming Movies<span id="docs-internal-guid-023f0d59-7fff-6cab-6db5-f95487dedbf9"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post was originally published on East Idaho Collective on January 31, 2023. EIM closed on February 15, 2023. I have moved my posts to this blog in order to preserve the collection of my writing. East Idaho Collective was for women to connect with each other. These posts are less about travel and more about what it was like for me to be a mom in Idaho in 2018-2023. This post was actually the last regular post ever posted to East Idaho Mom's. If I'd known that I probably would have put more effort into this post. </span></span><div><span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>Did you know that Disney Plus is now three years old? As of November 12, 2022 the streaming platform has been around for three years. <br /><br />I signed my family up for Disney Plus over Christmas break in 2019. I figured it would be a good thing to have while the kids were out of school. When we first turned it on I was overwhelmed by how many movies were suddenly available to us. <br /><br />It was the Star Wars movies that got me. We had access to ALL the Star Wars Movies! I’m still blown away by this fact three years later. Over the summer my kids and I watched a Star Wars movie together every Friday afternoon. And every time we went to the Star Wars menu to click on that week’s movie I’d say something like, “I can’t believe they are all here.”<br /><br />I’ve tried to explain to my kids how hard it was to find copies of movies when I was growing up in the early 90’s. Sure we had VHS tapes, but tracking down the specific movie you were looking for could be tricky. Especially if you were a kid who relied on your parents to pay for everything and drive you everywhere. <br /><br />I actually watched the original Star Wars movies in reverse order because the movies were so hard to find. We had a copy of Return of the Jedi (the third movie) that I watched when I was four. I was hooked on the movie and watched it over and over again. My dad explained that it was the last movie in a trilogy and gave me some back story on the other two movies so I could understand some things. I wanted to see the other movies, but nobody we knew had a copy and my parents couldn’t afford to rent one. It was two years before we watched Empire Strikes Back (the second movie). I didn’t see the original Star Wars movie until I was 8 years old and we finally rented a copy from some movie store.<br /><br />Oh and guess what? Those copies of Return of the Jedi and Empire Strikes Back didn’t come from a store with a nice case. They were recorded off of TV. Someone had gone through and taken out the commercials – mostly. There were little blips of commercials scattered through the movies. The commercials became almost part of the movies to me. Sometimes I miss them when I’m watching the official versions of the movies. <br /><br />My husband and I have compared notes on our childhoods. He grew up watching movies that had been recorded off of TV too. His favorite movie in the whole world is Back to the Future. But he never even saw the end of the movie as a child because his family’s copy was recorded off TV. They’d run out of tape before the movie was over. <br /><br />We both grew up in families without much extra money so that’s one reason we grew up watching copies of movies that had been recorded off TV. But I think that our parents were also just in awe of the ability to record things. Our parents grew up with movies only being shown in theaters and sometimes on TV. My dad would tell us about watching The Sound of Music on TV and being so sad when the first half ended because he knew he wouldn’t be home the next night to watch the second half. <br />In our parents minds, the ability to record things off TV was akin to a miracle.<br /><br />Those commercial ridden recorded movies were revered. I’m sure they thought something like, “Who cares if the Death Star battle scene was interrupted by a Dove commercial? We can watch this whenever we want!”<br /><br />I think my parents must have been in awe of VHS tapes the way I’m in awe of Disney Plus. They must have looked at me the way I look at my kids and thought, “kids these days don’t appreciate how great this is.” Valerie Illguthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06440759347907901629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3395336023145069131.post-35137869364427645002023-04-13T05:00:00.001-05:002023-04-13T05:00:00.211-05:00Word of the Year- End of Year Update<span id="docs-internal-guid-5533614b-7fff-8120-9fd1-bd9693032962"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post was originally published on East Idaho Collective on January 3, 2023. EIM closed on February 15, 2023. I have moved my posts to this blog in order to preserve the collection of my writing. East Idaho Collective was for women to connect with each other. These posts are less about travel and more about what it was like for me to be a mom in Idaho in 2018-2023.</span></span><div><br /></div>At the beginning of the year I wrote a <a href="https://eastidaho.momcollective.com/news-current-events/holidays/word-of-the-year/">post</a> talking about my process for picking a Word of the Year.<br /><br />I like to pick words of the year rather than set New Year’s Resolutions. The Word functions as something of a check point throughout the year. Back when I tried to do New Years Resolutions I would completely forget my goals by the second half of the year. But with a Word I can easily check in to see how I’m living up to my intentions for the year. <br /><br />I picked the word “Community” for this year. In July, I gave you an <a href="https://eastidaho.momcollective.com/womanhood/word-of-the-year-a-mid-year-update/">update</a> on how things were going with my Word. Now, I want to give you an end of the year update.<br /><br />Throughout this second half of the year there have been many things that have tied into Community. Some things were an extension of what I’d been doing all year. I continued to serve as Treasurer for the PTO at my children’s elementary school. I continued to put together the pre-concert slideshow for the Magic Valley Symphony. I continued to send each of my nieces and nephews a birthday card. I continued to write for East Idaho Moms.<br /><br /><div>New opportunities for participating and building community also came up.<br /><br />My husband joined the Magic Valley Repertory Theatre’s production of Guys and Dolls. Supporting him in that was a way of supporting the local theater community. It was so much fun to take my children to see the play. They could see their dad doing something with other dedicated members of our community. <br /><br />In September I was able to attend a Leadership Retreat with 60 other amazing ladies. During that three day retreat, we discussed ways to build community where we live (hint: it has a lot to do with building connections through being authentic and vulnerable).<br /><br />Perhaps my favorite thing that had to do with Community happened on Halloween. One of my favorite things about Halloween night is the opportunity to see and interact with my neighbors. When else does everyone go for a walk around their neighborhood at the same time? When my family lived in the southern United States I discovered that most people sat on their porches to hand out candy. It was warm enough to do that. I loved sitting on my porch and seeing everyone walk around. I wanted to figure out a way to do that here in cold Idaho. <br /><br />This year, I decided to have a fire pit in my driveway. I borrowed my neighbor’s portable fire pit, and set it up where the driveway meets the sidewalk. I set up a lot of chairs and had a platter of s’more supplies. And of course I had a pile of wood. I’d sent out a text to my friends in the neighborhood inviting them to stop by while they were out trick-or-treating. A few took me up on it. I had a great time talking to my neighbor while watching her teens take selfies in the firelight. I loved when random strangers would stop by and sit for a minute. A few even took time to roast marshmallows. It was fun to overhear people saying things like, “Look at that fire house!” This is going to be an annual tradition.<br />As this year ends I’m reflecting back over the things I’ve done.<br /><br />Would I have participated in as many things this year if I’d had a different Word? Maybe. I like to be involved. Maybe all this would have happened anyway. But I like knowing that each of these things was part of an intentional desire to include Community in my life this year. <br /><br />I’m still a little unsure about my word for 2023. I’m feeling drawn to the word ‘self-care’. Which, in some ways, might be the exact opposite of Community. Maybe after a year of focusing outward it is time for a year of focusing inward? Or maybe self-care is a logical extension of the word Community. After all, feeling part of a community is an important part of mental health. <br /><br /></div><div>Did you have a Word of the Year for 2022? How did it go? Have you picked one yet for 2023?</div>Valerie Illguthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06440759347907901629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3395336023145069131.post-34871027038302944922023-04-12T05:00:00.001-05:002023-04-12T05:00:00.205-05:00A Stuffed Animal Christmas Miracle<span id="docs-internal-guid-7cadbd46-7fff-923c-2335-a068b03e1233"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post was originally published on East Idaho Collective on December 13, 2022. EIM closed on February 15, 2023. I have moved my posts to this blog in order to preserve the collection of my writing. East Idaho Collective was for women to connect with each other. These posts are less about travel and more about what it was like for me to be a mom in Idaho in 2018-2023.</span></span><div><span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>As we are preparing for Christmas, I want to share one of my favorite Christmas stories.<br /><br />This happened four years ago and it still makes me smile when I think about it. It’s a story of love and magic and how random internet friends can make a child’s Christmas special even from hundreds of miles away.<br /><br />My daughter’s favorite toy is a small stuffed reindeer named “Antler.” Antler and her sister Nose were given to my twin daughters by my husband’s grandmother when they were babies. <div><br /></div><div>At first the twins were too young to appreciate these toys, but around the time they were two they started playing with them. By the time they were four, Antler and Nose were well-loved toys (and ironically had lost their antlers and noses).<br /><br />Antler had a distinct personality. She was a small toy, but she was feisty. She’d often get into fights with the other stuffed animals and she would win. It was fun to watch her toss big teddy bears across the room. Antler also always seemed to have stuffing problems. I’d had to sew her up many times.<br /><br />Antler traveled with us through our many moves. She lived with us as we moved from Utah, Texas, Alabama, back to Utah, Yellowstone, and finally settled in Idaho. And that’s where this story takes place.</div><div><br />In second grade my daughter took Antler to school for show and tell and then somehow lost her. This was devastating. No one could imagine life without Antler. My daughter was especially distraught.<br /><br />Miraculously, Antler made it home to us at Christmas. On Christmas Day my daughter opened a present and found Antler smiling back at her. My daughter squealed for joy and then started crying. She called Antler her “Life Companion” and she was so happy to have her back to continue having adventures with her.<br /><br /><img src="https://eastidaho.momcollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Picture1-180x300.png" /><br /><br />There are two versions of the story of how Antler came home to my daughter. One is for children and one is for grown ups. Both versions are heartwarming.<br /><br /></div><div><b>The Children’s Version</b><br /><br />Antler was feeling very worn out and threadbare. She didn’t have as much stuffing as she used to have and she could feel her seams starting to open up again.<br /><br />She loved her owner very much, but she worried that she was getting too shabby for her owner. She wanted her owner to continue to love her.<br /><br />So she made a big decision. She decided to sneak away and find Santa in the North Pole. She knew he could fix her up. <br /><br />One day she had her chance. Her owner took her to a big building and left her in a desk. She was able to sneak out of the desk and out a window while all the children were at recess. She started flying to the North Pole.<br /><br />Antler was a Christmas Reindeer Toy so when she arrived at the North Pole Santa knew just what to do with her. He refilled her stuffing and strengthened her seams. He replaced her black bead nose with an orange bead because he knew that was her owner’s favorite color.<br /><br />On Christmas Eve Santa let Antler ride in his sleigh next to him. Antler liked watching the big reindeer pull the sleigh. She thought about doing something like that with her sister Nose when she got home.<br /><br />When Santa came to Antler’s house he put her in a box and wrapped it quickly. He went down the chimney and put Antler under the tree.<br /><br />The next day Antler was so excited when her owner picked up the box and started opening it. She could barely contain her joy when she saw her owner’s face. She saw the tears in her owner’s eyes and felt how tightly she hugged her. Antler knew that her owner loved her no matter how she looked. Antler knew she would never run away again.<br /><br /></div><div><b>The Grown Up Version</b><br /><br />After Antler was lost, I figured other Antlers had to exist out there somewhere. My husband’s grandma had passed away years earlier so unfortunately I couldn’t ask her where she bought those little reindeer. But I knew she’d loved to shop from catalogs. I figured whatever catalog she’d shopped from had to also have an online presence. I started googling things like, “Christmas Deer” and “small stuffed reindeer”, but I couldn’t find Antler.<br /><br />In desperation I turned to Facebook. I put this post up on October 13th with this picture:<br /><br />Okay Internet, I need your help. As you do your holiday shopping will you keep your eyes out for a reindeer that looks like one of these? If you see one PLEASE let me know where to buy it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Many of you remember Antler and Nose, the twins’ beloved reindeer. Well Antler has been missing for a few weeks. My daughter and I talked about her today and she said that maybe Antler went to spend time with Santa and he’ll bring her back on Christmas. I agreed and mentioned that maybe Antler will be all sewn up and have had some stuffing replaced after her visit with Santa.<br /><br />The problem is that I have NO IDEA where to find a replacement. The original Antler was a gift from my husband’s grandma who has since passed. The original Antler came with a green wreath sewn to her nose. She also had felt antlers. Her original nose was a brown puff ball that was later replaced by a bead.<br /><br />I know this is a long shot, but it would be amazing if we really could bring Antler back home.<br /><br />This is where some serious grown-up magic came into play. My friend Leslie googled “stuffed reindeer with wreath” and then scrolled through pages of pictures. She came across a picture that looked similar to the one I’d posted. It was called “Jesus is Deer to Me” and was sold by a Christian Dollar Store. She added the picture and a link to my Facebook post.<br /><br />When I saw it, I was ecstatic. I immediately replied back, “Oh my gosh yes! That’s Antler!”</div><div><br /></div><div><img src="https://eastidaho.momcollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Picture2.jpg" /><br /><br />I bought the stuffed animal right away and then told Leslie, “Thank you so much. I just bought it. I think I’m going to cry.”<br /><br />She answered, “So glad I was able to help!! I saw it and thought “Oh my gosh! I think that’s actually it!!!” I’ve been anxiously waiting for you to confirm. Lol”.<br />My favorite part of this story is that Leslie was hundreds of miles away from me. We weren’t super close friends either. She was one of those fun people to follow on Facebook, but our relationship didn’t have much depth.<br /><br />Our lives had overlapped briefly while our husbands were in flight school in Alabama. I remember getting together a few times with her at a few Army events. She came to a little celebration I put together for my birthday. (She’d bought doughnuts even though I said people didn’t need to bring anything.) We’d both been busy with young children so we hadn’t had a lot of time to get to know each other very well before we moved.<br /><br />Until now. After she helped bring Antler home Leslie became a hero.<br /><br />Antler arrived in the mail and I hid her well. A few days before Christmas I set about to make her look like herself again. I took her nose off and replaced it with an orange heart shaped bead. (I picked orange because I knew it was my daughter’s favorite color.)<br /><br />I removed the wreath on her mouth. My husband took off the star on her forehead and got rid of the glue it left behind with Goof Off stuff. One of the ironic things about Antler is that she doesn’t actually have antlers so I had to take those off as well. The final thing I did was stick her under my mattress for a few days so she would look a little more squished.<br /><br />Then I wrapped her and hoped that my daughter would recognize her as her beloved stuffed animal. She did and the tears in her eyes said it all.<br /><br />Antler has continued to be a beloved member of the family. She went back to fighting bigger stuffed animals, and soon needed to have some stitches sewn up again. A year later she and Nose became big sisters when a new reindeer showed up for my other daughter on Christmas Day. That other reindeer was named Coco because her nose looked like a Coco Puff.</div><div><br />My daughter has outgrown many of her stuffed animals. Most of them are in bins in her closet, but Antler is still in a place of honor on my daughter’s bed. I love thinking about the magic that made sure Antler is still there for my daughter.</div>Valerie Illguthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06440759347907901629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3395336023145069131.post-79013125095546962342023-04-11T05:00:00.001-05:002023-04-11T05:00:00.199-05:00Five Reasons I’m Glad my Husband Joined a Play<span id="docs-internal-guid-bcf635ce-7fff-3693-9c29-2d61ae11a975"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post was originally published on East Idaho Collective on October 11, 2022. EIM closed on February 15, 2023. I have moved my posts to this blog in order to preserve the collection of my writing. East Idaho Collective was for women to connect with each other. These posts are less about travel and more about what it was like for me to be a mom in Idaho in 2018-2023.