A monkey on my back

My kids are growing faster and faster every day, and are needing me a bit less then they use too, but they still are needing a lots of me, making any sense here?

I always knew I was a introvert, but couldn't explain to others how I felt or how they could help me.

 To a extrovert,  introverts may look like hermits that lives in a cabin back in the wood and never wants to be around people. But it's so far from the truth, we love people and being around them, but we do not get re-energized by being in a social setting. We need our time alone, in quietness and with no little hands touching us.

See where I'm going with this, motherhood and introverts not always the best combo.

 My kids like to touch me, talk to be, be around me, ALL the time. I love my children, they are a blessing and my joy, but sometime I'm all touched out and want to run around the house saying "don't touch me, don't touch me, don't touch me" 

I have to admit sometime I eat my meals after they are in bed, just because I need to have some food in me and not having to fight with them from stealing it. They have also learned to leave me alone while I'm having a cup of coffee before I start school, they understand that mama needs her time alone so she can give more of herself to them.

My desire for them is to give them my best, but I can't do it if I'm drained all the time. How about you, did you ever wanted to hide yourself in the closet from your children?

"Yesterday I read these words, and if you are an introverts homeschooling mother, you will enjoy!"

Have a wonderful weekend

Small breakthroughs

Most mothers can tell you that they remember when their little one were babies, they could tell the difference between certain cries, the one for nourishment, the one for affection,  for being bored or those "pick me up I'm in pain" cries.

Others will tell you that certain stages of toddlerhood when the verbal communication is still fine tuning, are the hardest. When you feel you don't understand their needs. The frustration that you both share, yours to understand them, and theirs to try to communicate with you.

Along the way I had a few "Why. but why" moments. Trying to get a glimpse of what is going on in their little heads: when they color all over the wall with permanent markers, flush down a toy in the toilet, when they love certain food one day and not the next, when they wake up too early and are still tired?!

Those are the mysteries that makes you scratches your head. Sometimes it's easy to find what is going on, curiosity is always a big one, or when they are trying to test limits.

With one of my little girl, the mystery was, why is it that every time I ask her to pick up toys or clean up, she sit down on the floor and do NOTHING?  For months, was getting frustrated, thinking that she was just being disobedient.

 But one day, I asked her find the matching boots and put them in a row along the wall, and she did it joyfully.

That day, I peeked a bit more into her brain. She needs specific instructions. If I ask her siblings to clean up, they can figure out what needs to be done (well, for most parts), but for her, it's like I was talking a different language, and maybe I was.

I now have to train myself when I ask her to do something, to remember how she thinks, and give my instructions accordingly.

How about you, have you ever had moments that you just didn't understand what was going on in their  little  heads?

It's a never ending story

"I was a ok housekeeper, then I had kids"

Unless your family are ok with not wearing clothes or eating, the chances of you having to, wash and fold, cook and clean, are to be expected.

There is no such thing as being "caught" up, if you are a mom. Each day, you are doing the same thing. You get them something to wear, to eat, and try to maintain sorta a nice enough, clean enough home. 

But today, I want to say something to you.

You are doing a GREAT job, those crumb that you have under the kitchen table are there because you feed your family well. That laundry pile, is beautiful, because they have kept them warm and prevented public indecency.  Oh and that sink, a great testimony of the beautiful creative culinary art that was being created here.

Take a deep breath, a cup of coffee, put on some music, have fun, clean a bit and remember, it will be all cleaned (maybe not all at the same time) but it will, eventually.

Would you kids rather see you smiling and having fun or being grumpy.. the choice is yours!

Always room for hope and breathing

You have been awake for hours in the middle of the night, taking care of a sick kid. Or maybe your new baby needs to nurse non stop and has a huge fit if you try to put him or her down. That strong willed child that will not do anything without giving you a fight. It could be those terrible two's, or three's, or your precious little blessing is just being terrible!  Or what about the little person that just won't stay in bed no matter how many time he or she has been send there. Whatever the reasons are, you might feel overwhelm, tired, alone and lets face it a bit depress.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE! Mothers all around are feeling just like you, how do I know? Because I was one of them.

