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I attended our district school board’s annual Parent Conference over the weekend and it was an experience that has left me completely moved and inspired.

I was originally hesitant to attend the event and was mainly going to represent our school’s council. I was not even too sure what to expect from the event as no other parents on the council had ever attended. All I knew was that later in the afternoon I would be attending a workshop on parenting anxious children (which I was looking forward to as my eldest son has dealt with anxiety over the last two years).

The event started off with such an inspirational mass led by Bishop Crosby. It was definitely an experience to remember. His homily focused on ‘the attitude of gratitude’, something that I know so many of us take for granted (myself included!). He asked us to teach our children to be thankful and to say the words ‘thank you’. And it made me laugh at the time but he told us to teach our children to say thank you and not because we are telling them to say it but because they want to say it. This is so right – too many times children say thank you because we teach them that is the right thing to do but we do not teach them why it is the right thing to do. That we should be grateful that our parents send us to after school programs, we have our favourite snacks in the fridge,etc..These are not all rights but little gifts we give to each other.

He also spoke about that when we switch and lead a life filled with gratitude we can not be unhappy and miserable in our life. If we are grateful for every aspect and item in our life than we can really see how lucky and blessed we have become and there is no need to be unhappy. Sometimes we become so engrossed in our life and personal wants that we do not see all the beautiful small things that are in it. There is too much to be grateful for in life. For myself, I have two wonderful and healthy children (it did take seven years for us to be blessed with our second child but we were finally blessed with one), a roof over our heads, food in our fridge and so much more.

His homily moved me and made me realize that I do not spend enough time saying I love you to my family, sitting down and appreciating every moment of joy and that sometimes I do not say thank you enough. I have tried to make it a point to say thank you to my family members and for the past couple of nights at bed time I have been speaking to my children about good things that have happened in our day (and one bad thing) and what we are grateful for that day. I’ve always made it a point to tell the ones I love that I do love them. I want my children to see and appreciate all the little things in life and not to take for granted that they have been blessed with so much and that tomorrow is never promised. Are there other ways to help children learn this lesson?  How do you teach your children to be grateful?

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I know this is a little late but we have been so busy with soccer and just life but I really wanted to share the amazing job my husband had done on our home for Halloween!!

Halloween is our favourite holiday of the year. We love to ‘spookify’ our home and my husband goes all out with a projection show and music (had to beg him not to buy a smoke machine!).

This year he found the most amazing images to project through the front window and you could literally hear the music about a block away- he set up two speakers outside and several through the windows.

Here is what it looked like:

I only managed to snap a couple photos (the kiddies were way to excited to get out there and collect candy!!).

I am so proud of my eldest son, who not only made the Select U9 A Team but also made the Toronto FC training academy!! He has been really big on goals lately and this was a goal he had set for himself to complete by the time he turned twelve, so he is ahead of the game! I haven’t told him yet, but I’ve been looking at the personalized koozies from US Imprints for his soccer team. They’re basically personalised bottle holders, that I could personalise with the team badges, but we’ll see!

He loves to play soccer and to be honest I love watching him play. He has a knack of reading plays and is always at the perfect spot at the right time. And he loves the sport with all his heart. He is kicking a ball from the moment he wakes up to the moment he goes to sleep (my poor living room is turned into a soccer field more times then I wish!).

The only hard part is how much soccer he now plays. The commitment is four nights a week plus matches! Which is a lot between school, work, organizing both boys, doctor appts, etc…It was becoming so overwhelming and stressful. It took a while and I had to look up some pointers from other moms but I think we have finally come up with some strategies that work for us so that our family life and his school work does not suffer.

Here is what we are doing:

1) Crock pot meals! How I have become in love with my crock pot! I never used to use it (I actually have two and did not touch them for six years!). Toss the ingredients in in the morning and as long as it is turned on by noon it is good to go!

2) My son has a designated soccer bag that contains multiples of four of everything (four pairs of socks, shorts and shirts,etc.). We keep one pair of shoes in there, as well as an extra pair in my husband’s car.

3) One soccer ball in each of the cars (sometimes plans can change and you become the designated driver!!) along with a pump.

4) He has four novels in each of our cars so that he can keep up with his reading to soccer practices. I really do not want his school work to suffer because of soccer and this was the best way to keep up on his reading skills for us.

5) Package of wipes and diapers in each car (saves having to stock up a diaper bag every time we go out) along with a bag of toys that stays in each of the cars for our youngest.

6) Packing extra snacks the morning of for our youngest to distract him during the practice.

7) Soccer schedule on the fridge with lots of highlighting 🙂

Our routine is by no means perfect but it has helped make our hectic life so much easier! What other ways do you organize or prepare to help make the night/school routine easier if your child participates in sports?

I was recently given a chance to review Gay Lea Foods Real Whipped Cream with half the fat through the Divine.ca Review squad. It is still made with real cream but half the fat then the regular whipped cream.I decided to turn this into a great opportunity to have a baking day, who doesn’t love baking days?!.

My eldest son loves to bake and to be involved in the kitchen (the youngest just loves to watch and beg for food!!). I let him chose the ingredients for our pies and he decided he wanted to make a chocolate and banana pie (I can not complain – anything with chocolate is great!!).

I prepared the chocolate filling on the stove for him and once it was done we transferred it over to a ready made pie shell (love the ready made pie shells – allowed me to just focus on having fun with my boys). Once it was chilled enough (roughly four hours later) the real fun began.

My eldest put our whipped cream topping on and he loved being able to make designs on the pie. A lot of the whipped cream ended up in the mouth of my youngest (was he ever in his glory!!). Once the pie was fully ‘decorated’ with whipped cream, they enjoyed the rest with the left over bananas and strawberries that were in the fridge.

The whipped cream was delicious. It tasted so similar to the regular whipped cream that even my picky husband could not even tell it was half the fat.

Here is our final product: