Discipline - part 2

My craft for this week was plastic bag pom-poms from Craftastica.

Since I didn't finish this post in time for Wednesday this week I figured I would just post it today.

I am doing a book review series (otherwise known as your own personal sparknotes :) on the book "Don't Make Me Count To Three" by Ginger Plowman.

For Discipline - part 1 click here.

Chapter 3 focused on heart issues.  Ms. Plowman talked about not talking TO your child, but WITH them.  She says not to ask "who had it first?" and met out justice, but to get to the attitude of their heart and address it with Scripture.  Ultimately, our goal is to help our kids recognize what is in their own heart and think like a Christian.

"In all conflicts, we should begin our training by seeking to understand the nature of the internal conflict that was expressed in the outward behavior."

This is really a struggle for me.  It's so often easier just to ask "who had it first" and solve the conflict quickly.  I need to remember that solving the outward obedience now isn't taking care of the heart attitude.

Training children in righteousness is the theme of chapter 4.  The main point is to question your children to get back to their motivation for their actions.  The biggest thing I learned from this chapter is to role-play/practice correct behavior when you are disciplining.  For example, Will's uncle sometimes likes to pick on him.  We have been practicing telling CJ "no-no" and coming to mommy.  One thing I thought Ms. Plowman overlooked was praising children for obedience.  I thought it was a good addition to the practicing correct behavior.  Praise good behavior.  I try to do this with Will and it really seems to reinforce and encourage his actions.

Stay tuned for part 3 coming Wednesday...

This post is linked to Family Friday over at Homemaker Barbi.  It's a new carnival that looks really neat if you'd like to check it out!

Discipline - part 1

I recently finished the book "Don't Make Me Count to Three".  It is "a mom's look at heart-oriented discipline" by Ginger Plowman.  It was a really helpful book on not just making your child behave on the outside, but getting to their heart/mind.  It's still a little early for a lot of the concepts for me/my boys, but I'm trying to apply as much as I can.  Here is my breakdown of the book and what I learned:

Chapter 1 dealt with "the high calling of motherhood".  Mrs. Plowman began the book by reminding me that although being a mom a lot of times feels like a forgotten/unimportant job, it is a vital, skilled job that we need to perform with passion.

"Being a mom is more than being cook, chauffeur, maid, counselor, doctor, referee, disciplinarian, etc. (just to name a few). It's about molding character, building confidence, nurturing, training, and guiding. There is nothing like the influence that a mother has on her child. A mother's influence has enormous potential to shape the person a child becomes, for good or ill."

This chapter was such an encouraging reminder for me!  Since the world in general does NOT value stay-at-home moms very highly, it is so easy to become discouraged and feel like I'm not doing anything important.  Plus, the challenge to parent with passion and be excited about parenting was motivating to me since I do tend to sometimes just do enough to get through the day and nothing more.

Chapter 2 is about the definition of discipline.  Mrs. Plowman first addresses how the world today associates discpline with "punishment that involves anger".  She then goes on to talk about how many parents today who are trying to set standards for their children focus only on the outward behavior.  "[I]f they can get their children to act right, then they are raising them the right way."

Both of these viewpoints are wrong/falling short of the true purpose of discipline, according to Mrs. Plowman.  She gives the Biblical definition of discipline and its purpose.  She sums up the chapter with this thought," We must help our children understand that their straying hearts produce wrong behavior...If you can reach the heart [of your child], the behavior will take care of itself."

Yikes this is a long post and I've only made it through two chapters out of twelve!

I guess I will have to split this review up over several posts...I hope you don't mind.  Writing out an explanation of what I learned really helps me remember and better comprehend things so I appreciate you being my sounding board :)

Real Food

Evan is six months now. That means he is big enough to eat REAL food :)
I love feeding my kids real food. As in, food other than me. Not that I begrudge them nursing. It is, without a doubt, what's best for them nutritionally. I just don't enjoy it. Probably because both my boys bit from birth ;p You can't get mad at a newborn for biting you, they didn't do it on purpose after all. But OUCH! It hurts. Anyway...
Rice cereal + Evan = happy baby. He ate all the cereal I made and wanted more. Big shocker there...I dread to think how much this child will eat when he is a teenager!

