Blessings....Round 1

You may recall that our family felt lead to take on a challenge to complete 52 different blessings this year. We are trying to give a blessing a week. I previously shared my plan and some grand ideas I had. Well, let's just say completing 52 different blessings has been quite a challenge, but we have been so blessed. It has been an awesome adventure! We are 1/4 of the way through our journey, so I thought I would take some time to post how things are going.

We had a VERY cold winter this year. It was more than 20 degrees below zero on several occasions. So our first project was to take warm muffins and hot chocolate to the crossing guards. These crossing guards are near every school and help to get the children of our community across the streets safely. It was so much fun to drive through the community and hand these wonderful adults something to warm them up. The gratefulness of the first crossing guard actually brought tears to my eyes. This was a very simple act, but it changed her world that day. After that first blessing it became apparent to me that we might actually be blessed more than those we are blessing.

That first blessing went great, but we have hit some snags and struggles along the way. My original plan was to involve at least 75% of the family in each blessing in order for it to count, I wanted to work once a month with an established organization and I wanted to bless those in the community around us. Well, those plans haven't always worked out exactly how I thought. We have found that many organizations don't accept children under a certain age or only accept volunteers during the school day hours, making it hard for us to meet the first two guidelines. I have also seen the need to bless those not only in our community, but also in our family. So, our guidelines needed to be adjusted a bit, but the idea is still the same. Take each week and choose one idea that you haven't done yet this year and have fun blessing someone else.

My favorite and our children's favorite blessing thus far is the day we handed out gift cards at our local discount store. It was amazing! We took the whole family this time and divided into three "teams." Each child choose a gift card from the store and used the $15 we had given them to load the cards at the check out. We instructed the children to think of people that might really need a $15 boost. One decided they would look for a mom with a lot of kids, one wanted to find a pregnant women and another wanted to find an elderly person....they had caught the vision. Our teams split up through out the store and the children began to look for a person to bless. They really struggled with this decision, I could tell they were worried about making "the wrong choice." We stopped and took a moment to pray: "God, please help us to see with your eyes and listen to our hearts as you guide us to the people you want to bless today." As we continued to walk through the store they continued to struggle. So, I told them that if they think they see someone, that they should pray in their mind and see if they have a peace about the idea. That seemed to work well for them. The teams were split up, so I didn't get to see each card be handed out, but I saw a few. There were two older couples that argued with us a little, but we insisted and they finally accepted. We did find a pregnant women, a single father and some others the kids had a heart for. My favorite however, was when our eight year old spotted a women with two carts of groceries. She walked up, handed her the card and said, "I would like you to have this." The women responded by asking "why?" Our daughter replied, "because God wants us to care for one another." As she was walking back towards me, my eyes met with another lady in the aisle. This women had overheard the conversation and with tears in her eyes she mouthed the words, "that was so sweet." We had blessed an additional person without even trying. Later in the store I saw this women telling her husband and children about the events she had overheard. Maybe they might even be inspired to give a blessing of their own.

Let me be honest, when I told our children last November that we were going to be completing weekly blessings, they were less than thrilled. But now, they ask me what we are going to be doing. They even give me feedback and have started coming up with ideas of their own. We are having a great time, growing closer together, making great memories and sharing God's blessings along the way. It is a great start to our year. Let me encourage you to take a challenge to bless others (maybe once a month or every other week) you will be amazed at how wonderful the experiences actually are. You and your children will not be disappointed!

Marriage Is A Strange Thing

Marriage is a strange thing. Two people leave all that they know, and start something completely new. They do this with excitement, anxiety, fear and exhilaration. One moves from being a single person, mostly concerned about the family of their childhood, maybe their college degree or possibly their first career, to being united with another person and start a family of their own. Before their wedding vows, there is nothing but a dream, and by the end of the ceremony, a family has begun. A unique family designed by God himself and lived out by man. Marriage is a strange thing.

