27 Mar 2018

The Prayer Bible

by | posted in: Bible, Books | 1

Raise your hand if you have more than 10 Bibles in your house?  We do…and we’ve even purged so many!  What do you do with Bibles you don’t need/want anymore?

(This post is sponsored by Tommy Nelson. All thoughts are my own.)

Well, I have a new Bible to give to yall today.  Its called The Prayer Bible and Tommy Nelson put it out this Spring.  I think it is a good one for you to share with your school age son or daughter.  The cover is neutral so it can be for either a boy or a girl.  I know that is a secondary topic, but Bible covers are important! 🙂

It is a thicker Bible, but its hardback, so it would be durable.  I think it would be more for one your child could use as they learn to do their quiet time.  Maybe you could teach your child to have their quiet time in their room, and then discuss their thoughts and readings with them.  This Bible offers many devotionals and Q/A about prayer.  I’ve not read every single article, but they ones I read were really good and great for a school-age mind.  Especially as they are starting out in their faith (hopefully) and learning how to pray.

A good tool in this Bible is the Prayer Article Index in the front.  If your child is struggling with something in particular, they can read one of these articles.  I wish the articles were listed by topic and not by title, but they would always be good to read.  There is a verse topic index in the back. That’d be great if you are trying to teach your child what the Bible says about a variety of topics: like happiness, wisdom, and obedience.  You really want to get to a point with teaching your child to understand the Scriptures that you aren’t just pulling out a verse, but i know you don’t always have time for an expositional sermon when talking with your kids.

Come along side your kids when they are learning to read the Bible and to pray.  Its going to be a great adventure for your faith, their faith, and y’all’s relationship.

If you want this Bible, Tommy Nelson has one for you, just leave a comment on the blog to be entered.

31 Oct 2017

Lavish Hospitality 28

by | posted in: 31days, lavish hospitality | 0

As I start to wrap up this hospitality series, maybe not in the way you thought hospitality would be talked about:

I want to share a few more ideas on how we can be hospitable to ourselves.

Showing lavish grace to ourselves.

First, what I don’t mean.  I don’t mean we get to be always lazy – never doing the hard things.  I don’t mean we can keep on sinning and doing what we want because we don’t want to do the right thing.  I don’t mean that you can wallow in self-pity.

Here’s what I do mean:

  1.  Pour out truth to yourself.  CJ Mahaney, Jerry Bridges, so many authors talk about the importance of preaching the gospel to yourself.  I’ve had friends do it for me when I’ve desperately needed it.  I receive text messages and emails and voxer messages that are filled with truths that I need to remember – even when my heart is hurting and I’m stressed to the max.
  2. Remember you are not Super Woman.  Halloween brings with it so many opportunities to dress up, be someone different than who you are.  We can put on a cape and be superheroes – but we aren’t it.  We will never save our kids. We will never have it all together.  We will never be all to everyone.  We can’t be.  If we were…we would never realize our need for Jesus.
  3. Allow ourselves to rest.  I’m not talking about being lazy.  I told my mister the other day as we sat down on a cozy afternoon watching an NCIS episode on Netflix, that I would do that all day.  Before I was married, if I had a day empty of responsibilities – I would just sit and binge on a show.  In fact, when I first moved back to Raleigh in the spring before I was married, my roommate and I would often just multitask on the couch.  I watched 6 seasons of NCIS in 4 months.  It was awesome.  We both had writing jobs and could sit on the couch, work, and memorize all the Gibbs rules.  And maybe that’s ok sometimes, or just go sit out on the beach and listen to the waves crash. God made us for rest.  But, we will never find our complete rest in anyone apart from him.

Quote from Chasing Slow by Erin Loechner

21 Oct 2017

Lavish Hospitality 19

by | posted in: 31days, lavish hospitality, mothering | 0

What is the goal of motherhood?

You know what – I don’t know.  I don’t have all the answers.

Basically – here is what I think the goal of motherhood it is.

