Holiday Baking With Kids Part 3

This past Sunday Riley and I made rocky road candy for her teachers' Christmas gifts. It has become a tradition to make it around the holidays for gifts. Everyone always loves it and it is so easy- another great food item to make with kids! We had an older neighbor friend of ours come over and she made gifts for her teachers with us too- so fun! I always get lots of requests for the recipe and thought I would share it with you. I found the cute buckets and baggies at Walmart. They always have a good selection of tins and containers for food giving at a reasonable price.  We had a great time delivering holiday cheer to her school teachers and Sunday school teacher on Monday morning! Have fun making your own memories and remembering those that work so hard for our kids during the year! 

Rocky Road Candy

2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 c mini marshmallows

1/2 c slivered almonds, toasted  on cookie sheet and broil (I have to admit I forgot toasting them this year and they still turned out great!)

 

Melt chocolate chips in microwave safe bowl in thirty second increments stirring often and checking to make sure that they don't burn. After chips are melted, stir in marshmallows and almonds. Drop by teaspoonful on wax paper. Put in freezer for about fifteen minutes. Transfer to containers. Yield: 3 dozen.

Devotion #6- Mommy Mission

"For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting, and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory." 1Thessalonians 2:11-12

 

This past Sunday at my church a young teenager placed his ultimate trust in Christ and got baptized. I worked with him last summer during vacation Bible school where he had stood out as a leader and I had enjoyed watching his interactions with the preschoolers. I spotted both of his parents eagerly taking videos as right before our eyes a miracle took place. My vision blurred from tears as my heart filled with emotions. My thoughts turned to my two girls and what a special day it will be when they accept Jesus as Lord of their lives.

 

It occurred to me that this one life changing moment is really an accumulation of small moments throughout a person's life pointing the way to Christ. Small moments but thoughtful moments nonetheless. As a mom it is so easy for me to miss my focus on what really matters in the life of my children in favor of their more immediate needs. I spend time researching the best sippy cups that won't leak and hunt down the shoes that my toddler will actually keep on her feet. I look into the best (and don't forget the cutest!)  labels for their belongings. I find myself researching solutions on how to keep everyone out from under my feet while I'm cooking, and I spend time reading different books on discipline strategies trying to find the most effective one for my little ones.

 

I put such thought into these things that I know I sometimes neglect the one thing that I must be most diligent about and that is making sure my girls know who Jesus is and that their mommy loves him with all her heart so that one day they will choose to do the same. It would be nice to have a checklist of sorts telling us moms what we need to do to make this happen. Matters of the heart aren't so easy though. There is no perfect time to pray nor perfect prayer. There is no perfect children's Bible nor perfect spiritual activity. 

 

Recently, during my personal Bible study time I ran across 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12 and felt like God was handing me my spiritual mission statement for mothering my children. It was even broken down into three easy to remember parts: encourage, comfort, and urge. I did some digging into the dictionary and came up with a more complete picture of what these words mean for me as a mom. I am to encourage my children much like a teacher or a coach does by inspiring them and helping them in their relationship with God.  I am to comfort them by strengthening them with a sense of trust and expectancy in their Savior.  Finally, I am to urge my children to live a life worthy of God which will hasten them to action, the ultimate of which is making the decision to live for Christ.

 

This time of the year it is especially easy to get caught up in all of the holiday festivities like Elf on a Shelf  (yes, I finally broke down!) and forget that we should be celebrating a Who (Jesus) and not a what (the holiday event of Christmas).  Hopefully, if we maintain our focus on our mommy mission statement of encouraging, comforting, and urging, we can navigate our children through the holidays knowing that we didn't obstruct their view of Jesus. May God use this holiday season of small moments to one day accumulate into the ultimate in life changing moments for our children.

Elf Ownership

I have to admit that I went into  elf ownership not too excited about it. I really felt like it was going to be just another thing to add to my already too long holiday task list. I went to a Christmas party recently where everyone was talking about it, and it seemed like too much work to me. I mean this girl was showing me pictures of her elf trying to walk out their door- freaky!  

I guess the power of marketing eventually got to me though. I saw the stupid thing everywhere! I heard about it everywhere! I couldn't escape it and I couldn't bear the thought of someone asking Riley what her elf's name was and what it had been up to and her wide expression as she told the person that she didn't have one. It seemed kind of cruel. Pathetic of me I'm sure. I mean we don't even have a pet so this is kind of the next best thing- right?

