Appreciation

Being a child care provider is the joy of my life, but there are trying times with both kids and parents.  I am willing to be fairly flexable with to parents schedules.  Unlike a normal daycare both private or government run, many are only opened for certain times, I am willing to open early and stay open late if need be.  There is even times when I am willing to work weekends.  But with this I kinda expect a little appreciation and maybe a thank you from the parents.  Is this wrong of me?  I don't feel so.  I have one set of parents that are so good with their appreciation, with them being younger parents and not many child care providers around that are so happy that I am here for them and am willing to help them out.  But on the other hand I also have some that tell me when there child will be here and when they will pick them up, and not really ask if its OK with me even if they are really early mornings or really late nights.  This is when I would like to say no, it kinda hurts that I bend over backwards for these children and parents and don't even get a thank you out of it.  I have my own family that also needs me and when I am always looking after other children they don't get alot of just family time.  My children are and have been really understanding with all of this but at the same time I feel bad for them too.  I am not one to say no to parents, because I have been in there situations myself, with having to find a sitter when I was working.  Its not an easy thing.  I run my daycare the way I wanted the ones to be run when I had my own children in them.  I only ever found one amazing child care provider that went above and beyond what alot of others do.  I was so thankful for her, and  that is what I try to do to.  I don't have alot of children in my care at one time, because I feel each children needs so much attention and they are fairly young so trying to teach them things at the same time its all that easy if you have to many in your care. 

All I am really wanting is a thank you once in a while.  Is it that hard? Or am I just thinking wrong?  I am thankful for those who do say thank you and who care that I bend over backwards for them.  At the same time, there is times I don't want to do the extra mile for others whom don't really care that I go over and beyond for them.

Baking up a storm!

Wow, its been a while since I have blogged last.  Things have been crazy here, with Christmas activities in full gear along with a lot of life challenges putting some hick-ups in there too.

Well today I decided that I needed to get some Christmas baking done.  I am running outta time.......  With only having one extra little one with me today, I thought it might be a good day to do some.  We started out with the good old sugar cookies.  We will be using these next week for our Christmas party.  Then on to the many, many other new and creative goodies I have decided to make this year.  I have been trying to make healthier food choice for my family and the kids in my care.  So with that, I did some (OK alot) of research on healthy Christmas baking, along with the research I also did a number of tweaks to many of my recipes.  These tweaks come from a good friend of mine that has showed me that you can make a everyday recipe a little healthier by exchanging some ingredients for others.  With all this the kids and I ended up making 8 different baking goodies through out the day.  We were tired, a mess, but had such a blast doing it.  With my little man crawling on the floor eating as much of the batter droppings as he could get, to my daughter feeding the other boy icing while I am taking cookies out of the oven and have my back turned to them.  Hehehe, they don't think I know!!! MOMMY has eyes in the back of her head, she can see and hear everything!  (I remember my mom saying this to me and number of times when I was young).  So in the end it is so much fun cooking and baking with little ones, and ya its a mess but hey, they get to learn new things and well make that mess.  What are kinds for!?!?!?  A decoration? Nope, surely not (at least not mine, they can't sit still for more then 2 minutes at a time).  After 10 hours of baking for me, I thought that is it, no more!  Well then I look at my kitchen, ummmm ya there is more! Not baking now but doing the dishes, putting away all the baking ingredients, and sweeping the floor.  It was much needed that's for sure, I think what the little one didn't get the dog did, but after a while, they both were a little to full to eat much more, so that leaves me with the job of sweeping up too, I don't like sweeping!!  So all is made now just to let them set over night and cut them all up and package them tomorrow.  Yummy, that means taste testing!