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     Don’t get me wrong.  The journey along Highway 12 in Idaho is GORGEOUS!!! You can expect to see dense cedar forests, a beautiful river that hugs the highway, and a mountain ridge that hovers above.  Enormous boulders will arbitrarily appear in the middle of the small, swift river, evoking wonder as to their origin and possible casualties at their landing.  This is all part of what Lewis and Clark experienced just over 200 years ago when they traversed this area of the Louisiana Purchase.  But had it not been for the kindness of the local Nez Perce Indian tribe, the Lewis & Clark expedition would have been cut short by hypothermia and starvation.  What a thought!!  We genuinely enjoyed learning the history of this place and tribe and hope you will, too, as you watch this week’s video (click here)!!
      Do you love history?  As a kid, history was not something that was a strong part of my educational experience.  I’ve never really *loved* history.  But a few years ago, we started reading biographies in our homeschool studies.  As we studied geography, we read the biography of a missionary that worked on each of the continents that we learned about.  Their stories inspired and captivated me.  In the following years,  I intentionally looked for biographies as we learned about ancient history and American history.  In my opinion, seeing historical events through the eyes of someone who has lived through it, is so much more fascinating than reading a dry recounting of the event itself.
     But this summer’s journey…. it took our history studies up a notch (or TEN)!!   We not only read (or more accurately, listened to audio) biographies on our journey, we saw the places that these historical figures walked, struggled, fought, negotiated, and nearly died in.  We camped in the places they hiked, hunted, portaged and slept.  We breathed the forest air, awed at the wide open landscapes they witnessed, and dipped our toes in the water they canoed in.  HISTORY CAME ALIVE.  And now, we have a greater appreciation for the hardships many have endured for the United States of America to be what it is today.
     Our goal each week as we create the videos for Doing Life Deliberately is not only to share the adventure of our travels, but also to share what we are learning with you and your family.  We hope that you will enjoy sitting around the screen together, watching history come to life.  We hope we can make you laugh, challenge your thinking, and help you learn.  In short, we want to be Doing Life Deliberately WITH YOU.
     We’d love to hear from you!!  What are some events, historical figures and places that you would like to learn more about?  What do you want to know about fulltime RV living?  What questions do you have about homeschooling on the road?  We are working on plans for 2019 and would love to hear what you would like to learn about!
     We have received several email, Facebook, and website messages offering hospitality and encouragement.  Thank you so much for your kindness and love.  We appreciate you, your prayers, and support.
Keep Doing Life Deliberately!
Trisha
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We are so thrilled to give you a tour of our new home, a 2018 Highland Ridge Open Range 310BHS!!  It is a four season, quad slide, quad bunkhouse that comfortably fits our family of 6 and standard poodle.  We’ll also show you how we are able to utilize the space to make a comfortable and efficient home for our family. Click the link below and hop on over to see for yourself!

The following are items that we use to organize and use the storage space given us more efficiently.  Whether you live in an RV or just want to spruce up your space (big or small), the organizational tools below are bound to be a BIG help!

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This video and post contain affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links above, we’ll receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps support the channel/website and allows us to continue to make videos like this. Thank you for your support!!

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One of the things that I love about teaching homeschool is that it provides ample opportunities to see God’s character through the things that we are learning as a family.

I didn’t always think this way. But a few years ago, Joe and I attended a homeschool conference and the keynote speaker, Voddie Baucham, really challenged parents: Everything that we learn in homeschool should point our kids to the greatness of the Lord. Learning is not primarily about acquiring knowledge for the sake of stuffing our heads full of facts. What we learn in homeschool should point us to worship our Creator and draw us into greater intimacy with Him.

We see God’s unlimited intelligence, creativity and splendor as we examine the physical world around us in science. We enjoy His beauty in the sounds of music and the colors and shapes of art. We see his faithfulness, purpose and plan throughout history. We see His humor, ingenuity, emotions, and compassion in the use of language. But what can we learn about God in math??

