Mama Stuff

Stacy at Your Sacred Calling has a great post up today about Kiddos in the Kitchen. Before you read on here, I'd love it if you'd go take a look, and be sure to read the article she links to at Like a Warm Cup of Coffee.

Done? Good stuff, wasn't it?

The whole "Did he know what He was doing when He gave them me?" question resonates with me (and probably most moms) deeply. I've spent a lot of time beating myself up for my failures instead of accepting His forgiveness and moving on in HIS strength. But He keeps working on me, and it's wonderful to know that His grace covers my mistakes, failures, impatience, etc.

On the kiddos in the kitchen business...
I have long admired and desired the parenting "model" that brings your children alongside you as you work through the day. It made sense and it sounds so lovely (two links there). But man oh man, it seems so hard to do! (Listens for the Amens) So I continue to desire to live with my children alongside me, and keep looking for ways to make that workable for me.

Here's how my efforts have often gone in the past. I have something to do, think it would be something with which the Blessings could help. I gather them around, thinking what a fun and bonding experience this will be. 30 minutes later, the project is complete, I feel like I should be half bald from pulling my hair out, and I go to take a nap wondering, "Why do I even try?" A couple months later, I might get the courage to try again.

That probably doesn't sound at all familiar, does it?

Well, first of all, I've been working lately on my heart attitude toward my Blessings. You know I don't call them that just because I think it's cute, don't you? The world around me needs to know that my children are viewed as Blessings. And me? I need the reminder! Yet it is so easy to fall into viewing them as burdens instead of blessings, and I'm continually needing to ask the Lord to give me HIS heart toward my children.

Another very practical thing I've realized is that it just doesn't work to bring all seven of my Blessings alongside me at the same time! The goal of bringing them alongside as I work dovetails beautifully with my (also often unrealized) goal of spending time with them one-on-one. So lately, I've been working on remembering to call them to me one or two at a time to help with something.

This has been a great help when it comes to special projects as well. We made gift jars for Christmas presents this year (something I plan to post about separately), and I had them help in teams of two. Each team helped me put togetehr a batch of 6 gift jars. Stephen "helped" on more than one team. Similarly, when we made edible Christmas trees, it was just two or three at a time at the counter.

So while this is a cute pictures of the Blessings and their trees,

I realized while reading the aforementioned blogs that they're not a realistic view of how those trees happened, and I don't want to add to anyone's Mama complex by presenting a false view!
They happened like this:

and this:

one, two, or (at most) three Blessings at a time. Then when they were all done, time for a fun picture, then the eating!

So what I'm trying to say through all my sputtering is this: Take heart, fellow Mamas! Keep stepping along with baby steps, seeking the next thing you are to do, treasure your Blessings, and know that God's grace covers you and them when you fail. And don't forget that one of the greatest gifts you can give your cbildren is for them to see you honoring, respecting, and loving your man!