God Loves Me More Than That - Review

I recently found out about a program called "blogging for books" through Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers. I figured that getting a free book and just having to write something about it on my blog and post on the publishers website couldn't be that hard and probably could be quite fun. So, in the future, you might see some more reviews here.

The first book I chose to review was a Children's Book. I figured I read a lot of those everyday anyway and fitting a longer "adult" book into my limited time probably wasn't too likely!

"God Loves Me More Than That" by Dandi Daley Mackall and illustrated by David Hohn surprised me as a GREAT book that I am so happy to have in my children's library.

The book uses great rhymes to draw little ones in and explain through captivating similes just how much God loves them. Throughout the book the message is communicated: Higher, deeper, wider, bigger, louder, softer, your whole life through - these are the ways that God loves you!

The rhymes of this book had my attention (and that of my 2 year old) from page one but, the real gems of this book are the incredible life-like illustrations on each page. We were captivated by the fanciful scenes such as a circus, deep sea diving, or outer space travel that any child would love to find themselves a part of. I especially loved that the illustrations were life-like and featured a little boy. It seems so many children's books are geared towards girls that, as the mom of a little boy, I appreciated the illustrators choice for this book.

Teaching my children that God's love for them is immense is important to me - and "God Loves Me More Than That" is a great way to reinforce this concept. We'll be reading it again soon!

*I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review

Parenting - An Exercise in Letting Go

I never thought I’d be the parent that, at 5pm on my son’s birthday, would be driving to the store to pick out a cake. Not a cake that I ordered and was picking up…just going in hopes that they would have one that worked. BUT…sometimes you have a little baby, family coming from out of town, and a birthday and a baptism happening all in the same weekend and you didn’t get it done earlier.

I never thought my kid would be the one at church with crazy, uncombed looking hair. BUT…turns out that when you wet and comb hair and then get in the car seat, 9 times out of 10 it gets all messed up by the time you get where you were going.

I never thought my kid would go around in clothes that looked worn out or the wrong size. BUT…sometimes, by the time you actually get the clothes on and realize that, even though they fit last week and are now too small, there is neither enough time or energy left to change them again.

I never thought that I would be nearly overjoyed at being ONLY 3 minutes late to Sunday School – or some other appointment – rather than 10 or 15. BUT…it turns out it is pretty difficult to get two kids fed, dressed, ready, and out the door along with a reasonably decent looking me without getting up 2+ hours early in the morning. And sometimes, 2 hours early doesn’t work on 4 or 5 hours of sleep!

I never thought I’d have a list of 500 projects and lessons that I wanted to plan and do yet struggle to make even one of them happen each week. BUT…sometimes we just have more fun playing with all the things already easily at hand.

I didn’t know I’d be able to deal with crumbs and shredded cheese on the floor nearly every second of every day. BUT…it’s hard to clean them up after every single meal and sometimes you just have to deal with a little mess.

I didn’t know I’d have so much trouble allowing colors to get all mixed up during painting projects and play-do play time. BUT…freedom of creativity for a 3 year old is much more important than my OCD color separation tendencies.

Through these, and hundreds of more little lessons that happen every day, I realize that, for the good of my kids, there are several UNimportant things that I just have to let go of. Sometimes they are my expectations, sometimes they are my vision of “perfection.”

In the end, a messy floor, crazy hair, or ruined play-do are very insignificant things in life.

If I have children who are loving and respectful who know and love God…

If we are able to have fun together as a family…

If my children are learning and growing…

If my children know that their daddy and I love them unconditionally…

Then my time and my focus have been well-spent.

Letting go of those other details are worth the end result.

May God’s grace enable me to let go – and teach HIS love to my little ones!

Parenting - An Exercise in Letting Go

I never thought I’d be the parent that, at 5pm on my son’s birthday, would be driving to the store to pick out a cake. Not a cake that I ordered and was picking up…just going in hopes that they would have one that worked. BUT…sometimes you have a little baby, family coming from out of town, and a birthday and a baptism happening all in the same weekend and you didn’t get it done earlier.

