Leslie

Hygge reads, kids edition: Children’s books for winter days

February 8, 2017 by Leslie Leave a Comment

By Leslie Kotzas

This past year, I’ve spent my days surrounded by the warmest images, the cutest creatures, and fluffiest monsters. Working in the children’s department of the public library in the company of beautiful picture books keeps me warm and cozy in the dark, gray winter. (Librarian plug: Stop by your local library and find a treasure to warm your heart!)

Before you jump to your feet and head out the door, let me share the ones that I’ve found delightful. They’ll make you laugh, make you weep, and make you snuggle under blankets!

Ada Twist, Scientist: This is a great rhyming book that promotes girls in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). Ada gets into some interesting predicaments trying to prove her hypothesis. If you like this one, there are a few more that are just as good: Iggy Peck, Architect and Rosie Revere, Engineer.

Ida Always: Grab your tissues, clutch your baby close, and let the tears flow. Two polar bears that live together in the zoo have to face the fact that Ida is dying. I could only read it once!

Cat Knit: Sometimes our friends change, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t friends. Get out your knitting needles and make a new friend for someone you love.

Nanette’s Baguette: This book rhymes the adventure of Nanette and her responsibility to bring home a baguette for her mother. Want to know what happens to that baguette?

The Messy Book: Do you have a little one that is a little messy? Want to show them that cleaning up isn’t so bad? Then this book is for you!

This is Not a Picture Book: Picture books are clearly the best. However, what about when books stop having pictures? Are they worth it? Check out this book and find out.

Gary: This books made me smile like a fool the whole way through. This pigeon who dreams of doing big things is given the chance despite his disability.

Ideas Are All Around: If the book above doesn’t pique your interest about writing, then follow the author through his books as he looks for ideas to write about.

A Beginner’s Guide to Bear Spotting: Bears are all around in the woods. Do you know what to do if you spot one? Check this one out quick! You’ll be needing this advice!

Miss Moon: Wise Words From A Dog Governess. You’ve got a dog. Find out what advice Miss Moon has to share!

Have anymore picture books you can’t get enough of? Need more recommendations? Let us know in the comments or on Facebook!

Decisions: Back to full-time

August 22, 2016 by Leslie Leave a Comment

Decisions is a series dedicated to the choices we make in our lives and the factors that led us to our given resolutions. We welcome guest posts to this series to hear about how you’ve tackled a life decision. Email your story ideas to thesmartdomestic@gmail.com.

A little over a year ago, I quit my job as a consultant to stay home full-time with my daughter. It’s incredible to think it has only been a year. The stress, the joy, the sleeplessness, the firsts, and the snuggles: they all blur together. They’re muddled in my mind as one big, gooey ball of my new life. Since my co-blogger has returned to work after the birth of her second child, questions about how to balance work and family still come up as we talk to each other and navigate our lives.

Here’s the blog post I blissfully wrote when I quit my job. It meant only worrying about home and baby for a while. Now, that I’m on the other side of that, I’m ready for a change. For myself (mostly) and for others who are at this point or going to be, here are some of the reasons why I’ve accepted a full-time position at my library. (I had previously been working part-time, 3 days a week.)

Mental break

I know that I need more sleep. I know that I need to eat healthy, stretch, exercise, and rest. I had no idea that I would need to take mental breaks from life at home. It wasn’t on my radar. Work for me is that mental break. Everything at the library is somewhat in my control; solutions are to be had, mysteries are easily solvable, there is a schedule, and my patrons are great to be around. At 17 months, my daughter can be unpredictable. What she liked yesterday, she doesn’t like today, and then I am searching through the cupboards trying to fill her belly with something she will eat. At work, I don’t have to worry about this for 8 hours. I push it from my mind and take a break. It is absolutely crazy that work gives me that break, but it does.

Educational play

We play with the alphabet magnets, we sing songs, read books, and I talk up a storm with her. But quite frankly, I am too pooped from a long day of just watching her to do activities or make plans for educational play beyond that. That is why I am happy to send her to daycare. With other kids she can paint, go in the sprinkler, play with sand, squish play-dough between her fingers, learn social skills, and gain a little independence from mama. I’m totally committed to giving her every learning opportunity I am capable of, but there is no sense in making myself crazy. I’ll take the help where I can get it.

