H & M and Our response

 

Every so often, too often, headlines break as the world is in shock and horror because someone allowed a racially insensitive ad to go into publication. It got through at the very least hundreds of people without being successfully flagged or called out for racial insensitivity.

We’ve heard it once, we’ve heard it a thousand times. The company is really sorry and they mean no harm. The solution to there not being enough representation in the first place to stop these shenanigans is for black people to create and sell their own products. We need to be our own voice and stop being surprised when different voices misrepresent us.

With that being said, we turned this upset into an opportunity. We want to teach our kids to see the world differently and one way we do that is by giving them some control over the narrative of their lives. So we created a shirt for our brand. This sentiment is true for my babies and it is something we are all proud of.

We used teespring.com to design our shirts. I like teespring.com because it is really easy to use. I even told the kids I would post their ideas or artwork for sale so they can share it with our huge family. The campaigns are short but this is a great way to introduce your children to e-commerce and to encourage them to create media rather than follow it.

Check out our shirts they will be available until Monday 1/15/18. If we get enough feedback we will continue to make them available for purchase. I hope you like them and if you make one of your own drop the link below so we can support. Let’s not count on others to represent us, let’s represent ourselves.

Much love!

5 Financial Tips For 2018

 

Happy New Year!!!!!! This year I am committed to being intentional about maximizing and increasing our monthly income. I started looking for deals in December 2017 and I came across some really cool ones.

1. Ebates – You have probably seen the commercials I am here to tell you it is legit. Ebates is an easy way to get cash back. Sign up, open a “shopping trip” on their site and purchase what you want. It usually takes a business day for you to see your cash back. The cool thing is they pay out monthly automatically and it goes to your PayPal account. When getting cash back you only get a few dollars or cents at a time but it adds up. For larger purchases, it is a must. Did I mention you can use it on Amazon?! If you aren’t on Ebates up here.
2. DOSH – This is a cash back app that allows you to connect your credit card then get a percentage of your purchase back when buying from their listed retailers. I like this because you don’t have to do anything but use your registered card. Dosh ran an amazing promo at the end of 2017. I joined the promo late but was able to make over $100 over the course of a few days. They pay out via PayPal which I always like but it does take 3-5 business days to process. It’s just like Ebates but you’re rewarded for both in person and online orders.  Click here to sign up.
3. Ohm – We all need and use electricity right? Wouldn’t it be awesome if to save money on your electric bill and get cash for using less energy? Ohm lets you do just that. This program is in California only and you MUST have an online account with your electric company. Ohm connects to your Smart Meter and sends you text alerts so you can power down during peak hours. By powering down you get points which convert into dollars. Its good for your pocket and the environment. See if it is available in your county by clicking here.
4. Budget Book- This may seem simple but its something that can change your finances. Write it down. Micheals has a cute budget book that helps you keep track of every dime you spend. I love planners! This one is great for my home planner. It’s also really inexpensive so get a few to use throughout the year. 
5. Challenge Yourself – Have you heard of the nickel challenge? Maybe the nickel or quarter challenge? Basically, you take a box, large bottle, piggy bank ect and put every nickle, dime, or quarter in that box. Don’t open it until the end of the year.

I hope these 5 tips help. What are your financial goals in 2018?

Amy’s Farm Review

This month we took a field trip to Amy’s farm in Ontario, CA. At first sight, I was unsure whether to drive in or park outside. I took a chance unsure and drove in. With cows on either side of me, I pulled right into a small parking lot.

As we looked around for a few minutes we were met by Farmer Stephanie our tour guide for the day. She gave us the ground rules, then we headed for the garden. This garden is the stuff dreams are made of! I aspire to have a garden this fruitful one day and seeing this really encouraged me to keep trying to grow my family food.

Look at this beautiful kale!

The kids got to pick a leafy snack for the piglets.

Until now I didn’t know okra flowers were so beautiful. 

Once we left the garden we went to feed the piglets and see the goats. We learned that these goats only had bottom teeth so their nibbles wouldn’t cause any damage.

The chickens shook their tail feathers and the goats competed for the dino kale.

Then it was off to meet a Jersey Cow named Donut. She made 5 gallons of rich creamy milk a day.

