Renaissance life in a post-modern world
Posted in Family and Children on Sep 9th, 2008
I know my sons love me. But they adore their dad. He takes them fishing at 3:00 A.M. on Lake Michigan, often in very rough water (even our 5-year-old). He lets them chop wood (even our 5-year-old). He lets them drive the tractor and till the land (well, not our 5-year-old). He takes them snorkeling around [...]
Posted in Family and Children on Aug 31st, 2008
This summer my husband introduced our family to the game of golf. Our sons have taken up the sport with tremendous enthusiasm. Their focus and drive to learn and improve their golf game has been intriguing to observe. It demonstrates the incredible energy and stamina bottled up in young man’s life simply waiting to be [...]
Posted in Cleaning and Organizing on Jul 16th, 2008
Customize your children’s chores. They can become an expert in one or two particular areas. You and your children will always know who is responsible for a particular chore. This will end the “it’s not my turn” or “I did that last time” mentality.
One of my sons is the sanitary engineer of the house. Every morning he empties [...]
Posted in Recipes on Jun 30th, 2008
Persuading your children to eat fruits and vegetables may be easier than you think. I have found that it is all in the presentation. Children, as well as adults, enjoy beautifully arranged fare.
If I instruct my sons and daughters to serve themselves a snack, they might choose an apple out of the refrigerator. However, the likely scenario is that [...]
Posted in Family and Children on Jun 20th, 2008
Girls love to accessorize. From an early age you can see that they are hard-wired to enjoy jewelry, shoes, purses, and makeup. What little girl doesn’t enjoy playing dress-up to some degree? As they get a little older, they become more concerned with what they are wearing. Then, as they move into the double digit years, [...]
Posted in Recipes on Jun 13th, 2008
Honor your husband Sunday as the father of your children. Bless him with gifts. Cook his favorite meal. Allow him to enjoy your home and children in a peaceful setting. Or, perhaps, send him off to enjoy his favorite sport.
Include in your gift-giving a promise to read Dr. Laura Schlessinger’s book The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands. In my [...]
Posted in Recipes on Jun 2nd, 2008
In order to embrace the ideals of Bona Vita, the “good life”, in our homes, we must share our lives with our children. This means sharing your hopes and dreams for them, your goals and aspirations with them. Practically speaking, we need to work and play with our families. Together you can garden, cook, clean [...]
Posted in Cleaning and Organizing on May 28th, 2008
Wikipedia defines a sous-chef de cuisine as the “direct assistant of the executive chef…”. About.com:Restauranting goes on to explain that a sous-chef is “directly involved with food production…”. As I prepare a meal, I enlist one of my children to be my sous-chef. I have actually taken to using the term incorrectly as a verb [...]
Posted in Family and Children on May 15th, 2008
Children’s birthday parties changed forever at our house in about 1994. Once again, I found myself in the midst of 20 - 30 very young children as I attempted to create a lovely memory for my son’s birthday. I was completely caught up in the Southern California children’s birthday hooplah. First, you had to come up with a unique theme. Then [...]
Posted in Cleaning and Organizing on May 13th, 2008
Children are so malleable. In general, they desire to please their parents. However, it is a fallen world and they need constant direction, discipline and training. This is such a deep topic, open to discussion and controversy. Today I am just going to graze the surface and talk about children and chores, particularly in regards [...]
