Helping Children Excel

Last night I saw Shawn Johnson win a gold medal in the balance beam finals at the Olympic Games. We had been watching the gymnasts ever since the Games had started, so we got to see their emotional roller coasters and could imagine what it felt like to be there- and how one wrong move could end their dreams. How nerve-wracking just watching it!

But last night, Shawn Johnson just BEAMED. She isn't even my child and I teared up just thinking about the work that went into that one event. The YEARS and HOURS of practice and training are something that most kids could not even imagine. Then I saw her parents, holding each other and bawling. What a great story! I can't even put into words how happy Shawn was when she knew she had the gold. She couldn't stop smiling. She waved to the camera, and you could tell she was finally able to relax. After all, she had not been able to get a gold medal until this event final. She had a silver for team competition, silver for all-around, and silver on bars until this final event. Her teammate and competitor, Nastia Luikin had already earned a gold on all-around, so it was just icing when she silvered next to Shawn Johnson's gold on beam.

Switching sports really quick, then there is Michael Phelps. Need I say more? LOL I actually grew up swimming, so that is a sport I definitely watch. Obviously he is a little more expressive and manly with his joy. If you watched any swimming at all, you know what I'm talking about. But watching these athletes and others compete- and excel- is not only pure joy, but a reminder of all the positive things that come out of helping children excel.

None of these athletes could be where they are without their parents. But what many parents don't realize is that we don't have to raise olympic athletes in order for our kids to gain the same pride and joy that we see at the olympics. It happens every day at little league games, summer swim programs, singing competitions, boy and girls scouts, academic competitions, and other competitive events. I still remember the amazing catches, and the look of amazement on swim coaches when I actually swam as fast as I told them I would- even though they didn't believe me. Not only did it feel wonderful at the moment, but I still remember them, even 25 years later. There is just something about working toward something, and it paying off.

Now you may be asking, what about when your child doesn't win? What if silver is the best they can do? The one thing I don't like about the Olympics is that you walk away with a feeling that gold is first and silver is last. That probably helps athletes do their best in training, but to see them disappointed when they get second is a little sad. With our own children, that is part of life. Sometimes you will win. Sometimes you won't. (Unless you are Michael Phelps and you take all the gold medals yourself!) Some kids will work harder for the next time. Others will quit completely. My feeling on it is that if your child was meant to do a certain sport or activity, they will love it so much that they look past the second place finishes, and even the last place finishes. Their passion for it drives them more than the recognition, and when they finally do win or place better, it's just the icing on the cake.

Helping children excel is important, but it's even more important that we do it in a loving, nurturing, and positive way. We have all seen the parents that push too hard. We are probably even that parent from time to time. My rule is that you should try what you want to, and finish out the season and give it your best. But you can't quit half way through, and you can't give up before the season is over. I actually play ball with my kids: soccer during soccer season, and baseball/softball during that season. This is how I can help them, by teaching them the skills they need and giving them a chance to practice.

In academic areas, it's really easy to excel when you homeschool. It just sort of happens. I think this is because they see their parent excited about the subject, and also because they still have a love for learning.

If I had to give three steps for helping children excel, they would be:
1. Be involved
2. Be active
3. Be loving
Yep, even when your child strikes out AGAIN, there will be something positive he did in the game that you will be able to point out. Focus on those things and keep on practicing!

US Pollution Sent to China

As the 2008 Summer Olympics approach, the news stories remind me of something I've been thinking about for quite a while. I've seen lots of great reports over the last 5-10 years about how much the US has improved the air quality and environment in most big cities. If you just read the articles, you might think, "wow, finally our country is doing something good!" (Not so fast...)

In the very same newspaper or the very same news program, you might also learn about the number of businesses that have moved overseas. You might hear the grumbles and gripes about losing manufacturing plants to places like China, that can produce the same products for far less.

Are you putting two and two together yet?

