It's hard, and that's okay. [Mindful Mothering Monday]

This is hard. This whole mothering thing. I don't think many of us really like to admit that. I know I don't. The internet is not our friend is this area. I see Facebook and Pinterest plastered with reminders of what I'm not doing for my kids. St. Patty's Day came and went this year with barely a mention of it in my house and certainly no shamrock pancakes or anything like that. There are times I try and succeed at these things but more often than not I don't. And yet my children have thrived up until this point. It's just SO hard not to compare. I always try to tell myself though that what I see online is the best of the best. That mom who made hand felted Valentine's for her kid's classroom parties most certainly also dealt with a meltdown or an argument at some point and a mountain of laundry that day as well. See, we seem to only put our best selves out there for people to see and that is when people get the impression that we have it all together. Just because I had homemade cupcakes and hand made toppers for E and F's birthday this past weekend, in no way says that I know what I'm doing or have it all together, To me it was saying, "Hey, look what I had time to do. I hope they like it!". I've been told by people before that they look up to me or that they don't know how I do it. I usually try to answer and honestly and humbly as I can but saying I DON'T have it all together, not even close. And some days I honestly have no idea how I do it, I just put one foot in front of the other. Even 6 kids in, I'm just figuring things out! So here is real:

The kid's laundry that will hopefully get washed and dried today but surely not folded or put away.

The kitchen. Neglected all weekend since we were out and about most of it.

I doubt you will see many pictures like this on Facebook. So let's all just be gentle with each other. This is hard, it's hard for all of us. And that's okay!

*For more encouragement head over to Small Town Simplicity

Stay at Home WHAT?? {Mindful Mothering Mondays}

It's true. My husband is a stay at home dad. And an amazing one at that! It took me several years and about 3 kids in to come to be okay with the fact that he is better at "all that stuff" than I am. For so long, I felt like I should want to be home and I wondered why I felt that constant pull (a pull I'd honestly felt since childhood) to be in the medical field taking care of the least of these. It took me so long to realize that God matched Jase and I up for just that reason. So often, early in our marriage we sat and talked and struggled and fought about what Jason was going to do to support us. What career should he pick? Where should he work? Nothing ever really jumped out or seemed to be the right fit. While always in the back of my mind, I knew nursing was my calling.

So, I am the one who has the education, the drive, the want to work out of the home and better myself and my community. I'm the one who pulls on those scrubs and Danskos 3 nights a week to go and take care of the sick while my babies sleep at home without me.

He is the one who gets up while it is still dark, (me having just dropped into the bed from a long night at the hospital) to make sure kids are fed, hair is combed, dog is let out, etc. He's the one who chiefly drives kids around and drops them off where they need to be. He's the one who bathes 6 kids and puts them to bed at night. And you know what, he's GOOD at it. He's better at it than I could ever be.

We definitely don't fit the traditional husband/wife rolls. And there are still times I get that twinge of, I don't know, a case of the "what ifs". Sometimes it's hard to explain it to people and watch their faces twist up in confusion. "He stays home? How do you manage to pull that off? Why?" No one would EVER think to say some of those things to a mom who stays home, but for some reason it's different for a dad.

The most important things we have learned is to make the best of the strengths and gifts God has given us instead of trying to force ourselves into a mold that just isn't right for us. Him being home and me working 3 nights a week also allows for LOTS of family time where all 8 of us are together and that is something I would not trade for anything.


For more encouragement, head over to Small Town Simplicity

Always a Celebration {Mindful Mothering Mondays}

In just this past month or so, we have had:

*a first baseball game
*a half birthday
*a first Fall dance class
*5 first days of school
*a first unsteady crawl across the living room floor
*a first play date at a friend's house

And that is just what I can think of off of the top of my head! One thing I love about having such a big family is that it seems like we are always celebrating something! There are so many milestones and new things spread between us all. That's not to say that there is not more room for heartache with this many family members. We've also had:

*a first fall off a zip line
*a first grounding from the X-box for a whole weekend
*a first missed ball game (by me, because of work)
*a first runny nose

And many others, I'm sure. But we try to focus on the good and celebrate together with each new journey. It's nice to know that no mater what, we have each other to go through all this with. It's my job to make each one of those sweet babies know how precious and special each and every new thing they go through is and that I'm there to enjoy the journey with them.


Head over to Small Town Simplicity for more encouragement!

A Titus 2 Mom {Mindful Mothering Mondays}

I get this a lot, more times than I can count really:

               "How DO you do it?"
               "I only have 1 (or 2 or 4...) and I can barely keep it together. How do you?"

Truth is, I do it just like everyone else does. One foot in front of the other, taking things on as they come. A mountain of laundry? 6 hungry kids waiting for dinner? Balancing working as a nurse with my responsibilities at home? I just do what needs to be done. Is it always pretty? Is it always right? Do I always do it with a happy face? Of course not, but what in life is perefect. There are too many nights to list where all  I want is to climb into a hot bath, read a book, and pretend like the chaos is not going on right outside the bathroom door. But that is not the life I have and it is not what God has picked for me. He, for reasons I don't always understand, picked this life for me. Picked these kids for me, this house for me, this husband for me, these responsibilities for me.



