Bram

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August 27 2019

First Day of School

Bram Blog, Empower Your Homeschool, Go Big with Family Travel

It’s that time of year when all the conversation seems to center around school starting. Where we lived previously, the public schools didn’t start until after Labor Day. At our new home, they start by mid-August! Quite the change!

We recently went to a family gathering nearby and everyone wanted to know when our “first day of school” was. Truth was, we had a family backpacking trip planned for when everyone else was starting and I had a split second of guilt as I thought about telling them that. But then I realized: no way, no guilt! This is the beauty of homeschooling! We can do what our family needs, when our family needs it!

So my answer to all my in-laws was that we were starting school on Monday too and it was going to begin with a three day backpacking trip! It was kind of funny to watch them process that. Then my 14-year-old nephew said he wanted to be homeschooled too!

Even after all this time, I still have to take the time to change my mindset from a) worrying about what others think, and b) moving away from thinking about school as the traditional subjects taught in public school. I don’t always have those problems, but sometimes they creep up again.

And even if we hadn’t been starting school right when everyone else around us was, that’s ok. Again, we do what we need to for our family. You do what you need to for your family! And a lot more counts as “school” than what we realize sometimes.

And our first day of school was amazing.

August 14 2019

How to Teach Your Child to Read and Help Them Love It

Bram Blog, Empower Your Homeschool

Reading has always been an important part of my life. Growing up we were surrounded by books and there was always something to read.

I remember combing my father’s hair at night while he read aloud to us. Every once in a while we would have to turn out the lights so we could see the sparks from the static electricity that the comb made going through his hair.

As my siblings and I got a little older, my mother would sometimes have us help work on homemade Christmas presents for our aunts, some sort of cross-stitch project, while she would read aloud to us. Double bonus!

We had books all over the house. One whole wall in my bedroom was covered in books and our upstairs hall and loft were lined with full bookshelves. I spent hours there poring over encyclopedias reading about Ancient Egypt, or Greece, or Rome, or I traveled the world through the pages of our numerous National Geographic magazines. There was also a lot of fiction to read when I just wanted to sit down with a good book.

Where to start

Set the example

As a parent, you first need to look at yourself. Yep. Guess who your children are watching? YOU!

Are you a reader? Do you show your kids that reading is important? My kids see us reading all. The. Time.

Unfortunately, as we read more on electronic devices, they don’t always know that we’re actually reading and not just surfing facebook again. I would suggest trying to find that new novel or gardening book you’re interested in as a hard copy. Make mention often of what you’re reading out loud, “Wow! Did you know tulip bulbs are edible?” Show them you’re learning from and enjoying your reading. “I can’t wait to find out what happens in the next chapter! This left off at a real cliff-hanger!”

And if you’re not a reader, now is a good time to become one. There are books on every topic. You must have SOMETHING you are interested in! Look it up and go for it!

Read to your children

This is SO important and is a wonderful time to gather your sweet children around you. Do it even with your older children.

I usually break up my morning reading time between my older and younger kids. I do a read-aloud at the end of our morning devotional that my little ones go off and play during, and then when we have finished with that I send the older ones off to do school while I read picture books with my 3 and 5 year old.

Sometimes my younger ones will come and hang out with us while I read our chapter books out loud because they hear the gasps of horror, laughing, or squeals of delight from their siblings who are enjoying the book. See what is happening here again? The younger ones are seeing the wonders of books by watching their older siblings. Example!

In the evening we have a family read-aloud for everyone.

Here are some of my kids’ favorite alphabet books. Frankly, they drive me and my husband crazy to read, but that’s partly due to them currently being my 3-year-old’s favorite book series right now. We read them over, and over, and over again! They have the alphabet in the front and the back of each book so we sing it each time we come to it. The books are fun for kids because you do the bulk of the reading, but there are pictures as you go along so the kids can “help.” I use this resource mostly just for letter recognition. We received most of the set from my mother who found them at a thrift store. My sister found her set at a thrift store as well, so I would suggest checking out that resource first.

Turn off/limit TV

Compared to just watching TV, reading is hard! Your mind actually has to focus and work while reading compared to just soaking in whatever comes off the TV screen.

Increased TV exposure for a child, even if the TV is on somewhere nearby, is linked with less ability to recognize their own and other people’s feelings, delayed language, and the increased possibility of having behavioral problems.

On the other hand, the more you read to a child, the more you can increase their vocabulary, language, and reading skills.

So where do my kids go when they get bored? To the books! Even the little ones who aren’t reading quite yet will go get a book and flip through it. Some of the books they’ve had read to them so many times that they are able to “read” it to themselves. Just looking at pictures will get them to bring me a book so they can learn what the story is behind the pictures.

Have books available

They can’t read what they don’t have. Do you have a library card? If not, go get one! It will save you a lot of money and help keep fresh and interesting reading material around your home.

Check out thrift stores for books. You can get great used and new books online.

Maybe swap books with friends periodically.

