Giving New Meaning to Parenting

Confession: when I ask my boys to clean their bedroom it usually ends in a huge weeping pile of me. After hours without progress and constantly breaking down tasks and repeat repeat repeating myself I am left wanting never to face this challenge again. So I wait and wait and then rinse and [...]

Summer is in full swing in our neck of the woods.  The weather has been great, not to hot, not too cold.  We have had trips to the beach, a trip to the water park, a trip to a state park for some camping and fishing.  And yet, even with all this wonderful weather going [...]

My stomach turns at the smell of most baby food. Not so much the first stages; bananas and apples are pretty non-offensive. Once they move on to the pureed version of turkey and noodles, though, I can’t quite conceive the yellowish gelled glop as food. Combine the smell of this epicurean treat [...]

There have been many “discussions” in my house about my need to do it all. I can’t, nor do I really, do everything. But, sometimes it feels as if my main job is keeping track of each family members’ “stuff.” There is physical stuff: backpacks, baseball gloves, school supplies, keys, the [...]

Our house is generally clean and neat, but I know it’s in need of certain attentions: Hand-me-downs lurk in a closet, waiting to be sorted and tried on. The kitchen longs for reorganization. The playroom toys pine to be sorted through and rotated. The checkbook screams to be balanced; the computers groan for an operating [...]

It appears as though I am having a bit of a block when it comes to what to write about this week. I was whining to Cleatus about how I have nothing to tell y’all and he continued ignoring me like he always does when I talk about blogging. He is so helpful. BUT! Then [...]

As a homeschooler and a person who loves to read I have quite a few books in my house. My son’s room is packed full of his books. Our office full of his school books. My bedroom is full of my books. My daughter’s room is full of her books. Our garage has bins full [...]

In an effort to help the boys feel more in control of their day I have tried a few different strategies.
When the older ones were four I printed out a list of things that they do in any given day, complete with a cute clip art picture for each item. I slipped the printout [...]

My boys are now six and ten. With sixteen years between them, they are ready to start taking some more responsibility for themselves and their surroundings. With that in mind, here are several zero-tolerance policies I’ve recently instituted:

If I step on a stray Lego, and it’s not in one of the boys’ bedrooms, [...]

I’ve been homeschooling for about 7 months now. When I chose this route I knew that it would take some time to really get it, to figure out what works for my children and what works for me, to learn the best ways my children learn. What I didn’t realize is that I would just [...]