Category Archives: Mommy Quick Tips

My Favorite Mother’s Day Tradition

But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Luke 5:16

By: Jennifer Mullen

Pardon my messy bathroom. I had more important things to do than clean mirrors and toilets.

Last Saturday I rolled out of bed while my family still slept. I packed one of my many Thirty-One bags with some of my journals, my Bible, and my favorite book. Threw on some jeans and a scarf and escaped to a corner booth at Panera.

I sat in that booth for FIVE HOURS! I enjoyed both breakfast and lunch during my stay.

You may wonder what on Earth could I be doing for FIVE HOURS?

Well this is one of many things Gretchen has taught me about taking time to get focused as a mom. Click here to read her article about this amazing tradition I think all mothers should consider.

Creating a Masterpiece

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“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Ephesians 2:10 NLT

By: Jennifer Mullen

On my personal Facebook page, I post lots of “mommy school” pics. These are snapshots of activities that I do with my kids. I am often asked where I get my ideas, and if I follow a curriculum. Well, I am a teacher by profession, so I unknowingly tap into my training. Gretchen often reminds me that I take for granted that what comes naturally for me is a mystery for others. So I plan on sharing on a regular basis activities that you can do with yours kids and various media resources to use to help support those activities. I hope that it helps you get your creative juices flowing.

This week we talked about the color wheel. I started with this YouTube video. (YouTube is a great resource for educational videos!)

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Morning Routine

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I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Psalm 34:1b NKJV

One thing I hear a lot of moms say is that they have an excuse to be late because they have kids. While it does make it understandable at times, I myself can’t stand to be late. I feel like I’ve missed out on something. If I’m late to a practice or a meeting, I feel like I need to apologize over and over…and over.

When I first became a mom I struggled to get it together in the morning especially. After I had my second baby I had an even harder time. Because I wanted to be considerate of other people’s time I decided to make a plan. It has evolved quite a bit, and now that my kids are in school it is essential! Here are a few things that have a permanent place in my routine and are imperative to making our morning routine both time efficient and less stressful.

1.) Get your ducks in a row.

Check the weather the night before. Just a couple days ago we walked out to leave just to find that it had reached freezing the night before. We were running right on time, but scraping the windows definitely put us behind!

Have your kids put every single thing they need for the next day by the door you will leave from. (I usually check my youngers bags to be sure they did it.)

I pick my kids’ outfits out for the week (or more) as I’m putting their laundry away. I put socks and underwear with them, so all they have to do is grab matching shoes. Because I’ve had several mornings where kids can’t find shoes, I now have them pick the outfit they will wear the next day and put the shoes with it.

2.) Know more than just time you are supposed to be somewhere. Here is how I determine the time I need to get up in the morning:

Time I need to arrive at 7:15

Now take away the time it takes to:

- Get to kids’ school -10 minutes

- Load kids in car-5 minutes

- Do morning chores-10 minutes

- Fix and eat breakfast/Fix Lunches-20 minutes

- Get kids up and dressed head to toe-20 minutes

- Have morning coffee by myself-10 minutes

- Shower and get dressed-30 minutes

1 Hour and 45 minutes

Wakeup time= 5:30

This is my routine on school mornings. It varies a little bit depending on what else we have going on that morning.

3.) Do as much as possible the night before. If I’m wanting to wake up later (and who wouldn’t?!!) I take things from the morning list and do them the night before. For example, if I want 30 extra minutes of sleep in the morning I will take a shower, fix lunches the night before. I would also skip my morning coffee time, and possibly choose a quicker breakfast option for my kids.

Here are a few things I prefer to do the night before:

: Note the ipod dock in the background. We like to turn up the tunes in the morning! Nothing like a dance party to wake you up:)

Sit out everything you need for the next morning

Fix Lunches

Make breakfast ahead of time

Fill up all clean sippy cups

Pack diaper bag

Lay out my outfit

Everybody has days when no matter how much they have prepared they end up running late. It happens! I hope these suggestions will help it happen less often.

Leave us a comment and let us know how you make it out the door on time!

Summertime Schedule

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Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard planted by the water; it was fruitful and full of branches because of abundant water. Ezekiel 19:10

By: Gretchen Speer

A few weeks ago we got a letter from our kids’ school. It was informing us that because there was only one snow day this year our kids would be getting out three weeks earlier than they had originally planned. In the interest in keeping it real here, I will tell you that when I read that letter I did not experience a flood of joy. I believe my exact reaction was, “WHAT???” That is a long summer!

