Quarantine Mom with Katie Brown

Today we are going to talk about the battle of

keeping the art of family dinners, fun, fresh,

inspiring and essential.

I am done

I am finished

I am over it

Uncle

Like many of you I am so sick of cooking three

squares a day

So I have stopped

That is right

Like much of family life during the time of Covid

19, I have learned you have to pick your battles

So I have decided breakfast and lunch, my

family, they are on their own

I will be there to guide, to heat up a quick grilled

cheese, to toss a few veggies together

But for a full blown meal …..

Nope, no more ….

Instead, I have chosen to focus on dinner

because there are powerful reasons for families

to spend time around the dinner table

THE SET-UP:

For one

People make better food choices

One study from Stanford University reported

that kids who eat family dinners are less likely

to grub on fried food and saturated fats,

while seeking out stuff like fruits and veggies .

It can restore order to an otherwise chaotic day

Fifty-one percent of families admit they don’t eat

regularly around the dining table due to busy

schedules, but regularly sitting around the table

can be the one aspect of a busy day that you

actually have control of.

It allows for time away from all the screens, and

a moment of ‘reality’

It’s no secret that in an age where technology is

at the forefront of most people’s lives, many find

themselves glued to their screens at all times of

day and night.

It creates a sense of routine in this crazy time

It can build self-esteem

Dinner is a perfect opportunity to build self-

esteem in children as you discuss the goings on

of their day.

And I have chosen to make sure those dinners

are really memorable

Just think about some of the great dinners of all

time

The Last Supper

The First Thanksgiving

The dinner where George Bush vomited with all

camera’s focused on him at a state dinner

seated neat to the prime minster of Japan

Or the infamous time Cleopatra sat at a dinner

table and took a pearl from her earing and

dropped it in a cup of vinegar and when it

dissolved drank every last drop.

Or the dinner where our founding fathers

Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and

James Madison decided to move the capital from

Washington to Philadelphia

The idea of mixing education and television

came from a dinner in New York City in 1966

where Lloyd Morresett a Carnegie Foundation

executive complained how is daughter loved to

watch TV (like all kids do!). The hostess of the

party, Joan Cooney a PBS producer got the idea

to investigate how to make educational

programming fun for children to watch. This

evolved into a series with colorful monsters, and

human characters called Sesame Street.

THE FAMILY DOINGS:

I know, I know my family meals even on the best

of nights may not be this epic, but I have some

tips and tricks and can make the never ending,

night after night Quarantine Family Dinners

memorable.

One of the simplest ways is get some interesting

conversations like:

 Do you know the story about how your

parents met?

 Do you know how your name was chosen, or

how your parents’ names were chosen?

 Do you know some of the lessons that your

parents learned from good or bad

experiences they had during their childhood?

 Do you know some of the jobs that your

parents had when they were young?

 What is the earliest story you know about an

ancestor?

 Pick one person to be the interviewer and

come to the table with a series of questions

to conduct family interviews

 Discuss a historical figure

 Present a morally ambiguous or thought-

provoking situation ask your family to give

their opinion. There’s often not a clear

“right” or “wrong” answer, so these should

generate some interesting debates.

 Try exploring mystery foods. Take your

children to the supermarket and ask them to

pick out a fruit or vegetable they’ve never

seen before or never eaten at home. I mean

do you think anyone in your family has ever

cracked open or let alone cooked with a

coconut?

 Ask your kids ...

Today, we are going to look to the experience of Olympians in order to get past disappointment and compete in some fun and games.

I know there are a lot of disappointed sports fans out there, from the NBA suspending it’s season to the NCAA canceling the remaining spring and winter championships to my daughter’s lacrosse season gone! Heck even America’s favorite pastime, Baseball's spring training was canceled and we have yet to know the fate of the entire season. So, today I want to inspire you and your family to look past your disappointment with the help of a few mighty fine athletes and DIY games.

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Hi I am Katie Brown

Today, I want to point out the gifts that can be delivered when children participate in the simple act of preparing a sandwich.

ANNOUNCER:

Welcome to Quarantine Mom

The place for inspiration to take your family higher during this time of togetherness.

SEGWAY:

The sandwich is such an easy go-to staple during this time of COVID 19. You can turn a meal into a sandwich or a sandwich into a meal.

