A Good Mother...

I know I write about being a mother often... I must confess that much of my life is consumed with my title of "mother"... I love it, I struggle with it; I seek the Lord with it, I often forget to seek the Lord with it and take a stab at it with my own strength (guess how well that works out for me? :) ; I have moments of triumph with it, I have equally as many moments of failure with it; I long for it, I sometimes find myself wanting to run away from it... It is my greatest joy, It is my greatest sorrow; It makes me aware of my strengths and equally aware of my weaknesses...

I read the following this afternoon about being a good mother...

"I wish I could wave a magic wand and make the term “good mother” disappear forever. Not because it’s wrong for us to want to be the very best we can be, but because I believe we as mothers have allowed ourselves to be sidetracked by an impossible standard of “good”.

We keep a checklist of mothering perfections, yet overlook one ironic fact - which is that God doesn’t ever really call us to be “good mothers,” at least not as we tend to define it. Instead, He calls us to love Him, to become more like Him - that is, to be “godly” mothers.

God doesn’t want us to be “good mothers”; He simply wants us! He wants us to be His children, to draw on His strength, to learn from Him what it means to be a successful human being." (She's Gonna Blow By Julie Ann Barnhill)

I just love this last paragraph... "He wants us to draw on his strength"... NOT OUR OWN... when did I start trying to rely on my own strength?? I'm thinking that doing it on my own just might be one of those "BAD DECISIONS" that I didn't even realize that I was making, until I read wonderful reminders like the one above...

Lord Help me to be a GODLY mother towards my many small children... Oh, How much I need YOUR strength... Everyday... Every moment... Every thought... every action... Lord, I just need YOU!!! Please help me to get over myself and into you! When other mothers see me, I pray that the first thing they would see, is You...

Me and My MSC (Many Small Children) on Valentines Day this year... My MSC just love taking pictures, can you tell? :) (Especially Siah :) Siah and Hal just kept asking me "are we done yet? are we done yet? You gotta love trying to "capture" the moment... I'm starting to conclude that sometimes memories are better kept in our hearts than on camera. :)

Dishes...

What is Love anyway? I mean seriously... you grow up with all these pictures in your mind of what it will look like when you are finally "IN LOVE"... It usually includes things like flowers, fancy dinners, jewelry, getting sweet nothings whispered into your ear, a long kiss in the rain...

Although these things are nice, one might think that they provide little substance for a lifetime of committed, christ-centered love...

And although it might seem like I am about to come up with something extremely profound to say about love... the truth is that I am far from qualified to make any claim about matters so intricate...

But the reason that I even brought it up is because this past weekend Joey and I did the dishes together... two nights in a row for that matter... He washed, I loaded into the dishwasher and wiped the counters... And every chance he got Joey would put his hand on me... rest it on my back... slide it down my arm... and...well... you get the picture...

We've been married nine years... and for us, it seems that "doing life together" is what it means to be in love... As we did the dishes this weekend, I was blissfully reminded that my Joey chooses to only have eyes for me... I am his only mistress if you will... And even after all this time he still pursues me with his love... In the simplest of ways...

This past weekend, we did the dishes together... and I was in love...


When I am feeling sad... Joey makes this face and talks to me in a funny voice and says, "Why are you sad? You don't need to be sad." And of course I can't stay sad for very long... I mean just look at that face! That my friends, is what I know to be love!

Hiding God's Word In Little Hearts...

For Christmas we got the kids a book called My ABC Bible Verses to help them begin to learn some verses... I HAVE BEEN BLOWN AWAY by what these kiddos can memorize!! They are only 2 & 3 years old and I guess I just underestimated what they are able to do... This book is AWESOME! It has a verse for each letter of the alphabet and an applicable story to go with each verse... and not only do the kids memorize the verses but they are familiar with the stories as well... more than once I have over heard them pretend playing with one another and they will be talking about "Missy and Bill," the characters in the story... and they will be talking with each other about how they could have handled a situation better, or about how to speak more kindly... What in the world??? I mean, Seriously... just watching all the things that my kids soak up is even more proof to me that God exists, and that He is alive and well... The things that you feel like they will never learn, by God's grace and amazing power, really do manage to sink in every once in awhile... :) And I know for a fact that it's not because I am a perfect mom... In fact on the days that I am failing the most, the Lord gives me these little (or not so little) gifts, and reminds me that the race is sooo worth running!

I sometimes feel kinda corny writing about this kind of stuff... But when I see my kids learning how to recall God's word in situations that they find themselves it just overwhelms me in the most wonderful way...

