rejoice a little louder, feast a little slower, love a little stronger

Dear friends, count your blessings, savor the moment, hug a little tighter, rejoice a little louder, feast a little slower, pray a little deeper, love a little stronger. Enjoy your holiday.

love,
Adriel xx

adriel booker | the mommyhood memos | 2011
do not reproduce without written permission

10 tips for hosting an awesome easter egg hunt (without blowing the budget)

Celebrating holidays is one of those things in life that makes my little heart sing. I LOVE holidays. And I love them even more now that I'm married with a growing family of my own. Ryan and I have had so much fun creating our own family traditions... but our Easter traditions are still in their infancy.

Our first Easter together was the week before our wedding. Our second was while we were doing a short training course in Spain. Our third was spent on different continents while I took newborn Levi to America to meet my family. And now we have our fourth...

This year we decided to host an Easter egg hunt and morning tea for several of our friends and their children. We did it the week before Easter (on a Saturday so as not to conflict with church) since several of the families we wanted to invite were headed out of town for the holiday weekend (and so was my husband - boo-hoo).

It was a beautiful morning... Kids running and giggling, parents lounging and chatting, everyone happy and having fun. And we pulled it off on a fairly tight budget. Here's how:


1. Send the parents instructions for the older kids ahead of time. Ask them to prep the the kids so that they won't burst from their cars to scoop up all the obvious eggs (set out for the littlies) before they're supposed to.

2. Ask the kids (parents) to bring their own Easter baskets, but have a couple of spares on hand just in case anyone forgets.

3. Get your group photo of all the children together before the hunt begins. This way the older ones won't be too hyped up on sugar to sit still and the younger ones won't be pining for nap-time. (I learned this one the hard way.) If you're lucky like me you'll get two of the twelve kids actually looking at the camera... only one of which is looking and smiling. Bonus tip: Include nose-picking toddlers (can you spot him?) and sleepy newborns for added interest. Bonus tip #2: Get your husband to put Easter grass on his head and do a little jig... it will at least get you a few genuine smiles from those not ready for nap time (ie: my son).

the "after" group shot. next year i will definitely be getting the "before" shot!

4. Go over the instructions again with the kids once you're ready to start. Keep it short and encourage the big kids to help the littlies.

5. Release the kids in "heats" according to age. Let the littlest kids go first to find all the obvious eggs and then release the bigger kids 10-15 minutes later to storm the yard and collect their bounty. Alternately, if your property is big enough, send the big kids to the front yard and the little ones to the back yard.

6. In addition to a few "real" eggs, use plastic eggs with candy and prizes inside of them. When the hunt is over, the kids can open their eggs, keep all their treasures, and then return the plastic eggs for next year's hunt. (Give them the heads-up during instruction time so they won't be too disappointed to hand back the shells.)

my favorite little hunter. (i'm a tad biased.)

7. Have a spread of yummy treats and make sure there are a few healthy choices to balance out the chocolate overload. We did a potluck-style morning tea, with all of the parents bringing a little something to share.

8. Set out an Easter basket with some candy for the parents just in case the kids don't want to share... and to keep the oversized kids (husbands) from hunting the eggs themselves. (Although I admit, by the end of the morning it was mostly chubby little hands digging into the parents' basket to supplement their own baskets. Clever kids.)

9. Make sure to get lots of photos. Try to get mid-hunt-action shots, showing-off-the-basket shots, detail shots, smiley posed shots, parent shots, chocolate-faced shots, and sweet-girls-in-pretty-dresses shots.

10. Remember the reasons why you celebrate in the first place. Every family is different, but for ours, we celebrate because of our faith. We love the party, we love the chocolate, we love the bunnies, we love the tasty treats... but more importantly, we love what God has done for us. And that is our real reason for celebrating. You may or may not share our faith, but no doubt you celebrate because holidays are a great reason to gather the family together. Whatever your reasons are, remember them and prioritize them!

Dear friends, will you be hosting an Easter egg hunt this year? Or have you hosted one in the past? Please add your tips and tricks to my list or tell me about your own plans.

glad to have so many reasons to celebrate,

Are you an expecting mom? Have you linked-up yet?
Join the Bloggin' Babes and Babies of 2011.

adriel booker | the mommyhood memos | 2011
do not reproduce without written permission

little teachers: the priceless easter gypsy

Meet my little gypsy friend from Cairo:

I spent most of 2006 living in Cairo, Egypt with the non-profit I work for. I look back on that year as one of the best years of my life. Literally.

