Happy February, friends! Today we kick off a fabulous month devoted to showing love to those around us. How awesome is that?! When I was younger I focused so much on the romantic aspect of February, but these days I see love in such a new light. It’s not just about snuggling up with the ONE you love, but showering blessings on the ONES you love. Which, for me, includes my two little munchkins.

My kids are at ages (4 and 6) where every little thing can be magical. They take lunch from home every day and they get so excited to open their boxes and see what’s inside. I love to mix things up to keep them from begging for that dreaded, disgusting school lunch. But I also don’t have a ton of time in the mornings to be as creative as some of the lunch-making superstars out there (see This Lunch Rox and Wendolonia for that). So with that in mind, here are two of my favorite ways to put a little love into the ol’ lunch box.

Go Bananas.

Did you know that if you scrape a toothpick lightly on the outside of a banana peel, it will brown in all the right places within minutes? This is one of my kiddos’ favorites. However, it doesn’t allow your child to shrug his shoulders in feigned ignorance when his teacher asks who left their banana peel on the lunch table. (Yes, my son learned that the hard way).

Tortillas: The Perfect Palette for Patient Parents

If you find yourself with 10 extra seconds in your lunch making routine, grab a tortilla and a pair of scissors. There’s no telling what you’ll come up with. Back in December I sent a snowflake. Some days when I really want to get my teach on, I cut letters. It’s painstaking but it works! The possibilities here really are endless.

Add some hummus, peanut butter, or yogurt for a dipping sauce and you’re done! (Or just toss in a pack of candy and call it good…right?)

Let me start by saying I am not the absolute expert on parenting. Im lucky to say I have a few things in my corner: a little instinct, an awesome role model in my own mom and the “village” of mothers around me. I value so much the relationships I have with other mothers who are honest about how hard it can be to walk through this stage of our lives and how to parent “right” (if there is even such a thing).

After having my second child, Ruby, I was at the end of my rope trying to wrangle my 2 year old, Jack, while I seemed to be constantly stuck in the same spot, nursing our newborn on the couch. No amount of threats, bribery or TV was helping to keep him in line. One such friend and mother offered up this little strategy for me and I am indebted to her for it. It wont solve the world’s problems by any means but it has helped me parent more calmly and effectively, making our home a happier place. This brilliant idea offers up instant positive reinforcement to kids, giving them the attention they crave.

I introduce to you what my children have lovingly come to know as rocks…

There are so many varieties of this idea: some parents do coupons, others do sticker charts, we do “rocks”. With a simple name like “rocks”, the idea has to be just as simple right? Yup. You can have this little idea rolling in your house in under 30 minutes plus maybe a short stint at Micheals if you dont have the supplies already at home.

Supplies

- (2)  jar or bucket
- stickers or washi tape to decorate
- “rocks” or other fun items to count earnings
- permanent marker or paint pen (check out the tutorial at Oh Happy Day for an awesome way to add names)

You see, for every good deed our children do, they receive a certain amount of rocks. The “rocks” can be buttons, spare Legos or floral gems- whatever excites them and helps you keep track. (I scored floral gems at The Dollar Store so we went with those.) The brilliant part is you can easily tailor how rocks are earned according to each child, their age and the current issue or stumbling block. Its so simple it makes for an easy transition with grandparents and babysitters as well.

Here are some of the ways rocks are earned in our home:

sharing without pressure from mom or dad · 2 rocks
completing school worksheet · 1 rock
trip to the store without arguing · 2 rocks
feeding the cat · 1 rock
cleaning bedroom · 3 rocks

Once your child fills up their jar of rocks they get to pick how to celebrate: date to the movies with mom or dad, a trip to Toys ‘R Us to pick out a new Lego set, or dinner at their favorite restaurant! Two years later, Jack’s jar is still a house staple and we just started Ruby’s own jar- making a significant dent in the “terrible twos”.  Like my friend before, I have passed on this rock system to many other friends and now Im passing it on to you.

When my oldest son was born, I gave him a Christmas book to open on Christmas Eve.  Thus began a new Christmas tradition.  We have done it every year since he was a baby, and always will.  I try to pick books that represent where they are at that time.  One of my favorite things to do every holiday is to pick out this year’s holiday books.  I go to the bookstore by myself, and spend time picking out books that I think will be perfect for them.  Every year, there are new books, and they seem to get better and better.  I also make sure they have some classics and books that tell the story of Christmas.

I write a little note and the date in each book, and it reminds me about my child that year, and where they were.  This book is the Polar Express.  We must have watched that movie almost daily this particular year, so the book was a perfect way to remember that William loved it so much.

