Grow: Complaining Coins

One of our dear little children has turned into quite the complainer.

"But MOM, I don't LIKE THIS dinner!"

"Yuck. Not this again."

"But I wanted a yogurt, not a smoothie. I won't eat it. No no no."

"I'm bored."

I don't think he really has an ungrateful heart because he always typically been a very polite, respectful, and kind little guy. What I think has happened is that he's just gotten into a bad habit of complaining.

So, we decided to give Asante a few tools that we hoped would help him curb the complaining.

1.  Complaining Coins
We made Asante three complaining coins. Each time he complains, he has to give us a coin. After the three coins are gone, he can't complain anymore that day. This alone has helped him to stop complaining almost all together. We didn't connect any rewards or punishment with the coins (i.e. he didn't get a treat for having all three coins at the end of the day or get a timeout if he complained after the coins were gone). Having the coins in his pocket gave him a visual reminder to slow down and think about what he was going to say before he said it.

To make the complaining coins, we used some gold St. Patrick's Day coins I used in our play scene and taped a complaining face on them. However, we used a random photo from the internet (think: google images). Here's a link to some complaining coins I just made up - you could easily just glue these pictures on thick cardboard and cut a circle around them. I wouldn't put too much work into it because hopefully you won't have to use them for a long period of time :).

2. Planting some Seeds
...in his heart, that is. We memorized Philippians 2:14: "Do everything without complaining or arguing." It's short and sweet and easily sung. :)

3. Journal and Prayer
We've been journaling and praying about things we are thankful for- in general. On Monday we named three things that we like about each other. At dinner, we've been talking about what we are most thankful for during that day. We've been offering quick prayers to God throughout the day when we are thankful for something. "Thank you, God, for healing my ear so quickly." "Thank you Jesus for flowers." "Thank you that we can play at the park on this warm day."

And of course, I can't forget to add that I've tried to be more thankful myself- watching my own complaining spirit. It always seems that whatever I'm working on with the kids, the Lord has a way of gently and kindly suggesting that perhaps I look into my own heart to see what's there. While I don't carry around complaining coins (maybe I should?! :)), the verses proceeding Philippians 2:14 have helped me by reminding me WHY Paul gives this exhortation-

Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. (The Message)

Daily life gives us stuff to complain about- people cutting us off in traffic, kids who have attitudes, not getting enough sleep, our blender breaking, kids who have been potty-trained suddenly deciding not to be potty-trained. But by seeing the silver lining, but laying our frustrations at God's feet and not letting everyone around us know everything that is going wrong in our life (on a regular basis), we can be a breath of fresh air to the world around us, giving others a peek at the goodness of God.

Eat: Rice Krispy Eggs

For Asante's Cubbies Class tonight, I made a fun spring treat- Rice Krispy Eggs!

Before starting in on making the Rice Krispy Treats, I wish I would have gotten out some plastic eggs (to form the shape of the treats), sprayed the insides of the eggs with cooking spray (so the treats don't stick to the insides), unwrapped some chocolate candies (to put into the center of some of the eggs), and gotten out the rest of my decorating supplies (sprinkles, fruit-by-the-foot, etc.). I didn't, but it would have been wise.

I started out by making a double batch of Rice Krispy Treats (just following the box recipe). The only change I made is that during the melted marshmallow part, I added some neon purple food coloring so that the eggs would look more spring-ish.

Play and Grow: Homemade Resurrection Eggs

When I thought about how I was going to convey the Easter story to my young boy, I immediately thought of doing Resurrection Eggs.

Resurrection Eggs aren't a new concept if you've been around the church with young children, but even still, they are an effective tool in teaching about the significant parts in the story of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins and then rising again in defeat over death.

And so I'm going to talk about them. If you are not familiar with them, they are a set of twelve eggs that you open up one a day (like an advent calendar) in the twelve days leading up to Easter. Each egg has an object and verse that talks about a part of the Easter story. Basically, it's just a tangible tool for teaching about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

Sure, you can find them on other places on the web (like here) or even buy them in the store (like here), but these particular Resurrection Eggs are unique to me. I had some very specific goals when I set out to filling my eggs. These were my criteria:

Grow: Resurrection Baskets

In our house, we're in the middle of the season of life called "Tradition Experiments." While we know we really want meaningful family traditions, Jake and I aren't so on top of it that we come up with a perfect holiday tradition on the first try. So, while the kids are young, we're trying out different ways of celebrating the holidays in a way that adds meaning to our family's faith journey.