During the lead-up to Easter, I was amazed at how this Christian holiday was celebrated in this largely Muslim nation. (You may or may not know, but there are 12+ million Christians in Egypt - a small but significant minority.)

Outside of every church (especially the Coptic Orthodox churches) were people of all ages selling flowers, decorations, and other beautiful hand-made wares and gifts. People came out of the woodwork to collect woven baskets and crosses made of palm leaves. Everywhere you turned were bright flowers and smiling eyes preparing for the celebration of this significant religious holiday.

This little gypsy girl captured my imagination and a piece of my heart as I met her on Palm Sunday (the week before Easter). Her big eyes, her curly hair, her adorable freckles and crooked smile... the small trail of snot stretching from her nose to her naturally shiny, pink lips. She was just perfect, beautiful and perfect.

She was part of a gypsy family--a people often looked down on by other Egyptians--and yet even despite her initial shyness she met me with confidence, warmth, and joy in her eyes.

Precious gypsy princess showed me her woven treasures and reminded me that there are treasures within all of us - even those normally looked down on by other segments of society - and that every treasure is just that: exquisite, priceless, and beautiful.

Although we spoke different languages and exchanged no words beyond my fumbling hello, thank you, and goodbye in Arabic, I think of her every Easter season and remember that...

There are treasures all around me, 

if only I'm willing to open my eyes for them.

Dear friends, what life lessons have you learned from Little Teachers lately? Any that are specific to the Easter season?

treasure hunting,


p.s. This post is part of a series - All the Children of the World: Little Teachers - where I feature a photo of a precious little one that I've met during my volunteer work in developing nations over the last 11 years, as well as what I've learned about life and parenting through meeting them.

{Also linking in with the Community Writing Project on Mother Inferior.}

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Are you pregnant? Link up with the Bloggin' Babes and Babies of 2011.

Share your creativity and Easter inspiration by submitting your Easter card to our Easter card linky (closing April 21).

adriel booker | the mommyhood memos | 2011
do not reproduce without written permission

easter card link-up!

Have you made an Easter card this year? Show us your design and help us spring into holiday mode! (Yes, cheesy pun intended!)

Here's my example:

Just write a post including your card and the Easter card linky image above (right-click and copy the url) and then link-up here. The linky will be open until Thursday, April 21st. A guest judge and I will then pick some favorites and feature your card and your blog on Easter weekend!

Categories I will choose from include: 

• best faith-inspired card
• cutest kid card
• best photography card
• most clever/funny card 
• overall favorite card

I may expand the categories... based on how you inspire me with your work! I'm looking forward to featuring some of your blogs and showing off your fabulous creativity!!

Dear friends, I'm getting so excited for Levi's first Easter egg hunt... and all other things "Easter" including dressing up for church, great food with friends and family, and celebrating my faith. How are your Easter plans shaping up this year?

happy egg coloring,


p.s. If you do enter, please try and visit at least one other blog that's entered as well!


Update 4/22: I've canceled this contest (and deleted the linky) due to insufficient entries. :(

Are you an expecting mom? Have you linked-up yet? Join the Bloggin' Babes and Babies of 2011 here.

adriel booker | the mommyhood memos | 2011
do not reproduce without written permission

a day for love

It's love day. Instead of focusing on who is loving me today... I'm focusing on who I love. 

Because there are so many people in my life that are so... love-worthy.

Dear friends, I hope you are not only feeling incredibly loved today, but that you are absolutely full of love to give away - both to those who mean the most to you and to the stranger you pass on the sidewalk. Whether you are dating, married, or single... childless or surrounded with children, may this be a day that resounds with love triumphing over loneliness.

with love,

P.S. 

{to my darling husband}

{to my sweet mom}

adriel booker | the mommyhood memos | 2011 
do not reproduce without written permission

another thing i love about australia

In honour of Australia Day today (our national holiday... kinda like the 4th of July) I'm doing two things:

1. Spelling "honor" as honour.

2. Showing you one of the many things I love about this nation:

In case you haven't worked it out already... Australia has special parking spots (just after the disability spaces) at grocery stores and shopping centers that are designated for parents with babies and small children.