You see I didn't grow up knowing God's word, I didn't really even know Christ until I was a teenager... We went to church... and I was even in the church choir... But we rarely talked about God or the Bible at home until I was older... So to me knowing God's word at such a young age is in many ways foreign... I didn't know where to start, or what verses to pick, or even how to go about helping them to learn each verse... But the greatest part of it all is that even if I feel at a loss and like I am totally starting from scratch (and without a recipe to even help me to begin), The Lord himself is faithful in "hiding His Word in their hearts so that they might not sin against him." (Psalm 119:11) The things that I feel incapable in, he is MORE than capable to bring to completion!

So here is a little video of the six verses that we have learned so far... I let Siah go first cuz you can understand him a little bit more...





Below is Hal... The truth is that I haven't really practiced with her... I just let her listen in when I practice with Josiah... (cuz I thought that she was too young to memorize verses)...Then a couple days ago she asked to say her verses and it turned out that she knew almost every single one... I was SOOO wrong!!! I keep finding myself underestimating them... shame on me. :) Anyways, here she is... Sorry, she's a little hard to understand :)

A Little Extra In My Ordinary...

A little extra in my ordinary today... Little Reesie is that much closer to crawling and I just love it!!!!

Every afternoon I usually have about a half an hour alone with Reesie while the other kids are sleeping and before she goes down for her afternoon nap... It's seriously one of my most favorite times of my day... There is something really special about this girl... She has been nothing but a delight since I brought her home from the hospital... I keep trying to find her faults and I have yet to come across many... When ever I walk into her room her face lights up with this gorgeous smile... her whole body gets excited to see me... she shakes her arms and kicks her legs and does this silly laugh that I just can't seem to get enough of...

Truth be told I just can't seem to get enough of Reesie... There is something between the two of us that I can't pinpoint but I know that I cherish it... I am confident that as she grows, we will have a real mother and daughter relationship... we will have our disagreements and moments of miscommunication and even moments frustration, sadness and probably even disappointment... But for today, I am soaking up this little treasure... I am soaking up every smile, every memory, every laugh, every time she buries her face in my chest, every hug, every new accomplishment... everything that I can remember to soak up, I will...

Here is a series of some of the many faces that make my ordinary day EXTRAordinary...

Another Therapy Session...

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.


Here we go again... a sneak peek into my free therapy session where I get to take all those things that I most certainly did NOT do this week off my chest... and put them on this blog for all of you to get a little chuckle over and maybe even help you to see that you are NOT alone in this crazy thing called motherhood!!!!

Where do I begin...

How about with the brilliant idea I DID NOT HAVE of inviting thirty vibrant, active, life-loving, candy-filled, uncoordinated, thrill-seeking, adventuresome, curious little toddlers over to our cozy home for a little Valentines shin dig... I did NOT have the best time with some of my most absolute favorite friends and in the midst of the joy and laughter eat an absolutely divine cupcake... ok.... TWO divine cupcakes!!!!

See post below for some marvelous party planning tips...

I most certainly did NOT hightail it to my cleaning cabinet after every one left in a mad dash to hide all the evidence of the chaos from my sweet husband... who, truth be told, reaaallly appreciates coming home to a clean house... I did NOT succeed in getting it all done before he came home... And he was NOT so impressed and blessed that he TOTALLY made me and the kids dinner while I got to sit on the couch and rest!!!!!
Who's the man?? My man is!!!!

Moving on... It was NOT my Hal who fell FLAT on her head while we were standing in the check out line in Trader Joes... She would never disobey me (because my kids are perfect and obey my every word :) and continue to goof off with her brother after I so firmly but kindly asked her not to. She would never carry on and on like nobody's business, then suddenly turn off the tears and the drama the moment the check out guy offered her a sticker...

And there were NOT sooooo many tears and drama in our home this week that I was NOT forced to make a new rule for our three small children...
NEW RULE BEING... "It's ok to cry when we are hurt but we are are not allowed to put on a full broadway production over every little bump, scrape, or dispute over whose toy is whose!"
NO THANK YOU!!!

I did NOT catch my three year old son eating the valentines day card that his Las Vegas grandma sent him in the mail last week!! He has NOT always had an obsession with put things in his mouth and he most certainly does not still suck on his blanket every time he goes to sleep... And the worst part of it all is NOT that his blanket stinks like a wet dog and no matter how hard I try I am unable to keep up on washing it enough to get rid of that AWFUL smell!!!

