THE AWKWARD MOM

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Tag: freebie (page 1 of 3)

Proverbs for Kids: 5 Printables to Post

Reading Time: 2 minutes

This morning as my 14-year-old scarfed down chicken-maple sausage links before school, I pulled Tim Keller’s devo (for adults) on Proverbs off the kitchen’s half-wall, where it sits by the fruit bowl. These pages have become to me a quietly cherished part of our routine.

There’s something about Proverbs’ concrete wisdom and word pictures for developing young brains that makes this book wonderfully tactile. (And bless the person who divided it neatly into 31 chapters, one per day of the month.) read more

Printable Prayer: For Discomfort, Anger, & Foolishness (Freebie)

Reading Time: < 1 minute

This week has dabbled in the frenetic at my house. Uh. More than usual.

Rather than writing you a half-baked post, I’m pulling from the archives some chalkboard art of a printable prayer–an artistic version of this challenging Franciscan benediction:

Grab this printable prayer here.

Free printable prayer chalkboard art God discomfort anger foolishness Franciscan blessing read more

[Being] Present: 7 Ways to Be “All There” with God This Christmas

Reading Time: 4 minutes
being present Minor confession: In the midst of putting out our family’s prayer letter last week…I declined a call. My husband walked into the kitchen, and I had this look like your dog would when it pees on the carpet. I explained my sheepishness. “Why do you feel guilty about that?” he asked, direct as ever. “I want to be the kind of person who will drop everything and be present with whoever needs it,” I shrugged. His eyes had this kind look around the edges. “You know you can only be present by shutting other stuff out, right? You’re present with our financial supporters [my husband and I are supported missionaries with Engineering Ministries International] right now. When you’re present with someone else, you’re shutting out other things you could be paying attention to.” I literally thought about the post I wrote about being distracted with others–and how to be fully, powerfully present. We all know what it’s like to compete with headphones or a smartphone. So often in my attempts to be everywhere, to be everything to everyone, I’m not “all there” with anyone.

Being present is about being there…by not being somewhere else. 

So to be present, it’s fair to say there are boundaries involved.  When it comes to Christmas, being present with God is sucked away by schedules and material stuff and worry: the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful (Mark 4:19). The Psalmist prays, Unite my heart to fear your name (Psalm 86:11). I wonder if I was on God’s mind when he penned this one…because at Christmas, my heart can be going in about 167,856 directions at once.

I’m just not all there with him.

So I’m pulling ideas together to help me/you hone in on being “all there” this Christmas, starting with our audience of One. being present

Don’t do something.

To an already-packed schedule, Christmas can feel a bit like “more bricks, less straw.”

If your goal is being present in the ways that matter, cut out a few of the “have-to’s” that aren’t. read more

Free Printable Postcards for Kids!

Reading Time: 3 minutes

free printable postcards for kids

Anyone else–after Thanksgiving away from family–feeling a little sad?

My kids have cousins and grandparents they won’t have seen for a year. Though I obviously hate this pain on a number of levels–I love that my kids (including three teenagers!) were visibly bummed when Thanksgiving was canceled with their grandparents, and cousins half their age.  read more

Anger Issues? Ideas to Keep a Lid On

Reading Time: 5 minutes

anger issues

I still recall with vividness my son’s drawing, proclaiming my anger issues to the world.

It was in red marker (his favorite color). Chunky hands rested on wonderfully slim, stick-figure hips. “I made you look mad, but you’re not mad in this picture,” he explained. read more

Spiritual Life Skills for Kids: Courage (with Book List & Printables!)

Reading Time: 7 minutes

My daughter’s headed to winter camp soon, which she adores. This morning, over an increasingly plain-looking Greek yogurt parfait, she gushed about camp’s breakfast buffet. She loves the free time, the reconnecting with old friends.

But in light of her anxiety issues, and apparently a night last year when she laid awake till 2, she’s already nervous about getting to sleep.

(All those suggestions in the Help! My Kid Can’t Sleep post? Those are hard-won, peeps.) read more

Parenthood is a Dirty Microwave: Clean Questions for 2020

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Sometimes my microwave feels like a microcosm of my life.

To clarify: Not like this cute, peaceful stock photo. read more

Spring Break Kids’ Activity: The Newlywed Game (FREE PRINTABLE)

Reading Time: 3 minutes

So some of you parents are thrilled that your kids are home. And some of you would like to be thrilled, you really would! You are definitely working on being thrilled.

Especially if they would go fight somewhere else? Or maybe pick up their cereal bowls. read more

Safe Cooking with Kids: Printable Infographic!

Reading Time: 3 minutes

cooking with kidsA couple of weeks ago, my son and I attempted homemade ravioli. I say attempted not because they didn’t taste good. (They tasted great!) I say this because in the midst of chaos–some foreseen, some not-so-much–we didn’t really seal the little ravioli pillows correctly. So ricotta leaked out into the water. Never fear: Every single one of the little guys was still eaten up, and since perfect ravioli wasn’t the goal, I’d consider it a smashing (smashed?) success.

I’ve been pulling kids up on the counter next to me (and sometimes sitting them in the bowl of the sink) for a little over a decade now. Initially, it was a strategy of containment. If I am cooking, I know where you and your fast little feet are, and what those little hands are dumping. But cooking has been a way that my kids and I create rich quality time together.

Near the end of the day, we are creating something nourishing together, learning a life skill, chatting about whatever, laughing, and sealing the memories with taste and sound and sight and  smell and touch. Somehow the mundane, to me, seems to take on a little magic. read more

FREEBIE: Printable Watercolor Scripture Memory Cards, Colossians 1

Reading Time: < 1 minute

I’ve written a lot lately about spiritual disciplines for real families (check out the series here for lots of practical ideas). This summer, I’m creating some incentives for my kids to squirrel away a few more verses in their minds–and hopefully even deeper than that.

Because summer’s here and it’s a great time to try something fresh, I’ve made some more Scripture memory cards (they’re great for wallets and pockets, but great scotch-taped inside the medicine cabinet and the cupboard, too, or even dropped in a lunchbox).

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