December's Girls Night Out

Please meets us at the Cheesecake Factory
December 2, 2008 at 8:00 P.M.

If you would like to carpool meet at Michelle's house
3821 South 3275 East at 7:30 P.M.
We hope to see you there for fun relaxing night on the town!

Fun Kid Idea!

Submitted by Michelle

This Month I covered my kids bedroom door with paper. They used it to decorate with all their fall decorations that they made at home and at school. It came in really handy
because they love to display their decorations. I think I will do the same thing for Christmas this year. Cover their door with red or green paper and let them go to town with the decorations.

November's Meeting Was Wonderful!

Thanks to Kimberly Dunford who made our Annual Service Project such a success!
Kimberly organized and helped us assemble kits for the still born babies at Intermountain Medical Center.
We put together blankets, hats and stuffed hearts that will be used to dress the still borns who are under 20 weeks old.
We had a great time working together and hope that these efforts will provide comfort to fellow mothers in their time of need.

Upcoming American Mother's Meeting October 14th

American Mothers Safe Harbor Chapter
Come join us for our annual service project!
November 11th 8:00pm

This year we will be putting together kits for the Intermountain Medical Center. These kits will be used for stillborns who are under 20 weeks old. We will be putting together blankets, hats and stuffed hearts. These kits will provide comfort to fellow mothers in their time of need.

Please bring your sewing scissors and sewing machines or sergers with white thread. If you don't have any of these or even if you do not know how to sew, please come anyway!

We need all the help that we can get!

Kimberly Dunford's Home
3838 South 1860 East
801-424-1829

Book of the Month

Confessions of a Slacker Mom
by Muffy Mead-Ferro

"As a slacker mom, I am very fond of 'natural consequences' when it comes to punishment. If Joe decides to eat a family pack of Cheetos, I think vomiting is a fit penalty. My jumping up and getting mad, and doling out my own form of punishment, would simply be redundant. So I can just stay right here where I am with my lovely cup of tea. Aaah.
My mother certainly didn't overwork herself in that regard. Right before my fifth-grade pictures were taken, I decided to give myself a makeover, and I trimmed up the bangs and sides of my curly hair with my dad's shaving razor. When I finished creating my new look, I resembled a poodle. Do you think my mom got mad at me? No, she just sat there and looked at me for a moment, then turned bak to her book in an effort not to laugh loudly."

A comical read that brings us all back to the basics of being a good parent. Through stories of her childhood, as well as her experience in raising her own children, Mead-Ferro reminds us to rely on our sense of pracitcality and to listen to our inner voice rather than bowing to the inevitable pressures of "perfect parenting" messages.

Fun Kid Idea

This is one turkey that won't get eaten this Thanksgiving. Your kids can make a flock to decorate the dinner table -- or for all the kid guests to take home as favors.
CRAFT MATERIALS:
Yellow and red felt
Tacky glue
googly eyes
brown pom-poms
pine cones
pipe cleaners
1. For each turkey, cut out a yellow beak and a red wattle from felt. Then glue the beak, wattle, and a pair of googly eyes onto a pom-pom to create the turkey's head.
2. Glue the pom-pom head to the tip of a pinecone. Allow the glue to dry. 3. Wrap a pipe cleaner around the middle of the turkey's cone body, starting from the top and twisting it together a few times on the underside. Separate the ends of the pipe cleaner (below the twists) and bend each tip into a 3-toed foot. 4. For the turkey's tail, individually wrap 3 or 4 pipe cleaners around the back of the pinecone, starting from the underside and twisting them together a few times on the top of the pinecone to secure them. Then loop both ends of each pipe cleaner to shape tail feathers.

Last Month's Meeting Was Fantastic!

Last Month we had Katie and Rachel come teach us about Nutrition and health. Rachel made some homemade granola that smelled great as she was teaching. We enjoyed healthy snacks and great company afterwards. Rachel talked about "Intuitive Eating" She suggested that intuitive eating means 1. Rejecting Diet Mentality and dressing for our here and now body. 2. Learning to honor our hunger and feel our fullness. 3. Make peace with food and give yourself permission to eat healthy and forbidden foods. All in moderation. 4. Avoid oughts, shoulds, need to's, and supposed to's- and use words such as can , okay, and may.
Rachel also said that "Intuitive eating" is about waiting and learning to be patient. A person will find themselves waiting to eat until hungry, waiting during a time-out in the midst of their meal to see if they are full, and also waiting for those emotions, which normally would lead to overeating, to pass.

