parenting, pumpkins, and bear butts, oh my !

Before I forget- my sweet friend and fellow blogger, Krista Ewert, is hosting a giveaway for the doll A Special Joy that I blogged about last week. Go HERE to enter :)

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It's Friday and I have a stack of schoolwork to score. This week has been filled with errands- mainly running all over town picking up various components to our Halloween costumes for next week. I can't wait to post pictures... but I'll give you a hint .... Let it go... Let it go ... (wish I could just apply that song to this stack of workbooks, but alas... someone has to be the grown-up here.)

Anyhow, I have so much to say, but very little time to do it. I hate when that happens !

I've had about six parenting posts in my brain for the past few weeks, just floating around and begging to be spilled out onto my keyboard. Lots of readers here, as well as followers on Instagram, have asked me to share specific ideas and thoughts on parenting ... and I would love to do that. I'm always nervous to do so however, because we here at The Rice Ranch are a work in progress. I would hate for anyone reading to think that WE think we have it all together. Because we don't. We know there is always room for improvement. And also - one of my kids could rob a bank tomorrow and then everyone could point and say- SEE. Toldja so. They don't know anything about parenting.

But then I look around and I think - well then, who could ever give any parenting advice ?

We're all human.

We're all flawed.

And none of us are absolutely guaranteed success in the realm of parenting, because we are raising HUMANS here. Not machines or robots that will turn out like x, y, z if you just do a, b, c. These little people have minds of their owns, and I've seen the best parents in the world end up with some strange results ... and vice versa. I mean, look at Adam and Eve. They had the perfect parent (hello, GOD !?!) and they still ate the thing they weren't supposed to even touch. Can anybody say free will ?

So I could come on here and spout all of my personal beliefs about child training, but there are still no guarantees in life.

But having said all of that ... I would still like to do a few blogposts on parenting.

I may not be perfect, but I have been parenting for over 26 years now. And I've seen a lot of different parenting methods over the course of almost three decades. And based on our own experience and watching others' experiences too... I have some strong convictions about some things. And if sharing my heart and writing about the mistakes we've learned from can help other families... I'm willing to try.

I'll post more on Monday, but in the mean time- if you are one of the readers in the past who has asked me to blog about this subject, maybe remind me in the comment section what you are hoping to read about ? I'd love to hear your thoughts..

Until Monday, I'll leave you with a little happiness from the past month ...