Some Tips For Mothers of Young Children

Today as I was grabbing my gym bag to take to my CrossFit class, I was reminded of when I had babies and toddlers and always had a diaper bag whenever I left the house. I keep my gym bag stocked just like I always kept my diaper bag stocked, but with different items.

Here are some tips that I used when my children were much younger.

• Restock your diaper bag when you get home. Every time. Replace any diapers, wipes, outfits, snacks, etc. that you used. Do it fairly soon after you get home while the contents are fresh on your mind. Now your diaper bag is all ready for your next outing.
• Keep a change of clothes for each baby, toddler or preschooler you have somewhere in your car. You never know when a fresh outfit will come in handy.
• Also keep a diaper station in your car: changing pad, diapers, wipes, ointments, paper towels, etc. I changed many diapers in the back of my minivan. Remember to restock this changing station frequently.
• Prepare all the sippee cups you need for the day at one time and place them on a designated shelf in your refrigerator. My children each had their own style/color/size cup, so I fixed an appropriate amount for each child each day. I did this each morning, but you could do it the night before as well.
• Keep a separate bag filled with "quiet time" toys, books, and activities. Use this bag only for times when you need your children to sit quietly, like in a doctor's office waiting room or a church service. 
• Keep a trash can in your vehicle. I still do this today. With older children it has to be emptied almost every day! I have mine wedged between the front and middle seat consoles. It is a regular bathroom sized trash can. It works best if you line the trash can with plastic bags.
• If you live in a two story house, create a diaper changing area on each floor. 
• If you homeschool, place a rocking chair in the room where you do most of your instruction or reading aloud time. I rocked, rocked, and rocked babies and toddlers while doing school with my older children.

That's all I can remember for now.  Thinking about all of this makes me miss when my children were babies!

Books, Running, Life.....

I finished David Copperfield a couple of days ago.  I really liked that book.  I have decided that I really like Charles Dickens, and so I plan to read some more of his books.  I think my next one will be Oliver Twist.  So far I have read Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens, and I thoroughly enjoyed both of them.

But the reality is that I have so many books on my must read now list, with the Bible in 90 Days (I am 1/3 of the way through) and The Red Badge of Courage (for my English class) being top priority.  Oh, and my Running Book Club selection, Better Than Before.  However our running club has not met in a few weeks because it has been too cold to run outside.  I refuse to run outside if the temperature is below freezing, and we have had many, many below freezing mornings lately.

Which brings me to my next topic:  running.  Oh, the love/hate relationship I have with regular running.  I love actually running--well I don't love it on the treadmill which is where I have been doing most of my running, when I run, lately....but I really, really enjoy running outside--either with friends (therapy session) or alone (prayer and sorting out my thoughts sessions), but the logistics of fitting regular running into my daily routine is challenging, and that's an understatement.  (Wow!  That was a long sentence!)  So for me, the stress of running is the planning and talking myself into doing it, not the actual running itself.  Yes.  This is still my challenge after 9 years of regular, consistent running.

My running goals for 2016 include logging 1000 miles for the year and training and running a marathon (my 6th).  I haven't selected the marathon yet, but it will probably be St. Jude in December in Memphis.  I am failing so far amassing the miles.....I need to average 20 miles a week to get to 1000 for the year, and I have run 20 miles per week only once this year.  Most weeks I have 18 or less. But there is still time!  Progress, not perfection, right?

And because I like to stretch myself even further, I have added two new exercise things to my plate.  I attended a piyo (pilates/yoga) for the first time last week with a friend of mine, and I plan to go to this class twice a week.  Also, a group of ladies from my church have formed a CrossFit class, and I hope to attend that 2 times a week beginning next week.  We will see if I can CrossFit, Yoga, and run......or if I am just asking for trouble!  :)

Life.....
I am in new season of motherhood.....my oldest two growing up and spreading their wings, my middle one preparing to leave home for college in the next year and a half, and my youngest two, thankfully still at home with me for several years to come!  Most days I think parenting lots of little children with diapers, pacifiers,  and sippy cups to be much easier than where I am today.  But with God's help, lots of prayer and Bible reading, and hopefully a friend or two who can guide me along the way I will figure it all out.

