Hello Friends!  Welcome to today!

I just HAD to share these beautiful flowers with you!  I absolutely LOVE flowers!  Look at that marvelous, saturated, velvety, color!  Heavenly.

Jack, Joseph, and I were at Salem College today.  Jack takes piano lessons there and while he’s doing that, Joseph and I do homework.  And when that’s done, we walk around on nice days, climbing trees and looking at the beautiful flowers that are offering up their full glory free for our eyes to see and our hearts to enjoy this time of year.

Here’s Joseph in said tree…nice outfit son-shine!

And here are some breathtaking azaleas – just look at that orange!!  What a color combo!  So. Very. Gorgeous!

Oh and by the way…do any of you know what the bluish/purple flowers are?  They hang down and have a beautiful, unique type of star shape to them and they have a nice fragrance too.  I’m going to have to look them up…

Or maybe I should wait because you know what they are…

I’ll wait to see if you do and if not, I’ll look them up and let you know!  How’s that???

And so…Joseph and I had some excellent, springy, “Mommy and Me” time enjoying the trees, the flowers, the weather and each other for a little bit today.

Here’s Joseph…

And here’s a selfie of us together with Joseph showing off his new lost tooth!  Two gone on top now!  My baby’s growing up…

And that’s all today – it sure was beautiful complete with sunshine, brilliant spring colors, and each other…and we were so thankful to be able to meander around together for a few stollen moments – our very own little “Spring Fling” if you will.

Hope you’ve gotten or are able to squeeze a spring fling in for yourself – in spite of any obnoxious allergies that we all seem to have during the blooming season!  Sniff sniff…allergies – BE GONE!

And you, be well my friend – happy spring!

 

Many of you know I’m completely smitten with boys.  Mine especially :o).   I love girls too – I just don’t have any…

…except Dixie – but that’s a different story…

So in a never ending quest to find the best ways to grow, motivate, teach, and shape my boys into the amazing men I know they’ll be in the future, I, like you, am always on the lookout for great ideas to help me…

And I found one today.

If your little boys are like mine – ACTIVE, ACTIVE, CRAZY ACTIVE – they resist (and flat out resent) dull, repetitive, boring, homework – like practicing math facts, spelling words and the like – especially after sitting for nearly seven hours under school duress.

Frankly for my squirmy, basketball playing, tree climbing, pogo stick jumping, bathroom noise making, Lego building, wrestling, ants in your pants type of boys – any homework of this type can just be a total grind!  Especially as we move into spring…

So we’ve tried racing challenges, contests, verbal quizzing en route to school to use up our car ride time, and frankly we’re running low on interest…

So if your boys (kids) are feeling like mine, I found a great tool that helped change it up a bit in our house that I thought could work for you too – at least til April or so… :o) :o) :o).

And here it is…

Thanks to my FB friends, I was made aware of a great resource for parents with boys called BuildingBoys.net.  On this blog by Jennifer Fink, I found a plethora of great ideas and discussions on, well…boys.

THANK YOU JENNIFER!

One of these ideas was NERF GUN MATH FACTS and man has it been a HIT (get it?) in our house!

I just used a write on/wipe off board, wrote various math facts on it, along with four answer choices.  The boys stood with their loaded NERF guns in hand behind a line.  I read out the math facts one at a time along with the answer choices and then my 1st grader enthusiastically scc–reamed out the answer and shot at the target!

Voila!

Fun Boy (kid) Math Fact Practice.  And, I’m sure there are other great ways to execute this (SPELLING WORDS come to mind)…

…and maybe for girls they’d like to dress up as their favorite princess and HIT it with a magic wand spell or something???  Honestly when I comes to girls I have no idea (sigh), but maybe it’s worth a try….

Anyway, we “practiced” in a variety of ways…slowly, quickly, in order, mixed up, and we made new number sentences, and the best thing is – they ASKED when we can do it again.  Ah Ha!

Did I say THANK YOU JENNIFER!

So let me know what you think!  Do you like this idea?  Would you do it any differently?  Any other great ideas for helping our kids with their homework pressures as we move closer and closer to the coveted summer break??

And as always…thanks for visiting Laura’s Choice!

