kids Archives - Finding Faith's Future

01
Dec
2022

Why We Do a Christmas Gift Exchange with Our Children: 5 Lessons We Are Teaching

The floor is covered in wrapping paper, under the tree is already bare, and the children were happily engaged with all their new gifts… for approximately 25 minutes. As parents we felt frustrated after the time, thought, and money into buying, wrapping, and stating up way to late for the children to not fully enjoy the lesson Christmas could teach them.

A few years ago on a whim we decided to put Christmas in the hands of our children.

We decided to do a gift exchange with our children, and it has changed the atmosphere of what “the season of giving” means through in a real, tangible way. What started on a whim a few years ago has turned into a tradition our family (children especially!) look forward to.

If prompted our children could still recall who they given gifts to and what they bought each other over the year the last few years!

We don’t do this in addition to a bunch of gifts from mom and dad; we do this instead of buy each of our children a bunch of stuff. We buy a “family gift” as our gift to our children- one that everyone can enjoy.

As a mother of six now, I have to say our children look forward to guessing who they will get, hoping who will get them, and (sometimes) bummed when they get the same person, again.

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01
Jul
2020

Fishing with Kids: Tips to Make Things Easier

categories: family fun, kids

Sometimes starting a new family activity has growing pains, and it is no different when you are fishing with kids! We have 5 children all still under the age of 10, so as you can imagine it sometimes get a little hectic when trying to enjoy fishing ourselves, teaching, and all around enjoying fishing as a family.

Today I wanted to share some tips on how we enjoy fishing with our kids. Over the last couple of years we have gotten in a routine and have set up a few systems to make things run a little smoother.

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22
Jan
2020

Life Update- Baby #5 is Here!

categories: birth story, kids, pregnancy

Goodness gracious it’s been awhile! Not sure I could count how many times I wanted to make time to hop on here, but alas, it kept getting pushed down the list.

Baby #5

Baby Boy – four days overdue, decided to join us! I had an easy, unmedicated 7 hour labor ! Born at 7 lbs 8 oz Connor Miles was born December 10. He is now 6 weeks old and the newness has not worn off. We love and adore him.! Beyond the after birth pains, I have had a pretty easy post partum. I suppose all those freezer meals and a lot of help from hubby with the other four kids over Christmas break made it easier on my body!

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20
Jun
2018

10+ Healthy Snack Lunch Ideas for Kids

categories: food, kids, recipes

It’s summer and these healthy snack lunch ideas are perfect for this time of year, but also great for healthy lunch box options as well!

I don’t know about you, but it’s so much easier to prep and chop a bunch of healthy food, lay it out as a muffin tin lunch or using a serving plate and have the kids pick and choose what they want to eat! These healthy snack lunch ideas are currently a favorite in our house – especially on the days it’s been too hot to cook. (lifesaver!). These should give you some healthy ideas to include in your kids’ lunch boxes when school time comes around also!

PIN IT
These lunch box ideas also work well for playdates and summer picnic lunches! Everyone can choose what they want to eat!

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07
Sep
2017

5 Baby Must Haves 0-6 Months

categories: kids, pregnancy

As a four time Mama I may have a more realistic list (and a smaller one) when it comes to my baby “must haves” list for 0-6 months.

*this post may contain affiliated links

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10
Jul
2017

Intentional Summer Series

categories: kids

Happy Monday!

Today I’m guest posting over HERE about having an Intentional Summer with my littles. Every Monday this summer is a new post up on this topic and Keri is also having a great summer series via email that you sign up for on her site too, so check that out too! (Fun games and bits of wisdom).

Here’s a snippet :

Since the birth of our fourth child back in February I’ve realized some days I barely went through the motions of our day. Have you ever felt like you had desire to be intentional with your kids, but it just did not happen?

That was me.

I mentally checked off things on my to do list instead of playing with the kids or sitting down and reading a book while the youngest naps. I would squeeze in “one more” chore around the house. When he woke up it felt like a juggling act some days between trying to finish cooking meal, feeding the baby, or breaking up an argument. As we got closer to wrapping up our homeschool year, I realized I needed to focus on having an intentional summer to reconnect as a family and with each child individually.

Bella turns 7!

categories: kids

I can’t believe I became a mother 7 years ago!

She changed the direction of my life and I think her daddy would agree his did too. She was a dream baby; she slept through the night at six weeks, was always happy and loved to eat!

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15
Nov
2016

Monday was good to me

categories: homemaking, kids, pregnancy

The time change was suppose to give us an hour, right? Well something happened and my kids LOST 2 hours!?!?!!. Which means I have been getting a 5:30 am wake up call. Ah, well. The kids are currently drawing at the big table and I have water heating on the stove for my coffee.

My husband is the early bird, he always has been. I do have to agree when I get up early I get more things accomplished. Yesterday I had everything done before lunch (except one load of laundry I chose not to fold that is currently in the dryer). And Mel took a morning nap instead of her afternoon nap which was a big help also. And I got to have a little midmorning rest:

new slipper socks from Muk-Luks – so soft and warm, perfect gift for Christmas!

It really is good for me though. I got to play a game with the kids, we watched one episode of Chopped on Netflix, and I read them a book. Dare I say I’m starting to like these early mornings? Haha. 3pm rolled around and I felt like it should have been 5 or 6 o’clock!

I am also realizing I’m on my phone a whole lot less these days which means I’m “finding” pockets of time to read a book myself, play with the kids, or just sit down and enjoy watching the kids play.. or them play with baby brother. I have seen the awe in the ‘big’ kids’ eyes on seeing a new baby(mel) but I cannot wait to see Melanie. She loves to shake my belly and tell him to ‘wake up – breakfast” as she says. I want savor these moments forever! I’m sure she’ll be excited to ‘play’ with him!

Oh, and early bedtimes are my jam! … I have read before that the more hours you get to bed before midnight the better you sleep?! I don’t know if that’s true, but when 9 p.m. hits, my body makes me feel like it’s midnight! But I really am sleeping better, even with my pregnancy aches and baby boy’s nighttime party kicks.

I think I may keep this routine 🙂