Has anyone but me noticed what's happened? We didn't so much improve air pollution: we shipped it to China! I guess that's a benefit to sending our business to China. And now they will have our money to help fight the cancer increases they have suffered due to their increased manufacturing with the lowest environmental standards (if any).

I'm writing about this here because most of the American public has been duped. And I hope that I am raising children who will not be so easily duped by news articles into believing every word that is spoken or printed. I've already given my children the "little kids in China made that piece of junk toy so that you could play with it for five minutes and then throw it in the trash" speech. As they grow, I try to teach them critical thinking and problem solving. I don't want them growing up to believe that politicians are on their side, the news is real, or that they have to go to college to learn how to work for someone else. We live outside the box, think outside the box, and grow outside the box.

If you haven't seen the The Story of Stuff , go there NOW! Watch it daily. As I become a horrible consumer in the eyes of my country (shopping at garage sales, Goodwill, consignment sales, etc.) I wonder what would happen if our whole country became horrible consumers like me. Of course, it will never happen as long as there is money to spend. Some people will just never care. But I look at my kids and how their spending habits have developed. My seven year-old (who just sat down to watch The Story of Stuff with me) has decided that all he really wants is Legos. He has already learned that all those toys that look so fun on the shelf turn out to be- not so much fun. Like most kids, they are playing a lot of computer games or online learning games. Outside of the disc and packaging material, the main resource that goes into these products is intelligence. One day, I believe, we will not buy STUFF so much as we will buy the ability to DO STUFF.
For instance, I purchased Jump Start World at the store. It has an online component to it, where you can pay for your child to continue on with the game. A sneaky way of sucking kids (and parents!) in, but once I saw what my child was learning, it was worth the $75 I paid for the rest of the program! So now we have an educational game that my child has spent HOURS on, and not a big plastic toy that MIGHT get played with once and a while. I truly believe that this is the wave of the future. And I also believe that the children at the forefront of producing more advanced games or providing highly technical expertise will be homeschooled children like mine.

There are so many reasons why teaching kids to think critically should be at the top of our parenting list. Not only to decipher the news, but to make change, and become technologically advanced if that is your child's calling. Because mark my words, eventually China will wake up and want to send their pollution right back over and we will either welcome it back or decide we can go without McDonald toys and tell them, "no thanks!"

If you want to learn about the pollution problem in China, here is a great article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/world/asia/26china.html

I just got this link in a Yahoo group I am in and thought it was appropriate:
http://www.jibjab.com/originals/big_box_mart

Answers in Genesis

If you are a Christian parent or homeschooler, I cannot stress enough the importance of looking into Answers in Genesis. Recommended to me by a fellow homeschooler, Answers in Genesis is an organization that will provide you everything you can possibly need to teach your children (or learn yourself) why the THEORY of Evolution does not pan out. I attended a public school all my life, and for some reason, the church did not "cover" this, so I was totally ignorant about the many holes in the Theory of Evolution. It occurred to me as my children were ready to learn these important truths, that I did not know them! I know that I had the faith to believe that God created us all, but there are TONS of questions that come up, especially when you have "inquiring minds" of young children!

Answers in Genesis provides information for every age, including yourself! If you are like me and never got that education, it is never too late to learn it. So many of us stand up for "Creation" at our public schools, and most of us don't even know why! If you think about it, learning about Intelligent Design is one of the most important responsibilities that a Christian has. We have too often let evolutionists walk all over us, when the sad thing is, THEY don't even know what THEY believe! They simply think that more scientists support evolution, so they must be right. Wrong!

For our science curriculum this year, I have selected a book from Apologia Educational Ministries, Exploring Creation with Astronomy , by Jeannie Fulbright. We will follow each year with the next volume, and we are SO excited to start this book! I have been reading it myself and LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! They work well with the books from Answers in Genesis, by providing a God-based science curriculum that answers questions and provides information before some are even asked.