Bean Bag Buddies

I like making homemade Christmas gifts whenever I can. I think they are more personal and meaningful. To put time and energy into some one's gift is to tell them that they are important to you. With that in mind, I present to you Bean Bag Buddies by Nicki Wheeler. This book includes patterns and instructions to make lots of various professional looking beanie babies. I have made the duck, monkey, bear, bat, and koala so far. The book also includes patterns for a snowman, reindeer, space alien, cat, dragon, rhino, horse, dog, and pretty much any other animal you can think of. Right now I am working on the cow for Will's stocking.


I am impressed by the clarity of the instructions and the simplicity of the sewing skill needed to accomplish these patterns. It did take a little time for me to trace the patterns at the beginning, but I could have easily photocopied them and spared myself some work :) I also enjoyed how I could use pretty much ANY material and get fabulous results. The cow I am working on now is made out of some polyester that I had. Plus, since you only need a little bit of material, you can make these animals quite inexpensively!
The one difficulty I did have was in finding safety eyes. I ended up searching google for them and buying them online. If you were making these for older kids, you could just use buttons, but since my target audience is under 2 it was worth the extra work for me :)
I also didn't exactly make them BEAN bags - I just used stuffing because I wanted to be able to throw them in the wash when they get sucked on.
Overall - GREAT book with easy adorable animals!
Want to find the cheapest price on this book?

The Accidental Detectives Mysteries

This is one of my favorite mystery series of all time. First published in the early 90s, by Sigmund Brouwer, The Accidental Detectives series actually appeals to both boys and girls. I knew they had gone out of print and was delighted to discover that they are back in print now with three new books! My little brothers are just about the right age to start reading them (about 8) and I know they will be as crazy about them as I am.
The plots are solidly written. They are not like some kid’s series that are basically the same book over and over with a different cover – no – these books keep you guessing from page one.
They’re not boring either. I started reading “Race for the Park Street Treasure” out loud to my DH and he didn’t want me to stop! The vocabulary is perfect for the middle school age group, the chapters are fairly short, and the action is so fast you don’t have time to lose interest.
One of the best aspects of this series is the humor. I could barely finish reading to my DH because we were both laughing so hard. The ideas the kids come up with are AWESOME. My personal favorite is the wheelbarrow watermelon slingshot. (See which book I was reading above for that one.)
The characters are so well rounded I suspect they are based on real people. Ricky Kidd is the main character/narrator of the books. His friends Mike Andrews, Ralphy Zee, and Lisa Higgins nearly always are in on any and all action that goes on. Ricky’s younger brother, Joel, also plays a starring role in many of the books.
While not overtly Christian, this series definitely comes from a Christian mindset and Ricky usually learns some kind of lesson in each book. I learned a lot more from this subtler approach when I was a kid than I did from more “preachy” books. "My hope is that the characters in my novels will live real lives beyond the walls of traditional church and allow my fiction to give voice to truth." – Sigmund Brouwer
I am SO glad these books are being republished. Then I can get my boys their own set :)

Books in the republished series:
1. The Volcano of Doom
2. The Disappearing Jewel of Madagascar
3. Legend of the Gilded Saber
4. Tyrant of the Badlands
5. Shroud of the Lion
6. Creature of the Mists
7. The Mystery Tribe of Camp Blackeagle
8. Madness at Moonshiner's Bay
9. Race for the Park Street Treasure
10. Terror on Kamikaze Run
11. Lost Beneath Manhattan
12. The Missing Map of Pirate's Haven
13. The Downtown Desperadoes
14. Sunrise at the Mayan Temple
15. Phantom Outlaw at Wolf Creek
16. Short Cuts

Read the 1st chapter of each of the books in this series on Sigmund Brouwer's website HERE. (But be warned: you will want to read the rest of the book and be completely hooked for life!)

A Recent Picture

Sometimes it takes 15-20 minutes, 100+ pictures, and holding the toddler still while taking the shot, but it's worth it to get such a cute picture of my sweet boys :)

(Will - 20 months & Evan - 2 months)

10 of Will's Favorite Books

Will LOVES it when I read books to him! Here are 10 of his favorites in no particular order:

1. Spot's Big Book of Words by Eric Hill - Will likes to look for the monkey on each page & name the objects he knows.

2. My Little People Farm, a lift-the-flap playbook - Will practices all his animal sounds when he looks at this book. He loves to lift the flaps ALL BY HIMSELF!

3. Babybug Magazine - I love how the publishers of Ladybug created this simpler version of their magazine for little ones. Will loves the stories and abundance of pictures!

