7 Quick Ways to Get a Teen to Leave the Room
Parenting teenagers is bizarre. One minute they’re smiling, sweet, and pleasant, the next they’re mad and upset. It’s an emotional roller coaster. The only visual I can give you is this: take both of your hands and hold them out straight in front of you. With one hand signal “come closer” and with the other {Read more about 7 Quick Ways to Get a Teen to Leave the Room}
Three Time Tested Family Rules
When you have a job, you get feedback on you’re doing. When you’re a parent, you don’t get any feedback. You’re still performing a job but you don’t get reviewed on how it’s going. You set out to do your best and you hope you are but you don’t really know if you’re doing it {Read more about Three Time Tested Family Rules}
How Jeans Became Capris
Remember how I made my daughter’s jeans smaller by tapering the legs? Well, we had to do some more altering on another pair of jeans. These jeans still fit my daughter but were getting to be too short so I said, “Hey, how about we make these jeans into denim capris?” My daughter was thrilled. {Read more about How Jeans Became Capris}
Meet Internet Girl!
Meet Internet Girl! She’s fun, she likes shiny objects, and she’s easily distracted. She’s supposed to be writing (some may say “blogging”) but sometimes she’s really naughty and she skips around the web to her favorite internet spots like Facebook, Twitter, and her favorite new toy, Pinterest. Oh, but look, it’s so pretty!
Social Networking and Parents Behaving Badly
We’ve been talking with our teens about the recent incident that happened when a 15-year-old girl posted a complaint about her parent’s on Facebook and her dad’s reaction. Her complaints were standard teen angst – since time immemorial teens have rebelled and complained about chores and how awful life is with their parents. That’s what {Read more about Social Networking and Parents Behaving Badly}
Please Don’t Make Me Text
I hope to never text again. I tried it briefly and it didn’t stick. My fingers are too fat. Genetically, I’m much better with an old-fashioned dial, corded telephone. The free app I downloaded to text with on my iPod touch even dropped me. It told me I didn’t text enough so I could no {Read more about Please Don’t Make Me Text}
Game Night
Frugal families just want to have fun. Honestly, we don’t set out thinking, “How can we do this for little money or no cost?” That requires too much thinking and is just not fun or how we approach life. We do think, “How can we have fun and laugh with the people we love and {Read more about Game Night}
The Biggest Stay The Same
Seated on an airplane next to my daughter several years ago, we found a show on the television to entertain us while in-flight. It was, “The Biggest Loser” TV show. We’re not big TV watchers at our house and my daughter asked me what it was about. Not having actually watched the show before, but {Read more about The Biggest Stay The Same}
Technology Free Sundays
Welcome to my six-month or so review of Technology Free Sundays for 2011. In January, our family made a commitment to not use technology on Sundays for our New Year’s Resolution. Our goal was to eliminate for one day, the devices that take our attention away from being present with one another and to give {Read more about Technology Free Sundays}
How to Make a Harry Potter Cape
Kids love to dress up and play pretend games. Having dress up clothes around your home is an easy way to encourage that type of play. When the “Harry Potter” books started being read out-loud in our family, our kids were smitten with the characters and all of their adventures. Who doesn’t love Harry, Ron, {Read more about How to Make a Harry Potter Cape}
Strawberry Picking Adventures
This was to be a post about my famous strawberry freezer jam. Unfortunately, the strawberries at the organic farm where we went to u-pick were slim pickings. The strawberries were in desperate need of sunshine to ripen them. Our family usually heads to Sauvie Island, just outside of Portland for our fruit and vegetable picking {Read more about Strawberry Picking Adventures}
Do Kids Really Need Cell Phones?
“The Family Plan” marketing strategy for cell phone users is impressive. Cell phone companies make it sound like each person in your entire family must have a cell phone. My kids would probably be thrilled if we (their not-smart-in-the-least-bit-parents) bought into this marketing-mayhem, but we just can’t. This question has yet to be answered: Do {Read more about Do Kids Really Need Cell Phones?}
Funeral Etiquette
We had to attend attend a funeral recently. Funerals are sad, but they are also a celebration of life. Funeral etiquette is something that no one talks about and you don’t really learn about it until someone close to you dies. This past week got me thinking about how no one really talks about funeral {Read more about Funeral Etiquette}
Piano Lessons
Music lessons for kids is a major financial and time commitment. Piano lessons at our house are a big indulgence in our financial budget. Money to pay for the lessons, time for practicing, and the actual lessons themselves all take effort. Piano lessons mean piano practicing. Our kids spend a lot of time practicing here. {Read more about Piano Lessons}
Kids and Cooking
Parenting is a big job. Along with everything else in life, we’re supposed to teach our kids how to be responsible and have good life skills. That’s no easy task. One program that we’ve tried and had success with is having our kids cook dinner. Each child gets to cook a dinner once a week, {Read more about Kids and Cooking}
