Creative Tickets and Posters!

 One of the wonderful things about our parenting program, "The GOLD Standard," is that you can adjust it to the needs of your own family.  Cody Taylor recently wrote to me and explained how they have recently re-implemented the GOLD Standard in their home.  He wrote:  "This weekend was fabulous!  Previously, cleaning the boy's room was an act of congress, not this last weekend.  Church has been rowdy for a while too, this week wasn't at the reverent level I was hoping for, but it was close!  Hopefully we can be disciplined enough as parents to be more consistent this time around.  If anyone says this doesn't work doesn't work, they are the ones that don't.  It really works, very well!"

Cody used photoshop to make cute tickets personalized to their family -- superheroes for the boys and princesses for the girls.  He sent me some pictures and I thought they were so cute I asked if I could post them for you all.  Also, I love the poster idea of using velco to attach the tickets to a poster.  We use pockets in our family, but this is so much more visual where you can see each ticket and the kids can see right off how many tickets they have.  Fantastic idea, Cody!

Happy Mother's Day!

My dear friend, Valerie Chandler, sent out this letter for Mother's Day and I liked it so much I asked her if I could send it on to all of you! 


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Holden [my son] and I have a favorite picture book. It is called, "Gingerbread Baby" by Jan Brett. It follows the traditional story as the gingerbread baby jumps out of the oven with a mind of his own, and runs cleverly away from all who would chase. But here is where it diverts-- While the townsfolk and animals run to catch the gingerbread baby, the little boy who made the cookie stays calmly home. In the sidebars of the chasing pages, the boy is baking, constructing and decorating a beautiful gingerbread house. He has a knowing look on his face as he places the house in the middle of the woods. And just like the little boy predicted, the hunted gingerbread baby runs right into the home to stay-- safe, protected, and so, so happy.

This little boy knew that home has extraordinary draw and pull. He knew that even when gingerbread babies may run, a home lures them in. Home is where they know they will be loved. Home is where their needs are cared for. Home is safe from the storm. Home is a place of acceptance and kindness. Home is where they are nurtured. And who has created this place of refuge? Who is the nurturer? Mother.

I read a sweet story the other day that was attributed to Mother Teresa:

"Mother Teresa (told) the story of a boy whom the sister found on the streets of Calcutta. He was living with his mother in a box. The sister took the boy back to the orphanage, bathed him , fed him, and gave him a clean bed to sleep in. The next day he disappeared. They found him in the box with his mother. Once again they took him back to the orphanage and once again he ran away. Mother Teresa said she learned a very important lesson that day-- a mother, even a mother in a box, was of the (most importance to a child)." (As quoted by Colleen Downs in "It Takes a Mother ti Raise a Village", page 5, Lightwave Publications 2001)

These stories touch me. They remind that all of those desires and feelings tucked deep in a woman's soul, and all of the day to day doing that mothers engage in, produce for children something intangible, but marvelous-- a home. Mothers with big, bulging hearts and righteous desires, even mothers in a box, create a home where a family wants to be-- a place of love, compassion and protection.

What a wonderful day of celebration! We are a homemakers. We are a nurturers with divine charge. We are mothers!

Here's to all of you with my love and admiration for your sweet mothering--


Valerie Chandler
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Thanks Val for that wonderful reminder of the importance of our divine call as mothers!! 


 

Help For Haiti

I went to drop off our bag of donations for Haiti at our elementary school this morning and was touched by the amount of donations filling the hallway in front of the office.  I cried all the way home.

I know many of you have participated in donation projects for Haiti too.  When we gathered our children together to ask what they could donate in the way of money and belongings, our five year old ran to her room and brought back one of her favorite dolls and stuffed animals so that one of the children in the Haiti orphanage could have something to play with.  I was moved by her willingness to serve.

What we do may not seem like a lot, but when we all do something, it will make a difference!  I am reminded of the quote by Edward Everett Hale:


I am only one, but I am one.
I cannot do everything, but I can do something.
And what I can do I ought to do.
And what I ought to do, by the grace of God,
I shall do!

I hope that we can all find it in our hearts to do our part to help the people of Haiti.

Thank you!!