Watermelons, canteloupes, and honeydew are in season around here. You may have some in your garden, or find them at the farmer’s market or at a street corner vender. I’ve seen some supermarket deals like a whole huge seedless watermelon for $2.99-$3.99. That’s a great choice when feeding a crowd. If you can’t eat a whole watermelon, put part of your cut watermelon in the blender, pour into posicle molds and freeze. It is delicious and no sugar needed.
Here’s a quick video on my favorite method for cutting melons. My sister-in-law Gena showed it to me, and her sister-in-law Chandra showed it to her. Chandra is a chef and is amazing in the kitchen.
Going to church with my children has been my greatest joy and my greatest challenge. My methods have changed from when my oldest daughter was born 10 years ago and how we manage things today. When I realized things weren’t working for me I sat down and thought about what my goals were in taking my children to church and what was stopping me from reaching these goals.
My desires for my children
To associate joy with church
To love and worship God
To learn more about the Holy Scriptures and God’s plan for their lives
To build godly friendships
To learn new hymns and scriptures
To feel God near
Why wasn’t it working?
1. The children were hungry and tired–big church comes right at lunch time and nap time
2. They distracted each other–hugging, kissing, and poking soon turned into screaming and wrestling
3. If I brought books, snacks or toys into the sanctuary…
a. They quickly went through them and wanted more
b. They made a mess with everything
c. It distracted them from getting much from the service
d. It distracted those around us
e. The older children wanted what I brought for the baby
f. I lost my cool quickly from sensory overload (too much visual movement, noise, and things bumping into me)
4. When I took all things away, the children started to hate coming to church.
5. They used bathroom breaks as an excuse to leave the service.
What does work?
1. Bringing a snack for everyone to eat before entering the sanctuary. This keeps blood sugar levels stable and helps the children control themselves. They learned noone would eat upstairs, not even the baby–except for nursing with a cover.
Here are some things I’ve taken for snacks: cheese and crackers, mozzarella cheese sticks, sliced apples, peanut butter finger sandwiches, wheat thin crackers, homemade bread, muffins, bagels, grapes, raisins, animal crackers…
2. I take them all potty and to get drinks before the service and let them know they won’t be leaving the service for these reasons.
3. When we sit on the pew I carefully order the children so that the ones that are ornery aren’t together.
4. Not bringing a lot of toys or books for the children. It keeps their entertainment expectations low.
5. There are some things I make sure to keep with me for those tough moments. They are ordinary looking things, not labeled as toys. It helps them be more interested if they think it’s something real. Here’s a small list:
a. A mechanical pencil for each child and if they start to fidget I let them doodle quietly on a scrap of paper before it turns into a discipline problem. (If I wait until they have been really naughty to hand them something it’s like rewarding their bad behavior.)
b. A small photo book in my purse with wallet size snapshots of family and friends
c. A handkerchief to roll up as twin babies in a cradle. I couldn’t find any instructions online so here’s a little video how to do it.
d. Chap-stick
e. Hand cream
f. Band-aids and Kleenex eliminate 2 more reasons for getting up
6. Also there are small things I can do to help the children stay focused.
a. Give them a gentle hand massage
b. Illustrate the sermon on a bulletin
c. Help an older child make a list of words they might hear during the sermon. During the sermon when they hear a word on their list, they place a little tally mark. It really keeps them listening.
d. Fold the bulletin into origami while they listen. I only know how to make a boat, but it works.
7. If my very small child (less than 2) gets fidgety I’ll stand in the back and hold him. A change of view usually does the trick.
8. And I’m not above having a little sweet tart treat for the children that don’t have to leave the service for discipline :).
f. After church I try to stay long enough to allow them to talk with their friends or run on the lawn a little bit.
Does it really work? Well, it works better than anything else I’ve tried. If you’ve sat near me during church, you’d know it’s not a perfect system. The children are still children and we all get weary and short tempered and sometimes I have to leave the service with a toddler under one arm. But they do grow and learn…and so do I. I’m so glad church is a place for sinners to find the grace of God :).
The title says everything I want to tell you today. So if you are busy you can stop reading and just repeat that to yourself throughout the day. I have to say it often and it melts away stress and keeps me going. I say it to the children too. It reminds them that I expect their best, but if their best still isn’t perfect–that’s okay.
I remember last week packing the ingredients to take dinner over to my cousin’s house… (Ooh, I’ve never told you about that? I do it every week and it’s fantastic….but for another post.) And I was late. She needed to leave at a certain time and I got the privilege of playing with our 9 children for the evening. I was feeling very inadequate. The food seemed plain; I was not well put together; and I was afraid to forget something. “Your best is good enough. Now smile.”
Then there was that time that I was invited to speak on the Grocery Shrink at a what I thought was a small conference. When I arrived I found a huge auditorium with a full stage lined with colorful flags from many large countries. They had a huge projector screen and high tech audio visual equipment to go with it, and the room was filled with women. Then it hit me that the women were expecting me to be good. Aaak! “Your best is good enough. Smile.”
And the time when my very good friend asked me to deisgn and create 5 unique bridesmaid dresses out of VERY expensive orange silk. Oh the moments of self doubt that beset me. But I would take a deep breath and remind myself, “Your best is good enough.”
