The Jumping Thing...

 

*Video* Green Smoothie - Recipe #3

 

I got the boys to help me make a Green Smoothie to show you how easy and fun it can be for kids to do!
We added Teddy Grahams and a lot of  milk to the smoothie which we have never done before but I wanted to demonstrate how you can use fun, recognizable items that the kids already love and blend them up along side foods such as nutrient rich Kale and Avocado.

If you do try introducing Green Smoothies to your children by using cookies or other treats in the drink you can easily cut back the amount of sugary treat you put in the smoothie each time until you have weaned them off the treats and entirely onto the Green Smoothie.

The drink we made in this movie was not very sweet and you couldn't taste the Teddy Grahams so you might want to adjust for tolerance levels - maybe add some honey and less Kale. Or start with spinach instead of Kale. You want your kids to love Green Smoothies, not cringe at the thought of them.

Our Kid Friendly Green Smoothie in the video used:

A firetruck (just kidding!)
A few handfuls of Kale
1 avocado
1 banana
2 cups of milk
5 oz frozen strawberries
small bowl of Teddy Grahams - .5 cup maybe?!
1+ cup of ice
2 cups of milk
1 cup of water

Check out more recipes at Tasty Tuesday

Boys Dress Up Clothes

Post has been moved to jessicalynette.com

"Focusing on Angles"

From our recent trip to the zoo.

Learning from Failures at Home

 "Your home should be a place where your children can fail and learn from their failures."

-from Making Children Mind Without Losing Yours by Dr. Kevin Leman

I am reading through Dr. Leman's book right now and am really enjoying it. I read the above quote a couple of days ago and have had it on my mind ever since.
I have been thinking about what it means as a parent for my home to be a place where my children can fail and have so far come up with three things that I think are important in order for my home to be a place where the children can fail and learn from their failures.

1. My children need to see when I fail. Human beings are flawed, sinful beings. I make mistakes, fail to accomplish things, fail to have the right attitude. I certainly don't think parents need to tell their children all the ways they fail all the time but I also don't think parents should put on a persona of having it all right all the time either. My children need to know that I fail so that they can know it's ok that they fail too. They also need to see me exemplify how I learn from my failures so that they, too, can use their failures as a means to grow.

2. My children need to know what failure is. In order for a child to know he has failed he needs to know what is expected. There needs to be a standard. An absolute. And if it's not met - if they fail - the standard cannot be lowered to spare their feelings of failure. (Obviously if you set the standards unrealistically high then you would lower them, but that, I believe, is a different matter.)
I don't think any parent wants to see their child not do well at something, let alone have the child feel like they didn't do well at something, but if the standards we set out for our children continually get lowered because we don't want them to fail they will never learn from their failures. They will never get better.

3. My children need to know that they are loved when they fail. My love for my children is not based on their performance. I want them to do well. I want them to grow and to learn. But when they fail at something my love for them does not change. I do not expect them to fail, but I know that they will.

What do you think of the quote?
And what are your thoughts on creating a home where children can fail and learn from their failures?

Easy Ziplock Omelets

 

A friend e-mailed me this recipe for Ziplock Omelet and I was excited to try it out with the boys as it seemed like a great hands on recipe for the boys to help out with. Not only was it really fun to prepare with the boys but it was also a pretty decent omelet and really easy to make!

To make these you will need:

A Quart size Ziplock Freezer bag for each person

Omelet fillings (bacon, ham, peppers, onions, cheese, etc.)

Salt and pepper

2 eggs per bag

Permanent marker to label the bags

Start our with labeling the bag.

I had the boys add their cheese, peppers, onions and bacon to the bag next - if the eggs were put in the bag first the boys would likely have spilled them on the floor and/or put their hands in them. So I highly recommend putting the filling part in the bag before the eggs if you have young children doing this.

I cracked the eggs and put them in a glass and then let the boys pour that into the bag. I sealed the bag, making sure to get out as much air as possible then I handed the bags to the boys and told them to squish. I wish I had gotten that part on video - listening to their giggles erupt over squishing eggs was so cute!

 Once everything was well squished together I stuck the two bags in a pot of boiling water. The instructions in the email said that you can put up to 8 bags in a pot of water.

Leave in the boiling water for 13 minutes and then open the bag and let the omelet roll out.

Paul makes the most incredible omelets ever so these will not be replacing omelets in our home, however these will find their own place in our menu rotation. I think these would be really fun to prepare if there were a lot of guests over for breakfast - the bags, minus the eggs, could be prepared the evening before to each persons liking and the next morning you could add two eggs and stick them in the water for 13 minutes - add some fruit and some bread or muffins and it's a quick and easy breakfast for a crowd! 

Or, as we did this time, the boys and I will likely make these for ourselves when Paul is out of town and not able to make us his gourmet omelets. 

Participating in Tasty Tuesday

Easy Craft for Kids

 

Blue Beard. Literally.

Sometimes the greatest craft activities are the easy ones.

The crafts that require a box of crayons, a 5 minute attention span long enough to color and then a hearty "Arrr" to chase them out the door for them to lose themselves in a world of imagination.