Genius I tell you. Pure genius.

Just one of the many things I love about this nation.

And now for a bonus... my favourite pint-size Aussie, all dressed to impress for Australia Day:

levi's shirt says "fair dinkum aussie" (fair dinkum = aussie slang for true/legitimate/real}

Dear friends, happy Australia Day to my Aussie mates! And to the rest of you... feel free to hop on the Oprah Wagon and come and join us for a holiday over here. You will indeed love it too.

aussie, aussie, aussie, oi, oi, oi,

adriel booker | the mommyhood memos | 2010 
do not reproduce without written permission

the destination? or the journey?

Thirty-four-and-a-half. That’s the number of hours we spent waiting for planes and layin-over on our recent trip from Townsville-Sydney-San Francisco-Honolulu-Kona-Los Angeles-San Francisco-Bend-San Francisco-Sydney-Brisbane-Townsville.

I’m not ready to take that trip again anytime soon.

Thirty-four-and-a-half hours.

Oh, and that was not including our overnight layover in San Francisco due to inclement weather (which would take us to well over forty-five hours).

I’ve heard it said that it’s about the journey, not the destination… And I get that. But let me tell you, we wouldn’t go on a journey like that unless there were some really fabulous destinations on the other side.

So maybe it’s about the journey and the destination.

But when you have a travel itinerary as epic (read: long) as ours, you have to make the most of the journey… for everyone’s sake.

A few glimpses of how we spent our thirty-four-and-a-half hours:

We tried to make the most of our thirty-four-and-a-half.

There were frequent trips to Starbucks. There was Chinese take-out. There were naps on chests. There were naps on floors. There was window shopping. There were borrowed highchairs. There were meals on the floor. There were adventures in the Ergo. There was territory marked out in forgotten waiting areas. There were many repeats of the same four board books. There were handfuls of Cheerios… many handfuls. And there were even some extra moments with grandparents and friends to help us in the wait.

Some of those hours were better spent than others… but overall we did try to enjoy some “family time” together since it was [mostly] just the three of us with nowhere to go and nothing to do… except wait. And enjoy the moment.

Dear friends, do you find it easy or hard to enjoy the journey? Are you a “destination person”, a “journey person”, or a combination of the two?

arrived… home, that is,

adriel booker | the mommyhood memos | 2010 
do not reproduce without written permission

i, too, have a dream

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. –Martin Luther King, Jr.

{while living for a short time in fiji with my parents. 1980.}

I was lucky to spend part of my early childhood in Fiji and other parts of Australasia, but largely I grew up in a very “white” town in small town America.

Although my hometown has changed and grown over the years to include a large Hispanic population as well as growing communities of Polynesians, Africans, Arabs, Asians, and other nationalities, it hasn’t been until the last fifteen years that you could even find any “ethnic” food beyond Mexican or Chinese, much less people that come from those parts of the world. (Thank God there are now many restaurants serving Thai, Indian, Japanese, Lebanese, etc. and the dear people that bring those foods with them.)

But largely my hometown was (and is) “white”. In fact, there was only one person in my entire middle school that did not have Caucasian decent. (Keep in mind this is twenty+ years ago now.)

And yet, even as a little girl I went through a phase where I dreamt of being a “black lady” when I grew up. From the depths of my soul I desperately wanted to be able to sing “Amazing Grace” like the African-American gospel choirs I’d see on television and in the movies. I thought surely it’s impossible without that beautiful, dark skin and curly black hair.

Naïve, I know.

And although I didn’t hold a negative stereo-type of African-American women, it was a stereo-type nonetheless.

We all hold stereo-types, whether we are aware of it or not.

Some of them may be racially driven. Others might have to do with an area geographically (ie: New Yorkers are rude, Southerners are polite, Californians are superficial). Still others have to do with economics, careers, social standing (ie: rich people are snobs, poor people don’t keep house well, librarians are quiet and shy). I could go on and on listing examples of how we all have stereo-types tucked away, hidden within our worldview.

As an American living abroad, I’m faced with these all the time (ie: Americans are loud, pushy, egocentric, and obese).

