Who Are You Working For?

Short, sweet, and to the point, my friends:

Whatever you do,

work at it with all your heart,

as working for the Lord, not for human masters,

since you know that

you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.

It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

Colossians 3:23-24

Image by Alicia Jo McMahan via FreeImages

Anyone else stumbling with this one today? My heart remembers who I'm working for when I start my day and again at night when I say my prayers before bed, but in between the here and there, my thoughts wander and criticism rushes in, and yes, even a little bit of self-pity (or a lot, depending on the day)...and it all happens before I'm aware of it!

So, tell me...

What tricks do you practice to keep your heart, mind, and soul 

steadied on Christ throughout the day?

What is it you guys do when the house is a wreck 

and the kids are screaming 

and dinner's not ready yet?  

How do you keep your eyes where they belong...

...and make your hard work be solely for that party of One?  

The Humble Lessons of "Just a Little Bit Not"

Recently, I had myself a day WAY up there in the category of wild...

Truly, it's amazing how you can learn a lesson and have it drive so deeply into your heart one minute and then just forget all about it the next...

If you hadn't guessed it, that was me the other day...the forgetful one!

Basically, it all went down pretty hardcore...

Try as I did to mold everyone's thoughts, feelings, and actions to my desires, 

I could not make anyone adhere to my plan...

Can you imagine?!  

THE NERVE of these little ones, 

having their own minds!  

It must be wild from the eyes of my children to see me calm, cool, and collected one minute and crazy with impatience and frustration the next.  I'm sure it's confusing, and it's certainly not my goal, but sometimes it does happen and I do lose my cool.  

As my son put it to me when I apologized after one such moment:  

"You're 99.99% an amazing mom and just a little bit not."  

How perfect is that?!  My wonderful son, who was trying to encourage me, I'm certain, summed it all up perfectly, if you ask me!  That 00.01% still hurts though!

So, let's talk discoveries here:

DISCOVERY #1 

It's not about perfection, 

it's about failing forward.

That's definitely one I've come to find much comfort in when it seems like "yet again" I've missed the mark.  I'd like to believe that I'm missing the mark a little less than, say, a year ago!  There's comfort in that, you know?

DISCOVERY #2

It is so vitally important for my kids 

to not only see me make mistakes, 

but to also witness how I handle them when they manifest.

As much as I want to be perceived as the perfect mom in my children's eyes.. to be the one that always encourages and supports and loves and has the perfect answers and wit and is just barrels of fun at all times, fact is, I will make mistakes.

.

But will I acknowledge my misgivings?

                                                   
                                                      Will I apologize?

Trust me, the last thing I want to do is acknowledge and apologize...
There's that part of me that wonders if I just say nothing, will the kids not notice and forget it ever happened?

I know, though, how important it is to show my kids how to respond when mistakes are made...I know that, not only will it allow them to cut themselves some slack when it's their turn to falter, but they'll also learn to take responsibility for it.

So think on this next time you're the one to make a mistake:

Mistakes do happen, 
fail forward, 
teach a lesson, 

and remember:


You're 99.99% awesome and just a little bit not!

Image by Davide Guglielmo via FreeImages

What Life's Victory is Really All About...

So today was amazing...start to finish, simply an amazing day!!  

I cleaned the bathrooms first thing, did a load of laundry, and spent the day out with my kids.  When we got home, there was time for some snuggles, and  I even had time to make a pizza from scratch...!

Personally, I would like to congratulate myself for finally having made it in life...
I mean,  I've got it goin' ON... I am THE Mom of Moms!!!!  

....or am I???

See, what you're not really seeing is the rest of my kitchen table 

where that pizza dough is being prepped on 

yeah, there's a table under there...

...& you're certainly not seeing the kitchen sink...

...Ewwww, right?!...and that's not even a full day's worth!

As far as the rest of the house goes, you can forget about that!!

No, seriously, forget about it!  

If you think the kitchen's bad, well...let's just say you ain't seen nothin' yet!!  

Nor will you...at least not today!!!

So why this victory if my house is insane, 

and I can barely find my floor underneath all these toys and laundry?  

It's because I'm discovering the secret...the one that I've felt God leading me to inside my heart, and the one He's shown me through such fine ladies as those at Life Over C's and Not a Stepford Life.

See, life's victory is not about a Martha Stewart home, 

complete with warmed cookies 

awaiting my children and husband as they walk in the door...
(though, seriously, that'd be delicious!)

...and it's certainly not about maintaining the alleged "balance" that I've been both striving for and failing to achieve ever since the day the idea developed in my mind.

Life's victory is, instead, about God 

and praising Him for my day by enjoying the gifts here before me...

...these amazing children ...my beloved husband and family...

It's about actually rolling up my sleeves, diving in, and getting dirty.

