ARTICLE: Learning to Wait - Mom can help!

It´s hard to make children wait these days. Thanks to modern day technology and the fast paced life we live everything has become "instant". From food to information everything is just a few seconds away. Remember when you used to want popcorn as a child. Your mother had to heat the oil, add the corn kernels and stir and stir, and wait and wait until they popped. Then you had to add salt and butter, and then you could enjoy them. Today: 3 minutes in the microwave and you´re done! Remember having a school assignment that you had to research. You had to visit the library, find the volume of the encyclopedia you needed, look up your topic, copy your notes to your notebook and then do your assignment. Today: google it and you´re basically done! Think of simpler things like thirst. If you, as a child, were thirsty in the car you had to wait until you got home for a glass of water. Today: just stop at a mini mart at ANY corner and buy a small bottle of water! The thing is, although all these things make our life much easier, children still need to be patient. What happens when the doctor is not ready to see you and you have to wait for an hour, or more? What happens when they have to wait until they´re old enough to attend a sleepover, or go to the movies alone or drive? How can we help? With the little things. One great idea: reading chapter books. You read one chapter every night and they have to wait until tomorrow to see what happens to Harry Potter or where the wardrobe took Lucy, Susan, Edmund and Peter to. Another great idea: baking. They can help you mix the dough but they will have to wait for the cookies to come out of the oven and then a little bit more until they´re cool enough to eat. I´m sure you´ll find other great opportunities to help your children be patient. Just keep this in mind: Good things come to those who wait.

DAILY RECIPE: Carrot Cream Soup

1 teaspoon finely chopped onion
1 tablespoon margarine

4 large carrots

2 cups water
salt and pepper

Peel, slice and steam carrots until tender. In a medium sized pot melt margarine and add onion until lightly browned. Blend cooked carrots with salt, pepper and half a cup of water. Add to onion and butter stirring occasionally. Add the rest of the water (more if too thick) and check for seasoning. Serve warm with cheese cheetos as croutons.

TIP OF THE DAY

Carry a small box of crayons and a small notebook in your purse. They will come in useful when waiting at a doctor´s office, bank or even during a traffic jam. Toddlers will love for you to make drawings for them. Young children can doodle. Older children can scribble games like tic-tac-toe and hangman.

IDEA: Easy Birthday Parties!

Sometimes a busy schedule leaves us with a child´s birthday next week and no party planned! Stress out no more -- here are some quick solutions to this problem:

• Plan a pizza party - at your local pizza place (Peter Piper Pizza, Chuck. E. Cheese, etc.) They usually have birthday packages complete with pizza, drinks, cake, ice-cream and games, what´s not to love? Plus, you leave the mess there, not at your place! Be sure to ask other moms to chaperone just to be on the safe side, these places can get really crowded.


• Plan a bear party - your local Build a Bear Workshop will be delighted to receive your child and a few friends. Leaving a birthday party with a new plush friend? A happy day for everybody!


• Plan a diva party - Ask your local beauty salon if they can receive 4 girls for a quick hair - do and nails. Then head back home for dress up, photo shoot and cake.


• Plan a piñata party - Have some of your child´s friends over, eat cake and ice - cream and top it off with a piñata filled with candy and favors. Quick and easy!


• Plan a movie party - Take your child and 2 or 3 friends to the movies. A great day complete with popcorn and soda! Simpler version of this party - host your own movie party. Rent a favorite movie, add popcorn and drinks. When the movie is over you can serve birthday cake.

I´m sure you can think of more birthday ideas that can be kept simple. Remember, you don´t need weeks or months of planning, a few phone calls, reservations and invitations and don´t forget to pick out a birthday cake -- and you´re all set for an easy birthday party!

DAILY RECIPE: Easy Party Dip!

1 pkg crackers
1 small cream cheese
3/4 cups salsa

Open cream cheese and make small incisions with a blunt knife. Pour salsa on top, very slowly, until covered. Serve with crackers and spreading knife. Great for Super Bowl Parties!

TIP OF THE DAY

Remove white deodorant stains from sides of shirts by rubbing pantyhose on top.

DAILY RECIPE: Easy Garlic-Chili Shrimp!

1 lb shrimp, washed

5 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 teaspoon chili powder

2 tablespoons olive oil

Heat pan, add oil. Sauteé garlic. Add shrimp, chili powder and salt. Toss well until shrimp is cooked (pink). Serve with white rice.

TIP OF THE DAY

Print out a family picture at least every month and place in an "old-fashioned" photo album. It´s always nice to have one that we can actually flip through!

HELP HAITI

The recent earthquake in Haiti has left countless people homeless, injured and hungry. I urge you to please donate whatever it is you can to your local Red Cross, or any other center that is collecting water, food, medicine, diapers, etc. Many local tv and radio stations are receiving goods. Check for any center in your area in which you can help. If every single person could give just a little, for Haiti it would mean a lot. Take your children with you when you donate, this will help them see that in today´s world we all need to help each other during hard times. Take this opportunity to mark in them the joy of helping others when you can. We have all been touched by tragedy near our homes one time or another, from 9/11 to hurricane Katrina, we have seen disasters up close, now, just take a moment to think that this time, it happened to the poorest country in Latin America. They need our help. Don´t miss this opportunity to lend a helping hand. Donate today. Thank you!