We also learned about helping our children to eat right. Tips for helping children to eat better, include:
1. Allow your child to help with shopping and preparation of meal.
2. most children prefer foods at room temperature.
3. Offer your child smaller portions. Allow them to tell you if they want more.
4. Children need to taste a food 5-10 times before they learn to like it.
5. Always remember your child learns by watching you.

A Family That Eats Together, Stays Together

Recipe of the Month:

Breakfast for lunch or dinner is always fun! Here is a recipie for butter syrup that is so good. My family loves it on french toast, pancakes or waffles.

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda

Combine butter, buttermilk, and sugar in a saucepan and heat slowly to dissolve sugar. Add vanilla and baking soda, stirrring to combine. (from The Domestic Diva's Party Cookbook)

Family Fun Idea

Fall Carmel Apples

Make sure you wash the apples and let them dry early in the day so you don't have to worry about it when it is time to dip.
Lay out wax paper on cookie sheets
Remember to buy popsicle sticks
When melting the carmel the microwave works great.
Use short periods of time and stir periodically. Sometimes you can add a little evaporated mild to help the carmel melt smoothly. Don't use to much however, or your carmel will slide off the apple.
Get candy bars, gummy bears, skittles.
Let the kids roll the carmel apples in the crunched candy bars or stick their favorite candy around the sides.
Have the kids turn it into a service project and deliver them to their friends.

Updates from September's American Mothers Meeting

Thanks to all who helped make last months meeting such a success.

As mom's we are all better when we feel better. We had Wendi Dunford speak about mental health and well-being. She did a fantastic job and really had some good ideas that can help all of us mothers improve our thoughts and help with anxiety and depression. One thing that she told us can help us cope with life better is knowing that if we A. change our thinking B. we can change our feelings which C. can change our lives! Just knowing this can be half the battle.

Wendi also suggested some good books and websites that can give us better insight into our way of thinking and our feelings:

"Loving What Is" -by Byron Katie
http://www.thework.org/
The Feeling Good Handbook- by David Burns
Breaking the Patterns of Depression by Micheal Yapko
Overcoming Depression by Paul Gilbert

Announcements

The next American Mothers Safe Harbor meeting with be held

September 9th

8:00 p.m.

Tiffany Kirkham's Home

We will be hearing from Wendi Dunford, a counselor at LDS Family Services about our mental health and well being. I have heard her before and she is fabulous! You don't want to miss this one!!

A Family That Eats Together, Stays Together

Recipe of the Week:

Herb Foccacia Bread

3 1/3 cup white flour
1 envelope active dry yeast (2 ¼ tsp.)
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
1 ¼ cups warm water
3 tbsp. olive oil
Finely chopped fresh herbs like basil and rosemary (I often use dried basil or Italian spice mix instead)
Fresh chopped garlic (approx. 3 cloves)
Seasoning salt
Corn meal for sprinkling pan

Stir the flour, yeast, salt, and sugar together in a bowl. Slowly mix in the water and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil to make a dough.
Add herbs and garlic and knead for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the dough and lightly coat the bowl with oil.

Shape the dough into a ball, put it in the bowl, and turn the dough over. Cover with a dish towel and let rise until the dough doubles in volume. Grease a cookie sheet and sprinkle it with cornmeal.

*Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly. Cover with the upturned bowl and let stand for 10 minutes.
Roll and pat the dough into a rectangle and place on the prepared cookie sheet. Let rise for 15 minutes.

Using a lightly oiled finger, poke indentations all over the surface. Drizzle the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil over and sprinkle lightly with seasoning salt. Bake in a preheated oven at 450’F for 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a wire rack.

I sometimes let it rise in the pan much longer than 15 minutes so that it is fresh out of the oven when we eat. I started using canola oil instead of the very expensive olive oil. I also like to sprinkle the top with oregano and parmesan cheese.

To make bread sticks, I mix oil with seasoning salt in a bowl. I roll pieces of the dough into ropes and dip in the oil mixture to coat. Then I twist them and place on the pan to rise. The pan doesn’t need to be greased. I let them rise until it’s almost time to eat and then bake same as the bread.

*I don’t do this step.