We Have Arrived!

July 12, 20132 Comments

This will be a quick post because I have to write on my phone until we get internet hooked up at our house, but I wanted to give an update on our trip out to Ireland. Here are our travel highlights:

We realized our credit card was lost when we tried to check in for our flight. The restaurant that we’d lost it at found the card, my mom picked it up, and drove it back to the airport just in time for us to board our flight.

Our flights were on time (Yahoo!)

The boys both fell asleep within 20 minutes of takeoff.

Jacob slept in the ergo on my lap for 8 hours. My arms were numb but the passengers around us were grateful to not have a screaming baby on their flight.

London-Heathrow is a crazy maze of an airport with a bajillion security checkpoints designed to never let you get to your connecting flight. Note to self: Do NOT try to navigate this madness with a short layover and a sleep-deprived 2-year old (especially if you don’t have a stroller!).

David had the wildest toddler meltdown I’ve ever witnessed while we were RUNNING through the London airport. It was so bad they let us cut in front of the entire security line to go straight through. Saved us 30 minutes of line-waiting and allowed us to actually catch our connecting flight. Well played, David.

We actually caught our connecting flight. It was close, but we made it just in time–sweat-drenched and stressed out, but we made it.

The airline lost our stroller and car seat (they have now been found and returned). This was actually a good thing, because it allowed us to pack all of our bags into our rental car at the airport (we really didn’t think it would all fit into one car!).

Our rental house (while we’re waiting for our real house to be ready for move in in Monday) is awesome! We have 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, and even a basketball hoop in the courtyard 🙂 The lady who is renting this house to us also stocked our kitchen with bread and pastries from her local bakery, milk, cheese, butter, jam, and tea–Because she knew we would be hungry after our long day of travel. Have I mentioned how much I love Irish people?

We ate McDonald’s for our first dinner in Ireland 🙂

We got food, showers, and naps.

We got a good night’s sleep.

Today we will go see our new house and explore our new neighborhood.

It is sunny and 75° here–gorgeous!!!

We are excited to see more of Ireland today!

Goodbye, USA

July 10, 20131 Comment

Pinch me, because I can’t believe this is actually happening. We’re moving to Ireland. Today. What the WHAT?!

It’s pretty surreal that in a few hours I will actually be getting on a plane with our two children and going “home” to a house I’ve never seen before. Our “Grand Adventure” (as I’ve taken to calling this move) has been a long time in coming so I’ve had a lot of time to think about it. Nothing can prepare you, though, for something like this finally happening when it’s actually time to pack up and head out.

When we first found out about our potential move to Ireland 10 months ago I was excited, then nervous, then scared, then at peace with the whole thing. Now I’m at the point where I’m ready to be done with all of the planning and just be there already. We’ve been so BUSY for the last month that I’ve hardly had time to catch my breath, let alone get all emotional about the move (Do you know what kind of paperwork is required to move a family internationally? It’a NUTS! Now I see why all of the Mexicans just walk through the desert when they want to move…Good thinking, amigos.).

Now that I’m taking five minutes to sit down and write this all out, though, I’m realizing that I do have some thoughts that have been hanging in the back of my mind. Like, how I’m really going to miss this place and these people.

This is the house that we brought both of our babies home to after they were born, the place where our family became a family. I decorated the nursery when my belly was out to HEEEEEEERE. My husband hand-laid our wood floors with his dad. We installed the most ridiculous set of closet organizers and shelves that you will ever see in a house (that’s what you get when two Type-A’s shack up together). I’m going to miss all of that.

I’m going to miss Seattle–especially since we are literally moving during the first (unofficial) week of Seattle-Summer (FYI: In the Northwest, Summer starts the day after Independence Day). I’d say that I’m going to miss the rainy days, the greenery and the blue water–but, actually, I’ll have more rainy days, more greenery and more water when I move to the (damp) island of Ireland. I will miss the rush-hour-at-all-hours I-5 traffic, the legalized pot distribution center down the street from our house, and the CONVERGENCE ZONE (OK, so I won’t actually miss any of those things. Stay classy, Seattle.). No, I really do love Seattle and all of it’s unique and quirky traits. I will miss it dearly.

But, most importantly, I will miss the people. Our family and our friends who are like family. We live out our lives with the people we love, and it will be very hard to leave them. I know that we will meet new people and make new friends in our new home–but it’s never quite the same. So, to those of you who know us well, know that you will be missed (and there will always be room for you in our house if you want to come visit!).

