How does your child inspire you?

"Education begins the moment we see children as innately wise and capable beings. Only then can we play along in their world."

How does your child inspire you? Their innocence? Their drive and determination? Perseverance? Integrity? Passion?... I encourage you to take a moment and relate your child's behaviours to personality attributes. Here's an example:

• Our 3 year old snuck into the kitchen at 3am, moved one of the dining room chairs so that he could reach the top shelf, took a bag of mini-marshmellows and a bottle of multivitamins in a child-proof container, and went back in his room...

Sure, there are many things "wrong" with this behaviour and his actions were certainly less than desirable but, through this we can recognize:

• determination
• witt
• intelligence
• strength - physical and mental
•  ....

What POSITIVE personality attributes do you see in such actions? I challenge you to think about your child's perhaps less than desirable behaviour or action and be inspired but what their actions highlight about their personality....something to think about. Comment below with your stories. 

In reflecting on our child's behaviour and actions in that moment describes above, we can also take a moment to appreciate, the kid has moves.... for a laugh, watch this clip of his dance moves --- he calls it the "step and jiggle". Have a great day!

Live through the eyes of a child. Be present. Be grateful. Be humble.

Well, I bellyflopped on the 30 day blog challenge but I will try again --- maybe not quite yet, but I will try again. I did recently take a huge leap and post my first You Tube video. Please, check it out below.

I have found myself contemplating a lot recently:
1. What do I want out of life and;
2. How will I get there.

The overwhelming response to this is relatively simple: live through the eyes of a child. Be present. Be grateful. Be humble.

I am very blessed with being built as an exceptionally emotional person. For the longest time I was completely ashamed of this. I am not a "pretty crier". I am a mess. A real, real mess. But, at a funeral I had an epiphany. As I wore my sunglasses throughout the celebration and blubbered uncontrollably, someone commented to me to the effect of, "you're at it again. When I saw you at my dad's funeral I thought, 'wasn't it my dad who died?'..." For the first time in my life, I owned this aspect of myself and respectfully replied, "this is who I am. It is a part of me I cannot control; it does not help to know you are judged but I am proud to show people how much I care." Others who had heard the remarks immediately supported me. I was not seeking validation of any form: I am a firm believer you cannot rely or expect any external validation; you must be empowered from within. For the first time in life, I embraced this core piece of who I am, spoke from the heart and held my head high. That was an empowering moment which certainly came at the most unexpected time and place.

With these emotions, I find myself reaching out more to people and speaking as I do with my children to complete strangers. If someone has said something that touched my heart, I let them know just as my children speak the same. The innocent and pure heartfelt emotions and expressions of a child whether sweet and endearing or frustrated and perhaps more strong-willed is something we should embrace as adults. With that, a toast to pureness, innocence, respect, appreciation and gratitude... Cheers!

The Bucket List

Well, I didn't quite make it 10 days in the 30 day blog challenge but, that is reality. I will regroup to meet that goal again. Getting a blog going has been on my bucket list but, as you can tell, I am not certain what to write about. It is a personal journal of sorts and my "focus" remains on "life's ramblings". What is on your bucket list? Do you have one?

Here is how my list is looking so far:
1. Renovate or build a house
2. Blog or post videos regularly
3. Complete my Master's degree --- I waiver on this one but it's something I always come back to. I think that makes it "bucket list" worthy
4. Launch a successful fundraiser for a not-for-profit
5. Expand a garden to grow my own food
6. Own a rowboat and spend a Sunday (regularly throughout the summer) on the water in the harbour near our home
7. Create a relaxing outdoor space
8. Establish and commit to a physical activity routine
9. Live debt-free

But, ultimately, I want to:

10. Guide my children to find something they love, a passion, a talent, and support them whole-heartedly in whatever that may be.

I think the first 9 items on my list are to ensure I am whole to be able to give even more to my children.... I want to live a life where I am "there" and "present" without reservation.

And, without reservation, I know I am completely procrastinating on the day... What are you doing today? Will you be checking anything off of your bucket list?

Crockpot Recipe: Chicken Corn Chowder

You know those days??? Well, I can tell today is definitely going to be one of them. I used to be impressively organized with meals: everything prepped on the Sunday and meals set for the week. Then, schedules changed. The boys' activities started up and we were racing in all directions and I ended up with a fridge full of food that no one was around to eat.

I have committed to setting a few minutes aside to write this post - day number 9 since the challenge began... I found the time and made it a priority so I can re-group and re-strategize with meal planning. I can do it. Thinking on the menu tonight, a version of a crockpot chicken chowder. Scroll down for the super easy and comforting recipe.

To make Chicken Corn Chowder:

1. Diced: potatoes, carrots, onions into the crockpot
2. Pour chicken stock over
3. Set and forget for 8 hours on low
4. When I get home from work I will through it in the Blentec; once blended toss it back in the crockpot
5. Add: cooked diced or shredded chicken and corn
6. Cover and let cook for another 20 min or so
7. Toss a little bacon and/or chedder cheese on top

Simple, comfort food with ingredients all on hand. Yay!! What are you having for dinner tonight? 

