Joy in the Journey

  What's that verse "Don't grow weary of doing good"? Well, Moms, I'm weary. I'm discouraged. I'm tired and I don't know what to do.  Recently, I've seen positive results of my years of parenting show up. All the training I've put into my children, all the repetition and effort, and I've seen the results. My kids are respectful, responsible, caring, hardworking individuals that I'm so proud of but this morning... This morning I saw something else rise up in one of my children. The long fought, long worked on, still not seeing full results from, fight for honesty. Honestly. Why is it so hard to be honest? Because we are afraid. One of my kids saw my disapproval and instantly changed her story to throw someone else under the bus, to put the responsibility elsewhere even for an incident that probably would have nothing more than a correction, no consequence, to it.  I trudged through the lie, trying to find the truth. I unfortunately could

We've all heard or said "There's not enough hours in a day." Is that really true? We always have more we can do. There's always something left to do... but is 24 hours really not enough time for what we are supposed to be accomplishing in a day? Photo Credit: goodvibeblog.com A wrote a post quite awhile back on evaluating my success in my day differently (read that post HERE ). When I looked at my day from a different perspective, I realized I was doing exactly what I was supposed to. "There's always one more thing to do." I just said that before bed the other night as I was walking off to bed and remembered the cloth diapers were still in the washing machine and couldn't be left wet all night. Always more to do, but did I do enough? I did. Each day, I do enough. I do what I'm intended to. I look after my family, loved on my husband, connected with people. I do so many chores and take on so many challenges. I am strong and I w

 "Don't step on the book." I gently pushed my almost-18-month-old's little tennis shoe off one of our family's favorite books. I had brought it with us to my MOPS meeting to keep him distracted. He had enjoyed looking at it for quite a while, but then decided to stand on it. I felt like he was old enough to learn that we don't stand on books. He looked at me, picked up the book, took it to the middle of the room (out of my reach), dropped it on the floor, and stepped on it. Yep, he was certainly old enough to learn! I got up, scooped him up, and grabbed the book. "Don't step on books." I firmly said as we sat down again. He looked at the book again for a little while, then, when I'm guessing he thought that I had forgotten, he took the book a little ways from me, looked right at my face, and lifted his shoe onto the book. TWAP!  The sound of my hand against his big bulky cloth diaper was enough to make him understand that I really didn't

A very special post by:  Guest Writer: Brooke Glazner Bio: Brooke is a mother of two beautiful daughters who has suffered with debilitating, sometimes life-threatening GI issues. After years of suffering she recovered in 2019, got pregnant, and then lost the baby and her health went downhill shortly after with a new struggle with mild to severe joint pain. At the beginning of each year, I pray for God to give me a word to focus on. The word that God gave me for 2020 was steadfast . I wish I lived up to that ideal. My joint pain started in May. Out of the blue, my body started falling apart again in a whole new way. I’ve become reacquainted with pain and limitation, and I haven’t handled it well. I’ve been angry. I’ve been discouraged. I’ve panicked in terror over what my life might become. I’ve wanted to throw fit like a two-year-old in the corner (still do sometimes). I’ve wrestled. The war in my heart and mind between steadfast faith, and abject despair, has been very real. I’ve pul

The company had left. We all took naps and then we went to the store. My two year old was definately feeling  things. He was either being hyperactive or agitated. He ran around the store like he normally did but then began an unusual game of throwing himself on the floor, doing a superman pose, where only his stomach was still on the floor, yelling and flailing.  At first I thought he was hurt. When I saw he was just playing I tried to get him off the floor by responding to the play with tickling. Nope. He was staying there. I finally went back to the shoes that I had been previously looking at across the isle. He stayed where he was at and continued to make horrible noises and flail. I tried the "This is not how we behave in the store" and then went to ignoring the behavior. People walked by and looked at my toddler on the floor, I gave them a half smile and kept looking at shoes, only acknowledging that yes, that was my kid, and yes, I did know he was over there on the floo

 Girls, it has been a day ...and the day is just barely halfway through. Yikes! Maybe it's the weather change? Maybe it's the post-Christmas-blues? Maybe it's hormones? Maybe it's because the baby is still working on those teeeeeeeeth??? Maybe it's because the house is an absolute disaster? Maybe it's because I've been isolating our family since my daughter complained of a sore throat a few days ago, but nothing has come of it so maybe we are ok and don't need to isolate but who knows in 2020??? It's probably all of that and more. I'm just barely keeping it together. I haven't freaked out and turned into monster mommy, but I've snapped a few times and had to apologize. I've tried resetting the day. I've read my Bible, prayed, listened to a podcast, had a healthy treat...I'm still on the brink of tears. So I put all the kids at the table for a late lunch and went to my room (my house is small enough I can sill hear them, so the