We're only a couple weeks out from Easter and we've been thinking on what to do about the Easter Basket tradition. Last year we did Spring Baskets the day after Easter, and filled them with fun, spring-related items. This year, Jake and I are designing the kids a Resurrection basket which we will give them on Easter (or as we call it around here, "Resurrection Sunday").

While we haven't nailed down what will exactly go into it yet, we'll be choosing items that focus on the spiritual formation of the kids and that will help them along on their faith journey. Some of our ideas....

1. A Bible
After coming to faith in Jesus in junior high, I was a Bible-collector. For Christmas, for my birthday, whenever- I always wanted a new Bible. Looking back, I see how that was very helpful to my spiritual growth.

As the kids grow and mature, I want them to be able to interact with different versions of the Bible (oh the luxuries of living in the West!) that meets them where they are at developmentally. This year, we're thinking about the Jesus Storybook Bible (which was highly recommended to me by lots of my mom friends!).

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2. Music

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Music is what often brings our family to our best times of bonding, and it often helps connects us to God. Like many families who have young children, we spend much time singing and listening and dancing to all sorts of music. We're thinking about this Slugs and Bugs Under Where? by Randall Goodgame and Andrew Peterson. We have the first Slugs and Bugs and Lullabies album and LOVE IT. Love It. love it.

(On their website, I found this quote by Randall Goodgame about this cd: ""Parents won't want to stick a fork in their eye when they've heard it for the 10th time in a row." Haha, it's true.)

3. Movie

Each day the kids get to have up to 60 minutes of screen time, and I'm always looking for something new to introduce them to. Soooo, I think we're going to try out the What's In the Bible, Volume 1. It's created by Phil Vischer (the guy who also did VeggieTales). They have a $10 off coupon on their website, which means we can try it out for only $5.00-- it makes the risk easier (I'm always a little leery of "Christian" movies for kids because some of them can be pretty cheesy).

4. Supplies to plant a vegetable.

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 While we've never had our own garden, we've enjoyed gardening with our good friends, the Reeses. Because we've moved around so much, we haven't been able to be in one place long enough to even have a potted garden! Because we'll be here in Philly for at least another year, we're taking the plunge and committing to the growing of one vegetable (I know, risky).

How does this relate to spiritual formation? Not only is there something profoundly spiritual about growing something edible from just a small seed, but we're also going to talk about how when we memorize Scripture, it's like planting a seed in our hearts. The Holy Spirit will grow those "seeds" to maturity as we faithfully follow Jesus. This idea is not original at all- I'm borrowing this from ImpressYourKids.

This year the kids will just share a basket because, well, they share everything. If this is the tradition that sticks, I think there's real potential in letting the basket grow with the children/teenagers/adults- the content can change, the number of baskets can change, the way of presenting it can change. I think this is one that even us parents could participate in (having each spouse make a "basket" for the other OR creating a basket together for both to share that revolves around a specific topic or area of growth).

For more great ideas, head on over to ImpressYourKids and read about what they are doing to celebrate this season. And don't forget to leave a comment here about ways you have found to help make the Resurrection more real for you and your children!

Grow Review: Grace for the Good Girl

(this review is adapted from my more personal review at www.tiffanymalloy.com)

I read a book recently that I just must share with you. (If you are a dad reading this, I'm not sure if you will connect, but perhaps you know a woman who would benefit from this book...so keep reading).

Emily Freeman, owner (is that even the right word? I don't know) of www.chattingatthesky.com, recently released a book called Grace for the Good Girl, which is all about “letting go of the try-hard life.” Before I started the book, I wasn’t sure if I would entirely connect with the book. I knew that I was a "good girl" growing up, but I wondered if it would still apply to me today.

After reading the four page introduction, I wondered if I was going to end up underlining the whole book. What she described as the “good girl” was unmistakeably me.

Experience guilt and don’t know why? check.

Feel the heavy weight of impossible expectations. check.

Have an insatiable desires to explain every mistake. check.

Always obey the rules, and if there are no rules, obey rules that you think there might be. check. (Funny story- the other day Jake and the kids tagged along with me while I grocery shopped. They always get bored so this time around Jake decided to push the kids up and down the grocery aisles...quickly. I was convinced that we would get kicked out and never be able to grocery shop their again. I kept telling him to stop; he didn't. I got him to at least move to another aisle to do it so that I could finish getting groceries in case they got kicked out).

