First, lay down the coat with the outside part of the coat touching the floor.  The neck of the coat should be facing your child.  The child puts his arms into the sleeve holes of his coat…

And flips the coat over his head.

He adjusts his sleeves…or you adjust them for him.

Then he wipes his nose with his sleeve.  (This step is optional.)

Tada!  Coat is on.

Here’s a video, which is a much easier way to see how the Coat Trick works.  It takes all of 14 seconds to watch.  Please be sure to admire Malachi’s silly face as he prepares to show you the Coat Trick on video.  The silly face part of the Coat Trick is also optional. :)

Tracy asked this question after I posted about a big financial decision my husband and I had made recently:

I had a question regarding the big decision you and Matt recently made regarding not purchasing a local property. Did you share the details of your decision or the decision making process with your boys? Just asking because I wonder how much is enough or too much for kids to know about, especially regarding financial decisions. I ask because I am not at that point yet, but I will be someday.

Our boys are now 14, 11, 9 and 6.  While I would say that the majority of this particular decision-making discussion took place between just Matt and me, we did share a good part of the conversation with our boys.   We felt that it was important that they know what we might be taking on if we did buy that building.   Purchasing this commercial property would have effected our lives dramatically.  Since our boys are old enough to understand much of what this purchase would mean, it could have been a big blow to them if we’d just worked on it after they were in bed, and then suddenly announced that we’d purchased a building.  In addition, we were even encouraging Asa, our oldest, to be an “investor” with us in this since he’s done a good job of earning and saving.  Matt talked through that process with him in detail.

In the end, Matt and I made the decision on our own – well, with God’s help, but without our boys help - not to purchase this building.  After the decision was made, we then discussed with our boys the reasons for our choice.  We felt that it was very important that they understood why we chose not to make this investment and how we came to these conclusions.  They needed to hear about our thought process, and even some of the dollar figures so that they could have a clearer picture of how we had arrived at our decision.  Our six year old became much more interested in his Legos about five minutes into the discussion, but we kept talking to our older boys until they had no more questions.

I’d love to hear how you handle decision-making in your family, financial or otherwise.

How much is too much (or too little) to share with your kids when making a major family decision?

The following is an article I wrote for our local paper a couple of years ago, but never actually posted here.  I’m often asked if I regret not having daughters.   Though my life is void of pink hair bows, sweet dresses, paper dolls and braids (all things I dreamed of enjoying with my little girls before God gave me this passel of boys), I can answer truthfully that I do not for a minute doubt that God knew exactly what he was doing when he continued to bless us with boys.  My life is full of joy – The Joy of Boys…

When our first baby was born a boy, I was very happy knowing that any other children we would have in the future would be under the protection of an older brother.  When our second baby was born a boy, I was glad our oldest son now had a brother to play with.  When our third baby was born a boy, I decided that God must have something special in mind for our family.  THREE boys?

When I was pregnant with our fourth baby, you can just guess what everyone around me was saying.  “Finally going to have a sister for all those boys?” or “I bet you’re sure hoping for a girl this time!”

When our fourth baby was born a boy, they laid him on my chest, and all my husband and I could do was laugh for joy that God had given us yet another son!

Boys are so sweet.  Boys love their Mamas like crazy.  Boys think their Daddys are the best.  Boys….ah boys.  Boys bring such joy.

I love how boys play (now that I’m used to it!).  Our house is usually noisy, rough and fast – there’s not a lot of tip-toeing or sitting down quietly to color pictures at the table.

Generally…I find that the male greeting (between my boys and all of their friends who come over to play) has little to do with words and a lot to do with grabbing onto and pulling one another down to the floor into an immediate wrestling match.

I’ve learned to look the other way, smile, and shake my head about so many things that I used to fear would turn into a trip to the Emergency Room.  Boys play rough – they can’t help it.  They make noise.  It oozes out of their pores.  Rolls of wrapping paper become swords or light sabers.  Toast and grilled cheese sandwiches are chewed into the shape of little guns.  Math books become drums.  Little pink erasers become race cars.

Everything (everything) becomes a competition:  who can finish their milk first, who can put their jammies on the fastest, who can get from the kitchen to the living room without touching the floor.

It’s one big, loud, ball game at our house all day long – and I wouldn’t trade it for all tea parties in Boston.