Answers in Genesis has a magazine, to which we subscribed on the recommendation of Dr. Jay Wile. We haven't gotten our first issue yet, but it should arrive in a few weeks. I'll report back on that after we get it. They also have tons of books, not to mention a VBS packet that I wish our church had gotten. Answers in Genesis also provides guides that you can take to the aquarium, zoo, or museum to provide you with the biblical perspective that these places often neglect. No matter what age your child(ren), you will find something useful to help them learn about Intelligent Design. And if you have't found a great science curriculum yet, be sure to visit http://www.apologia.com/ and check it out.

I am so grateful for all of these resources and hope to be highly educated about Intelligent Design very soon. So when someone comes across my path, I can tell him or her why I KNOW that God exists and that He created and designed everything. I'm so excited!!

Structure

Today I yelled at the kids. Not that I never yell, but it was almost as if I had PMS and I knew it wasn't THAT time. What was going on?!

Then it occurred to me how little structure I had been providing. Things were out of control. The kids were talking back. They woke up arguing with each other. They were not cleaning up after themselves. And I griped at them, but didn't follow up. I had become a lazy parent.

At lunch time, I apologized for the yelling, and told them that it was my fault that things had gotten so out of control. I told them that we would have more structure from now on, to help keep everyone on track with where we need to be, including myself. We did school, and there was no complaining! Gasp!

Later this evening, when my daughter yelled, "I HATE YOU!!" after I told her that her neighbor friend could not come inside at 10:15 at night and that she would have to come in for her bath at 10:30, I followed her outside and made her promptly turn around and come inside for her bath immediately. The night was over. When she knew I meant business, she said, "I don't love you anymore!" Well, it's good to see that things are back on track. :o)

Words from a Stay at Home Mom

I love this post on Dr. Laura's blog because I could have written it myself. For a short time, I thought I wasted my teaching degree, but before long I realized how handy it was for teaching my children at home. Moms who put their children in day care will never understand the vast difference in care that their children would receive if they stayed home with them. I did not really understand it until I discovered the day to day nurturing, teaching, and disciplining that happens on a daily basis in our home. Most of us know that nobody will love our children the same way we do. In most cases, it is not even close! It's sort of like comparing breast milk to formula. Most moms are told that formula is second best. But there is "cream of the crop" and there is "bottom of the barrel," and if nothing falls in between, isn't "bottom of the barrel" second best? Formula is a horrible alternative, as is child care for our children.

I hardly ever bring this up, although I secretly feel sorry for the kids I know who have babysitters and day care. I also feel sorry for the kids who must attend school all day, under the control of someone who may or may not give a rip about them. Especially when they get about 1/30th of that person's attention. On what planet does that even come close to making sense?!

Usborne Books At Home - Now is the time to join!

In early June, I signed up with Usborne Books, mostly due to my book addiction and my desire to save some money! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE their books. If you are also a book addict, NOW is the time to act if you would like to get 33 popular Usborne books for just $99.50 + $20 s/h + tax. You have until 10 a.m. CT, July 31st, 2008, to get your consultant agreement to the Usborne home office. Learn more at my Usborne sign up page.

Besides the great books you will get at a huge discount, you will have the opportunity to run a great business by hosting parties, attending fairs, or simply selling on the internet. No stock is required, and this is a great business to do with your kids, who will naturally share the books with others. Don't miss this great deal and the opportunity to work from home with your children!

Why can't we all just speak English?

I just finished reading an article from "Human Events," a national conservative publication on the idea of making English our official language in the US. Some might not care one way or the other, until of course, they learn that their tax dollars fund all the different language government forms and translators for various purposes. Yes, we PAY for that!

Contrary to popular misconception, it's not just Hispanic immigrants who find an issue with the language barrier. People from all over the world now feel it's their right to receive documents in their native tongue. Why is that? Because we have not required immigrants - legal or not - to assimilate to OUR way of doing business. We want to be everything to everyone- or, THEY (government whimps) want to- not US.

