It is getting more cloudy and windy in Paris over the summer. It is getting warmer in Siberia during the winter and very rainy during the summer. In Moscow people basically do not see the sun anymore.

The climate is changing. The air pollutants from fossil fuel use make clouds reflect more of the sun’s rays back into space. Recent years show increasing temperatures in various regions and increasing extremities in weather patterns.

We can help work on solving this problem by doing our part. There are few tips:

•    Walk or ride a bike instead of driving a car.
•    Teleconference instead of flying.
•    Use compact fluorescent light bulbs.
•    Recycle.
•    Plant native trees.
•    Turn down the heat.
•    Buy renewable energy.

Today is a first day of school. Yea! New teacher, a few new classmates and the happiness of seeing her old friends. While my daughter was setting up in the new classroom I was having some coffee and bagels in the lobby and talking to the parents. After that we all went to the assembly.

I love the assemblies in Kristina’s school. They are always sweet, entertaining, and very interactive. Everybody has a chance to talk and share: the staff, the teachers and of course the students. Today’s topic of sharing was “goals for the next year”. These are few of them; maybe your child can use them too. I love them all!

•    Read more
•    Write more
•    Make more friends
•    Be a better friend
•    Recycle
•    Train the attention muscle
•    Have more fun
•    Exercise more
•    Listen better
•    Pay more attention to the teacher

Have a great school year!

Sports are important for teaching teamwork and instilling a sense of personal pride and accomplishment! Not every sport is for every kid, though, so you have to find the right one for your child.

My daughter started begging for a basketball goal when she was four. We bought her a full sized one, and she learned how to shoot baskets! When the church in the center of town sent out flyers announcing a basketball series, she signed up at age seven.

Wow! The church was great. They recognized that the kids were little, and instead of focusing on fierce competition like the school teams did, they really worked on teamwork. They didn’t formally keep score, but of course we parents did. (My little girl’s team was made up of some of the very smallest kids, and they developed such a solid team that they won every single game that year!)

It really helped her make friends and did a great job on teaching her she had to step back and not always be the center of attention.

My son was five, and very unsure of himself. I didn’t feel right throwing him out on the soccer field, where I was sure he’d get trampled! The bowling alley had just started a league for kids as small as four, so we signed him up.

He got better then me! You never saw such a little kid take to something like my boy did to bowling. He soon decided he didn’t need bumper rails, and developed a solid skim down the middle that resulted in a strike on more than one occasion!

At the end of the season, he had two patches and a trophy for his scores and for the most improvement in a young bowler. He also had his very own ball and bag. It was a huge confidence builder for him!

Last year the bowling alley was remodeling, so we didn’t do as much bowling… and my daughter broke her finger at the third basketball practice and was out for the season. We are looking forward to this fall, though - both of our kids have found the best sport for their personality!

Just helping. In my house, that includes:

*  Making sure they have had something to eat so they aren’t distracted by hunger. Just a quick, healthy after school snack.
*  Providing a neat, quiet place for them to work, and keeping the TV off until after homework is finished.
* Being available to give them direction - not the answers, just clues to point the way, and help them figure it out on their own.
*  Looking it over and pointing out any problem spots - not correcting it, but just showing them where they might want to take a second look.

My kids know that doing homework in the morning before school is a no-no. They’ll just have to take the late grade if they forget they have a paper, because it is their responsibility to show me what is in their backpacks when they get home from school.

We all want our kids to succeed! That’s why we have to give them the tools to learn to do things for themselves. They will be the ones in the classroom taking that test, so we want to be sure they can do it on their own!

My daughter wants to be everyone’s friend. She’s a natural! At the same time, she can have her feelings hurt if she is excluded - she doesn’t understand why anyone would want to shut her out!

I have to encourage her to find the right sort of friends, who will build her up and appreciate her for who she is. Some little girls only want to play with others who wear the same jacket or have expensive bracelets. That’s OK, I told my daughter it is their loss.

Then she found another little girl who didn’t have the fancy bracelet either, and they got to be best friends!

My little boy is the shy one. He is never sure if he should talk to other kids, because he is afraid they will not like him. He finally made friends with a little boy who was shy too - he was from Israel and the other kids made fun of the way he talks.

My son told me the other boy was crying, and I asked him if he thinks the little boy could use a friend. The next day the teacher told me that they played together at recess and ate lunch together. From then on they were always together!

The little boy moved to another school district last year, and my son was the only one from our school who got invited to his birthday party. My daughter still talks to her friend on the phone, even though they will be in different classes this year.

I’m glad both of my kids have made such good friends!

Once school starts it can be tricky finding time for everything. There will always be days that don’t follow a plan, but I try to have some sort of schedule laid out to make sure everything gets done.

In the morning, I get the kids up and they get dressed in clothes we laid out the night before while I get their breakfast ready. Then they eat while I pack lunches!  The school is close by, so I run them to school and swing around to pay any local bills while I am out.

When I get home, I can concentrate on the baby - feeding him his long, drawn-out breakfast (he has graduated to his own little table and chair, and likes to run around between bites) and catching up on laundry and housework. Then I can check on emails and touch base with clients and friends while he plays.

While he naps I get a big slice of my daily work done at my desk. About the time he wakes up, we have lunch and run to do any shopping or extra errands before time to pick the kids up from school! If it is Wednesday we stop at the library on the trip home from school; if it is Friday we will rent a few DVDs and a treat if they have had a good week.

When we get home, it is a healthy snack and homework. I try to get them outside for a little playtime too after homework if the weather is good! They have to feed and water the pets (one dog, one cat, one pygmy hedgehog) and do any other chores I have for them (unload dishwasher, pick up toys, etc).