This week my husband and I are celebrating our 20^th wedding anniversary. It seems absolutely crazy to me that we have been married for 20 years. We had a fairly traditional wedding: a church, a meal, special music, gifts, lots of family and friends. It was a wonderful day. When I look at the pictures, I am completely shocked by how young we were. At the time we didn’t think we were young at all, and we had it all under control. Oh, how foolish we were. Two youngsters in their twenties jumping full force into this unknown territory.

As I look back at our relationship there are several things that I believe helped us make it to where we are today….happily married and growing stronger each year. There is a strong possibility that our children will be getting married someday, here are a few things I share with them on a regular basis:

-be friends first: We enjoyed spending time together before we started a relationship. We found many things that we loved doing together, these are things we have been able to build on in our marriage. We still enjoy most of those things today.

-talk about everything: When Jim and I knew that God was leading us to marry one another we spent hours upon hours talking things through. We both came from “broken” homes and didn’t want that for our family or our children. We talked about everything we could think of: how to raise the children we might have; what denomination of the Christian church we would be; what certain Bible verses meant to us; what was acceptable and not acceptable in a marriage; would we use birth control and what type; what was the purity plan for our courtship; and anything else we could think of. These were not always fun talks. We argued, we disagreed, we brought in outside sources to defend our positions, we worked hard on trying to find common agreements to build this marriage upon. These talks were vitally important to the start of our marriage. Our first year of marriage was actually enjoyable because we had already battled through so many of the usual disagreements. 

-pray together: When we started allowing our relationship to move from a friendship to a courtship, we ended nearly every night that we were together in prayer. We prayed for our friends, family, and for our relationship. Being able to pray with someone draws you closer to them and really changes your relationship.

-don't be afraid to change: So many people give the advice to "stay true to yourself" or "never change who you are" and other such phrases. They somehow think that if you change, you have become weak or something different than you were created to be. Newsflash....we all change! Everyday, we change a little of who we are. Everything we learn, everything we experience and everyone we connect with changes us just a little. Instead of being afraid that you will be changing and compromising who you are, look to see if you are really just changing into a better you. I know 100% that I am a better person because of the impact Jim has had on my life. Now, I agree that changing to became the polar opposite of who you were is NOT good, but someone who truly loves you will love you for who you are, who you are becoming and who you will be. They will bring out the best in you and help you become a better version of yourself.

Marriage is a strange thing. However, as a glance over at our family watching a video together near by, I can honestly say "I wouldn't change a thing." I love being married, I love our family, and I love the adventures I see in front of us. Marriage might be a strange thing, but it is one of the best things that has ever happened to me!

I pray that God is blessing your marriage and that you have the joy of growing closer to your spouse each and everyday. May God grant you wisdom as you share your love of marriage with your children.

What Do We Do Now!?!

In two recent posts we were talking about family management. I mentioned activity bags in one post as a way to keep little ones busy while you are trying to accomplish things, like dinner. Today's post will talk about activity bags and give you all the information you need to make about 20 different activity bags. It will probably take you a decent amount of planning and prep to get these bags made, but once they are made you will get years of fun out of them. Enjoy your extra time and watching your little ones make new discoveries!

"Activity bags" is just a name that I call them. I have also seen them called "quiet bags" or "car bags." And, they don't need to be bags at all. I have seen them made from cloth bags, large zip lock style bags, shoe boxes and baskets. Whatever you decide to call them or make them with, doesn't matter. The idea is to have a pre-planned activity so that when you need your little one to be busy, you don't have to think about what to do, you simply grab an activity bag and you are set.

I feel there are some important things to remember when planning your activity bags. First, make sure they are age appropriate. Most of the bags I will describe can be made more simple or more challenging with little effort. Second, it is important that the items in the bags are not items they play with all the time. These need to be "special" items that they only get to use when it is activity bag time. Next, remember to rotate your bags. I have found that most bags can only be used 2 or 3 times before they need to return to the box for awhile. If you keep them in a box or large container, you can put the one you just used in the back of the box, replace the one the child was using with the one in front of the box. This means your child will have 40 days or so before they use that activity bag again. Finally, if you find that your child has no interest in the activity bag at all. Replace it. Think of something you know will hold your child's attention and use that for the activity bag instead. I truly hope you have fun making these for your child and that your find great reward in having planned these out ahead of time.

