With my nine-year-old's recent birthday, I wanted to give her a "quest" to fulfill this year, to help build her character. I may start doing this for all of my children on their birthdays (maybe I'll even do one for myself--I'm turning 40 this year!). Since my daughter turned nine, I decided to give her nine tasks to ...

Sometimes I need more than just a chart to really motivate me. So I have to spend time thinking of what would motivate me, and come up with a trick or tool to do it. Here are several I'm trying this year, to help me reach my New Year's goals--I hope you like these ideas and find them useful. These motivational tricks can be used for ...

Just like children, I love goal charts, and making marks or putting up stars to see my progress. I like to keep my goals visual, on the wall, where I will see them every day. So the first trick I'm doing to motivate myself for this year's New Year's goals, is to make a chart to track my progress through the year. I decided that I'd ...