...parent? Top 10 parenting rules to remember

A few things I've learned the last few years:

#1  Always remember the purpose of parenting:  To help your children navigate this life. Your job is to help them grow into healthy, productive adults in this world.  Don't just try to make them mini versions of you, or anyone else for that matter.  Help shape and mold them based on the clay you were given.  Each child is unique in their thoughts and natural personality.  Hone and shape who they are to begin with by helping them overcome habits that may normally be turned toward selfish/damaging pursuits.

#2  Always parent in love:  Never discipline in anger.  Always have your children's best interests at heart.  Whether you are reading with or discipling your daughter, you should always be acting in love.  Remembering rule #1, you will not help your child in anything but being bullies if you are selfishly acting out in annoyance or anger when your child misbehaves.  It may be easier to love your son when he's smiling and playing joyfully, but you are nevertheless called to act in love when he's acting like the immature child he is.  Something that I believe goes along with parenting in love is the importance of having strong convictions about your parenting style and decisions.  You should know why you've placed the boundaries you have for your children.  Is a certain rule in place in order to teach your child a certain desirable trait or does it just make your life easier.  You should also know which of these rules are standard rules of humanity and which of them are "house" rules.  Help your children know the difference as well.  Also remember that kids will be kids and you should never discipline for childishness (which is not the same thing as disobedience).  Accidents happen and shouldn't be punished.  An accidentally broken plate or spilled glass of milk is not a matter for punishment.  It's a moment to love you son let him know that he's more important than a mess on the floor.

...spend? Counting the cost

Have you ever wondered how many minutes you work each day simply to pay for that cup of Starbucks coffee you have every morning?  Want to know how many hours you worked just to pay for that new pair of shoes (that you didn't need) or the new iPhone you upgraded to (when your old phone worked just fine)?   What is the true cost of everything you spend your money on?  Fill in the Life Calculator below to find out.  See what your time is really worth.   

...eat? Feeding on the minutia

No carbs, low carbs, or lots of carbs?  Paleo, Atkins, or South Beach? Macrobiotic, Vegan, or Nutritarian?  With the litany of contradictory health claims it's hard to know which "expert" is right.  One nutritionist says to eat red meat and one says to only eat fish.  Next thing you know, some celebrity (as if they are automatically an expert on anything) is telling us we need to only eat raw vegan food and drink warm lemon water 3 times a day.  Am I starving my child by giving him vegetables?  Should he take a multivitamin? Is "from scratch" better than "store-bought"? Is tofu going to make him act feminine?  Does my Marine husband need more protein?  How do I save us all from getting cancer, heart disease and diabetes? How do I know what to eat, how often to eat, and/or what combinations to eat?  Can somebody please tell me???!!!

...eat? Are fluffy whole wheat pancakes possible?

When My son requested a special breakfast for his birthday, I wasn't sure what to make.  Then I remembered that he's 5 and "special breakfast" to him simply means a big stack of pancakes with syrup.  And a candle.

...live? Fourth verse of the national anthem

Check out this video

Hard to imagine that this is the fourth verse of the "The Star Spangled Banner", our country's national anthem! What happened to this land?  Once it was the "land of the free and the home of the brave"  and now it's the land of the complacent and apathetic and the home of the scared and oppressed.  The United States was founded by real men who were fighting for their right to live and serve God in a free land.  Now it's filled with greedy men who have enslaved themselves to a dying economy in a land where God is no longer welcome.  It must have been something to live among such men of character as those that fought for the freedom you have, what little there is left.


We each have an obligation, before God, to stand up for what's right and True.  As elections approach, don't just vote the party line or for the candidate with the prettiest face of most charismatic voice.  Take an interest, learn the issues, research the facts and help save our nation and restore it to what it once was.  Make your vote matter.

...eat? Funny Veggie Plates

Stuck in the doldrums of lunchtime?  Do you often hear, "What else can I have?"  I recently viewed a post at Whole Foods on a Budget and it made me remember that I used to hear those same groans at lunchtime (and still do occasionally, I will admit), but then one day inspiration struck.  It was one of those slow days when we didn't have leftovers in the fridge and we pretty much only had vegetables.  Although my 5 year-old son loves veggies (it took a lot to get him here; more on that another time) I could tell it wasn't a good day to hand over a bowl of lettuce leaves.  What did I do?  I decided to play with the food until it made a funny face!  When I heard the question, "What's for lunch?" I announced, "A Funny Veggie Plate!"  Curiously he ran to the table to look.  He was so tickled with his lunch that now a regular lunchtime request I hear is, "Will you make me a funny veggie plate, please?!"  I don't know about you, but I love to hear my son ask to eat bell pepper and tomatoes, and to consider it a treat to boot!  If your kids don't eat a lot of vegetables you might not be able to hand over one of the plates I show here, but you can make mini faces with some veggies and fruit.  Start small and work up to more and more veggies as the weeks go by!  While you're at it, boost your own health by making yourself a funny veggie plate.

Simple designs can be made out of almost anything.  Pinwheels, flowers, bugs!  Also try asking your kids to help!  I handed my son a plate with a variety of vegetable fixings and had him design his own funny veggie plate!  Check out some of the plates I've made in the past!

...clean? Homemade Tooth Powder

I recently wrote about some of the homemade household products we use.  Tooth powder seems to be the one that garners the most odd looks and comments from people.  It seems unbelievable to most people that  we don't use something as basic as toothpaste, even the "natural" ones.  I will admit that other than at my in-laws house, I've never used the natural toothpastes.  My son and I switched straight from Colgate to the recipe you'll find below.  Why?  Well, why not?  What do you think your toothpaste looked like before they added the liquid ingredients and all those chemicals?  Most likely it was a powder.  Why pay for someone else to add liquid into the ingredients you can put together yourself? As and added perk, no more exploded toothpaste tubes in your airline luggage (not that we fly anymore...want to know why?)


The following recipe is one that a friend of mine gave to me, but I'm not sure where she originally obtained it. She's seen the same results I have since she and her daughters have started using it.  Both of our dentists have even remarked on our clean teeth.  I don't know about you, but no matter how well I brushed my teeth growing up, the hygienist always had to scrape and scrape. Yuck.  Farewell cavities!


Check out the recipe!