The Mom Challenge: Week 4

Hi ladies!  Week 4 - can you believe it?  We've been on the challenge for a month now!  Are you new to the Mom Challenge?  If so - no worries!  You can jump in anytime.  Here is the link to the past weeks challenges.

Make sure that you join us over at The Blog Frog.  It's free to join and we chat about all kinds of stuff!

Alright.  Week 4.  Last week we talked about having realistic expectations.  This week it's about staying positive.  After all - staying positive is one of the keys to success! 

Children - and adults - need positive attitudes and lots of praise.There are many benefits that praise and positive attitudes have.  Behavior can improve, children feel better about themselves, children adopt the positive thinking ways.  Plus if you use positive words and a positive attitude to your relationship with your children you better believe that it will spill over to other relationships!  Nothing makes you feel better or less stressed that a positive attitude!

 

 I used to teach pre-school.  During that time we were taught many techniques to use in our classroom.  One of the techniques used that pertains to behavior was simply praise positive behavior and ignore negative behavior.  Granted if little Johnny decided to cute little Sally's hair we had to say something!  But the point was let the small stuff go!  If you are trying to get 16 four year olds to sit down nicely, hands in their laps, and quiet you would be amazed that the easiest way to do that is to simply say "Oh I really like the way Bob is sitting there nicely."  Seriously.  They all run over to the carpet to sit nicely.  Kids want to please you!  They want you to be proud!  

 If your child puts their plate in the sink - make a big deal about it!  If they get dressed and you notice they have matching socks on tell them they rock! (Anyone else's child have a thing about wearing mismatched socks?)  Did they use abnormally great handwriting - tell them!  You want to encourage these positive behaviors.  The more you encourage them the more your child will want to do them.

Make sure you tell your kids how proud you are of them even if they fail at something.  "You were really brave for trying to ride your bike without the training wheels.  I know you will get it next time!"  "I know your art project didn't come out like you thought it would but I think it looks great!"  Fear of failing is one of the top fears people have.  And the fear of failing can hold people back - they are scared to try new things!  Try to instill in your child that it is ok to fail - as long as you try your hardest.  Failing isn't something to be embarrassed about - it happens to everyone.  Failing at something doesn't mean that you are a failure - you just need extra practise.  And it is important to try again! 

There are so many ways to praise your child.  I'm sure that you've seen the poster 101 ways to praise a child. 

What are some ways you like to praise your child?  Make sure to head to The Blog Frog to join in on the discussion!!

Joy

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Dreams

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Work in Progress...

The house is almost done - I want to share a picture but I can't yet!! (And I am so excited that it is just about finished)  So hopefully things will go back to normal around here. 

Do you know how excited I am to decorate for St. Patrick's Day?  Extremely.  See, before we had this wine colored couch.  And I am kind of strange.  The couch would work out great for Christmas, Valentine's Day, 4th of July.  But you can't throw an orange pillow for Halloween on the wine colored couch.  Or a green shamrock?  So that's why I chose some pretty neutral colors.  So I could decorate for each of the holidays and not have to worry about my strange OCD tendancies coming out. 

So here I am, all excited for St. Patty's day.  Went out to Target, Hobby Lobby, T J Maxx, and a few other stores looking for some decorations.  And nothing.  Booooo for the lack of green goodness. 

So today I am busy crafting away a few pillows, accessories and magical awesomeness to put around the house.  Can't wait to show you!!!!

It's Friday

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make today beautiful

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Life is Beautiful

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Mom Challenge week 3: Set Realistic Expectations

Oh my gosh.  I am SO ready for this house to be done!  Painting is almost finished and I couldn't be happier.  I've learned that the only thing I hate more than painting the walls is sanding the walls.  BOO! But carpet gets delivered Wednesday so this is the home stretch!  Woo hoo!  And then I can get my house back in order! And only a week and half until our living room furniture is delivered.  Oh yeah. 

But the challenge.  Are you new here?  Or did you miss a challenge?  No worries you can jump in anytime!  Find the other challenges here.

