How to use a timer to potty train
Today I'm potty training Amos! Since our approach with Griffin worked so well, I'm following the same strategy and thought I'd share a post I wrote on Salt & Nectar explaining our potty training technique.
You will have correctly surmised from the title of this post that I have in fact potty trained. That's right, ladies and gentlemen, I now only have ONE child in diapers. Let me try that again for those of you in the back...
I ONLY HAVE ONE CHILD IN DIAPERS! HALLELUJAH!
Higher Education: Worth the cost?
Recently I was at dinner with a group of friends, several of whom were mothers. As is often the case, the conversation had turned to the education system. We were discussing testing and home schooling and teachers, when another friend – who does not yet have children – asked me a question that caught me off guard.
“Let me ask you a question. Will you tell your children they have to go to college?”
My response surprised me almost as much as the question. I told her five – even two – years ago I would have said absolutely. I wouldn’t have hesitated. Yet, here I was hesitating and giving a different answer.
“I don’t know.”
Eat breakfast. Lose Weight.
In August of 2012, my family and I took the Whole30 Challenge. For 30 days, we ate real food - no sugar, no alcohol, no grains, no legumes, no dairy, no white potatoes - just healthy meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and oils. (Here's what we ate.)
In 30 days, I lost ten pounds. Over the course of the next two months, as I learned how to incorporate some of those prohibitions back into my diet (and discovered ibuprofen makes me sick, sick, sick to my stomach) I lost another 10 pounds.
I have maintained that weight loss for over a year.
Geocaching for Beginners
Over fall break, my family developed a new obsession. We began geocaching and now that we've started we can't stop! I wanted to share our new hobby with all of you.
What is geocaching?
Basically, it's a real live treasure hunt happening all over the world. Containers ranging in size from a large bucket to a tiny test tube are hidden by geocachers in every possible geographic area. (Over two million of them!) You sign up online or download geocaching.com's app, get the GPS coordinates, and go find the treasure!
Inspiration
Guest Post: 5 ways to prepare your children for the unthinkable
Due to events in my own life, I have spent a lot of time recently thinking about how my children would cope if I were to pass away suddenly. It's an incredibly difficult thing to think about but I know no better person than my friend Emily to tackle this tough subject.
Recently, I posted a rant on Facebook. I had read several sugary-sweet posts in the mom-to-baby vein wherein the parent promised to be there for the child through everything from the first day of school to the bad high school haircut. These posts, and presumably the parents who write them, are idealistic bordering on delusional.
It is a hard reality that many parents will not be there for their children—something health-related or financial could happen to jeopardize that storybook ending.
Approximately 1 in 20 children under age 15 will lose one or both parents. As many as 1 in 7 will lose a parent before age 20. Some websites had the stats even higher. Furthermore, these statistics do not account for dealing with an accident or disease not resulting in death.
I don’t need statistics to tell me how devastating the loss of parents is.
Church is for me.
Over two years ago, my husband and I started taking Griffin to church. At the time, I wrote an honest and heartfelt explanation of why I was taking my child to church despite my long and complicated personal history with the institution.
I was doing what was best for him. I was giving him a chance at the spirituality and faith I had long ago abandoned. I was being a good mom.
Well, a funny thing happened on the way to the altar. Week by week. Month by month. I began to fall in love with church.
