Couple more Christmas stories!

 Couple more Christmas stories...

Once when we were kids, we woke up Christmas morning to find 2 strings beside our bed.  We followed those strings around the whole house!  Under couches, under beds, through the backyard, under bushes, around trees, back into the house, down the hall, under doors, when we finally made it to the end.. there were 2 nice presents!  I think I got a stereo and my sister got a bike or vice versa...can't remember.  But I remember following that string around the house!  

Here's a fun one:

When we lived in Colorado one Christmas, my parents mailed the kid's gifts up to us.  We stuck them under the tree and waited for Christmas.  Larry came home that week and said, I have good news and I have bad news.  What you want first?  Me-bad news of course.  He said, I lost my job!  Yikes!  What's the good news (he's a glass full kinda guy)  We get to go to Texas for Christmas!   

So we packed up the car, and the unopened gifts that my parents had sent and made the 14+ hour drive down to Dallas for Christmas.  While we were here, we got to talking about what to do next since Larry was out of a job.  We decided, hey let's just move back to Texas!  We talked about it all the way home (put the presents that my parents had sent back in the car!)  By the time we got back to Colorado, we had decided! Yes we'd move back!  

FIVE days later we were packed up in a moving truck (along with those presents!  which at this point had gone from Texas to Colorado to Texas to Colorado and now back to Texas)  and off we went!  

It was the year of Y2K so, we waited till that morning to see if the world had ended and since it didn't, we drove down to Texas. :)

Moving our kids toward being an Adult!

There seems to be an epidemic going on in America today.  Maybe worldwide.  I've seen it time and time again.

Parents not encouraging their kids to grow up.
Parents today are coddling their kids more and more and for longer periods of time.  They aren't expecting anything out of them.  They let them freeload for far too long.
How is this doing a dis-service to our kids?

Well, they won't learn life lessons for one thing.

Teen:  mom I need a ride to so-and-so's house
Parent:  well, I'd love to help you but I've got plans tonight.

So how will poor teenager make it to their friend's house with out the help of the mommy or daddy?

Well, here's an idea... He/she can figure it out!

There's multiple options available to get there if they wanted to, but by the parents taking the responsibility to come up with the plan and implement it-then the kids lose out on a valuable skill!

But how will the poor baby get to work without my help...  well, not my problem!

Kids nowadays need to learn to solve these problems on their own.  Yes, I will help you sometimes, but the kids shouldn't  be entitled to my help just because they live at my house!

In parenting, the goal is to raise kids that are INDEPENDENT!  How are they learning that independence if I'm solving all their problems, washing all their clothes, buying all their food, paying all their bills, cleaning up all their messes??

What kind of lessons am I teaching them by coddling them so much?

Well, I'm teaching them that I don't trust them to make any decisions.

I'm teaching them I don't love them enough to give them room to grow.

I'm teaching them that my role will always be the parent and never change to a peer-to-peer relationship.

But if I  don't make all the decisions for them they will make mistakes!

Yes they will!  And that's where grace in parenting comes in.  We don't hold mistakes over our kid's heads.  We encourage, love, guide and direct them with a loving parenting heart.

Let's help our boys become men and our girls become women who can be responsible human beings!

It starts early on.  From the moment they are born there is a constant letting go.  Please don't stunt your kids' natural growth by keeping them "babies" too long.  Let them do their own laundry, go buy the groceries, help around the house, get where they need to go with money they've earned their selves!

You will be happier and they will be too!

Memories of Road Trips

When I was growing up, things were a lot different.  We didn't have smart phones, or even dumb phones that could leave our house!  There wasn't any Netflix or movies on demand. If we wanted to watch TV we had to watch what was on at the time.  (No DVRs --can you imagine!)

We had to do things differently.

Now, I'm not bashing technology.  I actually love social media, and the world of knowledge at my fingertips!  But back when I was growing up, and even while my kids were little, we had to come up with creative ways to entertain ourselves!

One of the great memories I have from the days of old were the car games.  The games we played in the backseat to entertain ourselves on long trips.  We used to sing all kinds of songs.  Not pop songs. But the good ol' folk songs.  My dad knew all the words to every verse and a lot of them have stuck with me.

