My First Blogging Award!

ver·sa·tile - adj - embracing a variety of subjects, fields, or skills; turning with ease from one thing to another.

What a pleasant surprise I found when I checked my email a few days ago... Colleen over at Cheap Wine and Cookies had chosen me for a Versatile Blogger award!

Isn't it puurrrrty? :) I've seen these types of "awards" floating around on some of the blogs I read, but this is the first time I've gotten one myself. Yay! Thank you thank you thank you Colleen!!!

Here are the official rules for this award:

• Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them in your post.
• Tell your readers seven (7) things about yourself.
• Give this award to fifteen (15) recently discovered bloggers.
• Contact those bloggers and let them in on the exciting news.

So here we go... Seven things about me:

1. I love to read. When I was little I spent a lot of time alone (my brother is 6 1/2 years younger than me) and I read A LOT of books. My favorite day of the week was Fridays when I could go to the library and get the next 2-3 books in whatever series I happened to be in.
2. I collect spoons. Not eating spoons, but souvenir spoons. It started when I was 4 and went on a trip out west with my mom & dad. They bought me a collector's spoon in every state we visited. I now try and look for a spoon every time we go somewhere new. I have 38 of my own, and 22 from my late mother-in-law, who also collected spoons.
3. I took a sheep management class in college. I got to do things like castrate lambs and spend the night in the sheep barn just off campus watching for baby lambs to be born. (I went to Michigan State)
4. I was a drum major in my high school marching band. It was an interesting role for me, as I was (and still am) quite the introverted person. But I decided to go for it, and was one of 3 drum majors both my junior and senior years. Marching band is probably the only thing I miss about high school.
5. Speaking of high school, I do have one regret: that I never was involved in the school plays. A lot of my friends were in them, but between my introverted personality, and my super-busy schedule with 4H and church, I never tried out. I now go and watch a number of high school dramas each year (I know a lot of kids, and Rocky runs lights & sound for NPC's), and I find myself wishing I'd done it. There just aren't the opportunities for that kind of thing now.
6. Have you ever taken those personality quizzes that rank you based on 4 animals -- lion, otter, beaver, golden retriever? I am very much a beaver. VERY much. A few points in the lion and golden retriever categories, none in the otter. Lots in the beaver category.
7. I enjoy web design. I currently work on our church's website. It needs some work, and I'm actually in the process of starting it over fresh with a new template. That's the kind of thing I like to do in my spare time. 

Ok, enough about me! Time to pick some award winners! I really don't think I'm going to do 15... While I do follow a lot of blogs (<----- as you can see from my list over there), a lot of them are very specialized and focused on a specific topic or niche. So I'm really going to search my list for "versatile" bloggers!

Here are my chosen winners, in alphabetical order! (since that's the order I found them in :)

Bread, Water, and Chocolate - One of my closest friends growing up, Kelly says, "I am a wife, mother, friend, and daughter. I cook, clean, shop, organize, clip coupons, and bargain hunt. I love my life and the people who are in it. I have so much to be thankful for!"

In the Whisper - Monica has such a passion and a gift for writing. She writes about her family, she writes about Scripture, she even writes about writing. You really should follow her!

Lovin' Life with Lucy - I met Sadie through Kelly, and I love reading her posts about her daughter who is only two weeks older than my Abby! "The other loves of my life include Dr. Pepper, Olive Garden, my family, TV, chocolate, and writing about myself!"

A New Mommy's Blog - Rachel and I seem to write about a lot of the same types of everyday-life things. Her blog tagline sums it up well: "My Wonderful Life and my Random Rants"

Straayer's Scribbles - Liz is one of my husband's co-workers, and while it's been awhile since she's written, she's been a little busy - the newest member of her family was born right around Easter! I hope she gets back into blogging again, "thoughts on my life or that of my family, thoughts on my work, thoughts on my pets, thoughts on devotions or sermons; random knitting projects and personal patterns." You at least need to check out her awesome Etsy store.

the blue room - Rachel always has great things to say. "Some days I'm loud and demonstrative. Other days I think and wonder. And sometimes I write. This is my blue room, my sanctuary space."

The Laundry List - Another mom who writes about things similar to what I do: "The Laundry List is a forum for my thoughts on writing, mothering, budgeting, politics, cloth diapering and pretty much any other aspect of my life. It represents that endless list of things that need attention in life, many of which define who we are."