Here are some ideas we or others have used in the past:

-cookie sheet with magnets: include a small metal tray and an assortment of refrigerator magnets. Any magnets will work. Using the letter or number magnets with word cards to copy could be fun for preschool age children.
-shaving cream: shaving cream is wonderful to use for a type of finger painting. Depending on the type of counter or table you have, it can also be a great way to clean your counter.
-laminated paper and washable markers: by taking a piece of strong paper and covering it with laminant or contact paper, you make a surface that can be drawn on with washable markers and then wiped clean over and over.
-play dough: the key with using play dough is to make sure it isn't tough and you put cool toys in the bag. I like food shaped cutters and kitchen tools so that the child can pretend they are helping with dinner. This also works great with clay, moon sand and other moldable items.
-coloring sheets: sometimes a bag of coloring sheets is all you need. There are many free websites where you can find fun coloring pages of your child's favorite items and characters. Homemade crayons are also a great addition to this bag. Take the extra crayon pieces you have and melt them down in muffin tins. They make fun multi-colored crayon disks.
-black paper and chalk: this bag should include different sizes and shapes of black paper, it also needs chalk of different colors. I like using large sidewalk chalk for the youngest children.
-plastic bottles shakers: saving plastic water, soda and juice bottles along with their lids can be a great way to complete this next activity bag. Once you have 5 or so bottles collected, fill them about 1/3 of the way full with different objects that make noise when shaken. (rice, dried beans, tiny bells, water & oil, beads, just about anything)
-homemade search bottle(s): this is similar to the previous bag, however this time you are looking to save a larger bottle. Find 10-15 small items that can fit inside of the bottle. Once the items are in the bottle, fill the bottle with rice, leaving about 1 inch of space at the top. Make a list of items that your child is looking for in the bottle. They will enjoy turning the bottle in all directions looking for the hidden objects.
-legos: fill this bag with legos of the appropriate size or other blocks that the child can stack or connect. Including papers with building ideas or instructions might be a fun addition.
-cars with paper or rug roads: this bag contains cars with a simple road that you made on a few pieces of paper, you could also use a road designed rug.
-paddle locks and keys: this is a super simple bag, but it takes a little bit of preparation. Ask your friends and family if they have any small locks with keys. You can also look at rummage sales or stores to purchase them. Put all the keys on a large ring, push all the locks closed and place the items in the bag. Your child will love the mystery.
-handwriting tracer sheets: there are many free web sites that allow you to print handwriting sheets. You can make practice sheets that have simple lines for little ones, sheets with letters or their name, and sheets will full sentences or Bible verses for the older ones.
-construction practice: this bag needs a thick piece of styrofoam, preferably a piece of foam insulation about 1 foot square; some golf tees and a plastic hammer. The styrofoam acts as the wood, the golf tees are the nails and the child uses the hammer to practice their nailing skills. You can remove the tees and start all over.
-preschool apps: using technology and downloading a few games that your children can only play during activity time, could work great for your family.
-string with beads: choose beads that are good for your child's age and string or yarn for them to work with. For younger children you might want to use pipe cleaners or chenille rods (beads don't fall off), and for older ones you can make pattern cards and challenge them to copy the patterns.
-secret eggs: take several plastic eggs and place a different object in each egg. Allow the children to shake and listen to the eggs and try to guess what is in each egg. You could include a sheet with clues to help them.
-watercolor painting: just paint, brushes and papers in this bag. We love watercolors because they are easy to clean up and pretty inexpensive. For more creativity you can paint coffee filters and then use them to make paper flowers once they dry.
-tangrams: these colorful, plastic shapes can be used to make almost any 2D object. There are pattern cards you can purchase or print. If you have never worked with tangrams, they are one of our favorites!
-puzzles: another easy bag. Put some age appropriate puzzles in a bag and let them go.

These are just a few ideas. Think about your children. What do they like to do? What keeps their interest? Be creative and develop bags of your own. Have fun and enjoy each stage of your young ones life.

