Mandi Ehman's Blog, page 8

The power of the family meeting

I’ve been reading a lot of books about intentional living and parenting over the past couple of months in my quest to reprioritize. I’ll share more about those books soon, but first I wanted to share one of the most impactful changes we’ve made as a family.

While we were in Florida, I read The Abundant Mama’s Guide to Savoring Slow and How to Hug a Porcupine one after another. These books don’t have a whole lot in common, but they did both talk about regular family meetings. Savoring Slow described family meetings as an opportunity to build your family culture and put your values into practice, while How to Hug a Porcupine talks about using them for important conversations with your tweens.

Now, I read good ideas on the Internet and in books all the time and then move on because the timing doesn’t seem right or they’re just not a fit for our family at the moment, but by the time I’d finished both books I knew that this was different and that I really wanted to commit to a weekly family meeting. (It feels a bit like divine intervention that I read these two books when I did, since I can’t say for sure that I would have felt as strongly about it if I’d just read one of them!)

Sean and I talked about it and decided that Sunday evenings would make the most sense and that we’d make them extra special by having dessert afterward each week.

We started Memorial Day weekend, right after we got back from Florida, and when I mentioned it on social media after our second meeting, a few people asked me to share more about what we do. I was a little bit hesitant to do that because 1) I don’t feel like an expert since we’ve only been doing it for four weeks and 2) as silly as it sounds, I don’t want to jinx it by talking about it publicly too much (for some reason it seems like I’m more likely to drop the ball on something after sharing about it!).

Now that we’re a few more weeks into it, I’ll share what we’ve been doing, but keep in mind that we’re just figuring it out as we go and this will likely morph in the coming weeks and months!

Our goal for the family meeting is a mixture of both purposes—to set our family culture and connect as a family, to make time to talk about things like what’s coming up for the week and how everyone can pitch in, and to have important conversations that otherwise get pushed off in the busyness of life.

So far, we follow an agenda each week that looks like this:

I. Family compliments


II. Schedule for the week


III. A family challenge


IV. Chore assignments


V. Something else we want to talk to the kids about

I. Family Compliments

I’ll be honest: this takes forever and I spend a lot of time just trying to keep everybody on track. But the idea is that everyone goes around and compliments each member of the family (if you’re keeping track, that’s 42 compliments, since the boys aren’t giving them yet!), and this is the part that everybody most looks forward to. Sometimes these are something funny, sometimes they’re a way to say thank you, and sometimes they’re simply acknowledging something someone has done well during the week. When Lucas cooperates, I keep track of these in a journal, which I hope will be a fun way to look back, even if we’re not quite sure what something like “took nap on the floor” means a few months down the road!

II. Schedule for the Week

This is pretty self-explanatory, but we talk about the schedule for the week as well as anything we need to buy (like a birthday present for someone) or organize (like packing dinner before soccer tryouts). We’re also trying to do a monthly family field trip, so we talk about those during the meeting as well.

III. A Family Challenge

We use this time to issue a challenge for the week for something we need to work on as a family. For example, I was tired of constantly reminding everyone to brush their teeth, so we had a tooth brushing challenge one week, and I now draw them a chart each week for them to keep track. Last week we created a checklist for keeping upstairs clean, but we didn’t do a great job of sticking with it, so we’re going to try again this week. And I already know that next week we’re going to focus on table manners because, man, have those slipped recently. That said, I’m not really planning ahead, just seeing what comes up each week that we need to address.

VI. Chore Assignments

This one is also self-explanatory. We use this time to review and choose daily chores and paid jobs for the week since the girls seem to be more motivated to complete them when they actually have a say in which chores they do.

V. An Additional Topic

Life goes by so quickly that I often feel like we’re not being intentional enough about having important conversations with our kids. We’ve used this part of our meeting to talk about things like not just leaving stuff spread throughout the bathrooms after their showers, the words we’d use to describe our family (and if we’re practicing those words—like kindness), and gun safety. I have a list of topics I want to be sure to talk about in the coming weeks—everything from reviewing good touch / bad touch to drugs and addiction as well as Internet safety and how we can serve our community as a family.

