Holiday Rolls

YouTube Video Tutorial:

Holiday Rolls

Although store bought rolls are convenient and easy, when it comes to special occasions, such as the Holidays, I always like to pull out my Bosch and delight my family and friends with freshly baked rolls. It is a bit of a chore, but I think we can all agree that there is nothing quite like freshly baked goods, especially those that are homemade. The best part about making these is that last year I discovered the miracle of flash freezing the rolled out rolls. Now I can serve hot rolls, fresh out of the oven on Thanksgiving day without spending my entire day in the kitchen. This was a serious life changer, or maybe I should say Holiday changer for me. 

Now, I typically have a rule about cooking and baking with my kids while entertaining guests, and that would be that they are not allowed to help. However, since I made the rolls four days before Thanksgiving day I was feeling a bit more relaxed and able to handle the assistance from my three year old daughter. She did surprisingly well. I have found over the years from making these rolls that the nature of how they are rolled up and assembled yields them to handle some of the imperfections little fingers bring. It is probably why I prefer the crescent look over the more traditional round roll. It is very forgiving.

I was also surprised this year on Thanksgiving day to find that my older two children have developed enough skills in the kitchen to actually be a tremendous asset to me and so for the first time they were allowed to help. They peeled all of the potatoes beautifully, helped assemble the stuffing, my oldest daughter helped me make a pie, and as expected they made the best dish dryers.

Since there are lots of different ways to make rolls and since not everyone will have a Bosch I will list my tips for making these with your kids at the top and the recipe down below at the bottom.

Tips:
Have them wash their hands and if they are young and plan to sit on the counter wash their feet as well.

Cutting butter is one of the best jobs. Make sure they have a napkin and an apron if you value what they are wearing (we also do a lot of shirt-less cooking at our house I just do not video tape it that way). Make sure the butter is cold, but not frozen, or else it will be too messy. Butter straight out of the fridge is usually best.

Pouring liquids is tricky with young children. If they are new to cooking or under the age of 5 help them while pouring or just have them put their hand on yours.

Measuring foods like flour, salt and sugar is a bit easier. You can help them scoop or place the measuring utensil over the bowl and pour into it for them. Just be careful if your machine is running that they do not get their utensil or their fingers caught in the kneading hooks. You cannot hear it on the video, but I was constantly reminding Olive to keep everything high when she was measuring and pouring on her own.

When rolling out the dough it is best if you can start the roll for them. With younger children you will need to do this for every roll. For older children just a few times until they get the hang of it. Try not to fix their roll in front of them if it needs fixing. Sometimes I will wait until the cookie sheet is filled and they are not looking/in the kitchen to tweak anything, however, these are very forgiving in their shape and you usually cannot tell once they are all baked together.

I usually plan to give each child a small amount of dough to do whatever they want with to buy myself some extra time. So calculate that into the equation when making these.

Recipe:
3/4 C Warm Water (about 115 degrees)
1 TBSP Yeast
1/2 C Butter (sliced into 6-8 small sections)
2 C Scalded Whole Milk
1/2 C Sugar
1 Tsp Salt
2 Eggs
2 C Whole Wheat Flour
6-7 C Unbleached White Flour

In a small bowl combine warm water and yeast. Gently stir and set aside. In a medium glass bowl combine milk and butter and microwave for about 2 minutes until the milk mixture is hot. Meanwhile add sugar and salt to the bowl of your Bosch. Then pour in the hot milk and butter mixture and start your Bosch on the lowest setting. Add in the whole wheat flour and one cup of white flour. Let it combine and then add in your eggs and yeast mixture (which should be done rising by now). Let that combine and then gradually add in the rest of your white flour. It may be necessary to stop the Bosch and scrape the sides of your bowl as you go.

You are looking for dough that starts to pull from the sides of the bowl, but that is not dry enough to clean the sides of the bowl. Once your dough is done you can either transfer it to a greased bowl and cover with a dish towel or plastic wrap while it rises on your counter or if you are not planning to make another batch you can save yourself the dish and just keep the dough in the Bosch (make sure you still cover the top). After about one hour you will see that your dough has doubled in size and is ready to be rolled out into the actual rolls.

