* 11/7, Around the Blogosphere and Link up *

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Busy day today! Daycare kids arrive around 2:30 and will be here until 10:30ish tonight. All three . . .

We are also having my husband's parents and three aunts and uncles over tonight for our daughter's birthday. That translates into 9 adults and four children crowded into our small home!

That also translates into, as of tomorrow, I have a 2 year old! Yikes!

This time two years ago, early labor was starting. Labor that I knew was it, but as soon as I drove the hour into my OB's office it stopped. Thirty minutes into my drive back home, it began again. 27 (long, puke-filled-sleepless-all-natural-labor) hours later, my long awaited miracle-girl was in my arms. I get tears remembering the beauty of her eyes captured by mine and that first time she latched on.

I miss that infant girl, but I love this age as well. What fun she is! Tomorrow, our beautiful family of three will celebrate her birthday, but for tonight, she'll get spoiled and loved on as her grandparents and great aunts and uncles come for cake and ice-cream. :)



Some Saturday links for those that are interested:

Mel gives some helpful organization site links, for Simplifying Your Holidays, over at Mama Buzz.

I wrote about my struggles with being In Bondage to Blogging, now that I have not one, but two pretty well-read blogs going on. It touched a nerve with our Mama Buzz readers. Several commented on their own struggles with this area.

Diaper Diaries talks about giving random acts of kindness to other mamas and Mom Bloggers Club wrote on Your Stats don't Matter, Your Blog Does.

Lastly,


I am not a huge online shopper but sometimes, due to being housebound, I do shop online for things like gifts and even clothes for me. I was just introduced to Mr Rebates which allows you to get some nice money back on your online purchases.

Speaking of online shopping, I found this site recently which has as many safety features as a mom like me, could ever want for her child.

Safe Beginnings

This then led me to this site, which I thought was awesome!

Want a post of yours to get some traffic? Feel free to link up!

*11/6 Hidden Valley Thoughts: Disciplining with Jesus' Heart *

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I found myself yelling at the kids. Again.

Utter frustration that three toddlers were not listening to a word I said.

Placing them with more firmness than was warranted, each child was placed in time out throughout my apartment. No small task, given how small my place is and there are things for them to play with in almost any location I choose to put them.

With periodic, "NO! You do not get up until I tell you to!" commands, I sank to my knees, one more time. "God, what in the world do I do with these children!?"

The phrase, "What would Jesus do?" popped into my heart. With it, the question, "How would Jesus discipline?"

I know what He wouldn't do:

~ He wouldn't yell
~ He wouldn't grab arms a bit too hard
~ He wouldn't sit the kids in time out with more force than necessary
~ I don't think he would say in a very angry voice, "I. HAVE. HAD. ENOUGH"
~ He certainly wouldn't tell a child that they are naughty and exhausting.


What He probably would do:

~ Quietly bend down to eye level and explain to the child they were doing something wrong
~ Quietly, and with gentle firmness, put them in time out.
~ Gather them up in His lap after time out and use it as a teachable moment.
~ Pray with them
~ Play with them and get them to giggle after it was all over
~ Tell the child he loves them and focus on a positive quality they have instead of their naughtiness.


That's all I've come up with so far but my list is growing. In fact, I'm attempting, with each naughty act, to stop and ask Him, "What do I do? What would you do right now if you were here?" If anything, just stopping and asking this, helps de-esclate my anger so that I can discipline with more control and purpose.

I desire to be firm and consistent with the discipline in my home but not at the cost of love and patience. The only way I know to do that, is to discipline with Jesus' heart, not my own.

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Hidden Valley Simplicity

Once a week, those who want to share a particular lesson or incident that took place in their Hidden Valley of being a stay-at-home-Mama, can do so through this meme. It may be something God taught you, a moment of letting your kids play in the mud as you realize a little dirt doesn't hurt anybody, or a video that stuck a chord in your soul. Whatever it is, if it touched you, share it with us!