Through the Wrong End of the Telescope - I love Jess's blog ties to Dr. Seuss. She's a newly-wed working as a nurse, and her blog will really "wake up your brain cells."


So how many is that... 8? Good enough for me. :) Congrats to you all, I love reading your blogs!!

Motivation

Some of you may remember this post from last summer. (shoot, looks like the picture is no longer there - it was a picture of tennis shoes :) Operation: Get Healthy has been on my mind a lot lately. I've been really fed up with not having things to wear and not liking pictures of myself. Really. It's been a pretty emotionally draining winter.

But I think things are on the up-and-up! It all started when I gave up ice cream for Lent. That may not be an issue for some, but in this house, almost every night Rocky wants some ice cream while grading papers or lesson planning. And I usually join him. But for 7 weeks I resisted. It was hard, but it was good.

In the middle of that came the Step Challenge. I was on a team with teachers from our school and we all wore a pedometer for 6 weeks. It was a competition through the insurance company, and teams of teachers and school staff from all across the country competed for weekly prizes. The ultimate goal was to get 10,000 steps a day, or 70,000 a week. But the "lower" goal was 50,000 a week. Holy cow, I didn't realize how few steps I naturally take a day! I think only 2-3 of those weeks I managed to get above 50k, and never did I hit 70k.

But now that both Lent and the Step Challenge are over, Rocky and I talked about a new, personal challenge. I got to keep my pedometer, and so I am still challenging myself to get to 10k steps a day. And if I do, I can have a small bowl of ice cream with Rocky that night if I so choose.

This morning I stepped on the bathroom scale and saw a new number - one I haven't seen in well over a year. I'm not going to share that number with you (what woman would?!), but I will say I've broken a milestone I've been longing to see. I'm still a ways away from my pre-pregnancy weight, and even then I could have stood to lose a few more, but I've got a whole summer of walking ahead of me! And I'm excited to be on my way to my goal!

While it's not all about the numbers, it sure was the motivation I needed this morning. That "you're doing something right" feeling. And how did I celebrate? I laced up my tennis shoes and walked with Abby to the FCCS Barn Sale. And back.

I'm up to 9400 steps already. Looks like I might be having some ice cream tonight - but then again, maybe I won't. :)

Organics

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of organic things, is "why are they so expensive?!" The second thing that comes to mind is the variety of organic things available: food, cosmetic items, etc. And the third thing that comes to mind is "if I want my family (and my baby) to be healthy, I should buy organic..."

With it finally feeling like spring, I'm finding myself dreaming of produce stands and farmers markets. (<-- this picture makes my mouth water!!) It is so stinkin' hard to get quality produce the majority of the year here in Michigan, especially when all that's available is the stuff shipped in to Meijer from across the globe. I've forgone many "fresh" fruits and veggies the last few months because I can't find anything truly "fresh." And frozen beans and corn can only go so far.

I look at my daughter's meals on any given day and often cringe. Pasta. Bread. Occasional chicken or ground beef. Cheese (she loves cheese). Bananas are the one fruit I always try to have on hand for her. I want her to grow up with a love of healthy food, but how do I expose her to it? Other than the 3-4 months of fresh produce we have here, what can I do?

Why is the organic food section of the store so much more expensive?? I've been trained to always look for the cheapest - generic cereal, generic vitamins, generic generic generic... So why should I pay $2 extra for food that *may* be healthier, when over time that extra cost really adds up?

Sigh. I haven't looked into it, but I really hope there is a farmers market in Belding that Abby and I can walk to every week this summer. I guess we'll enjoy the good stuff while we can...

On another, brighter note, I did plant my mini veggie garden yesterday! So we should have some fresh food all our own. :) That's a post for another day...

Musical Mondays: Baby Einstein

Ok so this post will be a bit of a tangent from Musical Mondays... but it's still related to music I guess!

Last night Abby woke up at least twice. This from the girl who's been sleeping through the night since 6 weeks. Something is really wrong when she wakes up crying in the middle of the night. Every time something goes wrong with her I blame it on teething... even though she only cut 2 teeth at Christmas and nothing since. Well the past few days her drool machine has kicked into overtime, so I think it really (really!) is teething this time. And she came down with a snotty nose. And she has a bit of a fever this morning. But she might have come down with a cold too, or still have remnants of her ear infection... You could just tell she really didn't feel well.