If your dough is in a separate bowl you can punch down the dough with your firsts. If your dough is still in the Bosch you can simple turn the machine on for about 15 seconds or so and that should do the trick. On a well floured surface dump out your dough and knead a few times just to make sure there are no remaining air bubbles in your dough.

Once you have done this you can either divide the dough into three or four equal sections (depending on how large you want the rolls to be). I personally prefer the size of the roll when the dough has been divided into four equal parts. However, my husband loves the bigger rolls so I usually end up doing some of each (just do not bake them on the same cookie sheet or at the same time).

Now that your dough is divided you can make a ball and roll it out to be about a 1/2 inch thick and then slice it like a pizza into eight equal parts. I like to roll it up by first tucking in my corners (see video) because I think it looks prettier and bakes better (I do not like the crunchy tips you get when you leave the corners out). Make sure to place your roll on the baking sheet with the tip/end down or on the underside to keep it from unrolling.

If you plan to bake these right away, spray your baking sheet, place your rolls, and let them rise again for another 30 minutes or so before baking. If you want to flash freeze the rolls then spray your baking sheet, place your rolls, and freeze immediately before they have time to rise again. On the day of your event simply remove from the freezer about three and a half to four hours before you plan to bake them to ensure they thaw completely and rise.

If you space your rolls so they do not touch (12 on a baking sheet) bake at 400 degrees for about 7-9 minutes. If you plan to place all 18-24 rolls on  your baking sheet, reduce heat to 375 degrees and bake for 12-15  minutes until they are golden brown.

Enjoy!

SeaWorld

This past spring Nate and I decided to buy passes to SeaWorld for our family that would allow us unlimited admission through the end of the year. We took a trip in the spring, one in the summer, and one the weekend before Thanksgiving as our final hurrah! We also visited the USS Midway, which proved to be a fantastic activity for our kids and a place we will definitely need to visit again.

However, before we left on our trip, there were a few items of business that needed to get done. If you are like me and can't (or won't) leave a messy house before you go on vacation, regardless of how long or short the trip, there will be some cleaning required before you leave. There was also laundry, although very minimal, packing, and food to be prepped.

Everyone is different when it comes to vacation time, but for our family I like to pack snacks for the car ride...healthy snacks. Although I do occasionally splurge on chips or cookies, I know that I feel better when I eat better and my body makes no exceptions, not even for road trips. With my parents living almost a thousand miles away, I have made many, many road trips over the years and feel that there is nothing worse than the effects of sitting in the car all day and eating crap.

So here it is Thursday morning, the day before our trip and I plan to get right to work...that is after I complete my mandatory volunteer hours at my daughters school, visit the doctor during lunch, and teach voice lessons that afternoon. When I am done it's time to get dinner ready (thankfully leftovers) and then, finally, when my energy has peaked for the day and I am bursting to the brim with exuberance and patience I now have time to get ready for our trip (says every pregnant mama at the end of the day). Wrong! I am exhausted, my feet hurt, and I just want to curl up on the couch or better yet go straight to bed.

I am not sure where we get this mentality, the one as mothers that tells us we have to do it all and be it all, but it is a real thing folks and one that has been highly talked about and written about in recent years. From the attention to this subject has come a unhealthy and slightly disturbing mentality of settling or glorifying our underachievement as homemakers and parents as we accept that there is no such thing as being perfect, being able to do it all, or have it all.

Although I whole heartily believe in accepting our inability to do it all, embracing our weaknesses, and our need to understand that our best is good enough, why have we not discussed that our inability to do it all is an opportunity, the perfect opportunity to ask our children to contribute in sharing our load? After all, do they not benefit from the fruits of our labors as much as we do? This family trip is a trip for the family, which means that everyone, parents and children, are to benefit from the enjoyment of getting away. Why then is it my sole responsibility to do all the work to get us there? Shouldn't we all have an equal investment in this trip (the equal portion being relative to age and individual ability).Well, I can tell you that at our house and in our family if you want to enjoy a family trip you better be willing to help get us there because running around the house making a mess for mom to clean up or simply watching a movie just isn't good enough for me. I am not capable of doing it all, they are capable of helping, and to me that is a match made in heaven.

