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)

Counting in the Kitchen

We've been having fun "counting" in the kitchen recently. It's amazing how many things lend themselves to that . . .

Things like putting 5 Oreos at a time into the blender to crush them for Oreo Pudding Cake . . . (and learning that we'll need to do that 6 times since we have a total of 30 Oreos . . . word problems anyone???) :o)

Tonight she counted out 20 bags and filled each with 5 M&Ms to celebrate "100 Day" at school . . .

Last Saturday we enjoyed a quiet day around the house. For a while both of the kids were downstairs helping Chris with a project, but Hannah wandered upstairs for a snack and decided to help Mommy in the kitchen when she learned I was making Oreo Pudding Cake for dessert for dinner. :o) After doing that, she wanted to make something special for Daddy and Peter. Something very special. For lunch. And it was very important. Critical.

Now, I had been working in the kitchen most of the morning and it was already nearly noon, so I was racking my brain for something simple that would satisfy her definition of "special" with next to no effort on Mommy's part. Yikes. I definitely felt the Lord had blessed me with a stroke of brilliance when I thought of icing graham crackers with a can of my nearly free frosting and decorating each with 5 M&Ms. Perfect! :o) Super simple . . . accomplished independently with success by a 4-year-old . . . and surprisingly good! :o)

And this has nothing to do with either counting or kitchen work, but I wanted to remember her diligent efforts to assist Mommy with laundry as I tackled a four-load backlog earlier this week. She cheerfully folded all of the dish towels for me quite nicely. Thanks Hannah-bug! :o)

And finally, do you know why it's called "Big Lots"? As we drove by the store the other afternoon, Hannah read the sign and commented, "I know why it's called 'Big Lots.' Because it's big and there's lots of stuff in it." :o)

Words!

I love being a mom! It's so incredible to watch your children learn. Hannah has a definite interest in letters and words, so I've started unofficially helping her learn to read. I'm sure I'm breaking all the rules of how you're "supposed" to do it, but that's okay. We're both having fun! :o) Lately we've been working on sounds and recognizing and spelling simple words. Well, the other afternoon she was playing with her magnet letters and spelling different words like "cat" and "hat," etc. I was multi-tasking with the laundry pile, and when I returned she had obtained the Eucerin out of the bathroom cabinet and spelled out "lotion" by copying it off of the container. I realize that copying a word isn't overly impressive, but considering that I've never told her that L-O-T-I-O-N spells "lotion," I was rather amazed to have her tell me that she had spelled "lotion." And for the record, "lotion" is a very non-prominent word on the Eucerin bottle! :o)