To God be the Glory

"There's honor in that. God gets glory from that."

That's what I told a friend this week at our weekly Bible study, speaking of motherhood. She spoke of how she'd wanted to get a medical degree and go overseas and help kids in Africa. But due to her lack of ability in Chemistry, it was clear that God had not called her that direction. Instead, she finds herself now expecting a baby girl in about 4 months. It's the same situation I found myself in 9 years ago. Motherhood. It is a calling many of us find ourselves thrown into before we have any idea what we are doing. In fact, 9 years later I still don't feel like I have this "Mom thing" figured out. My house stays a mess. Lived in, my mom-in-law calls it. My kids yell, and sometimes I am too quick to anger and I yell back. But I'm trying. I'm trying to do what God has called me to. Even though I fail frequently, I'll never give up. I'll keep trying and struggling to live in a way that honors God. Because to know Him, and to make Him known is the whole point of living our time out on earth. I'll never begin to understand why He thought me worthy of mothering these three children. These 3 "little sinners" as my friend Amy calls them (with utmost love!). Last month she spoke on motherhood being our ministry. That was such a profound thought that had never occurred to me, in all my 9 years of being a wife and mother. That is my calling, and whether I chose it or God chose it, it's where I am. But if I do my best to honor God in how I parent my children, whether I screw up here and there is kinda irrelevant. I think He knows we're human, and we're incapable of perfection, just like the kids. I think for me, sometimes it's hard not to sit back and take stock, looking at all the areas where things are flawed and feel like you are not even making a difference.

I spoke the other day about the extraordinary amount of messes my youngest makes. My middle child is extremely sensitive and takes everything to heart. My oldest, 8 year old drama queen is an expert at making mountains of molehills. She constantly forgets what I've told her a million times, and then feels awful about it. She loses her temper constantly over stupid things. Well, she comes by the last one honestly.


But I have the fantastic responsibility of molding these children before the world gets a hold of them.  It's one of those tasks that I get lost in, and most days when I'm in the thick of it, it does feel mundane. But I'm being reminded there is glory (for God ) in that. Certainly not glory for me. But we should not be glory seeking. Our goal, our main goal should be to live and love in a way that brings God honor and glory. Motherhood does that. It's one of those behind the scenes jobs that never gets recognized most of the time. All the things that get done through the day, most never even get seen by anyone else. When I'm sweeping the floor or washing what feels like the hundredth dish, the kids don't see that. But God sees it. I'm learning to praise God  with a sincere heart even when the task is the most monotonous or stressful. Because God sees it. And because for the big picture, the kids see it. They might not know or understand everything mom does, but they see my attitude. I am trying to find that balance of praising God even when I feel unappreciated (by the kids) because that they do see. Hopefully when my kids are grown, they will have a strong and grounded relationship with Christ in their own lives. I pray that they will have rich, strong marriages and godly parenting strategies. Not because I was a great mother, but because somehow, despite myself, God shined through me.

But I think the decision and calling to be not only a stay at home mom while my kids are little, but also a homeschool mom is sometimes a belittled one. My husband gets it. We have chosen to take charge of our children's education and spiritual guidance, because we only have them for so long. We want them to learn to be a light to others. That means that I get to be the one who helps them discover new things for the first time, all the while playing a huge part in their spiritual guidance. Who am I that God would choose me for this? I'm a broken, messed up person. But He did. He choose me. He chose me to mother them. 24/7. That's humbling to me. He obviously sees something in me I could never see. But that makes me want to honor Him and please Him that much more.

Beauty in the Everyday

I have said it before, and I'll say it again now: I don't remotely have this whole "Christ-follower" thing figured out. Not even close. If you think I do, then we must get to be better friends! If you do know me, you will know how hard-headed I am. This past year has been a time of being hit over the head with the same lessons over and over, much like the disciples, because I was too immature to figure it out the first time.

I am a work in progress. Hopefully, God is always changing me, always chipping away at the parts He doesn't like. Sometimes it hurts. Actually, most of the time it hurts. Much of the time I eager to be changed until God starts to chip off pieces of my self I am rather fond of, or am resistant to let go of-like my possessions, my security in worldly things, my temper, my lack of patience. All of this is good that God knows to remove it, even when I don't see it myself.