So at dinner that night the following discussion (aka mom laying down the law) took place:

Me: "Alright everyone, who is excited about our trip? Wahooo!!!"
Kids: "Me!!!!"
Me: "Great! Me too! But before we can go and enjoy ourselves there are a few things that need to get done and we will not be leaving if those things do not get done. Everybody understand?"
Kids: "Yes."

While I cleaned up from dinner I gave the kids a list of items that needed to be packed in their bags and then had everyone bring their bags to me for inspection once they were ready to go. Frequent verbal check-ins were required and my oldest child had to help my youngest. Once the bags were packed and by the back door I asked each child which foods they wanted to help prepare. The older kids washed and bagged apples, grapes, cherry tomatoes, and Cuties. Olive stood by my side and filled a bag with the veggies I was cutting. We then set up an assembly line to make sandwiches, which we froze over night. When it was all done and the kitchen was clean we rewarded ourselves with a Popsicle each.

Lastly we set the timer for a five minute pick-up (this is where everyone runs around as fast as they can picking up anything that belongs to them around the house before the timer goes off) and I then helped the youngest two quickly tidy their rooms. My oldest vacuumed for me and with the house now clean enough, and bags and food packed, I managed to pack my own things after the kids were in bed. Truth be told I probably could have stayed up really late and done all the work by myself, which would have spared my ears and emotionally exhausted self the pains of dealing with a few meltdowns along the way. However, I really felt in those precious moment as we worked together a sense of community, a connection with my children and I believe they felt it too.

We had a great trip, enjoyed our snacks, the company of one another, the Christmas lights at SeaWorld and our favorite burger joint in San Diego for some seriously good hamburgers and amazing onion rings (the best)!

Benson was too tired to eat all of his lunch...

My big takeaway from this trip was this: as a mother it is impossible for me to do everything for my family, but together, as a family team we are capable of achieving more, of being more than I could ever be on my own. This does not mean that we all pull the same weight, but that we pull equally according to our own strength and ability. My expectations for my three year old are very different than my expectations for my eight year old, and what I expect from my children is not on the same level of what I expect from myself or my husband. We, my husband and I, will always pull more weight than our children and until all my children are in school and I officially reenter the workforce the way we contribute to our family team will differ greatly. However, just like there are different positions to be played on a team sport, there are different positions we play on our family team. The key is understanding that  when we all work together and do our best that that is when we all win.

Rainy Day Pasta

YouTube Video Tutorial: 

Rainy Day Pasta

As a kid I lived in the Portland, Oregon area from ages eight to thirteen. During this time I played soccer and have many, many memories of practicing and playing in the rain. I remember being cold, wet, and covered in mud on more than one occasion (especially when I played the position of goalie). Now I live in Phoenix and my kids, like me, now play soccer. Except in contrast to being wet, cold, and muddy they are usually hot, sweaty, and dusty.

When my family first moved from Oregon to Arizona I missed the rain and longed for the pitter-patter or rain drops to lull me to sleep at night. Although I now fall asleep to the sound of the deserts humming crickets I absolutely love it when I wake up to an overcast sky and get to enjoy the nostalgic feelings associated with a wet, rainy day. They are few and far between here in the Valley of the Sun, but about two weeks ago we were fortunate enough to be showered upon for several hours one afternoon. The rain poured quite heavily, there was lightening that sounded as though it was right overhead, and sure enough about an hour into this heavenly delight I was informed that soccer practice would be canceled that night due to the muddy fields.

Of course, given the conditions I played soccer in as a child I found this to be quite humorous, however, not so humorous was the task of now finding something for my children to do. I am all about free play so I sent them to the play room, but there was something about their energy that day that was just out of control. Instead of engaging in their usual make believe or  being enthralled for hours on end by loges, they were a bunch of wild monkeys wreaking havoc on my house, my ears, and my brain.