</span></span><div><span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>This post was supposed to be about how happy I was to be participating in the Magic Valley Symphony. I played the string bass when I was a teenager, but stopped playing when I left high school. After a 17 year break I started playing it again with the Magic Valley Symphony in the fall of 2020 (that was one of the few happy things that happened that year). <br /><br />I was planning to play with the Symphony again this fall. I was going to tell you how great it was to connect with my younger self by doing something that I first started doing when I was ten. I was going to tell you that even though I was 4th chair and a mediocre musician I still really enjoyed making music with a group of people. I was going to tell you how great it was to have a hobby as a mom. <br /><br />But then my husband got into the ensemble for Guys and Dolls with the Magic Valley Repertory Theatre.<br /><br />He’d been a background character in a Living Nativity in December. He’d talked with another background character who told him about the Repertory Theater and encouraged him to join. That man had mentioned they’d be doing Guys and Dolls later in the year. <br /><br />I highly encouraged my husband to be in Guys and Dolls, but it was a little disappointing when I looked at the rehearsal and show schedule. Rehearsals for the play would conflict with symphony rehearsals. And the first symphony dress rehearsal and concert would happen opening weekend for the play. <br /><br />Maybe if our children were older we could have figured out a way for me to be in the symphony while my husband was in the play, but doing both just wasn’t practical for the time of life we are in. Someone had to be home to make sure the kids did their homework and went to bed at a decent time. And that someone would be me. <br /><br />Even though I was a little sad about missing out on the symphony I’m still really happy my husband did the play. <br /><br /><div>Here are 5 reasons that I’m glad he was in the play.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>He needed a hobby – a true hobby</b><br /><br />My husband has very few leisure activities. He doesn’t hunt or play video games. He enjoys making things with wood, but usually that involves making things for me or the house so it’s more of a chore than a hobby. He likes hiking and camping, but those aren’t exactly relaxing when four children are involved. Being in a play gave him a chance to do something that he truly enjoyed without also having to be a husband and a father. He had a great time learning the songs and the dance routines. He’s a good singer, but never really did much singing before this play. He’d never danced before, but he learned for the play. He was able to stretch and grow in ways that he’d never had a chance to do before. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>He needed people he could have fun with<br /></b><br />My husband is very personable and can talk to just about anybody, but he’s really struggled with finding good friends. He’s had good relationships with co-workers and people at church, but those haven’t turned into deeper friendships. Being in the play gave him a chance to meet so many more people and to have fun with them on a nightly basis. He’d often come home from rehearsal and say things like, “I talked to so-and-so. They are very fun.” On opening night of the play the cast and crew went out to dinner after the show. My husband came home with so many funny stories about their conversations and what they’d done. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>I needed a chance to slow down</b><br /><br />I’m a chronic over-committer. I like to have lots of things to do and I’m always looking for new things to add to my list. So it was actually a really good reset to need to be home every night while my husband was rehearsing for the play. I can’t tell you how many times I was tempted to sign up for something, but then thought, “oh wait, that’s a rehearsal night. I have to be home.” I still managed to do a lot, but things I did NOT sign up for include a class about canning, a class about grant writing, weekly yoga, not to mention the symphony which I’m not entirely sure I would have had time for anyway. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>My children were able to see their dad do something creative</b><br /><br />I took my kids to the opening night of the play. They were so excited to see their dad on stage. It was really cool for them to see the dances that he’d practiced in our living room come to life on stage and to hear the songs that we’d been listening to for weeks be performed with a group of people. I want my children to know that creativity isn’t just a childhood thing. It’s something that they can do their whole lives. Seeing their dad enjoy doing something outside his normal comfort zone was a good life lesson for my children.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>It gave me a chance to support my partner</b><br /><br />My husband is so supportive of all my crazy ideas and endeavors. I’m often in over my head on some project and he takes care of the kids so I can focus or he swoops in with his talents and helps me get things done. Last year when I was in school he made dinner nearly every night so I could study. He never complained when he had to put the kids to bed because I had symphony rehearsal, or a PTO meeting, or a work staff meeting, or a class, or a church get-together, or a women’s retreat, or a writing project (yep, I’m an over-committer). I’ve liked having a chance to pay my husband back for all the times he helped me with my hobbies and activities. And don’t worry; I still have plenty of time to be in the symphony. I plan to re-join the symphony in January and participate in the second half of the season. I’ll be able to be in two concerts.</div><div> <br />In the meantime, I’m happily supporting my husband during the rest of this run of Guys and Dolls.<br /><br />You can see him in the play at the Orpheum Theater in Twin Falls until Sunday, October 23rd. </div>Valerie Illguthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06440759347907901629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3395336023145069131.post-85938700220859463532023-04-10T05:00:00.000-05:002023-04-10T05:00:00.213-05:00I Like Doing Laundry – Here’s Why<span id="docs-internal-guid-6637c994-7fff-8502-ac0b-23fbc6762f8e"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post was originally published on East Idaho Collective on September 9, 2022. EIM closed on February 15, 2023. I have moved my posts to this blog in order to preserve the collection of my writing. East Idaho Collective was for women to connect with each other. These posts are less about travel and more about what it was like for me to be a mom in Idaho in 2018-2023.</span></span><div><br /></div>Doing housework isn’t exactly my favorite thing, but it’s a necessary thing. Laundry is the chore I dislike the least, so I guess that makes it my favorite. <br /><br />Weird logic, I know. But let me explain a little bit about why I like laundry more than other chores. For one, the bulk of laundry doesn’t require a lot of effort. You just have to remember to keep the laundry moving from the washer to the dryer. <br /><br />I also like laundry because it’s actually possible to get caught up on laundry and not have to do it for a few days. <br /><br /><div>There aren’t many other chores like that. <br /><br />Dishes. Those are a daily chore. And after every meal, there are MORE dishes. They never go away. <br /><br />Cleaning up the living room. I don’t know about you, but there is ALWAYS something that should be picked up in the living room. Right now I’m looking at a minimum of 2 pairs of shoes and a backpack in here. Plus a crazy amount of dog hair on the rug that needs to be vacuumed. <br /><br />Dusting. Nevermind. I gave up on this one years ago. <br /><br />Cleaning the bathroom. I guess in theory this one could only be a once-a-week thing. But my kids’ bathroom always has toothpaste in the sink and who knows what else on the counter and floor. This really should be a daily thing for the stage of life we are in. (I don’t clean it daily, but my brain tells me I should.)<br /><br />But laundry. With laundry, it’s possible to get on top of it and then not think about it again for several days. That’s why I like laundry.<br /><br />Want to know some of my secrets for doing laundry? Well here are 5 tips that I’ve honed over the years. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Invest in MANY laundry baskets.</b> The exact number will depend on the size of your family and how many bedrooms you have. Basically, you’ll want one laundry basket for each bedroom. If you have more than one person in the room you may want a bigger basket or multiple baskets. You’ll also want a few extras just for convenience’s sake. My family of six people had 5 laundry baskets for a long time; a few years ago, we added 4 more. Having 9 laundry baskets pulling duty at various places around the house is a huge help. <br /><img src="https://eastidaho.momcollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Picture1-225x300.jpg" />This picture is from 7 years ago when I started using a laundry table. The piles don’t get quite this crazy anymore, but the laundry table is still an indispensable part of my laundry routine.<br /><br /><b>Set up a laundry table. </b>I highly recommend putting some sort of table near your washer and dryer. I know that won’t work for every house, but find somewhere that is the designated spot for clean laundry. (Pro tip: NOT the couch.) That way you can run a load of laundry through the washer, then the dryer, and then put it on the table. You can run another load through and keep piling the clean laundry on the table. This way, you don’t have to wait to run another load until you have time to put the laundry away. If it happens to take you a long time to get to putting away the laundry, it’s okay, because the clean laundry is in a good spot to hang out for a few days.</div><div><br /><b>Skip folding</b>. This drives my mother-in-law crazy, but I don’t care. I’ve always hated folding and I just don’t see the point with kid’s clothes. I hang up most of my clothes, but when it comes to my children’s clothes we just stick them in drawers and call it good. Years ago we assigned each dresser drawer to an article of clothing. This system makes it easy for the kids to dress themselves and it helps make putting away laundry easy too.<br /><br /></div><div><img src="https://eastidaho.momcollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Picture2-300x225.jpg" />Another throwback picture from 7 years ago. Back then I sorted all the laundry, but now my kids can help with that part.<br /><br /><b>Enlist your kids</b>. While my kids can start laundry in the washer and dryer, I usually wash clothes for each child though. I’m home more often than they are so it makes sense for me to keep the laundry running. When the clothes are clean, I’ll put the clothes back in the laundry basket from that child’s room and put the basket on the table. When the kids are home from school, I have them put away their clothes. There are times I have to help so the kids stay motivated, but my kids are all capable of putting away their own laundry by themselves. Sometimes, like when we come home from a trip, the laundry gets all mixed together. Then I have the kids sort through the pile and put their clothes into their baskets.</div><div><br /><b>Admit that it’s not physically possible to get 100% caught up on laundry. </b> Yes, I have a good system in place that has worked for years. But it’s still impossible to get all the laundry done in one day. One of the biggest breakthroughs in my not-hatred of laundry was when I realized that there would always be some laundry that I missed. And that was okay. Short of my family walking around naked on laundry day there was no way I could get ALL the dirty laundry taken care of at once.<br /><br />I have other systems in place for other chores—like doing the dishes and cleaning the bathroom. But none have been as long-lasting as my system for laundry. It’s nice to know that I’m on top of at least one thing in this house.</div><div> <br />I’m curious, do you have any tips for doing laundry that you’d like to share? Or what’s the chore you dislike the least?</div>Valerie Illguthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06440759347907901629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3395336023145069131.post-71264775900990964142023-04-07T05:00:00.000-05:002023-04-07T05:00:00.220-05:00Visiting Lagoon: Tips and Tricks for Getting the Most Out of Season Passes<span id="docs-internal-guid-4d6c893b-7fff-60be-347e-0115b1ae3361"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post was originally published on East Idaho Collective on August 12, 2022. EIM closed on February 15, 2023. I have moved my posts to this blog in order to preserve the collection of my writing. East Idaho Collective was for women to connect with each other. These posts are less about travel and more about what it was like for me to be a mom in Idaho in 2018-2023.</span></span><div><br /></div>I grew up in Utah in the Salt Lake Valley. My house was about a 35-minute drive away from <a href="http://www.lagoonpark.com/">Lagoon Amusement Park</a>. Even though I lived fairly close to the park, I only visited Lagoon eight times while I was growing up. I now live in Twin Falls, Idaho which is three hours away from Lagoon. I’ve been to Lagoon seven times so far this year, and have plans to go at least three more times. <br /><br /><div>What’s made the difference in how many times I’ve been to Lagoon this year versus my younger years? This year, I have a Lagoon Season Pass. <br /><br />My husband and I decided to buy our family season passes to Lagoon this year. This is something we have talked about doing for several years. We wanted to wait until our four children were tall enough to ride all the rides and old enough that they would want to ride the rides. We also didn’t want to worry about nap times. <br /><br />We purchased the passes as a Family Christmas Present. We felt our kids had enough toys and it was time to buy them something that would last the whole year. Everyone was really excited when we told them we had bought season passes. <br /><br />I want to share some of the things we have learned from having these passes. <br /><br /><div><b>Passes pay for themselves after about 2 visits</b><br /><br />If you know you want to visit Lagoon three or more times in a season, it’s worth it to buy the passes. I went the extra mile and made a chart that calculates how much we are “paying” per visit with our passes. On our eighth visit later this month, it will be like we are paying $19.00 per person. <br />The best time to buy is around Black Friday in November<br /><br />The lowest prices of the season will be available during the Black Friday sale at the end of November. Last year, the sale lasted about a week. We already knew that we’d be purchasing the passes as a family Christmas gift so this worked perfectly with our timing. <br /><br /></div><div><b>Upload your pictures online ahead of time</b><br /><br />My husband took care of uploading our pictures to our Lagoon Portal about a week before the park opened. On opening day, he just had to show our pictures on his phone. Later in the year, we stopped by the season pass office and had our passes printed. My sister and her family also bought season passes, but they didn’t upload pictures. On opening day, they had to wait in a long line to get their pictures taken and their passes printed. I think we were in the park for an hour before they got in.<br />Buy a parking pass for the season<br /><br />You have to pay for parking every time you go to Lagoon. This year, it is $18 per vehicle per visit. There is also a parking pass for the season. It’s $75 for a season and pays for itself after the 4th visit. </div><div>You can buy the pass online along with your season pass, or you can purchase it from the parking lot attendants on your first visit. We opted to just buy the pass on our first visit. <br /><br /></div><div><b>It helps to have family or friends to stay with<br /><br /></b>One reason we were able to buy season passes this year is that we have several family members within an hour of the park. My sister lives 11 minutes away from the park. We’ve stayed with her a few times. We usually stay with my in-laws who are 40 minutes away and have plenty of space for us. I’m not sure we would go to the park as often as we have if we had to pay for a hotel every time we planned to visit. <br />With a pass, you don’t feel obligated to stay all day<br /><br />There have been times we were in the park from the minute it opened until it closed. But other times, we just go to the park for about 4 hours. For example, on Easter weekend, we went to the park for about 3 hours on Saturday and then hung out with family the rest of the day. I like that I don’t feel the pressure to ride every single ride every time we visit. <br /><br /></div><div><b>You can bring a cooler of food into the park<br /></b><br />There are plenty of concession options within the park, but they are rather expensive— especially when you are visiting as a family. Thankfully, Lagoon allows coolers into the park. (Not all amusement parks are this gracious. I’ve had plenty of lunches in parking lots at other amusement parks.) You can bring your coolers full of food into the park and leave them on the pavilions towards the back of the park. No one will bother your stuff back there. My family travels pretty light so we usually only have one cooler. But I’ve seen other families bring in tents or canopies and set up a day camp on the grassy areas in the back.</div><div> <br /><b>Lagoon-A-Beach is less expensive if you have season passes<br /></b><br />I’m not a huge fan of Lagoon-a-beach. It’s a little too chaotic and crowded for my brain. But it is a great place to cool off on hot summer days. You have to pay extra if you want to rent tubes at Lagoon-A-Beach. You need the tubes to go on some of the water slides. If you have a season pass, you don’t have to pay as much for the tubes as people that only have day passes. <br /><b><br /></b></div><div><b>The one thing I don’t like…<br /></b><br />There is only one thing I haven’t liked about having season passes to Lagoon. I feel like Lagoon has taken up our whole year. We go to Lagoon once a month. That in itself has been really fun. But it’s come at the expense of other things we like to do for fun. Usually, we go camping as a family several times a summer. But we haven’t gone once this year because Lagoon has taken up all our free weekends. Same with some of the smaller things we like to do. Usually, we’ll go bowling or mini golfing a few times throughout the year. But this year, most of our recreation budget is tied up in the </div><div>Lagoon Passes or used to buy gas to travel to Lagoon. <br /><br /></div><div>I would 100% buy season passes to Lagoon again. But I don’t plan on buying them next year or even the next. There are other things I want to do with my family besides spend all our free time at Lagoon. <br /><br />That being said, I have really enjoyed having passes this year. <br /><br />It’s been wonderful to experience the many rides with my children. I love hearing their laughter and seeing the joy on their faces. I love planning out the routes we’ll take through the park—and then making last-minute changes when we see a short line. I love going to the park in the evening and seeing all the rides lit up. <br /><br />The first time we went on Colossus I told my kids, “Merry Christmas” at the top of the chain hill. After all, this was our big Christmas present for the year. This has definitely been one of the most memorable presents I’ve ever given my family. </div></div>Valerie Illguthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06440759347907901629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3395336023145069131.post-57011792599868866602023-04-06T05:00:00.000-05:002023-04-06T05:00:00.205-05:00Word of the Year: A Mid-Year Update<span id="docs-internal-guid-985bb492-7fff-a261-3d2c-af032886c6bc"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post was originally published on East Idaho Collective on July 6, 2022. EIM closed on February 15, 2023. I have moved my posts to this blog in order to preserve the collection of my writing. East Idaho Collective was for women to connect with each other. These posts are less about travel and more about what it was like for me to be a mom in Idaho in 2018-2023.