The helpful part of having weekly meetings on the calendar is that I no longer lay awake in bed at night going over all the things that I haven’t made time to talk to them about; I add them to the list and choose the one that feels most timely each week. Not only are we having more of those important conversations, but I also feel less pressure to lecture them about all the things at once because I know I can cover those topics in upcoming meetings.

***

I keep our weekly agenda and notes in my journal, but I created this printable agenda for you to use if that works better for you!

Click here to download or print the Family Meeting Agenda now.

Related posts:
Why I’m buying my 8-year-old her first bra
Are you attending this year’s online Mom Conference?
Rotating seasonal wardrobes with older kids
Ichthyosis {or fish-scale disease} and what it means for our little one



     

Weekend reading: June 18, 2016

From Instagram: Hey there, big shot!

Our littlest stud muffin is 7.5 months now, and I can’t believe how fast it’s going. He’s still not a great sleeper, still nurses around the clock, and still doesn’t have much use for solid food (although he acts like he wants it all), but milestones like this one remind me that he’s only going to be little for so long. Soon enough he’ll be running around and creating mischief with his big brother!

What I’m reading: The Last Boy and Girl in the World by Siobhan Vivian, Windfallen by Jojo Moyes, and Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin

What I’m thinking about:

{Follow my personal Facebook feed for the things I’m thinking about and talking about all week!}

Find the good, find the helpers

I Am Orlando | The Peaceful Mom


Jet Blue Passengers Honor the Grandmother of An Orlando Victim


Orlando Chick fil A workers reverse Sunday hours policy to feed volunteers | USA Today

Be gentle with yourself

A baseball, a broken window, and the best way to break free from guilt & shame | Money Saving Mom


Some Days, You Just Have Nothing | Zen Habits

Choosing love over being right

The Two Most Powerful Words We Can Say This Week | We Are THAT Family


The Spiritual Practice of Disagreeing (Without Being Disagreeable) | Deidra Riggs


On humility, grace & frugality | The Frugal Girl

Have a great weekend!

P.S. Have you signed up for our new weekly newsletter yet?

Related posts:
Weekend reading: July 4, 2015
Weekend reading: August 29, 2015
Weekend reading: October 31, 2015
Weekend reading: December 5, 2015



     

Sometimes there’s just NOT enough time

Do you ever feel like there’s just not enough time for everything you want to do? The projects and ideas for your business. The subjects you’d like to teach or the ways you want to inspire your children. One-on-one time with each of your kids…not to mention your husband! Caring for your health and your spiritual life. Resting and pursuing your own education or creativity.

I could tell you that you’ll make time for the things that matter most, that you’re probably wasting time on social media or tv, or that people like Beyoncé (???) have the same 24 hours a day that we do (if you don’t count her who knows how many assistants, that is).

But you know what? If you’re working and homeschooling, I doubt that most of those hold true.

Sometimes there just really isn’t enough time.

(Although I do agree with Jon Acuff that you can make a lot of progress if you commit just 15 minutes per day to a single goal!)

In seasons like these—when you’re trying to launch a new business or write a book, when one or more of your students needs extra one-on-one time, or when you have a high-needs baby who requires a lot of your time and attention (ahem!)—the greatest gift we can each give ourselves is to not just acknowledge that our time is limited but to really accept it.

Personally, I’d love to have hours a day to devote to Bible study and reading about education and parenting and living more intentionally. I’d like to have time to practice doodling and learn to play the piano and read the classics. I wish I could give each of my kids a focused hour of one-on-one time with their schoolwork. I have a million ideas for my blog and resources I’d like to create to help make your life a little easier. And I’d love to make delicious, healthy meals and yummy treats every single day.

