A Note From Mom

As we approach Mother's Day, I am reminded of the friends and family who are missing their own mothers who have passed on. It is my hope that this note will bless their hearts.

A Note From Mom

By Bectoria Stafford

My journey’s over now, and I’ve gone home, my children, you must feel all alone,

I’ve held you close, I’ve hugged you tight, and now we’ve had our last “good-night,”

I write this note, before I go, with lessons I want you to know,

In our fallen world, there is deception, in a sea of norms, be the exception,

Hold doors, learn names,

Give and forgive freely, so you’ll never know shame,

Open your hearts, to open minds,

Show the Love of your God, Divine,

Introduce yourself, take a chance,

In the wash of “I don’t knows,” take a stance,

When you meet others, look them in the eye, speak from the heart, and never lie,

Love each other, as God loves you, and read your Bible, because it’s true,

Live your life and know you’re free, and when it’s all over, you’ll come see me,

With Jesus there, He’ll welcome you in, He’ll hug you tight, your life-long friend,

Because of the grace that He gave you, you’ll be there forever in your body new,

Of all the things I could teach you, it’s what Jesus did, just for you,

That matters most, that matters at all, so in your faith, you’ll stand up tall,

To be your mom, I’ve been truly blessed, to teach you about His righteousness,

Because of Jesus and His sacrifice, you are free from sin, because He paid the price,

They say a mother’s love will never end, so show your tears, and don’t pretend,

A comforting warmth is your mother’s love, in fellowship with God above,

My life is not lost, for I am free, with my Savior for eternity,

Because of our Savior, we will meet again, so live your life fully until then,

And remember, because of Jesus Christ,

We’ll be together, forever, with Him, in paradise.

Love Always,

Mom

Cute Last-Minute Christmas Gift Idea

Running low on time and ideas for that last gift? Time to confess what we all are thinking. We all hate crap! Spare yourself the trouble of giving a knee-jerk purchase just to cross another one off your giving list. Instead, give a gift that says "I respect you enough not to fill your house with junk". Here's a solution. Consumables. I have written blog posts on the magic of giving consumables in the past and have thought of a cute new idea for this year.

Here's what you'll need...

Supplies:
Jar of consumable good (hot cocoa powder, hot fudge sauce, etc.)
Brown foam (enough for two antlers)
Googly eyes
Red paper or red craft ball (for nose)
Hot glue gun

Method:
Draw and cut antler shapes out of foam
Glue antlers to either side of your jar
Glue googly eyes to front of jar to make a face
Cut nose from red paper (or use other nose item) and glue to the jar to complete the face

And there you have it! A cute consumable any teacher/co-worker/coach, etc. would love.

Happy Giving!

Your One Stop Shop for Holiday Activity Ideas!

From my home to yours, Merry Christmas

It’s Christmastime! While it may only be December first, if you’re like me, you might already feel behind when faced with the daunting tasks this season brings. Confession time. I don’t merely want to “get through” the holidays. Instead I want to actually enjoy all the magic and splendor this season has to offer. Why should kids have all the fun?

To include all the fun and exclude the crazy, I find it best to schedule in some holiday activities. Planning ahead takes a little of the hysteria out of what should be memorable family time. To get your wheels spinning, I’ve packed this post with some fun ideas your family might enjoy.

Baking Cookies

The old standby. One thing my family and I will be doing this year is baking sugar cookies in the shape of the characters from the Nativity. We will then give these out to friends and neighbors. Here is a good recipe…

Ingredients:

1 c. butter, softened

1 ½ c. powdered sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

2 ½ c. flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cream of tartar

¼ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. nutmeg

¼ tsp. cinnamon

Method:

          Preheat oven to 400 degrees

      Cream butter and sugar  

     Add egg and vanilla. Mix well.