1 Corinthians 14:33 says, “For God is not a God of confusion, but of peace.”

I see this exemplified in every page of math that we cover in homeschool. Have you ever noticed that if you place a decimal one column too far to the right or left that your answer is wrong? Or that when you write out a math problem and don’t get the columns perfectly lined up, then your answer comes out wrong? My point is that math is about precision and order. You don’t haphazardly get “right” answers. Everything has to be done in a certain pattern or alignment- whether the steps followed, or the way the problems are written out. And where did math originate from? GOD. So this mathematical exercise that we take our kids through in homeschool everyday has the potential to teach them that God is a God of ORDER, not confusion or chaos. He is not trying to trick us or play us for fools. But just like math, He is an orderly God, a consistent God, a peaceful God.

In the same way, I believe that math can teach us about God’s attention to detail. The examples I cited about math above illustrate the order and detail needed when performing math. The Bible gives us multiple examples of God’s attention to detail. Here are a couple:

“Why, even the hairs of your head are numbered.” ~Luke 12:7

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” ~Matthew 10:29-31

Do you realize that we lose 100-125 hairs every day, on average? Yet at any given moment, God knows how many hairs are on each of the almost 7.5 billion people that live on earth!!! Not only is God an active mathematician, but His attention to detail is limitless. And God is not only aware of every little sparrow in existence, but he also knows their value (which changes from time and place)! And if He knows the value of two sparrows (because what person even cares about the value of two sparrows?!?!) AND cares to know the exact number of hairs on any one person’s head, He must really, really love His creation (US!!) to pay that much attention!!!

Other examples of God in math…

“Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit.” ~Psalm 32:2

“You have kept count of my tossing; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?” ~Psalm 56:8

“He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names.” ~Psalm 147:4

I am most thankful for what God does NOT count or number. When we have placed our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have assurance that God will NOT count our sins against us because the punishment for our sins was paid for by the perfect sacrifice: His son, Jesus’, life on the cross. Three days later when Jesus rose from the grave, He defeated sin and death, taking away their power. His sacrifice in our place made it possible for us to be set free from the debt that we owed God and enabled us to be reconciled to the Father now and forever. Yes,

“Blessed is that man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.” ~Romans 4:8

Oh, the joy of learning about God- even in math!!

What can you learn about God in math? I’d love to hear how YOU are Doing Life Deliberately in your learning! Please share what God is teaching you about Himself below. We’d love to hear from you!!

~Trisha

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pexels-photo-515169.jpeg“There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil.  This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?  For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God.  This also is vanity and a striving after the wind.”     ~Ecclesiastes 2:24-26

I am the type of person that is tempted to strive for perfection.  When I was a kid, my parents taught me that “anything worth doing, is worth doing well.”  I remember in grade school crumpling up paper after paper because my handwriting on my assignments wasn’t good enough.  I would stay up until 9 or 10pm as a 4th grader doing homework because of starting over and over again to have the perfect writing.

Clearly, I took my parent’s teaching to an unhealthy extreme.

Fortunately, my teacher had the wisdom to intervene and work with my parents to help me develop less perfectionist tendencies.  (Thank you, Mrs. Waller. :0)  But, I still catch myself at times- especially now that I am teaching my own kids.  There is a fine line between pushing kids to do their best and pushing them to be perfectionists.  I have had to clarify with my kids many times that I don’t expect their work to be perfect (whether it’s school work, completing chores, etc.), but I do expect them to give their best effort.

But what about as adults?  How does the pursuit of perfection affect our marriages and parent/child relationships?  What about as homeschooling parents?  How does this striving for perfection affect us?  Are we constantly looking for the perfect curriculum?  Are we exasperating our family because they can never please us?  I have to be honest here- I fall into this camp way more than I care to admit.

So much of this is a heart issue.  Who am I trying to please?  Is my happiness tied into having a perfectly clean house or a child with straight A’s?  Have a made an idol of having a perfect marriage, the perfectly behaved child, or the perfect look?  Am I trying to get people to like me by appearing a certain way?  Or am I trying to earn God’s love by having it all together?