There was also count the cows and horses.  That got old after a while because if we drove the same route we knew where the cemeteries were.  And of course if you were winning at the game (counting as many cows and horses as you could on your side of the car) as soon as you passed a graveyard you had to start all over again.

Slug bug was never my favorite either.  Not a fan of getting punched.

As I grew up, and when we were young marrieds, we took many long road trips together.  A great game Larry and I made up was the backward word game.  One person would say a word backward and the other person would have to guess what they were saying!  It's tougher than you think!  Try ssarg!

When the kids were little we would play lots of games in the car, I Spy, Bingo, A-Z game and many more.  There was always lots of singing and laughter too.

Since summer is just around the bend, maybe it's time to put away the ipads, ipods, i-distractions and get back to some good ol' fashioned family time.

What Will Kids be Like in 100 years?

My generation is the last generation that has known life without technology.  We have straddled this new world and have seen great advances in our lifetime.

I was talking to my grown kids the other day about huge changes I've seen in technology.  And how we used to do things.  I told them about how I used to write checks every month for all our bills and put them in envelopes and put stamps on them and mail them in the US Postal System!

The grocery store used to be a completely different experience!  None of the products had nutrition labels or ingredients listed.  There were no bar codes on anything.  Everything had stickers with the prices on them. The checkout lady was super fast at typing everything into the cash register. There was no "beep beep beep" as groceries were going through the line..but everything had to be input into the cash register.  And then at the end you had to pay cash or check!  They didn't take credit cards at the grocery store!  Then you got your receipt (with just numbers on it--no itemized)  and you also got your Green Stamps!  Then the kids went home and licked all the green stamps and put them in green stamp books and counted how many stamps we had so we could go to the Green Stamp store and buy stuff!  There was all kinds of stuff there from knick knacks to household furniture!

Our generation knows what it's like to go on a road trip and have to look out the window and play Count the cows and horses.  We had to talk together and sing songs on our trips.  We had to all listen to the same 8 track tape.

My generation is the last generation to remember what it's like without technology.  Now I'm not anti-tech!  I love my ipad, iphone, i-everything world!  But we are the last ones to actually have memories of the world without all that.

It's good to remember where we came from and what the world was like before.  It'll never be the same.  Our kids are so used to Googling everything, snapping pics of everything, the world at their fingertips.  Even 2 and 3 year olds have their own tablets now!

Imagine what our kids' kids will grow up with and be exposed to?  It's hard enough for me to keep up but kids now a days seem to be born with some sort of innate ability to understand all things technical.

Embrace the new.  Remember the past.  Teach kids to be thankful they don't have to "dial-up" their internet on their 486 computers!

What's your favorite memories of the past?  What do you think the next generation of techies will be like?

Camping Memories

My family has always enjoyed the outdoors.  I grew up spending weekends camping with Girl Scouts and my family.  I love spending time outside in nature.  I'm so thankful to have married a guy who grew up with the same love of camping, hiking and all things outdoors.

We raised our kids to love camping in Colorado. There's nothing like camping to cultivate a child's sense of wonder and adventure.  While at the same time teaching them preparedness, safety and survival.  Not to mention relaxing and getting away from the busyness of life and sitting and staring at the fire.

Larry proposed to me while camping in Colorado!  We are at 10,000 feet camping in the mountains with Larry's parents, when he took me aside in his shorts and long johns and popped the question that would change my life forever!  Fun times!

I remember one of the first times we went camping after we had our first daughter.  We lived in Colorado and it was summertime, but I had forgotten how cold it got at night.  I didn't bring any warm clothes for the baby!  So we wrapped her up in all our clothes with sock on her hands and everything!

One time, I surprised Larry with a camping trip.  I had everything packed up in the car and the kids all ready to go, and when he walked in the door from work I told him to get back in the car we were going on a weekend trip!  We went up in the mountains to a cute cabin.  It ended up raining on us the entire weekend but we didn't care.  We hiked around in the rain and had our adventures.  Larry always says this was one of his most fun memories!

