Grandchildren are often the last generation we see before we pass to our reward. What should we teach them while we still can?

Easy dip recipes for kids that are packed with protein, and tips for getting your picky eater to try new vegetables & fruits you never thought possible!

While visiting the Seattle area, another favorite thing for the kids was just playing with their cousins, and they did a lot of it! One day, toward the end of the day, Scott and I were talking and he said something like, "I feel like I've barely seen the kids today." Even though we were all in the same house, they were either on the trampoline in the back or riding down the hill on the dead end street in the front on bikes or scooters. Here is a picture of Reese, Shaun and Elisabeth on scooters in front of my parents house. Did I mention all of us 5 siblings were able to make it out for a bit? This is my oldest brother Luis. His birthday was a week out so we gave him an early celebration. He requested a minion cake from Despicable Me, and a fruit pizza. I made the cake and mom made the pizza. Here are some pictures from the party day. This is one of our family favorite party games. You divide into two teams, everyone has a small balloon or two and you race to sit on them, one at a time, to see which team finishes first. We only got to see Fred and Robin's family for a couple of days because they had another family reunion, which is why you won't see them in the remaining pictures. Something all of the Garnica's have in common is our love of good food. So we made some good food and we ate out a few times at some really yummy restaurants. Here are some of the adults at Mayuri, an Indian restaurant. This was my first time doing the Indian buffet. We went to Seattle one day, mostly because Charles wanted to ride a monorail. We also walked through Pike Place Market while in Seattle. And we saw the Troll under the Bridge in Fremont area of Seattle. Whenever we go we have to eat at Mongolian Grill. It's amazing! This was another adult trip plus Jane who needed to come :). Speaking of Jane, one day while playing around in my parents house, Janes' elbow that had been dislocated before got dislocated again. I had seen it corrected a couple of times and had asked the doctor how to fix it myself and so I decided to give it a try. I said a little prayer for help, held the outer elbow between my thumb and index fingers, positioned the palm face up with the arm outstretched and then carefully bent it back upwards towards her as I felt/heard it pop! Hooray it was fixed! And thank goodness because they are always (this is our fourth dislocation in the family) a screaming/crying mess from the pain until it is corrected. Kinda hard to think under that kind of pressure; so grateful for the guidance of the Spirit and the peace it brings. Last year Scott took Elisabeth kayaking at a park near my parents house and they decided to do it again. You can rent a kayak for an hour for $20, so we rented two and after half hour one of the adults with children would bring the kayak in and switch and let the others have a half hour turn. I didn't go this year. I have a little fear of water. Maybe next time....maybe. Luis and Angelo Scott and Elisabeth Becca and Blake Luis, Bella and Charles We finally caught Annabelle's grumpy/stubborn face on camera! Ha! She does this fairly regularly :). Scott put up new drapes in the dining, living and office.They look great! One day all the cousins decided to have a stand/sale out front. They sold lemonade, rice crispy treats, fruit snacks, fruit leathers and otterpops. They were out there all day. I didn't think they'd make much, if anything, because we live on a dead end street but to my surprise and their delight they made about $20. We have very generous neighbors :). Scott and I had our ten year anniversary while we were there and so that evening we went to the Seattle temple to do sealings and we ate dinner there as well. I forgot my temple recommend at home, but thankfully our bishop gave the temple a call so that we could still go. On the way home we drove four hours and stopped at Fred and Robin's house who live in the tri-cities in Eastern Washington and stayed there for a night. I loved this sign Robin had up on her wall on the main floor. When the kids are looking for something to do or are bothering each other she tells them to go look at the "Bored Board". :). I loved it and I made one for my kids once we settled into our home in Colorado. We had so much fun being with siblings, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Most of us all stayed in the same house, and my little sister just lives a mile away so we got to spend a lot of time together. And that's it on our trip for this year!