When Barack Obama implied recently that it's embarressing that travelers can come to our country and speak English, while we cannot speak the language in France, Germany, Spain, etc. I threw up a little in my mouth. Is he serious? Does that mean that the government is now going to fund all children learning in government schools every language that they might possibly need one day in case they travel to a country speaking a foreign language? Heaven forbid I should take Spanish in high school and have the audacity to travel to France, where I might embarress Senator Obama because I can't speak the language!

Instead of embarressment, Obama should be proud that other countries want to speak OUR language! Why should we want to be like them? Why can't we be leaders instead of followers? Sorry, I missspoke. English is not OUR language- officially anyway. Once we make it our official language, we will not have to fund all those special forms for foreigners who don't want to assimilate.

When my American father brought over his German wife and her German son, as well as myself and my German-born sister, we did not come here expecting to find German forms, German signs, and German neighbors. We were in America! My mother learned English by playing Scrabble. She barely has an accent (I don't hear it, but others do). My brother repeated 1st grade and learned English in school. My sister and I were babies, so we don't remember much German. The point is, if we wanted to speak German, why not stay in Germany? (Where, by the way, they learn English in school, probably better than we do!)

The ironic part of this whole thing is that we have children graduating from school who can barely speak correct English, much less write it, and Obama wants us to learn all these languages?! Yeah, WRITE! ;o)

Why Homeschool in Summer?

I've been asking myself that question since Memorial Day...WHAT was I thinking?!

Okay, maybe I'm overreacting. After all, ball games and swim meets don't take up the entire day. There's also the swimming for fun, playing with friends, riding bikes, computer games, and anything else we can come up with that we'd rather do than "school!" There are definitely benefits to homeschooling year 'round. I just don't like to think about those when I'd rather do school "tomorrow."

Tomorrow will get here eventually. Really, it will. I know it will. Won't it?!

We've been doing "school light" this summer, which is better than nothing, I guess. But for the past couple of weeks we've just plain been lazy. Admittedly, we have had swim meets to contend with, and when you are at a swim meet all day, the last thing you want to do the next day is crack open the books. So we have used creative play, educational videos, and computer games to help keep brain waves moving at appropriate speed.

While we are finishing up our final work before starting on our new books for fall, I have had a blast checking out the new curricula I've selected for science, history, and Bible. I'm so excited, and can't wait to get going with it. I will share more about the curricula we use when fall approaches. For now, I'm just trying to stay motivated, keep the kids turned on to learning, and enjoying the sunshine while we have the chance. Before long, we will be under a foot of snow for a month, and we'll have plenty of time to learn everything we need to then- I'm sure of it!

Anthony Swim Team Dominates the League!

For some reason in our small town of 2,000+, what happened 10, 20, 30+ years ago still makes the paper, but today's news does not! So I am posting here in my blog what SHOULD be getting published in our paper. We live in Anthony, KS, about an hour southwest of Wichita. No one really knows how many people live in Anthony, but the last census showed about 2400. Given that, I think you will be mighty impressed that our swim team boasts around 40 swimmers!

Our first meet got rained out. Just after the warm-up lap, the thunder started. Thankfully, they called it before the bottom fell out, and that "bottom" lasted ALL day. When we finally got to swim in our first meet last Friday, our strength was apparent to our parents, the other teams, and OURSELVES! I think some of the swimmers were really surprised at how well they did. The most impressive swim of the day was Heather Moore's butterfly. She did the entire length of the pool without breathing, which helped clinch her first place finish. As a 14 year-old, this is Heather's first year swimming (or is she hiding something? :o) and I'm amazed that she not only has beautiful strokes, but the speed as well.

I must also praise the following swimmers who have this season discovered the proper breaststroke technique: Brandon Clarke, Bailey Clements, Leslie Struble, Zach Duwe, Hope Clarke, Heather Moore, Elizabeth Francis, Veronica Morris, Estin, and there are a few more on the bubble who just need a bit of tweaking. Most improved definitely goes to Kayleigh Clements, who is improving every day in breaststroke and will definitely be a top breaststroker before long.