Praying for you today! May God truly bless you as you strive to raise children that love Him and bring you great joy!

Modern Day Divorce Practice

As our children get older and enjoy activities with friends outside of church or homeschooling, our family has many opportunities to discuss views and practices that our much different than our own. One topic that creeps its way into our home a couple of times a year is dating. It seems that many people outside our home are very preoccupied with finding a boyfriend or a girlfriend.

Our family has a basic understanding of courtship and we try to instill in our children the importance of growing strong in Christ and trusting Him to find your spouse. My husband and I have been blessed with 20 wonderful years of marriage and know that every marriage is filled with ups, downs and unexpected turns. We also know that a marriage that is based on a mutual relationship with Christ as your first love will be stronger than one based on lust for one another.

When we talk with our children about their friends dating situations, there are many subtopics that enter the conversation. Our children listen to their friends tell them how the boyfriend/girlfriend spreads lies about the other, or one pressures the other into being more intimate than is mutually consented, or how they lie to their parents about what they are doing,  and on and on. The conversations make me so sad. These are young people, some are not even in high school yet. Their pain truly breaks my heart.

A few weeks ago my husband was listening to a talk by Mark Hall. He is the lead singer for Casting Crowns and the Youth Pastor at his home congregation. He was having a question and answer segment with youth all over the nation. One youth asked about dating and advice for finding a mate. His answer was simply genius and something I had never thought of before. He responded by saying that he believes the modern day dating culture we have is really nothing more than divorce practice. Wow! Is our society really teaching our youth how to get a divorce?

If you think about it, what we call dating today is all about selfishness, lust and status. When someone stops making us happy, stops looking the prettiest or gets cut from the basketball team, they are no longer worthy to be called our boyfriend/girlfriend. It seems like our young people believe that dating and marriage is all about fulfilling their own desires.....when in reality marriage is truly about fulfilling the needs of the other person. The Bible tells us that husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church. When looking at scripture, you will see that Christ died for the church. He sacrificed himself, acted unselfishly, and put the needs of others in front of His own. Do you see THAT anywhere in our dating system today?

I believe that Mark is 100% right. When children start dating at a young age, they are not focused on building a lasting relationship that will help both members become the best version of themselves, they are only focused on themselves and what the relationship can do for them. Children are being encouraged to date, give away part of their heart, judge the other person's short comings, decide the other person is not fulfilling their needs, break-up, and start all over again. It seems crazy to me, and I can't imagine why we as a culture think that this is a good idea. How do we expect young people to value marriage and be invested in their marriage, when this is the "training" they receive?

I am also wondering why there are so many people who feel it is important for young people to have a boyfriend/girlfriend when they are still in elementary school? Shouldn't we be more concerned with helping them develop strong friendships, their character, their own personality and seeking out the talents they have been given? One of my greatest irritations is when someone comes up to one of our children and asks them if they have a boyfriend/girlfriend. Our oldest is 13 for goodness sake! Why in the world are you asking my 5 year old if he has a girlfriend? He has a lot of growing to do before he will be ready to treat a girl as the princess she has been created to be. The last thing I want is for him to be focusing on developing a completely useless skill (attracting girls), when there are so many important skills for him to learn.

How do we talk to our kids about dating? We talk about the importance of a Godly marriage often. The value of allowing God to choose your mate, the characters that make-up a Godly mate and the give and take that is necessary for a successful marriage, are all things we discuss with all of our children. It seems that our modern day tv programs and movies provide us with amble opportunities to compare God's ways to the ways of Hollywood. We also take our children on dates. When Dad takes one of the girls on a date, he demonstrates how they should expect to be treated (opening doors, polite conversation, he puts their needs first), and they spend time talking together about the high standard the girls should expect. We do the same with the boys, demonstrating how they should treat a girl on a date and talking together about the high standard that has been set for them. This is a practice in dating that we hope will help our children develop the skills they need to discern whom their forever spouse will be.

