Happy New Year’s Eve Day! Whether you are getting ready for a special night on the town, or just planning on getting cozy at home (that’s what I’ll be doing!), you are probably thinking about making some New Year’s Resolutions. I have gathered together a few of my favorite articles to help you meet new goals in the upcoming year. Enjoy!
Simplifying Your Life
Living a simpler life is my big goal for 2009. I’m planning on getting started by printing out this article from Zen Habits and posting it above my desk: The Simple Living Manifesto: 72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life. If you want to get inspired and learn a bit more about the “voluntary simplicity” movement, check out the article titled “Back to Basics” in O Magazine this month, or read the full text online right here.
Eating Healthy, Organic Foods
I am a serious believer in the benefits (to your body, your family, and the world) of eating locally grown, organic, in-season foods. There’s really no better way to jump-start a healthy eating plan than by filling up on delicious seasonal produce, fresh herbs, locally raised dairy and meats, and sustainably harvested fish. Visit Local Harvest, a great online resource, to find Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs, Farmer’s Markets, and Family Farms in your neighborhood (US only).
Saving Money
If this isn’t a good time to take control of your finances, I don’t know what is! It seems to me that with the whole country (and the whole world to a certain extent) feeling down on its luck, this is a great time to band together and be really supportive of each other in our attempts to live more frugal lives. I highly recommend reading the article Tips for Living on One Income, by Australian blogger Rhonda Jean on her blog Down to Earth; she gives some great ideas that are certainly applicable even if you are living on two incomes. In addition, how about joining a book club where other Mamas are discussing financial issues? The first book in the Sound Mind, Sound Mom Book Club is Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez, and it will be discussed each Thursday in January (starting tomorrow!) over on the lovely home management blog SIMPLEmom.
Getting Fit
I had a rather hilarious conversation with my sister a few weeks ago about how we hate running. If you are anything like us, you must read this article: The Beginner’s Guide to Running from Zen Habits – it was almost enough to make me lace up those running shoes
And finally, just a bit of fun…
Why not spruce up your desktop with free wallpaper from Real Simple Magazine? Both images in this post are selections from the Real Simple Daily Thought Wallpapers; you can get your own here.
Here’s to wishing you and your family a healthy and joyful New Year!
Are you making any New Year’s Resolutions for 2009? What strategies are you planning to use to help you reach your goals?
Oh my goodness, I just had to share this video of an absolutely adorable little French girl telling her Mama the most fantastic story. I am constantly in awe of children’s imagination!
After writing about Round the World Family Travel (you can read the original post here), I knew I wanted to find a family who is traveling around the world right now. A family we could check in with regularly here at Global Mama, to get a little taste of their adventure as they are experiencing it. After sifting through many RTW Travel Blogs, I finally found one with just the right mix of adventurous spirit, great photography, writing skills, and a sense of humor. And the kids, Caroline and Conor, also produce their own videos and blog which you can find here. So, I’m handing it over to the James Family of The Wide Wide World to introduce themselves:
Dani, Craig, Caroline, and Conor have been on the road since July, and are currrently in Australia (they have already visited seven other countries!). If all goes as planned, they will continue their journey through July, 2009, which gives us plenty of time to follow their adventures!
In this final installment of the Jedi Mind Tricks series, we will look at what it means to use Natural and Logical Consequences. As a parent, you are most likely already using consequences of some sort – but are they working for you? If your consequences don’t seem to be making a difference in your child’s behavior, using Natural and Logical Consequences may be just what you need.
Arbitrary consequences move the child’s thoughts away from the problem and onto the “thing” that is being taken away.
Young children, especially, are often confused by arbitrary punishments such as “If you hit your brother, you can’t watch videos all week.” In this case, the child is probably no longer thinking about how he hurt his brother, but about how he is mad at Mom for taking away his videos. What we want to do is focus the child’s attention on the thing they did that we are upset about and offer a remedy. We can do this by using Natural and Logical Consequences.
“Natural” Consequences are the reasons behind most of the rules we impose on children: We want our kids to wear jackets outside so they don’t get cold; getting cold is the natural consequence of not wearing a jacket. If you simply allow your child to feel the cold on their body, they will likely be ready to come back in for that coat in a matter of moments. Sometimes it makes perfect sense to use the Natural Consequence as a teaching tool, but other times the Natural Consequence would be too dangerous (for instance: the Natural Consequence of running into a busy road is getting hit by a car). In that case, you need to move on to Logical Consequences.
“Logical” Consequences are directly related to the behavior of the child. In the example of a child running into the street while playing in the yard, the Logical Consequence would be that they are not allowed to play outside until they are ready to play safely. Logical Consequences make sense to children. Let’s take a look at a few examples of Logical Consequences:
Kirsten refuses to brush her teeth ⇒ Kirsten can’t have any sweets
Tom dumps his toys on the ground and won’t clean up ⇒ Tom can’t play with any other toys until he helps Mom pick up the ones on the floor
Tia refuses to wash her hands after using the bathroom ⇒ Tia can’t play with her toys until she washes her hands (so she doesn’t spread germs)
Jason hit his little brother ⇒ Jason must sit with his little brother and rub his back until he feels better
Grace dumps a potted plant out all over the carpet ⇒ Grace needs to help Mama scoop up the dirt and repot the plant
Kelly is constantly poking/kicking the dog ⇒ Kelly is not allowed to play with the dog on her own until she can play safely
In my experience, children are much more likely to respond positively (i.e. not do it again!) when using Logical Consequences. Have you tried this? What do you think?
