Growing Children with "Green" Thumbs

After two years of failed attempts at growing greens, we have successfully reaped our first harvest of lettuce and spinach!  So exciting to see all that watering and weeding paying off!  My kids helped through out the whole process, from planting the seeds, weeding the garden, watering and picking the full grown leaves.  I took the greens inside to wash and store, and I could have done it much faster by myself, but God showed me this could be a great teaching opportunity.  So, although it took longer, and was way messier than it would have been by myself, my son and daughter learned how to work together, patience, following directions, washing, drying and storing home grown salad greens.  They LOVED helping, and it brought such joy to my heart seeing their little faces laugh and play and learn together.  I hope to look back and remember this experience, and see that just a few extra minutes and a little extra clean up time led to great memories and in the end my little helpers learned a new skill!!

Also....if you have children that aren't too keen on eating vegetables, try to grow some, they will be way more likely to try it, if they help with the whole process.  My two kids both ate lettuce and fresh spinach right off the plant, I couldn't believe it, so I had to take a picture!

We cleaned our fresh picked greens by placing in a bowl and filling with water. Stir leaves around, let the dirt settle at the bottom.  Scoop leaves out and place into a colander, drain and rinse the bowl, and repeat until there is no dirt in the bottom of the bowl.  It took us 3 times.

Drew and Emma enjoyed swishing the leaves around in the water.

We dried our leaves on napkins, and after soaking up the water we placed leaves in a gallon zip-lock bag.  I might have to look into getting a salad spinner :)  

Fun times!!

Show Kids God's Faithfulness

We had a question at our moms group the other day, "What are ways you can show your Kids that God is faithful?"  It has been on my mind ever since so I have been asking God for ideas.  Today He gave me one.  This morning I gave Drew a $1.00 bill, payment for helping daddy at work.  (He actually got five, I only know where 1 is.)  He decided he wanted to go to the "popcorn store", (Target) to buy a toy.  Thankfully they have a dollar section.

We were preparing to leave and Drew had lost the dollar.  I almost went into "Well, where did you leave it?"  But God whispered something else for me to say: "Ok, Drew, you don't know where your dollar is, but Jesus does!  Let's pray and ask Him to help us find it."  He liked the idea and prayed "Dear Jesus, can you show me where my dollar is?"  He went to look and 30 seconds later he found it.  The next thing that came out of his mouth was "Thank you Jesus for helping me!"  AMEN!  I was so excited, he saw the faithfulness of God.  We still ran around for a few more minutes getting drinks, going potty and putting on shoes, after all that he exclaimed "Mom, where is my money?"  To which I replied "I am not sure, but you know who does know."  He prayed again, asking Jesus for help, and 15 seconds later he had it in his hands.  "Yes! Jesus, Thank you!!"  Love that childlike faith.  When you experience the faithfulness of God you can't help but give him praise.  "From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger." Psalm 8:2 ( I love this verse, especially because of the fact that when you praise God, you silence the enemy!)


I hope and pray to be able to find more ideas of how to point my children to the faithfulness of God.  To make it a priority to point out his goodness, and give Jesus the glory- the only one who deserves it.

Real Life Superheros

In the evening, as we put our kids down for the night, things get a lot quieter over here.  After a FULL day of running after toddlers, pushing swings, mediating, cooking, cleaning, reading books, changing diapers, and cooking and cleaning some more to have a break is so nice.  I put one child down and Andrew does the other.  Tonight the kids stayed up a little later than usual and I was looking forward to resting on the couch with my cup of coffee and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. (My favorite recipe: http://www.elook.org/recipes/dessert/18113.html)

Drew was in bed, but still awake and I was walking to the living room after putting Emma down.  I felt like I should go in and hug and kiss him again, but I thought "Oh, the couch, cookies and coffee are calling my name!"  I then reasoned "Yes, but how long will he be small like this?  How long will he want me to come in and kiss him goodnight?  (HOPEFULLY forever!  Even when he is married, ha, ok that might be a little much!)  And how much time is it really gonna take to just reassure him of my love and care for him?"  So I turned around and surprised him with another hug, kiss and butterfly kiss.  I began singing one of his favorite songs to him (and I change it slightly, hear the original version: COURAGEOUS )

"Hey Drew, you know what?   You are meant to be courageous, you are meant to lead the way, you WILL be the generation that finally breaks the chains. "  It hit me....his generation sure is!  They are the next generation of believers, and we are gearing them up for battle!  I then told him how the devil has so many people held in chains and they don't know about God's love for them.  I encouraged him to tell people that God loves them, battle the devil with his bible verses and start breaking those chains in Jesus' name.  He then said, "Mom, I am gonna be a superhero when I grow up!"  To which I replied, oh so excitedly " TRUE THAT!  You sure are, you will be fighting off the enemy and helping people."  It was such a special moment, and a revelation really to me, that we are raising little superheros.