     Sift dry ingredients and add them to the mixture

     Chill dough for three to five hours 

     Roll onto floured board

     Cut out cookies to desired shapes

      Cool before decorating

Christmas Caroling

An old classic that, sadly, nobody does anymore. I try to incorporate a little party with this fun activity. I have a manned fire in the front yard accompanied with appetizers and spirits indoors. After singing our merry way through our neighborhood, we return home for Christmas cookies and hot cocoa. For the adults, I will be trying my hand at hot-buttered rum this year!

Here are a few ground rules for making this a successful activity…

1) Have plenty of gloves, flashlights and glow sticks to share.

2) Have kiddies take a bathroom break BEFORE venturing out!

3) Plan which song you are going to sing before you approach each house.

4) After you have sung your selected song, start moving on to the next house while singing the chorus  

of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”. This keeps things moving.

5) Avoid chatting too much with your neighbors, leaving guests to their own devices. (Number three from this list will help with that).

Here are a few classic tunes that usually work well for this activity…   

1) Jingle Bells

2) Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

3) Silent Night

Christmas Lights Tour

Kids love to look at Christmas lights! My kids always look forward to this fun tradition. We pack up some cookies, turn on the Christmas music, grab a fresh cup of hot cocoa and drive around looking for our favorite light displays!

Here are some ways to enhance the fun with this activity…

1)    Wear PJ’s

2)    Bring cozy blankets (Sorry drivers. None for you.)

3)    Pack Christmas light glasses (found at most toy stores)

4)    Create a bingo game (include Santa’s, Nativity scenes, reindeer, etc.)

5)    Play “I Spy”

You may want to take your tour one step further by booking a tour bus with your friends and family. Many of these bus companies allow cookies and cocoa on board. If you plan such a tour, I recommend scheduled bathroom breaks and bringing extra activities for the kids, including coloring sheets, a playlist of Christmas sing-a-long music, stickers and blank paper that they can use with crayons to create their own Christmas scene. 

Christmas Cards

This year, my kids will be making Christmas cards for teachers, coaches, our mail carrier, and others who help our family in special ways. I recommend doing this as a fun way of teaching kids how to get some of the warm fuzzies of good cheer.

Here are a few ideas…

      1) Snap and print some pics ahead of time

      2) Write out some “cheery message” ideas like “Seasons Greetings”, etc.

      3) Lay out a variety of craft supplies including markers, glue, crayons, ribbon, paint, cotton balls,

          stickers, etc.    

      4) Make it a party by putting out some snacks and a fun punch

      5) Include envelopes for after the cards dry

Give Back

For me, having theatre kids means that our family is always SUPER busy during the holidays. This makes it hard to make time for volunteering. If you’re low on time, consider giving back by purchasing some necessities and giving them to those less fortunate.

Here are some ideas…

Give your child a gift card to use in purchasing a special toy for a child in need

Have your family go food shopping for a local food bank

If you live in an area with cold weather, purchase scarves, gloves and hats and tie them to trees in areas where the homeless can find them. Attach a simple note saying “If you are in need of this item, please take it as our gift to you. With love, Merry Christmas”.

Have your family purchase and fill freezer bags with other essentials including beef jerky, wipes, bottled water, clean socks, feminine hygiene products and deliver them to shelters who can get them to the homeless (skip the hand sanitizer and mouthwash, please).

While the list of potential holiday fun can go on and on, I am hopeful that I have included some fun ideas that can be made to fit easily into your schedule. Happy planning happy holidays and MERRY CHRISTMAS

Top Five Must Do's to Keep Your Sanity This Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving. It’s that time of year when families and friends join in food and festivities.

Such joy. Such fun. Such STRESS!!

Want to remove some of the latter from this holiday? I’ve compiled a list of ideas to incorporate into your routine that will, hopefully, reduce the frazzle and increase the fun this Thanksgiving.

1) Make a cooking timeline.

Take the list of items you will be cooking for your feast and do a little research on how long it will take to cook each item. When doing so, please remember prep and resting times. To this, I always add a thirty-minute grace period just to make sure there is no frenzy at the end.

2)   Make dishes ahead of time.

Corn bread, pies and other dishes can be made ahead of time to cut down on workload the day of your big feast.

