If I Hear "Mama" One More Time

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If I Hear "Mama" One More Time

In the last 20 minutes, I've literally heard the beckoning of "Mama" 38 times. Literally. To keep my sanity, I started counting. As I lay my youngest down to sleep, I pondered the huge milestones we'd met this week of potty training and weaning all intermingled with the frustration and just plain exhaustion of, "Mama, Mama, Mama."

In my heart, I cried out to the Lord to strengthen, encourage, and bless me for the rest of this day and all that it still held... And for the many, many "Mamas" that had yet to be said... 

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How You're Sabotaging Motherhood (and don't know it)

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How You're Sabotaging Motherhood (and don't know it)
  • Breast or bottle.
  • Forward-facing or rear-facing.
  • Homeschool or public school.
  • Attachment parenting or cry it out.
  • Baby wearing or stroller.
  • Store bought puree or baby led weaning.
  • Cloth or disposable.
  • Early education or delayed instruction.
  • Formal lessons or unschooling.
  • Classical or Charlotte Mason.
  • Textbooks or living books.
  • Crafts or free play.
  • Packed lunch or lunchroom.
  • Organic or not.
  • Essential oils or a doctor visit.
  • Paleo or convenience foods.
  • Homeschool for life or homeschool for now.
  • Time outs... Positive reinforcement... Or spanking?
  • And let's not even get into the decisions we make with our teenagers!

It never ends. As moms, we make thousands of decisions daily, big and small, and no matter where we look, our friends, family, media, and experts are all telling us (directly or indirectly) that we are doing it WRONG. The world shouts that out of all the choices, the one we made isn't the BEST. There's a better way...

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How to Pursue Excellence Rather than Perfection

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How to Pursue Excellence Rather than Perfection

Criticism is something I’ve battled my entire life. It came from extended family members, friends, acquaintances, leaders, and even strangers.

My earliest memory dealing with it was as a small child. Being criticized for being a female while all my cousins and siblings were males was constant. Growing up in a family where my extended relatives praised males was challenging. I never felt enough, no matter how hard I tried.

As a young adult, I worked under a leader who didn’t fully agree with women in ministerial roles. I found myself receiving the same sort of criticism I did as a child. Nothing I did was ever good enough, and every time I opened my mouth, I was told I said something wrong. I was given clear instructions, followed them exactly, but somehow I was still critiqued. It was constant, and it was heartbreaking. It crushed my spirit.

Proverbs 15:4 says, “Gentle words bring life and health; a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.”

During this season of criticism, my heart developed a struggle with perfectionism. I felt like everything I did, everything I said, and everything I sought after had to be perfection. If it was, then I wouldn’t hear the stinging words of criticism.

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When Your Homeschooled Child Can't Read Yet

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When Your Homeschooled Child Can't Read Yet

If you're reading this, you are probably in the midst of teaching one of your little ones to read OR you have that endeavor looming ahead of you in the near future... amiright? The singular biggest fear of every single homeschool mom I've ever spoken to is failing to teach her child to read well... and especially failing to teach them "on time".

In most of our minds, we envision that our homeschooled child would be reading well in advance of their public school counterparts (or at least at the same time). Simultaneously, in our little hearts, one reason we homeschool is to give our children the time and space to grow and develop on their own timeline. Sometimes these desires and expectations clash and can create monster homeschool mom anxiety. I know many mamas who have quit homeschooling (or never even began) because they were overwhelmed at the idea of failing in this important task. 

I want to share some actual evidence with you today that helped put me at ease when my own homeschool student just wasn't progressing like I felt she "should." 

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I'm Impatient with My Kids {Because I'm Distracted}

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I'm Impatient with My Kids {Because I'm Distracted}

I want to openly admit that I've been completely distracted lately—by an overwhelming to-do list, endless obligations, spreading myself thin, and spending WAY too much time on social media. It has resulted in my being irritable and impatient with my kids.