Opportunity

I didn’t actively seek going back to work full-time. It just happened that a position opened up at the right time. It’s a move upward and a pay increase. Not to mention, finding full-time work in libraries is difficult, so when an opportunity presents itself, you take it. I’m looking forward to taking on more responsibility and continuing to create a great library experience for every patron that walks through the door. I also like that my career journey continues. I made a personal master plan seven years ago, and while the details are different than what I imagined, I’m continuing to move and grow.

I can’t help but come back to the most important reason why this all makes sense for me; I got a year home with my daughter. I am incredibly lucky that my husband and I were able to make that happen. In the United States, we’re not guaranteed paid time off after the birth of a child. More than one friend has told me about how horrible it felt that first day back: thinking of the baby, being uncomfortable, not being able to concentrate on work. I fortunately only experienced two weeks of that before I quit. But having a year to adjust and get used to life with a child made going back to work full-time an easy decision.

Tell us your experience going back to work. What was it like for you? Is there any advice you would give to those who are returning? Post a comment below, on Facebook, or email thesmartdomestic@gmail.com.

What comes out of you?

August 12, 2016 by Leslie Leave a Comment

Tiny Fey Quote

Manifesto for adulthood: There’s no shame in shortcuts

May 25, 2016 by Leslie Leave a Comment

I woke up this morning and starting going through my mental “to-do” list. I do this every morning, and it dawned on me that I was super busy. How did this happen? I quit my fancy consulting job and took a part-time job to give me more time. In an effort to get some free time back, I started working on some shortcuts.

It’s a trial-and-error kind of thing, looking for shortcuts. You don’t want your life to get shittier because you’ve neglected stuff to get other stuff done. A shortcut is beautiful when it allows you to get the important tasks done while you reclaim precious moments of time.

Here are a few shortcuts I’ve been experimenting with:

Simplify house cleaning. Instead of cleaning the whole room, concentrate on one thing. I vacuum one day. Then another day, I might dust or de-clutter a room. Breakdown “cleaning the whole house” task into smaller tasks. Also, try 5 minutes of cleaning per room.
Hire someone. My brother-in-law saw his neighbor’s teenage son and offered to pay him to mow his lawn. It was a win-win for all involved: Inexpensive and the teenager gets some cash. Don’t spend unnecessary time worrying that chores aren’t getting done; delegate them.
Frozen food/no-cooking meals. I keep frozen chicken and veggies stocked so that if the cupboards are bare, I can throw something together quick. We also make some of our meals super easy, like pre-cooked chicken on a salad. There are services like Blue Apron, which provide all the ingredients for three or five meals a week. And let’s not forget pizza delivery, because sometimes it’s better than spending an hour in the kitchen.
Get organized. This takes some effort upfront but saves a ton of time in the end. Just as we wrote about sorting kids’ outfits while folding laundry, being organized will help everything run smoothly. Everything has its place, you just need to find it. Lots of toys? Get lots of bins. Lots of dishes? Keep that dishwasher empty, and you won’t have clutter on the counter.

Tell us: How are you are taking shortcuts to enjoy life more?

This is the second in our “Manifesto for Adulthood” series, where we share our philosophies for being a better adult in the modern world.

A ticket to fly: Infant edition

May 3, 2016 by Leslie Leave a Comment

Ever thought of traveling internationally with your infant?! I didn’t want to pass up the chance to visit Munich, Germany with my husband, who had a work-trip scheduled. I packed us up for a week-long adventure with baby! While we prepared for the flight, more than one person asked me to tell them how it went traveling with Ada, so I figured I’d share for posterity on the blog.

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The Baby’s Room

April 29, 2016 by Leslie Leave a Comment

I love looking at beautifully designed nurseries. There’s nothing more inspiring to visions of perfect motherhood than a teak rocking chair next to a decorative end table in bright colors (see: anything from Land of Nod).

That kind of nursery was never in the cards for me. First, the budget for all that teak furniture is way out of my reach. I knew that I didn’t have the time to agonize over each item that would populate the room. Not to mention all the gifts we received (and appreciated!) that didn’t fit in my narrow vision for the room. But looking at beautifully designed nurseries does get me wondering what other people do in their baby’s room.