So when she woke up again at 5:45 and would not go back to sleep, I gave in and fixed her a bottle and prepared to be up with her for awhile. Rocky was up getting ready for school anyway. After he left, Abby just wanted to cling to her blanket and snuggle. I popped a Baby Einstein DVD in the computer and we kicked back for 40 minutes. After which I made her another small bottle and put her down for a nap (at the time when she's usually waking up for the day...).

Before Abby was born, I'd decided I would not be one of "those" mothers who sit their kids in front of the tv. The thought of videos such as Baby Einstein and even Praise Baby made me roll my eyes. "They surely don't get anything from those movies, and even if they do, shouldn't that be things I teach them?"

Fast forward to last fall. Abby was about 5 months old, and I went to FCCS's Barn Sale. Someone had donated a whole bunch of Baby Einstein DVDs and CDs. I thumbed through them, and one in particular caught my eye: Baby Wordsworth. We were planning on trying some baby sign language with Abby, and I thought maybe this will be a good supplement.

Over the last 6 months Abby and I have watched that video a handful of times, usually on nasty winter days when we want to snuggle and kill 40 minutes of time in the afternoon. This morning she smiled, and laughed, and I got a refresher course on some household sign language words!

I'm still pretty against tv in general, especially for children. We don't have cable, and we don't even have a tv that works with antenna channels after the big switch to HD a few years ago. There really isn't much good stuff on anymore anyway. Rocky and I will watch the occasional episode of NCIS or Fringe online every week or two. But we've decided we have much better things we can do with our time the rest of the time.

Who knows if Abby's occasional exposure to classical music through Baby Einstein will make her smarter in the long run. She gets enough music from other sources in our family... :)

What are your thoughts on tv & movies? In general & for children?

Book Talk Tuesday: Big Red Barn

While Goodnight Moon is supposed to be the "classic" children's bedtime book, I wasn't very fond of it the first time I read it. Or the second. Or the third. I will admit it's growing on me a little. But not much. Maybe once Abby is older and can identify the things in the book.

My favorite bedtime book has actually been one called Big Red Barn. (wow I JUST realized it's by the same author as Good Night Moon. Hmm...) I think I was initially drawn to it because of the subject. Many of you know I grew up being really involved in 4H and FFA, and had what I like to call a "mini-farm." We had chickens and rabbits and goats and a few 4H sheep and cattle here and there. Not to mention my college degree is in Agriscience with the Animal Science specialization. So yes, I love animals. Especially farm animals.

The book is about the animals who live in the big red barn and what they do all day, told in simple rhymes. The pictures are very colorful and simple as well, and the last few pages get darker and darker as the sun goes down. We have this one in the board book format, and Abby loves to turn the pages herself.

All in all, it's a great kid's book that I highly recommend, especially if you've read Good Night Moon a few too many times! :)

Musical Mondays: Glorious Day

I think this is my current favorite song. I love how it tells the whole story of Jesus -- his birth, life, death, resurrection, and how he's coming again. The verses are actually taken from an old hymn called "One Day." Casting Crowns did a great job of making it fresh and new and adding a chorus to summarize the whole story.

I'm in our praise band at church (I sing & drum), and we introduced this song to the congregation during Lent. We've sang it 3-4 times in the last seven weeks, and at yesterday's Easter service we used it as our closing song. It was amazing to get to the acapella part of the chorus after the bridge and hear everyone singing... "living he loved me, dieing he saved me, buried he carried my sins far away..." And the final "O glorious day" gave me shivers...

I hope you had a wonderful Easter!

For anyone who loves this song as much as I do, here's the official (live) video from the Casting Crowns YouTube page:

Do vs. Done

In last night's Maundy Thursday service, Pastor Ron quoted Bill Hybels saying "The difference between 'religion' and 'Christianity' is the difference between 'do' and 'done'."

Think about that for a minute. Chew on what that means.

Francis Chan says it this way in his book Crazy Love (p.60):

Many people look at their lives and weigh their sins against their good deeds. But Isaiah 64:6 says, "All our righteous acts are like filthy rags." Our good deeds can never outweigh our sins.

