Photo Source: http://www.amazingraise5k.org

This is an AMAZING opportunity for Richmond families!

On September 18, 2013, Brandywine Realty Trust and the Lingerfelt Companies will host The Amazing Raise 5k at the Boulders, a run/walk that winds through the beautifully landscaped roads and serene trails of the Boulders Office Park.  The event is a true celebration of our community as it coincides with the first day of GiveRichmond’s 3rd Annual Amazing Raise, a 36-hour online giving challenge that has raised more than $1.8 million for local charities over the past two years.

The race creates an opportunity for both individuals and teams to not only run for fun and personal wellness, but also campaign for their favorite nonprofit organizations and encourage philanthropy among their peers.

Helping Others

A portion of every registration, as well as sponsorships from local businesses, will fund grant prizes that will allow runners an opportunity to compete on behalf of their favorite charities. There are both individual and team prizes available. Winners will designate an Amazing Raise charity to receive their prize of up to $1,000.

See Celebration for prize details and a list of eligible charities.

Team CJ is at it again this year too! They’re officially a team in the Amazing Raise 5k and they invite YOU to register and walk or run with them in support of CJ’s Thumbs Up Foundation! Join “Team CJ” while registering and get ready to enjoy a beautiful race (or lovely walk) for a wonderful cause.

Everyone is Welcome!

Everyone is welcome to attend the Amazing Raise 5K at the Boulders pre- and post-race celebration.  It is a great opportunity to:

• Gather together as a community to cheer on the Amazing Raise 5K runners and walkers
• Enjoy a fun night out with friends and neighbors
• Celebrate the generous spirit of giving that helps define RVA

Food and beer trucks will begin sales at 5:30 pm, with additional festivities continuing until 9:00 pm.

Live music will be provided by The Cedar Creek Band beginning at 7:00 pm. We encourage you to include family and friends for this fun and festive evening.

Don’t miss this family fun event! Visit the website for more details and to register.

If you are like the majority of the 300 million people living in the United States, or the other thousands upon thousands across the globe, you’re eagerly anticipating your final summer getaway. To anyone who grew up in the 20th century, summer vacation seems like an ancient tradition, something that’s always been a part of our lives. Vacation is a time to renew yourself, recharge the batteries, spend some quality time with family and friends. But, ironically, vacations can also be a source of worry and stress.

Especially when you have kids. (Check out Christa’s post on Traveling with Kids!)

The small but no less present dangers of traveling — worries about the home you’re leaving behind, work and how you’re going to entertain your little ones — can plague you most at a time when you’re supposed to be relaxing. It doesn’t have to be this way, however. Below are some tips to help you have a stress relieving, anxiety-free summer vacation this year.

Stop Worrying About Money

Worries about money spent on vacation probably tops the list but there are lots of ways to save money on vacation and keep the trip within any budget. Booking trips in advance, utilizing packages deals, researching best rates, packing meals and snacks for your kids for the travel and avoiding peak flight times are all ways to save money. A little Internet research will give you more ideas, as well.

Protect Your Identity

Always be aware of your physical surroundings. Don’t log in to personal or bank accounts from public computers. Password-protect your mobile devices and keep a close eye on them. Keep your wallet and purse secure in public places, and consider using a professional service like Lifelock ID theft protection to guard against fraud.

Secure Your Business

Small business owners are probably the biggest vacation worry warts. Consider closing the business, or if that’s not possible, find someone you trust to run the ship while you’re gone. With proper planning, a week or two of turning off your work brain should not affect the work you leave behind.

Inform Your Neighbors You’ll be Gone

As long as you can trust them, your neighbors can keep an eye on the house and maybe even pick up the mail and paper for you while you’re gone.

Don’t Stop Eating Healthy or Exercising

Research healthy restaurant choices along your route, take along healthy snacks, watch the adult beverages and try to fit physically demanding activities into the itinerary.

Bring an Emergency Kit

Especially if you’re on the road with kids, make up a kit with basic first aid supplies, water, snacks and anything else you can think of to deal with emergencies. You can pack a surprising amount in a small bag.

Carry Personal Protection

Keychain bottles of pepper spray are inexpensive and surprisingly effective.

Carry Two Cell Phones

A cell is your No. 1 safety device and it’s a great idea to have a backup.

Tie up Loose Ends

It may sound like a no brainer, but an unpaid bill or home maintenance problem can have you tied in knots the entire trip.

Make Sure the Coffee Maker is Turned Off

Check and recheck it and do it again. Otherwise it’ll drive you crazy.

With a little common sense and planning, you can ensure a worry-free and relaxing summer vacation this year.

About the Author:

I love the John Lennon story about how one day in school he was told to write what he wanted to be when he grew up.  He wrote “Happy.”  He was told that he didn’t understand the assignment.  He responded, “You don’t understand life.”

