Triangle Mamas

An Open Letter to Harris Teeter at North Hills East

By Cyndi

Dear Harris Teeter --

You had me at $20 off.

Every time I would start to wander, begin to think that your new North Hills East store was too crowded, imagine that I could save more at Kroger, get annoyed about not being able to find things as you shuffled the shelves around -- somehow you always knew. And every time, those magical $20-off-a-$50-purchase coupons would appear in my mailbox. They worked like a charm.

So given that you seem to have such a keen understanding of your shoppers' minds, how is it possible that you built a two-story store and put the cereal and juice upstairs? And then seemed surprised when people complained? And then spent goodness-knows-how-much money and time remodeling your brand new store to get those items downstairs again? Didn't you know that every mom forced to cram two (or more) children into one of those oversized-yet-still-too-small rocketship carts would have to buy cereal and juice on nearly every trip? And didn't you know that said moms would really hate having to wait in line for the elevator because it's impossible to fit more than three carts at a time?

Or maybe you didn't know there were thousands of local moms you could ask who would have told you that valuable bit of information BEFORE you built the store instead of AFTER?

Well then, allow me to make an introduction. Harris Teeter, meet the blogging moms. We're on Facebook and Twitter and lots and lots of blogs -- and we love to give advice (just ask our children). You don't even have to send us free samples or coupons (although I'm sure we wouldn't say no) -- but you do have to ask. We could have saved you a lot of pain and suffering, but (much like our kids) you had to learn the hard way. We hope you (and our children) will consider consulting us in the future.

Best of luck,

Convertible Girl

P.S. I've only got one $20 coupon left, so please send more. You know, just in case I start to wander again.

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Since taking over the grocery shopping at her house and giving up the online ordering service, Cyndi has developed strong opinions about grocery stores. When she's not shopping or cooking or complaining about both, she can be found at My Convertible Life, where she writes about her two children, one husband and a million other things.

Kid's Summer Stock at the NC Food Bank Update

By Sue

We all know how excited I was when I was asked by the North Carolina Food Bank to be a Media Sponsor for the Kids Summer Stock Social Media Mixer and I hope you have taken the time to read about it and get excited too.

I will be attending with my whole family and I hope to see you there with yours. It will be a fabulous time to mix, mingle and show your support for the people in our community who need our help. In addition to all the warm and fuzzy feelings you will in no doubt feel for just attending, I received an update about some fabulous raffle prizes that you could end up going home with.

• An official NHL Hurricanes hockey puck signed by Cam Ward
• An "I Love Hockey" kids t-shirt signed by the entire Hurricanes team
• A 3-Night stay at Alderhorst; a beautiful mountain cabin near Boone, NC
• A whimsical wooden marble chaser by Whimsy Two
• A beautiful set of jewelry from the Treasure Trove 

Get involved! 

Share the event and experience with your friends on Twitter, Facebook, or your Blog!
 
On Twitter, use the hashtag #SummerStockSocial and on Facebook, share the Social Media Mixer Event Listing

Register Now - Space is limited!

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This is a cross post from Sue Robinson over at Motherhood and Me. You can also find her at Deep South Moms Blog and on Twitter.

Kid's Summer Stock at the NC Food Bank

*This is a cross-post from Sue's personal blog Motherhood and Me

As my son grows, I find myself looking deeper, wondering how I can change to be a better person in order to teach my son that there is good in the world.

How do you do that?

People can go their whole lives bitter, angry and full of hate. How to you even begin to teach your little wide eyed 3 year old boy about how his place in the world can be a peaceful and kind place?

You start small.

You teach him to share his toys with his friends, you teach him to say please and thank you, you teach him patience, respect and hold your breath when you see him interact with the world around him. Holding your breath in hopes that what you worked so hard to teach him is somewhere deep down inside him.

I was so excited when I decided to take this lesson of kindness and the greater good one step further. I had planned to have a food collection on behalf of the North Carolina Food Bank for his 3^rd and my daughter’s 1^st birthday in lieu of gifts. I told him all about how and why we were doing this and tried to get him excited about going to the food bank to make our donation.

He was excited and everything was set until the dark cloud hit our family and I had to cancel their birthday party. I was so sad that our excitement came to a screeching halt, but glad that I had started to plant the seed of awareness in my little man.

Then the email came.

The North Carolina Food Bank contacted me asking me if I would like to be a Media Sponsor for an event they were having to raise awareness about their facility and hunger in North Carolina. I immediately said yes and was so excited to be a part of something bigger than myself again.

II am proud to announce that Motherhood and Me is a media sponsor for the North Carolina Food Bank’s Kids Summer Stock!

