Two questions for you
photo by fontplaydotcom
Recently a reader emailed me to ask if I could talk my mom into writing a guest post for my blog. I asked my mom and she's willing, but she's said she's not entirely sure what topic to choose.
So, I thought I'd ask you guys. What would you like to hear about from my mom? Do you want her to write something about homeschooling? Mothering? Organization? Cooking? Is there something you've always wanted to ask her about me?
Speak up if you've got an idea for a guest post from my mom (just leave it as a comment) and I'll sort through the comments and present my mom with the most popular request. The more specific, the better. If you all have got a bunch of questions for her, maybe we'll do a Q&A post with her.
Speaking of Q&A posts, a while back we did a Q&A post with Mr. FG and I've been wondering if you all would like to have another go at that. Do you wonder how he feels about certain frugal things I do? Or how he thinks about money? Or what it's like to be married to a person who hates to spend money? (hee.)
If you've got a question you'd like Mr. FG to answer, leave a comment here, and he and I will put together an Ask Mr. FG Q&A post. 🙂
Oh, and while I'm here, I should let you know that there's an interview with me up at Zingsphere with lots of varied questions. I think I misunderstood the blog visits question at the bottom, though...I thought I was supposed to submit how many I get per month, not the total number of blog visits. I've had a lot more than 190,000 page views by now (I think we're over 3 million now thanks to all of you lovely people who visit me here).
___________________________________
Today's 365 post: Zoe found this old picture...
Question for your mom....Regarding home schooling//
How did you feel confident that you were teaching them enough ?
What type of schedule for school did you come up with?
I am going to beging homeschooling in the next year and I am terrified...I want their education to be top level and I am lacking a little confidence. Looking for tips and the advise of the wise! Thank you for your time, love your site!
Angela M
I'd love to hear your mother talk about MOTHERING!!!!!! =) (That's my vote!)
Any particular aspect of mothering?
A long time lurker here... Just wanted to say that I really appreciate your blog. Thanks, and keep up the awesome work!
Hey Kristen! I'd love to hear from your Mom (mothering and the like.) Also, I wrote you an e-mail a week or 2 ago with a few questions about Mr.FG (how he was raised compared to you, how you 2 met, etc!) so, if you still have that e-mail on file, I'd LOVE to have those questions answered!
Thanks, Lauren
Homeschooling!!! If she successfully homeschooled you, and you are successfully homeschooling your kids, I want to know all I can about her experience. Especially because homeschooling wasn't so popular when she made her decision to homeschool.
That's the truth! There weren't a lot of other families homeschooling back when I was a kid.
A question for you...how do you keep your lives so low stress?
Hee. That's an interesting question, because I DO feel stressed sometimes. I'm curious why you think our lives are low stress...maybe you mean something different than I'm thinking.
Do you just mean that we have less running out and about than other families?
Kristen,
You definitely have less running out and about than other families--and interestingly, we have less running than many other families WE know. We limit our son's outside activities. This week, I'm just feeling stressed because our son started middle school on Monday and he is loving it...but comes home absolutely drained. Plus, I have to work and he goes to aftercare at a neighbors...and by the time I get home to make dinner, he's very, very tired. I envy you the home schooling a bit, although I think as an only child that it is far better for my son to be in a school--and he truly does LOVE school and does extremely well...he's almost always a straight A student, and really loves learning new things. He gets very jazzed up by the books he reads for school, the social studies projects he gets, etc. I just wish that we had more down time.
Your life looks so unstressed--because you seem to have "more time" or something to focus on the little stuff. I read your post about the hurricaine probably a hundred times, I keep rereading it...and thinking about your pizza on the grill, walk to survey the damage, marshmallows on the fire pit, and it all sounds incredibly peaceful. I just think about your kids skipping along with you...everyone smiling. Maybe it's really like that...or maybe it's just my fantasy of what your life is like by reading your blog.
Karen
When does your kids "school" start? Have you started yet?
We don't start until after Labor Day. I just can't make myself think of August as school time. 🙂
I'm with Erin. I'd like to know what it was like homeschooling when it was not as prevalent as it is now. Also, when the last kid was gone, it must have been even more of an empty nest than for those whose kids go out to school - so how does she fill her days now?
For Mr. FG (or you) - I'd like to know how you resolve disputes/differences of opinion. (hehe - I know there must be some!)
Oh yes, there are. For some odd reason, he doesn't always think all of my ideas are brilliant. I'm not sure what's wrong with him. 😉
Mr FG - Have you been pretty much a good sport with Mrs FG's frugality endeavors along the way or was it a real effort to evolve with her? How do you handle situations that you absolutely feel are going too far? 🙂
This is my question too!!! I have a REALLY difficult time getting my husband to "buy" into my ideas/suggestions to save money and budget. I try to make it as fun as I can...but he's not thinking any of this is "fun"!
