I find it funny that, when it’s not always socially acceptable, I’d rather stay home, but, when it is socially expected, I’d rather go out. As an introvert who’d rather stick to sliding along the walls to avoid as many people as possible, staying home makes me happy. But now that I’ve been ordered to stay home, well, I don’t like being told what to do. Initially, I was going to write about how to combat isolation when you live in an apartment and have no outdoor space except a small balcony because that’s our life right now. But, other than opening up the door to the balcony and snuggling…
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5 Reasons Why Our First Year of Regular School Has Sucked
My husband and I have tossed around homeschooling for years, since well before we even conceived our first child. Ultimately, we decided to go with a regular school, primarily for the socialization. And to see how he would fare in a regular school. As a stay at home mom, it’s well within my abilities to homeschool, at least for a few years. But we really wanted him to be with his peers. At first, things went swimmingly. He seemed to like his classmates and always came home saying how much he liked his teacher. He was always eager to go to school and would sometimes have his shoes on before…
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Homeschooling at a Moment’s Notice
The one thing few parents of children who attend a traditional school want to hear: school’s closed. Could be 2 weeks. Could be the rest of the year. Thanks, coronavirus, thanks. Now, I’ve written a few times about thinking of homeschooling, so I’ve been taking this as my chance to see how it goes. Of course, I do have the guidance from his teacher who still manages to teach class virtually a couple of times a week. It’s just funnily chaotic to watch a bunch of Kindergarteners sitting at home attending school via the Internet. But it’s also so nice to see they haven’t forgotten each other or the bonds…
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6 Perks of Being Stuck at Home During the Coronavirus Outbreak
The first thing you need to know about me is that I’m an introvert. I absolutely loathe being around people and much prefer staying in with my family. Or a good book, especially when the kids have depleted me. The second thing you need to know is that our school district is closed, so my oldest is home and I get to be his secondary teacher (his teacher is still doing everything in her power to do video classes, of which I’m insanely grateful because having to homeschool at the drop of a hat has been a bit stressful). The third thing you need to know is that I’m actually…
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Guest Post: How Do You Do It With Five Kids? by Chelsea Owens
The Lily Cafe is thrilled to present a funny and honest guest post by Chelsea Owens. She is the mother of 5 boys, and somehow has time to manage 2 blogs: I Didn’t Want To Be A Mother (a mom blog) and A Wife, My Verse, and Every Little Thing (her main blog). I’ve loved her blogs for the past couple of years and have been incredibly curious about how she manages. Lucky for me she agreed to do a guest post and wrote about just that! Please do enjoy it as much as I do and be sure to follow her blogs. How Do You Do It With Five…
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The Bloggers I Love: Moms Edition
Over the past two weeks, I’ve been sharing some of the bloggers I adore. First I talked about the absolutely beautiful and authentic souls I’ve had the great honor to “meet” here. Then I shared some writers/authors and book reviewers I enjoy every chance I get. Now it’s time for me to share some of the mothers I enjoy reading. Unfortunately, this was a bit harder to do as mom bloggers have a tendency to vanish from the blogging world, so, even though I enjoy a number that have come and gone and come and gone again, I’ll just be sharing the ones who post more often. I Didn’t Want…
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Finding Magic in Motherhood, Part 10: School and Pregnancy
I had about a week between the ultrasound and the start of my Spring semester, a week to finally let the thought I was pregnant settle in. Of course, that came with a whole host of other fears. I still wasn’t past the first trimester, so there was still a good chance I would lose this baby, too. But my more pressing issue was having to sit in classrooms for most of the day twice a week while battling nausea and keeping my symptoms under wraps. I was lucky. The first trimester was kind to me. It was almost as though the universe decided I’d gone through enough with my…
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Balancing Blogging and Living
On Tuesdays, I usually share the stories, writing related posts, book reviews, and book releases I’ve come across over the past week. Last week I was fortunate to host an author and his nonfiction book Taking Action for a Better Tomorrow. I had planned on doing another stories, etc. post today, but I must also be a person with a life to live. I’m a busy wife and mother. Even though I never, ever had any plans of being a stay-at-home mom, it’s where I’ve found myself for nearly three years now. Recently, thanks to a lovely mom sharing another lovely mom’s story, I’ve been trying to take my role to heart,…
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Not Snow Days, But Fire Days
My son was born in Pennsylvania. We moved to California when he was six weeks old, so he has no memories of his first home, and only a dim understanding of what snow is as we have yet to take our kids to the mountains during the winter. He’s five and has just started school. He’s loving it so far, but, as he gets older and understands more, I wonder how he’ll react when he learns he could have had snow days. I’m a California girl, born and raised. I never knew snow days existed. I grew up watching TV shows that took place back East and always saw high…
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Parenting with Psychology: ABA Behavior Modification
Personally, I hate the term behavior modification. But it has an important place in ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis). Anyone who has worked with, known, or been in contact with a child with an autism spectrum disorder knows behaviors are inevitable. These are highly sensitive, highly rigid individuals, which makes even the slightest deviation tantrum-worthy. The goal of ABA behavior modification isn’t to try to control the children or their behaviors. It’s to understand why the child is behaving that way so they can be taught how to ask for what they want and express their needs in a more socially acceptable way. It helps give them tools they can take…
