I Am Blessed With a Beautiful Mess

Every day I face mountains.

Mountains of laundry.

Mountains of dishes.

Mountains of exhaustion, frustration, and confusion.

Motherhood is the hardest thing I have ever done.

Last night my husband took the kids out for a couple hours, and I had a quiet house to myself.  (Well, I had the baby with me, but she seems like no work at all when you're used to three other tornadoes in the house!)

You would think I would have enjoyed the quiet.  Having a chance to go to the bathroom without having to referee sibling bickering through the door should be blissful, right?

But you know who the happiest person was for those kids to get home?

Me!

I hardly knew what to do with myself while they were gone!  I was (dare I say it?) bored!

You see, while they are a challenge to face each day,  every one of those mountains in my home is beautiful.

Those mountains of laundry represent a little boy who is full of healthy curiosity about the world God made.  They represent siblings playing outside with one another, climbing trees, playing on the swing set, and picking honeysuckle together.

I want these to be the memories my kids have of home; not of how mom was always complaining about how hard they made her work.

Those mountains of dishes represent meals around the family table, talking and laughing together.  The discussions about how to read the clock on the kitchen wall will all too soon turn into discussions about how their college classes are going.  I don't want to waste precious memories that will pass too quickly by spending my time focusing on the dirty dishes.

The mountains of exhaustion, confusion, and frustration represent long days teaching children how to be kind, responsible, honest, and obedient, even when they are not the most cooperative students.

But each “Yes, ma’am” that I hear brings a renewed energy and determination to work diligently so that one day those “Yes, ma’am”s will turn to “Yes, Lord”s.

And one day when I see my grown children living a life for God’s glory, I will look back and reflect on this beautiful mess that defines my life as a young mother. And I will declare that every mountain I scaled was worth the effort ten times over.

Fight Laundry Stains with Biz

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Biz Stain & Odor Eliminator. All opinions are 100% mine.

As a mom, I deal with stains every single day.

When I given the opportunity to try out Biz stain fighter, I was happy to put it to the test.

I had stains of all types to fight: mud, grass, food, baby blowouts, you name it.

Here is just one example of one of the stains I worked on (or that Biz worked on for me).

I know, I know.  I just had to show you the grossest one!

After treatment with Biz:

You can see that it worked quite well.  Biz contains more stain fighting ingredients than other types of stain fighters.  It contains ingredients to combat all 4 types of stains: protein-based stains, inks and dyes, brightening/whitening, and granular stains like mud and dirt.

Although the instructions say to use Biz by adding it to a load of wash, or to wet the area with warm water and apply Biz for 30 minutes before washing, I found a favorite way to use it that worked well for me.  If something got stained I would immediately put it into a bucket of warm water and add Biz.  That way I could allow the garment to soak in the stain fighting power without having to remember to come back and wash it in 30 minutes.  I could get it into the wash whenever I happened to make my way back into the laundry room.

I had the opportunity to use it on a wide variety of stains.

For instance, my little girl smeared peanut butter all over a white shirt.  After treatment with Biz, it came out whiter than ever.

Another time my little man got grass stain and mud on a pair of tan pants.  The grass stain came out without a trace, which surprised me as that is usually one of the toughest stains to fight.  On the other hand, the mud did not come out nearly as well.

My overall opinion was that although there are certain types of stains that Biz had a harder time fighting, the ones that it fought well were fought extremely well.

Take a look at where to buy Biz and be sure to be on the lookout for the new look:

You can also save $1 on Biz with a printable coupon!

Be sure to connect with Biz on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest for lots of stain fighting goodness.

DIY Hurricane Using FrogTape®

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of FrogTape Brand Painter’s Tape. All opinions are 100% mine.

I painted this hurricane using FrogTape® Shape Tape™.  It was a little bit challenging at first due to the curvy shape of the hurricane, but once I figured out what I was doing I got on a roll and was able to complete the project fairly quickly.

(FrogTape® is the only painter's tape treated with PaintBlock® Technology. PaintBlock is a super-absorbent polymer which reacts with latex paint and instantly gels to form a micro-barrier that seals the edges of the tape, preventing paint bleed.  Check out thisFrogTape how-to for more details.)

Step 1: Start with a clean, dry hurricane or vase.

Step 2: Measure and cut pieces of FrogTape® Shape Tape™ to create the design you have chosen.  Peel off one half of the backing.

Step 3: Adhere the tape to your hurricane.  Continue until you have completed your desired design.

Step 4: Remove the other half of the backing and secure the tape firmly with your fingers.  Then use a firm plastic object to smooth the edges of the tape. (I used an old gift card.)

Step 5: Ensure that your design looks exactly like you want it, then paint directly over the tape to fill in the bare design.

Step 6: After the paint is dry, remove the tape from your project and enjoy the finished product!

I had fun trying out a new project.  What project would you like to try using FrogTape® Shape Tape™?  You can find tons of creative inspiration when you follow FrogTape® on Twitter @FrogTape!

Apparoo App of the Week: Grandma’s Kitchen

This post is sponsored by Apparoo.

I’ve partnered with Apparoo to highlight a new app each week. These apps will be free or highly discounted during the weeks I post them, so grab them while you can!

This week's app: Grandma's Kitchen

Grandma’s cooking up a storm in this fresh-baked app that stirs kindergarten and first grade skills into the batter. Kids can “bake” compound words, make and decorate a cake, tell time to see when the cake will be ready, and even help Grandma wash the dishes. Reading, math, and pattern-recognition are seamlessly integrated into eight fun mini-games, and live-action instructive cooking tips add to the deliciousness. Customize the games to choose which skills to activate. So hide the knives and step aside – your eensie-weensie Emeril or junior Julia Child will be whipping up dinner – with a side of reading and math!

