Balancing Act

I love to do a lot of different things. I love to go to ballgames. I love to play in the yard with my kids. I love to play golf. I love to water ski. I love to craft. I love to jog. I love to throw parties. But, I HATE to cook. I'm not lazy, I just don't like cooking. If I cook three times a week I feel like I have really accomplished something special!! I always joke (although it's kind of true!) that my cooking rotation always starts with spaghetti. So, I cook spaghetti on a Monday, don't cook again for three weeks, and, SURPRISE, we have spaghetti again!

My point is that we all have talents. We all have things that make us happy and things that we like to do. To be a good mom, you don't have to be able to do everything. And, you especially don't have to be awesome at everything. You can pick and choose what you're good at and put your time and effort into those things. The other things have to be done, but if you don't like to cook, you don't have to worry about making a new recipe perfectly every night! It's okay to cook fish sticks or order a pizza sometimes!! If you don't like to craft, you don't have to! If you can't sew, don't worry about it! There are very talented crafters and seamstresses on Etsy that would love for you to buy their handmade dresses and hair bows!!

Social media sites like Pinterest and Facebook sometimes make us feel like we're not good enough. That we should be able to cook picture worthy suppers and have craft time with our kids every night, make our own clothes and laundry detergent, and make a snack or treat bag for EVERY occasion.  In truth, SOME moms are good at cooking fabulous suppers, SOME moms are good at crafting, SOME moms can easily make cute printables for treat bags.

Romans 12:6-8 says, "Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness." We need to pick one thing or even a few things that we're good at and do those. It's too easy to get down on yourself because you didn't make the cutest Halloween costume or send the most creative Valentine treat! But, NONE of these things matter to our kids. We're supermom to them, no matter what! They will love us unconditionally even if the only thing we ever cook for them is spaghetti!

Even more important than our children's approval, is the fact that God doesn't care about any of these things. God wants us to have a relationship with Him, teach our kids to love Him, and serve others so that they can see His love through us. He's given each of us specific talents to be used for HIS glory, not for the approval of the world (or other moms!)

Don't Stay Small

Scrolling through Facebook you can find all sorts of articles to read. Some are true, some are not. Some have very good parenting advice, others do not.  This morning I saw an article about your last child. Since Lila is more than likely our last child, I was interested to see what the article had to say. As I read through, I teared up a little, and then I stopped to think. Yes, our children will grow. They will change. They will leave us. That's the way God intended it to be. I can't sit around crying and feeling sad that everything Lila does is a last. It was a last when Hannah stopped taking bottles, it was a last when Ty stopped crawling and started walking. Those lasts are the firsts of new things though. I love to see Hannah mature and become a stronger Christian girl. I love to see her practice and play the violin more beautifully each year. I love to see Ty catch the ball a little better each time and mature into a faithful follower of Christ.  And, Lila, she's a new adventure everyday! She's at the age that she does something new all the time. Life and all the changes it brings are fun!

God does not want us to be sad about our children growing up. He wants us to be happy that He's given them to us to help them grow stronger and become Christian leaders. Watching my children's light shine at their school and in our community is exciting.

In this era that we are living, we see children being placed on pedestals. Being almost worshiped by their parents. Parents living through their children. Giving no boundaries or no correction for bad behavior. Allowing children to rule the house and the decisions that are made. Children feeling entitled because they have been spoiled and put at the center of the family unit. CHRIST is the center of everything. We cannot worship our children or place them as the most important thing in our lives. God designed the family to have Christ as the head, then the husband/wife, then the children (Deuteronomy 6:5, Ephesians 5:25, Deuteronomy 5:16). I love my children as much as anyone can. But, I have to remember that they are not the center of my universe. Although this seems harsh, it really isn't. If I place Christ first in my life, my children will be blessed by that. With Christ in the center, I am a kinder, more patient mother. If I place my husband second, my children are blessed by that. They see a father and mother who love each other and love their children together. They are able to see how to have a Christ-centered family. They have a guide, a road map for the family they will have in the future. My grandmother once told me, "Teach a child how to act when they are young, and they will be a blessing for the rest of your life." Children need boundaries and they need to know that Christ and having a relationship with Him is top priority.

My job as a parent is to lay a foundation for my kids to follow Christ. It is not to make them think they are perfect or the best at everything or entitled to have everything they want. My job is to love them. To show them Christ's love. To show them how to love others and how to serve others. When we stop thinking of our children as our own and start thinking of them as God's, we'll be doing them a much greater service.

