Our Family Tree

I saw a project similar to this on pinterest.com, and I knew I had to try it!  We recently painted our living room for the first time in almost 11 years of marriage, and I wanted something handmade to grace our walls.  This was the PERFECT choice for us! 

I started out by drawing a tree on a canvas and painting it brown.

Then, we added handprints from each family member.

Finally, a verse our family loves.

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is in the LORD.  For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters."  Jeremiah 17:7-8

I know this will be treasured for years to come!  It sits front and center in our "new" living room, reminding us daily why we do what we do.



Here's a picture of the other "centerpiece" of our living room.  I love Love LOVE this print!

Count your blessings...try it!

This year at New Year's I started something new.  I tend to have a more pessimistic view of things and to forget to count my blessings.  When I get down or frustrated, sometimes I neglect to see the positive things that happen in my life daily or to appreciate the countless blessings bestowed upon me and my family by our wonderful God.  So, I started a "blessings" journal.  I already have a calendar journal, on which I put one or two sentences a day about our daily events, but I wanted something different.  This blessings journal is a simple idea.  Each day, write one or two lines about "unexpected" blessings in my life.  Perhaps it's something that could have been an obstacle but can be seen as a blessing.  Or, maybe it's something "ordinary" that, in reality, is something special bestowed upon me by my Lord.  In just one month, this has helped me so much in recognizing God's hand in my daily life.  I also am trying really hard to not just repeat the same things over and over as blessings.  I'm trying to find something unique to each day to record.   Here are a few examples from my first month.

1.  Jan 3 - 2 hour delay for cold weather this morning = extra time with my daughter before school!

2.  Jan 4 - unexpected chance to teach my son's Sunday school class when the teacher couldn't make it.

3.  Jan 6 - a ton of grocery coupons stretched my budget this week!

4.  Jan 7 - Date night with my hubby!

5.  Jan 10 - amazing kids' storytime at our local library with the best chidlren's library staff ever!

6.  Jan 14 - new paint color on the living room is so peaceful!

7.  Jan 16 - long weekend for hubby and daughter!

8.  Jan 22 - chance to worship with my church family twice today!

9.  Jan 24 - lunch with Nana

10.  Jan 27 - daughter cooked dinner...fun times!

As you can see, most of these are normal, everyday things for a family with young children.  However, I can choose to see them as boring, mundane tasks, OR I can realize just how blessed I am to have the opportunity to stay home with my children and to impact eternity by the choices we make!  Making an effort to choose something each day for which to be thankful has really improved my outlook, even in such a short time.  Also, trying not to choose the same things over and over really makes me meditate on the countless blessings God bestows on me daily.  I challenge you to give it a try.  You'll be glad you did!

A new kind of Progressive dinner.

One of my goals as a mom is to make "ordinary" moments seem "extraordinary" to my children.  I never want them to doubt that I enjoy their company, so I'm constantly looking for ways to make the "everyday" seem as special to them as it is to me.  I want them to look back on their childhoods and see a Mom who gave it her best shot.  I want them to see me as someone fun and uninhibited with them, rather than "just Mom."  Sometimes I wonder if I'm just setting myself up to be disappointed when they don't acknowledge or recognize my efforts, but occasionally, I hit on something that ends up being as magical in reality as it seemed in my head.

A few weeks ago, I read a magazine article about a Mom who designed an "at-home" progressive dinner for her kids.  For the life of me, I can't remember where I read it, and I've scoured all my recent magazines to find it again so that I can give her proper credit, but I can't find it.   So, I vaguely remembered her idea and wanted to capitalize on it for my own family to help escape some of the winter doldrums.  The premise was this:  Create a dinner event in which each "course" takes place in a different room, along with some kind of pre-planned activity.  I took it a step further and created cheesy (and I mean REALLY cheesy) little clues for them to be led to the next part. 