The kids brushed Rocky.

Then we were off the milk Martha.

I don’t eat pork at all (or generally allow my family to due to environmental racism) but K loves bacon and since this farm offers organic, responsibly sourced meats, he splurged and got a few packs.

This was a great outing for the kids! Amy’s farm is open to the public most days of the week and it’s free unless you are paying for a tour. If you are in SoCal and looking for something educational to do with the kids stop here and check it out. I would even splurge on the tour.

How to Teach Your Kids Emotional Intelligence

Kids feel so much and have such a limited vocabulary. Teaching children Emotional Intelligence techniques allows them to better handle stress while helping you as a parent stress less. It may seem like a big task but once broken down it’s really easy. Make these tasks habits and you will see a big change in the way your child communicates with you.

1. Quiet time – Some days my kids are extra whiny. This is so annoying to me, they get whiny I get frustrated, they whine, I’m irritated it is a vicious cycle, and next thing you know we all need a time out. Taking time out in the morning for no reason at all works wonders. I have my kids pick a square and for 3 to 5 minutes we all sit and are still. Teaching children to pause is a very important thing in a society that values speed over quality.

2. How do you feel? This may be simple but many parents, especially of young children, don’t ask their kids how they feel. These conversations equip children with the proper vocabulary to express their feelings. For example, one can be frustrated but not angry, to children those lines may blur. Having these conversations also fosters empathy.

“Mommy, are you mad?”

“No, I am frustrated.”

“Can I help?”

“Yes, can you hand me that.”

Our vocabulary may determine if or even how our feelings have or can be changed.

3. Share how you feel. Simply sharing how you feel teaches your children how to share what they are feeling. “I feel ….. when…”

Equipping children with tools for effective communication makes them more confident and allows you to teach them how to appropriately manage their emotions.

If you enjoyed this check out How to be an Emotionally Intelligent Parent. Also, be sure to pick up a copy of my book How to Lead With Emotional Intelligence for practical application of EI in your daily life.

 

5 Ways to Be An Emotionally Intelligent Parent

Have you heard of Emotional Intelligence? It’s a buzzword that has been going around the past few years. Heres the scoop. It basically means the ability to control one’s emotions and even the emotions of others. So the higher your Emotional Intelligence (EI or EQ) the better you are at keeping a grip on life. Pretty cool right!

So here are some tips on how to use Emotional Intelligence to thrive as a parent.

1. Be Aware: Wake up, feed kids, brush teeth, clean, school time, snack time, clean, homework, dinner, clean….repeat. If you are like me throw in some breastfeeding sessions, diaper changes, errands, phone calls and meds (for grandma). Wait! What about “me time”? Sometimes we can get so into the routine of the daily grind that we forget to check in with ourselves. It is so important to take out at least a few minutes alone to see how we are feeling and most importantly why?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
2.  Be Real: When you don’t know how you feel its easy to speak with more or less force than may be required when communicating with your kids. Good news is you can always stop and ask yourself, “Is your response really the best response”? If not simply apologize. Our kids are learning how to adult by what they see us do more than what they hear us say. So take time to slow down and self-correct.                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
3. Be Honest: Why do you feel the way you do? Is your child really doing something harmful or are they simply being a child? Are you frustrated, tired, or overworked? Ha! That last one is not a real question. Of course, you are! This means you may be acting out of your feelings rather than your child’s actions. I once heard it said that kids get in more trouble at the end of the day not because the kids are worse but because the parents are tired. Try to make it a habit to give more grace as the day goes on.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
4. Be A Kid: Take out some time to play. Seriously! Taking time to play with kids makes it easier to think like one. When you try to see the world through a child’s eyes you open up the door for grace. One of my favorite things to do is to have my kids take pictures with my camera. As I scroll through I am able to see things from their perspective and it really helps me appreciate their worldview. In fact, all but the first and last picture in this post were pictures taken by my kids. Even AR (18 mos)  got in on the fun.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
5. Be Realistic: There is no such thing as a perfect kid, and there is no such thing as a perfect parent. However, in order for you to have the best relationship with your child you need to be able to look inside yourself and understand your behavior so you can better shape the behavior of your child.

