Christmas

Save Lunch Time and More – Great Deals from Familius

December 9, 2016 by Kathryn

I’m not sure how much longer the mega sale is going to be running at Familius. 50-70% of some of their bestselling titles. For example, they’re selling both of my books for cheaper than I can buy them with my author wholesale discount ($6 each!).

There are also a ton of other great books, fun, quirky, useful, interesting, well-designed books that would make great Christmas gifts.

I have no affiliate link with Familius. Hey, wait, why don’t I have an affiliate link with Familius? Not that it would do me much good with this sale that’s going on because they’re practically giving the books away for free.

Here are a few I purchased that I recommend:

Unplug and Play – 50 Original Group Games that Don’t Need Charging ($8) – With family coming in for the holiday this is a great resource for fun, original activities to do with all kinds of groups.

Mix and Match Lunchbox ($12) – This is probably my favorite. It’s divided up into cards that you can mix and match, a protein, a whole grain, and a fruit/veggie course for thousands of creative lunch combinations.

Shakespeare for Kids boxed set ($8) – My kids had a great time at the Shakespeare Festival last summer and this is an awesome way to help them learn the storylines of some of Shakespeare’s greatest plays.

The Stevia Solution Cookbook ($5) – We are so sugar addicted. I love this moderate approach to replacing some of the sugar in your diet with a natural alternative. To be honest, I’m just digging in and haven’t tried the recipes yet, but I like what I’ve seen so far.

Happy shopping!

For the Love

October 21, 2015 by Kathryn

I have the hardest time every year choosing what picture to put on our Christmas cards. From the time school starts pretty much until Christmas vacation we simply do and do and do some more. We don’t really take time to document the doing. So the years when I get around to printing Christmas cards I often struggle. The summer pictures are too summery. The spring pictures are too outdated already. The fall pictures look like a ninja or witch, or a What Does the Fox Say, which aren’t very Christmasy.

So, this year I decided to kill two birds with one stone. For Halloween our entire family is dressing up as characters from White Christmas. Then we take a picture at the Halloween party and BAM! Christmas card pictures! The girls are the Haines Sisters, Dan and Magoo are Bob and Phil, and I’m the nosy housekeeper.

We’ve been buying fabric and feather fans for weeks and now, and the church Halloween party is just a couple of days away. I’ve been getting more organized, thanks to the fabulous Power of Moms, and I’m pretty much on schedule with this project. Today is the day to sew.

But I find that since I know I need to sew today, it’s the last thing I want to do. In fact, I’m Grumble-Sewing. Sew a seam. Growl a little. Pull out some pins. Sigh.

I am sitting at the table surrounded by gorgeous blue clouds of fabric and wonderful sewing machines that I’m blessed enough to own. I’m creating something amazing that I really want to create because I somehow convinced my entire family to dress up as characters from my favorite Christmas movie for Halloween, and I’m whining.

Why?

Have you ever done this? Have you ever found yourself whining internally or externally because you have to do something that you technically really love and that you chose to do but that suddenly when it’s time to do it, it feels like a chore?

Ugh. I have to read my book club book.
Ugh. I have to pick out an outfit for my date night.
Ugh. I have to sew Halloween costumes.
Ugh. I have to make dinner.
Ugh. I have to walk upstairs and sing Wanda a song for bedtime.

I love reading, getting dressed up, sewing, cooking, and spending time with my kids. But there’s something about a deadline or a sense of necessity that squash-slams my attitude.

However, noticing how annoying I was being, I was able to turn my day around by changing a few things:

1. Make a mental list of why you love what you’re doing – Today as I was sewing, I tried to remember why I love this hobby. I made a mental list.
-I get to make something beautiful.
-My kids love it.
-It makes me feel creative.
-I love finding cool new ways to put pieces together.
-It’s one of the few things I do that gets recognition from other people . (It’s like grown-up show and tell.)

2. Watch your wording – Whenever I chatted with someone, I was careful about how I talked about what I was doing. Instead of saying, “I have to sew costumes today,” I said, “I get to sew costumes today.” It helps to think of the task as a privilege, rather than a burden. I should never forget that I chose how I spend my time.

3. Take breaks – So instead of pushing through with my usual sewing sweatshop, a marathon process that makes sewing extremely unfun, I broke it up by doing other tasks like cleaning and grocery shopping. That way sewing was the recreational activity I could return to in little chunks and actually enjoy it.

I find that this process works even for tasks I don’t actually love. If I make a mental list of things I love about mopping (the smell of the soap, the way the floor looks and feels when I’m done, the game I play where I break the floor up into shapes and scrub them one at a time), talk about it like I’m lucky to have a floor to mop, and reward myself with a little break when I’m done the kitchen, mopping is less of a suck.

How do you motivate yourself to do the things you hate or remind yourself that you actually love the things on your schedule?

Santa Sent Me a Letter – Discount Code

November 13, 2014 by Kathryn

I never wondered why Santa didn’t write back to me. I knew. That guy was WAY WAY WAY too busy to write letters to every single kid. Sure, Christmas Eve magic could allow him to break into the home of every kid in the world, reverse-robbery-style, but I thought letter writing would be a waste of that power. I didn’t expect a letter. But it would have made my DECADE if I had gotten one.

Well, things have changed. We’re in the digital age now and Santa’s got mad skills and communication tactics. For the past several years, the fat man has sent a free personalized video message to my kids using the PNP. When they’re 70 and I’m 90, I will still be making sure they get a video from Santa. We love these so bad.

