Tonight at church I got to thinking about something that people say to me all the time I don’t really know how to reply to.

What I’m referring to is the “wow, you have your hands full” when they see me with either just the two boys or better yet all three of the little ones!

Do I say “yes I do” and give one of those sighs you hear that make you wonder whether the mama resents the little ones? Or do I say “yes I do but we have a lot of fun!”…

I have made a point to say the latter, mainly to maintain a good attitude about being a mama to little ones BUT also to be a good testimony. Let me explain…

My children are some of the biggest blessings God has ever bestowed upon me. The devil tried to steal that blessing from me and the Lord didn’t allow it. I am eternally grateful.

I like who I am better now that I’m a mama. The scripture that talks about women being saved through childbirth I never really understood, but now I’m wondering if it might mean that I am being sanctified through the dying of myself as I’m raising these little blessings.

Don’t get me wrong… we have our days here. We have alot of ‘those kind of days’. You know what I’m talking about! And I don’t ever want to give the impression that I’ve got it all together, because I most certainly do not. But I do want to give the people I come into contact with a different view of children and motherhood if I can.

I really desire for people to see the Lord in the way I interact with my children,and especially in the way I REact to them. I don’t ever want my children or anyone else to see meanness on my face when I’m correcting or disciplining them. I am training my children because I love them and because my desire is to see them learn to be obedient and have that carry over into their adult lives. I want them to see love on my face, I want them to see Jesus!
It’s so important that we keep an eternal perspective as well as a 10 years out kind of perspective.

First of all the eternal… I don’t want to feed more “self” into my children. The more they can learn to be obedient to their daddy and I, the better off they’ll be in their relationship with the Lord later on.

Second of all ten years down the road, I’m going to have lost the opportunity to be training. When my kids are teenagers I BETTER have EARNED their respect and gained their hearts, if not I will have lost them.

At the present moment I demand respect and I expect obedience and so on and so forth. But, I’m believing a day will come when those things are voluntary and the respect mutual.

I just try to keep reminding myself that these moments pass so quickly and I sure would hate to waste them on the little things. My little ones that are so time consuming now soon enough will be ready to spread their wings and fly. My job now is to make sure I’m helping them build their wings with the right stuff. One of the ways I know of in this season to thrive instead of just surviving is to be thankful and not allow any self pity about my circumstances or allow others comments to illicit pity either.

Remind yourself everyday (some days might require minute by minute reminders!) that these little ones are blessings and the devil is trying to turn them into a curse. DO NOT allow him to do that!

Do the job that is required of you as the parent and train them in the way they should go.

I’m so thankful for a Heavenly Father who knows my needs and wants! I am so blessed!

I’ll share a couple things… This will be my 3rd year in Indiana and I haven’t had a winter coat. I’ve really just been getting by, first of all by not going many places but second by wearing a hooded sweatshirt and warming the car up before we leave.

My grandma brought half a car of stuff over yesterday and at the bottom of one of the bags was a winter coat. Not necessarily the style I’d pick but it is dark in color (which I’m sure thrills my mil!) and warm. I am thankful!

Another random thing she brought was a container of borax. This may seem weird, but for me it isn’t. I’ve been trying to go to more natural cleaners as I can afford the ingredients to make them. Well, I needed borax for several things but felt the Lord telling me to wait Wed. night when I was going to buy some. I just figured He was telling me that it wasn’t that important and I needed to just relax and use the stuff I already had.

How awesome is it that God cares about what matters to us?!!

What are you thankful for? What are the big and small things the Lord has blessed you with this week? I think we’ll all have an easier time of being content if we REALLY pay attention to all the little things the Lord has provided for us!

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving and an even better weekend!

I think that my kidney stone FINALLY passed. I started having problems in August and then a few weeks later a CT scan revealed a 5 mm stone in my left kidney (long story short, I was 500 miles away from my husband with my two little ones and had to make an E.R. visit in GA) I wanted to pass the stone but was told there was only like a 20% chance of it passing on its own.

I’ve had a couple times over the last two months where it kind moved around a little, but nothing the pain meds didn’t handle.

Tonight was a TOTALLY different story. At about 8 pm I went in to go to the bathroom and started feeling very sick. I hadn’t eaten since early afternoon so there was nothing to puke (in my opinion this can be worse) and then started having very bad bowel problems. I also felt like I was stabbed in the stomach right below my belly button. The pain kept getting worse and worse to the point where I don’t remember what happened over the next 20 min or so.  I remember Anthony calling 911 and the ambulance showing up in less than 3 min. and just as vaguely I remember the trip to the hospital which seemed way too short. I begged the medic to give me pain meds and just writhed in pain the whole ride.(FYI: I have normally have a pretty high pain tolerance)

They gave me morphine in the E.R. and did a CT scan which was clear. The labs showed a very bad bladder infection but other than that the Dr. really had no explanation of the pain I had. The only thing we can figure is that that massive stone finally dislodged and made its way out of my kidney into my bladder and out. Which in turn would have severely battered everything internal in its path.

So I am home now and about to go to bed. I feel almost normal right now. Somewhat bruised and sore (sort of like after the flu) but grateful for my house and for the Lord’s protection and healing.

What a blessing the timing of the whole thing too! My sister was able to come over real quick and watch the boys who were already asleep for the night (so no trauma for them) and I also wasn’t worried about them.

Secondly, that this happened at night when my husband was home. I would be lying if I told you I could have even gotten to a phone to call for help. Isn’t it neat how the Lord watches out for us?! Anthony saved me from blacking out and falling onto something several times.

The Lord is good! And I am relieved to be rid of that stupid kidney stone! If you think about it pray that my insides calm down and get over the trauma they experienced tonight!

MY prayer now is the boys sleep in a little in the morning! LOL That may be asking too much