About a year ago I briefly shared the routine chart that my daughter uses (she showed it in a guest post). Today I’m sharing it again at Alpha Mom with a free printable version.

Also at Alpha Mom is what I do to help the kids not be afraid of thunderstorms, which I did again today (thank you, Texas).

So do click over and read about those two helpful traditions, and I must tell you that now I’m writing this post with a British accent because I’ve watched far too much British television lately. That happens sometimes. Or is it just me?

See the comments for this post: Routines for the Kids

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I found my kids in the laundry room. All they needed was popcorn.

I write at Alpha Mom about parenting and family. Here is what I’ve been thinking about lately.

10 Ideas To Keep Your Little Kids Playing For Hours - these playtime ideas require only a small amount of set up from me.

Don’t Quit Before Your Parenting Shift Is Over - for those challenging last few hours of the day.

Tips To Teach Your Kids About Household Bills And Budgets – I won’t wait until my kids turn eighteen before I teach them about paying the bills and those other grown-up responsibilities. I’m brainstorming ways to involve our kids in our family’s finances. Join me there?

See the comments for this post: Parenting Thoughts, 10 Playtime Ideas, and Family Finances

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I just came across this valentine I made a few years ago, so I thought I would share it in case you’re looking for a valentine gift idea. The things you love about someone, handwritten.

See the comments for this post: What I Love About You Valentine

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My family places importance on having good mornings. This does not mean we are good at mornings. Click to read about how my family has good mornings at Alpha Mom.

(I write at Alpha Mom about parenting and family. Here are some articles I’ve written recently.)

I wanted to make Valentine cards for the students in Lane’s class without using candy, so we decided to make these matchbook-style cards with stickers. Get the free printable template: Make Matchbook Valentine Cards (Free Printable)

Encourage Kids with Positive Labels Because I’m tired of seeing girls wearing shirts that say “Diva” and little boys wearing shirts that say “Trouble.”

Making Family Friends to Build a Support Network Are you new in town, too?

Oh, and That Time I Gave Really Bad Parenting Advice

A wintery craft idea: Snowman Bookmark

Except we haven’t seen any snow here. It’s been quite mild, and I keep waiting for winter to happen.

See the comments for this post: How My Family Has Good Mornings

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I was feeling impatient with our home renovation. I just wanted it to be done.

But as I was looking at these pictures, I think I’ve changed my mind.

Doug didn’t grow up with his dad around, but by God’s grace everything turned out fine.

“Do you think he’ll remember this?” Doug asks me about Tom.

“I don’t know, but I think it will be a part of him even if he can’t remember it.”

I like how this house is becoming a way of telling our family’s story.

I will remember to look back at all that has been done instead of the work that is still to come.

See the comments for this post: The Work Process

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I write posts on parenting at Alpha Mom. Join me there to see what I’ve been thinking about lately…

Craft A Halloween Ghost Tree

Advice For New Parents: What To Keep, What To Do

Say No So You Can Say Yes To Something Greater

Make An Explorer’s Kit From Paper Coffee Cups

Play Like A Grandmother

More Purposeful Plans And Family Routines For The School Year

See the comments for this post: Weekend Reads at Alpha Mom

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Everything for the past few months has been leading up to this–her first day at kindergarten.

We rushed to find the house so she could go to school, but the house is not ready yet so we’re staying at my grandmother’s house this week.

My grandmother has lived in her house for more than fifty years. It’s the one place that has been the same my whole life. Everything is so comfortingly familiar–my grandad’s recliner, the rug, the guest bedroom. I’ve had many pictures taken during my childhood on those same steps in front of her house. I can’t think of a more fitting place for Lane to have her picture taken on this day.

I’ve tried not to be too sentimental during these last few days because I know that we made the most of all the days in the middle.

New outfit, check.

New hair clips.

New lunch box.

Fun trip to Chick-hooray to celebrate.

I don’t have any more days of not needing to be anywhere by 7:30 in the morning. I’m ready for this new chapter. I’m desperate for routines, feeling settled, and getting to write here more.

I write a little about family at AlphaMom. Read these recent posts:

Craft: Paint Chip Board Game

5 Ways to Make Staying at Home Feel Like Vacation

Making Home in the Temporary

Parenting the Second Child

Help Far-Away Family Members Seem Closer To Home

Craft: Tiny Town from Felt

Here’s to a new week, and a new school year!

