15 Quick Ways to Refresh Yourself

Do you need quick ways to refresh yourself?

Do you need a break? Something you can do without leaving home (obviously) that can help refresh you and reset the trajectory of your day. As we shelter in place, it’s important to focus on what you can do, rather than what you can’t. The good news is that there is plenty to do.

As a special needs parent, one of the features I’ve noticed in our new now is that there are almost no transitions. This has actually translated into fewer meltdowns – an unexpected silver lining. But this has also led to a state of blurry monotony and a near constant state of asking “what day is it?”

As a special needs family, we are used to living a version of Groundhog Day. We spend a lot of time in this state (though, admittedly, the current quarantine has pushed the needle a little too close to the movie in some ways!)

Here are some quick ways to refresh yourself and reset during your day to help break up the monotony and allow you to refocus on what is next.

Listen

Happiness Lab Podcast

All the episodes are great – but Yale professor Dr. Laurie Santos (instructor of the now-fames Coursera class, Psychology and the Good Life), has really nailed it with her Coronavirus Bonus episodes. Each episode is better than the last.

Staying in with Emily and Kumail

Just what the title says. Practical, real, and hysterically funny – just what we all need. There is a little colorful language so wear earbuds or listen away from your littles. Your teens may listen along with you.

The Piece of Mind Retreat Playlist

No one can travel right now, but you can travel in your mind with our playlist. And when the world can travel again, The Piece of Mind Retreat will be waiting.

Breathe

2 minute meditation

Even if you have never considered meditation, it’s worth giving it a try. It is a simple, free way to calm, center and refocus yourself.

Kelly McGonigal Meditation

This one is from a favorite author, health scientist and fitness instructor. (It’s just over 15 minutes- but Kelly is great!)

Read

Self-Care Challenge

This is a great time to think about what is in our self-care challenge over at the Piece of Mind Retreat. Almost everything in it can be applied while in quarantine.

Self-care Survival Guide

Our self-care survival guide is a great source for simple ideas to refresh your day, your week and your month. Just what’s needed when hardly anyone knows what month or day it is.

Play

Gaming can make a better world

Game scientist Jane McGonigal proves this in her Ted Talk. So play a game – play charades with your family, a round of cards, or even a mobile app – any of this can help you reset.

Play online

Play a game like Drawful 2 on a platform like Jackbox. Or many of the other online social games that are quickly emerging.

Play family games

Here are ten of our favorites. Or print your own Cards Against Humanity and play with your roommates (or older kids!).

Watch

Some Good News

Really. There is some good news out there now. If you haven’t checked out this YouTube, home broadcast from The Office’s Jon Krasinski, then it’s time. Each episode is better than the last.

How to Make Stress Your Friend

A great resource for everyone – but especially prescient right now. Kelly McGonigal is an author, educator and psychologist – and one of my favorite fitness instructors. She is the real deal – and so is this talk. I’ve watched it countless times and highly recommend it.

Do

BollyX

Quarantine is a great time to shake up your fitness routine – like with this option that merges Bollywood music and style with cardio dance. On Zoom classes, just turn your camera off and dance like nobody’s watching – because they aren’t. Or watch on YouTube or Instagram like this 10 minute BollyX video – (and plenty more fun, free options on their YouTube channel).

Chalk it Up

A quick craft – like a Chalk Couture project can activate your creative mind – and freshen up your space.

Mani-Pedi

An at-home manicure from Color Street – beautiful, long-lasting nails in the comfort of your home. Dozens of color and design options that ship right to your door.

What are your favorite quick ways to refresh yourself? Comment below with your ideas.

Need some more self-care? Click here to grab your free Self-Care Survival Guide – and receive weekly email updates.

Refresh: Self-Care Survival Guide

Self-Care Challenge via the Piece of Mind Retreat

How to Celebrate Easter Without Candy – (well, eating it, at least)

Easter is a spring holiday that is often intertwined with candy. But celebrating Easter without candy may be a necessity for your family. Maybe you have food allergies or intolerances in your family? Maybe you are practicing healthier eating and want to share this with your friends and neighbor? Or maybe you just want a break from the sugar rush? If that’s the case then here are some great ways to ring in spring without candy.

Get festive with the decorations:

Like these egg designs from Chalk Couture.

Go fun with the food:

These are two of my favorite dips – and if you make the onion dip with fresh spring onions they’ll be an especially seasonal addition to your table.

