My Copycat Butterbeer Recipe (that actually tastes like Butterbeer!)

This post actually has nothing to do with parenting except that if you make this recipe for your kids they will know they have the best parent ever ;) I have to post it here so I don't lose it though because I tend to create recipes and then forget what I did. And this one cannot be forgotten!

For the slush:
5 cans cream soda
2 tbsps torani caramel syrup
1/4 c-1/3 c torani caramel sauce
1/2 tbsp butter flavor (I used Wilton)

For the cream mallow topping:
1 c marshmallow creme
3- 5 tbsps torani caramel syrup (to taste)
2-4 tbsps torani caramel sauce (to taste)
1 3/4 c whipping cream, divided
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp butter flavor
1/4 c powdered sugar

Combine all slush ingredients and freeze in ice cream maker for frozen butter beer. For cream-mallow topping combine marshmallow creme, caramel syrup, and caramel sauce in a microwaveable bowl and heat 30 seconds until runny. In a separate mixing bowl combine 1 1/4 c of the whipping cream, vanilla, butter flavor, and powdered sugar. Whip cream until soft peaks form. Add marshmallow creme mixture and remaining 1/2 c un-whipped cream to whipped cream and stir until incorporated.

First fill glass with slush (or non-frozen slush/soda mixture for regular butterbeer) and top with caramel mallow cream. Enjoy!!

How Nice is THAT?!

My little Austin is such a sweetheart.

He has this little baby face, big eyes, and an even bigger heart. And he offers quite frequently to do things for his big brother when big brother just doesn't want to. He helps brother clean up toys he didn't even use, and he takes brother's sippy of milk to the fridge for him when he says he's just "too tired" to do it himself.

Sometimes, I actually find myself wanting to tell him not to be so nice.

And then I realize how terrible that would be to teach a 2 yr old!

I suppose there is a time and a place to teach him not to let his brother take advantage of his sweet-naturedness, but I don't want to push that out before it's even fully developed in him.

My little Austin is also sometimes a stinker.

That kid knows how to throw a temper tantrum! There are definitely two sides to his emotional coin. He recently handed me the coin heads up and taught me a very sweet lesson.

Over the past week there have been several instances where Austy has done something super sweet to help me, without me asking him to, and then reported it to me with the question of affirmation, "How nice is THAT?!" following.

"How nice I put my bowl in the sink!"

"How nice that I put some dishes away for you!"

"How nice is that?!"

I learned 2 things from this cute experience:

1. I must praise myself with words of affirmation in front of them a lot to try and get them to notice that my life as a stay-at-home mom is actually incredibly meaningful and purposeful ;) AND...

2. I might not be praising/noticing all of the good things my boys are doing all of the time.

It is easy for me as a recovering perfectionist to get caught up in the things that need to be improved with my children--how many times things are asked for impolitely, how many moments in a day were spent complaining, how many temper tantrums did we have this week, how many times did I have to ask them to clean up that one little mess, etc.

On days when I am just plain tired, it is easy to become critical, noticing only the things that my children are doing that they know they are not supposed to. And this applies generally to my life as well--not just my kids. When I am tired, it is easy to become critical of everybody, including myself.

But, if I focus on all that could be improved, I miss out on relishing all of the kind, thoughtful, little things people do all around me.

Also, it seems that when I focus on the negative behavior, it begets more negative behavior. When I notice all of the positive things my children are doing, I see them wanting to do more to have that behavior noticed as well.

So this week, my goal is to focus on all the positive behavior of my kids and let them know how much I appreciate it. I want to notice the sweet things they do BEFORE they feel the need to just tell me because I haven't figured it out yet. How nice is THAT?! :)

Comment below with some ideas you have for me in my quest. How do you draw attention to the good things people do around you? How do you express your appreciation to your kids? How do you remember to focus on positive behavior instead of being critical?

Thanks for your help! Love, Robin

Do the Pickle Dance!

I’m doing my brother-in-law’s wedding cake this week and have really been in a grind. There’s been SO much to do to make sure I’m ready to travel it across states. The boys have been playing together next to me a lot this week instead of with me. I’ve been kind of a distracted mom this week.

I was in the zone making (300!) fondant flowers and my boys requested a pickle. My boys LOVE pickles. So much so, that if I let them, I think they could eat the entirety of one of those huge theater pickles.

I gave each of my boys their piece of pickle and Austin started to DANCE he was so excited.

But this wasn’t just any dance.

This was what is now affectionately known, in our house, as the “Pickle Dance”.

