My 8 month old baby has been wonderful at night. At first she was getting up only twice at night and when I tried to reduce the nursing at night she nearly started sleeping through the night. It's the best time with her - she cries all day if she's not held. As a result, She cries A LOT. :)
So the last two weeks or so she has decided that she no longer wants to sleep so well. She's up 4-5 times a night and will not go back to sleep unless I nurse her. I could let her scream but she shares a room with the two year old who is difficult to get back to sleep.
We have discussed moving the two year old in the room with the two boys while we scream the sleeplessness out of her.........or putting the baby in bed with us which I am soooooooo against although she pretty much sleeps through the night this way. In the past with our babies, we have used what I call the "screaming method" and it has worked and I think would work in a hurry with this one but the sleeping arrangements are not so conducive to this any longer.
Suggestions? Words of wisdom or encouragement?
Tiffany
PS- LuAnn- how ya feeling?
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Puzzles
I discovered this week a true gift from Heavenly Father for parents: Puzzles! I can't count the hours the kids have spent this week on puzzles. They enjoy them so much I had to go and spend a small fortune on more. Bliss. Almost no movies this week. *sigh* It was wonderful.
Monday, March 29, 2010
What Makes It All Come Together
My new ward is a good mix of a lot of things. Thrown into that mix are quite a number of home schoolers. I know that not everyone out there thinks that home schooling is a great idea, but this is something that I am very interested in, so I have been visiting the home schooling moms in my ward and finding out why they do what they do and how they make home schooling work for them. This is not a post about home schooling, by the way. I learned something from one of these moms that I think is valuable for everyone, whether or not you choose to homeschool. I wanted to share. I'm not saying that this exact method will work for everyone or is what everyone needs to do, but there are some really valuable ideas in what she shared with me.
This mom that I visited had been homeschooling for a long time and felt like it was not working like she wanted it to. She said she tried many different methods, but nothing really worked until she learned to pray. Once she figured out how to really communicate with our Heavenly Father, everything started to work.
She keeps a prayer journal that she shared with me. She organizes it in a specific way and uses it while she prays. She said that if she were the Primary President, she would go to each presidency meeting with a specific agenda. So, when she prays, she has an agenda, which is written in her prayer journal. She does not write a new agenda every day. She keeps the same agenda for a few weeks and lets that agenda guide her prayers.
Agenda Item #1: After addressing Heavenly Father, she always bears her testimony. This acknowledges God ("hallowed be thy name") and invites the Spirit immediately into her prayer.
Agenda Item #2: She has a list of people outside of her immediate familywho need her prayers in her behalf. Some days she prays for each one individually. Some days she asks for a blessing for all the people on her list.
Agenda Item #3: Gratitude. She expresses gratitude to the Lord for the blessings he has given to her, including trials. Gratitude for trials helps her to see what she is learning and how the Lord is turning her weaknesses into strengths. She frequently records the things she is grateful for in her prayer journal so that she is able to see the "tender mercies" of the Lord as he answers her prayers. (There's a great article about gratitude in the March Ensign.)
Agenda Item #4: Self. She prays for the things that she most needs, attributes that she wants to develop, goals that she needs help accomplishing.
Agenda Item #5: Husband. She prays for the things that her husband most needs and for his success in reaching his goals and his potential.
Agenda Item #6- . . . : Children. She prays for each individual child and their specific needs, difficulties, goals, etc.
Final Agenda Item: Temporal Blessings. She prays for the things her family is in need of. She is very specific. If they are short of money but someone really needs new shoes, she prays for shoes. Specific needs that they cannot meet themselves are what she brings to the Lord.
This is a big list. This is time consuming. She does not do this twice each day. She generally does this in the morning and tries, throughout the day, to keep a prayer in her heart. In the evening she prays briefly to thank him for his blessings and tender mercies.
What this idea is, to me, is a way to help us counsel with the Lord in all our doings. And I know it works. I am still in the beginning stages of finding how this works for me and finding what I need to do to communicate effectively with the Lord. It is something I've struggled with my whole life. However, I decided to give this a try after talking with this woman. I was worried. There were two and a half weeks left in March and we had very little grocery money left. I prayed that I could plan a menu that would fit in the budget and find the necessary food at reasonable prices. I carefully planned a menu and went through the ads. I comparison shopped as much as I could and found the cheapest prices. Then I went shopping at Walmart because they match all the ads. I was blessed to spend way less than I ever do at the store and bought the food that we needed for two weeks. We are not eating gourmet, but we are eating healthy, tasty, inexpensive food, and my prayer was answered. I am excited to counsel with the Lord and receive his help as I try to help my children gain testimonies and my husband reach his potential.
This mom that I visited had been homeschooling for a long time and felt like it was not working like she wanted it to. She said she tried many different methods, but nothing really worked until she learned to pray. Once she figured out how to really communicate with our Heavenly Father, everything started to work.
She keeps a prayer journal that she shared with me. She organizes it in a specific way and uses it while she prays. She said that if she were the Primary President, she would go to each presidency meeting with a specific agenda. So, when she prays, she has an agenda, which is written in her prayer journal. She does not write a new agenda every day. She keeps the same agenda for a few weeks and lets that agenda guide her prayers.
Agenda Item #1: After addressing Heavenly Father, she always bears her testimony. This acknowledges God ("hallowed be thy name") and invites the Spirit immediately into her prayer.
Agenda Item #2: She has a list of people outside of her immediate familywho need her prayers in her behalf. Some days she prays for each one individually. Some days she asks for a blessing for all the people on her list.