Or try these Adorable Chick Cupcakes from Fun Happy Home.

Mini dutch babies – either savory or sweet – are a great way to make any meal special – breakfast, lunch or dinner.

JUMP TO RECIPE

Think Outside the Box with the Activities:

Coloring Fun:

This year especially, adults and children will enjoy coloring with these festive pages from Fun Happy Home.

Peeps Playdough:

Play with your candy – and turn it into extra “safe” playdough also from Fun Happy Home. (And I won’t tell if you have to “taste” the dough!).

Bunny Ears Headband:

Dress the part with these simple bunny ears from Fun Happy Home.

Celebrate with Your Fingertips:

Try Easter designs like these. Or the fabulous Spring Collection here.

Are you ready for some special spring nails??? More info available from www.larasandora.com/shop.

Want to try a sample first? There’s a link to request that here.

Easter Without Candy: Mini Dutch Babies

Mini Dutch Babies

Adapted from America’s Test Kitchen

Print Recipe

Prep Time 15 mins

Cook Time 15 mins

Total Time 30 mins

Course Breakfast, brunch

Cuisine American

Ingredients

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 teaspoons grated zest and
2 tablespoons juice from 1 lemon if desired
1 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cups skim milk see note
1 tablespoon unsalted butter melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar if desired

Instructions

OIL MUFFIN TIN Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Brush muffin cups with oil. Place muffin tin on oven rack and heat until oil is shimmering, about 10 minutes.
MIX BATTER Meanwhile, combine flour, cornstarch, lemon zest, and salt in large bowl. Whisk eggs in another bowl until frothy and light, about 1 minute. Whisk milk, butter, and vanilla into eggs until incorporated. Whisk one-third of milk mixture into flour mixture until no lumps remain, then slowly whisk in remaining milk mixture until smooth.
BAKE AND SERVE Carefully divide batter into heated muffin tin and bake until edges of Dutch Babies are deep golden brown and crisp, about 10-15 minutes.

Notes

Transfer muffin tin to wire rack and sprinkle Dutch Baby with lemon juice and confectioners’ sugar, if desired. You can use whole or lowfat milk instead of skim, but the Dutch Baby won’t be as crisp. For a sweet treat, serve with an assortment of berries and lightly sweetened whipped cream. For a savory one, top with sauteed mushrooms and grated gruyere, or caramelized onions and feta or blue cheese crumbles.

Keyword brunch, celebrations, quick and easy

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Pandemic Education: Rethinking the Classroom – and Our Humanity

What is pandemic education?

If you have been a US educator for more than two decades your career has been punctuated by some tremendous events. You may not often reflect on those events- or their impact on education. But one thing that many of us have now is time for reflection – on, among other things, pandemic education.

Rethinking the Classroom

My very first year of teaching, in the spring of 1999, I walked into class on a Wednesday that was markedly different than the day before, the week before, the month before. Anyone who was a teacher, a student, or a parent in the US on April 20, 1999 felt their world turn upside down as we watched an unthinkable tragedy unfold on security camera footage.

I was just 22 years old when I walked into my classroom on Wednesday, April 21, but I was suddenly wearing educator shoes much larger than those usually sported by first-year teachers. It was immediately clear that there would be no content that day. No group activity I had planned. And certainly no topic of discussion other than Columbine High School – and how we would or could be different.

Maslow’s Hierarchy – which had been so fresh in my mind from grad school – was front and center that day, by necessity. The conversation was simply about safety, security, and belonging – or lack of belonging – the underlying sentiment attributed to the two young men who caused the carnage.

We didn’t know it at the time, but the expectations for both educators – and our school spaces – changed dramatically as a result of that day. We now routinely spend school hours not only practicing for fire evacuations and earthquakes, but also teaching our students how to effectively barricade classrooms, obscure office windows, and repurpose heavy objects to thwart potential intruders.

Our school spaces have changed as well. My younger colleagues aren’t sure what I’m talking about when I mention “Columbine locks” (which may be locked from the interior, without a key), because they have never worked in a room where you had to reach your hand into the hallway to awkwardly lock your door. (Indeed, for years following Columbine, I would open my classroom door, re-lock it immediately, and then prop it open for the rest of the day.) Each and every space has blackout shades. And our entire school community knows what to do when they hear “this is a lockdown.”