The above verses from Ecclesiastes speak of work being a joy- whether our job, our chores, our schoolwork, etc.  If we are striving for perfection, it’s awful hard to have joy because that perfection is always a little (or a lot) out of reach.  God is the only One who is perfect.  And though He holds His children to a higher standard (“…but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct…” ~1 Peter 1:15), He knows full well that we cannot attain perfection.  If we could, we would not be in need of a Savior.  But the fact that “He gave His one and only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16)”, proves that perfection is not a possibility for our sinful natures.  It is a gift from God to have joy in our work, whatever that looks like at whatever age you find yourself.  Perfection is a lie.  It is vanity.

Vanity= “excessive pride in or admiration of one’s own appearance or achievements.”                                                 ~Google dictionary

The point?  Rather than striving for perfection in our appearance, our work, our family, our home…. rather than trying to give the impression that we have it all together when we really don’t…. rather than trying to impress others and impress God with how great we are, let’s admit the truth: we desperately need Him to save us from our complete inability to get it all right and hold it all together.

Colossians 3:23-24 says, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.  You are serving the Lord Christ.”  Rather than striving for unatainable perfection, let’s strive to give our very best efforts as an offering of love to the Lord.  God just wants our best.  Not perfection.  Just the best we can do.  And if we’re honest, most of us don’t give God our best.  We don’t do the best we can at our workplace.  We don’t do the best we can in loving on our families.  We don’t do the best we can in serving the Body of Christ.  The majority of us just give God our leftovers.  Or our Sundays.  We give Him a part of us or what’s conveinent to give, but the rest of life is “ours.”

But our leftovers is NOT what God wants from us.  EVERYTHING we do, everything we call work (whether a career, yard work, housekeeping, staying at home with kids, teaching our kids at home, etc.)- it is all an opportunity to offer ourselves in love to God by doing the best quality work we can do in that moment.   And what that looks like is between you and the LORD, and may vary from day to day, depending on what is going on in your life during that season.

In conclusion, let us not strive for the illusion of perfection.  Let us work heartily unto the Lord as an act of love to Him, and enjoy the good gift of work He has put before us.  If you don’t enjoy your work, ask yourself why and ask the Lord to help you.  He will.  It’s in His good nature to listen to our prayers and answer our pleas for help.

May God bless you as you seek to do life deliberately!

~Trisha

p.s. for more homeschool helps and encouragement, please visit my YouTube channel, Doing Life Deliberately.

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img_3600I am SO thankful that we have the ability to choose homeschool as a way to educate our children. I am deeply grateful to have this freedom. Homeschool regulations vary from state to state- some being highly regulated, while others are not regulated at all. I live in a state with minimal regulations, and again, I am very thankful to have the freedom to educate our children how we see fit.

However, one of the downsides of being able to choose your curriculum, is that you have to pay for your curriculum.

Wah, wah, wah.

Anyone who has spent even a small amount of time shopping for homeschool curriculum knows that the bottom line can add up fast. So today I’d like to give you some ideas and resources to help you budget and save money on those books, computer programs, technology and enrichment programs.

