random acts of christmas kindness: recap

I've gotten lots of questions about the Random Acts of Christmas Kindness, so I wanted to give you a recap. Here is what our calendar looked like at the end (the ones with "stickers" were completed):

Pretty good, huh? It was a little bit intense, especially at the end, since a few of our acts of kindness converged on Monday, Dec. 22 (we didn't strictly stick to the schedule). By the end of that day, my son suggested that we just lie on the couch for the afternoon. Yes, we were exhausted. But overall, it was a lot of fun, very doable as long as I didn't get too compulsive about it, and it brought a lot of meaning to our holiday.

We skipped some activities, like making hug coupons, because I just couldn't get my son interested in them. However, he loved picking up trash in our neighborhood so much that we did that one three times.

My absolute favorite activity was taking cookies to the fire station. We spread out the cookie-making activities over a few days. First we made the cookie dough. It was a little bit messy.

A few mornings later, we rolled it out and baked the cookies. This turned out to be a little bit messy, too.

There was a little cleanup to be done afterward. Luckily, my son is good with a broom.

Then we decorated them. I didn't get any pictures, but it was a little messy. Here's how they turned out.

The cooking part was really fun, in spite of all the cleanup. But taking the cookies to the fire station was the best part. There were three firefighters outside working on the trucks, and they were so excited to see my son walk up with the cookies. They chatted with him, let him sit in the truck, turned on the flashing lights, admired his firefighter hat and police uniform, and compared their boots to his (verdict: very similar). They really seemed to enjoy our visit and appreciate my son's hard work, and that really made it fun for us. Without the Acts of Kindness calendar, it never would have crossed my mind to thank our firefighters, so I'm really glad we got the chance to do this.

 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had a lovely holiday, filled with love, laughter, and time with family.

the best timesavers for busy families

As I mentioned here, I've just signed up for The Fresh 20. But I'm curious - what other timesavers are out there? What have you tried and had success with?

Here are a few ways I try to simplify my workload:

• On Sundays, I often cook up a big batch of chicken thighs in the slow cooker, divide it into meal-size portions and stick it in the freezer. Then, during the week, I can grab a jar of pre-cooked chicken and have dinner on the table much faster.
• I also sometimes like to prep meals for the week on Sunday. On a hectic weekday evening, it feels like a miracle that the veggies are already cut and waiting for me in the fridge.
• When cooking, I try to minimize the number of items that have to be washed by hand. For example, I mix up scrambled eggs in a cereal bowl or mug that can go in the dishwasher instead of a mixing bowl.
• I use the vacuum for cleaning all the floors, even the tile, instead of sweeping.

don't flush that wipe!

I recently came across this article about flushable wipes, and while I think it's geared primarily toward users of disposable wipes for adults, it's a good reminder for those of us with kids in diapers, too.

Wipes differ from toilet paper in that they don't break down in the sewer, so they cause major problems in the sewer system and at the wastewater treatment plant. For example, flushable wipes resulted in a 15-ton blob of grease and flushable wipes (dubbed "fatberg") that clogged sewers in London. That's gross! And amazing!

All this clogging of sewers and mechanical equipment at the treatment plants costs us money and reduces the quality of our sewer service, so if you're not already in the habit of throwing wipes in the trash, there's no better time to start than today.

reading by the tree

My son moved a pillow and blanket into our living room the other day so he could read beside the Christmas tree. I loved how he set up such a cozy spot for himself. I should do this too.

He's been organizing the books on our bookshelf, so he's "reading" one of our books here.

And here I think he's explaining the principles discussed in Self-Reliance.

Isn't that just the coziest place to read?

But just so you don't get the wrong impression about this idyllic scene, here it is from another angle. There's a healthy dose of chaos mixed in with our cozy and cute. Just the way it should be.

decorating the tree

We decorated our Christmas tree last weekend. It took quite a while, because my son inspected, organized, and reorganized the ornaments over and over. He was totally in his element!

He started out putting all the ornaments on the bottom few branches, but that weighed the branches down, and the ornaments tended to fall off. Then he pulled his armchair close to the tree so he could reach some of the higher branches.

