Homemaking With Intention

Competition. With 5 kids in a small house, it is  everywhere . Who can get to the phone first when it rings ...Who can grab the seat first at the dinner table ... Who gets to the chicken coop first to collect the eggs...Who gets to be first to ride the horse ... I can jump higher on the trampoline. I can climb higher on the rock wall. Race you down the hill. Race you up to the top of the tree. Competition. It's not always a bad thing. But, I have noticed in my parenting it is not a good thing. Lately, I have tried to be intentional about teaching from a story point of view instead of a "see what this kid did, don't do that" point of view.  I want to encourage and equip my kids as I train them up, not tear them down. Using one kids mistake as a benchmark for the others neither encourages or equips any of them, it only divides. A few weeks ago my twins brought home each a baggie with 3 beans in it from school.  There was a wet paper towel in each and we...

               "Listen and Obey." It's a phrase I started to say to my kids when the eldest was just a wee thing.  I would tell her to do something and you could see the wheels in her little 2 year old head turning, "Should I do this? What will happen if I don't?" Ultimately that little girl has grown into a now medium sized girl who listens and obeys Mamas voice pretty constantly.  She has 4 younger siblings. Some of them take after her and others need a bit of......um.....'encouragement' in the listening and obeying department. But what about Mama? How well do I listen and obey? This was a question I have been thinking about for the better part of the day today. I have a handful of experiences where I did not listens to that voice and obey His words. And those experiences left me feeling sorry and brokenhearted. But, I have an immeasurable amount of experiences where I have walked away from a situation or a person thinking "I should ...