The first night after reading the elf story Riley was very excited about the concept. She excitedly ran through the house looking for a suitable location for our elf to begin being a part of our family during the holidays. Before bed though I had to reassure her that "Heart Sweet" as she named our girl elf, would not go into her room at night and bother her. It brought back memories of me being scared of E.T. after seeing the movie. Yeah he was cute in the movie, but put that thing in my room and I am going to freak out for sure! Even after reassuring her, Riley made an appearance in our room around 2am and needed to be put back to bed.   

The next day we watched the video which was cute. In the video it talked about how if you touched the elf it would lose its magic power and it would have a hard time making its nightly trip to the North Pole to check in with Santa. At that time our elf was sitting on a plate in the kitchen with a cookie on her lap. She has already "eaten" several cookies that day much to Riley's delight. Wanting to see how much of the cookie Heart Sweet had eaten, Riley pulled the plate closer to her and accidentally knocked off our elf. She immediately started crying and worried that Santa would be upset with her. I told her to write a letter to Santa saying that she was sorry hoping that the activity would help her to feel better. Instead, she obsessed about whether or not our elf would be able to fly to the North Pole and whether or not the note would actually get to Santa and who would help Heart Sweet in her journey home and how long she would have to stay in the hospital. Mercy, child! I think pet ownership would have been easier!

So now that it has been several days I think we are starting to get the hang of this elf thing. It has landed in our tree and turned on our tree lights ( I swear I turned them off when we left!), hung out on the top of a display cabinet, and most recently enjoyed drinking syrup because everyone knows elves love sugar, sugar, and more sugar! Her presence has actually brought a sense of company. Who knows,  maybe we will get that cat someday that Riley keeps asking for!

 

 

 

 

Holiday Baking With Kids Part 2

Rolo Pretzel Cookies are another easy item to make with the kids. I use the term cookie loosely as it is more like a candy, but it is called a cookie nevertheless. My four year old Riley and I had a fun time making these together. So easy and everyone loves them! I found this recipe online so long ago that I don't know where it came from, but here it is for you to enjoy!


Rolo Pretzel Cookies
15 oz. bag of waffle pretzels
two bags of the mini Rolo candies
one bag of mini holiday M&M's (or you can use the full-sized ones as well)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lay out rows of waffle pretzels on a cookie sheet. Use one pretzel per Rolo you have on hand. Unwrap the Rolo candies and center one on each pretzel. Bake for about three minutes until the chocolate softens. It looks like it is glistening. Working quickly before the chocolate cools, press several holiday M&M's on each Rolo and squish it down. You might not want little hands doing this part as the chocolate can be too hot for them!  Let cookies cool. You can also set the cookies in the frig. I made one cookie sheet and it was plenty for the cookie exchange I was going to and I also had some left for a Christmas gift for our neighbor! They keep well too, so you could make them ahead of time for gifts or a party.

Dreams

Okay so today was a big day in the life of a childhood dream of mine. If you had asked me what I wanted to do when I was a kid I would have answered you with "writer". Ever since I was in the fourth grade it has been a dream of mine to get published. That dream actually came true several years ago when I was published in a magazine called Seeing the Everyday. I wrote a piece about the women in my family showing their love by making biscuits called "Biscuits and Gravy". It is actually included on this blog if you want to check it out. Since then I have wanted to continue my writing journey, but other than writing tons in notebooks and starting this blog I haven't really been sure what else I could do that would be manageable for me.

That changed when I started writing devotions for my Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) group this past September. MOPS has a quarterly magazine as well and the thought occured to me that I should submit my writing to them. So today I did just that. I sent off a piece for consideration in their May/June/July issue. It felt good to actively pursue my dream regardless of what will happen. Our MOPS theme this year is Plunge and that is exactly what I am doing- taking a plunge and putting my writing out there.

So today I encourage you to take your own plunge. What have you been too scared to do? What have you been putting off doing? Go for it today! I would love to hear about it!

Holiday Baking with Kids Part 1

Today Riley and I did some baking. Since she was with me when I bought all the special cookie ingredients,  she was anxious to get started. We made Red-Nosed Reindeer cookies that I had pulled out of the December issue of Parents magazine several years ago.  I have several cookie exchanges to go to this month and I thought they would be really cute to take and as a bonus they would be really easy to make. I planned to make them last year but when I couldn't find the mini chocolate covered pretzels for the antlers, I gave up and made something else instead. I was so happy this year to easily find all the ingredients.

Initially, I wanted our cookies to come out looking just like the picture in the magazine. I was bummed to realize that the mini M&M's that I bought only had red and green when we needed brown for the eyes. The white icing that I got didn't create a small enough dollup of frosting, so I had to pull out my Wilton Dessert Decorator to create a smaller amount of frosting to place the candies on.