Larry came home from work one day and said he had some bad news, he had been laid off of his job.  Well, just the time off we needed for a long camping trip all the way to the Grand Canyon!  We loaded up the kids and the suburban and headed off! We camped along the way in all sorts of byways and highways.  One place was in the middle of nowhere.  There was some sort of business with these concrete tee-pees.  We asked the owners if we could spend the night in one.  He said sure!  So we brought all our stuff in, made a big pallet on the floor.  We stuffed all our bags into the doorway (because there was no door!)  It was so cold that night, but with us all huddled together, we were snug as a bug!

One of the best places we saw the night time sky was in a place in New Mexico called Chaco Canyon.  It was in the boondocks of the boondocks!  I mean, we drove down a dirt road at least an hour to get to this state park.  Middle of absolutely nowhere!  We saw beautiful ancient ruins there.  But the best part was when the sun went down!  We could see stars from the horizon all the way around us!  The most intense and clear depiction of how awesome our God is!

There have been many more camping stories.  We've caught critters, watched wildlife, fished, hiked, slept under the stars, saw meteor showers, ate s'mores, stared at the fire, swam in the lakes and creeks.   And along the way, learned to have fun together, enjoy each other, and explore this beautiful world God has given us.

I encourage you all to go out and enjoy the outdoors!  There's so many great state and national parks!  It's a great time to spend with your family.

Love of travel started young

I've been thinking about 2 things lately.

One, traveling. I absolutely love it. Don't make excuses. Go do it!

Two, preserving the stories of our history. Yes, names and genealogy are great! (My mom has done some excellent research in this area) But it's neat to have stories to go with the names.
So I'm thinking I may blog for a while about some family stories that I remember.

Back when I was just 19 years old, Larry and I moved from Texas to Seattle. We had only been married a year. I had never lived anywhere else but Texas. Now just imagine, this was back before cell phones and the internet. We had no idea what it would be like to live in Seattle. There was no way to research housing and apartment prices, costs of living, best areas to live in etc. We just packed up everything we had and loaded it into a small u haul trailer and headed out west.

Our little Nissan pulling the U-haul didn't even make it to Amarillo before the car overheated. We stopped for the night and in the morning it was cool enough to travel some more. We got into the middle of nowhere Colorado when our car finally said..nope can't do it anymore and it died. I sat there and cried and cried. Remember, no cell phones. We hadn't even made it half way to our destination yet. I was leaving behind everything and we were stuck in the middle of nowhere! Well, after some prayer and Larry's quick thinking, we flagged down a pick up truck going the same direction and asked him to hook our trailer onto his truck and we would follow him into town. With the extra weight off our vehicle, it started right up and off we went! I said to Larry, "Did you get their names?" Nope. They had all our worldly possessions and could have just taken off with them but thank the Lord they didn't. They pulled our trailer into town. Larry had some friend in town who "happened" to be wanting to sell their pick up truck. We needed a pick up truck! We swapped vehicles! Perfect!

Off we went again!
We got to see Yellowstone, Montana, Idaho. Absolutely gorgeous country! Amazing to see!

We made it to Seattle, found a hotel to stay in and the next day Larry went off to start his new job. Here I am, 19 years old, never been this far away from home and Larry sends me out to find a home for us. Now back in Texas, we had been paying $175 for a small home that we rented. I had no idea the costs of apartments in Seattle. We hadn't been able to research and find out. Well, I was in for a shock! They were very expensive! I was finally able to settle on an apartment for $500 a month (which today would be a bargain there!)
We got settled in and it was just the beginning of a lot of adventures for us. We made friends there, found a great church, saw lots of sights, drew closer to each other, closer to the Lord.

I'm thankful for our year in Seattle. It taught me that I can do whatever I set my mind to do. It taught me that Larry believed in me too! It taught me that there's a whole world out there just waiting to be explored and discovered.

Posted with Blogsy

What really matters

I know this is going to be a bit controversial. But there's something that just bugs me to no end.

Homeschoolers.