I never thought my kid would be the one at church with crazy, uncombed looking hair. BUT…turns out that when you wet and comb hair and then get in the car seat, 9 times out of 10 it gets all messed up by the time you get where you were going.

I never thought my kid would go around in clothes that looked worn out or the wrong size. BUT…sometimes, by the time you actually get the clothes on and realize that, even though they fit last week and are now too small, there is neither enough time or energy left to change them again.

I never thought that I would be nearly overjoyed at being ONLY 3 minutes late to Sunday School – or some other appointment – rather than 10 or 15. BUT…it turns out it is pretty difficult to get two kids fed, dressed, ready, and out the door along with a reasonably decent looking me without getting up 2+ hours early in the morning. And sometimes, 2 hours early doesn’t work on 4 or 5 hours of sleep!

I never thought I’d have a list of 500 projects and lessons that I wanted to plan and do yet struggle to make even one of them happen each week. BUT…sometimes we just have more fun playing with all the things already easily at hand.

I didn’t know I’d be able to deal with crumbs and shredded cheese on the floor nearly every second of every day. BUT…it’s hard to clean them up after every single meal and sometimes you just have to deal with a little mess.

I didn’t know I’d have so much trouble allowing colors to get all mixed up during painting projects and play-do play time. BUT…freedom of creativity for a 3 year old is much more important than my OCD color separation tendencies.

Through these, and hundreds of more little lessons that happen every day, I realize that, for the good of my kids, there are several UNimportant things that I just have to let go of. Sometimes they are my expectations, sometimes they are my vision of “perfection.”

In the end, a messy floor, crazy hair, or ruined play-do are very insignificant things in life.

If I have children who are loving and respectful who know and love God…

If we are able to have fun together as a family…

If my children are learning and growing…

If my children know that their daddy and I love them unconditionally…

Then my time and my focus have been well-spent.

Letting go of those other details are worth the end result.

May God’s grace enable me to let go – and teach HIS love to my little ones!

To Wear or Not To Wear

So, for as long as I have been old enough to have an opinion about such things I have thought that elastic hair bows that people put on little girl's heads are ridiculous. I think it looks like their poor little heads are getting squeezed. I don't understand how they stay on. I think they are just a little weird looking.

Enter my new life as a mom of a girl.

We were given about 8 of these little elastic hair bows as gifts at baby showers. Each time I smiled, laughed, and said, "Oh how cute." All the while thinking, "I WILL NEVER MAKE MY LITTLE GIRL WEAR THESE."

I think there is something about HAVING a little girl that just makes a mom more "girly." Examples - I NEVER put shoes on Jaden when he was a baby. Alivia wears shoes almost every day. I also thought baby tights were ridiculous, and I have put them on Alivia at least 3 times. With a boy, outfits that match are cute, but on a little girl they are ADORABLE and effort at coordinating socks and shoes with the outfit is actually pretty fun.

So, these 8 gifted hair bows... They have resided in the drawer I open every day right next to the baby socks. A few of them also came with barrettes so I figured I would just save them the required time to be in good faith after receiving them as a gift and I would just eventually use the barrettes. BUT, there they sat, staring at me every day as I thought about how ridiculous they are.

Well, today I put Alivia in a new-to-her outfit. Not your traditional pink, but still very girly. And something about the purple hair bow called to me. I thought, "well, these silly things are so ridiculous, I wonder what they actually look like on?" (I think I may have bee inspired by the fact that Jaden woke up with the craziest hair ever and I was just in the mood for more morning laughs.)

Well, I put the bow on and.....

Well...

You be the judge.....

Without bow

With bow

What do you think?

In my opinion, fairly completely adorable either way. But, I am pretty partial to the bow today. I'm afraid my distaste for the bows has gone by the wayside. I'm now a mom of a girl. I might be becoming a girly-girl.

SO BE IT! :-)