Course # 1:  We started with a little poem (I accidentally deleted them from my computer) about how this meal would be a little different.  I tried a new recipe for crispy parmesan sticks (I don't recommend them), and I laid toothpicks out on the table with colorful mini marshmallows.  While we ate our "sticks," we sculpted with "sticks."  We used the marshmallows to stick the toothpicks together and let our imaginations run wild.  Below are a few pictures of our creations.  Snowflake, letters and house, marshmallow man, and tennis court and racquet.

Course # 2 -  When we completed our sculptures (which took place at the kitchen table), We moved to the living room with pizza roll-ups and a short episode of one of the kids' favorite shows.   This gave them plenty of time to focus on their food and kept most of the mess out of the rest of my house!  









Course # 3 - By this time, the "clues" leading them to the next part were as fun as the activities!  Our "side" dish was tater tots, in the playroom, along with a family game.  


Course # 4 - Dessert in Mommy and Daddy's bed = gummy worms while reading How to Eat Fried Worms.


So, what did this accomplish, other than a little extra mess in my house and taking an extra hour for dinner? 

I think it made us slow down.  We didn't rush through dinner, and we talked about all kinds of things!  No one was stressed, everyone was relaxed, and it was true quality family time.  I wasn't thinking about the dishes waiting for me or the laundry in the basket to be folded.  My hubby was paying full attention to all of us instead of to sports on TV.  My kids weren't jostling for position in the conversation, as we all had fun things to share with our sculptures and took turns in the game.  The cuddle time in our bed during the story made bedtime so much more relaxing and peaceful.  What we gained from it was worth so much more than what we "lost" by taking the extra time.

All in all, this was a major hit.  My daughter has told EVERYONE at school about it, and several staff members have come to find me to get more information.  Every day my kids ask when the next "scavenger hunt" meal will be.  It was a little extra effort on my part (but not much!), but it made my kids feel so special.  For those of you who don't know what to do to show your kids a little extra love, give this a shot!  You might be surprised how much fun they have....and even MORE surprised at your own enjoyment! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chef in Training!

Silly Me. 

I got it in my head that my 6 year old (who LOVES to cook, by the way), could make my life easier by learning to cook a few meals and taking over dinner time every so often.  In my head, I saw it something like this:  She looks through a kids' cookbook and picks a recipe.  Something simple like, oh, I don't know...pbj?  mac & cheese?  Or, for something really daring, maybe she decides on tacos and needs a little help with the ground beef.  Then, I purchase the ingredients (or, better yet, use what we already have!), and she fixes the meal, sets the table, and voila!  I have a night mostly "off."

Fast forward to tonight.  After THREE DAYS of my daughter scouring countless kids' cookbooks from the library, she had narrowed down her recipes to approximately FIFTY.  THEN, she announced she needed an appetizer, main dish, side dishES, and, you guessed it, DESSERT!   In an effort to not discourage this new venture, I gamely went along with it.  I dutifully shopped for the ingredients while she was in school this week, and after picking her up from school today and going to a quick well-check visit, we raced home to start THE MEAL.

Course 1:  Pizza Braid.  Just like it sounds, we BRAIDED 3 strands of breadsticks for each person.  One strand was covered in diced pepperoni, another in parmesan cheese, and the 3rd in Italian seasoning.  I must confess, they were delicious, AND I learned that my daughter knows how to braid!  This was by far the least time consuming of the courses, other than the sides (more on that later).

Course 2:  Mini Cheeseburgers.  She mixed a little meatloaf seasoning in with some ground beef and pattied out cute, tiny little patties, which we then baked.  Did you know you can BAKE hamburger patties?  I didn't!  Learned something else!  We had all the fixin's for the burgers, complete with toothpicks to hold the cute little burgers together!  We tried for "fancy" toothpicks, but my son and I went to EVERY store in town with no luck.

Course 3:  The "sides."  Loved this part!  Salad (from a bag with some fresh veggies thrown in), kettle potato chips for Daddy, who doesn't "do" veggies, and a strawberry/blueberry fruit cup mixed by my daughter for her and for her little brother.  I must admit this was a proud moment for me to have my child CHOOSE fresh fruits and veggies when she had freedom to put whatever she wanted on her plate!