Here’s the thing: these are all good things. They’re beneficial and focused on the big picture of a life well lived.

And yet…there’s simply not enough time.

Whenever I reevaluate my schedule and commitments, a sneaky thing happens: for some reason my mind takes the extra hour I’ve discovered in my schedule and decides that somehow I can do all.the.things I didn’t have time for before.

Which usually leaves me feeling more discouraged than I was before because they’re all things I want to do, and I don’t want to have to choose between them.

I don’t even like the “save your yes for the best” way of choosing between them because these all feel like the best pursuits. I’m not saying no to mediocre things or other people’s expectations; I’m saying no to my heart’s desires.

So during this season of babies and math tests and conference calls, I simply have to accept that I’m going to have to say “not now” to many of the things I want to pursue. I have to accept my limitations and embrace the time I do have rather than grumbling about those limits or trying desperately to pack in more than is humanly possible.

One day I’ll have time for the other things, and it doesn’t make me lazy or undisciplined to admit that right now I don’t.

There just isn’t enough time.

No related posts.

     

The book that makes it possible to Give Your Child the World

In what feels almost like another lifetime (and probably was in internet years!), I had the privilege of working with an amazing team of bloggers at Simple Living Media, founded by Tsh Oxenreider of Simple Mom (now The Art of Simple).

One of those bloggers was Jamie Martin, the editor of Simple Homeschool and the author of two of my very favorite parenting books—Steady Days and Mindset for Moms.

Jamie and her British husband (Steve), who is the CEO of Love 146, are the parents of three beautiful kids born on three different continents, and Jamie has a heart not only for homeschooling and motherhood but for the world as whole.

Back in the Simple Living Media days, when we would meet often on Skype as a group, Jamie began to dream of a book full of book lists for families who wanted to discover the beauty of the world from their bookshelves—a curated list that other families could choose from with confidence.

From the moment Jamie shared her vision for this book, I’ve been anxiously waiting for it to be ready, cheering her on, and {not-so-patiently} checking on the status.

I am so excited that it’s finally here!

What’s even more amazing is that I can say with confidence that the release of Give Your Child the World came at the absolute most perfect time for our family. It arrived on my doorstep while I was in the middle of A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille, learning more about an educational philosophy that Jamie herself has been sharing for years but that just finally caught my attention (more on that soon).

Reading that book convinced me to move back to a homeschooling practice that began first with living books, and Give Your Child the World inspired me to choose our books for this summer based around a specific region of the world.

My girls voted to study Africa first, and I had so much fun digging into Jamie’s list and filling our bookshelves with books that highlight the beauty and diversity of the various countries in Africa.

This is a beautiful book that will inspire you to give your child the world through good books and then equip you to do that with regional book lists broken down by age group (including picture books for 4-6 year olds and 6-8 year olds and chapter books for 8-10 year olds and 10-12 year olds). Each book list includes a description of the book and notes about any important details (references to religion, sensitive topics, etc.). And in the back you’ll find multiple indexes of all 600+ books broken down not just by author and title as expected, but also by country/region and historical timeline.

I’ll be sharing more about how exactly we’re using these booklists in our homeschool in the coming weeks. I’m trying not to rush through our Africa studies, but the truth is I can’t wait to dive into the next set of books.

In the meantime, I’ll echo LeVar Burton’s words…whether you have children or grandchildren, homeschool or teach other people’s children, this book is “an invaluable resource” for your collection!

P.S. Grab your book today so you can join Jamie and Sarah from the Read Aloud Revival for The Read the World Summer Book Club!

Related posts:
The hardest part of my homeschool year
Homeschool language arts options {and what we’re doing…for now}
The most important part of any language arts curriculum
What’s your rule of six {or seven}?



     

Weekend reading: June 11, 2016

From Instagram: We can’t stop laughing, LOL!

This week feels like summer is in full swing…the pool and trampoline are set up in the backyard and in constant use, we’re snacking on watermelon and fresh-squeezed lemonade, and we’re trying to carve out as much time as possible for play dates and special day trips.

