Valentine's Day & How We Approach It With Our Girls + Crafts

I can't find the red dresses from H&M but loved these heart dress//Pom pom sweaters are old.

Valentine's Day. I've always believed that other than my mama's birthday the 14th of February is a holiday created for consumers to spend and retail businesses to make money. But can we look at it differently? Well I sure have. I am a first generation Latina, and daughter of a single mama who worked her butt off to make life as good as possible for us. She made all holidays pretty special with very little money. And after having kids I realized you get an opportunity to bring a little magic for them, just like my mama did for us. I love creating a little special set up for them the morning of a holiday. But the last couple years I have also used the time to really talk to both girls about how we can make this less of a materialistic holiday, how we can take the day as an extra special day for those we love and care about.

A day for friendship, kindness and love. Not just for lovers and sparkly gifts, although the girls both love small gifts/surprises (definitely one of their love languages), it's also a day to spread kindness and happiness. Especially during these dark times.

I am making sure that we do some special for family, friends and neighbors. Like little heart Valentine's that we will drop in our neighbors mail boxes (we did this for Christmas and it was a big hit!), we are printing the cute pics above for some family and mailing out some other cards to some special people in our lives, a sweet something goes a really long way but most of all taking the time to make them, think of others, thinking of ways to surprise someone or how they will feel when they get it really instills something in these little humans.

So bust out the paint, glitter and get creative or you can get some of these kits that we have been enjoying.

Flower Kit.

Heart Threading Kit.

Craft bucket.

Card kit.

Craft set.

I also love this craft set and have gifted to so many kiddos. I also have this post on Valentine's Day crafts from last year but honestly I love just putting out supplies on our dining room table and letting the girls get creative.

I'll be uploading some really cute things that I'll be surprising the girls with, our favorite books and some cute wardrobe for VDay over the weekend! But here are some ideas linked here and follow me on LikeToKnowIt for more!

xoxo

Natalie

Talking To Kids About Hard Things

Well hello there my loves. I was going to just skip over this post since it took me a while to process and get it together butI realized we all need to have this right here. A place to come back to. So here it is, so many hard things happening in our lives, in the country and in the world. And actually these hard things happen all the time not just during a pandemic so lets have some tricks up our sleeves.

I will preface this conversation with this:

EVERY SINGLE FAMILY IS DIFFERENT. You must consider all things best for your little humans. What is best for their personalities and ages etc. So use this post as I intended it, a place to learn from, lean on and support other mamas having to approach all of these difficult conversations.

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Now that I have said this, as a mixed family we don't have the privilege to skip a lot of these conversations. We don't watch the news with the girls, it's just too much negative that we aren't able to preview/control but we do talk about the things going on around the world in age appropriate words/ways.

The first time I realized that we had to start talking more about things going on and things that had happened was in Zoe's first week of school when her Kindergarten teacher talked about September 11th and the twin towers. Goodness gracious I was not ready.

The school is a couple blocks from where the twin towers had come down and in remembrance of the day they talked all about it. About how the community came together, how it effected so many lives. She came home with so many questions about it all and this mama heart was not ready. My favorite phrase when these hard questions come up, has been, "that is a big big questions, with big feelings attached to it, I need you to give me some time to think about how to answer it, is that ok with you?". It validates the importance of their questions but gives me a second to gather my thoughts.

The following week they had the first of many soft lockdowns at the school, in which they prepared the school for an intruder. Can I tell you the feeling in my gut as we rode the elevator, where my (then) 4.5 year old talked about how scary it was to hide in a cubby and hold her hand over her mouth to be as quiet as possible? How she explained that her hands shook for the rest of the day waiting for it to be a "real one instead of pretend". No, I actually cannot explain that feeling because it's something I had never experienced before, a feeling that I cannot use words to explain. But I can tell you that that night I talked to my husband, and a few mom friends on how to approach talking to her about bad things happening and how we prepare for them.

We talked about how to approach past tragedies, and also how to reassure her that I work on keeping her safe and what she should know if I am not there to keep her safe. (And just in case you needed it this is your reminder that you do NOT have to do this alone! Just like any other type of parenting struggle you can pull in help, support and lean on professionals to talk about any of these hard things. We sometimes have this idea, that if we ask for help or support that we aren't good enough but that is far from the case!)

After reading The Danish Way of Parenting I am reassured that In order for our children to be strong, capable, and confident adult we have to treat them like that as children. And now fast forward to last Spring, George Floyd's death and how one child in her classroom told them all the details in which he was killed by a police officer and that black people should be scared of police. How the punch in the gut knocked the air out of me. How I again felt so unprepared and sad, just really sad that she was not scared for her dad.