I mean let’s be honest coming up with 3 squares a day while working, cleaning, gardening, homeschooling, and a WHOLE LOT MORE, can really make someone question their culinary talents. So the sandwich can be a welcome easy dinner reprieve from the hour by hour demands of family feedings. I mean I have heard from and seen more than a few people’s posts about how they feel they have turned into short-order cooks during this lockdown.

Today, I want to show you how you can get a rest from the job of head chef, have some family fun as well as deliver a valuable life lesson…..All through the simple act of serving up DIY sandwiches.

SET UP:

Here is a fun fact. The sandwich is named after it’s supposed inventor 4th Earl of Sandwich. Rumor has it that the Earl ordered his valet to bring him meat tucked between two pieces of bread because this would allow him to continue to play cards while eating.

If you ever want to have a lively discussion with someone ask them what makes a sandwich? Is the taco a sandwich? Is a wrap a sandwich? How about a hamburger?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture gets quite technical, saying the “product must contain at least 35% cooked meat and no more than 50% bread. To prove how serious this foodie splitting debate is, none other than Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg ruled that the hot dog is, in fact, a sandwich on the Stephen Colbert Show.

THE FAMILY DOING:

So how about you invite your whole family to step up to the cutting board and join into the discussion and creation of their own sandwich meal?

And as they do, that is when you can explain how the simple sandwich delivers one of life’s great lessons.

Yep, I said that a sandwich could deliver an important life lesson.

Steve O’Brien, a formally trained chef and owner of Chicago’s BeefBelly, weighed in with a perspective as beautiful as it is profound when it comes to the life lessons that can be found in sandwich :

He said ……

Sandwiches can push you back to childhood. As you bite into a simple peanut butter and jelly on butternut bread, the peanut butter sticks to the roof of your mouth, you feel the emotions of days gone by. Or you can have an explosive sandwich experience, where it takes you around the world because it is the ultimate street food. Whether it be a ban mi, a Croque monsieur, a crispy Cuban pork, the sandwich reminds you of places you’ve been and places you want to go. The sandwich is like life, the more you add to it the better it becomes.”

But I have a different life lesson that I` want to highlight today.

I am sure you have said or at least heard, that sandwiches taste better when someone else makes it for you.

It turns out, there's a scientific reason for that weird little quirk.

After a series of experiments, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University affirmed that people prefer the taste of sandwiches made by other people to ones that they made themselves, and found that the reason is most likely that when making their own sandwich, people spend more time thinking about the ingredients and how it will taste so when it comes time to dig in it is not quite as exciting because their brain feels it has already experienced it, hence they enjoy it less

However I digress,

Back to the life lesson..

The Bible says, in Acts 20:35 , It is better to give than to receive

Do you see where I am going with this?

When you make a sandwich it is literally better to GIVE IT AWAY……

It is a scientific fact!

I have written 4 cookbooks, done countless television cooking appearances and developed hundred...

INTRO:

Hi I am Katie Brown

Today, we are going to celebrate all the inspired, improvising, or “Macgavering” going on in the world at large and at home during this challenging time.

SEGWAY

Today I want to share an activity that you can do with your family that should help start a discussion about the definition and practice of Macgavering and how it will lead to much needed growth, innovation and recovery during this difficult time. This activity should spark a discussion that the same type of creative engineering that is going on in the world can be taking place right in our own homes and thus transform each and everyone’s life as we struggle through this

so that we as individuals and families can come out with new and improved ways of being.

The art of Mcgavering is an essential life skill and now is the perfect time to introduce the benefits of the practice.

Set up:

In this time of sheltering in place do you keep hearing the term Macgyvered?

We sure do.

We hear it when it comes to making masks and other protective gear

We hear it when it comes to providing ventilators….

We hear it when it comes to home schooling,

We hear it when it comes to disinfectant

And so much more

I think this term is a good way to hug what is going on personally, with your family and in our world as a whole during this challenging time.

Macgyver was a TV drama staring Richard Dean Anderson that ran from 1987 to 1992. Dean whose character’s name was Annngus escaped life- threatening situations by using his improvised engineering skills and cobbled together ingenuity.

Are you seeing the parallels?

