the finer points of family living
On the birthday of my oldest child, I went in to labor with another baby boy.
When I was walking the halls at midnight, it was clear they weren’t going to share a birthday, but it was going to be close.
Just four hours short. 
At the time, I thought it would be better they each had their own day, and every one seemed to echo those sentiments.
In the subsequent years, I think I’ve changed my mind. For now.
click through to see why I think sharing a birthday wouldn’t be so bad after all.
We often marvel how not one of our children inherited my (nearly black) hair color. But none of them inherited their dads nearly pigment free skin either. We are able to keep them sun burn free nearly everywhere — except the beach. Despite a noble effort, the first several trips ended up in some pretty sad state of affairs. Over the years we became more serious about getting it right, and we can now spend 12 hours a day on the beach with out a burn.
1. Layer on the sunscreen every two hours. Kids hate it because it is gross rubbing sunscreen into your wet sandy skin. Lure them with….
2. Physical protection from the sun when possible! Sun shirts! Kids love them now because anywhere the shirt covers we don’t have to sunscreen. We have bought ours at lands end and they have held up and worked very well.
3. HATS. And good ones. Go for the kind with a brim all the way around that have a tightening cord around the circumference of the head. They can wear these bogey boarding and they will (usually) stay on. With out a hat our kids will burn. After our fourth baby, I started getting quite splotchy in the sun. Very unattractive. No one wants a sunspot goatee. Sunscreen doesn’t seem to protect — keeping the sun off my face does.
4. For the extra sensitive — large sunglasses. Our little dolly must have been rainbow looming in heaven when they were handing out cheek pigment. No matter what we do, she burns. A large pair of sunglasses cover this sensitive area and protect her eyes, too.
Crabbing is one of our all time favorite beach activities. So fun to do as a family, and there is something so satisfying about catching a tasty dinner from the ocean.
The best places to crab are the sound side of narrow beach barrier islands such as Top Sail and the Outer Banks. Our favorite spot ever is the public pier in Duck.
To crab effectively you will need
I don’t have very many quality pictures because this is a whole family affair! As you can see it is a good activity when the weather is a little cooler since you can do it in sweatshirts.
Steps
Clean (this is gross, be warned) and then boil the crabs
WARNING: These guys mean business. Be very careful to not get pinched. Use tongs when dealing with crabs that are alive, and instill in kids a healthy sense of respect of their pinchers.
This guy is cooked — he’s pink.
Either serve the whole bodies up, letting the kids pick out the meat, or save the meat over several days and make crab cakes. So good. 
Spending a full week at the beach, to us, is one of life’s great luxuries. So relaxing, so fun. Getting ready? Ugh.
Packing for trips has become so.much.easier. since the little people have gotten older and are super helpful. However, each time a beach (or really mountain — or anywhere you will be for a bit) trip would roll around I’d start making notes on old envelopes, while wondering why I couldn’t write down my pack list, once and of all, somewhere I could find it each year. So here it is. If you are going to a rental that provides one roll of toilet paper and a view? Here is it.
Because packing usually takes place over a period of days or even weeks (over planners anonymous, do they exist?) I find it very helpful to print out met list and MARK IT OFF. Inevitably I’ll forget what I’ve packed, or still need to.
(good for trips with accommodation rentals that don’t provide toiletries, linens and such)
For the people (I make a grid and we check off as we go, except the time I brought literally nothing for Chase except bathing suits? How did that happen?)
toiletries
linens
Entertainment
Biking
So what do you think? What have I missed? What else do you usually bring?
It is officially March, bring on the beach. In NC, I feel March is usually the time the weather turns nice enough to enjoy a nice spring break at the beach should the need arise. And given it may snow tomorrow — geez. Let’s do this.
I have a four part beach series this week, in the bag, covering the following:
Once and For All Pack List
Crabbing How To
Beach Meals
Sun Protection Strategies
I’m sure you can barely wait.
