I know you’ve all been there. You just sat down to finally eat YOUR pancakes after standing at the stove cooking them all day and all the kids can say is, “Mommy, can you cut my pancakes?” Five minutes later your own pancakes are cold (GROSS!) and the kid who you first cut up pancakes for is now done and ready for the next one. So, here’s the scoop on how to make things a little easier on ya:
Waffles:
My husband just discovered this method and I tried it this morning and FELL. IN. LOVE.
Use a pizza wheel. I still like to follow the straight lines of the waffle pattern. Shawn likes to cut waffles up like a pie. Follow your heart on that, but definitely pick up the pizza cutter to do it! Continue reading…
If you didn’t get a chance to read the previous post below about this project, you might take a moment now to skim it, as it is the reason for the below letter. Enjoy!
Dear Mother,
I know that you will be reading this at Christmas time, but as I am sitting here writing, we are celebrating the Thanksgiving Holidays. So, if you’ll forgive the obvious tribute to this season, I thought I’d take this opportunity to share the things for which I’m most grateful as a mother.
The Mother Letter Project is one of the most thoughtful things I’ve heard of in a while and I just had to share.
Instead of spending lots of money on each other for Christmas, a husband and wife have decided to make gifts for each other and donate the money they would have spent to a village in Africa they visited this summer. The husband decided it would be cool to do something to encourage his wife with a collection of letters from other mothers. So, he’s opened it up to the internet and asked mothers everywhere to send him letters of encouragement, tips, wisdom, etc that he can compile into a book to present to her for Christmas. Here’s a portion of what he’s said:
As you may already know, I am creating Christmas for my wife this year and this is the site devoted to her present. Simply stated, I am collecting a series of “open letters” from mothers, to mothers. I am asking you to share your stories — no matter how raw or difficult. Share you concerns or worries — no matter how foolish they may seem. Share your wisdom — no matter how you came by it. Share your mother story. The only request? Start the letter “Dear Mother” and sign it. I will compile all of the letters in a Christmas book for both my wife AND YOU. If you share a letter before Christmas you will receive a copy of the Mother Letters.
I know that I’ll be writing a letter soon (as soon as the kiddos go down for bedtime and I can think clearly again) because a mother of any level of experience has something valid, beautiful, and encouraging to say about motherhood. And consider this my challenge to you to do the same… In fact, I’ll write another post when I’ve finished my letter just to let you know I’ve done it and now it’s your turn.
So, are you on?? Leave me a comment and let me know if you’re up for it, too!
When you live with a budding artist, you live with piles and piles of artwork. And ALL of it is special. And NONE of it can be thrown away. At least, that’s what my 5 year old tells me constantly. And as gung-ho as she is about recycling, I still can’t manage to convince her that we can recycle some of her artwork, too.
So, instead of living with the masses of piles everywhere, I started looking for ideas of what to do with it all to help contain it and keep it from taking over my entire house. I came across several great suggestions like these:
(Many thanks to my friends for the below exchange. This is why we ALL need a support group of other moms to rely on!)
Q: Any tips for handling a 3yo boy who likes to call everybody silly names? (pumpkinhead, pottyhead, poopoohead, boogerhead. I could go on… LOL) We’ve spanked, we’ve done timeouts, we’ve taken away toys, we’ve ignored it, we’ve laughed at it, and we’re all out of ideas. We even resorted to calling him the same name he calls us, (that was short lived as he thought it was the funniest thing he ever heard) and nothing seems to work.
A: We’ve set the rule of no name calling at all, just in case you hurt someone’s feelings when you are just trying to be funny.
AND we’re only allowed to use bathroom words IN the bathroom (which has stopped the embarassingly loud announcements of “I have to poo!” in restaurants, but has also spawned numerous toot and tee tee bathtime songs). To me, this was a safe way for them to get to enjoy those funny things about their bodies which all little ones find so hilarious without shaming our family in public.
But you know, since my girls aren’t allowed to say, “I gotta go poo!” in public any more, we’ve had to come up with acceptable alternatives. Wouldn’t Ethan look so sweet and precious with, “Excuse me, I need to go freshen up.” Priceless.
At one of our last Moms’ Night Out gatherings, we were all discussing babies (duh! We ARE a bunch of moms!) and their cries.  Several of us had heard of the ‘baby whisperer’, Priscilla Dunstan, who was on Oprah, but only a couple of us had ever tried it.  My sister-in-law has tried it with her baby, Grayson, and is swearing by it!  She said she’s been able to figure out his cries pretty easily and is having a much easier time with him than with her other 2 kiddos. Just thought I’d pass it on…
We all know the importance of getting our kids out-of-doors. Â We’ve heard the studies about childhood obesity and ’screen time’ in front of tvs and computers. Â Of course, in Houston, it’s harder to get outside when temperatures are in high 90s. Â But, we try occasionally anyways.
When I started studying Charlotte Mason’s educational philosophy a few months ago on my search for a homeschooling model that worked for me, I was surprised at her strong thoughts on nature.  She adamantly encourages children under the age of six to have no formal schooling, but to spend as much time as possible every day OUTSIDE.  And, as they get older, that portion of their ’schooling’ is still important enough to get its own subject - Nature Study.  She promoted Nature Study not only as a way to use up some of that extra energy that all kids seem to have, but also as a way to learn about our world, science, and our creator.  And we all know how a walk in the woods or a beautiful garden can help us regain perspective in life and reconnect us to God.
It seems as though current studies have finally confirmed some of what Charlotte has been saying since the 1800s. Â I was just introduced to this site, Children & Nature Network, and have been thoroughly impressed with the information found there. Â Check out this video clip from The Today Show about kids and the outdoors. Â Makes me wanna go on a hike. Â Anybody want to go with me?
So, how do YOU get your kids out-of-doors for free play on a regular basis? Â I’m looking for some more creative ideas, especially for our hot, humid city. Â Share them in the comments section below.
I’ve been following lurking around the RocksInMyDryer blog for a little while now and have been thoroughly enjoying her “Works for Me Wednesday” posts.  She usually has it open to everyone to post their own links for whatever topic she’s designated and I wind up spending a few minutes hours following all the links to great posts. Â
So, this week’s topic was 5-ingredient recipes. Â My kind of cooking! Â Needless to say, I’ve spent lots of times perusing everyone’s creative ideas and have bookmarked several to try out. Â
The first recipe I tried was for Egg & Sausage Muffins at ISpeakBeanish. Â They turned out great!! Â I added some cheese (hello - I AM a cheese-aholic!) and then I blended up some fresh yellow squash and zucchini to “hide” inside the egg mixture that you pour over the sausage. Â You couldn’t even taste the veggies (thank goodness, otherwise my family wouldn’t have eaten them) and the two oldest kiddos LOVED them. Â We had plenty leftover for breakfast the next day and I’m about to freeze the rest to have on hand for whenever Shawn needs a quick breakfast to go with his morning coffee.
So, slide on over to ISpeakBeanish for her great recipe (she’s a Houston local, y’all!!) or to RocksInMyDryer for more ideas for dinner tonight and enjoy.  Oh, and then you have to tell me which one YOU did and how it turned out so I can be sure to add it to my list!  :)
Waffles:
By Kay on Tue, Dec 30, 2008
3 Comments