The 5 best toys of all time

(I found this article on the internet. I've included a condensed version here.)

I’ve worked really hard to narrow down this list to five items that no kid should be without. All five should fit easily within any budget, and are appropriate for a wide age range so you get the most play out of each one. These are time-tested and kid-approved! And as a bonus, these five can be combined for extra-super-happy-fun-time.

1. Stick

This versatile toy is a real classic — chances are your great-great-grandparents played with one, and your kids have probably discovered it for themselves as well. It’s a required ingredient for Stickball, of course, but it’s so much more. Stick works really well as a poker, digger and reach-extender. It can also be combined with many other toys (both from this list and otherwise) to perform even more functions.

Stick comes in an almost bewildering variety of sizes and shapes, but you can amass a whole collection without too much of an investment. You may want to avoid the smallest sizes — I’ve found that they break easily and are impossible to repair. Talk about planned obsolescence. But at least the classic wooden version is biodegradable so you don’t have to feel so bad about pitching them into your yard waste or just using them for kindling. Larger, multi-tipped Sticks are particularly useful as snowman arms. (Note: requires Snow, which is not included and may not be available in Florida.)

2. Box

Another toy that is quite versatile, Box also comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. Need proof? Depending on the number and size you have, Boxes can be turned into furniture or a kitchen playset. You can turn your kids into cardboard robots or create elaborate Star Wars costumes. A large Box can be used as a fort or house and the smaller Box can be used to hide away a special treasure. Got a Stick? Use it as an oar and Box becomes a boat. One particularly famous kid has used the Box as a key component of a time machine, a duplicator and a transmogrifier, among other things.

3. String

The most obvious use of String is tying things together, which my kids love to do. You can use it to hang things from doorknobs or tie little siblings to chairs or make leashes for your stuffed animals. Use String with two Cans for a telephone (and teach your kids about sound waves), or with Stick to make a fishing pole. You’ll need String for certain games like Cat’s Cradle. String is a huge part of what makes some toys so fun — try using a yo-yo or a kite without String and you’ll see what I mean. Try the heavy-duty version of String (commonly branded Rope) for skipping, climbing, swinging from trees or just for dragging things around.

4. Cardboard Tube

My kids have nicknamed the Cardboard Tube the “Spyer” for its most common use in our house, as a telescope. (Or tape two of them together for use as binoculars.) But if you happen to be lucky enough to get a large size, the best use is probably whacking things. Granted, Stick is also great for whacking, but the nice thing about Cardboard Tube is that it generally won’t do any permanent damage. It’s sort of a Nerf Stick, if you will. If that sounds up your alley, look up the Cardboard Tube Fighting League — currently there are only official events in Seattle, San Francisco and Sydney, but you could probably get something started up in your own neighborhood if you wanted. Or if you’re more of a loner, perhaps the way of the Cardboard Tube Samurai is a better path.

5. Dirt

When I was a kid one of my favorite things to play with was Dirt. At some point I picked up an interest in cleanliness and I have to admit that I’m personally not such a fan of Dirt anymore — many parents (particularly indoor people like me) aren’t so fond if it either. But you can’t argue with success. Dirt has been around longer than any of the other toys on this list, and shows no signs of going away. There’s just no getting rid of it, so you might as well learn to live with it.

First off, playing with Dirt is actually good for you. It’s even sort of edible (in the way that Play-doh and crayons are edible). But some studies have shown that kids who play with Dirt have stronger immune systems than those who don’t. So even if it means doing some more laundry (Dirt is notorious for the stains it causes) it might be worth getting your kids some Dirt.

So what can you do with Dirt? Well, it’s great for digging and piling and making piles. We’ve got a number of outdoor toys in our backyard, but my kids spend most of their time outside just playing with Dirt. Use it with Stick as a large-format ephemeral art form. (Didn’t I tell you how versatile Stick was?) Dirt makes a great play surface for toy trucks and cars. Need something a little gloopier? Just add water and — presto! — you’ve got Mud!

Dirt is definitely an outdoor toy, despite your kids’ frequent attempts to bring it indoors. If they insist, you’ll probably want to get the optional accessories Broom and Dustpan. But as long as it’s kept in its proper place, Dirt can be loads of fun.