</span></span><div><span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>Back in January, I wrote a piece about how I pick a Word of the Year to serve as an overarching theme for the year instead of a specific New Year’s Resolution. Now that it’s July, I want to update how that Word of the Year is working out.<br /><br />The cool thing about having a Word of the Year is that I can come back to it at any time throughout the year and assess how I’m doing in a guilt-free way. With New Year’s Resolutions, I usually crash and burn within a month and never want to think about how I’d planned to read so many books or lose so many pounds. With a Word, it’s more about intent rather than a specific goal; it’s easy to check in mid-year and see how I’m living up to the intent of the word.<br /><br />After I have selected my Word, I like to sit down and list the things that I’m planning to do or that my word makes me think of. That usually gives me a good starting place. <br />This year my word is Community.<br /><br />With a word like that, I felt it was important to think about how I want to support the various communities to which I belong. So, at the beginning of January, I made a list of what I consider to be my communities. <div>My list included:</div><div><br /></div><div>My family<br />My extended family<br />Some church groups<br />Elementary School PTO <br />The Magic Valley Symphony <br />A local autism support group<br />East Idaho Moms Collective<br />My neighborhood street<br /><br />Then I thought about things that I could do and continue doing to support my communities. Some of them were pretty easy; for example, I was already serving as the PTO Treasurer so I planned to just keep doing that job. Same with the Magic Valley Symphony. I was too busy to actually play in the symphony in the spring, but I still created a pre-concert slideshow for each concert. I count that as supporting a community.<br /><br />Other ideas came to me about some new things I could do to support my communities. For example, this year I decided to send a birthday card to each of my nieces and nephews. This is something I’ve wanted to do for several years, but I never made it a priority. When supporting my extended family fell under my Word of the Year, I figured it was time to make those birthday cards happen. I made a list of all the birthdays and also all the addresses for each family. This took some time, but now it’s easy to keep track of sending out birthday cards. I’ve been able to send a card to each niece and nephew that’s had a birthday this so far year and I’m pretty confident I’ll be able to do the rest of the year. <br /><br />For some of my communities, I wasn’t sure what to do in January, but I was open to the possibilities that the year would bring. In February, I received an email with details about the Ladies Retreat for my Bible Study Group. I hadn’t made an official goal to “Attend a Ladies Retreat,” but I did consider my Bible Study Group to be a community and I wanted to grow in my connection to that community; attending the retreat tied into my Word of the Year. I was able to attend the retreat in March and had a wonderful time deepening my connection with my friends and making new friends, too.<br /><br />I also learned that I don’t have to do a lot to support a community. I was thinking about putting together a block party for the families on my street later this summer. Another neighbor beat me to it and planned a block party at the beginning of June. (And in all honesty, probably did a better job than I would have.) She scheduled a bounce house and her husband grilled some amazing food. I was so happy that she took the initiative on this. All I had to do was show up, bring a side dish, and get to know some of my neighbors better. <br /><br />There are other things I’m planning to do in this second half of the year to support my communities. I plan to keep writing and sharing myself with East Idaho Moms. I want to help grow the elementary school PTO and help other parents know it’s a fun place to volunteer. I’m going to learn how to write grants for the Magic Valley Symphony. I’d like my family to take a professional-style family portrait. I’m looking into setting up in-person events for the autism support group. I’d like to invite more people over to my home for dinners. <br /><br />I’ve also realized I forgot a community when I made my initial list. I forgot to include my workplace and my coworkers. I’m lucky to work with some really talented people, and I’m always looking for ways to support them. I should give myself credit for building up that work community. <br /><br />It’s been good to check in with my Word of the Year. I have realized I am doing a pretty good job of living up to the intent of the word. I’m also excited about things that I can do for the rest of the year. One thing I noticed is that I’ve been very focused on the “what I can do for my community” side of the equation. I haven’t considered the “letting my community help me” side of things. I’m such a doer that thinking about ways people can help me feels kind of feels foreign. But it’s something I’d like to consider more. Maybe I’ll have an update about that later in the year. <br /><br /></div><div>How are you doing living up to the intent of your Word of the Year? What are some things you’ve done? What are some things you still want to do? I’d love to know, so please share in the comments. </div>Valerie Illguthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06440759347907901629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3395336023145069131.post-63012287938797182382023-04-05T05:00:00.000-05:002023-04-05T05:00:00.199-05:00Unexpectedly Useful Gifts<span id="docs-internal-guid-9521fc8d-7fff-05ce-7b4b-176fec94b2cc"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post was originally published on East Idaho Collective on May 4, 2022. EIM closed on February 15, 2023. I have moved my posts to this blog in order to preserve the collection of my writing. East Idaho Collective was for women to connect with each other. These posts are less about travel and more about what it was like for me to be a mom in Idaho in 2018-2023.</span></span><div><span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>I wish I could say that I treasured every gift that my husband’s grandmother gave from the moment I received it. But in all honesty, Grandma Ruth didn’t give cute gifts or even ones that made practical sense at the time. Almost every time I saw one of her gifts I thought, “Why did she give me that?” <br /><br />Yes, I was immature and a little self-centered. <br /><br /><div>As it turns out, my family has repeatedly used nearly every gift she ever gave us.<br /><br />I didn’t have a close relationship with Grandma Ruth. She passed away ten years ago and at that point, I’d been married to my husband for only five years. I don’t remember any words of wisdom that she gave to me or have memories of special times together. <br /><br />She lives on in my life through the gifts she gave. I’ve gone from wondering “why did she give me this?” to wondering, “How did she know I’d need this?” <br /><br />For example, one year for Christmas, Grandma Ruth gave me and my husband a set of plastic plates that looked like they came straight out of the 70s. They were bright rainbow colors. There were three different sizes of six plates. At the time we didn’t have any children and I thought, “what on earth are we going to do with 18 plastic plates?” <br /><br />Fast forward a few years to when we had four children. The plates are made of basically indestructible plastic so they have survived daily use from our children for over a decade. We are a family of six so even the number of plates turned out perfect. <br /><br />Another surprisingly useful gift was four small baby blankets that Grandma Ruth made when my twins were born. The sewing wasn’t precise and the fabric wasn’t “cute.” At first, I thought I’d put the quilts away in a box because they weren’t that great to look at. But I quickly realized what a blessing these “ugly” blankets were. <br /><br />Because I wasn’t worried about ruining them, I did everything with these blankets and took them everywhere. They were the blankets I’d put down on the grass when we went to the park. I brought them on walks because I didn’t worry about them getting dirty if they fell out of the stroller. I used them as burp cloths and diaper changing pads. The fancy and cute blankets were the ones that ended up in a box because I was afraid of ruining them. <br /><br />Perhaps the best gift was two little stuffed reindeer Grandma Ruth gave the twins for their first Christmas. As the twins grew up, the reindeer became their favorite stuffed animals. They named them Antler and Nose. Antler is especially loved—so much so that when she disappeared one year, I frantically combed the internet to find where to buy that dang deer. I was successful and my daughter literally cried when she opened a Christmas present and saw Antler in the box. (The cover story was that Antler went back to the North Pole so Santa could give her more stuffing.)<br /><br />Another Christmas Grandma Ruth wanted to give each of her grandchildren a bedspread. I’ll be honest, I did not like the one that she picked out for my husband, so we traded with his sister who also didn’t like the one she was given. I liked the bedspread we scored in the trade and had it on my bed for years until I upgraded to a King size bed. <br /><br />The bedspread then ended up with my son. It’s one of his favorite blankets to sleep with. Lately, it has taken a beating from frequent washings. The other day, as I was putting the bedspread into the washing machine, I thought that the time had come time to replace it. I immediately thought, “I can’t replace it. This bedspread is perfect because it’s big enough to be warm, but small enough to fit into this washing machine. How did Grandma Ruth know that I’d need a blanket like this?”<br /><br />Thinking about Grandma Ruth’s gifts makes me think about my own gift-giving efforts. How many times have I talked myself out of giving a gift because I was worried someone wouldn’t like it? Or decided not to give a homemade gift because it wasn’t cute or perfect looking? I think I need to be willing to give the gift anyway. I can’t really know the long-term impact of a simple gift.</div><div> <br />What’s a gift you didn’t understand at first but have come to appreciate?</div>Valerie Illguthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06440759347907901629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3395336023145069131.post-88347003843147263852023-04-04T05:00:00.001-05:002023-04-04T05:00:00.426-05:00Making Valentine’s Day Fun for Kids<span id="docs-internal-guid-216bf01b-7fff-5cc7-e920-6c45a19d4164"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post was originally published on East Idaho Collective on February 11, 2022. EIM closed on February 15, 2023. I have moved my posts to this blog in order to preserve the collection of my writing. East Idaho Collective was for women to connect with each other. These posts are less about travel and more about what it was like for me to be a mom in Idaho in 2018-2023.</span></span><div><br /></div>The first Valentine’s Day that I can remember was when I was in first grade. We made big, heart-shaped Valentine Mailboxes and passed out Valentine’s and candy. For some reason, we also had sack lunches with ham and cheese sandwiches in them. Somehow I ended up with some extra sandwiches and I remember taking those sandwiches and all my candy home in my backpack.<br /><br /><div>When I got home, my mom divided up the candy and sandwiches between me and my younger sisters. I still vividly remember how happy we all were as we shared the food while sitting around the table in our tiny kitchen. Since then, Valentine’s Day has been my favorite holiday.<br /><br />I like Valentine’s Day because it provides a good opportunity to express your love to people you care about. It’s actually a relatively simple holiday. Just get some candy, some red stuff, some heart-shaped stuff, have yummy food, spend time with the people you love, and you can have a totally awesome holiday. There isn’t a lot of build-up to the big day. Unlike other holidays, Valentine’s Day can happen and be fun without being overwhelming and exhausting. (I’m looking at you Christmas.)<br /><br />I also like that it’s a holiday that doesn’t require any mythical creatures to be gift-giving middlemen between me and my kids. I don’t have to construct elaborate backstories for an Easter Bunny or Leprechaun. I can just be like, “Hey kids, I bought you this stuffed animal because I love you.”<br /><br />Over the years, my husband and I have morphed Valentine’s Day from a romantic day about our love as a couple into a fun day focused on our love as a family. Here are some of the things we’ve done over the years.<br /><br /></div><div><b>Helium Balloons</b></div><div><b><img src="https://eastidaho.momcollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Val1-225x300.png" /><br /></b><br />Back when my kids were toddlers my husband surprised each of them with a helium balloon on Valentine’s Day and we’ve kept that tradition going ever since. I usually just buy balloons from the dollar store. The supply there can get low the closer it gets to Valentine’s Day, so I try to buy the balloons a few days before the actual holiday.<br /><br /></div><div><b>Treats</b><br /><br />I love trying out new treats for every holiday, but I get especially excited about Valentine’s Day. Maybe it’s because red is my favorite color. Over the years, I’ve made white chocolate popcorn, chocolate-dipped Oreos, chocolate-covered pretzels, Oreo truffles, and several cakes.<br /><br />And if I don’t have time for an elaborate homemade treat, I like that the store has lots of fun treats in cute packaging.<br /><img src="https://eastidaho.momcollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Val2.png" /><br /><img src="https://eastidaho.momcollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Val3.png" /><br /><img src="https://eastidaho.momcollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Val4-180x300.png" /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Little Surprises</b><br /><br />I don’t do this for any other holiday, but on Valentine’s Day I set up a table with all the treats, presents, and balloons for my kids to see when they come home from school. I usually do this a day or two before Valentine’s Day so that it can be a surprise for the kids. I love the looks on their faces when they walk in and see all the fun things set out on the table.<br /><br /></div><div><b>Stuffed Animals</b><br /><br />My kids have entirely too many stuffed animals. Every year at Christmas I refuse to buy any more stuffed animals. But somehow I can’t resist buying them more for Valentine’s Day. I’ll pick some up at the dollar store or Walmart because I know the kids will be so excited. The nice thing about giving them stuffed animals on Valentine’s Day is that stuffed animals don’t get overshadowed by other toys. My kids usually play with the new stuffed animals quite a bit longer than they would if they got them on Christmas.<br /><br /><img src="https://eastidaho.momcollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/val5.png" /><br /><b><img src="https://eastidaho.momcollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/val6-225x300.png" />Valentine’s Day Cards</b><br /><br />I like Valentine’s Day so much I even enjoy prepping the kids’ Valentine’s day cards and treats for school. We’ll block out time in the afternoon a few days before Valentine’s and get all the cards ready. The kids like writing their names on the cards and prepping the treats. Then we put everything into zip lock bags and have them ready to pop into backpacks the night before the school Valentine’s Day parties.<br /><br /><b><img src="https://eastidaho.momcollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/val7-300x225.png" />Valentine’s Boxes</b><br /><br />To be honest, I don’t do much with Valentine’s Day boxes in our house. My two oldest girls are expert crafters and can make anything out of cardboard. I take care of the supplies and they do the rest. Last year we homeschooled so they had quite a bit of extra time to work on their boxes. They made two unicorns, a shark, and a llama. They have plans to reuse these boxes in their classrooms this year.<br /><br /><img src="https://eastidaho.momcollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/val8-300x225.png" /><br /><b>Romantic Dinners At Home</b><br /><br />Of course, Valentine’s Day isn’t just about the kids. My husband and I also give each other presents and go on dates. Some years we have dinner at home and involve our kids as the waiters. The kids love to help and will make cute, misspelled menus.<br /><br /> <br />I hope this list gives you some ideas of how to make Valentine’s Day special for your kids. But the main thing I want you to remember is that the best part about Valentine’s Day is its simplicity. Pick a small thing you can do to show your kids you love them. That’s what it’s really all about.</div><div><br />What’s your favorite Valentine’s Day tradition?</div>Valerie Illguthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06440759347907901629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3395336023145069131.post-43078878806638793602023-04-03T05:00:00.001-05:002023-04-03T05:00:00.214-05:00No One Told Me I’d Think This Much About Socks<span id="docs-internal-guid-3098333c-7fff-6756-6d68-5d30c2b9cd93"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post was originally published on East Idaho Collective on January 12, 2022. EIM closed on February 15, 2023. I have moved my posts to this blog in order to preserve the collection of my writing. East Idaho Collective was for women to connect with each other. These posts are less about travel and more about what it was like for me to be a mom in Idaho in 2018-2023.</span></span><div><br /></div>There have been a lot of things that surprised me about motherhood. I didn’t know how much motherhood would set off my anxiety. I didn’t know that I would have no idea how to do 5th-grade math. I didn’t know how much paperwork I’d have to do for things like school registration and doctor’s appointments.<br /><br /><div>But one of the biggest surprises is how much time I spend thinking about socks.<br />Socks!<br /><br />They are boring and not really that interesting. But they keep my world running.<br /><br />I have four children. They each have two feet. That means every morning I better have 8 socks (preferably matched into pairs) ready to put on their feet. If we don’t have socks, it means the kids can’t put on their shoes and if they can’t put on their shoes it means they aren’t going to leave the house. And if they aren’t leaving the house . . . well let’s just say that’s not a happy scenario.<br /><br />I’ve tried to be smart about our socks. My kids are all basically the same size so thankfully they can all wear the same size socks. I only buy socks that are all one color because I learned years ago that buying any sort of patterned socks was just asking for mismatched socks. We keep all the paired socks in a bin near the front door so they don’t get lost in bedrooms. We have another bin for unmatched socks on the dryer. And a third bin for dirty socks.