Visit the Shaks

Father's day is June 15 and Shakadoo has a great gift idea for that special man in our lives!

Back away from the ugly ties and golf shirts ladies! This year, give your Father or your children's Father something that he will absolutely love! Love Shak Baby and Wholesalekeychain.com is excited to announce our latest giveaway! 

Shak and wholesalekeychain.com are offering our readers the chance to win three Digital Photo Keychains! This contest will run from today, May 31st until June 11th.

From now until midnight CDT June 11th, here's what you need to do in order to be entered to win:

* Go over to the Wholesalekeychain website and take a look around.

* Take a look at their huge assortment of automotive, sports and digital  keychains.

* Leave a comment on this post telling us which ones you like and your thoughts on how these products could be used as great promotional items.

* Make sure you leave us a valid email address so we can contact you when you win!

* Tell everyone you know! Help us spread the word- link us on your blog, Twitter about this, email your friends, an let all your neighbors know!

Three winners will be randomly selecting to each win 1 Digital Photo Keychain. All three winners will be announced on June 12th! This giveaway is open to US residents only.

The Digital Photo Keychain features a 1.5 inch screen and holds up to 70 pictures! But what sets this company apart is they offer custom engraved messages to your loved ones on the back.

Don't want to wait for the end of the contest for your Digital Photo Keychain? Need one in time for Fathers Day?  -You're in luck! Wholesalekeychain.com is offering free shipping for any keychains purchased by Shakadoo readers. Just enter the coupon code "Shakadoo" when you check out  and your shipping will be free. Prices start at only $19.99, but hurry- this discount is only available until August 30, 2008!

(This is a "sticky" post and will remain at the top of the page for the duration of Just In Time For Father's Day Giveaway but new posts will be written daily and published underneath this post.)

Religious practice or dangerous parenting? You decide:

Talented comedian Harvey Korman died yesterday at the age of 81. I used to love watching him and Tim Conway doing their skits together on the Carol Burnett show. Those two had me in tears from laughing so hard. Here is a video tribute to Harvey Korman and his brilliant career.

I stumbled onto a site earlier that had a list of 10 things parents are doing wrong with their kids. People took offense at several things on the list. I get that.

The truth is, there's no one size fits all way to raise children. I can sit here and tell you all day what works for my family, and it may or may not work for your family. Heck, the same way I raised my older children has not worked for my youngest child, so we're seeking different methods.

Here's a good example of something I see all the time. People are always saying, "What ever happened to sending kids outside to play?" Sure, when I was a kid my mom sent me outside and I played for hours and hours outside, no parental supervision. Is that possible today?

Sure, depending where you live. And that's the crux of the matter. If you live in a safe suburban neighborhood with a fenced in yard and don't have kids who are likely to wander, sending the kids outside to play might be a good idea. If you live in a dangerous neighborhood with no fenced yard? Or even with a fence, not so much.

I guess that's why I take all internet parenting advice with a grain of salt. There are some really awesome ideas out there. But not everything will work for everybody. Do what works for you and your family.

That's parenting advice you can take to the bank.

Over at the This Is LaVergne blog, an interesting conversation sprung from a discussion about a proposed $30 wheel tax increase. Here's the whole thread if you want to read it. I posted my manifesto for fixing the school system and wanted to share it here:

If I was Queen of America, here’s what I would do to make public schools better:

1. Detention schools for repeat offenders and/or very serious offenses. This would be determined by a committee of 3 people: The principal, guidance counselor and homeroom teacher. Each detention school would focus on 3 things: education, counseling, and manual labor. Students can earn their way back into regular school just once, after that they go to detention school for the rest of their education.

2. Each kid is tracked according to their abilities. That way if you’re stupid in math, but great at English, you’re remediated in what you need to be and have a chance to shine at what you’re good at.

3. Special ed kids have the chance to be in the regular classroom if they want to be or if their parents want to be. However, if the parents wish them to be in special ed, they can be. And if the kid has behavior problems in the mainstream classroom, it’s back to special ed. If you have behavior problems there, welcome to detention school.

4. A huge expansion of vocational programs in high school. An especially big focus on health care fields and technology fields. Certain fields will get you a certificate in that field along with your high school diploma. Things like medical assistants and cosmetologists could start work straight out of high school.