Have the books where they can access them for themselves.

Learning to Read

Surround yourself with letters and make it fun!

With child number one and two, I had already decided I was going to homeschool while they were really little, so we were always reading and doing letter recognition. I immersed them in letters without always making it a formal learning time.

Letter magnets on the fridge, foam letters in the tub, a homemade alphabet chart on the wall; letters were something fun! We would sing the alphabet song as part of their bedtime routine.

When they were old enough, between 3-5, we would play letter bingo and letter “Go Fish.” Any game that involves letter recognition in a fun, relaxed, pressure-free way.

My friend takes letter magnets to the park and sticks them on the metal park equipment for her kids to do some of their learning there.

The book to use

My most favorite book that I tell everyone about is Phonics Pathways by Dolores G. Hiskes. I LOVE this book! I am on my fourth child with it and I will never use anything else.

Since I was the 2^nd of six children in my family, and am quite a bit older than my younger siblings, I had to help them when they were learning to read. I HATED some of the programs that my mom used and was scared to teach my own children to read from the experience.

Thankfully, this book was recommended in another one of my all-time favorite homeschool books, The Well-Trained Mind, and it has been a game changer! There aren’t colorful flashy pictures in Phonics Pathways, but the letters are big and friendly and the sections are broken up nicely. There are a few games throughout the book that you can copy and laminate, which I highly recommend doing. My kids love them. The older ones still come running to play when I get them out for my younger ones!

Everything is laid out step by step and I don’t know that I’ve ever finished the book completely with any of my children because they are fantastic readers by about 2/3-3/4 of the way through that we just gradually move on to other things.

Other resources

One of the programs that my mother used for my younger siblings that I actually liked was Sing, Spell, Read & Write. This is a bright, fun, musical program. I don’t have a lot of experience with the actual program itself, although I like what I remember, but luckily for me, my mom saved all her materials and passed them on to me when I started teaching my own children. Score! The readers (here and here) and games with this program are FANTASTIC! Again, my 3 and 5-year-old like me to read these books for story time. My 5 year-old is starting to be able to read them on his own now. I can’t guarantee the games are all the same as they were 20 years ago, but this is the program that had the Go-Fish and Alphabet Bingo games that I talked about earlier. I recommend checking it out.

While simple, my kids have also enjoyed reading the Bob books. It gives a real sense of accomplishment when they read their first book by themselves! These book are perfect for that. I have only really used the first set because these books are so simple that I want to move them on to better literature quickly, but they are good for that first time period while the child is gaining confidence in their reading skills.

One last thought. If your child is very reluctant to read, take a step back and just read to them. Then gradually add in a little bit of the lessons as they are ready for them. In Phonics Pathways, I have had my child only do a couple words as their lesson for the day if they really didn’t want to do it for whatever reason. By doing that little bit, they see that we still have school to do, but it isn’t painful. You just don’t want to force your child or you run the risk of them hating to read.

By teaching your children to read you are opening up many different worlds to them. Happy reading!

May 22 2019

Taking a Stand to Protect Our Families

Bram Blog, Empower Your Homeschool, Happiness at Home, Uplift Your Soul

Almost a month ago in my scripture study with the kids, we were reading Mosiah 20 in the Book of Mormon. This is the chapter where King Noah’s wicked priests steal away some of the daughters of the Lamanites. When the Lamanites discover their daughters missing they assume it is the Nephites (in this case, King Limhi’s people) and prepare for war.

In verses 8-11 it talks about how Limhi discovered their preparations from the top of a tower and was able to gather his people together and prepare to meet the Lamanites.

The Nephites laid in wait in the fields and forests and then “like dragons did they fight.” Even though the Lamanite army was more than double their size, they were able to push them back.

Among the dead they found the Lamanite king, who was wounded, and they bound up his wounds and with his help were able to make peace at that time.

As we read this story together, it struck me how this is applicable to our lives today.

We must be watchful and vigilant in our lives against those things or people who Satan would use to destroy us or our way of living. New laws, regulations, and policies in particular come to mind.

We need to be aware of what is going on so we are not caught by surprise when something happens that may affect our way of life. We need to “lie in wait” in “forests and fields” by taking action ourselves. I know for myself that too often I complain about what is being done, but take no action myself or I feel I am not well-read enough on a particular topic to feel I can really have a say.

The first step is knowing what you believe, what you stand for. You can’t really fight for something if you don’t know what it is you are fighting for.

Educating yourself is the next step. Read up on different issues. This may take some digging as news sources are quite often not very reliable or can be one-sided. You don’t have to be an expert, but being aware is like standing on your watchtower.

The third item is action. What are we going to do about it? It may be as small as when casually talking with others, or maybe it is writing to our representatives or attending political meetings.