I consider it a huge honor to be the mama of boys.  Boys who we pray will grow up and be Godly leaders some day.  Boys who we pray will be Godly husbands and daddys some day.

Oh, and some day, when my boys grow up and get married…I’ll have daughters.  I’ll take them shopping and we’ll cook and do hair together.

Until then, I’ll just continue to feed mountains of mashed potatoes and huge stacks of pancakes to all these boys while they make all the noises with their armpits that they are so good at making and while they laugh at all the things boys can’t help but think are funny.

They are…boys.

Boys who have completely and totally won my heart.

Pureed Bananas:  Ripe bananas run through my food processor until smooth – great for baby!

Ah, the memories.  I used to always make food for my babies, back when my babies were babies.  I still make food for my babies, but my oldest baby is 14 now.  He prefers steak to pureed veggies. He’d also like to know when I’ll stop calling him my baby.  (The answer is never, but I do try to avoid saying it in front of “the guys”.  I’m not that uncool.)

Before I talk about making baby food, first I’ll quickly share what I don’t recommend feeding babies (but keep in mind I’m just a mom, not a doctor):

• Any kind of sugar before age one and really, do they need much after that?
• Salt, unless it’s a very pure form of sea salt and then, very little
• Grains, even the baby cereal that’s usually recommended.  It fills ‘em up, but their little tummies have a hard time digesting rice, oats and other grains, which can cause digestive issues now or later.  I say wait on the grains if you can.

Making baby food is super simple, very inexpensive and takes very little time.  One of the easiest foods to make for baby is Pureed Squash.  You can read how to make pureed squash here.  Making sweet potatoes is just as simple:

To Make Sweet Potatoes: Scrub them, stab them, bake them in a covered dish for about an hour, then peel them and puree them.  So easy!

Pureeing green beans or peas are a little trickier as the “skin” kinda hangs around and keeps the food from being smooth.  After failed attempts at making pureed green beans and peas, I found it easier to wait a little while before offering these to my babes.  They made the perfect “finger food”.  Frozen peas, by the way, are yummy and great if Baby is teething!

The one way I found to get green beans and peas into my little guys before they were old enough for “finger food” was to use a Kidco Baby Food Grinder.  Man, I loved that thing.  Whatever I had cooked or fixed for the rest of us to eat - green beans, peas, potatoes, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, apples, pears, bananas, peaches, nectarines (do I need to keep listing them?) - I’d stick it in my Kidco Baby Food Grinder and have instant baby food that my boys would eat faster than I could make!  The “skin” or any difficult to eat part of the food would be “ground out” and the soft baby food would rise to the top.  If you have a baby and you don’t have a Kidco Baby Food Grinder, I really, really recommend getting one!

Also, one of my very smart cousins told me about the BabyCook, which appears to have been invented after my babies needed pureed food, hmph.  I’ve seen the BabyCook in action and it’s about as cool as they come.  With the BabyCook, you can very quickly steam veggies, reheat food – even defrost food to make a healthy, quick meal for baby.  Once the food is steamed, you can use the BabyCook to puree it to any desired consistency.  Babies nothin’.  I’m thinking I need one of these for me!

I used to always freeze pre-made baby food in ice cube trays, pop them out and re-warm them for a quick meal.  It worked pretty well, but I’d love to hear if anyone else has a more efficient method of making baby food ahead of time?!

And, while we’re on the subject of baby food, I wanted to mention what another smart cousin showed me last week.  Homemade baby food is great, but sometimes a little convenience on the go is a good thing.  Have you seen these cool little Baby Food Pouches from Ella’s Kitchen?  (Or here are some other ones I found from HappyBaby).  Really, where were these things when my babies were babies?

Share your favorite baby food making, freezing, storing and serving tricks!

You get a big bonus during today’s podcast:  the WHOLE family joins in!  Yup…I figured instead of me just talking about how we teach our kids scripture and memory verses…I’d let you listen to part of the process!  :)

Months ago, I mentioned a little activity we do as a family called “Repeat-Afters” and several of you have asked for more details.  “Repeat-Afters” have been a part of our family life since all of our kids were little bitty, as a way to help them learn scripture.  We love this family tradition, which takes place usually during lunch or dinner time. 

