Happy Heart Day!

One of the ways that I made the day special for the Bros was to make heart shaped quesadillas for lunch.  They got a kick out of them and it was super easy to do with heart-shaped cookie cutters.

heart shaped quesadillas

Art by the Bros

I love displaying the Bros’ art work around the house.  I want them to know that we value their creations.  Big Bro is our little family artist but I want Middle Bro to also explore his creative side.  I recently put him in an art class at a local Fine Arts Center and it is fantastic.  Since Big Bro started making art I have looked for ways to display his art.  I originally got this Star Art Cable from Pottery Barn Kids and put it in our toy room that is in our basement.  It’s a great way to display art that can be changed easily but because it was downstairs I found that I didn’t really rotate the art that much plus it didn’t really allow for us to view the art as much as I’d like.  I discovered two solutions in our main living area that I really like.  One is inside a glass cabinet that we have in our kitchen where I put cookbooks.  It’s nice because it protects the art from Little Bro’s fingers and it also covers my not always so neat collection of cookbooks and loose recipes.  Plus it allows us to put the art center-stage in our house.  The second way we do it is by taping it to the upper windows in the living room.  Again, Little Bro can’t reach the pieces and it displays the art in a central place in our house.  We actually had a brother of a good friend who has a real eye for design come to our house to help us furnish and decorate our house and he wasn’t a huge fan of the art being in such prominent places (kind of like how some people aren’t fans of displaying family pictures all over the house) but I don’t care.  It may not be “beautiful” to everyone but it’s beautiful to us and makes our Bros proud of their work.

Art on the cabinet

Art on windows

Fun with Great Grandma’s toys

Middle Bro with the baby wind up toy

I remember when I was a little girl and I would go visit my Grandma.  I was always drawn to her collection of little wind up toys.  My Grandma passed away many years ago now.  My Aunt got her collection and is nice enough to bring us a toy from the collection whenever she visits.  We keep them hidden away in a cabinet for safe keeping but bring them out every so often to play under supervision and the Bros get a real kick out of them.  They are great for fine motor development as they practice winding the toys up, ever so gently.  The great thing is that these toys are an easy, quick diversion that really captures their attention and are easy to come by really cheaply at a toy store.

Middle Bro and Little Bro playing with wind up toys

Things are looking up for Little Bro

It  looks like Little Bro is almost back to himself although we’ll stay tuned until tonight because that always seems to be the peak time for fevers.  He had a fever of 102.5 yesterday during the day which was concerning to me.  I ended up calling his Pediatrician last night, after he got to 103, who told me not to worry  and that he could have a fever up to 105 for 5 days before he really needed to be seen as it was likely just a virus.   Even though we have been through fevers with the Bros many times in the past it still felt good to get some reassurance from the pediatrician.  Besides giving him Tylenol when he was super uncomfortable and warm I also simmered fresh ginger cut up in simmering water for 20 minutes and put it in his bath water after cooled (idea from Smart Medicine for a Healthier Child) and put cool washcloths on his face, something my dad always did for me growing up.

In the meantime I’m still giving him Sambucus as well as giving it to Middle Bro and Big Bro  for prevention of catching whatever he has.

Sick Little Bro

Little Bro is sick today.  He came down with a fever right before lunch. Poor little guy.  We had friends over last night and their son had a very low-grade fever.  His mom asked before they came if we should cancel and I thought it would be ok as long as he kept his distance.  Now I’m feeling guilty that my son is sick and wonder if he could have gotten sick from our friend this quickly.

He doesn’t have much of an appetite and spent most of the afternoon and evening after nap laying on my chest.  I try to minimize medical intervention to a certain extent so have been letting his fever work for him and fight whatever is making him sick although in some ways I’d like to load him up with tylenol to break his fever.  Luckily, Little Bro doesn’t seem too uncomfortable so I’m ok with sticking with this course of action.  I LOVE this book, Smart Medicine for a Healthier Child for when my kids our sick. In addition to conventional treatments for illness it also outlines more natural alternatives.  I like knowing all of my options so that I can make the best choice for my kids.