Hello?

Today we kept Caleb home from school for a mid-day dentist appointment. With all the craziness of scheduling right now, I figured it would just be easier rather than trying to arrange a pickup and drop off at school.

Only thing is, I forgot to call the school to let them know Caleb wouldn't be there. No problem, because there are so few kids at the school (less than 100) the secretary just calls home to find out what is going on. Today Caleb picked up the phone. Here's how the conversation went:

Caleb: Hello?

Secretary: Hello.

Caleb: It's Caleb.

Secretary: Oh, hi, Caleb. You're not at school today?

Caleb: No, I'm going to the dentist.

Secretary: Are you there with your mom?

Caleb: No, with my grandma.

At that point, Caleb got my mother-in-law and handed over the phone, for story verification. I laughed at the idea of the secretary calling and getting the kid himself, who then proceeds to excuse himself from school.

Doomed with early risers

I'm not sure what kind of cosmic joke this is, but don't I deserve just one child who will sleep in past 6am?

When Caleb turned 4 we bought him a digital clock. There is only one outlet in his room in the most inconvenient spot, which means the clock needs to sit on the second shelf of the change table. Nevertheless, we should him which set of red lines forms the "first number" and told him he was not to get out of bed unless that said 6. We didn't have to worry about it being a 7 - he's never slept that late in his life.

We thought we finally had the early morning thing licked. (No, 6am is not early in this house!) Three days later, Benjamin started waking up at 5am. Now we find ourselves in the exact same spot we were two years ago, long before Caleb could read numbers and understand the instruction to stay in bed.

Seriously. Is it too much to ask for a 7am wake-up?

Tie a string around my finger

This is taken from excerpts from one of the chapters in the book ("A Mother's Book of Secrets").

"As a young mother, Chieko N. Okazaki inspired me. I read notes from an address she had given in a book called “Lighten Up!” that really changed me.She talked about how as mothers we tend to "compartmentalize" our lives. We have different cubbyholes for different things…”family,” “church,” “gardening,” and so on. She said instead of thinking of our spiritual lives as one of our cubbies, it should be more like the scent in the air that drifts through all the rooms.

She relates this story:

"Suppose the Savior comes to visit you. You've rushed around and vacuumed the guest room, put the best sheets on the bed, even got some tulips in a vase on the dresser. Jesus looks around the room, then says, 'Oh, thank you for inviting me into your home. Please tell me about your life.'"You say, 'I will in just a minute, but something's boiling over on the stove, and I need to let the cat out.'

"Jesus says, 'I know a lot about cats and stoves. I'll come with you.'

"'Oh, no,' you say. 'I couldn't let you do that.' And you rush out, carefully closing the door behind you.

"And while you're turning down the stove, the phone rings, and then Jason comes in with a scrape on his elbow, and the visiting teacher supervisor calls for your report, and then it's suppertime, and you couldn’t possibly have Jesus see that you don't even have place-mats, for Pete's sake, and someone forgot to turn on the dishwasher so that you're eating off paper plates, and then you have to drive Lynne to her basketball game.

"So by the time you get back to the room where Jesus is still patiently waiting for you, you're so tired that you can barely keep your eyes open -- let alone sit worship-fully at Jesus' feet to wait for those words of profound wisdom and spiritual power to wash over you, to make you different, to make everything else different -- and you fall asleep whispering, 'I'm sorry. I'll try to do better. I'm so sorry.'"

Isn’t this how we are as mothers? When we really need the Savior’s guidance the most sometimes we tend to shut it out. The secret is to use prayer to our advantage. Let the Savior “follow” us around, and help us out when we’re at the end of our ropes. That is when prayer really works. If only I could remember that more!"

I want this

Correction. My brain wants this. My pregnant body is craving...nothing. That's right. Nothing. And that doesn't mean "nothing specific." I actually feel best when I eat nothing at all. Somehow I don't think that plan is going to work. But the last two days I've cut out all snacking and little meals, which is how everyone says you should eat while you are pregnant. Instead, I eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner and nothing else. My digestive system takes a couple hours to get it all through, and then all the pain starts to ease and I actually feel not too bad. I think that's why I feel best in the mornings. Eating nothing and lying perfectly still is the answer (hence why nighttime is so good.)

