10 things I am grateful for...

First of all, in case people do not know, most of this blog and experience is now located on facebook.  This allows me easier access and I can leave up to the minute pictures of the great things we do.  I am located at https://www.facebook.com/crazyinlovemom...and please join us and spread the word!

Now, to the main goal of this post.  Writing is cathartic to me.  It eases my restless soul, and allows me to focus on the good in life.  I feel like the original purpose of this blog has been lost amongst the hustle and bustle of life, and maybe I am trying to create something that is not there.  Maybe I will never have the audience of so many other blogs, but hey, this was supposed to be a scrapbook for my boys.  And I need to do a better job of focusing on that.  I also need to do a better job on being thankful for the little stuff.  It is so easy to become engrossed in the big things of life, that one can easily forget to not sweat the small stuff, and to not be thankful for the small stuff.  So here I am, on this Valentine's night, posting 10 little things I am grateful for.

1.  My husbands sense of intuition.

Yes, I may have complained a "few" times and vented a "few" times about the love of my life.  But at the end of the day, I could never imagine being with anybody but him.  He knows when I have had enough and he needs to step in.  He knows when I need that extra sense of motivation, and that extra hug and cuddle.  He knows when I am right, but seldom will admit it.  :)  I take for granted this sense of intuition, I often forget to thank him.  So Danny, thank you for stepping in when needed, and also knowing when to back off.  I love you forever and always.

2.  Carter's temper tantrums

Pierce's temper tantrums never lasted too long.  Or at least, I do not recall them lasting forever.  However, Carter can have some SERIOUS temper tantrums...I mean, the apple did not fall far from the tree.  So why am I thankful for them?  They are teaching me that level of patience is much higher than I ever thought I would have.  I have NEVER been a patient person; anybody who knows me knows that.  I want things now.  And I have started to change that thanks to Carter.  Most of the time, I am now able to get down to his level and really work through why he is acting the way he is.  And the majority of the time, it honestly boils down to him being tired, hungry, or a combination of things.  He also just wants to feel as important as anybody else in the family, and how can I fault him for that?  So yes, I may have to carry him out of a few places over my shoulder, but I am learning something.  I am learning to be calm, loving, accepting, and patient.  How can I not be thankful for that?

3.  Pierce's sensitivity level

Pierce is a different kid.  We have had so many challenges with him from day 1.  Whether it was learning to deal with acid reflux disease, sensory processing disorder, anxiety, or anything else we have encountered, I am blessed to have him as my little man.  He has always been wise beyond his years, and has shown me just what love is.  At the end of the day, he is an extra sensitive child that takes everything you say to him right down to the core of his being.  This has taught me to think before I speak (most of the time), and to really look at how my behavior is affecting him.  I have become more aware of what comes out of my mouth, and how I phrase things.  Thank you Pierce for teaching me to be a better person.  I love every one of your quirks...even that scream you let loose when you have had enough.  :)

4.  Moving around a LOT as a child

I resented moving around so much as a kid.  I honestly did not feel settled until my parents bought their home in Hebron...and I was 12.  And while this was a thing I hated growing up, I have now come to realize that moving around made me a part of who I am, and has shown me that being a family is the thing that mattered the most.  It honestly did not matter what house we lived in; it was the fact that we were together.  I have come to realize this more and more as my family grows and matures.  We keep tossing up the idea of moving across the country again, and while I would LOVE to get out of CT, I am worried about uprooting the boys and changing their ebb and flow.  However, I have now learned at the end of the day, that as long as the four of us are together as a family, that is the importance of life.

5.  My me time.

There have been a few blog posts I have come across lately about how narcissistic and selfish parents are lately.  The authors have written that parents of today see their children as issues and problems, and must haves.  The authors believe that parents are selfish for needing me time, and that our time should be dedicated solely to our children.  I disagree.  It is completely unhealthy, in my opinion, to dedicate all of your time to your husband, your children, your community, and then have nothing left to give yourself.  I cherish my me time.  I no longer feel selfish for taking it.  Being on the job 24/7 wears on you.  It is more than obvious.  I will not be made to feel guilty for taking a weekend here and there, or even a few hours at night.  I need it.  And if that makes me selfish, then that is fine.  I will be selfish.

