Phone Conversations Overheard At My House

Bram is our 4 year old. He is a pistol. Let's just say he can be a handful sometimes. He's very energetic. All. The. Time. And can talk smack like the big boys. But if someone calls his bluff he comes running to Mommy. Ha!

My younger brother, Brandon (who is the classic, awesome pick-on-you uncle and goes by Uncle B) called my cell phone last week. Bram happened to be playing a game on my phone and answered. This is the conversation that ensued.

Bram: Who's this! (loud and aggressive)

Uncle B: Who's this?

Bram: It's Bram.

Uncle B: Hi Bram.

Bram: Who's!! This!! (louder and more aggressive)

Uncle B: Boy! It doesn't matter who this is. If you don't stop talking to me like that I'm going to come kick your butt!

Bram: I'll kick your butt! (Not backing down)

Uncle B: That's it, I'm coming to kick your butt!

Bram: You can't! It's dark! (So tough)

Uncle B: Yes I can!

Bram: Uh-uh, you don't know which way to turn! (confident and sure of himself)

Uncle B: Yes I do. I've been to your house before.

At this point Bram realized he may have gotten himself into trouble and ran to me with the phone, half scared, half giggling.

Bram: Mommy!! Someone's on the phone and he says he's going to come kick my butt!!

He didn't say one word about his part in the scenario. I know it was onery of him. But I couldn't help but laugh. I LOVE that kid!!

The Road to Relevant

In a couple short weeks I will once again be heading to the Relevant Conference. Denise (whom I had the privilege of meeting last year) from Denise in Bloom is having a pre-conference link-up for attendees to get to know one another.

I'm sure my regular readers won't mind if I take a moment to introduce myself (my readers are awesome like that).



I'm Cheryl - a homeschooling, "somewhat crunchy" mama. I love the Lord with all my heart - my daily prayer is that He will be glorified in my imperfection.

I love my hubby, my kids, homeschooling - and social media too. But I'm sure you could have guessed that. If I'm not with my family, I'm on twitter...or Facebook...or my blog. It's how I roll. I am passionate (and continuously learning) about the business side of blogging and connecting with others online.

Out of that passion I launched The 2:1 Conference - to bring together the "socialmeidialites" who homeschool their children.

I am looking forward to attending Relevant again - last year truly helped me prioritize my heart and I was able to connect with some truly amazing women who love God.


~See you there!

Dish Drying Mat Review and Giveaway!

I've recently fallen in love with a new-to-me kitchen product.

THE DISH DRYING MAT


Now, I know what you're thinking "A dish drying mat? No thanks, I'll use my dish towels." I know this because I thought the same thing at first. But let me tell you something, my dishwasher is broken. I have four boys in my house who feel the need to eat continuously. At any given moment of the day I have dishes drying on my counter...and no dry dishtowels. Now I actually have a towel to dry my hands on when I need one.

The Dish Drying Mat must be filled with some type of alien-technology foam. Okay, not really. But it seems that way because it absorbs more water and dries more quickly than my dish towels. I love that! Plus the foam makes the mat very sturdy. I can dry my wine glasses and pitchers without worry of them skooching around or toppling over.

And on top of all that - it's pretty! I love when a product is both functional and aesthetically pleasing. The Dish Drying Mat comes in a waffle pattern and lots of pretty colors to choose from. I have three mats, one each in cream, sage green and red (my favorite!).

I can hear you now. "Cheryl, my dishwasher is in perfect working order, I don't need a Dish Drying Mat." But you do! These mats are so versatile. You can use them for:

• Drying produce (place your fruits and veggies on the mat to dry)
  


• A beverage station (at your next party place self-serve drinks on the mat to soak up sticky spills)



• A homeschool experiment mat (I'm thinking exploding volcanoes and chemistry experiments)



• A diaper changing mat (lightweight, absorbent and folds up very small)



• A washable piddle-pad (for your incontinent pet)



• Padding for storing china



• A bath mat

I'm sure you can think of other uses too! I'm giving away three black Dish Drying Mats. But I'm not the only one. I've teamed up with a group of great bloggers who are also giving away three mats, and each is giving away a different color!! Follow the rules below for a chance to win a black mat from me and click over to my friend's blogs to enter their dish mat giveaways too!

GIVEAWAY RULES

• You must be 18 years of age or older



• Open to US addresses only (sorry everyone else!)



• You must leave an email address or link to a blog with email information (for notification purposes)



• If you tweet about this post, be sure to leave a comment stating you did so



• Each entry must be left in an individual comment or will only count as one entry



• Entries are unlimited

The winners will be chosen via random number generator on October 20th and will be notified via email. Winners will have 48 hours to respond with their shipping information. If they do not respond within 48 hours a new winner will be chosen.