Well, the kids and I are.

Sean, on the other hand, is hard at work finishing up the exterior of our home. We got real landscaping in April, and he’s been repainting the porch and trim and adding window boxes and shutters. It’s so very pretty! We are finishing up projects in preparation for moving in the next couple of years, but our goal is to be done early enough that we can actually enjoy some of the changes rather than finishing them on just to sell the house!

What I’m reading: Summer at Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan, Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning by Oliver & Rachel DeMille and For the Children’s Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay

What I’m thinking about:

{Follow my personal Facebook feed for the things I’m thinking about and talking about all week!}

Summer Inspiration

The Art of Being Easily Fascinated | Becoming Minimalist


Why Being Creative Matters (It’s Not What You Think) | Storyline


The Question That Keeps Me In Check | Business Boutique

Summer Fun

Break Out of That Rut and Make Your Own Longest Day Ever | Deidra Riggs


Summer Reading Lists for Kids | The Art of Simple


Simply spectacular summers when you’re a work-at-home mom (from the archives!)

Summer Eats

Rhubarb Almond Danishes | Food for My Family


Sweet & Spicy Cucumber Ginger Salad | Letty’s Kitchen


Kids in the Kitchen: Fruit Pizza

Have a great weekend!

P.S. If you only read one {more} post about the Brock Turner case, let it be this one.

P.P.S. I’ve made some changes to our subscription options, and I’m now sending just one email per week with links to all of the posts from the week and special tidbits just for subscribers. Be sure to sign up here.

Related posts:
Weekend reading: August 15, 2015
Weekend reading: August 29, 2015
Weekend reading: December 5, 2015
Weekend reading: February 13, 2016



     

On recognizing & accepting limits and living my priorities

The first half of 2016 has been both full (in a good way) and busy (in a not-so-good way), and as we headed to Florida last month—on the heels of the Ultimate Homemaking Bundle, which had me work 12+ hour days for a week straight—I was determined to reprioritize, strengthen my boundaries, and regain focus on the {seven} most important people in my life.

I’ve been to burnout and back already, and I have no desire to go there again. I don’t like myself—or the way I treat my husband and kids—when I’m in that place.

That said, I do love to work, and I can confidently say I’m really good at my job. But over the past couple of months, it became obvious that I was slipping back into an unmaintainable schedule—working too many hours, taking on too many projects, and losing track of my priorities.

I first began working for Ultimate Bundles in part because I needed to move away from the role of entrepreneur where there’s always another idea begging for your attention. But because I work with such a creative team, ideas flow freely, and when I have the skills to get the job done for an exciting new project, it’s hard for me to keep my boundaries in place.

You may remember that my main goal for 2016 is to win my girls’ hearts. Between the unexpected “fullness” of 2016 and the busyness of the last couple of months, it was clear that I was losing sight of this goal and heading in the wrong direction.

With all of that in mind, I asked for a meeting to reevaluate my hours and commitments. That meeting went exceptionally well, and I don’t at all take it for granted that I work for a company that values priorities, family, and healthy boundaries.

Through this process, I learned (or was reminded of) a few important principles for any entrepreneur:

1. Be willing to delegate.

I’m awful at delegation. While some of it is about control and wanting to make sure everything is done exactly the way I would do it, some of it is just simply a lack of skill in foreseeing those tasks in order to be able to delegate them before a deadline. And, honestly, I enjoy a lot of different tasks (administrative, design, and even busy work), so I don’t always want to turn the task over to someone else.

But to avoid burnout—at work or at home—it’s critical that we delegate, which means planning ahead to know what tasks are coming up and who else could do them, finding people you can trust to do the job well (even better if you can find someone who will take ownership of the task and not just walk through the steps), and actually turning over the reins.

