Tag: Parenting

We don’t have to constantly live on the verge of losing it. It takes dedication, but we can take back our sanity! Use the Healthy Mind Platter and Emotional Thermometer to maintain wellness.

“Before I Lose It” – A Mom’s Guide to Sanity

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This post is not intended to diagnose or treat depression or any other mental or emotional health conditions. I simply wish to share my experience with life-changing strategies I first learned through counseling.

“You guys better clean up before I lose it!”

It’s hard to be around our kids all the time. Their needs and messes and noise are constantly weighing on us. It can be easy to lose ourselves to the demands of motherhood. To let stress take over. To be the yelling, tantruming mom we swore we’d never be.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Continue reading ““Before I Lose It” – A Mom’s Guide to Sanity” →

And it's in here, not out there, that I find myself. Here in being loved by my God, and sharing that love with my family. My heart is in this beautiful, noisy, chaos of love I call my home. My heart is in my vocation. My heart belongs to Christ.

Inspired to be the Heart of the Home

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Lessons from Mary: how I reconciled with “A mother is the heart of the home.” 

My birthday was coming up and I had big plans.

I was going to do all the things I wanted to do for me. It was going to be a whole day of me-ness. I planned to take off first thing in the morning, meet a friend for breakfast, do some shopping by myself, have a nice lunch in a coffee shop, maybe even do some writing, and come home to a quiet dinner with my husband.

I had been feeling overwhelmed with meeting everybody else’s needs, and I was sick of it. For once I wanted to just do what I want. To not have to answer to anyone else. I was becoming more and more short-tempered. Less engaged in effective discipline. More shouty than problem-solvey.

So I was going to escape. For an entire day. Happy birthday to me. Continue reading “Inspired to be the Heart of the Home” →

A shower prayer (just for fun)

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Have you ever heard of the shower prayer?  I pray it every day.  It goes something like this:

Lord, wash my feet that they may follow Your path.  Wash my hands that they may do Your work in this world.  Cleanse my head of all distractions and fill it with thoughts of You –

JUST KIDDING!

I wish I prayed like that in the shower every morning.  I probably should.  But my shower prayer (and I don’t pray it every day, only every-day-I-shower) goes more like this… Continue reading “A shower prayer (just for fun)” →

Rocking Motherhood

Rocking Motherhood

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What makes a good mom?

A little while back, I guest posted on The Koala Mom about what it means to be a Love Rebel Mom.  In short: I’m dedicated to my vocation.  God called me to be a mom, and I’m going to be a darn good one.

So Anni over at Beautiful Camouflaged Mess of a Life challenged me to prove it.  In her rocking motherhood post, she shared what makes her a good mom, and tagged me to do the same with practical examples from my own life.

As I brainstormed my supermom qualities, I realized everything on my list was more about the mom I want to be than the mom I am right now.  And I struggled to identify real life ways I actually rock motherhood every day.

So I asked my kids. Continue reading “Rocking Motherhood” →

A Reflection on the Quiet Years of Jesus’ Life

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The Quiet Years: a guide to embracing the ordinary.

In a world of information and connection, we can be tempted to share every detail of every moment of our children’s lives.

The adorable thing they said.

The Lego they built.

The meal they ate (or refused to eat) for lunch.

Since every moment is precious and important, we feel we must shout it out loud for all the world to know.

The Quiet Years

But Your childhood, Jesus, is in stark contrast to this attitude.  The first 30 years of Your life were the quiet years. Continue reading “A Reflection on the Quiet Years of Jesus’ Life” →

I Have Extra Arms and Extra legs

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For all the babywearing moms.

I strapped my tantruming 2-yo to my back, rolled up my sleeves, and dug into the dishes, hoping the closeness and the movement would help her calm down.

The cries eventually turned to whimpers.  The whimpers to sighs.  The sighs to silence.  She was asleep.

Time to lay her down for a nap.

But first I stepped into the bathroom to scoop up the dirty clothes for the laundry.  I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror.  My silhouette was augmented with extra appendages.  Little tiny fingers, toes, arms, and legs, were peeking out from the left and right.

I stopped.

And stared. Continue reading “I Have Extra Arms and Extra legs” →

When You Have Nothing Left to Give, Be the Gift

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Give the gift of yourself like God does in the Incarnation, on the Cross, in the Eucharist.

It started with a gentle tug on my sheets and a soft whisper in my ear:

“Mom, my belly hurts.”

Those words had the power to throw me out of bed.  I quickly scooped my 3yo daughter into my arms and made a stumbling dash into the bathroom. Continue reading “When You Have Nothing Left to Give, Be the Gift” →

When Your Kid is the Bully: Finding a Better Future

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Four steps to help you replace fear with hope when your kid makes a terrible mistake.

Suddenly your kid is “that kid.”  The kid other parents warn each other about.  The kid they tell their own children to stay away from.  How did it happen?

  • You tried to be the best parent you could.
  • You read every parenting book.
  • You researched every discipline strategy.
  • You prayed every day for the grace to raise good kids.

You were sprinting the race of good-parenthood. Continue reading “When Your Kid is the Bully: Finding a Better Future” →

How To Live the Dream the World Doesn’t Understand

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What looking back at a sacrificed career can teach you about your vocation as a wife and mom.

Forget the perfect Pinterest project, by the time you change every diaper that needs changing, feed the starving animals you call your children, put the cushions back on the couch for the thousandth time, toss every LEGO block back in the bin, feed those children again, teach them their letters, feed them again, brush their teeth, tuck them in bed, tell them to get back in bed – you don’t have the energy left to stay awake until a reasonable adult bedtime, so you’re passed out in your spit-up-covered jeans on top of the bedspread at 7:59.

Well I give you credit, you almost made it to 8:00. Continue reading “How To Live the Dream the World Doesn’t Understand” →