Come back soon!  Come back often!  Come back, come back……come back!

Smooch!

 

…So it’s Monday. The alarm goes off at 5:30. Not my favorite thing as I much prefer getting up around 7:30. You? Well…one morning down, four to go…

I never did mind the little things.

Time to make three breakfasts, three lunches (umm…the smell of turkey at the crack of dawn), and clean up. Gulp down a cup of cold coffee, check weather, get myself ready, check email, get the kids ready, get everyone out into the Minivan (on time) with all they need for school. Oh and add to that my oldest’s procrastination issues – “I don’t CARE if we only have five more minutes!” and my youngest pinpoint focus on making his bed just perfectly (yes! he’s like that), never mind he’s still in his underwear and needs to brush his teeth...we don’t hold school on your ‘bottom’ bunk kiddo!!

And then there’s that fifteen minute drive in traffic to the car line (and back), practicing our Math Facts (some) until we arrive at the school ‘house’…

I never did mind the little things.

Then it’s to laundry leftovers and another load for today – because a day without laundry is like a day without sunshine – not! The fish tank needs cleaning again as we have EIGHT (yes 8! WAA-haaay too many) huge goldfish in a ten gallon tank. The cat and dog need a trip to the vet. Time for a termite inspection. Gotta get to Costo cause we’re out of milk, cereal, bread, chicken and gas for the week. Did I mention I’d love a shower?

I never did mind the little things.

Some lady cut me off at the intersection and some guy took my WAY. CLOSE. PARKING SPOT. Well go ahead. Maybe you need it today more than I…

Sheets need washing, beds need making, dinner menu needs planning (oh no! Grocery Shopping!), blog needs blogging – and there’s the ebook I’m desperately trying to get together – but husband needs listening, teachers need meeting, library’s calling…books overdue. Again.

I never did mind the little things.

I’m late. The dog needs a walk. There is a piano lesson this afternoon. A dentist appointment and oh yea – the dry-cleaning!! I scalded my hand – OUCH! I missed the mailman. Joseph is into another tantrum. Homework needs doing. “Mom when can Ethan come over???!” Late fees. Oil changes. Family drama. It’s raining.

I never did mind the little things. This is my Mantra.

My go to phrase that I use each day when things overwhelm me. Whatever ‘things’ they are – it doesn’t matter. They overwhelm. They depress. They demoralize. They work to squash me into a cranky, cynical, frowning, anxiety laden, wrinkled, monster of a mom, wife, friend…and I’m determined they WILL NOT WIN.

I’ve got my mantra and it helps me keep them at bay.

That and a lot of prayer friends – a lot!

I got the phrase years ago from a movie with Bridget Fonda called Point of No Return. Have you seen it? It’s an old one. Back when I used to go to movies…sigh.

Anyway…Bridget’s character is desperately trying to maintain composure and not get killed by another assassin so she repeats a little phrase she learned “I never did mind the little things” as a pretty gruesome act takes place right before her, which buys her time and helps save her life.

Now, I’ve never been remotely close to anything like that (and I sure hope you haven’t either!), so I figure if it’s good enough for Bridget, it’s good enough for me.

And you know what? It works! I even taught it to my kids to say to themselves if they’re fighting, or someone at school is mean, or a game or toy is lost, or it’s just turning into a rough, time out sort of day.

I never did mind the little things.

Because we’re all blessed with so many other things, that come from even just living on this beautiful planet, that really deserve our focus. You know your list. And when I focus on the negative, annoying stuff, I MISS ALL THE GREAT, BEAUTIFUL, AMAZING, WONDERFUL stuff that surrounds us each and every day.

…like the bluebird that flew past my car window this morning who looked magnificently self-illuminated in spite of the dreary, gray, cold morning sky. Really. He was just beautiful!

I’ve found I get what I look for in this life. If I focus on the good that’s mostly what I find. But when I let the ‘turkeys’ get me down (so to speak), I miss stuff I wish I hadn’t and who wants that??? Not me. Laura’s Choice? Live Happy! And I mean it.

What sorts of things do you do to keep that beautiful chin of yours up? Please share!

And thanks for stopping by! Luv ya! I really do.

