A Frog In My Soup has definitely been lacking in the Meat and Potatoes department.  Lot’s of side dishes and a few desserts here and there, but the real substance of the meal is missing these days.  Blame it on summer?  or maybe on the fact that I’m working my tail off to get the house ready to be put on the market???  I don’t really know, but my daily Bible reading has declined as well.

Ah, now it all makes sense, right?  Isn’t it amazing what a huge difference it makes when we are in the Word of God to some extent each day?  It is for me for sure!  It is the very life and essence of my thoughts and definitely creates much more focus and purpose when I make sure I’m spending time in the Word each day. 

Prayer …. yup that’s in there too, for me these days it’s the quickly-throughout-the-day type of prayer that is getting me through, not the sustained, time-on-my-knees listening to His Voice type.  So the combination has created a rather lackluster theme around here. 

For the longest time I have tried - and failed miserably - to do my daily devotions in the morning.  As a mom, we all know this should be done when the children are still sleeping.  My boys are busy bees first thing in the morning and create as much noise as possible to wake up the day (and the rest of the household)!  If only I could awaken with that much energy!

So finally, a thought struggled it’s way through my foggy mind and I realized that I have been wasting away the quietest time of the day at my house … evening!  I’m always up until 10:30pm or 11pm (or later ), so why not make the effort in those great moments before I head to bed???  The 10:00 to 11:00 hour is the BEST and QUIETEST time around here. 

This suddenly occurred to my crazy mind about 11:30 pm last night so I took a few moments to write a page in my journal while making a mental note to create a more purposeful time tonight.  I am so hungry for the Word of God right now!  Seriously!!!  I adore the devotionals I am priveleged to read and publish for our amazing contributors at Faith Lifts and I definitely get a great lift when I take them to heart.  But they, like Sunday Sermons only take me so far and I’m hungry again.

This month I’m going to focus on reading the word and journaling each evening at about 10:30 or 11:00pm.  The idea that I may actually have stumbled upon something that with only a few exceptions might actually work on a VERY consistent basis is super exciting to me!  The fact that I can potentially do this for 30 days and instill it as a “habit” is even more exciting.  But just being able to rest in His presence during the quiet time of day here simply sounds Heavenly!

One thing that I struggle with a little bit as the mom of 6 busy boys is … I LOVE QUIET.  I am an introvert, the person that is refreshed and filled up when things are quietest.  So being in the hustle and bustle of boyness day in and day out without any quiet wears me down to nothing very quickly!!!  I HATE running on empty!  I’m sure you do too!  There are people (extroverts) that are actually refreshed by being in a crowd, that idea is foreign to me as it drains everything I have! 

The point I want to make is that here I am at 36 years old, with 6 children, been married for almost 15 years (anniversary is in a couple of weeks) and a revelation of change just came to me now!  So often I think we get stuck in what we think is The way or the Right way to do things that we can’t see “outside the box”.  That’s where I was. 

If you’re struggling with getting that all-important one-on-one time with God each day, I seriously encourage you to sit down in a quiet moment (’cuz I know we don’t often get more than that little moment of quiet) and look objectively at your day.  Remove the walls that are boxing you into thinking there is a certain time or way that you need to meet with God and simply search for that time that consistently appears in your schedule that you never considered using as your devotional time.

Let me know how it goes or if you have already discovered this time in your life!

Ever get to that place where life isn’t going the way you thought it would?  Where things are going backward and you’re desperately peddling forward?  Where you feel like you’ve lost control of every facet of life … but not in a good way? 

That’s where I’ve been finding myself recently.  The good is being overshadowed by the crazy parts.  I work hard each and every day to find joy, peace and growth in my life.  To be content with where I’m at and to try and make my world a little better place.  Every once in a while though you may get to the point where you find yourself in “the depths of despair” … that’s where I’m at. 