Emily writes that “good girls” tend to hide behind masks of good reputation, good performance, strength, responsibility, spiritual disciplines, acts of service, her comfort zone, and/or indifference. Emily takes each of these masks and helps women recognize the mask in themselves as well as how it affects their relationship with God and others. But, friends, this is not a self-help book. She doesn’t give us five ways to take off these masks. Instead, she talks about the journey, reminds us of the truth, and recognizes that this process is a wrestling.

It is evident that Emily is a student of the Scriptures. She is gifted at helping us see how Jesus saving us has everything to do with how we live our day-to-day life, and that our salvation doesn’t stop at “now I’m going to heaven.” Jesus is saving us from all of these masks as well.

I think this book would be a great one to go through with a small group of women that are committed to one another. It provides questions at the end of each chapter (as well as a small group guide at the end of the book) that encourages the reader to make the material their own. This is one that you will want to read through first yourself, and then read again with a good friend to process more out loud.
So, if you think you may identify with the “good girl” label, grab a friend and a copy of this book, and get reading.

Thank you, Baker Books (specifically the Revell division) for a complimentary copy of this great book! They encouraged me to give an honest review, and so I did .

Eat: Sneaky Chef Brownies

I first learned about these brownies at a party at my son's preschool. After I commented on how moist and delicious they were, the mom smiled and said, "They have a secret ingredient. You will never guess what it is." My mind immediately went to things like- butter, sour cream, half and half- I don't know, something really caloric. She giggled and said, "I'll tell you after you finish it."

Ya'll-- it was spinach and blueberries!! And I didn't taste them at all, which is a good thing because I definitely do NOT want my dessert tasting like vegetables.

Well, that was a couple years ago, so when I ran across this cookbook in the library, I decided to make up a batch of my own to see how hard it was.

Play: Homemade Toys - Button Spinner

This is the second part in the homemade toy series. Be sure to check out the marble maze I made first.

So this homemade toy is one from my childhood. I have a very distinct memory of making these as party favors for a birthday party I had when I was young. I have also included a variation that makes it even more fun at the end of this post.

What is it? It's a button spinner!

You might still be asking what it is. It's difficult thing to explain what it is, but it's super easy to show you how to make it.

Grow: Luck versus Faith

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This time of year is all about getting lucky, finding that four-leaf clover, following the rainbow to get the pot of gold at the end. And all of it leaves me wondering how faith factors into it all.

This is the way I see it: Luck is relying on chance. Faith is relying on God.

{Guest Post} Eat: The Green Smoothie

Today's guest post comes from my super good friend, Jessica Lagomarcino. Jessica lives in Louisville with her hubby, Lee, and they have a bun in the oven that should be making her appearance in a short couple months. Jess is also a gifted photographer (which will be evident from the great photos in the post, because, really, how many people can make a blender full of fruit and spinach beautiful?) and you really must check out her work at her blog. 

I recently celebrated my birthday with a weekend trip to her house, and this is where I first experienced these smoothies. They are del-ic-ious. With St. Patrick's Day right around the corner, what better time to make them than now? This is a recipe that you will want to keep around long after this weekend though. Enjoy! 

I remember hearing about these "green smoothies" a year or two ago and thinking "heck, no!-- those must be for the die-hard, raw food, way-better-than-me-nutrionally type person". And yet, here I sit, writing a blog about one of our new favorite breakfast treats, the green smoothie.

I've seen moms around the internet title this a "Green Monster smoothie," which I think would be especially exciting for little boys. And one thing I can promise: they will love the taste. This smoothie does NOT taste like drinking salad for breakfast! First: the cast of characters.

The great thing about this "recipe" is that there is no measuring required (that's how I love to cook!) and it is completely customizable. This is just how we make it, but feel free to substitute and experiment. You will need: frozen fruit, baby spinach, Kefir (a drinkable yogurt product), orange juice, and vanilla whey protein powder. This is one healthy snack! My husband attests to the probiotics in the Kefir and all the extra nutrition in the fruit and veggies to "powering him up" every day and really helping with his overall general health.

First step: add some frozen fruit to a blender. Any sort will do! The frozen-ness gives the smoothie the thick, ice cream like quality it has. I fill my blender about 1/4th full with fruit. Disclaimer: I have only tried to make this in my WaringPro commercially rated blender (which I LOVE). It works great in our blender, but you may need to do a bit more stirring and helping your blender if its not as strong.

Next comes the vanilla protein. I usually include 1/2-3/4 of a scoop. This adds some more sweetness, and of course, protein! (You may want to leave out this ingredient from your kids' smoothies; most pediatricians discourage extra protein in a child's diet for a variety of reasons).