<br /><br />At the beginning of the school year, I always try to buy enough socks to last us through a whole school week. So that’s 4 pairs times 5 days equals 20 pairs. That’s 40 individual socks. Plus I try to have more for weekends and to have some sort of buffer for when socks are in the laundry.<br /><br /></div><div>But even with all those preparations, I still seem to be searching for socks more often than seems reasonable.<br /><br />My kids wear their socks to bed and take them off under the covers where the socks stay for days. Or my kids put on new socks if they have to put their shoes on for a second time in a day. Or they leave them in the car. Or the socks get left in suitcases after weekend trips.<br /><br />Soon I’m doing laundry every couple of days just to keep the socks we do have in rotation.<br /><br /></div><div>At these times I feel like I’m shaking my kids down for socks. I’ll go into their rooms and search for all the socks squished against the footboards of their beds. I’ll make the kids slide under the couch to look for socks hiding under there. I’ll remind everyone that we need to put socks in the dirty sock bin into the laundry in a timely manner.<br /><br />After a successful sock hunt (or a trip to the store for more socks if it was unsuccessful), I’ll feel like a millionaire. I’ll say things like, “We have enough clean socks to get through the whole week!”<br />And I will be genuinely proud of that fact. Like it’s a huge accomplishment on par with finishing a marathon.<br /><br />Which I guess it kind of is. Socks keep my life running after all.<br /><br />But really, I never knew I’d think this much about socks.</div>Valerie Illguthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06440759347907901629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3395336023145069131.post-75745280336760814212023-03-31T05:00:00.001-05:002023-03-31T05:00:00.200-05:00Word of the Year<span id="docs-internal-guid-af1e69b0-7fff-9525-35bb-d05f4bb98b33"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post was originally published on East Idaho Collective on January 5, 2022. EIM closed on February 15, 2023. I have moved my posts to this blog in order to preserve the collection of my writing. East Idaho Collective was for women to connect with each other. These posts are less about travel and more about what it was like for me to be a mom in Idaho in 2018-2023.</span></span><br /><br />I have an alternative to New Years Resolutions for you. Instead of coming up with a (possibly unrealistic) goal, you come up with a Word of the Year. This word will be an overarching theme and guide for the year. <br /><br />2022 will be my 9th year picking a Word of the Year. Every year toward the end of December I start thinking of things I want to do in the next year and what I want the year to look like. Then I think of words that fit the feeling I’m getting for the new year. <br /><br />I got the idea in 2014 from a comedian named Jennifer Fulwiler. In 2014, she wrote a blog post explaining that her <a href="http://jenniferfulwiler.com/2014/01/when-in-doubt-go/">word for 2014 was Go</a>. <br /><br />This resonated with me, but 2014 was a crazy year for me. At the beginning of the year, I had four children under the age of four AND my husband’s Army unit was preparing to spend most of the year in Korea. I was smart enough to say that I just wanted to survive the year. But a few weeks after my husband left, I felt like maybe survival wasn’t enough. I decided I wanted to do a tiny bit of thriving too. <br /><br />I decided to make up a word for my year. I mashed together Survival and Thrive and came up with Sur-thrival. This was a great theme for a year full of hard and yet wonderful experiences. <br /><br /><div>Here is my list of all the words I’ve used for each year:</div><div><br /></div><div>2014 Sur-thrival (A combination of Survival and Thrive)<br />2015 Maintenance<br />2016 Preparedness<br />2017 No actual Word because I couldn’t get a handle on this year ahead of time, but in hindsight Risk or Recalculating would have been good themes<br />2018 Stability<br />2019 Confidence<br />2020 Grow<br />2021 Gather<br /><br />I had a bit of trouble coming up with a word for 2022. For a little while, I thought the word would be Purpose, but for some reason, that word seemed scary and too big. I have a lot of projects in the works for 2022, but I’m not sure I’m ready for something like Purpose. Maybe I’ll save that one for 2023. <br /><br />I ended up going back to my roots with Jennifer Fulwiler. I still follow her on Social Media and every year she promotes her “<a href="http://wordoftheyear.me/">Word of a Year Generator</a>.” Usually, I already have my word by the time she sends out the link, but this year I needed some help. I hit the button on her word generator and the perfect word for 2022 popped up: Community.<br /><br /></div><div>Do you pick a word of the year?<br /><br />Tell us what word you have selected for 2022!</div>Valerie Illguthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06440759347907901629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3395336023145069131.post-54890870370249685762023-03-30T05:00:00.001-05:002023-03-30T05:00:00.219-05:00So You Think Your Kid Might Need Therapy<span id="docs-internal-guid-e9281f5f-7fff-cd16-a68f-bb7bb0a4a8bb"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post was originally published on East Idaho Collective on October 20, 2021. EIM closed on February 15, 2023. I have moved my posts to this blog in order to preserve the collection of my writing. East Idaho Collective was for women to connect with each other. These posts are less about travel and more about what it was like for me to be a mom in Idaho in 2018-2023.</span></span><div><span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><br />So you think your kid might need therapy.<br /><br />Maybe you’ve suspected it for a while. Maybe your child’s teacher mentioned something that has you concerned. Maybe other people have started hinting that your child needs some help that you can’t provide. <br /><br />Whatever the reason is, I want you to know two important things: <br /><br />You are not a bad parent.<br /><br /><div>You are not alone.<br /><br />We do a lot of therapy in my family. My son is on the Autism Spectrum so he has been in Behavioral Therapy, Speech Therapy, and Occupational Therapy. One of my daughters had some balance problems so she did a stint at Physical Therapy. Another daughter struggles with anxiety. She has not needed therapy yet, but it’s on my radar – especially as she gets older. <br /><br />Right now, our family’s after-school schedule includes different therapies on four days of the week. I sometimes call myself a “Therapy Mom” in the way other moms say they are Soccer Moms or Dance Moms. <br /><br />My relationship with therapy doesn’t just stop there. I also work part-time as an administrative assistant for a Marriage and Family Therapy clinic. I work with professionals who are very good at helping other people sort out their problems. I am in awe of what they can do.<br /><br />I want to pass on a few nuggets of advice that I’ve gleaned over the years from both my role as a parent and from my role at work. <br /><br /><b>It’s not your fault. </b> We need to say this loud and often: It is not your fault. Even children in the best of homes have problems that their parents can’t solve on their own. Seeking therapy for your child is not a sign of failure as a parent. In fact, getting your child the help they need means you are doing a good job as a parent. <br /><br /><b>It’s okay to miss school for therapy.</b> At work, when I help parents schedule therapy appointments for their children, I often hear, “I don’t want to take him out of school” or “She’s already missed so much school this year, I don’t want her to miss more.” I get that it is disruptive to take the child out of school. But therapy is important – especially if you are working on mental health. That hour at therapy is worth missing school.<br /><br />Think of it this way. If your child had a broken bone you would do everything you could to get them to the doctor as soon as possible and to make it to the follow-up appointments. The school would completely understand if your child had to miss class to go to the doctor for a broken bone. It is the same with mental health. Your child’s mental health is just as important as their physical health. <br /><br />If you are still concerned about your child missing school, see if you can schedule an appointment during the first or last hours of school. These are times when it is less disruptive to pull a child out of school. <br /><br /><b>Get used to paperwork.</b> There is a lot of paperwork involved in being a parent anyway, and having a child in therapy seems to double it. You’ll fill out demographic info, questionnaires, insurance paperwork, etc. It can seem pointless and daunting. But don’t let the paperwork keep you from getting your child the help they need. A little work filling out paperwork is worth the benefits that therapy will bring.<br /><br /><b>Call around.</b> Unfortunately, therapy providers can get booked up quickly. You may make a phone call to the office you were hoping to get into, and then find out that all the therapists have a 3-month long waitlist. Don’t get discouraged. Ask to be put on the waitlist, but don’t just wait. Call other offices. You may find another place with someone who could see you sooner.<br /><br /><b>Focus on one thing at a time. </b>If your child is having problems in multiple areas, it can be tempting to try to solve all the problems at once. Sometimes that is the best approach. For me, that is too overwhelming, and I suspect it would be too overwhelming for my son. Instead, I’ve gradually ramped up my son’s therapies. We started with Behavioral Therapy. Once that had been part of our routine for a year, I added Speech Therapy. After a year of Speech Therapy, I added Occupational Therapy. This gradual approach allowed us to get used to each new therapy without feeling like we overcommitted.<br /><br /><b>Use school resources.</b> Private therapy is great, but there are also resources your child can access at school. If you think your child could benefit from Speech, Occupational, or Physical Therapy at school, then write an email to the school principal asking for your child to be evaluated in that area. (Make sure you do this in writing.) If you know who the Special Education teacher is, you can copy them on the email for good measure. The school should have your child evaluated and then let you know if they qualify for services.<br /><br />If your child is struggling with mental health challenges, talk to the school counselor. When my daughter first started showing signs of anxiety, we had a meeting with the school counselor and her teacher. My daughter really appreciated that meeting because it showed her that we were all willing to help her.<br /><br /><b>Use community resources. </b>If you are wondering how to pay for therapy, I encourage you to apply for Medicaid. Even if you have insurance, you may qualify to use Medicaid as secondary insurance. If your income is too high to qualify for traditional Medicaid, you may still qualify for the YES (Youth Empowerment Services) or Katie Beckett Medicaid. These are programs that help pay for services for children whose parents make too much for traditional Medicaid. There will be paperwork and some leg work involved, but trust me, these programs are worth the paperwork. <br /><br />For more information about the Katie Beckett program or YES go to <a href="https://healthandwelfare.idaho.gov/services-programs/medicaid-health/about-katie-beckett-program">https://healthandwelfare.idaho.gov/services-programs/medicaid-health/about-katie-beckett-program</a> or <a href="https://healthandwelfare.idaho.gov/services-programs/medicaid-health/youth-empowerment-services-yes">https://healthandwelfare.idaho.gov/services-programs/medicaid-health/youth-empowerment-services-yes.</a><br /><br />If you feel you need help understanding the application process, reach out to Idaho Parents Unlimited. This non-profit organization is dedicated to helping parents of children with disabilities and is very knowledgeable about the application process for many services. Learn more on the Idaho Parents Unlimited website: <a href="https://ipulidaho.org/">https://ipulidaho.org/.</a><br /><br /><b>Don’t forget your non-therapy kids. </b>Your other children might get a little jealous of how much attention you are giving the child who is in therapy. Find ways to support your other children. Over the years, I have done this a couple of different ways. Sometimes I have put my other children into their own extracurricular activities. Right now, one of my kids has requested that we have “Mommy Time” where we lay on my bed and watch Youtube together for 30 minutes. I literally have that scheduled weekly on my calendar. However you do it, make sure that your other children know they are a priority in your life too.</div><div><br />I hope I haven’t overwhelmed you with this list. Like any new activity, starting therapy can be intimidating. But it is doable. You’ve got this.<br /><br /></div><div>And remember, you are not a bad parent and you are not alone.</div>Valerie Illguthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06440759347907901629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3395336023145069131.post-60651824376173258352023-03-29T05:00:00.001-05:002023-03-29T05:00:00.216-05:00Emotionally Preparing for Winter<span id="docs-internal-guid-8f6cc4a7-7fff-c3f3-7da5-7c74abed38b0"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post was originally published on East Idaho Collective on October 4, 2021. EIM closed on February 15, 2023. I have moved my posts to this blog in order to preserve the collection of my writing. East Idaho Collective was for women to connect with each other. These posts are less about travel and more about what it was like for me to be a mom in Idaho in 2018-2023.</span></span><div><br /></div>Autumn. It’s a beautiful time of the year. Trees are changing from green to jewel-toned. Gourds and straw start popping up as decorations. The air gets cooler, and suddenly everyone is wearing boots and sweaters.<div> <br />But underneath the beauty of autumn is a feeling that it’s time to prepare for winter. <br /><br />I struggle with winter. I think it’s a combination of the short days and the colder temperatures. Maybe it also has something to do with my four kids who need gloves and boots and warm coats every time they leave the house.<br /><br />So while I’m excited about cooler weather now that it’s fall, I’m already preparing for winter. <br /><br />There are a lot of ways to physically prepare for winter (find the warm quilts, see if the kids still fit their winter gear, have the furnace tuned up, etc.), but today I want to focus on how to emotionally prepare for winter. Over the years I’ve come up with several things that help me survive the dark, cold days of winter. I want to share some of them with you. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Invest in something cozy.</b> Whether it’s socks or a really soft scarf, I like having something that makes winter more comfortable. Last year each of my kids received plush blankets for Christmas because they were all stealing my soft blanket. <br /><br /></div><div><b>Stock up on puzzles.</b> My family got really into puzzles during the first Covid shut down in 2020. Last winter, we tried out some new puzzles and found that they are a really fun activity for cold afternoons. Even simple 100 piece puzzles from the dollar store were enough to keep the boredom away. <br /><br /></div><div><b>Have a list of books you want to read.</b> I am always reading, but during the winter I feel like I can really indulge my reading habit. I reserved a lot of books from the library and last winter, two huge books were available at the same time. I finished them both in three weeks. I also like to read a book out loud to my kids in the hour before bedtime. There’s something so nice about reading books under the light of a good lamp while it’s dark outside. <br /><br /></div><div><b>Plant bulbs. </b>Fall is the time to plant bulbs that will bloom in the spring. Every spring I’m so excited to see the little points from the bulbs pushing out of the ground. These are some of the first flowers to bloom in the spring and they can handle frosts and snowstorms. After a long, grey winter, it is so refreshing to see new life growing. I’ve grown tulips at my house for the last two years. This year I plan to add crocuses, daffodils, and hyacinths.</div><div><br /><b>Buy an Amaryllis bulb at Christmas. </b>Yes, this is another tip involving flowers. In December, you will see Amaryllis growing kits on endcaps at every store. The kits are less than $10 and come with everything you need to grow an Amaryllis flower in a pot. I try to buy one of these every year. I call them “January Insurance.” When all the magic of the holidays has faded away, and January feels long and dreary, I can always count on feeling joy while I watch my Amaryllis grow.</div><div><br /><b> Invest in a sled. </b>What is the point of snow if you can’t enjoy it? We try to go sledding as a family at least once every winter. My family started out with one sled and have gradually added one or two every year. Last year I claimed we’d reached “peak parenting” because every member of the family had a sled.</div><div> <br /><b>Plan a visit to a hot spring. </b>When winter gets cold and snowy it feels rebellious to wear a bathing suit and sit outside in hot water. We are so lucky that Idaho has several awesome hot springs. When my family lived in Pocatello we made it a New Year tradition to visit Lava Hot Springs during the first week of each new year. We’ve continued that tradition in Twin Falls with 1000 Springs Resort and Miracle Hot Springs.</div><div><br />These are my tips, but I’m always looking for new ideas for how to make winter a little more bearable. What do you do in the winter to keep the winter blues away?</div>Valerie Illguthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06440759347907901629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3395336023145069131.post-30389127382466217652023-03-28T05:00:00.001-05:002023-03-28T05:00:00.205-05:00Tips and Tricks for Successful School Supply Shopping<span id="docs-internal-guid-1d17e13a-7fff-68dc-428b-9e042c8b7a37"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post was originally published on East Idaho Collective on August 21, 2021. EIM closed on February 15, 2023. I have moved my posts to this blog in order to preserve the collection of my writing. East Idaho Collective was for women to connect with each other. These posts are less about travel and more about what it was like for me to be a mom in Idaho in 2018-2023.</span></span><div><span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><br />Six years ago, my three oldest children started Pre-K at the same time. That means I’ve been back to school shopping for multiple kids since the very beginning. Over the years I have learned some tips for how to make back-to-school shopping for multiple kids go smoothly. Follow these steps to save yourself some stress!<br /><br /><div><b>Step 1: Look up the school supply list before you go shopping.