Peace Over Perfection

One of my favorite things about being a stay at home mom is that I appreciate the seasons more than I ever have. Before kids I worked full time and every day was pretty much the same no matter if it was the middle of July or the dead of winter. Wake up, make coffee, commute to work, do the work, commute home, eat dinner, and sleep. When your day is spent in a climate controlled office the seasons do not impact you much- unless the weather affects your commute. But now as a stay at home mom the change of seasons dramatically changes my day to day. In the summer we go outside and play in the pool as much as possible, in the fall we rake leaves and jump in puddles, and in the winter we snuggle with picture books and decorate Christmas cookies. I love that being a mom makes me stop and acknowledge the seasons. But there are other seasons when you are a parent of little ones that are not as enjoyable- the season of postpartum hormones and sleep deprivation, bed wetting and three yea...

When I started writing this blog I had no idea that the title would prove to be so timely in this season of my life. Peace over perfection. Perfection is officially impossible to maintain. That ship has sailed but I am pursuing peace. My baby girl is 6 months old now and the boys are 2 and 4. Life is a bit of a whirlwind and sometimes it's difficult to keep up. I've had some definite low moments this past month. It's strange that the one theme God keeps bringing me back to is PEACE. It's strange because life with all these little people around me and needing me is really anything but peaceful. I want to remember this year as a year marked with a deep rooted unshakeable peace. A peace that surpasses all understanding. I decided it was time to do a word study on peace. So below I listed out all the verses that stuck a cord with me from the New Testament. 2 Peter 3:14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or bl...

We are one week into our very first year of home school! My geeky mommy self has been excited for this moment since my oldest son was three months old. If you know me, you'd know that is not an exaggeration at all. It's pathetic, I know! But I own it! My oldest son is almost four, my other son is two and a half, and my baby girl is four months. We are making it work. More than that, it is going great! The structure that it adds to our morning has been wonderful. However it does require a little prep the night before to help the morning go smooth. After I get the kids in bed at 7 pm, I set up our school. I thought I would share the details of what that looks like.  First I set the table with all of our school things. In front of me, I have my notebook, our Bibles, and kids gummy vitamins. The vitamins really help get the boys to the table in the morning. Who wouldn't like a couple pieces of "candy" to start the day? The first thing we do every morning after ...

 I may be crazy but I am almost three weeks into the Insanity workout from Beach Body.... and I am 12 weeks postpartum! If you don't think that is crazy, you have probably never heard of the Insanity workout. It is claimed to be the "hardest workout ever put onto DVD". I did not plan to start this workout regimen. It just happened. About 10 weeks postpartum I had a very very bad day. I was upset that my postpartum weight loss had completely stalled. There I was ten weeks after my third baby and ten pounds heavier than my pre-pregnancy weight. That doesn't sound like alot of weight but from my experience with my last two pregnancies those ten pounds are very sticky and take alot of time and sweat to come off. So I decided I needed to do something dramatic. My husband purchased the Insanity DVDs a few years ago and we both tried to do the "fit test" DVD which basically gives you a way to measure your improvement as you get more fit and progress through the 6...

        Clutter makes me twitch. One of my favorite activities when the boys and baby girl are napping is to walk around the house with a trash bag and load it up with anything that seems superfluous. Every few months I manage to fill at least two full trash bags to donate. How does all this stuff get in my home?!!   Toys are the biggest offenders and they are always underfoot because the play area in our home is also the family room. I fantasize sending my boys upstairs to play happily together in an imaginary bonus room for a couple hours while I work on projects downstairs, clean, exercise, cuddle baby girl, or have a cup of tea…. Um… who am I kidding? I have two beautiful, healthy, rambunctious boys who are two and three years old. They need a mom intervention every two minutes. I referee their wrestling matches, negotiate toy kidnappings, and kiss owies all day long. They also love to be with me, right in the middle of whatever I am doing...

When I became a mother I really wanted to do it right. I read so many books about pregnancy, labor, healthy sleep, breastfeeding, child training. Let me share a secret with you that took me a long time to learn: perfection is impossible. Don't aim for it! Don't do it. Don't even think about trying..... Really. We all want to do this motherhood gig well but perfectionism is a trap because perfection is impossible to define let alone to obtain. Aiming at perfection will make you lose your peace. Here is the crazy thing! Perfection looks nothing like peace but peace looks a whole lot like perfection. I find that when my focus is on perfection: having a perfectly clean house, perfectly behaved children, or a perfect physique, I obtain none of those things. Instead I turn into a mean mommy and a grumpy wife. But when I focus on peace: make manageable goals for cleaning, take time to engage my children's hearts, have realistic and healthy expectations for physical fitness, an...