This Isn’t Working

How many times have you thought up a wonderful idea in your head but, when it came down to execution, it was much more difficult than you planned?  Did you continue to force it to work or did you step back and realize ‘this isn’t working’?

SOURCE

I can think of nUmeRouS times I’ve tried to force a square peg into a round hole.   This past Christmas Robynn and I were trying to shoot a video for our blog.  The plan was to highlight all of our favorite Christmas crafts and cookies while we had a group of friends (and their kids) over.  Two minutes into the video we realized how crazy we were thinking we could record ourselves with a handful of toddlers in the room.  Come on, we are Mom’s!  Why didn’t we realize this earlier?!

There is a fine line between not giving up on a goal and reCogNiziNg when things need adjusted.  Many times we don’t realize this until we are in the moment but thankfully our gut does a pretty good job telling us when changes are needed!

What areas in your life are your forcing?  Are you planning a special event for your family and it is stressing everyone out?  Are you obsessing over perfection and it is upsetting everyone around you?

Many times there is a simple solution right there in front of you.  Perhaps it is something like..reschedule…rethink…or… LET GO.

~Lara

{Pick One}

So, what do you do if you’re Tom Osborne (the athletic director and former iconic University Of Nebraska Cornhusker football coach), you’re without a mens’ basketball coach, and looking for a coach with a proven history to build a basketball program?  You hire someone who has turned around a handful of floundering basketball programs into thriving and nationally competitive teams.  And that coach is Tim Miles.  Can I hear a Go BiG ReD?

Tim happens to be a FriEnD of mine.  We are from the same small town in South Dakota and I’ve been friends with his parents and siblings for years.  So when my family vacationed in Colorado around the time he landed his last job at Colorado State University a few years back, we stopped by to say “Hi” and check out his new facilities.  As we were catching up on his life and new coaching position, Scott and I asked him if he ever went back to South Dakota to hunt (a popular sport there – the pheasant, after all is South Dakota’s state bird and for good reason.  There are tons of them!) or if he was able to do much snow skiing.

Tim’s answer was one I ReMemBer for a very long time.  He told us that years ago, one of his basketball coaching mentors told him that he should “Pick one.”  Either he should focus on coaching or let the coaching take 2nd fiddle to these other activities.  This mentor understood the sacrifice it would take to be successful at the collegiate level.   Smart man (and successful too).

If you are frustrated because you don’t feel like you are good at anything (or at least not as good at something as you would like to be) could it be that you are trying to be good at everything?  Is it time to StReEmLiNe?  Contrary to popular belief, you can’t have it all.

Take a look at the people you AdMiRe who are at the top of their game in any area of life.  When you do, chances are  you will discover they have embraced the “Pick One” principle as well.  There’s nothing wrong with experimenting to see what works best for you.  But to be successful, eventually you have to make a choice and PiCk OnE.

:)

Robynn~

P.S.  Thanks for the lesson, Tim.

Easter Surprises

Shhhhh… don’t tell our KiDs!  This year we wanted to do something a little different from the traditional EaStEr BaSkEt (Grandparents have that covered).  So, we decided to use this idea we saw on Pinterest.  Our original idea was to use quart canning jars, but because they were sold out we chose these canisters that we’ll be able to reuse!  Inside we have placed Easter grass along with our favorite Easter CaNdY:  A Chocolate Bunny, Mini Reese Eggs, Mini Cadbury Eggs, Starburst JeLLy BeAnS, and of course Peeps!  We think our kids will be surprised when they wake up to these Easter Treats!  A new Easter TradiTioN!!

~Lara & Robynn~

Egg Dying Made Easy

My sister and I added a MuSt HaVe gadget to our egg dying extravaganza this year…a WiRe WhiSk for each cup of egg dye.  Working with 3 kids under the age of 5 is tricky enough, but when you factor in 8 cups of water and 18 hard-boiled eggs you have a potential disaster waiting to happen.  This year I purchased 8 wire whisks at my local dollar store and we let the kids use them to dunk their eggs into the egg dye and take them back out (over and over again) to check their colors until they had them just the way they wanted them.  I am happy to report that even my 2-year-old was able to get her eggs in and out of the whisk easily and we didn’t break a single egg!