 

 

It’s Christmas Eve.  And what an Advent season it’s been!  The hustle and bustle seems to me to get more hustle-ie and bustle-ie each and every year!

This Advent, we’ve been on a magical journey to the North Pole on the Polar Express (it happened to visit Bryson City, NC this year – what luck!), were the family lighter of Advent Candles on the Advent Wreath at our Home Moravian Church, in Old Salem, celebrated Joseph’s 7th, our nephew/cousin’s Jakob’s 1st, and my dad’s XX birthdays, attended the Nutcracker, the Davie Dermatology Christmas Party, and went out to dinner with family friends, all sprinkled around a couple last minute third grade school projects and shopping!  Phew!

 

Now, all the presents are wrapped and some are under the tree (Santa will be bringing the rest come morning I’m sure).  The breakfast casserole, coffee, Christmas Kringle, and Cranberry Bread are ‘holding’ in the fridge for tomorrow morning’s festivities and we’re getting ready to head out for our traditional Moravian Christmas LoveFeast service in Old Salem at Home Church.

Whatever you find doing on this 2014 Christmas Eve, know you are wished the merriest, brightest, most blessed Christmastide, for the 12 days of Christmas are just about to begin!

We wish you a Merry Christmas and much love always,

Laura (and the fam)!

Can you guess what one of my favorite times of the day is?

BEDTIME!!

And I’m guessing here that it just may be one of your favorite times too…because like me, you probably just crammed so many dang things into your already jam packed, race around, “not another RED LIGHT/PHONE CALL/BILL TO PAY“ day, that once that sun sets, and the last smidgen of your strength is gobbled up by the ever remaining dinner dishes, last minute emails, letting out the dog, and making the coffee for the next morning (because I am a BEAR if my AM coffee is not immediately available at my 5:30 wake up call), your bed, like mine, is looking pretty darn nice!

But I’m getting ahead of myself, because there is another part of the evening that I simply adore – tucking my boys into bed.  And not because of the quiet that finally settles into our otherwise rambunctious home (although that is nice too)…

Rather, it’s the calm, warm, one on one snuggle time I take with each of my boys (almost every evening) to read a story, talk about the events of the day, say prayers, and kiss/hug them goodnight.  I never tire of hearing their sleepy ‘I love you Mommys.’  And I love that all of us count on that special time with each other every day.

Sometimes we practice reading.  Sometimes we talk about a dramatic elementary school issue that caused them pain or joy during the day, or share dreams for the future, or make plans for the weekend.  Sometimes I read classic children’s books or Bible stories out loud to them while they cozy on up to me along with their various blankets and stuffed animal friends.  Sometimes we just giggle and act silly.   And then we click off the light and say prayers to thank God for our blessings.  And then I sing.

I’ve been singing to my boys almost every night since they were born.  Comes from having musicians for parents no doubt.  My mother sang to me all the time growing up – and you can still catch her humming or singing a tune at all sorts of random times during the day.  My mother’s voice is one of the most meaningful things to me and even though I don’t have the professional, soprano, vocal technique she did, I can carry a tune.

And you know what?  Even if I couldn’t, I’d still sing.  Because I really believe your voice is one of the things children always remember about us – even after we’re gone…(but goodness lets NOT go there)!

I’ve got a whole repertoire of songs from nursery rhymes, to lullabies, to seasonal favorites and hymns.  But my kids seem to especially like the same two songs and like Pavlov’s dogs, once they hear them, their sleepy little eyes droop shut most nights and off to Neverland they go.

Do I, after 8 years of singing almost every night, get sick of singing?  Sick of the same songs?  Yes.  Yes I do.  But I try and remember they’re not for as much for me, as for them.  The familiar songs finish off my growing boys day in a secure, happy, cozy way that lulls them into dreams and refreshes them for another day of go go go boy stuff.

And I’ve found it relaxes me too!

And many days, when the going gets tough, I think about our bedtime ritual, and suddenly I can see the light at the end of day’s long tunnel.  And I smile, because we Mom’s (and Dads :o))! all know this time won’t last forever, but I bet the memory of this time will…

For all of us.

Thanks for spending a little of your time with me today – I hope you come back soon!

Sweet dreams!