Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Entries from September 1, 2008 - October 1, 2008

Entries from September 1, 2008 - October 1, 2008

Wednesday
Oct012008

This is My Week For Saying Thank You

I would like to thank my top E-card droppers for the month of September. They are an interesting and varied group. If you hve some time please visit their blogs and leave a comment. All bloggers love comments!!

Dropper # of drops
Is 8 Enough? 30
Symphony of Love 27
Sasha's Corner 27
Sasha says... 26
Tara's View of the World 26
moms..... check nyo 25
New Orleans Food & Fun 25
Take It To The Limit 25
Beethoven Midi 24
Mommy's Little Corner 24
Tuesday
Sep302008

Thank You Sweet Mommy

Sweet Mommy from Its Okay To Be Weird designed my new e-card icon for A Second Cup!!!!! We have run into each other through Christian Carders( or maybe it was e-card). How could I not be intrigued by a blog named Its Okay To Be Weird.

If you check out her blog you will see she is artistic and passionate.She has used those skills to be a blessing to me. I wanted to have a colorful icon but I am so not an artistic person. (When I need yarn for a yarn club project, I ask the wonderful women at Yarn Birds to pick the colors. Those of us without an eye for color theory appreciate those who have one.)

I love my new icon. Sweet Mommy has a Weird Wednesday meme you can visit and link to if you have something weird (and clean) posted on your blog. Check out the one on boogers. She also posts weekly to the Family Time Friday meme Tammy organizes at Tidbits of Tammy. She posts about everything from health insurance in Canada to being a pastor’s wife. Sweet Mommy lives up to her tag line: Not your typical pastor's wife, family or blog. Please visit her at Its Okay To Be Weird.

"A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed." - Proverbs 11:25 NIV

Thank you again Sweet Mommy.

Friday
Sep262008

Blogs Worth A Click: The Political Addition: Commenters Favorites

Thank you to the commenters on Blogs Worth A Click: The Political Addition. With what is going or not going on Washington today, I though I was time to post your suggestions for political blogs worth a click.

Tony at Seeking Things Above (a blog worth a click in its own right) suggested The Bobo Files.

A Changing Life was delighted I included Caledonian Comment.

By the way, if you check out A Changing Life today, she has some beautiful pictures (the word doesn't convey the beauty you will see) of France on her blog.

My Life as it Was, Is and Will Be, suggested Politigal1, one of my favorites I forgot to list. My Life must be a humble person because he (or she) didn't mention he was a very interesting observer/writer in his own right.

Jolene at My Absent Mind offered Political Rants from the Right for your viewing pleasure. Jolene has a posting up now on 13 for Thursday that is a hoot*!

Ang thank you for your comment giving me hope that even non-bloggers stop by from time to time!


In light of Jolene's comment, I reread her 13 for Thursday posting slowly. This was a serious post about a very bad day. I am sorry Jolene.


Thursday
Sep252008

Parenting Teens: Genetic Tic?

It is true that only women can give birth. I am female, of age and married, so in my immediate family I am the only one who can give birth. There are a few other things I have come to realize only I can do:

Only I can:

Toss out empty shampoo bottles left in the shower.

Unload and load a dishwasher without being told too.

Both notice and wash a smelly dog.

Carry a new roll of paper towels all the way up from the basement.

Do a full load of wash each time the machine is run.

Find other household members misplaced Bibles (whether missed place at

home, in church or in the car. My internal Bible finding GPS gets a lot of use)

My husband works very hard to support us and I am the at home spouse so I don’t expect him to do the above actions any more than I expect he would have given birth to any of our children. If I was working outside the home thing most likely would be different, but I’m not. The children are another matter.

At one point in time (between the ages of 4-12), they could perform any of the above actions even if they couldn’t give birth. Some weird genetic convolution must take place after age 13 and they lose the ability to do the above or even to notice that something needs to be done (hence our 2 smelly dogs).

This has to be a strange genetic tic, what else could it be? (Note the irony of the Getting From Here to There posts)

If your kids aren’t teens, you may not think there is a strange genetic tic that occurs after 13. (After all what else could be causing this?) That’s okay, maybe your kids won’t tic.

But if you have teens: how does this strange genetic tic, manifest itself in your home?

Counter fairies…..how I could forget they believe in counter fairies!

Wednesday
Sep242008

Getting From Here to There: The Elements of Character Training Part 1A

There are as many ways to organize the elements of character training, as there are parents and the experts they look to. Having a process to think though as you go about training character in your child is incredibly helpful. It allows you evaluate where your child is in the process and how to proceed. I don’t have any impressive letters after my name but I do have 20 + years (68 years if you count each child individually. Parenting multiple kids is a balance between parenting the individual and the group) of parenting experience. It didn’t prepare me for dealing with one of my kids but you can’t cover everything in just four kids.

With the first three, this formula worked very well.

Training = Teaching + Discipline + Punishment

Teaching is all methods of communicating to your child what you desire them to do and why you desire them to do it. The what and the why are equally important. Teaching consistent of but not limited to oral instruction, demonstrating, visual clues and /or working with your child. Equally important, mention why you do what you do. For preschoolers the first goal of teaching is allowing them to succeed. For older children the goal is mastery of the desired tasks. As an adult, you hope your child will choose to live out the desired character trait.

When should you start training? When 1) your child can understand simple instructions and 2) when your child has the physically ability to do what you ask. In preschoolers, the ability to understand and the physical ability to do the desired action don’t always develop at the same time. Wait until your child can do both.

For example: You decide that being responsible for her own stuff is a desired character trait in your child.

Between 18 and 24 months, you can usually (see above) start to teach your child to toss her dirty diaper in the garbage. This example assumes your garbage can is easy for the baby to access. Shoes in the shoebox work or sippy cup by the sink also work well to start responsibility training.

Get down at eye level with your child. You can’t communicate information if your child isn’t paying attention to you. Say, “ Sally, put your diaper in the garbage” Hand the baby the diaper and toddle with her to the garbage. Toss the diaper in the garbage, jump around like a fool, praising her to the hilt. Take the diaper out, walk a few steps back, do the whole thing again two more times.

Continue above when ever you change her diaper. Several diapers later, hand her the diaper, give her the request and walk behind her. When she tosses the diaper in the garbage, jump around like a fool clapping and praising her.

Eventually hand her the diaper and off she will go to the garbage. Thank her for doing a good job.

Will a young preschool understand why you are requesting she do what ever, no of course not. As a parent you a building a platform for future training. We teach our 2 year olds their letters as a platform to teaching them to read at a future date. It is easier to start training with a 2 year old than a 5 year old. It is far easier to character train a 5 year old than a 9 year old. You will have a struggle if you wait until nine (not a good idea) and by 12 your influence is lessening as other influences begin to vie for your child’s attention.

Through the whole process, keep explaining why it is important for Sally to be responsible. The why is anchored in your values. If you don’t explain why you are doing what you are doing, your child will fill the whys in for herself. When she is older, she could easily decide the reason she has to put her shoes away, clean her room or take out the garbage is that you are lazy! (Seen that happen.)

We anchored why we do what we do in the nature and person of God. God is a God of order and we are responsible/delighted to use the blessing He has given us to honor Him. At 18 months truth was filtered down to “It makes Jesus happy when we take care of His blessings”.

Next time: Teaching older children

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