Middle School Peer Tutoring – GRANT $
on Nov 16, 2009 in *Empowerment The National Service Agency recently announced funding to engage students in service-learning and this could be a great opportunity to start research-based middle school programs, like SPARK Peer Tutoring. The grant funding totals $1 million dollars...

Positively Speaking – Finding a Spark
on Nov 9, 2009 in *Empowerment *Positively Speaking Have you ever had a conversation with your child and seen him “light up” with enthusiasm? Maybe you were talking “rocks” or “math problems” or “starting a book club.” I wrote about one of my daughters...

Empowering Youth in Cincinnati
on Nov 2, 2009 in *Empowerment Passing the Torch Stuff that Matters HCHY This week, Darla and I are headed for Cincinnati, to the Healthy Communities/ Healthy Youth Conference. I’ve attended this conference many times over the years and have always been inspired and motivated after leaving it. My kids have often...

Behold – The Conscientious Hunter
on Oct 26, 2009 in *Empowerment Husband Did Right Parenting Passing the Torch Wisconsin hunting This year, a new law went into effect in Wisconsin, allowing 10-year-olds to hunt. My motherly protection made me wish for my 10-year-old to ignore this law, and my survival instinct wanted all of us to stay out of the woods entirely. But since I m...

Mortgage Payoff 101 – Lessons Learned
on Oct 19, 2009 in Self-Improvement Stuff that Matters budget finances mortgage If you’ve been reading this series, you know our goal is to have our second mortgage paid off within a year. Part One in this series is here. You may think our plan is silly, or unattainable. You may think we’ve been frivolous in the pas...

Mortgage Payoff 101 – Sell Your Stuff
on Oct 12, 2009 in Self-Improvement budget saving selling This is Part Four of my series outlining our plan for paying off our second mortgage in the next year. Part One is here. If you’ve been following along on my series, it’s quite possible you find yourself in a similar situation to mine:...

Positively Speaking – Personal Power
on Oct 5, 2009 in *Positively Speaking drugs We know we want to help our kids learn to say “No” to drugs, but how much do we consider the other important factors that often result in drug and alcohol resistance? Check out this month’s Positively Speaking column at 5 Minutes fo...

Mortgage Payoff 101 – The Credit Card Bill
on Sep 29, 2009 in Self-Improvement budget credit card saving This is part three of my series showing how we’ll pay off our second mortgage in the next year. Part one is here. We live on our credit card. Everything we purchase goes on it – even our utility bills — and we pay it off in full whe...

Momma Loves Her Little Son – Book Review
on Sep 28, 2009 in Giveaways and reviews book review John Carter Cash’s book, Momma Loves Her Little Son, is a darling fantasy re-telling of a small but beautiful tradition between June Carter Cash and her son, John. Like the terms of endearment we use with our own children, this rhyming story tells...

Mortgage Payoff 101 – Monthly Charges
on Sep 22, 2009 in Self-Improvement budget finances mortgage In Part One of Mortgage Payoff 101, I explained our family’s goal of paying off our second mortgage within the next 12 months. In this second part of the series, I’d like to address one of the principles that has helped us to make this go...