Praise God by PLAYING with my kids?

 ABSOLUTELY

Praise God by LAUGHING and LOVING and SNUGGLING, you mean?

POSITIVELY 100%!! 

 And, yes, my house is crazy and not "primmed" and "propered",

but you should see the smiles on my kids faces (&mine!)

and the laughter in their voices and excitement in their eyes...

...The house will be here ...AND it's mess...but my kids and these moments won't always be.

One day, they'll grow and move along and have families of their own...

I don't want to miss the NOW while they're here with me...

I mean, think about it,
                           who ever looked back on their life
                                                                 and wished they'd had more time to clean??

I mean, REALLY?! 

But, you know, I do feel strongly that
                                          there are plenty who have looked back and wished
they'd spent more time with their kids...their families...

...the ones they love most on this earth...

If I ever had to look back like that and realize my mistake too late..

I gotta tell ya, it's too overwhelming to even stomach.

I'm just so grateful to God that He helped me figure it out before it was too late!! Oh, I still have a lot to learn, and I'm sure that crazy girl and her need for what she perceives balance to be will kick in, but I got it today...and that, for me, is enough...

Message received, my God...
Thank You....Thank You so very much..

Boost Your Blog in 100 Days Challenge

So, I'm super excited to have come across this challenge.  I'm new to the giant world of blogging
and could use a little lovin' direction thrown my way!
(Who could know how complex this web we weave would be?!).
Hope you guys'll join me and all the others on this challenge...
I really believe it'll open up a ton of doors!!
Boost Your Blog in 100 Days Challenge!!

r.

Staying Calm When Your Children Are Sick

In all my experiences in life thus far, there is nothing that's been more physically, mentally and emotionally taxing as the role of "Mom", but there's also been nothing more rewarding!  While some days may indeed feel like smooth sailing, there's also others that really test and try and define you as both a parent and a wife...

One of those days was yesterday for me.

Walking through the door after running errands, I saw my baby girl slumped over on her father's chest, crying out in pain...that's not something I'll be forgetting anytime soon, try as I might!

Whether it was from something she picked up during her 18 month check-up or the vaccination itself, my baby girl was SICK!  Within the small window I had been away for, she'd gone from a low-grade fever to a full-blown one.

Let me tell you, watching those numbers climb so quickly on the thermometer and praying they'd soon stop...it can bring any parent from calm to sheer panic in an instant!

     .....Unfortunately, we've all been there...
and when it's your turn..everything just seems like it's  happening in slow motion, doesn't it?  

That thermometer.....I thought it would never beep..and the helplessness I felt as I held my now weeping child...it was more than overwhelming.  

Amidst it all though, I caught a glimpse of where my mind's eye should be...

Rather than engaging in a sudden, 

albeit brief, shouting match with my also scared husband...

my eyes needed to find their rest in God.  

That's the only way I was going to be able to see clearly and make the right choices.

My husband and I quickly regrouped, but my initial reactions just say so much about where I am on the Path with God and what He would like to work on with me next.  I don't know about anyone else, but I'd like for my responses to be about a steady peace amidst the storm.

Still, amidst my imperfections, 

I'm so grateful to know that God still loves me...

...that He accepts me and receives me just the way I am...

...but that He also loves me too much 

to let my imperfections become my permanent home.

Our girl is much better today...

We are still doing a bit of this:

(and may I speak on both our behalves and say "NO THANKS!" to that thermometer!!)

But my eyes are now doing a bit more of this:

Psalm 10:17  You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted;
you encourage them and listen to their cry.

..So thankful for His healing strength upon her...
                                                and so thankful for His work within me.

What about you?  Got something that's keeping your eyes from where they really need to be?

My eyes are ever on the LORD, 

for only He will release my feet from the snare.

Psalm 25:15 (NIV)

Image by Steve Schlange via Free Images

Quick and Easy Rainy Day Toddler Activity

Summers here!!  Summer's here!! 

Time to get out and celebrate!  

So, run through those sprinklers with complete abandon!

Chase after that ice cream man with unbridled shamelessness!!  

It's time for fun!
                 It's time for sunshine and laughter!

It's time for...

...RAIN?  

While we know it's inevitable, who out there is still surprised when those clouds come rolling in??

Don't let a few sprinkles (or torrential downpours!) rain on your summer fun-time parade!  

Try this fantastically easy and educational rainy day toddler activity instead!!  

Materials Needed:

1 clear plastic container with a lid 

1 Kool-aid packet OR food coloring - your choice of color

Water

Miscellaneous house items that you don't mind getting wet.

Fill your plastic container partway with water and then add the Kool-aid powder or food dye until you reach the desired color.

Hindsight and all, but it would've been mind-boggling for my little girl to have seen the color swirl through the water when I added it...another day maybe!

