Spotlight: Linebacker

I know it's been awhile since last posting, but as usual life has gotten in the way, but I'm back and ready to tell you about Linebacker.

Linebacker is the 3rd child, 2nd boy and our big little man. He is completely different from the other kids and is so unique it is amazing. He is a much larger body build then the other 3, he is pale skinned and has orange hair. He is our true little ginger boy. He is the funniest and craziest kid I know.

He is constantly smiling and that giggle just melts your heart, and you can't help but stop and laugh no matter what the situation. He is strong-willed, and very independent. He plays well with his siblings, but also is happy to play all by himself. He marchs to the beat of his own drum, he has a different "walk" everyday (strut, backwards, stomping, marching, etc). Dude and Strawberry are always saying "what a crazy kid" and laughing hysterically at him.

We refer to him as our class clown. He loves to make people laugh. He enjoys cars and trucks, but his true passion is sports! He plays baseball 75% of the day, with his siblings and also alone (he has just figured out how to "self-pitch"). He asks for the "Vee on, me watch baseball, Bue Jays!!!" Atleast 6,834 times a day I hear "Me hit ball, Me run". I think it's fitting he is named after 2 All-Star baseball players!

His other favourites are his blanket (a fleece Mickey blanket I made him while pregnant with him) and his thumb.

Part of the reason for my hiatus is that we had a health scare with Linebacker at the beginning of the month. He had sudden onset of pain, difficulty breathing and they couldn't figure out what was going on. We spent a week in the hospital with him, with Daddy sleeping there with him and Me (with Boy Wonder) spending the days there and coming home at night. It was a long week with lots of tears and prayers but in the end, it appears everything is rectified and his surgical scars have healed amazingly. Daddy had an unexpected week off, which is not a good thing when you're self-employed, but BFFs to the rescue and we were able to get by.

I don't know what our lives would be like if God hadn't given us this little man, but I bet they would be a whole lot more serious! I seriously love the joy this kid brings to all of us everyday!

The Mom Trap - pt. 2

I have so far stuck to my plan and read chapter 2 of Tracey Lanter Eyster's Be The Mom. A few things stuck out to me today, a little more on the application side of being a mom.

"We are molding the future"

We really are, this is a huge responsibility. We are responsible for creating well-rounded, contributing members of society. We are responsible for bringing up our children in Christ and sharing the Gospel with them. We are their earliest influence when it comes to Christianity and we need to take that seriously. We need to be examples of what that means and we need to instill in them a love for God.

As moms we tend to get overwhelmed by the everyday (and never ending) tasks of laundry, housework, meal prep and clean up, helping the kids, cleaning up the kids, refereeing, correcting, and counseling our children. We get into a rut and feel that there has to be something better, something for us to look forward to. I am realizing it is all in our attitude. If I start out the day a bit cranky, than all of these things will seem so unimportant and mundane and I will get the feeling that I am just mom. If I can start my day in a good mood than these tasks feel completely different, I don't seem to mind them so much and actually feel more motivated to get everything done.

We have to let go of the mindset that society says:

"We are putting our real careers on hold".

Being a mom is not a sabbatical from our "real" careers. Being mom is my career now. I really found help in Eyster's words,

"Being a mom is not a less than choice, its not about what I'm not doing, but about what I am doing".

I have a very important role in my family, it is the reason my family functions, the reason there is cooked food on the table, the reason there are clean clothes in the drawer, the reason my children are taught school everyday, the reason the baby is not in a dirty diaper all day. I am caring for my children, my most precious commodities. I am making life easier for my husband, I am making it able that he can leave the home and go to work everyday then come home and be fed and well cared for. I have the most important career there is.

One thing in today's culture that really irritates me is the idea of "me time." I find this to be a truly selfish desire. Usually people are not content in what their life is and feel they are entitled to selfish time, where they need to only care about themselves. I find this terrible. I do think you need to have something that is a joy to you outside of your daily tasks, but not necessarily time to yourself all the time. Eyster, brought this thought into my head with her words,

"You haven't lost yourself; you've found who you were destined to be".

