Through My Eyes!!

Have you ever been divorced? Have you ever witnessed a child go through a divorce?

So have we.

Children have a difficult time expressing their feelings and thoughts!

After a family is restructured we ALL struggle with expressing our feelings thoughts and emotions.

As an adult we have developed skills to cope with all that life has in store for us.

The problem is, these skills aren't developed in a child and their life has been flipped upside down.

ALLOW US TO INTRODUCE THE SOLUTION:

THROUGH MY EYES: An interactive journal for children with divorced parents.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1357301200

Over 3 years ago our families experienced divorces and we are now on our journey creating a wonderful blended family. Through this journey we observed that this process has not always been smooth or easy for our children. When we would try and sit down and talk we often encountered tears and responses of nothing is wrong or I don't know. We tried all forms of adult communication that we knew of. That's when we started to write Through My Eyes. 

Through My Eyes was first meant four our own children, as a way to help open up healthy communication.

We are happy to say that it has worked for us we have had many AH-HA moments. Now we want it to work for you and your children.

• Express their feelings.
• Articulate what they are sad about.
• Share their thoughts.
• Realize things they weren't able to.
• See positive things in their life.
• Recall favourite memories.

After a long time of not making what seemed like any positive headway with how our kids were expressing themselves they are now working through the journal and having a positive response.

It is exciting to see their AH-HA moments as they go through the pages.

My most recent AH-HA moment was when one of my daughters showed me a page she filled with all the things that make her happy. It was so nice to see that she is happy about so many things.

It is because of our real life experience that we are happy to share Through My Eyes with you today!

The #1 Frustration for parents who have been divorced?

Not being able to communicate and help their children through this difficult transition.

Time doesn't heal all things! We have to be able to positively work through life's major hurdles and then in time all things get easier.

Change is an inevitable part of life and it is hard to see our children when they have difficulty coping with change and our efforts do not seem to be helping them.

Through My Eyes is a tool that will allow your child a safe place to put down all their thoughts and feelings.

Our Tips For Parents. 

• Have one journal for each one of your children. This will offer them a safe place to put their thoughts.
• Have a second journal to complete with each child or one as a family to complete together. This way you can use it as a way to open up communication between you and your children.

You will know if you need to have one extra journal per-child or not. If you have one child that is having a more difficult time with the transition then you may want to have a copy where you can sit down with them individually. At all times let your child know that they only have to share what they want to.

• Reflection
• Colouring
• Doodling
• Writing
• Challenges
• Positive Messages

 It's Time To:

• Invest in your child's future...
• Invest in communication...
• Invest in a stronger relationships...
• Invest in Through My Eyes!

There are so many children out there that can use the help found in Through My Eyes. Will you help us spread the word?

Favorite Family Day Activity

We love to make cookies together as a family. On this cold Family Day weekend we chose to make some very yummy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

This recipe uses no eggs and are very soft and chewy.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

• Egg Substitute (4 tbsp water, 2 tbsp oil, 4 tbsn baking powder) whisk together.
• 2 2/3 cup of all purpose flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon 
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cup butter or margarine melted
• 1 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp vanilla
• 4 cup oats
• 2 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

1. In a large bowl mix together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.
2. In a separate bowl mix together melted butter and sugars. Add vanilla and the egg substitute.
3. Mix the dry and wet ingredients together.
4. Stir in the chocolate chips.
5. Form dough into balls, about 1/4 cup.
6. Place on a greased cookie sheet.
7. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes.

 

Sometimes you need to have a dance break in the middle of baking.

The batter tastes good.

Mmmmmmmmm.

Our finished cookies.

Wow Time Flies

Wow time flies and we sure have been busy having fun.

Since our last post Robyn and I got married, and she moved to Saskatoon.

We had such a wonderful time with our family and frineds.

We spent much of our time camping with the kids all over Saskatchewan, Alberta and BC.

Now that half of the school year has gone by we have been busy with the kids activities and adjusting to life together.

Christmas was so much fun we spent time with family and friends in many places.

We were lucky that Santa brought us an Instant Pot!! This intimidated us at first but now we are enjoying it. We will start sharing some of our favorite recipes soon.

We have also been enjoying the outdoors skating and sledding as a family.

Robyn and I have wanted to write this post for a while and time just slipped away. We are happy to say that we are back and will be posting regularly again. We are excited to share our Blended Story with you as we focus on creating a healthy family that has lots of fun together. 

Please sign up for our mailing list on th main page, as this will keep you up to date on all of the things that we have to share. 

Robyn and I have written our first book to help children of divorce. The campaign is now live on Kickstarter. Please watch the video and click on the link below to support us on Kickstarter.

Today's Menu Eat It Or Go Hungry

In our house we strive to create a healthy environment. One large part of that healthy environment centres around food and nutrition. Our blog title and first picture displays our motto around food in our house, "Eat it or go hungry"! We make healthy food and expect that our girls eat it. This has allowed us to move away from the idea of "I don't like that" to an expectation that you eat what is prepared for you. With this idea as you have witnessed in may of our posts we like to prepare food together. This helps our girls want to eat the food that is prepared because they have helped make it.



Today we are making mini banana loaves. Twice the stirring equals twice the fun!!!

We used a great recipe (Click Here For It) that was very yummy. Our only alteration to the recipe was that we added Hershey's milk chocolate chips!!! They make everything better in our opinion.

We like to spray our pans with non stick spray instead of using liners. This way the kids aren't struggling to pull off the liners when they eat the loaves.

Rainbow Breakfast

Our Blended Family was really busy over Easter. We got behind on sharing our posts so get ready for a few of our Easter activities. 

One of our first things we did was make colorful rainbow pancakes. This was really quite simple and fun to do. 

 

We made one of our favorite pancake recipes and divided the batter into 4 bowls. We then added food colouring into each bowl to create our rainbow of colours. Adding in a scoop of batter from each colour made our colours come together in each pancake.  

Once in the pan simply cook as normal. TIP The lower the heat the less browning your colours will have as they cook.  

Having extra help while cooking is always fun.  

Sometimes the help stops and says hey take a picture of me and my juice box!!!

We topped our pancakes with raspberries, blackberries and syrup. They were gobbled up by all of us. 

What kind of Easter activities do you do as a family?

Do Your Best and Learn From the Rest

 

We have a motto for our blended family, "Do your best and learn from the rest". As a family we always strive to do what is best for us as individuals, a family and others. However we are human and therefore not perfect. Imperfection is Ok, it's what makes us human. Life is complicated and everyone's perspectives and needs are unique. As a family we try to support each other in all that we do. This manifests itself in all kinds of ways such as eating meals at the table together without our devices, going for walks or bike rides together as a family, watching sports activities that any of us participate in, camping as a family and even activities such as doing homework. 

All of these activities are healthy supporting things which help strengthen our family dynamic. As parents we want our kids to know that we are there for them and that we love them. When a family blends there are new people in the equation, new immediate and extended family members. This can add new traditions, experiences and expectations for our family or individuals and that's Ok. One of the guarantees in life is that there will always be change and the need to constantly grow. 

We strive to constantly build an environment where we can grow as a family and support each other as individuals. When we fail to achieve this we try to identify how and why this happened. Each day as a family we hope to do our best and learn from the rest.