And Finally... The mantra of this blog carnival ( being brutally honest and LIVING to tell about it!) rings oh so true in this final confession of todays therapy session ...
Little 2 year old Hal is convinced that she can wipe her own bum after dropping a bomb and this week I did NOT catch her toooo late and find her in the bathroom with a confused and flustered look on her face... She most certainly did not get poop on her hands and then proceed to get an itch on her nose and then scratch her nose with her poopy hand!!!!!! I know, I know... she can get some serious diseases with this "wiping all by self" dilemma that we are having right now... but these are the dirty details of my life...

So there you go... Thanks for listening...
And feel free to pop on over to McMama's and join in the major blessing of "Not Me! Mondays"

Till next time...

Party Planning 101

Happy Valentines Day...

How to have a fun, fabulous, and full of laughter and life, Valentine's Day party on a "blame the economy" budget...


1. Begin with the best invention since sliced bread, The Evite...



2. Get comfortable with the word DELEGATE... people love to be a part of things... So first things first... Make your party a potluck... this way you get a wide variety of everyone's favorite foods...

3. When someone asks, "Oh, I heard you are doing a craft, can I get ALL the supplies for you?" You say with a smile on your face, "Yes please. Thank you soo much for offering. What a blessing you are!!" (Thanks Anna & Tara... What amazingly wonderful friends you are... seriously)



4. Don't... I repeat, DO NOT overly clean your house before everyone arrives... vacuuming makes everything seem so much cleaner than it really is.. light a candle with a "fresh scent."
I promise your floor will look like THIS just five minutes after everyone arrives... So why clean twice?



5. When Granny brings your kids a GIANT thing of sidewalk chalk say, "Thank you! This will be perfect for our party!" Then when the kids need an "activity" bust out the chalk and let them draw all over the fence in the back yard...


6. Whip up some delicious cupcakes... not that homemade stuff... waaaay too complicated... besides, honestly, the box stuff tastes sooooo good!!! (Just in case you were wondering (JICYWW), Target most definitely has the best prices on cake mix and frosting)!


6. Say goodbye to table or chair rentals... just tell the kids that they get to have an indoor picnic on your kitchen floor... and they will be fired up for life!!!

7. Then spend the rest of the party loving, laughing, eating, playing, jumping, skipping, and just having a jolly good time with all the amazing friends that God has put into your life!!!

9. After the last friend walks out the door and closes the gate behind them... Pull out every cleaning supply that you own and get to work so that your husband is unable to find any evidence that your Valentines Day Extravaganza was the least bit chaotic!

10. When all is said and done... Sit on the couch with this cute girl and watch the rain...

Thank the Lord for another wonderful day with awesome godly women who love him and love each other...

PS... did anyone leave these lovely cups at our house?

Siblinghood Of the Traveling Heart....

One of my most favorite days of the whole year is just around the corner... the kids and I have been working on a few Valentines Day crafts... today we made picture frames and I wanted to take a few pictures to put inside of their precious works of art!!!!

So we took turns with the big red heart...

Halee Jayden...

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Josiah Malachi...

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Skyler Reese... She bent and ate the big red heart... So you can only see the back side of the heart in her hand...

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And our special guest... Little T!!!



We are having our 3rd annual Valentines Day party this friday... so keep an eye out... It's gonna be super dooper, fantabulously fun!!!!!!

Real Life...

I like to use our blog to remind me of all the amazing memories that happen throughout our days together as the Clark Family... but today I just want you all to know that REAL LIFE goes on around here... Below is an email that I sent to one of my precious friends who has a tender two-year-old boy and a brand new little treasure in her home... she's sleep deprived and living literally second by second... Haven't we all been there... maybe some of us are even there now...

I saw her at the park last week... and my friend just happened to witness one of those mini miracles that we so often forget to give a shout out to our sweet Saviour for... the mini miracle that day was that ALL three of my children were sitting in one spot and eating their lunch... there was no fighting, no squirming... no yelling, no disobeying... It truly was a mini miracle!! So that day, at that moment, i wasn't feeling crazy or stressed out... And for that I am grateful...

But...

I must admit that although there most definitely are moments when my three little crazies dress up in their angel costumes and give me a heavenly moment of peace... Please don't be fooled that we too don't have those days when you just want to get back in bed and try again tomorrow!!!

Here's the email..

"Hi there friend... I wanted to send you a little email to hopefully encourage you that you are NOT alone in this crazy thing called motherhood... I know that the other day at the park I was not stressed out but I would love to let you in on my morning this morning...

It was chaotic and stressful and pulling on my heart strings from the moment I got out of bed... :) When i woke up the kids followed me out of my room and went downstairs... I stopped to go to the bathroom... While I was peeing, a fight broke out downstairs about who was going to get the last banana yogurt... Halee started her screaming bit (which she has been doing a lot lately)... so sadly, my first interaction with her for the day was discipline... she was so upset and hadn't gone to the bathroom since the night before so she peed all over the floor and all over me... So i had to clean that up while she sat in her bed and tried to pull herself together...

