Parenting with Perspective

🎼 “When we’re helping we’re Happy, and we sing as we go, And we like to help mother for we all love her so.” 🎶 This is a song I learned at church when I was a kid, and was a good reminder today that those little helpful (not so helpful) hands are motivated by love. 

I turned away for a few seconds to check the bacon and when I looked back I discovered my little 2 year old helper poured the rest of the liquid coconut oil into the egg mixture for the French toast! Thankfully egg and oil don’t mix, and I was able to remove most of the oil from the top with a spoon. The egg was salvageable for the French toast, and we were able to use some of the oil, but most of it had to be dumped since there were traces of egg drops in it. There were a few stressful moments as I was rushing back and forth between the already crisping bacon and eggs while I fixed this little mishap.

Just as I got things under control, I hear her say. “I’ll feed the fish! Mmhmm!” I rush over to her just as she is taking the lid off of the fish food and about to poor it ALL into the tank! Thankfully I caught her in time!😂 Sometimes we laugh so we don’t cry!

We had a little talk about asking permission, and having mommy’s help before pouring things, but I couldn’t get too mad because I know she was motivated by love. She was trying to be mommy’s big helper. She was trying to cultivate her pouring skills. If I lost my cool or shamed her for helping, what kind of message would that send? “You’re not good enough” or “You’re not big enough” those are the last messages I want to convey. I don’t always react in the best way when ‘life with kids’ happens, but I was proud of the perspective I was able to have this time. We have to celebrate our small victories right?

As for my 2 year old, perhaps we will have to pull out the water table in the back yard today and let her practice pouring in a more appropriate environment. 

To read more like this, and for our yummy French toast recipe click tge link below. http://www.happyhousewifeblog.com/friday-french-toast-with-the-family/

Beauty and the Beast

I thought Beauty and the Beast was wonderful. I don't usually like to watch movies more than once, (I am really weird, I know) but I would pay to go see this movie again. The music was enchanting, the imagery was beautiful, and over all it was a very moving film.

There was a lot of character development, and I loved being able to see the back story of Belle and the Beast. Without spoiling anything, I will just say, their back stories made their characters more real. Disney did such a good job at bringing them to life for me. Their love story seems so genuine. They connect on a deeper level rather than a superficial "love at first sight" kind of way. Their pasts seem to give them something in which they both can relate. Belle grows to love the Beast for who he is inside despite his alarming appearance. Their story is a true love story, a true Fairy tale!

There were so many "Feel good moments" where characters sacrificed for the good of others. Belle takes her father's place in prison so that he can be free. She later stays and helps the injured Beast when he has done nothing to deserve her care and she could have easily escaped. The Beast lets Belle go so she can help her father, even though he knows his last chance at breaking the spell would disappear just as she would. When you see a glimpse into Belle's past, you also see her Father's incredible love towards her. I may have cried more than once during this movie.

Belle's Gown:

I was especially impressed by the beautiful yellow ball gown Belle wore. It managed to be more modest than the dress worn in the cartoon version of the movie. Emma's dress had sleeves covering her shoulders whereas the cartoon version had sleeves hanging off her shoulders leaving them completely bare. Her dress was modest and gorgeous in this film. Again the imagery was absolutely beautiful.

Overall this movie was a sensation to the eyes and ears, as well as the soul. It was a movie that made me go home and think, I want to be a better person. I want to be as brave, as selfless, and as confident as Belle. The opening song goes,

"the girl is strange but special

a most peculiar mad'moiselle!"

She really is different from the other townsfolk, and I love her all the more for it.  She doesn't let their opinions change who she is inside. She is full of so much personality and goodness, and I left this movie feeling happy, energized and motivated to be a better person.

 

The Love Bug

In an effort to make our holidays more meaningful, I have been trying to focus on Christ, and learn from the scriptures. So, what do the scriptures say about love? There are so many scriptures about love. I picked just a few and put them together in this fun little activity to help my kids learn about love and the scriptures.

I think sometimes we get destracted by all the hub-bub of Valentines Day, and for that reason, I know many people don't like the holiday. We are all in different places in our lives, but we all love in one way or another. Most commonly Valentines day is a time for sweethearts to celebrate their romance. While that is a wonderful thing, I dont think we should forget all of the other wonderful loving relationships we have. We can love our parents, children, nieces, nephews, siblings, cousins, neighbors, those we visit teach, or home teach, friends, strangers, even our enemys. I find its a great time to remember our Father in Heaven and our Savior Jesus Christ, and their infinite love for us. I hope Valentines Day can be a day we celebrate their love for us, and try to share our love with those around us.