I love this quote by Elder Quentin L. Cook, a modern-day apostle: “Many in this world are afraid and angry with one another. While we understand these feelings, we need to be civil in our discourse and respectful in our interactions. This is especially true when we disagree. The Savior taught us to love even our enemies. The vast majority of our members heed this counsel. Yet there are some who feel that venting their personal anger or deeply held opinions is more important than conducting themselves as Jesus Christ lived and taught. I invite each one of us individually to recognize that how we disagree is a real measure of who we are and whether we truly follow the Savior. It is appropriate to disagree, but it is not appropriate to be disagreeable. Violence and vandalism are not the answer to our disagreements. If we show love and respect even in adverse circumstances, we become more like Christ.” (April 2010 General Conference)

I think, “It is appropriate to disagree, but it is not appropriate to be disagreeable” is something that we need to remember and focus on finding ways to express ourselves while still being Christ-like. We can say when something is wrong when appropriate. We just need to do so in the right way.

With God’s grace and power we can still “drive” the enemy from before us. We are fighting for our families and we need to exert ourselves. We need to decide now how we will prepare and what actions we will take.

Recently an issue has come up that I have many concerns with and it could have a huge impact on religious freedom, as well as impacting other areas of our lives. First, I read up on it to understand it more fully, then I wrote to all my representatives, some with specific examples if I felt they needed it, and told them how I felt and asked how they were going to proceed.

Limhi’s people were not saved by sitting back and doing nothing. They were watchful, they prepared, and they took action.

May 14 2019

Here am I

Bram Blog, Empower Your Homeschool, Happiness at Home

In the beginning, God asked for one who would be our Savior. One who would redeem all mankind so we could return to our Heavenly Father’s presence. Jesus answered with, “Here am I, send me.” (Abraham 3:27)

Several months ago at a ward conference, my stake president (a leader in my church) asked us if we could say, “Here am I,” when the Lord asks us to be willing and ready mothers determined to teach our children in truth and righteousness.

I have thought so much about that. As he spoke, my whole heart said, “Yes!”

It’s not the first time I’ve heard that phrase used in that way. In fact, there are conference talks you can find with a similar theme, but especially as I have been pondering motherhood, and all it entails, it really touched my heart.

Motherhood is not easy. Most of the time it is downright hard. But oh so wonderful.

I learned a long time ago to not worry about how many band-aids were being used, but to see a child in front of me that looks to me as that safe, loving person that can make “owies” better; sometimes with just a hug and a special mother’s kiss.

When we sit down to read books together and I feel my children snuggling up to me, not just sitting by me, it brings such a warmth to my soul.

We had a picnic out on the back lawn together after a family outing the other day and it was so peaceful that I felt like I couldn’t get enough. Everyone was talking and laughing with each other. One child was daring another to see if she could eat her pizza while doing flips on the tramp. Yes she can. And yes, we picked up pizza on the way home for our picnic.

When times are sweet and wonderful like that I store away those memories for when times are not so easy. When a child is refusing to do their kitchen jobs, or taking FOREVER to do their school work, or magically disappearing the moment my back is turned to go build another Lego contraption. When I hear name-calling or a child is disrespectful to me, their father, or another sibling it really makes me sad and mad. Life is hard sometimes. A lot. But don’t give up.

The Lord said he had a spirit to send down. Who could he send it to that could teach, love, and care for that spirit to help it return home to Him? “Here am I,” I said. I have six of these beautiful little spirits in my home, and I will do everything that I possibly can to help them on their return journey to our Father.

Who will teach these children the gospel? Here am I.

Who will teach them to love God and one another? Here am I.

Who will teach them to serve? Here am I.

Who will teach them to pray? Here am I.

Who will teach them the divine roles of men and women and the wonderful role of the family in God’s eternal plan? Here am I.

Who will teach them to have faith, integrity, and how to gain a testimony? Here am I.

Who will teach them how to recognize, feel, and follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit? Here am I.

Who will teach them the scriptures and where to turn when they are in need of answers? Here am I.

Who will bathe them, feed them, and clothe them? Here am I.

Am I perfect? No. I most certainly am not. But you know what is really neat about this whole divine plan of our Father’s? I become more perfect and more like Christ the more I strive to mother my children in the way I feel He wants me to.

Christ served, helped, loved, forgave, taught, healed, and fed (spiritually and physically) those around Him. Isn’t that what we as mothers do? How amazing is that?

There was another that also said, “Here am I.” Lucifer offered himself to be our Savior, but he wanted to do it his own way and receive all the glory for himself.

We must stay close to the Lord through constant prayer and scripture study so that we are sure we are raising our children the way the Lord would have us do.

Are we focusing on God’s plan or do we sometimes get too caught up in what the world’s ideas and views are? Too often I think we are focused on what our kids need to be amazing and successful here on Earth at the expense of what they are going to need for eternity.

We will make mistakes. But as we move forward each day using the atonement to cleanse and uplift us, we can indeed do all things through Christ.

Look around at your family. Picture your Heavenly Father asking who will help those dear children return to Him?

I hope you will answer, “Here am I.”