To participate:

1. Create your post

2. Add the button and text link

3. Come back and link here. :)

* Thursday Thoughts *

Based on feedback on 52 Weeks to the All Natural Lifestyle, I'm more excited than ever to start the series in January - - with of course, some launch posts beginning next week! I'm also excited about a parallel series I'm starting, Living the Maximized Life. I love to teach, and while I'm not much of a get-up-and-talk-in-front-of-people person, writing is my thing, so this should be fun.

The kids and I are having a pretty calm week. Last week I began praying with them and their mom, first thing, before she walked back out the door to work. That seemed to help all of us get our day off to a more positive start.

I'm also being faithful to get up at 4:00 a.m. so that I can get the things done that really use up my focus, before they get here. Being readily available to them has also helped immensely, alleviating some of the tears, whines, and fights between them. (Note: I said "some of", not "all of". :0

I am feeling house bound already, but have no clue what I can do about this. For one, it's too cold for me outside (I hate being cold) and secondly, I have no fenced in area in which to take 3 busy toddlers. With a creek and a busy road by my house, going outside isn't feasible. I'm already feeling the lack of fresh air and sunshine and have begun counting the days until spring, when at least, after the daycare kids leave, my daughter and I have warmth and sunshine enough to go out into and soak up.

Meanwhile, I've attempted to make it as cosy as possible with Christmas lights here in the house and music playing for us the majority of the day. The soft scent of candles adds to the coziness. I do occasionally freeze us all out by opening windows to air us out. If anything, it wakes us up to get that blast of already-cold-air, here in the Northeast, not to mention, I hope it's pushing out stale, germ-laden air.

Today's agenda, I think, is homemade playdough. The kids' 5 year old brother will be joining us today and I need an activity that ranges from 2 to 5 and will keep them occupied. I think that may be my solution. . . at least for a few minutes!

Be blessed today everyone

* The Maximized Life - Part 1 *

In addition the the 52 Weeks to an All-Natural Lifestyle series I will be doing, I will also be starting a series in January entitled Living the Maximized Life.

This one isn't because people have asked for it, but because I'm just as passionate about living a full life of purpose that is well managed, as I am living a healthy lifestyle. In fact, the two lifestyles go hand-in-hand for me and both series need each other.

In this series we will be focusing on things like time management, organizing our homes, and creating the ultimate organizer system, complete with free organizer inserts that I have created.

Between now and January 1st, we'll set the frame work for the 2010 articles. Our lead-in articles will be:

~ The Need for a Stream-lined Life
~ Ordering Your Private World (this is a book I'll be working on through in the series)
~ Simple Steps to Maximizing Your Life
~ Beginning Your Ultimate Daytime Organizer
~ What is Your Purpose?


Know someone who can use this series? Feel free to tweet about this or spread word on your own blog!

* Giveaway! *

Lynn from Maple Hill Farm, an Etsy shop, has offered Hidden Valley Simplicity readers a giveaway. She is offering her best seller, the Mineral Spa Soap that she sells.

To enter, go check out her store and tell me what you like the best. (Please leave your email when you leave the comment.)

Additional entries (each one needs to be a separate comment):

1. Tweet this post
2. Become a follower of this blog
3. Stumble, DIGG, or spread word about this post (button as at bottom of post)
4. Do the same for this blog
5. Facebook this entry


Contest ends November 22
6. Become a twitter follower

* Homeschool-Preschool *

Many have asked me to do a post on what I'm using for homeschool-preschool. Finally, here it is. The post you've all been waiting for! ;-)


First of all, when I say "homeschooling preschoolers" this is a pretty flexible situation. I'm not sitting them down in chairs, with desks in front of them, keeping them on a rigid schedule. They have attention spans of 15 minutes max, after all!

But we do follow a flexible structure as our day goes on and it goes something like this.

6:15 - the daycare kids walk through my door. We cuddle for awhile and then go wake up my daughter.

7:00 -breakfast time and then play

8:00 - Pottytime/diaper changes (I'm potty training 2 out of 3. This ritual goes on all day long!) we do a Bible story and coloring. I've been reading from The Beginner's Bible: Timeless Children's Stories

As I read the story, the kids color from this book The Gigantic Coloring Book of Bible Stories, which though put out by an entirely different company, has corresponding pages.

