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Is it Too Early to Plan for Christmas?

by Chase | Oct 31, 2017 | Parenting, Tips and Techniques

Ideas to keep my sanity during the upcoming countdown…..

I know today is Halloween, but really is it too early to plan for Halloween?

My kids have been listening to Christmas music off and on for two months now.

My local community has their Early Bird Saturday shopping event this Saturday. Which means getting up extra early and shopping at 6 AM to discounts at local stores, free coffee, and community and friends. That combined with expected online Black Friday shopping and I expect to have all my shopping done before the 1st of December.

At 11, 9, 5 1/2 and 4 the fervor around the Christmas holidays is going to be fierce. I expect it to start by Thanksgiving at the latest as my girls have been asking our Amazon Alexa how many days it is until Christmas since we were about 70 days away (or was it 90, I really can’t remember).

My 4-year-old is going to be especially hyped up if the countdown to her birthday earlier this month is any indication.

This is not my first rodeo, and she’s not my first four years old. So I have plans. Plans within plans. Perhaps maybe even (ahem) evil plans.

Starting a couple of weeks ago I started making a list in Evernote to keep track of ideas for activities we could do each day from the day after Thanksgiving until Christmas. I got the kids involved, asking their ideas as well, and they contributed the science related projects. I did not want a lot of the things to be about sugar, seriously they get enough of that anyway without help. I also have some extra ideas in case anyone changes their minds or we need to sub something at the last minute.

I wanted as many of the activities to be experience based, and that, by and large, can fit in a two hour or smaller block. I will be setting up my calendar soon, with each activity written on a posted note, that way if we need to move an activity around for whatever reason we can do that. For instance, I know we will be going Christmas Carolling with Girl Scouts, but I don’t know for sure which meeting that will be yet.

And this works no matter what holiday you celebrate, being pagan you’re not going to see anything overly religious on this list. I may continue this idea into the new year with different themes, we will see how well this goes first!

Here is the list in case you need ideas for your own family:

Putting up the Christmas tree
Decorating the house
Make Christmas Cookies
Santa Lucia Day
Christmas carolling
Read Christmas Stories
Christmas Dance party
Meet Santa
Make Pork Pies
Make Christmas Ornaments
Advent Party
Nutcracker Ballet
Christmas Movie Night
Make Christmas Bread Shapes
Drive and see Christmas lights
Hike in the Woods
Put together puzzles
Spend the day in our PJs
Scavenger hunt (outside)
Wrap presents
Color in the Christmas coloring books
Prep for Saint Lucia Day
Make Egg Nog drink mulled cider
Christmas Party
Christmas Chemistry Peppermint Wafers
Make Glow in The Dark Snowflakes
Make fizzy gingerbread men
Make Christmas Playdough
Make Peppermint Bowls With Friends
Make Gingerbread houses and people
Magnetic Olaf
Make Ice Ornaments – directions at the bottom of the page.
Build Christmas Boats and see if they float:
The Science of Yeast

I would love to hear what you do to keep your kids busy during the countdown to the holidays!

Chase Young is the founder of The Mommy Rebellion a place for judgment-free parenting. She’s created a place to get tips, tools and support for what it is truly like to be a mother, stories from the trenches that show you you’re not alone. Tips that real mothers use. Tools to give to yourself and to your parenting friends to feel more focused, have more patience and energy, and feel less tired and snappy .

You can follow Chase here on this blog, sign up for her newsletter here and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

Connecting Deeply and Navigating Your Pre-Teen’s Emotions

by Andrea Parker | Oct 26, 2017 | Breathing, Movement, Parenting, Teenagers, Tips and Techniques

Andrea Parker shares the beginning of her journey in navigating the many changes of having a tween at home. She even includes some practices that she and her daughter use to stay connected.

Connecting Deeply and Navigating Your Pre-Teen’s Emotions

Originally published here on 10/24/2017 and republished with permission from the author.

My daughter turned eleven last week and with that celebration, she announced to me that she was officially a tween. I cringed a bit because I find that word so ambiguous, a word that in my mind means in between without a center and the hollowness of the word made me uneasy. Yet, it is this time in an adolescent’s life where everything is changing, feels unfamiliar and they are stepping from their childlike understanding into a new space which seems foreign.

Yes, their body is starting to change as well as their chemistry for which there are a myriad of resources to find that explain the why and what is next. However, what I have found challenging is finding the resources to help support her through the emotional space that is the undercurrent and foundation for what is to come and what is already here.

Over the last two years I have had to navigate the anxiety she is feeling which has come from entering this foreign space where she has started to discover that the world is bigger than just her, that there is suffering in the world, and the smallness that comes with this knowledge has led to fear, to sadness and also new passions and sense of wonder.

As we delved into the thick of her emotions over the last two years, and they keep changing and are becoming bigger, I have started to reflect back on my own youth and where certain fears I still carry came from. My pre-teen years are a time where I often felt alone, disconnected and the need to blend in for fear my voice was too big. I don’t remember my parents being open to discussing the deep emotions that I was feeling because, in reality, they themselves did not have that support when they were ten, eleven, twelve and beyond. This was the time I stopped playing for fear of being seen as a “baby”, this is when I struggled to understand what I feeling and that lead to constantly feeling embarrassed and or ashamed of my emotions.

