Family Management

Summer Planning Questions

May 17, 2013 By Kara Chupp

I have been wearing flip-flops all week.
And it’s 82 degrees outside as I write this, which is amazing for Oregon in early May.
But I’m getting excited about summer!

Usually around this time of year, my husband and I sit down, look at the calendar and do some Lord-willing-planning for the summer ahead of us.
Keeping in mind that…

“The point is fruitfulness,
not efficiency.

You should want to be fruitful
like a tree,
not efficient like a machine.” ~D. Wilson

And remembering that my favorite summer was probably–
The summer we didn’t do anything.

But just in case you’re a-bit-of-a-planner, like I am,
or even if you just want to be a bit more intentional about this next summer…
I wanted to share our summer planning questions with you.

And in the comments below, I’d love to hear some of your fun summer ideas!

“Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring… Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” ~James 4:13-15

Summer Planning Questions to Consider:

What places would we like to visit locally this summer?

What specific educational goals do we have for each child?

What 3 books (or more) would I like to read this summer?

How am I going to spend time in God’s Word?

What am I hoping to study in the Bible?

Are there any friendships we’d especially like to invest in this summer?

What household tasks do I need to keep up on?

Are we planning to take any extended trips or vacations?

What reoccurring weekly activities would we like to include?

Are there any specific skills we’d like our children to learn over the summer?

How am I going to invest in my marriage this summer?

What are some easy (or new) meals that I’d like to make this summer?

What specific character traits or heart issues do we need to work on with our children or as a family?

Are there any specific skills I’d like to work on over the summer?

How can I make sure we have down time?

Are there any fun movies we’d like to watch together?

How/where will we celebrate any birthdays, holidays or special occasions?

What will hospitality look like for us this summer?

Is anyone coming to stay?

Who do we want to invite over?

Does my husband have anything that is important to him to include?

Do we have any house project goals?

What will our kiddos’ summer chores include (now that they’ll have a bit more free time)?

What are some “fill-in” activities that we’d like to do more often (Legos, reading, painting, nature walks)?

Are there any schedules I need to collect to keep with my summer calendars (libraries, farmer’s markets, community theaters)?

How are we going to serve in our community, church, and/or neighborhood?

Do we have any other goals for the summer that I haven’t included elsewhere?

We’re getting close to June !!!
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer…

And please share your summer plans or ideas below!

Love,

Kara @The Chuppies

6 Comments | Filed Under: Babies, Boys, Family Management, Following God, Fun For Kids, Girls, Home Organization, Homemaking, Homeschooling, Hospitality, Marriage/Relationships, Parenting, Teens, Toddlers, Uncategorized Tagged With: character training, children, Defying the Culture, God's Word, healthy meal planning, holidays, intentional, meal planning, motherhood, parenting, Summer

Are you a better summer mom?

May 16, 2013 By Nicole O'Dell

Are you a better mom in the winter or the spring? The fall or the summer? I feel like a better mom in the summer. Here’s why:

In the winter, I tend to hide out. I love the cold. I love the snow. But I find it excruciating to search for 47 gloves, socks, scarves, and hats to pile my littles outside when someone will invariably have to go to the bathroom almost immediately. It’s so much easier to stay in and put on a movie…and 10 pounds.

Another reason why I feel like a better mom in the summer is that, while the spring is lovely, rain brings me back to point number one. There’s nothing worse than having to pick up the kids from preschool when it’s pouring rain. Not only do I have to walk a mile to the door to grab them (okay, not a mile, but it feels like it when the rain is beating down) and then back to the car, but then I get to load them into their seats while my backside gets drenched. And this always happens about an hour after I washed my hair and gave it a nice blow out.

Fall is my second favorite, but the hard part about fall is that school has started and we’re easing into the blend of multiple over-full schedules again.

Summer. There’s something freeing about those months. Reduced schedules. No major early-morning requirements. Kids can go from pajamas to bathing suits and back to jammies again with no mommy guilt. In fact, I feel quite proud when they have spent the entire day outside playing, when the TV has stayed cold all day long, and when everyone has sun-kissed cheeks and noses.

But along with the settling of the routine, and the lightning of the load, there can tend to come a misplacement of other priorities. For us, morning devotions are a big priority. This is something I do with my kids, most commonly led by the teenagers, on a daily basis. It will take strict intentionality to make sure the daily devotions continue through the summer months when everyone is waking at different hours and heading in different directions.

Another concern is mealtimes. Do we relax the guidelines and the schedule so much that we let go of things like family dinners or family breakfasts? It takes intentional commitment to those family times to make sure they happen even in the relaxed schedules of the summer.