After coloring, we try to do some sort of exercise, like jumping and dancing to music or throwing balls or doing a GAIAM kid yoga tape my SIL just sent me. We're bound inside because we have a busy road and one child likes to run. While she runs toward the road, another runs towards the creek. So sadly, I can't take them out to get their energy out.


9:00 We then work on shapes and colors or Sign Language. Or we do crafts.

For Sign Language we use Sign2Me - ASL Flashcards: Beginners Series - Quick Start Pack (Incl. ASL + English + Spanish) (American Sign Language) (Spanish Edition) My daughter has a vocabulary of 30 words. The daycare kids are quickly catching up. (Toddlers just GET sign language)

For colors and shapes we use things like:

My First Touch & Feel Picture Cards: Colors & Shapes (MY 1ST T&F PICTURE CARDS)



Hands-On Learning: Color and Shape Puzzles (Scholastic Hands-On Learning)

We also love Melissa and Doug puzzles for this:




The kids are quickly getting to a point where they will be able to do worksheets from this book as well: Preschool Skills: Colors and Shapes (Flash Kids Preschool Skills)


Our crafts are varied. They might include water color painting or gluing shapes on shapes in diminishing size, to teach one particular shape. Many times, I just surf cool sites to find my ideas. Sites like:
Kaboose
BillyBear4kids
ColoringCastle
First-School
Preschool Express
StepbyStep

My most invaluable resource for crafts is this book First Art : Art Experiences for Toddlers and Twos-- though I must admit it stretches the OCD neat-freak inside of me to do some of these with three little ones!

We also love Kumon books! Best money I've ever spent!

Let's Cut Paper! (Kumon First Steps Workbooks)

Let's Sticker & Paste! (Kumon First Steps Workbooks)


And then, some days, I just come up with my own crazy idea. Like the other day with my black, yarn sheep. The kids loved it! Unfortunately, that exhausted my creativity for the year. lol.

10:00 is Seasame Stree time (God bless Elmo!)

11:00 I do some one-on-one with each child, as I wrote about on Mama Buzz, highlighting them with their specific interests and/or learning style.

11:45 Lunch prep

12:00 Lunch

12:30 I read them to sleep, usually a classic like Charlotte's Web or Wind in the Willows.

After nap, if the daycare kids are here until evening, we do snack and then they play, watch Winnie the Pooh or Dora and cranky pants days, or we do more crafts or more reading time. :-)

If the daycare kids are here for the night, this continues on until bedtime. If they go home at some point, I usually get outside with my daughter for fresh air, and do various things with her that I can't do with all three, like have her help me with the dishes or bake something.

So there you have it. One month late, but full of good resourceful links for you!

*52 Weeks to an All-Natural Lifestyle - Foundation Laying *

Acquaintances are constantly asking me to "teach" them how to live a healthier lifestyle. I've even had one person ask if I'd consider teaching a class in my home.

I laughed at them. "Me? Teach a class? I'm still learning myself!"

"But," they insisted, "you're farther along than other people. You need to teach us what you know!"

The idea intrigued me, but where would I start? If I had a class to "teach" all I know, that class could take a year. There is that much info! Not to mention, I'm constantly learning all the time, so it'd be the never-ending class. It's just not feasible.

So I figured I'd do the next best thing - -do a blog series on the subject. One that took things slowly and helped people make small, gradual changes that resulted in permanent lifetime changes. With 2010 quickly approaching, I figured this would be a great time to do this.

Instead of shoving a bunch of information at people and telling them the radical steps they need to take, I instead want to approach this the way I approached my own lifestyle changed - one step at a time. In the past, when I did it the radical way, I quickly gave up. It was too much to keep up with once.

For the past 1 1/2 years, I have done gradual changes, making one or two small choices weekly. The small changes were easier to get used to, weren't such a shock to my system (or my wallet), and have stuck with me. For me, the key I was looking for, for sticking with a healthier lifestyle was a gradual process and I believe that is the key for many other people as well.