Then I add the Kefir. I don't add very much of this, maybe 1/4 of a cup, simply because I don't really like yogurt and don't want to taste its flavor. Feel free to add more if you want!

Next comes the baby spinach. I add TONS of this. I promise, you don't even taste it, and it's so good for you! You can also use other types of greens such as regular spinach or kale, but they will also taste more "green." You can just pack in the baby spinach, or even add more once you've blended for a bit.

Then add some OJ. The more you add, the thinner your smoothie will be. I add maybe 1/3 of a cup to start, and then usually add some more later in the blending stage if my smoothie is too thick.

Next step, blend it up! I have to stop it a couple times and stick a spoon down in there to get the spinach down toward the blade.

I tend to blend mine until I get the 'whirlpool effect' that you see in the photo below on the right. That way you know everything is getting down to the blades and you won't have any stray pieces of spinach that you're chewing on :).

Next: pour and enjoy! Oh, and try to keep yours in the cup when pouring, unlike yours truly. It's harder than I thought to pour and take photos at the same time!

Voila! Hope you enjoy your green smoothie!

Thanks again for sharing this with us, my sweet friend! 

Play: St. Patty's Day inspired Play Scene

Remember those sensory boxes I talked about awhile back? For those who don't, sensory boxes are boxes filled with some sort of materials with which kids can play with- mostly in the way of scooping, spilling, digging, transferring, etc. The base material can be cotton balls, rocks, beads, seeds, beans, rice-- anything you can dream up! Then, you add a few, or lots, of other things to make it more interesting and fun to play with. For some examples, check out my pinterest sensory box board.

When thinking about what fun thing we could do for St. Patrick's Day, I initially thought of creating another sensory box. But then I was shopping at Michaels and saw some of these wooden pegs-- it was then that everything came together in my head!

May I present to you our St. Patrick's Day Sensory Play Scene:

I like to think of it as a cross between a sensory box and a play scene.

First, I painted some wooden jars (4 for $1 at Michaels) and a cardboard treasure chest ($1 at Joanns).

The peg people were a little more intimidating for me (because remember, I'm not the artistic one :)). I decided to go for no arms on the dolls...I couldn't muster up the confidence to try it out and then mess it up. But I think the simplicity looks nice and the kids didn't mention it.

I filled the bottom of a cake pan with split green peas and added the chest, the jars, and 2 red shovels (which are actually sample spoons from one of our favorite gelato places) to the corner of the pan.

Then, I made a little walkway lined with translucent colored rocks ($1 at Dollar Store). I filled the treasure chest with golden plastic coins with three leaf clovers on them ($1 at Dollar Store).  I realized at this point I hadn't done anything rainbow-y, so I rolled some playdoh out into a snake-like shape and stuck mini-colored popsicle sticks into it to be a fence.

It was so fun for the kids to play with! The only thing that went wrong was when Ada grabbed the side of the pan (how did her arms reach up that high?) and pulled it down. We're still finding split green peas when we sweep... :).

What fun thing are you creating or playing with this St. Patrick's Day?

Happy Birthday Tiff!

Jake and the kids conspired with me to make you this special post for your birthday. I had intended it to go up at midnight, but alas, I'm am not as together as I think I am. So here it is. Thank you Jake and kids for your help. And thank you Jake for the reminder!

{Guest Post} Grow: St. Patrick's Day- A Short History (+ Recommended Resources)

Today's guest post comes from MaryAnn... a good friend of ours who is a mother of two young boys. She also wrote a post awhile back, do you remember? It was the marshmallow snowman activity.  We're thankful that she agreed to post again!

As my son, Aaron, watched me take down our Valentine’s Day decorations, he asked me what holiday we would be celebrating next.  I told him that Saint Patrick’s Day is the next holiday coming up, but that I didn’t have any decorations for it.  “Mommy, you need to go to the store and buy some!” was his response.  I probably will not rush out to purchase leprechauns and clovers, but it did get me thinking about what I want my children to know about Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland.  (As well as the fact that McDonalds will be serving their oh-so-delicious shamrock shake – I have got to get one of those!)

Patrick lived in England, the very edge of the Roman Empire, during the fourth century.  While there are many legends about him, we do know that he was kidnapped from him home in England at the age of 16, and brought to Ireland where he was put to work as a slave.  Patrick cared for his master’s herds for six years, and during this time his faith in God grew.  Patrick was sustained through hours of prayer every day, growing closer to God.  Six years later he escaped from slavery, after hearing a voice from God tell him there was a ship waiting to bring him back home.