This can be something of a cautionary tale for parents. So often we are too specific in setting goals for our children.  We want them to get good grades and high test scores, we want them to be named all-stars and win championships, we want them to enter professions with lucrative salaries and substantial benefits.  But is that what life is really all about?

Isn’t it enough to want our children to enjoy pursuing whatever their passions may be?  After all, there is no guarantee that anything specific will “give” someone happiness.  Happiness is something one must “find” on one’s own.

About the author:

Michael K. Meyerhoff, Ed.D. (a.k.a. “Dr. Mike”) is a member of the management team at Romp n’ Roll.  After receiving his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Columbia University, he earned his master’s and doctorate degrees in human development from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he also held a position as a researcher with the Harvard Preschool Project.  He may be contacted via e-mail at drmike@romproll.com.

Romp n’ Roll is an advertiser on Richmondmom.com

The CWSA has been around since the early 1980s when volunteers and soccer lovers decided to ‘build a league of their own’. Although it is still run by volunteers, it is an extremely competitive adult women’s soccer league.

Young women 18 years of age or older are eligible to play. The games are played at AM Davis Elementary School in Chesterfield, but you don’t have to be a Chesterfield County resident to play. There are a diverse group of girls with varying skill levels in the league and they even have options for ‘substitute players only’ who want to test it out.

Discounted Tickets: CWSA and Richmond Kickers August 14, 2013

Now, you can learn more and enjoy the fun in person.

Join Commonwealth Women’s Soccer Association on Wednesday, August 14th for a night out with the Richmond Kickers! Save on regular admission and cheer on the home side as the Kickers take on Orlando City in a battle of USL PRO’s top teams! Half of the proceeds for each ticket purchased through this link benefit CWSA, so order now.

• Offer valid only in advance.
• Not available at the stadium.
• Please contact Mark Johnson for more information: (804) 644-5425 x309

Visit the website, choose the number of tickets you need at the discounted price, and kick up your heels! It’s a great place for family fun and entertainment.

I’ve read fellow-writer friends express their feelings on turning forty here on the blog and over wine on coveted girls’ nights out. And, sure as crows feet are etching their way across my eyes and AARP bumps my mailing address up in their pending queue, my time  has come.

Part of me is in denial as I’m surely still twenty-one, working thirty hours a week, going to college full-time, juggling a busy social schedule and somehow managing to still catch a nap before heading out to bars at eleven p.m.

Other days I’m the twenty-five year old who flew around the country non-stop recruiting on college campuses, trying to relive the dream and figure out the corporate thing before settling down a bit to have my kids.

Then I’m twenty-eight, the thrill of holding our newborn son placing a perma-smile on my face and confirming that yes, being a mother was the coolest and toughest role I would ever play.

Three years later, my second son came on the scene and I gotta be honest, between his birth and my daughter’s just under two years later I lost a few months in there so it’s all a little hazy. I had started a new position and was traveling and trying to hold it all together while working a reduced work schedule.

When I’m feeling like my thirty-five year old self I’m struggling with figuring out who I’m supposed to be–losing my job when my company went bankrupt, plunking away on this little blog no one had ever heard of while all of my friends and family watched me muddle through in conjoined surprise and concern.

Most days, though, I feel like someone who feels pretty damn comfortable in her skin after all of these years, even though I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up (today’s front-runners: college professor/trophy wife/Oprah’s personal assistant) and who can’t seem to learn enough about everything.

All the Kates of my past are here in this slightly more-wrinkled package who is often called “Mrs. Hall” (I still look over my shoulder for my mother-in-law) and have given me the gift of challenges, experiences, and triumphs.

The bonus is that now I’ll be able to watch my sons and daughter (pictured left with my mom and a childhood photo of me) in each of their life stages, hopefully making a few less mistakes than I have and with much less fear than I’ve harbored.

These first forty years have given me so much more than I’ve deserved that I can’t wait to see what the next forty hold.

Source: http://www.kathleenreid.com/

We just love to celebrate new authors – and especially Richmond authors! We’re excited to hear that one of Richmond’s newest authors has written a great beach read – or just a leisurely read at home. And best of all? It supports the vital research related to diabetes research.

My Son, Questioner Extraordinnaire

If you have a hankering to play 20 Questions, you are welcome to come to my house any time.  My son is a genius at this game!  He is three.  Very three, and very good at this game.  Allow me to illustrate.

Him:  “Mom, what that man doing over there?  How he get up there?”

Me:  “I don’t know.  Maybe he climbed.”

Him:  “But he don’t got a ladder.  How he get up there, mom?”

Me:  “Maybe a cherry-picker helped him get up there.”