"I wish someone would have told me, tried to prepare me, for just how hard motherhood would be" ~ Sarah Mae taken from Desperate: Hope for the Mom who needs to breath 

If you have talked to me lately, I might have mention this book at least once, or twice... ok ok I know I might have bored you with how much I LOVED the book, and I haven't even finished reading it yet. But why do I like this book so much, there is so many books about motherhood out there? 

This book is written by Sarah Mae and Sally and it's almost like they are sharing a conversation all throughout the book. One is the younger mom with kids around the same age as my girls and the other, a wiser mother of grown children, both sharing their struggles and wisdom.

 Many time reading this book, I would think "I have been trough this too" or "Do I ever relate to THAT!". It made me understand and realized why and how I felt, made those feeling real, and helped me to be able to let go of the guilt I felt for having those feelings. 

This book is real, and I love that about it. 

One thing that stood out while reading the book was, the need of friendship, how important it is not to do it all alone. We were created to be in fellowship, in a community, to rub shoulders with one another. I realized that no one can know your needs if you are alone, and therefore no one can help you. Taking time to invest in friendship is very important all throughout your journey of motherhood. Nobody needs to do it alone. 

There is no need to be desperate anymore.

I am very thankful for the friend that brought me coffee without knowing that I was running seriously low and wasn't able to get to the store that particular day, and for the one and send me a gift certificate trough the mail and for the other that keep me in her prayers. And to many other lovely ladies who are part of my life, who help me grow each day, who's shoulders I have cried on, who have watch my kids when I was sick or needed to be out doing errands.

 I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Always greener on the other side

Since one of the girls is in schooling age, the "How does she like her school, does she like her teacher?" questions have been coming from different people. To strangers, it's always easy to say "yes she likes school and she LOVES her teacher". I don't have to explain to them that we homeschool and tell them the reasons why we do it. I don't feel the need to prove to them that I am able to teach our daughters or having the fear that they will quiz them to make sure that they are indeed learning SOMETHING.

But when it comes to people close to us, people that haven't been around  children who have learn from home, it's get more touchy.

 I went to public school, I did well, and wasn't emotionally scared by it. The only downside of it was that I wished it would have been a bit more challenging academically and would have foster more of the independent learning. I personally think is the key to have a life long inquisitive spirit. With that said, I think that the school system are doing a good job teaching our kids.

So why do I want to educate from home, if the school are doing a good enough job. I have  many reasons as why I choose to do it, and I might get into them one of these days, for  now one of the reason is that homeschooling the girls is what is the best for them in this season of life.

Now, because I have been in the public school system, all I know about school is desks align in a row, fixed scheduled, tests and homework.  Of course when I see curriculum that comes in a box set, the all-you-need-to-teach-your-child box is so very tempting, and closer to what I know. I have look in the past at a few of those "boxes", but for some reason my pocketbook likes to play hide-and-go-seek every time I find one that I really like, they don't come cheap. Then the insecurities comes, can I teach them without the box set, how can I show the people that I love that we are learning, if I don't have something like what they know, like typical school?

Reading trough Sally and Clay Clarkson book, Educating the WholeHearted Child, put my mind a bit more at ease. I am not a cookie cutter type of person, and the girls have a bit of the outside-of-the-box type of personalities. I am sure they would perform well in many different learning setting, but I want to be part of it, seeing them learn and grow, doing it together. For now, I am not using a box curriculum, but we are still learning, I might in the future invest in one, but not now.

How about you, have you ever had curriculum envy? If you are teaching from home, what do you use?

Making the best of winter

It's been one of those weird winter. The weather as been all over the place, seriously, a few seasons could be seen in one day. Just like this morning, I was sunny when I woke up but as I'm looking outside the sky is strangely changing, another snowstorm is coming.

That would explain why the girls were running from one end of the house to the other for about an hour, and I fished out a toy from the toilet last night.

Does your kids acts a bit crazy when the weather is about to change? Mine do!

I am longing for spring, the fresh air, the birds signing and playtime OUTSIDE, the not having to put on a snowsuit and boost. Winter is not over yet, still a while for spring to come.

 How to make the best of this time? Finding activities that will keep the little one cheerful, busy and out of trouble can sometime be a challenge.

