If you want to know someone, to see what they are made of, roll up your sleeves and work along side them. Nowhere is this more true than with your family, especially your children! Whether doing daily chores or working for pay outside the home it is your duty to train your children to work
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What I love about Facebook is 'meeting' so many people with similar interest and coming across so many great writings. Yesterday this article was 'liked' by a friend of mine that I have great respect for, so I clicked over to see what it was all about. It is really good and I wanted to share it
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For the most part I'm all for living simply, now not too simple. ;o) I'm pretty frugal and I don't mind having less to make life more simple. I think it is very easy to get caught up in owning so much stuff that it can eventually own you. I mean really, do we need 4 frying pans? Do we
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Emma (16), is learning all kinds of business skills with her Mary Kay endeavor. I appreciate that MK gives such good training, because they want need you to be successful at business. Because she is technically too young to be a consultant it is all done in my name, so I go with her to these mee
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Heard this song for the first time last night. I immediately thought of my young friend Ben, in Virginia, who just turned 17; he has restored an old Farmall tractor. Which made me think about the character he is building with that tractor. I love it when young men are doing manly thin
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When we take away one's opportunity to fail, we take away their opportunity to succeed. Whether it be allowing your children to help in the kitchen, sweep the floor or mow the grass, if you do not allow them to do it imperfectly in the beginning, they will never know the satisfaction of doing it
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Everything is always changing, nothing stays the same. I love going to my grandmother's in Upstate New York, it is where I spent the most of my time growing up and many things there still 'look' the same, but things are different. This old apple tree is a special landmark on Grandma's farm.
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I'm going to start a new series called, How to Work It Out. We all know that character and a good work ethic is important, but how to go about practically living that out is sometimes hard to figure out. With this series I'd like to spotlight some parents that are (or have finished) equipping their
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Guest post from our daughter Olivia: "I just don't have a green thumb! I wish I did but I just kill everything!" The lady said flippantly as I stood in line. "It's not really that hard," I replied, "just follow the directions." "I just can't cook! I wish I could, but I ruin every
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Here is a little twist on Kipling's poem If, written by Olivia: If you can never marry, see all your dreams rearranged, and still remain pure, If you can plan and plot and it all be overturned at a moments notice, and still submit joyfully, If you can slave over a dinner all day on
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Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need. ...make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands...so that you will behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need. Thessalonians 4:11, 12
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The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must pay for success. ~Vince Lombardi I love this quote! It's all about diligence!!! ~~~~ It's OK to fail, it's not OK to quit!
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Integrity is not a gift. It is a reward of discipline, honesty, consistency and doing what is right no matter the cost. ~Unknown How true this is!!! Integrity doesn't just happen. Integrity only happens as we make choices each day, choices to be: honest kind to everyone -
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...let's get down to the nitty-gritty of parenting. Having your child work along side you is such a great time to know your child in a way you normally wouldn't. When you have to tackle a task together (outside the normal make you bed kind of stuff), where you depend on each other to do
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Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going. Ecclesiastes 9:10 We all have work to be doing, so let's do it will all our might!
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I try to read a chapter of Proverbs every morning. I'm thinking if I were to heed the truths in Proverbs more often I'd avoid a lot of heartache and frustration. :o) How easily I forget or reason out why to do what is contrary. In light of yesterday's post about Responsibility and not
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Finished a stack of crocheted dishcloths to have on hand for our online shop and for gifts. They are 100% cotton. These were all made in about 2 weeks while watching a movie or visiting. I enjoy keeping my hands busy. Learn How to Crochet DVD &nb
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Character is built from the inside out. Remember the home has the strongest influence: school and church only supplement that. Your own behavior is the strongest influence your child has. The way to keep out evil is to fill the mind and the time with wholesome, interesting thou
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We have had rain just about everyday the past week which has caused the gardens to really thrive! The only thing is with all that thriving comes WEEDS! Hopefully today we will get out there and pull the unwanted roots that will choke out what is intended to be used for US to thrive! The las
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Be studious in your profession, and you will be learned. Be industrious and frugal, and you will be rich. Be sober and temperate, and you will be healthy. Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy. At least, you will, by such conduct, stand the best chance for such conseq
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Emma has a puppy that she is trying to train, he is a golden retriever. He is ALL PUPPY! Our yard stays a mess, he's dug out flower pots, torments the cats and he keeps retrieving toys from the neighbors yard to our yard...funny, but not funny! Last week Emma caught him pestering the c
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The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of honest workers." Helen Keller I love this quote by Helen Keller. Helen Keller was truly an amazing woman. Her life was a life of true diligence. The huge hurdles
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"The true way to render ourselves happy is to love our work and find in it our pleasure." Montteville Let's be diligent to teach our children that work is a good thing, even a hard, nasty task can be somewhat enjoyable if we have a good attitude.There are many
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Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds. Proverbs 27:23 The first time I heard someone preach about this verse they used it in context of knowing the state of your children's hearts. Then last weekend we attended a Bible study
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Living as a family is not always easy, in fact it is the one institution that you will have to die to your selfishness the most, well other than your relationship with Christ. The second greatest commandment is that we LOVE OUR NEIGHBOR! Our closest neighbors are the ones that live under
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In our home Jeff is an early bird, a SERIOUS early bird! The rest of us, well...we're not! :o) My goal is to have everyone up and moving by 7-7:30. During the summer it is usually earlier because the work needs to be done before it gets too hot. I am thankful that my sweet husband al
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When I was young I observed that nine out of every ten things I did were failures, so I did ten times more work. George Bernard Shaw
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As I have shared before in our Learning at Home series, we started homeschooling due to frustration. God used that to lead us to teach our children at home and teach US (Jeff and me) so much more!!! There are no words to explain the gratitude I have for His mercy towards us
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What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence. Samuel Johnson
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Several years ago I while teaching the character trait diligence/work to my children, I read short stories to them from The Big Book of Virtue. This story was one of our favorites: Dust Under the Rug There was once a mother, who had two little daughters; and, as her husband was dead a
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Now that we have covered the character trait of Responsibility, we will move on to Diligence. Responsibility and Diligence go hand in hand. Kim recently asked: Maybe you've already posted about it and I missed it, but do you have any recommendations on how to keep the children dilig
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Our family's choice:
Taste the joy that springs from labor.
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