2. Just say no.

As I mentioned, this one is hard for me too. Often, people are sincerely asking me if I can take on a project, not pressuring me to say yes, and when I do say yes, they (rightfully) assume it’s because I really have the bandwidth and skills to take it on. But I hate to disappoint, and I’ve been an entrepreneur long enough to know that you can get anything done if you pull an all-nighter, so I say yes much too often. This past month I’ve been reminding myself to take a few extra seconds to really evaluate my availability before accepting an additional project.

3. Reevaluate often.

I probably should have done this sooner than I did, but once I took a hard look at my schedule and toll it was taking on my family, I knew things had to change. It’s important not to wait until things are so out of whack that you’re falling apart (or screaming at your kids) to ask for help, though. I love the idea of having a monthly review day, not just to look at my schedule and what’s coming up but also to look back and evaluate how the previous month went and whether it aligned with my priorities.

***

In May I was able to take a fair amount of time off and—thanks to my new schedule—fit in my hours around trips to the pool and wildlife preserves and lunch with the family while we were in Florida. Now that we’re home I’m working around our school hours but feeling much better about my ability to do that, get the job done, and still make time for appointments and playdates.

The bottom line is there’s never enough time for everything I want to do, but life feels much more peaceful when my priorities are in order!

Related posts:
When you find yourself in the middle
The laid back guide to embracing a new year
Capturing the hearts of my girls in 2016
The gift of perspective



     

On becoming the anti-blogger

Okay, so the “anti-blogger” in the title of this post is a misnomer.

I’m not the opposite of a blogger. I’m not ready to stop blogging. And I certainly don’t dislike other bloggers (many of whom I’m privileged to call friends).

But as I’ve tried to explain my own personal journey over the past couple of years, anti-blogger is the term that comes closest to describing how I feel.

You see, seven years ago when I started blogging, I had all the answers. Oh, how I had the answers. I’m still fairly confident in my own choices and decisions, but the longer I’ve blogged and the longer I’ve mothered and the longer I’ve worked and homeschooled, the more convinced I’ve become that blogging has fallen into the trap of trying to provide perfect answers in tidy little packages for every area of our life.

And…well…life is messy and full of other people, and very little of it can actually be tied up in a bow.

So while I might share the homeschooling schedule that’s working for us or the keys to a simple morning routine or solutions for your paper clutter, I’m less convinced that these are the answer to life’s problems and more sure that they’re simply one option and the option that works for me here and now.

For example, all of my clutter solutions that worked when my children were tiny magically lost their power in a household of school-aged children. Things that worked with 4 children are a hot mess with 6. And the strategies I used with toddlers and preschoolers don’t quite work the same with middle schoolers (although some of them surprisingly do!).

At one point I was fully on the healthy living bandwagon, and we still resist antibiotics, flu shots, and other medications unless necessary, use coconut oil and coconut sugar and coconut milk in our cooking, and look for ways to reduce our footprint, but I’ve had to come to a place where I don’t fit in with the healthy living community because I simply can’t do it all perfectly…and I’m not sure I even want to.

I can’t write posts that imply that working and homeschooling are easy to balance or that offer solutions in pretty packages to life’s problems because I just don’t believe they exist. While I am a positive person who prefers to find the beauty in every day, I need you to know that that beauty is sometimes surrounded by chaos and dust and imperfection.

I’m not quitting the blog; in fact, I’ve got some pretty fun things to share with you, and I’m more excited about blogging than I’ve been in a long time. But if you’re looking for the “50 easy steps to a peaceful morning” or the “guaranteed solution to end sibling rivalry,” this is definitely not the right place.

If you’re looking for real, though…that I’ve got!

It’s taking me longer than I’d like to get these changes made, but this summer I’ll be rebranding Life Your Way….again. You see, in this season of life my head is full of working and homeschooling because those are the things that occupy my heart, and my home. I want to share hope for other work-at-homeschooling moms who are also trying to figure out how to juggle the chaos of work and family and homeschooling and life.