Super means: very large or powerful, and Hero means: a person of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his/her brave deeds and noble qualities. As Christians we should be people who are distinguished, who are brave and noble, standing up for the ones who can't and we are full of power and love for others.  We have the Spirit of the living God living in us, that is what raised Jesus from the dead, that is some amazing power!!  And if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, [then] He Who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also restore to life your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you. Romans 8:11  


I know sometimes I don't always "feel" like I have a very powerful thing going on inside of me.  I don't feel very strong at all, in fact a lot of times I "feel" very weak.  Well the truth is, by myself, I am pretty weak, and in my own strength I am not too strong, but when it comes to all the power I have available to me, I may not always feel it, but it is always there.  Sometimes you can't go with your feelings, go to God's word and the truth, to know the promises we have.  Even if I don't "feel" it, God's word is still REAL, CONSTANT and UNCHANGING.  Declare it, out loud!  God is so much bigger, and stronger and more powerful than ANYTHING we can ever face!  Jesus even said: "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33  PRAISE GOD!  Yes, we are going to face some tough stuff, but Jesus already overcame all of that and He is bigger. "You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." 1 John 4:4. AMEN!!! Paul even said in Philippians:  I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead.  Phil 3:10a  So do I!!  And Paul reminded Timothy:  "For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.  For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."  2 Timothy 1:6-7.  He had to be reminded to "fan into flame" the power of the Holy Spirit.  

So anyways I came out of my son's room tonight all pumped thinking I am raising a little super hero.  Psalms evens says: ³ Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him.  ⁴ Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. Psalm 127: 3-4  I had often heard verse 4 and appreciated it, but I had never looked at it paired with the verse 5.  Comparing our children to arrows, weapons in our hands against our enemy?  You know, the arrow goes wherever the warrior points it.  I want to be sure I am pointing it in the right direction.  I am so glad I went in there to say goodnight to Drew again this evening, such a fun, teachable and inspirational moment.  We are called to be Superheros and to raise superheros, through the power of God :)

Check out this song about the greatest Superhero that ever lived:  It is called HERO  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uyv1jUDLY3s

Raising Little Helpers

I have been trying to have my kids help me lately around the house.  I naturally don't LOVE to clean, but I do love a clean house.  It is a constant struggle for me, laundry, mopping, dishes, bathrooms, dusting, clutter in general, those seem to be the hard things for me.  I could cook all day, and never clean and would be totally happy.  I have often thought I should barter with someone who likes to clean (and I know there are people out there who do!   My mother in law cleans for a living and truly enjoys to clean.)  My thoughts are, I can cook 2 dinners a week for a family if they want to come clean my house once a week, I would even take twice a month.  Of course then my friend would be cleaning up my mess- AWKWARD!  Ha Ha!

Anyways, some things that have been on my mind lately are making my kids feel like they are important, wanted and NEEDED.  In the past I have tried to get my kids busy doing something and I try to get as much cleaned as possible while they are distracted (or when they are sleeping at nap time).  When they are awake I hardly get any time to do this, because they are always wanting to be with me.  After listening to friends and family talk about having their kids help in the clean up process I have been inspired!  Kids seem to naturally want to help.  My baby, Emma is a little young, but I have noticed if I give her a wipe she does seem to try to clean things (maybe she will be one of those who enjoys cleaning).  Drew, my 3 1/2 year old is old enough to help and usually jumps at the chance.  Now, I can't get things done as quickly when they're helping, but if I don't take the time to teach them, how are they going to learn?