The kid’s Summer Stock is an event to raise awareness about hungry kids who fall short during the school summer breaks. Kids that normally rely on two hot meals per day provided by their school’s lunch program are left on their own. Once the school year ends these kids fall through the cracks and don’t get remembered until the school session resumes in the fall.

Please take the time to come and celebrate the gift of giving at the North Carolina Food Bank Warehouse in Raleigh. Show your support by engaging with your local community and donating what you can personally, monetarily and via canned goods.

I will be there with my kids and my husband, so feel free to tap me on the shoulder and say hello!

 

Thursday, June 3, 2010

6:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Food Bank Warehouse in Raleigh

3808 Tarheel Drive
Raleigh, NC (map)

Register now for your free tickets!

Click Here

I hope to see you there!

When Sue isn't trying to change the world with kindness, she can be found at home with her two kids at Motherhood and Me.

Kids are weird

By Sue

Have you ever noticed that kids are really weird? 

Or maybe it is just MY kids.

Either way, I think they are weird and I love that. 

Take my kids for instance. My son loves to only wear his underwear around the house. Plus, when he goes over to other people's houses he obsessively takes off his shoes (thanks to me being obsessed with it as well), but then proceeds to take off his jacket AND his pants. He does this like it is second nature to him and a totally socially acceptable thing to do. When you ask him why he does this, he looks at you like you are speaking a foreign language or something. More like he is thinking, "Why aren't YOU doing it?"

My daughter thinks anything and everything is a telephone. (Maybe I talk on the phone too much!) She will pick up any inanimate object and hold it to her ear and say "Bye-Bye" over and over and over again. When you talk to her and hand her an actual telephone, she looks at you with such a scowl that you would think you had just taken away her best friend.

However, one of the weirdest things I have seen in my house was the day I walked into the family room to find my son on the floor, with no pants on, licking his feet?

"Why are you licking your feet?" I asked him nervous to hear the answer.

"I have something on my feet."

"What is it?"

"Doggy hair."

YUCK!

I was grossed out and intervened immediately but was laughing while I helped him.

I love that kids are silly, wear their emotions on their sleeve, are just - THEMSELVES.

They are themselves and make no apologies for it. I love that and that is a quality I admire.

Last night I had my friends over for pizza and playtime, but the best part about it was we put on some dance music and watch the boys boogie down to their hearts content. They had no inhibitions and just wiggled however they wanted to and loved every minute of it.

I love that kids are weird. I will be sad the day they conform and turn all normal on us.

Normal is boring, I like weird.

When Sue isn't laughing about how weird her kids are, you can find her blogging at Motherhood and Me.

Confession: I Do Love a Jon Jon

We all have our varying opinions on the jon jon. Before Little Bird was born, I imagined him wearing nothing but jon jons, romping across the playground in his little smocked coveralls. I'm not sure what I was drinking at the time, but his entrance into real life complete with poop, pee, drool, dirt, and general stickiness soon changed my mind on the jon jon.

Now, I reserve the jon jon for church on Sunday morning and other occasions where he needs to be a little more dressed up. We don't wear them to Marbles, and he won't be wearing them to Mother's Morning Out, no matter how many other little boys will.

For some reason though, Bird still has way more jon jons hanging in his closet than I have pride to admit. I blame Kelly for this. Kelly runs Divine Consign in Raleigh. Divine Consign hosts trunk shows of overstocks and consignment sales a few times a year. It's not your average consignment sale. You don't have to dig through to find things that aren't stained or that you could buy just as cheaply if you caught them on clearance. Kelly takes only high end, gently worn children's clothes, saving moms like me who only like to shop in front of a computer screen a lot of time and hassle.

If she hadn't made it easy enough for us, now she has also started a blog. This post on how to shop a consignment sale was incredibly helpful, and I thought worth passing along.The next show is August 31 through September 4 at Stonehenge Shopping Center in Raleigh.

What about you? Do you hit consignment sales for your kids' clothing? What other ones are worth a look? Do you sell at consignment sales? Do you have any additional shopping or selling tips?

Let's help each other continue to dress our children way way better than we dress ourselves. That is until What Not to Wear shows up on my doorstep and rescues me from myself.

An original Triangle Mamas post. This post was not sponsored by Divine Consign in any way. We just happen to like moms in business for themselves, especially when they do it so well. In fact, if you have a mom in business here in the Triangle who you think we should feature, please contact us. We don't do reviews, but we share our positive and negative experiences freely here.

