...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!

...clean? Cleaning Naturally

Lather, rinse and repeat... Massage in conditioner, leave on hair for 3 minutes, rinse well... Hold hairspray six inches from head and depress button and spray in bursts to reach desired coverage... Apply generous amount of body lotion to dry skin to achieve luxuriously smooth legs... Fill detergent slot with desired brand, add fabric softener and bleach... Spray bathrooms or kitchen counters and wipe clean with damp cloth, rinse surface well.


Doesn't anyone use anything natural anymore?  Why is there a need to buy a product filled with supposed carcinogens just to make our hair shiny? We constantly slather chemicals all over (and in, but that's another issue) our bodies from the start of the day to the finish.  The experts tell us that all of these products are perfectly safe for us and that they will make our hair, skin, clothes, and counters strong, smooth, soft and bacteria-free respectively.  How did we ever manage to live without these expertly concocted products before their arrival?  Quite easily in fact.  Before we began applying mousse to our hair and styling it just so, we managed to get through the day.  Before we had to have clothes that smelled of "fresh laundry" scent and were oh-so-soft to the touch we just wore clothes smelling of actual fresh air and had them soften as we wore them.  Before we sprayed chemicals on our counters, we used a little elbow grease and scrubbed them with hot water.  Somehow the generations managed to live long enough to get us here today.

...eat? Chicken Tortilla Soup

Remember how I stretched that chicken last week?  Well if you'll recall, one of the ways I stretched it was to use the bones to make a giant pot of chicken broth and then turn that chicken broth into Chicken Tortilla Soup.  Doesn't it look delicious?  Searching Google will give you numerous recipes for this soup, each one a little bit different. Want to find out how I made it?

...eat? Farmers Market Pasta Salad

I thoroughly enjoy cooking, baking and generally just playing with ingredients.  Sometimes I create wonderful treats and sometimes my family has to choke down my failures.  A while back I started wondering if I should buy a new crock pot just so people wouldn't see mine and know which food I brought to functions. Then I discovered that people had been seeking out the dishes I usually bring. I had somehow managed to amass a "following" since it was well known that I tend to bring healthy food that they genuinely enjoy. 

...eat? Stretching a chicken

And by "stretching a chicken" I mean how can we make a whole chicken (a 5 lb bird) last for several meals.  And by "several" I mean four dinners (for 3 people each), a pot full of broth, a lunch (for all three of us again) and several freezer portions of food. 

...spend and save? Thrifty on a budget

(Disclaimer: Let me start by declaring that we, as a family, are not the least bit poor and are in no way miserly. We do, however, want to use our money in a way that will glorify God and not just spend it on ourselves simply to make our lives "easier" or more convenient. )


One often thinks that anyone posting, writing, or talking about being thrifty would be advising on how to do something inexpensively, but thats not usually the case.  Thrifty, by definition simply means "using money and other resources carefully and not wastefully" and is no guarantee that the idea is low-cost.  For example, have you ever noticed how many DIY and "thrifty" activities are in fact terribly expensive endeavors? Cook from scratch!...but buy these wonderfully expensive pans and this exquisitely costly mixer first.  Sew your own clothes!...but make sure you have the new super-triple-deluxe sewing machine and these pricey craft scissors.  Make your own soap!...but make sure you have these overpriced soap molds designed to only do one thing, mold soap.