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If you’ve been a reader of my email newsletter, Bright-Kids, for any length of time, you’re aware that Dr. Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller from Effective Parenting are frequent contributors to Bright-Kids.
And if you live in the Seattle/Tacoma area of Washington state, you might be interested in attending a free Effective Parenting video seminar at my church in Auburn, WA during the summer.
For complete details, go to:
http://snurl.com/parentingseminar
Using drama, stories, humor, and scripture, Dr. Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller share practical ways to address some of the most common problems in family life. Filmed before a live audience of parents and children, these practical sessions will challenge you in creative and insightful ways and show you how honor can transform your family.
Honor is more than just behavior change. Honor comes from the heart. It affects the way people think, the way they act, and the way they treat others around them. Honor motivates parents to treat children differently. It gives children more constructive ways to interact with their parents. It helps siblings develop tolerance and patience. Honor builds incredibly strong bonds that, in turn, benefit all members of the family.
“Say Goodbye to Whining, Complaining, and Bad Attitudes … in You and Your Kids” offers a hands-on approach with specific ideas and strategies to change the way your family relates. As you implement these ideas, you will see amazing results and your family will grow closer together.
Hope you can make it if you live in the area.
And if you don’t live close enough to attend, you can get much of the same great information in the book of the same name. Just click on the book’s cover image (above) in this post to order.
A couple of men in Olympia, Washington (my former hometown) have started a ministry — “Go to Church Day” – to encourage folks who are former church attenders to visit a church of their choice on Sunday, May 4th (that’s this coming weekend for anyone else like me who’s a bit calendar-impaired). 
Since the timing was right to mention it before the deadline, I thought I’d toss in a note here on my blog just in case anyone out there’s been thinking about heading back to church one of these days. This might be the perfect opportunity — chances are good you won’t be the only new visitor on the official “Go to Church Day.”
Also, if you live in the Tacoma/Auburn/Kent/Puyallup/Federal Way area of Washington state, feel free to swing by and visit the church where I’m now on staff part-time. We’d love to welcome you! 
White River Presbyterian Church
http://whiteriverpres.org
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Some parents are intimidated about introducing their children to poetry, thinking they need to understand all about meter, rhyme and symbolism before venturing with their children into the world of Wordsworth or Frost.But if you change poetry from a “school” subject into an activity to enjoy together as a family, you’ll quickly find that poetry can be great fun.
A large anthology of poems (which can be found in most any educational catalog or bookstore) can be invaluable to introducing your family to the joy of poetry. Try picking out a few poems on the subject of the current season, then reading these aloud to your children at the table after lunch or outside in the shade of a tree on a lazy summer day.
It’s also great fun to have everyone choose a favorite poem to memorize for a family recitation, perhaps after dinner when the grandparents or extended family are visiting.
For a fun and friendly introduction to a wide variety of poetry styles, I highly recommend:
A Child’s Introduction to Poetry: Listen While You Learn About the Magic Words that Have Moved Mountains, Won Battles, and Made Us Laugh and Cry (ages 6-12)
View here: http://amazon.com/dp/1579122825/simplepleasuresp/
Awhile back, you might remember that an online friend of mine had sent our family a free water filter for our kitchen sink as a contribution to our family’s health in the midst of all the trials, changes and stresses we’ve been enduring.
Well, last week I received an email from Marilyn Moll (the woman who gave me the water filter) telling that her dear husband had passed away last Sunday. He was only 56 and it was completely unexpected. Their entire family is reeling from the shock and grief. Please, please pray!
Also, if you have need for any homemaking-related supplies, Marilyn’s online family business, The Urban Homemaker, has lots of great equipment and supplies for a healthy home and healthy eating. I encourage you to send your homemaking-related business her direction — I’m suspect their family will probably be facing a lot of financial changes in the midst of this tragedy of losing a loving husband and father.
You can read more at: The Urban Homemaker
Spring cleaning is a wonderful accomplishment. Everything’s fresh and clean. Doesn’t it feel great? But what do you do with all those odds and ends unearthed from your closets and the back recesses of the garage?
Making a few extra pennies by holding a Garage/Yard Sale could be just the ticket. After a number of successful sales over the years, here are some of my favorite tips for making the most of your time and effort:
1) When choosing what to sell, don’t sort things out according to what you think will sell. Try to sell everything. One person’s junk is another’s treasure. Even broken appliances can be sold for parts.
2) Don’t throw out your old magazines — stick them all in a box and sell them for a quarter a piece.
3) Think “store” when you’re setting up. Try to think how traffic patterns of browsing customers would walk around your garage or driveway.
4) Arrange your tables according to categories: all kitchen stuff on one table, bedding on another, clothing on another, gift items grouped together, jewelry displayed next to a mirror, etc. Decide in advance which categories you have, and then sort accordingly.
5) Rather than pricing each piece of clothing individually, put a big easy-to-read sign over the table. Something like: “All clothing 50 cents each, or 3 for $1 (unless otherwise marked).”