My niece Taylor using a wire whisk to dye her Easter egg!
My son Nicholas dying 4 eggs at once!
Even Abby can do it!
Happy Easter From My Family To Yours!

~Robyn (Jersey Girl)

Lesson Learned: Enjoy Occasional Trips w/out Your Kids

(Written this past February)

Greetings from Hawaii!  I am writing this as I sit on our hotel balcony, overlooking the ocean.  I was lucky enough to be able to tag along with Doug since he had a conference here for a week!

We wrestled with the thought of taking our kids on this trip.  We have missed them so much but I can ConFideNtly say I am glad we went on this trip alone.  I am amazed with the depth of our conversations simply because we had time to THINK.  No distractions. No diapers to change.  Just us, having conversations that can last longer than 60 second because there is no one around to interrupt!

I won’t lie.  I had anxiety about taking this trip.  Being a Mom (and a bit of a worrier), you can only image the type of concoctions that I came up with on why I needed to stay home with the kids.  I can’t tell you enough how GooD this time has away has been for our marriage and for our spiritual life.

We all need time for ourselves and with our spouse.  If I’m at home I come up with a million things I have to do.  Forcing myself to be away from cleaning a house and taking care of the kids allows me to clear my thoughts and become Re-eNerGized.

Has it been a while since you have stepped away from your normal routine and environment?  You don’t need Hawaii to eScaPe.  Be creative, but most importantly, don’t talk yourself out of it!

~Lara

Full Circle Moment

You never know when something profound is going to hit you, but as I sat in my kitchen wasting time on Amazon.com waiting for my husband and son to wake up on a Sunday morning I was struck as I searched the words, “You Are My Sunshine.”

A few weeks ago when I was going in for a mammogram to check the group of lumps I had found for breast cancer (click to see my story) I taught my kids the song, You Are My Sunshine.  We would sit together and sing it as I fought back tears praying that my test would show that I would be OK.  As many of you know I am fine, but the song has stuck with my kids.  We sing it all the time!  I even bought the book, You Are My Sunshine for my son and he points to each word on the page and proudly reads the lyrics while my daughter dances around us.  It has become very meaningful to me and I am always searching for new books, prints, signs, etc. for our home or their rooms.

While searching Amazon I came across a musical pull toy for a baby that had a big sun on it.  I immediately remembered that I had purchased that same toy to hang on my bedpost when I was at my lowest point while trying to conceive my first baby.  My husband and I went through over 2 years of infertility before conceiving our son after 3 rounds of IVF.  The sunshine baby toy stayed on my bedpost and I refused to take it off until I brought our son Nicholas home from the hospital.  Eventually I moved the toy to the middle of the headboard and both my son and daughter both played with it as babies and it brought me great JoY to know that something that I bought at one of the lowest points in my life was now being used by my little MiRaClEs.  As I continued to look at the Amazon listing for this toy that I still have in my room even though my kids no longer play with it, I noticed that the song it plays is…YoU ArE My SuNsHiNe.

Life doesn’t get any sweeter than that!

~Robyn (Jersey Girl)

Weight Loss: What Works For You?

It’s that time of year…people start panicking about losing weight before they hit the beach.  With the swimsuit season quickly approaching, what works best for you to KiCk those last few pounds?

I’ve been debating this answer all week.  Is it going through the cupboards and throwing out all of the junk food?  Is it giving up pop?  Fasting for a day or two?  Running a mile a day?  Starting a new diet?