The kids’ last day of school was yesterday, but when they got home from school I was so frazzled I didn’t even know what to do to celebrate or make the day fun.   I’ll be spending most of the rest of this week trying to come up with a plan for the rest of the summer … for all of us.  Fun things and the things that simply MUST get done around the house.  Setting up any necessary appointments for the summer and hopefully some activities to keep everyone moving.

Through it all though, I’ll be desperately crying out to God for the answers and direction!  If nothing else, just to give me peace and rest in the midst of it all.  He is the one solid thing I have on my side!  The One I can call on in my time of need and despair.  The One who loves me more than I can even fathom.  I often don’t call on Him soon enough or take His promises to heart. 

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Deuteronomy 31:6 NIV)

“The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” (Deuteronomy 31:8 NIV)

The “them” in my life is everything on my “To Do” list, and even in a small way the fear of the crazy, potentially life-threatening things my Twinkies will attempt each and every day. 

Do you have any “Goliath’s” in your life that are leaving you feeling a little discouraged or even terrified?

I had planned on getting back on track today … offer a deep and thoughtful Mommy Reality for you.  Mommy reality has struck me full force.  Nothing deep, nothing too thoughtful, just a lot of reality.

I woke up Sunday morning thinking that my lips felt strange.  I went into the bathroom and one look in the mirror confirmed that they were very swollen.  The only other time I’ve ever had swollen lips I also had hives all over … not so this time.  I took a little Benadryl, just in case, but all that ended up doing for me is landing me back in bed for a 3 hour nap.  Like I have time!

Once I got up instead of getting better, they were worse and now it was too late to go to the walk in clinic to get checked out.  How miserable! 

As we all know … moms are NOT allowed to have anything wrong with them.  It is an odd circumstance that a day will go past in the life of a mother where the housework still gets done even if she’s not the one to do it.  So a sick day often means that much more work in mom’s life the day she gets better. 

My husband is wonderful with the children but … well … that’s all he can handle.  I don’t blame him, if you don’t know the daily routine well or how to predict and (usually) thwart the twins’ mischief you can get in big trouble before you know it.  So he has learned his limits.  Even leaving the room to make a cup of coffee or a snack for them can be treacherous LOL.

So today instead of giving you an inspiring Mommy Reality lesson I simply have to tell you that due to my own reality hitting hard I will be making a trip to the walk in clinic and PRAYING that they can give me something … anything to ease the discomfort and let me feel halfway normal again. 

I won’t get into the pride that has me dreading the thought of going anywhere people can see me.  Nor will I talk about the fact that I can hardly speak nor can I eat anything without pain.  Oh, and I wouldn’t dream of mentioning that I have ten zillion loads of laundry to do today in addition to caring for my kiddos. Nope, I’ll just hope and pray that you have a NORMAL dose of reality today!

Blessings!

I’ve been in a rut for a while now, desperately in need of activities for the little three and a schedule for our day!!!!  I have the activities figured out, thanks to the Parenting Zoo (I highly recommend their parenting toolbox, it’s only $10, I blogged about it over at Froggy Reviews), I just need to get a few supplies, but the schedule - ARGH!!!!  Seriously!

I need to break up the day into short increments - but what??? Every 15 minutes, every half hour, a little of this and a little of that???? HELP! 

The twins are definitely ready to do activities, crafts, and have some structure.  Here I am every day trying to figure out how to balance three children at home (six during the summer), the laundry, the housework, blogging and designs - I know I’m not the only one!!!  It is a full plate, but I know I can do it better. 

The twins are simply bored.  As I type this they have been busy doing a little project that involves sticking “foamies” into coloring books, but I see Monkey walking around the room with about 6 stuck to his bottom LOL!  These are great activities, but they don’t last forever, so I need several of them throughout the day.  They aren’t great at independent play, but can handle it for little bits of time (whether they think they can or not) so I have to incorporate time for the individual areas of my home and work. 

The trick really is finding something that will work for us.  I have used many different planners and schedule ideas, but they ultimately were either too difficult for me to manage or just didn’t offer enough flexibility.  I’m not a schedule person … I know I should be … I try, really I do … but I CAN’T {Yes I’m Whining!}.  So as I work this week on putting together a schedule for my kiddos, feel free to give me ideas, suggestions, things not to do even.  I have tried many things before, but I’m always open to hearing what works (or doesn’t) for other mommies!