I know this will be one exciting ride and I can’t wait to see where it takes us. Goodbye, Seattle. Goodbye, friends. Goodbye, USA.

Hello, Grand Adventure.

10 Tips For Moving With Young Children

July 7, 2013Leave a comment

This week has been…crazy. In just a few short days our family will be hopping on a plane to our new home in Ireland–which means we have spent the last few days running around like manic chickens with their heads chopped off. Just imagine moving with a dog and two children under the age of 3. Now imagine moving with those same young children half-way around the world. Now imagine preparing to move with two young children while your husband is in Ireland (and you are in Seattle)–oh, yeah, and you’re throwing a party for 75 of your closest friends and family this week to keep things REALLY interesting.

Crazy as this week has been, I’ve already learned a few things about moving with young children. Starting with:

1. Don’t move with young children.
Really, moving with young kids SUCKS. They don’t help, they get in the way when you’re trying to get stuff done, they require extra time and attention (of which you have neither), they have extra STUFF you have to move (which, of course, you don’t have room to move), and the stress of moving just throws them into a wild tailspin of anger and destruction. Have I convinced you to put your moving plans on hold yet? If not, you may continue reading.

2. Get help with your kids (read: pawn your children off on a willing grandparent/friend/babysitter/responsible dog).
If you decide to move with young children, you’ve got to get rid of the kids on moving day. Otherwise, moving day simply will not happen. Enlist help for at least the time that you will be doing the bulk of your packing and loading. You may be tempted to try to get a few more things done with your children “helping” you. Don’t. It’s a terrible idea. Just get them out of the house, get things done, and reunite with your beautiful children at the end of the day.

3. Set up a staging area.
Find a space in your house that you can use to store already-packed boxes. This could be your garage, a spare bedroom, a corner of the office, or the end of a hallway. As you pack a box, move it to the staging area so you’ll be able to keep everything contained (and make loading into the moving truck go that much quicker).

4. Pack non-essentials first.
Packing up a family is a daunting process. Start by filling one box (yes, just one box–one is a good number to start with, and you know you can actually do it) with non-essential items. This could be off-season clothing, your grandmother’s china (You weren’t planning on using that for Cheerios each morning, were you?), holiday items, or extra toys (now is a good time to start clearing the clutter!). After you pack your first box, the rest come more easily. Starting a couple of weeks before the big moving day, try to fill at least one box per day with non-essentials. Even if you only get a few boxes packed, it will be that much less that you have to do last-minute.

5. Talk up the move and your new house.
We’ve been talking about our “Ireland House” for months with our 2-year old. There are several things that we’ve done to help ease the transition for him. We look at photos on Google images of Ireland (since he’s never actually been there), we find Washington and Ireland on a globe and trace the path that we’ll travel, we point out airplanes in the sky and say, “we get to fly on an airplane to Ireland soon!”. Now that we (finally) have a house over in Ireland we also look at photos of our house and talk about the wonderful things we’ll see there (“Look, there’s our yard where we’ll throw the ball for Bota!”, “Oh, here’s a picture of your new room with your big boy bed!”, “Here’s the toilet you’ll use when you need to go potty.”). We try to make the new house sound as comfortable, inviting, and exciting as we can.

6. Color-code your belongings.
We bought 3 colors of low-stick painter’s tape so we could color-code everything in our house. Since we are moving from a reasonably large house to a small, furnished house there are a lot of things we had to put into storage. We used one color for items going to Ireland, another color for items going into storage, and a third color for items we were going to loan out to friends. You could also use the color-coding system for items to move/sell/store, items that are essential/non-essential/seasonal (so you’ll know what to unpack first), or color-code each room of your house. The possibilities are endless!

7. Be all stealth-like and pack your kids’ things when they aren’t looking.
I made the mistake of trying to pack one of David’s balls while he was in the same room. BAD, BAD IDEA. He freaked out and it took about 3o minutes to console him. Lesson learned. Any time you are packing your kids’ belongings, just do it when they aren’t around. They don’t understand that they WILL see these things again soon, so it’s quite traumatic for the little ones.

