Weekend Kindness
Reaching Others Through Kindness

I read a really great article by Kathleen Deveny titled Your Child Was Out of Line  which highlighted the difference between cultures as far as what was expected from children:

[O]ur ideas about community parenting shift dramatically over time. In Colonial America, children expected to be disciplined by any adult. “Kids were not raised to internalize their own family’s particular values, they were expected to share the community’s values,” says Stephanie Coontz, a professor of history and family studies at Evergreen State College. That began to change in the 1830s as class distinctions grew sharper. “Often it wasn’t so much ‘our family has different rules’ as ‘our type has different rules’,” Coontz says.

(more…)

We’ve all done it– given a gift that we thought at the time was perfect only to find out that we were dead wrong.

The classical blunders are the husband giving the wife a toaster or some other appliance for the kitchen and ending up in the dog house.  In my family, we were assigning things to different siblings to get for other siblings and someone gave another one (I can’t really remember how it started) a decorative bottle filled with sand or jelly stuff.  That thing kept getting re-gifted every year!

What kinds of things have you gifted (or re-gifted!) that haven’t gone over that well and how did you overcome it?

Hurray! It’s December, and Christmas is coming! Are you crossing off items on your shopping list, getting cards in the mail, and baking holiday goodies?

I’m not. Yet. I still have almost two weeks, right? Anyway, I think this year will find our family celebrating simply, which is fine with this mommy. Last year we had all the fuss and tinsel, and found it’s not all its shined up to be.

I personally can get carried away planning things. Too many lists. The Shopping List (and all its versions). The Christmas Card List. The Holiday Baking List. The Christmas Breakfast/Dinner/Supper List. The Christmas Party List, which includes games, crafts, and grocery supplies. Add two children involved in two Christmas Programs apiece, and myself helping with a third one…well, I’ll not bore you with the associated itemizations these involve!

The worst of it is, I get so busy I don’t have energy or the *desire* to focus time for the real reason behind Christmas. The celebration of Jesus Christ’s birth, God’s special gift to us, His people.

So here are some ways I’m carving out extra time this year, as well as saving money and stress:

• Buying most of my gifts at the same store, ie: a book store, a kitchen store, or online (how about magazine subscriptions for those nieces and nephews?)
• Hubby and I are saving up for some exercise equipment, so we’re not exchanging gifts. We’ve decided on only two gifts apiece for our girls.
• I vetoed my own “homemade” Christmas gift ideas. I didn’t start early enough and don’t need the stress this close to Christmas. I may do peanut brittle, as it’s a favorite with the in-laws, but it’s pretty simple.
• No UPS packages to extended family. Cards and money–they can have a family movie night with it or put it towards their New Year’s Eve celebration.
• The girls and I are doing the bare minimum of school this month, keeping to the major subjects. As a result, we have more time for their Christmas “projects”. We’re also playing more games like Scrabble, Progressive Rummy, Candyland (Toddler’s favorite!), and Scattergories…
• Instead of making Gingerbread Houses, we’re talking about making a 12 Days of Christmas Lapbooking project from the Homeschool Share website. Check it out, it’s a free download, and the focus is on displaying the Christian symbolism behind the 12 Days song…

I’d love to hear your ideas on simplifying the glittery side of Christmas and magnifying the truth that Jesus really is the best gift of all!

The other way to ask this question is: How do you juggle blogging and family time?

For me, I tend to try to leverage (I know buzz-speak) the times that I’m still awake and the family is not.  So, I end up staying up late at night to write posts for all my blogs.

I did try mornings for a little while, but I found that I was much more likely to wake someone up when I got up in the morning than I was when I worked late into the night.

And, of course, how late I can work and how much I get done is a factor of when I get started.  The later I get started, the less I get done.

How about you?  Do you blog when the kids are around, or do you find odd hours as well?

So, here’s your chance…  What did you do this weekend that was kind?

My weekend has been a blur, but there are always many opportunities to be kind– especially in the store.

The other day there was someone looking for Mootserella cheese– I showed them where the Mozzarella cheese was.

Saturday I found something to buy for my sister, but it was missing something inside the box.  I brought it to the attention of one of the employees and they were thankful that I brought it to their attention before someone else took it home and was unhappy.

And then there was taking my kids to the dollar store so they could get some new pirate action figures…

How about you?