March 2nd is Dr. Seuss’ Birthday! Celebrate by reading one of his books. Here are the directions to making your own Cat-in-the Hat Hat.
A Mom’s Need February 28, 2008
by Cheryl Smith
Reprinted with permission, Cheryl is from a MOPS group in Ontario, Canada.
While many organizations focus on making a better world for our children, at MOPS International, we focus on making better children for our world. How? By meeting the needs of their mothers because when we impact a mom, we impact a child and ultimately, impact the world. Better moms make a better world. This is accomplished primarily through 110,000 moms attending 4,000 MOPS groups meeting throughout the United States and 29 other countries.
When I first read this statement a couple of weeks ago in a news release announcing a new MOPS International President, it was an “a-ha!” moment. And no, I don’t mean the ‘80s band from Norway.
No, it was that I finally had a solid answer to what makes MOPS different from other resources in our community.
I’m not saying there is anything wrong with our other wonderful resources. I have used them and I endorse them whole-heartedly. But as much as I found they were great for helping me develop a relationship with my daughter, I still felt that I needed something.
There is a prevalent attitude in our society that says moms must sacrifice it all. We must give up our dreams, ambitions, hopes, all for the sake of our children. Despite being told we can “have it all,” we are also told to put ourselves last behind our spouses, our children, and any other commitment that comes our way. Call me selfish, but I didn’t want to be last. I didn’t want to be first, but being last leaves me dead tired, cranky, irritable and just no good to my family. What’s the point in that? How does that make me an effective mom?
Moms need each other. A very wise grandmother in our community told me she thought MOPS would be great for her daughter because mothering is a job and in any job, you do it better when you network and learn from each other. Moms need each other to reaffirm each other’s importance as a mom.
Moms need each other to say “It’s okay. I’ve been there, too. Just breathe”.
Moms need each other to rejuvenate their strength. Moms need each other to just be there.
I’m a mom. I have needs. And if I have needs, then other moms must, too. Surely I’m not alone in this. I need to know that the frustrations I have don’t make me a bad mom. I need to know that saying “no” to the rest of the world is okay. I need to know that my daughter is (probably) not going to end up in therapy because of me. And how are these needs going to be met? By meeting with you, my fellow moms. And this is also why I’m thrilled to have said “yes” to helping forming a MOPS chapter. Selfish? Maybe a little. But helping other moms meet their needs? That’s something I’m willing to put very high on my list. And that’s what MOPS is really all about.
Snow Day! February 26, 2008
I grew up in the south. A snow day was a day we had a quater of an inch of snow–that would shut down the city! I enjoy the snow here (I tend to think if it’s going to be cold, we might as well have snow, at least its pretty) but I really had no idea the best way to bundle up my kids to keep them warm. Chris, from the blog Ordering Disorder, has wonderful tips that have made my kids trips outside last ALMOST as long as it takes us to get them ready! 
If you’d rather NOT go outside, and instead keep them in, here are a few more fun activities we’ve found online. First, our own Christina A. is doing a Make A Craft Mondays on her blog. Check it out to see some of her fun activites! (I can’t wait to try out this one!)
Here are a few things I have found to share–with our family reviews!
Cornstarch Goop
Put 2 cups of cornstarch and one cup of water in a large plastic dish. Add a couple drops of food coloring to the water if you want. Let your child stir it with his hands. Play with this mixture is relaxing, and the texture is constantly changing.
Talk about how it feels. Can you make a ball? Hold it in your hand and see what happens. Try to pull it apart, slowly and quickly. Can you stir it with a spoon? This looks messy, but clean-up is easy: Spills can be brushed off or vacuumed up after they dry.
This did NOT go over well in our house! Both my boys didn’t like how it felt. They had more fun in the bath afterwards. And I didn’t read the clean up tip and found it hard to clean while wet!
Indoor Bowling
Set up empty plastic bottles and show your child how to roll a ball to knock them down. (You can also use empty half-gallon juice cartons if you rinse out and save a few. We tried it with MegaBlocks.) How many rolls does it take to get all the pins down? Try using different sized balls. Try standing backwards and rolling the ball between your legs. (Or, if you have megablocks, you can build several tall, skinny towers and then knock them over with the balls.)
