My Week in review

Thanksgiving has finally come and gone. Now, everybody has their eyes on Christmas. Christmas! Just a few months ago it seemed I was ringing in 2012 and now 2013 is just around the corner. What was I doing that the year just flew by??? I remember back to when I was a kid and remembered when the days just dragged by. No longer, for sure!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, but if you shared my experiences of being sick on the day that was supposed to be special and cheerful, I feel for you! I was sick, but luckily, the brunt of it held off until around 11pm Thanksgiving night--- Just long enough for me to go score a few deals at Walmart on Thanksgiving night! I bought 2 crockpots for just under $10 each. Now I will have 3 crockpots in my household. I'm sure you're kind of like my husband wondering why in the world any mother would need 3 crockpots. Well, I make things in bulk, such as spaghetti sauce and soups and then can it. Then, I will be the one person cooking for 13 adults and 6 children at Christmas. Having the extra crockpots will take off a lot of extra stress. I can make Christmas breakfast in one, have another warming the Christmas ham up and one more for my easy crockpot mashed potatoes. See, I am completely organized!

My other scores included just a simple electric griddle that I've had my eyes on. Of course, since I was at Walmart, I got several movies for a good deal. I love to take the movies and make little "movie night" gift baskets for people for Christmas. I get a good deal and they get a sweet Christmas gift. Although, I must admit, over 3/4 of my Christmas shopping is done. 

So, looking backwards though, I've actually had a rough week leading up to Thanksgiving and had to dig a little deeper to remember I have tons to be grateful for despite my losses for this last week. 

Last Saturday, we had to put one of our cats down because she has been quite sick. The toughest part of doing that was that she was one my daughters more favorite animals. Then later that same day, an accident happened and my dogs got out and my little chihuahua, Malcolm got out also. The big dogs came back but I'm 98% certain the chihuahua got stolen off of our road. No body to find so I don't think he got hit by a car and nothing in the shelters. I am taking this really hard as he was my dog. He curled up to me, he was my running buddy, and when I was sick, he laid by my head. I have very little hope he will return so I am trying to go through the grieving process. I think it would be much easier if I knew a car had run him over by accident versus somebody stopping and putting them into his car to keep. Anyhow, I've shed a lot of tears this week. I have only been attached to one animal before, but nothing compared to what I felt for Malcolm. 

Moving on... This next week my goal is to make a home-made advent calendar for my family. I got all the supplies this last week. I spend $50, but if my idea turns out, it will be well spent for the traditions it will bring my family for years to come! Stay tuned for that!

Happy Holidays everybody! Wellness to the Sick!

Rethinking Christmas

Christmas used to be my favorite time of the year when I was a child. Gifts. Lots of gifts! However, as a child I was strongly misled to believe that gifts were the most important part of Christmas. My parents did the best they could to indulge their kids. I don't blame them. What parent doesn't want to give their child everything?

My goal is to turn that indulgences from tangible things into emotional and memorable. My kids may seem disappointed for a few key years especially when they get to compare what they got for Christmas  versus what some friends received. 

Our generation has a choice to make a difference. I don't want to figure out how I'm going to pay for a day that will end up costing me  $1,000 between gifts and food. According to http://americanresearchgroup.com/holiday/, American's will spend $854 on Christmas gifts in 2012. To me, that is crazy to take anywhere near that much money out of my family's budget just to make everybody feel "happy" for a day. No matter what I do or how much money I spend, what I get will make somebody feel inadequate. 

The first step is to include your kids in every step possible and explain over and over that Christmas is not about the gifts that we receive or give; it's about spending time with the people we love and gifts would mean nothing without the people that gave them. Then, let all the people in your life that normally receive gifts know that the Holiday Seasons will start being different for your family in an effort to teach your children a better meaning of Christmas and to be grateful for the things we already have. Who in the world would be able to argue with that logic???

Then include your kids in making everybody homemade gifts-- something that shows love by time and effort being put into investing into that person. Isn't that what we all want? Somebody to invest into us? Something more than picking something off of a shelf that we won't remember by the time the next Christmas rolls around. 

Pintrest is full of wonderful ideas to make the holidays more memorable for our children. Make memories, not expectations.