6.  My car

I have taken for granted the option of hopping into a car in the morning and going wherever the boys and I want to go.  With this recent snow, and my car needing major repairs, I had this freedom taken away a few times, and it was chaotic.  We don't live in an area with sidewalks, and we live on a super busy road.  This has literally left us home bound quite a few days.  While it was nice to have the break and to not feel obligated to travel, I will forever love my car and the ability it has to get me from A-B, now that it has been fixed.  Now, if the snow would stop falling 6-12 inches at a time, I could really get out and cruise.  :)

7.  Amber

Amber is our golden retriever that is 5 years old.  I do not nearly give her as much time as I used to, and I certainly should.  However, every day that we come home, her tail is wagging and she is so happy to see us.  She cuddles with me every night in bed, she is beyond calm with the boys, and always knows when I need that extra puppy hug.  I was worried about how her demeanor would change once we had Pierce, but she has become even more protective of us and gentler than I could ever imagine.  She has been moved across the country and back, and is an amazing travel companion.  Once we have places to stroller walk again, we have some serious walking to do.

8.  Family

This is probably a given in most houses, but in my house it is a biggie.  Dan's family is such a close knit family, it honestly made me feel awkward at first.  I grew up in a family where I had no siblings, I did not know my cousins, aunts, or uncles, and family was comprised of friends (which is totally awesome too!).  Dan's family is completely different.  Their blood is thicker than glue, and they are all always there for each other.  When we moved back to CT, my amazing in laws took us in, without any hesitation at all about a family of 3 and two animals moving in.  Then we accidentally became a family of 4.  I was a wreak, but grandma calmed me down, gave me a cup of tea, and reassured me that everything would be alright.  And you know what?  It was.  When we desperately needed a babysitter so that I could start to work again, a cousin selflessly stepped in and volunteers her time with the boys so that I can make a little bit of money to help the house.  We have massive family dinners, birthday parties like no other, and while we may not all see eye to eye, at the end of the day we will always support each other and encourage each other.  And besides, I could never imagine my boys growing up in a non multi-generational house.  I honestly believe that has contributed to their amazing demeanor.

9.  My knowledge of cooking

I love to cook.  I love to bake.  I love to eat (hence my body figure!).  I am incredibly grateful in my knowledge of cooking.  I used to spend what seemed like hours in the kitchen with my dad just absorbing whatever he taught me.  Cooking was our bonding time, and it is now my bonding time with my boys.  I love picking ingredients out of a cabinet and knowing how to cook them so they are mostly edible.  It gives me this inner freedom that I cannot describe.  It is odd.  But, I know that if I were ever to get stuck, I can create a meal out of just about anything.  :)

10.  My Daddy

Most people know I am and was a daddy's girl, through and through.  Nothing broke me as much as my dad passing away in October 2011, but nothing has made me stronger. No matter how much it still hurts, it has taught me to be a stronger person than I ever thought I could be.   It has constantly reminded me to appreciate the little things like the sunlight on your face.  That last day on earth for my dad, he wheeled himself outside so he could just feel the sun on his face.  I went with him out there, and he made a comment about how it was heaven and nothing could feel that great.  Keep in mind, this was the man that had suffered from kidney failure for at least 10 years, a failed kidney transplant, and then stage 4 liver cancer.  This was a man that had suffered so much, but yet had given so much to everyone around him.  He loved to spread joy to people.  He loved to help people.  And the fact that he was still professing his love for my mom the day of his death to his entire family, has taught me to stand up for myself.  Profess what I believe in.  Never be ashamed of who you are, who you love, and where you have been.  My dad taught me through his passing that strength truly comes from your core.  That afternoon as we knew the end was coming, he told me to go get my mom for it was time.  Later that night as I gave him what would be the final dose of morphine, he had gasped and said no.  He was gone within two hours.  I have no idea what that no was about, and to this day it still haunts me.  But he held on for as long as he could.  He held on until the Priest was able to come to the house and gave him his last rites.  He held on for Pierce to be picked up so he wouldn't see his beloved Ampy pass away.  As I watched them take his body out of the house in a body bag, I realized that it was my time to be stronger than I ever thought I could be.  Do I still have my moments when I am angry at the world?  Oh you bet your bottom dollar I do.  But, strength does not mean you cannot have emotion.  Strength means that you are able to accept your emotions, display your emotions as needed, and not feel ashamed of how you feel.  My dad proved this as he learned to accept the fact that he was dying.  Was he happy to die?  Of course not!  Did he show anger, sadness, and every emotion in the book?  Multiple times. But no matter how much emotion he showed, each time he got up to walk, to play with Pierce, to hold Carter despite him being so weak, it showed the true meaning of strength, and that is something that I will never forget, for as long as I live.  