</b><br /><br />Yes, some stores have the school supply lists available when you go to the store, but with multiple kids, you can’t just glance at the list. You will want to do some prep-work before you start shopping. Take the time to look up the school supply list on the district or school website.<br /><br /><b>Step 2: Create one supply chart for all of your kids.</b><br /><br />On a separate sheet of paper, chart the supplies your kids need this year. You can do this in Excel or by hand. You will want to list your children’s names in columns across the top of the page and create rows for each supply down the length of the paper.<br /><br />Go through the school supply list for each child and fill in the chart. For example, if the 4th-grade list says colored pencils, you will “Colored Pencils” in the row and the number (in this case, 1) in the column for your 4th grader.<br /><br />This is a picture of the chart I made this year. Clearly, I wasn’t concerned about presentation. I just needed a way to organize all the different lists.<br /><img src="https://eastidaho.momcollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Val1.jpg" /><br /><br />From there, total the row to determine how many of each supply you will need. For example, I needed two erasers for both of my 5th graders, one for my 4th grader, and four for my 2nd grader, for a total of nine erasers.</div><div><br />Helpful tip: Don’t try to understand the amounts that each grade asks for. There is no discernible logic. Just accept it and move on.<br /><br /></div><div><b>Step 3: Get on the website for your favorite store and order all the supplies ONLINE.</b><br /><br />Do NOT, I repeat DO NOT, think that it will be more fun to take the kids to the store. It will not be fun. Online shopping is so much easier for this sort of thing. You can literally type in #2 Presharpened Ticonderoga Pencils and see all your options. You won’t have to go searching all over the school supply aisle while keeping an eye on your kids. You won’t have to wonder if you are missing a good deal while fielding purchase requests from your kids.<br /><br />Use the totals from your chart to figure out how many things you need to buy. For some things, you will be able to get the exact amount you need. Others will be a little trickier to get the right amount. For example, I needed 9 erasers, but the best option was to buy them in packs of 6. So I ended up with 12. </div><div><br /></div><div>That’s okay. I’ll keep the extras at home.<br /><br /></div><div><b>Step 4: Wait for your order to arrive or pick it up at the store.</b><br /><br />This year I ordered supplies before I went out of town for the weekend. I didn’t expect the supplies to show up at my house until Monday. But the store sent deliveries to my house on Saturday. I had to text my neighbor to get the packages off of my porch. So maybe try to plan your deliveries for a time when you know you will be home.</div><div><br /><b>Step 5: Divide the supplies based on the original school supply list.</b><br /><br />This is a fun time to involve your children. They can help read off their list and find their supplies out of the general pile. If you are really feeling creative you could even set up a “store” at home where they can pretend to shop for their supplies.<br /><br />A lot of schools like to have you label the supplies with your child’s name. This is a good time to do that.</div><div><br /><b>Step 6: Make notes of any supplies that are still missing</b><br /><br />Unfortunately, there will probably be a few supplies that are left out of your order for various reasons. When I put together my order there were a few notebooks that were out of stock. I didn’t realize they had been canceled from my online order until I was helping my kids divide up their supplies. I also remembered we never ordered a watercolor paint set. And one set of headphones was never delivered. I had to make a quick run to the store to buy the few remaining supplies and I had to contact the seller to see about the missing headphones.</div><div><br />This was still easier than trying to buy all the supplies in person.<br /><br /></div><div><b>Step 7: Drop off the supplies</b><br /><br />Most schools like you to bring the supplies in on Back to School night. It is easier than having them in your child’s backpack on the first day of school.<br />Some more helpful tips:<br /><br />Verify with your school that they really do want everything on the supply lists. Sometimes the lists are compiled by the district which means individual teachers don’t really have a need for everything on the list. It’s not fun to have school supplies go unused. So if this is your first time at a school, you might want to check to see who made the list.<br /><br />Check amounts carefully. This year I accidentally ordered double the number of pencils I needed because I thought the boxes were 24-count when they were really 48-count. Oops. At least we’ll have a great pencil supply at home this year.<br /><br />Save supplies at the end of the year. Some things like pencil boxes and scissors can be reused from year to year (or sibling to sibling). When school supplies come home at the end of the year, save the supplies to use again.</div><div><br />Hopefully this helps you as you embark on school supply shopping this year!</div>Valerie Illguthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06440759347907901629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3395336023145069131.post-48016057928133544912023-03-27T05:00:00.001-05:002023-03-27T05:00:00.206-05:00The Gift of Unexpected Experiences<span id="docs-internal-guid-f081a3ce-7fff-51b5-1ce9-83877be99bc1"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post was originally published on East Idaho Collective on July 13, 2021. EIM closed on February 15, 2023. I have moved my posts to this blog in order to preserve the collection of my writing. East Idaho Collective was for women to connect with each other. These posts are less about travel and more about what it was like for me to be a mom in Idaho in 2018-2023.</span></span><div><span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><br />Experience gifts have become a trend in the last few years. The basic idea is that instead of giving a physical gift (like a toy), you give something a little less tangible, but with more potential for memories (like a trip to the movies).<br /><br />I’m a huge fan of experience gifts. Over the years my family has enjoyed trips to zoos, pools, hot springs, aquariums, restaurants, movies, roller rinks, bowling alleys, museums, and many other fun places. We plan to do many more of these experience gifts. <br /><br />But recently something happened on one of our trips that made me rethink the definition of an “Experience Gift.” <br /><br />At the end of June, I took my kids on an overnight trip from Twin Falls to Idaho Falls. On our second day in Idaho Falls, I had a whole list of experiences I was hoping to do together. We’d visit the Idaho Falls Zoo, we’d have lunch at McDonald’s, we’d visit the Museum of Idaho, and before we drove home, we’d make sure to take a picture with the “Where the Red Fern Grows” statue in front of the Idaho Falls Library. <br /><br />Halfway through our day of planned experiences, we had an unexpected experience. I locked my keys in the car and I didn’t realize it until we came out of McDonald’s. I fumbled for my keys, searching through my purse until one of my daughters looked in the car and saw them dangling from the ignition. <br /><br />When my kids realized where the keys were I could see the panic on their faces. This was the first time I’d ever locked the keys in the car. We were far from home. Dad wasn’t nearby with his keys. They had no idea what we were going to do. <br /><br />I explained that we were going to call a Locksmith. Then I had to explain what a locksmith was. We went back into McDonald’s and the kids watched me ask a lady behind the counter for a recommendation for who to call. They listened to the things I said when I made the phone call. When the locksmith arrived they watched me talk with him. After the car door was opened, they saw me pay him. <br /><br />We were back onto our planned itinerary with barely a 30-minute delay. But in the days since this event, I’ve realized this experience was a great life lesson for the kids. One of my goals as a parent is to teach my kids how to be competent adults one day. Knowing what to do when you lock your keys in the car is certainly a life skill my kids will need at some point in their adult lives.<br /><br /><div>I need to remember that sometimes unexpected experiences can turn out to be gifts too. <br /><br /></div><div>And shout out to Mel’s Lock and Key (<a href="https://www.melslock.com/">https://www.melslock.com/</a>) for prompt and courteous service. </div>Valerie Illguthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06440759347907901629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3395336023145069131.post-88393721402178411392023-03-24T05:00:00.001-05:002023-03-24T05:00:00.204-05:00Three Irrefutable Laws of Moving<span id="docs-internal-guid-4e4f7df2-7fff-7ac7-5257-054770103691"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post was originally published on East Idaho Collective on June 23, 2021. EIM closed on February 15, 2023. I have moved my posts to this blog in order to preserve the collection of my writing. East Idaho Collective was for women to connect with each other. These posts are less about travel and more about what it was like for me to be a mom in Idaho in 2018-2023.</span></span><div><br /></div>I’ve moved a lot in my adult life. My husband and I have lived in 10 homes in the 14 years we’ve been married. In the last decade, we have lived in five states. The longest I’ve stayed in one home was 2 years and 4 months in Fort Hood, Texas. The shortest was three months in an RV in Yellowstone National Park. The longest distance I’ve ever moved was 2,000 miles from Fort Rucker, Alabama to Eden, Utah. The shortest distance was from an upstairs apartment to a downstairs apartment in the same building in Bountiful, Utah. <br /><br />For two moves, movers packed and loaded my stuff. Other times I have packed my own stuff. (Usually, friends have helped pack some of my stuff.) Moving companies have driven my stuff between states twice. All the other moves were done with my husband driving the moving van. I have moved with no children, with two children, with three children, and with four children. <br /><br />In all these moves, I have learned that there are at least three irrefutable Laws of Moving. These are like the laws of Physics. You can’t escape them. What goes up, must go down. That kind of thing. <br /><br />Here are the Three Irrefutable Laws of Moving and some pointers on how to work with them.<br /><br /><div><b>1. You will hate all your stuff at some point.</b><br /><br />This is the most important rule. There will be a point sometime in your move where you look at all your stuff and realize that you wish you could just leave it all behind. I can’t tell you when this moment will happen. It may happen when you are packing, or when you are loading the truck, or maybe it won’t happen until you unpack, but it will happen. Our most recent move was from Pocatello to Twin Falls in August of 2019. While I was getting everything ready for the move, I had a friend on Facebook post a picture of her storage unit. There had been a fire and many of her things were ruined. I knew this was a tragedy, but honestly, my very first response was to feel jealous. I wished a fire would ruin most of my stuff so I didn’t have to move it. <br /><br />The trick to working with this rule is to do some serious decluttering before you pack. Then continue that decluttering as you box things up. This is the time to do some serious Marie Kondo questioning. In addition to asking yourself, “Does this spark joy?” think “Will I be happy to see the thing again when I unpack it or will I wonder why I thought this junk was worth moving?”<br /><br />For me, I have found it helpful to jettison furniture before our big moves. Most of our furniture is made up of second-hand finds so none of it is really worth moving. We can easily replace it on the other side of the move. In the past, I’ve tried to pair our big stuff down by half. So if we have two couches, I will get rid of one and move the other. Obviously, there are some things that are worth hanging onto like beds, but even those can be reevaluated. On two separate moves, I gave away cribs before the move and upgraded the child to a twin-sized bed when we moved into our new home.</div><div><br /><b>2. The closer you get to the day of the move, the more civilization breaks down in your home.</b><br /><br />As more of your things get packed up, you will realize that you are less able to go about your normal routine. Your pots and pans are packed so you can’t cook. Your bed is taken down so you are sleeping on a mattress on the floor. Your washer and dryer are unhooked so you can’t do laundry. Your TV is boxed up so your kids have nothing to keep them occupied while you are trying to get things done. <br /><br />This is the time to admit that things won’t look like they normally do. Plan to eat cereal and pizza for a few days. Find out where the laundry mat is in your town. Consider sleeping at a hotel for the last night or two. Really lean into your support system. Ask a friend if your kids can spend a few hours at their house while you finish packing. Have someone come over and help vacuum. Heck, even hire a cleaning service to do your final clean for you. Trust me, you will not survive this stage without help. <br /><br /></div><div><b>3. You will never have as much time or energy for all the “last things” as you think you do.</b><br /><br />No matter how good your intentions are, you will never accomplish every “last thing” you wish you could. There is just too much time critical stuff to do. You have to pack, you have to cancel utilities at your current home and start them at your future one, you have to clean, you have to pack more, you have to pick up a moving truck, you have to coordinate movers and childcare, you have to cook with half of your stuff packed, you have to cook with all your stuff packed, you have to figure out where you are sleeping after all the beds are packed, you have to figure out how to put your car on a trailer behind the truck…I could go on. It never ends. A move will suck up all your time and energy. <br /><br />When my husband and I were moving from Logan to Bountiful, Utah, I had plans to make cookies to take to all my co-workers on my last day of work. I waited to pack the baking ingredients and pans so I could make the cookies. Well, I never had time to do that. I ended up moving with a bag of flour and a cookie sheet in the passenger seat of my car. <br /><br />When I was moving from Texas to Alabama, I thought it would be cute to put together little bags of Life Saver’s Candy to give to all the “Life Saver” friends who helped with the move. I even bought little fabric bags to put the candies in. Sounds easy right? But time just evaporated and the little candies never made it into the bags or handed out to a single helper. My kids and I ate the candy a few weeks later in Alabama.<br /><br />I don’t want to discourage you. There will be time for some last things. Just realize that you probably won’t do everything you hoped to – especially as you get closer to the day of the move. So if you want to have a goodbye party or do one last fun thing in your town, plan it for a few days before you start packing up the big stuff.</div><div> <br />Now that you know about these laws, I hope they will help you as you plan the details for your next move. I can’t promise that your move will be easy – I’m not sure there is such a thing. But it can certainly be less stressful if you are aware of these laws. <br /><br />Good luck.</div>Valerie Illguthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06440759347907901629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3395336023145069131.post-10567776346960850982023-03-23T05:00:00.001-05:002023-03-23T05:00:00.559-05:00An Ode to Summer<span id="docs-internal-guid-692b3134-7fff-6c23-b86b-d86aa07ef6b0"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post was originally published on East Idaho Collective on June 8, 2021. EIM closed on February 15, 2023. I have moved my posts to this blog in order to preserve the collection of my writing. East Idaho Collective was for women to connect with each other. These posts are less about travel and more about what it was like for me to be a mom in Idaho in 2018-2023.</span></span><div><span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>I’m so excited it’s summer again. I love summer because it’s when I feel like I can be the best mom. The hectic pace from the school year is put on pause. The mornings are more relaxed. The kids’ clothes aren’t as complicated. We can focus on enjoying our downtime.<br /><br />I’m very career-oriented and have had several jobs during the last five years. But I’ve mostly worked part-time because I want to still have time to enjoy the summers with my kids while they are young. I know that one day my kids won’t be around as much during the summer months and so I want to make the most of it while I can. <br /><br />Here is my ode to what summer is right now. <br /><br />Summer is kids getting out of bed at 9:00.<br /><br />Summer is NOT needing to make sure we have enough socks for the next day.<br /><br />Summer is stained countertops when my kids make homemade popsicles with punch.<br /><br />Summer is swimming at the local pool two to three times a week to make the pool pass worth the money.<br /><br />Summer is NOT having to worry about making lunch for my kids because of free Lunch in the Park (or Grab and Go lunches in this post-Covid world.) <br /><br />Summer is staying up late and watching my kids play night games in the front yard.<br /><br />Summer is baseball caps and uncombed hair.<br /><br />Summer is watching my kids conquer the diving board.<br /><br />Summer is outdoor movies.<br /><br />Summer is sleeping in the treehouse.<br /><br />Summer is boxes of winter clothes tucked out of sight in the closets.<br /><br />Summer is kids watching a movie after getting worn out at the pool.<br /><br />Summer is making homemade ice cream and balking at the price of cream, but then wondering why we only make this once a year.<br /><br />Summer is eating on the patio.<br /><br />Summer is cousins coming to visit from out of state.<br /><br />Summer is day-trips to Lava Hot Springs and Bear Lake.<br /><br />Summer is watching my garden grow and eating fresh peas and cherry tomatoes right out of the garden.<br /><br />Summer is watching fireworks surrounded by strangers on the Fourth of July.<br /><br />Summer is taking tons of swimming suit selfies because my high neck swimming suit makes me feel confident. <br /><br />Summer is listening to live music downtown.<br /><br />Summer is planning special bowling and roller skating trips. (And realizing that we’ve forgotten how to wear socks.)<br /><br />Summer is discovering new trails and revisiting favorite hikes.<br /><br />Summer is watching flowers grow and bees buzz.<br /><br />Summer is the smell of sunscreen which is also the smell of adventure.<br /><br />Summer is beautiful. <br /><br />Summer is love. Valerie Illguthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06440759347907901629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3395336023145069131.post-66744519042151453272023-03-22T05:00:00.001-05:002023-03-22T05:00:00.215-05:00Find the Perfect Gift for Every Occasion<span id="docs-internal-guid-a38a3ce0-7fff-6fec-d696-f75a5f17ab46"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post was originally published on East Idaho Collective on <span id="docs-internal-guid-2483101a-7fff-d759-8cfd-1e7ac707701f"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">February 9, 2021</span></span>. EIM closed on February 15, 2023. I have moved my posts to this blog in order to preserve the collection of my writing. East Idaho Collective was for women to connect with each other. These posts are less about travel and more about what it was like for me to be a mom in Idaho in 2018-2023.