Know what I did last month? Went on a little speaking tour! No, really! Ok, it wasn’t as glamorous as “speaking tour” sounds.
There were no autographs being given, no luxurious hotels being stayed at, and no wads of cash or fat checks being handed over in exchange for my appearance. I stayed in my own house and had to heard all 4 of my children out the door each morning so that we could get to my presentation on time. All 5 presentations happened at our church, and probably 200ish people saw me over the course of those 5 mornings. Four of the mornings were spent with the Early Childhood Building Better Moms groups (one of which I co-lead) and the last morning was spent at the Parent Summit hosted by our kids ministry (I was one of many break-out options that morning).
All 5 presentations were almost identical in content, with the exception of the Parenting Summit talk; that one had a different title (Early Childhood 101) and some extras at the end about simple ways to encourage spiritual development at home.
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The Building Better Moms topic was “There’s A Chart For That!”, in which I showed off… charts! (Bet you didn’t see that coming.) All 5 sessions started out the same way though!
“I am not an expert. Things go wrong at my house all the time. There’s fighting, there’s crying. Any parent that says they have it all together is a liar! None of us have a Pinterest perfect home. These are just some tips and tricks that have helped things run a little smoother at my house.”
What I Shared:
All links will open in new windows for you!
Getting Ready For School On Time Chart
Using the calendar for behavior modification
So there you go – read through those blog posts and you have the gist of my speaking engagements! Well, minus my incredible wit and sarcasm of course 😉 Â I had a lot of fun sharing these ideas in person, and loved hearing which “charts” people would be trying at home ASAP (the getting ready chart and screen time seemed to be the biggest hits)! If you happened to be at one of my sessions, and have tried one of my ideas out already, I’d love to hear about it!
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A rare picture of Nick and me, wearing our matching Parent Summit t-shirts!
All crummy quality pictures are brought to you by my crummy camera phone.Â
So glad you posted all these links! Life changing stuff (and I’m a newer follower so it was news to me!). Thank you.
So glad to have you, Hillary, and happy to help! The comments you left on some of the other posts had me cracking up too 😉
Ooh…I’m pinning this! Lots of Helen’s words of wisdom in one spot! 🙂 🙂 Thank you!!!
Helen, you and Nick are doing a fantastic job ! Mom and I are SO proud of you. As you know, we never agree completely with how someone else is doing a job. Hopefully as we get older and maybe wiser we learn to bite our tongues. It was fun a few years ago to listen to Mom and your Grandma sharing those tongue biting memories and laughing together. You and Nick have come up with some very clever systems for raising your kids and they work so well. Have fun with those teen years !! We are always here for you. Love you.