7 Quick Takes on This Week's Parenting Tools

I'm going to try to link up every Friday with 7 Quick Takes, hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary. It's a great way to find other great blogs where we all share 7 quick things about whatever the heck we want and a great way to make m yself write more than once every 3 months. Check out Jen's post from today and you can check out all of the link ups at the bottom if you want to peruse some other blogs. 

--- 1 ---

I'd like to think as a parent, I'm always in the mode of loving and teaching my children. This leads me to sometimes to mistakenly believe that when one of my children does something upsetting, my reaction is completely born out of the loving goodness of wanting to teach them the right path. When I step back and examine it, I find pride and vanity lurking in my parenting as well. (Especially in a situation of blatant disobedience or a sassy response). When I am angry with someone close to me or frustrated with the kiddos, I've been listening and praying to the Litany of Humility. It's showing me my own unflattering ugliness, but it's good. So good. Danielle Rose's rendition is my favorite.

--- 2 ---

Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood: Practical Parenting From Birth to Six Years. This book has kept me sane with minimal voice raising. It's not the parenting method for everyone, but it works for our family. I'm so grateful Erin from Humble Handmaid pointed me towards this book when my oldest was tiny. I've read it and the one directed at older children more than once and refer to them often.

--- 3 ---
When things get a little hairy and someone's painting on the carpet with something they artfully created all by themselves in their diaper:

And carpet cleaner. Lots of carpet cleaner.

--- 4 ---

A Magnificat subscription. I've tried to to do the Mass readings, or the Liturgy of the Hours, or the saint of the day, but I found it was cumbersome and far too sacrificial to take out each of the individual books I have that already give me these things. With Magnificat, I have all of these things in one, wonderful, lazy place. It's made morning prayer possible for this whiny mama. And I am forever grateful.

--- 5 ---

My toddler is rambunctious and daring and pretty set on testing the strength of my heart when she pushes a stool in front of the stove so she can play with the hood vent switch. But two sweet words will pull her immediately from her important task of dumping all of the cat's food into her water bowl: Little Bear. My little brother used to watch this sweet show when he was very young. 

Friends, if you think I'm busy all of the time so you don't want to call me to get together, I'm most likely just hanging out with these super cool guys.

--- 6 ---

Spending time with other families. Our Family Dinner group that meets weekly at our house is a blessing. Guys, if you're reading this, I love having you and your loud kids over ;) because it means the sweet, invaluable community of other families is at my house. Spending time with other families has been like holding up a mirror to my own and has helped us grow and tend to our family and ways we couldn't if we didn't have a community of other families.

--- 7 ---

This is what happiness tastes like after a long, hard week

When my husband and I were newlyweds and we had an exhausting week, we'd head to the pizza place down the street from our little apartment and split a pizza and some beers. I used to feel crazy drunk after a half of a beer, which we thought was hysterical at the time, but found out a few years later that I just have a sensitivity to wheat (which is far less hilarious). Hard cider rules in our house now and this pear one is superb. 

I may or may not be drinking one now. Excuse any typos.

*To be clear, that last one is not a parenting tool I use. That's chamomile tea in their nighttime sippy cups, I promise.