A few people have shared their rooms with us (yay!), so we’re showing their perspectives about decorating a real, live baby’s room with real-people budgets….

Stay-at-home mom vs. daddy daycare

April 19, 2016 by Leslie 2 Comments

When my co-blogger told me the news that her husband, Robb, would be quitting his job and taking care of their first baby, I wasn’t surprised. He is one of those guys that is great with kids, ready for his new life as a dad, and didn’t really care for his job anyways.

In my case, I didn’t decide until after my maternity leave that I would stay home. I was racked with indecision. I thought about studies that showed moms that worked had more independent and successful daughters. I thought about anecdotal stories of babies becoming aggressive from too much daycare. Was it better for me to stay home or for me to keep working? I didn’t really like my job. My husband loved his and made enough to support us, so I stayed home….

It’s National Library Week!

April 13, 2016 by Leslie Leave a Comment

card catalog 2

Did you forget about your libraries? Because I did. After spending hours roaming the stacks of the Alden Library at Ohio University, I just forgot. I ran out into the world, bought a Kindle, looked up factoids on Wikipedia, and bought books for pennies on Amazon. I’ve been able to afford a computer and internet access since my college days. I didn’t really think the library had anything to offer me. Surely, I could find anything I needed just by Googling it!

But libraries are literally everywhere. (Justin Grimes, a statistician from the Institute of Museum and Library Services created a map of all the individual libraries and museums in the United States. Read more about it on Every Library and Museum in America, mapped by Emily Badger.)

Nevertheless, even if you own all the books you’ll ever need and you have internet access, the library is still a place to seek out.

Library are places to learn from your community.

A good library will have programs and services that meet the needs of its community. Right now, you can find help for tax preparation, play groups for parents of young children, crafts for all ages, and venues to meet and connect with people in your neighborhood.

Digital resources are available.

Apps like Overdrive and Hoopla allow you to download books, audio books, and videos to use on your mobile devices for free. All you need is a library card.

Find anything via inter-library loan.

There are more books available than you realize. Most libraries belong to a consortium, and books can be requested from other libraries. So even if your neighborhood library is small, you can probably get what you need.

And let’s not forget that you’ve already paid for it.

Your taxes go to support your local library, meaning you might as well take advantage of it.

So go find your nearest library and get a card. If you’re spending your days tending to a brood of offspring, seek out your peers by going to a “Baby and Me” class. And while you’re at it, grab something to read or download a free e-book from your library’s electronic resources. Remember, reading is fundamental!

If you happen to be in my neck of the woods, come visit me at the Matawan-Aberdeen Public Library where I help patrons find books, sing songs to toddlers, and create crafts with teens. While you’re at it, get a library card!

Image via the Library of Congress here

Crafting as your day job

March 28, 2016 by Leslie Leave a Comment

This is an ongoing series about people doing wonderful, interesting, unusual things with their lives. Leslie wondered how two crafty sisters could turn their handiwork into profit. So she packed up her baby, walked through downtown Keyport, New Jersey, and sat with them in their shop to find out.

I love crafting. There is something in my blood that needs to make things, from sewing felt alphabet letters to knitting a dozen hats for fun. From time to time, I fantasize about what it would be like to own a little shop and sell the cute stuff I make. But once I add in all the logistics of owning a small business, the idea falls to the wayside. (Not to mention the fact that hand-knit items are not exactly the best way to make a profit.)

Last year, I happened upon a new store in my town that gave me a glimpse into what life running a small business would be like. I was curious to see what kind of crafts the owners loved, what their backgrounds were, and where they’re headed….

Decisions: Why I don’t feel guilty for staying home

February 29, 2016 by Leslie 5 Comments

I don't feel

In today’s post, I’ll talk about why I chose stay home after the birth of my daughter even though I had a good job.

Home.

Staying home.

No commuting. No projects. No conference calls. No traveling to a different city every week for months. Just thinking about home. Taking care of my daughter, planning meals, organizing the house, gardening. It was so romantic and yet… so guilty-feeling.

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