The photo is one of my things I like to do for myself, make cards, organize gatherings and be creative!!

Time = life; therefore, waste your time and waste  your life, or master your time and master your life

Alan Laiken

Time management is something I think we mothers struggle with.  There are so many things that need to be done in a day.  There are so many people and places that need our time.  It is definitely a process of progression in life.

Last year, I home schooled my tween.  Time management was essential for me to accomplish the things that I needed to.  The problem for me was that there really wasn’t time for me to do anything else besides take care of my three children and teach my tween.

This year, I am experiencing a whole new lifestyle and more extra time than I have had in a very long time.  I think the things I learned last year as a home school mother helped me to get a clearer picture on the importance of time.

We are all very different in how we use our time.  We have the basic things we need to do;  go to work, cook meals, clean our homes, have time with our spouse, tend to bills and other responsibilities we have outside the home.  There are lots of hats to juggle.

Since we are women, we also need to take care of ourselves, get exercise and have time to ponder and pray.

I also see a great importance in having a little fun.  What makes us really happy?  For some it might be a hot bath, time to craft, blog or be with friends.  Those things are important…if they personally bring you happiness.

For this Mother, I have made a little cleaning schedule for myself to more fully utilize my time:

Monday – mopping and ironing

Tuesday – deep cleaning the bathrooms

Wednesday – dusting, polishing appliances

Thursday- Vacuuming and wiping down the van

Friday – blogging time

I have also made it a point to go to bed earlier and exercise daily.  Finally, taking time whenever I can to meditate and pray are going to be one of the things I want to work on!!

This year is a whole new world for me and I am most definitely enjoying it!!

How do you spend any free time?

Sometimes I see things that my children are doing and I am so quickly transported back to my own childhood.  It is like I feel like I am in that moment all over again.  I remember where I was, how I felt and how excited I was.

We were recently enjoying a day at the beach with some of our friends.  The kids were eating their peanut butter sandwiches and took the scraps to go and feed the seagulls.  A million (exaggeration) seagulls were swooping and sailing around them.  I loved the squeals and the giggles I heard from the children.  They were so happy and loved watching those beautiful birds flying around them.

Childhood is really such a wonderful time of life.  I love watching my children grow, learn and explore.  It goes by so fast!  My tween will be turning eight years old this year.  It seems like just yesterday I was rocking him in my arms.  Now, I can’t even pick him up, he can fit in my shoes and will soon be towering over me.

Last week was a really busy week for us.  We had friends in town and the kids all played together so well.  I barely saw my tween, he was so happy being with his friends.  I am looking forward to slowing down a little this week, spending more time reading together and playing together.  Before I know it, this little boy of mine is going to be all grown up and I want to cherish every minute I have with him!!

Being a Mother is truly a gift from God.  It isn’t always easy, but it brings me so much happiness and joy and I want to enjoy each moment I have with these kiddos of mine.

I think one thing that I have learned being a Mother and moving all the time is patience.  In my many moves I have found it takes me about a year to feel fully comfortable in a new place.  That is when I know where the post office, Target, best restaurants and good friends can be found.

I feel the same is true for our tweens.  They get up-rooted, leave their friends and are expected to just mold happily into this new place.  If only it were that easy.

My family and I are at that point.  We are going on our third and final year here in Jacksonville and I love it!!  It took some time and some tears, but this is where we call home.   I love my grocery store, my Target, my house, my church and my friends.  Same goes for my tween…he loves his friends, his sports fields, his church building and his home.  This (Jacksonville) is where we feel comfortable and happy.  Our life is busy and full with lots of wonderful things.

For the past couple years, our church holds an annual kayaking activity in Emerald Isle.   The activity is for the women, but my husband and children have come along to help watch other kids.

It has come to be something that we love to do each year.  We know the exact location of the kayaking activity, we know what to expect, we know who will be there and know that we will have lots of fun.  My tween came ready with his water shoes so he could play in the water near the dock…it is comfortable for him.

Next time you feel completely frustrated with your tween, think things through…maybe he/she feels up-rooted and out of place and home sick and uncomfortable.  As parents, we definitely have those feelings and our tweens do too!!  Find those hidden treasures and joys for yourself and your tween in your new home.  In my experience…Jacksonville is full of them….you just have to search a little!!

How do you feel moving effects your tween?

“At home your child deserves caring parents who reprove with love and spend the rest of their time helping him feel like he can conquer the world.”

Delbert T. Goates, M.D.

A positive Self-Esteem is one of the best gifts we can foster for our tween’s.  We live in a pretty harsh world where our tween’s are often beat down.  For the most part, the world won’t build them up, compliment them and cheer for them.  Through their peer’s, they will learn that they are not good enough, cool enough, skinny enough or smart enough.

The one place that our tween’s can develop a positive self-image is within the walls of our home.  As parent’s, we can make a choice.  We either join the pack of wolves and keep beating our tween’s down.  Or, we can be their biggest cheerleader, see the good in them, be patient with them and bite our tongue when we need to.

By helping to build a positive self-esteem in our children we are arming them for life.  We are giving the best solid foundation for them in their lives.  Tween’s who like themselves, feel good about themselves and see their personal worth won’t fall to the temptations of the world.  They will be strong enough to say no to things they know are wrong.

Tell your tween’s again and again how special they are, how smart they are and how absolutely wonderful they are.  Then, they will feel as if they CAN conquer the world and not shrink away in fear of the world eating them up.

How do you foster a positive self-esteem for your tween?

If we stayed home all the time, kept to a super strict schedule and didn’t let kids make messes, life would be fairly stress free.  Unfortunately, it would also be really BORING!!

A very funny friend of mine once called parenthood ‘a life of inconvenience’.  I thought she nailed it with that statement.  It is so incredibly inconvenient.  Remember the days when we would sleep in, or read amazing literature or stay out until two in the morning?  Not so much, those days are over.

I am pretty sure that I live ‘a life of inconvenience’ every single day.  But you know what?  I LOVE my ‘life of inconvenience’.  You absolutely won’t find me living a boring life with my kiddos.  We will be packing up our van for lots and lots and lots of adventures.  Then we will unpack the van and spend the next couple days getting everything put away.  Then we will pack that van back up and have another adventure, make lots of messes, jump in the pool with our clothes on and make lots and lots of fun memories!!

Going out and doing fun things takes alot of work, alot of planning alot of just ‘letting it go’ and having fun.  Go ahead, make a trip to the beach at 6PM, let the kids get in a whipped cream fight, or pack up your cooler and go on a day trip.  People tell me all the time that these days when the kids are young go by way to fast!!  I want to be sure I take advantage of every second I have with these sweet kids making lots of fun memories!!

What are you doing this summer to let go and have fun?