I Want My Kids To Be Happy
by Kendra Fleming I want a lot of things for my kids, but if I were completely honest, I would tell you that I want my kids to be happy. I don’t like it when they are sad. I feel bad when they don’t make the team. I hate it when they are not invited to the party. When...
Short Term Wins
If you're really going to help your kids value determination, you're going to be swimming against the cultural tide. When it's easy to quit, easy to change and there are a thousand other options at our fingertips, sticking it out to the very end is just difficult no...
Finding Your Personal Best
As 2010 winds down, you're probably doing what many of us are doing: reviewing the year. What went well? What didn't? I love doing this because, like you, I want to improve as we move into a new year. So how do you get better? The most popular theory says find...
Christmas Stress – Part Three
So it's day three of stress-reduction week on the blog. Here are two ways I've discovered that make December more enjoyable for me (and my family): Take a Holiday on Your Vacation I love thinking through the meaning of words, and while I'm no etymologist (and am not...
A Growing Parent
As a parent, you're busy. Who has time for reflection? Who really has personal time anyway? I know I used to resist being alone. I found it awkward to sit in silence. I'm a bit of an extrovert (less so with the passage of time) and an A type personality, and my...
Look Out Your Window
by an Orange Parent As I continue down this crazy journey called “parenting,” I keep discovering that it isn't just about me. Case in point, this year for Christmas I wanted to come up with something neat that my eight-year old daughter and I could do together to let...
How To Become A More Relationally-Focused Parent
As I shared in my last post, like some of you, I am a task-oriented, A-type person. It took me a while to figure out that the habits and practices we get rewarded for in the workplace can be the very things that work against us (and our families) at home. While tasks...
Five Tensions Task-Oriented Parents Face
I remember taking a personality profile for work shortly after I started into my first full-time job. It told me what I already suspected: When it comes to working on a task or spending time with people, I'll almost always choose the task. I actually do value...
Resisting the Rescue
By Tim Walker The other day in the drop-off, car-rider lane at my boys’ elementary school, one of my kids realized that he accidentally threw away something he needed for school. My first instinct was to jump the curb, go home and dig through the trash to find it. In...
God Don't Make Junk!
I remember a bumper sticker from years ago that used to say “God don’t make junk!” I remember it because a) it was true, and b) it was a rusted out car that was up on blocks. Obviously, the sticker wasn’t referring to the rust bucket. It was talking about people. That...
Piano Lessons
By Cara Martens Like many kids, I was enrolled in piano lessons at a young age. For the most part, I liked it. Not that I liked practicing, but luckily I could cram beforehand and usually finesse my way through. I had the same piano teacher my last few years in...
The Cure for the Common Complaint
My kids and I spent a month this summer living with their grandparents. There were cousins to play with, a new puppy, cable and On Demand, and a gorgeous pool out back. Popsicles appeared every 30 minutes and fruit snacks abounded. My children were living the high...