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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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...

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...

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.

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