Summer Sanity… Part Duex

So we’ve past the 4th of July and we are in the thick of it… and I am happy to say so far, I’m surviving!

We are at the point, however, where we’ve been spending a TON of time together. With a 6 and almost 5 year old, tensions sometimes run high. And to put a cherry on top, my 5 year old has decided he’s no longer napping, which is good in the fact that we don’t need to be home at a certain time of the afternoon and it makes things a little more flexible. But he is a bear when he doesn’t sleep enough. I’m talking waiting for his head to spin around, crazy person! So earlier bedtimes whenever possible have been instituted, like 6:30 PM!

While we’ve been having a lot of fun and utilizing the charts I talked about in part 1, I’m still seeing way to much rudeness with my kiddos.

So like any good mother who was raised in the 80’s would do, I took a cue from Mama Bear (of the Bernstein Bears fame) and the book Forget their Manners. I made a manners chart with consequences for various behaviors, giving them a set cause and effect of the behavior.

First Try

Now Mama Bear has her cubs doing extra chores as consequences and while it worked with Brother and Sister Bear, in the real world it actually caused me MORE stress to try and get my kids to sweep, dust, or wipe a dang counter properly.

Let’s be honest, a 5 year old doesn’t do a very thorough job sweeping floors!

So I went to my exercise roots and made the consequences simple moves, i.e. 10 jumping jacks for Rude Language or Actions. My thought, it gets their brain out of the frustration/ anger/ boredom/ etc. and focuses on the movement. Also, burns some of that energy and calms them, so you can have a more productive conversation after the consequence is done. “What can we do when we get angry instead of hit?”

Updated Chart

I know this won’t work for everyone. My kids love to exercise as it makes them feel big. They watch hubby and I exercise all the time, so the moves are not foreign to them. It is working for us so far…

Nothing is perfect, obvi, but I am optimistic that this will help reel in some of the behaviors that have me up worrying at night “Is my child a demon?”

What are some tricks you’ve used to survive summer so far? Would love to see your comments below 👇🏼

Good luck out there, everyone!

Summer Sanity … part 1

Oh Summer… I have such high hopes in the beginning.  Pie in the sky hopes of spending quality time making memories, going on day trips, doing fun activities at home, every minute is glorious!  But that takes a TON of planning on my part.  And my job doesn’t stop just because the kids are out of school, I just add a whole bunch more to my plate with trying to come up with fun things to do every.dang.day!

Why do I do it then?  

It may partially be “Mom guilt” or the pressure to be the perfect “Pinterest Mom”, or even all those social media posts saying “You only have 18 summers with them!!” making me feel the urgency of every precious summer…  but I’ve come to the conclusion that nobody enjoys life when Momma is stressed out.

This year, I still have high hopes, but a little bit more realistic expectations.  They don’t need to do fantastic, elaborate things everyday to make it memorable.  I can make everyday things seem memorable.  I brought back a few things I tried last year to give the kids responsibility over their days and give them a bit of the structure they crave, as well as bringing in a whole lot of grace to myself, reminding myself every day that I don’t have to be Super Mom to be the best mom for them.  Here are a few of the things I have going in the first few weeks and it’s going relatively smooth…. so far!

Responsibility Chart:

Before they get to watch a show or do anything with technology, they need to do these things first to “earn” their treat.  I try to limit technology as much as possible because their young brains need to create, play, build, solve problems, etc. without being spoon fed the answers. I bought these charts off Amazon and they came with a bunch of different tiles for various ages/abilities.  And a few tiles to write on (as you see above), in case you want to add your own ideas.  There are actually better ones out there now, but these serve the purpose.  Or you could simply create your own using construction paper!  The kids have to accomplish all these tasks before they get a show.  The kids know what they have to do, it’s in there hands.   I bought some age appropriate work books from the dollar store, give them ideas on what to write, have learning games they can play, etc.  It doesn’t have to be fancy… just something you can point to and say “Have you accomplished everything you need to in order to watch TV?”

To give an example, for my youngest we started a picture journal (see below) of his favorite things from the summer.  He draws a picture and I help him with the letters… viola!  He has a keepsake from the summer of 2018 that he made himself!  For my older, she has a lined journal she’s writing in.

 

And they will get used to the routine if you stick with it.  For indoor chores, I have them feed the dog, water the plants, sweep, dust, etc.  It’s not about they finishing the task perfectly, it’s about teaching them that you have responsibilities in life.  My kids are almost 5 and 6, so I can have them outside and supervise while working.

Also, I don’t have to do fully homemade to make it fun… as an example, we made slime.  Not the Pinterest, organic, chemical free kind (not that I am knocking it, just didn’t have time!) but the boxed kind.  It’s what I had on hand and it kept them busy for a few minutes.

Moral of the story so far… Enjoy the messy, crazy, chaotic moments.  Strive for happiness, not perfection.  Little moments can be wonderful.  Summer is a marathon, not a sprint.  And, if you give them the responsibility and stay the course, they may surprise you.

Good luck out there!

 

Working Out on a Cruise- Be Flexible

People who follow my Instagram know I try really hard to workout a little on vacations. I am eating a lot of not so healthy foods, not to mention drinking a lot of adult beverages, so I try to balance it by fitting in a workout a couple of times when I am away.  Makes me feel a little better about my bad choices!

We were on a cruise this week and one morning, I woke up early and tried to go back to sleep… but it wasn’t coming so I decided to hit the gym. I laid in bed and put together a leg workout based on the equipment I saw in the gym the day before, snuck into the bathroom and quietly got dressed… only to come out to my 6 year old standing at the door.