Sambucus for kids

I’ve been giving him Sambucus for Kids to boost his immune system and feeding him our special smoothies that we typically have every morning as we had some leftover.

Hopefully he’ll be feeling better in the morning!

One task done, thank you very much

I got Big Bro to finish his thank you letters last night.  I feel good about that.  They were for CHRISTMAS presents.  I feel guilty about that.  Thank you notes are a must-do in our family, a good lesson I learned when I was growing up.  But, in our house they usually turn into a stress that is put off many times over until it’s almost embarrassing to send them. I’m hoping they’ll get easier as the kids get older and can write them on their own, quickly.  Big Bro is in Kindergarten and is just starting to be able to write without it being painfully slow, but it still takes a lot of work and time when there are multiple thank you’s to get done.  To decrease my stress and guilt next time I’m going to have him whip out a couple every day until they are done, beginning shortly after the holiday.  At least I say that now.  I have a whole lot of great ideas to decrease stress and guilt but follow through is sometimes difficult as life gets in the way.

To make the task of getting thank you notes done for our beginner writer I got this great idea a while ago that I modified from J. Casa Handmade via Balancing Everything for making fill-in-the-blank thank you’s.  I figured that if Big Bro made his own template then it would still be in his own writing with his own drawings and therefore more personal. Plus it would really cut down on the time to complete all the notes.  I just had him create a template where he could fill in who it was for, what the present was and why he liked it.  I had him add a couple of pictures and then we just made copies of it.

Here is one of his finished notes, to “Gramu and Grapu”:

Big Bro thank you note

Sugar Free Valentines gifts for the Bros

Last Easter I was psyched to find great things for the Bros’ Easter baskets on Etsy.  I try to keep sugar consumption down in our house and thought they’d get more than enough jelly beans and chocolate bunnies from Grandma and Grandpa.  The Bros ended up with great things in their baskets that lasted long past Easter.  I thought I should do the same for Valentines Day.  Here are some things I’m considering:

Cute felt heart cookies

Felt Heart Cookies

You could do a whole tea and cookies theme by adding this tea pot:

Felt tea pot

And these tea cups:

Felt Tea Cups

Top it off with these precious tea bags:

Felt Tea Bags

Thought these would be adorable and unique Valentine cards for Middle Bro or Big Bro to give to their classmates:

Robot and Spaceship Valentines

Oh my gosh, how cute are these?!  Might need to get them for all of my Bros!

Personalized Tree and birds

Healthy dinner = less guilt

One of the things that I feel pretty good about is that I make healthy eating a real priority in my family.  I feel like it’s one of the ways that I show my family that I love them and care about their health.  I really love to cook and find it pretty relaxing when I’m not in a rush. When I am in a rush, I hate it.  I actually have big dreams of taking cooking classes and making healthy gourmet meals frequently when all of the kids are in school full time.  The foods that I prepare at home are mostly vegan.  I cook this way for health reasons.  Although good nutrition has always been a real interest of mine I was inspired to cook this way after reading Disease-Proof Your Child:Feeding Kids Right by Dr. Joel Fuhrman after having Middle Bro a few years ago.  I thought the book had such great information that I also read Eat to Live by Dr. Fuhrman which was focused on adults.  Although I really wanted to start following the principles from this book for good health a wonderful bonus is that Good Dada and I lost a lot of weight, fast, and have done a pretty good job keeping it off (minus when I’m pregnant). We try to eat the Eat to Live way most of the time but allow ourselves to cheat on occasion.