Why is being a mom not good enough for so many people? Why do they look down on us?

Later today I am going to work on "The Plan" suggested in this chapter:
1. "Mom Uniform" - wear what makes you look and feel good. Right now I am 8 months pregnant, nothing makes me look good, things are uncomfortable and tight, so right now sweatpants on days we stay home are my uniform, haha.
2. "Create a schedule with white space" - The white space is for unexpected things that come up. I think I need to do this, just so I know what I need to get done and so we stay on track better. The La-Dee-Da days are not working for keeping us on task lately.
3. "Eat Meals" - the idea being missing meals = hunger = grouchy. I will try to eat at a reasonable time, not just once I get everything else done.
4. "When kids nap do something to relax" - I do this! Yay me! I realized a couple months ago that I needed to use this time to refresh, instead of catching up on other chores. Actually, it was when all the issues with this pregnancy started and I had to sit whenever I got the opportunity. Thank you to a tremendous group of online friends I have, I have found a love for knitting! So, while kids nap I eat my lunch (I'll try to eat earlier now) and then knit. Ironically, most of my knitting is for my kids, though, haha.
5. "Physical Activity everyday" - never thought about this. We are pretty active but could stand to be more intentional about it. We can all get our silly's out.
6. "Smile and Giggle, create a home full of cheer" - we need to have more fun, on purpose.
7. "Quiet time for you with the kids" - This is something we've recently discovered on our own too. Everynight after dinner and piano practice, the kids assemble at the table for a bedtime snack and we do a Read Aloud together. It has really helped to wind down before bed instead of the running around and wrestling used to.

To conclude today's lessons (I have a lot to do later to implement these things) Eyster has drawn me to 2 Corinthians 4:1 - Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. God has given me 3 (almost 4) beautiful children and has given me the opportunity not only to stay home with them daily but also to homeschool them, I need not lose heart.


For His Glory!

The Mom Trap

I came across a book awhile ago, mentioned by a friend, I ordered it and it has sat on my shelf for a couple months now waiting. Recently, I have found myself struggling a little in the "just a mom", poor me role. I felt convicted to start reading this book. Instead of reading it through in a day or two, I've decided to really take my time and study this book each day. Every night during snack before bed I sit at the table with the kids and read a chapter from a book (we are reading the last chapter of The Magician's Nephew tonight). We only read 1 chapter a night because otherwise it is more than they can retain in one sitting. Hmmm, if I follow this with my kids, why shouldn't I follow the same logic when it comes to my own study? So, I've decided instead of simply reading Be The Mom I would actually study and meditate on it each day. I also found out there is a website that goes along with it so I will have to take a look here too. We'll see how easily I stay on task....

Today was Day 1. I read chapter 1: My Momlife Journey. I made notes on some of the things that impacted me while reading and I then went to scripture to give myself the scriptural basis I need to do these things. So, here are my notes/convictions that came out of Tracey Eyster's book, chapter 1.

"Parenting isn't for the faint of heart, because parents bear enormous responsibility for the life and future of their children." Oh man, really? Stink! I have a lot of responsibility outside of making meals, teaching school, laundry, bathing, changing diapers. I am impacting them daily. I need to hear this, especially when the everyday life seems so mundane. I really do have a purpose to serve, and it doesn't matter if I'm the only one who notices that. Well, off to Scripture I went (no offence, but I need to hear this straight from God, too.) Deuteronomy 6:5-7 says Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These Commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. That's heavy, atleast for me. I need to constantly be impressing the love of God onto my children. Convicted.

"The entire momlife journey is filled with moments of greatness and moments of great failure." Ain't this the truth? There are days when you really think you did something positive in your child's life. Then there are days when you are pretty sure you just yelled all day and constantly disciplined..... This is an area I need to work on. Realizing it is okay to fail some days, or atleast appear to fail, but then at the end of the day my 3 year old can recite an entire Bible verse we only introduced the day before, and it puts into perspective what is important.