I really enjoyed searching the scriptures  to find out what they say about love. I learned a lot, and I hope you can too. These were some of the favorite ones that I found. What are some of your favorite scriptures about love? I'd love to hear from you.

There are a couple of ways you could do this activity. Last year, The Love Bug came to our house once a day for a whole week leading up to Valentines day. He would hide an envelope in a different place each day with a scripture and a little candy for my toddler to find. Once it was found, we would read the scripture, talk about it and enjoy a sweet treat together. This was a really fun way to do it, however I was not as on top of things this year. This time we will just do it all in one night for Family Home Evening. I will probably still hide the scriptures around the room for my kids to find one at a time. (This always makes it more exciting/interactive.)

If you do this as a Family Home Evening Lesson you can sing/listen to the songs Love One Another and/or Mother I Love You. There are many other Primary Songs, and even Hymns that are about love that would also be great for this.

[embeddoc url="http://www.happyhousewifeblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/love-bug-1.pdf" download="all"]

I hope you and your family enjoy this activity! Happy Valentines Day!

P.S. I have been learning to use Adobe Illustrator in a class at the community college, so I thought I would create my own "Love Bug". I think he turned out cute!

The Giving Tree

Over the past few years I have followed my beautiful cousin Aubrey's journey in finding the Spirit of Christmas through service. Her ideas have given me inspiration to create better traditions for my family during the holidays. I hope that by sharing her story, others may be uplifted and inspired, and be able to make their futures bright. Here is her story about creating the #PaxtonGivingTree in green below.

   "Three years ago on Christmas day 2013, after all the presents were unwrapped and the day was coming to an end, I turned to my husband and said, “I still don’t feel like it’s Christmas.” I remember all month long waiting for the spirit of Christmas to come, and it didn’t. There wasn’t anything really different that year. Christmas was the same day it had always been. I’d listened to the same Christmas music and ate the same treats that I love, so I knew that the problem was with me.

 

It was a busy time for our family. We had just added daughter #3 to our ranks the month prior, and I’m sure I was exhausted and caught up in figuring out how to run a whole new family dynamic...let’s be honest, 3 kids is hard! But it broke my heart that, because of my attitude, I had not only taken the true meaning of the holiday away from myself, but in doing so I was doing a disservice to my children.

 

So when December 2014 rolled around I was determined to make our house feel the spirit of the holiday! And the best way that I knew how to do that was by serving others. That year a friend and I had come up with an adorable advent calendar in the shape of a tree. I called it our Paxton Giving Tree! I put a little treat and a service opportunity in each box for each day of December leading up to Christmas. My girls were so excited to have a fun new way to count down to the holiday and I was excited to get the spirit of the holiday in our home, and it WORKED! Christmas 2014 was the best Christmas that I could remember having with my little family! Not only were we thinking about and serving others, but we were EXCITED about doing it! I knew that this was the start of a very fun and exciting tradition for our family!

 

This year, as I’m sitting down and coming up with ways that my family can serve others in December, I can’t help but think back over the last two years and the many awesome experiences we’ve shared as a family.

Doing a litter walk around the neighborhood.

I think my very favorite one came just this last summer during July. All summer long the girls had been asking to do a bake sale. I suggested that we could maybe do one, but wouldn't it be fun if we decided that with the money we earned from it we could put toward helping out a family this coming Christmas for our Paxton Giving Tree tradition. My kids responses made me very happy! This is how it went.

 

Madison (7): But why would we need money for that?

Me: Well buying things for Christmas costs money, and there are some families that don't have enough to get extra things at Christmas time. We could help with that.

Madison: But mom you don't need money to have Christmas...isn't it just about love and family? That's the important thing.

Kennedie(5): And celebrating that Jesus was born!

Reagan(3): And Santa! (Haha we’re still working on that one)

This was the best conversation ever! It was totally a mom win moment! I'm so grateful that my kids know what Christmas is really about...even in July!

I truly feel like my kids are learning not only what the true meaning of Christmas is, but also what it means to love and serve others. It has taught them many lessons about others who are less fortunate, and they have compassion for others that I know has come as a direct blessing of our tradition.

