One of my favorite things we do as a family is eat dinner together every night. And by together I mean everyone (including babies) sitting around the table sharing food and each other's company. There was a time when we would sit on the couch and the kids would "picnic" on the floor while watching [...]
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The IDEAL Response
One of the great advantages we all have is the wealth of research based resources available to us. A place we have gone to many times for these resources is Empowered to Connect. In this video Dr. Karyn Purvis discusses the IDEAL response we need to have to our kids. Immediate - If you want to [...]
Let’s Try that Again!
"Let's try that again" is a phrase heard daily at our house. With 6 kids in our home, we are always looking for simple ways to correct our children's unwanted behaviors without always seeming like we are correcting them. One great tool we use is to simply have our kids redo a behavior. It is [...]
My Favorite Dry Rub
Tomorrow is America's 237th birthday and most of us will celebrate with barbecue and fireworks. We usually smoke a brisket when we host barbecue events at our house. I was not happy with the dry rubs we would purchase at the store so I decided to make my own. After much trial and error this [...]
Where is the Trust?
Have you ever had one of those moments when you needed to trust someone? Have you ever just needed someone to trust you? Trust is both beautiful and scary. Beautiful because there is peace and joy in having a relationship where trust is freely extended and received. Scary because for relationships to grow there will [...]
Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
A few years ago our daughter's dairy allergy forced us to really read food labels (and I'm talking ingredients of course, not the fat and calories that we have been trained to look at). I can't even pronounce most of the words on the ingredient list, and I certainly don't know what they are! I [...]
A Change of Plans
Often people will ask me when I knew I wanted to be a foster parent. They are usually quite surprised when I respond with...never! In fact, if you had asked me 10 years ago if I could/would ever be a foster parent I would have told you, "NO WAY!" I would get too attached. Adoption [...]
Homemade Granola Bars
I love to make homemade granola bars and am always adapting the recipe for what I have on hand. Recently a few people commented how good they looked, so I thought I would repost the recipe. I might add that my kids, who rarely get cereal since we started cutting processed foods, like to crumble [...]
Homemade Magic Shell
One of the many things I enjoy about summer is ice cream! Yummy, delicious Blue Bell ice cream! (I also love to make my own healthier ice cream using my Vitamix. Recipe coming soon!) And of course I have always loved that magical shell of chocolate that hardens on the ice cream, but have you [...]
5 Keys to Better Relationships
I want better relationships, don't you? Sometimes I feel like I spend more time thinking (or writing) about changing the way I interact with people than I actually spend changing the way I interact with people. I think some of you can relate. Change needs two things...ideas followed by actions. Our example of the balance [...]