After a bath, it is time for dinner, and then an hour or two of TV or video games. On Friday nights they get to stay up late and watch their DVDs and eat popcorn. Other nights it is bed by eight, and I get back to my computer to finish whatever work is left.

I think the reason we have such a good schedule is that I try to plan one main thing per day - Sunday is extra laundry day, to catch up on sheets and towels if I have fallen behind; Monday and Thursday I shop, and I try to plan ahead for Saturday when my husband usually does dinner on the grill.

What do you do to get everything done?

I am very lucky that my children go to such a good school. The teachers both my son and daughter have had in the past years have been great! I have to hold up my end, too, though. When my daughter started slipping a little in her grades and behavior marks I went to the teacher to ask why.

“She is lucky she is so smart,” her teacher said. “She is just completely goofing off in class. If she would pay attention she would be in the advanced class already.”

I was shocked! My little girl had always perfect marks for behavior each six weeks. The teacher said that she was talking to her friends and not paying any attention - in fact, she had even back-talked the teacher a few times.

At the same time, my little boy was acting up in his class, poking the kid next to him at circle time or when they were in line in the hall. “He’s such a sweet boy - this isn’t like him!” the teacher said.

I had just had my baby, and I figured they were just feeling a little left out! I sat down with each teacher and child, and we talked about the problems.

I asked if they would mind sending home a daily report for a few weeks, so I could deal with any issues immediately instead of finding out a whole week later.

Every day they had a note telling me about a problem, we would sit down right after school and talk it over. If they didn’t have a perfect mark for the day, no TV or video games. If they had a bad mark three or more times in a week, then nothing on the weekend, either!

It only took three weeks before all the behavior problems were gone, and their grades came back up. I was glad I had talked to the teachers, and we had found a solution!

First I haunt the thrift store looking for t-shirts that still look brand new. I even buy a few with logos, because I can cover them up! You would be surprised at how you can get a whole pile for just a few dollars.

Next I hit the discount table at the fabric store and buy up a stack of remnants. If they have any big, crazy buttons, I grab them, too, and I pick up some iron on appliqué fabric as well.  A stop at the hobby store for t-shirt paint and ribbon, and we are all set!

I usually try for tees that are a little big for her frame and come down just past her hips. We decorate first - that way if we hopelessly mess one up, we can trash it and start over! We use the iron-on to create cut-outs to cover up logos, and t-shirt paint, buttons or ribbon to decorate the collar, sleeves and front of the shirt.

Next we can use our remnants to make skirts for the dresses. I can simply gather one length, attach it to the bottom of the t-shirt and hem the edge, or I can get fancy and make a gored skirt with panels of contrasting fabrics. You can even use bandanas for the skirt and angle them so that you get flirty points hanging down around the knees. We make hair bows and headbands to match each dress. In the winter, we use turtlenecks or long-sleeved tees to make dresses, and she can wear them over leggings!

Hope this inspires you to make some with your own little girl!

I had always heard about jaundice, but I didn’t really get what it was all about until I had kids. I thought I would share my experience, so others won’t be alarmed if their baby has it!

Jaundice is a condition a lot of babies have at birth. It’s normally just caused by the liver not functioning fully yet, so a substance called bilirubin starts to build up. It can be noticed if the skin is a little yellow, or even the whites of the eyes in extreme cases.

My daughter had a very mild case of jaundice when she was born, so they just had me sit outside with her in the evening so she could get a little sun! The sunshine helped her body break down the bilirubin and naturally balance her out. When they checked her bilirubin levels a few days later she was fine!

My two sons had it also, and they told me that it is common with breastfed babies to see it early on before the milk comes in fully, but it almost always resolves itself. They check in a few days just in case, because there are conditions that Mom can have that will make the bilirubin levels in the baby get too high and not come down.

This can lead to cerebral palsy and other bad health conditions for the baby! Fortunately, since they check at birth and again a few days later, they can catch if there is a problem and give the baby a shot so they will be fine.

All of my babies were fine after a few days, so I was pretty glad! With last baby I had an emergency c-section because he was breech and got stuck, so I had to stay in the hospital longer. Since he wasn’t getting sun, they just put him under a special ultraviolet light so he would be able to get balanced out.

Hope this sets some new mom’s minds at rest!

1. Make sure you advertise!  Lots of local papers will let you run a free or very cheap ad. You can also post some signs with arrows on main streets near your home (be sure to go back and take these down later). Make sure the sign has the address in the biggest letters. Signs that say GARAGE SALE in huge letters don’t do any good if you can’t see where it is going to be!

2. Have a back up plan in case it rains. Here’s an idea - have the garage sale IN THE GARAGE!  It will be shady if it’s hot, and covered if it rains. You can set up tables and sit in comfort with a fan blowing. Set a few large items out in the yard if the weather is good, and a sign saying MORE INSIDE!

3.  Don’t overprice your stuff!  The main goal is to get rid of stuff, not make a bunch of money. You will be better off if you manage to sell all your items for a quarter or a dollar than just a few for five bucks each.

4. Call a charity and schedule a truck to come pick up the leftovers. This is a double winner - they get stuff to use for charity, and you get it taken away for free plus a tax break for the value of the items! Make a list and ask for a tax receipt for your records.

5.  Have fun!  You can run a little lemonade or bake stand or sell hot dogs, chips and soda for a little extra profit. My family kept honeybees, and we would sell fresh comb honey! Later you can use your profits to go out to eat or catch a movie.

Even if you don’t rake in the big bucks, a garage sale is the perfect way to end your summer fun. At least your clutter will be gone!!