Agenda Item #3: Gratitude. She expresses gratitude to the Lord for the blessings he has given to her, including trials. Gratitude for trials helps her to see what she is learning and how the Lord is turning her weaknesses into strengths. She frequently records the things she is grateful for in her prayer journal so that she is able to see the "tender mercies" of the Lord as he answers her prayers. (There's a great article about gratitude in the March Ensign.)
Agenda Item #4: Self. She prays for the things that she most needs, attributes that she wants to develop, goals that she needs help accomplishing.
Agenda Item #5: Husband. She prays for the things that her husband most needs and for his success in reaching his goals and his potential.
Agenda Item #6- . . . : Children. She prays for each individual child and their specific needs, difficulties, goals, etc.
Final Agenda Item: Temporal Blessings. She prays for the things her family is in need of. She is very specific. If they are short of money but someone really needs new shoes, she prays for shoes. Specific needs that they cannot meet themselves are what she brings to the Lord.
This is a big list. This is time consuming. She does not do this twice each day. She generally does this in the morning and tries, throughout the day, to keep a prayer in her heart. In the evening she prays briefly to thank him for his blessings and tender mercies.
What this idea is, to me, is a way to help us counsel with the Lord in all our doings. And I know it works. I am still in the beginning stages of finding how this works for me and finding what I need to do to communicate effectively with the Lord. It is something I've struggled with my whole life. However, I decided to give this a try after talking with this woman. I was worried. There were two and a half weeks left in March and we had very little grocery money left. I prayed that I could plan a menu that would fit in the budget and find the necessary food at reasonable prices. I carefully planned a menu and went through the ads. I comparison shopped as much as I could and found the cheapest prices. Then I went shopping at Walmart because they match all the ads. I was blessed to spend way less than I ever do at the store and bought the food that we needed for two weeks. We are not eating gourmet, but we are eating healthy, tasty, inexpensive food, and my prayer was answered. I am excited to counsel with the Lord and receive his help as I try to help my children gain testimonies and my husband reach his potential.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Any good ideas out there on how to help little kids improve on their prayers. If you think about it there are a lot of prayers said during the day from morning prayers to meal time prayers to family prayers and night prayers so at times i think that they are just going through the motions. I have noticed that the kids have a very hard time thinking of new things to say each time. With a some exceptions I can probably tell you exactly what they will say.
I have tried to hold up six or seven fingers during a prayer and when they say something new I put a finger down. I got thinking about this and this makes them not close their eyes and bow their heads. I am also kept from doing so as well. So I guess what I am asking is how do you help kids say meaningful prayers that don't contain the same five repetitive things and also ways to encourage them to kneel reverently each time? Any ideas? By the way this is Bryan posting this time.
I have tried to hold up six or seven fingers during a prayer and when they say something new I put a finger down. I got thinking about this and this makes them not close their eyes and bow their heads. I am also kept from doing so as well. So I guess what I am asking is how do you help kids say meaningful prayers that don't contain the same five repetitive things and also ways to encourage them to kneel reverently each time? Any ideas? By the way this is Bryan posting this time.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Overprotective Overreactor?
Commenting on my last post, Signe asked about maintaining family standards when other family members don't share those same standards. Great question. I haven't run into that problem too much yet, but I was wondering how do I make sure my kids maintain our standards when they go to other people's houses. We are new to Cedar and I don't know the parents of the kids who are inviting my kids over to play. How do I say, "I don't want my kids to watch movies or TV or play any kind of video or computer game at your house" without being rude? I know some kids watch movies and play games I would never want my kids to participate in, especially with how young they are. I want to be in control of those choices for a few more years. Is just telling them that if their friends want to watch TV or a movie or play a computer/video game they need to call me first enough? Is a 5 year old going to remember to do that? I want them to have friends, but I want some control there. HELP!
Toy Monster
So, in our home we have a "Toy Monster." This is the bin I put toys in that I have to pick up or the children don't put away and/or take care of.... I now have TWO BIG bins that are overflowing.
I have tried to make them earn the toys back by paying me money out of their piggy bank or doing a chore. It is not working. They still aren't learning that they need to pick up their toys when they are not playing with them (am I expecting too much?) or the value of money and their toys etc. The chore thing, I'm afraid by doing this they're going to associate chores badly. What think ya'll? Do you have any ideas or things you do that might work better for our family?
I don't think they have too many toys. It just seems they don't care. I've debated giving the toys that I collect away and I've discussed this option with the boys but I'm not ready to go that drastic yet.
I have tried to make them earn the toys back by paying me money out of their piggy bank or doing a chore. It is not working. They still aren't learning that they need to pick up their toys when they are not playing with them (am I expecting too much?) or the value of money and their toys etc. The chore thing, I'm afraid by doing this they're going to associate chores badly. What think ya'll? Do you have any ideas or things you do that might work better for our family?
I don't think they have too many toys. It just seems they don't care. I've debated giving the toys that I collect away and I've discussed this option with the boys but I'm not ready to go that drastic yet.
eat your veggies!!!
When I start making dinner at night I put out a bowl of grapes, carrots, celery, etc. As the kids (and the hubsters) come in to check on dinner and see "how long tell it's ready???" they always get up to the counter and eat a bit of what I have out. By the time dinner is ready the bowl is ALWAYS empty, and it hasn't seemed to affect their appetites at all.
Its a great way to get a little extra into their diet!
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