3)   Preset EVERYTHING!

Set tables, lay out and label serving dishes and utensils, set out stemware and other such items in advance to reduce the stress and scramble right at mealtime.

4)   DELEGATE!

Delegating can aid you in all of the above. If your brother knows he is to bring pies and Cousin Ruthie knows to help set everything out, prep and mealtime will go much more smoothly. I would even go so far as to recommend delegating clean up responsibilities. If family ages five through fourteen know they are responsible for clearing the table and family sixteen through twenty six know they are responsible for dishes while the rest take care of food storage, there will be less standing around and waiting and more socializing and fellowship for everyone to enjoy.

5)   Plan activities and snacks

Family. You gotta love ‘em but sometimes they can be grading on your nerves. Especially when you have a thousand potatoes to peel and you’re trying to walk that fine line between keeping the turkey moist enough not to turn into jerkey but warm enough to avoid salmonella poisoning. As much as they try to understand your workload for the day, all of the football in the world cannot keep everyone happy until the big meal. Kids will still get bored and Aunt Rose will still need to take her pill. A solution? Plan some activities and snacks that everyone can help themselves to throughout the day.

An iced tea, water and lemonade (or cider) station is all you really need to keep everyone happily hydrated throughout the day. Snack ideas include, protein and veggie platters, crackers with spreads, rolls with butter, corn bread muffins, a pickle platter, etc.  Really anything that can keep without too much refreshing. HINT: To keep items chilled, I set them on a plate over a bowl of ice. You can keep checking for coolness, but this trick has worked for me for years.

Plan different activities for different times of the day. Before the meal, set items out in a bin for outdoor games like football, Frisbee, etc. Indoor activities could include, building bricks, board games, large sheets with crosswords, etc.

Let’s face it. Adults take longer to eat than kids. It is for this reason that I always have a separate mealtime retreat for the kiddos where they can enjoy movies, crafts, brainteasers, etc. This keeps them occupied while adults have time to relax and reconnect.

After the meal, I always have some games and activities lined up for everyone to enjoy together. Board games, puzzles, charades or Karaoke are in usual Thanksgiving rotation at our house.

I have reflected on the experiences I have had in entertaining any number of people in my home over the past several holiday seasons and have compiled the above list in hopes to help another host setting out on this holiday venture. Take from it what you like and add to it to make it fit your unique holiday traditions and group of guests. The overarching lesson I have learned, which I hope is reflected in this post, is that a little planning ahead can make all the difference. Happy Thanksgiving!

A Little Holiday Humor

Since my last post, I have been told by some readers that they still have difficulty getting out of the hustle and bustle and into the true spirit of this holiday season. After telling them that it isn’t too late to find some holiday cheer, these holiday hold-outs ask me how I do it. Because I am a realist, I begin every holiday season with a quick self reminder (my own holiday chill-pill, if you will) that I have a houseful of small children (three under the age of five) and that mishaps will happen. Past experiences from parenting my biological children and also our foster children has taught me that… a) the gingerbread house will be torn to smithereens by Christmas Eve, b) the stockings that I have hung by the chimney with care will be yanked down repeatedly for the sole purpose of “just checking”, c) wrapping paper and tape will be used to make forts throughout the house and d) artfully coordinated ornaments will be used as toys. The most important lesson that I gained from repeated experiences much like those listed above is to ALWAYS expect ANYTHING to go wrong at ANY time throughout this season of joy and togetherness.

How do I get through the season while remaining sane and my house in one piece? By taking my own advice from my previous post and “enjoying the magic of the season through the eyes of a child”. By so doing, I am able to embrace the spirit by which my children dismantle my carefully arranged Nativity scene or unwrap presents once so ornately decorated that even Martha Stewart would be envious. Don’t be mistaken, however. I am not condoning a holiday free-for-all. I am simply recommending that parents give up the need for controlled perfection and accept the reality of mistakes and messes brought on by the curiosity that the holidays inspire.