The third thing is communication. Without the extra time in the car going from place to place and with the lightning are some of the stringent requirements like meals and sporting events and things like that, when do we make up for the lost time for communication? Maybe a month before we’d have spent 40 minutes in a car chatting with the kids on the way to this or that, but now that time is gone.

It all comes back to that intentionality. Plan ahead for the coming summer months. Be intentional about Bible study, meal times, and communication. I guarantee you’ll feel like an even Better Summer Mom!

What are some of the tips you have for really making it work in the summer?

Blessings,

Nicole O’Dell

Photo by Ian Kahn, courtesy of Freedigitalphotos.net

3 Comments | Filed Under: Boys, Family Management, Fun For Kids, Girls, Parenting, Teens Tagged With: Nicole O'Dell, parenting, Summer

The TTYL Tradition {Happy Mother’s Day!!}

May 12, 2013 By Ruth Schwenk

We want to wish each and everyone of you moms a Happy Mother’s Day! In case you didn’t see our announcement earlier this week, I am thrilled to share with you our very first resource from The Better Mom team of writers. We are calling it Rhythms!

As you read the Bible, you begin to notice that God instructs His people to follow certain rhythms. In the Hebrew Scriptures, this came by way of yearly feasts, holidays, or appointed times. In the New Testament, we are told to “remember” and “proclaim” Jesus’ death and resurrection as we gather regularly at the Lord’s Table. These rhythms were, and are, meant to be reminders. They are sacred traditions containing sacred truths.

This is a book about family rhythms. Each of them, in their unique way, is a family tradition meant to instruct, inspire, and help pass on memories worth remembering. Our hope is that these family rhythms will help you to establish your own traditions worth passing on to the next generation!

In this book we have weekly traditions, all-the-time traditions, and holiday traditions. Here is an example of a one tradition that is included in the book from contributor, Nicole O’Dell.

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TTYL by Nicole O’Dell

The years of texting descended upon us and my girls dove right in. But something just didn’t feel right about it to me. It was clearly unbalanced as my girls were spending a lot more time texting than talking to me, and way more time texting than talking to God. I worried about disordered priorities and also about what kind of influence my daughters’ friends could have on them with that level of access.

Short of banning cell phones completely, what could I do? Did I want to make rules about number of texts allowed? Time limits? Friends?

I definitely did set some of those boundaries and then allowed them to morph as the girls get a bit older. For example, we have rules that they aren’t allowed to text after a certain time and friends need to be approved before being added to the list.

But something still wasn’t right.

I realized that the problem was in the order of priorities. If the first thought and the last thought of each day was about text messages, something was wrong. So, a little over a year ago, I instituted a plan that they would earn access to their cell phones for the day by reading a daily devotional, talking to God about it, and then talking to me about it. When they brought it to me, they were to share what they read, what it meant, and how they could apply it to their current circumstances in life. If they overslept or didn’t do it, their cell phones would remain untouched.

The goal was that they would experience a natural order to the priority of the right kind of communication. God first. Mom next. The world last.

Almost instantly, they noticed changes in themselves: closeness with God they hadn’t experienced before, and a connection with me because of the meaningful conversations we were having each morning. They began to look forward to those talks and thanked me for thinking of it.

It’s almost a year later, and we’re still going strong. This will probably be my favorite parenting tradition, and one I’ll employ with all of my children, because it teaches important things about life, relationships, and God, that I could not accomplish with mere words. Especially not texted words.

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I want to personally thank you friend, for joining our community and sharing life with us. I pray that this book will be a tool that God uses in your family to create traditions that will last a lifetime.

Click the subscribe button below to get our free eBook….and have a wonderful Mother’s Day!!

(NOTE** You can also subscribe in the link in the sidebar. Once you subscribe by email, you will receive the link for the free eBook at the very bottom of your next email from us.)

Blessings,
Ruth

4 Comments | Filed Under: Discipling Children, Family Management, Following God, Home Organization, Homemaking, Parenting, Uncategorized

Announcing The Ultimate Homemaking eBook Bundle!! {& Kindle Fire HD Giveaway!}

April 29, 2013 By Ruth Schwenk

I am so thrilled to bring this special deal to our community here at The Better Mom! An entire homemaking library of so many wonderful books!

For 6 days only, more than 75 widely-known bloggers and authors in the homemaking sphere have joined together to offer 97 of their most popular eBooks and eCourses, valued at just over $600, for the incredibly low price of $29.97!