I do my best to do things outside of our house during the summer, but there are plenty days where we stay home. Last year, in anticipation of the usual boredom complaint I made out a schedule to follow. It was a way to work in everything that needed to be done in the day while still making sure to have plenty of fun and relaxation. It also helped me keep a handle on the amount of time my kids were spending in front of the TV. On the days that we were out and about we didn’t worry about the schedule. Once we were home and settled from swimming or the library we just jumped right back into it.

Outside time: This could mean playing in the back yard, taking a walk, going to the park, playing in the sprinklers or doing sidewalk chalk on the driveway. I schedule it first thing in the morning so that it’s never to hot to go out. It’s nice to start the day this way.

TV time: This is one show or one short video.

Room Play Time: I always tell my kids they have to play with actual toys during this time-no electronics! During this time I ask them to play in their rooms. This is usually when I am able to clean, read or check email for the most part in peace.

Snack/TV time: A light snack and then part of a tv show if they have time once they are finished.

Chore Time: Remember those chore charts? We have new ones for the summer:) If you missed that post you can see it here.

Homework Time: Homework in the summer? Absolutely! During this time we do grade level math and reading worksheets. My kids also like www.brainpop.com and www.funbrain.com. My DS worked a lot on his typing last summer too.

Play Time: This play time is when play dough, finger or water paints, or other crafts are an option. Sometimes my kids would rather just play than do any of these.

Reading Time: Reading time is right before rest time for a reason-and it works:) This summer I am going to use this time to read through the Narnia books with the kids. If your kids are reading you can let them take turns reading during this time.

Rest Time: Depending on how old your kids are this may or may not work for you. My olders actually do really well playing quietly if they don’t feel the need to actually rest. My youngers are still napping in the afternoon. During this time my olders play on their DS, listen to Adventures in Odssey, color, and play with their toys in their room.

Snack Time: Far enough away from supper to not spoil any tiny appetites. Their TV time allows me to do some dinner prep.

Chore Time: This is just to pick up the house, and do any chores we didn’t have time to do earlier. They usually get things done pretty quickly so they can do brain pop:)

Room Play Time: I put this on the schedule so I could get dinner in the oven without lots of company in the kitchen. To be honest, this is the one thing that just didn’t work. We’ll see if it will this summer:)

I know I am always looking for ideas to pass the time in the summer, I hope this was helpful to you! What things do you do with your kids to pass the long hot summer days at home?

Monster Heads: DIY Peanut Butter Cereal Bars

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“Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.” Colossians 3:17 MSG

By: Jennifer Mullen

So it has been five months since I wrote Permission to Be Imperfect. In that post I listed my five New Year’s resolutions, one of which was to develop healthier eating habits. In the past five months I have lost 30 pounds by just calorie counting. (That is a post for another day.) Today I want to focus on the secondary purpose of that resolution: modeling healthy eating habits for my kids!

My daughter was getting into a habit of expecting a treat after every meal or every accomplishment. I knew we had to make some changes. Because my daughter is still young, it is the perfect time to make new cooking traditions and to teach my daughter how to choose foods that would make her body strong.

Instead of making peanut butter cookies with lots of added sugar, we tried this super easy recipe I saw on Dr. Oz. My daughter calls them Monster Heads. (By the way… watching Dr. Oz is not something I would have done before the New Year.)

What you will need:

You only need two ingredients in a one-to-one ratio. I did one cup of each:

1-Uncooked Oats (Good source of whole grain fiber)

2- Peanut Butter(I used the natural Jif)

You can add other things!

I didn’t have enough Jif so I added some crunchy peanut butter. Also, I found half of a bag of chocolate chips in my cabinet left over from our Christmas baking. Before my New Year’s resolution they would have never made it past January in my cabinet! So, to make it more like a treat we added a 1/4 cup of the chocolate chips. You could also add dried fruits, nuts, or honey. You may want to try this recipe with almond butter or sunbutter. If you do, let me know what you think.

Measure and mix all the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Be prepared to get messy!!! This is a great multi-sensory activity for your kids. Also, what is great about this is that you can eat it right out of the bowl. I am one of those mommas who deny my children the joy of eating raw cookie batter in fear of salmonella poisoning!

Then we rolled the batter up into balls and placed then on a glass dish. Dr. Oz said to put them in the fridge over night, but we could only wait two hours. They did have a better texture the next day, but we enjoyed then just the same after nap time. We served them in cupcake holders.

This activity provided great a opportunity to explicitly talk to my daughter about healthy treats. I told her that the peanut butter has healthy fats that help her brain work and proteins that will make her muscles strong. I explained to her that God made oats to give us energy. I also pointed out that we did not add sugar because we don’t have to have sugar to make things yummy. She ate these for a snack or as a protein replacement at mealtime.

This recipe yields 14 Monster Heads.

1 serving: 150 calories, 10 g carbs, 2 g of dietary fiber, and 5 g of protein