Author Archives: LaToya Edwards

About LaToya Edwards

LaToya is a recovering perfectionist and control freak that loves old movies, good books and strawberry Hagen Daas ice cream. She traded in a law degree to homeschool her children and be home full-time to serve her family. Through trials of divorce, depression, death and more she has learned how to find joy in motherhood and God’s purpose and plan in broken circumstances. As a certified life coach it is LaToya’s desire to encourage and equip other women to do the same. You can keep up with LaToya on her blog.

Start the New Year with Purpose

Leave a reply

The New Year is when a lot of people make big plans for the year. I’m guilty of it too. Every year I would sit down and think about all the things that went wrong during the previous year and then resolve to do better in the new year. Can I just be honest for a second and tell you that before January was over I’d slipped back into old habits. Nothing changed for me. The problem was not that I was making resolutions, the problem was that I wasn’t being purposeful about my plans.

Start the New Year off with purpose: Set goals with your children | TheBusyMom.com

This year I decided that I needed to be more purposeful in my planning. There are definitely things that I wanted to change going into the new year. There are goals and achievements that I wanted to work towards as well.  There are a few key areas that I wanted to focus on for 2014: spiritual life, relationships, health, intellectual growth and fun! I also decided to include my boys in planning as well.

Setting Goals  for Yourself

I love that there is an attitude of a fresh start during this time of year. Fresh mercies I like to call it. Here are some of the goals that I’ve set for myself for 2014:

  • Spiritual Life: read through the entire bible, memorize 12 verses, develop a habit of rising early for devotions
  • Relationships:  more one on one time with each of my boys each week
  • Health: regular exercise at least 5 days a week, more sleep and eating less sugar
  • Intellectual growth: read 24 books during the year {at least 2 a month}
  • Fun: horse back riding and karaoke

Setting Goals with Your Children

After working on my list I thought that it would be fun to get my little ones to set some goals. I didn’t sit my boys down and ask them what their spiritual goals were for the year but I did ask them what they’d like to do or learn during the new year.

My 7 year old’s list:

  • Go back to Disney World
  • Not lose my temper so much
  • Write to my pen pal each month
  • Learn to do tricks with my scooter, bike and skateboard

My 5 year old’s list:

  • Disney World!
  • Learn to tie my shoes
  • Read chapter books like my big brother
  • Help mommy by washing dishes

Setting Goals as a Family

I wanted to see if we could come up with some goals as a family. I really love the idea of working toward something together.  Here’s what we came up with:

  • Family Vacation {can you guess where my boys want to go?}
  • Memorize scripture together as a family
  • Monthly “Family Fun Day”

What kinds of goals have you set with your family for the new year?

Heidi St John Guide to Daylight

Sharing Your Children During the Holidays

5 Replies

The holidays can be a wonderful time of the year. There’s a lot of fellowship and family time with big family dinners and delicious desserts.  I have fond memories of crowding in front of the television to look for Snoopy in the Thanksgiving Parade. And I waited all year long to watch Charlie Brown and his friends gather around that sad Christmas tree.  The holidays can be a wonderful time of year, but sometimes it can be a time of stress and discontent, especially if you are a single parent.

Sharing Your Children During the Holidays

The hardest part of being a single mom (for me) is navigating the waters of time sharing with my ex husband. During mediation things went smoothly until we started trying to figure out visits and time sharing for the boys.   We were able to agree on the regular every day schedule but when it came to Thanksgiving and Christmas we hit a stalemate. After 45 minutes of going back and forth the mediation ended without a decision.  We did finally come to an agreement but I had to step away, pray and really think things through.

If you are in a situation where you are sharing your children during the holidays, I know that it can be a hard thing. We are used to having our families together for these special times, and it can be devastating when that doesn’t happen anymore. I have been that mom – sad, depressed and lonely without my sweet boys. It hurts, but there is hope. I want to share some suggestions that have worked for us and just encourage you not to lose your joy this holiday season.