*If you can do this in a hallway, the walls and closed doors will act as bumpers and make this a little easier for your child.
This one was lasted for about 30 seconds in our house. Then the boys were throwing the balls around, building towers/knocking them down, and playing football. So we had fun, just not with this activity. But flexability is the key, right?
Indoor Water Play
Put some towels on the kitchen floor and a container or two of water—maybe one soapy and one clean. Would your child like to line up toy vehicles and bring them to the carwash? Provide a sponge, an old toothbrush, a cup for rinsing, and a dry dish cloth for polishing. Or maybe your child would rather bring plastic dolls to get cleaned up at the beauty shop. Provide a cup for rinsing, a dry dish cloth for drying, a plastic comb and some hair clips or other doll accessories.
This was a HUGE hit. My 4 year old LOVED washing his cars, my 2 year old LOVED just playing with measuring cups/containers and filling them up with the faucet/dumping them. My 4 year old found the turkery baster and loved using it to squirt water on the cars.
Gel Bags
Put some hair-styling gel in a sturdy zip-lock plastic bag. Add a few drops of food coloring or some glitter. Close the bag and seal the edges with tape. Let your child squeeze, poke, and smooth out the bag.
We did this with shaving cream. I put two colors in two different corners for the boys to mix and see the color change. I’d give it a “5″ out of 10. Just “eh”. It was too easy for the bags to pop open and make a mess. So make sure you use the tape! I think the gel + glitter would be more fun, I just didn’t have them on hand.
Indoor “Sandbox”
You’ll need a plastic tub or large container with a lid. (Something shallow like an under-the-bed storage box works best.)
Fill the container half-full (or less) with dry beans, rice, or macaroni. Provide measuring cups, spoons, small plastic toys, a plastic rake or shovel, toy dump truck, etc. Let your child dig, dump, and bury. Talk about what he’s doing.
*An old sheet or plastic tarp under the container will make clean-up easier.
We had a friend recommend this before I saw this tip, she said to go to a hardware store and get a container you can put under your washer. (It’s a large, square container with low sides, for about $12.) We did it with beans, for the boys construction toys. I have been cleaning up beans ALL THE TIME after this. With wood floors I thought it’d be easier to sweep up, but the 2 year old likes to carry the beans around. While they love it, I’m about to throw the beans away!
Here are a few more untested ideas we’re going to try in the next week or two:
Beanbag Challenge
Try this fun, old-fashioned toy:
Pour some dry beans or rice into a tube sock and tie the top shut tightly. (If you have a sewing machine, you may want to make up some sturdy beanbag squares from leftover fabric scraps.)
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Can your child balance the beanbag on her head? Arm? Foot? Shoulder?
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Can she walk along a line without it falling off? (Use masking tape on hard floor or carpet to make your own balance beams.)
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Can she walk up the stairs without it falling off?
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Can she toss it into a large bowl or paper bag?
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Help her think of other beanbag challenges & tricks.
White Finger-Paint
Shaving cream is handy, inexpensive, and doesn’t stain. Put some on a cookie sheet and let your child “finger-paint” on it, or put your child in the bathtub and let him “paint” on the wall. With older kids you can have them practice letters, numbers or words in the cream.
*You’ll need to supervise and remind your child not to get the shaving cream in his eyes or mouth.
Homemade Fingerpaint Recipe
Ingredients: ¼ cup corn starch, 2 cups cold water, food coloring
Directions:
1. Mix corn starch and water in a saucepan.
2. Boil until the mixture thickens, stirring occasionally.
3. Cool. Pour into baby food jars. (Or divide in a muffin tin if you’re ready to use it.)
5. Mix in food coloring.
Easy Fingerpaint
Add food coloring to any one of these to make your own finger paint: vanilla pudding, plain yogurt, wallpaper paste, white toothpaste, shaving cream, hand lotion, or Vaseline.
*Vanilla pudding or yogurt work best if you think your child will taste it. Older children will enjoy the variety of other paints.
Let’s Pretend: Grocery Store
Turn your kitchen into a grocery store! Help your child gather some props and set it up.
You’ll want: play money (make your own), a toy purse or wallet, notepad and pencil for making lists and coupons, baskets for shopping, boxed and canned foods on a reachable shelf, a check-out location (a long coffee table works great) with a scanner (an unplugged computer mouse or phone receiver with a cord?) and money box.
