 Photo Credit: Kevin Gent on Unsplash.com Here's an audio clip so you can listen to the Mom Tip while you help your child put their shoes on! Hi, I’m Regan from Momivate, and this is your two-minute Mom Tip empowering you to elevate your mothering experience.
My three-year-old's favorite PBS show is called Dinosaur Train. Yesterday I walked in as the show was ending and Dr. Scott the Paleontologist announced that it was now time to turn off the TV, go outside, and "make your own discoveries!" I borrowed a little of Dr. Scott's enthusiasm and repeated the same invitation as I flicked the off button. I braced for the usual protest -- "Just one more show!!!" but instead, my little guy looked at me with excitement in his eyes and said, "Yeah! Let's go make our own discoveries!" Then as an afterthought, he asked, "Mom, what's a discovery?" "Oh, child," I said with awe in my voice as I grabbed his pudgy little hands, as we walked to the back door. "Discovery is looking around with eyes wide open. You see things you’ve already seen AND you notice brand new things. Then... Then..." I paused to build his anticipation. We sat down to put on his shoes. "Then..." "You think and you wonder and you ask questions and you want to know and learn and -- " (using my best mysterious voice, I continued) -- " you solve mysteries and expose secrets!" His verbal response: “Awesome” was accompanied by a non-verbal response that was even better. He took hold of his one-year old sister's pudgy little hand, led her out the door, and with gentle joy, showed her a lady bug. Mom, try exemplifying enthusiasm to spark the curiosity about real life as you limit screen time today, then share if this practice elevates your mothering!
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 Photo Credit: Matthew Lancaster on Unsplash.com Here's an audio clip so you can listen to the Mom Tip while you drive your car through the carwash. Hi, I’m Regan Barnes from Momivate, and this is your two-minute Mom Tip empowering you to elevate your mothering experience.
America the Beautiful -- and the WEALTHY! We moan and groan about the prices of gasoline and groceries... but seriously?!? The poor among us live better than the kings of the middle ages. Living in an Abundant Society is a blessing... right?! Well, yes! I thank God every day in prayer for modern day luxuries and conveniences. But I’m convinced there are also Curses connected to Living in an Abundance The Seven Deadly Sins give us a framework to describe how our plentitude contributes to destructive vices. Could being wealthy encourage lust? Since we have so much free time and expendable income, we can afford to spend time and money on pornography & prostitution... yes, those forms of lust have been around since the beginning of time, but they are more accessible, and --worse-- more acceptable amidst abundance. Since getting a meal is as easy as driving up to the fast-food window and paying a minimal amount for a high-calorie, low-nutrition meal, our gluttony contributes to our obesity and the resultant healthcare crisis, a curse for sure. We’ve labeled an entire generation “The Me Generation” and talk worriedly about entitlement, a synonym for greed. Meeting survival needs so easily means that we can focus our efforts on other things -- or on nothing. We can be lazy but we won't starve. Abundance means there are no built-in negative consequences to discourage sloth. Why would having plenty lead to anger?! Opportunities to develop and practice patience, the antithesis to anger, are fewer and further between amidst abundance. Envy fuels debt so we can “keep up with the Joneses.” Debt is definitely destructive. Pride -- the attitude that having more than someone else makes you better than they are -- hmmm... Is abundance linked to pridefulness? Is childbirth linked to motherhood? America currently has money for all of our needs and many of our wants, plus enough to help other countries. My hope is that we'll enjoy the benefits brought on by wealth while conscientiously avoiding the potential curses it could contribute to. Mom, develop proper monetary attitudes with your children, discussing wants and needs so that living in abundance remains a blessing. Then share if this practice elevates your mothering!  Photo Credit: Jewel Johnson on Unsplash.com Here's an audio clip so you can listen to the Mom Tip while you get out the ingredients for this recipe! Hi, I’m Regan Barnes from Momivate, and this is your two-minute Mom Tip empowering you to elevate your mothering experience.
