Our Top 10 Favorite Children’s Books {for now}

9:16 pm ByFiled UnderBooks, TV, Music & Movies, Marriage, Parenting, Family & Friendship

Last week we finished the reading program at Annalyn’s preschool. In what seemed like a very short period of time, every child was encouraged to have 100 books read to her. Everyone who met that goal received a free book and an invitation to a special reading party. I love to read, Annalyn loves to read, and I feel like we read together quite a bit. But I’ll tell you what: Hitting 100 books in less than a month was harder than it sounded!

It was a stretch to get that many books read in such a short time frame, but it did introduce us to some great new (to us) books and remind us about a few old favorites. I asked tonight on Facebook for favorite kids’ books, and now it’s my turn to share my favorites. Ten of them, to be exact.

Our Top 10 Favorite Children’s Books {at the moment}

  1. Princess Pig by Eileen Spinelli: I love non-girly princess books. This one tells the story of a pig who briefly believes she’s a princess but eventually realizes she’s happy to be herself, “a plain old pig.”
  2. The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch: What do you do when your prince is a jerk? Slay the dragon yourself and tell the prince where to stuff it!
  3. Princess Knight by Cornelia Funke: This book’s princess scoffs at the idea of arranged marriage – and totally kicks butt in a jousting competition.
  4. Fancy Nancy by Jane O’Connor: We own half a dozen Fancy Nancy books and look for new ones every time we visit the library. The original story is the best of all, though.
  5. The Jellybeans and the Big Book Bonanza by Laura Numeroff and Nate Evans: Numeroff is the author of the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie books, which we also love, and this new (to us) series is great, too. Well, Big Book Bonanza was. I can’t wait to try out the rest of the Jellybeans books!
  6. Ducks Don’t Wear Socks by John Nedwidek: I’m pretty sure I mentioned this book before, but it bears repeating. I love this book. We often shout, “Pants on the line!” for no reason at our house. Please write another book, Mr. Nedwidek!
  7. Duck Soup Jackie Urbanovic: I checked out a couple other duck books for Annalyn without mentioning that we’d read this one before. A few days after we read them, Annalyn said, “Hey! Where’d that book about the duck in the soup go? I want to read that one!” Guess we’d better get back to the library!
  8. Bear Snores On Karma Wilson: The bear books by Wilson are sweet, and beautifully illustrated. We’ve only read a few of them, but finding more is on the top of our library to-do list.
  9. Spoon by Amy Krouse Rosenthal: I love this book! The spoon gets bummed that he isn’t as fun or cool as his other utensil friends but eventually realizes he’s unique and special just the way he is. Clever writing and a great message.
  10. Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin: The last time I wrote about children’s books, this was suggested. And I’m glad, because it’s great! I bought several Cronin books for Annalyn’s Easter basket.

What are your favorite children’s books?

This post will be linked to Top Ten Tuesday at OhAmanda. And by the way, this Friday is Read Across America Day, celebrating reading and Dr. Seuss’s birthday. We’re celebrating by enjoying the copy of The Lorax I got at Blissdom!

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Chore Chart and Allowance for a Preschooler

2:32 pm ByFiled UnderMarriage, Parenting, Family & Friendship, Uncategorized

When I get home from a conference, I go through my stack of business cards and look up blogs, Twitter accounts and Facebook pages. I love looking at the cute and clever designs printed on those little cards, but once I’ve followed all my new friends, I don’t really have a good place – or reason – to keep them.

About a year ago, though, I discovered that Annalyn LOVES playing with business cards. So, every few months, she gets a new stack of pretty, colorful cards to add to her collection. She thinks they are debit cards. She calls them her “money.”

Until I had a child I never thought about how difficult the concept of money is. It never occurred to me that a 4-year-old would prefer 10 nickels over one dollar bill any day. And I certainly never debated the merits of motivating that same child with promises of shiny coins for her piggy bank.

