Meal Ideas to Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I feel like there are always a lot of suggestions for green treats, and not as many for meals. So here are some meal ideas that either have the color green, a rainbow, or have Irish roots.

Breakfast

• Pancakes (use green food coloring)
• Lucky Charms Cereal
• Yogurt Parfait (use lime flavored yogurt or green food coloring)
  • Add some green fruits: kiwi, honeydew, grapes, apples, pears
• Avocado Toast
• Scrambled eggs (use green food coloring or spinach)

Lunch

• Mac and cheese (use green food coloring or veggies)
• Shamrock pizzas 
• Salad (add all green veggies like snap peas, green onions, pepper, cucumber, celery, etc)
• Irish pasties

Snack

• Make a rainbow out of fruit
• Green hummus and use green or rainbow colored veggies to dip
• Guacamole with corn chips to dip

Dinner

• Pasta with pesto sauce
• Corned beef and cabbage
• Irish potato soup with Irish soda bread
• Beef stew
• Shepherd’s pie

Valentine’s Gifts on a Budget

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner! I feel like there is a lot of marketing pressure to extravagantly proclaim your love to your significant other. But Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to break your bank. This article has mostly suggestions for couples, but first a word about Valentine’s cards for school kids.

Did you know you can get Valentine’s cards at the dollar store? This is our first year with a preschooler, so we got a pack of 30 cards (which will last us 2 years) for just $1. They had a great selection and the cards either came with stickers or temporary tattoos. It took my son a while to choose because he loved them all. They also have cute little Valentine’s mailboxes all ready to go at Dollar Tree.

Okay, now back to couples. Since Valentine’s Day is a couples-centered holiday, here are three ways you celebrate without overspending.

Set a Budget

This is kind of a no-brainer, but set a budget for any gifts or treats given on Valentine’s Day. Maybe one year you really can’t afford to spend any money on Valentine’s Day, and your gifts are homemade. Maybe another year the budget is $30. Either way, set a budget and stick to it.

Split the Work

I know a couple that takes turns planning Valentine’s Day and their anniversary every year. This means that one year the husband is in charge of Valentine’s Day, while the wife plans for their anniversary. The next year the wife is in charge of Valentine’s Day, and the husband focuses on their anniversary. This is a great way to cut costs of gifts because only one spouse (instead of two) is giving gifts on those days. My husband and I decided to celebrate “Korean-style” where I give him gifts on Valentine’s Day, and he gives me gifts a month later on White Day. This works out especially well for me because he gives me lots of discounted Valentine’s Day chocolate the next month!

Make an I Owe You (IOU) Book

Get a cheap photo book from the store of your choice, cut up some paper, and get to work. I’ll let you figure out your own “sexy” IOUs, but if you want suggestions for some general IOUs, here are some that work for both genders:

• Massages (feet, back, neck, hands, etc). I’d recommend adding a time limit.
• Favorite homemade meal (could apply to breakfast, lunch, or dinner).
• Sweet treat (homemade or you can do a “craving run” to the store when they would like).
• Hobby break. Does your spouse love to play sports or do something crafty but never has the time? Make time for them to do one of those things!
• Venting session. I know that men are less likely than women to vent about things, BUT a fifteen minute venting session about work might be just what he needs.
• You pick the movie night. My husband and I don’t always share the same movie interests, although we like watching movies together. This way one of the spouses gets to watch their favorite show with their favorite person.
• Nap time. Let your spouse take an uninterrupted nap!

Looking for more budget Valentine’s gift ideas? Here’s a list of 10 cheap or free gifts from our friends at RedTwoGreen.

Birthday Celebration Ideas for Toddlers

My son turned three this week and he was SO EXCITED!! He woke up every morning asking if it was his birthday yet. We even made a countdown so he could visually see his birthday get closer and closer. As we’ve prepped for his birthday, I did a lot of research about different celebration ideas that I thought I’d share with you all today!

The biggest decision you’ll have to make is the party size. With toddlers, they appreciate having undivided attention and giving gifts can be hard. They’ll be excited about the sugar and presents, but won’t be a good host. The best toddler parties we’ve attended have limited the amount of other toddlers that are invited to the party.

That being said, here are some party themes, locations, treats, and other ideas to kickstart your party planning.

Party Theme Ideas-

• Dinosaurs
• Pirates
• Space
• Safari/ Farm Animals
• Sports
• Construction Vehicles/ Cars
• Characters: Daniel Tiger, Curious George, Mickey Mouse, etc
• Costume/ Dress-up Party
• Rainbow

Locations-

• The Zoo
• A Children’s Museum
• A Park
• A Bouncy House Park
• A Pool (for summer birthdays)
• At Home

Treats-

• Homemade Ice Cream
• Cupcakes
• Freebies from restaurants
• Donuts
• Favorite sugary cereal

Kid’s Clubs-

• Barnes and Noble
• Toys R Us
• Baskin Robbins
• Old Spaghetti Factory

Presents-

• Making an Amazon wishlist and sharing it with relatives can be really helpful for toddler birthdays.
• If you feel like you are drowning in toys already:
  • ask for a trip/membership to the zoo, the pool, or a museum may be a better option.
  • ask party-goers to gift a book instead of a toy.
• Stagger opening presents so your child can focus their attention on one toy at a time.