I hope you enjoy this…especially listen for the nice “whistle by Malachi” at the end of our little family session.  We almost edited that out, but what fun would that be?  :)

Grab some laundry to fold or kick back for a few minutes while you enjoy our new podcast!

Heavenly Homemakers Podcast #10

Please share some of the things you do as a family to teach scripture to your children!

Ah, one of my favorite subjects.  Through the years, we’ve been asked many times what we feel are the best toys for boys.  Do we allow our boys to play with guns?  As Christians, do we feel like this is okay?  What about transformers?  Swords?  Is all that violence good for them?

These are the questions I address in this latest podcast. 

One thing I forgot to mention (probably because I was all wrapped up in talking about how many light sabers we have):  LEGOS!  I was addressing other questions, so Legos just didn’t come up.  But of all the favorite toys we have in our house…we just LOVE our Legos.  They are well worth the investment and make wonderful gifts for our boys. 

But back to the guns and swords (which of course Legos can easily be built to resemble)…

Heavenly Homemakers Podcast Nine

Share your thoughts!  Do you have boys?  What do you let them play with?

Did you wonder if I’d ever get around to recording another podcast?  I have lots of excuses as for why it’s been weeks and weeks since recording.  Maybe I’ll write those down for you in my spare time.  ;)  But lookie what I got in the meantime!  Char, my wonderful friend and talented designer, made me a pretty podcast graphic.  I LOVE it!

If you’re new to the Heavenly Homemakers site and would like to check out my previous podcasts, you can find them all here.  As always, I encourage you to grab some laundry to fold while you’re listening, hop on the treadmill, or do something else equally productive so that you can multi-task.  For the record, I believe that sitting down and putting your feet up to rest and listen is very productive as well.  Rest is a good thing.

The purpose of our podcasts is to encourage us all on our journey as Heavenly Homemakers while I answer some of the questions I receive from readers.  Today’s question is regarding how to teach our teeny-tiny kids about God.  I don’t have any teeny-tinies anymore (says the lady whose oldest son can almost look her directly in the eyes)…but I think it was just yesterday that I did.  I share in the podcast some of the ways we talked to our kids about God from the time they were newborns.

I’ve gotta throw out a huge thank you to my husband Matt who does the majority of the work to make these podcasts happen.  I record myself…then  he spends the time to splice in the music and make everything time out just right…and he is kind enough to edit out a ridiculous number of “ums” and “you knows” that I you know, don’t mean to um…say.  You know?

Simply click on the link below to listen.  This particular podcast lasts a little over seven minutes.

Heavenly Homemakers Podcast #7

I mentioned Songs for Saplings in the podcast so I thought I’d post the link here to make it easy for you to find if you’re interested!  Also, I mentioned reading Bible books to your little ones.  I love all of the Little Golden Books that are Bible related, so I’ve added that link too:  Children’s Little Golden Bible Books

I’ll choose to let go of the guilt.

I have to make choices and above all I have to choose my kids.  They are the ministry God has given me and when all is said and done…what matters is my kids.

It doesn’t matter that no matter how hard I try, the laundry is never caught up.  It doesn’t matter that the dishes constantly pile up by the sink, even though I’m pretty sure I wash dishes all day.  It doesn’t matter that there are dirty windowsills and…what is that stuck to the pantry door?  Oh well…it doesn’t matter.

What matters is my kids.

It doesn’t matter that I can barely get through writing this article because my kids keep coming in and interrupting me.   They want to tell me about the game they’re playing together.  They want to remind me about what happened at the soccer game.  They want to ask what I’m making for dinner.  I’ll stop what I’m doing and look at their faces and I’ll talk to them because it truly is a joy that they love talking to me.  The article can wait.

What matters is my kids.

In the big picture, it really is okay that the emails are piled up even though I hate it that so many people have to wait for weeks for me to respond.  It really is okay that I’m never caught up with my work and it really is okay that even though I’m working really, really hard…I can’t do it all.  I’ll stop sweating all the details in my life that cause me to worry and get worn out.  The details don’t matter.

What matters is my kids.

I’ll let go of the guilt and the pressure I feel about all the jobs around me that are left undone and instead focus my heart on my husband.  I’ll cherish him and serve him and meet his needs and enjoy him.  I’ll make our very limited time together meaningful because keeping our relationship alive and sweet is incredibly important. 

