JAK CHAT

Fabulous Five Reasons to Try Chiropractic Care Sponsored by  Sozo Chiropractic Written by Jessica Nye, Practice Representative 

 Empowering Parents to Equip Their Children for Success Written by guest mom blogger from Racine, Lindsay Knapp "The Parent Empowerment Initiative (PEI) is a community supported effort to give parents and caretakers the tools they need to raise children who are equipped for the future." Aside from being a mouthful to say, ... what is the Parent Empowerment Initiative really? Read more... In real terms - this initiative consists of 12 electives, taught by our own community members, on topics ranging from "finance management" to "leadership development in your children". We currently meet twice a month at Living Light Community Center for an hour on Tuesday nights to gain understanding and education on various subjects - both pragmatic and soft-skill parental. Our hope is to raise awareness regarding the needs within our community, and to address some of those challenges head-on through education and relational support for families. Currently, the city of Ra...

How Sweet IT Is?! Hello!  My name is Adam Haut and if you had told my younger self that someday my goal was to create the perfect baby teether I would have definitely questioned your sanity.  Well, with life being a series of twists and turns, and sometime even u-turns, here I am doing something that never in my wildest dreams would I have ever imagined. Read more... Having children alters your life dramatically and like the famous saying goes "The days are long and the years are short."  When you've got a baby who is teething you certainly know just how long those days can be. The idea for my teether came to me while my daughter was going through the teething process.  Her sprouting teeth were causing her quite a lot of pain and we felt powerless because everything we tried to do seemed to have little to no effect one way or the other.  We gave her frozen plastic rings, a rubber giraffe, and baby pain relievers but nothing helped.  That’s when I had the classic thought “...

RE-member.                Written by Just Add Kids Founder, Paula Herrmann  I have no new memories, other than the fact that I can't let this day, September 11th go by without some kind of honor to the day that changed modern day USA. As each year passes, the heavy heart that I carry seems to get lighter. Time heals, right?   Read more... Every year since I can remember that followed that fateful day, my oldest daughter  would have to relive and grieve. As a elementary school child her little safe world was threatened....she will not forget. She would make a point of watching the news documentaries that took her back to that unusual day in the life of a happy go lucky 6 year old and I'd join her in respect to not forgetting the enormity of this attack on our country.  For the first time on this anniversary, she's not home but rather away at college.  Thus, I haven't heard the narratives or walked by the video footage playing in our home. So, as I reflect and share, the...

Why Does My Child Need Chiropractic Care?      Sponsored by Sozo Chiropractic   You’ll probably never see your five or six-year-old bend over to pick up a toy and freeze in pain saying, “Oh, my back went out again.” Spinal degenerations and vertebral subluxations that cause that kind of pain will generally not appear in children - but it started there. Read more... Birth Trauma Even with a smooth labor and delivery, and no extraction methods being used, childbirth causes stress to a still developing spine. Add to this the improper lifting of the child out of a car seat or during a diaper changing; and minor spinal traumas are occurring that affect the spine and nervous system causing common newborn health complaints: Colic Unexplained crying Poor appetite Earaches or ear infections Colds Allergic reactions Even a minor spinal trauma will affect the nervous system and interfere with your child’s normal healthy function. Learning to Walk When a child first learns to stand...

Mom and Me. Mani x 3! Written by Just Add Kids Founder, Paula Herrmann Ah! Summer is winding down and back to school is either here, or just days away. As a mom, I always look back and think to myself "where did the summer go?" and it's that mad rush to prepare for day one of the school year. With four kids in four different schools, you can imagine the fun we're experiencing in our household...or not! One packed up, delivered to her dorm room, and ready to embark on year two of college; a high school senior; a middle schooler; and one still in elementary school. Trying to squeeze in a little "we" time, besides in the school supply aisle, before the first school bell rings was a priority for me, so off to the Klip Joynt on Racine's northside we went, 3 of us, to go prep our digits for back-to-school. When you walk in the door at Klip Joynt, instantly you feel a sense of style...a calm charming mix I'd say of Restoration Hardware, Pier One and Potter...

