OK, I'm a little ahead of the game here, but today we went to the library and I happened upon this really cute picture book called Mom, It's My First Day of Kindergarten!  by Hyewon Yum. It's all about a little boy starting school who is so excited and he is the one reassuring his mother who is pretty worried about her little boy going to the "big kids' school".  At the beginning, she is shown as this tiny little person, so worried about this big event and then when she picks up her son, she's drawn to regular mom-size.  I guess for some kids and moms, this is a role-reversal but when my children started school I don't remember doing much reassuring.  And I was the same way.  My dad loves to tell the story of how he went to wake me up on the first day of school and I was sitting there on the bed, already dressed, hair combed, ready to go.  I don't remember it myself but knowing me, I'm sure I was thrilled to finally be going to school.  ...

People tell me frequently that I am organized but I'm here to tell you that I am NOT a naturally organized person.  I enjoy being organized so that motivates me to do it, but it is something I have had to work at and get ideas from other people.  And I do like getting ideas.  I attend organizational classes whenever I get the chance. One of my very favorite ideas is one I heard about 15 years ago when my oldest child was about 8 or 9.  I had gotten a cassette tape from the library that talked about home organization.  This woman (and I forgot her name long ago) talked about the three things that had helped her get organized.  The first thing was a wall calendar.  The second thing was a file box.  And the third thing I can't remember!  But what I want to talk about is the file box.  I have used one ever since I heard this idea and I have loved it.  It may not be much to look at after 15 ...

  I recently read Parenting the Strong-Willed Child by Kevin Hinckley.  He is LDS and writes from that perspective.  Now let me clarify that I don't think I have a really strong-willed child, at least by the definition given in the book.  I have a few that love to push my husband and me...but doesn't every child do that at some point(s) in their lives?  While I found the book interesting, the title of the book isn't necessarily accurate.  It's more like a book about parenting in general with a few chapters on the challenges of parenting a strong-willed child. I won't try to summarize but here are some things I found interesting. Mr. Hinckley suggests that we need to stop worrying about building up our children's self-esteem and instead focus on building divine esteem.  Our children need to be thinking about what God wants for them.  He suggests that our children shouldn't learn necessarily to be submissive to u...

  In my quest to read all the books on how to be a good parent, I read Rearing Responsible Children by David J. Cherrington.  I happened to meet the author back in high school because he was a chaperone on a band tour I went on (his son was about my age and in band) and I talked to him a few times and found him to be a good listener and a nice guy.  But besides all that, I found this book to be a hidden gem.  The cover could use some work but I found a lot of good writing and good information in this book and it's too bad it hasn't been more widely read. This second edition was published by BYU in 1998  and it's obvious that a business professor wrote the book.  He uses a little business jargon and cites studies--but I love to read assertions backed up by data. Maybe I liked this book because it agrees with so many of my own ideas about parenting. I won't try to summarize it because I really can't do it justice,...

We planted our garden a few months ago, using Walls 'o Water to protect the tender plants in our volatile climate and covering the green beans and corn with netting to protect the new plants from the quail.  Not to mention, the fertilizing, watering, etc.  This week all the effort paid off!  A few days ago, we picked a very small crop of green beans and got exactly five beans each but they were really yummy!  Tonight I picked the first tomato, pepper, basil, and onion and made a salad with them.  It was so delicious.  I could have eaten the whole plate by myself but I had to share with my family. Here's the recipe: Assemble in the following order on a large plate: 5-7 thin small slices of fresh mozzarella cheese (from an 8 oz. ball) 1 large tomato, thinly sliced 8-10 basil leaves, chopped 1 small green pepper, sliced in thin rings 1 small green onion, chopped 1 Tbsp. each (or maybe a little less) of olive oil and balsamic...

Our family recently took a marathon road trip.  We were gone 3 weeks and we drove 6000 miles.  We were in 20 states plus the District of Columbia and saw so many different sites.  I want to focus this post on the LDS church history sites we saw at the beginning of our trip up to Nauvoo and Carthage. The LDS Church has devoted a lot of resources to building and maintaining historical sites important to their history.  I think they do it not only because these sites are somewhat sacred to us as a church but also as a missionary tool to introduce people to our beliefs. Our first stop was Liberty Jail in Liberty, MO.  Joseph Smith was imprisoned here for several months and received several important revelations here.  I have been here several times and always like going.  It's a sacred place. They took the remains of the jail and built a visitor's center around it.  I can't remember what percent of it is originial.  Down below t...

Recently I read Between Parent and Child by Dr. Haim G. Ginott, revised and updated by Dr. Alice Ginott and Dr. H. Wallace Goddard.  We were on a recent marathon road trip (6000 miles!) and I read the first half of the book out loud to my husband as he drove us home.  I enjoyed discussing the ideas in the book with him and ways we can improve as parents, even if we didn't always agree with the book.  I liked the first part of the book fairly well.  The basic premise is that parents need to treat children respectfully, especially in the way they talk with them. The conclusion they draw is that when you have established that good foundation of mutual respect with your child that the child will become the responsible and caring individual you want them to be.  I may never feel comfortable talking to my children the way they recommend (basically tell them the same thing they just said to you without a lot of questions) ...