Welcome Baby Milo

Milo Jack was born tonight at 7:08 pm, weighing in at 6 lbs 14 oz. Everyone is doing well. No contingency plan necessary.

Friday Links

Hello! It’s Annemarie here. Since I’m always finding interesting stuff on the internet, I’m going to start posting it here (again). Feel free to send me anything you think would be interesting, and I’ll post it in a roundup on Fridays. Here’s what I came across this week:

Take 25: A friend of mine in the States works with law enforcement and her department has put together this resource for talking to kids about their safety. Some of it doesn’t apply to Canada, but there are good starting points.

Fairy tale colouring pages: Lucy is a huge fan.

Kids need to taste danger: The six-point list of the types of danger kids need to experience is interesting. How much danger do you let your kids experience? Most of our kids are young, but the article says that it’s the perception of danger, as opposed to legitimate risk, that’s important.

If you haven’t found our Facebook group yet, it’s here and you can request an invitation.

Also, we’re having our first evening get-together at my house on the 26th of April – send me a message if you don’t know where I live and bring your own consumables!

Have a great weekend!

This Week at Bethel MOM’s: Wind Up Potluck

Yes, sadly you heard right. So come for one last session where we’ll eat tasty foods and chat over warm bevies.

If you were not here last week or forgot what you signed up for just bring something either sweet or savoury, and there will be cards going around for everyone to sign to show their appreciation for our wonderful caregivers.

In saying that the Caregiver Appreciation Tea is April 8th 7pm in the lower lounge (where we meet) please leave the little ones at home unless they are attached to your boob 24/7.

This Week at Bethel MOM’s: Celebrating the Seasons

Vivian and Maggie will discuss how you can make your children away of nature and the changing seasons.

This is also our last session before our Wind-Up Potluck and the Caregiver Tea April 8th

Here is the book Sarah talked about last week and what points she took away form it.

Thoughts and Feelings: Taking Control of Your Moods and Your Life

By Matthew McKay, Martha Davis, Patrick Fanning

Composing Alternative Thoughts

1. Shift focus– stop obsessing about the problem and focus on the positive or opposite of your negative thought. ex. if you are obsessing about things that need to be fixed on the house, shift your focus to what you love about your house.  If you’re feeling like you never get anything done, focus on what you do accomplish.
2. Think in percentages– nothing is totally awful, but it might be 30% difficult, with 70% okay or good.
3. Find evidence– if you’re saying to yourself, “I’m a terrible mother,” try to find evidence for that. Then try to find evidence of the opposite– that you’re a great mother because…
4. Get perspective– if you’re making a bigger deal out of something than it really is, get some perspective. Talk to other moms, read about people in other parts of the world, and think rationally about how big of a deal this really is.
5. Stop SHOULDing yourself! If you’re always thinking about how you SHOULD do this or that, change your expectations to be more flexible.  Best advice– instead of being the best at something, try to be the most balanced/healthy you.  Also, allow yourself to have your own values– you may not share the values of people you admire, and if you have examined yourself and know that you really don’t have the same values, let go of the guilt and the SHOULDs.
6. Stop comparing!

~Danielle~

Math is tasty

Happy Π (Pi) Day

And just to blow your mind even more Mar 14, 15 @ 9:26 is the exact day of Pi. It doesn’t get any tastier then that.

Butternut Squash and Tahini-Yogurt Dip

Just a disclaimer from Vivian: I made the recipe using a much larger squash than called for and was too lazy to adjust ingredients accordingly, so it may taste a bit different if you actually follow the recipe!

Makes 2 1/2 cups

1 head of garlic

3 Tbsp plus 1 tsp olive oil

One 1 1/2 pound butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces

Salt & freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1/4 cup tahini paste

3 Tbsp lemon juice

Pinch of cayenne pepper

2 Tbsp pumpkin seeds

1. Preheat oven to 425. Cut 1 inch off the top of the garlic head and place the head on a piece of foil; drizzle with 1 Tbsp of the olive oil and wrap it tightly. On a large baking sheet, toss the squash with 2 Tbsp of the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Set the garlic on the oven rack. Roast the squash for 35 to 40 minutes, turning occasionally until tender and golden brown. Roast the garlic for about 1 hour, until completely soft. Let cool.

2. Scrape the roasted squash into a food processor. Squeeze the garlic cloves from their skins into the processor. Add the yogurt, tahini, lemon juice and cayenne pepper. Puree until smooth, adding a little water if the dip is too thick. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a serving bowl and drizzle with olive oil. Garnish with pumpkin seeds

This Week at Bethel MOM’s: Coffee Talk

We will drink warm bevies, eat tasty snacks, and chat about whatever.

Now for the house keeping stuff:

I believe we are still looking for one or two people to sit on the committee, if you’d love to help talk to Gabrielle before we have to start tapping shoulder because no one wants that.

We have 3 sessions left 😦 With our wind-up potluck on Mar 27th and the Caregiver Tea April 8th.

From Heidi

As I mentioned a few weeks ago at MOMs, I am helping to organize the children’s programming at Mennonite Church Canada’s Assembly, July 4-5 of this year.  The 7 and under kids will stay at Canadian Mennonite University (where the meetings are happening) and the 8-14 age group will be bussed out to Camp Assiniboia for a day camp experience.  We are looking for volunteers to help either age group. The good news is, volunteers get reduced registration for their kids! Only $20 per kid gets you childcare/entertainment for kids only a week into summer holidays and already saying, “I’m booooooooored!” And on Saturday, everyone from Assembly is coming out to camp for a supper/family entertainment thing, so the older kids get to just stay out there for the evening (but parents will be in charge from supper onwards). We are looking for any volunteers who can pass a police check and child abuse registry check, and especially to have at least one male for the older group (I’m thinking energetic young or not-quite-as-young men who can ham it up with pre-teens and teens!). So, if you or someone you know would like to spend a couple of days helping out, please put me in touch! Even if you just want more information but don’t want to commit.

Thanks!

If you can help please contact Heidi

This Week at Bethel MOM’s

So tomorrow we where suppose to have Jarem Sawatzky, but he unfortunately had to cancel due to a family crisis, so tomorrow will be a sharing circle of eco things you do around the home.