  • Literally reserve money in your monthly budget to go toward homeschool curriculum and activities.
  • If you expect to receive a tax refund, set aside a percentage and put it towards homeschool needs.
  • Use websites such as Half.com, Amazon.com, and Bookfinder.com to search out gently used homeschool materials. This can save you a great deal of money.
  • Check out Homeschoolclassifieds.com for a huge listing of homeschool curriculum. This website also lists local homeschool groups and co-ops across the nation, as well as homeschool events.
  • Shop local homeschool used book sales!! If you are not aware of homeschool groups in your area, go to homeschoolclassifieds.com or HSLDA, and you should be able to find the homeschool groups closest to you.
  • Sell your old curriculum on the above used book sites or at a local homeschool used book sale to make money for the coming year’s curriculum and homeschool needs. And BONUS, it cuts down on the clutter in your home! Yay!
  • Join local Facebook groups and put out a request from the other parents to see if someone will loan or sell you the used books you need.
  • Collaborate with a friend who is using the same curriculum. Perhaps you can purchase alternate years of curriculum and swap the following year!
  • Use the local library to check out books or Overdrive to check out ebooks.
  • Use the Bible as your curriculum! Karen DeBeus at Simply Living for Him is an author and speaker who shares how her family did this and how it impacted them. Though I have not tried this method, I must admit it sounds intriguing and would certainly cut back curriculum expenses (however, that was NOT her primary purpose in studying exclusively out of God’s Word).
  • Shop curriculum fairs at homeschool conferences! I am always able to find great deals and discounts on homeschool materials when we attend annually.
  • Reuse materials! I do not permit my children to write in their textbooks, unless I deem it more cost effective to buy a consumable book than to make copies. My children will write out their math problems on a piece of notebook paper, write their papers on notebook paper and store it in a binder (which we also reuse, if they are in good enough shape), and so on. This way, textbooks can be passed down to siblings and reused when possible.

Well, there you have it! I hope that you find something useful in there to help you save up for curriculum or cut down the cost of curriculum. If you have other tips and tricks for saving money for homeschool curriculum and activities, PLEASE SHARE IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!! We want to hear from you and learn from you, so don’t be shy!!

Until next time, keep Doing Life Deliberately,

Trisha

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Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as a reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. ~Colossians 3:23

Life is short.

So short.

Recently, a beloved brother in the Lord passed away. He was in his early 40’s and had a beautiful wife and three kids. He was the type of guy who did not withhold himself from anyone. He was outgoing, generous, and incredibly deliberate when it came to sharing His faith in Jesus Christ. Whether he was well and things were going great OR he was incredibly sick and in pain, he praised the Lord for it all. He had joy when most people would throw their fists in the air and curse God. His life was too short. But he used his time incredibly well.

I want to live life on mission just like him.

Colossians 3:23 speaks of doing everything we do as if we are doing it for the Lord. You might have a job. But you don’t work for your boss. You were made to work for the Lord- whether you believe that to be true or not, you were made to work for Him. So whether you are a child of God, a mom, a dad, a teacher, a lawyer, a barista, a janitor, a bus driver, an NFL quarterback, a retiree, unemployed, a police officer, a fire fighter, a doctor, WHATEVER YOU DO- God has made you to reflect His righteousness, His goodness, His truth, His love and all of His character to those you interact with in your sphere of influence.

So how do we do it? How do we make the most of our time? Well, I would like to suggest that it can’t happen by accident. It happens when we are doing life deliberately: prayerfully, passionately, and purposefully. That means we have to think through things. We have to reflect and make some choices to change in areas where we are dissatisfied. It means praying and asking God to convict us both our areas of success and failure. It means submitting ourselves to Him in areas where we are failing. 1 Peter 5:5 says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” This means that if we submit and humble ourselves to Him, He will give us the grace we need in all circumstances. But when we refuse to bow to Him and admit our need for Him, we will most certainly find ourselves at battle with Him. He is always guaranteed to win.

During our time of prayer and reflection, it may be wise to do some journaling. Write out our roles: are you a child of God?, are you married?, a parent?, an employee?, a son/daughter?, a friend?, etc. List them and write down your responsibilities in those areas. Make a goal in each area. Then, go through your list of roles and give each a number, signifying importance (#1 being the most important).

Finally, use a planner or a piece of notebook paper to create a weekly or monthly schedule and appoint time to tend to each of your roles and goals. Give first priority to your most important role, then your second, and so on…. If your “plate” is overly full, you may find that you run out of time to do everything. That’s ok! You may need to say NO to some things. And saying NO to some things means you can say YES to more important things- thereby honoring the Lord by doing what you do heartily, unto Him.

So what do you say? Are you doing everything you do heartily, as unto the Lord? Are you making the most of the very short time here on Earth? I know I could stand to re-evaluate and shore up some areas! I’d love to hear your thoughts, so PLEASE, share your comments below!!