8. Hire a moving company.
Jon and I have moved 6 times in the last 8 years, but this is the first time we’ve ever had a professional moving company help us out (thanks to Jon’s business sending them out!). It was incredible having 2 guys show up with boxes, spend 6 hours packing our stuff, and then drive our stuff off to where it was supposed to be. I don’t know if we could actually afford to hire those guys on our own, so we usually “hire” our friends with the promise of free beer and pizza on moving day. Either way, get some help with the heavy lifting and the whole move will go a lot more smoothly.

9. Expect your child(ren) to act out. Plan accordingly.
Moving is stressful for anyone, and especially so for young children. They will get frustrated, angry, sad, confused, anxious. They may cry or act out more than usual. That’s to be expected. Just go with it, scrounge up some extra patience, and drink a nice glass of wine after you tuck the kids in at night.

10. Say goodbye.
We ended up bringing our kids with us on our final day of organizing and cleaning our “old” house (we also brought along Auntie and Uncle to help babysit them). I was a bit nervous about how David would react when he saw our empty house, but I think it was actually really good for him. He had fun running through the cleared out rooms, seeing our storage space (the garage) packed high with our belongings, and yelling down empty, echo-y hallways. Before we left that day, we walked through each room of the house and said goodbye: “Goodbye, old bedroom. Goodbye, blue curtains. Goodbye, tall stairs.” And that was it. We said goodbye and we left. He was happy waving at our house as we pulled out of the driveway and drove out of our neighborhood for the last time.

So far as I can tell, we’re actually less than halfway done with the move at this point. We still have to get to Ireland, adjust to life in a foreign culture, wait 6-8 weeks for our “stuff” to arrive on a cargo ship, unpack, and settle into our new “normal”. For this chapter of the move, though, we can finally close the book and call it done.

To be continued…

Moving Day

July 4, 2013Leave a comment

Today we made a big step toward moving to Ireland: a moving company came and packed up our house. 58 boxes and 1 very full truck later, we are ready to go! It will take 6-8 weeks for our stuff to sail across the ocean, so we have officially begun the “living out of suitcases” stage of this journey! We still have lots of furniture and personal items to move down to our garage for storage, but we are one step closer to getting this move done. I will be staying with the boys at my parents’ house for the rest of this week while Jon finishes packing and working.

Delayed Departure

July 3, 2013Leave a comment

Well, Seattle, you get us for a few more days. We had originally planned on moving this week, on July 6th. After Jon’s ridiculous travel week in Ireland last week, though, we realized that we needed a bit more time to get our stuff together before we will actually be ready to make this move. Plus, our house won’t be ready until the 12th. Today we booked our tickets to Ireland, and we will be leaving next Wednesday the 10th. THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING!

Wish us luck–the movers come tomorrow so we will officially begin the “living out of suitcases” stage of this journey (our household goods are scheduled to take 6-8 weeks to sail across the ocean). We have a lot of packing and moving to do in our house still–since our Ireland house is fully furnished and *tiny* we will be putting most of our belongings into storage in our garage.

Let’s do this thing!

A House At Last

June 28, 2013Leave a comment

Well, friends, it’s been an *interesting* week for Jon over in Ireland. The good news is: we have a house! The bad news is: it was quite the trial to get it.

As I told you in my last post, Jon’s flight got delayed going in to Ireland. He ended up being delayed so long that they had to book him on a completely different flight on a completely different airline. In all the flight mess, though, the airline forgot to book Jon a connecting flight from London to Cork. He had to buy a separate ticket in London so he could complete his journey–I’m sure I’ll be having some fun conversations with United Air about how we get reimbursed for that. Oh yeah, and they lost his luggage. His bags went to Chicago–even though Jon never did–and, 4 days later, still have not found their way to Ireland. Not the best start to this trip.

Surely after that horrendous travel experience, the house-hunting had to go better—right?

Nope.

Jon spent the first 2 days he was in Ireland just trying to get a hold of people so he could schedule viewings of the houses we were interested in. Nobody was even available to let him in to a single house those first days. Then, when he finally got to see his first houses on Wednesday he learned that the vast majority of the houses we liked had already been rented out. On those two days that nobody was available to show him the houses. Hmmmm…. Then, to make matters worse, almost all of the houses that were still available did not allow pets. Double ouch.

Long story short, our list of 42 potential houses got whittled down to 2 (TWO!) that met our minimum criteria and were actually still available to be rented. Going in to this we had prayed that God would open the door where he wanted us and close the doors where he didn’t. Sometimes God has a very direct way of answering our prayers. Doors were literally being slammed shut in our faces everywhere we looked!

