Little Helpers

My girls absolutely love to help out. Most children do. The most recent events are setting the table, cooking/baking, laundry and cleaning the table after we eat. I think what amazes me most about these little helpers is their enthusiasm to do it. Almost begging to help out!

When it is time to eat, Abi jumps up and says, "Can I help you set the table? What do we do first?" I give her plates first and she takes them over and carefully sets them in each place. Then I hear, "What do we need next?" She then sets out forks and spoons. Then I hear, "How about napkins next!" Out go the napkins. Once everything is ready she sits at the table and asks if there is anything else she can do. Tonight, Amanda was feeling a little left out, apparently. She came into the kitchen, opened up a cabinet, looked around, found a plastic, yellow bowl (matched her plate), pulled it out, said "bowl!" and ran to put it on the table. Once it was there she said, "I did it!" while clapping and smiling. So cute!

Cooking and baking. Abi is really into this these days. Yesterday we made pretzels and she helped knead the dough and shape the pretzels. It was a first for both of us which was so special - I had never made pretzels before either. When we get ready to make something, the first thing I hear is, "How do we start? I know! Let's find a recipe. You can look online." Then once we get our recipe and gather all of our ingredients Abi asks, "what do we put in first?" She asks that about each step and is so excited and enthusiastic about making anything and everything. When Mark got home last night she went through the whole process of making the pretzels, "First we pressed the dough. The we let it rest. then we rolled it out into snakes and made shapes! Then we boiled them and baked them!" I couldn't believe she remembered the whole process. Anything that she gets to mix or crack eggs into she loves! Pancakes, muffins, popovers... you name it. She also likes to help when I make chicken fingers - she gets to shake the bag! Amanda helped with that tonight too. It is so heart-warming to watch how excited and proud they are when they get to help with something like that.

Laundry - this is more Amanda's thing. Abi used to like to "fold" when she was younger. She would pick up something out of the basket and walk around shaking it out. Amanda runs for the washer every time I open the door. Before I can get anything sorted she is on her tip toes putting clothes into the washer. She can't see anything, but she knows if she pushes far enough, the clothes will go in :-)

Cleaning the table. this is also more of Amanda's thing. she got so upset with me the other day because I wouldn't let her have the cloth with the Windex on it to help clean the table! I gave her a cloth with water on it and she got so excited and cleaned the whole table - as much as she could reach. She also like to help me pick up, especially if we sing the clean up song from Dora.

Abi likes to help pick up and put things away too. As we were leaving Mema and Papa's house the other night, she saw that Mema was putting away a little table and chairs. Before we knew it Abi was carrying in a little folding chair too! It was big for her to carry, but she wanted to do it all by herself. "I will be ready in a minute. I just need to take this to my room." How can you rush that? We happily waited.

I am just in awe of the natural tendency toward servanthood in children. I know that children like to be "big" and many think they just want to feel like they are big girls, but I think children are born with a natural sense to help and serve - a heart of compassion. It is fostered and developed through our parenting, but I truly believe they have a God-given gift and tendency toward serving and loving. So many times I wish I could be more like them! I feel like they teach me so much more than I teach them. And I believe God has purposefully planned that as well. To bring our tainted minds, thoughts and actions back to the innocent way we began. My children are constant reminders of how much God loves me, protects me, provides for me and waits for me. It is all in the perspective in which I choose to look at it. More often then I like to admit, I get more frustrated than anything - my patience is so not what it used to be. However, I am going to make a personal goal to really take everything into perspective and look at the big picture. There are lessons for me in every one of these challenges. I know I will fail, but that also is part of the big picture. So, here I go onto another adventure and challenge. Many more will follow, but for now I will aim to stay calm and patient and look at the big picture. BIG breaths........