The above statement again begs the question… How do I do it? By savoring the humor that accompanies these unfortunate and unforeseen moments. Instead of getting upset that “someone” broke all of the candy canes, I choose to laugh at the fact that that same “someone” tried to jam three of them up my two-year-olds nose. It’s surprising how quickly vacuuming up peppermint bits goes when done with a chuckle. Rather than waste my time and energy insisting that home videos be cinematic masterpieces, I allow my children to be themselves and I try not to crack up when the little one picks her nose while her sister sings an energetic rendition of “Rudolph the Red- Nosed Reindeer”. I don’t even bother getting grinchy and grumpy when "somehow" all of the chocolate from the advent calendar finds its way up the stairs and melts itself to my child’s bedspread. I find that stain lifter always works better when applied with a grin.

While it may take practice, choosing to pick out funny moments among the chaos is a prescription anyone can follow. To help out, the following are a few fun memories from my family’s 2010 Christmas season…

Our family embraces “the Elf on the Shelf” tradition. For those who don’t know, this elf visits children in their homes each day throughout the Christmas season. He then flies back to the North Pole each night to report their actions to Santa. Many parents appreciate having an extra set of eyes around the house to ensure that everyone is acting "nice" and not "naughty". Because the elf leaves each night, he returns each morning to a different location in the house. This adds to the fun as many children look forward to finding where their elf has hidden each new day. One day, our family’s elf had run out of places to hide, so, for some reason, rather than hiding in a previous location, he opted to hide in our bathroom. This unfortunately was the same day our children were writing their Christmas letters to Santa. Had I known our elf’s current location having run out of options, I never would have suggested that our children give their letters to the elf to deliver to Santa. When I did make the suggestion, my four-year-old let me know just how ridiculous and inappropriate that idea was. Wow. What were we thinking? I am glad that she made this so clear. Now I am sure that neither the elf nor I will ever make a mistake like that again!

It was neat to learn that our daughter’s preschool teacher still believes in Santa too. Santa thinks that she is so special, in fact, that this year, she even received a letter from the big guy. Included in this letter were the names of each of her students who would be receiving a special gift under the tree. Our daughter was thrilled to hear the names of each of her classmates as her teacher read them off of Santa’s list. That was until the teacher finished reading the list, not realizing that Santa had left out the name of one classmate who was presently on vacation. Our little one came home distraught that her classmate would not receive a Santa gift because he wouldn’t be home in time for Christmas. Despite our attempts to reassure her, our daughter was so concerned for little Daniel that this became the main topic of our dinner discussion during that and the next couple of nights. Everyone was relieved when we attended the school’s Christmas program and saw for ourselves that Daniel had returned from vacation and therefore would be receiving a gift from Santa. Phew! Talk about a close one!

Another holiday tradition that our family has is a special Christmas Eve bedtime recitation of Clement Clarke Moore’s “The Night Before Christmas”. One would think that I would have this rhyme well rehearsed by now, being that I began this tradition during my own childhood. Alas, this is not the case, but I have a compelling reason as to why! Each year we opt to have my father continue the tradition in his beautiful baritone voice. When it came to be bedtime this Christmas Eve we unfortunately were unable to reach him by phone. Rather than keep our children up too late my husband and I attempted to recite the poem ourselves. With even our best tag-team efforts, we were only able to get to the point of “hearing such a clatter” and then “running” to the “window to see what was the matter”. We were at a loss for where to go after “flying” to the window like a “flash”, tearing open the shutters and throwing up the “sash”. Rather than making up a happy ending, the thoughtful parents that we are, my husband and I unwittingly struck fear into the hearts of our small children by abruptly ending the story with “Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night”. This incident would soon become known among our friends and extended family as the Crandall family “Nightmare before Christmas”. No relation to the movie, of course, but with an experience like that, what small child needs a movie to scare the wits out of them?

This list of humorous Christmas stories can go on and on, but my point is to help each reader identify those funny experiences that make each family’s holiday season uniquely memorable and special. As each household concludes the holiday season by preparing for New Year’s celebrations it is my hope that this post has done just that.