pumpkin bread, introverts and kindness

New neighbors are moving on our street this week. So I decided to make some pumpkin bread and bring it over to them as a welcome gift. As I pulled out a can of pureed pumpkin, my middle son anxiously asked me what I was going to make. I told him I was going to make pumpkin bread and the recipe makes ‘three’ loaves. Before I could tell him who the loaves were for, he excitedly said, “Oh, we can give one to the new neighbors!”

I was taken back a bit by his response as that is not his usual inclination: being neighborly with the neighbors. In fact, he is guarded toward our friendly neighbors and their intrusion on ‘his alone time’ or ‘our family time.’ Granted, we had a rough year a while ago where we had a parade of people knocking on our door at all hours of the day. All lovely people, just a little too much. And at that point in time, I was still floundering at trying to create healthy boundaries and hadn’t quite learned how to say, “Sorry, we are busy right now!”  We all got worn out.

He is still scarred.

All in all, he is a sensitive introvert who needs more alone time then the rest of us. Since then, I have learned how to create boundaries and how to respect his need for space.

God made us all different.

So, I was very surprised at his response and yet very pleased.

I praised him for his thoughtfulness and told him that was exactly what I was planning to do: make pumpkin bread for the neighbors. As he skipped away, I was trying to connect the dots of how he came up with that idea on his own. Then I remembered, about three years ago, when a new couple moved on our street, I bought an apple pie from a local bakery and the boys and I walked over and brought the new neighbors the pie. He remembered that.

We also have memorized Galatians 5:22-23,

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

This verse comes up in our daily conversations as we go over behavior we are working on.

I believe those two things helped lay the groundwork for his response today.

I was again reminded of the simple truth; Our children are watching us and they remember how we treat people.

I am not a perfect neighbor or parent but, I try to do the best I can with the skills I have at this time. I also know that actions speak louder than words and living out our values in front of our kids has a far greater impact on them then we realize.

Keep going strong, mammas!

It’s not an easy job, but it is SO worth it!


Here is the recipe, it's so delicious! (I cut out some of the sugar) Enjoy!

little stamp collector

 We have a little stamp collector in our house now.

My middle son has just started showing an interest in stamps.  He is learning a little history and geography along the way. I really don't know the first thing about stamp collecting, so this should be a fun learning experience for the both of us!

When we visited my oldest son last month, we went to a cool flea market where he purchased a bag full of old stamps for my little stamp collector. There were stamps from all around the world. My middle son was so happy.

His collection of eight stamps really grew!

Thankfully, my father-in-law collects stamps and he was gracious enough to come over and look at his little collection. He even gave him a tin box full of stamps! 

My son was thrilled to have someone else show an interest in his growing collection and to have a jump start on this new project! 

He has now purchased a book for his stamps and is in the process of organizing them.

Check out this great link if your kids are interested in collecting stamps too!

 

Link Love #2 ~ Scratch!

Our top favorite site is Scratch!

“Scratch is a programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web.
As young people create and share Scratch projects, they learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively.”

It is Free to download and associated with MIT Media Lab. You can check out their website here! I like the fact that there are no bugs or pop-up windows on their site.

Within the first hour of playing around with Scratch, my then six and eight-year-olds were making their own animations. Brilliant! My boys are lucky because they have friends and cousins who are older than them and have shown them a lot of helpful hints and such. But even with out that, your kids (and you too) can figure it out by trial and error. They even have tutorials on the site as well. There is also a page set up specifically for educators!

It is really fun! I have played around with it and made my own little animations as well.

My kids don’t upload their creations to the site yet, as I think they are a bit young for that.  But they do build and create their own games and stories and could spend hours on them; if I let them.

My nine-year-old is now making his own games with Scratch. And they are fun and hard to win. When I play one of his latest games he has updated or tweaked, he is so sweet and changes the level to “easy” so I can play it.

The best way I can describe Scratch is that it is a super fun way of learning programming language but in an easy way using bricks to build it!

Check it out and tell me what you think!

insects in the mail - Part #2

The caterpillars got very big very fast!

I politely disagreed



my mom's glasses she wore in college



My public speaking course is over and I have to say

 I am glad I signed up and took the classes.

It was a low commitment in time and money and yet,
at the same time, it was a high commitment in stress,
 personal expectations and comfort.

  I could have backed out or not showed up
for the final class where we were to deliver
 a prepared, five minute speech.

A lot of people surprisingly did not show up
for the final class.  To be honest, that thought did
 cross my mind for a brief second

 but I simply pushed past it.

 Was I nervous? Yes.

Was it uncomfortable? Yes.

Did it kill me? No.

Did I learn a lot? Yes.

Would I do it again? YES!!!

As you may know, a teacher can make or break a class.

 This teacher was excellent and I immediately
knew it would be a great class  when he said,
 “I want to show you a video on TED.com.”

 His teaching was clear and purposeful,

 and he was engaging and positive.  

I learned a lot, met some great people
 and have already incorporated some of this new
 found knowledge into my everyday activities.

 I have used some of the concepts

 when I am teaching my boys here at home,

 relaying information to my husband

and recently in some social settings. 



My boys, all three of them, were excited to hear
what I learned in class.
  It was great to see their excitement and support.

Over the weekend, the family went to a birthday party

 and someone overheard that I took a public speaking class.