Does this all mean I'm not going to encourage my kids to have good grades or cheer for them at ballgames? No.  But, I want them to realize that there will be disappointments. They will not be the best at everything they do. They will not win every award. People will not always be nice to them and like them.  And that's okay. God is preparing them for His plan, for His purpose, for His GLORY. There is a balance in this life. Finding the balance takes time on your knees in prayer to the Holy Father. Asking for His help in planting the seeds of faith in my children's hearts so that they understand what is really important and what is just for fun. And to be honest, asking Him to make me realize what is really important. God has big plans for each one of us. My wish will never be for my kids to stay small. I want to see the BIG things God's going to do with them!

My prayer for my kids is the same as Paul and Timothy's to the holy people of Philipi in Philippians 1:9-11, "And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God."

Hiding God's Word in your Heart

For a few years, the kids and I have learned weekly memory verses. Their little minds soak up so much information that I decided now was the time to fill their hearts with God's word. Psalms 119:11 says,  "I have stored up Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You." I don't want my kids to memorize the Bible just to be able to say they can. I want them to KNOW GOD so that when they are faced with sin they will be able to recall God's word and fight temptation. Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by the devil himself and all three times Jesus answered Satan with scripture and did not give in to temptation. That's what I want for my kids. I want God's word to flash across their mind when they are put in the middle of the temptations of the world.

We started with a list of scriptures and began learning one each week. We would go over the scripture each night and by the middle of the week they had it down! The first couple of weeks went smoothly because we would review the previous scriptures while learning the new one. As we added more and more scriptures, it became a little hard to keep up with in my mind!! I didn't want them to just memorize the verse for the week and then forget it. I want these verses embedded deep inside their hearts!

I began searching for ways to memorize scripture and came across Charlotte Mason's system. At first, I thought, "That is entirely too complicated." However, I kept coming back to it and finally decided to try it and it is working great! We are remembering more of the scriptures and are able to add some harder, longer passages! I just keep the box in my car and we work on memory verses in the morning on the way to school! The key to sticking to anything is to make it as easy as possible to do. If we tried to work on our memory verses at home, the box would end up broken, cards would be scattered everywhere, and we would be hit or miss on finding the time to sit down and memorize. For us, the car is perfect, because we are in an enclosed place, where the box can stay safely and in eyesight!

To set up the Charlotte Mason Scripture Memory System you need the following supplies:

An index card box

index cards

index card dividers (you can buy them or make your own tabs)

On the index cards, you can write out several cards with memory verses you want to learn and keep them in the front of the box OR you can just write down the memory verse each week.

On one of the tab dividers you write Daily, this is where you will put the memory verse for the week. This one you will practice everyday until it is memorized.

On the next two tabs you write Odd and Even, when the Daily verse is memorized you move that card back to the Odd tab and add a new verse to the Daily tab.  When the next Daily verse is memorized you move it to the Even tab.

 On the next tabs you write the days of the week. This is where it starts to get a little more complicated!! When you have a card in Daily, Odd, AND Even, and it is time to add a new card to the Daily, you move the Odd card to Sunday. When you need to add a new Daily, you move the Even to Monday. When you need to add a new Daily, you move the Odd to Tuesday, and so forth. This process takes a long time, because you are only memorizing one verse per week.

On the next tabs you write the numbers 1-31. Once all of the days of the week tabs are full, you begin moving cards to the number tabs one at a time.

To use the memory verse system you start with your first verse. Learn it, memorize it, hide it in your heart! Then, begin learning new scriptures and moving the old ones back in the tabs. So, the second week you would practice EVERY DAY your new DAILY verse. On ODD days you would practice the DAILY verse and the verse that is behind the ODD tab. On the third week you would have a card behind the EVEN tab, so you would work on the DAILY verse EVERY DAY, AND on ODD days you would work on the verse behind the ODD tab, and on EVEN days you would work on the verse behind the EVEN tab. By the third week you would know three memory verses and be working on TWO EACH DAY!

When you have learned enough verses to have cards behind the days tabs, you would work on the Daily verse, either the Odd or Even verse, and the verse behind the tab for the day of the week.

When you have learned enough verses to have cards behind the number tabs, you would work on the Daily verse, either the Odd or Even verse, the verse for the day of the week, AND the verse for the number of the day.

For example, today,  Monday, February 24th, I would work on my Daily verse, the EVEN verse because the 24th is even, the MONDAY verse, AND the verse behind the 24!! Easy right??!!

It does seem very complicated, but once you get it set up and start using the system it is amazing!! You are working on memorizing a new verse, while continuing to keep those other verses fresh on your mind and on your heart!!