The content of the blog isn’t going to change drastically from what I’ve already been posting for the past year or so, but I want people to know what they’re getting as soon as the page loads, and I don’t think that’s happening right now.

I also have a list of printables and other products I’d like to create specifically for work-at-homeschooling moms, and I’m excited to do that (slowly but surely) in the coming months!

Some of you have been around since I was blogging about life with my three tinies, some since my focus was on organizing, some since our days with more than 20 different contributors. If I was any good at following rules, I’d pick one topic and stick with it. But blogging is a reflection of who I am, and if I’m going to be authentic, that’s going to change with the seasons of my life.

This is where I’m at now, and I hope you’ll stick around as I share more about the struggle and the joy of this crazy life!

Related posts:
We’re celebrating Baby Lucas with a 6 for $6 special offer!
Merry Christmas from our family to yours!
The most popular posts of 2015 {and the ones I wish had made the list}
How we spent the Mid-Atlantic Blizzard of 2016



     

Weekend reading: June 4, 2016

From Instagram: My oldest took this photo of the boys playing, and I love it so much! 

It turns out that we brought a cold virus home with us from Florida, so this week included quite a few sleepless nights and fussy days. Thankfully, everyone seems to be on the mend now!

In between helping me with the boys and cleaning up the yard (after being away for a month, it needed a lot of help!), Sean set up our new trampoline! Last summer we invested in a small above ground pool for the summer, and this year we decided to add a trampoline to the mix. The girls love the trampoline at our neighbor’s house, and Sean and I are also looking forward to being able to go out there and jump for a little exercise on busy days. (One of us has already been practicing their backflips while the other one is content to just bounce around in circles. I’ll let you decided who is who!)

What I’m reading: Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning by Oliver & Rachel DeMille and For the Children’s Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay

What I’m thinking about:

{Follow my personal Facebook feed for the things I’m thinking about and talking about all week!}

Finding your way

Mind Your Own Womb | Nadirah Angail
Unrealistic Expectations, Anxiety Attacks, and Rediscovering the Joy of Motherhood | Carrots for Michaelmas

Being realistic

Good enough is good enough | Money Saving Mom
All mirrors are broken | Seth Godin
7 Reasons I Disagree with Marie Kondo’s “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.” | Gretchen Rubin

Embracing summer

On letting summer break replenish and restore your kids | Simple Homeschool
10 Creative Summer Learning Ideas | Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers
Why we homeschool year round (yes, even in the summer!) 

Have a great weekend!

Related posts:
Weekend reading: July 4, 2015
Weekend reading: August 29, 2015
Weekend reading: October 31, 2015
Weekend reading: December 5, 2015



     

What’s your rule of six {or seven}?

Sarah Mackenzie is quickly becoming a household name among homeschoolers, and for good reason…despite the fact that she’s still in the thick of homeschooling (and raising toddlers!), she teaches with wisdom, humility, and joy and inspires us to “teach from rest” by her words and example.

I’ve been a member of her Read Aloud Revival membership site for about a year now, and her teaching has made a tangible difference in our homeschool during that time.

For the past couple of months I’ve been wanting to take the Focus & Align masterclass (which Sarah herself teaches), but our personal schedule and my workload kept getting in the way. I finally made time for it while I was at my mom’s, and I’m so glad I did. Through Sarah’s teaching, I was able to identify the rules that guide our homeschool decisions as well as what they look like in practice:

“In our homeschool, no matter what, we embrace wonder. I know that it’s important for some other families, but our family doesn’t make outings and field trips a priority. In 20 years, I want my kids to say that their homeschooled childhood was magical, full of rabbit trails, exploration, and good books and that I, as their homeschooling mom, was encouraging, joyful, and loving.”

Sarah calls these the “rule of six” (coined by Melissa Wiley), but—noncomformist that I am—I ended up with seven:

Start with worship & prayer.
Embrace wonder & beauty.
Read good books & talk about them
Explore our backyard & the world.
Prioritize relationships.
Say yes to experiments & experiences.
Homeschool from rest.

