Pancakes...

Is there anything better than pancakes on a dark winter morning, when there just doesn't seem to be any good reason to crawl out of bed?
In our home, pancakes are part of the family culture. I love making them, because they love eating them.

School Daze

How can the soft, slow pace of Summer be coming to an end so soon?
It seems like we just said “good-bye” to books, pencils, backpacks and notebooks, and here we are, back in the “school supply” aisle of the local big box with a cart full of items that need to find a place in our homes, or in a new class room.
As a homeschooling mom, I look at these days with a mix of excitement and a longing for a few more weeks of relaxation. I love getting the new books and all the supplies. We put a new face on the school room this summer and I am ready to begin a fresh new year, but it is always hard to let go of the gentle, rambling days of summer, when we have less structure and we learn more by experience and observation than by text.
Now, for most families, time management has an added element of responsibility. It’s not just getting to work on time, it’s also getting the kids out the door and onto the bus or into the classroom.
Now, afternoons and evenings are complicated with team practice and homework.
Now, someone has to keep track of papers and materials that have to make it back to school the next day.
It’s so important to think ahead and plan each week to meet the level of detail that is going to be necessary.
A family meeting on Sunday evening is a good idea.
Sit down with everyone and put the week’s activities on a large calendar. It might even be a good idea to choose a different color for each person.
Think about who has to be where and when. Ask the kids about events coming up at school, and talk about who can drive them to and from practice or lessons. Talk about all the additional responsibilities, meetings that will keep Mom or Dad late at work, Church activities, Clubs, or time with friends. Where do the preschool children fit in to all this?
Thinking and planning ahead will make the flow of each morning so much easier. One look at the calendar will help prioritize the day, and everyone has had a chance to discuss their needs, so there should be less last minute “negotiating” about responsibilities.
The goal is that at the end of the day, everyone has gotten to and from, done the necessary tasks, and has a good feeling about the way the day went.
Sit down at bedtime and talk over the day. Ask the kids if they felt that things went well. Tweak the week, if plans change, but try to build time into the day so that this doesn’t throw everything off schedule.
Now is the time to set a family strategy that will get your year off to a smooth start!

Teaching Goal Setting....

Goal setting is an important part of managing our lives. Knowing what our priorities are, setting objectives and working to make them reality, is a vital skill in our busy world. Parents would do well to begin teaching their children, as they grow, to set achievable tasks for themselves and become proficient at breaking them down into steps that can be accomplished a little at a time. The sooner we learn to set goals, and develop a process for achieving them, the better off we will be as life gets more complicated.

Depending on the age of the child, there are many ways that children can practice setting and achieving goals.

• Toddlers can learn to climb a set of stairs and celebrate when they reach the top. They can learn to build a tower of blocks and create a finished product.
• Preschoolers can work on saying the alphabet or counting to 10, with small rewards as they learn each letter or number. They can learn to pick flowers or harvest vegetables in the garden, both of which have a very easily achieved goal. A lovely bouquet for the table, or a yummy snack! 
•  If your child is new to goal setting, start with a very short term goal. Say, finishing homework before dinner. Give the child something to work toward, like a story or game with mom and dad after dinner, and make sure that you follow through.
• After the child is able to accomplish the short term goal with ease, set another goal, that is a little more challenging. For example, finishing homework before dinner every night for a week. Achieving the goal could be rewarded with a special Saturday “date” with Mom or Dad.
• An allowance is an excellent way to help kids learn to set goals, as it is it’s own reward. Giving them the opportunity to earn a small amount of money for doing their “job” well, whether it is chores, schoolwork, or a combination of the two is a good way to teach them a good work ethic, and to set and achieve financial goals. We are rewarded in the workplace with a paycheck, and then it is up to us to set the goals that we want to achieve with our money. Let kids start practicing a financial system and help them to learn about saving, budgeting, and earning more by doing extra work.
• The older your child, the longer term their goals can be. Gradually helping a child work harder for longer, with a loftier goal, helps them develop patience and perseverance. Once a child is in middle school, there are any number of areas where they can practice these skills. Scouting, sports such as martial arts or swimming, 4-H, or taking up an instrument, are all types of activities that use goal setting as a way of motivating young people toward accomplishment. These programs have long-tested methods and are a good way for the whole family to learn to work hard to reach a worthy goal.
• If groups are not your cup of tea, help your middle-schooler learn to scrapbook, sew, work with wood or garden. These activities all require a longer scope and more patience. Helping them create a vision, plan a project, break it down into tasks, and then celebrating the finished project is rewarding for all of you!

