Seeking Perfection....No More Perfect Moms

I first heard about Jill Savage at last fall's Hearts at Home conference.  I highly recommend any and all moms go to this conference if you are able. There's something for everyone! At the conference, we were given an excerpt from here new book "No More Perfect Moms". I finally bought her book and it's been wonderful so far.

I started reading it because I've been spending a lot of time criticizing my parenting skills and nearly everything else....house cleaning, food, activities, you name it! I agree with Jill Savage when she says the media has "air brushed" our world to make us think everyone and everything should be perfect all the time. So many social networks have made it easy to only show the "perfect" side of our lives.

I'm going to lay it out there...It's been a rough week. I don't do well with lack of sleep. This constant rain and weeds has triggered my asthma so I haven't been sleeping well. Add to that nightly thunderstorms, children that won't sleep and a sick child...mommy is about to go crazy from lack of good decent sleep. So you may see me post on facebook about quilting and other things, but take into account that I have quite a few steam burns from my iron and need pricks from quilting. My reaction time is down from being so tired...quilting injuries! But I still need a creative outlet.

So, if you've been thinking you don't measure up to that "perfect" woman in your neighborhood, "perfect" mother at church, "perfect" children in the grocery store...think again and read Jill Savage's latest book.

http://www.hearts-at-home.org/index.php/nmpm-home

Seeking Perfection...just Let.It.Go.

I had a blog post ready for Friday, but I worried that it didn't have the same "pop" as the last one. Instead of posting it, I kept it to myself. I really struggle with control and pride. What will people think of me? What will they think of this post? Sometimes it's really hard to put my thoughts out there for the world to read, but other days it's so easy.What am I to do?

http://www.karenehman.com/let-it-go-5-day-pause-before-you-pounce-challenge/

Recently I had a friend suggest we form a small group to do this 5 day Challenge. After this challenge we decided to form a group of four of us to work on Karen Ehman's new book and study Let.It.Go.. We are a small group of mothers with school age children. It's great because we can be more flexible in our meeting schedule.

So in the end, I decided to post about Karen Ehman's new book. It's a good read or small group study. I have only read the first chapter, but I'm already on board to "just let it go"!

Hoarding Talents

I must admit my church attendance has been failing the last few weeks, but the last sermon I heard was about "hoarding". Pastor talked about how keeping your gifts (spiritual gifts) to yourself is a form of hoarding. This thought never occurred to me. Usually, I LOVE to bake and make things for other people. This winter and spring has really taken a toll on our health...flu, pneumonia, bronchitis, intestinal virus...you name it. I actually stopped cooking for my own family so I could just rest (and breathe!).

Praise the Lord! After weeks of resting I'm feeling much better and the kids are destroying the house again. This week God really pressed on me to help someone that I barely know. Turns out she really does need help. Both she and her husband lost their jobs and it's been hard just to put food on the table. After a day of feeling I must help this family, I found out that another friend has already started. God has put it on quite a few hearts to help this family. That was a really big "ah ha!" moment for me.

Romans says "We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully." Romans 12:6-8

God has given each of us gifts to help each other. If we ignore the nagging in our hearts and minds, then we are "hoarding" what God has given to us. We are not allowing Christ to live through us. I'm not saying you have knock down people's door to see who needs some baked goods, but if you know your spiritual gift, use it to the best of your abilities. You might be a good listener, musician, baker, babysitter, worker, cleaner, gardener or whatever your talent. Open your heart and mind to when and how God provides for you to use your talent.

A little reminder...and this took me MONTHS to finally realize. Sometimes God does call us to rest and heal. He had to make that very plain to me and it took weeks for my body to recover and my strength to return. However, now  I feel that my time for rest has passed and I'm back into the "season" of baking for my family and others.

Rhubarb Blueberry Pecan Bread and Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

Recipes https://www.hersheys.com/recipes/recipe-details.aspx?id=4890
http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Orange-Rhubarb-Bread

Quilting a broken life

This weekend I was blessed to have a "free" weekend. I'm sad that I wasn't able to get together with a friend as planned, but it turned out good. I poured most of my time and energy into quilting. It was odd not to have children or dogs on me.

I listened to hours of praise music as I cut, ironed and sewed my quilt. As I was cutting, I remembered a friend's comment this week to another friend about "being broken right now". We all go through times when we feel broken. Suddenly, quilting struck me as very odd. I take yards of beautiful fabric to cut into small pieces and then sew back together.  I often feel like I should cut my quilt blocks even smaller to get a more intricate design. It occurred to me that my life is like that. Sometimes I feel like God really breaks me down into tiny pieces to be put back together again. This gets really frustrating because I feel like this "block" is perfect, but then it gets "cut up" again. In the end, you don't know how things will turn out until everything is put back together.

It's hard when you don't know what God has planned for you. One of my favorite verses came up on my phone today from Jeremiah.
 "For I know the plans I have for you", says the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give yo hope and a future Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back from captivity".  Jeremiah 29:11-14

So that was my great "revelation" while spending hours by myself listening to praise music and sewing. Next time you see a quilt, look at how intricate it is with all the cut pieces carefully sewn back together and then the actual art of the quilting stitch bringing out something else in the fabric.