With no relief in sight (my husband was working late that night) and the inability to send the kids outside (due to the close proximity of the lightening) it was time for what I have termed as "super-engaging" with my kids. This means I drop whatever I am doing and become one hundred percent focused on taking all that craziness and redirecting it into a outlet that keeps everybody sane and happy.

There are many ways that I "super-engage" with my kids, but one of my favorites over the years has been making homemade pasta. It is super simple to make and the best part is that unlike a craft the mess or final outcome is edible (in other words if you are going to have to clean up a mess from dinner and a mess from your kids, why not combine them and just clean up one mess). In fact, you can really think of it as giving your child play-dough. I do not make it as much as I used to simply because our afternoons and evenings have become busier as the kids have gotten older, but every once in a while I still pull it out and it still works its magic every time. I know, it really does sound crazy, but I have found from years of trying just about everything humanly possibly on those long afternoons when you are on the home stretch, when dad is out of town, and when you are trying to just not kill anybody that productive outlets and tasks for your kids are game changers (actually they are literally life savers). Now, perhaps your children are unlike mine and their level of crankiness, the amount they fight, and the attitude they give is not directly linked to the amount of electronic time they have had that day (or for the past several days). But for me, those are in direct proportion to one another as is the amount of cooperativeness, kindness, and respect I receive when my children have worked and contributed to our family. This pasta is great because they are working to make their own food, but it is a fun kid of work.

So, here is my rainy day, life saving pasta. If you clean up as you go there is a very, very minimal mess to clean up at the end. If your kids will not eat it green I will include the recipe for the basic pasta dough as well as the spinach pasta dough. And if you do not have a food processor you can still make pasta by hand in a bowl, you will just not be able to make the spinach pasta. Both of these recipes are from the cookbook that came with my Cuisinart Food Processor, however I do not put salt in mine because I do not like the taste.

Pasta Dough:

2 C All-Purpose Flour (I use half unbleached white and half white whole wheat flour)
1 C Semolina Flour
4 Large Eggs

Use the large metal chopping blade in your food processor to pulse together dry ingredients. Then turn on the food processor and add one egg at a time until a dough ball forms. Let it run for another thirty seconds or so and that is it! Take it out, divide it into four equal parts, roll out each of those parts just until it is flat and can be put through your pasta machine.

Spinach Pasta Dough:

6 Ounces Fresh Spinach Leaves
1 1/2 C All-Purpose Flour (I use while whole wheat instead)
2/3 C Semolina Flour

Use the large metal chopping blade in your food processor to chop your spinach. Once the consistency looks even, scrape the sides of the bow and add in your dry ingredients. Pulse ten times or so and then turn on the food processor until a ball forms. Let it run for another thirty seconds or so and that is it! Take it out, divide it into four equal parts, roll out each of those parts just until it is flat and can be put through your pasta machine.

Side note for both of these: the dough for this is very, very different than the consistency of dough in baking. It is much more dry and each of your four dough balls may need to be pressed together with your hands to get the dough to stick. Do not try and make it more wet (I've made that mistake before) or else it will stick to the pasta machine.

I first run my dough through the machine on a 1 (the thickest setting) and then go to a higher setting to make it thinner. So you will end up running everything through twice on the flat setting and then once through the attachment that actually cuts it into pasta.

Here is a link to a machine like the one I have. I like a manual one because it gives your kids more to do (it takes more time, which when I am making pasta is what I am looking for). It works great for the larger linguine size noodles, but I have not had great success with the thinner noodles. Just an FYI.

How to Keep Your Child Busy in the Kitchen

Video Tutorial:

How To Keep Your Child Busy In The Kitchen

Let's face it. Some days we do not have the emotional or mental patience to have our children in the kitchen cooking with us. Been there, many a day. Whether you are having an extra rough day, or are possibly preparing something that is not conducive to little helping hands OR you have never cooked with your kids before and are looking for a way to ease yourself and them into this new routine you will want a few other options for your child to keep them entertained and happy while keeping them by your side. Establishing a routine of being together in the kitchen on a daily basis is important to your success as a family team even if your child is doing a puzzle or counting raisins. Listed bellow are my favorite items to use (FYI, I am not getting paid to promote any of this stuff. I'm just telling you want I use) and keep close by either in or right next to my kitchen.

