20 Ways to Beat the Boredom Blues

Bored no more! Here are my go-to boredom blues busters (say that 5 times fast!):

1) Beach Day

2) Zoo Day

3) Farm Day

4) Library Day

5) Play dates

6) Picnics

7) Puzzles

8) Blocks

9) Books

10) Sidewalk chalk

11) Board games

12) Coloring books

13) Arts and crafts

14) The sandbox

15) The swing set

16) Dog walking

17) Bike riding

18) Puddle jumping

19) Cookie baking

20) Target.

What are your boredom blues busters? Do tell!

List your top 12 solutions for bored children.

Egg Mice and the "Magic Words"

McKenna and Kendall are pretty good about using their manners and Alex and I have never referred to "please," "thank you," and the like as magic words; it's just something that you do, a reflex like saying, "Bless you" when someone sneezes. One day, the girls and I were over at our friends' house for a tea party play date and when Miss Caroline was finished with her quiche and tea, she stayed in her seat and very politely asked, "May I be excused please, Mommy?" -- "Yes you may." She got up and I realized that Beth didn't have to hassle her AT ALL to stay at the table while we were eating. Liiight bulb!

Every single day for every single meal it was a battle to keep the girls in their seats while we were eating. I HATED having to repeat myself over and over and over again every breakfast, lunch and dinner for the girls to just sit the fuck down. Of course, I used my manners and didn't drop the F bomb around my little parrots... Other than maybe once or twice to myself under my breath as my eyes glossed over with tears of frustration.

I googled "How to keep toddlers at the dinner table." A lot.

I tried implementing the "When you get up, you're telling me that you're finished" rule, but that seemed to work better in their favor as lots of veggies and other "yucky" stuff was left uneaten.

I tried taking away snacks so that maybe by lunch and dinnertime they'd be so hungry that they would want to sit at the table and eat all of their food, but that backfired; we all ended up cranky and frustrated.

I tried the "Kids will eat when they're hungry; don't force it," way, but... THIS AIN'T DENNY'S!

Later that day when we were at home eating dinner and the girls got up, I told them, "Sit down. You were not excused; you didn't say the magic words."

"Magic words?!" they asked, grinning.

So I explained very matter-of-factly that if they wanted to get up from the table, they must first ask, "May I be excused, please?"

Eagerly they sat down; "MAY I BE EXCUSED, PLEASE!?" in unison with big fat smiles on their faces.

"No. You haven't finished your dinner yet."

And that was that! Magic words.

Whether or not they actually eat all or any of their dinner is a complete toss up, but "if they're hungry, they'll eat" and they have plenty of time to do so as we're all sitting down at the table together and enjoying our meal as a family. Huge victory. I'd say the "magic words" have about a 90% success rate.

One thing that I know McKenna will gobble up for sure is Egg Mice.

She loves hard-boiled eggs and picked this recipe out of one her kid-friendly cookbooks, which I modified slightly.

Egg Mice

Ingredients:

1 hard-boiled egg
Mayonnaise
Mustard
Salt, pepper to taste
Matchstick carrots
Slivered almonds

Directions:

Slice the hard-boiled egg in half and scoop out the yolk; mix with mayo, mustard, salt and pepper. Fill the yolk mixture back into the egg white and place the flat side down on the plate.

Then, poke one matchstick carrot into one end of the egg for the tail and on the opposite side, use a paring knife to make slits for the slivered almonds, which will be the ears.

Serve with cheese and fruit for a super fun, well-rounded meal for your toddler. :-D

A Quote That Stuck

Jealousy is an emotion that I hate. 

Whenever I feel envious of another person, their belongings, their circumstances, I get angry with myself, too, for being ungrateful for all of the wonderful things in my life -- we have a nice house, two cars, a terrific marriage, healthy children and pets, great support through family and friends, and the ability for me to stay at home to raise our kids. That's a huge plus. Sometimes, though, living off of one income just sucks. Sometimes we have to make $100 stretch for two weeks between paydays. Sometimes we have to move what little we have finally been able to put into our savings account back into checking just to get by, and cross our fingers that we don't encounter a serious unexpected expense (ER visit, car trouble, household maintenance needing immediate attention, etc.). While we've never been unable to pay our bills, buy groceries, or put gas in our cars, we just don't have much discretionary income leftover for stuff... that doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

A quote from someone that has stuck with you.