I went down stairs and started to make some strawberry muffins for breakfast... Then Hal demanded that she have "Mighty Bites' cereal instead of muffins... we don't do "demanding" in our home... If you have a request you may ask nicely and then you are expected to joyfully accept whatever answer mommy gives you... Hal didn't want me to correct her so she broke out in tears again..I sent her back up to her room again...

Whoo, let's try for a third time... after breakfast we went up stairs to get dressed.. I asked Hal to get her shoes on.. she didn't want to, she had better things to do... I told her that when mommy gives her an instruction she needs to obey the first time without arguing or complaining.... She burst into tears AGAIN!!... more discipline and back in her bed...

By the time I got to story time I was so flustered that Tara asked me if I was ok... she said I seemed a little flustered... I totally WAS!!! I couldn't hide even if I tried!

During story time Josiah shouted NO at Tara when she kindly asked him to sit down, then pitched a fit when I told him that he needed to make it right with her... Halee told me three times that she had to go poop so I kept leaving the line to take her... the first TWO times she didn't go at all!!! It felt like a conspiracy even though I knew it wasn't. :)

We went to lunch after the library... Why? I'm not sure!! Skyler was screaming, Josiah was all upset cuz his beans were falling out of the bottom of his tortilla, hal was upset cuz her beans were to hot... all three wanted me to spoon feed them even though two of them are perfectly capable of eating all by themselves... I forgot water for Skyler's bottle, so I had to hunt down some water...

IT WAS CRAZY!!!! So we all came home and went straight down for a nap!!!!!!!!!

I just wanted you to know that I have these kinda days... I have them quite often if you wanna know the truth...

All this to say, I hope you know that you are doing an awesome job! I am not just saying this to throw out kind words... You have a gift of gentleness and patience with your boys that I love and admire about you! You are a sweet treasure to so many women... All those moms in your play group are truly blessed to call you "friend"!! and so am I! :)"

Anyways... I just think that as moms we need to be so real around one another... we need to constantly affirm one another in the things that we are doing right... (cuz I am confident that we are all aware of the zillions of things that we are doing wrong)...

Did you give a hug to your little treasure today? Did you say a kind word or make a peanut butter sandwich? Did you persevere through a difficult moment or seek the Lord when you felt at a loss? Then you were a great mom today!!!

Real life goes on in the Clark house...

Today I dragged the kids around while I ran errands... So this afternoon I found myself putting on a movie and letting them eat their snacks on the couch... :) We all need a few "movie moments" in our day, don't we???



Till next time...

Who's The Culprit?

I love so many things about our little Reesie... She's so loveable, cuddly, easily entertained, independent, joyful, full of life and personality...

But I must confess that there is one thing that drives me a little crazy!!! .... She is soo hard to feed... She's always been this way... she gets majorly distracted and wants to be doing anything but eating... Don't get me wrong we can always get her to eat... it is just the messiest process ever!!!!

She rarely opens her mouth so I have to pry her mouth open with the spoon which means that with every bite she gets about half in her mouth and half on her chin... Instead of opening her mouth she just kinda slurps it in...

It always gets on her pants...

And even though she wears a bib every time she some how manages to get it all over her shirt... so I decided that maybe I should take her shirt off and still use the bib... and as you can see she still gets it everywhere...

But like I said above... the good far out weighs the bad... just look at the joy in this face...

Oh my goodness... how sweet is this little one... It's hard to imagine that she's the culprit... She's the reason I go through an entire bottle of spray n wash each and every week... And that cute little face is the reason that I don't mind doing several loads of laundry each week...

Who do we ask for help when we don't know which way to go??????

Have you ever seen Dora The Explorer? On every episode Dora and Boots need help solving some kind of dilema... So on every episode Dora asks Boots, "Who do we ask for help when we don't know which way to go?" And Boots answers, "THE MAP!"

Well...

I have had several moments with my small children lately where I find myself sitting on the floor wondering what in the world I am supposed to be doing in the situation that I find myself in...

For example... last night... I put the kids to bed... I gave VERY CLEAR instructions... They both acknowledged that they heard my instructions... then ten minutes later

this happened...

We were sitting down stairs and we heard all this ruckus going on upstairs... I went up to find out who the culpprit was and what on earth they were doing and since they made it very clear that they had heard my instructions... my expectations were that they would be QUIET and IN THEIR BEDS!!!