The Great Penguin Flop

This past week we studied penguins...or at least we were supposed to study penguins.  I meticulously cut out tens frames for our goldfish, matching cards, and researched with the boys where the various penguins we had in our pack came from.  I had this beautiful week of lesson plans sitting in the school area, and about 95% of it was a flop.

Monday, the boys were beyond over tired.  They were happy to start penguins, but with it being a snow day for the other kiddos around here, their attention span lasted all of 5 minutes.  And honestly, I cannot blame them.  Why would you not want to play in the snow?  The only thing they were truly interested in was a youtube video about emperor penguins.  I wish I had saved it, it really was awesome.

Tuesday was not a planned school day.  That is our day we usually attend the local playgroup and play with our friends and teachers.  However, Carter's stomach had other plans for us, and we were forced to stay home.  :(   I had to pull "school" time out of my hat really quick, since Pierce made it quite clear that he could not do his day without school.  So, we built our Melissa and Doug world map puzzle, and physically put our penguins on the continents they belonged on.  Just for comparison, we also put our arctic animals in the arctic circle.  That was actually a much better visual than I had anticipated, and the boys really got into looking all around the world.  They were also introduced to the concept of hemispheres.

 

Later that day we put sand on the light table, and they had a blast writing and filling their 3-D shapes.  Pierce actually pointed out to me which shape was the hemisphere and which was the sphere.  They were also having fun figuring out which was a cube, cylinder, and pyramid.  Over all, it was the best day we had all week.

Wednesday was yet another snow day.  That means everyone is home, and well, school does not happen when everyone is home.  I had learned that 2 days prior.  It did mean that we went outside and built a snow fort and played with penguins in the snow.  We had them belly sliding, and we even had humans attempting to belly slide.  That was hilarious.

Thursday we did water resist art.  I had the boys color on paper with crayons, and then try to water color over the crayon.  It does not work, since the wax from the crayons makes the paper resistant to the water.  That is the same concept of the oil the penguins have and spread all over their body; it makes their feathers resistant to the water.  They thought that was one of the coolest things ever, and made several pictures that way.

Then Friday was yet another wash out.  I was so incredibly sick this time, and there was no way I could do school.  I tried; I honestly did.  I wrote the poem on the board and everything.  But instead, we all loaded up into the car so I could get some Pepto before I had to drive to NY later that evening by myself.

Normally I would attempt to redo the lesson the next week, but the boys honestly were not too into the penguins.  Upon arriving home today, I packed up all the penguins, along with the penguin table, and brought out the materials for Valentine's day.  They are so excited to do Valentine's day activities!  And honestly, I am too.

I hope everyone else had a great week, and if I do not post before Friday, Happy Valentine's Day!

ABC...123

I have had a couple of people ask me lately how I am teaching the boys their letters.  At first my answer was to check here...and then somebody ever so kindly pointed out that there are a lot of themes, but not a lot of individual lessons.  Obviously my guys are learning something, so just how do I teach them there ABC's and 123's?  Here are some of the things I use nearly every day to reinforce letters and numbers.  My number one philosophy is that learning should be fun.  So if they are getting frustrated, or not having fun, then we stop whatever we are doing and visit it another day.

