Glitters of Grace {part 2}



A while ago I wrote a post called Sparkles of Grace and today on my walk it came back to me. I have been having some rough days with the girls. I love them like crazy, but honestly they are screaming at each other (and me) all day long! Not only that, but they are not listening to anything I say, which leads me to yell all day! I know its not what I'm supposed to do, but it is what I do do. And when I do this, the girls feel like I dont like them! Its been an awful cycle. So I went for a walk to think and let go of some of the stress. While I was walking, I thought about those glitters of grace, those small bits of love that you toss high in the air to land anywhere and everywhere. I have been holding onto my glitter, not giving easily and certainly not tossing it! So I think that maybe its not my kids that need to change, but me! I need to tell them I love them out loud so they hear it, tell them the good they do, not just the bad, to hug them and read to them and push them on the swing. Simple signs of love that convey so much. I can do that! Maybe those bits of love that I liberally toss out there will stick to them and really make them feel loved. And maybe that love will help them toss some of their own glitter! :)

Beautiful Butterflies!

Today I headed out to our backyard, and as I looked up into our blooming crab apple trees, I saw the most amazing thing, 20 -30 butterflies! They were everywhere and so pretty! I believe that they were Red Admiral Butterflies! It was so cool to see them fly off in bunches when the wind blew! I was excited and I called the girls out with their nets and bug boxes! We were able to catch a few of them and it was so fun to see them up close and really look at their colors! I have never seen that many butterflies in one place in the wild. I must admit that I was more excited then the girls. I think that it was a special little gift for me from God! It amazes me that there is such beauty in simplicity! Who knew my own backyard can have such amazing wonders! I must say that seeing such amazing gifts all around me give me such a deep gratitude for all that God has blessed me with! It is always the little moments that seem to mean the most! What do you think? Is God's love seen best in the little, simple moment?



I hope you are all having a wonderful weeked!



Ash Wednesday Thoughts

Oh I have been thinking and prepping for weeks about what I will do to live Lent this year. In the past few years I have forgotten about it until it was upon me and then I played very bad catch up the rest of the season. It was not lived well, and this year I am determined to do better. My plan this year was to be small. Not to make huge promises to God that I knew were destined to fail before I got to March. I wanted to have a chance at making a new habit that would be better for my family. The plan was to stay off the computer in the morning. This would allow me to devote time to my kiddos and get some things done that needed to be done. I will admit, I am an interent junkie! I love it! I love to blog, I love Pintrest, I love to see all the amazing things that other people have been up to. But I think I have taken it too far. I know that I cant stop blogging. I love to write, to record our memories and the thing that  I do with my kiddos. But I need to love them more. To find time for them and for God and my husband. So I started off my morning by making sure that I was not on the computer. And as the morning wore on I was dying to sit and get absorbed. So I justified and by lunch I was sitting and reading some blog posts from Elizabeth Foss. Now Elizabeth is a honest, holy, and completely amazing mom. Her thoughts force me to look deep at myself and to change. So I guess it was actually a very good thing for me read. She wrote a series of posts about the time she took to transform her own life. Time to see what she was doing wrong, to see what she needed to change, and time to do it. They made me think, they made me cry, and they changed my Lenten plan. I no longer think I need to stop being on the internet during the morning, but all day. Gulp! I don't want to. In fact the tears are still on my cheeks from me heartbroken prayer to God. I don't want to. I don't want to offer that much! I know that I will still have my evening, but it isn't enough. So here I am typing my thoughts out. I think that in my deep thinking and soul searching I will still have to stop by here and write when the thoughts are just too much to keep inside. Moments like now they will eat me alive! I have always journal my feeling out and this is no different. So I apologize in advance for the horrible grammar, spelling, and everything else. Short of a quick run though and a quick spell check, you are reading exactly what I am thinking.
In the series of posts that Elizabeth wrote, she started off with exercise, diet, and prayer. Then she began to see what she was doing that needed to be changed. I think that I am there. I have started to become more aware of what I am eating, and I know that I need to exercise. I am also seeing thing that need to change. Brutal honesty here, I am a mean mom.. I yell like a crazy woman and I am not emotionally available to my kids as I should be. I keep thinking that I am parenting wrong or I need a new tip, but I think that I literally need to get off the computer and just be with them. I know that I keep saying it, and now it is time to do just that! So my new Lenten plan is this: limited computer time during the day. That means, check emails (not every moment), read some inspirational blogs that make me better at what I do (I need to hear a pep talk sometimes), look up a recipe if I need one for dinner (my computer is my cook book) and maybe type an occasional blog post here if there is something that cant wait (like now). Other then that, nothing until night time, no Pintrest, no endless blogs I like to read, no Facebook. So what to do during all this time. Well I can cook, play, and clean. I want to have intentional time with each child each day! My hubbie too! I need to make sure that I take time each day for them individually. So....deep breath....this will be good for us. God is asking it of me and I know I will be better for it. But I know it will hurt like hell for a while! I guess, as I scan over this, I realize that I am not going small after all! ;) Wish me luck and send your prayers! Happy Lent!