Our second swim meet was yesterday, which was the "relay meet" in Kiowa, KS. Basically, the entire meet is done in relays. They swim a backstroke relay, butterfly relay, breaststroke relay, etc. and medley relay. Each swimmer can swim six relays, so some of our 8-and-unders and 9/10 year-olds get moved up to swim with older swimmers. The meet is pretty fun, but also hectic for coaches. Somehow, our entire group of 9/10 girls missed their free relays and they were allowed to swim with the boys. That was interesting, as we had four lanes of Anthony swimmers swimming at the same time!

We have two more meets this week, and then semi-finals and finals next week. So far, we have won team overall both meets. I am announcing to the swimmers this morning some rather shocking news that might change our dominating power. Our swim league has no stroke judging. So you practically have to swim the wrong stroke the whole way or pull on the lane rope to get disqualified. Since the beginning, I have taught the proper legal stroke techniques, but some have not "gotten" it. In the rest of our meets, I will be personally disqualifying any swimmer 9 or above who does not do a legal stroke. This will make our points go down, but it will raise our standard to where it needs to be. There is nothing worse than seeing a really good race, where the winning swimmer is doing an illegal stroke! Not in MY swimming pool!

Story Time Felts

As if I didn't have enough to do already, I signed up as a consultant for Story Time Felts. I really love the products, and definitely see the benefits of them for children of every skill level and developmental stage. I had ordered the Castle Tales set for my daughter for Christmas, and six months later finally "joined the family" as a consultant.

If you are interested in getting felts as Christmas gifts, we are currently having a "Christmas in July" special that you will want to take part in. All of our Christmas sets and scripture sets are on sale during July!

If you have any questions after visiting my site, please don't hesitate to ask!

"It's JUST t-ball!"

That's what the rather large, lazy umpire yelled at me after I couldn't let the 5th crappy call go by unnoticed. No offense to the overweight. There are plenty of you out there, and you don't move as slow as this kid behind the plate. I've seen overweight people run around a soccer field, referreeing games. But this guy was just not in the game. At all.

The game was close, and I'm not sure how, as call after call made against us put us seemingly further behind. But it was now the last inning and we could win! The ball was hit, and barely rolled over the "foul" line, which is the line you must hit the ball past in order for it to be "fair." The ball rolled fair, the pitcher picked it up, and the ignorant ump called it foul. I really didn't mean for him to hear me, but I had had enough and could not sit quiet any longer. Three bad calls at first base: two where we were safe, and one where we had gotten their runner out, were all called against us. He also allowed runs to come in after the ball was thrown to the pitcher. I probably wouldn't have noticed these things if it wasn't 100 degrees outside (I exaggerate) with absolutely no breeze. The girls had another game after this and we all wanted out of the heat. The worse he called, the slower he moved, the longer the game.

But when he retorted that, "It's ONLY t-ball!" I was surprised to see no parents bum rush the field. After all, WE were the ones bringing our children to practice twice a week and sitting in the heat. THEY were the ones trying to learn this stupid game. HE just showed up (halfway) and all he had to contribute was, "this game doesn't matter, why do I care?" That is, after all, what he meant.

The girls ended up winning both games. Thankfully, the second game had a different umpire. The girls were SO excited and we celebrated the end of the season with a pool party.

Later that night, we had two more games for my son's team. After the first game (which ended a bit prematurely because the other team was exhausted and wanted to go home) I asked the wife of one of the coaches who won the game. "Well...technically we don't keep score in t-ball...but we won..." To which I wondered why we had kept score all season, and now all of a sudden for the tournament we weren't keeping score? She then went on, "the kids don't care."

I explained to her that the kids DO care, and that she should have seen the girls after winning both of their games earlier that day. "Well, it's not good when the winning team says, 'ha-ha, we won...blah, blah, blah.'" This really perplexed me, and I asked, "if we don't let them win, how will we teach them the right way to win?" I got no answer.

The boys won both of their games as well. And I ended the day more stumped than ever.

