Toddler Friendly New Year's Eve :)

I have always enjoyed celebrating New Year's Eve at home. Growing up I loved it when we would watch festivities on TV playing boardgames and counting down as the ball dropped in Central Park. I get caught up in the excitement of the moment. It's just so much fun! Last year I decided that my children were old enough to have some fun with some of the silly things that go along with New Year's Eve so I tried to think of a way to celebrate it with them while still getting them to bed at a reasonable time because you know as well as I do that they will wake up at the same early time regardless of when they go to bed. We've done it again this year and we had so much fun with it I thought I would share :)

While at the store earlier in the week I picked up some sparkling Welch's Grape Juice, noise makers, and fun 2014 cardboard glasses. At our normal time we got into our pajamas and had a party. We talked about what a new year meant on their level and had a little party. I had gone onto youtube and found a clip of the ball dropping in Time Square from last year and we watched it and celebrated the coming new year. The kids had a lot of fun. Juice in our house is usually consumed watered down, so having carbonated juice was a treat for them. D said it was spicy. They had so much fun being silly with the glasses and asked me to play the youtube video of the ball dropping a few times :) All around a good time was had...and we even got to practice counting down from 10! :)

However you have decided to ring in the New Year, I pray that it is filled with many blessings and much happiness! Happy New Year!

"...but MooOOoooom, I want to be very busy!"

This morning as we were driving to school I was going over our planned activities for the day and the weekend. I told them that we would be visiting a lot of people this weekend. L asked "We're visiting a lot of people today?" When I told her that we would be making our visits tomorrow and Sunday she started to whine about wanting to be busy. This made me sad. I know that what she meant by that was she enjoys having fun things to do, but the it coming out that she wants to be very busy made me sad and here's why.

The past few weeks I've learned a lot. I had the opportunity to participate in an amazing retreat weekend called Cursillo through my church. The theme of the weekend was Be Still and it is exactly what I needed. As a busy working mommy still is something that I have looked at as more of a luxury instead of a necessity. We very quickly get more and more hats to wear: Wife, Mommy, Teacher, PTA board member, Volunteer Coordinator, taxi driver to dance, soccer, basketball.... and so on and so forth. All of the extras are very fulfilling, but if you let them they can take away from what is truly important. This doesn't mean that you can't be involved in outside activities it's the way you go about it.--That's what I've been learning this year...and trying to implement in my own life. It sounds like it would be easy to do. I just have to set aside some time right? Other mommies out there are laughing right now, I know :) What I've found the past couple months since going on Cursillo is you have to be creative while scheduling your be still time.

A friend and I were talking about this a couple of weeks ago. We were trying to figure out how we could make sure we spend more time on a daily basis in prayerful reflection and studying the Bible. Both of us work full time,  have young children, and husbands with demanding work schedules. My friend was telling me how she has even signed up for alerts to help her remember to make time, but she ends up turning off the alert not being able to be still in that moment. Here are some creative solutions we came up with:
-At work, take your phone (if you have a smart phone) with you on a bathroom break and go to your favorite Bible Study site or prayer/reflection site, pull up an online copy of the Bible, etc.
-If you find yourself waking up before your alarm take that time while still lying in bed for prayerful reflection or even reading the Bible out loud to your spouse.
-Keep a family friendly daily reflections at the kitchen or dining room table to read before or after a meal the family gathers for.
-When the kiddos go down for a nap or at bedetime take the first 10 minutes to be still yourself before starting on the to do list

What I've been reminded is that taking the time to be still and have prayerful reflection and spiritual development time for myself is a necessity for a less stress, more optimistic perspective. This ultimately makes me happier and able to more thoroughly enjoy and appreciate the blessings around me.