Regailing Defined

To "regale" is to entertain lavishly, or to feast or delight. Since my name is "Gail" I've chosen to call my blog "Regailing" as I aim to offer a feast of parenting advice as well as to share my hobby of sewing and refashioning.


More about me... I am a mother of 4, happily married to Steve, pastor of Christ Chapel (christchapelithaca.org). I love Jesus! And so we have raised our children from a Christian worldview. Our four amazing kids are all grown (almost out of the house) - our oldest is an archaeologist, our second is a nurse, our third recently married and manages a clothing boutique and our 4th is still in college). I homeschooled all 4 all the way through (K through 12) and with the empty nest staring at me in the face I returned to the classroom and currently teach at Covenant Love Community School (clcschool.org).

My first bit of parenting advice is to engage in PROACTIVE PARENTING. I call it that because the training of children is most effective when decisions on how you plan to discipline, communicate, educate, etc. is done BEFORE you are actually at that particular stage of life. Too often parents engage in REACTIVE PARENTING and wait until something negative is upon them before they decide how they should deal with it. The risk is a rash or emotional response that confuses or abuses a child. For example, you walk into your child's room and see it's a mess so you yell, "What a mess! Clean this up now!" The child sees you are angry and cleans up to keep peace. The child learns he doesn't need to clean up until he sees you angry. Now, imagine how much more effective it would be to establish early on that you expect your child to pick up his room each evening. You say, "Each night before we go to bed you will put everything back into its place.This is a good habit." The expectation is stated and then when the child obeys and you see his efforts you will praise him, reinforcing the good habit. If he doesn't obey, you must stand in the room and encourage him until he does. The motivation this time is to develop a good habit rather than cleaning to avoid your bad reaction.

And now for a refashion...


Here is a long dress (from the sixties) that I found at a thrift store. Before I took the picture I had already started to take off the daisy lace.

And next is the dress after I refashioned it. I shortened it, replaced the lace with a fresher looking lace around the waist. I wore this on Easter. Here is a pic of our fam on Easter Sunday after church and a lavish meal with graduate students. Now THAT's regailing!