But They Sure Are Worth It
A Wolf, sorely wounded by dogs, lay recovering in his lair. Being in want of food, he asked a Sheep who was passing by to fetch some water from a nearby stream. “If you will bring me drink,” he said, “I will find meat myself.” “No doubt,” said the Sheep, “If I should bring you the drink, you would make mince-meat out of me.”
The moral of the story? Hypocritical speeches are easily seen through.
How would you use this fable to teach your children?
Hello! Allow me to introduce myself. My Name is Christie and I am a freelance writer from the beautiful Pacific NW. I am a mom to 3 year old fraternal twin boys. They are smart, sweet and have a lot of energy! They bring me oodles of joy and make me laugh every single day. I also have an amazing husband, who works hard for our family, which has allowed me to stay home to raise our boys and pursue my writing career.
I love to cook! I’m not great at baking but I’m working on getting better at it. When our boys started eating solid foods I made it all from scratch; it was super simple and we saved a lot of money! I have always tried to eat healthy but it became even more important to my husband and me, after we had the boys.
I have been a volunteer for the American’s Cancer Society’s Relay for Life for several years. After we had the boys, my efforts were limited to helping put out a newsletter every once in a while. This year however, I am the online committee chair and really excited about helping out in a bigger way. I have lost many loved ones to cancer and know a lot of survivors; so it’s important for me – to donate my time – to help find a cure.
I never even dreamed that I would have twins but I am so thankful that’s how things worked out! My husband and I always said we wanted two kids, and we got them in one shot. No, we aren’t having anymore (people always ask us this) but I did enjoy being pregnant – 3 months of bed rest and all.
I have always wanted to be an at-home Mom. I imagined that being home with my children each day; to see all of their “firsts”, to teach them about the world, and take them to fun and educational places, would be the best thing ever – and it is! Oh sure, there are days when I long for the quiet and serenity of going to an office, but I know that if I were there, I’d just be thinking of how much I would want to be here. When things get a little hectic – and they usually do – I take a deep breath and try to keep in mind that this won’t last forever and I need to enjoy these moments now. Before long, we’ll be helping to pack up the boys’ cars, as we send them off to college and I’ll be left longing for these wonderful, magical, crazy days, once again.
Some of the subjects I’ll be writing about will include; twin parenting, tips and advice for new parents, cooking, healthy eating and healthy living, fun things to do with kids, money saving tips, time management, and pet parenting. I hope you will find my posts interesting, educational and fun to read. Please post any comments that you have. I would love to read them!
There are a lot of other things I think you should know about me, but you’ll learn about them soon enough. I am just so happy and grateful to be part of Kids Ain’t Cheap – it’s a great site with loads of potential!
Do you have twins?
For some reason, my children always wait until the moment that I am overwhelmed with things to do before saying those awful words: “I’m bored.” In my household, “I’m bored,” means “Please stop the very important things you are doing and hang out with me.”
It would be wonderful if they asked me when I didn’t have ten thousand things to do. What a dream world, where every time your children want your attention you can simply set down what you are doing and play with them.
Image on DeviantArt
Keeping a list of “I’m Bored” activities is a great way to occupy your children when you can’t stop and play with them at the moment. These activities should keep them busy long enough for you to finish dinner or washing the dishes.
To start gathering ideas, brainstorm using different objects in your home. What afghan would work best as a cape? What cooking pot would make the best base drum? Or, think about objects that are pretty easy to obtain. Cardboard boxes could be a castle or a fort. Keep a couple of boxes in the back of a closet.
Here are a two more ideas to jump-start your list:
This is a very easy game that you can do while you are doing other things. Get a few things that are all the same: like pieces of green construction paper or black socks. Have your children sit on the couch and cover their eyes while you hide ten or fifteen around the house. Then, they are in charge of finding them. Make it a competition or see if they can find them all in a set amount of time.
Similar to “hide things,” a scavenger hunt sends your children all over the house looking for things. Instead of finding objects that you have hidden, have them bring things to you that have a certain quality: things that are green, things that are round, things that are soft. You might have a pile of things to put away when the game is over, but it keeps them busy and can be a lot of fun. If you are really creative you can play this game in such a way that it actually helps you do your work: try “bring all the clothes to the hamper” or “all the dirty dishes to the sink.”