Sorting Snacks:

Trader Joe's Golden Berry Blend (Golden Raisins, Cherries, Cranberries & Blueberries)

Any type of trail mix (preferably without m&m's since most children tend to only eat those)

Annie's Homegrown Organic Snack mixes are great. Olive's favorites are the farm animal crackers. 

Counting Snacks:

Almonds, Cashews, and Peanuts all work great.

Raisins
Blueberries
Cheerios (Trader Joe's just had pumpkin flavored ones that were super fun)

Envirokidz Corn Puffs (Gorilla Munch) 

Dried Fruit

Any of the Annie's Homegrown Organic Snacks
Mini Marshmallows (but only in really dire circumstances)

Puzzles:

Almost all of my puzzles have come from either a garage sale or a Ross/TJ Maxx/Marshalls. I've included links just so you can get an idea of what to look for for your child. 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GJSL0IW/ref=pd_sim_21_9?ie=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01GJSL0IW&pd_rd_r=81X5J8DE253CA1P149B0&pd_rd_w=7CBwF&pd_rd_wg=NiNJG&psc=1&refRID=81X5J8DE253CA1P149B0

I love pattern blocks. I put several different ones down because there is a range in their level of difficulty.

https://www.amazon.com/Melissa-Doug-Beginner-Educational-Double-Sided/dp/B00005O63Q/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1478798290&sr=8-3&keywords=melissa+and+doug+blocks+puzzle

https://www.amazon.com/Melissa-Doug-Pattern-Blocks-Boards/dp/B00006JZCG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1478798290&sr=8-2&keywords=melissa+and+doug+blocks+puzzle

https://www.amazon.com/MightyMind-40200-SuperMind/dp/B00001N2MX/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478798481&sr=8-1&keywords=super+mind+kids

https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Journey-Match-Shape-Shuffle/dp/B000F8VBQE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478798550&sr=8-1&keywords=shape+shuffle

And then any 12, 24, or 48 piece puzzle. It just depends on how old your child is. For children ages three and under you might want to consider sticking to puzzles that come in a wooden tray so that they have preset boundaries for where their puzzles pieces can go. Here is an example:

https://www.amazon.com/Melissa-Doug-Playful-Jigsaw-Puzzle/dp/B000GKXY66/ref=sr_1_23?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1478798253&sr=1-23&keywords=melissa+and+doug+puzzles

Cutting Fruit:
Bananas
Strawberries
Peaches/Nectarines
Watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe
Pears
Apples
Kiwi

Having them peal a Cutie is also great for their fine motor skills. Just start it for them and let them do the rest. Also, my kids all love eating their fruit with a toothpick, which is great because it usually takes them longer.

Egg Burritos

Video Tutorial:

Egg Burritos

You might know them as breakfast burritos, but at our house where we eat them morning, noon, and night, (just not all in the same day) they are called egg or sometimes ""eggie" burritos. They are my go to, the meal I can count on for a last minute dinner, an easy breakfast, or a quick lunch.

In case you missed it, you can read last weeks post on how these became a staple in our home and watch a video tutorial on  teaching your child how to crack eggs.

Ok, back to those egg burritos. Here are a few thoughts from making this video. While in in the process of cutting up the bell pepper I opened the fridge to grab an onion and Olive saw an apple. She immediately wanted to eat it and when I tried to encourage her to finish her job before getting the apple she completely shut down (as in she collapsed on the floor and had a meltdown). Out of respect for her I cut this part from the video, but feel it is important to share because shockingly things do not always run smoothly at our house while cooking together! We hit bumps in the road all of the time when somebody does not like their job, when somebody wants to go play, when somebody gets hungry, or when somebody is simply having a cranky day. It happens. And I feel that there are always a million and one reasons, distractions, excuses, you name it that keep us from feeling like we have the time or the ability to cook and to cook with our kids.

