Welcome to my weekly post I share a peek into our lives, talk about things I'm loving, share links to interesting articles or helpful ideas I've collected throughout the past week, and just talk about whatever is on my heart! 🙂
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All three kids had Spirit Week at their schools this past week — which mean they had different themes for each day and they got to dress up accordingly. (Above is a peek at Silas and Kaitlynn dressed up for 50’s day… they came down to work out with us after they were ready for school!)
My friend, Jeannie, invited me to go to her sister’s book signing at Draper James in Nashville.
I had never been to this store (it’s not really the place for frugal people!) but it was adorable!
Jeannie is the author of two books that you all have heard me talk about so often — Mom Set Free and Parenting the Wholehearted Child. I’m so excited because Jeannie is going to be my guest on Tuesday’s podcast episode. We’re going to be talking about The Secret to Being a Happier Mom… and it’s truly a fantastic episode. You won’t want to miss it!
Speaking of my podcast, it was a pretty big week for me with launching The Crystal Paine Show to the world. And your kindness and excitement and support of this new endeavor meant the world to me. Truly, thank you so much!
(In case you missed the big announcement, you can read it here.)
Kathrynne was nominated by the students at her school for a special award. So she got special recognition at the Homecoming Game on Friday night. I’m so proud of this girl and how much she has come out of her shell in the past few years. I used to think she was incredibly introverted. Now I’m beginning to wonder if she is maybe a full-fledged extrovert for how much she loves people and spending time with her friends.
Speaking of Kathrynne, she got all decked out for the Glow in the Dark Homecoming Dance this week, too. (Dress was casual — which she was thrilled about!)
I used to be the mom who shot down my kids' ideas. I would come up with valid reasons for saying no… we didn't have time, it would cost money, and so on.
But if I'm being honest, I usually said no because it would be inconvenient or uncomfortable for me. It would require extra time and effort or it would disrupt my plans and schedule.
The older my kids get, the more I'm realizing that life is short and I don't want to look back and regret all the times I said no and missed out on fun opportunities, memorable experiences, or blessing my kids.
Case in point, on Thursday night, Silas asked if we could bring doughnuts to his class at school on Friday. Instead of saying no, I told him that if he could make sure everyone was ready to leave at 7 am, we could buy doughnuts at the little airstream shop on the way to school.
And so he made sure everyone was ready early! And I wish you could have seen the glow on his face as his proudly walked into school (dressed up for school Spirit Week, in case you were wondering about the baseball uniform!) carrying his bag of doughnuts.
I can't always say yes to every idea my kids have, but I want to say yes as often as possible. Because I don't want to spend this one shot I get at parenting shooting down my kids' ideas.
Let's say yes to doughnuts and memories and bringing joy and delight to others today — even if it means we have to get out the door a little earlier or tweak our plans to accommodate those yeses. It's worth it!
Did you see this deal? You can get 10 audio dramas from Lamplighter Theatre for just $20!! (As you can tell from the photo above, we might just be a wee bit of a fan of these dramas!)
Links You Should Check Out:
2018 Goals Update
Personal Goals
1. Read 100 non-self-help books that will build me up/encourage me/inspire me/recharge me. (Fiction/story-driven/biographies/inspirational living books/devotionals.) See the list of 44 books I plan to read this year.
**Progress: 61 books read so far this year
2. Read through the entire Bible.
**Progress: I'm using the Robert Murray M'Cheyne plan and am all caught up— yay!
3. Write one handwritten note to someone every week.
**Progress: 37 notes written so far this year
4. Run 500 miles.
**Progress: 368 miles run so far
Marriage Goal
5. Go on an overnight trip with Jesse without the kids.Jesse and I went to NYC together in January.
Family Goals
6. Read 10 books aloud with the kids.
**Progress: We've finished three books so far.
7. Take the kids to South Africa. We took this trip in July. What a memorable experience!
8. Go on a family road trip.
**Progress: We've been researching some options for this and are planning to make this happen over Fall Break. Stay tuned!
Financial Goals
9. Save up to pay cash to finish off an office for me and workout room for Jesse and me in the basement in our new house.
**Progress: The workout room is DONE and the office is almost done!
10. Replenish our Emergency Fund (we dipped into it to replace my car when it got totaled because of the carpet beetle infestation.)
Business Goals
11. Increase our gross income from the business by 8%.
12. Launch 5 new courses.
**Progress: We launched 4 Weeks to a More Productive Life launched in January, Content Creation 101 in February, 4-Week Blog Coaching Program in March, Email List Setup 101 in March, Make Over Your Mornings LIVE in April, the Facebook Live Masterclass in May, and we launched Build Your List 101 in June!
