Show notes
105. Ways to Enjoy Summer with Your Family with Krista Gilbert **Transcription Below** Proverbs 21:29b (NIV) “the upright give thought to their ways.” Krista Gilbert is a speaker and author of Reclaiming Home: A Family’s Guide for Life, Love, and Legacy, co-author of Focus on the Family’s Give Them Wings, and the co-host of The Open Door Sisterhood Podcast. Krista is a connector of people, and a lover of life stories, family, Pacific Northwest lakeside sunsets, powder tree-skiing, and homemade salsa. She speaks and writes about how to live and love well, designing a life around faith, core values, and priorities. Krista can often be found in her garden, preparing a meal with her cooking group, or hiking a trail with her husband and four children. At The Savvy Sauce, we will only recommend resources we believe in! We also want you to be aware: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Krista Gilbert’s Website The Open Door Sisterhood Podcast Reclaiming Home by Krista Gilbert The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer Deviced! by Dr. Doreen Dodgen-Magee Your Story Hour Adventures in Odyssey Club Thank You to Our Sponsors: Samaritan Ministries and Clearly Filtered Just for Fun and Highly Recommended by Laura Lara Casey's Product: The Kid's Bundle (Write the Word for kids - have you seen this yet? It is awesome!!!) Lara Casey's 2020 6-months Powersheets...Not exaggerating: these are changing my life!!! Connect with The Savvy Sauce on Facebook or Instagram or Our Website Please help us out by sharing this episode with a friend, leaving a 5-star rating and review, and subscribing to this podcast! Gospel Scripture: (all NIV) Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.” Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession- to the praise of his glory.” Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“ Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“ Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” **Transcription** [00:00:00] <Music> Laura Dugger: Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host, Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here. [00:00:18] <Music> Laura Dugger: One of our sponsors today is Clearly Filtered. Discover their options online at clearlyfiltered.com/savvywaterfilters. Each customer can enter SAVVYWATERFILTERS at checkout to receive 20% off your first purchase. In the midst of a health care crisis, you don't have to feel isolated and alone. Samaritan Ministries connects Christians who support each other through prayer, encouragement, and financial support for medical needs. Learn more at samaritanministries.org. Our guest for today is Krista Gilbert, and she's going to offer us creative yet simple parenting ideas and conversations to start now that will actually set us up to maximize our summer later. The second half of Proverbs 21:29 says, "The upright give thought to their ways." This verse reminds me of Krista because she seems to give thought to her summer. And I appreciate her willingness to share that intentionality with us today. Here's our chat. Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, Krista. Krista Gilbert: Thank you, Laura. It's so great to be here with you. Laura Dugger: [00:01:38] Well, I'm excited just for a chance to get to know you a little bit better. So will you start all of us off by giving us a brief overview of your current life stage? Krista Gilbert: Sure. I live in the Pacific Northwest. I live with my husband, and right now with my four kids, which is really fun. Because normally my daughter is at college, but she's home now. So we're all together. And we love, love, love being outside. We spend a lot of our time in the mountains and hiking and skiing and doing paddleboarding on lakes and doing all sorts of fun things because the Pacific Northwest has such great outdoors. I also work from home. So I'm a writer, I'm a podcaster, and so I spend a lot of time doing those things. And I love it all. Laura Dugger: [00:02:31] Well, Krista, something that I admire about you from afar is the intentionality with which you approach new seasons. You've always been my go-to speaker for all things summer. So first, what kind of vision is a good starting place for us to have this summer? Krista Gilbert: Oh, thank you, Laura. I really appreciate those words. That's so sweet. I think no matter what phase we're in of parenting, we can see summer as an opportunity. And whether you have young kids, and so you do things that are more geared toward younger kids or older kids, it's all just one big opportunity for one time that we get to have with our families. It's a little bit different than the school year, which I just love. Because we can be really intentional about how we spend that time. Especially if you have flexibility with your work or maybe if you're a stay-at-home mom, then you really can be proactive and offensive. I like to say I like to play offense, not defense when it comes to summer. So we can really be on the offense and plan well so that we can, like you said, be intentional and really make the most of our summers. I always think we have 18 summers with our kids. So how are we going to spend those? And for those of us who are in the second season of parenting where our kids are a little bit older, we only have a few summers left with them. So how do we want to spend that? What kind of time? And also what do we want to see built in them? That's always one of my long-term goals as well is maybe how we want to spend that time is not necessarily with me physically but it's a chance for them to grow spiritually in a new way or in service or you know, all those things that we're also trying to build in our kids. Especially as we're looking at, for me, my kids graduating and leaving my home and becoming adults. What are some things I really want to see built in them as they grow through the years? And summer is just a great time to really focus on that. Laura Dugger: [00:04:41] I appreciate how you're speaking to all stages of parenting. But could you give us a quick recap what are your kids' ages right now? Krista Gilbert: Yeah. So mine are... like I said, my daughter's in college, and then I have three sons. One of them is a senior, one is a junior, and one is an eighth grader. Laura Dugger: [00:05:01] Okay. And as you look back over your years, what summer memories