Today, I wanted to share with you a lesson I’ve learned about getting out my kids’ way and allowing them to be creative and follow their imaginations. As you will see, my yard is a mess according to adult standards, but to my kids, it’s a bounty of creativity.

I cannot even begin to count the lessons they have learned while playing out there, and the lessons I have learned about what goes on in my kids’ minds, about their abilities & interests, and about who they are.

What do you think? Where’s that line between giving them the freedom to be creative and engage in imaginative play and keeping things neat and orderly?

…Shannon

P.S. Not even an hour after I shot this video, the other kids came out and built on what my duaghter created. Now there’s wooden bridge all the way across the pond, brick sides to the corral, and an obstacle course. Who knows what it will look like tomorrow

Complacency – it’s a dangerous thing. And I’m afraid that in my homeschooling my tendency to give the kids room to explore their interests, I may have been a little too lenient with certain children. Or maybe, it’s just that there’s a perpetual battle to over come our natural desires to do as little work as possible.

But something I know is that amazing things are possible, when we dig deep, rely on strength that comes deep within, from our faith, from our inner most reserves. Over time I’ve had to dig that deep to get through, and I’m sure it will be required again. But the question I ask myself is how to do I teach my kids this.

Well, this week, while doing the Fat Loss Quickie program, I ran into this clip from Facing the Giants, and today required my 10 and 12 year olds to watch it with me.

It’s a powerful statement on what happens when we really dig deep, and don’t let the negative self talk or our desire to do the easy or give up over take us. And it’s a powerful statement on the power of role models and leadership.

If you have tweens and teens, I encourage you to share this with them. And if not, take a few minutes to watch it yourself. It may inspire you through a challenge in the future.

P.S. For those of you who aren’t American football fans, the in zone was a 100 yards.

Christian book publisher, Thomas Nelson, recently sent me a complimentary review copy of  The LightKeeper’s Daughter by Colleen Coble as part of their BookSneeze program.

The book came right around Christmas, in perfect time for me to take some time to kickback and do some reading just for me. And this book did not disappoint.

The Lightkeeper’s Daughter is set in the early 1900s, in a small rural town of Mercy Falls, set on the North Coast of California, and revolves around Addie Sullivan, a young woman, and her journey to find out who she really is, after a stranger revealed that the parents who raised her were not actually her biological parents at all.

With the help of the stranger, she gets a job as a governess for the family from which she is supposedly related, not disclosing who she thinks she is. And from there the mystery of how she came to be separated from her biological family and why is played out. And of course during this she falls in love with her young charge’s father.

This a Christian historical romance with a bit of mystery and suspense, which is right along what I prefer for light, relaxing reading. The book is set in a place where I have actually lived (Ferndale, CA), so it was nice to see how well the author weaved truth and fiction together.

The story was interesting and flowed well for me, to the point where I didn’t put it down while my family watched a movie in the same room. Perfect for light, escape reading, it’s a book that stimulates the mind to figure out the mystery and warms the heart with a little Christian romance. 

If you like a little suspense and a little historical romance, The LightKeeper’s Daughter is a good read, one that I would share with my mom and mother-in-law in a heart beat, and would even let my daughter read.

You can find The Lightkeeper’s Daughter at Thomas Nelson, on Amazon.com, on Christianbooks.com, or possibly even your local library

Yeah! It’s clean! (or as clean as I’m going to get it).

The January Challenge over on the mastermind group I belong to was to clean our desktops/ home offices. And as you saw on the before tour, my office really needed a cleaning.

Well, here’s the result (and thank you for keeping me accountable!)

Angela Wills of MarketersMojo.com does this great podcast interviewing business owners who LOVE what they do – and this week she interviewed me!

If you have some spare time, I encourage you to check out the interview. You’ll learn more about:

• The work I do & why I do it
• My thoughts on working from home
• My big lesson on staying healthy and balanced,
• Why I needed to create my own definition of success & why I think you should too, and
• My advice on casting a vision & keeping it in front of you.

But most importantly, you’ll learn how to get started freelancing (writing), training, and consulting. As well as some tools I recommend learning, especially if you are interested in training.

And of course you’ll learn why I love my business

You can listen to the interview directly on Angela’s website, or by downloading the MP3 and listening to it on your computer or on your mp3 player. Angela’s introduction to our interview begins at the 9:48min mark.

Enjoy!

…Shannon

P.S. Here’s some of the links that Angela & I mentioned:

Fat Loss Quickie

Lynn Terry’s Self Starters Weekly Tips Elite Mastermind Group

and my other sites:

ITCustomerService.com

TheShrinkingMommy.com