Some time ago I read Mary DeMuth's book Authentic Parenting in a Postmodern Culture: Practical Help for Shaping Your Children's Hearts, Minds, and Souls.I "met" Mary online while clicking around from blog to blog as a relative newcomer to the blogosphere. I landed on hers and found myself charmed by her personal chronicle of life in southern France. She and her husband … [Read more...]
One Summer-Fall Day
Unseasonably warm temperatures reached the mid-70s today, allowing the kids to experiment with leaf inventions; they were unencumbered by pesky fall jackets or gloves and instead donned shorts and T-shirts.They raked leaves and jumped. They shook branches, raked more, heaped, leaped, tumbled, skidded and slid into the mounds.They created circles and walls of leaves. They … [Read more...]
Feeling Nifty being Thrifty – iPod Case Made from a Soccer Sock and Pom-Pom
Well, there's nothing like a national financial crisis to inspire people to greater frugality. These days I prefer using the happier term, thriftiness. For years, I've thought of myself as "cheap." I love that I can now refer to myself as "thrifty." It's trendy, these days, to be thrifty. Plus, who can resist using a word that rhymes with "nifty"? Well, speaking of … [Read more...]
Wanted Poster: Someone to Play Marbles (or Risk) with Ten-Year-Old Girl
Memory Aids to Help Hide It in Your Heart
I can't remember the details of Fahrenheit 451 (which is, ahem, ironic, given that I'm writing about memorization), but I recall that the protagonist committed some Scripture to memory in a world where books were being destroyed.At the end, when the rest of the world is apparently bombed, a remnant, if you will, of people remains--those who have memorized at least portions … [Read more...]
Correction: Make that "Wordleth Wendthday"
Wordless Wednesday
From Chaos to Controversy to Gratitude to the Fonz
All of your responses to the original post about chaos and the follow-up post about being humbled have been helpful and insightful. Thank you for pondering and exploring this with me.One time I was explaining blogs and blogging (and my blog itself) to my sister-in-law. At the time, I had been following a couple of bloggers who seemed to generate tons of traffic and … [Read more...]
Chaos-O-Meter
Today's Chaos-O-Meter indicates a high level of chaos in the Kroeker house.The kids determined the possible levels of chaos, beginning with: "Complete peace." Next is "Mildly Messy." After that, midway on the Chaos-O-Meter, reads "Minor Mishaps." The next degree of chaos is "Dust Everywhere," which apparently the children have determined adds a lot to the chaos. I'm … [Read more...]
How to Invite Chaos into Your Life in Four Easy Steps
It's easy to introduce mass chaos into your home, if you know how.Step One: Ignore various design flaws in your home for at least eight years. Thanks to the Law of Entropy, ignoring these issues is sure to complicate things immensely down the road.Step Two: Imagine you might be able to do the repairs yourself. Actually attempt a few of them yourself, but leave them … [Read more...]
Olympic Marathon Ponytails
The Boy (6yo) was in my bedroom watching the Olympics, making himself scarce while the rest of us cleaned up after dinner.He came down when he heard some discussion about ice cream sundaes."Were you watching the Olympics?" I asked."Yes.""What's on? Are they showing that Michael Phelps race again?""No. It's running. Women.""The marathon?""Yes! That's it! The … [Read more...]
FWIW: TM Acronym Primer for Concerned Parents
There's been some discussion on various blogs about the appropriate age for kids to get their own cell phones and how much freedom they should have on the Internet, whether its e-mailing, IM-ing, setting up a Facebook account, or surfing the Web.I find it's helpful to gather information as we're making decisions in these areas, so I've been interested in reading comments … [Read more...]
Eco-Friendly Experiments: Bicycling to Church (and thoughts on patience)
This past week we've only had one van. The other one is in the shop for repairs. As a result, we've been creative with transportation solutions, running errands by bicycle or simply staying home some afternoons.Inspired by this forced experiment (and with this post from Anne Jackson still affecting me a little every time we fire up the van on a Sunday), we decided to ride … [Read more...]
Hey, I'm a 41-year-old Mom, Too! Dana Torres and I Have Sooo Much in Common!
Surely you've read about Olympic swimmer Dana Torres?If you haven't, here's the skinny (if I've cobbled together the details correctly):This former Olympian, now a 41-year-old mother of three (the most recent of the three kids was born only two years ago), came back from a six-year retirement to earn a spot on the team in the 100m freestyle.The 100m freestyle, people! … [Read more...]
Crock-Flops and Minor Crock-Successes
I was so eager to try some new recipes in the crockpot after being inspired by A Year of Crockpotting that I did a little online search and came up with this highly recommended stew: Crockpot Chicken & Quinoa. It looked soooo good in the photograph. The instructions were easy. I even shocked myself by having on hand in my cupboard a box of quinoa and in the freezer, … [Read more...]
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