I like my food hot. It is probably a big reason I started cooking every night; I like a hot meal, and I like to begin enjoying it at optimal temperature. So imagine my agony when I announce dinner is ready, we go to sit down to eat and realize we still need to fill the cups. Factor in that small dogs can pee faster than my fridge can dispense water. You get the idea, it takes f.o.r.e.v.e.r.
For $4.00 at Ikea I solved this problem, and upgraded my eating experience to remind me of nice restaurants I’ve enjoyed. These two water bottles are about the right size for a family of 6. It is the job of the youngest family member to fill these AFTER dinner and stow them in the fridge, so they are ready and waiting next time we sit down. Genius.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there are some new pages that have been added to the top of my blog. I thought it would be convenient to put the answer to three questions I frequently consider: where to go on vacation, my favorite restaurants, and what to make for dinner. I have updated them all!
(ironically enough, the page What To Make for Dinner is one of my most viewed pages so I finally got it together and added some more ideas 🙂
In some ways (some?) it seems so silly to write about snowstorm preparation from North Carolina. They are very rare, and it doesn’t snow THAT much. (and today it is 70!!) That being said, it doesn’t take very much to send our area into a state of disarray. Furthermore, we get lots of false alarms. But alas, earlier last week we heard a stow storm was coming (again, we missed four days of school just the week before over about an inch!)
This time I am glad we planned ahead, just a bit.
Here are a few things we did both before and during our visit from snowstorm Pax to make life more comfortable for everyone. Since up to an inch and a half of freezing rain was in the forecast, we were preparing for a two track week: days at home with snow, but full power and being home with no power. (our #1 plan was to get out of here as soon as possible had we lost heat. Sleepover time at J&B)
1. Fill up both cars with gas. This was (for once) a really good call. It took Jared over two hours to make an 8 mile drive because the roads were so crowded with people who were not comfortable driving in the snow (think lines 50 cars deep to go up a small hill, sliding down because no one is getting a running start) Had he skipped the pump the night before, he would have run out of gas on the road. Evidently the roads were both so crowded and slick people were not able to get over to gas stations and were running out of gas right in the middle of traffic.
2. Bring heavy boots and coats if going out and about on day of the storm. The storm was going to hit around lunch time and work was open that morning. That afternoon, many people had to walk miles home, and I bet they would have been happy to have their snow boots and coats on. Problem is, we have been warned about snow like this at least 10 times since we’ve lived here that has never come to fruition, so now when I suggest packing boots it is met with an eye roll smile.
click through to see how we kept warm and entertained.
We had such a good time last week with THREE snow days. This time it was pretty clear we wouldn’t be leaving the house returning to school anytime soon, and Thursday was one of my all time favorite family days. We had lots of good cooking, sledding on boogie boards, Olympics watching, Olympic recreations outside, games, eating girl scout cookies, sibling sleepovers, showing profuse gratitude for electricity, and marveling at the weather. Seriously the best.
Is that gorgeous or what? Only because 1. we were all safe at home and 2. had electricity.
What didn’t happen at all was blog writing. So I thought I would review the Olympic meals we did have. I knew if we were going to be trapped inside for four days, we’d better have something good to eat while we were at it, so we stocked up on Monday and Tuesday.
Click through to see what we thought of our Olympic inspired eats.
Few things are as wonderful to me as reading a picture book to a child cuddled right up to you. And have great books to read only makes it more fun. Here are some of our very favorites.
Good Night Moon
Thanks for Thanksgiving
This is the Turkey
Twas the Night Before The Night Before Christmas
Do Princesses Wear Hiking Boots
Pinkalicious
My Brave Year of Firsts
Olivia Goes to Venice
Strega Nona
Jillian Jiggs
The Pink House
Llama Llama, Mad At Mama
The Three Little Javelinas
I Love Trains
This is my grandmother reading to the little boys. In addition to being a fantastic story reader, she is an author.
Adventures In Soyland 