Thankful Dinnerware for the Family

Like most parents, I want my children to be grateful for what they have in their lives. We are always together for at least one meal a day and it is my goal this month to make those together meals more meaningful in the time leading up to Thanksgiving. Showing my thankfulness on Facebook is great, but I think my kids are the one that needs to see more than anybody that their mom is grateful and content. 

So while I was at MOPS today, I was struck with a bit of inspiration. On my way home, I stopped at Fred Meyers and got 6 inexpensive beige fabric napkins (the ended up being around $1.30 each). At home I have lots of colorful Sharpies and I printed out some leaf stencils from www.craftjr.com (free).

The photo below is what I crafted in just an hour. My family will write down their thanks at our family meal and we can go around and discuss what and why we wrote. That's the plan. Let's see how well that goes. :)

What are some creative ways that you and your family express thankfulness? 

Dear Society...

Raising kids by today's standards are difficult for the simple fact that: Society wants young children to be well behaved in public, but they don't actually want us to discipline our kids. If we discipline our kids, we are abusing them and CPS needs to get involved. We can't have teaching moments out in public either because it gets in the way of the spectators (supposedly). 

My husband was on the receiving end of some public criticism a few weeks ago at Costco. We were in there picking up just a few items. Rowen decided that he needed down from the cart and then ran off. I mean, he ran. He definately is going to take after mommy and daddy as far as his running career! So, Rowen sprinted down one isle, turned and quickly sprinted down the next isle. Rowen is old enough to know what he was doing. He wanted to be chased. He thought it was fun, but he also knew it was wrong. Joe ran after him and stretched out his hand and managed to grab Rowen's upper arm. He swung him up so he was holding him in the cradle position, although his head was lower than his feet. From Joe's story (I was still with the other kids), an older woman sneered at him and said to him, "I consider that child abuse and you should be reported to CPS the way you handle him." Being that this was Joe's first huge society-step-in, he said he just pretended she had said nothing and then came back to us. Upon his telling the story to me, I said, "Where is she? Let me at her!"I was so peeved for him! Joe is such a good dad. He works hard for us to provide for our family and he treats our kids wonderfully. Actually, in most cases, I'm the disciplinarian. However, I'm just trying to illustrate the frustrations that common parents deal with when being out in society with their children.

Since Rowen is so little for his age, I've had a slew of people as he's progressed from baby stage to baby stage that: he is too little to be sitting up in the cart, he is too young to be eating solid food, he is too little to be walking next to the cart while I shop, etc. The list goes on. 

So with that I want to say:

Dear Society,

When I am out in public with my children, which I have every right to be, please allow me to instruct and use my outing as a hands-on educational tool. I want my kid to thrive and grow up to be a responsible adult but I know for that to happen, I'm going to have to deal with some terribly ugly situations because as any mother's luck would have it, those moments are going to happen regardless of whatever we try to do to prevent it. 

Our kids will always want to push the boundaries and for them, doing it in the very back corner of the store where they're surrounded by a ton of people is the best way to see what mom or dad will do. So please, continue your shopping and ignore my screaming child and my teaching moment. The more looks (nasty or concerned) will only feed my child's behavior. I am not the parent that wants to bribe them to get the behavior I want to see in the store because it never works and next time they will just want more! 

If I so happen to yell back at my child or grab them a little rough, know that in that moment, I don't want to be doing that but I have probably reached the end of my rope. I know I need a lot more grace and this isn't always the way my shopping trips turn out, but this just happened to be one of those days I guess. By God's grace, I want the next shopping trip to be better. And it can if I can get this teaching moment across to my child but I can not do it if you step in and ruin it by thinking you know how to parent my child better than me. 

Know that I love my child more than anything and this one moment that you got to peer into my life does not mean you know what my family's lives must be like. We are a stable home and provide a stable environment for our children. We are Christians and teach our children valuable life lessons (like "Honor thy father and mother"). Some days are great and while others may be not-so-great, our children go to bed every night knowing that mommy and daddy love them very much. So please, when you get that glimpse at the grocery store, let me borrow some grace even if my family may be lacking in it at the moment.

Sincerely,

The Mama that Cares