Parenting: Intentionality

My sister Emily and brother-in-law Chris live in Texas and have two of the cutest kids alive (not including Jonathan, of course). Emily was an elementary teacher and Chris is a pastor. They have a great blog where you can find posts all sorts of stuff about life, family, cooking, and other kinds of fun.

I asked them to contribute to this series since Avery and Mary Hannah are not only so cute, but also REALLY well behaved and VERY smart.

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We intentionally plan fun and educational experiences. Learning begins at home with mom and dad as the sources of knowledge. With that belief as the foundation for our “curriculum” we seek out opportunities in our community to teach our children about the world around them. Here are some specific examples:

• During the 2008 election, we taught our 3 year old about the presidential candidates, voting, and had him color in on a map of the U.S. with red or blue crayon as the states were announced whether they voted democrat or republican. See this blog post for pictures.
• I decide on a theme or topic that I know would currently interest my children and then check out books from the library all about it. The kids loved the books about our 5 senses!
• We took a trip to a vegetable farm to pick strawberries so the kids could participate and understand that the fruit grows on a plant in the ground, not on a grocery store shelf.
• During our move, we broke out the maps to locate our home and our friends and families across the country.
• When we were driving from FL to TX one time, we printed coloring pages of each state we were driving through and made a binder for each child. Because of that my 4 year old learned and remembered every state from here to there, and my 2 year old knows them pretty well, too.

We intentionally converse with our children. We communicate our expectations and model for the children how we would like them to speak/act/respond. For example, check out this little video clip of Mary Hannah learning how to ask nicely for help.

In our home there is an ongoing conversation. Our children know that our home or car is a safe place to ask questions, and that they will get answers. Although it can be quite tiring to have to talk so much (our kids are talkers!!!), we want our kids to continue to talk to us … cause they’re gonna keep asking… and WE want to be the ones who get to answer!

We intentionally protect family time by choosing to spend a majority of our evenings and weekends at home or with just core family. Now that the children are old enough to start receiving play date and birthday party invitations, though we appreciate them, we cannot accept them all. In fact, we accept very few. Since Daddy is a pastor and is quite busy on the weekends, this practice of protecting family time is even more important.

We intentionally plan family vacations. They are sometimes grand and sometimes small, but vacations are essential for our entire family. We get away from the everyday distractions. We “unplug” from the daily grind, and “plug-in” to each other. These getaways are essential especially for the adults who regularly become distracted by routine housework, chores, and job-related to do lists. Sometimes family time at home can become nothing more than work at home. We have seen some of the greatest growth and development in our children while on vacation. The greater “face time” we give them, the more they learn and the more mom and dad are paying attention to notice!

It’s the little things

We love our house. I moved in during the Spring of 2005. We got married and Stephanie moved up that October. Since then, it’s been our home. It’s decorated the way we like it. We have enjoyed having friends over and throwing parties. Stephanie and I both have a passion for hospitality. We love making people feel comfortable and at home with us. It brings us joy to have people in our home.

We’re very thankful that God has blessed us with this home.

Growing up, my parents encouraged us (all 4 children) to always invite friends over. It was important to our family that we kept the house clean so at the drop of a hat we could invite friends over and not have to worry about cleaning up first. So there were always groups of kids hanging out at my parents’ house. It was a beautiful thing.

We have the same philosophy in our home today. We always try to keep it clean so at the drop of a hat, we could invite over anyone and not worry about the cleanliness of our home. And let’s be honest, no one likes going over to someone else’s house when it’s messy. Especially if you’re a neat-freak yourself.

One of the only limitations we’ve found in our home is the size. It’s more than enough for just Stephanie and myself, but we always want to invite friends over. Our living room can only hold so many. Rather than accepting that fact, we set out to see if we can change it.

We tackled our living room to see if we could fit more people in it. Here’s a before picture:

Truth be told, I stayed up late one night after Stephanie went to bed and moved this furniture around until I landed on this arrangement. The main thing that frustrated me before this was that the couches were in an “L” shape and both facing the TV. I wanted to be able to face friends when they come over, not my own TV. We really don’t watch that much TV, so I didn’t want it to be the focal point of the room either.