The literal interpretation of "filthy rags" in this verse is "menstrual garments" (think used tampons... and if you're disgusted by that idea, you get Isaiah's point). It's hard to imagine something more disgusting that we could brag about or put on display. But compared to God's perfect holiness, that's how our good deeds appear.

God's mercy is a free, yet costly, gift. It cannot be earned. Our righteous acts, just like menstrual garments, certainly don't help us deserve it. The wages of sin will always be death. But because of God's mercy, sin is paid for through the death of Jesus Christ, instead of the death of you and me.

It's not something we do. It's something that's already been done.

I'd like you to take a few more minutes of your day to please watch this video. When I was in middle and high school, my youth group would act out a dramatization of this song for our church's Good Friday service. I've been thinking about it a lot this past week, remembering the people who played the different roles.

I pray you will no longer feel the need to "do" something and bring your "lamb" to the sacrifice, but realize that because of this day, it has been "done" for you. Jesus said, "It is finished."

(note the video begins with about 10 seconds of black screen)


Now -- Jesus didn't just die on Good Friday. He conquered death. And that is something to celebrate -- it's Friday, but Sunday is comin'...

How to Feel Good About Your House 101

At the end of the day, do you feel good about how your house looks? I'm a mostly-stay-at-home-work-two-days-a-week mom. I have time for housework. I've even worked out a system this new year for what chores to do on what days. Monday is laundry, bathroom, sweep. Tuesday is mop. Thursday is vacuum and sweep. Etc. But there are certain things that really do need to be done EVERY day. And I've been a slacker.

When you walk into my house, it's a split-level, so you take the stairs down to the basement (please don't! still a work in progress!) or take the stairs up to the kitchen-dining room-living room. So the first thing you see is the island and the kitchen counters. Since the island is the first surface you come to, it becomes a dumping ground for mail, random things from coat pockets, and items we want out of Abby's reach... There are also a few candles and a potted plant for when I try to make it look nice...

Then you look past that to the kitchen sink and surrounding counters. For some reason, dishes is one chore I really don't like to do. I've never figured out why. Yes we have a dishwasher, but often that will even get run and then just sit there until we need a dish or run out of spoons in the drawer.

When Rocky comes home after a long day at school, these are the first things he sees. And if nothing has changed since he left in the morning, he wonders what I've done all day... Now I've probably done a lot of other stuff around the house and spent time with Abby, but doesn't what you see when you first go somewhere set the tone for the rest of your time there? Whether it's a home, a store, a restaurant, etc.?

So my new goal is going to be to clear the island every day before Rocky gets home, and do the dishes AT LEAST every other day, if not every day... Or at least unload-reload the dishwasher and put other dirties in the sink so they're not cluttering up the counter.

I think that will set the tone for anyone coming in to my home.

One other quick thing. I read/heard somewhere that a bed will often take up 80% of your bedroom space. So when your bed is left unmade... you get the picture. It only takes 2 minutes in the morning. Just do it.

Do you have any little tips for feeling good about your house?

Musical Mondays: I Surrender All

This past weekend I had the opportunity to spend 3 days and 3 nights with some amazing women from all over the US & Canada as part of a GEMS training workshop for area coordinators and leadership trainers. On Saturday night, our last night of the retreat, we took part in a "commissioning service" and ended by singing the old hymn "I Surrender All":

All to Jesus, I surrender; all to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him, in His presence daily live.
I surrender all, I surrender all,
All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all.


All to Jesus I surrender; humbly at His feet I bow,
Worldly pleasures all forsaken; take me, Jesus, take me now.
I surrender all, I surrender all,

All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all.

All to Jesus, I surrender; make me, Savior, wholly Thine;
Let me feel the Holy Spirit, truly know that Thou art mine.
I surrender all, I surrender all,
All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all.

All to Jesus, I surrender; Lord, I give myself to Thee;
Fill me with Thy love and power; let Thy blessing fall on me.
I surrender all, I surrender all,

All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all.

The weekend was filled with emotional ups and downs, as the role of leadership trainer for our area is brand new for me. I would go from being super excited about this opportunity to being filled with fear. I still am not 100% sure how I will balance everything in my life, but I know I have an amazing support group behind me in these ladies I met this weekend, as well as my own family and friends.

I know I can't do it alone -- "Fill me with Thy love and power; let Thy blessing fall on me." Please pray for me in this new adventure, that I'd have the wisdom I need to do this job well, and that I can make my God and my family priorities in my life.