So here I am—an American in Australia—thinking about Martin Luther King, Jr. (a great man for which this nation doesn’t stop to recognize in terms of a holiday at least) and I wonder to myself, would he be pleased by what he sees today in our society?

In America we have our first African-American president. 

In Australia we have our first woman Prime Minister.

Those two offices alone prove that we’ve come a long way, baby. Amazing.

And yet I sometimes think that since we’ve “arrived” at this place… we run the risk of being satisfied… and growing complacent… and staying there.

Certainly there is still a long way to go.

With the rise of countless celebrities, athletes, and political figures of racial backgrounds other than “white”, we can say that progress is being made. (This is a good thing. This is a wonderful thing!) But my heart still breaks for those who’ve not yet made the spotlight. Or even worse, maybe they have… but only in a negative light.

What about the Hispanic? What about the Arabs? What about the Chinese? The Koreans? What about…

And then the question must be pointed back at myself.

What am I doing to help my son (and future children) grow up in an environment where they learn to embrace people from all walks of life… racial and otherwise?

This is such a challenging topic, and I certainly don’t presume to have all the answers, but as a parent I want to be deliberate about instilling the values of MLK Jr. into my children.

I have some ideas about how to help facilitate that (maybe the subject of a future post) and yet I know that the two most important things I can do to help my children learn to embrace people different than themselves are:

1) To lead by example. Every parent knows instinctively that young children easily adopt our attitudes, behaviors, etc. The question is, are we deliberate in how we lead as we set their foundations in place?

2) To give them exposure to lifestyles, cultures, and people who are different from us. I believe this should be a combination of “real life” exposure to friends, cultures, etc. as well as through things like story books, purposeful toys, etc.

My desire is the same as Dr. King’s – to see my children grow up in a world that gives opportunity and reward and accolade based on character… not on the “color of their skin” or a million other things that his phrase can represent.

I’m keenly aware that I have to help create that world.

I’m also keenly aware that I must include my children in the process, because they are the ones who will be running things soon. They are the ones who need to know how to treat others before they can expect to be treated with fairness, dignity, kindness, respect, and most of all love.

Dear friends, does this concept that MLK helped push to the forefront of American thinking impact your parenting? How?

doing my best to be deliberate,

adriel booker | the mommyhood memos | 2010 
do not reproduce without written permission

what's the best first birthday gift?

It's hard to believe... but our little boy is turning one in two weeks! Although my husband jokes that he would like to "spoil" him with toys, I'm more of a believer in kids having a few quality toys... for lots of reasons that I won't get into at the moment.

(By the way, I don't count books or musical instruments in the same category - the more the merrier if you ask me. Levi loooves reading stories and loves, loves, loves his little guitar that he got for Christmas. Correction: he's obsessed with his guitar.)

We've already bought him a wooden Noah's Ark shape sorter toy for his upcoming birthday, and would like to buy him something else as well.

As we're thinking about what to get, I'd love to hear what you think are the best birthday gifts for a one year old! What was the biggest hit at your little one's first birthday?

Here are some of the ideas we've had so far:

love this fire truck by green toys - totally made out of recycled materials!

although we think a ride-on toy would be great, we're up in the air about the
specific one... but thought this pre-tricycle might be a good option.

levi loves the swings! a toddler swing would be a bit hit, no doubt.

is it crazy to consider purchasing a small drum? levi LOVES the drums soooo much.....

little xylophones are so much fun! this one by hohner kids has great reviews for it's tuning,
but is hard to find. of course there's always fischer price or little tykes...

another winner from green toys - made out of fully recycled materials.
a great precursor to the big, metal tonka trucks!

what parent doesn't hope their kid will end up loving legos?!
mega blocks are the prefect start for the little guys.

There also also push toys, wagons, little people toys... the list goes on!


Oh, how to choose?!!! I never really thought that toys were a big deal until I had a child of my own... and now I get it. They are so much fun! I want to choose well, spend our money wisely, and get him something that he enjoys that will also be durable and long-lasting.


Dear friends, what are your best first birthday gift ideas??

sooo excited,


p.s. This is not a sponsored post. All of these toys are just things we're personally thinking of purchasing.

adriel booker | the mommyhood memos | 2010 
do not reproduce without written permission