But with this arrangement, once we move in extra chairs, it maxes out at 10 people. The space fills up quickly.

So, Stephanie helped me out and we mixed it up, moved it around and came up with this:

Voila. Now, we can fit 2 more people!  We can still only seat 12, but that’s a lot better than 10. That means 2 more people can be invited to the party.

What about the TV? It still works over there. Just the other night we watched the Sugar Bowl and it was just fine. When we invite people over, we actually talk or play games instead of watch a movie. I’m not against movies, I would just rather hear what you have to say than sit next to you and watch a movie.

This project costs us $0. We had to get creative and try out different arrangements. Often we didn’t think it would look good before we put the furniture there, but after trying it out, we actually liked it. Sometimes you just have to try it out.

Scratch & Sniff

We put petunias in the hanging baskets on our front porch. They not only look nice and their leggy nature works well in a hanging basket, but they smell wonderful!

Because of the miracle of modern technology, I’ve been able to include this scratch ‘n sniff picture of one of the petunias.

 

Scratch 'N Sniff

 

 

If it doesn’t work, refresh the page and try again.

Spring Flowers

Spring is here, and we’re enjoying our flowers. You should too. 

Going Green

We read about rain barrels in the past and thought it would be a great idea for our garden. It’s essentially a large barrel that you attach to your gutters and will hold the rainwater that would otherwise flood your yard and seep into the ground while it is over-saturated. Then, you can use the water in the barrel to water your garden or yard on days when it does not rain. 

However, a quick search online left us disillusioned about getting a barrel. They’re pretty expensive for a decent barrel.

Then, after looking at our water bills from last summer, we decided to commit. We drove to a local nursery and asked if they carried these barrels. They did not. But, they did let us in on a well-kept secret. Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD), our local waste and storm water government division, is selling rain barrelsfrom their Nature Center for really cheap!

I was excited, called, and picked one up the following Monday. It rained all Monday thru Wednesday, and I didn’t have any time to get outside and install the rain barrel. But, come Thursday, I used my evening to install this barrel. Here are some before and after pictures for you:

Before

After

Lucy was really excited to be able to help out in the process. 

Next, we’re going to add some flowers to the south (left) of the barrel and our house to add some landscaping, make it easier to mow around, and to hide the barrel. Stephanie has some ideas with some flowering plans, so we’ll have to keep you updated before it all happens. 

And as you can probably tell from the before (3/9/09) and after (4/16/09) pictures, the blackberry bushes are coming in nicely. I hope the barrel’s shade doesn’t mess with that one bush. Oh well, the free water is going to be worth it. 

Oh, and for those of you that are wondering how much water we’ll be able to keep in our barrel… the barrel holds 58 gallons. With the back half of our roof (I’m estimating 300 square feet), and 1″ of rainfall, the barrel will receive 260 gallons of water. Luckily, there is an overflow valve that points away from the house. So, we could get a few more and daisy chain them. I have a feeling that would be overkill.

Hey Florida family: you should consider doing this. It rains every day down there and it seems like every spring and summer there is some sort of “water shortage.” Imagine if you could harness the runoff from the little bits of rain you do get to keep your flowers and vegetables fresh! I know most Floridians don’t have gutters, but if you did… it would work well!

Early morning vacuuming.

So I decided to get up early today and vacuum. It’s 7:15 and I’m 1/3 done vacuuming the downstairs.

Actually, I’m not the one vacuuming – my new iRobot is. It’s simply amazing. This dinner plate sized robot turns itself on and will roll around downstairs vacuuming the house. Once it finishes, it will return to its dock and charge.

I set it for 7 today because I have to make sure our pets are ok with it. The cats aren’t a fan, but Lucy is quite confused.

I have to say, this is the easiest household chore I’ve ever had to do: watch the iRobot vacuum the floor.