Right now, the lesson God seems to be hammering into me is this: There is beauty in the day to day stuff.

Life lessons on prayer

Okay so I just want to share something. I've said this before and I'll say it again now. Prayer works. God can definitely handle the biggest things-nothing is TOO big for God. He already knows what you are going through, what weight you are carrying, what seems impossible to you is no surprise to God. He made you, of course, so naturally He knows your innermost struggles and desires. He knows your deepest, darkest secrets and loves you more than you could ever comprehend. I am feeling overwhelmed by His presence and goodness this morning.

If you are a Christ follower, this is something you've experienced. The true feeling of being overwhelmed by His attributes-His Grace (giving you something good you didn't earn), Mercy (sparing you from punishment what you earned), Love, comfort, peace of knowing even when things seem insurmountable that He's got this! If not, I get that you don't get it. The Bible says the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing-and that is what will happen. It's hard to wrap your brain around, but it is one of those things that you just don't get till you get it. LIGHT BULB!!

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!!!

So we are, believe it or not, wrapping up the end of our FOURTH year homeschooling. Seems like just yesterday we were dipping our toes in the shallow end of the homeschool waters, trying to figure out if we could do this or not. I won't say it has always been super fun and super easy--if you know me, you know we have good days and bad days, just like any parent. All I know is as we reflect on this official school year ending, I am nothing if not grateful for the opportunity. Some days are perfectly routine; everything goes as planned and "normal" for us.  Other days are what I call "fly by the seat of my pants days". Some weeks we get everything planned accomplished with recess time to spare. Most days though, we have to go with the flow. Someone (or everyone) gets sick. Our spur of the moment plans take precedence sometimes. Sometimes it's our extra-curriculars, or errand running that cause us to mix it up and shuffle things around. Sometimes I even had to extend our school year dates or move planned breaks around because I didn't want the kids having makeup work from days (or a week) of sickness ON top of school work. Yes, that's a real life skill that needs to be learned. But while they are very young, I understand that there's only so much work they can actually complete in one day, and if they are doing school work from 6 am until 7pm which few breaks, they have no time to be just kids. On the other hand, if they choose to waste their time or not to focus on the task at hand, they end up eliminating free play time.

Happy Easter! He is risen!

Check out Under the Radar's Easter episode. Click the link for some great indie music.


Hope everyone had a great Easter holiday, and I hope today you don't go back to normal and loving complacency. How's that for putting it bluntly!? Because He's risen, we have this hope so that we shouldn't to live like He's still dead. We don't have to live like we're dead! I really believe, based on all that's happening today in the world, that He's coming back soon. If you have chosen, at any point in your life, to become a Christ follower and accept His forgiveness of your sins, He took care of that for all time. There's so much freedom in that, knowing He came just for you, and you alone were worth it. He knew every wrong thing you'd ever do and thought you worth saving anyways, so why do we hang on to our past like we are still in bondage to it?

Spring has spring part 2: We have chickens!!

 It's official! We finally have chicks! We have been wanting to get them for a couple years, and knew this would be a great learning experience for the kids. When we went to pick them out, we each ended up picking out a completely different breed, which is kinda neat! When we looked at buying slightly smaller chicks at Tractor Supply, we were going to have to get at least six chicks all at once, and if we wanted a female chick that was a good layer, we'd have to buy 6 of the same kind that they had that week. This way ended up being much better, and especially much more fun after months of research and getting ready for them, we got to get all the ones we had decided we liked over the last few months!

So without further ado, here are the girls.

Spring has sprung!! Part 1!

Sooo, we've been home for almost a month that has flown by faster than just about any of the other months recently.

Here's what we've been up to as of 3/12/14

We finished (finally!) Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis. Yay!!!
We've been sick quite a bit for the last month. In fact, every week, at least two people were suffering from sickness at any given time. This resulted in us missing many of our weekly activities, rescheduling playdates and visits with friends multiple times, 2 trips to the doctor and 1 to the emergency room, since we've been back from Haiti alone!
We've been working on our backyard and garden area. It's a work in progress, but we put a fence up to keep the dog out of the garden area which we are expanding. FYI: It didn't work well, so we are going to have to reinforce it. We started our chicken coop, and there's been a pretty large learning curve, but we hope to have baby chicks here by the end of the month!

This was us laying the fencing down.