#3 at age 8 A "Little" Girl Named "Pink Stink" Written by Just Add Kids, Founder Paula Herrmann   Daughter #3 brushed past me this morning in the kitchen. Yah, so? We were able to look at each other eye to eye, meaning our eyes were level with each other. Rrrgh...another one growing up.   I don't like it one bit. Another daughter on the cusp of teenhood. Please stop now!   Am I being selfish, or do you feel like this as you watch your kids grow right in front of your eyes? Read more... It's funny, it seemed as though she stayed a little girl for so long and I kinda expected her to stay that way like FOREVER . There is a 5 year gap in between her and her next older sister (#2) and 7 years in between her and #1, my oldest.  As 1 & 2 transitioned into teens and now into young adults, Pink Stink, which is one of the names we dubbed #3 at birth, seemed to get stuck. She's always been on the petite side. When the older two would cause me distress, there wo...

Oh Where, Oh Where Do the Children Play?                by Just Add Kids Founder, Paula Herrmann                                                                                                             I was able to take a short trip south for a few days this week. Ah, it was so nice to feel what summer should be feeling like, especially being that it is the end of June, right? Eighty degrees, mild humidity...perfect, in my opinion!                                                                                                            It was the tri-state area of the Ohio River Valley, an area that I've never really experienced, rather have driven through a number of times. This trip brought me through hilly, lush, neighborhoods of the surrounding communities of Cincinnati. Beautiful countryside!  Many things the same as our hometowns here in SE Wisconsin...downtowns rich in history, schools, parks, waterfront destinations, your national chain restaurants and retail stores, ...

Oh, Yes, I Did! by Just Add Kids Founder, Paula Herrmann   So you know I am on this May Mother(over)load kick.                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Too darn many balls to juggle, at least for this momma to claim sanity.                                                                                                                                                                                                                         On that note, I've decided to take a little break today, ya know, in honor of Mother's Day, of which I am one....a mom of four humans, and a puppy and a fish, to be exact.                                                                                                                                                                                                              ...

Deserving of a Blue Ribbon, Part 2 by Just Add Kids Founder, Paula Herrmann Well, April is just about wrapped up, and a couple of campaigns I'm involved with will dwindle down with the promotions. Not that the issues go away...sadly not. Last week, in JAK Chat, I described my work with the Turn the Town Blue Campaign, a Kenosha county-wide initiative to share the light on Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Month in "Deserving of a Blue Ribbon". Click the green link, in case you missed it!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Part of the focus of this campaign is not only to lace the community with blue ribbons, yet to celebrate strong families by appreciating all the...

Deserving of a Blue Ribbon by Just Add Kids Founder, Paula Herrmann I'm always looking for a good party to crash! A few years back, I ran across this group of Kenosha County peeps that rallied (and continues to do so)behind a blue ribbon campaign in recognition and support of Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Month. That being the month of April, obviously. Being a resident of Racine, though a stakeholder in the health and well-being of families in the county, I thought this would be a good fit for me personally and for my business, Just Add Kids. Thankfully, our family is strong. Mine and my husband's relationship is intact. We are resourceful and have a strong network of family, friends, and community. Becoming an active member in the Turn the Town Blue Campaign community collaborative introduced me to the front line people that work day in and day out with families that are struggling to keep it together. Read more... I could rewrite what was well written by the Kenosha New...

The EXPO! Afterglow [caption id="attachment_2469" align="alignright" width="300"] Just Add Kids EXPO! 2014[/caption] by Just Add Kids Founder, Paula Herrmann I stayed up late last night, taking waaay too long to formulate a letter of appreciation to the folks at Racine Unified School District. I sent it on to 7 recipients. I'm going to share it here with you. Please read more...     Greetings!                                                                                                                                                                                                                      On behalf of myself, the Just Add Kids team, and our community at large, I'd like to thank each and every one of you for your support and partnership with this past Saturday's Just Add Kids EXPO!. For the third year in a row, we've proven that when private and public entities work together with a common goal, great things can happen.  And bo...

For Those "In" Service...  It's We Care Packs               My name is Katie Pollock, I am a ninth grade student at Tremper High School in Kenosha, WI. I am working on a community service project. It began when I was in the seventh grade looking for a community service project for National Junior Honor Society and it has continued on since then. My mom's coworker has a son who was critically wounded while serving our country. We discussed the need to support our troops, so I decided to work on collecting items to send to the soldiers that they can use for daily life. These items are put into care packages to be sent to them in Afghanistan. They include things like: tea, books, lotion, cookies, candy, soap, dental care items, socks, etc. In order to receive these products for the packages, I reach out to companies and ask for donations. We also have had donation drives.    Read more... Once we get enough products we have a “packing party”.  At these packing parties th...