Happy Friday!

Really Going To Start Blogging Again

Hello.

I have a friend on Facebook (an internet, email group friend, not an "in real life friend", although I know that we would be friends in real life if we lived in the same town) who recently shared a link to this blog post.

While reading her post, I found myself agreeing with some of her points.  I have definitely gotten out of the habit of blogging for a variety of reasons.  I began this blog over six years ago, and until this summer, I have posted fairly regularly.  But this summer I got writer's block. What do I have left to say that I already have not already said? Why I am even blogging?  That, along with the fact that I feel my life getting more and more complicated rather than simpler, which is what I crave, has kept me from blogging.

From the beginning of my blog, I have purposed to keep it upbeat and positive.  Not that I don't have my share of problems or that my life is perfect, but I want to be encouraging, not depressing.  But there is always that balance.  I don't want to appear as someone who has it all together, because I certainly don't. I strive to serve a perfect God, one who created me in His image, and I try follow his commands daily.  I also fail daily.

So that's the struggle.  How to blog in a realistic, encouraging way without painting a false picture of total success.  Since I have not been able to figure that out over the last couple of months, I have just stopped writing altogether.  Now I don't want y'all to think that I am having some kind of mid-life crisis or that I am in the middle of a major personal or family catastrophe, because it's nothing like that, but I have been overwhelmed for a few months.

Parenting older teens and youngish children is challenging.  Logistically, emotionally, and even physically--even though I though parenting the newborn, toddler, and preschooler combination was physically exhausting too.  Older children require more brain cells to parent--papers to edit, relationship troubles, teams, meetings, music lessons, and practices, to coordinate, and so on.  I have repeatedly told my close friends that taking care of older children is so much harder in some ways than when they were small and my biggest tasks were changing diapers, fixing sippee cups, cleaning up endless messes, and buying groceries with small children in tow without losing my sanity.

I am so thankful that my older children are all Christians.  All of my children are precious gifts from God, and I treasure them.  Somewhere along the way I have become a slave to the tyranny of the urgent.  I am looking for ways to slow down and simplify.

I truly hope to get back to blogging on a regular basis.  I hope I have something that you want to read, and maybe getting my thoughts down on paper (or on the screen) will help me as well.

Please comment with any topics you would like me to write about.  :)

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Running Errands With Small Children

Today I have a post over at The Homeschool Classroom.  I talk about running errands with small children.  While I don't have to do that anymore, I did run all over town with up to 5 children in tow for many, many years.  The hardest years for me were when Olivia, Julie, and Clay were little.

Click here to read all about it!

Happy Friday---it really is a happy Friday for us, because Olivia is coming home tonight for Spring Break!

This and That

I got a text last night from a friend prodding me to blog more often.....I really want to!  But sometimes I am so busy living my life that it's hard to make time to blog about it.

We had our first Spartans Homeschool Cross Country Team spring practice today.  We will be practicing once a week until the beginning of May, and then we will not have organized practices until our running camp sometime in August.  Of course all of the runners and their parents were so happy to see each other.  The kids ran one mile time trials, and I am happy to say that all of my running children were pleased with their times.  Leah is reminding me more and more of Julie as a runner.

We stopped by Hobby Lobby on our way home to pick up some supplies for Olivia to make her Senior Board to display at graduation.  She chose a hot pink, turquoise, lime green, and orange color theme, and most of her supplies are sparkly!  I am so glad that she is talented in the arts and crafts area, because I am not!  I know that her board, which is supposed to be a reflection of her personality and her life, will be perfect!  We have had the best time browsing through all of our old pictures.  She is selecting pictures that depict her life for her board, the yearbook, and the senior slide show, which will be shown at graduation.  Some of the children made many funny comments about the various pictures.....