This is a time when the whole globe is trying to raise to the challenge of combating this virus, which has presented us with unprecedented circumstances,

We as a people are trying to look at research, medications, habits, and instruments in a new way that might help us return to our normal life

To Macgyver your way out of a situation you must be creative, think fast take a look around and see something in a different way, in a new way, in an inventive way, in a way that is useful in that moment.

As we spend day after day within the four walls of our home is it not a good time to encourage our kids to do the same…..

To take a look around

Take stock of what we need and what we do not need

What items and things in our house and home are useful and which our not

Which ones can we recycle or reuse in never before thought of ways?

Being adaptable and resourceful are such great traits to instill in our young ones.

In a world when is so easy to run out and get exactly what you think you need, it is nice to take advantage of a time when that is not an option

This is a time where we are a country, a world, a family and people who want something that we do not yet have

It is a time that it seems at least in part the quickest ways out, the fastest way to make this happen is to …..very simply put…. “MacGyver it”

The Oxford Dictionary states that to “MacGayver” is to make or repair something in an improvised or inventive way, making use of whatever items are on hand” for example, “he MacGyvered a makeshift jack with a log”.

In the TV show Macgayver used a pair of binoculars to deflect a laser beam and fashioned a smokescreen from baking soda and vinegar

He jump-started a truck with a cactus

He used a Dorito, some duct tape, and a paper clip to create a time machine.

Make use of this stressful time, MacGyver this time, if you will, encouraging them to

find new ways to have fun, learn, laugh and love.

The world will do the same, in time, and this planet will too engineer it’s way out of these darks days and into the sunlight with new ways of living, loving and learning.

Reassure them that a whole team of brilliant real life MacGyvers are hard at work trying to find solutions to this global pandemic in big ways and in simple ways

The Family Doings:

To illustrate the idea that we are getting there,

that MacGy...

Natural Self Portraits

INTRO:

Hi I am Katie Brown

Today I want to talk about how we can make the family around us in these days of quarantine feel good about who they are.

Announcer:

Welcome to Quarantine Mom

The place for inspiration to take your family higher during this time of togetherness.

SET UP:

In these challenging time, when family is all we got, I want to talk about creating something that will help us teach our family how to feel good about who they are, how they smile, how they laugh, how they gaze, how people see them, how they make others feel, the way they care and share. I want to talk about a way we can remind them how much there is to admire about exactly who they are.

SEGWAY

Today I want to share an activity with you that will allow you to identify and celebrate with your children;

yep I said CELEBRATE,

(this is something that is so very important to do as a family during these challenging times)

I want to share with you how to CELEBRATE the things we and more importantly they are grateful for about themselves.

In a moment I want to walk you though a how to make a unique self portrait made from nature.

Quarantine Hack:

First, today's Quarantine Life Hack

FAMILY DOINGS:

Children, teens, heck even grown ups

get their self esteem

their confidence from WINS …

I call them LIFE WINS….

They can come in BIG grand awards and goals achieved

But, today I am not talking about BIG awards or momentous accomplishments

I am talking about the little wins,

The small winks that can make us stand a little taller and put a spring in your step….

The subtle daily gestures,

-your friend throwing you the ball on the schoolyard,

-your teacher calling on you and telling you well done when you answer,

-the passerby who says I like your smile

-the older woman who remarks “aren’t you sweet “ when you hold the door open for them

These are all positive reflections that our kids need and deserve as they slug through their days

Those daily affirmations are part of the simple sauce that helps flavor their opinion of themselves.

They are part of the recipe that make our children confident and self assured They make one comfortable with who they are.

It is all part of maturing and developing self-acceptance.

In these days of sheltering in place, those little LIFE WINS are not available to stirr into the soup of self-esteem.

It seems that many in this world during this time of Covid 19 suggest we spend time acknowledging

-What we are grateful for,

-Making graduate lists,

-Starting gratitude journals

which I agree is so important and such a good habit to teach your children

I just think it is important during this time of isolation

when the LITTLE WINS are not being delivered from the people we normally interact with

that our young ones take stock in what they know and love and appreciate about themselves

Some may call it bragging

(Although it is a fine line)

I call it self-love which to me is part of self-care and self-acceptance and self esteem

And what better way to get the kids talking about the things they like and are proud of in themselves then making a creative self-portrait

As they put it together ask them what they like about their face, their smile, their kind eyes, the way their nose crinkles when they laugh,

Let the creation of this work of art stimulate the conversation with themselves, with you, with their siblings about what in them is so special that it can light up a room.

