To schedule or not to schedule?
How much of your life is scheduled? Do you spend time making sure that everyone is where they are supposed to be all the time? Does your husband work a set schedule, always having to get up at a certain time and be out the door before the kids get moving? Sometimes, do you get the feeling that your family is “over scheduled”? We spend so much time trying to make sure that everyone is happy, enriched, and involved, that we can easily forget that spending real time with our families is the best give that we can give our children.
As mothers, we are the keepers of the family. Sometimes, we just have to say “no” to one more kid’s birthday party on the weekend, and take that time to bond with our husbands and children. And you should feel good about doing it too. We must teach our kids that family comes first. This will ensure that they grow up valuing their families as well as their parents.
This week is a good time to practice slowing down. Check your calendar ahead of time to make sure that you aren’t supposed to be at Aunt Mary and Uncle Tommy’s 50th Anniversary party, then go off the radar! Forget about the things you ’should’ do, and reconnect with your family. Don’t answer your phones(let them leave a voicemail-and they will if it is an emergency), and keep the TV off unless your whole family agrees to a movie. If that is the case, pop some corn, get some blankets and snuggle up on the couch watching movies together.
The weather is getting crisp which makes being outside more enjoyable for the whole family. Is there anything that you love to do but don’t ever seem to have the time for it? In our house, the males love to ride their 4-wheelers, but we never seem to find an open weekend. What does your family like to do? If you can’t think of anything this week you can always use items from the Fall Fun 50 List(each family member should get to look over the list), and then choose an activity that you are all interested in.
Don’t think of this as “spending” time with your family but as “investing” time in your family. The dividends will amaze you!
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Candy Corn Turkeys
Ingredients:
Sugar cookie or Ritz cracker
Candy Corn
Frosting
M&Ms for eyes
Directions:
Use the frosting as the “glue” and line up the candy corn on the top half of your cookie to make the feathers. Use frosting to “glue” the M&Ms in the place of the eyes. Then pipe frosting to make the beak and the feet.
Sugar cookie or Ritz cracker
Candy Corn
Frosting
M&Ms for eyes
Directions:
Use the frosting as the “glue” and line up the candy corn on the top half of your cookie to make the feathers. Use frosting to “glue” the M&Ms in the place of the eyes. Then pipe frosting to make the beak and the feet.
Leaf Stamping
This project can be used to make place mats, greeting cards, place cards, and other paper-based projects. They make a wonderful Fall project.
Materials:• 3 or more leaves that have not yet fallen from your trees• One heavy, thick book• Construction paper, any color• Hot glue• Paint brush• Acrylic paint in yellow, tan, orange, and red(and any colors you like)• White paper or construction paper
Directions:
1. The best leaves for this project are still attached to the tree. Find leaves that are turning colors but aren’t completely dried out. If the leaf cracks when you fold it, it is too dry. You need one leaf for each color you will paint.2. Press the leaves in the pages of a heavy book. Leave overnight. This will teach your little ones about “delayed gratification”. They can also go take a peek to see how they look as they press.3. Remove leaves from the book. Look at the underside of the leaf. Brush off any debris, pollen or dust that may have gathered there. it’s fun to use a small, dry paint brush for this.4. Fold a piece of construction paper in half.5. “Mom job” Hot glue the front side of the leaf to the construction paper so that the underside is facing up. The underside has the veins and lines of the leaf, the front side is smooth.6. Using a paint brush, paint the underside of the leaf with a generous amount of paint. Be careful to paint only the leaf and not the construction paper it is glued to. (If your toddlers and pre-k kids gets it on the paper, nothing terrible will happen!)7. Using the leaf as a stamp, press it down carefully onto the white paper. Hold it in place and gently rub the construction paper so that all areas hit the white paper. **It’s a good idea to do a few practice stamps on scrap paper to get the feel for the amount of paint you’ll need.8. Carefully remove the stamp and repeat this process with your other leaves and colors.9. Allow to dry completely.
Materials:• 3 or more leaves that have not yet fallen from your trees• One heavy, thick book• Construction paper, any color• Hot glue• Paint brush• Acrylic paint in yellow, tan, orange, and red(and any colors you like)• White paper or construction paper
Directions:
1. The best leaves for this project are still attached to the tree. Find leaves that are turning colors but aren’t completely dried out. If the leaf cracks when you fold it, it is too dry. You need one leaf for each color you will paint.2. Press the leaves in the pages of a heavy book. Leave overnight. This will teach your little ones about “delayed gratification”. They can also go take a peek to see how they look as they press.3. Remove leaves from the book. Look at the underside of the leaf. Brush off any debris, pollen or dust that may have gathered there. it’s fun to use a small, dry paint brush for this.4. Fold a piece of construction paper in half.5. “Mom job” Hot glue the front side of the leaf to the construction paper so that the underside is facing up. The underside has the veins and lines of the leaf, the front side is smooth.6. Using a paint brush, paint the underside of the leaf with a generous amount of paint. Be careful to paint only the leaf and not the construction paper it is glued to. (If your toddlers and pre-k kids gets it on the paper, nothing terrible will happen!)7. Using the leaf as a stamp, press it down carefully onto the white paper. Hold it in place and gently rub the construction paper so that all areas hit the white paper. **It’s a good idea to do a few practice stamps on scrap paper to get the feel for the amount of paint you’ll need.8. Carefully remove the stamp and repeat this process with your other leaves and colors.9. Allow to dry completely.
Sharing Holiday Meals
I suppose as some point in our lives, the inevitable happens. You see, it all starts the same for us. We are born. Then a holiday meal comes, and we go into a high-chair. We stay in the high-chair, especially at holiday meals, until we are capable of sitting in a chair without tumbling out. Let’s be honest; no one wants to have babies tumbling out everywhere. It just wouldn’t look good with a big ole turkey on the table and a toddler on the floor.