"There is a reason motherhood is referred to as the hardest and most important job in the world." I don't think anyone would argue that it is the toughest job, but important? I know this, I have been told this many times, but as for actually feeling that when you haven't showered in 3 days, your kids disobey you at every turn, and no one likes dinner it is a little harder to accept. I just have to remember that I am doing God's work by being their mother and by staying home to care for them and teach them. Proverbs 22:6 says Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. We can't rely on others to teach our children these values and they are definitely not going to learn proper values in the "real world." I am in MY career as a Wife and Homemaker, and that it has value, despite what society will tell you. That is what makes it harder, in my opinion, the lack of respect and value placed on the stay-at-home-mom by society and even other mothers.

"I quit" thoughts. These do go through my head sometimes, actually a lot less than they should strangely. There have been days where I think it would be easier for me to send my kids to public school for 6+ hours a day and get "a break" from them, but in the end that would do more harm than good. It may seem appealing at times but it is not what Daddy and I want for our family and in our view it would be detrimental to our family unit. In the end, I could never send my kids away for the day (school or daycare), I just couldn't have someone else be an influence on my kids more than myself and Daddy. They need their mother home raising them and homeschooling them. These thoughts actually aren't too often because we have such strong convictions about it.

"Surely I was put on this earth for something more important than this!" Nope! There is nothing more important than being the mother of my children. Titus 2:4-5 says Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. My husband and my kids are my world, they are my career and they are the reason I was put on this earth. They are my ministry and my job is serving them.

In the end, I wouldn't have it any other way! I love them all more than they will ever know.

For His Glory!


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Our Journey

It all started many years ago, Daddy and I are highschool sweethearts! We started dating at 16 years old, we got engaged after highschool and married the following summer when we were both 20 years old.

The 'odds' (and the world) were against us, being so young. But that didn't matter to us because God was for us! We knew it wouldn't be easy starting out so young, but we placed our trust in God to lead us in our marriage and to be at the centre of it.

In the fall of 2003 (1 1/2 years into our marriage) we decided to try to start a family. You'll soon find out why I said "we". Well, we're both 21 almost 22, this shouldn't take long, right? We're in our prime, right? WRONG!

Month after month of nothing! We had friends who started dating, got engaged, got married and had a couple of kids all during the time we were trying to have 1. It was heartbreaking. We never went to the doctor about it, I think out of fear of what we'd hear.

Anyway, spring of 2007 (yes - 4 years later) Daddy calls me on his way home from a friend's house to see if I want anything. "Sure, salt and vinegar chips and rootbeer, please" I said. These are things I never liked before, and I didn't catch on to that. Daddy arrived home a short time later with my snack and a pregnancy test! Apparently this wasn't the first odd thing to make him wonder. I was shocked, but obliged.

POSITIVE!!!! what?!?! positive???? How can this be??? We found out I was already about 10-11 weeks along.

So, back to the "we" issue. In 2003, when we decided we wanted to start our family, we didn't consider God's timing for our family. So, in 2007 GOD decided it was time to start our family. We were thrilled! We didn't understand the timing than but I am starting to grasp it now.

Our little Dude entered the world in December 2007. He was our greatest miracle!

Now, here is how I now understand God's timing (but didn't until even a few months ago):
Dec. 23, 2007 - Dude is born.
Jan. 2008 - My Dad is diagnosed with advanced cancer.
Mar. 2008 - Daddy and I sell our house (after only 6 hours on the market) so that we can move in with my parents and take over the house expenses.
April 2008 - My Dad passes away.
May 2008 - we move into my parents house.


Now fall 2008, because of our budget being in a really good place, we decide that I will not return to work and instead will become a stay-at-home-mom. This is something that could not have worked had we still been at our house. Now, we have the entire house for us and my Mom and brother live in the granny-suite Daddy originally built for us.


Now, because I was at home, Daddy and I were convicted to homeschool our children. I now realize this was all part of God's Will for our lives and His timing is everything! If it were up to our timing, we would not be able to homeschool our children, or even be home with them everyday.

This has been shown to me even more so since Strawberry and Linebacker each came about after a single month of trying.


And now...another single month of 'trying' has us here:

Baby 4.0 is due March 2013!




For His Glory!