6) Play background music while people shop. You want your customers to relax … shop … take their time … enjoy the process. Probably an easy-listening station that plays familiar songs from the 70’s and 80’s would be ideal.
7) Make people feel comfortable and welcome. I’ve been to so many garage sales where the people holding the sale just sat there and glared at you as you shopped. Be sure to smile warmly and greet everyone.
8.) On those large colorful signs you post around town, list some of the individual items at your sale: tools, baby gear, clothing, housewares, collectibles, etc. And don’t forget to take your signs down after the sale’s over.
9) Stock up on bags from the grocery store so you can bag up purchases for customers with armloads of small items.
10) If your goal is to clear out as much as possible, offer a great deal on the afternoon of the last day such as: “Everything you can stuff into a shopping bag for $1,” or “Half price on all items after 12 noon on Sunday.”
By thinking and planning ahead, it’s possible to make your garage sale into a high profit, sociable, and fun way to spend a sunny springtime weekend.
In the near future, I’m going to be starting an email newsletter called “Solo Parents” which will be published in conjunction with The Dollar Stretcher family of resources.
If you’re parenting on your own and you’d like to join the “Solo Parents” mailing list — and be among the very first subscribers to this brand new venture (hey, you’ll be an official “Charter Member!”) – send an email to:
join-solo-parents@hub.thedollarstretcher.com
~Debi
Do you find yourself sitting by helplessly while your very own little picky eater works her way through every ounce of spaghetti sauce, picking out the almost microscopic bits of cooked onion?
Do you wish there were a way to get little Johnny to eat more veggies than just the French fries at the local drive-thru? (Do those even count as veggies, anyway?)
Well, relax.
While these tricks won’t necessarily help you win each of those out-right battles waged over plates of food with flagrant veggies and fruit, playing a little “Hide-and-Sneak” could be just what the doctor ordered for a simple way to help your child eat healthier … even if their picky little taste buds haven’t quite matured enough for a full serving of cooked Brussel sprouts.
- Puree veggies and add to spaghetti sauce, soups, or soup stock. You can also use small baby food jars of pureed carrots or squash to thicken (and add some healthy veggies) to assorted sauces and soups.
- Shred veggies and add to ground meat for healthier burgers, meatloaf, or meatballs. You can also add some shredded veggies as you’re browning ground meat for tacos and other ground meat meals.
- Hide those ”icky” onions in sauces, casseroles, or other recipes by sauteing the sliced onions in a small amount of margarine/butter or olive oil until soft. Then blending completely in the blender. You’ll get all of the delicious onion flavor but none of that yucky “slimy” texture picky kids tend to find so disgusting.
- Thicken gravies and sauces with pureed vegetables (be sure to steam or cook the veggies first). You can also use baby food veggies for this, too.
- Add 1/2 cup of carrot puree (or a jar of those handy baby food carrots) to your favorite brownie mix or chocolate cake recipe.
- Let your kids “dip” their various raw or cookked veggies in a dip: Cheese dip, Ranch dressing, salsa, mayo, sour cream, or ketchup. One mom reported to me that her daughter’s veggie-with-dip of choice is cooked green beans dipped in her favorite ketchup. Yeah, I know. Ick! But at least she’s eating those green beans happily.
- Make your own fruit-flavored breakfast “syrups” by blending fresh or thawed blueberries, strawberries, raspberries or whatever you child’s favorite berries might be with a small amount of honey.
- Make popsicles with 100% fruit juice, pureed fruit mixed with a bit of honey and juice or milk, or flavored yogurt.
Be creative … invent your own version of “Hide-and-Sneak” with your picky child’s personal food arch-enemy.
~Debi
I just now came back to the computer after pouring myself a bowl of breakfast cereal, and I had an idea to share with all of you readers.
Sometimes I find my cupboard filling up with boxes of cereal that contain less than a full serving of cereal. Nobody ends up eating the last little bit and the nearly empty boxes take up lots of space.
Last summer, my kids and I were on vacation and at one of the motels we stayed at, they had a serve-yourself breakfast each day. One of the things they offered was a choice of several cereals, and then also a container of mix-and-matched cereal that looked like the ends of the boxes all mixed together. Much to our surprise, my kids and I discovered that we actually liked this mixed cereal.
When we got home, I bought a plastic reuseable cereal storage container and started pouring those last little remnants from various boxes into the container, shook it gently to mix, and suddenly we had an easy way to store and serve the tidbits that were often thrown away or went stale before we could find someone willing to eat only half a bowl of Raisin Bran.
Sometimes the easiest changes bring about big rewards. We now have more cupboard space, and we also have another option for breakfast in the morning: “Mom’s Mix”. 
~Debi
… there’s not really much of anything here yet. It’ll probably be awhile before I start adding content. I’m being more than a little bit obsessive about trying to tweak the setup right now. Stay tuned.
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