Methods | Childhood Myths

Favorite Quote

May 10, 2013 By Diane and Chad 1 Comment

Some of my favorite bloggers have been doing an ‘Every Day in May’ blog….way too adventurous for me:)) But there are some great topics that I may have to try here and there during the rest of the month!

Today’s topic: What is your favorite quote?

That is not an easy thing for me to answer because I love inspirational quotes of all kinds. But one quote has been a part of my life for what seems like forever:

“DO WHAT’S BEST FOR KIDS!”

In all ways, at all times, by all people…this should be uppermost in all of our minds. Doing what’s right both educationally and emotionally for our kids will lead to the most important characteristics becoming those that lead these kids successfully into the future. Ignoring the academics doesn’t work, but neither does ignoring the emotional. For those who try to maintain a businesslike atmosphere in schools…shame on you! Learning comes in all forms but must be integrated into the whole person and all centers of the brain. Whether you are a parent, teacher, administrator, or businessman on the street….please use your brain and your heart to influence those who influence our children.

Whew! I guess I got that off my chest, huh?

Happy Parenting!

D and C

Filed Under: appreciation, behavior, beliefs, children, education, families, improving the world, inspiration, intentions, methods, parenting, quotes

Quilts from Memories

April 27, 2013 By Diane and Chad 1 Comment

After completing quilts for both Chad and Scott….do you remember….made from t-shirts I kept after their dad died. Each quilt was made from more than 45 shirts, 12 x 12 squares or pieces formed into that size. My lovely neighbor sewed the pieces together after I pinned them in the order I wanted. Then I used batting and a backing and hand-sewed them together….YOW! I am. not. a seamstress and therefor wrecked my fingers on each quilt. BUT I loved that I could give each boy a lovely memory quilt to remind them of their most awesome father:)))

Here is Scott’s

7' across and 7' down!!!

And here is Chad’s

same size

After giving my fingers a break, I decided I needed a quilt of my own. So combining F2′s shirts with some of my old shirts also…here is the front of my quilt. I haven’t decided yet what to do with the back…less than I did with the boys, I think.

this was how I started...

good, huh?

And then some up close and personal views…do you recognize any of these??

for my Monfort buddies...and Dave and Jodi:)

for F2's Teke buddies

for my Alpha Chi sisters

for remembering the Crary and Fink boat:)

Memories of all kinds….that’s what it’s all about!!! Make sure you keep every memory you might want later…time is fleeting!! Love my quilt:)))

Happy Parenting!

D and C

Filed Under: appreciation, beauty, brothers, carpe diem, families, follow-through, giving thanks, goals, happiness, having fun, inspiration, intentions, methods, parenting

Joyful Thursdays #59

April 11, 2013 By Diane and Chad Leave a Comment

What brings you joy, makes you happy, gives you peace? Here are some photos, quotes, and thoughts that make me joyful.

Joyful Thursdays #59

Here are three things that make me happy and bring me joy:

1) celebrating Scott’s birthday at Mongolian BBQ…hilarious!

yum

grillin' up the food..

poor Scott...ha, ha...foil helmet and singing "I'm a Little Teapot"

at least he was rewarded with a free sundae!

oh, no...poor puppy was afraid of the new look!!

2) being able to help teachers with their unending testing….I brought home some theme tests to grade at home

stacks of them

3) had book club this week…book was Fall of Giants by Ken Follett, next month The Kitchen House and then The Forgotten Garden

thought this was hilarious!!

I hope you are having a delightful Thursday:))

Happy Parenting!

D and C

Filed Under: beliefs, birthdays, book, book clubs, brothers, education, family photos, happiness, Happiness Tuesdays, having fun, joyful, joyful Thursdays, love, methods, parenting, photos, quotes, reading

Just Catching Up

March 31, 2013 By Diane and Chad Leave a Comment

Hi, everyone!!

After just buying a new computer and having all the data transferred from my old one…and visiting my mom in Florida for 2 weeks….arghh!! I have ignored all you lovely folks except for what little I can do on my iPad while I’m away!

I’m now learning how things work on the computer…way faster, so I have to slow my fingers down so I don’t click on the wrong things! It is really nice to have so much more power to work with. So let’s see if I can still throw some photos at you!

Nope, sorry! I need to install an updated version of Adobe and my computer password from my old Mac didn’t transfer to my new one!! I guess I have to talk to the ‘geniuses’ at Apple tomorrow:)

In the meantime, Have a lovely Easter and know I’ll be back here soon.

Happy Easter!

Happy Parenting,

D and C

Filed Under: love, methods

Joyful Thursdays #57

March 7, 2013 By Diane and Chad 1 Comment

What brings you joy, makes you happy, gives you peace? Here are some photos, quotes, and thoughts that make me joyful.

Joyful Thursdays #57

Here are three things that make me happy and bring me joy:

1) I LOVE the apple store!! The folks are so helpful….1st thing: they updated my ipad from a 4.something to a 6.something (that’s my technical expertise talking there).. wow! amazing! totally redone like a brand new ipad. I’m soo impressed!

went in just hoping for some extra speed...

I had to reinstall mail, etc.....but now I can get all the apps I couldn't get before!! Free:))

2) the issues I was having with my computer were actually because my router wasn’t working properly, so got rid of the old:

and moved to the new:

3) thinking about a new computer and phone:)))) The phone is 4 years old and SLOW!!! The computer is well over 5-6 years old and has been updated, tweaked, and babied long enough! I’ll let you know what happens!