I hope this helps! Click here to find out How To Teach Your Kids Emotional Intelligence. You can also pick up a copy of my book How to Lead With Emotional Intelligence for practical ways to apply EI to your daily life.

Skinny Girl Secrets

*I am not a medical professional this is not health advice. In fact skinny isn’t even the standard. I use that term because that’s what people call me. Genetics also has a lot to do with it. My mom is skinny, so is my grandmother ect. You can do all this and still rock beautiful curves. I don’t even own a scale. These are just my food habits. So here we go! 

I was out to lunch with friends and I ordered an appetizer.

“Is that going to get you full?” My friend asked.

“No, I don’t eat to get full I eat to keep from being hungry,” I replied.

“What? I never heard that!”

“Yeah, that’s what my mom used to say.”

“See you skinny people keep these secrets to yourselves!”

So this is for you, friend. You know who you are! Here are 8 Secrets From Your Skinny friend.

(1) Drink water first. Most of the time you think you are hungry you are likely just thirsty. Try water first if after 15 min you are still feeling hungry, grab a bite to eat.

(2) Eat to stop the hunger sensation not to get full. When you eat to get full the food in your stomach expands your stomach making it harder and harder to get full. Weight gain doesn’t happen all at once it happens one pound at a time. If you only eat to satisfy the hunger sensation your stomach will only hold so much. This will keep your stomach its current size it will not shrink it.

(3) Look at the serving size. Some nights I want to eat all 4 servings of Ben and Jerry’s Almond Brittle Dairy Free Dessert, other times one serving will do. Knowing how much makes up one serving makes you less likely to make a habit of eating all the servings at once.

(4) Small Servings. Speaking of servings. It is a lot easier to put more on your plate than it is to take what is on your plate off. This goes for both life’s proverbial and physical plate. My mom used to say, “Don’t let your eyes get bigger than your stomach.” Eat small servings then if you want more get more.

(5) Don’t eat or drink out of a container. There is something about eating directly out of a vessel that makes us want to empty the vessel. Take your chips, cookies, or caramel popcorn and put it in the smallest bowl you have. Use a cup for your soda even if it is in a can. Better yet don’t drink soda.

(6) Use smaller plates. Speaking of containers, bigger is not always better. Use small cups bowls or plates. I know there is only a .25 cent difference between the biggest and smallest size and I know you say you won’t drink that much but let’s face it. You WILL want to empty that container.

(7) Don’t eat right before bed. When you eat right before you go to sleep your body spends the night digesting food instead of being completely at rest. Our food cut off for the kids is 2 hours before bed. Their tummies are almost empty by then so they aren’t hungry or digesting food through the night. That time seems to be the sweet spot for us. Amazingly enough, they don’t wake up starving. Hungry but they can usually wait for their oatmeal or pancakes to be made without complaint.

Bonus

(8) Supper on Sundays. Growing up we ate twice on Sunday’s. Once before church and once after church. We usually went back to church in the evenings so when we got out of service it was too late to eat. This habit has been so ingrained in me I still follow the tradition of two meals on Sunday. If the kids get hungry they can eat all the fruit and veggies they want.

At the end of the day the goal is to be the best you at any size! I hope these tips help you on your health journey. Be well!

Waterbead Experiment

Have you heard about water beads? These things grow about 20 times their size and they are seriously addictive. Well, I got some, for the kids, and turned it into a learning experience. The word of the day was “absorb” watch our video below then read through our critical thinking questions.

 

Questions

1. What does absorb mean?
2. What do you think will happen to the dry water bead once we add water?
3. *Remove bead from water at 4, 6, and 8 hours
4. Which bead is biggest? Why?
5. Which bead is smallest? Why?
6. Put the beads in order from the least amount of water held to the most amount of water held.
7. Name three things that absorb.
8. Name three things that do not absorb.

This is an experiment we will visit again as the kids get older it would be a great way to teach permeation! Let us know how it goes!

Primary Color Lab

My kid’s favorite way to learn is through touch. They love to build, create, and destroy so this lab was a great way to teach them about primary colors and how they are used to create other colors. So I grabbed some red, yellow, and blue craft paint some paper and a brush. We headed outside and got to painting. You can watch the video below and get some critical thinking questions for your littles.

