I Am The Avocado Mom

I read an article this week in which a mom felt judged by another mom who was feeding her child an avocado at the mall. http://momastery.com/blog/2014/01/07/quit-pointing-avocado/

As I read the article I started thinking that a lot of people probably think of me as the avocado mom. Our family chooses to do things the more natural way. We are trying to take out foods from our diets that contain artificial additives and dyes.  I also make my own cleaning products and we use essential oils for various reasons. 

 But…. that is what we as a family choose to do.  

I promise I am not judging your choices and I really do not care if you feed your children pizza at the mall. 

However, I have been on the other end of “the look.”  I have been criticized by the “pizza mom.”  I have heard her say, “Give those poor children candy.  They are just children.  Don’t be so strict.”

My children are very sensitive to red dye.  We have just recently found out they are sensitive to other dyes as well. We have to be very strict with what they eat. There was a time when I could just let them have M&Ms for a fun treat. But recently my 10 year old came to me and said that he can tell he feels horrible when he eats food dyes and would like to find alternatives. 

I remember the first time that we were going to make alternate arrangements. We were going to an activity and I bought the kids organic juice to take with them. I was afraid to let them take it because I did not want people to think we were trying to be special. I even asked my husband if I should make them drink it in the kitchen so no one else could see them. He told me not to be silly and that it would be fine.  I will admit I spent most of the time trying to get them to hurry, while I worried about who would see them.  Although no one said anything, I still felt uncomfortable. The point I want to make is that I felt I was going to be judged because of my choices. I guess no matter what side you are on, you will feel judged.

I post things on Facebook about red dye, essential oils, and natural homemade cleaners. I am not doing that to judge the choices that you are making. I do that to defend the choices I am making. I believe if people read what I post, they will see there are reasons for my choices and maybe they won’t think I am strange. 

I think we as moms are just trying to do the best we know how to do with the special set of circumstances we are given for our particular families.  

Fun on the Farm

We are blessed to live in an area with lots of great resources. Although our town is pretty small, we have a lot of wonderful state parks and farms. Most of our activities and field trips this year have been free. These resources have been especially helpful this year because they cover what we are working on in Prairie Primer.

 I have been behind in sharing all of the fun activities we have done this year. For the next few weeks I am going to share with you these activities. I encourage you to look around your town and see if there are resources that you might be missing.

We visited a farm in October. The farm had a great big tree house in which the boys played. They also made up a play with the other kids in our co-op and performed it for the parents as we ate lunch. 

They fed chickens.

They hugged chickens.

They fed goats. 

The boys had a great time running and playing in the field.

The boys also got to pick out a pumpkin to take home.

They had a great time on the farm!

How to Have a More Productive Day.

Routines are very important. Even if you do nothing else all day, routines help you feel grounded and accomplished. 

After reading several blogs and books touting the wonders of a routine, I decided to start one in January, 2013. 

·         Why I needed a daily routine:

1)      I wanted to start and end my day with a plan already in place.

2)      It freed my mind to focus on other things.

·        What daily routines I have:

1)      Morning Routine

2)      Afternoon Routine

3)      Night Routine

4)      Homeschool Routine

5)      Children’s Routine

(The boys’ routine is posted in the hall. It helps them to be able to do things on their own and to keep focused. )

·        How I decided what to include in my daily routine:

1)      I made a list of what I thought would be great to accomplish every day.

My list includes things such as:

Bible Study

Prayer

Exercise

Laundry

Family Time

Reading a book

2)      Then I decided when it would be the easiest to accomplish each thing.  For instance, I knew I wanted to pray every morning and read a Psalm or Proverb so I assigned that to my   morning routine.                           

3)      Then I figured out how long it would take for me to accomplish my goals that I had set and adjusted my bedtime and wake up time accordingly.

·        How my days have changed:

1.      I am more intentional with my day.

2.      I get more accomplished.

3.      I have more energy.

4.      I have more patience.

5.      Our home is more peaceful.

6.      Our home has more consistency.

7.      Our home is more organized.

Extra Tips:

·        It is good to add fun and/or relaxing things to your routines.  For instance, I found that stretching a few minutes when I wake up and before going to sleep really makes me feel good.  So I added that to my routine. I also have lots of books that I want to read, so I added a few minutes of reading time each day. 

·        Make sure to write your routines and keep them in a place that you will see them. This will get you in the habit of doing it every day.

·        Try to schedule the same routine around the same time each day. This will help with consistency.