Keep Doing Life Deliberately,

Trisha

P.S. If you are a homeschool parent (or know someone who is!), watch and share my latest YouTube video on How To Prevent and Correct Homeschool Burnout. I hope you find it to be a blessing.❤️

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Last spring, Joe and I attended a Teach Them Diligently conference where we were delighted and surprised to see an old friend from our newlywed small group days. How fun!!

Homeschooling can be tough, and it is disingenuous to suggest otherwise. Even the most passionate homeschool parent goes through seasons of discouragement. All kids struggle at times- whether with a specific subject, an area of character growth, a skill that doesn’t come easily, a feeling of being left out by their friends… or a million other challenging circumstances. And just like kids need mom and dad to cheer them on to a strong finish of the school year, mom and dad need someone to cheer them on and remind them why what they do is so important.

Joe and I have found one of the greatest encouragements to be attending an annual homeschool conference. Every year since we began homeschooling, we have made it a priority to attend a homeschool conference. The first six years of homeschool, we attended the ICHE (Illinois Christian Home Educators) conference in Naperville, IL. We have been privileged to sit under the teaching of keynote speakers such as Ken Ham and Voddie Bachum. During the two and a half day conference, we had many options of workshops that we could attend- our needs vary from year to year. I can remember one year I was really struggling with trying to teach to our kids’ different learning styles. Sure enough, I found workshops where I was able to get some great insights and tips on how to adjust my teaching style to fit our children’s individual needs. The workshops can be so incredibly helpful.

The past two years, we have attended the Teach Them Diligently conferences. The first year we went to Akron, OH where it was conducted at a Kalahari resort. We were excited to bring our kids with us- many of these conferences are very family friendly and will provide “tracks” for your students to enjoy as you attend workshops geared toward mom and dad. After the day’s workshops were completed, we picked up the kids and enjoyed the water park. It was a fun trip and family time, but we returned home exhausted. The down side of taking the kids with us was that Joe and I did not have the time to talk and debrief between sessions, as we typically enjoy doing. The downtime we were used to having was instead used to entertain the kids, rather than relax.

So this past year, we left the kids with family once again and set out on our own for another Teach Them Diligently conference in Nashville. This time was so invaluable and encouraging to us. From the hours spent talking in the car, to the workshops we attended on marriage and parenting, and specific homeschool help courses, it was a refreshing reminder of why we have chosen to homeschool: to train up our children to know and love the Lord, to teach them about Him in every subject we study, to invest in their character and our relationships with each of them. We went home fired up, filled with new ideas of how to make our homeschool experience even better, confident of our calling to home educate another year.

How about you, friends? How do you stay fired up and encouraged on this journey of homeschooling? Could you share some ideas for other homeschool parents to consider? I look forward to hearing your ideas and answering any questions you throw my way.

May God encourage you as you keep doing life deliberately!

Trisha

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With each additional child, the time spent homeschooling every day increases exponentially for mom and/or dad. Homeschool begins with teaching kids at home, but that is not where homeschool ends. Not only do parents spend time teaching the kids, but they have to plan out their schoolwork and correct their finished schoolwork, just like a vocational teacher. If you are the minority homeschooling parent that has nothing else to do besides teach the kids (I don’t know anyone personally who is in this position), then spending the entire day planning, teaching and correcting is no problem. BUT, if you are like most people and have a house to keep, possibly a part time or full time job, and activities to run kids to, then like myself, you can probably benefit from some…