The dinner I made last night was delicious, easy, quick and very healthy.  I made an adaptation of this recipe: slow cooker coconut chicken curry.  Yes, with chicken.  Although we do mostly eat Vegan I do occasionally cook meat or fish.  To give you an idea of how infrequently I use chicken I actually used organic chicken breasts that I probably froze 3 months ago.   The recipe as it is is pretty healthy but I made some modifications to it to make it healthier and easier to prepare and still had great results.  Here is how I adapted it:

Slow-cooker Coconut Chicken Curry

Ingredients:

3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into chunks

1 medium onion, diced

2 cloves minced garlic

3 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cut into chunks (mine were mostly frozen)

2 cups cooked (or 14 oz. can/drained) garbanzo beans (add during the last 30 min. to an hour of cooking so they don’t get too mushy)

** Could omit chicken and add 2-3 more cups of the garbanzos beans

1 can (14 oz.) light coconut milk

1 c. low-sodium chicken broth

1 T. yellow curry powder (or to taste)

For serving:

Optional: chopped scallions as garnish, serve on cooked brown rice

Instructions:

Throw all the ingredients in the slow cooker and stir.

In a hurry, cook on high for about 4 hours.  If you want to prepare it in the morning and have it ready for dinner cook on low for about 8 hours.  Or you can do a mix of the two temperatures depending on how much time you have.

Gently stir a few times while cooking, although the more you stir the more the potatoes and even chicken will break apart .

Don’t forget to add the cooked or canned garbanzos near the end.

GuiltyMama

First step to decreasing “Mama Guilt”

Notes while reading

So, I’m just going to jump right in because I have started taking my first step and am so far pumped.  Of course, this often happens.  I read about a great idea on a blog, next day a book from Amazon and get through the first chapter, think about the changes I’m going to make and then don’t go much further from there.  Or sometimes I don’t even get as far as opening the book.  Or I read the whole book, think that I can recall the info, don’t really digest it and then stop there without doing anything new.

Let me just put this out there to make myself feel better.  I am not a complete mess.  I think that I put too much pressure on myself and take too much on at once and expect near perfection from myself.  Which only leads to more guilt.  But the plan is to really get it together and stop the guilt, or at least decrease it.

I was inspired to take the first step when reading Simple Mom and learning about the book club that had just started on The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families .  Perfect! I had heard about “The 7 Habits” series of books before and figured it was legit and would offer some good information.  I want a highly effective family!  So, I ordered it right away and got to reading.

So far I have gotten through the personal message, forward and introduction and am already inspired!

A few of my favorites:

p. 2 – the quote from Former First Lady Barbara Bush “As important as your obligations as a doctor, lawyer, or business leader will be, you are a human being first, and those human connections – with spouses, with children, with friends – are the most important investments you will ever make. At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict, or not closing one more deal.  You will regret time not spent with a husband, a child, a friend, or a parent…” I may not be a doctor or lawyer, but as a SAHM this quote was very inspirational.  I need to remind myself that at the end of my life I will never regret not having a clean house all the time (one of my hang ups), but I will regret not spending enough time with my children.

p. 3 – “For a happy, secure family they realized that successful families don’t just happen.  It takes every bit of combined energy, talent, desire, vision and determination you can muster.  Things you really care about take time, thought, planning and prioritizing. You have to work at it and make sacrifices; you have to want it and pay the price.”  Sometimes I think that my job as a SAHM should be easier (why, I don’t know!!) and I need to remind myself that I can’t be put out because it’s challenging.  This is what I’ve chosen and I need to do everything I can to make it work, without negative feelings, without complaining.

p. 5 – “Many time I blew it, lost my temper, misunderstood, judged before understanding, didn’t listen and acted unwisely.  But I also learned from my mistakes.  I apologized, grew up, shifted my values, recognized growth stages, didn’t overreact, rolled with the punches, learned to laugh at myself, had fewer rules, enjoyed life more and realized that raising kids is hard work physically and emotionally. “ I need to not be so hard on myself.  I just need to learn from my mistakes and move on and try to do better in the future.

p. 9 – “You’re going to be “off track” 90% of the time.  So, what? The key is having a destination, a flight plan, a compass.” They use an analogy of an airplane slightly off course but still arrives at the destination.  This is a good reminder for me that things don’t have to go perfect all of the time.  In fact, according to Covey things can be off track 90% of the time.  As long as I have a plan for what I want my family culture to be then I can still end up where I wanted to end up, I just maybe took a different route.

I feel like it’s a good start!  I’m motivated to read more and learn more about what I can do to improve my family and hopefully alleviate some of my guilt.

GuiltyMama