Our “With LOVE from MOM” week is here, and today parenting expert and MOM Mentor shares the BEST MOM TIP EVER! TODAY’S GIVEAWAY IS… The Making of a Mom by Stephanie Shott The Making of a Mom is an all-in-one resource that is written TO moms yet FOR ministry leaders. A heart to heart mentoring resource that gives moms 12 key foundations to biblical motherhood with practical help for their everyday journey. The Making of a Mom also gives ministry leaders everything they need to enhance or begin a Titus 2 ministry in their church, ministry or community. Complete with questions …
Failure to Communicate: Turning Miscommunication into Communication With Your Kids
I asked Siri a question. I am not sure why since even my kids believe Siri hates me. She doesn’t seem to know what I am asking her and even when she says she understands me her answer doesn’t make sense. Here is an example: I wanted to chunk my phone across the room. As a mom, sometimes I feel like this when I am talking to my children. I may say, “Go clean your room.” Yet somehow they hear, “Go play with your toys.” But often our miscommunications are of the deeper sort. I want to be available …
How to Set Curfews for Teenagers
There’s no greater DoAhead on the planet than raising good kids. It can feel like a daunting task when they are little but sometimes it can feel impossible when they become teens. One such example has to do with weekend recreation. You know the drill. It’s a Friday night and your beyond exhausted waiting for your teen to get home. Oh, it’s not that you have a bad kid. It’s just part of parenting teens. Years ago a mother who mentored me told me that there are two seasons in which a parent becomes sleep deprived. The first season is when the …
10 Safety Precautions for New Parents
With all of the information we receive related to disease, safety standards, defects, and science, it’s hard not to succumb to the virus of paranoid parenting. Ten minutes scanning Facebook can leave us hyperventilating over the latest stomach bugs, unexplained illnesses, and freak accidents. No mom wants to end up as a featured story on Dateline or 20/20 as the parent who wasn’t careful. What perspective do we need to be responsible, but relaxed, in caring for the treasure of our children? Safety is all about being thoughtful and practical. Be THOUGHTFUL Structure of baby’s home: Is the paint safe? Are …
What I Didn’t Want My Girls to Know About Dating
When it came to guys and dating as a young women, did you feel like you went at it alone? No one gave you any direction on figuring the whole thing out? My youth pastor tried. He told me to make out “my list” – …the one with all of the qualities I was going to look for in a guy. Wow, was that one long list! Faithful Honest Stable Hard-working Kind Funny… With my list in my head and in my heart, I began the search. What someone failed to tell me was when you’re 19 years old, finding …
5 Easy & Fun Ways for the Family to Get Healthy
I did it again! I overate during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. And so did my kids. How about you and yours? Too much sugar? Too many carbs? Too few veggies? Little or no exercise? Is that as true for you and your family as it is for ours? There are a ton of ways to get healthy and stay healthy, but there are a ton of reasons (a/k/a excuses) why we don’t. Some may be legitimate reasons and real life seasons when we can’t fit it all in or get it all done, but if we were honest, it’s …
Expectant devotions for new and expectant moms
How far is the distance between your parenting expectations and your reality? Becoming a mom has a way of surpassing and squashing our expectations at the same time. It’s a weird and wonderful thing, this journey of growing into a mama. For those just starting out, it helps to have a guide for growing your own life while growing your family. EXPECTANT, 40 devotions for new and expectant moms, is that guide. Whether we join the adventure biologically or through adoption, experience has a way of changing our expectations. Honest moms who can remember will admit to announcing they would …
Introducing a New Baby Into the Family
“I wish you would turn into a ball and roll away.” Apparently my second oldest wasn’t too excited about my pregnancy with our fourth child. Adding a new person into the family fold causes adjustments for all family members. Adding a new person into the family fold causes adjustments Click To Tweet Because this was child number four, I wasn’t too worried. (I may have felt alarmed had this been my second baby.) Our home in La Mesa, California was very…shall we say..cozy. We decided it was best to have our girls (the oldest and the third) share a room …
Teaching Kids to Guard Their Eyes
Sex is everywhere. It is on the covers of magazines in the check-out line, the subject of T.V. shows, uninvited In pop-up windows while surfing the web, and sometimes graphically plastered on the walls of the boys’ bathroom at a local park. I can turn the T.V. off and put a firewall on my on my internet, but I can’t put blinders on my kids every time we leave the house. I could complain about the way other women dress or the culture that idolizes sex, but I can’t control the world. Instead I must teach my kids to guard …
See Coming Before It’s Coming & a GIVEAWAY ~ by Lynn Cowell
Happy Monday! This is Stephanie and I’m super excited to share with you about Lynn Cowell’s new book, Magnetic! It’s definitely a MUST READ and Lynn is graciously giving away a copy to one blessed commenter to this post! SOOOOO… before you dive into today’s power-packed post by Lynn, let me tell you how you can enter to win. ENTER TO WIN MAGNETIC: Packed with honesty, encouragement and perspective-changing truth Magnetic, by Lynn Cowell, will empower girls and young woman to reach their fullest potential by focusing on becoming who God made them to be! A girl who reflects God’s love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, …