Supporting a local food drive by gathering supplies for those in need.

Like I said, this month I’m sitting down and making a list of things that we can do during our December service, but I would LOVE to hear any ideas that others may have! Please share! Also, if you want to keep posted about what my family will be doing this year, you are welcome to search the tag #paxtongivingtree on Facebook or Instagram."

Isn't this amazing? What a beautiful example Aubrey is to her kids about being Christlike. I love how involved her little children are in this wonderful tradition. Here are few more pictures and ideas for acts of service you could perform for your family's giving tree.

Taking cookies and thank you notes to their primary teachers.

Leaving thank you notes for the mail carrier and trash collectors.

Placing quarters in all of the vending machines!

The possibilities are endless! Be Creative!

For more inspiration to come closer to Christ this holiday season check out this video in preparation for the #LightTheWorld initiative.

Merry Christmas, and God Bless!

PS: If you want to check out Aubrey's cute shop for girl's hairbows, check her out on instagram.com @the.happy.squirrel.shop.

 

Sharing Time November 2016 Printables and Resources

November is upon us! I cannot believe how fast October flew by! Between Preparing for our ward's primary program and preparing for Halloween, October was gone in a blink! Here are some new printables to help your little ones memorize the scripture and article of faith for this month. Repetition is key, and having it printed out makes it so easy to review these every day! I am constantly amazed at how well my 4 year old son is able to memorize these when we practice them consistently. Kids are never too young to be nourished by the good word of God! Enjoy!

Scripture:

Download and print this Scripture by clicking the link below.

sharing-time-2016-11-nov-scripture-printable

Article of Faith 1:

Download and print this Article of Faith by clicking the link below.

sharing-time-2016-11-nov-article-of-faith

Pictograph Poster of Article of Faith 1:

Download and print this poster from A Year of FHE by clicking the link below.

Article of Faith 1 Pictograph Courtesy of A Year of FHE.

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Mama's Lasagna

It has been a while since I have made this fantastic lasagna. We found out that our son is allergic to milk about a year ago, so this recipe has been on the back burner for a while. I had the opportunity to bring dinner to a family in our ward last night, so I pulled this recipe out again, and I am glad I did. I made up two pans, one to deliver, and one for my family at home.  We had to prepare another dish for my son to eat, but he didn't complain. (I am so thankful for that! He is only four, and don't get me wrong, he acts like a four year old in many, many ways! But when it comes to his milk allergy, and not being able to eat certain foods, he is seriously so mature about it! It blows my mind how responsible he is about checking if food has milk in it before he takes a bite.) For my husband and I and our one year old however, this lasagna was a real treat!

Talk about comfort food! Don't you just want to sink your fork into that piping hot lasagna? I love that the weather is finally cooling off again, and we can use the oven for an extended amount of time. ( This Lasagna takes and hour to bake!) It makes the kitchen nice and warm and fills the house with a wonderful aroma.

This recipe is pretty easy to throw together, and it makes enough for left overs which we either promptly devour over the next day or two, or we split up into individual serving sizes and freeze for a rainy day. I have also prepared this lasagna and frozen it before baking, and it works out great that way too, it just takes longer to thaw/cook.

Here is the recipe! Enjoy!

Honey Lime Chicken Enchilladas

This recipe is a favorite at our house. Not only is it a crowd pleaser, but it is simple to make, and makes great left overs! I love making a double batch and freezing the extra enchiladas in individual sandwich baggies to eat at a later date. It is so nice to have home cooked food in your freezer that can be pulled out at a moment's notice, popped into the microwave for a few minutes, and consumed. You know, not the kind that takes half a day to thaw out, and another half of a day to cook. I am convinced that individual serving sizes of precooked meals are the way to go. Read more about this, and find other freezer friendly meals here.

We have also made these enchiladas with no cheese because my son is allergic to milk, and they were still delicious. There is so much good flavor in the meat and enchilada sauce, that the cheese is hardly missed. Omitting the cheese makes the recipe slightly healthier as well. So make it with or without cheese, I don't care, I just thought I would share what we found in omitting the cheese. Finding Dairy free recipes that the whole family likes, can be hard, so it is always nice to add a new one into the rotation.

We have also used this honey lime chicken for tacos, nachos, taco salad, fajitas, burritos, and even in homemade macaroni. The possibilities are endless. Here is the recipe.