March 5 2019

10-Day No-Sugar Challenge

Bram Big Family Cooking, Blog, Fitness for Busy Moms, Happiness at Home, Stay at Home Health

Today is the last day of my second 10-day no-white-sugar fast.

Did you catch all that?

I think I confused myself writing it out! 😉

Because of some health issues and weight loss goals that my mom and several siblings have, I decided to get as many of my family members as I could on board with doing a sugar fast.

To make accountability easier, I started a private family Facebook group to help us all encourage each other with our efforts.

The Facebook group is nice because I can make the group invitation-only, and I can create different challenges throughout the year. We also share our favorite healthy recipes there.

We started our first sugar fast at the beginning of January and I think we all went into it a little excited and nervous, but it was fun to challenge ourselves and see how creative we could be to go without the sugar.

It’s amazing how many things you have to watch out for! I knew I wouldn’t be eating ranch dressing or ketchup, but I was heartbroken to find out sriracha sauce has sugar! Sriracha makes a great steak marinade by the way.

And the pretzels that we would often have as an afternoon snack no longer fit.

It actually kind of tuned me in more to how much I was snacking and on what.

Now I have to be honest with you. I was pretty perfect during each of my 10-day stints, but notice I said no white sugar.

I did use molasses, honey, maple syrup and coconut sugar if something called for a sweetener.

But, let me be clear, I wasn’t drowning things in it or making cookies. I’m talking like 3-4 tablespoons of coconut sugar in my huge pancake recipe. Instead of adding chocolate chips in the batter, after the pancakes were done cooking I spread a thin layer of peanut butter on top (extra protein and healthy fat) and topped that off with a drizzle of maple syrup over all.

Something interesting that happened during this whole experiment is that I naturally stopped eating so many grain carbs.

No more sandwiches at lunchtime for me! Most store-bought bread has sugar and I wasn’t going to pay for the super-expensive stuff. So while I fed my kids the customary PB&J, I usually ate leftovers from dinner.

I made bread once using honey, but that was it. I used to make all our bread, but that’s something that got cut when child number 5 came along.

Instead of rice, I discovered riced cauliflower. This is pretty awesome because I would serve myself the riced cauliflower and then mix the rest in with a small batch of rice I made for the rest of my family.

Score! Just snuck some veggies in them!

Ok, not really. They could tell and whined a bit, but the little ones wouldn’t have noticed if the older kids hadn’t ratted me out.

You really don’t notice much when you eat it with stir-fry or curry.

And you can make your own, but it is also sold with the frozen veggies. It would be super easy to make since it’s just cauliflower that’s been diced up pretty fine. I have been buying it ready-made to save time.

I also started making zucchini noodles (zoodles). Again, I would have just the zoodles, and then mix the rest in with the regular noodles for my husband and kids. We all got sauce and meat on top and this dinner has gone over very well with the family. We’ve had it several times since.

Making zoodles is super easy and the kids love helping! You can find the spiralizer (zoodle maker) that I use here. My 10-year-old daughter likes to use it to make curly hashbrown-like potatoes too.

As wonderful as this all is, sometimes I just wanted a sweet treat. For years now I have been making energy balls instead of granola bars. These are the things I grab before I go for a run or when I feel the need to have just a little something sweet.

They’re kind of like eating healthy cookie dough-but better. I take them on hikes and hand them out to the kids during the day when they need a snack. Take a look.

My overall thoughts for this challenge are:

Pros

It has been helpful to stick to a no-sugar plan with other people holding me accountable.
I had to get a little more creative about how I made some things, but they are changes that I now incorporate into our regular eating habits.
I’ve always been one to look at ingredient lists, but as long as there was no corn syrup, sometimes I would let the sugar slide. Doing this challenge introduced me to some great new products that taste even better than the ones we had been using!

Cons

I feel like to really be successful for health and weight loss, you ought to do this longer than just 10 days. I did learn new habits, but I don’t think it was enough time to really break me of my sugar cravings.
The only sugar I eat more than I should is chocolate. And without my chocolate I turned to nuts to snack on. Waaaay too many yummy roasted nuts! For weight loss purposes, I would have been better off just eating my bit of chocolate before bed! Make sure you have a healthy alternative you can turn to when the munchies hit. Carrot sticks anyone?

On that last note, I believe the key here is moderation in all things. We didn’t use much white sugar in our house before the fast, and we now use even a little less.

But I still like me some dark chocolate every now and then.

February 28 2019

Energy Balls or Lactation Balls…say goodbye to those over-processed granola bars!

Bram Big Family Cooking, Blog, Stay at Home Health

I’m really excited to finally get this recipe posted!

I have typed it out on my phone sooooo many times for people that I am happy to have somewhere to send them instead of retyping or finding, copying, and pasting continually.

Energy balls: small balls of yummy goodness that are made of honey, peanut butter, flax, chia seeds, oats, and mini chocolate chips, with a dash of vanilla to top it off.

They taste a lot like raw cookie dough, and who doesn’t love cookie dough?