And watch them sit a little taller, smile a little wider, laugh a little louder and soak up a whole lotta wins that have been left out of the daily baking during this shelter in place period.

How-TO :

To get this celebration of self-esteem started you and yours need to grab a paper or plastic bag and head outside.

Collect and toss into your bags things like rocks, bark, pinecones, leaves and grass.

Then pull up a chair to a table where you should place a bundle of cardboard squares

T...

On The Quarantine Mom Podcast

We are going to introduce a daily activity

that will help you and your family rise

during this season of sheltering in place.

We will attempt to put each one of these

family projects (that can be adapted to

kids of all ages) into a context that will

deliver the WHY it is a project worth

doing during these challenging times

With the hope that it will present

teachable moments on how we can all

Spring out of this better and bolder and

braver than ever.

Tune in daily for your project of the day

grounded in a thought of the day that will

keep your family busy doing something

that will help ease the stress and struggle

of these crazy times

Stay Strong, Stay Safe, Stay Home.

 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Welcome to Quarantine Mom

The place for inspiration to take your family higher during this time of togetherness.

I am your host Katie Brown

In these difficult times I think we all need to call on our angels, our better angels that is. The angels that have walked on, the angels that walk on high, the angels that walk among us, the living breathing angels that are walking through the daily trails of this virus to save lives while endangering their own, and to all those angels who are simply staying home and therefore keeping us all safer, we dedicate this edition to you.

We thank you

We love you

We honor you

Today I am going to walk you through how to make a creative and simple Angel Chain made from things that you should have in and around your house

So to make this happen with my family we all gathered around the table with a pile of supplies in the center. It was fun to see how everybody’s was a bit different. As we worked I asked a few questions and told a few stories about angels.

I first talked about my friend Kerri Metaugh who had passed away a few days earlier after a long fight with cancer, then we discussed who the angels were during this crisis, the nurses, the doctors, the first responders, then I asked if they believed in angels, if they knew any real life angels, if they had ever been anyone’s angel?

It was a great staycation for all of us to kind of drift off into daydreaming and riffing on angels

It made me feel a bit of peace to be able to think about my friend and talk about how I believed she was now an angel in heaven looking out for me, it was important to have the kids talk about and think about all the people out there who are risking their lives to keep us safe during this really scary time, to remind them and kinda list ways they are and can be real life angels, how they can be someone’s blessing

All you need for this is activity :

pipe cleaners or wire, you could even use a hanger

tape or glue or both

Then any combo of:

napkins

paper cups

Coffee filter

Newspaper

pompoms

wooden shapes

ribbons

hole punch

To begin make a little stick figure out of your pipe cleaner or wire with a loop/ circle at the top for your head, now use a paper cup or napkin or coffee filter as a skirt, gather it together tightly at the waist and tape it around the pope cleaner or waist tightly. (sometimes I will use a combination of a few to make it really flowy),

Next doll it up ….with pom poms for the head or a few beads as hands ….put some stickers on the skirt or water color paint it ….really make it your own using whatever ya got ….Then link the arms tone another

Once all your families’ angels are combined into one long chain decide what you want to do with it. We decided to run out when our mailman was delivering our mail and give it to him with a BIG OLD THANK YOU ….

Wouldn’t it be fun to see mailman driving around in their little buggys will angel chains built with gratitude hanging from the review mirrors

If you do this activity can you send me a photo if you do you it will automatically register you for a chance win a copy of one of my books.

Now before I end I want to share with you a resource found out there that helped me get through this day

Hot tip of the day:

Kennedy Center Education Artist-in-Residence at Home

Mo Willems invites YOU into his studio every day for his LUNCH DOODLE. Learners worldwide can draw, doodle and explore new ways of writing by visiting Mo’s studio virtually once a day for the next few weeks. Grab some paper and pencils, pens, or crayons and join Mo to explore ways of writing and making together. If you post your art to social media, be sure to hashtag it with #MoLunchDoodles!

New episodes will be posted each weekday at 1:00 p.m. ET and then remain online to be streamed afterwards. Check back each weekday for new LUNCH DOODLES!

And visit Kennedy Center@Home to enjoy free videos of extraordinary live and on-demand performances and educational activities to do ...