Since becoming a mom, though, it seems the question of allowance is everywhere . . . which means that opinions from one end of the spectrum to another are everywhere, too. After going over the pros and cons half a dozen times, I finally decided to do something a couple months ago. (It’s easy for me to get stuck in research mode, gathering intel and input on every angle of an issue, but never making an actual choice.)

The choice we’ve made for our family is to give Annalyn a short list of daily chores. For each chore completed, she gets five cents. And of the money she earns, 10 percent goes into a “give” jar, 10 percent goes into a “save” jar, and the rest goes into a “spend” jar.

For us instituting chores and allowance is more about understanding money and learning to manage it than it is about mandating daily chores for our child.

After all, I don’t have to do much to motivate Annalyn to help out around the house. Honestly, the kid loves to clean. I don’t know how this happened.

Her chores are mainly things that she was already doing, off and on, and this new system is simply making those habits more regular. I also added a couple things that she probably should have been doing for a while now, but I’d been lazy in teaching her and then waiting for her to do them. (It is so much faster for me to put away the silverware than waiting for her to do it!)

Here are the chores on her list:

  • Make her bed
  • Put away clean silverware
  • Set the table
  • Clear her dishes after meals
  • Put away toys
  • Help me put away her laundry

She doesn’t do them all every day, and I don’t stress about that. And though she’s excited about getting her own money, she hasn’t been too worked up about making sure each box is checked off every day. (We’re both pretty type A, so this is actually a very good thing.) I want to be consistent, but like I said, this new system is about teaching her how to use money, not about cracking the whip on a list of chores.

Once I decided this was what I think is best for our family, I  – of course – went online for inspiration in the actual execution. Simple Mom shared a great chore chart and some rationale about chores for preschoolers that I found super helpful. And I slapped some scrapbooking stickers on Mason jars for piggy banks after seeing these money jars on Pinterest.

So far, this simple and laid back approach to chores and allowance is working for our family. (So of course, I’m linking up to Works for Me Wednesday!)

What does your family do for chores and allowance? How are you teaching your kids about money?

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Making New Friends Anyway {inRL}

11:40 pm ByFiled UnderMarriage, Parenting, Family & Friendship

A couple weeks ago we took a road trip to visit friends for the weekend. You may recall I mentioned them, saying they “had the nerve to move away.” Yes, I said it. Because honestly? I get really annoyed when people I love move away.

I’m not mad at them, of course. Or any of my friends who have moved across town or the country, or any of my friends who never lived here in the first place and refuse to move next door to me.

But the hard, grown-up fact that I can’t gather all the people I love the most and force them to live with me, like we’re in the dorm at college? I kind of hate that.

Every time a friend moves away, I tell myself that’s it. I’m done. I’m not making any new friends. Because you know what? They’ll just leave. They’ll get a new job, go to a different church, go on a mission trip and never come home.

I’ve been pretty comfortable in that big baby scaredy cat mindset, too. But earlier this year, a sermon about this very thing hit me between the eyes.

The topic was connecting and community, so I didn’t have to work hard to apply the message to my longing for close relationships and fear that they’ll only end in hurt and “I miss you, please move back” emails. And it’s not like I’d never noticed that Jesus had close friends – close friends he knew would hurt him in the end. But I hadn’t really thought about the fact that while Jesus knew Judas would betray him and Peter would deny him, He chose to love them and live with them anyway.

After I was smacked in the face with that message, though, I felt frustrated. Sure, I get it. Community is important and relationships are worth the possible hurt I might encounter along the way. But how on earth do I make that happen?

There was a time when I was rolling in friends. I had work friends and church friends. I had single friends and couple friends. I had high school friends and college friends and new friends. (Notice how I didn’t call you “old friends,” lovely ladies from high school and college!)

Today is a different story.

Today is sporadic emails and Facebook messages instead of spontaneous happy hours. Today is scheduling a girls’ night out two months in advance only to cancel at the last minute because of a sick kiddo. Today is, “I haven’t seen you in forever!” and “We should get together soon. Yeah, we should.” Today is realizing that I have closer relationships with the people I Skype and tweet than the people I sit next to in church and drive past at the preschool.

