Halloween Candy Warning

With Halloween fast approaching comes a warning to parents and kids regarding Sherwood brand Pirate’s Gold milk chocolate coins imported from China.  The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is warning the public not to eat, distribute or sell the candy.  It is sold across Canada by Costco and may also have been sold in bulk packages or as individual pieces at various dollar and bulk stores.  The chocolate contains melamine which is the same chemical responsible for killing several babies in China, and sickening thousands more.  For additional details please visit http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/coins.asp.

All New - Party Organizer and Seasons of Joy

We have added two great new products just in time for the holidays.  Our party organizer and planner lets you plan parties with ease.  Filled with checklists, party guidelines, pocket dividers, and a handy expandable folder, this party organizer makes planning parties fun, easy, and stress free.

Seasons of Joy is a perfect way to record your family’s traditions and inspire new festivities that will become part of a long line of cherished family memories.  This 68 page book helps families remember special holiday rituals, important family traditions, favorite family recipes, and special family friends. 

Teaching Our Kids How to Choose a President

Kids ask a lot of questions.  And lately I have been getting a lot of questions from my soon to be 12 year old and 10 year old about my choice for President in November.  They have shown a keen interest in this year’s election partly because they are now old enough to understand some of it and in part because they want to understand where I stand on the candidates, issues, and my reasons why.  I love their enthusiasm and look forward to their questions every day, but I have to admit sometimes I can’t answer their questions and I come away feeling like I haven’t given them or this election 110%.  So because I believe firmly in walking the talk, I have come up with hopefully a creative fun way of discussing the candidates and their stance on the issues as a family with a Presidential Issue Board.  I am doing it in part for them and in part for me.  For them so they can learn about the issues, candidates, and our election process, and for me so that I can honestly say when I go to vote on November 4^th that I understood the issues, where the candidates stand, and that I exercised my right to vote with 110% effort. Read more

How to Choose the Right Extra-Curricular Activity for Your Child

As a parent we all want our children to try new things and explore interests and talents, but at the same time it can be a real challenge trying to manage children’s extra-curricular activities with family life, family needs, and financial constraints.  So to minimize the disruptions and toll that too many extra-curricular activities or poor choices have on your family life, use these tips to focus your decisions and help you choose the right extra-curricular for both your children and family.

Watch Your Child Play - Do they consistently go back to the same activities?  Do they continually do these activities without prompting or suggestions from you?  Then this is a sign that they may have a real interest and you may want to explore it a bit further by signing them up for a class or lesson.

Look for Natural Talents - Some kids are just natural athletes, artists, or musicians and parents can usually spot these talents early on through the child’s play and interests.  Encourage them to try something that will focus on their natural talent.

Give it Some Time - If you child requests to take lessons or try a certain sport, give it a little time before rushing out and signing them up to be sure their interest is for real and not a passing fancy from something they picked up on TV or from friends.  If after a couple of weeks, they have made multiple requests or have continued to talk about it, then you probably have a child with genuine interest and would be worth exploring further. 

Minimize Your Investment - Extra-curricular activities can be expensive so minimize your initial investment by using rental or used equipment, asking for trial classes, and letting them watch classes.

Ask Why - Push back a little with questions like “what seems fun about soccer?”, or “what about dance classes do you like?”  By taking the time to explore their interests and reasons helps both the parent and child make better decisions and choices.

Good luck!

Conquering the Chaos Part II – Organizing Your Life into Buckets

Now that you have gone through Part I of our Conquering the Chaos segment and have a time inventory of a typical week, it’s time to begin to understand what all that means by sorting the activities and tasks that occupy your days into buckets, so you can more easily understand where you spend your time, where you want to spend more time, and things in your life that are just right.

Begin this exercise by printing off the life bucket printable and begin sorting all the tasks and activities from your family life inventory into one of the appropriate buckets:  School, Extra-Curricular, Household Cleaning, Laundry, Household Maintenance & Repairs, Lawn Work, Volunteer Commitments, Faith Commitments, Administrative, Meal Planning, Household Finances, Fun Stuff, Personal, Auto/Transportation, Family Commitments, and Other.

For example, let’s say you look at your family life inventory for Sunday and found you did the following things (click picture to enlarge):

You would then go through this list and sort each of these items into the appropriate bucket making sure to include the time as well so that your bucket list looks something like this (click picture to enlarge):

Go through your family life inventory day by day and add each activity to the bucket list.  For tasks you do every day, for example making dinner, enter it once in the Meal Planning and Prep bucket with an average time from the week it took you to plan and make dinner. 

Once you have gone through your family life inventory and added everything to your bucket list, then go through and add anything you didn’t do the week you took your family life inventory but know you need to do.  For example, you may have done a family life inventory during a week in which you didn’t need to mow the lawn, but you know it is something that is typically done, so go ahead and add it to your bucket list along with a time estimate.  You want to have as complete a list as possible.

Understanding What It All Means

Now that you have your life divided into buckets, it is time to understand and analyze what it all means.  To do this, go through your bucket list and ask yourself these questions:

What buckets or activities are taking the most time?

On what buckets or activities should we be spending more of our time?

What buckets or activities are causing the most stress?

What buckets or activities are the most enjoyable?

What buckets or activities are the least enjoyable?

Starting With the End in Mind

Now that you have a good picture of what your current family life looks like, it is time to spend some time on what you WANT your family life to look.  This is a mental image or written expression of what you want your family life to look like most of the time.  The point of this exercise is to articulate how you want your family life to be by asking yourself these questions:

What things do I want to spend less time doing?

What things do I want to spend more time doing?

I want our family life to be less………?

I want our family life to be more…….?

I personally want to be more…..?

Here is an example to help better understand:

I want to stop rushing and having to yell at my kids to hurry up.  I want to have time to exercise a few days a week and to sit down in the evening and spend time reading to my kids, playing games with my kids, and enjoying my family rather than running around getting things done.

I want a clean house, but minimize the amount of time I spend cleaning.  I want to have all the clutter, toys, and stuff picked up every night before bed so that I don’t have to look at it in the morning.

I want to know in advance what I am making for dinner and I want the dinner to be healthy.  I want to spend a maximum of 90 minutes each day making and cleaning up after dinner.

I want to find more time on the weekends just spending time with my family rather than running to soccer games and sports events.  I want to find time to do the things we say we want to do, but never seem to find the time.

I want to stop paying bills late and want to spend a maximum of 60 minutes each week doing bills and financial work.

I want the kids to be in bed by 9 PM every night.

I want to be in bed by 10 PM every night and get up an hour before the kids every morning

I want to find more time for date nights with my husband and nights out with friends

I personally want to be less stressed, less worried, and more fulfilled.

Remember no family or family life is perfect.  We all have good days, bad days, and points in our lives where no amount of planning analyzing, or preparation can make better.  The point of this exercise is to articulate a vision and goal not make yourself perfect.  Sometimes things are out of our control but that shouldn’t be a reason to not try at all.

Once you get through this exercise save all your notes along with the notes from Conquering the Chaos - Part I for next month’s segment - Conquering the Chaos Part III - Creating a Family Schedule that Works. 

Good luck!