Encouragement

I am the worst about making decisions, especially when my decisions directly affect my family. What's for dinner? Dessert? Decision overload. Do I want peanut butter balls or pecan pie? Ah! Both. No, seriously I always have both. That brings me to today. Do I stop breast feeding or not? Making the decision to breast feed and work was something I knew would have a limited time frame. Working and pumping are not always ideal, so I set a goal for myself: Make it to Christmas. I reached that goal with flying colors and a happy baby to boot (even through RSV and her first major growth spurt). Then... month four. My perfect little sleeper let everyone know she was working on...

I get a stomach ache every time I see it…someone looking at their phone from behind the wheel.  My mind races with questions like, “Don’t they realize how dangerous that is?”, “Don’t they care about their own safety/livelihood?”, and “Don’t they know my kids are in the car next to them?!” My unanswered questions quickly lead to frustration.  To avoid having my frustration turn into anger, I try to stop and ask myself, “are you 100% focused on your driving 100% of the time?”  The honest answer is no.  While I may have signed the “It Can Wait”, as well as Oprah’s “No Phone Zone” pledges, committing never to text and drive, that doesn't make me immune to distractions...

I anticipated that Jack would be a late walker. I don't know what it was, but from the time he was a tiny newborn I was determined not to rush his gross motor development. He took what seemed like forever to roll over, but I was unfazed. I didn't worry a bit when he waited until 8 months to sit unassisted. And as the months continued to pass, I breezily reassured relatives that "some babies never crawl, they just skip straight to walking." He eventually did start crawling and, later, pulling up and cruising, but at 18 months that's still all he does. Sometime around 15 months my confidence started to waver. I found myself avoiding the park and any other situation where strangers...

I am now 38 weeks pregnant. Hard to believe, and yet of course I knew (or at least hoped) that I would eventually get here. I knew that, God willing, everything would progress, my belly would grow, and this being inside me would grow into a tiny person. But even though I’ve been pregnant now for the better part of the last year, I still find myself surprised sometimes that there’s going to be another person living in our house! My husband and I belong to a local Methodist church and we celebrate the season of Advent every year: counting down the Sundays between Thanksgiving and Christmas. There were moments when I thought about Mary, the mother of Jesus, in a...

Supporting the single mom. It's hard to be there for someone when you don't know how and when you don't "have time." I lost a lot of friends when I became a single mom, but I have been so blessed to have a few faithful mommas stick with me and support me; and I am even more thankful for the new moms who joined me in this new journey. So how can you help the single mom? Obviously, I cannot speak for every single mom, but this is what has gotten me through it! These are all ways my friends helped me -some I didn't even know I needed. Stop asking me what you can do to help! There are at least...