I know we’re deep into back-to-school season right now and we're all lamenting the loss of family vacation time a bit, but I need to take a time-out from all of that today and tell you about another super fun activity our family has been LOVING lately. First, the backstory... about 2 years ago my husband started training with a group of people from work for a Spartan Races. If you're not familiar, these are extreme obstacle course races outside in the elements. Think crawling in the mud, sliding … [Read more...]
Establishing “Family Jobs” & “Money Jobs” at Home
My kids have recently reached the age where they're interested in chores, money, earning, saving... all of that good stuff. And as we started to dip our toes into the world of chores and piggy banks, I realized it's not quite as straight forward as I had thought.So today we're publishing the first in a series of posts on responsibilities and money management for kids - a super important topic in our book.Our hope is that you'll get some good tips and resources and will also add your own … [Read more...]
Happy Family Habits #15: The Right Way to Hug your Kids
One of the things I have loved, loved, LOVED about being momma to baby M are the pre-nap snuggles. My third baby is the only one who truly loves to snuggle with me. Even as infants, S and C would wiggle in my arms as I rocked and sang to them before nap. They weren't upset, they just wanted to look around - at the room, at the fan, even at me.They were never fully relaxed enough to snuggle up as I had envisioned they would. Eventually I came to terms with it, figuring that's just how … [Read more...]
{Happy Family Habit #13} Involving Kids in Giving Back
It is better to give than to receive. And there's no time like the present! Even young children can learn the joy of giving. Why is this important?It's important because we are raising our kids in a me-me-me culture. Kids are bombarded with messages about satisfying our own needs and getting what we want. Immediately.Slowing down to focus on others balances all of the 'me' messages. Sometimes, we put off the idea of service or giving because it just seems so overwhelming. I don't … [Read more...]
Happy Family Habit #12: Spend One-on-One Time with Each Child
You've heard it said that the days are long but the years are short. If you are a mom, you've experienced this to be true. When the kids are little, you spend your days constantly feeding, changing, wiping, fixing, answering and the list goes on. Raising kids takes a LOT of work! But, they are growing up before our eyes and with each passing year those little tasks we're needed for diminishes.For those of you that don't know, I'm a mom of two boys (13 and 11) and a nine year old girl. I … [Read more...]
Happy Family Habit #11: “Time-Ins” for the Whole Family
Image Credit: © Alexandre Normand | 06.09.13 & 04.30.12 | CC by 2.0 I'm so honored to have my friend Zina from Let's Lasso the Moon participating in our Happy Family Habits series. I relate so much to Zina's parenting philosophy and just adore her blog. Today she's sharing TONS of great tips and resources for stopping melt-downs in both ourselves and our kids before they even start. Above all else, this post just made me feel incredibly hopeful about what I could achieve with this … [Read more...]
Happy Family Habit #10: Creating a Blessing Bag
Today we're focusing on giving back in our month long mission to eat better, parent better, organize better and just generally live better this year. We've got another Happy Family Habit for you to start working on. It's #10 on our list and I personally think you're gonna love this one...You know that feeling you get when you see a situation you wish you could fix? It's a tugging of the heart strings when we see someone we want to help, but just don't know quite how. I live in a … [Read more...]
Happy Family Habit #9: Teach Gratitude by Remembering to Thank Your Kids
Have you been able to slow down in between the frenzy of Halloween and Thanksgiving that's around the corner? In talking about our next Happy Family Habit, Kristin and I were noticing things on social media like 30 Days of Thanks and throw-back photos thanking parents and friends. We love how these things shift the focus off our busy schedules and onto the people and things we have to be thankful for. As parents, we try to instill that into our kids. Writing thank you cards and teaching … [Read more...]
Happy Family Habit #8: Get Your Kids to Talk with a Chatting Spot
We're back with another Happy Family Habit today and it's a really good one. Kristin has a lot of really useful tips not only on the when and where of setting up a chatting spot with the kids - but also the how and why. So what do you say? Ready to spend the next 21 days establishing a chatting spot?Talking is easy when kids are little. In fact, sometimes we feel like it would be nice to have a little less talking! But getting into the habit of talking with your kids will be worth it's … [Read more...]