Lovin’ the Big Years! Posted on February 10th, 2012
I love these years. These “big” years.
When they were little they chattered . . . a lot. We have conversations now. Lots of them. So now we chatter together.
When they were little they painted and made messes. I cleaned the messes. Now they clean their own messes and still paint.
When they were little they wanted to push the buttons on the computer and camera. Now they have their own buttons and create masterpieces.
“Fat souls are better than clean floors.” A quote read by daughter #1 from Loving the Little Years by Rachel Jankovic.
“Children are individuals and they don’t forget that.” Another snippet from the above mentioned book.
When we read books we can’t help but share with each other what we are reading. It’s sweet, they like to read to me now.
The oldest girl says she can see the glimmer in my eyes as I sit here typing on her laptop. Ha. She says that I must be typing something poetic about her as she laughs out loud.
She says, “can I read one more thing? This is cute . . . .”
These girls are so funny, they make me laugh.
Yep, little girls grown up. I love these years.
Back to the Start Posted on January 25th, 2012
Brand New Year with Brand New Endeavors Posted on January 4th, 2012
Our family is starting 2012 with some exciting new adventures – art, designing, sewing, upholstery and essential oils to name a few.
Breezy is busy creating art, and it is always delightful to peak over her shoulder to see what is appearing on the paper. Emily Rose is juggling several different web design and photography projects — I can hear her fingers flying over the keyboard even now. Besides Rob’s regular work schedule, he has an antique car upholstery job to work on. Me, well, I am tweaking our menus to a more “normal” healthy diet. After going gluten-free 2 years ago and then last year going completely grain free, we are working back to more familiar flavors within a healthy, gluten-free diet. What I like to call the “new normal”.
This past November the girls and I started a new embroidery pattern business. It is a complete joy to work on together as a family. Breezy and Emily Rose both put their creative touches on the designs and then I get to stitch up the patterns and be the “textile manager”. Rob helps with delivery and is our biggest encourager. Clementine Pattern Co. was named after a great-great grandmother (and the fact that we all love the name Clementine helped, too). We will be adding more patterns throughout the year to the Etsy shop and hope to include tutorials & videos on the main website, ClementinePatterns.com. The fact that I love to embroider makes this almost too good to be true!
Something else that we are adding to our family this is year is using Young Living Essential Oils. After reading Stacy McDonald’s blog, The Common Scents Mom, and having actually used some that we were given, we were ready to try some more. So far, we are having wonderful results with the oils that we have been using – more about that in future posts. Stacy posted a great Natural First Aid Wall Chart that shows how she is incorporating essential oils in her family and getting rid of several over-the-counter medications. I already printed and hung up my copy so the whole family can see how to use the oils. We are all very excited to use more natural products and to get the great health benefits of the oils.
We did sign up to be a wholesale distributors of Young Living Essential Oils so that we could get better prices. If you are interested in placing an order through our account, our customer # is 1285966.
Joy to the World Posted on December 24th, 2011
May you and your family rejoice in the Lord. And may His steadfast love be ever a reminder of His great mercy.
Joy to the world! the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare him room,
And heav’n and nature sing.
Joy to the earth! the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ,
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains,
Repeat the sounding joy.
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make his blessings flow
Far as the curse is found.
He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of his righteousness,
And wonders of his love.
-Isaac Watts
Parental Rights: Overruled! Posted on November 18th, 2011
I encourage you to take 37 minutes to watch this video. Watching this video will help you understand your parental rights and how the government is actively stripping them from you and what can be done to stop it.
Visit ParentalRights.org for more information. This will affect generations!
True Christian Motherhood Ebook Give-Away Posted on November 7th, 2011
Several years ago when I first started looking for encouraging “Titus-2-type” blogs, I came across June Fuentes’ A Wise Woman Builds Her Home. It was such a breath of fresh air to read her posts about beautiful femininity, the blessing of children, being a godly wife and building a godly home. June’s writing has continued to bless me as her writing illustrates a hopeful picture of family life.
Over a year ago our family was blessed to meet the Fuentes family and spend some sweet time of fellowship together. Meeting June and seeing her interact with her family made everything that she had written that much sweeter. I could see the wisdom that the Lord had given her being fleshed out.
What a treat to now offer to one my readers June’s new eBook called True Christian Motherhood.
