Ok seriously, I’ve never felt so emotionally attached to comments for a give-away before so this is a really rough one to pick the winners!  I am so inspired in my parenting from all the amazing tips shared.  THANK YOU!  I need to come back with a little journal and take notes on my favorite tips like one reader suggested.  Wow.  I’ve been forgetting to get down to eye-level as much as I want to with my kids (or “up” in Elle and Max’s cases :), I need to remember to empathize with where they’re coming from when they are whining (or bawling), and give them “grace” rather than expecting them to just understand things on an adult level.  And I always need to stop and listen more.  Loved this quote LindsayAnn left:


“Listen earnestly to anything [your children] want to tell you…If you don’t listen eagerly to the little stuff when they are little, they won’t tell you the big stuff when they are big, because to them all of it has always been big stuff.”
–Catherine M. Wallace 

Words of wisdom.

So many more gems in there.  I wish with all my heart I could give everyone both “prizes.”  But I had to only pick two so I used random.org and here are the winners:

Suzette won Alexander’s Amazing Adventures:

Talk about the hard and deep things with our children. Things like their hurt feelings, disappointments, frustrations, insecurities, anxieties, and sadness. Don’t gloss over them, or think they aren’t experiencing these emotions. Verbally discuss them, initiate the conversation because sometimes children and teenagers won’t talk about them out loud. If they can learn to work through their feelings at a young age, they will be able to handle negative feelings throughout their life. Sometimes we want to just focus on the positive feelings because we think they will somehow compensate for the negative, but dealing with and overcoming our heartaches is part of life and will help us find the joy. 

and Elizabeth won the books:

My kids are 17, 15, 12 and 10. Though they are awesome kids, I sometimes need reminding of that, so I watch short clips of videos from when they were much younger and it always brings a smile to my face. Often one or more of them will stop and watch a bit too:) I’m interested in the books.


Congratulations Suzette and Elizabeth!!!  Write to me at sepphotography at gmail dot com and I will put you in touch with those who can get you your books and MP3 files to you asap.

For everyone else, remember there’s a sale on Alexander’s Amazing Adventures that ends tomorrow (actually since it’s almost midnight, it ends almost today, March 15th) so if you’re interested click HERE.

The books are available at a great deal right now too.  Click HERE to find the info. for ordering (link is at the top of the page) and remember the friends and family promo code is “eyrealm2016.”

Thanks again for this treasure-trove of wonderful parenting tips.  I will be coming back to those comments over and over again when I need a little parenting pick-me-up.

much love,
Shawni
xoxo

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