Disciple Your Children
How do you make discipleship a natural way of life? Whether it’s the younger years, the middle years, or the launching years, discipleship can easily be woven into the natural rhythms of family life. It can start with simple questions about the beauty around you in creation or reading Bible stories at bedtime. You can discuss right choices or natural consequences of bad choices. You can talk about school and life through a biblical lens. You can do a book study with your teens, host a backyard Bible club this summer for your elementary-age neighborhood kids, or read Bible stories to your little ones. It does not have to be hard or complicated, but it does have to be intentional. Talk with your children when you wake, when you walk, and when you wind down to sleep (see Deuteronomy 6). So that pretty much means disciple your kids all throughout your days. Do not leave it up to the church. They are there to partner with parents not replace biblical teaching in the home. In order to disciple your children, you want to open the doors of communication so it is regular and natural and you will want to lead…
Digital Escape Rooms
Looking for some new rainy day activities for your kids? While spring is popping up in most gardens, rainy days and Mondays still can get us down. Looking for some new rainy day activities for your kids? Try a digital escape room from the comfort of your own couch! Many free and educational digital escape rooms exist. I’ll list a few here but you can do your own search for more using the Tailored Search Terms listed below. There are even a few you can print and use if you want a pencil and paper version. Typically escape rooms involve solving puzzles to get a key or code to unlock the room. Most digital escape rooms have several puzzles and several locks. Some have a storyline woven throughout the game and some just stick to a theme. Some puzzles are visual and others rely on knowledge. In our house, we have solved puzzles together or assigned a certain one to each kid to attempt before the rest join in and help. Some are short with just a few puzzles and can be completed in less than a half hour. Others are more complex or have longer puzzles that take time.…
Dual Enrollment
How do you choose dual enrollment classes? One option for saving time and money in college is to enroll in a dual enrollment program. Typically this is where high school students can simultaneously complete high school and take some college classes during their junior and senior years. Some students even manage to complete their high school education and earn an associate’s degree at the same time. In some states, students can practically go to college for free while in high school. We highly recommend even a few dual enrollment courses while in high school. Because we did our homework, our youngest daughter was able to start college with enough credits to complete 4 years in 3, saving both time and money. She knew her major, and she knew what college she wanted to attend. First, we looked at a sample degree completion guide and what community college and AP/CLEP test credits the university accepted. With this information, she could choose dual enrollment courses that would benefit her not just earn her college credits. Using the sample course completion guide for her major, we mapped out her dual enrollment schedule for her last 2 years of high school. Like all things,…
Product Review: Bankroll Coffee
Can drinking coffee make you a millionaire? I self identify as a coffee snob. No doubt about that. For Christmas my kids got me a coffee bundle from Bankroll Coffee, and it was the perfect gift! Good coffee, catchy packaging, and amazing prices per cup. Names like Double Down, Morning Drip, and Diamond Hands grace the bags. I can’t even pick a favorite, but maybe Hodl, the espresso roast. Eventually, I’d like to try the decaf, Buy the Drip. If you read my earlier post, you’ll know that I make cold brew coffee at home. I always have some regular and some decaf in my fridge. Check out my cold brew coffee review here. Graham Stephan, with his interest in personal finance, real estate, and investing, has an interesting recipe for brewing coffee at home and saving money to invest so you can be a millionaire when you retire. According to Stephan, millennials spend more on coffee than they do on retirement! He says in his video that he wants to create a business that will continue to grow on its own without him having to be constantly involved as the influencer. I resonate with that business goal. That’s what…
March Madness College Spreadsheet
Does March Madness bring thoughts of basketball tournaments or college tours? Without a college spreadsheet, brain overload accompanied my first college visit with my daughter, but it got easier after that. What did not get easier was the amount of information we got and how to keep track of it all. We ended up creating a shared spreadsheet of information. This useful college spreadsheet planner tool helped us track the information, prioritize colleges for application, and organize the application process and products required for each one. We chose to make it a shared document which was also super helpful as we could both add information or check due dates. Having gone through this process several times with my kids and clients, I find myself suggesting a collaborative spreadsheet to others time and time again. While the decision is highly personal, the process is quite standard. Now available for sale, is my College Planner Spreadsheet tool. This College Spreadsheet Planner tool will help organize all the information you gather, even suggesting categories you may not have thought about. You can edit the form to fit your needs. This information will be helpful when visiting colleges, narrowing down which ones to apply…