Today is hard.

Maybe you know what I’m talking about?

Maybe you miss girls nights out or scrapbooking retreats or book clubs or coffee dates. Maybe your friends have moved away or drifted away. Maybe you’ve always had a hard time finding friends to connect with – or finding time to connect with your friends. Maybe it’s a little bit of all of the above. I know it is for me.

That’s why I love what (in)courage is doing in a few months.

(in)RL is going to be a day of (in)courage meetups all around the country and globe and a webcast for everyone to tune into. Women will gather to watch live webcasts of (in)courage contributors and community, connect with each other and discover new friendships they didn’t know were right around the corner.

On Saturday, April 28, thousands of (in)courage women all over the world will be getting together in homes, coffee shops, restaurants, or churches to connect in real life.

And even though it’s hard – and not a little bit scary – I’m going to host an (in)RL meetup. What about you? Will you attend a meetup or even host one?

Sure, those new friends might live across town. Or be different from you. Or hurt your feelings someday. Or move away and never call, never write. But what if they don’t? Or what if they do, but they also give great hugs and listen with their whole hearts and watch chick flicks with you and drink coffee with you at any hour of the day?

Let’s do this. Let’s reach out and connect in real life. Let’s make new friends anyway.

[Oh, hey! If you're worried about planning a get-together, check out my ebook, Plan a Fabulous Party {without losing your mind}!]

Here are the links you need for (in)RL:

(in)RL website
(in)RL Q&A
Register for (in)RL
Host an (in)RL meetup

And don’t miss this great trailer video:

This post is part of a progressive blog tour. Don’t miss Sarah Mae’s post from yesterday or Arianne’s post tomorrow!

Do you find it hard to make friends anyway? Are you going to – or hosting – an (in)RL meetup? Will you come to mine???

P.S. I can’t remember who took the photo up above. It’s from Relevant, and I’d love to give credit where credit’s due. So if it’s yours, please let me know!

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Broccoli, Jello & Other Girl Stuff

9:15 am ByFiled UnderMarriage, Parenting, Family & Friendship, Uncategorized

My daughter is a girly girl. Somehow, I gave birth to this child who loves all things pink, purple, pretty and princess – even though I’m just about as UNgirly as a woman can be.

I don’t paint my nails.
I don’t use product in my hair.
I don’t wear lace or ruffles or pastels.
I don’t giggle. Or scream.
I never owned a Barbie doll.
And I don’t sew.

Okay, maybe sewing (or not) has nothing to do with femininity. And I realize that those other points are stereotypical. But I’m really not into all those typical girly things. (Except romance novels. And chocolate. And goodness knows, I cry all the stinking time. But other than that . . .)

So to have this child who, despite my best efforts to ignore the World of Pink, is determined to be as twirly and sparkly as possible? It really boggles my mind.

To be honest, though, I kind of love it. Loving pink and glitter and tiaras and baby dolls is fun. And even if it doesn’t come naturally, I sort of like being silly and fun and carefree with my little girl.

It’s not like we only play princess games at our house, though. (In case you’re getting concerned or wondering who I am and what I did with the Mary you know.) As much as she loved the Strawberry Shortcake dolls and twirly, sparkly dress she got for Christmas, Annalyn loves – and plays with – her new tool kit and firefighter costume just as much.

Learning to love pink and everything that includes has actually helped me lighten up a bit. [Shut up. I said "a bit"!] For most of my life, I’ve equated serious with mature, reserved with responsible. But it’s possible, I’m learning, that letting loose and having fun doesn’t mean I’m frivolous or shallow. And you know what I think? A little glitter never hurt anyone.

And if my pretty pink princess girly girl thinks that a bra is called “broccoli” and hair gel is called “Jell-O,” well, that’s not all that bad, either. [For now.]

Are you a girly girl? Do you have any kids who are really different than you? How do you feel about glitter?

10 Comments

Stupid toys.