Then at roughly three or four years old, we move to the “Kids Table”. Ok, first, who thought that idea up? I mean really. Are children second class citizens? Are children so intolerable that we have to banish them to a different part of the house, or the “other side of the diningroom”, at the very least? Did someone decide that it was easier to hide the kids away than it was to teach them proper table manners and good conversation skills? Frankly, aren’t we supposed to be raising future adults?
And second, why are any of us perpetuating the very existence of the darned kids table??? Didn’t you just hate being tucked away from your parents? Didn’t you and your cousins long to sit near your grandma in the hopes she would sneak you her dessert? Or maybe you wanted to sit next to grandpa to score some pocket change. It really is ok for us to stop this generations old tradition now.
There’s really no reason for our children to be seated apart from us. Surely we eat with our immediate families everynight. Those are the times when our children are watching us, as we model appropriate dinner table behavior. A holiday dinner should be a joyous time for the entire extended family to share in love, family, and food. And if seating is the issue, simply split adults with children at each table. But the ideal scenario is to have everyone at one long table, even if it is a little cramped. Remember that the holiday meals are going to be remembered. No one cares if they have to squeeze around the table; people want to be with their loved ones-children included.
And for the those of us who simply must continue this way of dining, I do hope you’ll consider keeping the little ones as close to you as possible. They are learning how to treat their own children by watching their parents.
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Then at roughly three or four years old, we move to the “Kids Table”. Ok, first, who thought that idea up? I mean really. Are children second class citizens? Are children so intolerable that we have to banish them to a different part of the house, or the “other side of the diningroom”, at the very least? Did someone decide that it was easier to hide the kids away than it was to teach them proper table manners and good conversation skills? Frankly, aren’t we supposed to be raising future adults?
And second, why are any of us perpetuating the very existence of the darned kids table??? Didn’t you just hate being tucked away from your parents? Didn’t you and your cousins long to sit near your grandma in the hopes she would sneak you her dessert? Or maybe you wanted to sit next to grandpa to score some pocket change. It really is ok for us to stop this generations old tradition now.
There’s really no reason for our children to be seated apart from us. Surely we eat with our immediate families everynight. Those are the times when our children are watching us, as we model appropriate dinner table behavior. A holiday dinner should be a joyous time for the entire extended family to share in love, family, and food. And if seating is the issue, simply split adults with children at each table. But the ideal scenario is to have everyone at one long table, even if it is a little cramped. Remember that the holiday meals are going to be remembered. No one cares if they have to squeeze around the table; people want to be with their loved ones-children included.
And for the those of us who simply must continue this way of dining, I do hope you’ll consider keeping the little ones as close to you as possible. They are learning how to treat their own children by watching their parents.
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Tasty Leaf Pockets
Ingredients:
1 egg
1 tsp water
1 prepared pie crust
Pocket filling- chocolate chips, cream cheese, jams, peanutbutter ships, etc.
Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 375Whisk egg and water, set aside.On a floured area, roll out your prepared pie crust to 1/8 inch thick.Use a large leaf-shaped cookie cutter(about 4 inches wide) to amke as many dough pairs as you can.For each leaf pocket, spread over the bottom leaf, leaving a 1/2 margin at the edge.Brush egg wash onto the edge, place a second leaf on top, and press the edges to seal.Brush the top with egg wash and sprinkle it with sugar. Bake the leaf pockets on a parchment-covered cookie sheet until their edges are just beginning to brown, about 12 minutes. Let them rest on the sheet a few minutes before moving them to a cooling rack
1 egg
1 tsp water
1 prepared pie crust
Pocket filling- chocolate chips, cream cheese, jams, peanutbutter ships, etc.
Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 375Whisk egg and water, set aside.On a floured area, roll out your prepared pie crust to 1/8 inch thick.Use a large leaf-shaped cookie cutter(about 4 inches wide) to amke as many dough pairs as you can.For each leaf pocket, spread over the bottom leaf, leaving a 1/2 margin at the edge.Brush egg wash onto the edge, place a second leaf on top, and press the edges to seal.Brush the top with egg wash and sprinkle it with sugar. Bake the leaf pockets on a parchment-covered cookie sheet until their edges are just beginning to brown, about 12 minutes. Let them rest on the sheet a few minutes before moving them to a cooling rack
Create you own Native American Beadwork
This week in our art/craft we will pay special attention to the Native Americans who taught the Pilgrims so very much in the 1500’s. This project can be as detailed or as simple as your kid’s ages dictate.
Materials:
Beadworking wire OR PipecleanersAny sort of beads at all, but natural materials are best
Directions:
Using your wire or pipecleaner, create a necklace using patterns with your beads. Make sure your necklace is long enough to fit over your head.
Materials:
Beadworking wire OR PipecleanersAny sort of beads at all, but natural materials are best
Directions:
Using your wire or pipecleaner, create a necklace using patterns with your beads. Make sure your necklace is long enough to fit over your head.
Letter Writing
For us, this time of year is warm and loving, as we are surrounded by our families and friends.For our military members serving worldwide, it is just another work day away from family and friends.
Have your entire family sit together and each of you write a warm letter of Thanksgiving to a military member serving overseas right now. Mail is like gold to our troops. They will appreciate it more than you know.
Go to WWW.ANYSOLDIER.COM to get info on who and where to send your letters as well as tips on what to write.
Have your entire family sit together and each of you write a warm letter of Thanksgiving to a military member serving overseas right now. Mail is like gold to our troops. They will appreciate it more than you know.
Go to WWW.ANYSOLDIER.COM to get info on who and where to send your letters as well as tips on what to write.
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