With God’s grace, shepherd your children to see their need of Him.  If along the way you teach them how to do well in school, be model citizens, grow up to be a great wife or husband, be honorable, then they are good side effects.

But, the goal of motherhood is to point them to their Creator.  And point them is all we can do.  That has been the hardest thing for me to come to grips with – I can’t save my kids.  Only God can save my kids.

And, if we attempt to put on a mask of motherhood perfection – we are not being hospitable. Not to ourselves, our kids, our husbands, or our friends.  We will only let ourselves down.

Quote from Beyond Bath Time by Erin Davis

21 Oct 2017

Lavish Hospitality 20

by | posted in: 31days, lavish hospitality, parenting | 0

Write31 update: I was going to write this post last night after our trip to Stone Mountain.  But, even though we were home at a normal time, got the tired boys in bed after a quick bath and family worship, I just didn’t have it in me.  Two days of eating a lot of carbs and stress of an all day trip, with Hashimoto’s I’m learning I have to slow down when I need to.

So, you are getting two posts today.  I hope you don’t mind!

I am a mom of two preschool boys.  They used to be newborns, then babies,  then toddlers, and now in preschool.  We have made it through every stage with naps, netflix, and mostly the grace of God.

But, one way that sabotaged every minute of my parenting is comparison.  Comparison for when my kids walked or talked.  Comparison in whether I was breast-feeding or making my own baby food.  Comparison as to whether I was using cloth diapers or Huggies.  Comparison on how fast my kids are reading or playing well with others or climbing on the big slides all by themselves.  Comparison on if they scored goals during their first soccer game.

And I know the comparisons just keep coming.  It doesn’t stop when they reach kindergarten or middle school or college.

And comparison is anything but hospitable.  It isn’t gracious to yourself as a mom (or a wife or a woman). It isn’t hospitable to your other mom friends.  So, just don’t do it.  Its hard.  But, rely more on the fact that God has created you to be the Mom that you are to the kids that you have right now.  And He will give you the grace to complete your task!

Quote from Sharon Hodde Miller’s Free of Me.

17 Oct 2017

Lavish Hospitality 15

by | posted in: 31days, food, lavish hospitality, Uncategorized | 0

We are halfway there.  Thanks so much for reading.  Can’t wait to finish out the month with yall.

Since becoming a mom, I think I’ve cooked less and less. I prefer simple meals or take out or Publix rotisserie chickens.  I’m tried throughout the day.  When my husband is home I want to do other things other than just stand in the kitchen and crank out a week’s worth of food.

I know cooking is healthier and easier on the budget for the family – but goodness, tough to get in the kitchen and do.  Especially when half of my people around the table may not even eat it.

But, part of my responsibility (in our family) is to cook and make sure we have food to eat.  My mister will cook but he is usually at work until dinner time, but he always gets up with the boys and gets them breakfast.  I’m extremely blessed – also, with a nearby Publix or Trader Joes.

So, how do I welcome my misters with food?  I thought I would be a wife and a mom who always had a homecooked meal on the table.  Usually I was that kind of wife, but I’m not that type of mom.  I mean, we eat every night.  But only a few days a week is it a fresh homecooked meal.

Here are my tips:

Little Caesars Pizza.

Publix: bagged salad mixes, chicken tenders or rotisserie from the deli.

Dollar menu items.

Bagged veggies with sweet potatoes

Instant Pot

Crock Pot

A local food delivery or pick up service (we found a local place that has freezer meals on hand you can pick up.  And a friend of mine does this as well).

Cereal.

Eggs, fruit, grits

Trader Joes freezer section.

Hope these items help you offer hospitality to your family by getting food on the table.  What are your quick go-to food helps?

Quote from Karen Ehman A Life That Says Welcome

 

15 Oct 2017

Lavish Hospitality 14

by | posted in: 31days, lavish hospitality, mothering | 0

One of the deals with motherhood is that you tend to get interrupted.  Whether you need to change a diaper in the middle of a church service, breast feed in the middle of the night, calm an anxious heart in the wee hours of the morning, get out of bed before your alarm clock goes off because a preschooler wants some juice.  It might be to miss out on something you want to attend because you have a teenager who needs to get somewhere.

