Homemaking With Intention

 This little bundle of Joy will be six months old tomorrow. In honor of her half birthday I thought I would share her birth story and how she got her name. It was a fun one!!  It all started here:  But don't let that smile fool you. When I found out I was pregnant it was a split second of excitement and then the panic set in. I did the math. If this baby came on time I would have a not quite 3.5 year old and two 21 month olds! Yikes! I am not going to lie. I cried. How in the world would I be able to handle all that? Then came the fear of having twins. If it was twins again I would have 5 kids in less then 4 years. How in the world would I go grocery shopping?! (That really was what I was worried about at the time!) I facebooked my OB and told her I need a sonogram so she could ease my fear of twins. I really have the best OB in the world! She brought me in the next day and reviled that it would only be one baby....

Here are a few of my favorites form this weeks Titus 2sdays Link Up Party . Visionary Womanhood  How to Resist Gossip A Heart for the Home Is Large Family Living Affordable? The Purposeful Mom Finding Quality Time With Each of Your Kids Growing in His Glory 6 Steps to Help You Grow in Love For Your Family

Last night my heart ached after hearing the news of the death of Adrian Peterson's little boy. My heart ached and I wept for that little boy and others like him. I thought about how scared he must have been his last few moments on earth. I thought about how a 2 year old boy would have been no match for an angry adult to whom his care was in trusted. Having two 2 year olds myself, I know how hard this age some times is.  But, I can not imagine how one goes through with hurting them. Was it just a bad day? Was the little boy being overly defiant? Was the man who was suppose to be caring for him drunk or on drugs or just selfish? I don't know, and it doesn't matter. My heart ached and I quietly cried. As I laid in bed, wrapped up in the arms of the only man I have ever loved (besides my own father, of course) my heart also felt something else. It overflowed with love for my husband. I thought about how kind he is. I thought about how our home is peaceful and our children are...

My new and improved house keeping schedule. I have never understood how something is new and improved. Wouldn't it be one or the other?! Anyway. Recently I have had the opportunity to share my house keeping schedule at the two MOPS groups that I attend. It was fun because I had actually just redone my schedule and it was working really well! It was also fun to have to think about why I run my home the way I do. There are many, many things that I am not any good at. I fail on a daily basis at one thing or another- that's life. But, what I am good at is time management. I view my house keeping schedule as just that- time management. I manage my day so my home gets clean but I am also still living life with my sweet kiddos! I change my schedule up because I realized that I was missing some important things. For example, when we put the house on the market for a brief time earlier this year I realized I had never, ever cleaned my oven. Not once. Not once in 5 years did I c...

Today I got out of the house without kids. Not a single kid went with me! For a mom of 4 kids all under 4 years old, that is an amazing, almost impossible thing. I have a sweet friend who has 2 kids of her own. Her youngest and my youngest were actually born on the same day (which is the best kind of twins- a mommy for each baby)! She brought her two kids over and watched all 6 kids while I went out for a bit. I rarely get out of the house without at least one or two kids in toe. In fact it has only happened one other time in the last 5 months, and that was when I was visiting a friend in the hospital, so I was not allowed to take them with me. I have people tell me all the time that I need to get away from the kids to be a better mom. That I deserve to get away. I just simply don't agree. What I deserve is hell, and only by the amazing grace of God, will I not end up there. I dislike being without my kids and I hate the idea of 'me time.' I recognize that my sweet ...