Source

I finally got my answer last night:  Wear clothing that makes me feel skinny.  When I wear my “skinny clothes” I eat well.  If I wear an oversized t-shirt and mesh shorts I might as well be holding a bag of Oreos, because that is what I will turn to after I look in the mirror!  To be honest, I only found one or two outfits that made me feel GoOd.  Since I am limited on these outfits, I may only wear them in the evenings (when I struggle the most with eating) or, better yet, this may mean I need to go shopping! :)

I realize that my answer may be different from yours, which is just another point I want to make:  Every person has to come up with their own weight loss plan because every person has a different body and circumstance!  Don’t get frustrated because you are trying to follow the same plan as your co-worker or friend and the results are different.  If giving up sweets causes you overcompensate later then agree to eat (and enjoy) one cookie every day.  If you hate working out, maybe you need to decide to redo all of landscaping in your yard so you can burn calories while you are doing something you love.

Do whatever it takes to keep you on track.  YOU need to be the one that creates a weight loss plan that is tailored specifically for YOU.  Don’t feel like you have to follow someone else’s rigid plan!  Take bits and pieces of the weight loss resources available and customize a plan that works specifically for you.

Good luck!   (see our other Peace w/ Food posts here).

~Lara

{Inspector Mom & Dad}

“Children do not do what you expect, they do what you InSpEcT.”*

If you’re a parent you know that telling your kids to do something and thinking it will automatically get done correctly without any inspection on your part is unrealistic.  They’re kids after all, and kids will be kids!!  That’s why they need help from adults to TrAiN them in the way they should go.

I’m sure my kids won’t be happy about this, but I will be inspecting their behavior until the day they become adults.  Yes, that means I will be checking up on them from time to time even when they are teens.  Did they go to the movie they said they were going to?   Are they at the friend’s house they said they would be visiting?  etc.  It may seem like an annoyance to them – never knowing when Mom & Dad may show up to help keep them honest, but why would I trust them to undeveloped and vulnerable brains that have not yet matured in the areas of judgement, decision-making, and impulse control?  When that time comes will you remind me not to disappointed when they don’t show appreciation and gratitude?  (That will come 20 years down the road when they have teens of their own.)

For now, however, my inspection is limited to such things as checking up on their chores (did they clean their room, pick up their toys, put their clothes away, etc.) and following and obeying instructions.  And each task consists of very SpEciFic and age-specific directions.  (I am not saying I always do perfect here, but it’s what I aim for.)  For example, when I tell my girls to clean their room they know that means the bed is made, nothing is on the floor, and everything is put in its proper place.  Maybe your definition of a clean room is only that the bed is made or their toys are picked up.  (If that is even a task you want your kid to do.)  Just make sure kids know exactly what you are asking them to do and then inspect to see that it was done correctly.

I am not the authority on raising kids, but I am passing on a lesson I have learned.  I would love to hear your comments regarding this subject!  I have also included a link that can give you more info on the teenage brain.  Hope you all have a wonderful day!!  I’ll leave you with this last word of encouragement:

“Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.”  Proverbs 22:6

:)

Robynn

*This is a quote I heard from Willie George, pastor of Church On The Move in Tulsa.  Before he became a pastor he had been a leading authority on teaching kids about the Bible.  Not only did he teach kids, but he also wrote curriculum and distributed it around the world.

Click here if you want to learn more about the teenage brain.

Let’s Get Organized!

It’s that time of year when I am itching to get my house in oRdEr!  Below are some pictures I grabbed from pinterest to help me get started orGaniZing!!

Cool Way to Organize Ribbon and Thread
Great Way to Organize Kid Crafts!
Fabric covered cardboard boxes. Neat and inexpensive storage idea!
Use Cans and Magnets to Organize! This would be a cheap way to organize your fridge door!
Binder Clips to Organize Cords
Mason Jar Organization - cute!
Use Baskets to Organize!
Garage Organization: Create Recycle Bin Hangers
Transient item organization
Kitchen Sink Cabinet Organized w/ Tension Rod

Hope this helps get you movin’!  Happy Organizing!

~Lara