Do you have a handy kid? All of my little ones amaze me with what they are capable of (when I give them the opportunity to show me, that is). And woodworking projects are no exception! Madeline didn't have too many opportunities when she was little, I'm afraid to say. I cringed with the idea

So, it happened again this week. My two children (aged 3 and 1) were actually "playing" together and not biting, clawing and generally being disagreeable. And then it happened. My daughter rocked her small play chair and bumped her head on the padded floor. The chair was around 12" off…

Renal Diet Podcast 084: Healthy Eating On The Go With CKD Podcast #84 Released on March 9, 2018 I want to talk to you because it's hard enough to manage

When I became a mom, I got lots of advice on how to love my child. But not until a few years ago did someone actually point out that loving a child means wanting what's best for them long-term. When my girls were young, long-term didn't resonate with me. Back then it was about survival, meeting daily needs and keeping my head above water. There are several years that remain a blur, and only when I see old pictures and videos…

Have you ever had a class with so many difficult, disruptive students that you felt that you could barely even teach? What can you do to get past it? In this post, I am going to address this problem with my best advice, and some advice from others as well.

What do I want more than anything when I look to the future? To be a grandma. Why? Because that means I will be alive when (and if) my kids have children of their own.

I was raised in a Christian home. My mom was a children’s pastor. I felt like I was always at church. But when I got to high school, I started having doubts about my faith. I was no longer interested in taking everything my parents said at face value. I had to figure it out

Ever since before I had kids, I knew I wanted to cook with them. When I was teaching, we would cook each week and it was always one of my favorite things to do with

Learn how to make classic braided yarn dolls. This is a simple, traditional craft which is fun to make and the finished yarn dolls make cute DIY toys

Parenting a high energy toddler can be very difficult and extremely exhausting. I have learned so much that would have helped me back when my son was three.

I have been seeing these wonderful ruler growth charts on blogs and Pinterest. The first one I saw was here: http://naptimedecorator.blogspot.com/2011/10/ruler-growth-chart.html Love it! Easy to follow instructions and great pictures! Of course I had to make my own and make it a little bit different. Here is what you need: A 6 foot 10"x1" or 8"x1" board (I used a 10"x1") Printed off large numbers in different fonts. (I made them the size of a printable piece of paper in Word.) Printed off smaller numbers for the ruler part. Stain Clear Sealer Paint pen Pen Start with sanding down the board and the sides: Wipe all the dust off and print off your numbers: Here is a picture of my numbers 1-6, plus the smaller numbers. I only printed the outline of the numbers in order to save ink. Then I measured out where I wanted the board to hang on the wall. I wanted the top of it to be level with the door opening that it was next to, and that ended up being 7 inches off of the floor. It is important to know this from the beginning so you know where to start your measurements and numbers! Check and double check your measurements before you lay anything out on your board. Next I laid out all the big numbers where I wanted them to be on the board: Notice the tape measure laying on the floor next to the board? This is so I could see what height to place the numbers. I made sure they were all straight and then taped them down. Now for the second part of the tutorial: Staining a design onto a piece of wood! After I laid out my design and taped down the pattern, I used a pen to trace the design onto the wood: You need to press really hard, because you want to make an indention of the outline onto the wood. The deeper the indention, the easier the next step will be: Here you can see the number two that was traced onto the wood. You can see where I ripped through the paper at one point and drew on the wood- you want to avoid that if you can! After you get everything outlined, you can start carefully staining in your design: You want to start on the inside of the design- (in my case the numbers) and gently push the stain to the edges: One it gets close to the edge of the design the wood will absorb the stain up the indention. Instead of using a brush with stain, you can also use a stain marker. Just be sure to always start at the inside of your pattern and let the stain soak to the edges or it can bleed past the indention. If you want the stain to be darker, you can go over it with a second or third coat. I didn't want too much contrast, so I left it at one coat. I used a dark cherry colored stain, but any color will work! After the stain dries, you want to seal the board: I used a water based clear satin sealer. I like to use water based whenever I can so that cleanup is much easier. Once that is dry, you can start on the measurements: Remember where you need to start at the bottom of the board based on where you want to place it on the wall. Mine was going to be exactly 7 inches off of the floor, so I was able to start measurements one inch up and then mark every inch with the first foot marker being 5 inches up. I overlapped my markings every time I moved the ruler to keep everything precise: Once the board was marked in inches, I went back and marked where every foot and half foot was. I decided to make the inch marks 3 centimeters long, the half foot mark 4.5 centimeters long and the foot markers 6 centimeters long. I marked them all with a pencil first then used a paint marker to go over the lines: You can buy the paint markers at most craft stores and sometimes Walmart carries them in their craft section. I use them all the time in my murals- a great way to get a nice crisp and steady line! Notice the tip is white when first opened. You will need to prep the marker by pushing down on the tip to get the paint to flow. Do this on a scrap piece of paper or cardboard before using it on your project or you will end up with a little pool of paint on your project. I am missing the pictures where I taped down the smaller numbers, traced them and filled them in with the paint marker. I used the same method as with the big numbers and just placed them center at the end of each foot marker. Here is another picture of the finished project: Next, I added pictures of my sons at each of the different heights. Since my boys range in size from 3' to 6' I was able to fill in the wall. A fun way to look back at how they have grown over the years and also for the younger ones to look forward to getting their pictures added as they get taller! You could also take pictures of different relatives or family friends who are a variety of heights and put their pictures on the wall. I know my boys love looking forward to being as tall as or taller than their Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents!

