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?
These past two weeks have been so incredibly busy I don’t know which way to turn. Have you ever felt that way? We were doing and planning instead of waiting on the Lord. We are planning on moving. Our lease is up the end of May and we are not planning on renewing it. We have been looking for rentals and we found one We thought. Because at the last minute my husband received a call that changed all that. His brother called on the way home and asked if he was interested in living in their old family home. He thought I wouldn’t be interested, I thought he wouldn’t. We were both wrong. I looked up the school in the area. It was really good. And small. When we talked about class size, the entire class of… my son said: “my choir class is bigger than that.” My daughter’s high school class is larger than the town’s population. And it’s a good thing.
Small Town vs. City Living
Right now we live in a good-sized city that had the good-sized crime to go along with it. I never thought I’d want to live in a small town again. And I like being 5-10 minutes from anywhere. I can get to the mall, Costco or as much shopping as I want. A lot of them are even 24 hours. We are moving where the only store in town is a Dollar General. The closest stores are 15-20 minutes away and Costco will be 45 minutes. And it’s okay. Because I won’t hear sirens every night. I won’t have code blues at my children’s schools on a several time a month basis. We won’t have letters sent home telling of a threat they deemed uncredible and still you worry. They had a code blue at the small school last month. It was the first in 5 years. 5 Years! That’s unfathomable to me. And what I want.
Children and Meaningful Work
I want my children to learn about hard work again. Apartment living has made all of us a little soft. Someone else fixes everything, mows the yard, shovels the walks. They have Chromebooks for homework and play. They do snow days online instead of making them up. My daughter found out they don’t have Chromebooks there. “what do they use? she wailed. Seriously. My husband told her with a straight face. “Stone tablets.” They might have to write it out. Look up a word in the dictionary instead of Okay Google. I’m fine with that. I believe our children should have meaningful work. Work that makes a difference. Not made up, busy work, but work that benefits other people or self. Not so much that they have no time to create or explore. But enough that they are not so self-centered or video game addicts like so many this generation.
Unfixable
We’ve spent an inordinate amount of time and money fixing things and emptying out the house and trying to see what needed to be done. Driving back and forth almost daily to try and put the house in order. Have you ever been in an older home where if you put a marble down it would roll to the other side of the room? Now imagine it had waves…So we knew we would have to raise the floors. We didn’t know how bad it was underneath. My husband and son opened the floors to find water, rotten wood and mold underneath. To fix them was probably more work than the house was was worth.
Waiting on the Lord
So now we are waiting on the Lord and His timing. We have had lots of advice on what to do next; turn the garage into a house, put a mobile home on the property, find a different rental. We had peace about moving and many prayers that felt it was God’s will for our lives. There is never a wrong place to be if it is inside God’s will. So right now we have 9 weeks to move and no plan in place. It should feel irresponsible and I would be lying if the thought didn’t cross my mind to just hurry and find something. But I feel in my heart that God has a plan for us that is better than any could come up with. He has a plan for your life too. Jerimiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
We have 2 birthdays coming up next week. I have 2 children only a day apart. I love to celebrate birthdays but I also have a small budget. So I’ve learned to get creative. So I look to see what each child likes and they get to pick the meal and dessert. They also get to pick who they would like to come over. We don’t have birthday parties every year with friends. But they can have a friend or two. So let’s look at the different things we need to budget to making birthdays special on a budget.
Food
I let each child choose what they would like for supper and dessert. Usually, they’ll pick a favorite we don’t have very often. Mostly because of the time it takes but I’m glad to make it for their birthday. One daughter loves fried chicken but with everyone there, it takes about 4 chickens and a long time to make them. As my children have gotten older though different ones are glad to help and do something for the other child’s birthday. Next comes dessert and it doesn’t have to be cake. We’ve had apple, strawberry, chocolate or peanut butter pie. Ice cream cake and of course many different kinds of cake. I make them myself, sometimes with a child’s decorating help. That means lots of sprinkles.
Decorations
Some birthdays have had a theme with decorations usually from the Dollar Tree. But you can find good deals at most stores I always look on end caps for sales. My daughter just found sparkly napkins 70% off for her birthday later this year. If they want a certain character or theme you don’t have to buy all of it in the same line. You can buy one or two things and fill in with cheaper color coordinating paper plates, cups or napkins. Streamers can be any color that goes with it.
Gifts
I have my children give me a list. A written list. If they are just telling me when they see something they like while we are shopping, I probably won’t remember it. So if it’s not in writing then it’s not considered on the list. A great time to look is after Christmas. I find gifts that I know that person would like and stash it in the closet. I do write it down so I remember it. While I’m shopping I always browse the sales. Now I’m not saying to buy something just because it’s on sale or cheap. No. Just be looking around while you are already shopping to see if you find something you know that person would love to have. Something they would pick out for themselves if they could. That’s why I shop early. I want them to love it and know I picked it out specifically for them. I want them to feel loved.
So, do you have any hints on making birthdays special on a budget? Please leave a comment below to share yours.
I thought this week would be my slow week. You know, the week with no appointments. A blank calendar. I’m looking at all the free time and planning out my to-do list. Or maybe planning a Netflix binge and relaxing. Maybe a stack of books….. The point is; as soon as I start planning, the reverse happens. All the free time is totally gobbled up by unexpected errands. Unexpected people and unexpected problems. When life gets too busy when you were expecting slow.
Unexpected Problems = Unexpected Blessings
Last week, our water heater went out. Which shouldn’t feel like a big deal since we live in an apartment and the maintenance people fix it? Except that it’s in our bedroom closet. More specifically in the corner of my bedroom closet. Which meant that I had to empty out almost everything in my closet. I could leave the stuff on the shelves but all the clothes and shoes we emptied out. And piled and piled. Piled on the bathroom counter, on the chair in the bedroom, even on the floor. Which were just too many piles. So I purged and purged. I got rid of 4 bags of clothes. And I still had enough to wear. I was able to bless someone else and my closet is now clean, organized and I love it. I’m not saying every problem will have such a good blessing. I still haven’t figured out the blessing from sickness and I don’t think I will this side of heaven. But I still look for the silver lining.
Evaluating the Cost
We had company last week. We had company every night. I have a hard time saying no. Especially when it’s my children and grandchildren are the ones asking. I love to see them. But sometimes I need to say no. And not only for my sake but for another family member. It was a week that both my daughter and husband worked extra. I had a cold and was still healing from surgery. Sometimes I need to say no when life seems to busy. Sometimes it’s my fault.
How to Slow Down
Making a deliberate decision to slow down when life seems to busy is the first step. I need to stop and pray about the busy things that come up.
Prioritize
I need to look at my priorities and see what fits in. Not everything can be done in every season of life. Even good things are often not the best things. What are your priorities? When planning your week, use that list to order your week. When something comes up, look and see if it fall in with those priorities.
Wait
Pause, don’t say yes right sway. I have a tendency to say yes and regret it later. Most things don’t need an immediate yes. Slow down and count the cost of what this will mean for you.
Say No
You might need to say no to some things. If you say yes to this then you are saying no to something else.
Reschedule
Something may need to be rescheduled. You can’t do 2 things at once. I know, I’ve tried. Something has to give and a lot of time it ends up being sleep.
Find Your Response
Have a canned “reason” at the ready when someone asks you for something. I want to jump in hed first but sometimes get myself in trouble that way. I find I need a buffer to allow myself time to think about what’s best. You know; when you’re bombarded by the PTA committee for an event and don’t know how to say no and find yourself double booked. Yes, I have double booked myself time and time again. “I’ll have to get back to you on that.” is my common response for spur of the moment questions.
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