Friday, October 20, 2017

Random Tid Bits

  1. I wish I could share good news about my nephew Emerson. He's been in the hospital for seizures. They've tried different meds. Nothing so far has helped. In fact things have just gotten worse for him. His 2 minute seizures are now 15 minutes! All these meds have side effects.

    Little Emerson has needed extra O2, a catheter had to be put in because he couldn't pee - they don't scan his bladder right because it is shaped funny, he was blocked with stool, he's sleepy but can't sleep well, he his thyroid was on the low side, he had a fever, he got a huge rash from one med that they have had to stop. Some doctors are all about helping Emerson, while others won't even show up. My heart melts for their family.

    I'm taking in Emerson's 3 brothers this Friday for the Isaak's school Fall Festival.



  2. Isaak keeps getting papers like this sent home: 


  3. To me it's crazy to grade 4/4, but whatever he's doing well.

  4. Isaak got into Show Choir. I'm so glad he's taking his own path, and not following in his brother's footsteps. Mica did great! Isaak is Isaak. They are two different people with two different personalities. 

  5. Mica to is doing well. He got a postcard in the mail from his math teacher saying how he's doing so great in class. Mica seemed proud! That was good.

    It inspired me to talk with my good students, and tell them how proud I am of how hard they work. I don't think it's going to go to their heads. They worked for it, and deserve it.

  6. I'd say I'm ready for a relaxing weekend, but it will be a busy one: The boy's school Fall Festival with 3 cousins tagging along, an overnight with cousins, flu shots on Saturday morning, basket ball game Sat. morning, a friend get together somewhere in there (she's visiting), the boy's Leadership Camp Sat. night, and maybe Sun. will be a clean-up craft day.

    What do you have planned for the weekend?

Thursday, October 19, 2017

#MeToo

I have a few #MeToo Stories. If you're unfamiliar with what I'm talking about click here to get an understanding. It's all over social media, and on the news.

I'm fairly an open book. By telling my story it will help others to open up to. Anyone that has been assaulted is not alone.

I do agree with Alyssa Milano - We need to talk about sexual assault. There are a lot of grey lines.

Story 1:

I was in a group in Science class when I was in 7th grade. I was with 2 boys.

I never kiss a boy yet, and was pretty terrified to even talk to the opposite sex.

1 boy in my group put his pencil upright on my chair, refusing to let me sit down, and kept saying, "Come on sit and spin!" I pushed him away and said, "STOP! Let's get to work." He then put his hand on my upper leg and kept saying, "You know this is what you want." The other boy laughed. I said, "No! That's not what I want!" I kept shoving his hand off my leg, and he kept putting it back.

Towards the end of class I went up to my male teacher and said, "Is it ok if I switch groups? I'm with 2 boys, and they keep saying and doing inappropriate things to me."

The teacher didn't ask questions. He let me switch groups.

Two things happened that day: I became all the more afraid of guys. I also met one of my best friends. She was in the group I changed to. I'm still friends with her today.

During high school that same friend mentioned above that I'm still friends with today was skinny. A group of guys used to walk behind us and would say, "I bet if I had sex with her, I'd break her in 1/2."

Story 2: 

When I was in high school I took a few old school photography classes. On the first day of class my favorite teacher said, "Girls do not go into the dark room alone, or be in there with 1 guy."

What he said stuck with me.

I was in the dark room timing my prints. Photography paper is, and was really expensive. There were about 5 people in the room with me. All the sudden my fellow high school peers started walking out of the room. I was left in there with one boy. I was almost done with what I was doing. If you've never taken a photography course, timing is everything! If you take the paper out of a chemical too quickly then you can mess up a print.

In my mind I was thinking, "Time hurry up! I'm not supposed to be here right now!" What I should have done, opened the door, and shouted for someone to come back in the room. I didn't think of that.

I was standing at the chemical bath just waiting impatiently.

The boy that was in there was a few years younger than me. I had talked to him few times. About the only thing I knew about him was that his name was David Story. David came up behind me, grabbed my boob. I elbowed him hard. He held on saying, "Come on you know you want this." I shoved him hard, and left the room.

My heart was racing. I did what many woman would do. I did nothing. Why did a do nothing? Because I was told not to be in the dark room with a guy alone. I felt like it was my fault.

There are more stories, but those stuck with me the most. Overall most guys were respectable. Anything that did happen was mutual. I'm thankful that I was never raped, or brutally attacked.