More than anything, our goal for this sale was for it to be, well… ultimate! We firmly believe that you will not find a more comprehensive collection of homemaking resources anywhere on the web, and particularly not in this price range. For this low price, you gain access to every single one of these resources, so that you can customize your own collection to contain exactly the ones you want and know you’ll use.

This library of homemaking helps include topics such as mothering, organization and cleaning, recipes and kitchen helps, home education, spiritual growth for both moms and kids, home décor and DIY, pregnancy and baby care, frugal living, health and fitness, and even work-from-home and financial tools.

To sweeten the pot, we’ve also teamed up with 10 companies to bring you over $140 in bonus offers, giving you an affordable opportunity to get products you’ll use and love for only the cost of shipping, or in some cases, entirely for free!

What’s Included in the Sale?

When you purchase The Ultimate Homemaking eBook collection, you will get instant access to any of the 97 eBooks and eCourses listed below.

PLUS over $140 of FREE Bonuses

Each The Ultimate Homemaking eBook collection comes with more than $140 of FREE Bonuses from 10 companies that we know you’ll love. More on these bonuses below.

Please note: This collection is only available from 9 a.m. EST on April 29th to 11:59 p.m. EST on May 4th. There will be no late sales offered.

PLUS, You will receive FREE Bonuses from these companies…

A FREE Two-Month Membership to Fit2B Studio, where their wholesome workouts for the whole family are tummy safe and particularly target Diastasis Recti (split abs). ($19.98 value. No shipping restrictions.)

A $15 store credit to TruKid. With products like their aware-winning sun care, they are dedicated to providing all natural skin and hair care for kids, babies, and now pets. ($15.00 value. Standard shipping applies. International shipping available.)

Your choice of incredible natural products like sea salt and clay for FREE. Choose from the Redmond Trading Earthpaste Bundle ($24.90 value) or the Facial Mud Bundle ($26.90 value). (Standard shipping applies. Continental US only.)

Your choice of a FREE heirloom sourdough starter or FREE yogurt starter from Cultures for Health, the leading supplier of starter cultures and supplies for making cultured and fermented foods ($12.95 value. US & CAN addresses only. Standard shipping applies.)

Your choice of: a FREE 3-Month Subscription (for new accounts) or 30% off a One Year Subscription. Plan to Eat is an online menu planner that uses your recipes, scheduled for the days you want them. ($15.00 value. No shipping restrictions.)

A FREE Culinary Herbs Assorted Seed Pack Check just in time for spring planting from www.wheatgrasskits.com, a living whole foods company. ($11.95 value. Standard shipping applies to all US states and territories- no international shipping for seeds.)

Get $10 off Union28′s original “my husband rocks” tee. Their marriage apparel lets you celebrate your spouse in style. ($10.00 value. Standard shipping rates apply. International shipping available, but free shipping only available within USA.)

A $10 store credit plus 1 FREE lip balm from Bee All Natural. Their whole body products nourish and heal, and are made using only the highest quality, food grade, organic ingredients. ($13.49 value. Standard shipping applies. International shipping available.)

A FREE 2 oz. bottle of your choice of liquid herbal formula from TriLight Health. They specialize in fast acting, great tasting natural herbal remedies. ($12.95 value or more. Standard shipping applies, within the USA only.)
Your choice of 3 FREE ePlanners OR a 3-Month FREE Membership to ListPlanIt, whose mobile lists will help to organize your life. ($15.00 value. No shipping restrictions.)

The fine print:

Bonus Offers

Each bonus offer can be redeemed once only per eBook Bundle purchase.
For each bonus offer, transaction numbers or proof of purchase may be required at the time of redemption.
All bonus offers are free gifts from the bonus sponsors, are their sole responsibility to provide, and are subject to availability.
All bonus offers expire at midnight on May 19th, 2013 (2 weeks from the last day of this sale).

General

It is your responsibility to download and back-up your purchase within the 1-month download time-frame. With proof of purchase, we can renew download links up until August 1st, 2013. After this date we will no longer have access to the books and will not be able to provide any new links to download.
Due to the nature of this sale, there will be no refunds available. However, we would invite you to read our Frequently Asked Questions page to learn more about the file types, the download process, how the bonus offers work, etc.

Please note: This collection is only available from 9 a.m. EST on April 29th to 11:59 p.m. EST on May 4th. There will be no late sales offered, so make sure that you get your bundle right away!

Particularly for those wanting to read these ebooks on their mobile devices (iPhones or iPads, Android, Kindle, etc.) you will want to learn more about the file types, how to download them correctly, and how to transfer them to your device.

This post includes affiliate links, and I make a portion of the sale of each ebook bundle. Thanks for your support of this site!