• "Mama, your hair was so dark and you look so young!  Were you about 20?"  (I was actually 25, holding Olivia when she was a baby, and I did not have any gray hair!) ***Sam
• "Mama, what is that chalk stuff all over my face?"  (A picture of Sam, just after his birth)  "Why didn't that chalk come off when the doctor pulled me out of your throat?" ***Sam
• "Mama, your old fashioned dress is so pretty." ***Leah
• "Daddy looks like a little kid." ***Leah
• "Mama, you could have so won an ugly sweater contest!"  (Commenting on my many, very pretty Eagle's Eye sweaters) ***Olivia
• "Who is that Chinese baby?"  (Commenting on someone's newborn picture) ***Sam

Collecting these pictures, reminiscing, and watching Olivia create her Senior Board is going to be so much fun.  And a little bit bittersweet!

This week is my highest mileage of my marathon training.  I ran 6 yesterday, and I ran 11 this morning.  My total miles for the week will be 47 which includes a 22 mile long run.  That's a lot of miles, and at this point I am questioning my sanity.

I did not post my menu this week because I accidentally threw it away.  I decided to buy groceries last Saturday after my long run, and I just made a quick menu on my thrown-together-in-the-van grocery list.  After unloading the groceries, I threw the list away.  OOPS!  I am winging it each day, trying to remember why I bought the items that I did.  I won't be trying any new recipes this week.

I hope all of you are having a great week!

Picky Eaters

Thankfully, my children are not picky eaters.  They are quite willing to try anything, and yesterday I started thinking about why this was so.  I wondered if anything I had done over the years had contributed to their adventuresome eating.  I think the biggest factor is that I have never made a big deal about food.  Basically, I fix the meals, they eat it.  This summer when I was revamping my recipe binder, Lynn, Heather, and I looked for cute quotes to put on our covers.  This is what I put on the back of my binder, "You will eat it, and you will like it".  I thought that was funny!

• As soon as my children were ready for solid food, I began serving them from our table--whatever we were eating (within reason--no chips and salsa for a 10 month old!).  The one exception was my first born.  I did exactly what my sweet pediatrician said in regards to feeding Olivia.  Thankfully, he was fully supportive of nursing, but if he said to feed her half a jar of baby food carrots twice a day, I did it!  With the rest of the children I rarely used jarred baby food.  They just ate appropriate foods from our table.
• I never fixed my children a separate meal.  They ate what we all ate.  And still do.
• But, if I was preparing a new recipe that I was unsure of the taste or something extremely spicy, I would always also prepare a side dish that I knew everyone liked (rice or potatoes or something).  That way I knew that the younger children would have something to eat, but it wasn't like I was fixing them a separate meal.
• I served very, very small portions.  Tiny.  Like 5 peas.  A Tablespoon of sweet potatoes.  My pediatrician that I loved so much when I had my first three children recommended that.  He said to give the children very small portions.  Large amounts of food overwhelmed them, but they liked asking for more.  I always happily refilled their plates--with more tiny portions--as long as they desired.
• I asked them to try everything on their plate--even just one bite.  Or one pea!  Then they could decide if they liked it and wanted more, or "they didn't care for it today".  That is what I would allow them to say.  I taught them that it was bad manners to say, "I don't like this."  But saying, "I don't care for this today" was much more pleasant.  Just because they didn't like steamed broccoli one day, doesn't mean that they wouldn't like it next week.
• I had them try one bite of everything on their plate every meal.  They would sometimes say, "Remember,  I don't care for this today?".  To which I would reply, "Oh, it takes 21 times of trying a food for your body to decide if it likes it or not.  So please try it again." 
• I didn't make an issue over "cleaning your plate" or "eating all of your vegetables or no dessert".  I truly only required one bite, and I basically ignored them.  I did not make a big deal over it.  I did not ignore them in the sense that I didn't interact with them at the table, I just did not focus on whether they were eating or not.  They knew the try one bite rule, and we just ate our meals and enjoyed each other's company.
• I did not use dessert as a reward (we don't have dessert after every meal anyway), but if I have a child who is clearly not eating enough of his meal, he certainly doesn't need ice cream.  Sometimes Sam will ask me, "Have I eaten enough salad to get dessert?"  And I just say something like, "Eat your salad until you are full of salad....and I am sure you will still have room for dessert later!" Then I ignore his eating.  
• I allow my children to have a bedtime snack.  We normally eat supper around 6:00, and usually the children are not asleep until 10:00.  So, before "bedtime" around 9:00, I allow them to eat something.  This keeps them from going to bed on an empty tummy if I have served them a supper meal that was not their favorite....and therefore they may not have eaten as much as normal. 
• I do not make my children continue to try one bite of foods that they clearly have no taste for---Olivia will probably never like fresh tomatoes.  I do not like pickles.  Clay doesn't like rice.  I am fine with that.  They eat such a variety of foods, and they are such good sports about all of the new recipes that I try, that once we are well aware of a particular food they they don't like, the one bite rule is dropped.  
• The last thing is I serve a wide variety of foods.  I like to cook, and I have tried many recipes over the years.  Some have been total flops---and we have all had to make a sandwich for supper, but through the years my children have been exposed to and have tried many different kinds of foods prepared in many different ways.  We also encourage them to try new and different things at restaurants.

