Author Archives: P Murphy

It’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Day in My House (A To Z Challenge)

03 Thursday Apr 2014

Posted by in Activities, Blogging, Busy Dad, Challenge, Dad, Family, Kids, Parenting

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choc-chip-cookies

 

Today my oldest son (T) turns eleven years-old today. He is growing up so fast that in a few years he will be in high school and then college. So to honor his birthday today I baked chocolate chip cookies so he can take them to school and the cake part of a jello cake. My wife did the jello part of the jello cake.

 

I know you are thinking that I have 4 kids so that should be normal thing in my house. But it is not a normal think in my house. We try to keep healthier type of snacks in our house like peanut butter and cheese crackers.

 

So this is a big deal in my home and the kids are very excited about it and the chance to have pizza again this week. My family could eat pizza everyday of the week. But this is for another post at a later time.

 

I’m used to making cookies and cakes from a pre-mixed bag. The kind that only needs the liquids and an egg added to it. But last night I made them from scratch. I also realized how hard it is to make cookies from scratch compared to the pre-mixed bags. I also thought how many birthdays I could do this before he leaves my house for a place of his own.

 

So making them from scratch is well worth the hard work since he will only be eleven only once. Especially when I can control how much chocolate chips can go into them. Did I ever mention how much my family and I love chocolate.

 

I could go on with this topic in more detail, but I’m writing this for the A to Z Challenge and will stay close to their rules on how much words are in a single post. This is an awesome challenge by the way.

 

Have you ever done something hard that you found out the value is well worth it? This could be baking something, building something, or even doing something in your life. Please share your experiences in the comments below.

 

C

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Bedtime Rituals (A To Z Challenge)

02 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by in Activities, Busy Dad, Challenge, Dad, Family, Kids, Parenting

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Today’s letter is B and so I’ll talk about Bedtime Rituals for my kids.

The bedtime ritual at my house is pretty straight forward and boring at some times. But seeing the smiles on my children’s faces is well worth the time and energy to do it. The only time we don’t follow the ritual is if we are traveling or staying the night other than our home.

So here is our normal bedtime ritual. Each night starts with a bedtime snack. This can be as simple as peanut butter and crackers to even ice cream sometimes. As long as they think it is special you can give them any type of food you want.

Then my kids will pick out certain books (One book per kid) they would want me to read to them. I’ll start with the boys books first and finish reading to the girls. The books don’t have to be long novels type, but short simple ones like “Why Are You So Grumpy About” by Tom Lichtenheld. Longer ones I tend to break down into chapters per night. Even sometimes my kids would want me to read a story out of their kids bibles. The fact you are reading to them is the main thing they remember.

Then I will tuck the younger ones in and let them read for a little bit longer by themselves or have them listen to a CD like Frozen. Which my girls almost know every song by word and sound now. The boys favorite right now is “Everything is Awesome” from the “Lego’s Movie”.

Then I’ll check back later to remove books and shut off the radios and lights in their rooms.

Since I told you what the bedtime ritual is like at my home, what are the ones you do in your home? Are you a parent that has a ritual you follow or one that fly by the seat of your pants? I would like to here other bedtime rituals from other parents. Just leave a brief comment explaining it or even a link if you have written about it on your own blog.

B

 

 

 

 

Attitudes (A To Z Challenge)

01 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by in Busy Dad, Challenge, Family, Kids, Parenting

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Since I had my hands full tonight, my first post to the A to Z Challenge is coming late in the day.  So here it is.

I picked Attitudes to start out since every parent has to deal with their kid’s attitudes and I’m not any different.  Having two boys and two girls, I have seen all sorts of attitudes already in my house.  I know I haven’t seen all of them since my girls are only 4 years-old right now.

I have been trying to teach my kids to use the right and positive attitudes as much as possible when they can.  An example of my oldest doing this was last year when he got punched in the face by another kid at school.  He just dust himself off and kept his cool.  He made me so proud that day. that he choose not to fight.

My two girls are a hand full with their attitudes that they have.  They are sometimes the best of friends or at each other like cats and dogs.   You really have to start worrying about them when they start working as a team.

A

Doing the A to Z Challenge in April

01 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by in Activities, Busy Dad, Challenge, Site

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Today I’m going to start blogging in the A to Z challenge for the month of April.  It is exactly what it sounds like.  Starting with the letter A (April 1st) and ending with the letter Z (April 30th).  Every Sunday in April is a day off for the challenge.  I’m hoping this will help me get back into blogging on a regularly time frame as well as improve my writing skills since they are a little bit rusty.

If you like to know more about this challenge then click here.

While I’m doing this challenge. the content that I will list will still go with the theme of my blog and will do something with my kids or children in general.

I’ll have my first post out in a little bit and it the title will be “Attitudes” since all kids have them from time to time.  I will also be posting my postings on my secondary blog as well at Life of a Busy Dad of 4 Kids.

 

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