Sound the Alarm

It's been years since I purchased the girls their first alarm clocks.  The Rugged Mountain Man and I decided that

learning to get up on your own 

and tackle the work of the day is a life skill.

I purchased alarm clocks for the girls when they were around the age 6 or 7, so there has been an alarm clock in the older and younger Blossoms' rooms for a while now.

Initially, I set it for a reasonable time, somewhere in the neighborhood of 6:30 - 7:00 am.  For the first two weeks, I walked back to their room and reinforced in a calm and cheerful voice that it was time to rise and shine.  I joggled their shoulders.  I turned on the lights.  I was persistent... because we have places to be...

in the living room for devotions, outside for chores, and in the school room for school.

Just because our commitments happen at home, doesn't mean they aren't serious business.

After about a week or so, they were used to rising on their own, turning off the alarm, getting dressed, and coming out for morning quiet time.  Success!  We have established a healthy habit!

As a mom, having the girls learn to rise on their own, gaining this independence, has brought a healthy freedom to our mornings.  I still make time for hugs, snuggles, and affectionate morning time, of course.

Here are a few things that I prefer in the alarm clocks we buy:

~ I like the kind that keeps the alarm set every day, even after it goes off in the morning.  Then, they don't have to set their alarm every night.

~ I also love the kind that has two alarm settings.  We keep the most common rise times in those settings. 

~ Because we live in the country and power outages are frequent enough to be annoying, I prefer the alarm clocks with battery backup. 

~ I prefer the super simple, easy to use, basic alarm clocks.

~ I prefer the large display so they can see it from ANYWHERE in their rooms.

~ I love buying the same alarm clock for everyone if possible so it's easy to keep track of how they work.

Teach your children to rise independently and you've helped them to be on time for their jobs later in life.  It's a life skill worth investing in today.

Dominique

I Don't Think It's Too Early

Since our days have been busy with gathering wood, baking dog treats, 

and looking ahead to hunting season, we capitalized on a few slower hours.

We put up the tree... two weeks ago!!

Hunting Season Tips

For a few of the families we know, it's either hunting season already or it's gonna be hunting season soon.  Most of the mamas are excited to restock the freezers but grimly bracing ourselves to fly solo in some way or other.

In the past, hunting season has brought its own set of challenges for us.  Often, Daddy is away for days at a time, which means Mama is ON, always on.  This often translates to VERY tired.  Sometimes, the Blossoms seem more emotional when he's not around.  Sometimes I have a harder time falling asleep.  Sometimes weird things happen when he's away. So very tiring for me, but just me?

Yes, hunting is his hobby, but it's also physically taxing on the Rugged Mountain Man ~ early mornings, late nights, miles and miles of walking, carrying heavy gear and hopefully, dragging a carcass.  Plus, juggling work and home duties.  Throw in sleeping away from home with snoring relatives nearby and it's so very tiring for him too.

Instead of only focusing on the harder parts of hunting season for me, I asked myself,

"What can I do to make hunting season easier 

on the Rugged Mountain Man?"

I sat in my chair, penning those words and waiting.  It shifted my focus away from me.  This went straight to my heart and helped me to think of ways to serve my husband. 

I needed this practical application for preferring him above me. Instead of thinking all the inconveniences and the things I dislike about hunting season,

I decided to tidy up the basement.  It is NOT my favorite daunting project, but it's the first place he sees when he comes in from hunting around here.  I thought it would be nice for him to have a peaceful place to sit and take off his gear.  It's warm and cozy by the wood stove and it is certainly much more welcoming now that it doesn't look like you've stumbled upon someone's jumbled up mess of a storage unit... even though the basement IS our storage unit.

There's more that I hope to do.  I hope to make sure he's well stocked with good snacks.  From what the girls tell me, hunters get ravenous out there.

I'd like to keep an eye on the clock for better bed times.  Though I'm usually the one who is early to bed, I normally like to seize the time to chat with his undivided attention. Thinking more of him than me, I think I'd do well to quiet down earlier. 

The Blossoms and I will need to pitch in to take a few little things off his plate - like taking out the garbage and bringing in wood. 

Most importantly, I need to be praying for my husband.  I pray for him to be healthy.  I pray for him to hunt safely.  I pray for God's provision.  I pray for things to go well. 

It's impossible for me to pray fervently for him and still have a rotten attitude about how hunting season affects me. 

Friends, we can't control life, its situations, and its seasons, 

but we can choose our attitude.  

Dominique

If you'd like to read more, check out this post "When is the last time...?"  In it I ask myself, "When's the last time you did something for your husband?"  There's more good food for thought under the Marriage label.

Layers, Layers, Layers

Blossom4 believes strongly that leggings function as pants.  And maybe they do when you're a tiny little sprite of a thing.  They sure don't function as pants when you're feeding the animals in wind and sleet on a chilly morning though.

With our tried and true methods of layering in mind, I created this graph to help our younger two Blossoms know how to dress.

After all, there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing choices.

Blossom3 tries hard to dress appropriately for the temps, but sometimes it's just a lot to remember without asking me again and again.

With this graph, I'm hoping there will be fewer incidents of Mommy glancing out the window and then, sending the little Blossoms back to the basement for more layers.



I've also added it to the Printables tab so you can find it easily any time, or you can pin it to find it later!

An Evening at the Corn Maze

Our church got together and went to a corn maze a few weeks ago.  

I've never been to a corn maze before and neither had the Blossoms!

Reading the map was super tricky. 

We managed to navigate our way through, out, and into the game area of the farm.

We found the giant hamster wheels to be quite entertaining.  Blossom4 seemed to have a particular bent for it.  Her scrambling reminded us of a little gorilla's coordination.  

Giant skee ball was fun but virtually impossible, in my opinion.

Maybe the Rugged Mountain Man can do it!

Getting that bowling ball to roll just hard enough to hit the end and not roll back only partially was so challenging.  We cheered, held our breath, cheered and giggled here.

This was after we got scared out of our skin by the jarring noises made when you mess up in the giant game of Operation!  Blossom2 was much better than the rest of us at it!

A rope obstacle course was complicated, but cool.  The girls were hooked to the rope and then cautiously made their way through the web of colored ropes.  

Blossom1 and Blossom4 love a good game of Connect Four.  

Blossom2 and Blossom3 lifted the ropes and held them taut as they rolled the ball and released it into the bucket at the end.  I quickly won this game twice, which I felt great about until the Rugged Mountain Man showed me that he also man-handled this game... on the first try.

We convinced Daddy to go through the corn maze one more time, navigating more confidently this time.  

Then, we headed home to watch a football game together, but not before stopping at Walmart so we could pick up supplies for grilled wings.  The Rugged Mountain Man treated us to his version of grilled goodness!  We're serious fans!

Not an Instant Fix

That's not to say that time outside fixes every problem.  

There have been plenty of times that it has simply been a relocation of the bickering.

There have been times that I brought them all back inside, 

just as frustrated, tired, and overwhelmed as when I went outside.  

I think most mamas are aware that there is NO instant fix to childhood character issues.

We mamas need to stop searching for and expecting one.  

We're investing in their training one moment and decision at a time.  This is sloughing through the hard times and navigating through messy situations with the Lord at the helm.

We can do little, common sense things that help our children.  We can help their minds and bodies be healthier so that it's a little easier for them to obey and be kind.  

Dominique

Snapshots from a recent cabin adventure.