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In some ways, it's hard to believe that I haven't written a blog post since October of 2021. In other ways, it just makes sense. Last October, when I wrote that blog post, we were just finishing up the first quarter of this last school year. From that point on, it felt like we were meeting ourselves coming and going. This school year, we had a child in high school, one in junior high, and one in elementary. This made for some interesting schedules and lots of nights where Mr. Farmhouse and I split up to attend the girls' activities, often accepting help from the grandparents and aunts & uncles to get the third daughter where she needed to go. I know this is something that parents have accomplished for many, many years...but for us, it was the first time that we were really pulled in three different directions, on top of career and farming duties. If we're being honest -- our home suffered because of this. I don't think we were ever caught up on laundry or dishes and our mud room became a dumping ground for our belongings as we ran in to change clothes quickly and head out to the next event. As Gretchen Rubin states in her book, Outer Order, Inner Calm, "it's easier to keep up than to catch up..." And we are to the point where we desperately need to catch up. However, we WILL NOT spend the whole summer "catching up". We have three more summers left with our oldest daughter Harlee here at home, so we are going to work hard to create beautiful family memories in the midst of taking back our house. Already this summer, we've visited the Kansas City Zoo, toured the Hallmark Visitors' Center & Kaleidoscope, attended a Royals game, and we've taken a mini-vacation to Phillipsburg, Missouri (more on THAT trip later...). We've also already filled a 6-yard dumpster and gathered up over 20 tubs of belongings to sell or donate. We have gotten almost caught up on laundry and have marked off a few tasks off of our "list of things we have procrastinated on throughout the school year".
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Over the last few weeks, I've been sharing some lessons from the farmhouse. Two weeks ago, I talked about some "home" lessons we have learned. Then last week, I discussed lessons about marriage. Today, I'm going to finish out this series by sharing five lessons that I've learned about parenting over the last fourteen years. Disclaimer: Just like I shared a few weeks ago and last week, I am not the perfect housekeeper or the perfect wife. And I am DEFINITELY not the perfect parent. With that said, we have been parenting for the last fourteen years. We've taken advice from parents whom we love and trust and we've learned through trial and error. So here are some parenting tips that will hopefully be helpful to somebody. 1. Be consistent. Do what you say you are going to do. If you offer a consequence for a certain behavior, follow through with that consequence. And on that note, set realistic consequences from the get-go. When you ask your child to complete a task, with some sort of consequence attached -- make it realistic. There is nothing worse than when you are in the heat of the moment and you threaten some difficult-to-maintain consequence if a child does not comply with the expected behavior. Example: "If you don't turn the television off, you're going to be grounded for a month." If the child doesn't turn the television off, the parents are left with one of two choices.
Sure, in the first choice, the child knows you mean business and will likely comply with your directives for a while. However, a month of grounding is pretty substantial for not following one simple direction. And in the second choice, your child is learning that your words don't really mean much when it comes to consequence for behavior. In the above example, I would suggest something like "no television for three days". This is a manageable consequence that truly fits the behavior. After the three days is over, the child will likely understand that when you ask him or her to turn it off -- you mean business. So -- Be consistent. Set boundaries. Follow through. 2. Teach responsibility. Our girls help us to manage our home. Our oldest daughter is responsible for one load of laundry a day. She washes, dries, and folds it and then delivers the clothes to the bedrooms where they belong. Our second daughter is responsible for dishes. She unloads the dishwasher each morning and after we fill it through the day, she washes it at night. She hand-washes any dishes that are left after supper, also. Our youngest daughter is responsible for gathering laundry from the hampers in the house and taking it to the laundry room each day. She also gathers up shoes that have been left out and puts them on the mud room shelves. They also have daily chores to help the family out on the farm -- feeding chickens, gathering eggs, taking scraps to the hogs, and whatever else needs to be done. Sidenote:
3. Lead by example. This is a tough one. You know that old saying, "Do as I say, not as I do"? Yeah. That doesn't work. Your babies will pick up on your ACTIONS, not only your words. If you want your children to have a relationship with Jesus -- model a relationship with Jesus. If you want your children to grow up and have a healthy marriage -- model a healthy marriage. If you want them to speak kindly to their friends -- speak kindly to them and to YOUR friends. If you want them to be hard workers -- work hard. If you want them to admit when they are wrong -- admit when you are wrong (this one is NOT easy!). We could go through hundreds of examples of this. Lead by example. 4. Be patient & offer grace. I will be the first to admit that we have ridiculously high standards. I have had to find a balance between having high expectations and offering grace to our girls. We all mess up. We all fall short. NONE of us are perfect. Our kids are learning and exploring and testing boundaries. Their brains are not fully-developed yet and they will make poor decisions sometimes. We must learn to guide them through these decisions, with grace & mercy. We must be patient with them as they learn to navigate this life. 5. Be present. Put the phone away. Sit down together at the dinner table. Play in the snow. Pray together. Work on household projects together. Do craft activities. Do a Bible study together. Watch movies. Enjoy the time you have with them because it goes so very quickly. Be present. I hope these tips are helpful for you. What would you add?
Enjoying a day with our girls here at the farmhouse, Hannah ❤️🏡❤️ Four whole months. That's how long it's been since I posted over here on the blog. It's like spring break got over and all the sudden, we were flying 80-mph in a 55-mph speed limit zone to the end of the school year. Today is my first official day of summer break. Sure, I'll be back at work once a week or so to tie up some loose ends and to do some preparation for next school year, but officially, I can stay home if I want to. I'm reading a book called The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. It's all about doing little things each day to contribute to happiness. Inspired by Rubin's book, I've decided to embark on my own "Mini Happiness Project". I'll chronicle my plan and progress here to share, starting today. So let's just jump right in. Rubin's happiness project was a 12-month endeavor. I'd like to start TODAY and have my first little leg of my happiness project go through September 30th. I'll do some of the prep-work right now in June to allow me to be prepared to do a 3-month focus with my Farmhouse654 friends from July through September. My Daily Focuses for the Rest of June will be:
Some of you might have read my post about zone work this week and thought to yourself, "What? She only dusts once every eight weeks?"
The short answer is "Yep, true story!" But the long answer is that each week, I try really hard to do a weekly home blessing. Since we have been picking up (almost) every evening for 15 minutes, the floor and flat surfaces are staying fairly clear (except for the dining room table today...don't look at that until we have time to clear it off tonight!!!). I read (in the FlyLady's book) about the concept of a Weekly Home Blessing...taking about an hour a week and doing a "clean sweep" through the main rooms of the house. During the Weekly Home Blessing, you set your timer for 10 minutes and complete one task in each section.
The whole point of the Weekly Home Blessing is not perfection...it's just keeping a basic handle on some of the things we tend to put off. Plan to find an hour between now and next week to do a Weekly Home Blessing...you won't regret it! Blessing the Farmhouse ten minutes at a time, Hannah ❤️🏡❤️ |
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