Ironically, the two houses that we had to choose between had the exact same floor plan, were in the same general area of town, and were listed for the same price. When it came down to it, the house we chose is in a nicer neighborhood, has nicer finishings, and has been better maintained. In the end, it was a pretty simple choice.

So, with no further ado, here is our house! It is a fully furnished 3 bedroom / 3 bath townhouse in the neighborhood of Rochestown (kind of like the Bellevue of Cork City). It backs up to a sports complex that has soccer fields, a golf course, bowling, tennis, etc. David will even have a view of the soccer fields from his bedroom window 🙂 There is also a nice park in front of our house where we can throw the ball for Bota. It is walking distance to a bus stop and a bike path (this path actually goes right past Jon’s office), so hopefully we won’t have to rely too much on our cars (gas is VERY expensive over there). We’ll even have a couple of couches if anyone wants to come out for a visit!

Living Room

Dining Room

Kitchen

Patio and back yard (the lady is a friend of the owner who showed Jon the house)

Back of the house and patio

Shed in the back yard…with the dryer in it

Master Bedroom

We have about a week left before we move on the 6th, so now it’s on to packing!

Getting It All Done

June 27, 20131 Comment

Last week I got to spend some time with a friend who doesn’t have any kids yet. As I was packing up the boys to head back home she asked me (a bit bewildered, a bit frightened, a bit curious), “How do you get it all done?”. It’s a valid question.

I didn’t know quite how to answer her. The short answer is: what needs to get done, gets done…and everything else can just wait. The long answer is that I have several systems and routines in place that get me through each day and each week (some weeks better than others). Here’s a little glimpse into how I get it all done–or, I should say, how I attempt to get it all done!

Cooking
I usually prep dinner while the boys are napping (most days I can get both boys to nap for at least an hour at the same time in the afternoon. If not, I just prep when one of them is napping so there’s minimal chaos). If there are veggies that need to be chopped, meat that needs to marinate, spices that need to be measured out, whatever–I set it all up while the house is quiet. Kind of like how those cooking shows on TV have everything sitting out in bowls and all they have to do when it’s show time is throw everything in a pan, cook it, and–voila!–dinner! I usually only cook “hands-on” a few nights a week. The other nights I just reheat frozen meals or leftovers (and pizza is never a bad option for a Friday night, either).

Laundry
I literally do laundry every day except Sunday (Mama’s gotta have a day of REST!). It’s easier for me to do one normal-sized load of laundry to completion (washed, dried, folded, put away) every day than to do a marathon session attacking the dirty-laundry mountain when it gets too monstrous for me to handle. Between Jon and I having our everyday clothes and work-out clothes, the boys needing “costume changes” multiple times a day for multiple reasons, and needing to wash linens on a somewhat regular basis, I am always able to fill a whole load of laundry. Jon likes to look nice for work (*grin*) so I actually iron his shirts once a week. It’s one of my least favorite chores, but I do it out of love (and it helps that I can watch Hulu while I’m tediously ironing away).

Cleaning
I am not a particularly clean person. I like having things tidy and organized and not disgusting, but I’m not the lady who scrubs her toilets every day (yes, I know someone who scrubs her toilets every. single. day.). I have a loose schedule of when I will do the required cleaning each week: Mondays I clean the kitchen and pay bills, Tuesdays I vacuum, Wednesdays I clean the bathrooms, Thursdays I mop the wood floors, Fridays I pick up the yard. I just do the basics, and it only takes me 10-20 minutes per day to do my “chore-o-the-day”.

Activities
I love being busy–probably to a fault. I’m a stay-at-home-mom who can’t stand staying at home all day. So, we have little outings most days. In a typical week we’ll go to Stroller Strides (my exercise class) or a run on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings; either park play time or library story time on Tuesdays; and BSF (Bible study) on Thursday mornings. Our little outings last for about 1-2 hours. The boys (usually) have a lot of fun on our adventures– and I need the breaks in our day for my sanity. It’s really a win-win. On the weekends we do our bigger adventures that require more time or more adults: hikes, swimming, shopping, day trips.