Spring Break! Staycation-Style (Updated 6/10/2014)              Written by Just Add Kids Founder, Paula Herrmann   Not on your way to Phoenix or Florida or somewhere else south where your face won't freeze? Nah, me neither. It's spring break for a great number of us, and I'm sure like some of you, traveling far far away just wasn't in the cards for me and my family. C'mon and give a big "boo hoo" with me. Well, dang it, we've got 40's in our future, and just because I'm stuck here in good 'ole Southeastern Wisconsin, doesn't mean I can't get escape the cold. Come with me as I share some options... Read more.... I'm not going to overwhelm you, or myself. I've got to work most of the next coming week, yet I am going to break away.  So, here are 3 unique ideas, I think! The first thing that pops into my mind is warmth and water....Timber Ridge Lodge & Waterpark! Located in Lake Geneva, our destination is probably an hour or...

Communication Breach By Just Add Kids Founder, Paula Herrmann Good grief, is all I can say.  I've seen the fallout of communication gone bad when the choice mode has gone from talking face-to-face or on the phone, versus communication via your fingertips (texting, emailing, messaging).  I made, perhaps, a bad decision. Last week, I spent a great deal of time addressing the real challenges we parents face with keeping our kids safe from online predators. I went to an informative presentation on the subject, I dialoged about it on Facebook with other concerned parents, I found out that my son (seemingly from everything he told me) was a target...I even wrote a blog about it:   Read more... Creeper Alert: Proceed with Caution . I have not, and probably will never move on from that subject. Peeps, it's here. It's our reality. I'm living it. My kids are living it. If you are not there, your kids are either too young, or you've decided not to open that can of worms. If y...

A Memory Crisis . . .  Avert Yours in Advance!             Sponsored by Pixologie, Inc.  It happened on December 1, last year . . . nearly two months ago. I lost my iPhone and, even today, I have the sinking feeling of sadness and dread over this. It is not because of the money I paid for the phone, or the frustration of having to figure out how to get a replacement, or the time invested into apps that I may or not even get again. I miss my family photos on it. We had a very unique and special Thanksgiving weekend (just five days before I lost the darn thing.) I was heartsick that I hadn’t uploaded the photos anywhere - including the memories of our family celebrating Thanksgiving in a new place with very special family, spending time together at a Christmas tree farm where my 12 year old daughter was able to take the reins of a four horse wagon ride, the special times working on crafts with family friends and so much more. Read more... I just knew I was going to remember some other...

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  #4. Huh? Say What? [caption id="attachment_2171" align="alignright" width="270"] #4 hits double digits[/caption] by Just Add Kids Founder, Paula Herrmann I must be losing it. Actually, I know I've lost it. My mojo. My groove. It happens. Just not this early in the winter. I think I know the culprit. It's my family's  Read more... new school year schedule. Um, Paula, it's been 3 months now.  I know. I know.  For the last two years it had been 2 kids at one school and the other 2 at another. Just two schools. Starting times 2 hours apart. The flow was quite perfect. This year, not so much. Four kids. Four different schools with four different start times and end times. I just can't seem to get the flow going. [caption id="attachment_2173" align="alignleft" width="225"] Texting after 10pm BANNED. Even if it's a stupid app![/caption] Okay, so how does this equate to making up another excuse for not gett...

#3, iRemember by Just Add Kids Founder, Paula Herrmann [caption id="attachment_2166" align="alignright" width="225"] #3 & BFF[/caption]   My mission this past week, if you read last week's JAK Chat blog "iCaved. iRegret."   was to dive into #3 daughter's iPhone . I really need to put my parental panties on, take a look at any damage that's been done (undesirable apps?) and apply security controls, locate device app, etc.  My intent is not to smother her or be a helicopter mom, but rather to do what a parent is suppose to do, protect her.  At the same time, I also want to cultivate a respect for her privacy.  So I dropped the ball, peeps. There really is no excuse for not getting the job done as I didn't forget to do it. I just didn't get it done. Augh! It's been a week. If you've kept up with my life as a mom as recorded in these blog posts for the past few years, you might know, I am having a hard time watching m...