Light Table
We love our light table...and I love the fact that all I use as our light table is a clear container with Christmas lights underneath.  We have used many different mediums with our light table; shaving cream, sand, water beads, paint, pretty much anything we have.  We have also used play cars, paint brushes, fingers, and small world characters to play with the various mediums.  In terms of planning activities for the table, I always ask the boys if they want to practice their letters or numbers.  Most times they will say no...until I start practicing their names.  Most of the time they trace what I have done, but I don't mind.  They are still learning.  Even if they just make a bunch of squiggles, they are still learning that needed fine motor control.  The point is to have FUN.  And we do.

Activity Trays

My boys love to learn by digging with their fingers and tracing, which is completely age appropriate.  Something new I have done with them involve dig and finds.  It is almost like the light box, but I can leave it set up for them to come back to, and to pull off the shelf as they please.  For the tray pictured, we were learning about snow and winter, so I did a S and W search and find.  When it comes to finding letters, I have discovered that not putting two that look similar together is much easier.  For instance, b and d on a tray confuses Pierce.  So I will do something like g and m...they don't look alike at all.

READ, READ, READ

Books.  Grocery fliers.  Signs at Parks.  Everything you can read, read.  One of our favorite games we play in the grocery store is name that price:  they have to figure out what numbers are there and how much that item costs.  They also love to figure out what aisle we are in.  The grocery flier is used to reinforce numbers and letters as well; they circle what they want, and then we read the word together.  Same for the price.  In books we point out letters that we are working on in our theme.  At the playgrounds we will do a search and find of letters in the signs.  (How many "o's" are there?"  I do not think I could stress the importance of reading enough.

Rainbow Writing
I never knew this had a technical term until somebody had said it to me about a week back.  Apparently I do rainbow writing with my boys...on our chalk board every morning I put a new letter for them to practice tracing with many different colors.  They love it; and then they even sometimes start tracing the word that starts with that letter.  I have also found that it is a great way to center them in the morning too.

Arts and Crafts 

I will not call them worksheets.  I detest worksheets, and detest using them.  However, every now and then the boys look for them.  I have made them a blue binder where there are various sheets in there for whatever the theme is we are working on.  It could be something as simple as following a line from an inuit to an igloo, or something they can take out and color.  We have also created letters out of glue and glued on various items to create the letters.  It is something fun, and they have to use multiple senses to make things.  

He had made this for his buddy at the gym.  I dotted out the letters, he connected the dots.  

Making a P out of cotton balls

Immersion

I think this is the right term to use...I think.  I have decorated our home with many different types of posters that reinforce what we are learning.  I have puzzles scattered through the house the emphasize letters, numbers, spatial orientation, etc.  Yes, our house may perpetually look like a preschool, but it is totally worth it.  The key is to rotate and change what is on the walls and what is available.  Rotation will avoid the blending in effect we all get; I mean how many times do you really look at the family picture on the wall and REALLY notice it hanging there?  

TV Shows and Computer Games

I know this is a hot topic, and I may get some opinions on this.  However, I personally see nothing wrong with my children watching TV for 30 minutes a day, or playing a computer game for 30 minutes a day.  Some days they have the time, other days it is so nice out, they never see the inside of the house.  There is some fabulous programming available to toddlers and preschoolers.  Some of our favorite shows are Super Why and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  They also love to play www.sesamestreet.org and www.pbskids.org as well.  For my guys, we had tried www.ABCmouse.com, but they never really liked it.  

No matter what you choose to do, have fun with it.  By no means am I a perfect mom, and my children are not perfect themselves.  Be with them.  Learn with them.  Be excited yourself, and your children will catch on to your enthusiasm.  Have them see you reading your favorite magazine or book.  My goal every morning is to have just one thing stick that I introduce to them that day.  That is it.  Just one.  Some children just naturally love to learn.  Other children it may take more convincing.  However, it can be done.  It is just a matter of figuring out how your kiddo learns.  :)

Good Bye Arctic...we will miss you.

It seems that our unit about the Arctic has ended at the same time as the Arctic weather that has engulfed us for the last few weeks.  However, in a way I am grateful, since that means the boys have REALLY gained an understanding of just how cold it is up there in that rather large circle.

While we read many books and did many activities, here were our top 4 activities that we thoroughly enjoyed and repeated...again and again.