School related accomplishment follows as a child learns that anything they attempt is easier if it is broken down into smaller tasks. A child who learns good task-management skills will be able to take them into life and into the workplace.  Goal-setting is a life-skill that can be taught to a toddler, a school age child, or a teen. It is never too early, and never too late, to start!

Did It Stick?

So it's April now. How's that New Year's resolution working out for you?
If you decided that you were going to keep the closet organized, the sink shined, or the laundry folded and put away, are the habits that you set out to create becoming part of your routine?
Now is a good time to spot check yourself. It's hasn't been that long. What did you set out to accomplish? What did you think as you started making progress? What slowed you down or interrupted your momentum? Can you get that issue in check and forge ahead?
Set a goal to try to do a little bit more of that task each day. Add 15 minutes a day to your routine and fold and put away the clothes in the dryer. Make that closet organizer that you bought in January earn it's keep. Enjoy the sight of a cleared counter and sink as you head off to bed. Really. A little time goes a long way and once the habit is a part of you, it won't even seem like an effort.
Do it for you!

And The Rains Came....

Spring weather is alternatively inspiring, invigorating and depressing.

We wake up to sunshine and warm temperatures one day, and have to drag out the winter coats and gloves the next. This creates some distinct challenges in our efforts to keep things picked up, at hand, and in order.

What to do with coats that are necessary one day and not the next? It's probably going to be a few weeks before they can go into storage for the summer, but they don't have to be lying all over the place on the days that the weather is nice. If you have a coat closet, ask each family member to be sure to put their outerwear away neatly. They may be there for a week or more. Winter boots can probably be put away, but not totally out of reach. It's also a good idea, this time of year, to keep sweaters or jackets in the car. You never know when you might get caught out somewhere in unpredictable weather.


Sports equipment is going to start coming out for use. If you have a large tub that you store these items in, the garage or basement, or another transitional area, would be a good place to keep it. Ask that all the participating members of the family be responsible for grabbing their gear on the way out the door, and replacing it as soon as they get home. If you are running to practices all week, consider a tub in the back of the car. You can keep balls, gloves, rackets, cleats, and other equipment ready for practice. Also keep on hand a change of clothes for each athlete. That way if it's cold, and they are wet and muddy, a quick trip to the rest room will make them much more comfortable.

For days when the weather is just not cooperating, try to complete one task that you want out of the way before summer. Organize a closet, go through the pantry and get rid of expired items, make a plan for your yard or garden, and do the research that you need to get done online, so that you can execute the plan as soon as it warms up.

This month, just roll with the weather, and make the most of every day!

March Moves In!

March is here! That transitional month between winter and spring.
March is a month of action. The Earth prepares for another season of growth, and this month, as it comes “in like a lion out like a lamb” we get a taste of nature’s own order.
Nature knows what is needed and what needs to be shed, and it’s cycle of productivity can be a great lesson to us.
For example, we look at the trees. Every Fall the trees shed their leaves. It is a beautiful show, but it is also a necessary part of the tree’s life cycle. The trees can’t hold onto their leaves year after year, because the new leaves are needed. The old must be dropped to the ground to make room for the new, and in their own way the old leaves do good for the soil.
Over the winter and early spring, heavy snows and winds cause the dead wood to be broken off and cleared from the treetops so that the new, productive sprouts and buds can form.
We can learn to clear out our own “dead wood” and shed the clutter that is keeping us from being positive and productive. We can wake up to the light and sunshine of Spring and find that restless lion inside as we pace around our overfilled homes.
Use the feelings of restlessness and invigoration that come with Spring. Open the windows, let in the fresh air and open up the space inside as well.
Welcome the new season as a chance to clear out the things that have been a burden and make room for the things that make life truly enjoyable.
Set a goal to make a significant change in your habits as you work this month. Be like the tree, make shedding the old stuff a habit, so that you can welcome the new!

Grocery IQ

A friend put me on to a really helpful new way to keep my grocery list.
It’s an application called “Grocery IQ” that is available online and also as an app for smartphones. I have been using it all week and I love it!
You can add items by typing them into the list, or by scanning a barcode with your phone’s camera!
You can break down the list by store, and it also will automatically separate your items by the aisle that you will find them in.
You can print coupons right from your list and each item that you enter has brand name suggestions.
You can also break down your shopping by adding the names of the stores and entering the items to purchase at each one.
This is an extremely helpful tool and it will keep you from always having paper lists to find. You should know where to find the computer, if you don’t you definitely need to give me a call.