Him:  “No!  That not right!  Mom!”

Not knowing is not an option.  Nor is guessing.  You. Must. Know. The. Correct. Answer.  When all else fails, I recommend a diversion tactic, like saying “Ooh!  There’s a John Deere tractor!”

Him:  “Mom.  What dad doing?”

Me:  “He’s driving, and sitting right beside me.”

Him:  “But what he doing now?”

Me:  “He’s stopping at a red light.  Why don’t you ask him?”

Him:  “No!  You!  Why there a red light here?”

To play, you might have to wear a curly brunette wig and mimic my voice because he only really likes to play this game with me.

Him:  “Mom?”

Me:  “Yes?”

Him:  “Mom!?”

Me:  “Yes honey!?”

Him:  “Mom!  What do yellow and blue make?”

Me:  “Green.”

Him:  “No!  Super yellow!”

Me:  “Oh right.  I forgot.”

You have to be able to concede that even if you know the answer, you may not know the answer.  Be one with the universe.  There is no there there.  Knowing is only half the battle.

Him {dressing himself}:  “Mom, close your eyes and cover them like this!”

Me:  “OK.” (closes eyes)

Him:  “Mom, this right?”

Me:  “I don’t know.  My eyes are closed.”

Him {cry-whining}:  “Can you help me?”

Me:  “Sure!  {Proceeds to help get his arm out of the head hole.}

Him:  “No, Mom, cover your eyes!”

Finally, you have to be able to know those things which are not possible for you to know.

Now that I’ve whetted your appetite, any takers on a game of 20 Questions?  I’ll even throw in a bottle of wine – you’ll need it afterwards!

Someone once told me when I became a parent at age 20 that the days would be long but the years would be short.  Like any recent teenager, I hadn’t much perspective on the passing of time, of hours whiling away, slipping like water down the drain.

I wanted time to pass.  I wanted to get to summer and then I couldn’t wait for Christmas to come.   When would the school year ever start?

I thought my first son Beau would never be old enough to swim in the deep end, to be potty trained, to learn to read, to stay home alone.  The first year of my son’s life when I was home taking care of him and my terminally ill Dad, was torture.  I was stuck with a newborn and my dying dad in my childhood home for hours on end.

To break up the day I watched Jerry Springer at 11; checked the mail at 3; went to McDonalds for coffee at 6.  Too slow.

On the other side of that clock that run like molasses, with a son in his third year of college and another in double digits, with almost 15 years with my husband Mike under my belt, I want nothing more than for the clock to slow down.

I want time to fix my photo albums and to go on that trip to England’s castles I always planned with my mother.  I want time to write a children’s book and a book about my Dad.  I want time to go to Hawaii with my husband and to play in a basketball league with my brothers.  I want time to see Beau graduate college and to meet Donovan’s first girlfriend.

The concept of time hasn’t changed but I have.

In light of that change I have cut out Facebook and reality television.  I’ve quit smoking and I have stopped calling people who don’t really care that much about me.  I don’t join causes I don’t care about or answer the phone when I’m with my family.

If I’ve only got a little more than half my life left I don’t want to squander a minute on things I don’t love.  There are enough of those things you have to do anyway like laundry, watering plants, dusting, grocery shopping, and getting gas and I won’t add to the list.

It’s the glory of getting older; it’s called “cutting the fat”.

I often wondered how my Dad could bear to spend his last months doing such ordinary things; how each day he could spend at home with his family with no apparent purpose other then to exist in our space.

I realize now that while I was wishing away those slow days, he was cherishing them.  Each slow ordinary minute was a gift to him; it was the gift that kept on giving with every sweep of the second hand until it didn’t any more.

It might have been his best year.

It might have been my best year.

We just didn’t know it at the time.

Photo Source: http://www.richmondkickers.com

FAMILY FEST AUGUST 10, 2013
$10 For The Whole Family Before 6PM at City Stadium!

The Richmond Kickers and Chick-Fil-A present FAMILY FEST on Saturday, August 10th and it’s going to be a family-fun event with plenty of activities for kids too.

The Kickers one-of-a-kind fun zone, presented by Bounce 2 the Moon features:

• A 30 foot Slip ’n Slide
• Obstacle courses
• Train rides
• Inflatable games
• Live music
• Fun for the whole family!

The fun begins at 4 p.m. and admission is just $10.00 for the whole family before 6 p.m. That’s right – simply purchase one $10.00 ticket and gain admission for the entire family for one low price.

Head out to City Stadium on August 10 and cheer your Richmond Kickers to victory when they battle the Dayton Dutch Lions at 7 p.m.

2013 Richmond Kickers – 2001 Maywill Street, Suite 203, Richmond, VA 23230
Phone: 804 644-5425