Forgiveness

Our son had just finished his bath and as I was drying him, insisted on wanting to play with a blanket of his. As a result, I took the blanket off him so I could finish the job at hand and said that if he wanted it back, he would have to say "Sorry mummy."

He cried ,"No, I don't want to say sorry mummy!" ... Well, then you can't have the blanket back.
He then asks whether his toy dog can say sorry mummy instead. So here he is in his fresh pyjamas, holding out his dog, saying in the sweetest of voices, "Sorry mummy." Well, my heart melts, but that's not the point of this exercise is it? I explained that his dog hasn't been naughty, he has, so he needs to say sorry.

Still, he refuses. In the end, I told him how easy it is. "Just say sorry mummy, then I'll give you a kiss and a cuddle and you can play with the blanket again!" In the end, he did and he got the kiss and cuddle, and also the blanket, which he played with for all of 5 seconds before moving onto the next thing.

Isn't this just an example of how proud we can be - even at such a young age, when not much is at stake? How important it is to teach our kids how to say sorry and ask for forgiveness. How important it is to teach them how to forgive too ... maybe in another post.

How many times have you met someone who couldn't say sorry? As if uttering those words would somehow kill them? It all begins now, when they're so little.

This is the follow on to a post I did ages ago on Guilt. We've got to teach our kids to take responsibility for their actions and admit they're guilty when they've done something wrong. This includes admitting they are guilty for pushing another kid, even if that other kid did start it. But as I said last time, it doesn't end there. The next step is asking forgiveness and hopefully receiving it. Then, there's restoration.

So in our example? If I want our son to be able to ask for forgiveness, then I can remind him what happens when there is restoration in a kiss and a cuddle. Once forgiven, we make a fresh start :-) I know this is a lesson that will be learned many times over - but isn't it great to know that no matter how many mistakes you make, your mum and dad will be there to forgive you and reach out again in love.

As I type this, I know that not every person has received this type of love from their mum and dad, and find it so hard to forgive and love again (in the bigger world I mean). So if we haven't received this forgiveness and love from others, how can we give it out? Surely, we must find forgiveness ourselves, then will be able to forgive others.

"You are forgiving and good, O Lord,

abounding in love to all who call to you.

Hear my prayer, O Lord;

listen to my cry for mercy.

In the day of my trouble I will call to you,

for you will answer me."
Psalm 86:5-7

I'm hoping this is not coming across as self-righteous - my first post on Guilt was actually because I was guilty. Guilty in so many ways, and so this path of asking forgiveness and being restored again through love is something I'm learning and practising everyday. This is something that's brought freedom to my life and something I'm hoping to pass onto our son too.

I hope this path of guilt, forgiveness and restoration brings freedom to your life too.

Asian style mince with noodles

I'm of Chinese heritage, while my husband is Australian. Our son knows he is "half Aussie and half Chinese." That doesn't sound very interesting in type, but it is gorgeous when he says it in person.

I'm a little dubious about using imported products, especially asian products which could easily be contaminated by peanuts or something similar. If they can stuff up baby milk powder then you just don't know what could happen with other products.

But alas, in my desire to feed our son a little more variety, I am on the search for products I can use. I look for products that specifically have allergy advice on it. If it has a label saying "gluten free" I'm hoping that their manufacturing controls are more seriously enforced and therefore safer for our son. Australian made always inspires a little more confidence but that's not always easy to find.

If you're in Australia, I'd be most interested to know what sauces other allergy mums use. You'll give me more confidence to try and expand to even more flavours.

So here's my recipe for Asian style mince - actually my picture is when I served it with San Remo Soup Pasta, but you could do anything - rice noodlse, spaghetti, soup pasta ... I believe it's called fusion!

Eskal rice noodles - cook according to packet directions.
Or serve it with pasta, rice or potato.


500g beef mince
1 onion, diced
1 medium sized carrot, diced
1 handful of beans, diced or perhaps 1C frozen peas
2T Abundant Earth Tamari rdeuced salt soy sauce (wheat free)
1T Chang's Tamari Hoi Sin sauce (gluten free)
1 stock cube (optional)
water

Brown the beef and onion in whatever oil you use. We use sunflower oil.
Add vegetables and sauce, bring to boil then reduce heat to simmer.
Our son doesn't use any store bought stock yet, but to flavour the adult portion I added a stock cube and sprinkled chilli flakes on top.
Simmer at least 5 mins to cook the vegetables, or longer if you want the mince to break up more.
Add water if it starts to get too dry.
Add cooked rice noodles or pasta, stir to combine.

Best served in a character bowl like Bob the Builder!

Look and Find Tigger - Book Review

A toddler's life is full of fun, and hopefully the life of their mother and father can be equally as full of fun if we take the time to relax and enjoy.

We've just completed a census in Australia, and it was interesting and slightly scary, just how many hours I spend on housework every week. This included cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, washing etc. Realising that it is nearly equivalent to a full time job explains why I do seriously get so sick of it! I just can't imagine how mothers used to handle it in the days before automated washing machines, microwaves, dish washers and late night shopping! I still can't imagine those mums who use cloth nappies either, but that's for another post. Sorry, I didn't mean to allienate some of you super conscientious mums.

Being a mum of a child with life-threatening food allergies means a slightly increased load of washing since any splash of milk or sauce that I get on my clothes means it has to go into the wash. Perhaps I need to eat more carefully and not just shovel food into my mouth?? But sometimes mums have to eat very fast indeed!

Anyway, so this post is dedicated to the fun we have, in the midst of life-threatening food allergies.

 

I just borrowed a book called Look and Find Tigger. It's gorgeous and similar to the Where's Wally series, except it features Tigger, Winnie the Pooh and friends. Most kids will already be familiar with these characters so the aim is to find them in the midst of all the crazy pictures. The pictures are quite detailed, so the book can amuse them for quite some time. Once you find the characters, there are lots of other little things to look for. The uniqueness is in the attention to detail.
The reason I mention this book is because of the importance of a child being able to read food labels in the future. Words can be quickly recognised, but I didn't really want our son's first reading words to be all the foods he can't eat. Talk about demoralising! Plus, even when he can recognise the word milk, egg or nut. What if the labels says Milk-free or Egg-free? What if he reads that, but then the food isn't Nut-free? So reading labels will be important but obviously not yet.

It is actually the ability to scan and recognise characters in different forms that is being developed by these books or games. For mums who have to read food labels, being able to quickly scan very wordy labels is definitely an advantage. For those who are interested, this ability features in your standard IQ test, so check out this book if you want your child to score well in this sort of test. Or, if you just like Tigger and want to snuggle up with a good book and lovely child, this book is for you too.