Not necessarily the kids.  But the parents.  I want you to know where I'm coming from.  We homeschooled our 2 oldest the whole time, and our youngest one most of the way.

Why do the parents who have taken their kids out of school, or never had them in there to begin with, want to do everything at home the exact way they do it at school?

Don't they realize the freedom there is in homeschooling?  We don't have to do anything like they do in the public school!  We can tailor everything to each individual.  If one of our kids excels at math then BOOM -- math of all kinds.  We don't have to stay in the box of 1st grade math, 9th grade math etc.  Let the child lead. If the kid doesn't like workbooks, then ditch 'em!  Find out what the child's learning style is and use that!  Do they learn by hearing, doing, writing, touching stuff? Use that!  My daughter walked circles around the table while we were doing math stuff...drove me crazy!  I asked her to sit down and she said "Mom, if I sit down, I can't think!"  Who knew?  So I let her walk around and get up and down all the time.  It helped her concentrate more.  My way of "doing school" was to do page 1, then page 2, then ...stand back...page 3!  Her way of doing school was open the book and look through it and see what pages looked exciting and then do those!  What??  But to her it worked well.  It kept her interest.  And if I'd known more back then, I would ditch the books entirely! We'd use real life situations and go to the library and play games to learn stuff.

That brings me to the part that drives me crazy.

Most people do this when their kids are little because they enjoy playing and learning.  But when their homeschooled kids get to be in "high school"  they automatically shift to "do everything like the public school" mode.  High school credits, papers, graduation at 18 years old etc.   Why not continue the train of thought that the learning can be tailored to the individual?  Are they ready to be "done" when they are 15? Then be done! Just because I'm "done" with school doesn't mean I quit learning.  Do they really need to have credits? Do they really need to learn chemistry or calculus?  Maybe..it depends on what they will be going into.

There is freedom, folks!  That's why we bring our kids home!  Don't worry about them keeping up with their "grade level" (what is that anyway--do all 30 year olds know the same information?)

Teach them to love learning!  Teach them to learn how to learn!  Teach them to be FREE!

Time....

When my kids were little I had no time to myself.  They are all 2 years apart and there were MANY years that were filled to the brim!  Just meeting their physical needs when they were little took up most of my time.  If I wasn't feeding or disciplining someone it was nap time or time for a diaper change.  I always had someone hanging on my legs or needing to be held.  I joked that our house only needed to be 5 square feet because that was where everyone was all the time!  I could barely go to the bathroom alone!  Then came homeschooling, again-no time to myself. Then as they got older there was a little time for an occasional girl's night out or date night.

Well things are completely different now.  With only one kid at home now- and he's practically grown (almost 16!) - I have so much time to myself!  I could have never imagine this!  Now if I want to go for a walk or watch tv or read a book or take a bath...I can!  and nobody interrupts me!

I don't want to sound like I'm bragging.  Because really it's bittersweet.  It's great..but I also miss my babies!  Even though it was a really tough time back then it was a lot of fun too!

It's also tough because I never had to think about who I was or how I spent my time before.  I was just raising babies and doing the best I could!  Now, I don't want to be idle or just waste my time.  I want to glorify God in the things I'm choosing to fill up my day!   All though just being lazy calls my name more days than not.

Moms of young kids---enjoy these days!  They are physically demanding.  The emotional days are yet to come.  But there will be a day you can rest!

Who knows what the future holds...but for now I'm just trying to enjoy my time and not be too lazy :)

Odd jobs

I haven't had too many paid jobs in my life. I've been a waitress, admin assistant, and worked in a cookie shop. Nothing too exciting. But I have the toughest job in the world now. And I don't even get paid for it! (and least not monetarily!) That is raising my kids. It's so hard because there's no formula. There's no daily list of tasks we need to accomplish. There's no clock in or out time. There's no bonuses. There's no reviews. Just when you think you get it figured out..they grow up and move on to new things and issues. Yes--it is a really tough job, no-I wouldn't change it. With help and wisdom from others who've gone before, and a lot of prayer somehow we will make it through this maze called parenting. And hopefully our kids will too and look back and appreciate it.