The book The Secrets of Happy Families has gotten me all fired up about being intentional with our family this year. I'm sure you've heard about the benefits before, but author Bruce Feiler talks about family dinner as "the single biggest predictor of better academic achievement and fewer behavior …
8 Ways to Foster Siblings Who PLAY Together
Alternate title: How to Encourage Sibling Bonding :) I mean it when I say I can't think of anything I have enjoyed more about motherhood than watching our children's relationships unfold. Eighteen months apart, our boys have never really known being without each other. When someone asks the …
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Age-Appropriate Chores + Our System
January is a great time to reevaluate what chores your kids are doing—or to get started if you haven't! A couple years ago, I had no idea where to start. So today I'm sharing the simple system that's working at our house. Daily Jobs A few months before Trenton's fourth birthday, I started talking …
Holiday Tradition: Old Family Polaroids
Yesterday I touched on how losing my grandmother a couple of years ago has made me think hard about how I can pass on her legacy to my children. I will remember her forever, but I want my children to know of her too. The thing is, I'm not great at weaving story into our daily lives. Our days are …
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Recreational Companionship
When we first got married, we read a book about the five needs of a man and a woman. I don't have the book to refer to now, but over the last seven years, Ryan and I have made a lot of jokes about three of the male needs—an attractive spouse, sexual fulfillment, and recreational companionship. …
12 Quotes for Your Chalkboard
Chalkboards are still going strong in their popularity—and for good reason! They are the perfect marriage of beautiful and inspirational. I love ours because I am passionate about filling our walls with meaning. And the English nerd inside of me desperately needs a place to display the quotes I …