Let me encourage you and your spouse to take sometime to talk about your children and dating. Pray about what might be the best way for you to help your children understand the importance of a Godly marriage. After all, your children will potentially be with their spouse longer than they were ever at home with you. I know we all desire to give our children as many skills as possible to help their marriage grow stronger each year and be the happiest time of their lives. I hope we all can help our children say "no" to divorce practice.

HELP! (Family Management pt 2)

We are talking about managing a family in a way that you can sustain for a long time. Not just for a few days and then you are exhausted behind your wildest dreams, but a level that will allow you to go for weeks before you need a recharge. The first part of this topic covered sacrifices we make to help us from becoming overwhelmed. This next part is about HELP. We all need help, I need it on a daily basis.

When looking at the dictionary, "help" is defined in several ways:
   -render assistance to
   -cooperate effectively with
   -to make easier or less difficult
   -to contribute to
   -to provide what is necessary to accomplish a task or satisfy a need
Help does not necessarily mean "done perfectly" or "finished exactly how you would do it." When looking for assistance keep in mind that you are trying to get things accomplished in a way that will help you, even if it is not perfect. This can be difficult for many of us moms, but I truly think you will find it worth your efforts!

The first place I look for help is in our immediate family. Families are meant to help each other, support each other and encourage each other. I know that many people will say that our children didn't make the choice to be part of a big family or that they are just kids and should be able to just play and such. I totally disagree. The family is the first place where children learn responsibility, humility, compassion, empathy, a sense of worth and accomplishment. If we don't allow our children to help or teach them how to help, we are depriving them of the opportunity they have to fully develop these skills. Not only are our children helping me sustain a level of stress we can all handle, they are working on developing great skills that will last their whole life through.

Every family is different, and every mom has different needs, but here are some ideas that work in our home. I hope you can take a few of them and adjust them to help you and your family!

Chores: Everyone (over the age of 2) has 2 or 3 chores to accomplish each day. We each have one or two daily chores (setting the table, emptying the dishwasher, something that need to be done everyday) and one weekly chore (vacuum a room, clean this or that, something that really only needs to be done once a week). We have divided our home into sections and our weekly chores coincide with each section. On Mondays we clean the bedrooms or upstairs, on Tuesdays we clean the rooms on the south side of the house, on Wednesday the rooms on the north side of the house, on Thursday we work on the basement/playroom and on Friday we work on the outside and garage. Saturdays and Sundays are used as catch-up days or if everything was done during the week then they are free from extra chores. Now we have nine people in our family, so the chores are pretty easy to divide. However, this is a system that I started when we only had 3 children so I know that it can work well with smaller families also. Chores are really great for helping children learn so many skills and characteristics and really only take 10-15 minutes each. We change chores every six month, allowing each person to choose the chores they desire to accomplish. (I first make a list of what needs to be done and then we go around the table choosing one or two chores at a time.)

Now I stated that our little guy doesn't have his own chores, he however, does help with chores. He sees everyone else doing their chores and is more than happy to give a hand where he can. I know that he will be excited to start having his own chores in a few months. Many people have asked me what type of chores I would give to a two year old, so I am listing some chores that we use for our littlest members. Maybe some of them will work for you. Chores typically reserved for our youngest kiddos are: feeding the dog, taking the recycling from inside the house to the can outside the house, putting away the shoes, wiping the door knobs, picking up toys, emptying the trash in their room or low dusting.

One piece of advise when it comes to chores or getting your children to help. Please don't "ask" them. Helping out is not a choice. It is not something that you are asking them to do. It is something that you are telling them to do. Their first job (according to scriptures) is to listen and obey their parents. This doesn't mean you can be rude about it, but you can politely remind them that they have things that need to be done. Change phrases like: "would you please clear the table?" to "please clear the table, sally" or "would you mind taking out the trash?" to "Sally, the trash needs to go out. Please take it out when you finish that page." When you ask a child to do something you are giving them room to say "no thank you." This is not helping you and many times leads to an unnecessary discussion or even an argument. Politely request that your children fulfill the tasks that you need them to do. There is no need for a discussion as we all have tasks we need to complete.

