Since giving gifts is synonymous to birthdays, it is only reasonable that a gift should be given on Dr. Seuss’s birthday. It would be impossible to give the gift to him, so I’m giving one lucky reader a gift in his honor.

 The winner of this Dr. Seuss giveaway will choose between two Seuss gift sets.

The first set is geared toward toddlers and young preschoolers. It consists of a Green Eggs & Ham lift flap board book, a Dr. Seuss Matching Game, and the Dr. Seuss What’s in the Cat’s Hat? game.

Green Eggs & Ham (Nifty Lift-and-Look) 

Dr. Seuss Matching Game

Dr. Seuss What's in the Cat's Hat? Game

The second set is geared toward older preschoolers and early elementary ages. It consists of the Dr. Seuss One Fish Two Fish game, The Cat in the Hat I Can Do That game, and the Childhood of Famous Americans Dr. Seuss biography.  

Dr. Seuss One Fish Two Fish Game

Cat in the Hat I Can Do That! Game

Dr. Seuss: Young Author and Artist (Childhood of Famous Americans)

(A side note on this book: My younger siblings and I read every Childhood of Famous Americans books that we could lay our hands on. My mother passed on her set to me, and many of the books are falling apart… they were that good. This would make a great read aloud book.)

To enter, simply click here and fill out the form. Winner will be notified by email. Contest ends Friday, March 2^nd at 11:59 pm (Pacific Time).

 Don't forget to grab your free Dr. Seuss printables before you leave!

(This is not a promotional giveaway. I receive no compensation for hosting this giveaway.)

The kids and I have a countdown going on until my favorite special day. (A special day, in our house, is any “holiday” that is not a real, real holiday – which consists of only Thanksgiving and Christmas. Ha. - or a family birthday.)

We're counting down the days to March 2nd. Only seven more days until Dr Seuss’ birthday!! Are you excited? I am.

Last year, the kids and I had a lot of fun. I wanted to post pictures of our Seussy adventures, but the file server is not accessible right now.

So, instead, how about some free Seussy printables… and a fabulous Seussy giveaway!?

My five year old son asked me if we could play Pin the Green Egg on the Platter again this year. I offered this printable game on my personal blog, Unsolicited Advice, last year. But this year, I revamped it and made it actually look nice. So, here it is... the new and improved Pin the Green Egg on the Platter game. (Play it the same way you would play Pin the Tail on the Donkey.)

 If you have an early elementary student in your home, the Happy Birthday to Dr. Seuss reading activities may give a fun twist to your homeschool day or a fun after school activity. This printable set is 12 pages and includes 5 different activities geared toward advanced kindergarten through second grade.

To find great links to other creative bloggers with fabulous Dr. Seuss ideas, check out my Dr. Seuss Pinterest board, where I have linked to many Dr. Seuss related foods, activities, and ideas.

And don't forget to sign up for the Seuss giveaway, open through Friday, March 2nd.

Today was one of those days. You know... one of those where you never seem to wake up. You can't seem to physically pull yourself up to do anything other than sustain the life of your kids. One of those days where you consume a large dose of caffeine just to stay awake, and the only reason you're staying awake is so that the house is not burned down and the kids do not permanently damage each other.

I had Cherith bring her workbooks to the couch for school today. I tried a number of times to blog, but the brain would just shut down on me and, invariably, I'd fall asleep. My husband had one hour at home this evening between work and class. Usually, I spend this time making dinner and making sure he gets something good to eat. I take a few minutes to chat about my day and then listen to him tell about his day. But today, when he came in the door, I simply asked, "Do you mind if I take a nap?"

Usually, I would have spent the entire day feeling guilty for the way I felt. I would have felt guilty for not cleaning, not playing with the kids, not making a tasty meal, and being just plain boring and "mean". But not today. Because today, I took the judgmental thoughts and put them through a filter to test their validity.

“You’re a lazy, irritable woman. It shouldn’t matter how you feel. You’ve got a job to do, and you should just plow through and smile as if nothing were wrong.” These thoughts hit after I had been up for about an hour.

On the surface, I would say these statements were true. I was not acting as a happy, disciplined woman. I do have a set of responsibilities to my family, and the most important one is to shower them with love.

But just because my actions were not those of a bustling, whistling housewife with four happy children playing around her did not mean I was guilty of wrong. It simply meant that I was guilty of being tired and exhausted. And that’s ok. There’s no reason to feel guilty for needing a restful day.