So here is what I did. I did not force her to continue cutting the pepper. Instead I cut her those apple slices she wanted, placed them on her cutting board, and let her eat them. The trick is that I placed them on her cutting board so that she remained in the kitchen, right next to me, with everything there, ready for her to continue when she had finished eating or felt ready to help again. I will talk about this concept more in an upcoming post and video, but for today I want to stress the importance of keeping them in the kitchen with you while you are cooking. It is the only way it becomes a routine for both you and for them. Even when my children were babies and it was mealtime prep I had them in the kitchen with me. Sometimes they were in swing, a bouncer, a bumbo, or a carrier on my back or chest. Like any other routine you establish with a child repeated exposure is the key.

Now, for the recipe.

1 tsp butter
2 Tbsp finely diced onion
1/2 medium bell pepper, cut into thin slices and then diced
5 eggs (our chickens just started laying eggs so their eggs are small to medium size)
Salt and pepper to taste

In a skillet melt the butter and saute the onions for 1-2 minutes on medium heat. Add the peppers and cook for another 2 minutes or so. Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl and add them to the pan. Cook until desired firmness.

My kids love their eggs rolled up in a warm tortilla with their favorite salsa and a little bit of sour cream (current favorite salsas are mango salsa and Trader Joe's Salsa Authentica). My favorite way to eat it is on a corn tortilla with Trader Joe's Hatch Valley Green Salsa, avocado slices, and arugula (I'm obsessed with arugula).

What I love about making this dish is that everyone can make it the way they like. I hear a lot from other moms that they end up eating a lot of kid food during the day because they make something for their kids and then do not feel like cooking for themselves. With egg burritos, this problem is virtually solved.  So, give it a try with your kids and remember when things get a little crazy that just like anything else in life the more you practice the better you get!

Sparkle Paints and Dish Towels

Last week I had to run to the craft store to buy paper supplies for an activity at church. As I browsed the paper isle my three year old provided ample support in filling my cart with a multiplicity of options, including her very own 6x6 paper pad. Although I normally do not make spontaneous purchases at the store, I was easily convinced that this item would provide hours of entertainment for my daughter given her current love of coloring and cutting any piece of paper to shreds. I gave her my consent to keep the item in the cart and began searching the isles for the second item on my list: a pack of glue sticks.

Not knowing their exact location I began briskly pushing my cart up and down each isle desperate to get out of the store as soon as possible. However, as any parent of young children knows, taking your child to the store ensures that your trip will be anything but quick. As my eyes searched up high for glue, my daughters eyes searched down low and discovered paint, sparkle paint. Before I knew it the paints were whisked up in her arms with a fervent and authoritative reminder that we had just run out of paint the day before.

There was no need to remind her of her previous choice in art supplies and the need to pick only one, for she initiated the conversation asking me to put back the paper (and new pack of crayons) in exchange for the paints. I reluctantly did so as I traded an independent activity for one that now required my supervision. As we walked up to the counter, she proudly carried the paints, verbally affirming that they were her very own.

I am not sure what struck me about her words, or maybe it was her tone that suddenly made me realize what I had done. In my desire to provide an outlet for my daughters artistic creativity I had unknowingly given her an unhealthy dose of instant gratification and a sense of entitlement towards an item she had not truly earned.

I then stopped in line and asked her what she was going to do to earn the paints, what job she might consider a fair exchange. I suggested that perhaps she fold and put away the dish towels and rags I had pulled from the dryer on our way out the door, to which she agreed. As we walked in the door at home, and I momentarily dreaded the task of reminding her of our deal, she promptly walked over to the couch and asked if those were the rags she needed to fold. To be honest I was a bit baffled by her assertiveness, but quickly and happily confirmed.

She cheerfully folded the rags, opting to roll some of the larger dish towels that were a bit "too tricky" to fold. I applauded her for being a big helper in our family (thank you Daniel Tiger) to which she then spouted out a stream of self-applauding phrases such as "I'm a super helper" and "I'm being a big helper in my family". Then, just as I was thinking this was all too good to be true she groaned about having to put everything away...but she did! With a little bit more encouragement along the way she mange to complete her task and then, without missing a beat, she climbed up to a bar stool and declared her readiness to paint.