 They rolled their eyes and told me they took one years ago

 and hated their class but had to
 take it because it was mandatory.

 I mentioned that I elected to take this class on a whim

 to challenge myself and for personal growth.

 

The older woman chuckled at me and said,

 “Oh, you’ll change as you get older!”

I politely disagreed.



I see myself as a student of life.

 As long as I am alive,

 I want to push myself to

 learn new things,

 stretch and grow

and, most of all,

 pass on to others what I have learned.

Now...who is up for some skydiving?

***

{{I would love to hear how you have pushed

 yourself to learn new things!}}



insects in the mail

I ordered something from Insect Lore.

Tiny caterpillars!

They arrived in the mail a week ago.

The boys will literally watch the caterpillars' transition

as they mature, change into chrysalides,

and finally emerge as butterflies!  

The caterpillars are eating a lot and are growing very fast.

The boys are excited as they watch them each day.

I’ll keep you updated.    

Public Speaking 101

So, I made it, I survived!

After listening to this great TED speech (see below) and some other circumstances that arose this last week, I decided to take the plunge and sign up for a public speaking class.

I don’t particularly like, wait...scratch that, I hate speaking in front of groups. It literally makes me panic. I am great at behind the scenes kind of stuff and excel when I am totally focused and alone. Put me in front of a group of people and I can’t remember my own name.

I like hanging out with my friends and family and I really enjoy meeting new people. But I have always said that speaking in front of a group is not my gift. Well, how will I ever know if I never try?

Some of my greatest times of growth have been through circumstances that pushed me out of my comfort zones: like “fish-out-of-water” circumstances. They are the times when I thought, “This is crazy, I can’t do this!” but then looking back…yes, it was crazy and I did do it. I survived.


So, within the first five minutes of class, our gregarious, young teacher tells us that he wants each of us, in turn to stand up, say our name, let everyone know why we are taking this class and tell one thing about ourselves. Then, with a big smile, he looks at me and says, “Why don’t you start!”

Seriously?

Right off the bat, I had to stand up and speak in front of the entire class. Arrrgggg!!!

I reluctantly stood up, took a deep breath and faked my best ‘confident smile’ and said, “Hi, my name is Inge, I am taking this public speaking class because I literally hate speaking in public and I want to work on that area for personal growth. I have a blog and enjoy sitting behind my computer screen where I can comfortably write, express and edit myself!”

It took my heart at least ten minutes to regulate itself, before the teacher tells us that each of us will stand up in front of the classroom and give a short speech before the end of the evening. Double Arrrgggg!!!

Yup! Nothing like hitting the ground running.

Most of the people in the class wanted to work on their fear of speaking in public as well. It felt good to be in a room full of people who had that common thread and could root for each other and give positive feed back.

There were two girls that had been in the United States for only ten months; one from China and one from Germany. They could barely speak English but they did their very best and did great. I only had to work through my fears and they had to work through their fears and the language barrier.

All in all, it was fun, nerve-racking, but fun!

It was nice to do something for myself for a change; it had been a long time since I was sitting in a classroom. But I came home with a new energy, a smile and a rush of adrenaline and it felt great!

I believe that God wants us to use our gifts to glorify Him.

It is our job to figure what our gifts are,
fine tune them
and get working.

My favorite part, which keeps repeating itself in my head is, “My year of speaking dangerously!” I love it!


Susan Cain: The power of introverts


What will this year be for you?

whatever is lovely

This is the Bible verse I am currently
having the boys memorize.
I am finding it quite applicable in almost
every situation that arises where
discipline is needed.

Finally, brethren, whatever is true,
whatever is honorable,
whatever is right,
whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely,
whatever is of good repute,
if there is any excellence and
if anything worthy of praise,
dwell on these things.

Philippians 4:8

What a great reminder for our thought life as well!

pipe cleaners

Yesterday, for my birthday,
my youngest boys blew up balloons
before I woke up,
but they couldn’t tie them.

I could just see their little faces
as they sat there in the dining room
holding the balloons and thinking what to do next.

All of my boys are creative
and I have always encouraged them to work
with the obstacles they face.
I believe that obstacles can be a great way
to learn, grow and develop character.
There are many times when I have to think
“out of the box” to get around a tricky obstacle.

I smiled when I came into the kitchen
and saw balloons set out on the table
tied with pipe cleaners.

I was so proud of their ingenuity

and their problem solving skills.

What a great gift it was to see them

growing up and being resourceful

and not running to get rescued.


I was also impressed with the color choices

of the balloons and the pipe cleaners!

***

Some of the best gifts I received this week

could not be wrapped.

Of those,

one took a lot of hard work, courage and self-discipline

and some were simply selfless acts and kind words.

I treasure those things in my heart

more than anything money can buy!


***

Here are some pipe cleaner crafts that are worth checking out!

A little heart garland

pencils

finger puppets

Paper heart headband

and

And a cool, vintage, hot, pink hat at Etsy! Wow!

Enjoy!

tread softly

I found TED a while back

and will admit I am quite addicted to the talks.

In fact, the different talks about

following your passion and giving back

is partly what took me over the edge

from thinking about starting a blog

to actually jumping in and just doing it.

So far, Sir Ken Robinson has challenged me the most.

He is very passionate about education and his words echo in the back of my mind as I teach my seven year old throughout the day.

Have a listen.

It is about 18 minutes long, but well worth it!