There are beans in my fudge. Black beans. In my fudge. Ya can't taste 'em. The fudge is still quite fudge-y -- *plenty* of sugar... The kids love it. I was even honest with them about the beans and they didn't seem worried at all. I've been eating plenty of bean-y fudge and I can report that there are no gaseous side effects so far! I’d also like to report an analogy that Beanie Fudge has brought to my mind. 21st century life is sweet!! Sometimes sickeningly sweet (like fudge). We have so many modern conveniences, time-saving devices, luxuries that are so commonplace we don’t even realize they’re luxuries anymore… and entertainment options out the wazoo. When we hear about life even just one century ago, we moan and groan just thinking about all the work those poor people had to do. Work, after all, is a four-letter word! Work is like the beans in my fudge... Hey, bean is four-letter word, too! The fiber, vitamins, minerals, and protein of beans offer life-sustaining substance amidst the sweetness that corrodes our teeth and disables our immune systems. Admittedly, there is still approximately four times as much sugar as there are beans in this recipe. Maybe that mirrors our modern-day ratio of play-to-work? Back in our grandparents' day, it was mostly beans and maybe a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down... Sometimes, I worry about our current culture of work avoidance, and feel that my duty as a mom is to introduce some beans in friendly ways, maybe disguised a bit in cocoa… I don’t feel a need to eliminate the "sugar" altogether, but I conscientiously include *some* beans amidst the fudge so that if circumstances change and a reverse ratio of beans to sugar were required, it wouldn’t be a total shock to our systems! I want to raise my children with both beans and sweetness. Hopefully, just like we’ve happily discovered about Beanie Fudge, this metaphorical equivalent will also be flatulence-free! Moms, try making Beanie Fudge both in real life and metaphorically, then share if this practice elevates your mothering! The recipe is on the Momivate website under the Blogs tab in Two Minute Mom Tips BEANIE FUDGE 1 Can of Black Beans -- about 1 and 1/4 cups -- drained and rinsed 3/4 Cup cocoa -- rounded 3/4 Cup butter and/or coconut oil, warm enough to be mostly liquid 4 Cups powdered sugar -- scant NOW CHOOSE A FLAVOR: 2 Tbsps Vanilla OR 6-8 drops peppermint essential oil OR 3 Tbsp. peanut butter Blend in food processor or blender until smooth & creamy! Pour onto waxed paper and refrigerate at least 20 minutes before serving. Keep leftovers in the fridge -- if there are any! (Use at room temperature as frosting!)  Photo Credit: Patrice Audet on Unsplash.com Here's an audio clip so you can listen to the Mom Tip while you dance up a storm! Hi, I’m Regan Barnes from Momivate, and this is your two-minute Mom Tip empowering you to elevate your mothering experience. Remember that catchy tune "Eye of the Tiger" from the Rocky III movie? I confess, I haven't actually seen Rocky III… but I have been developing the Eye of the Mommy… let me explain! For many years, I was unable to see messes. I was so absorbed in the present task (making more of a mess) that I didn't pay much attention to existing messes. This kind of blindness is a blessing to some extent because the messy environments of mothering eight kids don’t phase me. But being comfortable in my own mess doesn’t make my family and friends feel comfortable, so in that sense it has been more of a curse… So I have been trying to improve my “mess-vision” and now I have “The Eye of the Mommy!” Hoping to give my children a head-start in life and not have to be embarrassed into cleanliness, I have been figuring out how to instill in my offspring the desire --and ability-- to be tidy. I’ve taught my kids that after they've completed a job, they need to have it inspected. That's the order it is supposed to go in: finish first, then get inspected. Sometimes, though, they ask for an inspection and when I go to do it, it’s clear the job has NOT been completed very thoroughly. So, now when they report that they’re ready for inspection, I respond: "Did you use the Eye of the Mommy?" They'll often go back and work again for a few minutes... and that's okay! They're learning how to *see* messes on their own! I personally know that improving that eyesight is a gradual process... Sometimes, it seems there’s an eyepatch on my own “Eye of the Mommy” and our home is not as tidy as it could be. And that's okay. Really! An important purpose can be served in allowing the kids to suffer from the opposite of cleanliness! They'll be more able to appreciate when our home is clean -- and more interested in doing the cleaning! Moms, try encouraging your children to use the Eye of the Mommy next time and see if they can upgrade their chore performance on their own! Then share if this practice elevates your mothering!  Here's an audio clip so you can listen to the Mom Tip while you fold yet another load of laundry. Hi, I’m Regan Barnes from Momivate, and this is your two-minute Mom Tip empowering you to elevate your mothering experience.
I’m a little jealous of my children -- the fact that they get to spend the majority of their time learning. I wish LEARNING was on my to-do list -- I genuinely enjoy discovering facts and building skills. Oddly, children seem to have a built-in aversion to didactic learning. Oh, they'll learn all day long if you don't TELL them that they're learning. If they're the ones asking the questions, their brainy appetite is insatiable. But once it's an assignment, once someone else wants them to go learn such-and-so, for whatever reason, that makes it an oppressive chore. The fact is, though, that learning is an element of childhood in the way oxygen is an element of water. I think their struggle comes from their innate desire to be in control of what they're learning. The tricky part is that learning HOW to learn is a subject in and of itself -- arguably far more valuable, than memorizing lists of facts. Of course, our gray matter is programmed to learn from day one -- no one has to teach a baby to learn how to walk. The baby is just wired to eventually get up off its knees, practice balancing, and one day, almost without thinking, those first steps are taken. When you aren't a baby any longer, though, that automated learning mode gets complicated with too many (or too few) options, countless distractions, and that awful human-nature state of laziness... And so the motivational games begin... to encourage learning, embellish it, give incentives for it, exemplify it, all with the hope that they'll embrace learning and love it for life! Mom, in what ways can you give your children a love of learning? Do you verbalize how grateful you are for a good education? Do you take advantage of opportunities to learn even when you aren’t required to? Create a family culture that includes efforts to satiate curiosity! Then share if this practice elevates your mothering! |