Because more than anything, it matters to the kids.

And they don’t care that we’re having pancakes and eggs for dinner again or that the living room is covered with boxes and bubble wrap mixed with lego men and building blocks.  They don’t care that there are scuffs on the walls (they put them there after all) and they don’t care if the scuffs stay there forever.

What matters to them is the security of knowing that their mom loves them and takes care of them and laughs with them and trains them and prays with them and reads to them and talks to them.  What matters to them is their mom understands one very important thing which is…

What matters is my kids.

Once my kids have mastered learning to read simple books on their own, jumping into beginning chapter books feels like such an accomplishment for them.  They think it is so cool to say, “Mom, I just read two chapters!” or “Wow, this book has twelve chapters in it!”  Never mind that the chapters might be three pages long with large print.  Reading “chapter books” is a really big deal for kids and a wonderful way to transition them toward bigger chapter books.

Read the rest of this article over at Deal Moon….

Please welcome Jolene of A Random Woman’s Life.  She has four boys and has some wonderful ideas to make summer time a blast!

Summer is here and I have the daunting but delightful task of entertaining 4 young boys day after day.  My sons range in age from 3 – 9 years of age and their interests are just as varied.  I often find myself struggling to find ways to engage and entertain all four at the same time, especially on rainy days. 

I know there are a multitude of craft type projects I could do and that would work for a little while.  However, one thing I have learned about my boys is that their attention span for craft type projects is limited.  They are boys…they need physical activity.  They are not content with being motionless for very long.  A Disney movie is about their limit and even then we don’t always make it through a whole film before we start to squirm and complain of boredom.  I took them to one of those indoor inflatable playgrounds one day with some friends and their sons – 10 boys in total – and within an hour and a half my eldest was complaining of boredom.  So what’s a mom to do? 

  Here are some of the frugal things I have found to do.  See if similar events/specials are available in your area.

~    Visit the local nature center.  There are usually a number of trails that you can walk on, some paved some not.  Take pictures and put them in a special scrapbook.

~    Check out your local library for free playgroups, or reading program which challenges the children to read a designated amount of hours in order to earn some prizes.

~    I have found a number of free music nights and free movie nights in nearby parks.  Some are weekly events, some are monthly but most allow you to bring your own treats and beverages so you can make an evening out of it. 

~    Try a monthly home movie night when a new family friendly movie is released on DVD. It helps if you can find someone who has already purchased the movie and borrow it from them for movie night.  Make homemade pizza and popcorn, turn down the lights and off you go! 

~    Potluck play dates.  Get a few of your friends with children together at a local park.  Make it after lunchtime if possible then you only need to bring a snack to share and some beverages.

~    Join a local moms group.  Most have a yearly cost around $20 – $30 for memberships. Many also have regular kids activities.  A great way for your children and you to make some new friends.  Two sites to start with to find a group(s) near you:  www.weplaygroup.com   &  http://moms.meetup.com

~    Try Letterboxing. LETTERBOXING is an intriguing pastime combining navigational skills and rubber stamp artistry in a charming “treasure hunt” style outdoor quest. A wide variety of adventures can be found to suit all ages and experience levels.   Basically you get clues to find a box or container in your area in a public place such as a park.  The containers usually have some goodies to look at as well as a place for you to place your own special family stamp and sign the book, putting it all back in place for the next group to find.  A great place to get started is www.letterboxing.org  Your family can take a trip to your local craft store and pick out a great stamp & fun inkpad to use in your adventures!

~    Catch lightning bugs!  Get a jar or two together and have your little ones catch them at dusk…pair that with making s’mores and you have a great and nearly free night of entertaining, just don’t forget to release the little bugs so you can catch them again another night!

~    Back yard camp.  If the thought of going to a campground is not all that appealing, or if time is an issue, camp out for a night in your backyard!  Cook out on the grill or fire pit, have a cooler full of drinks, grab your flashlights & sleeping bags and pitch the tent.  You get the ambiance of camping with the comforts of home nearby in case they are needed.

With some imagination and input from your kids you are sure to find some fun, easy and frugal ways to entertain the entire family!

Be sure to visit Jolene at A Random Woman’s Life!