The official series will kick off in January. I'll be writing on everything from fermented foods to natural laundry/cleaning products. We'll look at juicing versus smoothies, kefir versus yogurt, and how to sprout food. From eating to cleaning products to gardening, we'll look at it all.

Until then, I want to start laying a foundation for the series. To do that I will be discussing books that I, and others, have found helpful, as well as write some blog posts that will give us a strong start for the step-by-step changes we'll be making. Titles for our foundation-laying will include:

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My friends are constantly asking me for advice on moving into a healthier lifestyle. I don't mind. I like teaching what I learn.One asked me if I'd ever consider doing a "class" in my home. I laughed and said one class wouldn't cover it--though I'm sure I could cover some basics. That incited my whirling brain however. How could I "teach" women how to live a healthy lifestyle? I'm a writer and I have a blog! What better platform than that?With 2010 quickly approaching us, now is the time for such a series. All through 2010 I will be taking a look at how the transition can be made into a healthier, more natural lifestyle. I'm all about taking it slow. When you do it overnight, resolution fades as the reality check of how much it costs and the time it takes sets inIn my series 365 Day to an All-Natural Lifestyle, we will do a gradual process of becoming healthy. While some may think slow defeats the purpose, my own experience, when I did it gradually, the changes stuck with me, as opposed to all the years I did it suddenly.With time on our side, sticker shock won't be such an issue, and neither will sudden and harsh body detoxes. Instead, step by step, changes will be made that will be lasting, will result in more energy and vitality, and will leave you with such a feeling of accomplishment, you won't have anydesire to go back to the old processed, sugary way of life.Between now and January, I will be writing a series of introductory articles to lay our foundation. Titles include:

~ Why Bother Going All-natural?
~ Is this Healthy Thing Worth it?
~ I Can't Afford Healthy!
~ What Exactly, is a Healthy, All-Natural Lifestyle?

~ Developing Your Road Map (my favorite!)

I'm excited about this! I'm excited because I have seen the benefits in my own life to living this way and I can't wait to pass the knowledge on to others. I'm excited because I have slipped up a bit in recent months and I can't wait to get back on track (leading others does wonders for keeping you on track!) I'm excited to hear stories of change as the months progress.


Please help spread word about this. If you know of women who want to live this way, but aren't sure how to get started, let them know about 52 Weeks to an All-Natural Lifestyle. This isn't just for us personally. It's for our families as well. We're going to break the cycle of bondage to sugar and processed foods and all the sluggish, tired, worn down feelings that come with it. Not only that, but as we make changes we will begin raising our children to live a healthy lifestyle, and as as result, have much healthier lives than our generation has had.

* Simple Woman's Daybook, November 2, 2009 *

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Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY...

Outside my window...it's dark, and I'm thinking, cold.

I am thinking...My computer is so slow. Getting up early to write is such a moot point when it acts like this!

I am thankful for... The fact I am actually "ahead" on my to-do list! I have the day off. My apartment is old and not-so-nice but I'm in from the cold. A date with my husband over the weekend.

I am wearing... warm up pants, a Thinsulate shirt and a zip up hoodie.

I am remembering...that I have to reschedule my daughter's 2 year appointment, because it coincides with Bible study tomorrow.

I am creating... nothing, other than new writing material

I am going... nowhere today, though two college age girls will be coming through my door at different points today, to just hang out.

I am reading...Mothering Heights and Blue Like Playdough

I am hoping... To pull out my sewing machine this coming weekend.

On my mind...wondering how I can write my dreamed-of-manuscripts for the long-term, while making some money short term, with my free lance writing. Doing both looks impossible time-wise but I'm trying to make it happen.
Also on my mind - Christmas is coming and we don't have money to buy gifts for family. Hence, my thought process RE: my writing.

From the learning rooms... That prayer is vital. Prayer with the daycare kids and their Mama when they first get here each morning, prayer for and with my husband, prayer with my daughter in her worst moments, prayer when I'm overwhelmed, etc.

Noticing that... My coffee has not woken me up yet.

