Angele Van Allman of Annalise Wellness Village came in to explain why China and PGE of Portland are so bothered by  Mercury in Retrograde. Find out exactly what that means, plus Laura believes that she never has any expectations when she gets a special day with the boys. After Todd got back in his chair, he explained to her that she was very wrong.

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Laura talked about her special day with the boys and their cleaning of the car. Todd believes that special time made Thursday evening and Friday morning  run smooth. Laura also revealed a story about her intuition and how all mom’s really need to trust it. Plus leave a comment for Laura and Todd now on their new comment line: 503-746-8456.

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Todd came to the table with issues. He had a tough morning with the boys, so the question was asked, What to do when Mom or Dad gets mad? Find out if we answered it. SingleDadBrad had a great new idea to help us with our kids. Should food be labelled as a choking hazard? And what about Helicopter parents, there’s one that may have gone too far.

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I have seen many Resolutions for 2010. The one consistent thing I see is they are unattainable. There is no way that suddenly one day a person can flip the switch. Well, maybe some can, but most can’t, yet everyone believes that come January 1st, they can.

I saw a list of 5 New Year’s Resolutions for parents and after reading it I thought the same: unattainable. Some were good, but the bar was too high. So I wanted to alter them a little to see if you could grasp this. If you could integrate them into your everyday life. If they would help you.

1-Provide each child ten minutes of special time each day with each parent. (They suggested 60 minutes)

2-Read a minimum of 3 books to your children. As the parent you can categorize them as short, medium and long and allow 1 longs, 2 medium or 3 shorts. I usually do it that way, because otherwise I fall asleep while reading. (They suggested a story or two)

3-Teach your children something 2 times per month about how they can be more green and improvement the environment they live in. This does not include throwing out their little brother or sister with the trash. (They suggested once per day – that’s 365 tips!)

4-Sit down and eat dinner together as a family four times a week. Saturday is excluded. Sunday is mandatory. Now I put those two in for parents of teenagers. Saturday night you have a small chance of eating together, they are teenagers and they have places to go and people to see but Sunday is a perfect time to talk about the past week and to look ahead. Maybe you eat out. Maybe you eat in. Maybe you let one of your children pick what or where the family eats on Sunday night, as long as it won’t break the bank. (They suggested as often as you can – pretty general. Set an attainable number and go get it.)

5-Take time for yourself regularly. This is HUGE. It is already making a difference for Laura and me. I had to get over the resentment factor and the guilt factor and the pleasing factor when asking for this as I do carry some of that baggage, but when I asked for what I wanted, I was amazed at how Laura responded positively to it. When she asked, I was honest in my reply that her doing Yoga three times per week would put a strain on me. We are still figuring that one out, but at least we are talking about it. (They suggested regularly – we agree)

Anyway, I hope those are more attainable goals for you. Look back at the Resolutions you made this year. Can you attain them by next Monday? Are they too much? Are they too little? Can you do them with the demanding schedule of work and kids? Be honest with yourself and then let me know. Good luck!