Thoughts on Love and Logic: Part 1

This is the first post in a series about the book Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood: Practical Parenting from Birth to Six Years For other posts in this series, click here.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I really hadn't given much thought to what my parenting style would be like, especially discipline, until very recently. I'd kind of figured I would just go with the flow of whatever happened, and hope Abby turned out to be a good kid...

I first heard about the concept of Love and Logic when Rocky was reading the book Teaching with Love and Logic a few years ago. I glanced through it and thought it was a neat idea for the classroom. Then I noticed a copy of Parenting with Love and Logic for sale when I worked at Family Christian Stores, which I bought just before Abby was born. I read through the first couple of chapters last summer, but got discouraged because I didn't think it applied to us yet. The stories presented were about older, school-age kids.

So I visited the Love and Logic website, did a little browsing around, and, lo and behold, Jim & Charles Fay had indeed written a book about younger kids -- Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood: Practical Parenting from Birth to Six Years. I checked it out at the library, then eventually bought it for myself (I guess you can only renew a library book twice before returning it...).

"Your children will learn how to live with the consequences of their actions, avoid blaming others for their problems, and make wise decisions." 

There are four basic principles of Love & Logic:

1. Build the self-concept.
Instead of 1) finding faults and criticizing, 2) insisting on doing everything for their children, and 3) not allowing them to experience the joy of independent success, parents 1) offer empathy, understanding, and unconditional love, 2) allow their kids to struggle and solve their own problems, and 3) encourage them to learn to succeed through personal thinking and learning.

Children need to know how to handle situations that appear without warning, situations that require them to think for themselves. Then they'll begin to believe "Hey, I've got what it takes!" Every time we rescue our children and solve their problems for them, we erode their self-concept.

2. Share the control
Give control away when you don't need it, so you can get some back when you do! Share control by giving the types of choices that do not cause a problem for you. Make sure your choices are framed by firm limits. And make sure in each choice you give, you are ok with either choice!

For example: Do you want milk or juice with breakfast? Are you going to wear your coat to school or carry it? Are you going to brush your teeth now or in five minutes? Would you rather have peas or carrots with dinner?

3. Provide a strong dose of empathy before delivering consequences
Consequences are a big part of life. The pain of poor choices helps kids learn to avoid mistakes. Children need to make and learn from their mistakes while the consequences are still small and affordable. Consider the difference of wasting one's allowance at age five versus wasting one's paycheck at age 21...

If a kid makes a mistake and parents respond with sternness or anger, the child's brain goes into a "survival" mode instead of a "learning" mode. They think more about escaping your anger, or possibly getting revenge, instead of how to make smarter choices in the future. Rather than set ourselves up as the enemy, wise parents use empathy in a way that makes the child's mistake the "bad guy," while keeping the parents the "good guys."

4. Share the thinking
The more anger and frustration we show, the less our kids think -- and the less they learn about solving their problems. Shared thinking involves lots of love and empathy, and guides a kid toward solutions rather than doing it for them or automatically giving out punishment.

The key to getting your kids to think is to ask questions. Allow them to think more about a solution to a problem or a mistake than you do. "What are you going to do about ____? How are you going to pay for that? Would you like to hear some ideas? How would that idea work for you?"

----------------------------------------------------

While a lot of these concepts still sounded like too much for my then-6-month-old to handle, chapter 2 is called "It's never to early to start!" Though there were so many great concepts and ideas in this chapter -- and I could easily share them all! -- I'll just quote one paragraph:

Some people believe that children cannot learn or benefit from discipline until they can converse. Nothing is further from the truth! Can the family dog learn how to sit, stay, come, fetch, and lie down? I've never met a pooch who talked, but I have met some parents who seem to believe and act like the family dog is smarter than their kids. How sad! By the age of nine months, human babies are more intelligent than any other creature on the planet... Replace lectures, warnings, and lots of words with actions." 

I think that's enough of a summary for now... I'm re-reading the book and underlining and keeping these concepts fresh in my head, so I'll hopefully take the time over the next few weeks to expound more on each of the four principles of Love & Logic!

In the meantime, what are your thoughts? Do you have a parenting style? Does this one sound worthy of pursuit to you? (please note, I won't look down on anyone who disagrees, and I'm still learning too :-)