When Marty isn't busy ironing jon jons, she writes about everyday things at Don't Take the Repeats and Deep South Moms. When she has less to say, she hangs out on Twitter.

Just Desserts

Warning: If you are on a diet and hoping to stay that way do NOT read this post. It will ruin your diet.

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Lately, my family has been in a bit of a food rut. I shouldn't say a food rut instead more of a restaurant rut. Here's an example of a common conversation at our house.

Hubby: What's for dinner?
Me: I don't know I forgot to thaw the chicken. What are YOU making? (said with undeserved snark)
Hubby: Well, we can just go out.
Me: (still irritated) Fine. Where?
Hubby: I don't know. Where do you want to go?
Me: (Huge dramatic sigh.) Why do I always have to decide everything? I'm sick of being the one who has to make all the decisions. You decide.
Hubby: (Now losing patience.) Fine, let's just go to Elmo's.
Me: Fine.

If that sounds about right for your family as well, I have a little something you might like.

It's a local blog called Carpe Durham. From what I can tell, it's written by a bunch of Duke Law students who have made it their goal to eat at a bunch of random Durham restaurants and then review them.

How's this great for you? It's going to help you mix it up a bit on those nights you just don't want to cook. Elmo's is great, but it can get old quickly.

Carpe Durham is a great resource for finding restaurants that aren't so mainstream. (These guys aren't visiting the apostrophes: Applebee's, Chili's, etc.)

My family has already tried out a few and I've got to say, I loved them.

Last Friday night, we hit up the top of our list for Carpe Durham recommendations, The Mad Popper,
to get a yummy treat for our movie night-in. The Mad Popper is a definite two thumbs up for a popcorn lover like me and pretty much anyone who likes sweet treats. With so many different flavors, it's hard to go wrong. We chose to fill our bucket with strawberry, Mad Popper mix, and the Mardi Gras mix (lemon, grape, and green apple). I'm thinking the Mad Popper may be my go-to place for hostess gifts from now on.

The next Carpe Durham recommendation we tried out was also amazing. It's one of those things where we are smacking ourselves for not trying earlier since it's only a few blocks from our house.  On Saturday mornings, about one block north of the Durham Farmer's Market at the corner of Foster and Geer streets sits an Airstream.  It is in this Airstream that you will find Daisycakes maker of the most delectable desserts and breakfast treats known to mankind. Their Hazelnut and Cherry Pop't-Arts are divine.  Linus, currently on the under 3 nut ban, sampled a scone and though he can't actually tell us he enjoyed it, there were only mere crumbs remaining when he was finished. Also sampled were a pair of cupcakes (one red velvet and another passion fruit-chocolate) which were not only visually stunning, but tasted great too.

So, here's my suggestion for the upcoming warm weather weekend- visit one if not both of these fine establishments or any of the others recommended by Carpe Durham. Spoil yourself with some treats and work off the calories during a stroll through Duke Gardens. You might even run into us doing the same thing.

An original Triangle Mamas post.  Abby, like her son Linus, loves good food. When she's not eating her way around Durham, she can be found blogging at My Sweet Babboo.

What Do You Want to Change Next?

Christopher and I have been sick. Since early last week, we have been battling stomach viruses and flu viruses. Of course, if I hadn't taken him into the doctor for the stomach virus, we would likely not be battling a flu virus, but that's another story.

Saturday morning, Kevin, Christopher and I stopped by Target on the way home from the pediatrician. We bought some generic Motrin for babies. Little one had a fever that wasn't budging, and we fully intended on medicating our baby according to the doctor's suggestion. I bought the generic. I usually do.

Later that day, when I checked into Twitter, there was a new #thing. Not that I really understand the whole # in front of words, but I think it has to do with groups. Anyhow, the new one was #motrinmoms.

If this story is new to you, I suggest you go to Advertising Age and read this synopsis. They sum it all up nicely with the appropriate links. That will give you the basics.

There are also the opinions of bloggers who think people have over reacted, and of course the blogger who just has a great sense of humor about it. I'm finding the difference of opinions fascinating.

And because I'm sure you were wondering, the ad annoyed me. I found it completely miss the mark. I didn't feel the need to rant over it, but then again, I'm already not a fan of Motrin's parent company.

My point, however, is that did you know they have removed the ad? Did you know that they apologized?

Did you know that someone is listening to mothers online? I mean someone beside the crazy stalkers?

Our voices have always mattered. We are telling the stories of our lives, our families, our children, and everything else we hold dear. Our voices are important and deserve to be heard. There just seems to be more and more proof that the world is starting to listen.

I think this year has been a year of discovering how we can be part of the change in the world.

What do we want to change next?