Valentine’s Day is right around the corner and this year money is tight. When special occasions come and your budget is in short supply, sometimes you feel like it’s hard to celebrate the day without having a lot of money. You don’t know if showing love on a budget is possible. And you’re not sure if you should try. Celebrate anyway. Giving to someome else comes from the heart, not the checkbook. There still are a lot of things you can do but the trade-off is that it will take more time. But you can do it.
Be Creative
I love The Dating Diva’s site for so many different printable that you can print off for free or very reasonable. One year I bought empty pill capsules and then wrote little things I loved about him and put them in the capsules with instructions for 1 a day. But you could do the same thing with a deck of cards or a letter. You could fill out a coupon book or write letters. Your imagination is the limit.
Cook or Bake Something
For Valentines day, have a pink and red food theme. We’ve had pink pancakes, and heart shaped cooked eggs for breakfast. Tomato soup with little heart shaped cut croutons. You can use heart shaped cookie cutters on just about everything. I have a heart shaped bundt pan that makes a great red velvet cake. But if there’s a favorite recipe make that. There are a lot of food that’s red and pink. Beets, tomatoes, apples, are just a few.
Going Away
It’s not true that you can’t go away on a budget. First decide if it’s an evening, a day trip or overnight. There are a lot of fun things to do on a budget. I love finding great deals for dinner or things to do on Groupon. You could find a romantic dinner or go play laser tag. There’s usually something for everyone. They also have getaways that can be more than half off. You can also get meal discounts at Restaurant.com or hotel nights on Hotwire.
Do a Project for or with Them
If they have something they’ve needed to be done, surprise them and do it. Organize a drawer, sew something, repair something that’s broke. Do a home project or cook together. Our neighborhood grocery store has cooking classes, check yours. Or you can cook their favorite meal. Maybe set up a bubble bath or a back massage. Fill your room with candles.
Showing Love To Children
Some of the above tips can be used with children. My children love pink heart pancakes and heart-shaped pizza. Beets, not as much. Of course, almost any dessert goes well. But you can buy or do little things for your children that make them feel special. The Dollar Tree has so many cute pencils, erasers, treats, play-doh and more. Have a special ice cream night or a tea party with lemonade and cookies. Give them a Valentine or write them a note. Spend time with them.
What other ideas do you have for showing love on a budget?
As a mom of many children, it can be hard to get one on one time with your children. I have found you have to make time for it as it doesn’t appear, you have to make the effort.
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Look for Little Minutes
As nice as it would be to get large chunks that’s not always realistic. So I try and also use the little blocks of time. A few minutes here and there is not ideal but sometimes there are seasons when it’s hard to find one on one time. Right after I had surgery, one of the kids usually brought me my meal. I asked them to sit a few minutes and talk. Sometimes they would bring their meal and eat with me. When checking rooms I’ll stop and ask a few questions about what’s going on for them. When they ask question, ask them back. Show you’re interested. It’s easy to get busy and not think about it.
Doing Errands
I make it a point to take one child with me for errands. We spend time and talk in the car. Sometimes, we’ll stop for a bite or a drink. As nice as it is to get time alone, I need to remember the time I have with them is fleeting. I only have 2 school age children now. My time remaining with them is short. I remember when I had lots of little ones and it felt like it would never end. It does. So quickly and them you are left with memories and not regrets.
Weekly Books
I have a book I’m going through Girl Talk with my daughter and my husband is going through Created for Work with my son. We go through a short chapter a couple times a week and talk about the chapter and whatever else comes up. We also have a question book we pass back and forth. She writes in it and then I do. Sometimes words are hard and writing is easier.
Special Times
Don’t forget to set up special occasion times. Birthdays, young ladies teas, special meals or just because you know they need it. With one daughter, we went on walks. That’s when she loved to talk. With another it was baking. You need to find what makes them tick. They need to be relaxed to open up.
What’s your favorite way to make one on one time with your children?
Do you ever have trouble with your children and their electronics? Does it seem like headphones grow out of their ears? Do they listen more to the electronic voices than the people around them? You’re not alone. I think most parents have a love/hate relationship with electronics and their children. It is a way of communication when you’re apart, but it can also pull you apart. They have all these voices in their ears pulling them away from you. Voices that are sometimes more important than yours.