·        If you have a baby or toddler, you can still have a routine.  You just might have to be more flexible with it. I always felt better having a plan in place when I had little ones, even if I could not follow my plan exactly. You can add activities such as :

1.      Reading a book to your child

2.      Playing together with toys

3.      Free play

4.      Mommy/baby exercises

5.      Craft/or bake with your child

I am glad I decided to add daily routines in my day. Even when I do not get around to my to-do list for the day, I know I have accomplished a lot just by completing my daily routines. Also, with routines you are also living each day to its fullest potential!

What are some activities you will add to your routine?

Start Managing Your Time Wisely in the New Year

I am guest posting today at  R16:16.

The Smile and Show Gratitude Game

                                   

Since it is so close to Christmas, I thought I would share the “Smile and Show Gratitude” game.

Sometimes it is really hard for kids to be able to smile and show gratitude when they receive presents that they do not want or like.  When I taught preschool, we would play a fun game to teach kids to smile and say, “thank you.”  The game helped  children get in the habit of saying “thank you” when they received a gift, even if it was something like underwear. 

Here is an example.   I would ask, “What would you do if you got a tuna sandwich for Christmas?”  Of course they would laugh, but then they were to say, “I would say thank you.” I would always try to think of really crazy gift ideas.  But no matter how crazy the gift idea was, the children were always to say, “I would say thank you.” 

Being silly helped them want to play the game.  They learned to say thank you no matter what the gift was. It was also helpful teaching  them in a safe and comfortable environment. 

I now homeschool my two boys and I have changed how we play the game.

It now involves the boys going to find the strangest item that they can find and wrapping it or putting it in a gift bag.   Then they exchange the presents with each other.

The fun of the game is finding a funny and unusual “gift” and seeing if they can throw off the other brother.

The challenge of this new twist is to practice saying thank you without having a shocked look on your face.  It also helps kids learn to tell why they are grateful for that item. It is so fun that my kids play over and over again.

I love watching them play it because it is always interesting to see what ideas they can come up with for the usefulness of the item. My older son was once presented an old torn sock during the game. He said, “Wow, thank you! I really needed this so I can make a sock puppet.”

The Blessing Of Being Without A Dryer.

In the spirit of our family motto, “Don’t look at what you are missing. Look at what you are seeing.” I want to reflect on the few weeks we were without a dryer and what a blessing that was to me. 

It was the week we were gearing up to learn how the pioneers washed and dried their clothes.

I had already bought the clothes line that we would hang our clothes on as they dried. 

I had already picked out two tall trees that were the perfect distance apart so that we could get a big load of clothes on it.

I had also just bought two new packages of clothes pins. 

And then it happened…

I was right in the middle of drying a load of clothes when the dryer died.

Nothing could be done to fix it. At least it had good timing.

That was the day that started a really neat blessing. 

Our days actually slowed down. Instead of being able to do 4 to 5 loads of laundry a day, I could only do one. We could not rush around gathering the clothes and folding them as fast as we could between school lessons. We were taking our time, putting the wet clothes in the basket , walking to the line, and hanging the clothes. We laughed and talked as we carefully placed the clothes on the line. 

The boys commented on the fresh smell of the clothes. I told them that it was because I put peppermint essential oil in my clothes detergent to give me a peppy attitude as I clean. They just laughed.  And we continued being silly and hanging our clothes.  Hanging the clothes on the line became a relaxing and fun job.

After the clothes were hung, we stayed outside and played. We did not sit and listen for the dryer to buzz as usual, but instead we enjoyed our peaceful reading of “Little House in the Big Woods”.

At night when the clothes finished drying, the boys and I would go out and gather the clothes off the line. We enjoyed smelling how fresh they smelled after being in a nice breeze all day. We enjoyed listening to the owls and watching the sun go down while we put the clothes in the basket.

I loved the peacefulness of it all. I enjoyed reflecting on our day as I smelled the clothes. I was really able to take everything in. 

Another great thing that happened was that I got back into ironing, since we did not have the convenience of throwing the clothes in the dryer to get the wrinkles out. I realized I love the slowness of ironing. It was nice to be able to do something slowly and really think about what I was doing. I could focus on the fact that I was able to do this and it was helping to take care of my family. I also had the opportunity to teach the boys how to iron their clothes. 

Was I glad when the dryer arrived? Sort of. But I loved that it felt like I had more time and that I could be more intentional with my day.