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The goal this week is make sure that you have realistic expectations. If your expectations are too high it only creates stress for both your child and you. 

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Could you imagine if your boss gave you a job to do that was impossible?  You would work as hard as you could to get it done to the best of your ability only to be brought into his office to be told how all that hard work means nothing.  You failed, you didn't do well enough, they are very disappointed and well you just aren't good enough for the job.  I don't want my child to feel like that!

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For example, I want Josh to do well at school.  I know he's super smart.  And I used to expect him to get straight A's.  After all he could do it if he worked hard!  But we struggle with handwriting.  Josh works on it at therapy and it's been improved 100 times over, but it's not as good as most kids in his class.  For him to write his spelling words twice and do it with 'A' level handwriting it would take 2 hours!  Trust me, we did it once.  And the teacher gave it back at the end of the week with a B.  I was so mad!  But I just realized that YES I want my child to do his best all the time.  And yes he is capable of writing them nicely but it was not worth the agony on my part but more importantly his! 

So now, if he does his best that's all that matters.  His report card has a D+ in handwriting.  But really who cares about his handwriting grade?  (Well I do, but his resource teachers keep telling me to forget it and that it doesn't matter.)  My child isn't going to get straight A's.  We can still set goals but it's not fair for me to expect something out of him that isn't realistic.  Now when a spelling test comes back that he didn't miss any words due to handwriting mistakes we celebrate! And if he misses one,  I don't nag - "Oh Josh you knew that one.  All you had to do was write it nicer and you would have gotten it right."  Missed only one - awesome job!  You did great!

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So this week look at your expectations.  Is it realistic to expect a 3 year old to not only clean up their toys but to also have them put away in an organized way?  How long do you really expect a 4 year old to last while you are grocery shopping after being out all day running errands?  Straight A's for your child?  How many activities do you expect your 3rd grader to excel in? 

By adjusting your expectations - and thinking about it through your child's eyes - it can really help you be more understanding, less stressed and calm in a situation that would otherwise could drive you crazy! 

What expectations do you have of you child?  Are they realistic ones?

Inspiration

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Up to you

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Celebrate

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SO busy

This week has been so busy around here.  We sold our living room furniture last Sunday to find out that the store sold the last sofa that I had picked out and won't have any in stock until 2/29! So we figured since we don't have any furniture we may as well replace the carpet.  Which made me decide that I want to extend our kitchen floor so it actually runs UNDER the bar.  Because right now

Why yes there are cocoa puffs.  And there's Josh's lunch - macaroni.  (Ignore the half done chair I decided I wanted to get a different fabric for the seat!)  Do you see why we need new carpet?  Our house came with this ugly grey/blue color. 

So we went to Lowes got new kitchen floor.  And have been busy busy busy trying to get everything painted, new floor put in and old carpet pulled up before Lowes comes to install the new carpet.

And keeping with this week's challenge Josh wanted to help - and even though it would have been quicker for me to just do it - I let him help.  And he's so proud of himself.  I'm so glad that I let him.

I will post before/after pictures soon!  I'm so ready for it to be done!!

Inspiration

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Make it a good day

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Daily Dose of Inspiration

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I just posted about week's 2 Mom Challenge and look what I found on Pinterest!  Perfect timing! :)

The Mom Challenge Week 2

(Hey there!  Are you new to The Mom Challenge?  If so click here to find out info and to see the other week's challenges!  Feel free to join in anytime!)

Hooray it's week 2 of the Mom Challenge! How did eating dinner together go last week? We did better than in the past - it's still something to work on for us. Our main problem is that the house we moved into has a very small eat in kitchen so we traded our larger table for a pub table that seats only 2. And our bar only has 2 stools at it - I think I may need to invest in a third chair. That and trying to work around schedules - daddy doesn't get off work until 8:30 so usually it's just Josh and mommy dinners. There wer some great comments and ideas over at our Blog Frog community as well - make sure to check them out.

