Throw Kindness Around Like Confetti !

Hey, it's me again...the goofy girl who loves to write and read, the one who takes pictures of the sun and food as well as cows and pigs. Me, the girl who is not and never will be considered normal. Today I bring you a story about parent teacher conferences and this super cool painting on the wall. If you make it to the end, there's also a worthwhile tip for cleaning scuff marks off your floor without bending over, so stick with me!

I spend my Wednesday mornings at the elementary school with the most absolutely wonderful group of children (some of them are mine, but most of them aren't). Our younger children look forward to my visits and our time together. The teachers seem to appreciate the extra adult in the room. I've done this for each of our children, but by the time they get to middle school it's not cool to have your  mom hanging out with your friends. My time at the middle school is limited to parent teacher conferences.

During last week's conferences, I found this amazing painting on the wall (see above) and I had to take a selfie in front of it. I wasn't sure if my husband was amused, but I was super excited! The confetti you see in the background is the thumb prints of the students who helped put this message here for all to enjoy. This is a great reminder how we should all be kind. As an avid reader, I've been told that the kindest thing we can do as readers is to share the books we love. I do this all the time and I'm not sure if my social media followers love it or hate it, but I figure whether or not you like the confetti, you're bound to get some on you from time to time and you just have to deal with it. If people can share political posts on social media then we as readers should feel comfortable sharing books and kind words, right?

If you are an avid reader, let me ask you this:

Do you take time to write book reviews on Amazon, GoodReads, a personal blog/vlog, or other platforms? Why or why not?

Do you go one step further and share a link to your review(s) on your social media accounts? Why or why not?

What's stopping you from throwing your thoughts around like confetti? Don't you want to spread that kindness?

Now that I've barged into your space with my questions and goofy confetti throwing ideas, as promised here is something else I learned at parent teacher conferences at the middle school:

If you attach a tennis ball to the end of a stick or dowel, you can use it to clean scuff marks off the floor. No more bending over with an eraser or cloth! Mind blown!

And the moral of today's story is spending time at the middle school has a lot to offer! Thanks to you lovely reader for making it to the end and thanks to my children for teaching me things each and every day - may you always remember to throw kindness around like confetti!

Hugs,
~Crystal

Crystal is the office manager, council secretary, financial secretary, and musician at her church, birth mother, Auntie, babywearing mama, business owner, active journaler, writer and blogger, Blog Tour Manager with WOW! Women on Writing, Press Corp teammate for the DairyGirl Network, Unicorn Mom Ambassador, as well as a dairy farmer. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband and their five youngest children, two dogs, four little piggies, a handful of cats and kittens, horses Darlin' and Joker, and over 250 Holsteins.

You can find Crystal milking cows, riding horses, and riding unicorns (not at the same time), taking the ordinary and giving it a little extra (making it extraordinary), blogging and reviewing books here, and at her personal blog - Crystal is dedicated to turning life's lemons into lemonade and she has never (not once) been accused of being normal!

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5 comments being kind, book review, book reviews, helping authors, kindness, parenting, social media

You Got This!

As I was contemplating what I would write, I realized instead of writing something intentionally profound, I would just share with you a little story and then we can talk about how this can be applied in your writing life. Here goes…

cheddar herb bread cooling

We live on this great farm in rural Wisconsin. We are a family of six. I hate shopping (yes, even grocery shopping). Now that we have that out in the open, you’ll understand the next statement: I make as much as I can here at home, so I never have to leave. Really at truly, that’s my life. We make our own hand soap, laundry soap, dish soap, dish washing soap, baby wipes, and I even cloth diaper in order to avoid having to make the weekly trek to the store to spend a small fortune on something that will fill our landfills. Some people think I’m ambitious, but those who know me understand I’m pretty lazy.

The one thing I’ve never been able to make at home is bread. Even when following time tested traditional family recipes, mine falls flat … literally …

My husband and children love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and I’ve mastered the art of making jellies and jams, I buy peanut butter in bulk, but every few days I found myself at the grocery store buying more bread. It frustrated me. (Did you see I used past tense there? The good part is coming!)

I took a bread making class and learned how to make bread. Watching a real live person make it, and being able to touch it, smell it, etc… somehow helped it all make sense. I went home and immediately found myself making gorgeous loaves of bread. I made them alone, and then showed my 8 year old how to do it. She turned around and made her own loaf of bread last evening. I wasn’t even in the room and she mastered it!
Did my teacher cast a spell on me? Was that spell contagious? Why did this all of a sudden go from being something I dreaded to something I enjoy enough to teach others?

It was three little words spoken to me:

YOU GOT THIS!

For the first time in my bread baking life, I wasn’t saying “on my – this is going to turn out badly”, I kept hearing Angie (my teacher) telling me YOU GOT THIS! And that positive self-talk along with some fabulous recipes and simple tips and tricks, took me from frustrated to fabulous! I was then able to instill that same confidence in my daughter. What a great gift to receive, and it really got me thinking about ways I can spread the message and encourage others.

What is holding you back from writing that novel? From sending out those queries? From starting that blog?

Whatever it is, let me tell you this:

YOU, YES YOU! I’M TALKING TO YOU!

YOU GOT THIS!

Show some love and leave some comments telling me what it is you are going to do this week simply by believing in yourself!

P.S - if you ask nicely, I may share my bread recipe with you!

Hugs,
~Crystal

Crystal tandem babywearing Delphine and Breccan 

Crystal is a church musician, babywearing mama, business owner, active journaler, writer and blogger, Blog Tour Manager with WOW! Women on Writing, Publicist with Dream of Things Publishing, as well as a dairy farmer. She lives in Reedsville, Wisconsin with her husband, four young children (Carmen 8, Andre 7, Breccan turning 2 later this week, and Delphine 7 months), two dogs, two rabbits, four little piggies, a handful of cats and kittens, and over 230 Holsteins.

You can find Crystal blogging and reviewing books, baby carriers, cloth diapers, and all sorts of other stuff at: http://bringonlemons.blogspot.com/

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2 comments being kind, confidence, learning curve, making bread, profound, self talk, you got this