How do you avoid the dreaded “I’m bored” from your kids?
Found on Christmasstockimages.com
I love this time of year, my two favorite holidays one right after the other. For my family, the start of our Thanksgiving and Christmas starts with tagging our tree. I love Thanksgiving and wish people would decorate and celebrate the coming of Thanksgiving more than they do. It annoys me that the celebration and marketing of Christmas starts well before Thanksgiving. With that said, it’s funny that for me, the start of the Thanksgiving holiday is getting together with my family to go and tag our Christmas tree. It may be hypocritical but meh, I love it just the same. Trust me, we are all in Thanksgiving mode until December hits.
The four of us (me, my wife and my kids) met up with my sister and her family as well as my parents and drove out to the same Christmas tree farm we have been going to for the last couple of years. It’s a great little family owned farm with many charms of it’s own. The tagging is self service, you grab a tag, find a tree that you like and tag it as yours. You don’t have to pay for the tree until you come back and pick it up. When you do decide to go back and claim your tree, they cut it fresh, shake the loose needles off of it, wrap it up and help you load it into your car. All for about $35 – $50 depending on the tree you pick and the size. It’s a little more than we would pay if we went down to one of local pre-cut parking lot stands but the tradition of going and picking out our tree means much more to me than the extra $5 we spend.
After we tag our tree, we had over to a restaurant called Snuzzles. It’s in the middle of nowhere, doesn’t even have a sign on the outside but the food, atmosphere and price is great. At first it seems a little out of place as the whole thing looks like something you would find at a ski resort but the people are friendly and the food can’t be beat for the price.
It’s a day I look forward to every year and this year it did not disappoint. I am part owner of an Ecommerce company and the next 4 – 6 weeks are going to be insane. As our business grows, it’s tougher and tougher for me to enjoy the holidays. I think that is why I cherish days like today more than I ever had before.
How do you kick off the christmas season? Where do you get your tree?
Playtime is essential to the healthy physical, social and emotional development of children. With families’ busy schedules and the increased use of technology as a form of entertainment, children are playing outside less and less. Playtime, both inside and outside, allows a child to use their imagination, which is extremely important for cognitive development. Being outside allows your child to be much more active in their play and is a change of scenery for them as well, providing their senses with different smells, sounds, sights, etc than they are exposed to inside. Here are some outdoor activities that your children will thank you for!
If your children are not already familiar with the classic games of hide-and-seek or tag, teach them. These games are classics because all children love them, the rules are simple, and they can be played by children of all ages. They require no tools and can be played just about anywhere. These are a great way to ensure your child gets the physical activity s/he needs.
Raking is a task that needs to be completed each fall so why not have some fun with it/ Your children can play outside while you rake or they can even help by helping you bag the leaves. This is a great way to spend quality time together while also completing a chore off your to-do list. To make this task even more fun, pile the leaves up as high as you can and allow your children to jump in the pile. Children love this! Leave the very first pile of leaves for them to jump into. This provides them with extra time to play in them while you rake the rest. The leaves are easy to gather again when they are done playing in them. As an added bonus, playing in the leaves also provides for some great photo opportunities.
Another great way to get something off your to do list while having fun with your children. A great way to cool off as well.
Children have to eat so why not move the meal outside? You can set them up on a picnic table, if you have one, or on a blanket. Let’s face it, sometimes it is nice to not have to clean up all the crumbs from the floor too. Share a little with the animals.
Such a simple idea but one children love. Spread a blanket on the grass and sit or lay down with your child and read, read, and read.
Take your children on a walk or simply explore your own backyard but let them explore. Let them look at flowers, the leaves on the trees, under rocks, in puddles. It is amazing what they will discover and you may just learn a little something yourself!
Hook up some music outside and let them dance, dance, dance! As a variation you can play outdoor freeze dance.
Water balloon fights are not something a child gets to do everyday and they are a great way to cool off. Of course, they can get out of hand without rules such as no throwing at peoples’ heads, so make sure your children know your rules ahead of time. Water balloon fights also require some preparation and clean up but they are worth it. Have the children involved in the clean up of the broken balloons. You can make it yet another game by seeing who can collect the most broken balloon pieces. Or you can assign a different color balloon to each child and have them collect only the pieces of balloon in their assigned color.