It looks something like this:

Knees bending up and down while the hips awkwardly sway from left to right.

One arm bent and almost placed on a hip—slightly reminiscent of “Cotton-Eyed Joe”. The other arm juts toward and away from his body in a disco-like manner.

The beat is sung, “Doo-doo-doo”, the first time with a pickle in his mouth.

It was enough to pull me out of cake zone and into kid zone.  I stopped working and we just laughed. Hard.

Through peals of laughter and a red face, Adam told us that he was laughing so hard he was “Choking!”

Today’s challenge:

Make yourself free to enjoy life. No matter how busy you are or how grim things may seem. Take a moment to do the pickle dance. Laugh so hard you “choke” (or in my case, cry). Spend a minute thinking of the beauty around you. My boys are my reminder to stop and smell the roses and to not take life too seriously. For that I am so grateful! Hope you have a great week!

Love, Robin

Hairy Homonyms & some R-E-S-P-E-C-T

So this lesson starts with my dear friend Lisa offering us a bag of toys and books she no longer wants.

I’m a minimalist. Like…when it comes to other people’s stuff. I enjoy having a nice palette of clothes and accessories to work with myself, but I only keep as many toys as fit in our cube organizers.

My 4 year old is a sentimentalist. Like…every other week he cries about something we no longer have because we gave it away when we left Texas. He remembers exactly where he got every trinket he’s obtained in the last 2 years. Even these creepy little rubber creatures he got for playing a carnival game at some random city festival.

I knew this bag of goodies was going to require some strategic planning. I glanced through it, saw one or two things I thought the boys could use to practice their numbers and shapes, and also saw a few things I knew we didn’t need. We had a donation box set up at church and I told my friend I would just drop anything we didn’t want there.  

As we walked home I set up my strategy…pull out the two things I wanted to keep, get the boys playing with them to distract them from the fact that we had a full bag, and hide the rest of the bag.  And it worked!!!  At least for a few hours. 

We have a discussion about sharing with all the other children that don’t have any toys, Adam seems okay, and I eventually get rid of the rest of the bag.

Fast forward a couple weeks. My sweet, thoughtful friend comes by with some magnets she found in her couch that belong to one of the books from THE bag. One of the books that I gave away. Whoops! Adam remembers I gave it away and the crocodile tears begin to flow.

First because he’s sad I gave it away. Then because he’s sad I can’t make the book whole for the poor, unfortunate soul who is missing some of the magnets to his/her book. Then because he’s sad again that I didn’t let him keep it.

Then we have a discussion. Keep in mind that my 4 year old is a very old soul. Our discussion is about where the book went and why it was put to good use. We gave it to a SHELTER that protects women and children from “bad daddies” whom they have to hide from. I explained it in less scary terms than that, but you get the gist. He begrudgingly accepts that he would like to share toys with children that don’t have any.

Fast forward a few hours and we are praying over our dinner. Steven says the prayer and thanks God for our SHELTER and food.

 Adam FLIPS!

“Not a SHELTER! We don’t have a SHELTER!”

Steven has no idea what’s going on.

I am laughing hysterically throughout the rest of the prayer.

And we discuss the several meanings of the word shelter.

I learned again the importance of being thoughtful of the understandings and thought processes of my children. It’s always more helpful when I try to get in their mind and anticipate the questions and concerns they might have to avoid such misconceptions. I'm trying to work harder on being ultra respectful to my children--to explain things that might be confusing or scary to them, to speak to them rather than about them, to explain interruptions in our normal routine before they happen when I can, etc.--because little people are people too.  

Comment below with some of the words your kids have missed the double meaning on and/or ways you have found to be respectful and thoughtful toward the workings of the little ones' minds. I’d love to hear your stories!

Love, Robin

Real Magic

I’m kind of crazy. Planning and decorating for things like church Christmas parties and weddings makes me a little giddy. It also stresses me out. But… it’s a good kind of stress that I thrive on and tend to create for myself.  And it’s rubbing off on my 4 year old.

We just got done helping with the set up and take down of our Christmas party at church and Adam LOVED helping. When the day came to set up the party and decorations he was counting the seconds to set up time.

Then I made the mistake of telling him a whole DAY before the party that Santa would be there.

I know, I know…rookie mistake!

Needless to say, we didn’t sleep much the night before the party. He rustled around in his sleep and came in to our room every time he thought it was morning.  I carried him back to his bed, he went back to sleep, and started sleep talking. Something about the Christmas party. It was all too magical to sleep.

