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Joy's Fun Stuff

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Holidays

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Deep Thoughts

Mom Hacks

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How I Only Do a Couple Loads of Laundry a Week (with a family of 7)

To Everyone with Kids at Church

To Everyone with Kids at Church

So a few weeks back my kids sang in church in front of the whole congregation. It was seriously adorable and sweet and was just one of those happy moments you know you will look back and fondly remember. But in this particular case the nostalgia would not last long as you would then be smacked in the face with the memory of the full-on, soul wrenching, blood curdling death scream immediately coming forth from the small 3 year old on returning to her seat to find her brother h

Anger-Be-Gone with 1 Magic Phrase

Anger-Be-Gone with 1 Magic Phrase

We all have times when we are barely getting by, where microwaving dinner sounds just too hard. As pathetic as I am, I have just been through a week of that. Matt's had a business trip for 6 days and I'll tell you what, it is no joke. I have NO IDEA how you single/military/husbands-work-crazy-hours moms out there function because I'm. So. Dang. Tired. Matt occasionally takes work trips but its been a while since he's been gone this long. And I certainly didn't have all of my

Teaching Kids to Clean, aka The Death of Me

Teaching Kids to Clean, aka The Death of Me

Having a clean house with little kids is like running up a down escalator. Wearing roller skates. But it's a problem, because when my house is a mess I feel crazy. I know of plenty of amazing women who don't feel that way. They are able to happily function in the kicked pathway through the living room. I long to be like that, but stuff everywhere kills my soul. Waking up to a destroyed kitchen tops my list of Things to Put Mom in a Bad Mood. If any of my college roommates are

Quest for the Perfect Gift: Family Values Book

Quest for the Perfect Gift: Family Values Book

I'm pretty sure my siblings inwardly groan when they see my number calling them. I have a tendency to come up with these great ideas and then invite/force them all to participate. A few years back I came up with this winner: A Family Values Book. A what? It's a book where members of your family help reinforce to your children the values you think are important by writing of a time when they learned a lesson as a child. My siblings loved me for this one. So I'm not going to li

Losing a Baby: Looking Back and Moving Forward

Losing a Baby: Looking Back and Moving Forward

11 years ago this week I was in a hospital bed, very near death. After some years of infertility we were finally pregnant. At 33 weeks along, what started as supposed indigestion ended up being a ruptured appendix that almost took my life. The infection overtook the baby and at 5lb 4oz the sweet little boy we had prayed for so long was delivered stillborn. While grateful for my life, my husband and I went home with empty hands and a long recovery, both physically and emotiona

No Yelling Zone

No Yelling Zone

Sorry, but I feel things strongly. It's a blessing and a curse. I didn't realize how much of a curse it was until kids came. When stress is high I tend to feel it and express it. Darn it. And with a house full of darling little monkeys there is a lot of stuff happening all at once. I'm not complaining, mind you, just stating fact. This is what I signed up for. But sometimes it can be overwhelming. Unfortunately, that stress can come out as Loud Firm Speaking. It's a problem.

Easy Family Valentine

Easy Family Valentine

15 minutes. That's how long this bad boy took me to make, and that included googling "hand lettering love" for the cheat on those words. So easy and fast. I like to keep a small stockpile of poster boards in my stash (love you Dollar Tree!) for impromptu projects like this, but this idea would totally work with construction paper or even lined paper torn out from that old notebook in the church bag. Basically, this is a place for each member of the family to write things they

Messy Room Solution: Grade Them!

Puzzle Motivator aka Cleaning Toilets Happily

Puzzle Motivator aka Cleaning Toilets Happily

We do Saturday chores around these parts. Note I said "Saturday chores," not "Saturday MORNING chores." Chores have been known to take a large portion of our Saturday. Not that the chores themselves are so long or difficult or time consuming. Mostly, it's the idea of doing chores that makes them take so dang long. We've been known to take quite some time to get started. And then we've been known to get "distracted." We've been plugging away with chores, week after week after

Teaching Kindness

Teaching Kindness

I'm pretty sure when you have a child, they should come with a remote. Think how sweet that would be: you could pause, rewind, and (being real here) fast forward. It would be amazing. First laugh? Relive 212 times. Major diaper blow out at Costco? Fast forward so fast. At around 5 every night, the button I'm praying for is the mute button. My ears just get so dang tired. Everyone's hangry and it leads to arguing and disagreements and people just not being kind. But I stumbled

Dinner Conversation Game

Dinner Conversation Game

In one of my education classes in college we had a few Chatty Cathy's. They dominated the discussion; no matter what the topic was, no one else could get a word in. I may have been one of them. I have a lot of words I need to use in a day. My professor used a brilliant trick to help the Talkers to zip it and the Observers share. As we walked into class she handed us each 3 poker chips. Every time we participated in the discussion we turned in one chip. We were expected to use

New Year's Resolution: Strengthening Family Relationships

New Year's Resolution: Strengthening Family Relationships

Back in the day when Matt and I lived out of state and would come to stay with my parents for a week or two during Christmas or the summer we'd always have a great time. But the joke was that after we'd get there we'd sit on the couch, get up and eat a chip, go to the bathroom and then BAM! It was Thursday. Time just passed so quickly and we never really DID anything and then it was time to go home. I swear, my time with my kids feels a bit like that. (Sorry for getting a bit

SUPER Easy Love Note

SUPER Easy Love Note

Back in the day I was sitting in one of my college education classes when I noticed the teacher subtly slipping a couple of my classmates cards. She would occasionally write notes to members of the class, expressing her gratitude for who knows what. I certainly don't because I was never a recipient of one of her cards. Probably because she wasn't writing cards to thank people for turning in term papers a day late. Whatever. But the idea is brilliant and one that I used occasi

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Halloween Gingerbread Houses

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Gratitude Turley

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Veteran's Art Surprise

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Turkey Stick Puppet

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Tape Masks

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