Today I sat him down and was honest with him.  I told him that I love when the house is clean and that I have a hard time keeping it nice all by myself.  I explained that it would help me soooo much if he could clean with me.  He was very excited to be needed, it was cute!  He helped me mop yesterday (we had to take turns of course with the cool steam mop) and today he cleaned windows with his baby sis.  Did he do a good job?  Not really.  Did I tell him that?  Absolutely not!  In the future I will point out and instruct him how to do better, but right now I just want him to get that he is a part of making this house a home, he is wanted here and he is invaluable to me.  While mopping yesterday he said, "Mom, can we play cars?"  I said "We will in just a minute, but right now I really need your help to finish fast."  Racing always goes over well in our house and it was just the motivation he needed to finish up.  Once we were done, playing resumed as usual.

I just thought I would share the importance of making our kids realize how special they are to our family and how much we need their help.  I want to instill in my kids that God has a purpose for their life at an early age.  Children are a blessing from the Lord.  He gave them to us to BLESS US!  I have always thought of this as in, their cute stories, their sweet love, how they make us laugh ( and what a blessing these things are!) but recently I have been feeling like they can also be a blessing to our family by assisting in the responsibility of running a household.

Bible Verses Make a Difference in Our Home

So Drew now has 3 verses under his belt, and he has already used them on me!  Wow, they learn quick!!  Nothing like a kick in the pants from your toddler concerning the things of God.  So he has learned First Thessalonians 5:16-18 "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks!" , and now we are working on Ephesians 4:26, "In your anger, do not sin".  I have always wanted to be better about memorizing scripture, and going over these with him through out the days has helped me retain the truths as well.  It is not only teaching him to "hide God's word in his heart", but also explaining what the verses mean, that encourages us both to live out what we learn.

I was in a funky mood last weekend, well I guess "bad mood" paints a more accurate picture.  I was being grumpy for who knows what reason, Drew walks up to me and says bluntly, "Mom, you need to rejoice always!"  Hahaha!  I immediately laughed, and it completely changed my heart and the tone I was setting in my home.  It is true : "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." Hebrews 4:12


I honestly thought teaching Drew verses would primarily encourage his walk in the Lord, I had no idea that God intended to use him to remind and spur me on to be more like Christ.  Love it!  Love God!  Love my family!

A Teachable Moment

Yesterday while driving in our car I told my 3 year old we're going to Costco!  His response was "No I can't want to go to Costco!"  At first I responded with "Well that is where we are going."  He continued to voice his opinion and started getting grumpy that he wasn't getting his way.  It was kinda unusual for him because he loves to go places and especially Costco, hello free samples!  I could have said, stop complaining or no matter what you say we're still going, but I felt God whisper to me "Use this to teach him a truth".  I was lead to bring up his first memory verse, "Hey Drew, remember your memory verse 1 Thessalonians 5:16 says Rejoice Always!  What does that mean?" He responded with "Be happy."  We talked about not being grumpy when things aren't going the way we hope, but to remember there are lots of things we can be thankful for.  His mood immediately changed and he "got it". I was blown away how quickly God's word changed his heart (He is so good and never ceases to amaze!).  It is so true that   "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness," 2 Tim 3:16  

Toddlers CAN Learn Verses

Recently I have felt God put on my heart to start consistently teaching my children about his word.  I know they are learning in their little classes at church a few times a month, but what use is that if I am not backing it up and living it out at home (where they spend 95% of their lives right now).  I am reading a wonderful book right now, the Ministry of Motherhood (http://www.wholeheart.org/the-ministry-of-motherhood/) I recommend every mother read it, very challenging and inspiring.  It encourages us to look at our role of being a mom as a full-time ministry, one that we are called to do, to serve our family, as unto the Lord (Col 3:23).  The latest chapter I read was on teaching our children the truths of God's word.  One way I purposed to this in our family is by having Drew (who has an incredible memory) start memorizing verses and helping him to understand what they mean.  I am sharing this with you, so that you can check in on me and make sure I am working with him, and hopefully inspire other to do the same with their young kids.

I was watching a home video of my niece, she was 2 years old, and cute as can be, she started reciting her first verse, AT TWO!!!!  Way to go Heidi (my guest blogger on maple syrup)!! So I know it can be done, and why not start as early as they can talk, teaching them the truths of God?!

His first verse is 1 Thessalonians 5:16 Rejoice Always!  (Simple, and teaches a great principle)  I have been wanting to learn more scripture myself, now him and I can do it together.  I am looking forward to seeing God work in His little life & mine :)