I do wish that more people talked about this subject openly. Maybe then at time I wouldn't have felt so alone, or would have stood up for myself more. 

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

WW: Vines {Linky}

We were on our way to an art opening, and I spotted some vines on a brick wall. I said, "Get over there 1 by 1, and I took everyone's photo. Then my husband took my photo.

Isaak was easy to shoot. He puts on a good smile for me. He lets me know when a smile isn't going to happen.


Most of Mica's photos had "goof" all over them. He plasters on crazy faces, then laughs.


I usually have to shoot a few of Travis. He loves to open his mouth to say things to the kids, or I. Then it looks like he's singing to the camera.


Travis took a few of me. One with glasses and one without. I'm not totally used to my glasses just yet. Sometimes I swear I see better without them than I do with them. I wonder how long it will take to get used to them?





Monday, October 16, 2017

Introducing Fama @famahire

I love companies that are all about solving problems. 

I tell my college students every year that if there's one thing I want them to get out of my classes it's to be able to solve their own problems.

  • If my students don't have the money to buy a canvas or illustration board to paint on, then cut down cardboard to work on. 
  • If a certain art technique isn't working how they'd like, figure out how to make it pan out. 
  • Dive into coming up with an idea, and make that idea transform into a concept. An idea is just the spark of something. A concept is when an idea is executed through the technique, and medium chosen.  
Fama gives online identity analysis. They provide solutions to some of the toughest problems. They turn online identity data into actionable insight. 

Employers can gain information about individuals, and their online presence.


It is hard coming up with a name that is unique, and fits a person. When I first started blogging I used the name Planet of the Apels. It was already in use, and I didn't even realize this. It's hard to think, and find something different. When I changed the name of my site I wanted something that tied the two together. I kept my name in there. It may be considered risky, but I wanted something that spoke for my family. An Apel a Day we became.

One of the hardest things about manual social media screening is finding the right profile. Fama helps with that.


Having a presence is much more than a name.

  • It's behavior
  • It's how things appear
  • It's who you want to market
Fama works to develop these customized elements internally.



Data is important, but what if you could take collecting data further? Fama has a team that is capable of gathering comparative analytics. Making things consistent throughout your site, and social media is important. It builds a framework, so people know what company or who to trust.  

Fama gives you a Social Media Background Check. Go check them out!


It's always good to look over resources. Fama has many!
  • Legal Book - Lawyers weigh in on the legal aspects of social media screening.
  • YouTube - Watch videos with experts on business and social media use.
  • Case Studies - Examples that have worked in the past really helps to understand what you're about to get into. 
  • Twitter - Innovative knowledge about social media, and where it's going.
Do you like social media? What's your favorite platform? I find myself on facebook the most.


Disclaimer: Fama helped to sponsor this post. They did not influence me to write this post. This post was written by me. I only review things I think my family, friends, or readers would be interested in.

We Need a Bigger Couch

This weekend we took in our nephews: Evan (age 12), Elijah (age 9) and Edison (age 3). 

It's great that 2 of my nephews are only a few months apart from my boys. We used to watch them a few days a week when they were itty bitty. They are certainly not strangers to the Apel house.

Their brother Emerson (6) is still in the hospital battling seizures. They keep trying different meds, which have all kinds of side effects. Emerson has been sleepy, but can't sleep. The boy needed O2. He can't go to the bathroom, so they put in a catheter. His skin and lips are dry. Then just tested his thyroid, and it's on the underactive side. My sister keeps wanting to know the meds they put him on, and why. They look at her with a blank stare. She has her masters in nursing education. She keeps that under wraps just in case they expect her to do everything for Emerson. A few doctors are talking about sending him to an Epilepsy Center, which the closest one my sister would send him to is in Cleveland, Ohio. YIKES!

With all that stress we tried to be upbeat with Emerson's brothers. 

I forgot how much a 3 year old loves to help! He gathered produce from our garden with Travis. He helped me make a cake for Cake Walk at Isaak's school, and he helped me make Lego Gummies. Edison was much more excited about chores than my boys. Ha!

It's good Edison had fun. I can't imagine the stress in his little life with his mom and brother always at the hospital for a week. It doesn't look like they are coming home anytime soon.

Edison loves Isaak! I asked Edison, "Where's Isaak?" He responded with, "You mean my buddy?" I said, "Ya him." He went to get Isaak for me.

These boys seem to all get a long very well. 