NOT Getting It All Done
There are some days where I’ll just decide a nap is more important than whatever chores were on my to-do list. Or the boys will actually sleep past 6:30 AM and I decide that we’re going to stay in our jammies all morning instead of working out. Or I’ll be cleaning up what seems to be the hundredth mess of the day, and I’ll call Jon and tell him to pick up dinner on the way home so I don’t have to cook. Or I will be in the middle of packing up my life to move half-way across the globe (NEXT WEEK!!!). Every now and then, I don’t get it all done. And that’s okay. In the end, what needs to be done will be done–and sometimes a break is what really needs to be done!

Keeping Connected When Dad Is Away

June 25, 20133 Comments

This week Jon is in Ireland doing his third (and final) housing search for our Big Move next week (!). Even though we are excited for the reason that Daddy is away from us, Ireland is still far away. It’s far, far away. But do we let that get us down? Of course not! In fact, we’ve come up with several ways that we keep connected (and keep our sanity) while one or–rarely–both parents are away. Here are some of my favorites:

We use my iPhone to record videos of my husband reading some of David’s favorite books. During story time and bed time we always start with one of the “Daddy reading” videos.
We print off photos of us or our family and use the back of each photo to write a little note to the boys. Each day while we are away they get a new photo note.
We buy little gifts for each day that we are away (stickers, a tub of play doh, sidewalk chalk, books). David gets to open one special gift each day (it’s nice to have something fun to look forward to each day when you’re missing somebody special!).
We use Skype or use iChat to video chat with each other every day. With time zones, naptimes and busy schedules this can be tricky, but we always try to make it happen.
We do special things to make the time go more quickly when Daddy is away. A trip to the zoo or the children’s museum, lunch with friends, baking yummy treats (I’ve already baked cookies twice in the last two days. Hmmm….)–anything that keeps us occupied and entertained.
We go on mini-vacations ourselves. If Daddy is gone for a week or more, I will usually pack up the boys for an over-nighter at one of their grandparents’ houses. They love seeing Grandma and Grandpa, and I love having an extra set of hands!
We make a “welcome home” project for Daddy. This could be a craft, a picture that David paints, or a video of something neat the boys did this week. We have our welcome home project ready and waiting for Daddy when he returns.
I get a babysitter. At least once when Daddy is away I will hire a babysitter to come by for a few hours so I can leave the house sans children. This week I have my mom coming up one day and a hired babysitter coming over later in the week.
We look at photos and videos of Daddy when we start to miss him. Sometimes we’ll even hook up my computer to the big TV screen so we can see the photos in real-life-size. As we’re looking at the photos, we talk about all of the fun things we were doing when the photos were taken.

It can be difficult to have a parent away, but we can still have fun while we’re waiting for them to return!

Final Housing Search!

June 23, 20131 Comment

One of our “potentials” in Cork

This morning Jon woke up at 4:45 AM to catch a flight to Ireland for his third–and final–housing search. Unfortunately, 12 hours later, he is still…sitting at the airport. His flight got delayed…then delayed…then delayed…until he eventually changed to a new flight plan altogether. He will now be leaving Seattle at about 6:00 this evening, flying through the night to London, and then on to Cork. This is an unfortunate beginning to the trip, but hopefully it’s not a sign of disappointments to come!

We’ve spent the last couple of weeks researching housing online, making spreadsheets, and plotting potential houses on maps. In the end, though, we will be at the mercy of the quick-moving Cork rental market. Houses go very quickly there, so hopefully the right house is available for us at the right time. Jon will have less than 4 days to set up a bank account, see houses, make a decision and sign a lease. We are planning on moving July 6th, so we are really hoping we can find something that will be available in the next week or two. It’s a lot to accomplish, but we know that God has the right place already picked out for us!

As soon as he signs a lease I’ll update here with some photos. Crazy that by the end of this week we’ll have our very own house in Ireland!

My Philosophy Of Discipline

June 21, 2013Leave a comment

I know that this is a touchy subject for a lot of people, so I will attempt to tread lightly here. Each parent needs to approach discipline with their children in the way they see best for their family–and, with that, each individual child may require different approaches. I’m not suggesting that my approach to discipline is the best or the only way–if anything, discipline is the area of parenting that I struggle with the most! As a mom and a former teacher, though, I know how important discipline is for kids. In this post I will share a bit of my personal “philosophy of discipline” and how we handle discipline in our family.

Why discipline?
The Bible tells us that “God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness” (Hebrews 12:10). We discipline our children for this very reason: because it is for their good, so they can become more like Jesus.