In practice, that means…Bible, hymns and memory work related to our faith are an important part of our morning time; art, music and nature walks are not just extras, but one of our core values; read alouds are a priority rather than an afterthought; we explore history, geography, and science through living books; I need to “budget” for one-on-one time rather than fitting it into the cracks; every day should include time for the girls to do hands-on science, cooking, and art projects; math, language arts, and morning time are our only non-negotiable subjects.

I love that Sarah also emphasized that we can’t control who our kids grow up to be, but we can control who we are now. She had us brainstorm how we want our kids to remember us, and I came up with these words:

joyful
kind
strong
purposeful
creative
inspiring
encouraging
engaged
loving

In practice, that means…I want them to remember that we laughed and had fun together; I always thought the best and gave them the benefit of the doubt; I worked hard and rested intentionally; I made time for my own creative pursuits; I was always sharing videos, books, and articles about interesting things with them; I highlighted their strengths and encouraged them to persevere; I looked them in the eye and listened to them; and my eyes lit up every time they entered the room.

In a coincidence that only God could orchestrate, I took the masterclass and outlined the things above before heading to the Classical Conversation’s practicum last week, where I discovered A Thomas Jefferson Education, a book that I expect will have a fairly significant effect on the way we do things in the coming months and years. I’ll be sharing more about that as we really dive in and start adjusting things, but it’s been really encouraging for me to see how God prepared my heart first through the realization that the way we were doing things wasn’t working any longer, then through the masterclass where I really put my vision into words, and finally with my introduction to TJEd and inspiration to make that vision a reality.

We’re all excited about diving into “summer school” with this new vision in place, and I’ll be sharing more about it as we go!

***

What’s your rule of six?

Related posts:
Remember, Classical Conversations is just ONE option
Favorite fantasy books handwriting sheets for older elementary students
The hardest part of my homeschool year
Homeschool language arts options {and what we’re doing…for now}



     

Weekend reading: May 28, 2016

From Instagram: One last trip to the beach.

We spent the first half of this past week at a Classical Conversations practicum in Boynton Beach, Florida, and the south Florida communities were so kind and welcoming. As we talk about moving to a new area within a couple of years, it gave me hope for being able to connect and make friends as a family because of the community nature of CC!

On Wednesday afternoon we headed down to the beach for one last visit before starting our journey home early Thursday afternoon. While I’m happy to be back in my mountains, I could definitely get used to having the beach just 20-30 minutes away! That said, it’s been fun to see how the kids have adjusted to being back home. I always expect them to be disappointed about returning to normal (and picking up their extra chores), but they took the baby so Sean and I could sleep in this morning, have been unpacking and cleaning without a complaint, and just seem happy to be home!

What I’m reading: A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille (this is so, so good!), How to Hug a Porcupine: Negotiating the Prickly Points of the Tween Years by Julie A. Ross, M.A., and Find the Good by Heather Lende

What I’m thinking about:

{Follow my personal Facebook feed for the things I’m thinking about and talking about all week!}

When health becomes an idol

The Goddess in My Living Room: Rethinking My Expectations About Health | Eclectic


On healthy living, burnout and settling somewhere in the middle (from the archives)


How giving up “real food” made our family healthier (from the archives)

Because you matter too

A Summer of Self Care for Moms | Live Renewed


22 things every woman needs in her life | The Art of Simple


Mom, Are You Taking Care of Yourself? | Homeschooling in Real Life

Parenting for the future

On Respecting Children When They Make Mistakes | The Civilized Reader


Building a home your kids want to come home to | Kindred Grace

Have a great weekend!

P.S. This story is a heartbreaking reminder of what Memorial Day is all about.

Related posts:
Weekend reading: July 4, 2015
Weekend reading: August 29, 2015
Weekend reading: October 31, 2015
Weekend reading: December 5, 2015