Cooking: Help with cooking can be a hit or miss type of activity. However, I have found the more I plan ahead the more successful the situation can be. I have also found that our children can truly help with cooking at about 4 or 5 years old. Having a child help with cooking actually helps you in two ways: first, you are getting help with a meal; second, you have given a child whom might otherwise be getting into something, a useful activity. Sometimes it is even helpful for me to simply pretend they are helping with dinner. I give them a butter knife and an ingredient that "needs" to be cut and it keeps them busy for awhile. :-)

The most helpful tools I have found for meals are a meal planner and a crock pot. Those two items help me more than anything else in the kitchen.

Keeping an eye on: Our family would not function properly if the older children did not help me by "keeping an eye on" a younger child. There are many times throughout the day when I am needed to assist someone with a project, need to take an important call or am too busy in someway to really watch one of the younger children. Now, this is much easier for us since we have a teenager, but we asked for this type of help way before she was a teen. And we still ask all our children to help in this way. Here's the thing, I am not leaving the house and if I am truly needed I can pause what I am doing to come to the rescue, but there is no reason why our children cannot work cooperatively for 5 to 20 minutes.

Right now our youngest is almost two. He is a handful! He makes it very difficult to get things done. Obviously our older children can help with him, but so can our 5 and 8 year old. Our 5 year old is able to sit at the table and share play dough with him or color with him. Our 8 year old is able to read books with him and do puzzles with him. It only takes a few minutes to make up activity bags or baskets to be used for these times. Fill them with items that they don't normally get to play with, this will keep "entertaining" time more exciting. Sometimes, what I need doesn't even mean having to entertain him, it just means you are going to follow him around the house for a few minutes and make sure he is safe. The task is dependent on the project I need to complete, after all, I can't wait until he takes a nap to get everything accomplished. There are times when I will get the "really mom" look when they are asked to watch him, but the majority of the time they enjoy playing with him and keeping him occupied for a few minutes. Our children like to know that they are helping and that they are an important part of the family, they really like watching the babies.

More People: This is really an important part of managing your family in a way that you can sustain. Be completely honest with yourself. What or when is your biggest need? Who or what would make that easier?

Andy Stanley is the leader of North Point Ministries, which has five churches in the Atlanta area and he has authored many Christian books. When their family was just beginning their journey at this new church, Andy was very busy and his wife became overwhelmed. Their family was in danger because of stress. One day it occurred to him to ask his wife what she needed. She shared with him that her greatest time of need was from after school until after dinner, approximately 3:30-6:30pm. So he went back to the office and informed his secretary that he would be leaving the office each day at 3pm. He was still free to have early morning meetings or evening meetings, but he would be home when his wife needed him most.

If Andy Stanley can do this, than so can we. My greatest time of need is from dinner until bed time. Getting 7 children ready for bed is quite an undertaking and I truly enjoy having 2 adults working together to make that happen. My husband is able to meet my need at this time 5 or 6 times a week. He has adjusted his schedule to make this happen. Is there a time that you need to communicate to your husband that will truly help you?

What if it is impossible for your husband to meet your time need? Well, is it possible for you to get a mommy's helper or have a friend come over during that time of need? Once you determine your biggest need, sit down and work together to see how you can meet that need. Remember, you are doing this for the benefit of your stress level and the love of your family. Don't pretend that you can keep doing it all!!! We all need help!

I pray that there is at least one helpful item in this post. I know how overwhelming life can become and I pray that you will find a balance of family management that you can sustain. Asking for help is perfectly normal and will only last for a season. As your children grow and your families needs change, so will you. Please remember that you are asking for help because you LOVE your family, NOT because you are lacking anything. You might just be the blessing that someone else is looking for. Helping you, might be all one of your children or one of your friends needs to help them know how truly valuable they are. May God bless you today and always as you strive to raise children and live a life that honors Him!

Family Management

Last week I had three different people give me ideas for a blog post. It was great, that has never happened before. However, as I thought about their ideas, I really think they were talking about the same thing in different ways. When you are a teacher, how you manage your students is called "classroom management." This includes discipline, rewards and structure. So today we are going to start talking about "family management," let's look at how we manage the many ups and downs of our days. Family management is a huge topic, so it will take more than one post, I hope you enjoy part one today.

