Category: Family

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All the little parts that you need

My sister recently got interested in going to a karaoke bar every week with some friends. Her husband decided to buy her a little karaoke machine to use at home. She was hoping to get a wireless microphone to use with the machine.

The microphone that came with the machine has a cord, and she likes to dance while she is singing. She finds herself almost tripping over the cord when she is dancing. The problem seems to be that she doesn’t know all of the different parts that she will need for the wireless microphone to work.

I am trying to help her find out, and have been trying to understand if the wireless microphones we have been finding have their own amplifier or not, and what she would be able to use for speakers. Can she use her current karaoke machine at all for any of that? Or her TV set? We are feeling pretty stupid right about now!

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Did You Dress Up?

So many adults are claiming Halloween as their right to party, that I wonder if this is about the kids anymore? I mean, so many people are going out to parties tonight – will there be anyone home to hand out candy to the trick or treaters?

I am dressing up and going out – but I am staying home to hand out candy until after 9:00. I think there will be at least 40 or 50 kids coming to my house this year. But 9:00 is late for little kids, so that’s when I’m cutting out the porch light and stopping the giveaways. Then I will head downtown and find some of my friends at a club and have some adult fun, too.

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Keeping Your Child Active During the Summer

Once school is out for the summer, children don’t get as much play time. Sure, they might get to the park once in a while, but it isn’t a daily activity like playing in the schoolyard. Luckily, there are a few things that you can do to ensure that your child gets enough exercise when school is on hiatus.

Summer Camps

There are a number of different summer camps in Battle Creek MI that meet this purpose. These camps are aimed at not only keeping your children active, but also educating them in the process. There are a few different types of camps available, so have a look around to see what you can find.

Play Dates

Setting up a few play dates with your child’s friends works wonders because it allows them to get some exercise. If you are seriously committed to the cause, you can take turns hosting the event and allowing the other parents some time away.

Daycare

Even if you are a stay at home parent, putting your child in daycare for a few hours per week could be beneficial. Not only does it allow the child to interact with other kids, but it can also get him outside more often than he would at home.

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Beautiful Sunday

Finally! A weekend with decent weather. This was the first Sunday with weather that let us get outside and enjoy ourselves without it being too hot or ruined by late afternoon thunderstorms. This summer has been unbelievably hot. Although it did get close to 90 degrees again today, with the clouds blocking the sun and a little breeze, it did not seem so hot.

We took advantage and went outside as much as possible. We even took a drive over to the lake and fed some ducks and geese a few pieces of stale bread that we had brought with us.

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Guess I never thought about that before

Even though I grew up in a family of musicians, my own personal “hands-on” experience has been limited to childhood piano lessons. I used to watch my other family members play their instruments, and I enjoyed singing and dancing to the music that they played. I never really payed a lot of attention to the logistics of tuning any of their instruments. I guess that is why I was mildly surprised when Chuck was telling me that he was teaching Jack how to tune a drum set this weekend. I never really ever thought about having to tune up a drum!

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Planning Your Final Arrangements

It’s not something any of us want to think about, but it’s an important conversation we must have. Many people do nothing to prepare for the time when their final arrangements must be made, adding a burden on to their already grieving and stressed family. Everyone should sit down with a lawyer and write out their will. In it you can spell out your final wishes for your estate and your final arrangements. To make things even easier for those you leave behind, you should look into prepaying for your arrangements. Most funeral homes offer pre-paid plans that include a plot, service and everything else needed to lay you to rest.

If you’re not sure you want a big funeral and burial, or just can’t afford the expense, consider cremation. Companies like Clevelend Cremation provide high quality services with dignity, respect and empathy. They will even provide a customized memorial service, with special options for religious requirements and veterans. Cremation is less expensive than traditional burials, and families that move often like being able to take their loved ones with them. You can even chose the exact type of urn you’d like. So don’t put off this important conversation any longer, plan your final arrangements and give yourself and your loved ones peace of mind.

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Repair the credenza

I don’t know how the drawer guides on two of the drawers on the credenza in our dining room managed to get mangled and torn off. Yesterday I was looking for a new book of checks in the drawer where I keep the old check registers and books of checks and deposit slips, and the drawer came crashing down onto the floor. I was lucky it didn’t hit my foot! I found the mangled drawer guide inside the drawer. I don’t know who put it there, or when it was put there, but I was quite annoyed that nobody told me that it was broken so I could arrange to repair it! I hate when things like that happen!

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Guitar lessons were too boring for me when I was a kid

When I was a young teenager, my parents gave me an acoustic guitar for a birthday gift. I was sure I wanted to learn to play the guitar! And they signed me up for music classes. Unfortunately, the music teacher didn’t seem to appreciate the fact that young teenagers don’t want to spend hours and hours every day learning ONLY to read music and play the “mary had a little lamb” types of songs. Young teenagers ALSO want to learn a few “quick and dirty” songs that they can play fairly quickly. And no one had explained how much it would hurt my fingers to put pressure on the guitar strings when pressing them down on the frets!

So I abandoned the classes fairly quickly – they were boring and my fingers hurt. I wanted no More painful, boring hours of practice alone in my room playing songs I hated! Sometimes people ask me if I wish I had kept at it, and when I hear gifted musicians play, I do find myself wishing I could play that well, too. But, my tolerance level for pain was too low, so the answer to that question is “no.” I’m not a big fan of pain!

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You can find your health insurance online

For my dear friends in North Carolina, I wanted to let you know that if you are still desperately looking for health insurance coverage, my good friend Julie found insurance here that took care of her needs. You don’t have to spend much more time looking around and asking all of your friends and family what to do. Thank goodness for the Internet – it certainly is making a lot of things in life a lot easier to accomplish!