Arctic Small World:

The boys and I had built the world out of box tops from some paper boxes we had lying around.  Originally we had used some left over quilt batting as the base, to replicate the deep snow.  We then took little bottles of blue colored water, and had them "paint" the water onto the snow (hello fine motor skills).  The land mass I had purchased at Michaels on clearance from the Christmas section, and the rocks they were using as the rocky ledge came from a recent nature walk we had.

While they had tons of fun doing it and making the whole arctic scene, we quickly discovered that their Arctic Toob animals tended to get  stuck in the batting.  So we switched out the base and used white sand I had purchased on clearance at Michaels, and a blue sheet of foam to represent the water.  The rocks stayed as the rocky ledge, and the land mass stayed as well.  Yes, it was a bit of a messy small world (you have to love fine sand, right?), but they enjoyed it much more.  Carter had the most use out of this small world...those Arctic animals went EVERYWHERE with us and so many different scenarios were created outside the box as well.

Snow Play

It was so frigid in CT these past few weeks, that I brought snow into the house so they could play in the snow.  I brought in a good amount, and set out buckets for them to play and do whatever they pleased with it.  Pierce created the idea to have the arctic figurines join us in the snow, and he attempted to build an igloo, while the dog sled had a great race.  While this could be classified as winter play as well, I am counting this as one of their favorite arctic activities.  Once it warmed up, Carter actually brought the animals out to the lake to play in the snow and ice, while Pierce practiced his hockey skills.  Carter even tried to have the seal dig a breathing hole in the ice so the Polar Bear could catch it...it is amazing what they learn and what sticks with them.  :)

Whale Blubber

I was trying to explain to the boys how whales and animals keep warm in the Arctic, and it wasn't clicking.  I called it fat, blubber, etc., but they were convinced it was only the fur that was keeping them warm.  In an effort to make it more hands on, I grabbed our tub of Vaseline, and filled a bucket with ice water.  This water was freezing cold, I mean hurt your fingers when you stuck them in cold.  But I wanted to make a point to them.  I had them put their hands in, and they quickly retracted saying it was way too cold and it hurt.  Then we added a layer of Vaseline to our hands, and tried it again.  It was still cold, but, it was a workable cold.  It didn't hurt, and they could keep their hands submerged for awhile.

While this was a great hands on experiment, I learned a few things.  Did you know Vaseline can fall off your hands and freeze?  Yes, it turned into ice cubes that froze and floated.  I *think* it had to do with the amount of Vaseline the boys were using, but it was still pretty cool.  I will admit.

The frozen Vaseline...

Iceberg Manipulation

How could we not study icebergs while we are studying the Arctic?  I froze water in various size containers, and had the boys pretend they were icebergs.  The great thing?  It worked perfectly.  One activity we did, was figure out what makes ice melt.  We used salt, hot water, cinnamon, and sugar to see what would make the iceberg melt.  To see what was working, we also put food dye on the top, so it would seep into the various cracks in the ice.  We actually discovered that the cinnamon acted as an insulating factor, and under the cinnamon the ice was unscathed.

Another way we manipulated the "icebergs" by combining math and science.  I had Pierce roll a dice and read the number on it.  He then had to put that many drops of hot salt water on the iceberg.  So, if he rolled a 6, he would put 6 drops of water.  After about 5 minutes of play, and not enough of a change in the ice, Pierce eventually dumped the rest of the hot salt water on it.  

The final way we manipulated icebergs, was by allowing the ice to only freeze part way.  I filled one of our trays with water, and put it outside for an hour.  In sub zero temperatures, it was a long enough time to make the top layer freeze, as well as the edges, but there was water available under the ice.  I let the boys explore the air bubbles that formed, and then added bubbles to the top of the ice to represent snow.

Carter was able to recreate his air holes, and Pierce loved trying to figure out what animals floated on the ice.  He also thought it was really cool to add real snow, and see it freeze into the shape he made it.  They were very sad when it melted, so we of course put it back outside to freeze.  This time when we brought it inside, they wanted to use shaving cream as the snow.

We also had a pig join us this time...Carter loves animals.

Maybe it was the type of shaving cream we used, but it never stuck to the ice, and the boys had so much fun making different designs with the shaving cream.  Eventually the massive pig monster destroyed all of the ice, but it was alright.  They had so much fun!