Day 8: My Favourite Time Saving Tips

I missed posting the other day. Well, actually, I had a post all set, forgot to hit "post" and ended up having a really, really long day and the original content became irrelevant. So, let's see if I catch up with a post this morning and another later today (or will do so another day -- but, 30 posts in 30 days WILL happen). Being short on time has me thinking about some of best time-saving tips as a full-time working mom which help ease the chaos of the day. Here are a few; I encourage you to add yours in the comments below.

1. Batch up cooking - freeze and save. I'll post on pulled pork later and how I get 8 family dinners (32+ meals) for about $30 cdn so, keep an eye out for that.

2. Use your crockpot. The biggest impact this and batch up cooking seem to have on saving time - is the clean up.

3. Engage your children in household responsibilities at an early age. The reality is you cannot do it all yourself but more importantly, each member of the household has a role to play. Make it part of the routine.

4. Establish some sort of routine. Our greatest time saving routine tips:

• As soon as the boys get home from school, shoes are put away, jackets are hung up, back packs are hung up, library books are put in a special location designated for just that and they take their lunch kits to the kitchen. Having that library book place is key to save you from searching for books later; promptly going through lunch kits is also key if you have kids like my boys and they come home with half eaten items... the mess after even a few extra hours takes that much more time to clean up. 
• Same thing from coming home from sports activities - especially swim lessons. We wash out the suits in the sink at the pool and the second we get home, towels and suits are hung up to dry. Failing to do this results in added laundry and the only laundry time saving tip I have is to lessen the amount whenever and however possible.

Now, it's your turn! How do you maximize your time?

Day 7: Insanely Accurate Personality Test

Personality test. You see them all the time on the internet. I stumbled across this one on Twitter yesterday and WOW, it was extremely accurate. Try it for yourself:

 

Below is my result. For the 20 people who make have read a few of my posts, I am not sure you have a sense yet as to how accurate this is:

Your charm and wit attracts many people, and have an inner peace that no one can disturb. You get sad for others and their situations, but should learn to not let it completely get you down!

How telling - and accurate - was this for you?

Day 6: He did it. The gift of running.

My six year old ran his first cross country race. We really were not sure whether or not he would start. We thought there would be tears. But, we also thought it was possible to be an activity he would enjoy. And, he did... eventually.

There were hundreds of kids participating; an overwhelming scene. He happily played with his friends before-hand and seemed eager to participate. This was very much to my surprise. I anticipated him becoming overwhelmed early on but he handled this part of the event with ease. To see the excitement in his eyes gave us hope he may have found an activity that "clicked" for him. He loves to run and, of course, it's such a great activity for his well-being but the potential stress surrounding the events left much uncertainly. His 3 year old brother was all too eager though, so I took him from the start/finish area to cheer from the mid-way point.

Dad stayed with our six year old and as it was time to start, the crowd gathered closer and as I am told, the hesitation rapidly set in. There was a sea of people and it was not something a parent could talk him into. We were so fortunate that his teacher was also the cross country coach. They have an amazing relationship and as my husband said, "She knew just what to say. Just how to approach and encourage him. She just knows him so well." It is truly remarkable to have a person like that in our son's life. If one cannot bring him out of his "shell". He shuts down. Completely shuts down. He is the child who will scream, hide and either frantically moving or freeze completely. In this state, there is no communication to be had. He has to experience his emotions and after an hour if we are lucky, then talk about his feelings. When he speaks about his feelings, he then usually triggers another response as he seems to feel heavily guilty for his "inappropriate" behaviour.... and the cycle continues. When he was younger these "episodes" could last six hours, easily. Rather than frantic, pacing movement thought he'd flail his body..... he is learning. We are all learning.

I need to pause as a I write this. If anyone stumbles across this and has a child who has some anxiety and more emotionally sensitive.... with patience, tremendous patience, your child can learn to cope. We are going on four years now and I may go as far as to say he is thriving. Our version of thriving. Just last week I still had someone say to me, "oh gawddddd, I could never deal with THAT." They stood up and walked away shaking there head. This was their reaction to my son's behaviour in a particular situation. He was transitioning to a new activity within the scope of the day, and he was needing a little extra support to do so. He had started to stress and swatted his hand at me which then followed tears and repetitive, "I am sorry!!  I am sorry! I am sorry, Mommy!  I didn't mean to hit you. I shouldn't do that! I am sorry!!" --- followed by massive tears. So, with this response --- why would we even "expose" our son to a new activity in a crowd of people? Quite frankly, how else will learn to cope? And, our son asked to participate. We will support and encourage him in anything he chooses --- within reason. ;)

Back to the race....His age group had about 200 kids. After words of encouragement from his teacher, he started with the crew. At the half-way mark, closer to the finish line I guess, we saw the first runner... the first hundred runners.... more and more runners..... and then, we saw this:

Our guy is in the foreground with the hat. He was running. He didn't look happy but he didn't look miserable. We'll take it. He lined up to receive his participant and placing ribbon, 184th. You couldn't see he was sad. When he finally opened up about his feelings, "I didn't get first." It was that "simple" of a statement. The little guy that shuts down has a fiesty, competitive nature in him. My response, "No. But, you did your best and that makes Mommy happy. Did you have fun?" The conversation continued, "I pushed people, Mommy. Other people were pushing. There wasn't room for everyone. I pushed some red guys. Some blue guys. And some green guys. But, not some yellow guys. Those are my team." ---- and, that left me speechless.

Running has brought something out of him - and that is a tremendous gift.