Purposeful family living - with a French twist
Bonjour! I'm Michele Cherie: francophile, teacher, writer, runner, wife, and mama to five children. I'm a non-native French speaker from the West Coast, USA. My husband and I recently relocated our family to Alsace, France. IntentionalMama shares our bilingual journey and resources for a culturally-rich family life.
Our laundry room holds a simple secret that keeps our home clutter-free: a shelf with several baskets. Here's how each basket maintains order:
* Return basket: Corrals merchandise that needs to be returned to stores and items to return to friends (like borrowed books and food containers). If you cover the basket's label with clear packing tape, you can use a dry erase marker to remind yourself of the stores you need to revisit.
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Until I read Quiet, I thought introversion was a negative trait. After all, I'm an introvert who has learned that extroverted cheerfulness is one of the best ways to make new friends. I admire people with extroverted personalities (like my husband) because they can quickly express thoughts that take me longer to formulate into words. But Quiet changed my perspective. Author Susan Cain's commentary helped me realize that being introverted is a gift even though it is not often recognized as such by the culture around us.
Read MoreHave you seen an OliveUs film yet? Ben and Gabrielle Blair (of DesignMom fame) together with Tiger in a Jar productions have created three seasons of adorable short films featuring their six children. The episodes are filmed in France and are mostly under three minutes in length. I love watching them because of their sweetness, and the French settings are so idyllic.
Read MoreI live in Oregon, on the outskirts of a city where there's a scattering of cedar trees native only to this area. Most of the cedars here have grown for over a century, adding growth rings as farmhouses and cookie-cutter housing tracts were built around them. Years ago, I moved into one of those cedar-lined neighborhoods as a newlywed. At the time, I didn't appreciate our house--I'd envisioned something larger, sunnier, and certainly not an hour's drive from my workplace as a French teacher. But it was near the job my husband loved, and he'd purchased it just before we'd gotten engaged. Moving to a point halfway between our workplaces still would have required a moderate commute for both of us. So instead of moving, we agreed that I would leave my teaching position at the end of that year.
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