Family Pics in the Rain!

What Can I Give My Children

I've been thinking of what I can teach my children in our day to day life. I've decided at this point that the most valuable is teaching my children values. What's the saying..."Give a man a fish; you have fed him for a day. Teach a man to fish; you have fed him for a lifetime." I think that applies to teaching a child values, readying them for decisions that will cross their paths; even Gidget makes decisions now at the age of 3. Ever heard of "Power Tales," a series of stories about famous people related to a certain value? We had those growing up and they stuck with me. Out of print, but I found them on ebay and anxiously awaiting their arrival-- WORTH the cost. Then I started to read "The Book of Virtues"-- bought a used copy for $3.99 off of thriftbooks.com; it's a THICK book, so I loved getting that price. It's full of stories, poems, tales, etc... related to different virtues (or values). I've started reading them to the girls during lunch and last night I read a few to the girls while they were falling asleep. I can tell it's a good thing to do. We did a FHE on courage (I'm using "Teaching Children Values"-- has FHE-ish outlines for each value as a starter and outline for the months) and then I read a story, tale, and then poem of courage. Gidget sat up after one and said, "I really like that." Precious. Then we've randomly been playing/singing/dancing to the "Power Tales" (songs) from Deseret Book. One being song about courage and lions. Last week during FHE we played freeze dance to the courage song. That was a hit! Repetition and variety are a focus of mine with my girls at this stage. Already MD LOVES to dance and participate. She puts LOTS of tape on the poster while "helping" post pictures of courage. =)
So that's where I'm at. I'm loving having energy!! LOVING it. Now I can't nap though, but still needing sleep I'm having to be in bed by 9:00 or 9:30. (I remember when my mom did that and I thought it was crazy to be in bed so early! ha.) Being in the business of motherhood is good. I've also been recognizing more and more how much specific prayer is an aid daily. PHEW!

When you have a task to do, do it with a smiiiiilllle...

Chores have officially been introduced in the home. I'm probably a bit behind on all of that, but right now worked. We'll see how it goes. I've tried different things for behavior management, but what seems to mostly stick is uh-oh time in the calming chair. Positive reinforcement hasn't really worked; wanting to stay out of trouble is what hits home with Gidget. I could really go on about this, but I don't believe it's necessary. I'm sure plenty can say they know what I'm talking about.

So, we've just established official rules: (did during FHE, girls helped deco.; I'm going to frame them)

That's what led us to this week's official intro of chore list and positive vs. negative consequences (for rules and chore chart). I'm thinking what I need to do is compile about 6 different positive "Woo-Hoos." Then she won't have time to say she doesn't really care about earning this or that-- it'll be continuously changing. Hmm, she's only 3 and saying that! Any thoughts on that? What positives have worked for you?

Oh, here's our chore chart; the girls do it together--MD is only 19 months, but wants to be included:

The morn, noon, night labels are on magnets (I snagged a few from David's real estate collection. They're sticky on one side for business cards and magnet on the other). I am making some different chore pics and will put them on mini magnet squares too (Cut to fit pic). I left area under the word chore so that girls can see their chores in the morning. This chart will be what stays the same, but the positive reinforcement will change (weekly for now).

So send me your ideas. This week the girls have goody sheets (circle graph paper with 20 circles-- I printed online) and when mommy or daddy sees them making good choices by doing their chores or following the rules, then we'll fill in a circle. The last circle has a heart in it. When Gidget gets to that one then she'll get to... (I haven't really declared that yet: I have treasure chest, or stay up with mom n dad, or date night...). It was okay to leave that hanging a little because she was quite caught in filling the circles.

Thanks!

Love,

A New Mom at a New Stage

Bettering Life Through a Blonde Joke

How is that possible, you ask? You'll see.



"A blonde walks into the hairdresser with headphones on. She asks the woman working there for a haircut-- but only if she can keep the headphones on.

The blonde sits down in the chair and surprisingly soon drifts off to sleep. The hairdresser notices this and gently takes the blonde's headphones off and cuts her hair. When finished, the woman asks how she likes her hair but, to her surprise the blonde is dead!