4:31 pm ByFiled UnderMarriage, Parenting, Family & Friendship

I was surprised to find a new Parents magazine in my mailbox the other day. Though it pains me to do so, I’ve decided to let all my magazine subscriptions expire, and I thought I’d reached the end of all of them.

[Yes, not too long ago, I had subscriptions to Parents, Parenting, Taste of Home and Every Day with Rachael Ray. Oh, and Family Fun. I think that's all.]

I love magazines, but I read through them in about 30 minutes and then toss them in the recycling. Not exactly the best use of my money. (As opposed to my husband’s car magazines, which reside in our . . . well, in a room of the house for many, many days.)

Anyway, I finally opened up this unexpected issue of parenting advice, and I saw the news: Mr. Potato Head is turning 60 this year.

Seeing that, I remembered that most people apparently love the Potato Heads. The Hasbro website even calls them, “endearing potato pals that have captured the hearts, imaginations and laughter of kids for generations.”

I might have agreed with that, had my child not received a Mrs. Potato Head a couple years ago. After all, I have pleasant memories of playing with an old potato head doll at my grandma and grandpa’s house. Those memories tend to be fuzzy, blurred with cousins I now only see at holidays and retro colors that actually still cover my grandma’s house. But we had fun with Mr. Potato Head. I think.

And maybe we did. But the Mrs. Potato Head we have? She is an annoying, pointless piece of plastic.

There. I said it. I don’t like Mr. – or Mrs. – Potato Head. The plastic parts are so stiff that it takes forever – and elbow grease that a small child certainly does not possess – to stick the parts into the potato. And once you finally get them in there? Then what? You have a potato head with weird features, appendages and accessories and it does . . . what? Nothing.

And don’t get me started on the fact that all those pieces – the ones that came together in one box – don’t even all fit on our stupid lady potato.

Don’t be lecturing me about creativity, either. I get it. We could pretend that the potato head could talk. Or shop. Or something. But you know what? My daughter has an extremely active imagination, engaging in pretend play pretty much every waking hour of her day, but that potato? It never leaves the toy box.

[Parenthetical disclaimer: Thank you to the sweet neighbors who gave my child her lady potato. It was kind and generous, and we still love you and every other toy you ever gave her. Ditto to my brother-in-law who contributed the next victim of my toy rant.]

All this ranting has led me to think about the many, many toys I find irritating. Need I remind you of my feelings about this cat?

Unfortunately, in a Parent of the Year moment, Mark and I let our feelings show about this creepy robot cat that has double-jointed legs and sheds clingy plastic hair all over the house. And I found myself in this pitiful conversation with my four-year-old:

Annalyn: Mommy, my cat isn’t stupid.
Me: Ummm, okay. Why are you saying that?
Annalyn: Daddy said my cat is stupid. But she’s not. I love her.
Me: Oh. Well, um, that wasn’t nice, was it?
Annalyn: NO!
Me: And, remember, I don’t want to hear you say the word, “stupid.”
Annalyn: But, but, but . . .
Me: I know, you were just repeating what Daddy said.
Annalyn: WHY would he say that, Mommy? We don’t say that word in our family!
Me: I know, baby. I’m sure he’s sorry.

Stupid cat. First she is annoying with her mere existence, and now she’s getting Mark in trouble for calling her names (and *gasp!* saying words we don’t say in our family).

I know I’m not alone in my dislike of certain toys. On Sunday we went to a birthday party for one of Annalyn’s friends, and her mom was not nearly as thrilled with the craft-project-in-a-box present that one mom brought. (Or my six-pack of puzzles, complete with many tiny pieces of cardboard princess fun, to be honest.)

So, what kind of toys – or games – do you despise? Which ones get on your nerves or drive you up a wall? Noisy toys? Toys with lots of pieces? Games that never, ever end? (Hello, Chutes & Ladders! I’m talking to you!)

Affiliate links are used in this post. In case you want a Potato Head or Creepy Robot Cat for yourself.

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