Course 4:  Dessert.  THIS was the doozy.  A "rainbow" cake.  What's a rainbow cake, you ask?  Just what it sounds like.  A cake.  With rainbow colored polkadots inside.  Made from colored cake batter.  AND decorated in rainbow icing colors.   Whew.  We ended up being pretty rushed for this, so she just had to slap some icing on it, but it was delicious.

I bet you think that's all to the story, right?  Wrong.  We got ready to sit down to eat, and here comes my daughter with handwritten menus for all of us, along with hand-drawn and decorated place cards with our names on them.  Granted, my husband's name ended up with about 4 extra vowels, but it was the thought that counted for us!

I learned a lot tonight: 
1. Having my child cook for me is NOT a night off.  Rather, it could be a 4 1/2 hour endeavor that leaves my kitchen in total chaos.
2.  My child is just like me in so many ways.  The whole "overkill" part of the dinner with the colorful cake, place cards, menus, etc. sounds just like me.  As much as I get frustrated at times, I am thankful at these moments that my own mom put up with all of these crazy traits in me so that I could pass them along to MY daughter now! :)
3.  My child is her own person.  She has creative ideas, plans, and dreams that are totally separate from me. She asks my input but still has her own mind about how to proceed.
4.  My daughter still needs me.  Even though she's six-going-on-twenty-six and likes to pretend that she can face this world alone, she still needs me...and sometimes I need to know that!  Several times she tried to tackle something on her own with this meal, only to realize she needed Mommy's help.  I cherished those moments, even though allowing her to reach the point of asking for help meant my kitchen floor was covered in powdered sugar, my table was smeared with icing, and a few ingredients were "wasted" as they spilled all over me, her, and everything around us. 
5.  Some day I might have a clean kitchen (not likely as long as I live here), but it will be much emptier than it was tonight. What is a little mess if it brings my kids great joy?  There are plenty of years for "floors you could eat off of."  For tonight, a slightly sticky rainbow-colored linoleum floor is exactly what my "dream house" is made out of.

The Pebble Project

This week we began "The Pebble Project."  My kids are, for the most part, generally sweet and well-behaved.  Recently, however, we've started seeing the "uglier" sides of their behavior.  I take full credit for becoming a little more lax in my discipline due to holidays, etc., and we are reaping what we sowed!  So, after trying all the "tried and true" techniques and having no results, we embarked on the "pebble project."  We'd tried it in small form a few weeks ago for manners, and it really seemed to work.  SO, we expanded it.  It's only been 3 days, but so far it's at least working a little.  My kids are both pretty quick at figuring out what we're doing (and how to manipulate it so that they control the results! :)  ), so I don't claim that it will work forever, but for now, it is, so I thought I'd share!

Each kid (my daughter's 6 and my son is almost-four) has a small jar (plastic!) on top of our kitchen china cabinet.  We have a candy jar filled with pebbles (I bought them at the dollar tree, but if you have lots of rocks around your house, you could definitely use the "real thing).  Our main struggle right now is not listening the first time they are asked to do something.  So, anytime we have to repeat ourselves, the offender receives a pebble in the jar.   Or, if they neglect to do their regular chores (making bed and picking up dirty laundry from the floor), they get a pebble.   Each pebble represents an "extra" chore to do.  Now, my precocious daughter keeps trying to convince us that SHE should pick her chore, but no such luck for her.  We are trying to choose unpleasant (but doable) chores.  For instance, my son had to wipe down all the baseboards the other day.  Not a difficult task (and he's much closer to the ground than we are!), but it took a while and he was over it by the time he finished.  Today, he had to scrub our linoleum entry way on his hands and knees with a wet cloth for 5 minutes.   My daughter had to wipe down the kitchen table and bathroom cabinet doors.  So, nothing hard, just manual labor.  They cannot watch TV or play the Wii until their pebbles are all gone.   That has been motivating for them.  Also, if they can ever go a full day with no pebbles, they earn a coin towards fun activities.  Hopefully, we are teaching them some responsibility as well as getting some tasks done that are on MY to-do list, thus giving me more time to play with them!  Hope someone else can use this idea and even improve it!