I picked these masks up at Joannes for $1 each but I know I have seen similar masks at other stores (Dollar Tree? Target? Don't remember.) They would be simple enough to make yourself out of thicker cardboard in a pinch but part of the appeal is how easy these are all ready made up! If you're looking for an easy craft that requires minimal expense, effort or supplies I highly recommend looking for these next time you're out!

 

I just love how Wesley really has no idea how to hold it! 

My Africa

I read a quote on a friends blog regarding David Livingston's calling to Africa and the amount of time he devoted to that country and I haven't been able to get the thought off my mind all day.

This is the quote I read;

"People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa...Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? Away with the word in such a view, and with such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink, but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall hereafter be revealed in, and for, us. I never made a sacrifice. Of this we ought not to talk, when we remember the great sacrifice which HE [Jesus] made who left His Father's throne on high to give Himself for us."

I think it is beautiful.

And then I think of my calling. 

To be his mother.

And his mother.

And then suddenly the quote is no longer simply beautiful but entirely challenging. 

I will never face dangers like David Livingston faced - but my calling - my "Africa" - is my home. My husband. My boys. 

 

And I wonder - am I cultivating an attitude of joy in my service to God that at the end of my life I can say with all honesty "It was never a sacrifice, it was a privilege." 

Linking to Tuesdays Unwrapped

Spoon People

 

I couldn't like these quirky spoon people any more! 

They were so much fun to make with Judah (age 3) and somewhat of a pain to make with Wesley (1.5) but we did have a fun time sitting around the table together even if Wesley kept stealing all the googly eyes.

These really are easy and inexpensive to make and I would recommend it for age 3 and up - obviously the older the child the less hands on the parent has to be.

I picked up a couple packs of wooden spoons at the Dollar Tree. Each pack comes with three wooden spoons in three different sizes. Have kids that will squabble over who gets the tallest spoon? Buy two packs and then give them each the shortest tallest one from each pack. Problem solved!

The other supplies we used were:

Googly eyes

Permanent marker

Sea shells

Yarn

Twine

Ribbon

Beads

Glue

These spoon people are rather easy going and would be grateful to be dressed in whatever you have laying around your home.

I started out by drawing faces on the front side of the spoon - Judah didn't want to draw his own and Wesley lacks certain coordination skills to draw his own. 

Wesley wanted two different size eyes on his person and Judah wanted his frowning.

(I actually didn't glue the eyes on until the end as it made it easier to work with the spoons without worrying about drying glue!)

The boys picked out the color pipe cleaner they wanted and worked on wrapping the pipe cleaner around the handle of the spoon. Arms were easily formed using a second same color pipe cleaner. For the pants they picked a different color and then wrapped it around the spoon too. 

Judah chose to use this sea shell as a hat for his spoon person. I copied the idea and did the same for Wesley.

 

Judah's spoon person.

 

Wesley's spoon person.

My sister Esther's spoon person.

 

My spoon person.

Welcome to our lives spoon people! I will do all that is in my power to ensure you are never eaten off of.

Dress Up - Indian Warrior

 

Over the last couple years I have noticed a serious lack of affordable, manly men dress up clothes for boys. Now that my little manly men are entering the world of imaginative play I have been on the lookout for ideas I can replicate on the cheap.

I love how these Indian headbands (or hippie band as it tends to look on Wesley's head!) turned out. It cost under $5 for the two of them with enough supplies left for 2 or 3 more.

 

I picked up a bag of leather scraps at Hobby Lobby for $2.50. I also got a bag of long feathers for $2. 

Being that these were scraps the wider pieces of leather were uneven and some had markings on them. The markings add to the 'wild' look and I easily straightened the edges - it won't matter if it is perfectly straight or not.

 

I held the wider piece of leather around their heads to measure the how long it should be and cut it a bit shy of that. Using sharp scissors I made a hole on either end of the leather large enough for an eyelet - I'm not sure which size they were, but I made the hole large enough for what I had on hand. 

This was hard work to get the perfect size hole in the leather and I was quite thankful that my sister helped me out with it!

I used an eyelet tool kit to set the eyelets and then used the smaller pieces of leather to tie the two ends together.

 

 I stuck a feather in the back of the headband and called it an Indian Warrior Headdress. 

 

He sharpened his stick so he could pierce the (imaginary) bad guys.

I kid. 

The stick was found sharp.

 

 Giving his fierce warrior face. 

Still looks kissable to me. 

 

I am left wondering - is there a way to secure the feather to the back of this? Would hot glue or super glue bond the feather and the leather together forever?

I have been listening to entirely too many rhyming songs lately.

The next costume I want to work on is a knights helmet and shield - I saw an incredible idea for the helmet in a high end kids catalog (I think it was about $60!!) and then happened to find a wooden shield at the thrift store. Have you seen or made any great boy dress up costumes? I'd love to see!

Valentine

 

Happy Valentines Day! 

 

  

There's a few more pictures from our impromptu photo shoot here.

Play Doggy

Judah dropped his bowl of grapes and, like any good older brother, called to Wesley and said;

"Wezzy, I dropped my grapes. Play doggy and clean them up for me."

And like any good, younger brother would do Wesley got on his hands and knees, barked, and ate up the grapes.

And that is why I vacuum my floors.