Here are a few outdoor activities the girls love to do when the weather is permitting

• play in the snow
• make snowman, and trow snowballs
• jump on the trampoline full of snow
• slide down the small hill in the backyard (thanks for the snow cleaning people for making that for them)

For indoor activities (for those days that it's too cold to go play or that I don't feel like having to dress 3 little goose in snow gears. What, you mean you never felt that way!) 

• making a fort with bed sheet and a bunked beds
• crafts, pinterest is a very nice place to get inspiration  
• Movie and popcorn on the couch
• picnic on the floor 
• reading time (reading a few chapters of  books like Anne the green gable and little house on the prairie , Narnia series etc...)
• baking together 

Now how about you, what are the activities you and your family enjoyed this winter?

As seen on pinterest ~ Cheese crackers

A while ago I made the jump into pinterest, and I fell in love.

 If you have an addictive personality, I may suggest that you stay far far away from it. But if you like to try new things, new ideas, new recipes and you just want a quick way to organized your "plan to" ideas, it's a wonderful site to do it.

If you are like me, you might have pinned many many many things on your "will try this one day", but this week I planned to try to make or do at lest ONE of my pins, and share it with you. So here we go.

My girls are addicted to "Goldfish" crackers, really, seriously addicted. One particular little girl will wake up in the middle of the night asking for them, silly goose. Being a mama that love giving in to the food love language of those precious princess, wanted to try a alternative to the store bought crackers.

There is nothing wrong with the store bought product, it's quick and easy, open the bag and serve it to the little one, but that was the problem for our family, it was too accessible. So my attempt to give them what they want, in moderation, made me look to pinterest for a easy recipe of the cheesy treat they love.

I first found this pin and someone recommended this one instead . She said that she really like it, after looking at it, I wasn't a bit fan of the idea of having all the spices in the cracker, and wanted to be careful with the salt content of it all.

Here is my version of the "Sharp Cheddar Cheese Crackers"

Start by having your butter room temperature. Do not try to microwave, it's not the same trust me, I know.

Here are what you will need

• 4 tablespoons of unsalted (room Temp) butter or 1/2 a stick
• 8 oz of cheese finely graded, I use mild cheddar in mine (that was what I had on hand)  
• 1 cup of all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoon of cold water

I don't have a fancy stand mixer, or a mixer not even a egg beater, ya my kitchen needs a bit of new appliances but that will come with time. If you think you need fancy tools or mad baking skills, think again because I made these without either of those.

Lets begin with putting on a cute apron, isn't baking more fun with a apron on! Then turn on your oven at 375 degrees. Get all your ingredient and your strong arms ready and follow these simple steps.

Step one: cute the butter into small pieces, if you have kids they can do this part for you.

Step two: add the flour to the pieces of butter in a bowl and mix it all together, again the kids can help with that too. Look like you know what you are doing while they are doing all the work!

Step three: add the water to the mixture and  the cheese use your hands to make a ball of dough (you may need a bit more water if too crumbly) You may want to dived the dough mixture (I put some on mine in the fridge and used two days later. It can also be frozen. Just remember to bring the dough out in room temperature before doing the next step)

Step four: Using a rolling pin, roll the dough very thin and start cutting the shape of your crackers (I use the smallest cookie cutter I owned)

Step five: on the cookie sheet place the crackers about 1 inch apart. Also go over each cracker with a fork and make some holes (this will help during the baking time for the crackers not to puff up too much)

Step six: bake for about 10 minutes, or until golden brown.

Step seven: let them cool on a cooling rack (warn the kids that the cheese makes the crackers super hot and they have to wait before eating them, might insert a lesson on patience while you are at it)

Now after they are cooled, it's time to enjoyed those yummy crackers. They are a excellent with a nice warm  bowl of soup. But what I like about making those the most is that because the girls were part of the making the crackers, doing some of the work, they have learn to appreciate the treat better. Remember all things are good, in moderation.

Now how about you, have you tried any pins this week? If you did, would you be so kind and share it with me. Leave a link in the comment with the pins you have tried.

You can follow me on pinterest here

Welcome

Hi there,

Taking a small brake from folding laundry to properly greet you. 

I would offer you a nice warm cup of coffee  or tea but but bloggers haven't figured out how to hospitable yet. 

So take your time, I'll be waiting for you to prepare your choice of drink and we'll meet again soon.

Have a wonderful fun fill day,

    and don't forget the laundry will still be there in the morning.