Ava loved books with flaps, so this book was perfect for her in 2008.

And this book was to celebrate a first Christmas.

The Christmas books only come out at Christmas, when the holiday decorations come out for the season.  We keep them separate from all of the other books, and are careful to not mix them in with the other books in the house.  When the books come out in early December, the kids love looking at all of the books and remembering when they got them.  For me, it reminds me how quickly they grow up, and how many Christmases we have spent together as a family.  Someday, my children will have their own families, and they will take their books with them.  I can only hope they continue this tradition with their own family.

A few of my favorite holiday titles:

• No Room at the Inn: The Nativity Story
• Mortimer’s Christmas Manger
• The Gingerbread Girl Goes Animal Crackers
• Howard B. Wigglebottom and the Power of Giving: A Christmas Story
• Room for a Little One: A Christmas Tale
• Snowmen at Christmas
• Christmas Mice
• Counting Christmas

Do you have any holiday traditions?  Let us know in the comments and share how you celebrate the season.

Do you ever have moments where your kids are being so darn cute you could just eat them?

I’ve been on maternity leave from The Creative Mama because my new little guy, Max, made his debut and we just wanna eat him up, we love him so!

His name reminds me of the character, Max, in the adorable book, Where the Wild Things Are.

So I got inspired and designed this cute print for his nursery.

Thought you might like to download your own copy for your little “wild things”.

It is an 8×10 print that would be darling in nursery/child’s bedroom or even the kitchen.

You can download it over here.

MERRY (early) CHRISTMAS!

Growing up here in South Florida, I always wished like crazy that by some fluke of nature we would get some snow in December. I simply knew that, just like in the movies, it would somehow add a bit more magic to Christmas. Of course, that never happened- in fact there are photos of me and my sister outside on Christmas morning wearing shorts and t-shirts!

Despite the weather, there were things that made it really feel like the holidays had arrived- and perhaps none of those more than decorating our family’s Christmas tree. We always set aside a night to it together as a family, and I anticipated this with plenty of impatience each year of my childhood.

Now that I have a family of my own, getting the tree is still one of my favorite traditions. After Thanksgiving, even with Christmas music playing on the radio and the stores overflowing with the ephemera of the winter holidays, it can be hard to get into the spirit when it doesn’t look or feel like winter. But there is just something about strolling through rows of fragrant evergreens, finding that perfect one, wrestling with strings of lights, and unpacking ornaments… that seems to trigger the “merry and bright” switch in my brain. We play Christmas music, sip hot chocolate, and when it’s all done we sit together and admire the sparkle of it all.

Once we have the tree at home, I feel nostalgic every time I catch a hint of pine scent. I’m reminded of past Christmases, and also of the importance of slowing down and being with family at this time of year rather than getting caught up in the unnecessary stress our society tends to bring to the season.
Making gifts, holiday sweets, and decorations by hand also helps to bring a calm, non-commercial kind of festive spirit into our home. I’ve loved sharing all of this with my son, and I hope that my children will cherish these family-focused traditions as much as I do as they get older. Maybe they’ll also hope for white Christmases and only get warm ones, but I can at least help to create that extra-special holiday warmth that makes it truly Christmas.

Ihave my late grandmother to thank for being formed into a die hard reader. While my parents worked, I spent time with my grandma and at least 2 times a week we would walk down to the public library and carry stacks of books several blocks back. These days, I’m a sucker for the immediate gratification of iBooks and Kindle for iPad but there’s still nothing like strolling the aisles of a good old bookstore or library. The world of books have let me cry, laugh and understand the world around me better. Through the voice of each author, I’ve pushed farther.

One of my goals as a creative mama, especially at this time of year, is to make sure my kids realize their blessings. The weeks before Thanksgiving are perfect to focus our attention on being truly grateful.

Of course, we read about the pilgrims and the first thanksgiving. We talk about how God has blessed us and how fortunate we are. But, to really get the kids involved, we go hands on. We have done different fun projects over the past few years that have made us reflect on what we are thankful for.

The kids and I made a thankful pumpkin last like this from PlayfulCrafts.com one last year. We kept it and brought it out this year to remember blessings of the past.

We have done a thankfulness tree like this one from SimplyVintageGirl.com. The kids enjoyed gathering sticks for this project from the woods behind our house. They got so excited to see the tree fill up with leaves as we added more as the weeks went by.

The Thanksgiving bracelet we made like this one from Ramblings Of A Crazy Woman was a hit with the kids because of all the colored beads. I loved it because of the story we told as we made the bracelets and that after they were finished, the kids could use them to tell the Thanksgiving story themselves.

Those are a few of our family favorites. What do you do to help your kids count their blessings?