The police soon arrive; no one has any idea what happened. That is until the hairdresser re-plays the whole scene and one officer picks up the headphones. The case is solved when he hears: “Breathe in...breathe out...breathe in...breathe out."

A couple months ago while laying in bed, unable to sweep away the busy thoughts, that blonde joke popped back in my memory. I still remembered my dad telling it to me with such detail and I remember sarcastically rolling my eyes, "Ohhh Daaaad." He, my brothers, and blond boy cousins always insisted that being "blonde" only effected the woman's brain. soooo funny, right? Well, little did they know, blonde's were apparently problem solvers.
Here's what I mean. So, again, I'm laying there in bed and the joke begins. When I get to the end I analyzed the situation. Why did she die? Really. Blondes know how to breath. ;) Then it hit me. She was a meditating maniac! She was so successfully wrapped up in the meditation that she didn't have any other cares at the moment-- she'd let the sound control her body. Of course!
Meditating is a growing "trend" and the idea has been continually spreading over the past 10 years among the common americans-- very common on Oprah. I'd say that blonde was way ahead of the game and also knew her boundaries (keep the earphones on). I heard this joke well before the meditation idea buzzed the commoners!
Anyway, at this point, still lying in bed wishing I was asleep by now, I realized something else, Hmm, so saying,'Breathe in, Breathe out,' helped her fall asleep. Could it help me?

And now, here I am to tell you... it does. When in need of some quick shut-eye just lay down and repeat, "Breathe in," (as you deeply breathe in) "Breathe out" (and let the air all out). Soon after that, you'll be sleeping like a rock.
Although, every now and then you'll have to push out the blonde joke connected to it. Ha.

Sleep tight!

"Taste this apple, My Pretty..."

Is that what the "old woman" said to Snow White? Well, that's the first title that came to my mind when I thought of apples. (Gidget loves Snow White!)

My point has nothing to do with poisoned apples, in fact it's about apples replacing my craving for poisons. =) This past holiday season I let myself eat whatever sweets I passed. Sometimes I didn't have the craving, but it was there so I ate it. Get this, I made peanut clusters for neighbors, but instead of delivering them... I ate them. Yes, it's true. I gained a good 5 solid pounds and ready to see how my body does at getting it off.

First effort:

I've decided, "Reach toward sweets? Eat an apple."

Well...

I had three apples today.

:)
When I push "Publish Post" , I'm going to go wash and enjoy the crunch of number four.

I'm ALIVE!

The shackles are coming off of my energy and I feel as if I'm rising from the perscription dead. In other words, I have a new Las Vegas neurologist- #4 (different than my UCLA neuro-oncologist) who was daring enough to lower my seizure medication dose-- even though the computer said my body needs a higher level, something my last LV doctor-#3 strictly followed. It's been scary dropping the levels-- ohh the possibilities. More seizures... AGAIN?! But I was more than willing because something needed to change. (Refer to my last 2 posts to get an idea.) It took a few drops in my dosage levels until I really felt the difference. How does it feel? Well, last night tears swelled my lids for a moment when the thought popped up, "Oh my gosh, I might actually be able to be like my sisters someday." Does that give you an idea about the difference? They're go-getters, creative, active... good moms.

Notice the words I might from that quote. I'm not there yet, but mercy I'm getting closer.

While brain surgery may have taken a toll on me for a little while, it has enabled my body to be free (at least have less) of the daily medication that took its toll on my every day life. Hence, the shackles.

Funny thing, though, recently I've been having a hard time falling asleep because I have so many "Mom" ideas going through my mind. I'm reading 3 books at the same time (y'know what I mean) and jotting notes as I go along- that's been hard in the past while. Woo Hoo! So, good, now I have to figure out how to work with the changes. Oh the beauties of life.

...I just had to give a quick shout-out. Thanks for listening. (with your eyes...?... you get it.)

Girls r' Growin'