This ebook is a heartening work that will inspire you to follow the Lord, build your home on His truths, help you to develop a vision for beautiful womanhood, and how that will effect the culture of your home.
There are so many chapters that I thought, “Oh, this is my favorite chapter” and then I would read another chapter and think the same thing. So needless to say, I found the entire book a true joy. This book is timeless in it’s exhortation and would make a great gift for a new wife or mother, a wonderful guide to mentor another woman with, or to use as a bible study.
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Choose the Better Things, Part 2 Posted on October 25th, 2011
Illustration Courtesy of BreezyTulip’s Studio
We have been given our assignment: the wise woman is to build her home (Proverbs 14:1a).
As I mentioned in Part One, this means “nurturing and training our family. Building relationships that will endure and thrive in this chaotic world. Making the Lord Jesus Christ the center of your home.” But how does that look in the day-to-day life?
Well, since each of us are in different stages of life with varying ages and numbers of children it will look different in each home – but the principles in God’s word can be put into action in each of our homes.
Put Jesus Christ at the center of your life and everything you do. If you belong to Christ, you are not your own. Die to selfishness and live for Jesus Christ! This isn’t something that you do once and then have mastered. It is a daily decision, hourly and yes, at times, second by second. Selfishness tears down your house. Dying to yourself builds your home.
Titus 2:2-3 and Ephesians 5:33 talk about us respecting our husbands and showing Christ’s unconditional love. We need to work on this daily. Ladies, if you are having a hard time respecting/loving your husbands then you need to be praying for God’s help and asking Him to not only help you respect/love your husband more, but to reveal to you your character flaws so that you can begin dealing with them. Usually when we are having a hard time respecting/loving our husbands, our own attitudes are pretty rotten and we are not very lovable.
Then decide to respect/love your husband! Put it into action! Your children are watching you and taking notes on how to put that in practice in their own families one day. That should be enough of a motivation right there to get you headed on the right track. You are building your home every time you choose to honor your husband instead of getting frustrated.
Love those children that God has blessed you with. Spend time with your children. Speak words of life to them with kindness (Proverbs 15:1-2, 31:26). Talk to them about life, read great books to them, train them how to work and to be diligent. Not only what you say, but how you say it will reveal your heart attitude toward God and your children. These times of talking with your children can become wonderful times of growth for your children and yourself. With your husband, discipline your children biblically so that they understand right and wrong and what it means to respect authority.
If you find that your children are driving you crazy, then you really need to look at how you are disciplining them. Are you being consistent and teaching them to have a servant’s heart? Again, you need to model a servant’s heart toward every member of your family so that they will see it lived out and want to copy you. Well, they will copy you rather you are doing a good job or not. Again, great motivation!
Let your family see you being joyfully submissive and content. Be quick to ask forgiveness when you fail, and be quick to offer forgiveness when others sin against you.
Putting all these things into practice takes time and diligence. It is not a quick fix. It is a life-style founded on the Scriptures. It is a healthy dose of both stabilizing law and sanctifying love. It is the way to building up your home. It is being a wise woman.
“But the Lord answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; But only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.’” —Luke 10:41-42 (NASB)
This was originally posted at Raising Homemakers.
Choose the Better Things, Part 1 Posted on October 18th, 2011
Illustration Courtesy of BreezyTulip’s Studio
Thinking about homemaking brings to my mind many different ideas, but the main thing that stands out is the need for us mothers & wives to build our homes. The kind of building that you don’t see immediately with the eyes, but the kind that you understand with your heart.
Our homes do require a lot of work on our part to keep them running orderly and to be a healthy and thriving place to live, but let us not get so caught up in the workings of the home that we forget or neglect the better things. (Luke 10:40-42)
What are the better things? Nurturing and training our family. Building relationships that will endure and thrive in this chaotic world. Making the Lord Jesus Christ the center of your home.
We need to be building strong families that will serve the Lord and do the kingdom work that He has called each of us to do. As wives and mothers we have been given our assignment. You may want to run or hide from it like Jonah, but don’t—your family needs you.
If you are struggling in this area ask God to give you the desire and contentment that you need to see your job through to the end.
It will be well worth the eternal results.
Practical tips coming in part 2!
This post was originally posted at Raising Homemakers.