You can read the first two parts of this series here:
A while back (you can read the post here), I wrote about how the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), due to take effect in February, 2009, could be a serious threat to natural, handmade children’s toy makers. Well, we have gotten a bit of happy news: some members of the Consumer Products Safety Comission (CPSC) released a memo recently (read more in this Boston Globe article) encouraging the CPSC to allow exemptions for natural materials such as unfinished wood, organic cotton, silk, wool, linen, and beeswax.
The CPSC has asked for public comment on the matter through January 30, 2009, after which they will vote on any changes. So now is your chance to make your voice heard! If you would like to encourage the CPSC to use their brains and make some common-sense guidelines that will allow small business owners to make and sell healthy, natural toys and children’s products without requiring costly testing procedures, send an email to:
Sec102ComponentPartsTesting@cpsc.gov
and put this in the subject line:
“Section 102 Mandatory Third-Party Testing of Component Parts”
And just in case you need a reminder about why handmade stuff is awesome, just take it from this boy, Eli Dlugach, and his mom Sam, who were interviewed by Etsy at the LA Felt Club (video is only 16 seconds long!)
I have been away in California visiting family and friends, and I am excited to get back to work here at Global Mama. With all of the family obligations, travel plans, colds and flues, gift-buying, overeating, etc., I think we all tend to get a bit frazzled this time of year. Unfortunately, when we are feeling stressed/anxious/overtired it is often our kids who really suffer. And this year, many families are feeling more stress than ever: money is extra tight, people are losing jobs and even homes. So let’s just take a little time-out to have a look at what’s going on.
Everyone (even the most perfect-seeming parents and teachers) has strengths and weaknesses when it comes to children. When you are at the end of your rope, it is usually in your weak areas where you lose control first. You may not be able to control what is happening with your job or home right now, but you can choose to control how you are interacting with your children. If you find yourself frequently losing your temper with your children, one of the first things you can do is recognize your own strengths and weaknesses as a parent. Be totally honest. It won’t do you any good if you skirt around the issues that really get under your skin.
For instance, I get really frustrated when there is a lot of noise, when a baby is crying for no apparent reason, and when I see bullying behavior. Being aware of my weaknesses allows me to take a deep breath and choose to relax when I need to deal with these situations instead of taking out my frustration on the children.
When you are making your own list, here are a few questions to ask yourself:
Your Strengths
What do you really enjoy doing with your children?
What makes you laugh?
When do you find yourself staying calm in a tough situation?
Your Weaknesses
What really pisses you off?
What do you feel like you’re always getting angry about?
What makes you nervous or scared?
When your child does something that touches a nerve, instead of your first reaction being anger, you can think to yourself, “Okay, this is my own weakness. This is not about my child.”
If you are having trouble calming down, and feel that you would fly off the handle if you spoke to your child right then, it is perfectly okay to give yourself a time-out! Take yourself to a different room if possible, sit down, and breathe deeply for a minute. You can tell your child you are giving yourself a Time-Out, or just say that Mom/Dad needs to calm down. It is actually setting a great example to your child to let them see how we as adults are able to recognize and manage our own emotions.
Remember that overcoming your weaknesses takes time. Talk with your partner or other family members about each of your personal strengths and weaknesses. Read books or sign up for a parenting class to help teach yourself new methods of dealing with your biggest frustrations as a parent. But even if the only thing you do is become more aware of your weaknesses, this in itself can be a big help.
Good Morning! Just thought I would pass along a bit of inspiration. These photographs come from a collaboration between two women who live 3191 miles apart (one lives in Portland, Oregon, and the other lives in Portland, Maine) – they each took a photo at the same time in the morning for a year. This [...]
I don’t know if it’s the winter winds howling outside my window, or the stress of pulling everything together for the holidays, but whatever the reason, winter just feels like the perfect time to plan adventures, and something has entered my radar during my armchair travels that I just can’t stop thinking about: Family Round [...]
Ah, it’s Friday. I’ll be signing off for the weekend soon, but first I just wanted to share a link to this crazy-good recipe for carrot cake with maple-cream cheese frosting. Doesn’t that just sound delicious? And it has all those carrots in it, so you can practically call it health food The recipe comes [...]
This week I have gathered together a bounty of handmade cuteness for babies, little ones, and even a few treats for Mama (I couldn’t resist!), so grab a cup of coffee and enjoy… 1.Almost Sunday Designs makes so many beautiful things it really is worth checking out their whole shop. Here are a few of [...]