I try to always keep a good supply on hand. Unfortunately, my kids are rather fond of these as well and since I’m such a sharing person, they don’t last very long. Unless I hide. Or sneak. Or wait until they go to bed. But I really am a very sharing person.

My friends really enjoy these as well and I always pack enough to share because everyone wants to try one when they see them!

These little balls of amazing, yummy energy have gone with me all over:

Hiking in Jackson Hole
Canyoneering in Southern Utah
On vacation in Oregon
Family trips to Lake Powell
And any other hike/bike outing I go on!

I eat one of these before I go running in the morning and they make a great snack for kids too!

I pretty much use these instead of your typical granola bars. Those things can be pretty misleading with all their added sugars, especially corn syrups. Ugh. Not good for your body.

These are also great if you are craving a treat of some sort. Just don’t go eating more than one or two at a time! These are packed with healthy fat and carbs, so a little goes a long way!

I made a huge batch to take to Lake Powell one year and left them at my parent’s house accidently where we had stopped overnight while en route. I was super bummed, but figured I would just pick them up on the way back.

Guess what? Every last one of those energy balls did not survive being in the same house with my mom and sister. They had discovered them and thought they hit the jackpot!

I was flabbergasted! “You two ate them all in one week?!?”

Yeah, they’re that good. And they’re pretty healthy for you, but don’t go overboard. Your figure won’t thank you for it.

I found the original recipe off pinterest at some point I think, but there are a lot of recipes for these floating around now.

This one has been tweaked and tripled to fit my personal needs and likes. I have also made a version that I now call my lactation balls that I add Brewer’s yeast to and I feel like they’ve really made a difference for me. I’ll post both versions below.

Brewer’s yeast kind of has a strong flavor and I had a really bad experience with it once. I won’t say more than that it involved just having had a baby, and waaaay too many lactation cookies from my sweet sister-in-law.

Remember that too much of a good thing saying?

Lesson learned.

But I have really liked these lactation balls and have had nothing but good from them, so yay!

I try to eat two lactation balls a day and I really feel like it has made a difference for my milk supply.

Not anything crazy, but I’m not panicking about having to go buy formula right now, which is a huge thing for me!

When making these I make the balls into about a 1-2 inch sphere. That can differ depending on the activity and who will be eating them.

If I know I’m going to be sharing with a lot of little kids, I make them a little smaller. If I know they may be a “meal” replacement while I’m hiking, they go up in size a little.

Most of the time I just scoop them out, roll them up, and that’s what we get!

How many you are able to get out of the recipe really depends on what you put into them. This is a great recipe to experiment with and add some of your favorite goodies to.

Also, I buy whole flaxseed (like these here) and then put about a cup at a time in my blender and pulse it to grind it, storing any extra in the freezer. The reason I do this is because flax seeds go rancid fairly quick and I want mine to be as fresh as possible when I use them.

And you do need to grind them. Flax seeds will pass through your system undigested and you’ll miss out on a lot of their great health benefits.

After the balls are all rolled out, I put them on a baking sheet and stick them in the freezer until they’re frozen and then I bag them and put them back into the freezer for long-term storage. They stay fresher that way and are not as messy to eat when they are somewhat frozen. Although you may want to be careful or let them thaw a bit before eating them as they can be pretty hard straight out of the freezer!

I really hope you enjoy these as much as my family and I have. They have been a real lifesaver, especially since we are always working on eating healthier and more “real” food.

Energy Ball Recipe

Makes approx. 60 1 inch. Balls

3 cups old fashioned oats

1 cup mini chocolate chips

1 ½ cups Adam’s peanut butter

1 ½ cups ground flax seed

1 cup chia seeds

1 heaping cup honey (I like to use raw)

1 Tbsp vanilla

Mix together. If your mix seems too dry, add a little more peanut butter and honey. You want the mixture to stick together and a little may stick to your hands, but it shouldn’t be a mess.

Roll into balls and place on pan

Freeze

When frozen, store in airtight container in freezer

Print Recipe

Lactation Ball Recipe

3 cups old fashioned oats

1 cup mini chocolate chips

1 ¾ cups Adam’s peanut butter

1 ½ cups ground flaxseed

1 cup chia seeds

¾ cup brewer’s yeast

1 ¼ cup honey

1 ½ Tbsp vanilla

Mix together. If your mix seems too dry, add a little more peanut butter and honey. You want the mixture to stick together and a little may stick to your hands, but it shouldn’t be a mess.

Roll into balls and place on pan.

Freeze.

When frozen, store in airtight container in freezer.

Print Recipe

February 12 2019

“Planting” a Garden in Winter and Making Memories

Bram Blog, Empower Your Homeschool, Gardening and Yard Planning, Happiness at Home, Improve Your Habitat, Projects to Beautify Your Home

I love spring. The new life, new growth, and beautiful flowers that spread cheer and beautiful colors everywhere.

Just lots of visual happiness after a long cold winter. Not that I mind winter much since we moved.