And the nights I sit by wee little beds and look at the beautiful children thinking how much of their future I hold in my hands. I tremble at the thought! In the darkness I hear the Holy Spirit whisper, “Your best is enough and I will make up the difference.”
You see, your best is all you can give. And it’s never perfect or enough, but somehow when we give our all, God makes up the difference. When it comes to our budget, keeping home, raising children, being a wife, being a friend–All we can offer is our best. And today’s best will be only a shadow of what tomorrow’s best can be as we grow and learn and stretch our skills.
I love Jack Mackerel. It is half the price of Salmon with double the nutrition per serving. Here’s a video for you on how to prepare a simple recipe and what to expect when you open the can. It’s not very clear in the video but the ingredients are:
1 Can Jack Mackerel–$1.32
1 Sleeve Saltine Crackers $.25
2 Eggs–$.16
This feeds four people for $1.73 (or $.44 a serving!) and is loaded with protein.
It’s move in day for the girls! They’ve waited several months for me to figure out what to do with their particle board floor and then 2 weeks while I found little chunks of time here and there to work on it and a week for it to cure. I’m so glad they’re sweet, patient little things. I finally decided on a canvas floor and polyurethaned it so I could mop it. I love how it turned out!
Here are some before and after pictures for you. I had to dig to find some before pictures which were some Daddy snapped for fun while we were organizing one day. We updated the room by hanging bead board wall paper and painting the trim white before redoing the floor.
Before
After
Before
After
We still need to build some beds and desks and hang the wall decorations on the other long wall. I can’t wait to have real after pictures to show you. But for now the girls are happy to sleep in their room again.
You can watch the video to see how we redid the floor with a $30 canvas drop cloth.
I mentioned in a previous post that I have a lot of towels (for a lot of people) and no linen closet. I’ve been wondering about what to do for awhile. I used to have a wicker laundry basket beside the tub with towels in it. But it blocked the heater/air conditining vent and didn’t hold enough towels. Then I saw these cute wall cubes at Martha Stewart and though, “I can do that!” But mine ended up with nails sticking out all over.
And then I saw this Lettered Cottage Post where they found a shabby wooden window box and brought it indoors for towel storage. It was super cute and fit in nicely with our new master bedroom theme which we plan to redo around our favorite vacation spot (The Bahamas.) Only wooden window boxes aren’t easily found around here. Then I thought I would build one out of the parts of our deck that are falling off. But the last time I built something from wood… Anyway, it was very demotivating.
Then one day I was at Big Lots with my 2 girls just wasting time. And we found some wire window boxes for just $10 each. I’d been around the internet looking a window boxes enough to know that it was a steal, so I grabbed 2. I used some thingies from the plumbing department at Home Depot with some sheet rock screws to hang them. And Voila!
I think I may paint them white. And I need to wash some towels now that I have a place to put them. I can store 10 towels off the floor and in perfect reach of the tub. And the best part is since the window boxes were made to use outdoors a little moisture won’t bother them.
I also have the peat moss liners left over. I almost threw them away, but Heidi stopped me. I’m so glad she did. I’ve got a project in mind for now….maybe for my front door? It is front porch zone week over at Fly Lady. :).
Don’t forget to scroll down to the previous post and enter our giveaway.
The homeschool ballet program at HADC is top notch! This was our first year to try ballet and both girls were in the same class. The teacher’s prayed with the girls before every class and every performance.
The company does a huge production every other year, and this year they adapted the story of Rigoletto for ballet. The directors always consider the message of the story for the glory of God. Some mothers drive nearly an hour to bring their children for class–it’s that good.
I have a short video clip from our dress rehearsal of my daughter’s dance. It is beginning ballet and most of the girls are 6 years old. My oldest, Heidi (10), was also in the class since this is her first year dancing, and the younger girls really looked up to her. She will be skipping a level this fall to join girls closer to her age and will take 3 classes a week. It’s amazing to see how she has gained confidence and poise, but also how it has helped rewire her brain. Heidi’s learning disability is slowly becoming less and less and it is my hope that if we continue with Ballet and Violin that it will be nothing but a faint memory.
It’s so fun to go to a place where we share values, and a love of teaching our children. When I first arrived, I entered a room full of godly friendships and good influences for my girls. It’s a safe place to grow.
P.S. The Giveaway is open until I reveal the secret, so keep those guesses coming :). Comments are now closed. Congratulations Amber!
As part of the perks of having a well read blog, sometimes companies send me things. They ask me to tell you my opinion, and I get to keep whatever it is. I was contacted this week by CSN stores for just an offer and I’m SUPER excited about this one. It’s not a coffee maker , but it goes in your kitchen. If you set this out at a garage sale, instead of a lemonade stand, people would be talking about it for months and make a point to check out your sale next year. Ooh, not just garage sales, but birthday parties will never be the same. And what about the next family BBQ?
It's better than Lemonade
The cool thing about CSN is that they have a huge range of items, over 200 online stores and a million products. If you need it you can find it at CSN and it will probably be on discount with reasonable or free shipping. So stay tuned and I’ll let you know when the mystery item arrives. But first I need to go find the party hats!
Can you guess what it is? Leave a comment with your guess and I’ll draw a name for a free Grocery Shrink ebook or Slow and Savory book. Already have one? You can designate a friend to get it.