What do you think are must have items for home daycare? When I asked the question to a bunch of providers, I got a lot of interesting answers.

My oldest boy has always been a sensitive soul. I’d share the stories confirming this, but he’s now 13 and it has all become privileged information. You see, once the switch is flipped you cannot go back. We have entered a whole new world here and I decided to go straight to the source to try to figure out how to navigate these teen waters with my son. So, folks, I am able to bring you the insider’s guide to the teenage brain. He briefly spilled his guts to me when I asked him how he needed us to parent...

What's in the Preschool Box ~ a twist on Quiet Time Boxes. See how we are using them in our home preschool.

Back in the old days (basically, the 'old days' = pre-kids), I used to scrapbook. A lot. Today I use a Memory Planner, but I have maintained my obsession and compulsive buying habits when it comes to scrapbook paper. I don't even want to tell you how many pieces of scrapbook paper I have around my house, because it would be embarrassing. So...what's one to do with it all? I've compiled a list of uses for scrapbook paper that I think any paper hoarder will appreciate. If you're like me, you'll see this list and get a bunch of ideas and feel

What are some actual activities that you can do when you have more than one kid under the age of 4? This is the most asked question I get from readers.

Looking for indoor activities to do with the kids? An indoor scavenger hunt is a great boredom buster. With this Bedroom Scavenger Hunt, kids have something to keep them entertained even when they can't go outside. Download, print and go.

Having a Child with ADHD is not only exhausting but can also be pretty scary, especially if your child has an angry streak.

This is a sponsored post written on behalf of Learning Success Institute. All opinions are 100% my very own.Are you a parent who is struggling to keep your student on task with their school work?Are you an adult that needs some time management skills to tally off everything on

No one ever taught me this. Man it would have made learning to spell so much easier! Not to mention, had I known this in the classroom I could have been better equipped to help my students. When...

Prefix activity ideas to arm your students with more than just context clues. Love all the different ideas in this prefix unit!