Rethinking our Humanity

A few years later, another Wednesday: September 12, 2001. Another exceptionally challenging day to be in the classroom. The adults were barely able to process what had just unfolded. (While the crashes occurred early in the school day in the Pacific time zone on Tuesday, September 11, we had little access to television at school and the internet was not widely accessible for news, so we really couldn’t process anything until after school that day).

The raw footage of airplanes flying into towers, and people fleeing through ash and debris was seared into our minds. I wanted to crawl into a corner and cry. But instead I sat with class after class of young people, helping them process what we could. Who. What. Where. When. How. The why was, of course, much more difficult.

As an educator – and particularly as a secondary social studies teacher, which I was at the time – the unintended consequence was a new level of relevance. Perspective. Point of view. Cultural conflict. And the government’s response. For a number of years following, we were able to more successfully register young voters, encourage civic involvement, and make a strong case for the relevance not just of the social sciences, but of world languages and global literature. Quite a feat in our often STEM-obsessed society.

Rethinking Both at the Same Time

And here we are. Nineteen years later. Overhauling our education system from our living rooms and kitchen tables. While the world for which we are preparing our students seismically shifts beneath our feet.

Navigating the current pandemic is like fording an uncharted river. We are still in the middle of the river – many of us abruptly thrown from it’s banks in the middle of March.. It is unclear how long the crossing will be, or what we will find on the far banks. But some truths are already emerging.

Hurtling forward

There are changes that are happening that are long overdue. Systems and processes that were stuck on paper for decades, not because it was better that way, but because change is notoriously slow in public education. We are automated and streamlining more. Colleges and universities are providing more virtual tours and meetups as well as moving toward test-optional admissions. Both of these shifts will ideally provide much more equity of access.

The truth is that telehealth is likely a better way to connect with kids who avoid school due to their mental health challenges; it’s nearly impossible to have an in-school check in if the student can’t get out of bed. And practically overnight, our school and district closed the digital divide – at least in terms of hardware. (A clear area of growth is teaching fluency with the technology – to different extents – to students, parents and staff.)

What is relevant now: the ability to use technology to connect, and the ability of young minds to capture the myriad lessons from this complex situation and raise their voices for a better outcome in future years.

Back to basics

But what is emerging alongside this lurch toward the future is a simultaneous stripping away of what it means to educate. It is likely that the spring semester (or quarter) of 2020 will long be remembered for its unique place in our collective memories. Schools at all levels are still very much grappling with questions regarding standards, assessments, grades, transcripts and diplomas. Despite this lack of clarity, there is one thing that is not questionable: the relationships that are forged in school communities are foundational.

So while the documentation of this term is legislated by school boards and superintendents, on the ground, consider going back to Maslow. Educators, especially teachers, tend to focus on Bloom’s taxonomy – scaffolding learning to support students in analyzing and synthesizing complex information. But now is the time for Maslow.

Set aside the complex homework policies and stop chasing your tail to create cheat-proof online tests. Instead, call your students and check in on them. Connect on whatever social media or educational platform where your students hang out. Invite them all to jump on Zoom with you – just so they can see your face – and each others’.

Because when they recount their experience in the spring of 2020 to their children, they won’t remember what was in chapter 16. Or even what happened at the end of the novel you had assigned. If we’re lucky, they will remember that they stayed home for several weeks in their physical home – and that you helped bring their school “home” to them.

What does pandemic education mean to you? Comment below with your thoughts.

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How to Get Started on Zoom: 5 Tips and Tricks

As much of the world is adapting to being in quarantine, you may be wondering how to get started on Zoom. Zoom is one of many video-conferencing tools available to the general public. During our “new now” of self-isolation and stay-at-home-orders, Zoom has taken the important step of providing free, uncapped access to all educators. Video conferencing creates an avenue for connection and social interaction – arguably the most important aspects of education – and of society – to focus on in these challenging, ever-changing times.

So, how to get started on Zoom?

Just start. Go to zoom.us. If you are an educator, be sure to log in using your school email to have no limit on the number of minutes in each Zoom call. If you want to meet right now, choose “Host a Meeting.” If you want to meet later choose “Schedule a Meeting.” Complete the fields listed and you are on your way.

