Keeping the kids awake during road trips

When I was young and when we went on road trips, we had to walk barefoot uphill both ways in the snow. Wait.  I mean, we had to entertain ourselves with nothing more than the radio to listen to and the other passengers to entertain us. (But. But.  I don't LIKE THAT SONG!) I've always gotten sick really easily if I read or wrote or coloured in the car, so when I was a kid, when were weren't listening to the limited radio stations available to us (and I swear, I feel like our first car didn't even HAVE a radio) we were singing songs and playing games. We have a lot more options at hand for the kids on road trips now.  For one, they don't get car sick (knock on wood) so they colour and write stories and read books.  We also have the plethora of electronics we throw into the back to keep them entertained.  But sometimes we kick it  old school when we're in the car, and it reminds us how much fun car games can be. We often pull out the car games in moments of desperation - like when they're about to fall asleep with only an hour left to go.  That nap you know will make everything quiet in the car/van but if they sleep they'll be up until midnight.  And you don't want them up until midnight!!

20 questions

It's an oldie but a goodie.  Think of something and let people ask you yes, no, or sometimes questions until they guess what you're thinking of (or you hit 20 questions.) Warning.  It isn't a super easy concept for the 5 and under crowd to grasp. Have you tried playing 20 questions with 7 and 5 year olds? It's hilarious!  And possibly a bit frustrating if you let it get to you. Daddy "Is it an animal?" 7 year old "yes" Mommy "Does it have fur?" 7 year old "yes" 5 year old "Is it a house?" Mommy "We already said it was a furry animal" 5 year old "Oh right! Is it a furry cloud with feet?" snicker snicker snicker. 7 year old giggling "No!" Other 5 year old "Is it a house?"

Story-telling game

This is where one person starts a story and each person gets to add a sentence to the story.  This goes well as long as you have the following rule:  Your sentence cannot be "and then he died. The End."  Without that rule, there is fighting.  With that rule, things go quite smoothly as we move through lands of princesses, dragons and monsters. We also play license plate games, and find all the letters of the alphabet games.  Here is a whole list of games to play in the car, many of which we've tried and done quite successfully. How about you?  What games do your kids like to play in the car?

I said "no" and the world didn't end

I'm a Yes Person. How awesome are we? Ask us anything - anything at all - and we will most likely say Yes. Can you give me a lift to my appointment?  YES!

Are you free to babysit my dog? YES!

Do you have $20 to donate to my charity? YES!

We need extra volunteers in the classroom - can you do it? YES!

Instead of YES, how about "I'm just not sure!"

Never mind that the appointment is across town. Never mind that I have my own dog and two young children to take care of. Never mind that I've already donated hundreds of dollars to other charities this year. And never mind that I work three jobs and just don't have the hours to volunteer in the classroom. The answer is always - YES!

But here's the problem with Yes People. We say YES so often that we actually end up saying NO. But we say NO by cancelling at the last minute, forgetting appointments and social dates, or doing a half-assed job. The "no" doesn't come from an authentic place of self-knowledge and plain old common sense; it comes from a place of fear - fear of failure, fear that people will be disappointed in me, and fear that I will never be good enough.

And I've realized that by being a YES person, I also miss out on a lot of opportunities to give back in meaningful ways, because I tell myself I just don't have the time. For example, I've never donated blood. Can you believe it? Something so simple, and yet I give myself permission to be "too busy" for this life-saving gesture that takes very little time to do.

The lesson I'm teaching my kids when I say YES all the time is simple:

I don't have boundaries. I can't recognize when I've stretched myself so thin that I'll soon snap like a rubber band.

It's time for a NO revolution. Or - maybe a more conscious and mindful use of the word YES. Because although YES can be generous, loving and kind, NO deserves a whole lotta respect.

Have you practiced saying NO lately?

We could be dancing

My kid is a mover. She rarely slows down, and she loves to dance, but she didn't like the one ballet class we tried because it was too slow for her. I heard about Salsa Babies when she was little but I never took the class. When I found out Dancing Mama offers a class called Zumbini for older kids and a parent I signed us up right away. Even better: The class I signed us up for is at Brinkeetos and we can stay to play afterwards.

I think my daughter may be a bit old for the class. We would dance and then sit for a song, and the slowing down was hard for her, but once our teacher Dani brought out some instruments she was happy.

And then she put bells around her wrists and ankles and danced around and was in total heaven.

Dani was great with the kids and it certainly gave my daughter some good exercise. I know I was sweating by the end of our hour.

My daughter is four, and I think the class is more suited to younger kids, but if you have a child that loves to bounce around and dance to music I recommend it.

Hoppy Easter and Pink Carrots!

