In this episode of At Home, Greta Eskridge leads the discussion on “Choosing Joy”. This is a regular theme in Greta’s own life and she tells us why that’s the case.
We go on to talk about what a joyful person looks like, and why choosing joy really matters. We discuss practical ways to seek joy in times of trial or sorrow. And what we need to offer to our children, our spouses and our friends when choosing joy is hard to do.
This isn’t a light and frivolous episode. But rather a real talk about what it looks like to choose to walk with a joyful heart, even if the path we’re on is one lined in hardships and sadness.
We hope you’ll find this episode uplifting whether your hearth feels heavy or light right now. As always, thank you so much for listening and supporting At Home!
In this episode of At Home, Brianne Buskey leads the discussion on “Kids and Money”. Brianne’s introduction to this topic was eye opening for all of us. She had some interesting, and even alarming, statistics and numbers for us to think about. As a result, each one of us was instantly even more invested in the conversation that we already were.
Brianne went on to ask each of us to share our own memories of dealing with money as children, teens and young adults. We also talked about why teaching kids about money is important, how we handle allowance in our families, and offered a few practical tips for money skills.
And at the end of the episode Brianne surprised us with some special guests! You’ll love hearing from them just as much as we did.
We came away from this episode feeling so inspired to help our kids develop good habits with money. We hope you will too.
And now we want to know, are you the kind of mom who often (or always) forgets to pay allowance? Be honest!
In this episode of At Home, Kristin Rogers leads part 2 of our discussion on “Kids In Church”. We were excited to hear from so many of you after our first episode on this topic. There was a lot of great discussion here on Instagram, with many great insights and opinions from differing points of view. We hope this episode gives you all as much food for thought as the last one did.
For part 2, we shared some specific ideas for how to train your child to sit quietly in church when they are little and squirmy, how to talk about learning with your child if they are in children’s church, how to prep your family for church on Sunday morning, babies and nursing in church, and quite a few other things as well.
Again, we are grateful to you for thoughtful discussion here. It’s so good to get feedback from you on our conversations. Thank you for being a part of At Home!
Show notes:
Articles-
John and Noel Piper – http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-family-together-in-gods-presence
Dr. Todd Hall – http://info.austingrad.edu/christianstudies/childrens-church-the-entertainment-culture-and-the-story-of-god
In this episode of At Home, Kristin Rogers leads the discussion on “kids in church”. Kristin comes to the discussion with lots to say, and even research on the topic. There was so much to talk about that this is the first half of a two part series.
Kristin asks each of us ladies to share our own church experience growing up, as well as to share a bit about how we’ve approached church time with our own kids. We explore the benefits of having our kids sitting in the service with us from the very beginning, as well as what it looks like when our kids attend children’s church for part of the service. Spoiler alert: only one of us lets her children attend children’s church. Can you guess who it is?
Whatever you do with your kids on Sunday morning, you’ll want to listen to this episode. It’s chock full of practical ideas as well as our own personal passions. More than anything, we hope it gives you lots to think about on a topic that really is an important one.
In this episode of At Home, @jendydees leads the discussion on all things travel!
It’s summer time, and we all have a bit of wanderlust. So we just had to talk about traveling.
Whether it’s road trips, big trips to another country, or even exploring your own town, we have lots of ideas for traveling with your family.
We even share some books for when you have the travel bug but can’t leave home. Because we understand that we’re all at different stages and places, and traveling might just be a day trip to the town next door. But no matter what kind of traveling you’re doing, we’re excited to share the joys of travel with you in this episode!
In this episode of At Home, Kristin Rogers leads the discussion of Building Our Husbands Up. Our last episode on marriage is one of our most downloaded episodes, so we are excited to share another one with you.
We cover a lot of ground in this episode; from sharing practical, every day, ways we can build our husbands up, to discussing how the modern day feminism movement has affected our view of wives taking care of our men.
This episode is not meant to feel like one more weight to add to your role as a wife and mama. Instead, we hope very much to encourage you to think of your role as a wife as one that is important, beautiful, and valuable.
Marriage is such a wonderful journey. But like any journey, there are hills to climb, valleys to walk through, and mountaintops to stand atop and rejoice over. It’s our hope that this episode will give you encouragement wherever you are on your journey. Because marriage matters! And it is our hope to not just build up our husbands, but to build up marriage in general.
Thank you so much for listening and being a part of our At Home community. We appreciate you all so much!
In this episode of At Home we are talking all things poetry! But don’t worry, this episode is anything but stiff and formal. In fact, the episode begins with lots and lots of laughter as Greta and Jen express their excitement to talk about poetry while Brianne and Kristin poke fun at them for it. (and mention tacos a far bit)
Greta Eskridge leads the discussion with much enthusiasm, sharing her own journey with reading poetry. She admits her childhood wish of wanting to be like Anne of Green Gables, quoting poetry while playing dramatic games with her girlfriends.
More laughter.
Amidst all the silliness, there is a lot of great information about poetry shared in this episode. Each of us shares how we approach teaching poetry with our children, giving lots of practical and fun tips for making it enjoyable and meaningful. We share heaps of books and resources, so be sure to look at the show notes.