THIS WAS NOT THE CASE!!!! You know what I found when I went upstairs???? Josiah was not only out of his bed but he was casually playing a nice little melody on his piano!!! It was as if what I had told him a mere ten minutes earlier had gone in one ear out the other!! What in the world?? So he got disciplined and put back to bed...

Was that the end of that? Nope, it wasn't!

Five minutes later... Siah is crying upstairs... I go up (AGAIN) and ask him why he is crying? he says that he had a bad dream... then I remind him that he had not even fallen asleep, so how could he of had a bad dream... you know he says to me, "Oh yeah," Like he had an epiphany and realized that, Oh yeah, he really wasn't asleep... Then i said to him, "so you lied to me just to get me to come up stairs?"... His responce to this one was even better... "Yeah, I sure did." ( I should clarify here... His attitude is not snotty, instead it's very matter-of-fact) But still...

What???? "yeah, you sure did"?????
(what am I supposed to say to that?)


When this kind of stuff happens I turn into this Jeckle and Hyde who somehow live simultaneously in me at the same time... part of me thinks the whole situation is hilarious and is trying to keep that smile from creeping across my face... and the other part of me feels five seconds from completely loosing it on the kid who knows without a doubt that he just lied to his mother and doesn't really seem to care that much about it!

So I asked Siah a few more questions just to make sure that he was completely understanding what was going on.

M "Do you know what lying is?
S "yeah, it's when you don't tell the truth."
M " And what happens when you don't tell the truth?"
S "Mommy can't trust me."
M "And do you want mommy to trust you?"
S "Ya."
M "So why did you lie?"
S "I don't know"

He's smart... He knows... I think he cares... but following in the foot steps of his mother, he often finds himself wanting to do his own thing rather than asking the Lord to help him do the right thing!

I know buddy, I'm right there with you... A few weeks back I found myself lying to the checkout lady at Trader Joes.. she offered my kids a little package of nuts and I didn't want them to have the nuts... So I told her that they were allergic to the nuts... THE YARE SO NOT ALLERGIC TO NUTS!!!... For some reason it just felt easier for me to lie than it did to just say, "No thank you."
Dumb huh?

We need to find a way to not be stuck in our sin... I understand Siah's desires and where he is coming from but I love him to much to just let him stay in that sin... And the truth of the matter is that I can guide him and talk to him until i am blue in the face, and i believe with all my heart that those things are necessary, but what he really needs is the work of the Lord in his heart... Apart from the Lord we will always give into sin...

So I have been thinking about Dora's question lately... "Who do we sk for help when we don't know which way to go?" And I am realizing that the answer is, The Holy Spirit... apart from him we will just constantly find ourselves stuck in our flesh.... apart from him we will just continue in our own strength and find ourselves constantly coming up short... it's strange how we can know what to do, we can know the right thing to say... and yet we find ourselves (whether we are 30 or 3) making choices that don't please the Lord and don't bennefit us or anyone around us.

So we have a new plan in our home... each time we find ourselves struggling to do the right thing, we are going to stop and ask the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts and strengthen us to live beyond ourselves and in the grace and the power of the Most High God!!!

All because I am constantly finding myself in situations where I just don't know what to do...

A Gorgeous Winter Day...

What to do on a gorgeous winter day??? Hmmm??? A little painting maybe? Throw in dash of dry beans, a pinch of dry rice and a funnel? Sounds like fun to me... :)



Our precious neighbor friend brought us a fun valentines day art project to do... The kids have never really done anything with watercolors... so they mixed all the colors together and the "rainbow" heart kinda came out black... But I still thought they did a great job for their first time.


There is so much to learn... how to hold the brush... Make sure you have enough water... Don't push too hard or too soft... try not to mix the colors or all you'll get is black...

Hal washing up after painting...




We have been doing all sorts of things to help the kids learn more about "cause and effect"... simply because it's something fun to learn... Our friend Beth gave us a bunch of dry beans, rice, popcorn kernels and pasta... along with a bunch of funnels, measuring spoons and measurong cups... all for the kids birthdays last year.... and they love to play with everything... It always takes Siah a few times to figure out that if he puts stuff in the funnel, then it's going to come out of the bottom... i love the look he gets on his face when he's trying to figure it all out...


It's those "Simple" things again that end up being so much fun...

Siah's staring at Papa's motorcycle tire sitting up against the garage... I can see the wheels turning in his head... "Why is that tire there? It's supposed to be on Papa's motorcycle? How did Papa get it off his motorcycle? Why did he take it off?????"

What glorious sunshine we had today!!!! We ended the morning with a picnic at the park with Milly and Brit and their kiddos!!

Blessing upon Blessing!!!