We used to live in a very small home in an area where the winters were so cold that I didn’t want to take the kids outside most of the time. One winter, we had several weeks where we thought it felt warm when we got up to zero.

Warm, huh?

Anyway, we now live in home where we aren’t stepping on each other constantly, and even when it’s snowing, my husband will run outside barefoot.

Like last week. He wanted to get the mail, which is clear down at the other end of the street, and didn’t put shoes on. He thought he could go and be back home again before any of the neighbors saw him.

Except that he chose the exact time when kids were getting out of school and everyone was stopping to get their mail.

No wonder our neighbors all think we’re nuts!

Not really. Well, maybe they do but they’re all good at not showing it.

Enough sidetracking.

Several weeks ago I got thinking about my yard again. We moved into a home with an unfinished yard that we got to plan from scratch and I have loved the planning process.

Still doing it. In fact, I think I may want to be a horticulturist when I grow up. Or a landscape architect. Anyway, something with yards and plants.

We finally got the sprinkler system and grass in last fall. Now as soon as spring arrives, I need to do soil prep and then start on the really fun part: all the other plants!

This excites and delights me so much! Like, seriously. I love to pore over plant magazines and have been collecting them over the years as I bide my time.

I’ve got quite a collection now and wanted to share my passion and love with my kids, so I pulled out all the older ones (this year’s I’m keeping because I may actually be ordering soon! Yay!) and rounded up scissors and glue and let the kids have at it!

It was so fun to see them go through page by page and pick their favorite plants. It was interesting to see which plant collections the different children chose.

One child wanted to paste a lot of vegetables. Maybe we did our project too close to lunch and he was hungry. Lol.

Actually, he takes eating very seriously and is always asking what I am planning for the next meal!

Another loved the more ornate, colorful plants.

Still another preferred my native plant catalog. I think he liked to see all the bees and hummingbirds in the pictures.

One of my kids chose to add trees and vary which way was up when he pasted on his pictures so that something would stand out no matter which direction you looked at it.

I loved seeing their different personalities come out in this project and I feel like I got to know them a little more deeply.

And now I have many colorful beautiful gardens hanging on the wall in my kitchen that I look at all through the day. They bring me joy not only because of their beauty, but because of the memories made in creating them, and the promise they hold for spring.

February 7 2019

The Parents’ Guide to Dating When You’re Too Busy for Dates

Bram Blog, Happiness at Home

With six kids it can be kind of hard to get out on dates with my husband.

It’s expensive to hire a babysitter and also hard to find one that I think can actually handle all six of my offspring.

There are days when I feel like I barely survive caring for them!

I know there is the typical watch-a-movie-together-when-the-kids-are-finally-in-bed date, but I want to offer a few alternatives.

After all, your parents told you as a teenager that movies are the worst kind of dates for a reason. You don’t even actually get to talk to your date or get to know them better.

Yeah, think about that one. You don’t get to talk to your date and get to know them better.

I like movies with my husband too, but we try to limit the TV in our house and we’ve found some great alternatives where we actually get to talk to each other.

Date idea #1

My husband and I were sitting down to dinner a while ago after calling the kids to the table.

The kids’ selective hearing kicked in and my husband and I remained alone at the table. Minutes slipped past. In exasperation, my husband suggested we start without them.

Normally this is a no-no. I have it so ingrained in my head that every dinner meal must be all of us together if at all possible. And we do a pretty good job of it too!

But that night we didn’t feel like waiting any longer.

It. Was. Amazing.

Here’s what happened:

We didn’t need to talk over other conversations.
We could make eye contact unimpeded.
Kids never interrupted us with tangential comments or whining about siblings’ actions.
And best of all, no one told us how terrible the home-cooked meal tasted.

I’ve got good kids, but there are those days though!

My husband said, “Hey! This is like a date!”

I agreed wholeheartedly.

It was crazy how fun it was to have a conversation about whatever and enjoy each other’s company.

Just. Us. Two.

Now before I go any further, I want you to know that I DO absolutely believe that families should have meals together, especially supper. Please make a special effort to do so.

Mealtime is a great time for everyone to discuss their day and share their ideas, feelings, and thoughts.

What I am saying is that when you get out together as little as my husband and I seem to, then this is a fun, simple way to have a little together time every now and then.

We don’t even really plan it out.

Usually it happens if the kids were watching a show while I cooked dinner and it wasn’t quite done when the food was ready. Or the kids are enmeshed in building Lego houses together after school. Or chaos will reign if they can’t find out who wins the game they’re in the middle of playing.

So nothing fancy, just some good old-fashioned one-on-one time.

Date idea #2

Put those cute kids to bed a little early, get out the fun snacks, and dust off the games!

My husband and I used to do this a lot before all the kids came along, but every now and then we’ll pull out a favorite game or two after all the little ones are sleeping and have a game night.

I’m actually getting excited just writing about it!

You may want to plan this one out.