As most of you have read, I am a mother of seven children who is currently staying at home full-time to homeschool the majority of them and pour into all of our children whenever possible. I was also a classroom teacher for over 10 years, so I have lots of practice "managing" children (i.e. lots of mistakes that I can learn from). I probably am asked on a weekly basis, "how I do it all?" Every family is different and so is every parent, everyone makes different sacrifices, it is important to know yourself, but here are some ideas that work well in our home.

Let me start with the sacrifices we make. As moms, we have an inner desire to do EVERYTHING and do it PERFECTLY. This desire can lead to exhaustion, frustration and even depression. Now, please don't misunderstand me, we need to strive for excellence and do all things as if working for the Lord, but many of us think that means perfection. (If you are a perfectionist, let me encourage you to look at what you might be willing to share and/or sacrifice for the good of your family.) When you look at any family you will see things they choose to sacrifice that help their family work best. Here are some examples of choices I have made or I see in the families around me:
     -an immaculate home......this is a sacrifice that I have chosen to make with our family. Our home gets cleaned in sections, so every area is cleaned once during the week, but it is rarely entirely cleaned all at the same time. I have decided that for our family to function best, I need to give more attention to other things instead of cleaning. No, I am not condoning living in an unsanitary manner, but at this stage in our family, dirty dishes are truly the least of my worries.
     -a vigorous exercise program.....I know that the doctors will tell you that you need to work out 45 minutes at least 5 times a week, but sometimes we as mom's choose to settle for less. Maybe we can only get three workouts a week or maybe we can only workout for 20 minutes or maybe we get the workouts whenever we can. But, for the sake of our families schedule we choose to make adjustments to our own.
     -time spent alone......I am not talking about time with God spent in personal devotions, because that is of vital importance, but time alone doing something that you truly enjoy. Before we had a large family I was part of a sports league, a music group and volunteered with various organizations. These are all things that I love! I am sure you have a similar list. However, for the sake of my own sanity and my ability to give my best to my family, I have needed to cut back on these activities and make tough choices. To be honest, most days I don't even miss those activities because the joy my kiddos bring me fills any gap I might have had.
     -pursuing a career.......I truly enjoyed my days of teaching and leading Children's Ministry, but there came a time when I was no longer happy. I wasn't happy that I was missing my children's concerts or games. I wasn't happy that there were nights when I wasn't able to tuck them in bed or make them a great dinner. It took me a great deal of time to see this, but leaving the full-time work force was truly the best decision for ME and our family. Even though we have had to make financial sacrifices, we have gained so much as a family that will never be undone and will be a lasting legacy for my children as they grow and start their own families.
   I know lots of women who struggle with the idea of working outside the home or working inside the home. This is a very personal decision and there is not one answer that is right for everyone. I know great families who have moms that stay home and great families who have moms that work away from home, I believe the important issue is to be fully content with the choice you make. Know without a doubt that it is where God wants you to be and that it is the best decision for your family.
     -limiting extra activities......Children having extra activities can destroy or unite a family. If you haven't already, I would talk with your spouse and decide together how you want to handle extra activities. Some families simply say "no." They have no activities that their children are involved in outside of family and church. This may seem mean or wrong, but larger families especially need to be  careful with their finances and time and often allowing one to participate will cause a domino effect from which it is hard to return. Our family tries to abide by the "one activity at a time" rule. It doesn't always work out, but it is a great guideline for us. I know other families that choose one activity and everyone participates in that activity. What will work best for your family and extra activities?

When you look at your family and the time you spend doing tasks, running errands and balancing calendars.....look to see if there are anythings that you could sacrifice. It is important to manage your family in a way you can sustain. If you find yourself becoming stressed out and loosing your temper, it is time to reevaluate and make some tough choices. Sacrifices are often hard to make at first, but if you are truly following God's will for you and your family, He will fill you with great joy and a new found love for the calling He has for you. May God truly bless you this week as you decide what sacrifices are best for your family!