Maybe it’s because the oldest “kid” on our block left us for college this year…

Or that my son no longer wants to dress up for Halloween…

Or that our group of “kids” at our annual Halloween “Boo in the Bubble” neighborhood party is dwindling more and more each year…

But I’m feeling so wistful lately.

The neighborhood is growing up.

I see our neighborhood changing form…

In the lower voices that emit from our basement where the kids hangout.

In the increase in number of cars in the driveways, because those babies we once knew are driving now!

In the homecoming dresses, the dates being had, in the fewer bubbles being blown and driveways being covered with chalk, replaced by makeup, sports and cell phones….

Read More

The post Hallmark: When The Neighborhood Grows Up appeared first on Dine and Dish.

Our family was walking towards the restaurant when my 9 year old sprinted ahead of me. I started to holler for him to slow down, but then I noticed why he was in such a rush. An elderly man was struggling to pull the heavy glass door open for his wife. My son quietly stepped in front of him, opened the door, and continued to let the rest of the man’s family through the door. The older man looked at me and said “You’re doing something right, mom!”. A quick nod of thanks to Jacob and he was out of our lives, but his words impacted me.

Was I doing something right? Have I encouraged my kids to be service oriented to others? I mean, I can barely get them to clean their rooms and pick up after themselves. How have I taught them that doing acts of service for others is important?

I think we often forget, especially as busy families, that being service oriented doesn’t always require a big time commitment. It doesn’t have to require time off work, trips to a foreign land, weekends away… service can be shared in your own backyard, in your own neighborhood, to the people you meet on a daily basis.

We’ve started to implement more conscious acts of service in our house. Some things we’ve been doing around our own neighborhood are:

• Picking up the mail of neighbors when they are out of town.
• Helping to water flowers and gardens
• Pulling in trash and recycle containers after the trash trucks have come by
• Making meals for friends in need
• Picking up trash when we see it – not assuming someone else will come along and do it

Service can be simple. It doesn’t have to be a grand guessture. My children are learning that even the smallest of acts can make a big impact.

What are some of your ideas for simple acts of service?

“I am participating as a volunteer in VolunteerSpot’s Summer of Service series!
VolunteerSpot is a time-saving website that makes it easy to organize parents and
volunteers with free online sign up sheets. Use it to coordinate almost anything –
classroom helpers and parties, school carnivals and fundraisers, swim team and
soccer snacks, service projects, neighborhood events, and more!”

The post Raising Service Oriented Kids – VolunteerSpot appeared first on Dine and Dish.

Picture this… three women sitting around a table, enjoying some wine and craving guacamole and chips. I mean, really craving… not just wishing that we had some. C-R-A-V-I-N-G. This was my friends Sara, Kathy and I a few months ago. Sara’s husband was always the guacamole maker… he makes some of the yummiest guac I have ever had, but Sara’s husband was not home and again… we had a serious craving coming on.

I don’t remember who eventually gave in and ran to the store, but it was one of us. And, instead of buying the ingredients to make guacamole, we bought a tub of guacamole and some chips. Happy that we at least had something to curb our craving, we ate away and were perfectly happy until Sara’s husband came home. When he walked in the door and saw that we were eating guacamole from a TUB he had words to share. He couldn’t believe we had the audacity to eat packaged guacamole. I clearly remember him saying, “Guacamole is so simple to make… why would you bother with the packaged stuff?”

Of course, we went through the night making fun of Sara’s husband for being such a food snob. Yeah… the packaged guac wasn’t that great and Sara’s husbands was sooooo much better, but it was quick, easy, and fixed our craving.

Fast forward to a couple of months later when I was having a guacamole craving. I happened to have a few avacados in the fridge and decided to give homemade guacamole a try. I called up Sara’s husband, and asked him what else I needed. He ran through a list of ingredients and gave me some instructions of how make it.

Now, I have to eat crow, because you know what… Sara’s husband was completely right. All that ribbing he got that night for being so snobbish about tubbed guacamole had to be retracted by me. Homemade guacamole is easy and is so much better than the tubbed variety! Take it from this non-food snob… fresh is best.

The post Speaking Of Food Snobs… appeared first on Dine and Dish.