Let your child take turns playing the various roles: the shopper, the cashier, the shelf-stocker. You might introduce some scenarios and let your child problem-solve. (Example: The shopper doesn’t have enough money to pay for the groceries; the shopper’s baby doll is crying or behaving badly in the store; something spills at the store.)
Little Actors
Read a favorite story with your children, and then act it out together. Assign parts—use dolls or stuffed animals if you don’t have enough people. Look around your house for things you can use as props or costumes. Talk about how each character is feeling during the story. Your children will probably want to repeat this activity so they can have turns playing different characters.
If you have plenty of time and an extra adult, you could get out the video camera and make your story into a movie. What fun it will be to sit down and watch yourselves today and a few years from now!
And (WOW–I’m impressed you made it this far!), if you want to help take away the sting of winter and make some pretty flowers, here’s a cute craft idea.
What’s for Dinner? SOUP! February 23, 2008
I’m sorry the “What’s for Dinner?” spots stopped appearing. I’m still searching for the trifecta of fast, easy & healthy! Also, I just started working a new part time job–thus the posts on the blog are not coming as often as before.
But, I didn’t wan’t to leave you stranded and hungry! So, here are some places you can go to find something that sounds good. Back in December, one of the blogs I read (which is a really funny blog, you should check it out when you have some free time) hosted a “Soup Recipe Exchange”. BooMama, the host, posted 3 recipes and then had other people link to their own (and 158 poeple linked!). So you have plenty of soup options, by clicking right here! I hope you can find something you like!
MOPS 2/19 Meeting February 22, 2008
I’m so sad I was sick and had to miss this meeting! I know lots of crud is going around, so if you had to miss it as well, here are a few highlights from Vicki:
Susan was fantastic. There were so many things from her talk. She read the “Master Bedroom” portion of the book “My Heart, Christ’s Home. (I will try to put a portion of that up on the blog next week.)
Another neat point is to give yourself a grade from “A – F” on how you think you are doing in your sexual life with your husband (not performance during the act 
) then ask him to do the same. Have an open and frank discussion about how you each feel, is it enough, frequency, duration, etc.
She also suggested preparing yourself. Think about sex during the day, wear the sexy panties, cut some things out of your day so you will not be so tired at night, have him put the kids to bed so you can take a bath and relax to ready yourself to make love to your husband. These are all things you can do to get yourself prepared for love making.
Another main point was to not say NO to often. If we turn that around it would be like us going to him at the end of the day and saying that something had happened that had really bothered us at work, etc. and we needed to talk it out with him and he replied. “Gee honey, not tonight, I am just so tired. I feel like I just have nothing left to give, and I think I’m getting a headache.” How would you feel? That’s how he feels when we continually say NO!
Marriage Tips February 22, 2008
As I’ve been looking for articles,/tips on marraige, I’ve found several that I felt it was better to link to then to try to put it all here.
First is from a blog of a Godly woman named Katherine who’s been married twenty-two years and has five kids from toddler to teen-aged. If anyone can speak from experience, it is her! She recently wrote two posts on marriage. Does this make you want to read more?
To read more of what she has to say, read here for “Do You Know What Makes Him Happy? and here for “More Thoughts on The Subject”. She links to some good sites as well.
One other great place to check out–The Familylife.com site, here they have Romantic Tips for Him or Her!
Have A Heart for Others February 20, 2008
From the book: Friendships of Women by Dee Brestin
Sometimes a friend or loved one is going through a difficult time and you just don’t know how to respond. This can be especially true in an instance of divorce. Instead of ignoring the problem or not speaking to the person for fear of saying the wrong thing, try these approaches. Many will work for someone who is grieving a loss due to death as well. A client of Dee’s whose husband had left her prepared this list for Dee’s book.
- Contact the person often. Call. If you don’t know what to say, ask, “How is your day going?”
- Write a note showing you care. Stop by. (I felt so isolated. I kept the cards people sent me on my piano. Looking at them strengthened me to face the day.)
- Invite them to share a normal activity with you: a walk, a sporting event, an errand, a meal.
- Sit with them in church. They feel unworthy to join you. Don’t let them sit there alone.