Alright week 2. The challenge is: Slow down.

This one is going to be super hard for me. I wake up each morning and write my to do list. (I'm a lister) And it usually is HUGE! I know perfectly well that I have more things to do than time.

I feel like I rush Josh from the time I get him up to the time I say good night.

"Hurry and get dressed."

"Quick go brush your teeth."

"Move, move, move or we are going to be late!"

"Here I'll just do it, we've got to hurry."

The only thing that rushing does is create stress and missed oppurtinities. I found this poem online the other day and it's perfect for this week's challenge.

slow down mummy, there is no need to rush,

slow down mummy, what is all the fuss?

slow down mummy, make yourself a cup tea.

slow down mummy, come spend some time with me.

slow down mummy, let's pull boots on for a walk,

let's kick at piles of leaves, and smile and laugh and talk.

slow down mummy, you look ever so tired,

come sit and snuggle under the duvet, and rest with me a while.

slow down mummy, those dirty dishes can wait,

slow down mummy, let's have some fun - bake a cake!

slow down mummy, I know you work a lot,

but sometimes mummy, it's nice when you just stop.

sit with us a minute,

and listen to our day,

spend a cherished moment,

because our childhood won't stay!

~ R. Knight

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I don't want to miss a chance to do something special with my kids just because my to do list isn't complete!

Also, sometimes Josh tries to be helpful and I say no thanks. I mean if he pushes the grocery cart we will be in the store forever. Or he wants to wash the dishes - that's nice but water will go everywhere and what if he drops the plate and plus, they won't get all the way clean. He wants to help cook dinner but I just have to get this done. I know aweful right? Instead of being in a hurry and wanting these things done I should have just let him do it. It would have made him feel good and be more apt to help in the future. I could always re-wash the dishes after he's long asleep.

Now I know that we can't just put off our entire to do list to play with our kids. Wouldn't that be nice??? And I do think that kids need to learn that there is a time where sometimes moms and dads just need to get some work done. But I challenge you this week to slow down just a little - take that extra time to let your kids in on your day. Your to do list will be there again tomorrow. And so will the laundry. I promise. Because laundry never goes away.

I usually go to work while Josh is at school, so we both get home about the same time. And this is usually the time where I'm running around, cleaning, doing laundry, getting dinner ready or we are having to get home and rush to run 1,000,000 errands. Not this week. This week I'm going to slow down.

Come join the conversation over at BlogFrog! It's FREE to sign up! I'd love to chat with you!

LIVE chat tomorrow night

Hey all!  It's Friday -- woo hoo!  This was week one of the mom challenge.  How is it going?  Are you excited about the new challenge starting next Monday?  I've gotten a few e-mails asking if I have a list of each weeks challenges.  I do, but I think I'm going with the element of surprise here! :) You will just have to tune in!

I was hoping that we could do a mom's night each Saturday - to get together and chat.  If you are interested in having a chat tomorrow night (8pm EST) leave a comment and let me know!  If I get at least 5 people that would like to I'll set it up! (The live chat would be in my community over at Blog Frog.  It's FREE to sign up and an awesome place to meet up and chat!  Feel free to start a conversation and meet up with other moms!)

Plans for tomorrows chat: Find out how week one of the challenge is going! Tips on getting your kids to try new foods.  Teaching your kids manners - tips, ideas, what other moms are doing.  Conversation starters.  Some experts do's and don'ts for your family dinner.

So let me know if this is something you gals are interested in doing by leaving a comment RSVP.  Can't wait to chat tomorrow!

Cereal Valentines - with FREE printable tags

This year we wanted something different for Valentine's Day.  As much as we love candy -- we love cereal just a little more.

I bought packs of mini boxes of cereal at Wal-Mart for $3-4 each.  Each pack had 8 boxes in it.  (My mom used to buy these when I was little - we loved them!)

Then I made some little tags and voila.  Cereal lovers dream. 

Want the tags?  Here you go!