That’s right . . . you heard me!  There are certain children in this household that feel that spring break is the perfect opportunity to try to dismember themselves or otherwise disrupt the household in crazy and un-fun ways!  And not all of the “offending” children are in the “school-attending” age group either! 

It all began with little bumps and bruises at the beginning of the week, not too out of the ordinary with 2 year olds and a boy learning to skateboard.  Tater did a faceplant trying to skateboard on the basketball court on Monday (what else would one do on a basketball court?). 

Tuesday morning met with Monkey burning his little hand (not too badly, but enough to cause him major pain and bring the entire rest of the day to a halt).  One of the older boys ended up having a physical issue that day too and the two middlest boys went to visit my mom for the night. 

The next day Monkey decided to bump his head, once at my parent’s house (while switching out the middlest two boys for the oldest two boys LOL) and then again when we got home.  It was the oddest thing, he kept tripping over things and somehow ended up bumping the top of his head.  It’s a nice little bruise today after plenty of icing yesterday.

That brings us to today, all was going well, no injuries, no tripping, no accidents.  Went to pick up the oldest two from my parent’s house, ran a few errands, grabbed lunch (major treat for the kids since it was fast food  :?  ), came home and put the twins down for their nap (which of course they then proceeded to both stinkify their diapers as soon as I walked out of the room and then they took their good sweet time getting to sleep . . . oh, about an hour).  But all was fine.  The “big” three were playing outside.  The “little” three were napping.  All was quiet. . . . .

Suddenly I heard crying, Tater came in the room holding his hands . . . crying, panicking.  He never cries out loud. Ever (he cries, he just doesn’t make any noise - VERY pathetic). He also WILL NOT TALK when upset.  Or show you or anything!  GRRR!  One has to handle a situation like this carefully with him, you also have to try to assess it as you would a very small child since as mentioned earlier HE WILL NOT TALK!  This is his thing.  That and sneaking - super sneaking and not talking kind of go hand in hand. 

Speaking of hands, I had already figured out that he had somehow cut himself, but on what, with what, why and how.  My children NEVER touch knives, they have taken turns sneaking a lot of things and they definitely have their moments of being naughty, but touching knives is NOT one of the things they do. EVER!  CJ is 12, helps me cook all the time, but rarely even now gets to use knives.  There is a reason. Yup. I had a reputation for cutting myself with knives when cooking.  NO KNIVES. 

His thumb had a nice gash in it . . . what to do???  Take him to the clinic?  They’d just glue it.  That’s all they do anymore.  Glue, glue, glue (even the things that are too deep to be glued, but we won’t go there and revisit a nightmare *twice*).   These are times that one would rather not have to figure it all out on their own, but inevitably these things always seem to happen when Daddy’s at work.  This was definitely topping off the week (don’t remind me that it’s only Thursday - I’m in denial!). 

He is fine, his thumb is glued (but I didn’t pay $100 for walk-in-doc down the road to do it - I did it - yes with the real stuff - I mentioned a nightmare, there’s a reason we have it on hand, it doesn’t last as long as it needs to).  He’s confined to the great indoors (haha), more specifically within my sight on the couch.  He was trying to cut a stick.  With a steak knife.  This all finally came out later, long after he was cleaned up and stuck back together, much prodding and patience later.

I asked him, “So, do you think that was a good idea?”.  Him, “No.”  Well, that’s something anyway . . . right?

As the New Year arrived many of you probably made a new year’s resolution or maybe several.  For many of us who are no longer in their twenties (and some who are) and who have given birth to a few children . . . thus retaining much “baby weight”, the resolve to lose weight is usually not far down the list. 