- Touch them, hug them. (I am hungry for touch. I miss the physical touch of one who cares.)
- Identify with their feelings. Don’t be afraid to mention the other party by name. (A friend of mine saw me cutting the lawn and asked, “Did Jim used to cut the lawn?” Just mentioning him made me feel freer to talk to her.)
- Pray with them. And daily pray for them! Put their name on your mirror so you don’t forget!
I Had To Share February 15, 2008
I must confess I am a blog reader. (That’s why I came up with the idea for the MOPS Blog–seemed an easy way to share information!) I have my list of blogs I read…some are for fun and some provide more thoughts. This post and this post and have been on my mind for the last several days, so I decided I HAD to share them. Please read them! If that grabbed your interest, there is more at this post and here and here and here!
Can We Value Family Too Much? February 15, 2008
Some parents put such a high priority on their children that they make the mistake of removing everything from their lives that doesn’t directly benefit the kids. Sports, music, clubs, and activities fill the schedule, consuming every minute of their time. One dad said, “Judy and I felt stressed because of the busyness, but continued to press on, believing that we were doing the right thing. We then realized the problem we were creating in our children. They were becoming more selfish and we were encouraging it.”
Take a moment and look at your life. If children are at the center, what are you teaching them? One way to help our children is to teach them that they aren’t the center of the universe, God is. In fact, as a family we must be serving, sharing, and giving to others.
After all it was Jesus who said, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you.” Matthew 6:33. When parents model sacrifice, children learn to care for others beside themselves.
Take time in your family life to show hospitality to others, serve at church or in the community, pray for others, or even save up and give money to someone in need. Children learn a tremendous amount from these special family experiences, but most importantly, they learn to give up a little of their own selfishness, a lesson that will last forever.
This parenting tip is taken from the book, “Say Goodbye to Whining, Complaining, and Bad Attitudes, In You and Your Kids” by Dr. Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller, RN, BSN.
Love According To The Experts February 13, 2008
Kids from the ages of five to ten were asked questions about what they thought of dating and love.
Here are their interpretations of “Happily ever after.”
Falling In Love:
- If falling in love is anything like learning to spell, I don’t want to do it. It takes too long.(Glen, age 7)
- I think you’re supposed to get shot with an arrow or something, but the rest of it isn’t suppose to be so painful. (Manuel, age 8 )
- No one is sure why it happens, but I heard it has something to do with how you smell. That’s why perfume and deodorant are so popular. (Mae, age 9)
- Once I’m done with kindergarten, I’m going to find me a wife. (Tom, age 5)
- One of you should know how to write a check. Because, even if you have tons of love, there is still going to be a lot of bills. (Ava, age 8 )
- I’m not rushing into being in love. I’m finding fourth grade hard enough. (Regina, age 10)
- (Being) single is better… for the simple reason that I wouldn’t want to change no diapers. Of course, if I did get married, I’d figure something out. I’d just phone my mother and have her come over for some coffee and diaper changing. (Kristen, age 10)
What most people are thinking when they say “I love you”:
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The person is thinking: “Yeah, I really do love him, but I hope he showers at least once a day. (Michelle, age 9)
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Some daters might be real nervous, so they are glad that they finally got it out and said it, and now they can go eat. (Dick, age 7)
The Purpose of Dating:
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On the first date, they just tell each other lies, and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date. (Mike, age 10)
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One of the people has freckles, and so he finds somebody else who has freckles too. (Andrew, age 6)
Why people in love hold hands:
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They want to make sure their rings don’t fall off, because they paid good money for them. (Gavin, age 8 )
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They are just practicing for when they might have to walk down the aisle some day and do the holy matchimony thing. (John, age 9)
How to make someone fall in love with you:
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Tell them you own a whole bunch of candy stores. (Del, age 6)
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Don’t do things like have smelly, green sneakers. You might get attention, but attention ain’t the same thing as love. (Alonzo, age 9)
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One way is to take the girl out to eat. Make sure it’s something she likes to eat. French fries usually work for me. (Brat, age 9)
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It isn’t always how you look. Look at me. I’m handsome like anything, and I haven’t got anybody to marry me yet. (Brian, age 7)
from Laughter is the Spice of Life