In addition to preparing some students to go to work straight out of high school, this would benefit the community by offering lower-cost services to the community. For example, there could be a low cost health clinic in each school district, with licensed PAs to do any of the actual doctoring, but students could learn things like phlebotomy and other simpler types of medical assisting at the clinic.

There could be beauty schools, radio stations, restaurants, all kinds of things. Patrons of these services would help fund the program, as would (possibly) fees from students enrolled in the classes, on a sliding scale. Students have to have excellent attendance, behavior and grades to be able to enroll in these types of career tracks.

Also, schools could partner with businesses to teach these kids a trade.

5. Everyone is required to take a personal finance course. This includes teaching things like balancing a checkbook, figuring interest rates, why things like check advances and rent to own are a horrible idea, and all about credit and managing credit.

6. Parents are held more accountable for their child’s education. Fines are assessed for various behavior and attendance infractions. Can’t or don’t want to pay? We have landscaping and office jobs available for you. Still don’t want to pay? How about a trip to the county jail?

7. Teachers are given more of a chance to be creative with their curriculum. I know a social studies teacher that has a beautiful bunch of lessons on the Great Depression. She can only teach about a third of that because teachers are required to teach the same thing at the same time. And they’re all scrambling to teach to a standardized test, which brings me to:

8. Standardized tests are no longer anything other than a means to place the student for next year. Period. No more teaching to a test.

9. Allow parents and later, when students are older, to fill out a satisfaction form for the teachers. Bonuses are given to teachers who score very highly on these. Teachers who regularly score very poorly are fired, no matter how long they have been working in the school system.

Expensive, you say? Yes, but keep in mind first that we are breeding the next generation of great minds, and this needs to be nurtured. I also believe in having parents pay more fees on a sliding scale basis, which can be worked off if necessary. This should ensure that many of the other inner workings of school, such as the school’s janitorial stuff, security, landscaping, cafeteria, and other administrative things should be able to make cutbacks and have to hire far fewer people.

Well, Love Shak-ers, what do you think?

I would like to wish my middle son a Happy 4th Birthday! Not only is it his birthday, but it marks the most joyful day of my life. The birth of each son was a joyful experience, but Lou's was special in its own way.

On the morning Lou was born, I got out of bed and my water broke. We went to the hospital and anticipated a long day of labor. Once I was there, they hooked up all of the usual monitors to me. My husband took my oldest son down to the cafeteria to get some breakfast, thinking there would be plenty of time.

All of a sudden, the monitors started beeping. The nurses came in and tried to readjust them but quickly realized that my son's heart had stopped beating. They moved me around to see if that made a difference but it did not. At that point, they paged the doctor to come to my room immediately. My OB told me that I was going to have my baby now by emergency c-section.

It all happened so fast. They rushed me to the delivery room. I remember staring up at the bright lights on my way there and just praying over and over again to let my baby be okay. Shortly thereafter, I was awakened by the post-op nurse. The first words that registered through my foggy brain were "The baby is in the nursery". I cannot describe the immense feeling of relief that I experienced. I asked her many times after that if she was sure that he was okay and she reassured me that he was.

The reason his heart stopped beating was because the umbilical cord had tightened around his neck. I was so grateful to the hospital staff for reacting so quickly and saving my son. I was told later that he was born in the nick of time. I think I felt euphoric for weeks after his birth. Once again, I would like to wish my dear son a very Happy 4th Birthday! 

I am a little late here today. Little Baby D is sick and has thrown up three times. Normally I would not take my child to the doctor's office for that but considering what he did on Saturday, I had to play it safe.

We went away for the long holiday weekend. Another couple joined us and we all enjoyed the beautiful weather. We had a cookout on Saturday with barbecued chicken and rock fish. I had to run inside to get something so I put my husband to the task of keeping an eye on Baby D.

When I came back outside, my husband informs me that Baby D reached into the trash can and pulled out the discarded chicken package. Ewww!!! I immediately took him inside and washed him up. He seemed fine so I just crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

The doctor said that it is probably not salmonella because he has not had diarrhea. She told me to let her know if he were to get diarrhea and also to bring in a sample. Hopefully it is just a little tummy virus and not salmonella after all!