The most important thing for toddlers is that they feel special and loved on their birthday. That doesn’t have to be done by an elaborate party or theme. Just having the undivided attention of a few people can be enough. Last year for D’s birthday we did a special mother-son day at the zoo, where I let him choose whatever he wanted to do. We didn’t do a party with other kids, and he still had a great day.

One Word Resolutions

A few years ago, a good friend of mine told me that every year instead of doing several resolutions, she picks one word to be her theme. The thought intrigued me, as I know that keeping track of several resolutions has been hard for me. I talked with my husband and we decided that we would try doing a one word resolution for our family.

As we approached each new year, we thought about the events we knew would happen. For example, in 2016, we knew that my husband would be graduating and looking for a job. We also knew that we would likely move because of this. So our theme for that year was “Faith.” We would periodically visit this theme and discuss it as different events happened throughout the year. We used it as an opportunity to really study that principle. We were able to see the theme of faith develop over the year, and by the end we viewed our journey with different eyes.

Often it can be hard to come up with a word, which is why this year we are using My One Word as a reference. Examples of words you can use are: Less, Healthy, Patient, or Consistent. Even if you don’t have specific resolutions, having one word and remembering it throughout the year can really change your approach to decision making. For example, maybe your word is “less” and you want to focus on living a minimalist lifestyle. Or instead of setting the goal to “lose weight” or “diet” you choose the word “healthy.” Then you think about the word throughout the year and make sure your decisions are aligning with that core value.

We’ve really enjoyed and found value in doing one word resolutions as a family. If you end up picking a one word resolution, let us know in the comments below!

Why My Family Believes in Santa Claus

 

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It’s almost Christmas!!! This year I’ve had interesting feelings about this season. My family has been through a lot of changes in the last year: graduation from grad school, a new job, a move across a state, our oldest turning 4 and starting preschool (I feel like parenting is a whole new ballgame now with him), our youngest becoming a toddler, and my applying for grad school (still waiting to hear back). In addition, this Christmas season has been our busiest one to date! From a school program to church choir practices to birthday parties, it’s been a whirlwind! Not to mention our regular responsibilities with church that both my husband and I have. Finally, I feel like this is the first Christmas in our family where our kids actually understand what’s going on. (Okay, our toddler probably doesn’t, but our oldest does!) We’ve actually had to hide gifts from him for real… do the whole Santa act. Not to be a Grinch or anything, but I think I can understand why some people are excited for the whole Christmas season to be over so they can be done with feeling so overwhelmed and busy.

I don’t want to feel overwhelmed. I LOVE this time of year, and I want it to be magical for my kids. I want to remember the reason why we celebrate Christmas (we believe in Jesus Christ), and I want to feel the spirit of giving, service, and love. I’m feeling better now that we’re getting closer to Christmas, but earlier this month I had stressful moments where I thought “how are we going to get everything done?!” Note to self/lesson learned: Don’t say “YES” to too many things at Christmas time; leave enough room in the schedule/in the brain/in the heart for the truly important things.

Now on to the Santa thing…….

I know that some parents don’t do the Santa charade with their kids. I haven’t really talked to any of these parents personally, so I can’t really say why they choose to not involve Santa in their Christmas. I imagine that for some, they feel Santa distracts from Christ or is too frivolous. My family does include Santa Claus in our Christmas traditions, and I want to explain why.

When I was a little girl, Christmas meant more to me than any other holiday or celebration- even more than my birthday meant to me! I went to sleep on Christmas Eve literally feeling slightly shaky with excitement and joy for the next day. My family spent lots of time with extended family while I was growing up, since both sets of my grandparents lived near us. All of the dinners, programs, recitals, and parties helped me feel close to my loved ones and gave me warm feelings in my heart. It seemed that my family was a little bit happier and that our troubles and concerns weren’t such a big deal. Santa was very much included in all of these warm, happy feelings in the Christmas season. My parents worked hard to make Santa seem real when my siblings and I were little, and I’m so glad they did! In our home, Santa was a kind, giving, loving person that made Christmas all the more magical.

I want my kids to believe in Santa when they’re little because I want them to have something in their lives that makes them wonder if magic really is real. I want them to feel that even just for one day out of the year, the world is centered on them. I want them to understand that Santa gives selflessly- and I want them to develop this quality in themselves. I want them to be givers, people who are service-minded. There aren’t many magical things left in this world to believe in; I want my children to at least have this one thing, at this time of year.

As I mentioned, we believe in Jesus Christ in my family. To us, Jesus embodies life, love, selflessness, kindness, redemption, joy, and hope. And even though we try to focus our attention on Christ at Christmas time, we also believe that the idea of Santa Claus can help remind us of the loving, giving nature of Christ in a way that is simple and easy for our children to comprehend.

So it really isn’t complicated: we just feel that our kids deserve to believe in an idea that represents giving, joy, and innocence- in addition to having faith in Jesus Christ.

 

In addition to Santa, my family also does the Elf on the Shelf tradition!

 

What are some of your family’s Christmas traditions? Do you do Santa with your kids? If so, why do you want your kids to believe in him?