</span></span><div><br /></div>Holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries should be special, fun days. However, they have the potential to turn into disappointing days when we might not get exactly what we wanted or expected. We somehow believe that our significant other should be able to read our minds or just “know” what we want. We are all waiting for the perfect surprise from our significant other, but unfortunately, no matter how much they love us, they sometimes fail to make the day live up to our expectations. <br /><br />A few years ago my sister, Lindsey, came up with an excellent idea for how she and her husband could communicate better about special occasions. I loved this idea, and have used it a few times to communicate with my husband. It has definitely helped us as we’ve planned for special days. <br />Since Valentine’s Day is coming up, I thought I would share Lindsey’s genius idea with all of you. <br /><br />I’m going to let her tell you about her idea, but first I want to introduce Lindsey to you. Lindsey is one of my favorite people in the world. I’m two years older than her so I can’t remember a time when she wasn’t in my life. We shared a room most of the time we were growing up, and our nights were full of lots of laughter at silly jokes.<br /><br />She’s been married for 13 years and has 3 children. She works as a teacher in Houston, Texas. Lindsey is the type of woman you want to hang out with. She can make anything into a game, yet she also has a really level head and can solve problems well. I’ve benefited from her advice many times.<br /><br />That problem-solving ability came in handy when it came to special occasions. <br /><br />Here’s Lindsey’s story:<br /><br /><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><i>On Mother’s Day in 2014, I stayed in bed hoping my husband would be jumping up any moment to make breakfast for me. Instead, I heard my toddlers waking up so I got up and made the kids breakfast. “Breakfast in bed is overrated,” I told myself.</i></blockquote><i><br /></i><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><i>Then I got the kids ready for church. On a normal Sunday, the kids and I would have left for church with the understanding that my husband would meet us at church. But this was Mother’s Day. I wanted to arrive as a family. I went upstairs to see if I could hurry him along. He was still asleep! </i></blockquote><i><br /></i><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><i>I wasn’t just annoyed, I was mad. “It’s Mother’s Day!” I yelled. “I would like to look like a happy family on Mother’s Day. Aren’t you going to come with us?“ I left in a huff and went to church without him.</i></blockquote><i><br /></i><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><i>Later, I learned that he had forgotten to buy me anything for Mother’s Day. His plan had been to pretend to sleep in so I would leave for church without him. Then he would go to the store while I was gone. </i></blockquote><i><br /></i><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><i>This obviously was the wrong move on his part. I didn’t want a stuffed animal and waxy chocolates. I wanted to have breakfast together and go to church in the same car at the same time. I thought he should have been able to sense what I wanted just by the fact that we were married.</i></blockquote><i><br /></i><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><i>The rest of the day wasn’t much better. Did he know that after church I wanted to read a book alone in my room while he took the kids to the park? No. Did he know that I didn’t care about a fancy dinner? No.</i></blockquote><i><br /></i><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><i>I was mad at him, but I realized that he could tell similar stories of not so stellar birthdays and Father’s Days that he had endured.</i></blockquote><i><br /></i><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><i>I began thinking that I wouldn’t let another holiday go by with one or both of us feeling disappointed. We needed a way to tell each other what we wanted for special occasions.</i></blockquote><i><br /></i><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><i>So I came up with a plan: I made a birthday and holiday questionnaire. </i></blockquote><i><br /></i><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><i>The next holiday was Father’s Day. A week before Father’s Day, I printed the questionnaire and gave it to my husband to fill out. After he filled it out, I didn’t have to guess at what he wanted or didn’t want. Yes, he wanted a big breakfast in bed. No, he didn’t need flowers or balloons. I found out he really didn’t even want a gift.</i></blockquote><i><br /></i><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><i>It was so nice to know what he wanted and be able to plan for that. It was a wonderful Father’s Day for everyone.</i></blockquote><i><br /></i><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><i>A month later, we used the questionnaire again when my birthday came up in July. It worked! I got exactly what I wanted! My husband made breakfast for me. He bought the right gifts. The day was amazing.</i></blockquote><i><br /></i><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><i>The truth is that we aren’t mind-readers. We need to be clearly communicating to our spouses and family about what it is that we are expecting. We need to be upfront about what we want. My questionnaire has helped us communicate much better. Thanks to the questionnaire, every holiday and birthday has been wonderfully transparent. We’ve used it for over 6 years and will continue to use it for many years. I’ve joked that this is the PDF that saved my marriage. </i></blockquote><br />Lindsey shared the PDF of the questionnaire with me after she made it. I loved it and used it several times with my husband. These days, my husband and I don’t use it for every special occasion, but it has come in handy whenever we have trouble coming up with ideas. I actually filled it out a few days ago for my birthday because I needed help figuring out what I wanted.<div> <br />Lindsey has been kind enough to share her questionnaire with us. Click on the PDF below to print it out and give it a try with your significant other this Valentine’s Day. You’re are going to love the results.<br /><br /><a href="https://eastidaho.momcollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Valerie_PDF-for-special-occations.pdf">Special Occasion PDF to Print</a></div>Valerie Illguthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06440759347907901629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3395336023145069131.post-54119356896180836972023-03-21T05:00:00.001-05:002023-03-21T05:00:00.210-05:00Three Births, Three Completely Different Experiences<span id="docs-internal-guid-5a9797dc-7fff-e539-bdbd-9d729b7d12bf"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post was originally published on East Idaho Collective on January 25, 2021. EIM closed on February 15, 2023. I have moved my posts to this blog in order to preserve the collection of my writing. East Idaho Collective was for women to connect with each other. These posts are less about travel and more about what it was like for me to be a mom in Idaho in 2018-2023.</span></span><div><span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>Pregnancy is full of unknowns. One of the biggest unknowns is what to expect from labor. There are so many different birth options available and every expectant mother wonders about each of them. I can help with taking away a little bit of the mystery. I’ve had three pregnancies and gave birth a different way each time. I’m going to share some details of my different birth experiences to help you know what to expect.<br /><br />First, I want to add a little disclaimer: I’m not a doctor, so please don’t use these stories in place of medical advice from a doctor or midwife. These are just my experiences that I’m sharing to help you as you research what to expect from labor.<br /><br /><b>Planned Cesarean (C-Section)</b><br /><br /><img src="https://eastidaho.momcollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/val1-300x225.jpg" /><div><br /></div><div>I started with a twin pregnancy. One baby was breech and so we opted to do a C-section. I had time to do some research before the big day. I recommend that every pregnant woman at least consider the fact that she might have a C-section. Knowing what to expect will make it far less scary when it actually happens.<br /><br />My mother-in-law was one of my best sources of information. She also had twins so she knew what I would be going through. She told me all about the spinal block and the fact that prior to starting surgery, I would have my arms spread away from my body like I was on a cross. The staff does this to prevent any reflex grasping motions when they start the procedure. This information freaked me out. I didn’t know if I could handle being in that position but when it happened, it wasn’t that big of a deal. My arms didn’t have anywhere else to be anyway. My husband held my hand and it distracted me most of the time.<br /><br />The thing that actually drove me the craziest was the curtain that was right in front of my face. It made me feel really claustrophobic. Since my body was numb, I kind of felt like a disembodied head. My husband was good at telling me what was going on and my anesthesiologist was also really attentive to me. I liked knowing that the anesthesiologist was paying attention to me while all the other staff was focused on the babies.<br /><br />Some people complain that their C-section hurt their initial bonding experience with their baby. I didn’t really see my daughters until an hour after they were born. My oldest had a collapsed lung so I didn’t hold her until about 60 hours (yes, as in two and a half days) later. But I didn’t love my girls any less. It was a little surreal seeing them for the first time in their hospital rooms because I didn’t see them come out of my body, but I still knew they were my babies. In all honestly, the whole hospital experience was surreal.<br /><br />I did cheat a bit on the recovery part of a C-Section. My babies were preterm and had to stay in the NICU so I didn’t have to take care of them while I was recovering. For the first four days, I’d go over to special care for a few hours to help with diaper changes and feeding and then go back to my room. After I was discharged I spent another 14 days living at the hospital and helping take care of the girls. My body was mostly healed by the time the girls came home from the hospital.<br /><br />My two tips to make recovering from C-sections far less painful are these. First, wear a postpartum belly wrap. This isn’t for vanity reasons. The belly wrap will hold your abdomen together so you don’t feel like you are splitting open. The hospital should provide you with one if you ask or you can buy your own ahead of time. Second, stay on top of your pain. Take your medicine on time and communicate your needs to the hospital staff. The worst pain I experienced was in my shoulder. It was referred pain from gas. I let my nurse know and she gave me a pill that took care of it.</div><div><br /><b>Medicated Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC)</b><br /><br />At the beginning of my next pregnancy, I knew I wanted to try to give birth vaginally. I had worried that I would have to fight with my doctor to even get her to consider doing a VBAC. Instead, when I first saw her with my second pregnancy, she asked, “Do you want to try for a VBAC?” She was awesome.<br /><br />My labor was long and overnight. I’d been hoping to do the labor completely unmedicated, but at about 2:00 in the morning I realized I was completely worn out. I asked for an epidural and after the procedure, my husband and I were able to get about three hours of sleep before it was time to push the baby out. And thanks to the epidural, the pushing didn’t hurt. The downside was that I was completely numb. My husband and a nurse had to hold my legs while I pushed.<br /><br />Throughout the labor, I was monitored much more than I would have been had I not had a C-section. I had to stay in bed and that probably slowed things down. But the extra monitoring was less restrictive than a C-section would have been.<br /><br />After my son was born, I was able to get up, walk, and go to the bathroom within an hour. With the C-section, it took about a day before I could do any of those things.<br /><br />I’d say the only downside to a vaginal birth is that you have to sit on the area that is recovering. And hospital beds do not help this situation. It seems like every time I got the bed adjusted in a somewhat comfortable position, someone would come in and need to examine me. The recovery was much faster than with the C-section. Within a few days, sitting was okay and within a few weeks, everything was back to normal.<br /><br />My main tip for a vaginal birth is to make sure you have a good supply of Tucks Medicated Pads. I needed those after pushing my 9-pound baby out.<br /><br /></div><div><b>Unplanned Homebirth</b><br /><br /><img src="https://eastidaho.momcollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/val2-300x225.jpg" /></div><div><br /></div><div>First off, I should be clear that my youngest daughter’s birth was very much an accidental home birth. I never in my wildest dreams thought that I would ever have a baby at home. It certainly wasn’t something that I wanted to do. I couldn’t wrap my mind around the thought of doing something so bloody in my own home.<br /><br />However, my labor went quicker than I anticipated. Much quicker. I was in transition 90 minutes after I started having regular contractions. My husband barely made it back from dropping the kids off at the babysitter’s when the baby was crowning. There wasn’t any option to say, “hey let’s see if we can make it to the hospital so we don’t have to have the baby here.”<br /><br />My daughter was delivered by my husband and two neighbors who ran over when they heard me screaming. It took two pushes to get her out. Her cord was tied off with shoelaces from another neighbor’s shoes. The ambulance showed up 10 minutes after my daughter was born.<br /><br />I think one reason my labor went so fast was because I was at home. If I’d gone to the hospital they would have sat me down on a bed and hooked me up to a bunch of monitors for another V-BAC. I suspect that would have slowed things down at least a little bit. Instead, I was walking around my house trying to pack last minute things and get the kids ready to go to the babysitter’s house. When I did have a contraction, I’d just hunch over, grimace, make funny noises, and breath through the pain. Then I’d get back to trying to find shoes for the kids.<br /><br />Even though it was a fast labor, the delivery still hurt. Words really can’t express how much delivering a baby hurts. Agony is probably the best word to describe it. I thought I was going to split right open and die in the bathroom when the baby started crowning. Screaming really isn’t the right word for the sounds I made during that time, but it’s the only word that I can think of.<br /><br />As much as delivering the baby hurt, it was totally worth it for the feeling of relief that I felt as she came out. I’ve heard of people describing it as orgasmic. I wouldn’t go that far, but it was amazing. To go from utter pain to utter relief in one second was wonderful.<br /><br />After my daughter was born I felt really empowered. I had just gone through one of the worst experiences of my life – and I survived. After that, I felt like I could do anything. I highly recommend doing a completely unmedicated birth. The experience is truly transcendent and life-changing.<br /><br />But I don’t necessarily recommend home birth because after the baby was born, I very much needed to be at a hospital. I had a retained placenta that ended up falling apart inside of me during the ambulance ride to the hospital. That resulted in a D&C procedure to get all the placenta out. I’d lost a lot of blood and ended up with low blood pressure. I fainted in my hospital room after getting up to use the bathroom. I was really close to needing a blood transfusion.<br /><br />This is when the maybes and what-ifs start taking over. My husband and I think that if I had been able to deliver the placenta at home then all those crazy things could have been avoided. Maybe if I’d had a midwife and doula around they could have helped the placenta come out when it should have. But on the other hand, what if my uterus had ruptured because this was a VBAC delivery? Things could have been really bad. Or what if my daughter hadn’t been born perfectly healthy?<br /><br />I don’t know the answers to those things. What I do know is what happened. So based on what happened to me, I can’t recommend home birth. I still would prefer to give birth in a hospital.<br /><br />But let me reiterate that I really really, really recommend unmedicated birth.<br /><br /></div><div>So which method was my favorite?<br /><br />All of them – kind of.<br /><br />Each birth was awesome in its own way and resulted in healthy babies. My husband was a source of strength and each delivery brought us closer together. I was able to see doctors and nurses do their jobs with skill and dedication. I witnessed neighbors dropping everything to rush over to help. I learned so many things through each birth experience.<br /><br />No matter what your birth experience ends up being, it can be a beautiful and empowering experience. Take some time to research your options but also be prepared for something else happening.<br />Motherhood is a wild ride where the unexpected happens all the time. Labor is one of the first places you learn that lesson.</div>Valerie Illguthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06440759347907901629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3395336023145069131.post-55004214156800899092023-03-20T05:00:00.001-05:002023-03-20T05:00:00.213-05:00Thoughts After a Decade of Student Loan Payments<span id="docs-internal-guid-455845ce-7fff-7818-1286-9c26de04e5a5"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post was originally published on East Idaho Collective on January 13, 2021. EIM closed on February 15, 2023. I have moved my posts to this blog in order to preserve the collection of my writing. East Idaho Collective was for women to connect with each other. These posts are less about travel and more about what it was like for me to be a mom in Idaho in 2018-2023.</span></span><div><br /></div>I follow an Instagram account that often posts pictures of couples and individuals holding up signs telling how much debt they paid off and how long it took them. As I write this, the most recent posts include statements like: $42,072 in 11 months and $22,513.63 in 9 months.<br /><br />$93,700 in 25 months.<br /><br />$146,000 in 48 months<br /><br />$40,000 in 12 months.<br />These statements are encouraging – kind of.