Parenting is the Best Thing.

I promise. No one likes to be around kids who haven't been parented. True fact. Although it is much needed, parenting goes beyond disciplining your kids. It includes teaching them and being good examples for them to look up to. My parents rocked at parenting. Truly. We were taught that there was a time and a place for most things. There was a time to have fun and be silly, and it wasn't at the dinner table. We were taught to be respectful. We were taught to be kind. We were taught how to share and play nicely. With all that teaching, we turned out to be the most well behaved kids. It seems like my 'rents had a tough parenting style, but in reality, they disciplined with love and with the intent to teach us a better way to go about things. They were definitely authoritative parents...the best kind.
Be good parents.
Love to all
Traci

When I Grow Up I Want to be Just Like My Mom.

She is a stay-at-home mom. People often make jokes that being a mom isn't a job. I beg to differ. She works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. She would wake up early each morning to get my brothers and me ready for school. While we were there, she would clean the house, do the laundry, take care of the marketing, run errands (usually for everyone but herself), and then make it in time to come pick us up from school. We would get home and she would get a snack in our bellies, drive us to soccer/basketball/football practice, start dinner, pick us up for practice, finish dinner, feed us, clean up, help us with homework/school projects, get us ready for bed, and then start again the next day. That was a just a typical day in the life of my mom. She devotes every minute of her day taking care of her family. Her job never stops. She can't call in sick or take a week off of vacation time. Instead, she works day in and day out ultimately blessing our family and keep us one strong family unit. I will always be grateful for her admirable decision to be a stay-at-home mom.

love these people to pieces.

enjoy every moment with your family.
xx,
Tray

Learn to Love Serving.

"Service changes people. It refines, purifies, gives us a finer perspective, and brings out the best in each one of us. It gets us looking outward instead of inward. It prompts us to consider others' needs ahead of our own. Righteous service is the expression of true charity, such as the Savior showed."

~Elder Derek A. Cuthbert

One of the best ways to grow closer to one another is to serve. You are able to think solely about the other person allowing you to better understand their needs and how you can help them. In doing this, you develop a greater love for that person, ultimately strengthening that relationship you had. Service can be a little thing that makes a world of difference.

Always love,

Little Ream

My family is so fun.

We seriously love to be with each other. In one of my other classes, we briefly discussed family traditions. There are good traditions, and there are bad traditions. My family has great ones. For as long as I can remember, we have gone on a houseboat trip each summer. This is one of our favorite things to do. I guess you can call it a tradition. Each summer, we take a week off and head up to our favorite lake where we rent a houseboat and spend our days on the water. It is the trip that is most looked forward too, and I can't help but think it is because we get to spend a week together as a family. 

This was the theme song of our trip one year. Needless to say it is my family's favorite song.

Make good traditions.
Much, much love,
Trace Baby

I'm Struggling...

...to write new posts. Its evident in the fact that I only have four posts to date. Life seems to be crazy busy and writing blog posts doesn't exactly make it on the priority list. However, because the amount of posts determines whether I get a good grade or not, I'm going to get my little bum in gear and start writing.

The other day we talked about how work has affect the family unit. Before, work used to be mostly manual labor in which the whole family helped. Now, it is an excuse for the father to leave the home for the majority of the day only to make just enough money for a family to survive. Sometimes, a mother may even need to work in order for a family to live a little more comfortably, enjoying some luxuries of worldly living. This way of living is sad because not only does it take the father away from the home, but it may take the mother away too. In addition, each member of the family can grow farther apart because they spend most of their time away from one another.

This made me reflect on my own family experiences.  My dad was an entrepreneur, so to speak. He owns his pool contracting business. Being his own boss, he was able to make his own work schedule, however, he made many sacrifices to be with his family. He often left at 5 in the morning so that he could get his work done in time to be home for dinner. Because of that, our family was able to spend a lot of time together and develop strong relationships. I will always be grateful to my dad for the sacrifices he made to spend more time with us as a family.
I love my family.
xx,
spits