No Electronics at Meals
We now have in place a set of rules for electronics. I did not put meals on there because we already have a rule for no electronics at the table. There are very few exceptions. We even tell guests about our no electronic rules for meals. They have all been very gracious about it.
There are many things more important than checking up on social media. Children and even some adults need to learn to do the necessary things first in order to do the important things done for life. For children, it is chores, homework, as adults, we still have chores and work. I want them to develop habits of reading their Bible, prayer, exercise, reading and being helpful to others. Learning to prioritize is a lifelong skill that every person needs to know.
Enforcing Electronic Rules
Now that we have our checklist, we have to enforce it. Unless you have little robot children, they’ll try and push the rules. Children almost always push the rules. Have a plan in place so you know what you’ll do when you see them with their phones. We have an electronics home for them to stay in during off times. And the electronics may get taken away and left there for a day for the first offense and multiplied after that.
So what tips do you have for children and electronics? Do you have rules?
My kids love to eat fruits and vegetables. And I often get asked how I get my kids to eat more fruits and vegetables. Here’s how…
Let Them Help Make It
When they help make meals, let them help. If they are the ones making the salad, they’ll be more inclined to try it. Have them help make a veggie tray or fruit salad. Make dips with either. Kids love to dip fruits or vegetables. You can use a ranch dip or peanut butter with a variety of vegetables or even the peanut butter with apples is a favorite treat at my house. There’s great dips for fruit too.
Praise Them
Make sure everyone know what recipe was made and by who. “And we have these wonderful candies carrots made by Johnny. ” or “Susie made the salad tonight.” Also, when we make salads, we always put all the extras in different bowls and they can pick their own toppings.
When they try a new fruit or vegetable, praise them. “Good job eating your peas.”
Make them try it. We have a rule you have to try a little just to be polite. And a lot of foods thy need to try several times to like it.
Let Them Pick It Out
When you go to the store let them pick out a new fruit or vegetable. We’ve tried some very different ones we might not have ever tried by doing this. We only get one or a small bit if it comes in lbs and everybody tries it. Some are great and we add them in our menus and some are flops. But you don’t know unless you try.
Garden
We have almost always had a garden and the kids have always helped. They love picking them and showing me the vegetable that “they” grew. It’s much easier to get them to try something new that they helped with and they grew. The only thing you have to watch out for is they will eat everything and you won’t get any for dinner. Smile. We grew sugar snap peas and the kids ate every one before they even came in the house. And I have one daughter who even now will eat every cherry tomato she can.
Hide Them
You an sneak fruits and vegetables into a lot of different meals. I put a lot of shredded vegetables in my spaghetti sauce. Zucchini has very little taste and can be added to many things. Butternut squash can be added to any cheese sauce. I have also dried vegetables and added them thicken sauces.
What ways do you do to get your kids to eat more fruits and vegetables?
Its hard to believe that it’s almost time for my children to go back to school. We only have 2 in school at home now. They are in grades 7th and 9th. So while they can do most of their own back to school routines, I need to set them up.
So now is the time to be set up back to school routines. There are many little details we can do to make it easier on both ourselves and our children. Routines for breakfast and getting out the door in the morning. Routines for after school, homework and where to put everything. And a new routine for mom too.
Breakfast
Whether you make them breakfast or they get it themselves you need a breakfast routine. I do a mixture of both. I have a list of what they can eat and make for themselves. I made bags of frozen smoothie packs. There is a variety of cereal. I try to make ahead waffles that they can pull from the freezer and eat. I make a bowl of eggs with hash browns and sausage or ham mixed together to make breakfast burritos. I also make little bags of oatmeal packets for them to eat. Some days I do make breakfast of eggs and toast or pancakes.
Getting Out the Door
Our hardest back to school routine is getting out the door. This year the children have to walk to school so we will have a couple of practice days and time them. We will get up and run through their routines so they have them down pat. The biggest part of getting out the door in the morning actually happens the night before.
Evening Routine
This is a game changer. Having a good night time routine makes your morning go smoothly. The days I am to busy or if we’re gone the night before our mornings can be chaos.