I have seen first-hand, in both the classroom and in my own home, how appropriate discipline can help children thrive. Kids not only need discipline–they want it! Kids expect boundaries and limits, and they learn life-skills from appropriate correction. Plus, discipline helps everyone live together in harmony. Nobody wants a chaotic toddler running the show. Trust me.

What is discipline?
The word “discipline” stems from the word “disciple”: to guide someone to become more like Jesus. As such, the purpose of discipline is to train a child for correction and maturity so they can follow in Jesus’ ways. The focus of discipline is on lovingly correcting the child and changing their future behavior. Discipline means that the parent applies appropriate consequences to encourage the child to make better future choices.

There is an important distinction between discipline and punishment. Discipline is NOT punishment. Punishment’s purpose is to inflict a penalty for an offense with the focus on past misdeeds–it’s basically “I’ll make something bad happen to you for your bad behavior”. Where punishment results in fear and guilt, discipline leaves a child with a sense of security and a positive focus for their future.

How Do We Discipline?
In our house, we have a tiered-approach to discipline: some offenses warrant lesser consequences than other more serious behaviors. Here are the discipline steps we follow with our son:

1. When our son does something that breaks a family rule (like throwing food at the dinner table) he goes straight to time out. There are no warnings, no arguing, no negotiating. He knows the rules and he knows that he needs to follow them at all times. We follow the rule of one minute per year of the child’s age for time-outs (David is 2, so he has 2-minute time-outs). His time-out spot is the first step of our staircase. When he is in time-out he is not allowed to play with toys or talk to us. I don’t mind if he talks to himself, moves his feet or plays with his hands. If he needs to move his little body a bit, that’s fine–I just want him removed from the situation–and our attention–that could instigate further inappropriate behavior. If he gets out of time-out before we come to get him or if he refuses to go to time-out, he gets a spanking (more on that in #2).

2. If the behavior is something that could harm himself or others (like hitting his baby brother or running into the street when I tell him to stop), he gets a spanking instead of time-out. Serious offenses warrant a serious consequence.

This whole spanking thing is very difficult for me. I was never spanked as a child and I never thought I would spank my own children. After a lot of prayer and discussion with my husband, though, we came to the conclusion that spanking is one tool we will use for discipline in our family. We use spanking sparingly and it is not our first line of defense. When we do use spanking, though, our goal is always to train–not hurt–our son.

When a spanking needs to happen, we wait until the parent who is giving the spanking is calm and collected. Sometimes this means David needs to go have a time-out in his room for a few minutes while we gather ourselves (or soothe the crying baby that he just walloped with his lego tower). Then we take David to a private place–we don’t want to add embarrassment to the mix–so he can get his spanking. Just one quick swat to the behind, then it’s over.

3. For all discipline, whether it’s a spanking or time-out, we always have the same “script” that we follow. Depending on the situation, we either go through this at the beginning or the end of the discipline time. I want little David to start learning the specific vocabulary of “sin” and “forgiveness” now. It’s so important that kids learn that bad behavior isn’t just “bad”–it is actually going against God. But, in that, there is always forgiveness in Christ Jesus. Our script goes something like this.

“David, you are in time-out (or getting a spanking) because you chose to do _____. That breaks our rules (and can hurt you/other people). When you do _____ it is also a sin. Sin breaks God’s laws and makes Him sad. Mommy and Daddy love you and want you to be more like Jesus, so we need to discipline you now.

Now, let’s pray together (we have him repeat phrases after us): Dear God, please forgive me for (_____). Please help me (obey, play nicely, share, etc.) so I can be more like you. Amen.”

We end the discipline time with David apologizing for the specific behavior (“Sorry I threw my peas at you, Mommy.” instead of just “sorry”). Then we give each other a hug. If he hurt someone else, he also tries to make amends with that person. If he made a mess, he helps to clean up the mess. Done.

4. Go back to “real life”. Don’t dwell on the bad behavior or keep bringing it up. If it’s been dealt with properly, then it’s time to move on.

Final Thoughts
Again, this is how we do discipline in our family. Every family has different children and different parents, so I know that this model is not the best fit for every family out there. In fact, it may not even be the best fit for our family 5 or 10 years down the road. The important things will always be important, though: lovingly correct your children so they can be more like Jesus. And try not to pull your hair out when that sweet little darling gets sent to time-out for the 480th time today.

We Love, Teach, Grow

My journey through motherhood