Parenting Teens: Because No One Told Her She Couldn’t

Skyler (formerly Tech Princess, we are both tired of TP) was at Tae Kwon Do class. She is preparing to test for her 1^st degree black belt. She is in class with kids preparing for their 2^nd degree test. Her teacher, forgetting that Skyler was not one of the kids preparing for 2^nd degree, told her to practice breaking 3 boards with her butterfly kick. Breaking 3 boards at a time is a 2^nd degree skill. While she had observed some of her classmates perform this, she had not yet learned this skill.

..... She broke the boards.....on her first try. The teacher when told, remembered that Skyler was testing first degree and exclaimed,” She should not be able to do that. She doesn’t know the secret yet.”

I asked her how she did it. Skyler replied, “Because no one told me I couldn’t.”

Practical Living: Moving Heavy Furniture: A Second Cup Life Hack

We had the wooden floor in the living room refinished this week. We had to move everything out of the room. There were two very heavy pieces that son and husband couldn’t pick up. The plan was to slide those pieces over the Pergo floor to the room where we planned to store the furniture. I pointed out that if they scratched the Pergo we would have to replace it before putting the house up for sale.  I suggested they slide heavy blankets under the furniture and then slide it into the next room. The potential for having to shell out even more money to get the house ready before we put it up for sale in the spring (don’t get me started), caused my suggestion to penetrate the cloud of testosterone fogging the house. Lo and behold they tried it...

And it worked.

Once the furniture was on the blanket, even I could have easily pushed it into the next room.

Aging with Adventure: The Vanilla Bean Quest: A Second Cup Recipe Suggestion Part II

Hunting around on the web for a source to buy spices at a reasonable price, I came across the Casual Kitchen blog.  Dan has a very helpful post on why buying spices are a rip off. In part two of his post, Dan mentioned the Atlantic Spice Company.

The Atlantic Spice Company had vanilla beans for $2.50 each.  The problem was there is a $30 minimum per order. I was happily forced to take advantage of the 4 ounces of beans for about $17 (there were about 24 beans in a bag). So in addition to enough chili spices and Italian seasons to last the winter, I have enough extra beans to make vanilla sugar. Vanilla sugar is a great homemade Christmas gift.

3 cups Sugar

1 Vanilla bean

Slice beans down the middle and mix well in the sugar. Store covered for at least 2 weeks. Use as you would plain old dull boring sugar.

Parenting in the Real World: Child in Crisis:Parents in Conflict

Your child is in crisis. Several things can happen between parents: One parent thinks there is a crisis, the other doesn’t. Both parents agree there is a crisis and they agree on how to deal with the situation. Both parents agree there is a crisis and they have widely different approaches to the situation.

We both agree that there is a crisis and have widely different approaches to the situation. Crisis caused by a child’s decisions and behavior can tear a marriage apart, if how to deal with the child becomes an ongoing conflict between the parents.

Thinking through the situation, I have to remind myself that both of us have our child’s best interest at heart. We both want that child to mature into a responsible Christ follower as an adult. My way is not defacto the best way, even if it seems that way to me. Our marriage will outlast this crisis (nor is our marriage in crisis over this situation) unless I contribute to helping to make it a crisis in our marriage.

Sounds so wise....only now I have live it out....sigh

Parenting In the Real World: What Do You Think?

I posted the following status on Facebook:

Free to good home: One 18 year old male. Hard worker, pleasant and civil to everyone but his parents. We pay for shipping.

The parents who responded were encouraging. One of my child’s friends politely took offence at my status thinking I was trying to publicly shame my child.

What do you think?