There’s my technology review for you…from this non-techie to you!!

Happy Parenting!

D and C

Filed Under: carpe diem, education, follow-through, intentions, methods

Thank You, MOPs!!

February 26, 2013 By Diane and Chad Leave a Comment

Last night Chad and I spoke at a MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) meeting in Macomb. What a great bunch of ladies!!! Lots of fun, lots of discussion, and hopefully for them lots of hints! A couple of little ones were there to add to the atmosphere…baby talk is always welcome:))

This is what we love to do, so let us know if you’d like us to come speak to your group…

talking about family life is what it's all about:)

we actually sold some of these last night!!

Finding ways to share our message is always important to us. The meeting last night helped to invigorate us with some new energy…so thank you very much MOPs:)

lovin' them when they're little and lovin' them when they're bigger!

Happy Parenting!

D and C

Filed Under: behavior, being involved, book, children, education, families, giving thanks, goals, helping, inspiration, intentions, methods, parenting, respect, thank yous

Teacher, Parent Interviews

February 12, 2013 By Diane and Chad Leave a Comment

I would love to interview both teachers and parents about their hopes and expectations of their students and/or children. I will be sharing the results with my esteemed ‘audience’ if…..that is, if…anyone is up for sharing!!

Wouldn’t you be interested in knowing the opinions of others in all areas of both parenting and teaching? I know I would…even after all these years of doing both. I am always interested in educating myself with ideas…whether I use them or not is still totally up to me. Will you help by emailing me or commenting so that I can send you the questionnaire? After you receive it, answer in any way that is comfortable for you…there will be no judgment involved. You can short answer it, cut and paste it, essay it…whatever works for you to be able to share your hopes for your child or student. What do you think you and/or those who work with your child can do to help your child wind up being the best person possible?

Any ideas? Any takers? Please….. let’s get a conversation going here…all about kids and how to help them reach their potential! Email me at childhoodmyths@gmail.com or just comment here and I will get back to you shortly!

Thanks for even thinking about taking part in this process..you can answer either anonymously or with your name, whichever makes you more at ease.

Thank You

Happy Parenting!

D and C

Filed Under: being involved, carpe diem, children, education, follow-through, improving the world, inspiration, methods, parenting

Prayers, Please….

February 5, 2013 By Diane and Chad 2 Comments

New and great information on my stepdad Carl!

For previous info, check here

Carl has been in a rehab for 3 months…waiting for diagnosis for something other than ‘just’ dementia. It has been so hard for him and my mom. FINALLY, after a ton of work and research by my stepbrother Tom (who is an angel of immense proportions!), Carl is being operated on today. He has NPH, normal pressure hydrocephalus, which presents as dementia..but has a precise set of symptoms in a definite order…a strange gait, and then dementia, and then incontinence. Today he will be having a shunt put in which will divert extra cerebrospinal fluid from his brain to his belly! In most cases, all or at least most of the symptoms GO AWAY!!! We are all so thankful that this is being done!

All prayers and positive thoughts will be appreciated today. I’ll let you know how things go:)

two sweeties!

Happy Parenting!

D and C

Filed Under: carpe diem, family, giving thanks, love, methods, please and thank you

The Five Steps

January 28, 2013 By Diane and Chad 1 Comment

Have you heard of the five steps?? No?? that’s because one of our ‘group members’…you know who you are….came up with this plan!!

When the TLG kids were probably in junior high (ish)…one of the moms made sure every one knew about the five steps of life. Are you ready? Okay, hold up your hand and use your fingers:

Step 1: Graduate from high school

Step 2: Graduate from college

Step 3: Start a career

Step 4: Get married

Step 5: Have children

The kids heard about the 5 steps all the time, especially when they were together….uh,oh…which step are we on and where are we going?? We laughed as we subtly encouraged the actions we wanted:))))

Here are some of the kids early on:

3 of these little ones are now on step 4!

so cute!

all are now on step 3, 4 are on step 4, and 1 will be on step 5 next month

The first to be on step 5, coming on Valentine’s Day!

….and MY first to be on step 4 as of August 31 this year:)

What do you think of our ‘tongue-in-cheek’ five step plan? It was a great..yet humorous…plan for our group!!

Happy Parenting!

D and C

Filed Under: appreciation, behavior, beliefs, boundaries, children, education, families, family photos, follow-through, goals, intentions, memories, methods, parenting

Intentions, Past and Future

January 13, 2013 By Diane and Chad Leave a Comment

Year #2 of doing a List of Intentions (instead of resolutions) is now complete. It is so much easier, and less stressful, to set your goals in terms of intentions. Then if your goal is not completed…it just continues into the next year.

For this past year, I had 21 intentions and completed 18!!! Not bad, at least in my own mind…

Some of the things I completed:

giving blood again

beginning to do Meals on Wheels

taking piano lessons

not quite ready for this, but I can play some 'Phantom' songs, Unchained Melody, and Somewhere in Time.

having the house (many rooms) scraped and painted

made recipe folders for the boys…they included some handwritten recipes from my gramma and from my mom’s great aunt.

bought and used a shredder

converted old slides for the computer

worked on geneology photos for books

and many others…. writing them down for you each year helps keep me on track, but just calling them intentions makes all the difference to me.

Do you have any intentions for this year? Make them all positive…such as, keep weight below present # instead of lose weight….easier on your brain and emotions:))

Good Luck!

Happy Parenting!

D and C

Filed Under: behavior, believe, carpe diem, chores, follow-through, goals, intentions, methods