HOW TO ENTER

• Leave a comment sharing why you'd like to win



• Tweet about the giveaway (each tweet must be left in a separate comment)

Not sure what to tweet? Use this: "I want to win the #dishmat giveaway from @SomewhatCrunchy!" Or make up your own. Just be sure it has #dishmat in it.

And don't forget to visit these other fabulous blogs for more chances to win a dish mat in other colors!!!

An Oregon Cottage - Cream
Finding Joy - Sage Green
Many Little Blessings - Sage Green
A Slob Comes Clean - Coastal Blue
Spell Out Loud - Coastal Blue
Feels Like Home - Red
Raising Arrows - Red
Mama's Learning Corner - Black
Jimmie's Collage - Gray
Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers - Gray

FTC Disclosure: I was compensated for my time in testing this product and writing the review.

I Support The Homeschool Post Awards

If you're online at all, you've probably heard about the Homeschool Blog Awards. This is annual event in which we nominate our favorite homeschool bloggers, then vote for the winners. There are many different categories in which to be nominated and lots of great prizes to win (including 50% OFF a ticket for The 2:1 Conference!)

Many of you know, I generally don't do blog awards anymore. In May, after the Circle of Moms fiasco, and this intelligent post at Postpartum Progress I stated that I would stop participating in awards which drive traffic in drones to the host site, not the nominated blogs - you know the ones. The ones where you're expected to go back to the host site and vote daily, and encourage all your readers to vote daily...at the host blog...yeah those. I'm not picking on Circle of Moms, there are many other awards set up like theirs which I have chosen not to participate in (even when I was nominated).

But I feel the Homeschool Post Awards are different. Better even. Why? For one the blogs are peer nominated - that's huge. Second, every voter is allowed only one vote per category. Their goal is to truly acknowledge and award homeschool blogs based on their merit - they're asking what YOU like to read.

They're not based on how many times you can get your Aunt Bertha to log on and vote each week. In my opinion, with the one vote rule, it's more like a survey. I LIKE THAT. A lot.

So I encourage you to go nominate your favorite homeschool blogger today. Acknowledge what it is you love about their blog!

Guest Posts, Dog Pee, Facebook and Tattoos...Parenting Tips Please?

First up - guest posts! I write monthly for two great homeschool sites, check out my latest!

Bend It Don't Break It - Character Training for Toddlers at The Homeschool Village

Perfect Fall Apple Recipes - A Collection of Mouth Watering Recipes with Apples

The next few topics have to do character and discipline issues with the teens. Some days, do you ever feel completely unqualified to parent? Yeah. That's how I felt earlier today. But then I remember what I was like as a teen (sorry mom) and realize this is all part of the territory of growing up, building character muscle and self control. Here's the issues we've been working on today.

Dog Pee
How do you teach the difference between "Work Smarter Not Harder" and lazy shortcuts? Billy is such a smart boy, I have said many times before, he has an engineer's mind. He is always looking for ways to be more efficient and improve the design of anything he gets his hands on. But I'm afraid, with work, this efficient trait has crossed over into the area of laziness. He is Dog Boy this week. The afternoon "walk" with our Irish Setter has turned into a 1 minute step outside the door. Not enough. This of course turned into an after dinner waterfall of dog pee on our carpet. (I'm so thankful for my steam cleaner!) This child makes SO MUCH extra work for himself by taking short cuts the first time. I've been hoping that he would learn on his own that laziness = more work later. But it just hasn't clicked. Any tips for me?

Facebook
First thing this morning Tony lost his Facebook privleges. Why? Well, we allow our teens to have Facebook with the stipulation that they, for security reasons, do not play any games etc that require access to their account (curse you Farmville!). Guess who has repeatedly broken this rule? Yeah. How do you teach integrity? It's so hard. I'm struggling to teach this really sweet and loving child that right is right and wrong is wrong and rules are rules even if you think no one is watching. But it hasn't sunk in. In his mind there is a different set of right and wrong depending on whose house he is at. Have any advice for this situation?

Tattoos
My son, Fox, wants a tattoo. This is something he has occasionally brought up over the last year. And the answer is no every time. The answer will continue to be no until he is 18 AND not living in my house. The tattoo he wants is of a specific Bible verse. Because it's a Christian tattoo he thinks it should be okay. Mmm hmm. This is a respect issue. The answer is no, the answer will stay no and yet he has continued to bring it up. We're working on respect. My words to him were "You are not called to understand or even like our decisions as parents, you are called to respect and obey. I have been 15, you have not yet been 32 so you need to trust me when I tell you you do not yet have enough experience to fully understand the ramifications of a tattoo." Such a tough lesson.

Parenting Tips
Please hear me when I say I love these kids - I am NOT complaining. They make me laugh everyday, we've shared a lot of laughter today even. I'm simply sharing what went on in my home today - the things that made me go hmmm. And I'm desiring some advice from my intelligent readers (that's you!).