And then again most recently with the attack on the Capitol, how she felt hearing that a place that represents the USA was attacked and most of all the fear that she explained was still there for her. She had the same question every time, "how can this happen, how if there are people keeping us all safe, do bad people get in, or take over planes, or hurt other people, how can that happen is we are being kept safe". I told her that as a grown up, I often have the same question. And that we would talk more about it.

All that to share that if you have felt speechless, overwhelmed, and mainly heartbroken with the truth behind these hard conversations you are not alone. Here are some links the moms in my network shared and I found helpful. I'll continue to add to this list as I come across more information.

How to Talk to Kids About Hard Subjects

Talking to Kids About Violence

Addressing Grief

Helping Kids Cope With Grief

Talking To Kids About Difficult World events

Don't Protect Kids From Their Emotions

Sesame Street, How to Talk To Kids About Hard Things

Talking To Kids About Tragedies And Other Events

As always, thank you for being here. And please, if you think of anyone that may enjoy this post or my content in general it is always helpful for me if you share and have them subscribe (so they don't miss a post).

And if you haven't, please subscribe to our newsletter where I do a bi-weekly (and soon weekly) newsletter that is like an open conversation, I share where we are, what we are doing, what we watching, reading and shopping!

xoxo

Natalie

My Family Friendly Veggie Lo Mein

Happy Thursday my loves, I meant to get this up over the weekend but dang migraine really lingered on. I am going to start sharing more of the recipes I make on rotation, the ones that aren't super special but so good and SO easy but most of all recipes that the whole family will love. So enter the family friendly lo mein.

This is another dish I have been making for so long and the whole family really loves. The best thing is that this taste even better reheated a few days later so it's great one to double or make ahead for a busy week. And I am telling you if you don't meal plan and have your meals planned out you are really missing out on having a factor of your day planned out.

(someone realllyyyyy likes her noodles!)

These are really simple ingredients that come together deliciously with a yummy sauce. But the best parts is the ingredients can be interchanged whatever veggies your family loves. Please note, we barely cook the carrots, red peppers and only cook the green beans pretty a bit longer, because this is what our girls prefer. And I am all for making it easier for them to love a dish.

So if you have younger kiddos who need softer foods, cook them longer. If you don't like ginger or paprika, then skip it. Do you prefer or have a different noodle at home, then use that. Make it tailored to you and your family (even I switch it up based on what we have on hand, like diced sweet potatoes, spinach, sugar snap peas, mushrooms or broccoli and you could do tofu or any protein too). We also really love how nutritious mung bean sprouts are (big bonus that the girls love them so I toss them in everything) but you can use scallions or an onion!

The thing I love the most about this recipe is that it's a great way to introduce flavors to your kiddos, anddddd a different way to serve noodles. But the ease of the recipe wins the award, the prep takes the longest but putting it together is easy peasy.

Sauce Ingredients

2 tbsp Sesame Oil

2 tbsp Olive oil

2 tbsp Fish Sauce

2 tbsp Soy Sauce

1 tbsp Agave

1 - 3 tbsp Sriracha or hot sauce or skip (depending on heat!)

2 tsp 5 Spice Seasoning

Lo Mein Ingredients

Lo Mein egg noodles (or any noodles you prefer!)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp minced garlic

1 tbsp minced ginger

mung bean sprouts

julienned veggies, I used:

red peppers,

green beans

carrots

dash of red pepper flakes

(see above in the post for other ideas on what else I have included)

Recipe

First mix all sauce ingredients and whisk well. Put aside.

Second, cut up veggies.

Third, make noddles per instructions on package and set aside.

Fourth, sauté oil, garlic until fragrant. Then add ginger.

Fifth, toss in sprouts and stir. Add green beans, stir well and cover for 2-3 minutes (more if you like your veggies soft)

Sixth, toss in noodles! Mix well.

Seventh, toss in the rest of your veggies, mix well!

Eight, pour the yummy sauce, stirring to make sure all veggies and pasta are covered. I like to use tongs for this.

Now cover for 2-8 minutes, this will depend on how soft you like your veggies. We like them super crunch, so minimal time covered.

Finally, garnish with cilantro! We are an herb loving family so the more the better for us.

This is a favorite in our home, and reminds me of my single barely making ends meat days when I use to make dinners to last me all week. Now as a mama I just want something everyone will eat, that is healthy and heats up well!

I really hope you love it as much as we do!

xoxo

Natalie