Breakfast with Cousins

This morning my cousin, RJ invited us all over to share a breakfast together. He has a 6 -year-old daughter, who gets along smashingly with Jacks AND Trina, which considering the age difference is quite awesome!

I love that they get to play together, and RJ and I can pick up where we left off years ago.

PARENTING

It’s not easy being a parent. No matter if you work outside the home, inside the home. No matter if you have one, two, three or fifteen children. No matter if you have a small house in a big city or a big house in a small city. No matter if you have money coming out your ears or very little money.

Raising children is hard work — at least it is if you are doing it right.

And yet our children don’t care how fancy we are, or how many messages we get in an hour on our blog. The smaller they are the more they need us. The bigger they are, the more they need us. Sometimes, the more they need us, the more we want to slink away and find some blanket to crawl under. But it doesn’t have to feel that way.

Breaks for parents are absolutely essential.

Absolutely.

There is a time and place for media and screens and technology.  It’s about being conscious, as a parent and a human being, about when and how we are turning to the computer or TV for simply boredom or laziness.

To truly be awake to this life — these few fleeting impressionable years — we have but one choice to make each day: embrace our blessings and honor those around us. Practicing mindful choices each day is something that we have to model for our children.

There are many ways that you can just be with your children that are not hard work, challenging or tiresome. You may discover that your child will reach out to you simply because you are suddenly available. The magic in this list is that it’s just simply being together for a solid half hour or so but it offers up the most beneficial memories we can offer to children. Here are some of our family’s favorites:

• Turn off the TV/computer/phones for one hour. (In our house, we limit daily screen time to a total of one-two hours on our weekly movie nights).
• Have a work hour — they do homework and you work on a hobby like art or reading while sitting at the same table.
• Just listen to music. At our house, we call this a dance party.
• Surprise them with a celebration for trying hard on a test or homework and eat cookies and milk, or ice cream or hot chocolate.
• Sit on the couch while they play and read magazines. They will sit next to you eventually and ask, ”Whatcha reading?”
• Grab two balls and challenge everyone to find something fun to do with them outside.
• Snuggle under a blanket or put a puzzle together.
• Ask them open-ended questions about their day.
• Tell them something surprising about your day.
• Draw together, taking turns adding new lines on the same paper.
• Take a drive, taking turns picking the direction and sitting in silence as the unfamiliar landscape passes you by.
• Look at their baby photos.
• Tell them a funny story from their younger days, or your own childhood. In fact, tell them any story you can think of telling.
• Ask them to teach you how to do something. This is big. Very big.
• Announce that there will be no cleaning for just one day.
• Give them a coupon for a hug to use anytime they need it.

BIG surprise--- SNOW

We had so much snow fall that the kids needed to dig and tunnel to escape the house!
M

My dad