Kites are relatively inexpensive and you can even make your own at home (click here) or search the internet on your own for other step-by-step instructions.
Children love to run around “free” and feel the grass beneath their feet. It is not something we do often enough.
I do not mean play on a construction site as we all know this is dangerous. What I mean is to walk or drive to a construction site and watch from a safe distance. This is an especially great activity for children who love building things and/or love trucks and machines.
Whether it be a flower garden or a vegetable garden, most children love to dig in the dirt. Gardens are very educational and beautiful to look at or tasty to eat. Children love being able to pick food from their own garden and eat it for supper that night!
Thanks to sidewalk chalk and paint, children who love to draw can now use the biggest canvas they have ever seen – your driveway! These drawing substances wash off in the rain so no need to worry about any of your childrens’ creations becoming permanent fixtures. Don’t be shy! Get in on the fun with your children! Decorate the driveway as you see fit! My daughters and I have decorated the driveway for Easter, Christmas, Halloween, birthdays and many other special occasions. They also loved practising printing their names and other simple words.
Winter can make it much less tempting to get outside and have some fun. Adults typically cannot wait for the white stuff to go away but children love the snow. Shovelling the driveway cannot be avoided, so why not get them outside helping you? Children love to be helpful. If you have one of the scoop shovels you can always take breaks and offer your children a ride in the bucket of the shovel. My daughters love that!
My daughters are happy with snow piled up to make walls, no roof. We made snow seats for them to sit on and just left an opening for a “door”.
What child does not like to build a snowman? My daughters actually own a “Snowman Kit” which was purchased for them as a gift. It comes with two pieces of coal for eyes, a plastic carrot for a nose, a black felt hat, and 3 large, black buttons. We use them everytime we build a snowman and as long as we pick up the pieces before the snowman melts or shortly thereafter, before the pieces become frozen in the snow, we always find the pieces no problem. We have had it for years and still have all of the pieces.
You can hide items you already own or have purchased or you can simply have your children hunt for items you know will be easily found outside such as a rock, a leaf, a stick, etc. You can make the hunt more challenging by adding items that could very likely be found outside but are not laying around just anywhere, such as a tennis ball or a piece of ribbon, etc.
Check out the official geocaching website for more information on this very entertaining outdoor activity. It is basically a treasure hunt where you use GPS coordinates to find “caches” hidden by fellow geocachers. There are currently 1, 236, 409 active geocaches around the world.
Found on Pixabay
For the most part, my kids are are fairly easy to feed. I’m lucky to say that I don’t have major horror stories about feeding disasters. But, like most kids, they have their favorites. Here are some healthy, easy, favorite meals that you can make at home.
My kids love muffins and cupcakes. I think they associate the shape of this treat with yummy goodness because they gobble it all up regardless of whether they are sweet or savory.
Ingredients:
Directions:
To save you the McDonald’s trip (expense and unhealthiness), make your own cheeseburger that your kids will surely love.
Ingredients:
Directions:
I like dinners to be light and healthy but still oh-so-yummy. Again, I am lucky that my kids like fish. This is their favorite dish.
Directions
Take low fat mayo, some prepared mustard, and about a teaspoon of honey and mix together. Adjust according to taste.
All these recipes guarantee that:
Eating at home can be healthy, fun and easy. These three simple dishes are just a few among a multitude of recipes you can do to make eating at home a treat for the family.
What are your favorite simple and healthy recipes?
Found on Pixabay
Traveling with children may sometimes seem like a daunting task and it is if you expect them to sit in a car for hours on end with no entertainment whatsoever. By entertainment I am not referring to movies and video games (although they do come in handy on extremely long trips). There are many technology-free activities and ideas that can make your road trip an enjoyable one – for you and the children! Road trips are a great opportunity to spend some quality family time together.
