What You’ll Hear in Episode 002: Creating a Family Culture Developing a Family Culture the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization Creating a shared vision or culture bonds the parents and children – siblings support and challenge each other to live up to the family code of conduct. Everyone has an innate need to belong to a “tribe”, a family,…
What You’ll Hear in Episode 001: The Vocation to Motherhood Motherhood is more than dirty diapers, crumbs, and loads of laundry! Motherhood is a call from God to participate in raising good virtuous children. A calling gives meaning to the mundane. We are in partnership with God to form these children. How do we honor the gift of motherhood? We value it We don’t squander the time We…
Dear Sweet Empty Nest Mom – Like you, I find it hard to believe that most of my children are grown and gone. When did that happen? I still make the same amount of food (now we have lots of leftovers), their bedrooms still look the same, and some of their junk stuff is still here. And yet, they aren’t. When I stop and let myself think about…
Have you stopped and asked yourself lately how tech is affecting your kids or how the tech and kids combo is changing your home life? My husband and I just got back from a week on the gulf. It was beautiful and sad at the same time. Everywhere we went whether it was at the beach, the cornhole greens, in the car, the restaurants, or just sitting around…
As a parenting and homeschooling coach, so many moms I deal with are looking for the “magic bullet” – the “thing” that will help their children be obedient, keep the home running smoothly, and take them from daily tears to enjoying their motherhood. After we discuss the issues they’re dealing with in their home and work through some practical steps to implement, I often ask if they are…
For this Mama, one of the most important responsibilities I had was to teach my children to be honest. I knew that someday, my sweet little toddlers with their angel-face smiles would grow up to be teenagers who had to decide to leave a party because there was alcohol or make a decision to take the answers that were being passed around to a particularly hard test. Someday…
By far the #1 question I get is, “How do I have a smooth morning routine?” “I can’t get the kids to move.” “We’re always late out the door because we can’t find their shoes.” “The kids don’t get up on time.” “The kids won’t finish their breakfast in a timely fashion.” “They won’t get off the TV when I say time to go.” “I feel like I’ve…
After that title, are you brave enough to keep reading? While it is easier to believe that our children’s bad behavior is because of their shortcomings, stubborn wills, or “just the way they’re wired”, often our children’s bad behavior is because of something we are or are not doing. Yeah, that’s not going to make your day shine with rainbows and unicorns. However, I hope that in reading…
One of my granddaughters was drawing a picture for me, and when she presented it to me, I couldn’t help but notice her beaming face, “Look, Grandma Jan, it’s you, smelling a flower”. She’s 3. It did not look like me – it didn’t look like a person, really – nor did it look like I was smelling a flower. But her sense of satisfaction in her subject,…
Twenty-six years ago, my husband and I made a decision that would change the course of our family forever. We took our four school-aged children out of Catholic schools and decided to try homeschooling. Although I had lifetime certification as an elementary teacher, I had many reservations. I knew I could teach them – most parents can. The curriculum through 8th grade is not rocket science. (Common core…