(I'm not the most technical person out there so I just saved it as a .jpeg and then emailed it to my local Office Max.  They printed the tags on card stock for me for cheap!  And they came out great!)

Here is my list of cereals we had:

I'm coo coo for you. - Cocoa Puffs

You're my lucky charm! - Lucky Charms

You bring cheer to my day. - Cheerios

No trix, you're a great friend. - Trix

Our friendship is golden. - Golden Grahms

You're the apple of my eye. - Apple Jacks

You're grrreat! - Frosted Flakes

I CEREALsly like you. - other cereals that I couldn't come up with a clever line for! :)

Linking up here

Daily Dose of Inspiration

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Living Room re-do update

Remember I was redoing our living room?  Yup, well you can't tell in this picture but the carpet is this ugly grey/blue color. 

And today the carpet man came to measure the living room and hall for our new carpet! 

See those big ugly mirrors - they are gone.  And that tacky chair rail.  Gone too.  (And behind it was some super 90's white with pink and blue splatter paint walls!! Yuck!)

And to replace it - 4 different shades of grey. 

Grey is a hard color to get - it's either too light, too dark or has too much of a blue tint to it.  But have no fear -- the color has been selected! 

This is sable calm.  It's such a pretty grey color.

This is called Snow Cap.  We are painting all the trim this white color.

It's going to look very traditional, but a little more modern.  And super clean.  (Can colors make a room look clean? lol)

And for an accent color: Navy.  I'm on the hunt for the perfect navy/white patterned curtains.  Think I'm going to buy an extra panel to make some pillows in the same pattern.  I want a big navy rug - some mercury glass lamps.  Oh I'm so excited! :)



be...

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Great deals at Kroger

Have you been to Kroger this week?  Honestly, ever since we got back from Florida I'm having a hard time getting back into the whole grocery store thing.  I think vacation spoiled me! :) Well for us in Indiana, Kroger sales end tomorrow night so here is my must list of items to get.

Kraft Easy Mac $0.49 (after you buy 10 participating items)

Buy 5, use $1.00 of 5 coupon (tear pad)

Final Price: $1.45/5 or $0.29 each

Hunt's tomatoes (diced/paste) $0.59 (after you buy 10 participating items)

Buy 3, use $0.45/3 which will double (1/22 SS)

Final Price: $0.87/3 or $0.29 each

Hormel chili $0.99 (after you buy 10 participating items)

Buy 2, use $0.55/2 (1/15 SS)

Final Price: $1.43/2 or $0.72 each

Ragu pasta sauce $1.00 (after you buy 10 participating items)

Buy 3, use $1.00/3 (1/29 RP)

Final Price: $2.00/3, or $0.67 each

Oscar Mayer Deli Fresh Lunch Meat $2.79 (after you buy 10 participating items)

Buy 2, use $1.00/2 (coupons.com)

Final Price: $4.58 or $2.29 each

Freschetta Pizza 2/$10

Use $1.50/1 coupon (coupons.com must be a savings club member - you can sign up for a free month)

Final Price: $3.50

Jack's pizza 5/$10

Buy 6 pizzas

Use 2 $1.00/3 coupons (1/29 RP)

Final Price: 6/$10 or $1.67 each

Marie Callender's fruit pies $1.48 (after you purchase 10 participating items)

Use $0.50/1 which will double from coupons.com

Final Price: $0.48 each

Ricola $1.09 (after you purchase 10 participating items)

Use $0.75/1 (1/1 SS)

Final Price: $0.34

Today...

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Daily Dose of Inspiration

 

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The Mom Challenge: Week 1

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One in five families eat together only occasionally or never. That's 20% of families! I hear it all the time - it's so important to sit down and eat with your kids. But why? If you would have asked me 15 minutes ago, before I was researching for this article, I would have said "You should eat dinner with your kids because that way you can talk to them, learn about their days, teach them how to communicate and be a good normal mom." But holy cow! There are SO many benefits.