While we will be sad to pack away our Toob animals, I know the boys will be excited to find out that next week is penguins.  Time to switch hemispheres, but yet still stay (mostly) cold.  :)

*Easy* Homemade Sparkle Paint

The boys have decided to do a lot of painting with their easel lately...yet they became super bored with the same type of paints.  We used our water colors, tempera paints, paint brushes, Q-Tips, cotton balls, etc.  Then they asked to paint with glitter.  I love glitter.  It always adds that extra sparkle to any project...even if it gets everywhere, and we are cleaning it for days.

When we use glitter with tempera paint, it never seems to really shine.  It surely gives the paint texture (which is always fun), but not enough shine for us.  I happened to have some left over hair gel from our sensory bags, and decided to get creative.  It couldn't hurt anything, right?  Here is what we did:

A glob of hair gel
A pinch of water color paste
A generous shaking of glitter

Mix it all together...and paint!

When we started this, I did not expect this to really work well.  I thought for sure it would flake off the paper, or not dry correctly.  Weren't we surprised when the paintings turned out like this:

Not only did the paint smell great, it stuck to the paper amazingly well, and even dried with the same sparkle that it had while wet!  There was no fading at all!

The boys now love their sparkle paint, and I am excited to have something else to add to our paint collection.  I honestly think after this next batch of tempera paint is used up, I am going to start making all of our own paints.  :)  

Have a great day, and happy painting!

A Hand is a Hand, A Person is a Person

Happy belated birthday Dr. Martin Luther King Jr!  In honor of the great reverend's birthday, the boys and I had a bit of fun this morning.  Obviously, at the ages of 3 1/2 and 2 1/2, this was designed as a very basic, hands on lesson, to introduce them to diversity. I hate to admit it, but there is minimal diversity in the small town we live in. I love our town, but it is true.  So, to start our morning, I had the boys read We March with me again.  Each time we read it, they notice more and more about the march on Washington.  For instance, today Pierce recognized that there were no guns, and they only used words.

After we read the book, I had the boys watch the last 5 minutes or so of the infamous speech that was given by the moral leader.  Both of the boys were amazed at the size of the crowds, what was being said, and the fact that he did not yell.  Simply stated by Carter, he had a deep voice.  This was our first time using the laptop to see a video clip during our "school" time, and I can safely say we will be using it more often.  The boys really took to seeing in action, what we just read about.

Then it was their turn to say what they dreamed of.  All I wrote on the chalk board was "I Have a Dream..." and it was their job to tell me what they dream, or hope for, in the future.  I was expecting some silly answers, but they surprised me.  Pierce said he dreamed of a place with less cars, and more trains, to be an astronaut, everybody being friends, and less houses and more land.  Carter explained he would like to be a farmer when he grows up.  Both of them had great ideas!

That was enough sitting around for us, so we moved on to our art project of the day.  I had the boys put both of their hands on top of mine, and we counted how many fingers we all had, if we had the same kind of fingers, (thumb, pointer, etc.,) and if we all had bones on the inside.  Then Pierce noticed something, that I honestly had not noticed before:  both of the boys have darker skin than me.  Yes, I knew I was Irish, but I did not realize just how Italian they were.  Pierce got all excited and asked if he was African American as well, and I kindly explained that he is Italian, which is why he does not sun burn in the summer, and I do.  

Then it was off to the kitchen table we went.  I had placed large pieces of paper on the table, as well as paper plates full of different colored paints.  My instructions were simply to paint their hands as many colors as they wanted, and then make hand prints on their paper.  

 Once they really started to get into it, I asked if a blue hand print was the same as a pink hand print.  Carter said no, they are different colors.  Yes, it is true, but I had them look to compare the same things we had compared with each other.  Then Pierce got it; no matter what color it is, a hand print is still a hand print.  It is still 5 fingers, still bones, still skin; color does not change those basic facts.

To finish the artwork, I cut out a heart and wrote on it, with today's date.  They were both so proud of their lesson today, they could not wait to tell our local librarian about it when we arrived at the library.  I am so impressed that they understood as much of this lesson that they did.  Like I said, this was supposed to be introductory, but man they took off with this lesson.  Thank you boys, for yet another wonderful school day.

