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)
Hey guys! We are so thrilled to tell you that we are going back to weekly episodes starting today! That’s right! You can listen to the At Home ladies every single Wednesday. Are you as excited about this as we are?
And now for today’s episode…..
Brianne Buskey leads Part 1 of the discussion on “Why We Home School”. It was a lot of fun to talk about what we love about home schooling. We covered the silly things, like sleeping in and traveling in the off season, to the more serious ones like being able to design our kids’ curriculum (two of us specifically mentioned “being the boss”) and allowing room for things like active learning.
We also discussed some of the harder things that can come up in home schooling, such as how we handle questions about our methods without feeling criticized and without getting defensive.
There’s a lot of good stuff in this episode and we hope you’ll come away feeling encouraged and excited about home schooling.
Stay tuned until the very end of the episode for a bonus few minutes. Its mostly fun because Brianne tries to keep us on track, but it was late and we were not having it. There are lots of giggles. Podcasting is fun!
In this episode of At Home, our own Kristin Rogers and Brianne Buskey share with us about their recent trip to Africa to visit Abide Family Center. Abide is located in Jinja, Uganda, and Kristin and Brianne share with us a little bit of what life is like there. From heart beat raising rides on the taxi motor cycles called boda boda, to the the natural beauty they found there, Kristin and Brianne have such fun stories to tell. Kristin loved the amazing animals and they both loved the beautiful red dirt that makes up the roads. They fell in love with the beauty of the Uganda countryside.
But that was really a small portion of what really stirred their hearts on this trip.
Kristin and Brianne were deeply moved and impressed by the ministry of Abide. That is to “empower vulnerable families to keep their kids at home and out of orphanages.” Its a different kind of orphan care.
Kristin and Brianne explain what it looks like at Abide.
They share with us about the women they met who had gone through school and business training at Abide and were now running successful businesses and financially providing for their families. They talk about the staff at Abide, Ugandan women who quickly became friends, much more than just staff members who were giving them a tour of the Abide Center.
As you listen, you’ll be moved by the stories Kristin and Brianne share. You’ll be moved to think outside your own home and family, and to think about families struggling to stay together in their homes in a world so far from your own. This is such an important thing for us to do. To pour into our own families, and then, as we can, to pour into other families as well.
We hope you enjoy this episode of At Home. At first it may seem a little different than our usual episode content, but caring for families is what we’re all about here, so I suppose its not that different after all.
And we hope you’ll be inspired to look at Abide Family Center and the work they are doing in the lives of families. They are doing a good work indeed.
In this episode of At Home, we get to know Kristin Rogers! This is the last in our interview series with each host of the show. These episodes have been so fun to record, even for us, who know each other already! Your questions have helped us to get to know each other even better. Thank you for being a part of our show!
The questions you asked for Kristin’s interview were great. And they made us love her even more.
Is that even possible!?
Turns out it really is.
Kristin shared with us about her great love of animals, and endured our teasing her a bit about how far she is willing to take that love. Dressing her frog in a tiny hat for pictures? She’s done it.
She also talked about changing her hair color from pink to purple to turquoise, the meaning behind some of her tattoos, and how she’s left the house many a time with a rip in her clothes that Brianne had to repair for her.
Her interview covered other, more serious, topics too. Like the process of adopting her younger daughter, and her struggle with post part depression after the birth of her oldest daughter.
Many of you wanted to know about her nature journaling, so we spend a lot of time on that subject too. We end by talking with Kristin about what it is like to be an Instagram celebrity. True to form, Kristin handles even that with thoughtfulness and humility. Like I said, this interview made us love her even more.
And we know you will too!
Now that we are done with this series, we’d love to know if there are any other series you’d be interested in us doing? Another round of interviews with each host? Maybe focused on how we home school, or something else entirely? Let us know! We love hearing from you.
Show Notes:
To see more about Kristin’s nature journaling, check out her Intagram hashtag: #ibenaturejournaling
In this episode of At Home, Jen Dees leads the discussion on music.
Jen came prepared with pages of notes.
As well as plenty of passion, lots of opinions, and a great deal of wisdom on the subject.
Besides discussing things like the benefits of learning an instrument, and at what age kids should begin playing one, we also shared our own musical memories, and debated the benefits of listening to classical music.
Plus we shared some great resources, and Jen read from one of her favorite children’s musical biographies.
This is an episode chock full of so much good stuff!
We know you’ll come away from this episode feeling inspired to add music to your days, because like Greta says, “music makes a happy home.”
Now tell us, what is your favorite music to listen to with your kiddos?