When my daughters were only two, three and a half, and five and a half years old, our family went on an 11 hour road trip in a 7-seat mini van with one set of grandparents. There was not an empty spot in the van! We did not have a built in DVD player and our children did not own Nintendo DSs. Our two year old had a cast on her leg. Sounds like something not too many people would want to do doesn’t it? With minimal planning for an enjoyable road trip, the drive went off without a hitch – there and back! The children enjoyed it so much they were asking when we were going on our next long road trip. I came up with some of the ideas myself and found endless suggestions for games and activities and other entertainment ideas on the internet with search words like “car games” and “traveling with children”. Here is what we did.
We made sure to have a CD (at that time we did not have an MP3 player or an iPOD) with ALL of their favorite songs compiled onto one disc. We played this throughout the trip in the background for hours and had many, many family sing-a-longs. We packed a bag for each of our daughters as well, with their favorite things from home, that they kept by their seats on the floor of the van. This gave them the ability to self-entertain and gave us a break from constantly providing sources of entertainment.
Since we knew the drive was a long one, and even we were not that thrilled to be trapped in a vehicle for 11 hours, we made sure to try to hit the road early to make up some fast ground. This also provided us with the probability that the girls may sleep for a portion of the trip – another good way to kill some time. Our daughters have never been big sleepers, and although we were on the road before 6am, we did not get much sleeping out of them. If I remember correctly, our two year old fell asleep by nine and slept for about an hour or an hour and a half. Our three and a half year old slept for maybe 45 minutes shortly after lunch. That was it.
No one can sit in a vehicle for eleven hours without bathroom breaks and without getting out to stretch tired legs. With children, it is even more important to do this. We made sure to include breaks as part of our trip. We timed them with lunch, for instance, and also with museums or parks we wanted to visit. This allowed us to provide our children with a definite timeline so when they asked how much longer until we stop, we were able to give them an answer, which seemed to satisfy them.
We made sure to play games with our daughters too. These games not only passed time for them, but for us as well. We played the ever popular “I Spy” and we also had our girls on the lookout for as many blue cars as they could find, and how many trucks they could see, etc. We looked for the letters of the alphabet, in order, on highway signs, as well as numbers, in order. With older children you can improvise these games by giving them a word such as “elephant”. They must find all of the letters, in order, on the highway signs. The first person to spell the word wins. Have them write down the name of one of the cities or towns on one of the highway signs and see who can rearrange the letters to spell the most words. Older children may also enjoy trying to find license plates from all 50 of the United States and/or all 10 provinces and 3 territories of Canada.
We did bring along a couple of portable DVD players and the older girls did end up watching one movie each, during the final hours of the trip. However, the highlight of their road trip was the surprise bags they got every hour of the trip! Thanks to the Dollar Store, I was able to purchase some inexpensive toys and activities to surprise them with. It was really fun shopping for things I knew they would like and it did not cost me much when it came right down to it. Before we left on our trip, I labelled twenty-two paper bags for each daughter – eleven for the trip there and eleven for the way back. I filled three or four of them with a juice box and snacks they do not typically get to eat at home. That way I knew they would be getting a snack every couple of hours. I filled about three bags with toys or books or activities I already had at home that they had not used in a while. They were excited to see them when they opened the bags and enjoyed them just as much as the stuff I bought new from the Dollar Store. My two year old loved to play with socks so I actually put a couple of pairs of socks in one of her bags and she entertained herself by putting them on and off both her hands and her feet! I filled all but one of the rest of the bags with items I had purchased at the Dollar Store. One of the biggest hits was colored pipe cleaners! I bought one package of 20 – 40 pipe cleaners and divided them up between my three daughters. They had great fun twisting them into different creations such as candy canes, letters of the alphabet and butterflies!
I only purchased one brand new bigger, more potentially expensive, toy for each of my girls, which was a mini Littlest Pet Shop kit that folds up for travel. Luckily, I had gotten them on sale a few months earlier, knowing I was planning to buy them something for this road trip. They received them in one of the first few bags of the road trip and they played with them on the road trip there, at the house we were staying at, on all the little road trips once we reached our destination, and on the way back too. They still play with them now, two years later, so they were well worth the money.
Road trips with children can be very successful and rewarding with very little planning and very little money spent. I am speaking from experience.
What other tips do you have for traveling with children?
