A Mother’s Book of Secrets Discussion Part 2 of 5

May 14th, 2012 in Books/Reading, Learning

Like I said we are meeting here every Monday to discuss the book A Mother’s Book of Secrets by Linda Eyre & Shawni Eyre Pothier. Because I was in real need of a “Mothering Pick Me Up” and this is already helping me out quite a bit.

You really don’t have to be reading the book along with us to participate in the conversation, I am sure these are points that you already know tons about as a mother. So please join on in. I will start off with some of the points that stood out to me, quotes I loved, things I need to work on, and goals I have made.

Section 1 Key Points:

  • This section was on “having an organized offense” I thought it was going to be more about keeping an organized home, schedule, etc. but was surprised that it was more of an overall how to keep an organized family unit.
  • I am the greatest asset my family has, preserve that asset, and take care of myself.
  • Set aside time for a weekly planning session, mine is Sunday after church, if I don’t do it my weeks go TERRIBLY different.
  • Create a family mission statement with everyone’s ideas, that is short! I want to display it in my home and mention it during FHE once and awhile. Also I would love to help the girls create their own mission statement, super simple fun ones for now! Some of the examples in the book for family mission statements were “Broaden and contribute” and”Be thinkful, be thankful, and be bananas!”
  • Make dinner time a priority. My husband is rarely home for dinner so lots of times I am so tired that the girls eat at the bar and I plop myself on the floor to rest. I am going to muster up more energy, sit them at the table, and try to make it short but fun. In the book they used the example of asking them their worst and best part of the day. I can do that, baby steps, that sounds doable for me right now. They also brought up the point that even if you make sure that you set aside certain days when you know you can have a family dinner and hold strong to those DAYS–that is great too.
  • Family traditions are the “glue” that hold your family together. When I think about my childhood I will think of all the silly, sweet, important family traditions we had. It’s true!
  • Review regularly how everyone is doing: physically, mentally, socially, emotionally and spiritually. In the book they said they did it once a month during a date night. And they went through the list together and talked about each kid. What a good way to sit and be proud of your kids and all their accomplishments. But also sometimes to notice problems so you can help fix them before they become an even bigger deal.
  • Family Laws: I really loved how in the book she said it got to the point where they decided to only have 5 and that they had natural consequences.
  • “Hard is good” Creating memories is sometimes hard (like her hike that had whiny kids, blisters, falls), that sometimes creating memories is hard work. If you don’t put in the “work” to create family memories the days will just be full of playing with friends, homework, schedules, etc. I am going to use this as strength for when I want to plan an “out of the ordinary” day to create memories–“hard is good” it is worth it!!

My Goals: Figure out how to “take care of myself”, always eat with the girls even if Tyler is not home, think through our family traditions–see if we need to add any, establish family laws and a family mission statement together, help kids with their mission statements, make sure we rotate responsibilities during our FHE, and review once a month how everyone is doing (the 5 key things).

What about you? what points stood out to you? What quotes did you love? What new goals do you have? Etc?

P.S. See you next Monday to discuss Part 3 of 5!

 P.P.S. I sent the book to five of you out there, hope to hear from you!!!

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