A few years ago, I reconnected with a friend from high school. He and I were pretty close, back in the day. We had lost touch when I moved down here, but he found me through- ya know, I don't remember. MySpace, most likely, or possibly Classmates.com.

So for the past couple of years, we've talked on a fairly regular basis and he even came down here once to meet the family.

But recently I found something out about him that changes that friendship entirely. He's a convicted child molester. And thanks to some internet detecting, I've found out he's lied about several other things like his job and where he lives.

There's nothing like finding something like that out to change how you feel about someone. Ack. It makes me remember- sexual predators look like everyone else. They can be your friend, your uncle, your pastor. They can be anyone.

How can we protect our children from sexual predators? I personally have one steadfast rule: I never let my children be alone with any male who is not directly related to me. And even then, I use caution. Number of men my children have been alone with: 2. Their dad and my dad.

But that's not all you can do to protect your kids, and I admit that is a bit overprotective. However, you can't be too careful. Here's a list of 8 things you can do to protect your kids from sexual prdators:

1. Know who your friends, family, and neighbors are. If I had looked my "friend" up in a sexual offender database, I would have known years ago that he wasn't who he said he was.

2. Know where your kids are, and who they are with. My kids don't generally go places without me, but when they do, it is with a select group of people I really trust.

3. Talk to your kids about what kind of touching is not okay, and talk to them often about what's going on. It is very common for kids to be molested, know it is wrong, but they feel like there's nobody they can talk to about it, or that their parents wouldn't care or wouldn't believe them. Give your kids a safe forum to be able to talk about anything.

4. Heavily monitor their internet usage. My younger kids aren't allowed to use messaging programs at all, my older son does, but I spy on him. He's still not allowed to have MySpace, much to his chagrin.

5. Even at places that seem to be safe, like family gatherings, make sure you know where your kids are and what they're doing. It's easy to assume that kids are safe at Uncle Jim's fish fry, but they just might not be. Keep watch.

6. Don't force your kids to give hugs and kisses to people- even relatives- if they don't want to. What kind of message does it send to your kids about their bodies belonging to themselves if they are made to give creepy Aunt Edna a hug and a kiss if they don't want to? Give them the decision to hug or kiss someone if they're comfortable. If they're not, don't push it.

7. Teach your kids the correct names for their body parts and play "What if" games with them. Give the kids scenarios and ask them what the right thing to do would be. Let them come up with their own scenarios.

8. Have a plan. We have a family password. If someone came up to them when I'm not around and said I said to come get them, that person has to know the password in order for my kids to go with them. Even if it was my best friend. Even if it was a police officer.

These days, you never can be too careful. My recent experience has illustrated that better than anything I can possibly tell you. Be careful, the world's a scary place.

I have three kids. One is a total fashionista and she sets the tone for her younger brother. She picks out his outfits- she even coordinates them for him so he can always look just as stylish as she does.

The ultra-fashionista would absolutely love the Mason & Matisse website. There are all sorts of stylish clothing options plus amazing toys, beautful decor, and fabulous baby gifts.

Check out this awesome tent I have pictured here. Can you imagine your kids having a fun indoor sleepover in the tent? Best of all, you don't have to clean up after the typical blanket fort- the tent easily folds for storage.

For more awesome kid stuff, be sure to check out Mason & Matisse. It's the stylish kid's paradise!

I hope everybody has a wonderful holiday weekend. Have fun and be safe! Before you go, take a look at this video that pays tribute to our troops and the true meaning of Memorial Day. Thank you to each and ever American soldier from the past to the present.

It's anyone's worst nightmare. Steven Curtis Chapman's teenage son accidentally ran over his 5 year old sister in their driveway. Chapman is a Christian music artist, and this has left commenters on the Tennessean's website wondering where God is when these types of tragedies happen. I don't know for sure, but I suspect God is comforting the family. I pray that this is so. I cannot imagine the pain that this family is feeling, my thoughts and prayers are with them.

Photo: Tennessean.

After reading a lot of information on products containing BPA (Bisphenol-A), I ended up deciding to replace all of my sippy cups. They were due to be replaced anyway as they were showing a lot of wear.