What happens to that magic?

When do we transition from a sleepless, suspenseful Christmas Eve to the apathetic realism that it's just another day?

I remember as a little girl lying in bed on Christmas Eve just willing myself to sleep so Santa could visit--to no avail. My eyelids and consciousness were fruitlessly pulled open by the magic. Even as I began drifting to sleep, some part of my awareness was anxiously awaiting the magic, ready to fly into full sensibility should a jingle bell ring, or a heavy boot stomp out of the fireplace. Even when my mind finally crossed over in awareness, the slightest sound or light would wake me, protecting me against the chance that I should sleep through Christmas morning. Then 5:30 hit and that was good enough. I knew my parents wouldn’t reasonably consider anything earlier than 6:30 as the start of the day, but at least this way I could wake my siblings and we could spend the next hour anticipating the magic together. I LOVED the magic. I treasured the magic. So much so that I kept pretending I believed in Santa until 6^th grade!

I knew I didn’t believe anymore, but I wanted to.

The following few years I still felt the magic because I had younger siblings. It was so fun to anticipate the magic in their eyes each Christmas morning.

And I envied them.

I wished I didn’t know.

Now that I have my own children I understand. CHILDREN keep the magic of the Christmas spirit alive. After all, isn’t that what affected the greatest transformation in Scrooge? A child’s sweet innocence, their freely-giving nature, their trusting confidence, their unconditional love. The qualities children innately have are what Christmas is all about.

I started telling Adam that there are only 2 forms of magic that are real—the Magic of the Christmas Spirit and the Magic of Love. And I believe that’s true.

The magic of Christmas is just as real for me now as it was for that young, restlessly excited girl, though it’s different now. The magic I feel now comes as I listen to a Christmas hymn that transports me to that star-lit, magical night 2014 years ago that changed the world. It comes now as I sit around the twinkling, glowing Christmas tree reading Christmas stories to my children. The magic now is the sense of brotherhood I feel with complete strangers as our humanity is linked just a little more tenderly during the Christmas season. The magic now is remembering the magic of childhood Christmases past and trying to re-create that for my children.

I have noticed that the more I experience life and the older I get, the easier it is to become cynical and apathetic. But that’s why love and the Christmas spirit are real magic. They have the power to change us. When we keep that magic alive, we have charity, hope, optimism… and a lot more fun!

Adam’s sweet reminder to keep the magic made me think about the ways I can more fully do that.

What traditions do you have/things do you do to keep the magic alive in your house for Christmas?

Share your comments/ideas below! I’d love to hear them!

Love, Robin

The Birth of a Mom

Life is like a circle. There's a circle to life. Somebody should write a song about that...

It just occurred to me that in the circle of life a mom and a baby are both born at the exact same time. 

A baby gives birth to its mother at the same time the mother gives birth to her child. Weird! 

Well...when my son birthed me made me a mom I started learning all kinds of new things. I learned that poop could actually become projectile, along with vomit. I learned that the reason those flimsy white undershirts they sell for newborns are so cheap is because they will all be stained yellow within the first hour of being worn. I learned why my mom didn't wear dresses or jewelry for like the first 20 years of her marriage. AND I learned that motherhood is HANDS-DOWN the best job I've ever had and will ever have. I learned that the smell of a newborn is the best smell on Earth (past 6 months and we're gettin' sketchy) and that kids love you no matter how much you still have left to learn. 

My boys are 2 and 4 now and they LOVE to help me learn. I am frequently informed that there is a "right way" to respond to jokes that make no sense at all, that there is a very specific art to back-scratching, that I told Daddy's story wrong, etc. 

Kids say the darnedest things. Trite and true--whoops, wrong phrase--

But seriously. When I take the time to learn from my kids, I can learn more than any ivy-league college could ever teach me. My kids have taught me how to love more fully and more unconditionally than I knew possible. They've taught me how to hang on to the simple joys of life the way kids do naturally. They teach me to remember our prayers. They teach me how to keep a song in my heart. They teach me how to forgive without a second thought. So many reasons Christ told us to be like the little children. So. Many. 

This will be my attempt at documenting the teachings of my children and using their gift to better myself (and hopefully a community of other intentional parents) each day. 

Today's challenge: See what you can learn from your child today. How to make a mess out of all the toys in 2 mins or less? How to watch someone make a mess out of all the toys in 2 mins or less and not freak out? Take time to enjoy your child and let yourself be taught.

Happy learning!