Interruptions come.  That’s just a fact of life.  The life of a mother, that is.

And I’ve learned that it usually doesn’t make me smile when I get interrupted.  I like to do what I’m doing and that’s that.  Whether its making dinner, working on a blog, or running errands, I want to do them how I want to do them.

I need God our gracious Father to show up in my heart and mouth and face when my little boys interrupt me.  I need to be ready to color with them, read with them, talk with them about the same topic I’ve already talked about for 4 hours that day, sing one of their songs for the 30th time, and watch the same kids movie with them that they know by heart.

Thanks to Sandra for writing this blog post where I pulled this quote.

13 Oct 2017

Baby Emmy

by | posted in: kcreatives photography, newborn | 0

I had the privilege of spending the day with this little bundle of pink, her mama, and her extended family this week.  I’ve known here Mama now for 17 years in January.  We’ve studied and cooked together, lived in the same dorm together, taken many midnight walks together, rode bikes together, been across the world together. We used to be neighbors in ATL, but now we live just a couple hours apart.

Our kids are like siblings – where most of the time they get along.  Can’t wait to watch this little one grow.

Here are just some of her session with me that day.  You are loved, baby Emmy.

5 Oct 2017

Lavish Hospitality 4

by | posted in: 31days, lavish hospitality | 0

Tonight at bedtime, doing it solo since my husband was out of town for the day, one kid was screaming in pain because of his tummy the other was pretending he was shooting me and saying he was scared of the dark because he wanted a story in a book read to him.

Not my finest hour – but all ended well.  And now, I’m waiting for my mister to make the trek back from ATL.

Parenting is not for the faint of heart – or yes, maybe it is – and that makes us lean on Christ all the more.  Practicing this type of hospitality at all times of the day is hard – but so necessary.

When we fail though, we can come to our kids and seek their forgiveness and point them to the Father’s unconditional love.

Quote from Sally Clarkson’s book The Mission of Motherhood.  Photograph: kcreatives

3 Oct 2017

Lavish Hospitality: 2

by | posted in: 31days, Uncategorized | 0

 

“I gradually began to understand more fully that he was not a problem to be addressed, not the sum of his behavioral performance.  His worth to God was not about his ability to fulfill other people’s expectations or act according to accepted norms.  Instead he was a beloved child of the Father with a specific role to play in God’s ongoing story of redemption.”

Sally Clarkson – Different

 

The Fall is a special time for our family.  We celebrate two birthdays and a wedding anniversary within 3 weeks time.

To say that I thrive in parenting would be far from the truth.  I have to tell myself everyday who I am in God’s sight, how He has equipped me to parent the exact boys I’ve been wonderfully given, and how I’m not like all the other moms out there.

When we compare our momselves to other moms – we are not lavishing hospitality – welcoming, grace – on ourselves or our children.  When we play the comparison game, get caught in its trap, we do such a disservice to our hearts.  And that in turn, doesn’t allow us to love our children well either.

To show lavish hospitality to our children is welcoming them just as they are.  Not only when they are obedient, or loving, or going to bed on time.  But, I’ve found for me, when I’m stressed about not being a good mom (because I’ve listened to other things besides the Word of God), I take out my unworthiness on my kids.

Let’s show lavish hospitality to ourselves and our children by staying out of the comparison trap!

 

 

 

2 Oct 2017

Celina Maternity Summer Session

by | posted in: kcreatives photography, mothering, photo shoot | 0

I’ve been a little busy in the last few months, moving, etc, that I’ve not been able to blog about this little maternity session yet.  And yes, the little sweet boy is over a month old now – but I still wanted to share these photos with you.  I’m so thankful for the friendship of this mama, and all of her creative help and encouragement over the last few years.

Thanks to the beautiful Mommy model, Celina D, and Kandi Daniel Studios for coming along too!  We shot at Turnipseed Farm south of metro ATL.  Such a fun day.