I know I don’t want to pass this void on to my daughter so over the last two years I have started to find tools and rituals to help her connect with herself, her heart, and express her ideas, her feelings, and her frustrations openly.
These tools I want to share with you so that we can help this generation learn to love their emotions and connect with them deeply so that they can safely connect with friends and family and feel fully supported.Energy Connection is where we started.

Yoga Nidra is a type of deep relaxing meditation where you do a body scan while lying down. Here is the one we used to the most.
https://www.doyogawithme.com/content/yoga-nidra-sleep

We would do this at night for it helps to calm and connect the mind and to the body so that it can process, relax and release information from the day.

I also got certified in Reiki which is not something everyone desires to do but for us, it turned out to be a powerful tool that really helped my daughter clear energy from her body that wasn’t serving her and dissipated some deep fears that were interrupting her sleep. For those unfamiliar with Reiki, it is a healing technique based on the principle that the therapist can channel and move energy into and through the patient by means of touch, to activate the natural healing processes of the patient’s body and restore physical and emotional well-being.

Mindful Connection is another tool that we use daily. For us, this is another nightly ritual. My daughter needs touch, she craves it but she also craves and needs mindful connection.

So every night we share one thing that was great about our day, one struggle from our day and one thing we are grateful for. Often times, after this is when we have our deepest conversations. This simple ritual sets the stage for discussions in an intimate setting where she can unload all that is bottling up. I can be fully aware and focused on her and allow her to voice her questions, insecurities, and sadness. This has allowed her to connect to her emotions and get clarity that she seeks. Sometimes all I do is listen and that is all she needs and other times a conversation happens where we both learn and understand something new.

The third ritual we have started to incorporate is that of Play Time. This is different, yet similar to when she was a toddler and young child and I would sit down and play with her. Now, the play comes in the form of board games, dance parties or singing karaoke. I know life is busy and often times she comes home and goes straight to her room to chill which is needed too. But, as these children are navigating their emotions and their desire to be more independent they need a container in which they can still play and be young, where they can feel seen and heard and where they can connect. We have time every night after dinner for this and often times this is where we laugh the hardest.

Laughter is such good medicine and we all need more of it!

I am Andrea Parker, founder of The Rejuvenation Grange. I am a mom, an innovator, a connector and a teacher who thrives in nature and wants to guide girls and women to lead from the heart.

My mission in life is to help people young and old create their equilibrium, become the best they can be and rediscover their passion through innovation and play.

I see myself as that boat that guides them across the turbulent waters or self-determination to that magical place where they can be uplifted and unchain themselves from their fears so they may thrive.

Come and Join Me at
www.therejuvenationgrange.com or my group Soulful Innovators on Facebook, www.facebook.com/groups/162523537608087/

The Silence of the Morning

by Chase | Oct 24, 2017 | Parenting, Poetry

Am I the only one who feels like this? That if you don’t get up while everyone else is still sleeping you might never find the quiet again?

The silence of the morning

Before anyone gets up

When the day feels fresh and new

and your eyes are groggy still

The fuzziness of your brain

Is creeping round the corners

Of your mind

But the alarm has gone off

And as a mother

Of children

You know

If you don’t get up now

and enjoy

The silence of the morning

It might never

EVER

Happen

Again.

Chase Young is the founder of The Mommy Rebellion a place for judgment-free parenting. She’s created a place to get tips, tools and support for what it is truly like to be a mother, stories from the trenches that show you you’re not alone. Tips that real mothers use. Tools to give to yourself and to your parenting friends to feel more focused, have more patience and energy, and feel less tired and snappy .

You can follow Chase here on this blog, sign up for her newsletter here and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

How to Work From Home Around Your Kids

by Amanda Lopes | Oct 19, 2017 | Parenting, Tips and Techniques, working

Amanda Lopes-Bregoli of Refocus on Being is the women who taught me how to be a virtual assistant and the tool she is sharing with us today – Work Blocks, has literally changed my and my families life and has allowed me to stay at home while homeschooling my four amazing daughters.

Check out her video below and see if Work Blocks could open up new doors of productivity, even if all you are trying to do is get anything done around your kids!

It’s about showing up

by Chase | Oct 17, 2017 | Parenting, Poetry

They say how you show up in one area of your life is how you show up in all of them.

Showing up with smiles on the first of several 12 hour flights.

Parenting is like writing this blog.

It’s about showing up.

Consistently, reliably, on time.

Whether I feel like it or not, whether my hair is having a good day or not.

Showing up, and putting out content, showing up and loving my daughters, in however they need that to look today.

Every single time.

Without the ability to see if what I am doing is really working, if it is failing, if anyone at all is listening.

But still, I show up.

On the good days, on the bad days, and most importantly on the mediocre days. Those always seem the hardest.

Here I am. Are you here? Is there anyone out there?

Let me know in the comments below. What does being part of the Mommy Rebellion mean to you?

What does showing up, no matter what look like in your life?

Chase Young is the founder of The Mommy Rebellion a place for judgment-free parenting. She’s created a place to get tips, tools and support for what it is truly like to be a mother, stories from the trenches that show you you’re not alone. Tips that real mothers use. Tools to give to yourself and to your parenting friends to feel more focused, have more patience and energy, and feel less tired and snappy .

You can follow Chase here on this blog, sign up for her newsletter here and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

Is it Too Early to Plan for Christmas?

Connecting Deeply and Navigating Your Pre-Teen’s Emotions

Connecting Deeply and Navigating Your Pre-Teen’s Emotions

The Silence of the Morning

How to Work From Home Around Your Kids

It’s about showing up

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