Nightly Roundup - Day 364

1. Marriage - Greg made this easy again just asking that I round up all the winter gear in the basement and bring it up as the weekend is supposed to get quite chilly. (And he does just seem to enjoy being asked - and did ask me if he could return the favor in some way. I asked him to consider baby number three;-). Maybe not quite a quid pro quo for finding his Hawkeyes scarf.....)
2. Kids - Read one short chapter in the mindful parenting book and managed to be in the moment for at least a decent portion of time while I played blocks with the kids today.
3. Book - Blog entries are about it. Need to follow up more with how to write to a publisher.
4. Business - Gave a shot to answering question #1 on my due diligence. This was done with about 20 minutes set aside for a Google search. I doubt this is of much interest unless you're also thinking of a kids product for your business idea, but I'm putting it here to refer back to. And I did learn a whole new term, edutainment, referring to the overlap of entertainment and education that goes way back including many poems and stories and blocks with numbers and letters and animals printed on the sides. The article also touched on start up costs and talked about the story behind ThinkFun, a husband and wife puzzle company started in their basement all of which was educational (no pun intended;)).

Kids’ Educational Toys and Games
The Toy Industry Association estimates that the traditional toy industry (which doesn’t include electronics such as video games and handheld electronic games) is worth an estimated $22 billion in annual sales, with nearly half those sales being generated during the holidays (see “Toy Story” on page 1.4 for a breakdown of popular toy categories). Educational games like Cranium have enjoyed huge mass appeal. In the eight years since its inception, this board game, together with its sibling titles, has sold more than 15 million games in 10 languages and 30 countries. Educational toys like the LeapFrog learning laptops have also been popular. Industry observers believe that educational toys’ mass-market appeal will only continue to grow, as parents continue to search for meaningful enrichment activities for their children.

From Entreprenuer Magazine

5. Garden - Rainy day here, but I did pot up some annuals in case a freeze comes soon to wipe them out.

6. Health/beauty - As crazy as it may sound, I set the timer for three minutes and walked around with a book on my head. My posture, never great, needs some work. My doctor once mentioned during a discussion about breast reduction surgery that it looked like having such heavy breasts had affected my posture. Need to get better about throwing those shoulders back, head held high....

7. Spirit - catchall - Did pretty much stay in the moment with the kids during their playtime.

8. F.I. - No tossed food for the day!

Hope you're all doing well. Only 363 more days to go!