I just wanted to say great interview and also.. thank you! Have just discovered your site and I love finding other like minded people 🙂
What an awesome idea to ask your mother questions! I'm curious how she thinks our culture has changed both better and worse since she had little kids at home. What advice does she have for parenting teenagers - would love specifics about curfews, money, how to decide when to give more independence and when to cut back, how to handle boy/girl friends the parent isn't crazy about, etc. Am also curious about her life today and how she approached retirement. How did your parents decide they were in a good enough financial position to retire.
Q's for Mr. FG - what skills does he think it is important to know in order to support you in the frugality approach? Does he ever feel that everything is going to support you and the children and nothing left for him alone?
I'm curious to know what techniques your mom used to teach you such good writing skills.
I also wouldn't mind seeing some hints for raising responsible teenagers, since I'm suddenly raising one who came to me... not very responsible. I'm sure that instilling this from a young age is helpful, but any little tricks would be appreciated
Thanks 🙂
Assuming your mother had frugal household, how does she raise a family who also learns the importance of frugality? It seems that it is hard to avoid "keeping up with the Joneses", especially with children who are influenced by their peers perhaps moreso than adults. Also, did she purposefully teach frugality to her children and, if so, how?
for your mother: If you could redo or undo something when your children were little, what would it be?
Would love it if your mom can talk about homeschooling. We're seriously considering homeschooling our 1st grader but I am worried about socialization and how in the world am I going to do it with a preschooler and a newborn baby? How did/do YOU do it? What if I fail her by not covering everything that she needs to know? How do I decide on a curriculum? Can you tell that this is stressing me out? 🙂
I don't really have any specific questions but I do like the idea of the q&a with your mom and mr fg.
I'd like to know about homeschooling. How did your Mom feel about it? I'm so impressed that she and your Dad reared children who love the Lord. Any comments that she'd have on that would be appreciated to! My children range in ages from 13-5, and I hope that they grow into God loving adults. My husband and I are trying to sow the seeds now, but won't always be around when the children are older.
For Mr. FG: Q & A post!
Molly, do you have any specific questions for Mr. FG? Send em my way if you do!
I would love to hear from your mom about grandmothering. What types of things do you (Kristen) do that make her feel special or involved with her grandkids. Basically, tips for parents (like me!) to help foster a healthy grandparent/grandchild relationship - not overburdening, and not keeping them uninvolved.
For Mr. FG - what is your natural money tendency? How do you meet in the middle or discuss differences? From what Kristen says, you are more the spender - how do you hold back on that in order to stay frugal?
Mom~What ever she feels like sharing will be enjoyed.
Mr. FG -- Do you ever envy your wife for being the stay-at-home parent? Would you like to change places with her? (What used to be the norm -- mom at home, dad working -- is no longer. It makes me wonder about the dynamics in families today.))
All of the above plus dying to hear about Latin!! Did she study it as a girl? Was she home-schooled in Latin? What's it like teaching Latin to youngish children? Love that she tutors your kids in Latin!
Nice idea - my vote is for parenting. It would be nice to hear her advice regarding raising kids - what is she glad that she ( and dad too! ) did? What does she wish she had done differently?
How about a post on her favorite hobby to do or ect?
Can you ask your mother about womanhood. There is a womanhood to fully embrace which is not defined by motherhood.
Mr. Frugal can blog for the dads occasionally. What do you think?
For Mr. FG:
1. Since he was not homeschooled himself, how did learn about it and what made him decide he wanted his own kids homeschooled?
2. I know you have said that you are surrounded mostly by other frugal people. I wonder if Mr. FG interacts with more spendy-type folks at the office. If so, what does he say to them? (For example, if he's asked to chip into excessive gift-giving for birthdays, bridal/baby showers, etc. or if he is asked to go out to lunch or for drinks?) Before I became a SAHM mom, I worked in an office that was very spendy. Maybe it's different being a woman, but I felt a lot of pressure to chip in for showers and birthdays, and to dress a certain way, and even to "play" on the weekends in a way that could keep up with the conversations.
For your mom:
1. Did she read any parenting books when her kids were little or does she have any good mantras? For example, I heard something recently that is helping a lot: "The behavior you notice is the behavior you get." Any nuggets of wisdom on guiding our children would be appreciated.
2. How did *she* learn to cook/sew/garden/be frugal?
3. I would like to know more about her garden. What does she grow? Does she compost? How much time does she spend gardening in a typical week? Is it a significant portion of her food?
Hi Kristen!
Love reading your blog! I actually was going through Frugalgirl withdrawl, and we JUST got power back yesterday after Irene in Richmond, VA. Anyway, I was wondering, my kitchen is a disaster zone when it comes to organization. Do y ave any tips for organization? I have a whole cabinet of plasticware, where my family just throws it in,it would take two days to go through it. I don't have a lot of storage space in my kitchen, how do I maximize the small space?? Thanks for your help!
I would like to know what your husband thinks about homeschooling and was it hard to convince him to go that route?