As we continued to work though I realized that we could make a small amount of cookies and use them as our practice ones so really what did it matter except making time for my daughter and having fun. Who cares if ours don't look like the picture? They are still cute and better yet they tasted great!

I included the recipe below for you to try with your little bakers! Have fun!

Theirs

 

Ours

 

Red-Nosed Reindeer Cookies:

1.      Slice pieces from peanut butter cookie dough in half (we used Pillsbury's and you could use the sugar cookie kind as well.)

2.      Shape into 1 1/2" triangles and place 3" apart on cookie sheet.

3.      Bake 8-10 minutes.

4.      While cookies are still warm, push a mini chocolate pretzel (Flipz- found them in the candy aisle) on each side to resemble antlers.

5.      Let cool completely.

6.      Have kids decorate the face: attach brown M&M Minis for eyes and a red regular sized M&M nose with frosting. (Make sure you get the bag that has more than just holiday colors!) Makes 24 but the great thing with this recipe is you can make some and put the rest of the dough in the frig until later. Enjoy!

Devotion #5- Thanksgiving Blessings

 

"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever." Psalm 107:1

 Teachers know that there are some students who touch your heart and you are never the same. All it took at the beginning of the school year several years ago when I was still teaching to hear about a student who had come to this country who could barely speak English, and my heart instantly went out to him. When I met him on the first day of school all he could do was smile, and it was a smile that could fill a dark day with hope. I loved this boy instantly and as I learned more of his difficult journey to this country as a young teenager my heart broke for him and his family.

That year I made him my project. Each day I worked to help him learn basic survival English. I met with all of his teachers coordinating units that we would all focus on in order to continue to help him adjust to life in a totally different culture. We assigned student buddies for him in each of his classes who spoke Spanish as a first language.  A friend of mine who spoke Spanish fluently was recruited to be a liaison of sorts between his mom and his teachers. It was a slow and at times frustrating task with few rewards that could be seen except one, Samuel's big winning smile each and every day when he would come late to class because he just couldn't understand the concept of class bells. He had barely even been to school in his native country of San Salvador. School culture was as foreign to him as being in another country. I could not imagine his daily struggle. Inevitably, the year came to an end though and I thought that I might never see Samuel again even as I wondered if I had helped him in the slightest.   

This past Thanksgiving, several years after teaching Samuel, my church partnered with some other local organizations to put together Thanksgiving meals for families who may not be able to have one otherwise. I was so excited to hear that Samuel's family had been selected and would be getting one. I immediately volunteered to deliver it.

Have you ever noticed that things have a tendency to get crazy when you agree to do something that should be simple in order to help someone else? First, the dinner delivery group had issues coordinating a time to pick up the meal due to our kids' schedules. Then, after we were finally able to pick up the meal we realized that there was a gift certificate for the turkey. We knew that the family did not have transportation and to expect them to go out and get a turkey the day before Thanksgiving seemed a little unlikely to happen. We also noticed that the meal didn't seem substantial enough for a family of four when three of the four members were growing boys, so we decided to make an emergency trip to the grocery store.

After navigating the grocery store with five kids in tow, late in the afternoon just a few days before Thanksgiving, it was no surprise that we arrived at Samuel's apartment later than we had anticipated. The youngest brother, Jose, opened the door partially and then Samuel quickly came to the door to let us in. Samuel still had the same big smile. But this time he kept saying my name and "thank you" over and over again when we brought the food inside and placed it on the table in his small, simple apartment. It was as if he was trying to make up for the school year of very few spoken words. He seemed genuinely delighted to see me again and I of course felt the same way.

Once outside about to leave after having had the chance to catch up, I saw Samuel's silhouette illuminated in the two story window above. I waved and smiled one last time as I offered a silent prayer that he would look back on this night and feel the presence of Jesus in this small, simple expression of kindness. There are moments in life that will never be forgotten. Moments when you know that you are exactly where you need to be. Moments when you know God is working in ways you can't even begin to understand.  Moments filled with blessings indescribable. This was one of those moments.

I drove home in the dark that night listening to my sixteen month old yell and cry the entire thirty minute ride home. Her dinner time had been disrupted by the fact that we were late in dropping off the meal. The warmth of God's love made the dark ride home cozy despite the noise. God communicated His pleasure to me by the peace I felt even through the crying. The joy surrounded me and could not be taken away by such earthly inconveniences. I wondered how I could ever want more than this? I counted my blessings: a comfortable home, a happy family, loving people in my life, reliable transportation, a full pantry, and most importantly a God who loves me. My blessings are bursting and it felt so good to share. So very thankful.