Write it on your calendar and make sure everything is lined up for a smooth, quick, bedtime routine for the kids. Plan ahead for some tasty snacks or treats that maybe you don’t normally have.

The fun thing about games is that you can laugh, talk, tease, flirt and even compete if you want to.

Do you know how many times I “lose” games against my kids? It’s kind of funny and I need to get a little sneakier about it. They’re starting to catch on.

“Mom! You let her win!”

Don’t have to do that with my husband. I can trounce him. (He says he lets me. Riiight.)

But you may want to be selective about which games you play.

Have you ever played Othello? That game is not good for my marriage! Seriously.

I end up so mad at my husband because he wins every time! Argh!

He remembers playing it with his grandfather and loves it (even though he could never beat his grandpa).

Luckily my son is pretty good at it and he’ll play it with my husband.

Currently, our favorite game to play together is Splendor and its expansion set. We play these a lot with our kids as well, but they work really well as a two-player husband-wife game too.

A few of our other favorites have been: Scrabble, Blokus, Labyrinth, and Rumis.

Rumis is really fun, especially since I usually win! It’s like a 3-D Tetris. Unfortunately, it looks like it may have been discontinued because it’s really expensive now. I’ll need to guard mine more carefully!

Date idea #3

Since some of our kids are old enough to watch their younger siblings for short periods of time, sometimes we’ll leave a phone with the kids and take a short walk somewhere in the neighborhood.

That only works if you have responsible older children.

I feel very blessed that I have one in particular that I can really count on!

What Do You Do?

Now it’s your turn to share.

If you have a great idea for an at-home date, please put it in the comments! I’m always on the lookout for something new.

As Valentine’s Day approaches, I hope you’ll have an awesome date with your Valentine.

But if you can’t get out, I encourage you to find a way to still make your day awesome and full of love! (And maybe a mini-date.)

January 9 2019

‘Healthy’ Chocolate Chip Pancake Recipe

Bram Big Family Cooking, Blog, Stay at Home Health

Yes, you read that right! I consider these health food! Who doesn’t love chocolate?

Ok, maybe calling these health food is a bit of a stretch, but they are way better than most breakfast cereals out there these days, which I hate.

Actually, I love to sneak a bowl of Corn Chex, plain Cheerios, or Grapenuts every once in a while if we happen to have them, but otherwise, they are my morning nemesis.

Seriously! As soon as the box is opened, I feel like it explodes all over the kitchen and family room, and I even find it in the basement.

All despite there being a “no food leaves the kitchen rule.”

Yes, I know. I need to work on rule enforcement.

But seriously, cereal is just asking for a huge mess. It’s like the food equivalent of glitter!

Another plus to making chocolate chip pancakes is you’ll feel no need for syrup! That’s another mess maker also filled with corn syrup that we try not to eat anyway.

It’s interesting because you would think that the chocolate might be messy, but aside from giving kids a face-wash after, we really don’t have mess issues.

Guess we just take chocolate too seriously around here to waste it!

Can you tell that I don’t like messes?

Actually, my house looks pretty crazy most of the time, so I’m always on the lookout for anything that can make my life a little easier and this is one of them: Chocolate Chip Pancakes!

So a few things to note about this chocolate chip pancake recipe.

First, I grind my own flour.

I’ve been doing this for years. I grew up grinding wheat and after I had been married several years I finally got a wheat grinder of my own.

I love grinding my own flour. The taste is so much different and fuller than using wheat flour from the grocery store.

I do suggest using hard white wheat. It works a lot better than hard red wheat, which I grew up using.

With the hard white, I can use it for just about everything: cakes, muffins, cookies, bread, biscuits, and rolls to name a few.

It’s still a little heavier than all-purpose flour, but in a good way, at least to me. 🙂

This is the grain mill I use if you want to check it out. Mine is a slightly older model since I’ve had it so long, but it still runs flawlessly and I love it.

Second thing to note about this recipe is that I switch off using olive oil and coconut oil, depending how hurried I am.

Coconut oil takes a little while to melt before adding it to the mixture (I don’t use the microwave if I can help it in our home), but I do like the flavor better when using it.

Olive oil isn’t bad though and will do if saving those few extra minutes matters to you.

Next, I use mini semi-sweet chocolate chips. I used to get the regular size and then chop them up, but then found the mini ones and realized that saved me a lot of work and still dispersed the chocolate nicely throughout the pancakes.

They also make great pancake snowman features and buttons when requested by your children (they request snowmen every time.)

I love to cook my pancakes on my electric griddle, similar to this one. You can make up a whole bunch of perfect pancakes on it in a hurry without having to use butter or spray.

This recipe was adapted from a recipe in Prevention’s Flat Belly Diet Cookbook. You can actually make a dry mix ahead of time and then make it up when needed.

I used to do that, but as my family’s grown, it’s usually just as fast to make it up when needed because I always have to double it and change things slightly.

As this recipe is, it makes about 2 dozen 4-inch pancakes. Sometimes more. Depends on how much flour and water I put in it that day.