(Although I was tempted by the thought, I did not refold or rearrange her rolled up dish towels. Surprisingly, almost a week later, I am still alive and it had no major or minor impact upon my ability to function in the kitchen.)

Because commodities are so easily accessible (and affordable) it can be easy to get into the habit of frequently purchasing items for our children that they have not earn. Although young children can not always earn the exact amount of money needed for a desired item, regardless of age, your child is completely capable of performing small tasks that teach them the value of work and the importance of contributing to the family team.

Chicken Eggs

YouTube Video Tutorial:

Teaching Your Child To Crack Eggs

Early in the spring of 2012 my husband and I decided to buy a batch of baby chicks for our kids. Although I would not consider myself to be a real lover of animals, these chickens proved to be the perfect pet for me and our entire family. As a graduate student and mother of two, my time was extremely limited and my husbands busy job left him with even less time than me.

However, we found that the time required to fed them our table scraps and check their food and water regularly with the kids seemed to be in harmony with our fast paced life. Within six months our baby chicks had grown and we began to enjoyed the daily delight of checking their nesting box for fresh eggs. Our young children loved to carry their small bucket to the backyard each afternoon and squealed with delight at the arrival of each new egg.

Surprisingly, the novelty of finding new eggs did not seem to wear off over the coming weeks and months, even as we found ourselves with more eggs than we knew what to do with. Egg burritos quickly became a family favorite as we tried to find a use for our never ending supply of eggs.

I remember the kids being extremely interested in the egg cracking process, always pulling up a chair to the counter to watch in amazement as I cracked and revealed the inside of each treasured egg. Although they were not allowed to crack the eggs on their own, their little hands could hardly resist the temptation to pick one up and gently (or forcefully in the case of my two year old son) tap it against the counter. They were so eager to help, and as their mother I was equally eager to keep their participation to gathering eggs and, on occasion, handing them to me to be cracked.

But then one afternoon all of that changed as I stood in my kitchen on the verge of tears. I was in my second semester of graduate school, I was taking thirteen credit hours (nine was considered full time) and I had recently picked them up from child care, desperate for a few minutes to spend together before running out the door again that evening. I felt the the divide of mother, wife, student, teacher, and homemaker each pulling at me and begging for my attention. Should I be a good mother and play with my kids? Or should I be a good homemaker and make a healthy meal.

Before going back to school I had committed to maintaining our family's healthy eating habits despite how busy our schedules may become and I knew to honor that commitment I need to make dinner. But in that moment I just stood there in the kitchen looking out the back door window longing to run outside and play with my children. And then I had an idea. Just like that I opened the door and called for them to come. I knew I did not have time to play with my kids and to make a healthy meal that night, but if I was open to the idea of a little mess, maybe, just maybe I might be able to let my kids help me and thereby find a way to make dinner and spend time with them.

They washed their hands and each pushed a chair up the counter just like before. However, this time instead of simply handing me the egg or tapping it on the counter only to have it taken away, I let them crack them all the way. A few, or possibly more, ended up on the counter and I carefully took the bowl, placed it under the lip of the counter and swiped the eggs in. For those eggs that I caught in time I placed my hands on top of my child's and helped them open the eggs and drop them into the bowl. Just as I had feared there were egg shells and messy fingers, even a few (or more) remnants on the floor. But it really was't that bad. Kids are messy, regardless of the activity, and as I have learned through years of parenting, messes can always be cleaned up. More importantly was that what had transpired in those few minutes was more than I could have every imagined. It literally changed the course of my life and that my our family's.

Over the coming months as I included my children in more cooking and more of the household duties I learned that working together has an incredible power to bind us together, to help us feel connected to one another. It has the ability to create unity. And as I continued through the remainder of my graduate program I was more able to balance each of the roles I initially felt so overwhelmed by. I realized that I did not have to do everything for everyone because our family was team. We were there to help each other.

Although this video will not show all the mess, and all the weeks or even months of consistent practice it took for my youngest daughter to master her egg cracking skills, I hope this video will give some guidance and a systematic approach to teaching your child to crack eggs. Make it a game, make it fun, and remember messes can always be cleaned up!