Maintain the Status Quo

If at all possible try to keep your child’s holiday routine and traditions the same. I know that it may be difficult. For a long time I went through a time when I took my children to places where I was clearly not welcomed or wanted because I didn’t want them to miss out on time with their dad’s side of the family.  For birthdays and holidays I would show up with my boys and then retreat to a quiet corner in the room or sit outside on the porch while they enjoyed time with their cousins and grandparents. I kept this up until the day that I was called and told not to come over at all.

Compromise

If you cannot maintain the status quo, the next thing you need to try is compromise. Find the best way that you can to make sure that your children have time with all the important people their lives. Our compromise is for my boys to spend Thanksgiving morning and the first half of the afternoon with me and then the second half with their father.  For Christmas they spend the night on the 23rd with their dad and and then come home for church service on the 24th and we open our gifts on the 25th.

Make New Traditions

One thing that has been really helpful for us to make some new traditions. Show your children that you are still a family.  My boys and I started serving at a local homeless shelter during the holiday season.  I wasn’t sure at first that my little ones would do more than get in the way, but it has been a blessing to all of us. I got to see my boys working hard: helping with trash, handing out napkins, and helping with drinks.  I smiled as I watched my then 3 year walk from table to table telling people, “God loves you.”

Last year for the Christmas season I started an advent calendar with my boys. Each day from December 1-25 we would read a story book about the birth of Jesus.  They loved every minute of it. It was also a great way to help then countdown to the day that we would celebrate the birth of Christ and the day that they would get to spend the night with their dad.

Are you a single parent sharing your children during the holidays? How do you manage it? For you married moms how do you balance time with both sides of the family?

Indoor Nature Study on Apples

11 Replies

I’m going to let you in on a little secret: I don’t like to be outside.  I love to be indoors where there’s no critters that attack you and leave you covered in itchy red bumps. I don’t like to be outside, but God gave me to boys that LOVE the outdoors.  This year I committed to doing more nature studies and nature walks with my guys. The calendar may see that it’s Fall but where I live it’s still Summer. It can be too hot to be outside so I’ve started doing some nature studies with my boys indoors.

Indoor Nature Study on Apples | heidistjohn.com/tbmb

When I think of fall I think of the leaves changing and pumpkins and apples. I thought it would be fun to do a quick nature study with my boys about apples. They are one of our favorite fruits so it was fun to learn about how they grow.  I started off with a short story called “How the Apple Blossom Came Back” from Outdoor Secrets. I also asked both my boys for a narration and then we headed to the table for some hands on fun!

Indoor Nature Study on Apples | heidistjohn.com/tbmb

Our short story explained to us that you can find a blossom on the inside of an apple. I never realized this because I typically cut our apples the other way. My boys were very excited to see the blossom in the center of the apple once it was sliced. The trick is to cut the apple from side to side and not top to bottom.

I had one more activity for my boys before I was going to let them eat their apples: apple stamping. This is the first year that we have been keeping nature journals and I love them. My plan was to have them stamp the apples on a page so that we could still see the blossom in the center. It didn’t work out that well but they still had a lot of fun. Also both my boys wrote short poems that I copied at the bottom of their pages.

Indoor Nature Study on Apples | heidistjohn.com/tbmb

While my boys enjoyed apples for a snack we read some books about apples and apple trees. I wish that we had an apple orchard to visit, but we grow citrus where we live. We spend some time reading books about apples, orchards and farms. I even threw in some fun picture books and stories about Johnny Appleseed.  I found some pictures of apple orchards and blossoms online and we had fun looking at the beautiful pictures. Here are some of the books that we enjoyed:

We have actually gone on a few one nature walk so far this school year. But we have done several indoor nature studies.  My boys found a frog by our front door and we spent some time looking up different frog species. We were able to identify our little friend and my oldest son even drew pictures of the life cycle of the frog.

What about you? Do you get outside and explore God’s creation with your children? Do you have a favorite indoor study that you’ve done? I’d love some more ideas.

Heidi St John Guide to Daylight