You may think that poetry is not for you, but in this episode, we’re out to prove you wrong. Poetry and tacos for everyone!
Now we want to know, do you have a favorite poem, poetry book or poet? Please share with us!
This week on At Home, we’re replaying one of our favorite episodes, Sibling Relationships. This isn’t just one of our favorite episodes, its one of yours too. We’ve gotten great feedback on this episode and hope you’ll enjoy listening to it again, or for the first time. @brebuskeyleads our discussion, and we start with stories of our own, sometimes rocky, relationships growing up with brothers and sisters. Good or bad, those experiences have shaped our desire to help our children develop close relationships with one another.
There is a lot of laughter in this episode. But there is also honest sharing about how exhausting it can sometimes be to really invest in helping our kids learn to talk to one another kindly, and navigate disagreements. We also offer lots of practical ideas for strengthening the bond between siblings. Be sure to check the show notes for the books, blog posts, and other info we mention.
And stay tuned to the very end, for a new “quick question round”. Or not so quick question round, actually. It’s a fun one!
Brianne Buskey-
Practical tips for nurturing good relationships between your kids.
Don’t allow joking and teasing that is one-sided and hurtful to the other person. Playful banter is so fun but teasing and one-sided joking is just hurtful.
Teach your children that when someone seriously says “No.” you stop what you’re doing right away and assess the situation.
Have them share a bedroom. Does this even need explaining? 🙂
Help them learn how to share and also how to have boundaries with their own possessions.
Teach them to respect other peoples property.
Encourage common interests (nature outings, hobbies, activities, books). Your children don’t need to have all the same interest but common interests and hobbies can form friendly bonds.
Talk kind and be kind to one another. I think we all say this to our children “Would you talk/act that way if you were talking to your friend?”.
Have your little ones memorize this poem, it makes for some lighthearted banter when you’re struggling with a rough day due to laziness or boredom.
The Camel’s Hump
By Rudyard Kipling
The Camel’s hump is an ugly lump
Which well you may see at the Zoo;
But uglier yet is the hump we get
From having too little to do.
Kiddies and grown-ups too-oo-oo,
If we haven’t enough to do-oo-oo,
We get the hump-
Cameelious hump-
The hump that is black and blue!
We climb out of bed with a frouzly head,
And a snarly-yarly voice.
We shiver and scowl and we grunt and we growl
At our bath and our boots and our toys;
And there ought to be a corner for me
(And I know’ there is one for you)
When we get the hump-
Cameelious hump-
The hump that is black and blue!
The cure for this ill is not to sit still,
Or frowst with a book by the fire;
But to take a large hoe and a shovel also,
And dig till you gently perspire;
And then you will find that the sun and the wind,
And the Djinn of the Garden too,
Have lifted the hump-
The horrible hump-
The hump that is black and blue!
I get it as well as you-oo-oo-
If I haven’t enough to do-oo-oo!
We all get hump-
Cameelious hump-
Kiddies and grown-ups too!
In this episode of At Home, @kristinrogers leads us in a discussion for the discouraged mother. She starts by asking us to share something we were discouraged by that very week, and then some practical ways we deal with our discouragement.
We also discuss other things our fellow mamas are discouraged by, from a messy house, to a messy view of our bodies, and messy mothering. There is such a lot we can be discouraged about, isn’t there?
But I have to tell you guys, this episode doesn’t leave you there. In fact, I came away from listening to this for the second time feeling so encouraged.
Between the four of us, there are so many different ideas mentioned for dealing with discouragement. Some of them are simple things for when we are just having a bad day. And others are much deeper, for when we are struggling with bigger things.
We hope you, too, will be encouraged as you listen to this episode. We want each of you to know you are loved by God and that He cares about your hurts and your cares.
We also wanted to ask you all to show us grace in this episode as our sound was a bit off. We had troubles with our sound board and mixer, a helicopter flying overhead, and kids playing baseball in the street outside It was a rough night for recording.
So thanks always for listening, even when our sound not quite right. We appreciate all of you listeners!
Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee,
God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flow’rs before Thee,
Op’ning to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness;
Drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness,
Fill us with the light of day!
This week we are releasing part two of our episode “Why We Home School”.
Brianne Buskey leads this discussion that covers some hard questions like, when it might not be a good idea to home school, do you ever question your decision to home school, and do you think home schooled kids can be a light in the word. There are some passionate responses to these questions. We have a lot to say! (And if you are listening to this episode with your littles, be ready for a little bit of more grownup discussion in this one.)
There’s some fun stuff too, like when we share ways home schooling has been wonderful for us, not just for our kids, but for us. And there’s a quick question round at the end of the episode. We hope this episode will make you think and make you laugh. We hope you feel encouraged too, as you consider the ways that home schooling has been a blessing in your life. Not your kids lives, but yours.
Will you share one of those with us?
Show Notes:
Kristin Rogers:
( Note: Im not saying I agree with this full article, but I thought it shared some thoughts that should be considered when thinking through this argument)