Questions

1. What are primary colors?
2. What do red and yellow make?
3. Red and blue?
4. Yellow and blue?
5. What are secondary colors
6. Create a secondary color formula ___+_____=

If you try this activity let us know below!

6 Steps to Overcoming Feelings of Inadequacy

Every now and then I go through these spells where I feel completely inadequate. I feel my job as a mom is not enough and I get the itch to find gratification outside of my home. This isn’t a bad thing in and of itself except when it causes me to lose sleep, act grouchy and be an all-around buzz kill. I compare myself to the perfect mom in my dreams, I water my weeds as they choke the life out of me.

I’m human, I feel things but I don’t stay there. How do I get through this?

1. Identify the Trigger – For me, the trigger usually changes or rather uncertainty. The anticipation of change but the uncertainty of time. Basically, planning something big but not knowing when it will happen and not being able to stop it. 2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
2. Honesty- I am honest with myself and at least one other person about how I feel. Usually, I have to talk through my feelings so I do it with someone that allows me to backtrack and overexplain all while asking probing questions. Ephesians 4:25 ²⁵ Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,”^[a] for we are members of one another.
3. Forgiveness – I have made decisions that I wish I’d hadn’t. Maybe I should have taken that class, maybe I shouldn’t have. Either way, I have to forgive myself realizing I made the best choice I could at the time. Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,^[a] who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
4. Action- Forgiveness does not mean without consequence. There are natural consequences of our actions and we should handle them with grace. If there is something I can do I do it! Can I change the situation or make strides in the right direction? If so I do what I can. We can also remove ourselves from any temptations so we don’t repeat our mistakes. Matthew 5:29-30 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body is thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body goes into hell.
5. Acceptance – I can’t fix it all. This means having to accept that some things are simply out of my control. Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
6. Gratitude- This is the most important one and it’s pretty easy to do. Look back at old pictures, make a list, take a walk, whatever it takes to remember all that was overcome. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Recognizing this pattern and following these steps helps me keep bad days, from becoming bad weeks. I hope this helps.

The Mystery Blogger Award

I am grateful and honored to have been recognized for this award! I want to thank The Crowning Glory for the nomination! She is a great lifestyle blogger sharing her adventures with the world.

Here are three things you may not know about me…

I am sensitive I hate to admit it but sometimes my feelings get hurt. I hate feeling pushed to the side so I retreat slowly and it can take a long time for people to notice. I’m working on it.

I am living my dream.  I always wanted to stay home and homeschool my kids, live close to my family and run a business.

I love to cook. Okay, you probably knew that one. I want to learn all things food. Yum!

Questions from The Crowning Glory

1. What is your greatest strength? My compassion. It’s easy for me to put my feelings aside for others.
2. If you had to describe yourself in 3 words, what would they be? Loving, confident, HIS
3. What is your favorite kind of music and why? I love worship music. It takes you to another place. It’s like an armor for my soul.
4. Who in your life do you admire the most? My grandfather. He is taking care of my grandmother who has Alzheimer’s. After 50+years of marriage and despite her diagnosis he still tries to sweep her off her feet.
5. Who was your childhood celebrity crush? Vin Diesel (until I realized he was old enough to be my father).

Here is a link to my favorite post so far. The Nurturing Of Weeds

The Rules:

Feature the award logo/image on your post
List the rules
Thank the blogger who nominated you
Tell the readers 3 things about yourself
Answer the questions provided
Nominate 6 to 10 bloggers and notify them by commenting on their blog
Ask the nominees 5 questions of your choice with one weird/funny question (specify)
Share a link to your best post

My Questions

1. Why do you blog?
2. Whats the last book you read?
3. Whats your favorite kind of food?
4. Favorite artist (any medium)
5. Who is your biggest fan?

I nominate

littlecrunchy.com

rumiskitchen.blogspot.com 

mysterhow.blogspot.com

bestreviewguru

jdeducational.com

yukonmamaof4.com

myownkindofbeautiful.com

howtomarryamillionaire.fr/