Reunited with his family, Patrick began training in the Catholic Church.  After several years, he again felt that God was specifically leading him, this time to return to Ireland to tell the people about God.  Now a Bishop, Patrick went back to Ireland and told the Irish people of God’s love for them.  Many accepted his message, and he became famous throughout the land.

There are two things that impress me the most about Saint Patrick’s incredible life – the things I want to make sure my children understand. The first is that Patrick responded to hardship with prayer and faith in God.  Sometimes I think I’ve really got problems in my life (hello, potty training!), but none of them compare to being kidnapped and put to work as a slave!  God was with Patrick and strengthened him, and since the Bible tells me that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13.8), I know that I can depend on him.  The second thing I want my kids to notice is that Patrick showed such great love to people he could have considered enemies.  He didn’t hold a grudge against these people, but instead followed God’s leading and spent the rest of his life sharing God’s love with them.  In my mind, these things are a whole lot more important than any “chasing all the snakes out” event that may (or may not) have occurred.

There are a few resources I found to help me interest my children in this story.  It was hard to find books at the library that were actually about Saint Patrick, but these two were pretty good. 

Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland by Tomie dePaola, and St. Patrick’s Day by Gail Gibbons

You can also find a very funny and surprisingly accurate Veggie Tales movie about Saint Patrick by searching YouTube for “Veggie Tales Saint Patrick" or just watch the video below :).

One of the children’s books I read about Saint Patrick’s Day stated that everyone can celebrate Ireland’s history because on that day “we are all a little Irish”.  It made me think that maybe as Christians we are “all a little Irish”, because a few centuries after Saint Patrick spread Christianity through Ireland, the Vikings destroyed monasteries and churches throughout England and the rest of Europe. However, they did not reach Ireland, and so the copying of the scriptures and the teaching of God’s word continued, with Ireland eventually sending missionaries out to the rest of Europe to remind them of God’s love.

Hope these resources help as you teach your kids about St. Patrick's Day- I know they've helped me, so thanks Maryann!

Eat: Rainbow Bundt

With St. Patrick's Day coming up, it seemed appropriate to make a treat about it.

Now it's easy to dye something green and say that "ta-da, it's for St. Patrick's Day" but I wanted to go a step further. (Wow...this is so unlike me.) So I decided that instead of the green being my inspiration, I would go with the rainbow.

And so I present to you the Rainbow Bundt!

I actually thought of this idea after seeing a Fourth of July bundt cake using red, white, and blue, and it make me think I could do it with more colors. And so I did.

Play: Homemade Toys - Marble Maze

Since I've been on a bit of craft kick lately, I thought it would be fun to do a series of posts on homemade toys for kids. So here's the first one!

I actually found this idea on Pinterest. That site is like a goldmine of crafty ideas, and I can probably attribute 90% of my latest crafting to inspiration that I found there. It can be a huge waste of time, but it's so much fun.

Grow: Prayer Journaling with Kids

The other day I opened up my journal to write some reading notes in it and I saw a bunch of scribbles. I knew instantly that it was probably Aly. That little girls loves to do everything I do, especially when it comes to journaling and using a planner. And then it dawned on me. Why not create Asante and Aly their own prayer journals?

So, I just cut a bunch of manila colored construction paper in half, stapled it together, and then let the kids rummage through my scrapbook paper stash to choose a "cover" to glue on. Of all the cool paper I have, Asante chose pastel Easter eggs and Aly a drabby rainbow. Not what I would have thought they'd like, but I swallowed my desire to get them to choose something more "fun" and happily helped them to glue it on the outside of the paper.

Then, we had our first journaling activity- simply to draw or write a prayer to God.

Eat: Gooey Goo (ish)

So in my list of Seuss-inspired snacks, I told you that I was going to show you how to make Gooey Goo (salt water taffy) as found in Fox in Socks.

Well, that was apparently an ambitious thing to say. Lesson learned: actually do the thing you want to do before you tell people you are going to post about it.

So....I made "taffy" twice yesterday, and I'm sorry to say that neither of them actually turned out to be soft, chewy taffy. But I was able to make some nice hard candy. And, through my experiences, I can now tell you what not to do.

So, I followed the recipe found here. (You are going to see pictures of both of my experiments, so don't mind the change in pots)

I put all the ingredients in the pot and bring to a boil. I didn't have glycerin, but it said that it was optional, so I didn't worry about it. Then after checking out this blog, I think glycerin would have been a smart choice. This was my first problem.