SIT Conference 2015

My friend told me about it,  conference for students by students.”You totally should come. Tricia is finally old enough to attend. Tech and kids…it’s a fantastic day,” she said.
Trusting her and her knowledge of great things and things my daughter would love (bonus: our girls would be able to hang out together and well the promise of technology…no brainer).  I signed my daughter up to attend the Buffalo Grove SIT Conference 2015.  Then I decided why should she have all the fun and I signed up to be a volunteered at the conference!

Bright and early on last Saturday morning my daughter and I drove to Buffalo Grove. There we would join hundreds of other 3rd-12th graders for a technology conference for students by students. To top that there would also be four other SIT Conferences going on the exact same day and time as ours throughout the state of Illinois!!!

At check in I was amazed at every detail that had been noticed. Every procedure and process had been put in place and thought of  to make sure this conference for students by students was safe for kids.  It would allow this all the students to be as independent as they wanted to be and have a real conference experience.

As quickly as the keynote started she was off with her friend to the sessions they had selected.  The conference had started and to say it was a beyond awesome experience would be an understatement…

SIT Conference #SketchnotingLife

At lunch Tricia barely got a bite of food in as she talked non-stop about all that she was experiencing and learning she had done.

I honestly had never heard her talk so much in her life.

SIT Conference 2015

As we drove home from this fantastic event,  I looked in the review mirror to see Tricia’s head leaning on the window… she was sound asleep.  I smiled.  I knew in that instant that we will forever support and be a part of this incredible day!!!

The Art of Embracing Mistakes

I hate making mistakes….there I said it.   Some are small and leave no ripple.  Oops and on life goes.  Others cause pain in our hearts and hurt more deeply.   Sometimes the memory of a mistake even lingers and holds on.  It whispers and tugs and makes us think less of ourselves and lies to us.

When I sat down to draw this weekend I knew exactly what word I wanted to draw.  As I began to draw I had no real plan.  I began by drawing my word, then I began to move around the paper doodling in separate spaces.  Finally, I added  lines, shapes and more doodles to connect them all together.  What I ended up with was a lot of different doodles….some good, some mistakes but all together it’s beautiful and not at all what I had expected.

Our mistakes remind us of our imperfections….we can listen to their whispers, give up or embrace them, learn from them and move forward and do better.

The Art of Making Mistakes By Carrie Baughcum

Cleaning Shout Outs…said no kid or mom ever!

Cleaning…chores….sighhhhhhh is an infinite battle in my house (I’ve been spending a lot of time talking about that lately haven’t I).  Well I can say we have reached a 80% no whining, melt down, do it because I am supposed to do rate but woooo momma that other 20%….lordy help me.

After years of battling and attempted “behavior modification” with my ever feisty and perpetually determined to make me crazy oldest I decided a few months back to take a route unfamiliar with me…I compromised with her. I decided we she would select the household chore that she could tolerate.  This all in the hopes that the tantrum, whine factor  and incessant battling over doing your chores would significantly decrease… and what do you know…it really did…well mostly…until last week.

“Go upstairs and separate the today’s laundry.”

{sighhhhh} overly dramatic grumpy face (because I didn’t already know how unhappy she was about doing her chores after say… years of tantrums and stomping and refusing) with a bit of mad stomping up the stairs for added effect.

“Hooowws the laundry separating going,” I ask from downstairs.

minutes later…..nothing…no sound….

I walk upstairs to see what is up (duh….I totally know what is happening)

“What’s going on?” I say looking at the rolled up mound of an unhappy child trying to make a statement that is way past very clearly being made.

“I hate this.”

…cue mom speech about responsibility, her job as a member of this family….you picked this chore blah blah blah…you know the speech (heck she knows the speech).

She stares back at me.

“Let’s try something,” I say, “How about every time you think something negative, something or some reason about why you don’t like doing your chores you scream at the top of your lungs a super silly no way it is possible true shout out about what you are doing!”

{Perplexed look}

{aahhaa moment}

{Smile}

Getting back to my chores I hear a my oldest shouting from upstairs at the top of her lungs …

“I just LOVE separating the families dirty underwear into piles! Nothing makes me happier” 

From the dining room craft room I hear my youngest shout…

“I just love cleaning up a million gazillion rainbow loom bands that someone left on the floor…oooo fun!”

and from the bathroom…

Cleaning Shout Out

…and in that instant the Baughcum Family Cleaning Shout Out was born.

WARNING: Teaching children the shout out method may cause rolling on the floor laughter during cleaning and may slightly….oh shoot really reduce the amount of cleaning that actually gets done! 

1/2 The Laundry…A Life Lesson

My daughters never cease to crack me up.  Their perspective of life…even the littlest moments, the ones that seem so routine, the so everyday can leave us in giggles.  So when I asked my daughters to put away some laundry, empty a laundry basket and bring it downstairs for me I couldn’t have imagined the on the floor belly holding giggles it left me in and a life lesson I felt compelled to share…one big sister to another!
Half The Laundry...A Lesson in Measurement

…see more #SuperFunDoodles here

Crazy Holiday Fun

Well that was fun!! I don’t know about you but I have a serious love hate relationship with Christmas. This year my procrastinating tendencies caught up with me and honestly I didn’t handle it oh so well. There may have been some anxiety and stress. In the end, as always we I got through it and I was able to look back at it all, laugh, smile and see all the fun we had!!

This is just a glimpse at some of the crazy fun I had!!
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