This is our evening routine. After supper and cleaning up we start on our evening routine. We look at our calendar for the next day and make sure we have everything needed in backpacks for kiddos or me my purse or in the car. I do this to after repeatedly forgetting things. We lay out clothing for the next day and have showers. Everything I can possibly do the night before I try and get done. It makes mornings run much smoother. Only then we can watch a movie or veg out until bedtime.
Afternoon Routine
We have always had our children do their homework as soon as they get home from school. Now I know many people do this differently. We tell them many times, different families, different standards. They get a snack, hopefully, healthy like fruit or veggies and dip. But there are a few days I will make treats. They’ll have hot cookies the first day from school. But that’s not an everyday snack. I am retraining myself to eat healthy and training my children that the best snacks are fruits and veggies. So I try and keep a couple kinds of fruit in the house, usually what’s on sale. I keep veggies cut up in the fridge and peanut butter or ranch for dipping. There are also smoothie packs to make a quick drink if they have to be somewhere else.
How do you wake your children up?Do you stumble bleary-eyed into the kitchen and point them to the cereal? How about instead waking them up with a cheerful good morning in a happy voice. Or even with a good morning song. I love Wake Up you Sleepyhead by Rappin Rabbit. Make sure they know you’re glad to see them.
Say I Love You
Even your teens need to hear this. And the prickly one who doesn’t want to be close to you, they need to hear it more than most. Tell them I love you frequently.
Encourage Them
Encourage them every day. I heard from Nancy Cambell at Above Rubies to make a chart and put a check mark each day when you encouraged them. That way you didn’t forget. And let’s face it, even Mom’s need a reminder sometimes.
Model Good Behavior
There’s a saying more is caught than taught for a reason. Because children follow in our footsteps and copy us. Are you modeling what you want your child to copy?
Feed Them Healthy Food
Make family mealtimes a priority. Have healthy meals for them so they will grow up liking to eat salads and vegetables. We’ve always had a garden, even in an apartment. And the children will want to et what they grow. That goes for cooking too. Your child will develop an appetite for what you feed them so if you want them to grow up with a love for wholesome foods, serve them instead of chips and soda.
Treat them as an Individual
None of my 10 children are the same. As a matter of fact, people are surprised at how diverse they actually are. Each child has a special purpose made by God that is different than any other. Your job as a parent is to discover what that is and give them the resources to develop that talent. Each child is different in how they respond to ways of discipline, encouragement and they all have different gifts and love languages. For instance, one child is sent to his room as a punishment. I have another child who tried to get sent to her room because she liked being sent to her room. So we had to find a different method for her.
Look, Listen and Touch
Please put the cell phone down and look at your child while they are talking. Really listen to them. I know sometimes I hear the same story over and over but it’s important to them. I have trouble too sometimes. Look them in the eye. Touch is important too. A hand on their shoulder while your talking, a hug. As our children get older, we forget they need to be touched too.
Spend Time One on One
Make time to spend one on one with your children. They need to be valued as an individual not just as a group. This morning my son and I got up early and went to Walmart. Another time might be doing nails with my daughter or going out. When we had 8 children at home we used to rotate errands and grocery shopping with one of them. There are times you will seek them out, times they would rather withdraw. These are the times that they need you most. Even if they don’t think so.
Make Home a Happy Place to Be
Make home a great place to come home to. Make their friends welcome. Be happy and smile. Smiles are contagious you know. There’s another saying “If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t’ nobody happy.” Are you a happy mom? Can other people tell it? I love being a mother. People always guess my age as younger than I am and I tell them “My children keep me young.” Do you have a home they want to come home to?
Pray with Them
I know you pray for them, I know I do too. But there is something very special about praying with your child. It’s something we do when they are younger but as they grow up, it’s easy to lose track of this habit. I know with jobs and activities it is harder and harder to keep any kind of schedule with them. There are times I’m in bed before my children. Even if you can’t do it every night, try and do it once in a while. And let them know you’re praying for them. Ask, what specifically can I pray for you? even adult children.
10 Ways to Show Your Children Love
I know I don’t do all of these perfectly all the time. But these are the 10 ways to show love to your children. I hope they’ve been a blessing to you. What other ways have you found that show love to your children?
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