Sugar Free Homemade Pizza for Kids

When I sit down to make up our families menu for the week I always try to find a way for my kids to help me make the meal. There are many ways that you can be in the kids kitchen. It can be scary letting your kids help you cook and it can be time-consuming. Many times it makes a bigger mess and more often than not it takes twice as long to carry out the task. I am finding the more that I get my kids involved the better they are at eating the food that comes out of my kitchen. One of our families traditions is making pizza on Saturday night. Having your kids help you with the pizza making process is one of the most simple and easiest ways to get them into the kitchen.

How to build a Haystack/Taco Salad

As a mom of two kids one of the struggles that I have is getting them to eat a balanced diet. One of my favorite meals growing up was haystacks. I am sure most of the universe knows them as taco salads but for this I am going to keep with what I know and call them haystacks. I am finding that many times, if my kids don’t want to eat what I fix it is because they feel like they don’t have any control. Having haystacks for a meal gives them a ton of choices and the ability to make the meal they want too!

Sidewalk Chalk Paint that costs $1

I originally wrote this post last summer, but now that summer has seemed to find Montana, my kids and I decided to try this again. If you are interested in the original post, you can find it here.

We live in Northwest Montana where the pleasant summer weather is limited to just a few months, so when a good day comes along we try to find activities that we can enjoy outside as much as possible. One day I saw a picture my friend posted of her daughter painting outside and I asked her what she was using, to which she replied “sidewalk chalk paint.” I’ve seen many recipes for sidewalk chalk paint on Pinterest, but they’ve all required artificial dye, an ingredient that I no longer keep in my house. With this in mind I was apprehensive about asking how she made it, but I asked anyway. I was pleasantly surprised when she told me that all she used was chalk dust and water! I already had a ton of chalk on hand, and I can always find more at the dollar stores when I run out, so I gathered my supplies and got started

The sensory Need in all of Us

Over the past almost 6 years I have learned so much about sensory needs. Not just the needs of a child with Sensory Processing Disorder but the fact that every human being needs sensory input of some type as they go through their day. If you think about it, life would be pretty boring without our senses. We wouldn’t be able to hear, taste, smell, see or feel. These past 6 years I have watched and worked with my son as he learned to navigate a world that over powers his senses yet at the same time doesn’t give him enough in some areas. There have been a lot of tears, frustration, accomplishments and hard lessons learned(for me). Trial and error have seemed to work the best. This past Saturday as I sat in my living room watching my kids playing contentedly with their sensory bins, I took a sip of my coffee and sighed. There comes a time when, no matter what is going on in life, your senses are overloaded and you need to step back and let the senses that calm you take over and bring you back to the core of your happiness. For me that is peace.

There is something about Christmas lights

I am a huge fan of Christmas! If I am completely honest I would be happy starting to decorate for Christmas and listen to Christmas songs the day after Halloween. My husband on the other hand would be completely happy if the decorations and music stayed in boxes till the week of and then were put away the day after. Thankfully he has compromised and allows his Christmas fanatic of a wife to start Christmas the day after Thanksgiving.

One of my favorite parts of the Christmas season is setting up the Christmas tree. I always liked it as a kid but now that I have my own kids, I love it even more.