Author Archives: Giggles

Not for their ears only

28 November 2016, 2:23 pm by Giggles
Categories: Family

There’s something about having a baby or small child with you that seems to give most people the impression they have the right, or even duty, to say or do stupid things. And then if you happen to have two babies then even more people feel it is their duty to say whatever happens to come to mind. Thankfully most of the weird people say the same crazy things so by this point I’ve got some pretty standard answers to their pretty standard crazy. But my replies aren’t just for the benefit of said crazy stranger. My replies are also in large part for the benefit of my kids, who also have to hear these crazy comments and who pick up on them. Keep reading →

3 Shared thoughts

I love to see the temple

27 November 2016, 1:45 pm by Giggles
Categories: Gospel

Brett and I have attended the temple together every month. As it takes us two hours each way to get to the temple, the whole family goes and it’s a whole day trip and we always come home with doughnuts. And then I realized we kept telling Iddo we were going to the temple, and she loved going and getting the doughnuts, but she wasn’t even seeing the temple. And that wasn’t right. Keep reading →

5 Shared thoughts

Plans

26 November 2016, 10:39 pm by Giggles
Categories: Happy Things, Life

When I was 15 I made a plan for my life – dating, college, mission, marriage, kids, the end. And then my life actually happened. … The list of things that have happened so far that I couldn’t even begin to imagine at 15 is a rather wonderful list. … But that hasn’t been the end yet. And thank goodness for that. I’m looking forward to all the ways my plans will go awry. Keep reading →

2 Shared thoughts

Teaching the little ones

25 November 2016, 12:29 pm by Giggles
Categories: Books, Education, With the Kiddos

Teaching kids is definitely important and needs to start as soon as birth (and does, whether you realize it or not), but it does not need to be complicated. In my professional opinion, and I went to school long enough to have a professional opinion on this, teaching kids is really quite simple. … So put the flash cards down and stop it with the unnecessary guilt and stress. You’ve got this. Keep reading →

3 Shared thoughts

Thank you

24 November 2016, 10:17 pm by Giggles
Categories: Musings

As we’ve been teaching our kids manners it’s dawned on us that while we can withhold things until they say “please,” we have no power to make them say “thank you” after. … They already have what they want so we can’t hold that over them till they say it. … A true thank you cannot be coerced out of us. I think that may be why gratitude is a form of love. Keep reading →

2 Shared thoughts

The Reader, Part 3

23 November 2016, 3:01 pm by Giggles
Categories: Books, Challenges, Remembers

When I started teaching school I met some amazing people. We had a sixth grade teacher at our school who showed me how her kids kept track of their reading. They each had a sheet of paper with a chart on it, one row for each book. The columns were title, author, pages, start, finish, and rating. I liked it. And since I’d recently started my own website (this one), I decided I’d turn the paper chart into an electronic one on my website and I started keeping track of all the books I read. And since I had more space than just a row on a chart I added in a review of the books as well. And that is how “Giggles Book Log” came to be. Keep reading →

1 Shared thought

Making where I am home

22 November 2016, 9:13 am by Giggles
Categories: Life

I just realized that as of next month I will have lived in Tucson longer then I have lived in any other city. … When people ask where I’m from I’m not sure if they’re asking where I live now, where I was born, or where I grew up. … People have also asked if Brett and I have family in the area and that’s why we moved here. Neither of us had family here at the time, but we do now because we have each other. Keep reading →

2 Shared thoughts