I started researching cups made of material that did not contain BPA. During the first stage of my research, I was quite disturbed. The cost of BPA free sippy cups were utterly ridiculous! It was quite obvious that some manufacturers were taking advantage of this scare. Some cups were as high as $17 a cup! Um, sorry.... no way will I pay that much for a sippy cup.

Finally, my search led to an old standard when it comes to baby products. Playtex makes a sippy cup called the Playtex Baby Coolster Tumbler. It costs a reasonable $4.99. The Playtex store is out some of the colors but a lot of other sites carry these cups. I bought mine on at Toys R US and Amazon carries them too.

There are more advantages to these cups. They do not have a spout. This helps train kids better for drinking from a regular cup in the future. Also, a cup without a spout is better for speech and is recommended by speech therapists. I was not sure how my 21 month old would do without a spout but I had no need to worry. He loves this cup and drinks from it just fine!

The cup does not leak. Now, we all know that if you hold a sippy cup upside down and shake it, a few drops will come out. That is true about this cup too but what cup doesn't? This cup is definitely one of the better ones when it comes to not leaking. Overall, I love these cups and so do my sons! If you are interested in BPA free cups that do not cost an arm and a leg, I highly recommend these!

Most parents are concerned about their children's internet usage and either monitor their usage carefully or use a program such as NetNanny. My kids only use the internet when I'm around to watch them and make sure they're following the straight and narrow. I monitor any in-game private messaging in the games they play or turn it off whenever possible. Jay at Triple Venti has a review on a program designed to help you monitor your kid's internet usage:

Glubble is a sort of hybrid social network like front end tied in with a Parental Control product like NetNanny. It seems to run the idea that “the family” all uses one computer, and wants Glubble to act as its private Social Network, with “family messages” available through the front end, and a Family Home Page.

He's not a very big fan of the program. I wouldn't be, either, if I used that sort of thing. Head on over to see what he said.

At the end of a long day, it is nice to have a little something just for you. Call it an mental escape or just a well deserved break. Many people find a hot bath to be relaxing. Others might find a long walk to be beneficial. It is just a way to get some peace and gather your thoughts.

My escape is my favorite show...Day's of Our Lives! I have watched this for over 20 years. I tape it each day and watch it right before bed. It is just for me and is my little reward at the end of the day. It helps me to unwind and get lost in the drama of the character's lives.

Do you have a relaxing routine at the end of your day? Also, any fellow Day's fans out there?

I've read a few posts lately about parents who enable their adult children to continue to be children. I'm not linking because even though people have put this information on the web for all to see, I think it's an intensely personal subject and I'm not going to call anyone out.

Most of the people writing this are in a similar situation to mine, watching their parents enable their adul brothers and/or sisters. It seems this is such a common thing. I know it happened in my own family with my grandparents and my uncle and it's happening all over again with my parents and my brother.

Eventually, you have to let go and let that person fly. Or crash. Possibly the best thing that my parents ever did for me was tell me they were no longer going to rescue me from my own financial messes. I took them at their word and I started taking care of myself. It worked.

Why won't they do this for my brother? I don't know. Maybe it's because he's the youngest. Maybe because he doesn't have a pile of kids to annoy them with. (kidding, Shak-ers! My kids are NEVER annoying. Heh.) I really don't know why they don't, but it's frustrating to me and I have no idea what to do. I suppose there really is nothing I can do. They'll have to decide to stop enabling my brother themselves.

One thing I do know, I will not enable my own children when they are adults. I will help them to an extent, but for the most part, they're on their own. I hope I will have given them the tools to be able to take care of themselves. But I think the earlier, the better. My grandparents enabled my uncle his entire adult life and when my grandfather died, he didn't have the tools or experience to take care of himself. He's now a homeless drunk that spends his life in and out of jail.

If that's not encouragement to not enable my kids, I don't know what is.

School will be over for the year in a few short weeks. Time for summer vacation for all the kiddos. They will be shouting with joy and jumping with glee. How about you, the parent?

When I was growing up, my mother absolutely loved summer vacation. She really enjoyed having her girls home all summer. I know a lot of parents that feel that way, but I also know a lot of parents that dread it. I would say that I fall somewhere in the middle.