or traditions stand out as your favorites and your kids' favorites? Krista Gilbert: Well, for sure summer camp has been a highlight. We have gone to the same Christian camp for... Well, ever since my kids were just born literally, we go to their family camp. So even at a very, very, very young age, my kids were attending a Christian camp. And then as they've grown, they now and have for a long time attended the camp on their own. At first it was like two days at a time and then it was a week at a time. Now they're actually up there serving. My daughter was on staff the last two summers as a lifeguard, and my boys are on work crew up there. Now that they're in high school, they can do work crew, and they can be junior counselors. So that's a way for them to, again, grow in service, but also to be around this incredible Christian community. And what I love about starting young in something like that is that it's kind of just what they do. And they grow up seeing all of these role models that are not adults, they're closer to their age, that are cool teenagers who love Jesus. You cannot put a price tag on that. It is the most invaluable thing because then they grow up with that in their minds, and they really aspire to that themselves. But that's, I would say, been one of our number one... one of the best things we've done in parenting is to be plugged into a Christian camp in the summer. And then I would say another thing that we've done is I tend to do block scheduling with my weeks. So we have a block where we go to our family cabin at the lake. I live in an area in the Pacific Northwest and probably like Minnesota or some other parts of the country there's lakes everywhere. So it's not an uncommon thing for people to go to the lake around here. But whatever it is. I mean, you could just pick whatever it is in your area. But we block some time that is specifically for lake time. Usually, there's grandparents and cousins. We do cousin camp during that time, and we have family Olympics and everybody shares meals. We take turns doing meals every night. And that's for sure been a highlight as well. Laura Dugger: [00:07:30] That sounds incredible. And I'm sure it takes a lot of preparation. So if we are at home with our kids this summer and recognize it as an opportunity for more margin, how do you recommend we maximize this season to teach our children some life skills? Krista Gilbert: I think that's what's so great about summer. I mean, some people homeschool and so I fully recognize that they may be doing this all year long. But for a lot of people whose kids are in school during the school year, this is an opportunity where their kids are home all day and where as parents, we really get to instill some things in them that we want to build. So there are four things I try to build into every day in the summer. And those four things are work, think, play, and move. So I figured these are four values that are really, really important for us as a family and also for individuals and things that I want my kids to be able to take with them. Number one is work ethic. That is a huge, huge value for my husband and I. We just feel like if our kids leave our home and they have a work ethic, then that is big success right there. So even when kids are small, I mean, most of the time when you give kids chores, when they're small, it's actually more work for you because they often do more damage than help. Totally recognize that. [00:09:00] At the same time, as moms, we really get to have that bigger perspective from 30,000 feet that says it's actually not about whether they do a good job on this, it's that they're learning how to work. So for us, we always do work in the morning, because that's when people are most motivated. We get up and we do maybe a devotional, a little bit of Bible time, whatever, and then we're straight into chores because that's just a great time for everybody to rally. We turn up the music, we try and make it fun. But everybody's doing something. So from the time my kids were little, we've gone through a million different chore charts. But at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter what you do. It's just that you're doing something to teach kids how to work. Dave Ramsey also has a philosophy about paying kids. Like when my kids were young, we did Dad dollars and mom money. And they could earn different things. For example, staying up late was a certain number of dad dollars. Or a trip to the ice cream store was a certain number of mom monies. But you can also do it as they grow with actual money. So they learn the correlation between work and pay. That's great too if you decide to do that. Then "think" is the next one. And that is just I want my kids to be engaged non-digitally. So I really want them to be reading or to be learning about something. Often this can happen outside too. Or maybe they have an interest they want to learn more about. So we'll go to the library and check out some books on. Especially when kids are younger, that's just so great, you know, to really focus in on one thing that they really love, and then you get some resources on that and they can be learning about that. So think. Or maybe it's brain teasers or puzzles, or... of course, reading is wonderful at any time in any age. [00:10:58] And then play. I'm a firm believer in play as a family, that it builds bonds. If you watch kids and how they connect, they connect through play at any age, I mean, all the way through college. So that really never ends. And if you think about it, adults do as well. So how can we tie heartstrings relationally through play, and that can look like kickball games capture the flag and the yard? Just last night, my kids were learning different line dances on YouTube. We were doing Footloose. That's actually what we were doing last night. You know, but just how can you play with your kids? And then the fourth one being “move”. This one is often combined with play because we can be playing and moving at the same time. And that's just really great when those pair up. But, you know, they have shown over and over, experts have shown over and over that exercise improves blood flow and memory. It stimulates chemical changes in the brain that enhances learning, it improves mood and thinking, and it also reduces the odds o…
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