Someone sent me this link to a quick and simple video about loving the ordinary moments with your child:

imom.com video

It is often in these small moments that I find the most compelling and meaningful connections with my kids…tucking them in at bedtime, laughing with them about something silly, etc. Simple, joyful moments.

One of our basic human needs is connection with others. We were created to desire connections.

During this season of illness that has spread across the country, many people are choosing to stay home and away from others when they have cold and flu symptoms. When you are home alone for days on end with an illness, besides feeling sick, you might also miss connecting with others.

Some ways to “stay connected” without putting others at risk of getting whatever cold or flu you may have are to:

• Call family and friends on the phone
• Email friends and family
• Make cards to give others in the future (once the cards are germ-free!)
• Brainstorm ideas for holiday gifts that you’ll make or give others when you’re feeling better
• Read a book about a great family, such as Little Women, or any Jane Austen novel
• Go online
• Pray and connect with God
• Pray for others

What other ideas do you have?

Today when I looked at our back door, I counted 17 ladybugs crawling on it. I looked at all of the windows on the back of our house, and there were ladybugs on all of them. They were everywhere!

They’re little red bodies seemed to match the beauty of the colors of fall that were on the trees, bushes, and ground.

I have no idea what purpose ladybugs serve…anyone want to share on this one?

But regardless of that, I have always found them fascinating and beautiful. Each fall I look forward to the week when they arrive in large numbers and decorate the back of our home.

They are just the coolest little things…

1 Timothy 2: 5-6 “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.”

One of the first times I had to act in the role of mediator was when I was in graduate school. I had signed up to live in a house with three other female graduate students. None of us met in person until the first day we moved into our house, and we were all in different graduate programs.

As we slowly got to know each other it became clear that two of the women in the house did not get along well with one of the other women. I was able to get along with all three of them, and because of that I became a mediator between them.

Being the mediator was not a fun role to be in. It meant that I had to help them communicate about the simplest things, such as who owed what on the electric bill, and who was responsible for cleaning the bathroom. I took on the role to help maintain a level of peace in our living arrangement.

However, as hard as it was for me to be a mediator in that house, it was nothing compared to what Jesus had to do as our mediator. He gave everything. He gave Himself. He gave His life. Without His connection with God, we were separated from God by our constantly sinful lives.

Jesus acts as our mediator with God. Jesus is the one who connects us to God. When Jesus died for us He became a spiritual bridge between us and God, linking us together through His love for us.

I am so thankful for Jesus building the most important bridge I’ll ever need to take; the bridge that connects us to Our Heavenly Father.

Prayer: Jesus, thank you for connecting us to God. Thank you for mediating on my behalf; for taking my sin through your death. Help me to remember my connection to you daily, and to let you lead me over your bridge of love.

One way to teach our kids about taking care of our world is through recycling.

Here are some ideas on what your child can do to help your family recycle. Even little ones can do most of these:

• Put items in your recycling bin.  You can keep it in a convenient location that everyone knows about.
• Help return cans and plastic bags to the grocery store.  Kids can help put them in the machines at the store, or hand them in to the store employees.
• Take the recycling bin out to end the of the driveway on pick-up day
• Bring the recycling bin back in from the end of the driveway once they’ve been cleaned out
• Talk about the recycle symbol on items and look for them on containers
• Draw pictures of items that can be re-used around the house

What other ideas do you have?

When I’m designing training classes for adults, I try to keep different learning styles in mind. I create diagrams and charts for the Visual learner. I include stories that are relevant for the Auditory learner. I include activities where the participants move around the room writing on flipcharts for the Kinesthetic learner, etc.

It is important to think about the learning styles of our children as well. I think it is interesting how I could tell from the time my kids where very young that they liked to learn in different ways…part of the time it was because of their age differences, and other times it was because of their own personalities.

Sitting down to do homework after school for long periods of time can be absolutely miserable for one child, while it is seamless for another. Memorizing information can be easy for one child, and excruciating for another.

As a parent, it is sometimes hard to know how to best help your child learn new material. They don’t come with an instruction manual that tells you what to try when your child is in tears because they have to write spelling words that they’ve already had to write at school during the day. There is no Answer all book to help you to have patience with your child and with the homework situation itself.

As an instructor, I would think that I might have an advantage when trying to figure out their learning styles, but it usually doesn’t feel that way when we’re in the midst of a homework breakdown.

