12 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 4

Today we went for a walk around the neighborhood when my 4-year old said, "Look." He was holding up an empty juice box someone had littered. I was about to say aacky, drop that, when I realized we should be picking up trash to throw it away. So our walk consisted of 6 blocks and the bottom of our stroller full of trash. We even found a pizza box.

Luckily, it was trash day, so we deposited the litter into our can on the curb. My 4-year old wanted to keep walking to find more trash. It was like a scavenger hunt for him. I think every walk will involve litter clean up now.

Instead of the trash scavenger we played in the back yard. I praised them for picking up other people's   trash, which let to the conversation about who picks up our trash. I explained that the garbage collectors take it away to the landfill. This is when it occurred to me that a garbage collector is one of the most thankless jobs, but probably the most needed. What would we do without the garbage collectors?

It seemed fitting to make thank yous for the garbage collectors, which is what I called them for the boys benefit. (Sanitation engineers would probably be preferable.) We taped the cards to our trash can on the curb. We didn't wait for them to collect the trash, but the cards were gone when we brought in the cans.

Our morning walk snowballed into an entire conversation about garbage. This walk could have gone very differently, but I'm so glad that I didn't tell my 4-year old to drop the garbage and keep on walking.

With this Thanksgiving project I find myself looking for ways to be nice or give back, which gives me a very different perspective on my daily activities like parenting. We aren't going above and beyond to do things, we are just finding things in our everyday activities. If we can do it, so can you.

 

 

12 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 3

Last night we watched The Polar Express, so this morning my 4-year old asked to play with his Polar Express train. Two years ago that was his Christmas present, and it was put away in the basement. My response was that I wasn't sure where it was in the basement, so we couldn't play with it. With that answer in mind he asked to talk to Daddy. I called him at work, and he explained that he didn't know where it was either. To keep everyone in a happy mood, and to start the day off right we all trekked to the basement to look.

Surprisingly, it was in the second plastic tub we looked in. Even more surprising was that the boys held the flashlights and moved tubs for me. They even offered to carry everything upstairs, which they did with a little help.

The boys started putting the track together, while I searched the junk drawer for a screwdriver. The engine and controller needed new batteries. As I was in the middle of unscrewing the tinies screws possible someone knocked on the back door. I answered it, and it was an Alliant Energy worker saying he was there to change the batteries in our meter. He said the power would be out for about 30 seconds. I said okay, shut the door, and then realized that we were both doing the same thing.

I told the boys that an electric man was here to change a battery, and I asked them if they thought he would like a donut. (Yes, the donuts from Saturday.) We had one donut left in the box just for the electric man. My 3-year old gladly took the box to him, and showed him the donut. He told him all about The Polar Express. My 4-year old needed a little pushing to get out there. The boys yelled thank you and ran back in the house.

If we were not doing the 12 days of thanksgiving it would not have occurred to me to give a complete stranger a donut, much less have my sons talk to him. It's not hard to find nice things to do for other people you just have to be in that mindset.

Note: everything was safe talking to this stranger. We didn't leave the porch and buses were dropping kids off at school right across the street.

12 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 2

We walked into church today with the sound of coins clanging coming from my purse. It was loud enough that people looked up when we sat down, but they were safer in my purse than in the hands of my toddlers. The coins were in glass jars labeled with my sons' names and the word give. The boys were pretty possessive of their jars of coins, which is why they were safer in my purse. However, that coin clanging was the reminder for them that they are big boys.

Today was the first time the boys left us during church for the kid's liturgy. They are usually too shy to go, but I walked them to the separate room. They went around the room and had to say their name and their favorite season. I left and stood at the door more to reassure myself than them. My 4-year old said his name followed by winter. My 3-year old introduced himself and said fall. This was a pretty big milestone for us. 

Afterward, the boys ran back to their seats just in time for the offering. We took the lids off the jars and each boy got to dump their jar of coins in the basket. My 4-year old had to get used to the idea of giving up his coins. The night before they got to take their spending jars to the store and pick out a toy they could afford of $1.50 or less. This was the first time they really connected coins to toys, so giving some away was tough. It was a little easier for them when they saw us do it too. I also explained that the money would be used to help other people. 

I was very proud of my boys today. They are taking risks outside their comfort zones, like walking up in front of church or going with other kids without us. They are also following our example by giving up their coins. Those coins were precious to them, and they gave them away. We learned from each other today. 

12 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 1

It's November 12th, and everywhere I look I see Christmas. Even the town has it's lights all down Main Street and around the courthouse. I understand being organized and prepared, but what happened to Thanksgiving. Is it just eating, watching football, and shopping? Or is it a holiday to get ready for Christmas?