Keeping Your Electrons in Order

It is enough of a challenge to keep our physical homes in order, but today we have another layer of stuff to add to the physical things that clutter up our space. The stuff that I am referring to is electronic clutter, and while it is easier to ignore it, it can be just a s big a problem as it piles up and slows us down.
Email, files, pictures, documents, and other electronic flotsam and jetsam, must be sorted, purged and organized as frequently as possible.
For most of us, email is a way of life. At work it is how we communicate and share information. In the marketplace, it is a way to find the best deals on items and services that we purchase. In our personal lives, it is a way to stay in touch and it is fast, so the birthday pictures that you took can get to Aunt Jane the day of the party! However, it needs constant attention, or it can be an albatross and the things that we need to attend to can be lost in the shuffle.
Try to go to your email at least once a day. Sort through it just as you do your paper mail. Junk the things that you know you don’t need to look at, and organize what is left by creating folders or labels. Spend time answering the emails that you need to get to, and try not to leave anything in the inbox for more than a couple of days. If you are on a large number of mailing lists, spend a little extra time unsubscribing and after a while there won’t be as much to work through.
In the same way, the files and folders that we squirrel away in our hard drives can become a problem if we never spend anytime attending to what we have there.
Too many items can eventually slow the computer down, and there is always the potential for a crash that can destroy a lot of hard work and personal information. Go through your documents occasionally and get rid of anything that is no longer relevant or necessary. Backup the things that you need to keep on an external drive or an online backup system.
Pictures saved electronically are a joy forever, but only if they are safe from digital destruction. They are large and can add up faster, especially if you are an avid photographer and take many, high quality, photos. It might be a good idea to buy an external drive just for photos. They are secure, can’t be accessed by anyone on the internet, and they are protection in the event of a crash. You can leave copies of anything that you want to work on in the computer, but you will have your originals somewhere else for safekeeping.
Just a few things to keep in mind as the time for filing taxes approaches. It is always better to be able to find what we need, when we need it, and the electronic world is no exception.

Snow Solutions!

It's truly the season of winter! The cold has settled in and the snow, ice and wind have become a part of life for a couple of months.
It is a season of fun for the kids. Snow days spent outside sledding and building snowmen and forts, add a change of tempo to the usual routine. With the cold and snow, however, come some specific organizational challenges, as boots, coats, snow pants, hats, gloves and scarves seem to adorn every surface as the family comes in from the cold.
There are ways to minimize the impact of these large,  bulky items and streamline the process of getting everyone into them again when they want to go back out.
For the footwear, keep thick towels at the door, to collect the snow, and have everyone take their boots off as they come in. Towels go into the wash easier than rugs.  Move the boots to a convenient box or bin while they are not actually needed, and keep it handy in the coat closet. When the need arises, bring the box to the door.
Keep gloves mated with each other by balling the thinner ones, like socks, and clipping together the heavier ones. These can go into their own tub, along with the hats, scarves, ear protection, etc. You will always have them right where you need them and won't have to search. When the family comes in with wet gloves and hats, just throw them into the dryer for a bit and return them to the box as soon as they come out.
Hang wet coats and snow pants in the shower to drip dry, if they are just wet and not dirty, and then the pants can be folded on a hanger under the appropriate coat. The less you have to wash and dry them the better they will hold up.
When winter wears off and the chance of snow passes, all of these items can be placed in a large, clear tub together for storage. Next winter you won't have to look for them. This is also a good time to look at the kids snow gear and see who will need new gear next year. Anything too small or worn out can be donated.

What's Stopping You?

Question: If there was one thing that you could do to change your life for the better, what would it be?
You may be one of those people that has the world by the tail, has it all together and wouldn't change a thing, but for most of us, there is something that we are striving for that we want to say that we have achieved.

Think about it for awhile. Give yourself some time to really mull over where you are and what you are doing with your life, as opposed to where you want to be. It's OK to dream, it's OK to think big. When you find that dream, write it down.

Now, after you have identified something, answer this question:
What is stopping you?
Really. Get a piece of paper and write down all the obstacles to fulfilling that achievement.
Now, divide up the things you've written down into two groups. "Me" and "Reality".
If, for example, you have always wanted to buy a house in the country and raise your own food, what are the things that are keeping you from that goal?
If one reason is that you lack experience with farming, put that under "Me". If another reason is that you would need more money to buy a place, write that down under "reality". Maybe you are hesitant to make a move that is that life-changing. That goes under "me".
Now you can go about conquering the obstacles with a focus on where they are coming from. The ones that you are putting up for yourself may be the hardest to overcome, actually, but once you get over the first of the hurdles, you will find that you are encouraged to try and get over the next one.
Ask yourself, "Why not?" Why shouldn't you step up to your dreams and attempt to make them reality? Who can help? Find people that have done what you want to do and ask them how they did it. Take a class.
Even if reality steps in and keeps you from the ultimate goal, you will find that you have become energized and engaged by the process. You have become more of what you want to be than what you were. You are an achiever!