<br /><br />I’m genuinely proud of these people, but seeing their success is a little discouraging. My husband and I have been paying his student loans for almost a decade. And we are only a little more than halfway through paying them off. <br /><br />I once hoped we could be the type of people to have paid off all his student loans in a short amount of time. But having four children, buying a car to hold all four children, experiencing an unexpected career change, going back to school for two years, buying our first home, and living through a pandemic have made it difficult to focus all our income on getting out of debt.<br />Sometimes it’s been all we could do to keep making the minimum monthly payments. <br /><br />I want to write to those of you who are also staring at a mountain of student loan debt. I want you to know that you aren’t alone. As cool as it is to pay off a huge chunk of debt in a small amount of time, it’s also cool to slowly keep chipping away at the debt. <br /><br />Often, getting out of debt just looks like making the monthly payment, month after month and year after year.<br /><br />Here are some things I have learned from paying off student loan debt for the past decade. Maybe these will help you with your debt payoff journey. I’m not a professional financial planner, these are just my observations from helping pay off my husband’s student loans. <br /><br /><b>Limit How Much Student Loan Debt You Take Out.</b> Both my husband and I have wished that we could go back in time and give his younger self some advice. We would have told him to not listen to the people in charge of his degree program. They made very exaggerated claims about what job prospects looked like after graduation. If you are considering taking out student loans, please talk to many people about what kind of income you can realistically expect after graduation and then take out loans accordingly. <br /><br /><b>Take a Cold Hard Look at the Amounts. </b>When my husband first graduated from college he felt it was his responsibility to manage the student loans; they were his, after all. But several months into this process we realized that I should be more involved. (I have a degree in Economics and I managed all the other aspects of our budget.) I sat down and went through all the paperwork and got it organized. I entered the amounts into a spreadsheet. This was the first time either of us had really taken a long look at the loans. Yes, we’d known they existed and had a rough idea of the amounts, but seeing it all listed on a spreadsheet was an important step in knowing what we were dealing with. I wish I’d done it a lot sooner. <br /><br /><b>Use Forbearance and Deferment Sparingly. </b>And Check the Details. There were times we had to put the student loans into Forbearance and Deferment. I’m glad those were options at the time, but they had some long term consequences that I wasn’t fully aware of. Some of the loans continued to accrue interest even though we didn’t have to make payments. Other loans used up all the allotted forbearance time. Years later, when my husband decided to go back to school, we didn’t have the option to put those loans into forbearance again. <br /><br /><b>Don’t Pay Off the Federal Loans Before Private Loans. </b>When we first started getting serious about paying down the student loan debt, we were advised to pay off the loans with the smallest balance first. That way we could start some debt payment momentum. This is good advice; however, in our case, we shouldn’t have paid the loans with the smallest balance first. Those loans were Federal Loans and had much more favorable repayment terms. We should have been focusing on the large Private Loans that had higher interest rates and less favorable repayment terms. This past year, when payments and interest were suspended on Federal Loans, we were still stuck paying on the Private Loans. <br /><br /><b>Make Sure You Have Savings Before Paying Extra Money to Your Loans. </b>When we began this journey, my instinct was to pay as much money as we could spare on the student loans each month. We had hardly anything in our savings account to cover emergencies and it led to some scary situations. Later, I set aside $1000 as an emergency fund and that was much better. Recently, I’ve started saving even more than that. For example, when we received our stimulus money back in the spring of 2020, I saved most of the money to cover our mortgage and other expenses in case my husband and I couldn’t work due to the pandemic. Yes, it would have been cool to apply that money to the balance on the student loans, but I felt so much more peace of mind by having it in the bank.<br /><br /><b>Refinance Your Private Loans.</b> Interest rates have decreased quite a bit so if you have Private Loans, look into refinancing them. Last year I worked with my husband to refinance his private loans, and it’s one of the things I’m most proud of doing in 2020. The loans had been on a Graduated Repayment Plan which meant the monthly payment amount increased slightly each year. It was starting to edge up into an amount that was getting uncomfortable for our budget. I was able to refinance the loans to a set monthly payment as well as an interest rate that was 2.5% lower than what we had been playing. <br /><br /><b>Don’t Refinance Your Federal Loans.</b> When we refinanced the Private Loans, I was tempted to refinance the Federal Loans along with them. I decided not to because Federal Loans have some favorable terms that would have disappeared if we’d combined them with the Private Loans. One month later, Federal Loans had their payments and interest suspended as part of COVID relief. There is also a lot of talk about the new Presidential Administration doing some sort of loan forgiveness for Federal Loans. If that does pan out, I’ll be glad I didn’t refinance the Federal Loans. <br /><br /><b>Save Tax Refund Money to Make Payments.</b> I used to take our tax refund and pay off huge chunks of the student loans. This was back when I was still hoping to pay the loans off super fast. Our budget at the time made this possible. However, when my husband had to change careers and go back to school, I had to rethink how we used our tax refund money. We ended up setting aside most of our tax refund money in a special savings account. Then we would use that money to pay the monthly payments for his student loans.<br /><br /><b>Pay Down the Loan Principle When You Can. </b> Even though it’s taken a lot longer to pay off my husband’s loans than we first thought, I’m still glad that we paid extra when we could. We were able to shrink the balance over the first 9 years to an amount that our mortgage underwriter felt was manageable. We could not have bought our house if we hadn’t paid down as much of the loan balance as we did over the years. <br /><br /><b>Don’t Forget Other Financial Priorities. </b>I’ve learned that paying off the student loans can’t be our only financial priority. There are other things we need to focus on. For example, some debt repayment gurus suggest waiting to buy a home until you are completely out of debt. But when we did our most recent move, there really weren’t any rental homes that would have been less expensive than our monthly mortgage payment. We are a family of 6 and our children are getting bigger. Squishing into a small apartment just to save a couple of hundred dollars didn’t seem wise. So we bought a house. We are also realizing that things like life insurance should also be a priority.<div><br />No matter where you are on your debt payment journey, I want you to know that it is possible to get out of debt. Maybe you’ll be able to do it quickly. Maybe it will take you years. Maybe it will be slow sometimes and quickly at other times. Just keep exploring your options and doing your best. <br /><br />And you better believe that when my husband’s loans are finally paid off, we are going to pose with a sign that says we paid off X amount of money in X years! It may not be super fast, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be a huge accomplishment. </div>Valerie Illguthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06440759347907901629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3395336023145069131.post-66263805130724784462023-03-17T05:00:00.000-05:002023-03-17T05:00:00.220-05:00Thank You, Secret Santa!<span id="docs-internal-guid-33e459be-7fff-ea75-99fc-ae1fb8eae63e"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post was originally published on East Idaho Collective on December 2, 2020. EIM closed on February 15, 2023. I have moved my posts to this blog in order to preserve the collection of my writing. East Idaho Collective was for women to connect with each other. These posts are less about travel and more about what it was like for me to be a mom in Idaho in 2018-2023.</span></span><div><br /></div>My husband and I have managed our finances responsibly, but there have been a few years when we didn’t have a lot of money for Christmas – years with unemployment, underemployment, and other curveballs from life.<br /><br />During these leaner years, we were blessed to be the recipients of kindness from multiple Secret Santas as well as some Not-So-Secret Santas. These people selflessly gave us gifts, money, and some intangible things that helped our children have magical Christmas memories. I’ve been able to thank only a few of these people in person. I want to take a minute and send thank you messages to all the special people who have gone out of their way to brighten my family’s Christmas celebrations.<br /><br />If you have ever been a Secret Santa for someone, I hope you read the following list.<br /><br />Thank you for doing the 12 days of Christmas for my family. You may have thought your gifts weren’t that special because they came from the dollar store, but we looked forward to each day’s surprise.<br /><br />Thank you for the money you donated to a group fund that was then passed on to us and several other families. We’d had a crazy year and had recently moved into the neighborhood. The money helped us feel seen by our new community.<br /><br />Thank you for the plate of cookies with the simple ornament taped to the cling wrap. I think of you every year when I hang that ornament on my tree.<br /><br />Thank you for the money you sent us in the mail – two years in a row! The money may not have been for Christmas specifically, but it allowed me to cover some bills and protect the money I’d been saving for the kids’ presents.<br /><br />Thank you for dropping off toys that your children had outgrown. My kids thought Christmas had come early.<br /><br />Thank you for purchasing presents for my children. The clothes kept my children warm, and the presents kept the magic of Christmas alive for every member of the family.<br /><br />Thank you for including gloves and a hat for me when you bought all my children hats and gloves. It’s one of my favorite winter hats.<br /><br />Thank you for calling me to get a list of my children’s favorite colors, their clothing sizes, and their interests. I would have been fine with any gifts, but I was touched that you wanted to make sure everything would fit.<br /><br />Thank you for working with the school to get a new coat for my daughter when her zipper broke. We’d just moved back from the south and getting enough quality winter gear for everyone had been tricky.<br /><br />Thank you for the great conversation at the church Christmas party. I loved getting to know you better and I’m sad we don’t live close anymore.<br /><br />Thank you for donating to the community toy drive. My husband and I were so honored to “shop” for toys for our children at the excellent toy drive.<br /><br />Thank you for telling me “It’s not about there being room on a list” when I tried to decline the offer for help with Christmas presents.<br /><br />Thank you for including your Christmas fudge in the bag with the presents for the children. I thoroughly enjoyed that fudge.<br /><br />Thank you for wrapping the gifts that were dropped off at our house. The wrapping was almost too beautiful to open. It looked like Santa’s Elves themselves had wrapped each gift.<br /><br />Thank you for dressing up as Santa and treating my children like they were the most special children in the world. I tell people that I’ve met the real Santa because I’ve met you.<br /><br />Thank you for being a good example of selfless service. One day I hope to be able to help other families the way you have helped mine.<br />And you, thank you for the kindness you have put into the world. You may not be my Secret Santa, but I’m sure you have been someone’s Secret Santa. Thank you for keeping the magic alive.Valerie Illguthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06440759347907901629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3395336023145069131.post-35047866552518113952023-03-16T05:00:00.001-05:002023-03-16T05:00:00.235-05:00Last Minute Voting Guide: See You at the Polls!<span id="docs-internal-guid-47bb89e2-7fff-b528-8e76-4d749b9615d5"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post was originally published on East Idaho Collective on November 2, 2020. EIM closed on February 15, 2023. I have moved my posts to this blog in order to preserve the collection of my writing. East Idaho Collective was for women to connect with each other. These posts are less about travel and more about what it was like for me to be a mom in Idaho in 2018-2023.</span></span><div><span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>Election Day is upon us. Did you just realize that you aren’t as ready to vote as you hoped to be by now? Are you still not sure where to vote or who will be on the ballot? Are you thinking that it’s all just too confusing and so you aren’t going to get around to voting this year?<br /><br />Well, don’t despair. If you are reading this before the evening of Tuesday, November 3rd, 2020 there is still time to participate in this election.<br /><br />I’ve put together a quick guide to help last-minute voters with some questions they may have. <br />How to Find Your Polling Place<br /><br />Usually, voting takes place at the same location every year. But if you’ve never voted or if you’ve recently moved then you are probably wondering where to go. You can look up your polling place by going here: <a href="https://elections.sos.idaho.gov/ElectionLink/ElectionLink/ViewPollingLocation.aspx">https://elections.sos.idaho.gov/ElectionLink/ElectionLink/ViewPollingLocation.aspx</a><br /><br />Enter your address and you’ll see a screen with info about what precinct you are in and where to vote. A map will also show up. You can even text or email the information to yourself. <br /><br />When you arrive at the location there should be a “Vote Here” sign out front. When you go inside there will be friendly poll workers there to help you.<div> <br /><b>How to Find a Sample Ballot</b><br /><br />The presidential race has been front and center for this election. But there are other races going on too. There are people running for the US Legislature and the Idaho Legislature. There are also county and city races, local issues, and judges on the ballot. If you want to know what to expect ahead of time you can look up a sample ballot. <br /><br />Each county should have sample ballots available. The easiest way to find your sample ballot is to google: [County Name] Idaho Sample Ballot 2020. This should bring up your county election office website. Links to sample ballots will be available on that website. <br /><br />Take a look at your ballot and research any candidates or initiatives you have questions about. One of the good things about waiting to vote is that there should be a lot of information about the candidates available by now. Your local newspaper should have issued endorsements for local races. The Idaho Statesman will have coverage of the Statewide races. I’ve found that googling candidates and/or looking at their Facebook Pages is a quick way to weed out the political wackadoos from the serious candidates. <br /><br />Feel free to make notes to bring with you when you vote. If you are still unsure about who to vote for you can always leave a race blank. You do not have to vote on every race that appears on your ballot. <br />How to do Same-Day Registration<br /><br />Idaho allows you to register to vote at your polling place on Election Day. So don’t worry about getting turned away from the polls if you haven’t registered to vote yet. You do need to fit some qualifications and to bring some ID with you in order to register at the polling place. <br /><br />First, are you a US Citizen and over 18 years old on election day?<br /><br />Yes, okay next question. Have you lived at your current address for 30 days or more?<br /><br />Yes, okay next question. Check your driver’s license. Is it an Idaho Driver’s License and does it have your CURRENT address?<br /><br />Great! That is all you need to bring to the polls to register to vote. <br /><br />If it is not an Idaho Driver’s license or if it doesn’t have your current address then you will need to bring a photo ID and something that is a proof of address. This proof of address could be a bill, bank statement, school registration paperwork, etc. In many counties you don’t even have to have your proof of address printed out on paper. The proof of address can be on your smartphone. (This is helpful for those of us who have all our bills and banking done online.)<br />COVID Precautions<br /><br />Are you worried about COVID-19 or have recently been tested for COVID-19? Don’t let that keep you away from the polls. Each polling place has social distancing and sanitation measures in place. <br /><br />There is also an option to do curbside voting. Google the phone number for your county election office and talk to them about how to do curbside voting at your polling place. <br /><br />* * *<br /><br />That doesn’t seem that difficult, does it? Go over these things and then grab your ID and head to the polls. But hurry. Polls close at 8:00 PM on Tuesday, November 3rd!</div>Valerie Illguthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06440759347907901629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3395336023145069131.post-14139972183595354992023-03-15T05:00:00.001-05:002023-03-15T05:00:00.226-05:00Flu Shots<span id="docs-internal-guid-7bbbc554-7fff-d7cf-9fe1-b87a65f77600"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post was originally published on East Idaho Collective on October 5, 2020. EIM closed on February 15, 2023. I have moved my posts to this blog in order to preserve the collection of my writing. East Idaho Collective was for women to connect with each other. These posts are less about travel and more about what it was like for me to be a mom in Idaho in 2018-2023.</span></span><br /><br />I make my kids cry every fall. I take them to get their flu shots. <br /><br />I don’t want them to cry- that just happens to be an unfortunate side effect. What I do want is to have one less thing to worry about each winter. I don’t want to worry about my children getting sick with influenza. So every fall I make sure all four of them are immunized.<br /><br />We’ve had some interesting experiences over the years. When my son was two he kicked a male nurse as he injected his leg. The nurse hadn’t been expecting such a strong kick from a little boy and hadn’t fully pinned his legs down. I don’t think that nurse will ever make that mistake again. Another year my son’s arm swelled up and I had to take him back to the doctor to get it looked at. Ice packs and ibuprofen took care of the swelling. <br /><br />The best year was when the Flumist Nasal Spray was covered by our insurance and all my kids were old enough to have it. I was able to line the four of them up on the exam table and they calmly received the vaccine up their noses. I thought we were set for life with that nasal spray. But the next year it was shown to be ineffective and our insurance stopped covering it. We had to go back to the dreaded injections. <br /><br />The worst year was last year when my husband and I took all four kids to a walk-in shot clinic. We had to wait for about 30 minutes in a crowded waiting room and most of our kids were nearly hysterical by the time we went back to get the shots. Things didn’t improve in the exam room. The kids just built off each other’s anxiety. One of my girls was screaming. I’m actually really glad that COVID has canceled walk-in clinics for the foreseeable future.