A Taste of Strawberry

It's hard to explain, but the Lord burdened me this summer to really make sure I'm investing myself in the hearts of my children. Sometimes it's easy to get in the rut of just making sure everybody's clean and fed and dressed ... okay, the kids are good to go, now on to housework, paperwork, bills, and so on and so forth. Sometimes I forget to really enjoy the wonderful blessings the Lord has given us! Especially when clutter reigns and whiny voices with increasing decibels are begging for this, that, and the other ... Yes. It's true. Our children struggle with whining. :o/ But they struggle most when Mommy has her focus shifted to other (far less important) things.

I'm working on it across the board, but my greatest burden has been for Hannah-bug. As far as girls go, we're now in the minority--it's just her and me. The Lord really impressed on my heart that now is the time to be cultivating a special relationship with her--not when she's 13.

So, those thoughts have been on my heart. We've done some "special" things, but mostly I've just been purposefully including her as an important helper in my uniquely "Mommy" jobs--like bathing babies, going grocery shopping, etc. She goes grocery shopping with me now every week--and she's becoming a very fun companion! :o) (I usually go Thursday evenings, so the boys can stay home with Chris.)

Previously, I had gotten into the bad habit of allowing a treat from the candy aisle pretty regularly when the kids were shopping with me. Basically the treat was a reward/bribe for reasonably good behavior. Multiple issues had surfaced from that, including an inability to enter a store without thinking that we had to get a "special treat." So, as Chris as I talked about it, we knew that needed to stop. However, when I decided that part of the change I wanted to make was taking Hannah with me any time she wanted to come (which is about 99% of the time), I knew I needed a creative replacement for the candy so I had something I could say "yes" to.

So what did we come up with? $2. Hannah has $2 of my weekly grocery budget that she can pretty much decide to spend however she'd like to get a special treat for the family ... it's worked great! She loves the responsiblity, I'm able to teach her how to make good choices, and while it's still a "special treat," the selfishness is gone because it's for everybody and the whining is gone because it's a known quantity with a very specific framework.

So far we've enjoyed her choice of all-natural popsicles and strawberries ...

You mentioned strawberries? Enter Mommy's childhood cookbook and the original reason for this post which has gotten much longer and wordier than I intended! (Sorry folks!)

My First Baking Book

As the dog-eared corners testify, I loved this cookbook as a child!

The recipes are written with very clear, illustrated, step-by-step instructions. It's great for kids!

And Hannah has been wanting to make Spring Strawberry Baskets for months.

I knew they were going to be more than a little time-consuming, so I've been putting it off, but when a good sale combined with a good coupon made for a fantastic deal on strawberries earlier this month, I finally decided that now was the time ... and I was not disappointed. :o) Hannah was thrilled!

Yes, making the baskets was as time-consuming as I expected it to be, but we had fun and they tasted good even if they didn't look beautiful. :o)

Beautiful hearts are much more important than beautiful baskets.
Or beautiful houses.
Or "Me Time."

This Mommy is still learning. I'm glad God's not done with me yet! :o)