Don’t be intimidated

You may be thinking online video conferencing is complicated and overwhelming. But don’t go on thinking that this technology is only for CEOs and consultants. When you dig in, you’ll find it is not that much different than FaceTime or Skype – but has some much-needed flexibility.

Practice with your family

Everyone’s at home anyway. Call your partner or spouse in another room. Or set up multiple devices in different rooms and log in on all of them yourself. Once you have practiced setting up a Zoom meeting – and seen what it looks like to have other devices join – then you will have greater confidence.

In large groups, mute everyone – and have them raise their hands

If you are hoping to instruct people – in art, yoga, math or anything else – then mute everyone. Those in the meeting can click “participants” and have the option appear on the side of the screen to “raise hand.” This will allow you to see who should unmute- and when – to answer questions or take input.

A note to educators: Zoom may or may not be your preferred choice for direct instruction, but if your district and school allow it, it is a flexible choice for office hours, Q and A sessions – or even just show and tell (even our high school students want to show you their pets!).

In small groups, use the chat to share links – or screen share to share memes

If you are connecting for discussion or social interaction then no need to mute participants. You can use the chat to share links – or take turns sharing your screen with distracting memes, favorite videos, game boards, or almost anything else.

Think outside the box

Once you are on a Zoom call, the options are almost endless. And now is the time for creativity. Connect with friends and family across time zones. Take a “tour” of a friend’s recent remodel or new garden plantings. Schedule a tea time or happy hour – (bring your own beverage, of course!) Plan a game night night- either by adapting a card or board game, or by downloading an online game through a service such as Jackbox. You can plan a paint night, craft day, mani party, cooking class – or almost anything else you can think of!

What are you waiting for? Now you know how to get started on Zoom.

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Color Street Spring 2020 Collection: Sensational

A bright spot in wild and uncertain times, spring 2020 collection from Color Street is here to lift your spirits and brighten your mood – all from the comfort of your own home.

Color Street’s Spring 2020 Collection brings you glitter designs, glitters, solids, nail art designs, petites and pedicure options. Want to get yours? Click here beginning Tuesday, March 17, 2020 at 1:00 pm Pacific.

Without further ado: The Color Street Spring 2020 Collection

Here are the Color Street Spring 2020 glitter designs:

The glitter options from Color Street for Spring 2020 are here:

Here are the stunning solids for spring 2020 from Color Street:

Here are the spring 2020 nail art designs from Color Street:

Here are the Color Street Spring 2020 petites:

Here are the pedicure options from Color Street for spring 2020:

Ready to order: click here.

Want a sample first? Click here.

Need some more self-care? Click here to grab your free Self-Care Survival Guide – and receive weekly email updates.

How to Apply Color Street Nail Polish Strips

8 Simple Stay at Home Ideas for the Coronavirus Quarantine

8 Simple Stay at Home Ideas for Coronavirus Quarantine

Do you need stay at home ideas for the coronavirus quarantine?

As more and more communities take precautions to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), you may find yourself spending more and more time at home with your immediate family.

As a special needs family, we are more than used to having a small radius – staying close to or at home makes it all that much easier to handle mishaps, meltdowns and everything in between. Here are some stay at home ideas to help make the most of any social distancing, quarantine, or just a quiet afternoon at home.

1: Create a Schedule

Whatever you and your family are able to do, try to put a schedule to it. Family walk around the block? 10 am daily. Cook a meal together? Start at 5 and take your time. A show or book you will watch or read in installments – 8 pm. Tag teaming on work-from-home hours with your partner? Schedule that.

2: Get Dressed – For Real

The trap of work-at-home/stay-at-home can mean a life of endless pajamas or yoga pants. Punctuate the time passing with changing clothes at least once a day. (And don’t forget some earrings as you move your life to videos that focus on your head and face!)

3. Focus on Pantry Recipes

With the store shelves being emptied, it’s time to clear out your pantry – you might be surprised what you can come up with. You can go with classic comfort foods like lasagna and chocolate chip cookies, or you can get crafty with sugar cookies. Many of the ideas in this Dinners Without Thinking post are quick and easy to put together with ingredients that are likely in your kitchen already.

4. Stay Busy

Play some board games, or make bread or pasta or soup from scratch – the stores are low on those items anyway. Read, write, knit, craft – do some of the things that have been on the “back burner.” If you have kids, do some or all of them with your kids.