Joyfulness

Since yesterday's blog post was titled, Grumbling, I decided to have a more positive title today!

In keeping with my theme yesterday of looking for things to be thankful for in difficult situations instead of whining and complaining about everything, our visiting preacher at our church service last night preached a sermon directly to me. Really. I felt like he was preaching to me!

He had 4 main points about Home Remedies. The first two points were very, very timely and applicable. In fact, numbers 3 and 4 are a little fuzzy in my memory right now....they both dealt with anger.....being slow to anger, the anger of man not bringing about the righteousness of God....but points number 1 and 2--those I remember vividly!

1. Be Joyful. Smile at those you love in your home. This seems like a simple thing, but it can completely change the mood in your home. Try it today. Smile!

2. Use Gentle Words. Why do we use a kinder tone of voice and kinder words to those outside our family? Why do we feel like we can just say whatever we want in whatever tone we want to those most precious to us? This is a simple concept too. Remember Proverbs says that a gentle answer turns away wrath. Who wants to be fussed at all day about every little thing? Try this today too. Use gentle, kind words with your husband and children today.

One more thing! Today is my wonderful husband's birthday! Happy Birthday Jimmy! We have a super fun surprise gift for him today. I'll blog all about it soon.

Reading to Preschoolers

This is my Tuesday's Tip For Moms.
Tuesday’s Tip for Mom is a blog carnival hosted at Raising Olives to allow moms to share what they have learned along the path of motherhood. Join us every Tuesday as we learn and share tips and ideas for spending time with, encouraging, training or relating to our children.

Reading to Preschoolers

If you are like me, some days the time flies by, and at the end of the day you realize that you have not read one single book to your young child. In addition to reading 3 books at naptime and 3 books plus one Bible story at bedtime, I strive to read 10 or more books to my preschool aged children each day. As with all things, if I have a plan, then I am more likely to meet my goal.

My "reading to toddlers in addition to naptime and bedtime plan"---

Each morning choose 10 or more books and place them on the large ottoman in the middle of your den. You could also place these books on the hearth of your fireplace, the mantel, or any sort of flat surface in the main room of your house. The plan is to make yourself stop what you are doing several times throughout the day, sit down with your preschooler and read a couple of the displayed books. When you finish reading the books, place them back on the bookshelf or in the basket or whatever you store them in. When all of the books are returned to their home, you have met your goal of reading to your preschooler for that day. It really is that simple!

Long ago a friend advised me to stop once each hour and spend 5-10 minutes of uninterrupted time with my baby/toddler/preschooler. We sing songs, play a simple game or read a couple of the displayed books. Making a point to carve out these few minutes each hour insures that I am paying attention to my young children each day. With older children and the time it requires to homeschool them and transport them to various activities, plus housework, I would frequently unintentionally ignore my preschoolers until they "needed" me, if I did not have a plan of action.

This works for me and keeps my preschoolers happy (mostly!).