It took quite a bit of concentration to get the ornaments just the way he wanted them. In fact, he hardly let my husband and me participate at all. (P.S. Yes, that is the policeman badge from his Halloween costume, pinned to his fleece.)

It took some effort, but my husband managed to distract my son from his work for a moment for a photo. And he's even smiling!!

the fresh 20

I just signed up for The Fresh 20, a meal planning service that provides you with a 5-day meal plan, complete with recipes, grocery list, and nutritional information, every week for a year. I'm so excited! The meals sound delicious, and I'm looking forward to seeing if they make my life any simpler. I'll keep you posted.

Has anyone else tried The Fresh 20 or another meal planning service? If so, how did you like it?

random acts of christmas kindness

This year, I was looking for some kind of Advent activity to do with my son, but most of the ideas I found involved the child getting candy every day, and I wasn't too excited about that.

Then I found this blog, which featured a "Random Acts of Christmas Kindness" calendar. I love how this activity brings a spirit of giving into a season when we can sometimes become too focused on the material. So, even though I was a little intimidated by the idea of doing a kindness activity every day for 24 straight days, I'm going for it.

It's only been five days so far, but my son and I are having so much fun! We've given each other compliments (Day 1), taped money to a vending machine (Day 2), made Christmas cards for soldiers (Day 3), picked up trash in our neighborhood (Day 4), and made coffee for Daddy (Day 5).

Although the largest amount of trash we found in our neighborhood was in our own yard (yes, it appears we're those neighbors...), picking up trash has been my son's favorite so far. He keeps asking when we can do it again.

I'm not sure we'll be able to keep this up through the entire Advent season, but we've gotten off to a great start. I'll keep you posted.

Are you doing an Advent calendar this year?

i love this book: Free-Range Kids

I recently read this post, where a mother described wanting to give her kids a "1970's summer," with days filled with watching classic tv shows, playing outside, scavenging for whatever food the kids can find, and minimal adult supervision.

Awesome! I love it.

I definitely have helicopter parent tendencies, but I love the idea of kids running wild in the backyard, showing up for dinner covered in dirt and with a slight sunburn. Of spending the day making their own fun with whatever they find. (And this is not just because I want a little time to myself. Well, maybe a little bit.)

I stumbled across the book Free-Range Kids: Giving Our Kids the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts with Worry, by Lenore Skenazy. You know, the infamous mother who made the news by allowing her nine-year-old son to ride the subway home by himself.

I have suspected for a while that some of the things we do as parents these days might be a little bit... silly. I don't remember my own parents hovering over us at all times. I remember playing outdoors by myself or with my siblings plenty of times. Riding our bikes around the neighborhood. Kids learn from making mistakes. Pushing the boundaries of what they can do helps kids to define their limits. So why was I constantly calling out safety alerts to my son? Trying to prevent him from scraping his knees? Trying to protect him from his own feelings of frustration, anger, and fear? In effect, preventing him from experiencing the things he needs to experience in order to grow and become a well-adjusted adult?

This book confirms what I had been wondering: today's parents may have gone a wee bit overboard in protecting their children from harm. In a humorous and supportive tone, the author pokes fun at our attitudes toward children (those fragile, delicate things), the ridiculous safety equipment that we purchase (do crawlers really need knee pads?), and provides tips, ranging from baby steps to giant leaps, for loosening the grip we have on our children so that they can actually live a little, and have some fun doing it.

The author's goal is to help us understand what situations are truly dangerous and which are not. For example: running out into the street is dangerous. Walking to school at an appropriate age, when the child shows they have the maturity and skills to do so, is probably not dangerous. Parents can help keep their children safe by teaching them safe behaviors, like not running into the street, rather than putting them on lockdown until they go to college.

Many of the suggestions in this book are geared toward older children, perhaps ages nine and up, but I am finding the general concepts useful in parenting my three-year-old.

Author's Note: The opinions in this book review are solely my own. I received no incentive or compensation for writing this review.