This year I discovered a new way to hear from Santa and I’m excited about it. SantaSentMeALetter.com. It’s digital world meets old school Christmas charm, internet form meets sealing wax. The company let me go through the process and request a Santa letter for my youngest and it was a HUGE hit.

The girl who begs for mail every day and shouts with glee when I tell her that the political smear flyer with a picture of our state senator behind bars stomping on puppies is special mail for her was overjoyed to get a real letter addressed to her from one of her favorite superheroes.

It came in an envelope with a postmark from the North Pole and the letter inside was sealed with red sealing wax. She couldn’t rip it open fast enough.

Then the letter itself was personalized, talking about our family, her big life goal to stay in bed ever, our faith, and her favorite toys and friends. She proceeded to carry it around with her all night, periodically asking any literate person in her path to read it again.

It was sweet and we loved it. If you’d like to try sending your child a letter from Santa, they’re about ten bucks and well worth it, but you can get 15% off now through December 1st, if you use the code DARING2014. It seems early, but it’s really not if you think about prep and shipping time. Christmas is coming, you guys!!

So how do you best communicate with the fat man in red?

Magic Makers – A Coming of Age Story

December 13, 2010 by Kathryn

When Laylee and I went shopping for ballet shoes this fall, we found ourselves waiting in line behind 2 tween ballerinas being fitted for pointe shoes. Knowing how excited she is to one day dance like the big girls, I mentioned them to her later.

“Laylee. Did you see the ballerinas in there?”

“Do you really think they were REAL ballerinas?”

“Yeah,” I shrugged.

“Oh, I knew it! I knew ballerinas were real, just like FAIRIES!”

“Yes,” I thought, “And dentists and musicians. They’re all very real.”

This is Laylee. She has a crazy vivid imagination. She loves anything magical or mystical or fantastic. She was told quite suddenly two years ago that the tooth fairy and the Easter Bunny weren’t real but a year later, she’d talked herself into believing again.

This week we had a talk about Santa.

I love Santa. I always have. My dad (picture above) is one of his special helpers. At times I have been employed as an elf. “The Ho-Ho-Ho Guy” is a big part of our Christmas celebration but definitely not the focal point. We enjoy encouraging the magic but try not to make direct claims about him. I tend to respond to questions with more questions.

“Do you think Santa’s real?”

“That’s a good question. What do you think?”

This year as the Christmas season draws near, my kids already have the fat man on the brain. Laylee told me she’s been thinking about it and she’s decided that the only way Santa could do all the magical things he does is if he were given special powers by God.

She came to this conclusion because Saint Nicholas was a good guy who loved Jesus and loved being kind and giving gifts to children. She figured God would want to reward someone like that and help him do an awesome job celebrating His son’s birthday so He allowed him to live forever and slurp himself down chimneys at supersonic speed.

There are a couple of things I like about this theory. As someone with a firm belief in God and Jesus Christ, I like that she knows where true power comes from. I also like that she knows what Christmas is really about and sees Santa as someone who just does a kick-butt job of celebrating it.

What I don’t like about this theory is that it puts God and Santa on the same roster. It leads to the question, “If Santa’s not real, then was all that stuff about religion an elaborate hoax too?”

I couldn’t let it stand. So I pulled my seven-year-old aside for a talk I’ve been dreading. And you know what? She left our discussion giddy to be initiated into the world of adults who spread joy, magic and love to others. Here’s how it went down:

I asked her to help me give Wanda a bath and while we washed the baby, I brought up our earlier discussion about Saint Nick.

“You know what happened to Saint Nicholas, Laylee?”

“What?”

“Like most people, he grew old and he died.”

She looked confused.

“Do you know how he got his power and continued to give gifts even after he was dead?”

She shook her head, wide-eyed.

“After he died, many people loved what he’d done so much and loved how his kindness reminded them of the Savior’s gifts that they all decided to make the magic of Saint Nick continue. Kind people all over the world are the real magic of Santa Claus. Isn’t that amazing? It’s not just one person but a whole bunch of people working together!”

At this her eyes grew even bigger and she started to smile.

“So when kids want to know more about Santa and their parents decide they’re kind enough and old enough to help, they get invited into the group of grown up magic makers to bring fun and joy to other people. Are you ready to help me make the magic of Santa for your little brother and sister? Are you ready to be Santa with me?”

I was getting really worked up at this point, using my most confidential voice, my most excited face. And she was thrilled.

“Oh yes! I’m ready,” she whispered and then let out a little squeal.

I hugged her and promised that I loved her and I’d still make sure that Santa visited her as well. We then proceeded to have a serious discussion about how only a parent can decide if her child is ready to become a magic maker so Laylee was absolutely forbidden from spoiling the fun for other children until their parents decided they were fully ready to become part of the brotherhood.

I also reinforced that I didn’t want her to confuse fun people like Santa that we create using our own imaginations with the real Being who created us.

Of course the discussion was over-simplified and I’m sure we’ll fine tune it over the years but for this week it was enough. She seems to get it. And she really seems fine with it. I promised her she could go Santa shopping with me at least once to pick out a few things for Magoo and Wanda. More squealing ensued. We magic makers have a hard time containing ourselves sometimes.

**Originally posted on Parenting.com**

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Christmas