Photo on CAPL
There are many baby items that are perfectly safe to buy second hand. Unfortunately there are a couple of items, such as a car seat and a crib, that are safer for baby if bought brand new. New cribs can be very pricey but you do not need to spend a fortune to keep your baby safe during sleep time. The least expensive crib on the market can be perfectly safe for baby as long as it meets the government safety requirements and is assembled correctly.
If you do purchase secondhand, make sure it is from someone you know and trust. Regardless of where you purchase, it is important, for the safety of your baby, to always keep an eye on current baby product recalls at www.recalls.gov (in the United States) and http://cpsr-rspc.hc-sc.gc.ca/PR-RP/home-accueil-eng.jsp (in Canada). In my experience, most of these recalls are easily fixable and often the company ships you a small repair kit, free of charge to you, complete with instructions. It is only in more drastic cases where you would actually have to discontinue use of the product you have purchased. When buying new, many baby items come with a registration card that you mail to the company and they will mail information concerning recalls directly to your home.
Statistics show that although 4 million babies are born in the United States each year, only 1 million cribs are purchased. In the United States, 26 infants die each year and another 11,500 are hospitalized in crib related accidents. Unfortunately, many of these accidents occurred in older-style cribs that do not meet current government safety regulations. In the United States, the Consumer Product Safety Commission states that only cribs made after 1991 are likely to meet all current safety standards. In Canada, all cribs made after September 1986 are likely to meet all current safety standards. Health Canada states, “Using a crib manufactured before September 1986 poses potential hazards that may result in serious injuries, including death.”
Crib safety standards in both the United States and Canada include:
For more detailed safety standards please visit http://www.cpsc.gov/businfo/regsumcrib.pdf (USA) and http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection/H46-2-03-332E.pdf (Canada).
The standard crib is by far the most popular type of crib. It features stationary sides, dual drop sides or single drop sides. For the safety of your baby, however, it is recommended to always keep the sides of the crib to the highest setting. In fact, many crib manufacturers are now doing away with drop down sides. So if you are buying a new crib, it is best to buy one with stationary sides, even though drop down sides are very convenient. If you are buying or using an older crib that has drop down sides, it is best to leave the sides up at their highest setting at all times.
Convertible cribs offer all the features of a standard crib but convert into a toddler bed. Some even then convert into a double bed. This means that you pay one time for a bed that will last your baby well into his or her adulthood!
Other types of cribs available on the market include round cribs, canopy cribs and portable cribs. Round cribs are fairly new to the market. Canopy cribs are available in standard rectangular shapes or as a round crib. Portable cribs are about one-third smaller than a standard crib and fold up easily for travel.
Whatever crib you choose for your baby, just remember to keep safety at the top of your list!
What type of crib did you use for your baby? Where did you get yours?
Image on DeviantArt
Choosing the right pet for your family can be a tough decision and it should never be taken lightly. It’s not like going out to buy a sweater, or even a car; this is a commitment to take care of another living creature for the rest of its life. When you bring home a pet – you are making a promise – to provide it with whatever it needs to live a full, happy, and healthy life. You need to do a lot of research, ask yourselves some important questions, and really search your hearts to decide which pet is right for your family.
Here are just a few of the questions you should start to ask yourself – and your family – as you begin the search for your newest family member:
There are so many types of pets available to suit just about anyone’s lifestyle. Let’s examine some of these, based on how much maintenance and care they require.
These pets are perfect for a first time pet family. They will require minimal care. They aren’t the snuggly cuddly type of pet that will want to be touched or played with a lot. You can love them, you can care about them, but the less you mess with them, the happier they will be. Some examples of a low maintenance pets are:
Remember, low maintenance, does not mean — no maintenance!!! You still have to care for these pets and provide them with the best environment possible, so they will thrive.
These pets require a little more maintenance as far as their care is concerned. Generally, you’ll want to dedicate around 30 minutes to cleaning and feeding them each day. Even though there isn’t a lot of care that goes into these pets, most of them still need your attention and most importantly your love. The more love you give them, the more they will love you back, and enrich your lives.
