I know this may feel counter-intuitive (at least it does to me), but be honest here about your own strengths and share with me some things that you've learned that are helping your family. It can be about teaching your children, feeding your family, discipline, keeping your home clean, juggling the needs of more than one child, caring for your husband, setting an example for your children, keeping the Spirit in your home, etc. Leave me a comment, email me, or send me a Facebook message. You could even send me a link to your blog. I'd love to ask you some questions and include your thoughts in a blog post geared toward helping me...I mean us...get ideas from each other's successes.
Here are some things I feel I'm doing well at today:
- Making a nightly family dinner a priority
- Nursing my baby
- Laundry, my favorite household chore
- Reading one-on-one with my kids
- Daily family prayer
- Setting routines for keeping our household running
- Teaching my kids to help out with their siblings
- Reading scriptures as a family
- Making a monthly date with Adam a priority
- Cooking with my kids
- Reading with my kids (just because I'm not sucking at it doesn't mean I don't want to do better)
- Teaching my kids to clean and do chores
- Making our breakfasts and lunches more healthy
- Making our recreation more meaningful
5 comments:
Wow! I'd love to keep up on this post and all the comments you're gonna get. I have a few ideas for ya, what's your email? Email me at kristawoodstock@gmail.com and let me know. I'd also love to send you an invite to my blog.
Hmm, made me think. Well, I try to make sure that I cook meals for my family every night, and try to do fun things like "Friday Pizza Night" that my kids look forward to. I've let my toilets, kitchen floors and my laundry (okay, most of my housework) go so I can sing silly songs. I try to turn ordinary conversations into teaching moments and gospel lessons. I need to read more with my children and not sweat the small stuff. They're only little for a minute and I can't get them or the moments back, so I just have to try to ride the wave and eat up all the good times.
Rachel, we've always been pretty good about family scripture reading but this year, with "I Know the Scriptures are True" as the primary theme I decided that we need to read every single day! We have one of those papers that you can mark off for every day that you read. I want my kids to see that we made scriptures a priority, even on those nights we come home from Scouts really late and I really really really really (really! really!!!) just want to throw them all in bed so I can have some peace and quiet.
We also have a Book of Mormon for LDS Families. I don't know if you've seen them, they've been around for quite a few years now, but each chapter is divided up into sections with subheadings, there are plenty of great pictures, quotes from general authorities and scripture scholars, word definitions and explanations; and questions to ponder. We don't use them like we could for good studying but we really take advantage of the small sections with subheadings. Some nights we only have time (or patience) for 10 verses and so it works for us!
I am really good at taking my kids places and doing fun things with them. I really like to give them experiences that will help give them background knowledge in lots of areas. On the flip side of that, I really need to improve on playing with them at home- just sitting by them, and playing what they want to play- Barbies, house, or playstation. Another thing I think I am good at is allowing them to be themselves. I try not to control them, but let them just be who they are.
Yeah, I (think) I'm good at letting my kids be themselves, too. Other than that and exposing them to a lot of educational, geeky stuff, I feel like I'm just an average mom. I love snuggling with them and letting them be creative and messy, but I could really use some improvement in being more structured/disciplined.
If I had four kids like you, I'd just be happy to get through the day! You're doing a great job--what you're up against is just HARD.
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