I’ve been making this so long that I can easily adapt it quickly if I need more.

My three year old helps me out so often that he pretty much could tell you everything that goes in it!

I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

'Healthy' Chocolate Chip Pancakes

3 cups whole wheat flour

¼ cup coconut sugar

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp sea salt

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp vanilla

2 Tbsp oil (olive or coconut)

2 eggs

2 cups milk

½-1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

1-2 cups water depending on how thick you like your pancakes. Add last

Mix dry ingredients together

Make a well and add all wet ingredients except water.

Slowly add water to desired thickness. The batter will become a little thicker as it sits, so more water may need to be added after cooking the first batch of pancakes.

Cook on non-stick griddle or pan. Use butter if desired.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 mins

Cook Time 20 mins

Total Time 30 mins

Course Breakfast

Keyword chocolate chip pancakes

Enjoy!

December 5 2018

How To Start Your Homeschool Day with ‘Opening’

Bram Blog, Empower Your Homeschool

One of the strengths of homeschooling is that you don’t have to adhere to a schedule as strictly as in public school. But does lack of a strict schedule make it hard for you to know how to start your homeschool day?

For my kids at least, I know the schedule freedom of homeschool would make the transition to school time difficult every day if we didn’t have a set routine to get us going.

Let’s face it: Without a school bus, building change, rigorous schedule, or even a class bell to signal the start of school, it might be easy for your kids to feel like they’re still just lounging around at home.

Even if class is on the same couch they’re eating cereal on. (Would you eat at the table, please? Thank you!)

In many of the homeschool forums I participate in, the question of “How should I start my homeschool day?” has been coming up frequently.

We’ve been homeschooling for six years now, and while many things have changed, our “Opening,” as I call it, has pretty much stayed the same.

So I thought I’d share my recipe for our successful start to the day.

Really, even if we don’t get much more schoolwork done for the day, if Opening happens, I feel okay.

Now I’m not going to lie, my older kids moan and groan a lot when I initially call them to Opening.But that’s exactly what my siblings and I did growing up, so I’m not too worried. The kids actually get into it after we start.

I hope you can apply this in your family, too. It makes a big difference in ours.

My Homeschool ‘Opening’ Outline

Every morning we cover patriotism, faith, and learning. My Openings usually vary from 15 minutes to 30 minutes depending on how much time we have available. If we are all enjoying the family read-aloud at the end, I will go even longer.

Patriotism

We Recite the Pledge of Allegiance

Every day of the week, we’ve assigned a different child to hold the flag. That eliminates most arguments about who gets to hold the flag on a given day. My 3-year-old still thinks his turn comes around every day, but we’re working on it and even making progress! It’s fun to see the kids get excited about such a simple act of patriotism.

Faith

We Sing a Song or Two

Singing is a simple way to change moods and lighten the atmosphere. I’ve watched bad attitudes melt away as we sing happy melodies together.

We usually sing a song from the regular or primary children’s hymnbook. Sometimes we add in the Itsy Bitsy Spider; we love singing that with the little ones and watching them do the actions!

We Have Family Prayer

Morning prayers can be difficult when your family fractures to work and school every morning, but with homeschool and Opening, it’s rare we miss a day.

The day just never feels quite right until we’ve had morning prayers. The little ones even are recognizing the importance of prayer.

In fact, just this morning both my 4-year-old and 3-year-old announced to me “We already said our morning prayers” as they paraded out of their shared bedroom.

We Recite an Article of Faith

The Articles of Faith are the underlying principles of our church.

Reciting one daily reinforces faith and augments memorization skills. Double bonus!

Learning

We Do Read-Alouds

I’ve found Opening is the best time to read books that teach morals through example or outright teaching.

We usually read a chapter or section in a book like Bob Schultz’s Created for Work and we just finished the first three books of Ralph Moody’s Little Britches series – some of my favorite books.

At this point I also allow the remaining kids draw or work on a crochet project or something similar that doesn’t require their undivided attention.

Sometimes I’ll tag on history or science here with a read-aloud or actual textbook if there isn’t an activity going on that day, but it varies.

Benefits of Starting Your Homeschool Day with ‘Opening’

I won’t go into great depth on all this format has done for my family, but here’s a few highlights in list form (you like lists, right?)

Opening:

Teaches my children the gospel of Jesus Christ and reinforces how to pray and study scriptures
Brings the Spirit into our home
Helps train my energetic children to learn to sit still when necessary (especially useful at church)
Helps my childrens’ reading comprehension and vocabulary immensely
Instills a love of reading in my children
Gives us a chance to connect with each other
Instills a sense of purpose to our day

So that’s Opening.

It’s our time to discuss and get spiritually and mentally prepared for the start of the day.

On the rare occasions we skip opening, I feel like something is missing and the day never seems to go quite right.

I’ve even heard the kids say, “We didn’t have Opening today!” in a somewhat panicked voice.

They must not dislike it too much! 😉