DAILY RECIPE: Ham Spaghetti Rolls

10 thin slices of ham
3 cups cooked spaghetti
1/2 green bell pepper finely chopped
1/2 onion finely chopped
salt and pepper
oil
grated Mozzarella cheese

Pour a tablespoon of oil into heated pan. Sautée onion and bell pepper. Add spaghetti and toss well. Place spaghetti on ham and roll up. Place in a glass oven pan. Continue this with all slices of ham. Top with cheese and heat until cheese is melted, but NOT browned. Serve immediately.

TIP OF THE DAY

Put left over candy from birthday parties in a jar. This way you won´t have candy in unwanted places!

ARTICLE: Turning healthy food into quick snacks for kids!

Obesity and children being overweight is a big problem in today´s society. I believe that this is the result of the busy lives we all live today, it´s much easier to grab quick processed food than to prepare a healthy meal. However, here are some ideas to make it easier on you to give your children healthy food without making you go crazy!

• Right after returning from the grocery store, slice fruit (pineapple, cantaloupe, mango) and place in individual tupperwares in the fridge. Easy and accesible for children by just grabbing a fork.
• Place apples in a bowl in the kitchen counter. Older children can grab one as they go by. You can take one and quickly slice it for younger ones.
• Fill small sandwich ziploc bags with plain cheerios, almonds or plain corn flakes. Put them in a box inside the pantry. Show children how they can open up a bag to munch on for a snack.
• Peel and slice cucumber. Place in a tupperware in the refrigerator. Squeeze a lemon and sprinkle a bit of low sodium salt. Great snack!
• Buy plain yoghurt and offer it to your children with granola mix.
• While making dinner, prepare a box of jell-o and pour into individual cups.

DAILY RECIPE: Easiest Cream Cheese Frosting!

1 large cream cheese

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 can condensed milk

Beat cream cheese until softened. Add vanilla extract and condensed milk and beat well until desired consistency. Perfect for chocolate and carrot cakes!

TIP OF THE DAY

Always put your computer or laptop in the family room or next to the kitchen so you can keep a close eye on what your children are surfing through in the internet. Another plus? You can give a quick check on emails while working in the kitchen!

DAILY RECIPE: Healthy Kid Pizza!

3 English muffins

Olive oil

2 small tomatoes

Salt and pepper

2 zuchinni

2 carrots

1 small squash or eggplant

1 cup Mozzarella cheese (grated)

Slice the english muffins into two halves horizontally. Place in oven pan. Drizzle with olive oil. In a shallow pan heat a little olive oil, add blended tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Spread over muffins. In the same tomato pan, pour a little oil and cook diced vegetables, seasoning well. Divide onto english muffins. Sprinkle cheese and bake in 400° F oven until cheese is melted and lightly browned. Enjoy!

TIP OF THE DAY

When measuring vegetable oil in a glass measuring cup, spray it first with cooking spray (Pam). Oil will pour much easier and will not remain in the cup.

DAILY RECIPE: Lentil Soup

1 cup lentils

4 cups water

1 potato

salt, pepper, garlic powder

5 strips bacon

2 tablespoons chopped onion

oil

1 tomato

Cook lentils in water with a little bit of salt. When tender, set aside. In a large pot heat oil and sauteé chopped bacon and onion. Add lentils with the water you cooked them in. Peel and dice potato and add to soup. Blend tomato with a little water and seasoning and add. Cook well. Check for seasoning once more and serve hot.

TIP OF THE DAY

Oil fell on your clothes while cooking? Sprinkle salt on top of the stain right away. It will absorb the oil and make it easier to wash later.

ACTIVITY: Yearly time capsule

Years seem to fly by and our children get older without us even noticing it. This year, try a family one-year time capsule.

You will need:

A water proof seal tight container of any shape
Recent photos
Paper
Colors and markers
Today´s paper

Sit together as a family and choose a few pictures that depict what your children, and you, look like right now. Have each child draw or write what they like right now, what movies, cartoon characters, food, games; what they can do or what they have just recently achieved; what they wish they could do in 2010. In a separate piece of paper, write down each child´s height, how many teeth are missing, and general information such as the cost of a milk carton or favorite candy bar. Place everything in the container (or time capsule) together with a few newspaper clippings from this past week. If you are confident about the seal of your container you can bury it in your yard, if not, just place it in a high area of your closet, pantry or even on top of your refrigerator. Save it for the whole year and open it on January 2011. See how much everyone has grown and how things have changed in just a year! Have fun!

DAILY RECIPE: Mushroom Slow Cooker Chicken

1 chicken, cut into pieces

1 can Campbell´s cream of mushroom soup

1 can sliced mushrooms

salt and pepper

Wash, pat dry and season chicken. Place in slow cooker. In a bowl, mix cream of mushroom and mushrooms throughly. Add to slow cooker and cook on low overnight.

TIP OF THE DAY

Not enough closet space? Try keeping winter/summer clothes in plastic under the bed containers (The Container Store).