Mom vs. the Dot: Making it COUNT!

Our kindergartener has an obsession with Shopkins. Do you know any children like this?   She lines them all up for parades, plays with them for an hour at a time, scours the little lists to discover each of their names and their status as "common," "rare," or "ultra-rare." She loves her Shopkins so much, she'd rather play with them than anything else.  Including school. So why not use what she loves to help her learn?  Here are a few ideas we came up with: Counting With Shopkins - They hop along the numbers and help her keep her place while we count. Counting, Sorting, Grouping - Any of these can be done with your Shopkins collection. Reading with Shopkins! She was a bit overzealous with her Shopkins here, but each Shopkin was assigned a few words to read.  This was fun because she also came up with voices for each of the Shopkins when it was "their" turn to read. Also, learning to decode the names on the Shop...

Look how sweet and innocent he is when he's sleeping!   Let's get him.  It'll be fun! When I said, "Yes" to this new puppy, I thought I knew what I was getting myself into.  I've had a puppy before.  Had one when I was a child.  No problem! I knew he would chew things, but I didn't remember he would chew every blessed thing in the house, including our fingers, toes, shoes, pant cuffs, and anything accessible.  The lever on the air vent cover, the wood on the baby gates, clothes or shoelaces that have snuck under the bottom of the closet door.  Just everything! I knew he would have potty accidents on the floor,                                           Go in the grass, not the carpet!! but I didn't remember it...

One day last week, I decided to zip to the Dollar Store before my hubby went to work.  During the winter, we began to feed birds in the back yard.  We all enjoyed seeing our little feathery friends eating at our homemade feeder, so it was time to restock. I dressed in a hurry, in bumming around the house clothes.  No makeup, but I did remember to run a brush through my hair before I left the house.  Our dollar store is only a minute away, and I knew right where the bird supplies were kept, so I grabbed a bag of seeds and returned to the counter to purchase them.  This all seemed very normal.  And on any other day, this would be a so-boring-why-are-you-even-writing-about-it experience. On that day, however, a new guy was doing the cashier work.  From his demeanor and his nametag, I surmised he was a manager of some sort.  First clue: he was in an exceptionally good mood.  Dollar store cashiers are not, as a habit, in a good mood. ...

After posting Puppy Trouble about our fateful trip to the local animal shelter, my daughter told me, "Mom, I have a puppy-shaped hole in my heart!"   What mom could let that puppy-shaped hole remain unfilled? So, for the last month, I scoured www.petfinder.com and our local shelter websites to check for any new dogs that might be available.  Puppies preferably.  I think every kid should have the experience of raising a puppy.  It's an important part of childhood.  Learning to take care of someone other than themselves, growing up together, and being there for each other in sickness and in health.  Together, they will experience things like sleepovers, team tryouts, first love, first breakup, braces, zit cream, and eventually, college. My husband and I have logically discussed this numerous times.  I have to wait until I find the right one.  This dog will be with us for its' lifetime - we had better make a good choice! So I...

A friend calls in the middle of the day to make sure I am okay. I was fine - I was at a playdate.  Why the concern? There was a gunman at a gas station near you, just an hour ago. Local businesses were on lock-down to protect the safety of their employees. I was terrified and dumbfounded. We live in small town America, and we've got people of all sorts.  I just didn't think it was possible that we'd have a crazy gunman less than a mile from our house. Immediately, I was thankful for my friend who called to check if we were alright.  Then I thanked God we weren't home at the time, and that we weren't fueling up the car at the wrong time. Then I started thinking of what we would've done if we were home at the time.  We would lock all the doors and head to the basement where there are very few windows.  All our lights and t.v. would be off so it would appear that no one was home.  What would I tell my children so they would not be scar...

A few years ago, when we had just one child, my sister-in-law asked to have her spend the night with her kids (the cousins).  I thought she was crazy.  Why add another kid to the chaos?  I thinking the cousins were ages 3, 2, and 2. When we had our second child, she asked to have them over for playdates and offered to keep them overnight.  What in the world?  It was all I could do to keep up with my two.  Did she have some superpower I knew not of? I wanted in on this action, but only if it was a sure thing .  I have recently discovered the reason why she asked for and welcomed more kids at her house: More kids make life easier...at least on a temporary basis. (Here's a picture of us with our 3 and our niece and nephew many moons ago.   At that time, I couldn't imagine having 5 kids in the house on purpose.)    What?   Now you're the crazy lady! (I'm sure that's what you're thinking) But it'...

Many things in life are hard. Taxes are hard. Figuring out your new insurance is hard. Parenting is hard. Choosing Jesus is easy. It's like this.  Jesus did all the hard work of living and dying for us, paying for our sins through his death on the cross.  In doing this, he gift-wrapped lifetime forgiveness of sins and is offering it to any person who says, "Yes.  I want that.  Thank you!" It's that easy.   You don't have to know theology.  You don't have to be a pastor or belong to a certain church. Or speak a certain language or read a specific version of the Bible. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He remembers creating us and thinks we're pretty awesome.  So much, in fact, that he wants to forgive every wrong thing we've ever done. Grown-ups like to make things hard.  We make up rules and classes and books and standards to get to heaven.  We add all this stuff to salvation, bu...