10 reasons you should eat dinner with your kids

1. You and your child will talk more. And what's better than learning about your pre-schooler's newest favorite color?

2. You get to teach your child how to effectively communicate. Which is SOOOOO important. Because you don't want them to get older, get married and then end up at counseling to learn how to effectively get the point across to their spouse that they want them to do the dishes. Just saying.

3. You can learn about potential problems your child is having at school.

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4. And while your talking about school - you get to find out all about school projects, tests and books. And statistics show that kid's that eat dinner with their parents (and kid's with nosy parents in general - ok not totally sure about that part) get better grades.

5. And when those projects, book reports and good grades start rolling in you get an hour each night to tell your kids how much they rock. To tell them how their basketball game was amazing. How fabulous they did in their school play. Pretty much you get an hour to make your kid's feel good about themselves.

6. Your children are out feeling good about themselves, all super confident. Do you know what that means? Eating dinner together translates into kids being less likely to try alcohol, cigarettes and drugs.

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7. Hooray! Drug free is the way to be! But that's not the only benefit that you and your kids are going to get from family dinners. Studies show that when families dine together we eat more fruits and veggies.

8. And you guessed it, eating more fruits and veggies means less than a chance for overweight kids.

9. Overweight and obese children (and adults for that matter) are at a higher risk for becoming depressed or having other emotional problems.

10. And after eating dinner together, learning all about how Suzy's BFF's new backpack is THE coolest thing ever and how Johnny's friend in preschool ate paste - again - you, MOM, feel awesome about yourself for having such awesome kids. And then your awesome kids will help you clear the table which makes for a less stressful, happier home.

All from taking the time to eat dinner together.

Amazing right?

So the challenge this week is to eat dinner with your kids. Pick a few nights and make no excuses. Shift around your schedule (what could be more important than making your kids feel like drug free rock stars!?) work around practises, set the DVR, whatever it is. Make time this week to eat dinner with your kids.

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Dinners, like everything else, get better with practise. Make sure to turn off the phones, turn off the tv and talk to each other! Listen to each other, ask questions.

Need help with getting conversations started? How about playing Would You Rather or Apples to Apples? We keep a deck of cards around and it's such a fun way not only to start conversations but to learn things that you otherwise wouldn't get the chance to learn - and to laugh! (If you don't have the game or want to buy the game - make your own set of cards!  Try googling Would you rather for kids or apples to apples for some great suggestions!)

Challenge set. Week 1. Eat dinner with your kids. At least 3 times this week. Eat with them. Talk. Eat. Laugh.
If there are any takers - click over on the left hand side where it says Blog Frog visit my community.  It's free to sign up and I would love to have a live chat with all you moms out there!  We can discuss how this week's challenge went, tips on getting our kids to try new foods, conversation starters and more.  Hopefully we get a few ladies who are interesteed -- I would love to meet everyone!

The Mom Challenge - starting on Mondays

**UPDATE** To Join in & get started:
Thanks for stopping by! :) The Mom Challenge has already started - but it's never too late to join in! First join us over at the Blog Frog.  It's free to join - and I hope will be a lot of fun.  It has a forum where you can join in on each challenge, share stories, tips, ask questions, start your own threads and we can do live chats.  Click here to join.
Then to see a list of all the challenges simply click here!

I haven't been posting as regularly as I'd like to, but that's because I've been working SUPER hard behind the scenes here! 

I'm so excited about a series that I've been working on. 

Yup.  You read it right.  It was inspired by a quote I found online a few weeks ago.

It got me thinking.  I would say that my relationship with my son is a good one.  But everything can be improved on right?  And what else could I do to show him how awesome he is!  And the ideas started pouring in.

And so The Mom Challenge was born.  Each week I've got a mini challenge for you - something fun I promise!  Do a few or do them all.  This is a project I'm really excited about!

The challenges will start each Monday.  On Saturday's we will check in and see how the week went!  If I get a good response we might start live chats Saturday nights to get together and chat about our week, advice, tips, whatever!  :)

There are some great things coming - lots of surprises - can't wait to show you!!

You have the potential

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