Some verses that we use include:

1. Ephesians 2:8-9
2. Matthew 6:33
3. 1 John 4:7
4. Mark 12:30
5. John 3:16
6. Hebrews 11:1
7. Psalms 119:105
8. Genesis 1:1
9. John 1:1
10. Psalms 143:10
11. Galatians 3:26-27
12. Psalms 19:1
13. 1 Peter 4:8
14. Colossians 3:12
15. Proverbs 16:24
16. 2 Corinthians 5:17
17. Ephesians 4:32
18. Romans 11:32
19. Isaiah 1:18
20. Matthew 5:44
21. Acts 2:38
22. Matthew: 5:13, 16
23. Philippians 4:8
24. Romans 12:2
25. Matthew 7:24
26. Ephesians 6:1-2
27. Colossians 1:15-18
28. Matthew 22:37,39
29. Proverbs 3:5-6
30. Exodus 34:5-6
31. Colossians 2:10
32. 2 Corinthians 9:8
33. Ephesians 3:20
34. 2 Peter 1:3
35. 2 Corinthians 3:4-5
36. Hebrews 2:1-3a
37. 2 Corinthians 2:14
38. Phillipians 2:13
39. Isaiah 41:10
40. Numbers 13:30
41. Psalms 100
42. Psalms 23
43. The 10 Commandments
44. The Beatitudes
45. The Fruits of the Spirit

Hearing God's Voice

A few months ago, Hannah was trying to get Ty to play something in her room. After asking him multiple times, he finally said, "Hannah, it's like I'm Jonah and your room is Ninevah. I ain't going." God called Jonah to go to Ninevah and he simply told God no.

Oh, how many times have I told God no? How many opportunities have I missed simply because I didn't listen to God or heard Him and turned and ran the other way?

To hear the voice of God, we must have a relationship with Him. We have to be in His word studying the truths that He has so generously given to us. We all spend our time in different ways--for young mothers, we spend our time caring for our families. Others spend time at work, with grand kids, with hobbies. Do we ever take time to stop and listen for the voice of God? Do we let Him tell us how He wants us to spend our time? Ephesians 2:10 says "for we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." That should be so exciting to us! God in heaven has something going on here on earth that He needs us to do. Yet, I don't take the time to listen for His voice.

Why don't we listen for God's voice, for His instruction? Because we're scared. Once we decide to ask God to use us, we better be ready to be used! And it won't always be easy and it might not be something we ever thought we'd do. God doesn't want us to stay in our comfort zone. He wants us to be willing to move into His. To find our comfort in Him alone. When we give our whole selves to God to be used as He planned, we better believe something amazing is going to happen that will glorify our God!! As His creation, He longs to embrace us and desires for all of us to choose the narrow road and be with Him for eternity. He has given us the choice to follow Him along the narrow road or leave His embrace and walk the broad road to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14). We must get to the point in our walk with God that we can say "God, You are not just the most important thing in my life, You are my life."

Let your life be an act of worship to Him. Let His light shine on you so that you are different, so that you stand out from the world. Listen as God calls you to do amazing things for HIM!

It's the Little Things

Lagniappe (pronounced lanyap for those of you who have been saying laggynappy!!)? What is that? I started this blog a few weeks ago giving it a name that is very dear to my heart. My mom and I use the term lagniappe all the time. It's a Louisiana French word meaning a little something extra. To us, it's the bell tied to the bow of the wrapped Christmas gift, the twine tied around the mason jar filled with fresh flowers, the felt flower attached to the newly sewn dress, or the Happy February 12th gift you get for no reason at all.

In this fast-paced, glitzed up world we live in, it's often hard to appreciate the little things, the little extras that are given to us. We whiz by them in a rush out the door to get to the baseball practice, which will be followed by violin lessons. They are a blur in our peripheral vision as we fly down the road in a hurry to get to school or get to church. They are blocked out as we have our eyes and minds buried deep inside our phones or other electronic devices. We miss out on so much that God has to offer us. God's lagniappe is the beautiful sunset shining on the lake, the new buds on the trees in the spring, the glistening ice on the crepe myrtle branches, the smell of fresh cut grass on the golf course.

God wants us to slow down. To stop and breathe. To take time to listen to rolling thunder in the distance. To hear the sounds of children laughing as they squirt each other with the water hose. To appreciate the beauty that surrounds us daily, in whatever season, in whatever weather.

The little extras, as they seem in the moment, often times turn into the big things. Stopping to help an elderly lady get her grocery basket may seem like just a little something. But, to her it means the world because you not only helped her to her car, you also took away a strong fear that she would fall and hurt herself.