Many families have their own traditions, so this year we are starting our own. It's common for families to count down the days leading up to Christmas, which gave me the idea to countdown the days leading up to Thanksgiving. Each day we will complete an act of giving.

Today we took donuts to the librarians. This was a tough one for the boys because they didn't want to share. After they each had one they wanted to take the boxes home with us for later. I compared their happiness for donuts with what others will feel when they get a donut. When I explained that the librarians didn't have any donuts and that it would make them happy, they agreed. After all, who wouldn't love a donut on a Saturday morning.

I hope that this is a ripple effect, and all your families will do little acts of giving. Make teaching kindness and giving a priority.

Veterans Day

I compared veterans to the toy soldiers from Toy Story. It was something my toddlers could relate to.  Once I mentioned that their aunt and uncles were veterans and we were celebrating them, my 4-year old said that he always wanted Veterans Day to get here. I think he's expecting a party with cake and presents for them.

We have a coloring book that explains most patriotic holidays, so we colored a few pages after I read the description. (The coloring book was passed out at a 4th of July parade. We might be nerdy because we kept it.) We were going to mail the colored pages to their aunt and uncles (my sister, brother, and brother-in-law) who are veterans. However, it wouldn't get there in time, and I wanted to reach more people to say thank you.

We settled on making a video instead. I borrowed my friends iPAD because it has iMovie on it, which makes it pretty simple to make videos. My sons loved it. They freaked out when they saw themselves in a "real" movie. They went through and named all the people in the movie. They called my husband's grandpa Daddy. My grandfather they called "a man." They have never met either of our grandpas, but they must recognize that strong Jensen gene pool.

This video is for all the veterans out there. We may not understand all of your sacrifices, but we do understand it's for all of us. Thank you!
As a side note, my brother-in-law didn't make it into the video, so here's his Veterans Day shout out: David Banks.

Vote

My first voting experience was in the 2003 caucus. I had just turned 18, and I participated so I could get extra credit for Government class. The only thing I really remember about it is that all the veterans were in favor of John Kerry. I didn't know anything about the candidates or the issues. I don't even remember who I voted for.

I'm not a political person, but I feel like it's a responsibility to vote. I usually tell people that if you don't vote you shouldn't be complaining about any political decisions. If you were happy to let other people make the decision for you at the polls, then you gave up your choice in political decisions.

This year my husband and I filled out our absentee ballots with our sons. To help them understand the process we first read some library books about voting. The library loves to highlight books related to the time of year, so they weren't too difficult to find.

Next we did some voting on what to have for dessert. As a family we voted on cake or cookies. The cookies won. My 3-year old son was upset that the cake didn't win. My husband and I had a laugh about that because his fit will probably be similar to adults' after this election.

Lastly, we went through the absentee ballot with them. We explained what the names and circles meant. After it was filled out we sealed and mailed it.

It's a day away. Remember to vote.

Now the real issue is cake or cookies? Vote in the comments below. 

Parenting success

One of the first things I saw this morning was a parenting failure on social media. Usually, parenting failures are funny, which is why people share them with the world. However, I've noticed that not a lot of people will post their parenting successes. Maybe its for fear of seeming like a braggart, but I think if we don't look for the good things we drown in the failure. Plus this is my blog, I can brag about my parenting prowess.

Happy babies make
for success.

These are my parenting successes in the last 24 hours:

1. My 4-year old wanted his Halloween candy for breakfast, but when I said no he settled for organizing the candy. He made piles of the same candy and asked me for little baggies to put the organized candy.

2. My 3-year old didn't hit anyone with his sword while trick o treating. He didn't even hit his brother.

3. After trick o treating the boys settled for one piece of candy after supper along with a homemade brownie that they made with Grandma.

4. The boys wrestled in the living room while the adults tried to get supper on the table. Supper was late after trick o treating.

5. Breakfast wasn't spilt on the table, even with my 3-year old's sword next to his cereal.

6. My 3-year old let his brother hold his sword while he finished getting ready for preschool.

The boys helping Grandma
make brownies.

7. My 4-year old explained that there wasn't time to have the Halloween party at preschool, but they still had fun anyway. Although, he came home with treats and he wore his costume, so I'm not sure why he thinks it wasn't a party.

8. The boys were up at 5:30am and asked to read books in our bed. We read with the flashlight on my phone until the alarm went off.

9. No one was injured.

10. No one had any meltdowns, including the adults.

I can't take all the credit for these successes. My husband had a lot to do with it, so I guess these are his successes too. Also, my mother-in-law is helping us out a couple of days while I substitute teach.

Many of these successes involve candy and that sword, but that has been our world the last 24 hours. My next parenting strategy is to eat all their candy and hide that sword.