<br /><br />I’ve learned a few tricks for how to help my kids handle the shot. They have an option to bring a stuffed animal to squeeze. I also give the kids a treat after the shot. Sometimes we get soft-serve ice cream cones at a fast-food restaurant as soon as we leave the clinic. Other times my kids choose giant lollipops from the dollar store. <br /><br />I’ve learned its best to divide my four children into groups of two. I’ll take the twins in for shots one day and the younger two another day. Or sometimes my husband and I go together and we each take two into a room. <br /><br />Last year I gave the kids about a month’s advance notice that they were getting a shot on a certain day. I thought this would help them prepare. Instead, it just gave them a month to worry. This year I didn’t tell them until the day of – when we were in the doctor’s office parking lot. This cut down immensely on the worrying. <br /><br />Three years ago I made the mistake of not getting the flu shot myself. In other years I’d been able to get it along with my kids, but we’d moved and that wasn’t an option at their new doctor’s office. I was busy and so I didn’t figure out where I could get a shot. That’s the year I ended up with the flu. At least I think it was the flu, and if it wasn’t the flu then I never want to have the real thing. I was miserable and had to miss a couple of days of work. After that, I vowed I’d always get a flu shot. <br /><br />Even after all this time, my kids still cry when it’s time for the actual shot. I’m sure they are thinking I’m the meanest mom in the whole world. Every year I tell them, “I’d rather have you cry for 5 minutes than have you sick for a few days.”<br /><br />And I have seen some progress over the years. My son isn’t afraid of needles so he only cries when he has to be held down. This year my youngest daughter impressed me by her reaction when I told her we were at the doctor’s to get a shot. She said to herself, “It’s okay, I can do this.” She still cried when it was time, but she was calm up until then. <br /><br />The biggest thing I’ve learned is that taking kids to get shots isn’t easy, but it is doable. The feeling of having one less thing to worry about is always worth it.Valerie Illguthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06440759347907901629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3395336023145069131.post-32962881246744138792023-03-14T05:00:00.001-05:002023-03-14T05:00:00.217-05:00Are You Worried About Your Preschooler’s Speech and Language Development? — Advice From an EIRMC Professional<span id="docs-internal-guid-5753e082-7fff-4960-87b3-89252fcae002"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post was originally published on East Idaho Collective on August 31, 2020. EIM closed on February 15, 2023. I have moved my posts to this blog in order to preserve the collection of my writing. East Idaho Collective was for women to connect with each other. These posts are less about travel and more about what it was like for me to be a mom in Idaho in 2018-2023. This was a sponsored post for a local business. </span></span><div><br /></div>If you are reading this, you probably have questions about your child’s speech and language development. Perhaps you had a concern at an earlier age and were told to “wait and see” if your child would grow out of it – but the concern hasn’t gone away. Or perhaps you are noticing something for the first time and wondering if it is typical or not.<div><br />You aren’t the first parent to wonder if their child’s speech and language abilities are progressing typically. Many parents wonder if their children are progressing at the rate they should. <br /><br />We have partnered with one of EIRMC’s awesome Speech and Language Pathologists, Erin L. Kennedy, to bring you some resources to help guide you through what is and is not typical for your 4-5 year old. In this post, we’ll discuss what your child should be doing, signs that something is wrong, and things to you can do to help your child. If you do feel something is wrong, rest assured that we have incredible local speech and language pathologists here in Southeast Idaho to help guide you and your child towards healthy development. <br /><br /><b>What your child should be doing at age 4-5 <br /></b><br />Every child is different and some children develop these skills at the later stages of this age group. That’s okay. The following are basic guidelines. <br />According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, a typical 4 to 5 year old child can:<br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Understand most of what is said at home and school.</li><li>Understand words for time and order. (Yesterday and today or first and last.)</li><li>Follow three-step directions.</li><li>Say all sounds in words. (Some mistakes on tricky sounds like l, s, r, v, z, ch, sh, and th are okay at this age.)</li><li>Respond to questions like, “What did you say?”</li><li>Talk without repeating sounds.</li><li>Name letters and numbers.</li><li>Keep a conversation going.</li><li>Tell a short story.</li><li>Talk in different ways depending on the situation. (Talk louder outside or use short sentences with younger children.)</li></ul>If your child is doing these things then most likely he or she is progressing in the way a typical 4-5 year old should. <br /><br /><div><b>Signs there might be a problem at age 4-5</b><br /><br /></div><div>Here are the things you should be watching out for at this age. These are warning signs that your child could have a speech language delay or disorder. There might be a problem if your child:<br /></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Is hard to understand when talking. Even when talking with people who know your child well.</li><li>Is mispronouncing p, b, m, h, w, k, g, f, t, d, n letter sounds.</li><li>Is stuttering (repeating first sounds of words, pausing a lot while talking, or stretching out sounds in words.)</li><li>Is having trouble playing or talking with others.</li><li>Is not showing interest in reading books or drawing pictures.</li></ul></div><div><br /><b>What to do next</b><br /><br />If you recognize any of these problems, or just have a feeling that something isn’t right – you should have your child evaluated. At this age, it’s not generally recommended to “wait and see” if your child will learn to communicate better. You want to have your child evaluated to see what is causing the speech and language delay/disorder and to come up with a plan to help your child. <br /><br />Speech delays and disorders have a variety of causes. There could be hearing problems, oral motor skill deficiency, tongue or lip ties, improper jaw positioning, or frontal lobe disconnects. A Speech Language Pathologist will help diagnose the problem. They may also recommend additional testing to determine the cause of the speech problem. For example, you may see an Ear Nose and Throat doctor (ENT) if there is suspected fluid in your child’s ears, or you may meet with an audiologist who can help diagnose an Auditory Processing Disorder. A Speech Language Pathologist can help point you in the right direction. <br /><br />Start by contacting your child’s pediatrician and asking for a referral to a Speech Language Pathologist. You can do this at a doctor’s appointment, or you can simply call them and ask for the referral. <br /><br />EIRMC has a wonderful practice located behind the main EIRMC building. Their Speech Language Pathologists are outstanding and passionate about helping children. You may contact EIRMC’s Pediatric Therapy office at (208) 529-7982.<br /><br />Once a referral is obtained, you’ll set up an appointment and speak on the phone with a Speech Language Pathologist about your concerns. Following that, you will set an appointment to meet with your child and the Speech Language Pathologist for testing and evaluations. These tests may include checking your child’s ability to label items or point to particular items on a page. Your child may also have a referral for a hearing evaluation. Once your child’s needs are assessed, goals will be written to fit your family’s biggest needs and goals. Parental involvement is encouraged at every appointment and every goal along the way.<br /><img src="https://eastidaho.momcollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/pexels-andrea-piacquadio-3755617-300x200.jpg" /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Things you can do to help</b><br /><br /></div><div>There are some things you can do to help your child develop language skills. These can be done with children whether they are right on track or have a speech language delay/disorder. <br />Get your child’s attention before you speak.<br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Talk to your child. Talk about what you notice in the world. Point out interesting things and describe them to your child. Talk about things that are the same and different.</li><li>Use new words when talking to your child and make sure you define the word.</li><li>Teach your child to ask for help when they do not understand what a word means.</li><li>Play games like I-Spy where you have to describe something.</li><li>Read stories together and pause to talk about what is happening or have your child think about what will happen next.</li><li>Ask your child to draw pictures of something that happened in a book, TV show, or movie</li></ul>It’s important to remember that it is not your fault if your child has a delay or a disorder. Many great parents have children who have speech language delays/disorders. Don’t spend time or energy feeling like you failed your child or thinking about how you should have caught this problem sooner. Instead focus on what you can do now to help your child.</div></div>Valerie Illguthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06440759347907901629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3395336023145069131.post-28078181975411960802023-03-13T05:00:00.001-05:002023-03-13T05:00:00.212-05:00Five Things to See in Twin Falls<span id="docs-internal-guid-9d3be62c-7fff-aa0c-716e-2c88fa2213f9"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post was originally published on East Idaho Collective on August 25, 2020. EIM closed on February 15, 2023. I have moved my posts to this blog in order to preserve the collection of my writing. East Idaho Collective was for women to connect with each other. These posts are less about travel and more about what it was like for me to be a mom in Idaho in 2018-2023.</span></span><div><br /></div><div>My family moved to Twin Falls a year ago. We chose to settle down in Twin Falls partially because there are so many awesome recreation opportunities close by. You may be surprised by that statement if you’ve only driven by Twin Falls on I-84 on the way to Boise. From the interstate, the Twin Falls area just looks like boring, flat, farm country. However, if you take the time to stop and explore the area, you’ll discover it is home to many hidden gems. <br /><br />One thing that makes Twin Falls unique is that there is an amazing canyon located right by the city. It is the type of place that you’d expect to see in a national park, but in Twin Falls, the canyon is next to neighborhoods and strip malls. <br /><br />There are many places in Twin Falls that would make great destinations for a day trip or a weekend getaway for those of you in East Idaho. Today I want to tell you about five of those places. <br /><br /></div><div><b>Shoshone Falls/Dierkes Lake</b><br /><br /><img src="https://eastidaho.momcollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/V1-1024x768.jpg" /></div><div><br /></div><div>Shoshone Falls is the pride and joy of Southern Idaho. The falls are located in the Snake River Canyon just a few miles east of town. The falls cascade from stone cliffs creating a magnificent sight. The falls are 212 feet high which makes them higher than Niagara Falls. You can view the falls from several viewing platforms located on the southern side of the canyon. This waterfall does have dams located upstream so water levels vary depending on water needs at the dams, but even at low flow times, the falls are beautiful.<br /><br />If you have time, plan to visit Dierkes Lake after viewing Shoshone Falls. Admission to the lake is included in the cost of admission for Shoshone Falls. The lake has a popular swimming beach. It’s calm waters also make this a perfect place to kayak or paddleboard. If you want to hike, there is a 1.7-mile loop trail that is really cool. It goes alongside one side of the lake, past the “Hidden Lakes,” up some metal staircases to the top of a plateau, skirts the rim above the Snake River, and then drops back down to the parking lot for Dierkes Lake. There are many rock climbing routes accessible from this trail too.<br /><br />Location: 4155 Shoshone Falls Grade, Twin Falls, ID<br />Hours: 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM<br />Cost: $5 per car from April to October. Free the rest of the year.<br />Phone Number: (208) 736-2265 (For Twin Falls Parks and Recreation<br />Website: https://www.tfid.org/309/Shoshone-Falls<br /><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Centennial Waterfront Park</b><br /><br /><img src="https://eastidaho.momcollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/v2-1024x768.jpg" /><br /><br />On my first visit, I was surprised to find out that people can drive down into the Snake River Canyon. I’d assumed the river took up the whole canyon floor but there are several places where large banks line the sides of the river. Centennial Waterfront Park is one of the best places to access the Snake River and gives you incredible views of the Perrine Bridge and the canyon walls. The park has a playground and other amenities you’d expect at a city park, but it has several notable extra features. There is a Zip Line course operated by AWOL Adventure Sports. AWOL also provides kayak rentals. You can rent a kayak and paddle upstream under the Perrine Bridge, up to Pillar Falls, or all the way to Shoshone Falls. You can also bring your own watercraft and put in at the boat ramp at this park.<br /><br />Location: Canyon Springs Rd, Twin Falls, ID<br />Hours: Dawn to Dusk<br />Cost: Free to enter park. There is a cost to rent equipment<br />Phone Number: (208) 734-9491 (For Twin Falls County Parks)<br />Website: http://twinfallscounty.org/parks/parks/centennial-waterfront-park/<br /><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Twin Falls Visitor Center/Perrine Bridge/Canyon Rim Trail<br /></b><br /><img src="https://eastidaho.momcollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/V3-1024x768.jpg" /><br /><br />The Perrine Bridge doesn’t look like much when you are driving across it, but the architecture of the bridge is beautiful from any other angle. The Twin Falls Visitor Center is located on the southwest side of the bridge. The visitor center has great views of the bridge and the Snake River Canyon. But don’t plan to just look from one point. You can walk several miles east or west along the canyon rim trail and see many stunning sights. If you head east along the Canyon Rim Trail, you will go under the bridge. You may see people B.A.S.E jumping into the canyon from the east side of the bridge. Another good place to view the canyon is the viewpoint east of Sportsman’s Warehouse, about one-quarter of a mile east of the bridge. From that viewpoint, you’ll be able to see down to Pillar Falls at the bottom of the canyon.<br /><br />Location: 2015 Neilsen Point Place Twin Falls, Idaho<br />Hours: Viewpoints and trail are open Dawn to Dusk. The Visitor Center is open from 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM daily.<br />Cost: Free<br />Phone Number: 1 (800) 255-8946<br />Website: https://visitsouthidaho.com/visitor-info/twin-falls-visitor-center/<br /><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Harrett Center for Arts and Sciences</b><br /><br /><img src="https://eastidaho.momcollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/v4-1024x768.jpg" />If you are looking for an indoor activity, I highly recommend visiting the Harrett Center on the College of Southern Idaho’s campus. Parking and admission to the museum are free. You’ll see displays about Idaho’s indigenous people, art displays, and a whole room of natural history specimens, including a huge mammoth skeleton.<br /><br />The center also has a planetarium with excellent night sky tours and IMAX style movies. There is a cost for tickets to the planetarium shows, but they are very well done.<br /><br />Location: 315 Falls Avenue Twin Falls, ID<br />Hours: Closed Sundays and Mondays. Open 9:30AM – 9:00PM Tuesdays and Fridays. 9:30 AM to 4:30 PM Wednesdays and Thursdays. And 1:00PM-9:00PM on Saturdays.<br />Cost: Museum admission is free. Planetarium tickets are $6 for adults ages 18-59. $5 for seniors ages 60+. $4 for children ages 2-17. And free for children under age 2.<br />Phone Number: (208) 732-6655<br />Website: https://herrett.csi.edu/<br /><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Nat Soo Pah Hot Springs</b><br /><br /><img src="https://eastidaho.momcollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/v5-1024x787.jpg" />These hot springs are located about 15 minutes south of Twin Falls. This is a fun place for families to go swimming during summer months. There is a large pool with a water slide. A tree-filled campground is also on the property so this would be a nice place to stay if you are interested in extending your trip. Nat Soo Pah is open during the summer months. If you are looking for a year-round hot spring, there are three hot springs located about 30 miles west of Twin Falls. They are 1000 Springs Resort, Miracle Hot Springs, and Banbury Hot Springs.<br /><br />Location: 2738 E 2400 N Twin Falls, ID<br />Hours: Open from the beginning of May through Labor Day. Hours vary, but is generally open every afternoon and evening with some morning hours on weekends.<br />Cost: $4 for children 1-5. $8 for anyone age 6 and up<br />Phone Number: (208) 655-4337<br />Website: https://www.natsoopah.com/<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">* * *</div><div><br /></div><div>I hope I’ve inspired you to plan a trip to Twin Falls soon. However, I feel like I have to warn you: this is only a small sampling of what there is to see and do in Twin Falls. There are many more awesome things in the area.<br /><br />My family first came to Twin Falls for a visit in May 2018. We saw some great things and then kept coming back to see more. Within a year, I realized that the best thing to do would be to just move here. We bought a house in Twin Falls within 15 months of our first visit.<br /><br /><i>Want more ideas for outdoor recreation locations in Twin Falls and the surrounding area? Check out this list of over 30 awesome things to see and do: <a href="http://www.51centadventures.com/2020/03/outdoor-recreation-in-twin-falls-idaho.html">Outdoor Recreation in the Twin Falls Idaho Area – The guide I wish I’d had.</a></i></div>Valerie Illguthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06440759347907901629noreply@blogger.com0