Pondering these words..."God isn't on anyone's side. He wants us on His side. . . " From Sunday School yesterday.

From the kitchen... Apple muffins

Around the house.. . hubby and daughter are sound asleep and. . . . Christmas decorations are up! (We have Canadian friends and since their Thanksgiving was over 3 weeks ago, Nov 1st in their decorating day. We copy them :)


One of my favorite things. . . My daughter sleepily asking me to lay down with her at night and softly singing with me as she strokes my hair or pats my back.

A few plans for the rest of the week. . . writing (of course!), daycare kids and all the things that come with that, Bible study, our women's minister from church comes for a visit on Thursday, and just life in general.

From my picture journal...
(Nothing makes me feel more content and ready for my week, than full fruit baskets.)

* Last Weeks' Snapshot *

I often wonder how people find themselves bored. . . . Last week's typical adventures included the following scenarios:

~ Little Miss (daycare child) grabbing diaper wipes to help "clean the wall". I was so impressed that she was trying to "help", as opposed to trying to destroy, I hugged and kissed her and highlly praised her.

~ Imagine my surprise, when 5 minutes later I turned around and discovered she had found one of my husband's black Sharpies and was writing all over the wall she just cleaned!


~ Miracle-girl (my daughter) spent Tuesday and Wednesday screaming, "K ---- go home!" and not letting me do anything because she wanted me to hold her. She has no issues with Little Guy but Little Miss is a huge threat.


~ By Wednesday afternoon, her constant cries got to soft-hearted-Little-Guy who disappeared on me. I found him curled up on our couch crying himself. Just quietly sobbing. I sat down and cuddled him and got miracle-girl to get over her own fit for 5 minutes, by asking her to help him feel better.

We were enjoying our precious moments together, Little Guy snuggled into me (unusual occurrence, as he isn't a huge snuggler) and Miracle-girl stroking his head, when I heard quiet. Way-too-quiet, coming from the toy room where Little Miss had been playing.

Bad sign!

To the chagrin of Little Guy and Miracle-girl, I quickly deposited them on the couch (which started the tears up again, in full force) and went to see why it was so quiet. Little Miss had gotten herself up on my kitchen counter and reached up to my fridge, where I had cat worming medicine waiting for our cat.

As I dug it out of her mouth, I called poison control, and with now, 3 screaming toddlers, and told them my scenario. Thankfully, I dug it out before too much had dissolved away and they told me just get have her drink some water and she'd be fine.

True story.


On Saturday, Miracle-girl's grandparents wanted to take her to a pumpkin farm, and though that always makes my over-protective mama's heart stand still, and cling to her tightly for a few minutes (after all, will they watch her as good as I would to make sure no one kidnaps her? What if they are in an accident? What if she chokes while eating something? What if I say goodbye to her as they pick her up and it's the last time ever?) I said "Yes". I knew she'd love it and I also knew, I have to let go. I have to trust Daddy God will protect her as much when she's with her grandparents, as He will when she's with me.

Hubby and I dropper her off at my IL's and then ran a few errands. Came home, chilled out, relaxed, talked, and then, a few hours later, headed out for a "cheap date" (cuz we're poor, so cheap dates is the way we roll around here. Haha!) Then, it was off to Walmart for some grocery shopping (what fun), and finally we wrapped it all up with a trip to Kohl's, where we both used birthday gift cards we've been carrying around for several months. I hate shopping because spending the money stresses me out but when I shop with a gift card in hand, well, there isn't any stress, so it's enjoyable!

Then, the best part of leaving Miracle-girl, came - going and picking her up! I just love those joyful reunions we have when she's been with her grandparents.

Sunday was church and then an afternoon of taking Miracle-girl to the park to play and decorating for Christmas. (We follow the Canadian time table for this, instead of the US time table.)

Amazing Race topped out our weekend and here we are, ready for a new work week.


Blessings!

* Jonny Diaz, CD Winner *

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Congratulations to our Jonny Diaz Cd winners!

Sarah S
Sarah C
Amber H
Angie K
Rose