The insane amount of time I spend on my phone is one of those things that I've been aware of for some time, but it's also something I find myself making a ton of excuses about. I work online, so I need access to my email, my blog, and my social media. Plus, I'm a stay-at-home mom with littles, so I don't get out and have many adult conversations. I have friends and family who don't live close by, so I need to keep up with their lives too. And of course, those same family and friends want to see what we're up to. RIGHT?

With many life changes going on right now and various tasks popping up left and right... my mind is overflowing 24/7. My brain is an internet browser with 4.7 million tabs open at all times.

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When You Want to Quit Homeschooling (Part 5 of 5)

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When You Want to Quit Homeschooling (Part 5 of 5)

In part 5, we wind up this series ask the big question that brought you here:

SHOULD I quit homeschooling?

I’m going to be brave. I’m going to say the thing that feels almost forbidden in the homeschool community. There’s one option we’ve yet to address in this series, so I want to say it here:

You can stop homeschooling.

There! I said it! You can put your children into public or private school—or whatever suits your family’s needs best during this season (however long that may be). The Homeschool Police will not come and arrest you. (I’m pretty confident they don’t actually exist!)

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When You Want to Quit Homeschooling (Part 4 of 5)

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When You Want to Quit Homeschooling (Part 4 of 5)

Here we are! We are almost finished! This has been a long series, but rightfully so. The idea of drastically altering how you approach education for your children is no small matter. We are now on the final "question" of this series, question 3. There are worksheets (FREE) in the Practical Joy Resource library to add significant depth to this exploration. You definitely, definitely want those. Grab the workbook from the Resource Library here. 

Question 3: Should I just take a break from homeschooling? Will that fix whatever the problem is? 

I want to explore a few different aspects of this question, but I want to assert up front that there is not a right or wrong answer. As has been the case in every portion of this series, what's right for YOU and your family, your season, your child, will not be the right answer for everyone else. This is a journey of finding YOUR place in homeschooling and being certain that it truly is best for everyone involved. 

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107 Books to Read Before Age 7 (FREE Printable List!)

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107 Books to Read Before Age 7 (FREE Printable List!)

Wow! Have you looked lately for books for your little ones and been completely overwhelmed? There are SO many- and how can we know they are good books that are of high literary quality and don't counter with our beliefs and family culture until we've bought them? My sweet friend Hayley and I wanted to combine forces and share a powerful list of 107 books that we feel like every child should have read to them (or read) before age 7.

Many lists like this include a majority of chapter books or books for children with longer attention span. We have many of those, but rest assured that this collection also includes shorter picture books with gorgeous, engaging illustrations and fewer words per page.

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28 Ways to Keep Your Toddler Busy {FREE Printable List!}

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28 Ways to Keep Your Toddler Busy {FREE Printable List!}

Our littles ones can stay soooooo busy... right underfoot... all day long. Or even worse, when they disappear for a moment and get super quiet! Oh no! Rarely does that end up a good thing (sharpie vs the wall, anyone?) 

Through parenting four kiddos, I've found that the best way to keep a toddler busy without pulling your hair out is to integrate them INTO your day. Sometimes, we tend to default to building our day, our schedule, our home environment around the child. This bring everything down to their level. Sometimes, it has the unintended consequence of bringing US (and our behavior) down to their level too. EEEK! 

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How to Cultivate the HABIT of JOY

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How to Cultivate the HABIT of JOY

We make thousands of small decisions daily, my friend.

Should I get out of bed?
Should I work?
Should I cook breakfast?
Should I shower?
Should I drive safely?
Should I respond to this text?
How should I respond to my husband?
When should I respond to my whining child?

Opportunities to decide come relentlessly. We make so many in a day that we develop habits to overcome the overwhelm of the constant thinking required for all of these decisions. We don’t consciously think through every single decision. At some point, we made a choice in the past, and it went well, so we settled into following those ruts. That way we no longer have the stress of having to remake that decision every single time.

Our habits help us cope with the sheer magnitude of the everyday.

Basically, we set our lives on auto-pilot, and we do this despite the fact that our habits (pre-decided decisions) change our lives.

The truth is this:
Our habits don’t just change our lives; they are our lives.

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