Our children are grown, and now we are expecting our first grandchild! So of course, I start thinking about when our kids were little. My husband and I have often said that raising children was so much harder than we thought it would be….but so much more fun and joyful than we ever thought it would be. It is exciting, and often challenging, when they are learning so much so fast. It is so hard to decide what the most important lessons are and how to teach them. Recently I came across this blog, called “Oh Joy” by Joy Cho. In one post she writes about some basic things she is teaching her children.

“As my kids get older, I find myself navigating so many situations where I need to figure out how to guide them towards the right way to be, how to be kind, how to be a good person…in ways that a kid can understand. Here are a few things that have come up recently that felt like things we can all be doing in our grown-up lives as well…

1. Greet people when you see them (“Good morning!”, “Hi!”) AND make sure you look them in the eye! Whether it’s the bus driver, your teacher, your friend’s mom or dad, make eye contact with those you see and greet.

2. Be kind to everyone (even if they are not kind to you). I know it can be really hard to be nice to someone that isn’t always very nice to you. But we can’t let someone else’s lack of kindness affect us. Be the one who is kind to everyone because you don’t know who is struggling with something else at home or maybe having a hard time themselves. They need your kindness.

3. When you are having a conversation with someone—listen to them—and treat him or her like they are the most important person in the room. Whether it’s a friend or someone you just met at a party, give everyone the same respect and attention. It doesn’t matter if someone is older, younger, or you think they are not at the same level as you in some way. Treat everyone the same as you would like to be treated.

4. Write notes when you’re thankful (and also when you’re sorry). Give and send thank you notes (or drawings) when people make you feel special on your birthday or give you a gift. Also, if you did something not nice to a friend, write them a real life letter to apologize.

5. It’s ok to get messy. Enjoy the mess because it’s often in those moments that we are most creative, free, and happy! But we still need to have a plan to clean up afterwards (because your mom won’t always clean up your messes). “

Here is the link to her blog:

https://ohjoy.blogs.com/my_weblog/2019/05/things-im-teaching-my-children.html

Parenting Guide Book:

“Little People, Guidelines for Common Sense Child Rearing” by Edward R. Christophersen is a book I read when we were starting our family. The author’s favorite piece of advice is “Catch ‘Em Being Good”, explaining the importance of positive behavior. This is a very commonsense parenting book to teach parents how to help their children grow up happy and healthy.

As your children grow, remember to take lots of photos! Phones make it so easy…just save the images onto an external hard drive or thumb drive, and print the most special ones. As a parent, you will love looking back at all the photos. There are so many things you would forget about unless you have photos to remind you.

Enjoy your children, for in a blink of an eye, they will be grown, married and having their own children!

Happy first day of spring! Daffodils and tulips are starting to pop out of the ground and yesterday we had robins in our backyard! I am ready to start cleaning out the garden beds and planting new seeds and plants. No matter how old you are – it is always fun to play in the dirt! Especially when you reap beautiful flowers and delicious produce as a result.

As I was thinking about getting outside to “play” in the gardens, I decided to share some of my favorite gardening tools. The right tools make the jobs so much easier – and even more fun. Below are listed some of favorites: