#parenting

Gingerbread House Recipe

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Christmas is here and so it’s time to get a little gingerbready! We did a cute little ginger bread house this season. And I must say it was such an interesting project to work on.

The thumb rule that goes with doing a gingerbread house is that there is no rule except to have fun throughout. Doing it from the scratch including baking gives you the advantage of keeping the ingredients as per your taste, specially if you don’t want too much of the spice content. Decorating it is the more fun part; of course chowing it down being the most!

Ingredients:

For baking-

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened to room temperature

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup light molasses or dark corn syrup

2 tablespoons of water

For constructing and decorating-

Royal icing

Butter cream icing

Assorted candies ( Gummies, Skittles, decorating candies, sprinkles etc.)

Directions:

Preparing the shapes: First cut out paper templates for the various shapes required for the house. You will need two of each shape i.e. two rectangles 3 by 5 inches to make front and back, two rectangles 3 by 51/2 inches for the roof. Two pieces for the ends of the house; 3 inches wide at the base, 3 inches to the roof line, and slanted to a peak 5 1/2 inches from the bottom.

Make the cookie dough: Add all the dry ingredients together that is flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, allspice together in a large bowl. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar and molasses together on medium speed until completely smooth and creamy.

Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until combined.

Wrap cookie  tightly in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours. (This is super important else cookie will lose the shape and constructing the house will be difficult.)

Cutting dough into shapes: Remove the dough from the refrigerator and make two balls of it. Roll each ball between parchment paper. The dough will be a little difficult to handle; the parchment will do much of the work. Keep the rolled dough slightly thick (around ¼ inch). Using a pizza cutter or small knife, cut the dough into the gingerbread house template shapes. Re-roll dough scraps so you have enough dough for the whole house. Any extra dough can be used to create fun shapes using cookie cutters like a star or an X-mas tree or a ginger bread man.

Baking: Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line 2-3 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Arrange gingerbread house shapes onto prepared baking sheets, and bake the house pieces for about 15 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Remove from the oven and allow shapes to cool completely on the baking sheets or on the counter.

Assembling and decorating: Select a base for the gingerbread-house. Stick the front piece of the house on the base using the royal icing. Stick the remaining sides and roof using the icing glue. Hold in place for a few minutes. You will need supporting objects for pieces to stay. Wait for some time before doing the roof so that the base sets properly.

Before decorating, the icing on the entire house must completely set. Allow the entire house to set at room temperature for at least 3 hours, before decorating. Decorate with butter cream icing and all the candies and stuff of your choice. Let your beautiful creation be a candy to your eyes for a day or two and then of course it’s ready to be munched down!

Tips and tricks: 

1. Cookie dough can be made 3 days in advance. Baked pieces of the house can be stored for 1 week and can frozen for upto 3 months.

2. Cool the baked gingerbread house pieces on a flat surface, else the corners will curl a bit.

3. If you are not a great fan of too much spices in the cookie, you can alter the ratio according to yourself; I did.

Raising kids with Creative Thinking and Unique Ideas

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It always feel happy to see our children developing into individuals with creative thinking, unique ideas and ability to assertively express what they think.

But what substance these kids are made of? How and they are able to develop themselves with the ideas they have? How they are so clear in expressing themselves? And what makes them so assertive and unique about their ways and actions?

Well! They might inherit a great deal from their genes, of course we can’t do much about it. But, what we can actually do about is favorably create the surroundings and the atmosphere they grow in.

As parents, we play a tremendous role in making them become what they actually do. Well, the factors that decide on the thinking and mind-set they’r going to grow with are all around us. Just that we need to pay a little attention to smaller details relating to them.

Curiosity in kids is really good

Curiosity is something kids are naturally blessed with, more or less. If you are a parent (or even if you are not) to young children, I am sure you will be totally able to relate with such constant bombardment of questions that they can come up with. Well, the good news is that curiosity in kids makes them more intelligent, confident and outgoing. It is a natural phenomenon which lets them learn and grow. They explore a range of opportunities and possibilities much required for the growth of their brain and personality on the whole.

Positive and encouraging responses nurture it, while excessive control and regulations kill it. For this, it is extremely important that we not only answer their queries, but also encourage them with elements that spark curiosity by giving them hypothetical situations and asking open ended questions.

It’s great if kids are encouraged to make their choices

We all want our children to grow as assertive, strong and opiniated adults but at the same time we want our children to be passive, pliable and obedient as kids. The two hardly go hand in hand. The ability to give their opinions comes from their very childhood. When they are making choice of their clothes no matter how wrongly paired those are, they are expressing themselves. Allow them to exhibit their own personalities. When they refuse to get ready on time, they are learning the consequences from their mistakes. Let them learn from their inactions.

Such allowances can be messy and overwhelming. After all, we can’t allow our kids to rule the lives. But that is what parenting is all about. Guidance, gentle explanations and coaching go a long way in regulating them to the way they respond. How successful we are going to be in the same depends on how well we try to connect with them.

Talking back and disagreements are good sometimes

Well, this may sound simple but it’s really not cool when that actually happens. Imagine you asking your kid to do his homework and he says why should I? Actually it’s not easy to listen to their back talks when what we are saying is right and is for their good. We as parents want to have the last word on whatever it is.