I wonder what my doctor would say if I told her I was just going to fast for the next two months. Unfortunately I don't think she would approve if I melted down to the weight of a 10-year-old.

But even if I do realize I need to eat, somehow a big juicy loaded burger and a basket of fries still will not be on my menu. But you can be sure, Kelsey's, that you and I have a date come June!

Things to do in bed...

...when you are very sick with pregnancy.

Not much. The nurse nearly keeled over when she realized there was no TV in our bedroom. I told her that in fact, we do have one, but my husband had borrowed it for a trade show that day. But then I had to explain that although there is a TV that sits on the badly built shelf by our home's previous owner, it actually isn't connected to anything to watch. When the analog TV signal went dark in August, we didn't bother doing anything about it.

So no TV. But I am reading a lot. I bought this really, really long series I saw advertised on Amazon.ca for the Kindle. It's fantasy, which I usually hate, but it's really more of a made up historical novel (which I love) than fantasy. In other words, it is not "Lord of the Rings" (which I hate.)

I also have a laptop. On the laptop I have watched the entire series of "Flashpoint," which is awesome. I also love that it is set in our home city of T.O. It's cool to hear streets and neighbourhoods I know referenced on the show. It's also hilarious, because for some reason they never actually get the geography right. Like "we're heading west toward Lake Shore." Um, Lake Shore runs east and west, so you can't drive west toward it. Also, when driving on the 401, you cannot choose between Highway 10 and Highway 532. There is no such thing as Hwy 532. And don't tell me you're driving at the north end of the 427, surrounded by fields, and show the GPS signal smack downtown on the Gardiner.

Also on the laptop, I keep up with Facebook WAY more than I ever have. I know what everyone is doing. And I know what all their friends think of what they are doing. And I actually update my status and write about other people's statuses. I've never used Facebook as more than a glorified email system before this. It makes me feel like I still have a life.

I check in with the news (The Toronto Star - thank mom. Years of delivery to our home as a kid means that I'm stuck with it now!).

I write on my blog, and I check in on other people's blogs. Today was a blog day. When no one I knew was writing, I decided to click through their list of blogs they follow. In other words, friends of friends of friends, who are perfect strangers to me. But I found some REALLY cool stuff.

C Jane, Enjoy It is one some of my friends follow, but I've never really caught onto. Until today. When I find a new blog, I like to go into the archives back to their very first entries. Then I read chronologically, and it's sort of like getting to know a person from the beginning. C Jane's blog is kind of like that album that everyone loves, and you hear it and think "whatever." Then you hear a song on the radio, then a friend has the album, then someone loans you the CD, and after a while, you are so in love with it you wonder how you didn't see the brilliancy of it from the beginning. I like C Jane's style, humour, and candour.

I also found an awesome album by a group called The Lower Lights. If you have a spare 5 minutes, and are a musician or lover of music, watch this video. The Lower Lights is basically a group of musicians who get together to jam in a recording studio. They don't play together in a band, they hadn't ever played together before. There is no plan, other than having a bunch of creative musicians gather together and sing their hearts out. It looks AWESOME! I can't even imagine what it would be like to be a part of that process. I wish I could be a part of it.

In terms of their first album, one member said "There's a gap out there for people who want to hear music, and hear these sacred and beautiful hymns...and they want to hear them in a way that they haven't been able to." In fact, this album sort of feeds my secret love of folk music. I myself have been rediscovering (and loving) old hymns on my guitar, in a folk kind of way. Seriously it's like hearing these hymns in a whole new light.

So that's basically what I do in bed all day, hooked up to an IV machine. So far I've managed to keep myself entertained. But I hope this doesn't last for too much longer, because I am so not a sit around kind of person!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

...in my bedroom! Last night James surprised me by decorating my bedroom for Christmas. He hung lighted garlands around the room, and even bought a little Christmas tree to go on our bedside table. He knows how much I love Christmas, and odds are I won't get out of the bedroom until the New Year. Reason #678429534578930721 I love my husband!