It looks like we could use a longer couch! I'd love to go shopping for a Living Room Furniture Set! I'd love to get a 5 Piece Sectional Living Room Set! Then the boys could spread out a bit.

If I had a sectional, I'd have plenty of room to put the boys in blankets, and toss them up onto the couch. Isaak still thinks he's small enough for a blanket toss. Trust me he's getting heavy. My nephew Edison is the perfect age for that though! It is pretty fun!



What piece of furniture would you like to replace? 

Sunday, October 15, 2017

Making a Fall Leaf Bowl

I have a little secret to reveal. I've been writing posts for parentsavvy. I wanted to keep it hush hush until they posted my first post. Our focus is going to be crafts. I have a lot of ideas. A whole list of them actually. 

Don't worry I'll let you in on the crafts on here as well. As long as I use different pictures, and write it in a different way I can share! I took tons of pictures. If I've seemed more absent it's partly because I've been writing for parentsavvy.com, and partly a mess of other things that life has thrown at us.

The first craft we worked on is:


It's been back and forth weather here in Nebraska. Last week it rained most of the week, the week before that it was summer like weather, and now it's finally starting to feel like fall.

Nebraska does have 4 true seasons. The leaves do turn colors, but there's a lot of brown crunchy ones on the ground as well.

Since Isaak and I started this project a few weeks ago, there wasn't a lot of variety on the ground for leaf colors yet.

I've always struggled with what to do with Isaak. He's a needy child in the fact that he loves doing things with people. Mica on the other hand is fine as long as he has books to read or Legos to play with. Isaak has always enjoyed both arts and crafts. Let's face it, the selection for boys is slim! I think making up crafts to do with him will both stimulate his creativity and fill that need to do things with someone.

Step One: Buy or get a flexible plastic bowl. Usually the cheaper the better. You want it to be really flimsy. We reused a bowl from a craft kit: Craft-tastic Paper Bowl Kit by Ann Williams. You don't need to have this kit to do this fun project. If you get the kit it's $16.99 at Target. You can reuse and reuse the bowls that come with the set.

Here's a bowl Isaak made from the set:  
The bowls were cute, but they had a lot of girly patterns and colors. We took the process, but added our own twist to it. Here's the bowl from the kit. It's really flimsy. The cheaper the bowl the better!


Step Two: Since there wasn't a lot of fall leaves here just yet, we used fabric leaves. I've had them for a long time. My sister gave them to me from Oriental Trading Company.

If you have lots of  fall leaves there's no need to buy anything. Get outside, and get some leaves.


Step Three: I helped Isaak combine some glue with water. You can use either Elmer's Glue or Modge Podge You just want it thin enough to paint on bowl with a brush or foam brush. We even used our fingers to slather the glue on.

Step Four: Just dip the leaves in the glue, and put it on the bowl. Try and keep the leaves fairly flat, and overlap them.



Keep overlapping the leaves. We did a few layers. I liked the variety of colors, but one single color could be cool as well.


Step Five: Isaak loves glitter, so I mentioned that he could add glitter glue to the bowl. He was so happy to add glitter. You could add acrylic colors to it, or leave it. I could see doing the whole bowl in red leaves, and painting gold paint on it as well. *Note if acrylics won't stick to the leaves, you can add just a drop of dish or hand soap to the paint. That helps it to stick.

We painted a 2 layers of glue over the fabric leaves just to make sure the bowl would be sturdy, and not floppy.


Step Six: Give it plenty of time to dry! We just let it be for a day. It may be ready to peel up before then. But why rush a good thing? Don't peel the bowl up if the glue is still wet.

Step Seven: When the bowl is dry, peel the leaves up around edges. This is where it's vital to have a flexible bowl. You could have a hard plastic bowl, but it may have to stay a part of the design. I'm not so sure you could peel the leaves off of it.


Like I said the cheap bowls can be reused. Isaak's already talking about making a paper bowl for his teacher for Christmas.

We were both so happy with how it turned out!


Can you see the glitter?


Isaak opted to put acorns and pinecones in his fall leaf bowl. What would you put in it?



I like that this craft can be done by boys or girls. It's fun for adults or kids. It's really great for anyone!

Disclaimer

The opinions on this blog are my personal take on products and topics relating to motherhood. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me.

I am not compensated to provide opinions on a variety of topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are my own. If I claim to show knowledge of certain topic or product I will only endorse products or services that I feel, based on my expertise, are worthy of such endorsement.

If you have any questions about this blog, or want to get in contact with me please email me at: anapeladay@gmail.com