Thee Family Tree

I decided to actually sit down and write my book on family. I've written the preface and decided to put it on my blog:

My original intent of writing this handbook was to pass on many family “jewels,” traditions and recipes to my kids in the form of a keepsake. As this book went through my head over the years, a friend encouraged me to write to a bigger audience. She thought what I had to say, many could learn from. For some people, raising seven kids gives me credibility and makes me an expert in several areas such as organization, communication, frugality and discipline. There are many moms out there who have raised more children than I who could have, just as easily, written this book. So, what else gives me credibility? Could it be my family background?

My husband is from a family of 9 and his mom has 30 grandchildren and as of this writing 5 great grandchildren. His family tree is a perfectly shaped triangle. I come from a family tree that looks like a web designed by a spider on caffeine: 2 parents, each with 3 marriages, 17 children between them, 32 grand kids and 15 great grand kids. The experiences I can pull from within my extensive family is wide and varied with many visibly present lessons for the kids to learn from. I would call this a type of comparative research. Hmmm…..could credibility come from my education and work experience?

My degree is in Organizational Communications with a Business option. My business career was very short, only four years in the Industrial Relations department of a large corporation. I spent those four years traveling factories auditing EEO policies and practices, training management in Teamwork, Behavioral Interviewing, Active Listening, and Franklin Time Management. When marriage two began, the career ended and my family career began. I have 7 children and all the experience that goes into raising them and homeschooling them. My children find me credible, but I still wonder how one achieves credibility?

As I contemplate credibility a few things come to mind. 1) We are a very successful family. Don’t get me wrong, there is screaming, and fighting, and chaos at my house, too, but for the most part my marriage is awesome and my kids are all great friends to each other, they are caring and joyful, they love God and they are successful at what they do. 2) Over a short period of time we have experienced much sorrow and many struggles in our family. Our strength can be found only in our strong faith in God. 3) We have had the opportunities to be very generous. We have also been on the receiving end of great generosity. All of these experiences have taught us that obedience, gratitude, love and humility will bring so much joy and peace. I guess on the outside, looking in, how we have handled ourselves in these situations, and how we are living our life and our faith, and being examples to our children, is also setting examples for others. Our example is credible. Our example has to be credible…it must be credible.

My “new” goal of this handbook is to pass down to the next generation the importance of family, which seems to be not only losing its importance, but also losing its meaning.