egg shells in cookies

I didn't think I would have much time to do this bloggie thingie, but here I am giving it a whirl. I have found myself checking my friends' blogs weekly and I thought it might be fun to give it a try. I have two little girls. Emma Joy is 4 and Myah Grace is 3. This blog will primarily be about what it's like raising two little gals. Sometimes there are amazing moments of joy and sometimes I am on my knees praying for God to give me the grace I need to parent these little tots.

Today we had a parenting seminar at our church. It was a speaker from Youth Specialties. He did a phenomenal job. It was actually a seminar on understanding your teenager. I went for two reasons. One, my husband is a youth pastor and we work with youth, and two, my adorable little angels will be crazy, hormonal teenagers one day. I thought I'd get a head start. I'm glad I went. I was challenged, educated, broken, and encouraged. I will share a couple moments of joy and grace with you.

Jim was discussing how teens are in transition and how we as parents should treat them less like a child and more like a young adult. Whatever a child is treated like is how that child will act. He made the comment "whatever your child is capable of doing by themself, LET THEM DO IT." Right now in our house the girls have started getting into the refridgerator and getting their own juice. At first I hesitated because to be perfectly honest, I don't want to clean up a huge mess. So we struck a deal. When the juice is half way gone, they can pour it themselves. Oh boy do they love to do that. It builds their self-esteem and makes them feel so grown up. It's such a small thing that I can do that gives them so much joy.

One more thing for tonight:

Jim stepped on my toes a little as he talked about the teenager that won't help mom bake cookies. This teen wanted nothing to do with cooking. Jim says it goes back to that 3 or 4 yr.old who begs mommy to let her help while mommy is in the kitchen and mommy says, "no honey not today. We don't have much time today. Why don't you go watch some t.v. and then when they're all done you can have one." Myah Grace Peterson is a little helper. She is by my side ALL day long. She dusts with me, she cleans potties with me, she washes dishes with me and of course she wants to cook with me. All I have to do is take out a bowl and a measuring cup and she goes runnin for that darn blue chair of hers! Lately, it had started getting on my nerves. I just wanted to cook by myself. So, I would find myself frantically trying to throw meals together without her seeing or hearing me. Or if she saw I would say, "not this time." I'm sure I will still want to cook by myself some, but after today I was reminded, one day Myah will be grown and I would probably do anything to taste some egg shells in my chocolate chip cookies again.

So, if I could encourage any mommy today with little ones I would say, "Have you tasted any egg shells in your cookies lately?"