That’s right, today an article I wrote was featured at WhatToExpect.com! I’m honored to be featured there and want to invite all of you to go check out my article here.

Being a mom isn’t always what we expect, and often our expectations of motherhood are challenged and have to be reconsidered right off the bat. In my article I discussed this and how I learned and grew from it and how I realize as the mom of 6 boys just how little I still know about being a parent!

As always I hope you are inspired, encouraged and blessed as I share about motherhood in Because I’m the Mom.

Today I had one of those moments. An epiphany if you will, about how vitally important friendships are as a mom. As I left my friend’s house after a very fun little party she was hosting it hit me…

This is what I have been missing. This is what I crave.

I love getting together with my friends. They absolutely are amazing women. Knowing them, they would probably look at me like I’m crazy for saying that and ask my “Why on earth would you say that?”.

They just are. It’s that simple.

To me they are amazing because in a simple few hours time at a small get together at one of their homes they blessed my day. It’s amazing what good friends can do to your outlook on life and especially on your outlook on motherhood!

We all go through seasons in life. There are seasons where it seems simpler to get together with friends. Maybe with children, maybe without, but for me that season isn’t in the here and now.

So I realized today that I have entered a season where I just might need my friendships more than ever but I need to actually make the time to get together with them.

My friends are not afraid to be real and honest about life, parenting, marriage… everything.  But I can always count on one very important thing… when I walk away from a conversation with them I feel blessed, uplifted, encouraged, refreshed!

This is healthy conversation!

We need those conversations ladies! The ones that are encouraging in your life as a mom, as a wife, and in so many areas of life. It really doesn’t matter if they all have as many children as I do (in fact, most of my friends have three or maybe four children), we all deal with many of the same issues.

Let the conversation continue!!!

The next thing I realized needs to happen is I need to take make the time to get together with them!!!!

For someone like me who is terrified of infringing upon another person’s time this can be a little bit of an undertaking. Calling up a friend to ask them to go out for coffee or dessert, etc isn’t as simple as that.

Ladies! Put aside yourself, the parts of you that are somewhat insecure, the parts that don’t want to intrude.  Keep in mind that the woman on the other side of this “would be” conversation is more often than not thinking the VERY SAME THING!

Make it happen. Get together with them in person.

If you are missing this very key ingredient in your life my friend, I encourage you to do a little soul searching. We all need to interact with women who we can have a healthy conversation with on a regular basis. These people speak truth and encouragement into our lives usually when we need it the most.

Although we can have very meaningful conversations on the phone, and in a few select cases that may be the best it’s going to get. But the point here is to actually physically get out and get together with this friend (or friends). Face to face.

If you don’t currently have a friend that is close to you in this way think about the women in your life that you have connected with, even on a very surface level. Just take the plunge and invite them out to coffee sometime.

You never know, she might just be a “kindred spirit”.

Ladies, today I’m going to challenge you with something that may be uncomfortable for some of you.

Do not parent your husband.

I could leave it at that and tell you to take what you will from it…and if that sentence is all you take away from this post, I’m great with that.

For those of you who need a little more explanation though, I’ll keep going.

It is absolutely not your job to parent, boss, reprimand or in any way try to tell your hubby how it is or how it is going to be. Especially in public.

Still with me?

It’s so important that we are respectful.  Does that mean that we cannot disagree with him?  Absolutely not.  But how we handle it is key!

What you say and how you say it most definitely reflects to others…whether it’s your children or other people around you.  You husband was created to be the leader of your home, that doesn’t mean he’s to lord over you, but to demean him is to remove that from him completely.

Some women may actually be thinking that’s a good thing, but I can promise you this…it will destroy many facets of your relationship and even your family structure.  I don’t have a technical explanation or a fancy mumbo jumbo name for it, it’s just the simple truth.

Yet another one of those things that are Biblically laid out for us…those are my favorites.  The kind of scriptures that tell us how to live and all we have to do is listen and things will go swimmingly.

and a quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping (Proverbs 19:13b)

Or maybe this one…

However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. (Ephesians 5:33)

Of course, I could go on and on…but I won’t. Here’s the deal though, these instructions are definitely NOT to belittle you, trap you, make you feel like the lesser mate. They are completely to protect you.

Can I just admit that when I mess up and am less than lovely to my husband I think it’s me who incurs the most damage in the end.  I don’t have a husband that will degrade me or return the action at all, but the look of hurt and the knowledge of what I have just done is horrible!

Can I just encourage you to focus a bit on how you are regarding your husband this next week, especially in public and in front of your children?  If you do mess up, simply ask for forgiveness (from your hubby and God) and move on.

I pray that your marriage is blessed!

As you can imagine, one of the first comments or questions I get from people when they find out I have 6 sons is about the cost of food.