I do enjoy getting to spend more time with my oldest son when he is home for the summer. Also, there are the perks of possibly getting to sleep a little later and no homework to worry about. On the flip side, there is more time for sibling bickering. I can count on having my son's friends around my house constantly. The last two things I mentioned might not be such a big deal if I didn't work from home. However, the fact is, summer break means more of a work challenge for me.

So my question is, how do you feel about summer break? Are you a parent that loves it so much that you wish they did not have to go back in September? Or, are you a parent that eagerly awaits the start of the new school year? Maybe you are like I am...... somewhere in the middle?

I can't decide which is funnier- this or "When Cats Attack"

My youngest little guy is 21 months old. He is talking quite a bit these days. Practically every day, he surprises us with by saying a new phrase.

Every night when I tuck him in to bed, I say "I love you" several times. A few nights ago, Baby D surprised me as I was closing his door by saying "I love you" back to me. It was so sweet! He has continued to do this each evening. Awww, it just melts me every time!

Baby D seems to know what it means even if it is not said to him first. His big brother was leaving for school this morning. He gave Baby D a hug on his way out the door. Right before he walked out, Baby D said "I love you". That just melted my big and tough 9 year old, who was just so happy to hear that from his baby brother. We all enjoy waiting to hear what he is going to say next!

I love books. I love how they feel in my hands, I love how they smell, I love everything about them. My brother and I were talking last weekend about how with devices like Amazon's Kindle, hard copy books might become a thing of the past.

But, I doubt it because I don't think I'm the only person out there who adores actual books. I must admit, however, that I really do like this website- TumbleBooks. It's an e-book website for kids. Check it out- there are tons of great books to read to your kids, some I've never seen, and some old favorites.

A 13 year old girl committed suicide in 2006 after receiving a series of cruel messages through MySpace. Megan Meier thought she was talking to a teenage boy who had befriended her on the social networking site. After three weeks of friendly communications between the two, he turned on her and told her that the world would be a better place without her. Megan took her own life shortly after receiving that last message.

The horrible twist to this story is that there never was a teenage boy. The MySpace profile was created by a grown woman who wanted to keep tabs on what Megan might be saying about her daughter. This adult woman was responsible for fooling a young girl and making her think that these nasty messages were coming from a cute boy.

This woman, Lori Drew, was indicted yesterday for her role in the suicide. Apparently, Lori Drew even started a blog called "Megan Had It Coming". Wow! I truly hope this woman is put in prison for a very long time. Her actions were horribly disgusting and irresponsible. The video below is from CNN and contains a phone interview with Tina Meier, Megan's mother. This story really makes me sad.

After seeing this, I'm not so sure...

HT: Newscoma

You know the old axiom that the best present for a kid is a plain old cardboard box? Seriously, it's so true. One of my twitter pals posted a picture of her son playing in a mudhole. It's little things like this that stick in my memories of childhood.

My daughter and I saw a rainbow last week and she was overjoyed. She told me it didn't take much to make her happy, and I told her being able to really enjoy the little things is what's going to get her through the really tough times.

It's things like this that we adults need to remember to take pleasure in, too.

I have referenced The Law Of Attraction several times throughout my time here. A friend introduced me to the concept and I find it very interesting. The reason it interests me is because I can look back on my life and see how my positive thinking has produced the outcomes that I wanted. To me, it is not about "The Secret", it is more about how your positive thoughts will influence events in your life.

I have had some challenging mommy moments lately. My youngest is approaching two and has become a poster child for "the terrible 2's"! Between him and my other two boys, life around my house is often chaotic. I wondered if I could use the law of attraction to help calm my house down a bit. Maybe I have not been doing things right?

I found this article   "Law of Attraction used for Your Parenting Success" - by Kelly Nault M.A. on Rebecca J. Burns' blog.  The author asked some questions that really made me think:

*How am I contributing to my kids behavior? (Gulp!)
*Are my kids responding to my lack of patience and skyrocketing stress?
*Are my children desperately seeking quality time with me because I haven’t been giving them much special time lately?
*Are my kids no fun to be around because frankly, I am not fun to be around?

I admit that my patience has not been very good lately. Working from home and tending to three little boys makes for rather stressful days. It is very likely that my stress level has been attracting more negative behavior from them. I am going to make a great effort to use this parenting strategy described in the above article.