See the comments for this post: The First Day of School & a Few Links

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If my kids spend every day this summer in the kiddie pool, I think I will call it a good summer.

$5 plastic pool used 4 summers in a row = $5 well spent

She will start kindergarten in a couple of months, and we’ll have plenty of time for plans and activities then.

I write a little about parenting at AlphaMom, and I recently wrote about:

Sail into Summer with Ice Cube Boats – a summertime craft you won’t have to keep.

Claiming Small Victories – “When your child is tired and hungry on the way home, it’s a small victory to find the bag of dry cereal you left in the car three weeks earlier. Win.”

Affirm Your Child’s Heart Through Play Time – Like one friend told me, when you talk to your son, “He’s not your little boy, he’s your big boy.”

See the comments for this post: My Kids’ Summer Plans

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Our 1st goal for the new year: Move out of the apartment. Done.

We didn’t want to move during the holidays, so we waited until January 1 to start packing. Moving boxes piled around the Christmas tree.

This was a seven-day move, so we used two guidelines to protect our marriage:

1. Follow our respective strengths. I am good at organizing and planning the details. Doug is good at making sure the boxes are ready before the movers come.

2. Respect the crazy. It makes me irritated to think about items from different rooms being in the same box. Doug uses a lot of tape. The stress of moving makes people feel and do crazy things. Go with it.

We decided what we needed for the next few months and packed the rest. In only seven days, most of our stuff was neatly boxed, wrapped, and stacked in a single storage unit.

We cleaned up. We turned in our keys. We felt so free as we rode into the sunset.

It feels great to have our stuff put away for a while. We’ll be glad to see it again in a few months from now.

We’re staying as house guests for the weeks before we go to Florence. One goal accomplished, more to go…

See the comments for this post: The Move Out (Done in 7 Days)

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This post is part of a series “Romance to Real Life” which focuses on some of the struggles Doug and I faced when we first got married. One of those rocky starts was deciding how we would celebrate the Christmas season.

I thought my parents were normal and that I had a normal upbringing until I got married, and then Doug informed me that as much as he loves them, my parents were not normal. What?

I don’t understand the way Doug and his family do certain things, so I guess that makes us even.

When we were engaged I read a book about marriage and an entire chapter of it was on holidays. It warned us that holidays could be tricky, but I thought we had it covered. After all, we had talked about it, and it sounded like we pretty much wanted to do the same things for Christmas.

Then we actually got married, and it was a wake-up call to learn that our ideas of Christmas were not the same at all. Honestly, I think I was holding on to my traditions a little too tightly and having too high expectations for Christmas Day.

Doug said Christmas decorations were tacky.

I wanted to have stockings.

He was used to having presents on Christmas Eve, and I wanted to do them on Christmas morning.

And so on.

It didn’t help that our first bare apartment didn’t reflect the season of joy and family togetherness: no tree and not even a good couch. We tried going back to our parents’ homes, like most new couples do — Thanksgiving with one side of the family and Christmas with the other, and then alternating the following year. That didn’t work so well after a while. Not only did we always have to travel, but one of us would always be a newcomer trying to navigate through someone else’s decades-old family traditions.

Eventually we realized we wanted to start having Christmas at home even though we didn’t own a house yet. We let our apartment become our home instead of treating it as a short-term place. It was more than that, really…we were starting our own family and forming our own traditions, not just trying to repeat what we had grown up doing.

One of the first things we do at the beginning of every Christmas season is ask, “What are three things you want to do this year that will help you feel like it’s a good Christmas?” We try our best and the rest is optional. We don’t always give the same answers every year, but they’re pretty close.

We still go see family, one side every year at Thanksgiving and the other side on a day close to Christmas, but we’re putting down our own roots and keeping Christmas Eve at home.

That doesn’t mean everything is worked out now. We still get touchy about some things, and the news didn’t settle well with everyone, but the process of making traditions for our own family released us from the burden of stress and obligations, leaving us free to richly enjoy Christ’s birth and time together. And I’m not just saying that because it sounds good on a blog. It really did.

Doug eventually came around to the idea of having more Christmas decorations (he likes our tree), so it was a win for everyone.

See the comments for this post: Christmas at Home (Wait…whose home?)

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