Pumpkin Patch Morning

 We hit up the Pumpkin Patch this morning with our play group from church.  I have yet to discover an apple orchard here, so pumpkin patches are filling in this Fall.  The kiddos are just as excited about pumpkins, so it's all good, even if Mommy feels just a twinge of sadness.

 Emma Claire loved all the little houses.  She's a true homemaker at heart and it makes me smile. :-)

 Keller is getting so big so fast.  He's still my cuddle bug and will let me hold him endlessly.  Oh, how I wish I could hold him all day long!  No one has to tell me how fast these days go.  It's like I blinked and Emma is now holding conversations with me.

 He has awesome hair.  SO awesome that he's gotten the girl assumption several weeks in a row now.  We're thinking it's time for a trim, but not sure it's worth the cry.  And I'm not talking him, but me.

 His blue blue eyes melt my heart...and melt it good.  

That boy has me wrapped around his finger and Steven will be the first to tell you.

 Shiloh, too, has a heart for the home...

...in her own way. :-)

 They are so beautiful!

 Their personalities, their looks, their talents, are all so different.

I am often baffled and sobered when I think how I've been given these little ones to raise up for the glory of God.  Not given to dress up cute, say the right things, fill with knowledge, keep me from being embarrassed, make me look good, or give me a sense of identity.  

 

They are little human beings each with an independent will, adults in the making.  

And I am their example.

Every. Single. Day. 

If that doesn't make your heart drop with heaviness - a gravity of the situation - I don't know what will.  

I have been sobered lately.  The world rushes by us, Christians included, with all this information about parenting  that just makes your head burst.  Information about car seat choices, organic baby food, breast fed or bottle fed, cloth diaper or disposable, baby Gap or Gymboree, mini van or suburban, working mom or stay-at-home mom, homeschooled, or public schooled..

Purposes for their children, purposes for motherhood, even while unspoken.

But our children see.
They see what is truly important to us as the days roll on.

Let's take it back to the basics.

Me and God.

Alone in the dark.

Searching for answers to this Motherhood thing.

The choices, the unknowns, the unplanned, the struggles, the victories, 

the breakthroughs, the refinings, the lessons...

...the hearts.

Real hearts...needing to be pointed towards Christ.

I Timothy 4:12 -- "Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity."

Perfect Day Off

Days off are like finding a stream in the middle of a desert for me. 

So few and far between, but that much sweeter when you get them.

My normal days are kind of like an all-day/all-night job with the unsettling feeling there's always more I could do or more I could do better.  

Do you have a job kinda like that?

But my idea of a day off is...

Sleeping in, letting the laundry pile up for a day or two, watching movies in pj's, eating a sandwich {or a peach milkshake} for dinner, playing around on Pinterest, eating a picnic lunch at the park, taking a walk downtown waaaay past the kiddos bedtime, getting the first pumpkin spice of the season, snuggling with little ones, being serenaded by my love, talking adult conversations, learning more about my camera, flipping through magazines, letting the house get freezing and bundling up in leggings and a sweater with coffee...

That's the kind of stuff I would do on my day off.  

Going against the grain for just a day or two.

And I did it all...

park lunch

 downtown Utica Square

This High Calling

My Mother's Day was simply wonderful this year. I have 3 precious little ones to give thanks to God for. (One of which was not cooperative with these family photos so you will see few with...ahem...her...in them.) I had a beach to celebrate the day on. And special friends to share it with. It could not have been any better.

I consider mothering my little ones a special season of life and I pretty much feel I'm in the thick of it. =) Motherhood has caused me great frustration, but great growth; great sacrifice, but great reward; great inadequacy, but great dependence.

It is not all that I am, but one very important facet of my life. Motherhood is one of the high callings given to me by God and I feel I should take it seriously. There are days when I don't look at it that way and our home reflects that. There are also days when I do and it is one of the most satisfying and rewarding feeling to know that I truly am trying to stay devoted to this calling. (It took me forever to write that last sentence because Emma Claire was embracing me and giving me huge wet kisses every few words and saying, "I love you, Amma!" She is precious. If anybody knows why she chooses "Amma" as a substitute for "Mamma", please clue me in.)

I have started being intentional about praying for my kids individually. I feel I can already see the weak points in their lives that may cause struggles later in life. Yep. Even Keller. =) I want to truly know my children so that I can help them and lead them.


Spending precious time with them before catching up on the internet, before sewing a project, before running my errands, before loading the dishwasher, before talking on the phone. That is one of my many weaknesses. I'm a Martha not a Mary by nature. My name may be misleading, but that's the cold hard truth. I wish I wasn't like that. I wish I had the perfect balance. I wish I had it all figured out. I wish my children had the perfect mother. I wish I would never make mistakes. But God isn't in the business of working with perfection. He uses the weak things to confound the mighty. Man, I love that verse! You can see how He does it all throughout the Scriptures. The lineage of Jesus. The ministry of Paul. It's a comforting truth. He can use imperfection for His glory. He can use me. He can use our little family.

So, on Mother's Day, I couldn't help but be thankful for this truth. Thankful that God is ever faithful and continues to work on me. Thankful that motherhood is a process and not a 1-day shot. Pass or fail. A or F. Thankful that I have these gorgeous little children to pour my life out on.


Sure, I make mistakes, but I hope they know and feel how truly I love them. How desperately I want be like Jesus. How fervently I pray they will know Him. How passionate I feel about this journey of life we're on.


Thank you for being patient with me and for still reading after I've been gone so long. We will be back home in Oklahoma tomorrow and things will start to get back to normal. I hope to write quite a bit about our wonderfully too-short visit here in South Carolina.

I wish I was able to wish you a Happy Mother's Day on the actual day, but please know I hope you had a beautiful day and pray you are finding fulfillment in this high calling!

I Corinthians 1:27 - "...and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty..."