4. Just Me and My Dad by Mercer Mayer - Will loves to look for the mouse in Mercer Mayer's books.

5. Carl's Summer Vacation by Alexandra Day - Gorgeous pictures & always a fun story. Will loves dogs and babies so this is definitely a favorite.

6. Do You Want To Be My Friend? by Eric Carle - This is another book we practice animal sounds to.

7. DK Touch and Feel Tractors - Will loves all of the touch and feel books, but ever since he and his daddy started mowing the grass on the tractor together, this is his favorite.

8. Doggies by Sandra Boynton - I love all the Sandra Boynton books 'cause they are such fun to read! This is a great book to practice all kinds of fun doggie sounds :)





9. Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Helen Oxenbury - Another classic author/illustrator, Helen Oxenbury draws really cute babies. Will loves to look at her pictures.

10. Richard Scarry's Chipmunk's ABC - This book was published in 1963. In fact, my family has a video of my dad reading this to my younger brother! It's a classic, fun book and Will loves it.

Bugs and Boys

Will has 4 huge bug bites on him. Poor little guy has been itching like crazy. I tried putting bandaids over the bites to keep him from scratching at them, but he took the bandaids off.
*Sigh* it was inevitable I suppose. I still feel bad for him though :(
How do you treat bug bites at your house?

Draw Write Now

These books are SO cool! My mom started doing these this year with three of my brothers (ages 5,7, and 8) and I am very impressed with how well they are working for a: boys and b: several different reading levels! The basic concept of these books is combining simple art lessons with handwriting on different subjects. For example, my brothers are doing animals right now. One day they will all learn how to draw a turkey and my 5-year-old brother will practice his Ts, the 7-year-old will write "turkey" several times, and the 8-year-old will do a short paragraph about a turkey.

Even better is they all love these books! I thought it was neat how you could easily customize the lessons to go with different things (doing the turkey while learning about the pilgrims in history for example). Since boys generally have sloppier handwriting, it was neat to see a program that they like that is also constant practice.

The only negative thing I saw with these books is they are geared towards younger grades in the art lessons. I would be interested to see if the authors of these books continued this idea with more advanced drawing/handwriting. I am definitely doing these books with my boys when they get old enough!

Want to learn more? Get Draw Write Now Here.

Enchanted Inc.

By Shanna Swendson

This book should be read by every female age 13-113. It reminded me of cotton candy. Light, fluffy, and sweet! It is the first book in a series of four about Katie Chandler.

Katie is your typical small-town, single, late 20s/early 30s working gal who has moved to NYC to find success. She is offered (and takes) a job for Magic, Spells, and Illusion Inc. which is the Microsoft for the magical. Her official position is an "immune" - someone who can neither perform magic nor be influenced by it. As a result of a former employee of MSI marketing evil spells, Katie finds that she must help bring MSI into the 21st century, while at the same time trying not to fall for hunky wizard business associate, Owen Palmer.

Why did I like this book?
It's clean enough for younger teenagers to read

It has an engaging and almost believable cast of characters - I loved Sam in particular

It was a fun blend of Bridget Jones/Harry Potter/X-men

Swendson's writing style was light and easy to read

The plot, while kind of unbelievable at times, was solid

The book overall was a clever combination of classic fairy tale characters and "real life"

Want the book? Get it here.

What's This Blog About?

As someone who loves to write, I feel MAJORLY behind on the current craze to have a blog. Everyone I know has a blog but me. But honestly, I really didn't feel like I had anything to write about. Well, now I do! This blog is going to highlight two of the loves of my life (okay three really) : my two boys (and parenting boys in general) and books.
My two boys are Will, age 19 months & Evan, age 6 weeks. My mom always told me that I would marry someone who loves camping ('cause I don't) and have all boys ('cause I was a girly-girl). So far she's right on all counts.
Will likes to climb on everything. He has only had one major fall so far, but no broken bones or stitches...yet. Today our exciting episode was sneaking a box of cornstarch out of the cupboard, hiding behind the living room chair, dumping the entire contents all over the floor, and playing in it. My brother, after seeing pictures, said he looked like a miniture drug dealer. Will won't be playing with any more white powder anytime soon!
Evan is the hungriest kid I've ever fed. His first few days of life he ate every hour. No kidding. Now, at 6 weeks, he has stretched himself to every two hours. He is a really impatient eater too. He has problems with gas/spitting up because he tries to eat so fast he swallows a lot of air. Otherwise, he is a sweetie. Eating, sleeping, and cuddling...and his life is good.