5. Get Outside

Go for a walk or hike with your immediate family- or by yourself. Sit or stand on your balcony or porch. If it’s rainy, puddle-jump. If it’s snowy, play in the snow. If it’s warming up, plant something, trim something, or just be in your yard or garden.

6. Connect Online

Use Skype, Facetime or Marco Polo to have face-to-face interactions with friends and extended family. Use Zoom or Google Meet to collaborate with colleagues – and students. You can even use Zoom to have a remote party- that way, everyone gets their own bottle of much-needed wine. (I have two Zoom happy hours on the calendar already.)

7. Practice At Home Self-Care

So massages and salon treatments are not ideal right now, and many in-person fitness classes have moved online. So take a fitness class on Zoom or Youtube. Use a meditation app – maybe with a little aromatherapy from a candle or diffuser. Give yourself a manicure or pedicure.

8. Staycation in Style

We are pros at “traveling” while staying put. You can practice this too. How? Travel through food – take advantage of the unusual grocery selection and make something international or from a region other than your own. Travel through music – like with this playlist – or make one of your own. Watch a movie from a different time and/or place.

None of us can be one hundred percent that we will avoid contracting Covid-19, but we can take steps to minimize the risk and slow the spread. What ideas do you have? Share them on our Facebook page.

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Food Memories: Moving Forward Samosas

Do you have food memories?

I have foods that are inextricably tied to certain places, events, and, more than perhaps anything else, people. Food memories can be a unique, visceral way of virtually transporting yourself to different times, places, and to connect – or reconnect – with distant friends or family.

I reconnect with my long-deceased grandparents with every Saint Patrick’s Day meal I cook– as well as every time I make a gumdrop (yes, gumdrop!) cookie. My mom is nearby now, but a batch of her gingersnaps were all it took to transport her to my college dorm room, from 2000 miles away. And speaking of college, my roommates and I were fueled by an eclectic combo of pad thai, berry smoothies, and queso dip with tortillas (all of which can still reconnect me in an instant).

Two days before our wedding, we hosted the out-of-town extended family – including my husband’s two grandmothers – for dinner. It was clear that I needed to cook; take out wouldn’t do. It was June, and I needed to feed a crowd. There was just one dish in my repertoire at that time that would do – balsamic chicken with linguine and basil. That dish brings the whole Swedish-Ukranian-Italian-American crew right back into my kitchen. And if we want to “visit” with the grandmothers one at a time, we settle down for a marathon of making pierogies or “manigotts” (manicotti in Southside Chicago Italian).

Some Memories are More Difficult

But not all of these intertwined memories are easy. Some are interwoven into relationships that are strained, or even broken. Rediscovering the recipe and creating new memories with it can redefine what you have gained from the lost relationship, as well as help to propel you past it. For me, samosas were a mainstay of my childhood, but a food memory from which I had become totally disconnected.

It was easier to pretend that I didn’t miss the food. Or that I really had no idea how to make it. But in the end, I reached out to my extended family – both literally and figuratively. I was able to recreate a childhood memory that can now be part of my own children’s food memories – hopefully without any strain or challenges caught up with them.

Recreating the Recipe

Many Indian restaurants in the United States use a puff pastry type dough to encase their samosas. This version instead uses a variation on southern Indian flatbread called a chapati. The filling is a fragrant, but not spicy, combo of ground beef, onions, diced potatoes and green peas. Because it is spiced, but not spicy this is actually a really kid-friendly dish.

And there is something about the the “portable” format of this type of food that is just enticing to otherwise suspicious eaters. (If you haven’t tried putting “different” ingredients in egg-roll wrappers, calzone dough, tortillas, or other similar formats – I highly recommend giving it a try! It can be a great way to get different foods into the diets of picky eaters.)

You can make the filling one day, and store overnight in the refrigerator. The next day, make the dough, allow it to rest, and then roll, fill and fry the samosas. If you have leftovers, store them in the refrigerator (or longer in the freezer). They reheat remarkably well – just pop them in your toaster oven (or in a pinch, the microwave, though they will be less crispy that way).

Moving Forward Samosas

Filling recipe courtesy of https://www.munatycooking.com/punjabi-crunchy-beef-samosa/; Dough recipe courtesy of my extended family.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 45 mins

Cook Time 30 mins

Resting Time 45 mins

Total Time 2 hrs

Course Appetizer

Cuisine Indian