Next up, my lady and I started going through the house, adding anything that was red to our container...every time we found something, we'd say the color and compare it to all our other red things (water, her pj's, etc).

We found a lot of great things to put in there!  

Totally an awesome experience when she started to get the red items on her own!!  There was much cheering and excitement over that!!!

...and equally so for the green and the purple ones too!! LOL 

Gotta love my girl with her own will and mind and plan!

So there it is in a nutshell, folks!  Tried it or planning on trying it??  I'd love to hear from you!

One of God's Greatest Blessings

There's a certain peace, I imagine, that washes over many a weary parent at the end of the day...the peace that comes from watching angels sleep.

It's the stuff nostalgia is made of...the stuff that so very often fills me to completion as I marvel over how such beauty can be nestled among these blankets of downy softness...and I become overwhelmed with the fact that God chose me to keep charge of such amazing and delicately powerful beings as these...

That's the peace I felt last night as I listened to my boy settle in for the night with his friends...and it was by that peace that I gladly stayed up until two in the morning when he couldn't find rest so quickly..

So, as my head hit the pillow, I felt so complete ...and amazed that another chapter had begun in my son's still young life...

...but when those sweet voices came floating into my bedroom at 6 this morning, and as they woke my youngest for the day, 

I can confidently tell you that...

I'M OVER IT!!

When three 9 year old boys develop cabin fever within my humble home....and when they're suddenly staaaarving and my youngest is pleading at my ankles for the kind of time only a mother can give yet can't be provided because I've pancakes to flip...

I'M SO OVER IT!!

...aren't I?

I mean, I should be, right?  With all the screaming and shrieking and the tornado powered by three that's running right through the middle of my home...shouldn't I be?  Wouldn't anyone be?

...But then, I saw it...call it an out-of-body experience as I was fleeing from the whirlwind heading in my direction, but I saw it so clearly...

...HE'S HAPPY...my son...he's so very happy...

So as the last of the blankets get folded, and I start to see the floor of my home again...his happiness overwhelms me...

I want for the happiness of my children over that of my own, and here it is displayed across his face, eyes shining brighter than the sun...here it is in that voice...the one that found it's home in my heart with that very first coo seemingly another lifetime ago...

...then I realize...

It has been SO worth it...

It's been so worth everything for this moment, seeing him like this..

A child's happiness...MY child's happiness...

It's one of the best gifts God could ever bless me with...

Then I realize...

                           I'm NOT over it...

                                                          ...not even close...

And, as I sit here thinking about life and how very beautiful it is...

...my boy dares ask with those amazing brown eyes...

"Mom, can they stay again tonight? PLEASE?"....

Slumber Party First and Watching Life Come Full Circle

With my son now 9, the number of milestones I find myself writing in that cherished baby book of his have definitely slowed to less than a snail's pace.  Tonight though, I find myself filled with nostalgia and amazement...tonight was his first overnight with friends.  Thankfully, the kids all stayed here...one step at a time, mind you...but it was still a milestone, nonetheless!

I just find my mind reeling over the fact that I am on the other side of these overnights.  How did I go from that giggling little girl being told once again that it was time to settle down to now being the one delivering the direct order?!  I mean, seriously, what is going on here? How is this even possible?  I still remember those nights with my friends...the candy and movies and secrets and prank phone calls (don't even think about it boys!)...

What about you?

What childhood memories have come full circle in your own life?

For me, my own slumber party memories are still so special and sweet and have very much become an integral part of who I am today.

So hard to believe it's my son's turn now...may his memories be just as sweet and life changing...

Goodnight, my beautiful boy.  

I love you more than you could possibly know...

Creating Tabs in Blogger

Update, September 9, 2016:  Note that this post how-to is relevant to my template type.  Being a newbie, at the time, I was unaware of this vital piece of information.  Still, I believe the information is still helpful and will keep it "as is" for now.  Use at your own discretion.

So perhaps one of my biggest hurdles, thus far, with creating my blog site has been figuring out how on earth to create tabs on the top of my page.  As anyone in Blogger knows, you get the main page that lists every single post you've ever written, but I wanted something more than a list of posts.  Something where people could click on a specific topic and read about what they wanted, rather than having to filter through and weed out.

Turns out there are more than a few different ways to go about creating tabs in Blogger, but I found the most informative source of options to be at www.blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-to-put-put-posts-into-your-pages-in.html?m=1

This blogger definitely knows what they're talking about...and I definitely don't, so there was a lot of looking up of stuff up in order to understand some of the basic blogging lingo. If you're at all like me, just be prepared with your favorite search engine nearby!  You'll be glad you did! 

So if you're at this website now, you'll notice three options for creating tabs are listed.  I actually tested the look for each of them before I settled in.