Recreating Memories

When I was young, we (my sister, brother and I) spent a lot of time at my grandparents' house. My mom's parents were about a mile or so away and since my mom was a single mom, we spent a lot of time at their house while my mom worked. A memory I don't think i will ever forget is the gigantic vegetable garden my grandmother had. She grew everything - tomatoes, zucchini, squash, green beans, snap sugar peas, peppers, carrots... you name it. And boy did she have a green thumb! You should have seen all the African Violets she always had! They were gorgeous! They are so hard to keep and she did it like the pro she has always been. Grandma used to send us out to the garden to pick the vegetables (after she taught us how to tell if they were ripe and how to pick them) and when it was time for the beans and peas, I think we ate more off the plants than we brought inside! Then once we got inside, we would prepare them.

For the beans, there were 2 bowls - 1 for the snapped ends and 1 for the ready-to-eat beans. We had so much fun sitting on the porch together and snapping the beans! And we LOVED to eat them raw. They are so much better that way. She would often come out and let us know that we needed to stop eating them so that there were enough for dinner.

And then the peas. How much fun it was to pop those open and slide our finger down the inside to get the peas out! That is, is we didn't eat the whole pod first! And then to eat those raw peas... I feel like I am sitting there right now, all of us laughing while Grandma watched from the kitchen window (monitoring how many we were eating so that there were enough for dinner). Such a beautiful memory for so many reasons.

I don't think my Grandma really minded how many we were eating before hand. What a great way to introduce so many things to your kids! Not only introducing vegetables to kids, but also a work ethic and hands-on experience with how to begin to cook. We couldn't do the cooking itself, but we helped and children LOVE to eat things that they helped make. I got to share this story with Abi this morning as I was bringing the girls home from the fruit and vegetable stand. They love to go here with me and each time they get to pick something "new." Last time we went (we go a couple of times a week) Abi picked out kiwi. While she wasn't crazy about it, she tried it and ate it because she got to pick it out. Today she wanted starfruit, but they were out. Next time. So instead I asked her if she would like to pick a bag of green beans or a basket up snap sugar peas. She wanted to pick a basket of sugar peas. I told her to look over them and pick any one she wanted. She was so excited and handed me the one she thought looked best. Amanda picked a couple of little oranges (something neither one of my girls have cared for) so Abi also picked a couple she wanted. On the way home as I shared my childhood story with her she said, "I can't WAIT to get home and pop those sugar peas! Do they taste like sugar?" I told her, "You'll have to taste and see! Then you can let me know what you think they taste like!" She excitedly told me again that she couldn't wait!

Once we got home I washed the peas, put them in a bowl and took them to the table. I showed her how to pop them open and find the peas inside. I wish you could have heard her sweet giggle. She was so excited to try one she could only giggle! After trying one the next thing I knew the whole bowl was just about empty! She hardly touched anything else on her plate. Amanda wasn't so interested in the raw peas. In all honesty, green vegetables have always been popular with my girls. Peas, green beans, broccoli..... they love all of them. I wasn't surprised that Abi gobbled them up, but to share my experience with her is what made it so wonderful.

So here are a couple of take-aways. Take your children to the local farmer's market or produce stand and let them pick out some things to take home and try. Plant a garden - let them help plant the seeds or plants and take care of the garden, pick the produce and prepare it for meals. Find some positive experiences from your childhood that make you smile and find a way to recreate those or share those with your children. It creates a way for you to connect with your children and remember precious moments you experienced as a child. If you don't have any of these memories, create your own! These moments are so sweet and there is so much joy in watching the wonder of a child experience something new and feel like they are a part of something bigger.

I hope to one day have a place where I can have the girls help plant a garden, take care of it and pull the produce off to eat. How wonderful that will be! To plant a seed, cultivate it and watch it grow. There are such deep roots in those thoughts ...... how we plant physical seeds and watch physical plants grow, but also how we weave in the planting of spiritual seeds and watch our children grow in faith to know Jesus. These are the moments that make all the tears and frustration melt away. The bigger purpose. Raising children to love and honor God. What an honor to be called "mother."