No matter what your learning style is or your child’s is, it is definitely a time of learning indeed. I often think that I’ve learned more about what doesn’t work, than what does work.

With the start of the school year, a new need has arisen in our house; a need for “alone time”. When kids are at school, they are interacting with teachers and other students constantly. Their time is not their own on school days; but is instead determined by schedules and classroom work, and then often by homework too.

Because of that switch from the calmer and less structured days of summer, I have heard the words ”I need to be alone for a while” from my kids a lot lately.

Everyone needs to have time alone to think, regroup, and in the case of my kids, just to be kids for a while; riding a bike, reading a book, playing with toys, drawing a picture. Whatever helps you to get your energy renewed and your mind clear of clutter.

Being able to spend time alone is important for people. If a child is able to play on his own while I’m right nearby, he is learning that alone time can be fun. He is learning that he does not have to be constantly entertained by other people, the television, or other things. Learning to be alone is an important skill.

Now that school is in full swing it is important to help your child get this time alone. Sometimes they won’t request it like mine have been doing lately, and so it may be that you will need to watch for signs that they need some quiet time.

What do you think?

I have always loved the Fall…I love so many things about it:

• New beginnings (school, activities, etc.)
• Autumn colors in the trees
• Crisp air
• The sounds of leaves as they skip along the sidewalks

There are also a lot of fun things you can do with your family in the Fall.

Here are a few ideas for activities:

• Rake up a pile of leaves and jump in the pile with your kids. It is great fun, and also a fantastic time to take cute pictures of your kids as they swoop leaves in the air.
• Make foods that have Fall season favorites in them: applesauce, squash, pumpkin pie, pumpkin seeds, etc. Let your kids help you make the food and then of course help you eat the food!
• Decorate or carve pumpkins…this is always a favorite at our house.
• Bake pumpkin seeds…there are always good recipes and suggestions at allrecipes.com.
• Take walks and look for fall-specific favorites: leaves of all different colors, acorns, etc.
• Point out the beauty of the fall as you drive together.
• Let your kids collect leaves outside and then place them into a bowl at the center of your table for decoration.
• Make pictures of pumpkin-heads out of black, yellow, and orange construction paper with your kids. Put them up on your windows to decorate and give them out to your family as “Fall gifts”.

What other ideas do you have for Fall fun?

Often waiting for a fun event can be as exciting as the event itself…anticipation can be a time of high energy and excitement. Planning for a family vacation, preparing for Christmas day, dreaming about a birthday party; these are all times when a person can spend time in anticipation.

One fun way to help your children be a part of the “fun” of anticipation is to make a paper chain for them. Count the number of days between now and the exciting event you are all waiting for, and make one piece of paper chain for each day. Connect the chain pieces together, and then hang them from the ceiling of your child’s room.

When we do this, we always take off one chain piece each night right before bed. As the chain gets shorter, your children can see that the exciting day is getting close…even if your child can’t count the pieces of chain left yet, they can still understand that the chain is getting smaller.

We’ve used this for Christmas day, family vacations, and other fun events. It makes looking forward to a special time something we can all anticipate together.

In what ways have you helped your family anticipate a fun event? What ideas do you want to share?

Have you ever met someone who was so filled with anger and resentment that they seemed “unreachable”? Perhaps they refused to talk, engage, or respond…or perhaps they chose to wallow in their distress and not be open to you.

I remember having lunch with someone who complained about life so much that when I finished eating lunch, I was literally drained of energy. For every positive suggestion I made, she would beat it down with pessimism. She was unreachable at that moment, and I needed to let go.

Ultimately, when you feel that someone is an “unreachable”, that may be true to a degree. At least, he or she may be unreachable for you. But no one is unreachable to God.

Matthew 26: 39b says, “Not as I will, but as you will.” Often we get caught up in a situation, trying our human-best to make something happen according to what we want. But we are only human, and sometimes the seemingly unreachable person can only be reached by God and His intervention.

So what can I do when a person seems unreachable? How can I help them?

• Stay optimistic: Let God be in charge, and remember that nothing is too difficult for Him. God can reach the person that you can’t seem to.
• Be faithful: Ask God for His help. Knowing that you can not reach this person on your own, ask Him to intercede on your behalf. Ask Him to touch the “unreachable” person in his or her heart.
• Don’t give up: Although you might need to “step back” from trying for a bit, keep the person in your prayers regularly.

What else do you suggest?