Mom, I want to come work out with you, too!

At first I said no. I told her to stay in the room, she had to be older to use the gym, I was looking forward to my leg day… but the look on her face and the fact that she wanted to be with me, to do something that I loved, how could I say no?

Getting our flex on!

So I reworked a kid friendly workout we could do on the running path around the ship, the stairs, etc. It wasn’t nearly as long or as hard of a workout as I planned, but she was so proud of herself for doing a “real workout”! She kept calling me “coach” during the workout and worked hard. I was able to do a sweat session with my girl and she enjoyed it! That’s a win in my book! She even voluntarily did Burpees as a finisher back in the room! (Sniff, sniff) Proud Mama moment!

I made it to the gym 2 other times, took the stairs whenever I could, climbed the rock wall with my girl and I did this crazy water inflatable park with the kids, which was a fantastic upper body workout pulling myself (and numerous kids, including my own) up and swimming all over the place!

Good squat form!  

Was I as active this week as usual? No way! But I made an effort to find ways to move and I also made precious memories with my babies while they still think I’m cool. They are growing up way too fast and while my health is very important to me, so is living in the moment. You really can do both, if you are a little flexible.

We had an awesome week, spending tons of quality time together. That is the reason I go on vacation, to make lots of memories with my favorites. Oh, and we napped… a LOT!

What are the ways you all stay active on vacation without sacrificing quality time?

Black Bean Brownie Cupcakes

Tell me that doesn’t look good?!?!

So this is a recipe from the Trim Healthy Mama cookbook and we make it a LOT!!  Those ladies are a huge resource for me recipe wise, visit Trim Healthy Mama to check out more recipes.   I have a love for black beans that runs deep… it’s actually a standing joke in our house that mom ads black beans to everything… even dessert!

 

This time, we tried this recipe as cupcakes and they came out rather well if I do say so myself!  I usually use a 9×9 pan and cook for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees to make a cake, but my son wanted to make cupcakes so I cut the bake time to 15 minutes at 350 degrees for 24 cupcakes.  I think next time I will only make 12 cupcakes, just didn’t want overfill this first time as I didn’t know how much they would rise! That would increase the cooking time a bit, just watch them and when a toothpick in the center of the cupcake comes out clean (or pretty clean as I like them moist) then take them out and let them cool on a wire rack.  **Update: I made 12 and they came out perfectly!  I upped the ricotta a bit and the baking powder and baked for 20 mins and they were super moist! 

My boy loves to cook!  It can make things messy, but worth it!

This recipe is so easy, even a non-baker like me can make it happen!  Just throw all the ingredients into the blender, let it blend for 4-5 minutes!  I let my son help put the ingredients in the blender, we counted and looked for letters he knew, and he was also in charge of the blending, so I had him turn it on and set a timer on the microwave for 4 minutes, then it was his job to turn off the blender when it was done!  He loves to cook, but there is a level of patience you have to have with kids helping with cooking… but it makes them feel soooo important.

Here is what you need:

• 1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 eggs and 4 whites (or 2/3 cup of egg whites for the 4 whites.  But keep the whole eggs)
• 4 TBS Cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder  (you could make this 2 tsp. if you want them a little fluffier)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 TBS. coconut oil (or butter)
• 2 tsp Vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup skim milk ricotta (or cream cheese) I prefer ricotta but play around with both (I upped this to 1/2 cup and they were SUPER moist!)
• 1-1/2 tsp. powdered stevia (or sweetener of choice)  you can taste after blending and add more if needed before baking

Put all ingredients into blender and let it rock for 4-5 minutes until it’s nice and smooth.  This is a key step, so don’t skip out on time here… Put into baking dish/cupcake pan and pop into oven!  Make sure to not over cook so it’s nice and moist.  I used organic vanilla frosting on ours (my boy had one right when they came out of the over… hence why the frosting looks terrible).  But for adults, they are good on their own with coffee or you could make some coconut whipped cream with full fat coconut milk and a little of the powdered stevia.

**UPDATE: I used this glorious little product called chocolate hummus to frost these cupcakes!  Holy potatoes they are GOOD!!! 

Boom, that’s it!

 

Volcano Painting

Ignore my dish drain full of dishes… real life right there

It’s not nearly as messy as the name suggests… and I did it outside, so cleanup was even easier!  I found this in one of my kiddos Highlights magazines and had all the ingredients, so we went for it!  And I was able to throw some dinner on the grill while they worked, bonus!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

What You’ll Need:

• 6 muffin tin
• Baking Soda
• White Vinegar
• Food Coloring
• Large (or regular) coffee filters
• Kids paint brushes
• Items for flower stem: we used pipe cleaners but you could also use small sticks from the yard or drinking straws

To make the paint:

Put a tablespoon of baking powder into each muffin tin. Put some drops of food coloring in each muffin section, mixing colors and talking about which primary colors make the other colors.  In retrospect, I would use more than 4 drops of coloring to make the colors more vibrant.  Then, slowly pour the vinegar into each section to make the volcano!  I put the muffin tin on a cookie sheet to catch the “volcano” part.

Once it’s done erupting, lay out some coffee filters and let them go to town.  Once the filters dry, you can pop one of your “stems” through the middle of the filter and scrunch them up, fanning them out for the flower part.

My little monkey showing off our creation!

My two monkeys really enjoyed this one and it kept them busy for a good 15 minutes, which in mom time is an eternity!  Good luck and let me know what you think!