But if we try to understand talking back is a huge part of the formation of their personality. They want to make their choices. They are not ready to accept what is dished out to them. Yelling, arguing back or supressing through powerful means is just of no help. When they disagree with us, they are displaying a strong mindset. The best way is to diverge them to a different way to reach a solution.

Allowances for being imperfect are okay

As parents we have a tendency to get our child draw, colour or write perfect. Well, in reality the expectation should be to do well rather than be perfect. Over guiding children to colour with all the colours in boundaries or write spellings without mistakes restricts their thinking. Those little imperfections help them discover creative and their own approach to doing a particular thing. It’s very important that we guide them to the extent and in a way that doesn’t hamper their creativity

The power of appreciation can never be underestimated

As adults, we all like to be appreciated and so goes for out kids. It’s one of the greatest ways of enforcing positive behavior.

Praising or appreciating here doesn’t mean praising them for giving the best result or for some accomplishment or for some innate trait they have like their smartness, intelligence or talent. It’s got to get wider with praising for their efforts, gestures, and strategies. It’s more about trying and not getting distressed even if they are not the best. It’s more about getting better even if they do well. It’s more about attempting something even though they were not confident about it. It’s more about trying hard to reach the goal they decide for themselves.

So let’s appreciate for listening, appreciate for understanding, appreciate for being responsible, and appreciate for being thoughtful!

It’s a great practice to communicate by narrating stories

How often we notice that kids pay special attention if we tell some present or past incidence or narration or practices about our own selves or someone they know . This means, it can be a great way to diverge their thought process to meaningful inferences and conclusions through stories. That can be anything from being true or concocted as far as they are going to leave some good impression on our children.

Even kids can be made to narrate through simple practices; narrating about a particular place they went to, drawing an event or function they attended, correlating an object with something using their own thoughts and ideas or anything.

If we try to understand it, parenting is more about growing ourselves in raising children than anything else and they are completely a reflection of how well we are able to bring it in our practice.

Those who are having it tough this Mother’s Day, we see you!

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Mother’s day is round the corner. The day which mamas all around the world look forward to– to be loved, surprised and spoilt.

And why not! It’s such a feeling of pride, fulfillment and joy for mothers to be appreciated for what they do.

However, it might be a tougher road for some amongst us. The day might come rubbing some of the hidden bruises. Truly, they are the special ones, and this is just to appreciate their enormous strength and worth which is beyond words.

The mother who is far apart from her children.

Step by step, she has been there to see her child grow. When he started to sit, she waited for him to stand. When he could stand, she waited for him to walk. When he learnt to walk, she taught her how to fly. Now when he has learnt to fly, he is somewhere making her feel proud- working, raising, achieving.

The pangs of separation are bitter. Sometimes she has meltdowns, tearing her world apart. But again she stands strong, defiant and unbewildered; instilling in herself the spirit she infused in her child. And she finds joy in his achievements, pain in his sorrows, mirth in his laughter and life in his life.

The mother who is hopeful– that she will hold her own child someday.

There she has been through the journey of innumerable prayers, moments of disgust, lost hope and revived faith. She in her mind, has made a million pictures of their unborn; lived a thousand unlived moments of holding, playing, cuddling, and rejoicing. She just can’t hold over the fact that how beautiful their life would be when it happens. Days, months and years have passed, she has learnt to live in acceptance and anticipation.

But this journey has given her something which is beyond the superficial. An unfazed faith that there is nothing above God’s will– faith that everlasting happiness is worth the wait. Forbearance– to stay strong through the most vulnerable moments. Hope– that the best time is yet to come. And above all, the blessing of togetherness with her other half, standing by her through thick and thin.

The mother who is bereaving the loss of her child.

This can be the most devastating thing that can ever be in one’s life.  The child, who brought a new ray of hope, is gone now. The pain is excruciating.  She has questioned the almighty, willed her own end over her beloved’s, stood hopeless at the altar– all of it, times and over. But the truth is she has him no more– lost to the disease, lost to the mishap, lost to the crime. God willed this to her and the reason is beyond her understanding. 

Amidst all the mayhem, she understands that this the time of test. From somewhere in the universe, she gets forbearance and strength to bear something unimaginable like this. She finds connection with God and learns to withstand the deadliest of challenges that life has thrown at her. She learns to part away from something so precious. It was given by him and taken away by him. This is something that teaches her to face any circumstance whatsoever in life.

Someone who has lost her mother.

There can be nothing more terrible than this. Even a thought like this is enough to run shivers down anyone’s spine. A mother is the first symbol of strength, love and dedication. When she is gone, she leaves a void that is irreplaceable and a burden which is heaviest to bear. The pain might grow less with time but the memory is un-erasable.

However, God always compensates for what he takes away. He sends angels to take care of those in distress. He gives them a stronger mind to withstand; and an ability to connect to a deeper level. And there she finds a whole new strength; and discovers life through a whole new perspective.

Unfathomable gift of strength and more power to all such women. I love you, Happy Mothers Day!