Book Review – Relationships: A Mess Worth Making
What relationships are a mess worth making? There’s no denying that relationships are messy, but there is hope for improving them. After the added stress of distance or close confinement during Covid, most of our relationships could use some strengthening. This book, Relationships: A Mess Worth Making, by Paul David Tripp and Tim Lane is a guide for deepening our relationship with God and improving our relationships and reactions with our fellow man. I first came across this book when our small group chose to do it as a book discussion. There was plenty to discuss and reflect upon with each of the chapters. When a friend came to me with some relationship questions, I immediately thought about several of the chapters of this book. I tried to summarize and quote large chunks of it. Then I gave up and bought her the book! It’s that kind of book. You will benefit greatly from the personal reflection, but you will also find yourself using this as a resource for others. Go ahead and add it to your shopping list. It’s available in paperback, audio book, or ebook. In fact, add a couple to your list and stock up. It’s a…
Agendas
How can you have more time in your day? Using an agenda (paper or digital) to schedule your week will help you have more time for the things that matter. It really is a magic trick and an insomnia cure! It just takes a few steps, and you’ll be on your way to increased productivity and less mental stress. I’m a big fan of Google Calendar and Asana for my scheduling. (Read this blog post for details.) Write a list of weekly routines, fixed appointments, and regular errands Write a list of weekly and monthly home projects Write a list of habits or hobbies you wish you had time for Write a long-term goal or two, and break it down into small tasks Prioritize the events and lists Add them to the weekly and monthly calendar Regularly go over your agenda and make adjustments Rediscover and reclaim pockets of time First, write out a list of your weekly routines, fixed appointments, home projects, and regular errands. Continue the list with a few habits or hobbies you wish you had time for (book reading, exercise class, coffee with a friend, photography class, etc.). Then add a long-term goal or two, broken…
Table Talk 2
What goes on the bread first, peanut butter or jelly? Last year I shared Table Talk 1, a set of 30 conversation starter questions, perfect for the dinner table or break room. I love to get people talking. I also love to equip people to start their own conversations. Each week I start my tutoring sessions with a question like this. I hope my students will reuse the questions at their dinner or lunch tables. The launching years are especially tricky when it comes to starting conversations with others. I’ve witnessed painfully quiet car rides and lunch tables because kids didn’t know how to start a conversation and just waited for someone else to do it. Table Talk 2 is now available. Purchase this new card set and get more questions to launch conversations. Print up a copy and let your tweens or table mates select a question to ask the group. Answers don’t have to be long, but they should give a reason to support their answer. Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate times of silence on car trips or with my morning coffee. But I also don’t want to miss out on natural opportunities to deepen relationships. This…
Healthy Heart
How’s your heart health? February is heart health month in the US. It’s a time to raise awareness about cardiovascular disease, which is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Now is a great time to take a look at your physical heart health. Do you cook heart healthy recipes on a regular basis? Do you know what your blood pressure is and should be? Can you recognize the signs of a stroke and get help FAST? Is there a heart health walk in your town? Our figurative heart, or soul, is also in need of a check up. Proverbs 4:23 tells us to guard our heart for it is the wellspring of our life. Our mental wellness plays a role in our physical wellness, including our heart health. Read more in this article from the American Red Cross. Many resources are available to help raise awareness about heart health. The CDC has published a toolkit for healthy heart month. (The toolkit gets updated each year so just Google the CDC Healthy Heart Toolkit for this year.) You can even talk to your kids and teens about heart health habits. It’s never too late to model healthy heart habits…
God is my rock
How does your view of God affect how you live? God is my rock. My fortress. My strong tower. He is my hope and my strength. How you view God affects how you live. What does that mean? If I don’t trust God to be who He says or to keep His promises, then I think too little of God. As a result, I don’t rely on Him. Or maybe I think He’s only sometimes going to answer my prayers or only if I’m really good is He going to listen to me. When I think that, I make prayer and devotions all about me. I should make them all about God. When things get hard I need to remember to trust God to be who He says He is…my rock, my hope, my creator. He is strong, just, loving, and forgiving. And so much more! We can rely on Him. We can anchor to Him in the storms. God is my rock. Oh what comfort and joy that brings me in each season of life. I can have peace in the midst of storms and I can have a place of celebration in the midst of good times. My…