A hand is a hand, just like a person is a person, no matter what color they shall be.

Help Yourself Please!

I had realized tonight that I had not updated this blog in about a week.  All of my free time this week has been spent writing an article for Nanny Magazine, and there honestly has not been a lot of free time this week.  The boys managed to nap a total of two days this week, and they are sleeping very poorly.  I am not complaining one bit; I know that in a blink these years are going to be behind us, and I will most likely miss it.

One of the resolutions for this year was to have my family live healthier.  I don't want healthier eating to just be for myself; that would be counterproductive, and send the wrong message to the boys.  Instead, I want personal health and healthy choices to be a priority for all of us.  I also have the upper hand in this resolution; I am the one that does the meal planning and grocery shopping.  :)  With that being said, here are some of the things we have done, 20 days into the new year, to better ourselves.

Self Service Snack Drawer
I have a strong belief that teaching the boys to be self sufficient, and responsible for their choices and actions now, will benefit them down the road.  This does not mean that it is a free for all in our house...and to be honest, anybody that knows our family will tell you it is the opposite.  It means that we have a structure, and I have now made it so that when they are hungry and want a snack, they can grab their own healthy snack out of the refrigerator.

To make the idea work, I cleaned out the bottom drawer of our fridge, and have deemed it available for only Pierce and Carter.  Inside this drawer they have the freedom to choose a healthy snack that has already been picked out, by them, at the grocery store.  Some of the items they love to have in there are greek yogurts, grapes, cheese slices, melon, hummus, carrots, and red peppers.  I put individual size servings of everything into their re-useable snack bags, and they are responsible for putting the empties in the sink.  Not only have they stopped asking me a million times a day for a snack, but I am able to sneak in more fruits and veggies this way.

Meal Plan Together
I haven't actually sat down with Dan and done a meal plan.  It is better to go buy the vegetarian stuff, cook it up, and then have him eat it, than to argue ahead of time about why there is no meat on the shopping list (I love you Dan).  However, I have enlisted the boys to help me.  Carter goes through the sales circular and picks out the fruits and veggies he wants for the weekly snacks, while Pierce will look at recipes online with me to see the pictures of things he wants to eat to eat for meals.  This works in many ways.  It has always been harder to have Pierce sit down for a meal, while Carter will always ask for goldfish, crackers, etc.  By planning together they are learning about food, and also become excited for the shopping trip.

Cook Together
While this means that my cooking time may be longer, and there may be a bigger mess to clean,, we have so much fun cooking together.  With proper supervision, I let Pierce cut up the vegetables for our salad, and Carter helps mix ingredients when need be.  They also love to smell the different spices and herbs that we use, before they get mixed together in our dish.  The other day Pierce actually asked me if one of his muffins had cinnamon in it.  He couldn't see it, but he could taste it, and he was right.  There certainly was cinnamon in that muffin.  They have also started to learn about fractions by having to measure the different size cups.  It is a win win situation.

Go Organic When Possible
Organic can be expensive; specially when you are comparing the prices to non organic produce, and you are living on a single income.  However, by us switching to organic food when we can, we have all started to taste the difference.  The produce tastes so much better, and it is so nice to bite into an organic granola bar and not taste all of this added sugar and additives.  Some weeks we eat more organic than others, but I figure it is better to have some than none.  And it is certainly giving me the motivation (and Dan too), to get some raised beds made and do another garden this year.


That's not too bad for a starting point.  And oddly enough, one of the things we stopped doing so much, was going to the gym.  It is not that I do not love the gym; I really do.  However, when I think of how important it is to have that Vitamin D, fresh air, and freedom to explore outside, a gym cannot compete.  Yes, it is nice to have a place to go when it is sub zero outside, and we certainly use it then.  However, we all feel more refreshed after a walk outside with our dog, or skating on ice at the lake.  Now that I have a double jogging stroller, it is even nicer to have that freedom to go the distance.  The boys have a place to go when they get tired, and I can keep on going until I am tired.


Hope everyone else is having a great January as well!  How are your resolutions holding up?