Are you doing some Rs this summer? R is for reflect: Reflect over your past year. What went right? What should be tweaked? No matter how long you've taught, there is always something that needs to be polished a little. R is for relax: Take some me time this summer. Sleep in, read a good book, spend some quality time for friends and family or whatever is your favorite way to relax. You will be a better teacher next year if you take time to relax this summer. One year when I was doing some reflecting after a challenging year, I decided that I needed to make some changes. More and more demands were being placed upon us . . . new curriculum, training to go along with this, and data collection just to name a few. All of this without giving us more prep time to do these extra chores. It is very easy to let all of these extra things stress us out, damage our health, and take away our enthusiasm for our job. I decided that I needed to work smarter, utilize what work time I did have at school wisely. Can you relate? Do you need to do this, too? Do you have so much free time at school that you offer to help your friends with their work? I'm guessing that this isn't the case for you, if you are like most teachers. Do you have a buddy teacher that has a similar philosophy as you? Would you be willing to split some of your teacher chores with this buddy? I've done this different ways through the years. My all time favorite system was when I taught next door to a teacher who hated the paperwork end of teaching but loved being outside. Maybe it's because I'm too hyper, but for me, recess duty is my version of teacher torture. Standing there or walking around watching children play is too sedentary for me. From my very first year, I have hated recess duty. I've done it because it is required and children need the fresh air and exercise. But, I did not enjoy it. Then I began teaching with a teacher who was the yin to my yang. She hated all of the paperwork, lesson planning, copying, and other stuff like that I loved. Luckily, we had similar teaching styles. So, I planned 2 weeks at a time. Organized each week in a big rubbermaid tub. There were six folders in the tub. Monday - Friday folders had all of the things needed for lessons (books, worksheets, etc.) and the sixth folder had all the supplies needed for the centers. I taught with tub A and my buddy used tub B the first week, then we switched tubs the following week. It was perfect! She was perfectly happy doing recess duty every day. I was perfectly happy taking the extra time from not doing recess duty to plan for both of us. Here's the thing . . . I would have made those plans for myself anyway. The only extra work that was involved was to make the copies for her. How hard is it to make an extra class set of copies for a week's worth of work and organize them in a tub? Our principal was happy with our arrangement because he knew that with the extra time I had to plan, I was making better quality lesson plans. My buddy and I were happier and less stressed. Isn't that what every principal wants? So, this summer take the time to come up with a plan to work smarter. There are many ways you can do it. I was thinking about centers. They can be a wonderful addition or they can be a thorn in your side if your students don't understand the directions and are constantly interrupting your small group lesson with questions. Centers have worked both ways for me. One way to work smarter with centers is to have some centers that have the same format week after week. Not that your students will do the exact same lesson, but that the type of activity remains the same so they will know exactly what the expectations are when they go to that center. I have phonics skill books that can be used for this type of center. They are sold in packets with 4 books that will have enough lessons for an entire month. All you will need to do, as far as preparation, is make 4 mini-books/student each month. (Hint: This would be a great thing for a parent volunteer to do for you.) Students will complete 2 pages of their mini-book each day. Turn in the mini-book on Friday. The benefits are: Ask a parent volunteer to come in once a month to make all of the mini-books for entire month. Now you have one center planned and finished for an entire month. Cross one thing off your to do list! Easy to grade because it is all in one neatly stapled booklet. Students seem to lose one booklet less often than when they have to keep up with 4 or 5 individual pages. Less incomplete or missing work means less stress for you and happier students plus parents. Each mini-book is a review of important skills like vowels, digraphs, syllables, and word families that we don't always have time to go over during whole group or small group lessons. Save some of the booklets for their portfolios to show growth over time. Each booklet has a theme so you can use them to enrich your language arts, social studies, or science lessons. Below is a sneak peek of the Camping Book. There is a black and white version of each mini-book and a colored copy so you can also make this a self-checking center. Would you like to try this out? Click HERE to download the black and white version of my Camping mini-book. Click HERE to check Pencil Pals: Camping, Desert, Farm Zoo Click HERE to check out Pencil Pals: Ocean, Garden, Summer & School This one has a mini-book called School Time which is perfect for your Back to School lessons. Are you planning a camping theme for End of the Year, Summer School, or Back to School? This Camping color by code packet is a fun way to review the following skills: homophones plural nouns contractions synonyms antonyms abbreviations long vowels blends I have organized a Pinterest board with themes that you can use for units and classroom decor. Be sure to follow this board because I will be updating this board. Sources to make my blog post graphics can be found HERE. Click HERE to read my blog's disclosure statement.

A set and forget meal that will knock your socks off! Can be made in a traditional slow cooker or thermal cooker.

Found a Ladybug flannel board story includes five ladybugs, 2 leaves, one 18 inch stem and a copy of the story. I personally make each and every felt story/song by hand. They are on actual felt and made by me! Details are added with standard fabric paint when necessary. That being said, each story may vary slightly than what is pictured, but I always keep the same general look. The color of certain felt pieces or fabric paint may vary based on the current availability of colors. PLEASE note that if I do not have these in stock it can take up to one week for them to be made! Email me before placing your order if you have a date deadline! I will get back to you with an estimated shipping date ASAP!

Follow this 5 step plan and learn how to prevent bullying in your classroom, home and school!

Students write the word 3 times, color the word, circle the words, cut and past the word, and trace the word. 52 words in this packet: a and are at can do for go have he I in is it like my not play said see she the to you all as an by from had has her him his if no of on one so that they this two up was we will with make down little Need more words?? Look for my set 2

connecting homeschoolers through social media

You know it is going to be an awesome day when the kids fight over the timeout corners. Yes, I have more than one time-out corner in my house. On the first day of spring

When I’m having a hard day with my kids I think, “what would I like someone to tell me when I’m not at my best?” Everyone likes to hear positive things and with kids this is especially important. We...