Here's what worked for me:

-Creating a tab using the Labels Gadget.  I found this to be the easiest to set up, by far!
Here's the play-by-play:

1.  Go to the Blogger page that lists all your Posts.

2.  On the Menu Bar on the left-hand side, click on "Pages":
In here, you just want to make sure that the only page listed is your Home page. If there are others, go ahead and delete them.  Note that the "Home" button cannot be deleted.

Either now or later, you have the option of renaming your "Home" page to read whatever you like.  The way I set up my blog, I have labeled this "The Feed".  For me it was a good solution.  You can't delete this page, like I had originally wanted, so I just made the most of it and wound up loving it!  If anyone is looking for your entire run of posts, they can just click here to see them all.  I renamed it because, for the look I was going for, a run of all my posts didn't fit my idea of what a Home Page tends to be.

When done here, make sure to click "Save Arrangement".


3.  Going back to the Menu Bar, click on "Layout":

As you can see, I chose a template that allotted for adding Gadgets above my blog posts.
Underneath "Pages", you should have an "Add a Gadget" box (mine has already been changed to Labels, don't let that throw you off!).

Go ahead and click on "Add a Gadget".

From here you will see a box like this:

Scroll down and click the + Sign next to the "Labels" option.
This will take you to the next screen:

What you see here are the settings that I chose for my blog.  You'll probably need to go back and forth on this a few times, testing out what each setting does and then viewing it on your blog to see if this is "the one". Note, though, that you'll have to make one more adjustment before you will see these settings come to life on your site.  See next step.

Take note of the "Show" setting here.  I currently have it set to show all labels, but as I add more labels, I'll be needing to change that.  If you have several labels assigned to your post (s) already, you'll likely want to click on "Selected Labels" instead.  This will allow you to only show the ones you're looking to show Tabs for on your site.

4.  The final step...

If you've got an existing post, go ahead and click on "Edit"...if this is your first post, click on "New Post".

On the next screen, look to the bar on the right and find "Labels". Inside this little box holds the future to a beautiful menu/tab bar for your blog!  It is here that you'll put whatever you would like for your Tab to read.  This current post I will want to put under my "Blog Smarts" tab, so that's the label I'll insert here.  *NOTE:  if you already have labels in here, you will need to clear them out, click "Done", "Save", then go back in and add your label.  

Keep in mind that you can still put more than one label in here, if you choose.  If one of the labels is not one that you want to have appearing as a tab, you would just indicate so by following the instructions up above in step three.  I will also be putting a "Blog Help" label on this post, but will adjust my settings to have it only appear under "Blog Smarts"...

Click "Save" & "Publish"/"Update" if you are editing an existing post.

CONGRATULATIONS!!  You did it!  I hate to say after these long winded steps that that's pretty much it, but it is.  After having spent hours lost in blog set-up confusion myself, I DO hope that this post has been a source of relief for someone out there!!  Figuring this stuff out is a process, but I gotta admit that I'm loving it!

Let me know if this has helped you at all (OR furthered your confusion)...I'd appreciate the feedback!  Also, if you have questions, ask away!  I will either have a well-researched answer or be able to point you towards a source that does!!  

Got your blog all set up?  Toss me a link, and let me see what you've created!!

Blogging Madness

About one week in to the world of blogging, and I must say, I feel I've come leaps and bounds.  I admit that I thought this whole thing, in terms of set-up (&even traffic), would be a piece of cake.  I'd never been "behind the scenes" with site creating before, but my over-confidence told me it would be no problem and that I'd have this amazing blog up and running in no time!  People would be coming in droves just to witness my blog's awesomess and read what witty comment I'd come up with next..."Oh, that Kay!", they'd say, while they pinned and tweeted and blogged about my most recent charm and intelligent quip!

Since then,  I do believe the only traffic I have had has been from my husband, my son, and my father.  That's actually OK though, because it turns out that I hadn't a clue really about what I was doing.  Things I thought would/should be easy took me hours, at times, to Google and figure out.  So, while I still carry the same ambitions about making my blog a happenin' place for all to love and cherish, I've realized that I need to slow down and enjoy the ride, because it's going to be a while!!  

I know I'm not the first to attack their blog creation with the speed of a snail, and I also know I'm not the first to include a "Helpful Hints" section to their blog, but that isn't stopping me from moving forward with the next series of postings I plan on doing.  If there is anyone else out there like me, not only do you need help with your blog questions, but you also need help translating these answers..link-ups and blog hops?  Coding & scripts?  Everybody just slow down a minute while I grab my dictionary!!  Honestly, this blog has made me feel more like an unhip mom than my oldest ever has!

So, as I unravel the mysteries of blogging and it's secret language, I'll reveal them here to you.  I might not have all the answers, but I've researched so much, I feel pretty certain I can point you in the best direction of the people that do!!