 Download it here for only $0.99  (limited time only!)

Thoughts on the Sacrifice of Motherhood

The following is a guest post by Imperfect Homemaker contributor Andrea.

The Lord has really been working in my heart recently about one specific area of motherhood: sacrifice.  I don’t even feel qualified to write about it because many days I kick against the sacrifice involved in rearing my little people.  But as the Lord has continued drawing my heart, I am realizing the incredible privilege and reward involved in being a sacrificial mother.

Most moms are self-sacrificing for their children.  I was blessed with a godly mother who sacrificed day in and day out to stay home with her three children, homeschooling all of us from kindergarten to graduation, cooking for us, cleaning up after us, and much more that I am sure I will never fully realize.  And while I knew that being a mom involved these kinds of sacrifices, I didn’t truly understand the full extent of it until I was knee deep in the trenches of motherhood myself.

Especially if you have little people in your home, I’m sure the sacrifice seems very real.  I know – I have four kids, ages four and under.  Sometimes I think they wait for my head to hit the pillow and then they start crying.  I am usually the last one to sit down to eat, and often my meal is cold by the time I get to it.  Just when I finished the breakfast dishes there is a pile of lunch dishes to wash.  I can change bed sheets pretty quickly – I do it nearly every morning right now on at least one bed/crib.  Some days I feel like I discipline for the same thing all day long.  The laundry and floors are two things that are never clean!  Yes – motherhood is sacrifice.

Many times I have struggled with all that I have to do, all that I need to do, and how fast the time seems to fly away.  I have lamented to my husband that I never get to scrapbook anymore, or that I just spent all day cleaning the house only to have it messy again at bedtime, or that I am so tired from being up several times in the night with sick children.  Sometimes I just want a little time for myself.  Sometimes I just wish I could stop and take a vacation from mothering.  But then the Lord reminds me: motherhood is sacrifice.

This point was really brought home to me when I came face to face with these facts.  Did you ever stop to consider that your child is an eternal soul?  That one day – he/she will spend all of eternity in either heaven or hell?  If that is not sobering enough, consider that your child is entrusted to you for the first 20-ish years of this eternal existence.  And then consider the fact that we only get one chance at this mothering thing.  We can’t put it off until later or a more convenient time, we can’t start in when they are a teenager and hope to fix all the problems, and we can’t go back and do it over a different way.

I had never seen parenting from that perspective before.  I get to be the one to influence and raise my children for the first 20-ish years of their eternal existence.  My children are really the only thing I can take with me when I die.  The house?  It stays here.  The money?  It will be left to someone else.  The scrapbooks/hobbies?  They will probably end up in the garbage one day.  But my kids – I can take them with me for eternity…If I am willing to sacrifice what I want now for what I want my kids to be someday.  Because motherhood is sacrifice.

It really comes down to what is most important to me.  I could put my kids in day care so that I could pursue a career which will ultimately be of no lasting value.  I could be selfish with my time and energy, insisting upon “me time” instead of pouring the Gospel into my children’s lives and living it before them.  I can fuss over having a clean house instead of playing with my kids and building  life-changing relationships with them.  Motherhood is sacrifice.

Now I am not saying you can’t ever have any “me time.”  Or that you can’t ever leave your children with someone else.  But I am saying we should be willing to sacrifice some of the temporal pleasures and entertainment in order to be the right kind of mother to our children.  My scrapbooking can be picked up again when my kids are bigger or on their own.  Eventually I will not have a living room full of toys.  There will be time for  hobbies or pursuits later.

If I neglect my children now for other things which I deem to be more valuable, then one day I will be left with empty arms and fading accomplishments.  But if I sacrifice temporal things now in order to influence my children in their foundational years, then when my kids are grown I will have a full heart and rewards in heaven.   Proverbs 22:6 promises, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”  When my kids grow up to serve the Lord, I will get to share in that reward because I will have poured my life into discipling them.  That is something that is worth the sacrifice in my book.

Mothering is a hard job.  It is not for the faint of heart!  Many days I earnestly desire to be done with diapers and discipline.  But until then I am trying to remind myself that this sacrifice now will bring rewards and benefits far into the future that I cannot even begin to imagine.  So be encouraged to keep giving, to keep teaching, to keep sacrificing because your rewards are eternal!

“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”
Galatians 6:9

Try Something New With Gro-Ables

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Gro-ables. All opinions are 100% mine.

The last update I gave on my Gro-ables was that I had to start completely from scratch because the kids had pulled the pods out of the ground and I found them lying in the grass.

I purchased some more pods and planted them.  I was thinking of trying to do it without the kids knowing, but I decided a better strategy would be to include them in the process.  If I make it more of “their” plants instead of “my” plants, they'll be more interested in taking proper care of them.

My oldest has been remembering better than I have to keep the plants watered! Although they haven't sprouted yet since it hasn't been quite long enough, I am sure they will grow if he keeps up caring for them as carefully as he has been.

The nice thing is that they don't require any complicated tending.  Once they have been planted, the only thing they need is water.

And I'm hoping that my little guy will find eating fresh vegetables even more satisfying than watching the plants grow!

During the warmer months I like to saute fresh vegetables and herbs and serve it over rice or quinoa, but that's not exactly my kids' favorite food.  Hopefully they will do more eating and less “picking” when they realize that they helped to grow what they're eating!

What is your favorite recipe using fresh vegetables or herbs from groables?