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Merry Christmas, Moms. It is officially the busiest season of the year, but what a GREAT reason to be busy: celebrating Jesus. I love that no matter what-pandemic, political climate, where you live, or what havoc 2020 may have wreaked on your life-we celebrate the fact that Jesus humbled Himself and endured this broken world for our sakes and for our salvation.

Christmas will never change because Jesus will never change.

In this episode our guest Julie, mom to four biological children and foster mom to countless more, shared with us her joyful traditions to help keep the focus on the meaning of the season. It's super easy to get caught up in the hoopla, and before you know it, it's December 26th and you're wondering why you're so exhausted and missed Jesus completely. 

Here are some of the fun, meaningful, and kid-friendly activities that we discussed on the episode:

1.) Advent calendar: we love handmade items, but there are plenty of store bought advent...

I can smell Christmas. It's so close. Actually, I could see Christmas in September when I was making a Costco run. No joke, there were decorations, ribbons, and gifts lining the aisles well before Fall. 

Whether or not you'd like to admit it, you probably like gifts. Maybe it's not your love language per se, but as a mom any little gift or surprise is a welcome addition to the life of honored servitude that we live. 

In this episode we talk about the intangible gifts that we see in our children. Our guest was Denise, a pastor's wife, mom to three, and grandma to two, spoke into this issue in a real and genuine way. 

Denise reminded us how important it is to recognize the differences in each of our children and to adjust our approach as we interact with them. Each of our children is uniquely created and gifted by God, and encouraging those gifts is definitely not a one-size-fits-all method. We need the Holy Spirit to help us see what each of our children...

Thanksgiving is close and we couldn't be more excited! There may not feel like much to be thankful for in 2020, but there is always something to be thankful for when you're a child of God.

In this episode we tackled the very important issue of raising selfless kids in a selfish culture. This starts with having a thankful heart and it starts with us as moms. If we don’t have thankful hearts, it’s almost certain that our kids won’t either.

Our guest Cathy, who is the director of children's ministry at church and our dear friend, gave us some wonderful, Biblically-based application for fostering a heart of thankfulness in ourselves, as well as in our children.

It seems as though teaching or fostering an attitude of gratitude in our American culture is like swimming up stream in a storm. The culture praises self: self is king and self is god. It's easy to get caught up in that mindset! It's a daily choice to be thankful.

In this episode, we talked about how...

Motherhood is many things: amazing, tiring, wonderful, hard, exhausting, and satisfying. It's also a major grind. 

Motherhood has been described in this way: the days are long but the years are short. We do the same thing day-in and day-out: cook, clean, teach, work, drive, repeat. Somewhere in there we are supposed to sleep. We are constantly not only trying to meet the needs of the family that God has given to us, but teach and train our children to become God-loving and fearing adults.

Very quickly, we can become tired and depleted, which often leads to us losing our joy and purpose as we parent. Constantly taking care of and training up little humans day after day can take its toll, so it’s important that we find time to fill up so that we can be poured out again.

Sometimes our mom·ing work can feel meaningless. Washing dishes and scrubbing toilets, or reminding your child to put deodorant on every day...

This world is filled with lots noise. The culture is constantly screaming different messages at us, and it uses social media platforms, news cycles, celebrities, politicians, and even religious leaders to pound these narratives into our brains.

The loudest narratives are often motivated by fear, “Fear you’re not a good enough mom, you’re too strict, you’re too laid back, you’re child isn’t going to be smart, you’re child isn’t going to be safe, you’re children are going to miss out on a critical step in life if you as a mother don’t provide X, Y, and Z." The mom guilt is a powerful tool when wielded in the wrong hands. 

How do we as moms know who to listen to? Is there such a thing as too much information? How do we teach our children to identify lies and counteract with the truth? We may be raising young children...

No one likes to be blindsided--especially moms! Most of us survive each day on the motto, "Always be prepared!" In this episode, our Mom·ing guest Kristin gives us an inside look into her world when the COVID pandemic struck. She keeps very busy as the mom of two, a boy and a girl, and also homeschools and runs her own business teaching art part-time.

Whether you keep a complete first aid kit with you at all times, or you're more of the thought that fresh air heals all wounds, it's safe to say no one was prepared for a full-scale lock down of the country. Working, schooling, parenting--simply living-- became the land of uncharted territory for almost everyone.

A large part of motherhood is learning to roll with punches, to use a fighting analogy. What works for your first child will almost definitely not work for your second. When something unexpected comes crashing into our lives, we have a choice...