It is very easy though to let our perspective get out of sorts!  What body are we trying to acheive?  The latest trend or the one we need to be healthy?  So many of us are looking to fit into a certain size pants and have a certain size waist and hips instead of working toward a healthier body.  Eating right and exercising is good for the mind and body.  I encourage all of you to keep the perspective realistic and acheivable as we enter the new year. 

Along the same lines, there are often young girls, especially teenagers who are struggling with this issue whether they really need to lose even one pound or not.  If they don’t fit into their conceived notions of what is socially acceptable they won’t be satisfied with where they are at. 

If you know a young girl like that I encourage you to look into a new campaign that Dove® has begun . . . The Dove Self-Esteem Fund.

The Dove Self-Esteem Fund (DSEF) was established to raise the self-esteem of girls and young women to make them feel more beautiful and confident every day. The DSEF is part of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, a global effort designed to widen today’s stereotypical view of beauty.

One of the first steps they’ve taken toward their goal to reach 5 million young women by the end of 2010 is by creating www.CampaignForRealBeauty.com.  A site for and about girls, teens, their moms and mentors and anyone who is concerned about the negative body image influences girls are getting today. Here’s a short film that really gives us a vivid idea of what’s behind their new campaign as well as the realities of the media and it’s influence.

They have also created the Dove® Reality Diaries, a website that follows several young women on the road toward better self-esteem.   Getting other girls involved that can relate to one of these stories as well as offering expert advice and support.Anyone is welcome to check out these websites for more information.  I hope that you too can feel encouraged by a positive campaign for girls. I believe that we as adult women should also take note of what’s going on at these sites and with the young girls around us. Believe it or not, we are falling victim to these lies about “real beauty” just as much as teen girls!  As with so many other areas of adulthood and parenting we have to get ourselves squared away in this area before we can truly expect to see a difference in the girls in our lives.  If they hear us talking negatively about ourselves all the time that is what they are learning.  I know first hand that it is also disturbing to sons to see into their mother’s insecurities, so we really do need to be careful that our “realities” aren’t warped as well!

Links:
Campaign for Real Beauty Site
Dove Self Esteem Fund
Dove Reality Diaries
Share a Self Esteem Message

If you will allow me to have one moment to vent I’ll move back to happier things tomorrow ;0) I won’t be offended at all if no one chooses to read this - everyone needs moments to vent and this is mine. I would like to premise this by saying a couple of things . . . I try to keep our homelife (no matter the condition or situation) as peaceful, smooth and “normal” as possible. I work hard to keep the tone and mood happy and thankful. I work so hard on the latter in fact that occasionally I find myself exhausted (yes, I was very shocked to discover this)!

Our 11 year old was allowed to stay up and watch Extreme Makeover Home Edition with me tonight - he was so excited! He loved watching what they did for the family since things like that fascinate him. Of course he loved the “Spy Room” they did for one of the boys. Anyway, I was a smidge sad when at the end of the show he looked at me and said “I sure wish they could come help us with the basement!” Ugh - heart breaking - choking back tears! The kid didn’t ask for a new house, he didn’t ask for his own bedroom (though he has asked that on other occasions), he didn’t ask for a bigger house, he simply wanted the basement done because he’s tired of how hard his Dad works to make more room for him and his brothers!

I on the other hand have more concerns than simply the amount of room we need. Yes I realize that our house is extremely small, but honestly with the right storage situations we could make it work for a little longer - and happily. Granted, we cannot fit another set of bunkbeds anywhere, so once the twins outgrow their cribs we’re sunk. But really, for me it’s the health issues! I can’t tell you how many people have asked if all of the babies’ health problems are caused by the conditions in the house - and I have to honestly wonder myself. The conditions aren’t anything I can do anything about either - old windows, drafty doors, lack of proper heating, mold, moisture . . . no need to go on - you get the idea.

I know that we are doing the very best we can to make everything functional and yet it never seems to be getting any closer. We are looking into every option available to fix this ASAP, but there is only so much you can do in a short amount of time - so we PRAY!

Ok, I’m done! Just needed to get the feelings brought on my my son’s comment out! That makes it possible to continue on without any hangups LOL! Tomorrow - greener pastures, happier thoughts and the better part of everyday life!