I think a lot of times I assume that since I “match” my self accusations, then I must be in the wrong. But just because I am guilty as charged does not mean I should be charged. Most of the time, it simply means I am not interpreting my circumstances correctly, and therefore my accusations are not well founded. This type of guilt is totally unnecessary and is, in fact, quite damaging. It leads to more stress, which pretty much counteracts any attempts to “do better”.

A woman who is not free from unfounded guilt is not free to accomplish great things.

_________________________________________

I absolutely must share with you a timely and encouraging tidbit from an email newsletter I received this morning. It comes from Lisa Bryne’s Well Grounded Life.

“We don't honor what we need right NOW. We keep believing that if we just PUSH. ON. THROUGH. somewhere there will be a finish line, somewhere there will be the red light and we can finally rest, someday we'll see the END of our to-do list.

It's a lie.

It's a destructive pattern and we are losing our lives to it.

When you live a life without boundaries and without protecting your inner life force...you are supposed to feel drained and tapped out.

These are the messages of a life out of harmony. They are your LIFE LINE, not your burden. They are the spark of life left in you begging for you to break the pattern and begin to reassess where you are headed and whether that is where you really want to be going.”

Sort of a bunny trail here... have you noticed that McDonald's has both fries and apples in the Happy Meals now? Maybe the rest of the world knew about it already, but I so do not keep up with the news. Did you know that Obama was President? Oh wait. I guess that's old news, since this is election year.

Anyway, the benefit of the new Happy Meals (other than now your child eats fewer fries and enjoys a few peeled apples dipped in citric acid) is the cute teeny tiny fry boxes that come with each one. I knew I would be keeping them as soon as I laid eyes on them.

I made a little reading activity with them for Cherith, to put a little fun into those dreaded list of words to read. She has been working on suffixes, so I labeled three boxes with -s, -ed, and -ing.

I created some paper "fries" with various suffixed words typed on them.

She would pull a fry out of the unlabeled fry box, read the word, and then put it into the right suffix's fry box.

The whole purpose was to get her to read words with suffixes. I don't think she knew that though. She just had a lot of fun playing with french fries.

If you would like to create a similar set up, you can use this template I created. It's nothing fancy, but it works. I uploaded it as a Word document so that you can change the labels and words as needed.

(To change the words: Simply click on the word you would like to change. Highlight the entire word. Type the word you want. Continue with each word you want to change.)

I never really thought of myself as a negative thinking sort of person. I always thought I was laid back, low key, extremely patient, and relaxed. But then I suddenly found myself as a mother to multiple children, over night it seemed, as well as a wife, daughter, sister, friend, housekeeper, cook, shopper, teacher, home business owner, and everything else you can think of.

My third child was still an infant when I realized that I had become a stressed out mother. My husband had just started become a full time student, as well as working full time. I had two toddlers, a baby, a bit of post partum issues, and was going through a very difficult and dark situation. Simply put, I was overwhelmed.

I was both surprised and amazed at my inability to turn off the constant feeling of stress. It was more than emotional; it was physical. I could feel it in every part of my body. But I figured it would go away when circumstances changed. It hasn't... completely. I felt guilty for it then and feel guilty about it now.

Fast forward to the current stage in my life. The stress remains. Guilt is a constant thought, feeling, and pressure. I feel guilty when I raise my voice with the kids. I feel guilty when my house isn't clean and spotless. I feel guilty when I haven't called my mom in over a month.

These seem like good things to feel guilty about - perhaps. But I'm pretty crazy. I feel guilty about stupid stuff. I feel guilty for doing dishes because I'm not cleaning the bathroom. I feel guilty for decluttering my house because I'm not spending time with my kids. I feel guilty for playing with the kids because I'm not picking up the giant mess all over the floor.

I lay in bed at the end of everyday, feeling guilty for the things I did and for the things I didn't. Where did this come from? How did I become this person? What is true consciencious guilt and what is negative false guilt? How do I turn it off?

Because this thought pattern affects so much of my life, I am striking out on a journey to find its source, weed out the bad, and strive to live a guilt-free life. You're welcome to join me here every Monday for a few weeks, if you wish.

Do you struggle with thoughts of guilt? Do you think there is a difference in types of guilt?