In our lives, the big things will come. And, we will enjoy them. I just hope I don't get so caught up in the next big event, that I miss seeing the face of God in little extras!

Making Old Things New

I am absolutely in love with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and Wax! I have gone on a painting spree in my house, making all of my old worn out furniture look new and fresh! Annie Sloan paint is so great because it is extremely low odor, so you can paint right inside your house. It also requires no sanding! You just paint the furniture with one or two coats, then wipe on clear wax with a cloth. If you want a more antiqued look, you then take a cloth and wipe on the dark wax in the areas you want to look worn and weathered. It also goes a LONG way! I painted all 6 dining room chairs, two coats, with one can of paint! I'll be able to do multiple projects with my other cans.

My first project was this small, old hutch that we've had since we got married. Although, I liked it the way it was, it had some scratches and paint splotches that needed to be covered. For this project, I used Annie Sloan Emperor's Silk, which is a red paint. Then, I waxed it with clear and then a light coat of dark wax.

 That project was so easy, I decided to take on a little bit larger, more detailed task! I had seen in a magazine a kitchen table with mustard chairs. I loved it!! So, for my next project I used Annie Sloan Arles with clear wax and a little more dark wax than used on the hutch. I think they turned out great!!

By the last chair, I was literally scraping the sides of the can!! But, I made it work!!

 Next, I went even bolder with color and painted our coffee table using Annie Sloan Florence.  I waxed it with clear and dark wax also! This is probably my favorite piece yet! I think I might paint my new front door this color!!

I bought these two chairs online and thought they were red. When I picked them up, they were PINK! Although cute, they did not match any of my decor! So, I took some of my left over Emperor's Silk and repainted these chairs red! Even though it was just a small change they look so much better!

 These will definitely not be my last projects with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint!!

Our Little Chick Turned One

Wow! This year has flown by! We had Lila's first birthday party last night! For her party, we did a shabby chic bird theme! It was a very simple little party, but turned out so cute! I love the term shabby chic, because I'm not a perfectionist. If I call something shabby chic, that means it can be a little messy, a little imperfect!!

 Sabra Elmer made the cake and I am in love! This is one of my favorite cakes she has EVER made! (Please ignore the smushed corners, I made the mistake of putting Hannah in charge of it in the car!)

 Tweet One! 

 I took fabric scraps and hot glued them to ribbon, then hot glued that to her high chair! (Hot glue is my best friend, for real!) I loved the way it turned out!! 

 We had the party at my mom's house. I told her it was bird themed, so when I got there to decorate, her table was all set with birds and bird houses!! (She's awesome!)

 Cake time!! This was so cute! I'm sure everyone thinks their baby is the cutest cake eater, but mine really was!! She was such a little ham! The more we laughed, the crazier she got!!

Duck Hunting Party

Ty's birthday party this weekend was a huge success!! It was so fun to decorate for this party! Brett didn't even mind pitching in a little! It was held at The Hunting Lodge, which was the absolute perfect place to have  a duck hunting theme party!

On the porch, we had to have waders hanging like it was after a big hunt. And, of course, a duck pond with floating decoys!

The food table featured a burlap backdrop with custom sign and bunting. 

 We had finger foods since the party was in the afternoon. Shotgun shells in shell belts (pigs in a blanket), duck jambalaya (thanks Grammy!), cheese and quackers, grilled duck (thanks Brett!), duck bills (Pringles), duck feed (Chex Mix), and duck calls (Bugles).

For drinks we had Swamp Water, Sunrise Orange Soda, and Sweet Tea (Had to get a Duck Dynasty reference in somewhere!) 

 Sabra Elmer made the most precious cake!! So we had Cake and Mud (chocolate ice cream)!

 The table was decorated with burlap ribbon, mason jars filled with shotgun shells and actual rice from our farm, a Winchester shotgun shell box, and a wood duck.

 Can you find the lucky duck? The boys really enjoyed this game! They each got to sign their hunting license, then they got to hunt for their limit of two ducks! I had hidden decoys with money taped to the bottom around the yard, so they each got to find two and see how much money was on the bottom! The boys also got to shoot a Nerf type shotgun at a duck target and take a duck calling clinic from Ty (that didn't really work out as planned! Ha! It was a little loud!!)

 The party favors were mason jars filled with Chex Mix and a tag labeling it Duck Feed! They also got a duck target and duck call to take home!

These precious mini chocolate bars wrapped in custom labels!

Ty even got to open his presents right in front of a roaring fire! Ahhhh! It was perfect!

And, of course, what kind of party would it be without a game of football!!

Cake: Sabra Elmer

Printables: Lauren Haddox Designs