I was one of those little girls who always dreamt of being a mom - that’s really all I wanted to do. It was really easy and natural to be a mom in my mind and though I knew that babies cried and children disobeyed, the fact of the matter is becoming a mom is very different than anything you could ever imagine!

There is no way to truly understand the challenges, emotions and rewards of being a mother until you have your first child and I would have to say that was the biggest surprise for me about motherhood. When you are dreaming about or imagining your life as a mom, what your children will be like, etc, there is no way to forsee how different circumstances can affect everyday life.

The variables each day holds can make all good intentions go out the window sometimes. There are days that I am moody - I never would have imagined myself as anything other than gentle, softspoken and kind every second of every day with my perfectly well behaved though occasionally mischevious little ones. I actually have to chuckle a little as I write this since after all I never imagined in a million years that all of my children would be boys - though I have to admit that I did imagine myself with 6 children. This is not reality with a strong-willed 3 year old and 1 year old twins who have decided that divide and conquer is a great motto - need I say more?

That said though, the rewards of raising these little ones are nothing I could ever have imagined either! I didn’t realize how much the hugs, kisses, affection and even conversations would mean to me as a mom! How it would melt my heart to watch my children interact with one another in a sincere and loving way (then again there are times they are bashing each other over the head - just keeping it real haha). It is truly the simple things in life that make all the difference - not only for me when watching my children, but also in my interaction with them - little hugs, saying “I Love You” to them, taking them out by themselves for the afternoon, asking them how they are doing. They know you care through the details in life - actions truly do speak louder than words!

I love my kids - I find them super challenging sometimes, but I love them. I love their individuality, watching them mature and grow to be responsible young men. I know that there are often bumps in the road of life, but I hate the huge bump involving our house situation right now - affecting our ability to function well as a family and most of all it is affecting our children so negatively - they are such wonderful and creative little boys and they are stifled every step of the way right now because we don’t have room for them to play and it isn’t safe for them to romp in the living room - it breaks my heart! I can only pray that a day will come when they will be free and have space to move!

I’m desperately trying to remain positive and not give in to the dark cloud of depression that’s been looming around here lately. We so desperately want to just be able to be a family. To raise our sons to be upstanding, honorable and respectable men is our biggest priority and right now it is being squashed in the midst of life! We didn’t plan this - who does? But the foundation is giving way quickly! We are actually having to consider moving a trailer onto our property to live in until this is done. The house is getting to the point where we have to consider it too unstable to live in - I’m very frustrated about this.

We don’t just let things go, we aren’t slackers - we work hard for what we have. Hubby works every opportunity that is given him - even side work in order to provide for us. I in turn stay home to raise our sons and keep our lives in order. We’re in WAAAAAAAAYYYY over our heads here! We’re almost out of money and the most important part of the whole remodel is yet to be done. And get this - we can’t refinance until it is! This means that as of April 1st our 1st mortgage payment will go up another $300 per month suddenly! Do you know how much I could do with $300? And that’s beside the fact that we just don’t have an extra $300 just sitting around every month - ha the very thought!

I hate to say it but I begin to wonder if it will ever be done! Poor Hubby has been working day and night to repair our foundation after long days and even overtime at work. His feet are killing him and he can barely walk, but he keeps at it anyway. I know this is odd for me, but we really are discouraged and yes, even scared! We truly do not know what to do to protect our family.

We even wonder if E’s health issues aren’t due to the various issues in the house. It is cold, damp, drafty and moldy. No matter how hard I try to keep up with it - aaaaah! I especially clean the window in the front boy bedroom. His symptoms are much like I’s (8) that quickly go away when he’s away from these environmental factors for a few days.

This morning Hubby and I were both up before 3am because we heard all sorts of creaking - turns out a rodent was in a wall (yeah, just one more thing) making a huge ruckus!

What do you do? We are so stuck - can’t refinance, can’t sell (don’t really want to move!) - basically we feel stuck!