Time Saving Tips

  • Choose curriculum that will do some or all of the planning for you. There are many curriculums out there to choose from. I absolutely love that My Father’s World (our curriculum of choice for the past 4 years) does some of the planning for me. The teacher’s guide breaks lesson plans up by weeks and mom and dad can easily plug in the subjects that are age/level specific, such as math, foreign language, etc.
  • Study some of your subjects together. When you do unit studies, the family learns together rather than having to go from child to child to their individual, age specific curriculum. You all interact with the same material (though older students will likely have more challenging reading), so it’s easier to stay on top of checking and correcting their work.
  • Use curriculums that will check the work for you! Oh man, I LOVE Teaching Textbooks for this reason. Teaching Textbooks is a computer based math curriculum that not only makes math fun for your kids and teens, but it also checks their work and keeps records of their progress!! What a blessing!! We also love Rosetta Stone (a software based language curriculum) for the same reason.
  • If you find that checking and correcting your student’s work is bogging you down, see if you can’t talk your spouse into sharing the load. Divide and conquer!! Having both mom and dad involved in holding kids accountable this way provides regular opportunities for both parents to have meaningful interactions with the kids and be aware of what the kids are learning, struggling with, and excelling at.
  • Share the load of tutoring difficult subjects with your kids. If you have a child who is really struggling, have the parent who is stronger in that subject tutor them. Or, if it is an area of difficulty for both mom and dad, seek out a college student to tutor privately, or find a local tutoring center to supplement what they are already doing.
  • If your find yourself struggling to assemble supplies and teach multiple science labs, team up with another family or a local homeschool co-op to do science labs together. Parents can divide kids by age group and teach them at the same time OR take turns compiling materials OR divide what materials to bring. Doing labs with friends can make the whole experience more enjoyable no matter how you divide and conquer the material.
  • Have siblings test and correct one another. An example of how this plays out in our home is spelling. The kids enjoy giving each other their protests and test for spelling. And with the spelling workbook in front of them, it is no problem to check if the words were spelled correctly or not. Just this little step can save mom and dad time over and over again.

There are dozens of ways to save time in homeschool. What are your best tips for saving time in homeschool?? We’d love to hear your best tips and tricks, so please, leave them in the comment section below.

Until next time, keep Doing Life Deliberately!!

~Trisha

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One of the unexpected joys of homeschooling is watching our younger children learn from our older children. Sometimes, it’s on purpose. For example, I have had the older kids read to the younger kids (watch my latest YouTube video: How to Teach Kids to Read in Homeschool ). I have also had our oldest daughter teach grammar to our son. I found myself in a place where there just wasn’t enough of me to go around, so I leaned into Hannah to help teach Gideon. An added benefit was it was reviewing the basic parts of speech and diagramming sentences (she had been through the curriculum just a few years before). So while I was teaching one of her younger sisters, Hannah read the scripted grammar curriculum to her brother. Mind you, it’s not a perfect scenario. Siblings fight and so some days were a little hairy, but we got through it!

But I think what is most fun, is the many times where our two younger children have recited something that they had not been directly taught, but rather, have caught from watching and listening to their older siblings do school. Our youngest daughter is now seven years old and a third grader. Learning has come pretty easy for her because she has picked up so much from just hanging around while I taught school to the older kids: poems, grammar chants, times table songs, books of the Bible set to music, Bible memory verses, etc. Things that took the older kids weeks to learn, Izzy already knew when we came to it in the curriculum.

I see evidences learning by “catching” in my kids’ music lessons, as well. All four of our kids take piano lessons. My oldest has recently discovered that the music to the video games she loves is available in sheet music or through tutorials on YouTube. As her younger siblings have heard her practice and sing the songs, some of them have “caught” the fever, too. Finding music that they love has heightened their interest in playing the piano and tackling a level of difficulty that they would otherwise avoid. It has been really fun to watch!

One of the benefits of homeschool is not only that mom and dad get to spend more time with their children, but that siblings can interact more, as well. Homeschooling is a great way to give your kids more opportunities to positively interact with one another. Playing learning games together, teaching a younger sibling a school lesson, entertaining toddlers and babies while mom teaches… these are all ways to teach our oldest kids to consider the needs of others and act upon that in a self-sacrificial way, thereby learning and practicing kindness to those they spend the most time with.

How do you see your kids learning by “catching”? PLEASE, share in the comments below- we’d LOVE to hear from you!!

Keep Doing Life Deliberately,

Trisha