Dogs are a high maintenance pet but to their owners, they are worth every single second of it. Dogs have many requirements and you have to be particularly diligent in educating yourselves, to find the breed (or mixed breed) that is right for your family. Far too many dogs end up in shelters or worse, because people don’t take the time to find out if they are capable of such a responsibility.
Some dogs are small and do well in small spaces, other dogs need to do a lot of running and some are happiest when they are working. You have to keep in mind how much time you can spend with them and the activity level of your family as well. Many dogs can suffer from separation anxiety and they can become destructive because they are bored or simply miss you. With proper training, quality care, and lots of love, you will have a loyal family member, who values you more than you may ever know. If you can’t make them an important and highly cherished family memberthen you should probably find a different type of pet.
Dogs require:
There is so much that goes into selecting the right pet. I urge you to go to your local library, surf the web, talk to your friends about their pets, go to pet stores, contact local rescues and humane societies to do research (volunteering is a fantastic way to help the animals and get a feel for what really goes into pet parenting), and obtain all the information you can before you add a pet to your family.
One more thing I’d like to add; there are so many pet rescues that have pets just waiting to go to their forever homes. They don’t just have dogs and cats; many have a variety of animals. Some pet stores will even have small animals, birds, fish or reptiles that have been relinquished by their owners, which are also for adoption. Open your heart, open your home and most of all love and enjoy your pets.
Do you have a pet? How did you choose which one to get for your family?
Are you getting bored with the same three or four meals on your dinner rotation each week? I know I am. With money tight and picky kids, I feel your pain. If you are looking for some fresh ideas to feed your family that cost around ten dollars, here are five ideas that have all passed the kid test in my household, yet don’t make my husband roll his eyes and say “that again?”
I got this recipe off the back of a bag of Tyson’s Grilled and Ready Cooked Grilled Chicken Breast Strips and modified it a bit to make it my own. It’s fast, easy, and nutritious.
Grocery List
Approximate Cost $10.00-$12.00.
Directions: Follow the recipe for Chicken Marinara on the back of the Tyson bag or at Tyson.com
After the chicken is sauteed and the sauce is simmering, add several cups of baby spinach leaves and cover. After the spinach is cooked to your taste, sprinkle dish with mozzarella cheese and cover again until melted. Serve over spaghetti or a pasta of your choice.
This is a fan favorite in my house and my five-year-old loves to help scramble the eggs!
Grocery List
Approximate Cost $8.00
Directions: Saute chicken in canola oil and then scramble three eggs in the same pan. While this is cooking, make your instant rice in a separate pot. When the rice is ready, drain and transfer to the chicken and egg mixture. Cook ingredients at high heat with a little more oil until it browns up. Add frozen peas and soy sauce last and cook over low heat until peas are cooked through.
Great for days when you know you come home late from kids’ activities, this dish smells great as soon as you walk through the door. There is no need to force the kids to eat a separate serving of vegetables… it’s in there! This recipe usually makes enough for left-overs, too.
Grocery List
Approximate Cost– $11.00
Directions: Cut potatoes and carrots into large pieces and place on the bottom of the slow cooker. Place pot roast on top of vegetables. Add water to seasoning packet, mix and pour over the top. Cook around 4 hours on high, then cook on low for another 1-2 hours.
If you are sick to death of the boxed kind, try this easy and inexpensive recipe for homemade mac ‘n cheese. It is a real comfort food that will fill up your kids’ bellies on chilly nights.
Grocery List
Approximate cost– $8.00
Optional: For variety, I like to add either diced ham with green peas or broccoli florets.
Directions: See allrecipes.com for complete directions. A four star recipe.
This recipe can be thrown together in about 10 minutes and it is a hit with my husband and both kids. When my son ate the recipe made with pork chops, instead of the usual chicken, he declared that it was the “best batch you have ever made.”
Grocery List
P.S. I like to serve mine with rice pilaf and a veggie on the side.
Directions: Dip chicken or pork in milk and then roll in bread crumbs until covered. Saute in olive or canola oil, turning over frequently, until brown. Cover and cook at reduced heat until the meat is cooked completely through. Voila!
To save even more money at the grocery store, don’t forget to:
Do you have any favorite family dinners that cost less than $10 to make?