Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control, who wouldn’t want their kids to exhibit these attributes? It’s a beautiful thing to watch our kids show love to others, but sometimes life looks messier than how facebook portrays. It’s a daily, purposeful quest to live focused and free. So when I can make a craft that helps encourage attributes that I am aiming for, I am all in. I wanted to share a simple little craft about the fruits of the Spirit that I used to help encourage a spark in my kids to do the right things, and hopefully you will also find value in it too!

My feet are resting under our chipped Ethan Allen coffee table. It’s near midnight and there is a stillness in the air. All the kids are asleep, and the day is drawing closer to a new day. My thoughts don’t rest, although the time is telling me to, as I try to eke out a few more minutes of this gift called “today”. So many good, hard and beautiful moments etched onto today’s page… written in sacrificial love. It’s effortless to walk in creek beds, receive hand drawn cards, and enjoy my kids because they truly are a gift. That’s easy love. Yet, the love of a child, goes beyond the easy, and allows you to love when it’s hard. Disregarding selfishness, and transforming your life so that you think of someone else’s needs above your own.

My son has always been a natural born leader… Some call these attributes strong-willed. :) It depends on what paintbrush you grab, or what lens you view it through. His candle is bright, and his presence is unhidden. Each day he is being molded and shaped; crafted with God’s hands through time and experience, knowledge and love. As I look at my sweet boy, I am motivated to grow, to learn truth, to live out truth, to abandon excess baggage in myself so I can guide him with a clear mind and heart. His eyes are watching, and emulating everything to the umpteenth degree, because whatever he does, he does big and loud… Because his roar is meant to be heard.

This year I started homeschooling. Pause for a cyber five to all my homeschooling peeps. :) It’s been fun… and challenging… and rewarding! I remember in the beginning doubting even the ability to homeschool. Now, after almost a full year of kindergarten… still having days where I can doubt my ability to homeschool. Let’s be honest with ourselves, even in parenting we can find ourselves here, questioning if we have the strength and capabilities to do a good job. There always will be people who seem more put together than us and those who seem less. Yet, I am grateful for the opportunity to spend the extra time with my daughter and have the privilege to watch her learn and grow throughout the day.

As parents, we are bombarded with information on how to be a good parent. It’s overwhelming. Society tells us. Our kids tell us. Other people tell us. It is easy to feel like a failure, even when you give everything you have. We need to quiet out the excess noise, and pare down the hundreds of do’s and do not’s to what really matters. Setting priorities is essential to avoid the extra unnecessary stressors that distract us from what needs to be our focus. Take the reigns on what’s important in parenting and focus less on the frills that won’t make or break your child.

Each day brings with it new opportunities to learn faith and trust in God. Kids sprinkle in more of these opportunities as we rely on God with their safety and provision (can I hear an Amen). Yet kids can also teach us a thing or two more about faith. Just the other day it was […]

It was one of those not so proud moments of motherhood, where instead of speaking life and encouragement to the ones I love, my words came out hurtful. It was undeserved. Through the grind of day to day, we need to be conscience of the words we speak, and the tones we speak them in. We impact those around us, whether we know it or not. Thankfully, sometimes even when we mess up, we are shown God’s grace, through the undeserved love from another, and hopefully, we can glean from those moments, reciprocating the same love to others.

Crafts are a great way to engage kids in learning. For me, I have a craft cabinet to keep everything for their crafting needs. It doesn’t always look pretty! But it is everything in one spot. I was teaching the kids about Elisha and the Shunamite women the other day, and couldn’t find the specific craft I was looking for, so I made up this simple craft to help remind my kids of this historical event. Hopefully you will be able to get some use out of it too!

The snow has already fallen, the Christmas decorations are hung, and thoughts of what Christmas truly means fills my mind. A time of reflection of our Savior, a time of peace. Yet the true meaning of Christmas sometimes slips away as commercials and the “me” mentality take its place. We write lists of what we want, and what will make us feel special.

It was 8:20pm, the kids were in their room winding down for the night. Me and my husband were relaxing on the couch, as I hear the pitter patter of little feet. This is a normal occurrence at night, the kids seeking their one (or three) last goodnight interactions.