"...urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind..." Titus 2: 4-5

This has always been a favorite verse of mine. Since the time I was a 19 year old newlywed I have craved this kind of woman in my life. A woman who has been there and done that and can say to me, "See? You can do this." A woman to say, "See? I have 6 kids. You can do it!"or "See? I'm a nurse. You can do it!"or "See? I got married when I was 19. You can do this!" But that woman has never been there. What I've come to realize recently is that maybe, just maybe, I am that woman to someone else. Maybe I'm her to the woman who wonders how in the world I keep my head above water with 6 kids or puts in my night shifts as a nurse with a smile on my face. Maybe someone sees me and thinks that if I can do it and survive then surely they can.

I never want to give off the impression that I have it all together or that my life is great all the time. It most definitely is not, but a positive attitude can go a long way. I can only continue to do my best and hope that someone somewhere is being encouraged by me.


Stop by Small Town Simplicity for more encouragement

Cutest Apron Ever

My daughter loves to help me cook! Sometimes she is a really good helper and other times she is more in the way than anything. I like to let her help though. I want her to enjoy cooking and being int he kitchen like I do. Actually my youngest son loves to help out in the kitchen as well and I will be making him an apron, too, just as soon as I find some more boyish stuff to make it with. One thing they both love is to wear one of my aprons. I figured I might as well make them their own!

This apron took me all of 15 minutes to make. All you need is a hot pad, a tea towel, and some ribbon. Cut the tea towel in half and sew it to the bottom of the hot pad. Measure out some ribbon that will be long enough to wrap around and tie the apron on the back. Sew this right along where the tea towel and hot pad meet. Next, measure out some ribbon that will be long enough to go around their neck and slip on and off fairly easily. Sew this to the top of each side of the hot pad. Viola! A sweet little apron!

Quinoa Bites

I've seen this recipe on Pinterest and have been dying to try it! We don't eat meat (I feel like I say that a lot, but it kind of explains why we eat some strange stuff) and I love quinoa. We just had them for dinner and the kids LOVED them and even asked for seconds. I would call it a success. They are really yummy and pretty easy to throw together. I'll definitely make them again. I did make some changes from the original recipe. It called for carrots instead of peppers, but my kids ate all the carrots. I also doubled the original recipe to accommodate my family. Ok, here is what you need:

*You will need 4c cooked quinoa, so make that first while you are chopping up your other stuff. 1c uncooked quinoa plus 2c water is what you will need for 4c cooked quinoa. Cook according to the package, it's a lot like rice!

*In a big bowl add 2c diced peppers (any kind you want, I used a combo of red and yellow since it is what I had), 4 cloves chopped garlic, 1/2c chopped cilantro, and 1c chopped green onion


*Isn't it pretty?
*Next add in your cooked quinoa, 1c Parmesan cheese, 4 eggs, 1tsp season salt, 1/2tsp pepper, and 4Tbps flour.
*Mix it all together

*Grease a mini muffin tin and place 1Tbsp of the mixture in each cup
*Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes until they are nice a golden brown
*We had ours with Thousand Island dressing and applesauce
*My doubled recipe made about 50 bites

Book Review: Little Bee by Chris Cleave

Little Bee, by Chris Cleave, had a lot to live up to in my mind. I am the kind of person who gets very attached to books and characters and, before this book, I had just finished The Hunger Games series. I was definitely in one of those "oh my gosh, I will never in my life read another book that is this good" kind of mood. I get in those often after reading really good books.

My brother is the one who bought this book for me. He is a high school English teacher, lover of good books, and all around awesome person. I know that anytime he recommends a book it is going to be good. He got me this one as a Christmas gift this year. He said he couldn't wait for me to read it because it was so good and he wanted to talk with me about it. Fair enough, I started the next day and quickly made my way through the entire book.

I will keep in step with what Cleave has put on the back cover:
             "We don't want to tell you what happens in this book. It truly is a special story and we don't want to spoil it. Nevertheless, you need to know enough to buy it so we will just say this: This is the story of two women. Their lives collide one fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice, the kind of choice we hope you never have to face."


This book reveals the story of what happened to these women a piece at a time. It leaves you turning the pages as quickly as you can, wanting to find out the whole story. Every time you learn a new bit of the story, you think that must be it. That has to be the worst of it. But the tragedy continues to unfold. Although the story is tragic, it also has hope sprinkled in throughout. You want to like these characters and you want good things to come to them.

One of my favorite characters in the books, is the little 4 year old who goes by the name Batman. He always wears the costume and is on a mission to fight the "goodies" and "baddies" of the world. Cleave captured the 4 year old mindset so perfectly. As I was reading it, I couldn't help but think of my own little 4 year old and feel a connection.

Overall, this is a wonderful book with a wonderfully tragic story. I don't know how Cleave got inside the heads of a Nigerian girl and an English woman so well, but the voices he gives them are spot on. The story makes you question yourself, and what you would do in a situation like theirs. I'm all for books that challenge you and make you think, and this is definitely one. I hope you will read it and enjoy it as much as I did.