If we don't care who wins, why are we playing the game? Why are we driving 30 minutes away at $4 per gallon to play another town just for the fun of it? Why bother buying uniforms if it's "JUST t-ball" and if the umpires are going to crawl out of bed and barely show up to make calls? None of this made sense to me! What are we teaching our kids?

I personally feel like kids are ready for competition if they are playing another team. Why pretend like it's not happening, when everyone knows that it is? Are we afraid of getting better, or realizing that we're getting better, or are we more concerned with the other team feeling like they're not?

Ironically, we aren't supposed to keep score, but the benchmark for coming in to bat is when we get three outs or the other team scores 8 runs. If we aren't keeping score, how do we know when they have scored 8 runs? And if we aren't keeping score, why does each team have a parent keeping books every game?

Does this make sense to anyone out there?

Clothes Pins: Not JUST for Art Projects!

In May we downsized to a duplex, as I've mentioned in another post. In the backyard is something I've ALWAYS wanted: a clothes line! I know that sounds crazy, but maybe you've never searched for a place to hang 5 wet towels and bathing suits to dry! At our last house, I'd hang them on the fence, but the kids would try to pull them down and snag them, or the wind would take off with them. Not good!

So the other day, I open up the clothes pins that I had bought for craft projects. And inside the wrapper is a little booklet- for craft projects! Don't people buy these things to hang up clothes anymore? Then I started thinking. I wondered if clotheslines were becoming more popular these days with people wanting to save energy. I know "green" people have always utilized the clothesline, but what about "regular" people?

I now take my clothes to a laundromat, as I'd prefer to use the space for storage than a washer and dryer. I spend $20 (or $18 if I can dry the last load at the end of every dryer cycle) every two weeks to wash and dry our clothes. I know it will be more expensive in fall/winter, but by then, my kids will be neater (please, God?) and not require much laundering. I figure I'm not paying for the water, and the dryer isn't heating up the house, so it saves me money there. If the laundromat wasn't 10 miles away, I could hang every load to dry. Well, almost. The other day, I had a couple of hours before the sun went down. I put out some "not quite dry" clothes and checked their progress about an hour later. Almost dry! An hour later, I checked again. The humidity had rolled in and the clothes were as wet as when I first put them out! Defeat! The thing about Kansas is that it can take an hour to line dry just about anything when the wind is blowing, or it can take forever when it's humid. Now I see why clothes dryers are popular...

T-ball is SO Much Fun!

And SO nerve-wracking! I've got two in t-ball right now, one playing on the boys' team, and one playing on the girls' team. I probably don't need to say what a huge difference the two teams are. But I will. I'll start with the boys. The age range for the boys is barely 5 to almost 7. So you have boys that have been playing for a couple of years who are probably about ready to strangle the first timers who act like- you guessed it- four year-olds! We are about halfway through the season, and I can't tell you how many games we've won- we just don't keep up. But at the start of the season, I was a bit concerned because the coach seemed a little unorganized. But boys being boys, they have (mostly) improved dramatically. Being one of those parents who plays ball with her children almost daily, it's my suspicion that the boys who are improving are getting help and practice at home. At our last game, my son made a great play at 2nd base. He stopped the ground ball, then ran to second base and got the runner out. Sounds simple. But at the beginning of the season, none of the boys could make plays because they fumbled the ball if it came to them. It's hard to make a play when you can't get control of it! At this point, they are actually throwing to their target- and they're CATCHING it! As I cheered for my son after his play, and noticed EVERYONE on our side cheering, I almost cried as he radiated joy on the field. All that practice paid off! I remembered all the great plays I had made as a softball player and how good it felt. I am so glad that he gets to experience it, too! Here he is at a recent game:

The girls' team is a bit of a different story. They have great coaches- a TEAM of coaches, actually- and their practices are very organized. While they are the same ages as the boys, I suspect they are more interested in wearing the uniform than learning the game. It seems that by now there are certain things they should have learned. And they just haven't. I'm not sure what the problem is. My daughter was playing 3rd base, and I could tell that the next batter was going to hit in her direction. There were runners on 1st and 2nd, and I hollered, "Anna, if the ball comes to you, run to 3rd with it!" It took a while for the batter to hit the ball, but when she did, it went right towards Anna. She stopped it beautifully, but then stood up like, "what do I do with the ball?" LOL This would not be so bad if the pitcher, who gets nearly every ball hit to her, also didn't know what to do with the ball almost every single play. And by the end of the game, STILL hadn't figured it out!
Since this is Anna's first year, I was just happy that she stopped the ball! It is hard to teach kids the game at home without having runners and other players. So that will come with time. But I can tell that hardly any (if any at all) of the girls' parents are playing with them at home. I wish they would. It is so rewarding for both parent and child. Getting to see the hard work pay off is something many kids don't appreciate these days because they don't put the work into it! Coincidentally, we are learning this with piano and swimming as well. Practicing a little every day makes a huge difference, and makes a child confident that he or she is able to do well. Anyway, here is Anna in her first game:

Stack and Stick Building Toys

I've mentioned Stack and Stick Wooden Building Toys (shameless plug) here before, but this is something new. My sister was visiting us in April, and had some fun with the kids. She took a couple of sets (and some extra bases) and built a dollhouse with them. Of course they had to fill it up with furniture! This is a great option for families who don't have a lot of room for various building toys AND a dollhouse. Your daughter can build her own! And your son can build all kinds of forts and places to hide for whatever action figure he's into. Here is a picture of the dollhouse:

Purging and Downsizing

One of the reasons I've been "too busy to blog" is that we moved. After my divorce earlier this year, my kids and I were still in the five bedroom, 2.5 bath home that was just sucking the life out of me! It was too big, too much money, and SUPER inefficient. We were literally using only a few rooms of the whole house, but paying to heat the whole thing! After our $458 gas bill, I quickly turned down the thermostat and we froze the rest of the winter. We used portable electric heaters to warm up the room we were in, but as soon as you walked out it was cold!

I knew I needed a smaller place, and the stress of the money, the wasted resources, and just the STUFF everywhere drove me crazy. We were able to move into a two bedroom- yes a TWO bedroom- duplex at the beginning of May, and we have slowly moved necessities over. Anything that we haven't needed will GO. We've already donated a lot, and sold some at a children's consignment sale. But there is LOTS left. It is so true that no matter the size of your house, if you have room for it, you will buy it and fill up the house.

We are not living a traditional life, but it is working. My kids and I all share a bedroom. The bedroom is also our living room. It houses the one TV we have. The living room is the play/activity room where the kids' toys, books, and tumbling area are. The second bedroom is our computer room which houses my office and a desk which holds their computers. This will also be my daughter's art space once we get the shelves up and her art stuff over here. The kids have really pared down their toys and it's not been difficult deciding which are important and which they can do without. Since their dad is moving back into the house, they still have access to them, but I'm guessing a lot of them will go. As long as I don't have to look at them all over the place, I don't care! :o)

Moving and purging has been very liberating. I am so much more relaxed. When I cooked my first meal, it was so nice that everything was right there; I didn't have to walk across the room twenty times for this or for that. Since rent is MUCH lower, I'm not worried about money. I am able to plan for our future and put money away for my kids' college educations. I am also a better parent. When you are less stressed, you are naturally going to parent in a calmer manner and not "lose it" so much. I think the kids are less stressed, too.

It is sad that we as Americans feel the need for bigger, better, and more. It is sucking the life right out of each and every one of us. I was not actually this way, but was married to someone who was. And I went along for the ride. Truth be told, what we are doing now is preparing us, hopefully, for living on the road. Our goal is to get an RV and travel for part of the year. We are excited about that! And I'm glad we made this move because it has shown us that we CAN do without things and we MUCH prefer fun experiences to "things". Try it yourself, and find a better life for you and your family!