I love trying out Pinterest-type crafts and recipes, but they never seem to turn out the same. Probably just a sign that I'll never be a Martha Stewart.

carrots...aka Pink Blobs

These strawberries dipped in chocolate are supposed to look like carrots. But I couldn't find orange wafers at Bulk Barn, so just decided to mix red and yellow....which makes pink, apparently.

Instructions:

• Melt chocolate: we use a stainless steel bowl inside a pot of hot water, as I don't own a double boiler
• dip strawberries into melted chocolate and place on a sheet of parchment paper
• Use a spoon to drizzle extra chocolate over the top
• Ask your kids what they look like, and try not to cry when they say "flowers!"

The good news is that they taste egg-cellent!

Happy Easter from one #Pinterestfail Mom to another.

(to try out these "carrots" yourself, check out this link from the Marilyn Denis Show - lots of fantastic ideas!) 

Freezer Meals

I’m sure everyone (those with or without children) struggles with weekday meals. A long work day and stressful commute can make meal preparation a challenge. Thankfully there are solutions that don’t involve dinner-in-a-box or expensive take-out. It requires some hard work, and a bit of planning, but the end result is a freezer full of dinners for your hungry family.

1) The first step is to find some girl (or guy) friends who you wouldn’t want to murder with a kitchen knife after a long day of cooking. My friends and I have discovered that 4 people work well together, each being responsible for 3-4 meals.

2) The next step is to decide whose kitchen you will grace with your culinary disasters talents. This must be a big kitchen, with lots of counter space for chopping and preparing ingredients. It is also helpful if the host has all the gadgets (eg. food processor, good set of pots/pans, lots of knives etc.); but not essential, as other participants can bring their own stuff with them.

3) Follow a recipe!! Trying to create your own meals out of the blue is a recipe (hehe) for disaster. Our friend who started the whole tradition found this book at Chapters, which is what we follow:

4) Each choose 3-4 meals you would like to make, but have one person responsible for writing up the grocery list. Creating the master list can take a long time (e.g. wait, was that 15lbs of ground beef, or 50lbs?), so share the responsibility each time you do your cooking day.

5) Decide where to go shopping. Both times, we have gone to Costco, with a quick run to a regular grocery store for the extras. We also contribute our own ingredients – condiments and spices are most likely just lying around in your cupboards at home. Allocate at least 2-3 hours for shopping!

Lotsa meat!!

6) Decide where to store the food. This last time, we had the benefit of snow outside to keep our meat cold. But a cooking day in July can be challenging for finding fridge space for all the food!

7) Don’t forget to eat! Plan what you will do for a lunch break. We have found red wine to be very helpful in maintaining a calm atmosphere.

Donuts are an essential ingredient!

The cookbook we use is designed specifically for this kind of cooking/storing. You can do this with 2, 4, 6 or 8 people (we have come to the conclusion that 8 people would be madness). I’ve noticed that some of the meals are big enough to feed my family twice, so if I end up with 10 meals in total, I actually have something close to 20 dinners!

Despite my caution against making up recipes “out of the blue,” we have experimented with some recipes we know and love. For example, my friend’s lasagna is a huge winner, so she makes up 4 giant lasagnas which are stored in tinfoil pans. I have also done a massive pot of chili and quinoa stew, and divided them amongst 4 freezer bags.

Our one complaint with this cookbook is that it is strictly meat-based meals. My husband is very happy about this, as he would eat meat all day if I let him! But if you are very health conscious, you may shy away from all the ground beef, chicken and pork, as well as the generous amounts of sugar and salt. My commitment to buying only local/organic meats goes out the window for these cooking days.

This is the reason why we have expanded to include our own vegetarian recipes, and our goal for next time is to try to do more of these, and less from the book. The focus on meat can also make it more expensive, as clearly, dried or canned legumes cost much less. But all in all, it has been a very positive experience, and has saved me many a-nights wondering what I need to do for dinner.

Costs

The grand total this time around was: $174 per person (family) for 11 meals*

The grand total last time was: $130 for about 8 meals (can’t remember the exact #)**

*don’t forget that the meals are large enough to last 2 nights

**as a gift to our pregnant friends (1 last time, and 1 this time), 3 of us picked up the bill, which allowed us to give the gift of food to a new family. A great baby shower gift idea!!

Other Hints/Tips

- most recipes call for chopped onion or carrots. Do ALL of the onions and carrots beforehand in a food processor. Saves on a lot of time, and any leftovers can be packed in freezer bags for future use. One mom took our leftover carrots to make baby food!

- This takes us about 6 hours, with a break for lunch. So plan for 9am – 3pm

- Bring some grocery bins or big boxes with you to carry your food home. Some things need to remain upright (lasagna) so that they don’t squish or spill.

- Make photocopies of the recipes and cooking instructions, and staple a copy to each bag. This helps to avoid the “what the heck is that!?” question two months down the road.

- oh, and have fun!!!