New Books for Mother’s Day

27 Apr

Mother’s Day is the perfect time to treat your mom, or any special woman in your life, to a new book, a gift card to her favorite restaurant, and a heartfelt handwritten note.

Here are some recently published books that I recommend. Each book focuses on women while providing back stories and behind the scenes looks at some of our most beloved stories including: Little House, Anne of Green Gables, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and the wife of C.S. Lewis. I devoured each of these books and hope you and the women in your life will eat them up as well. Happy Mother’s Day!

What new books would you recommend?

 

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Mama, You Do You

9 May

Driving in our new to us minivan with all four kids this week, I had a thought strike me. In the midst of our current audiobook, Ember Rising: The Green Ember, Book 3, babies bantering with one another, and while focused to observe all traffic laws, I considered how different motherhood looks in the twenty-first sentry than the ones before it. My daily tasks aren’t the harvesting and preserving of crops, the care of chickens, and the day-long preparation of food. In fact, I spend little to no time on the daily work that encompassed frontier women one-to-two-hundred years ago.

The last few generations have been fed the lie that we as women, wives, mothers, workforce laborers, entrepenuars, and the so the list goes, can be and do all. It doesn’t take an outside poll, expert, or mama blogger like myself to tell you that having it all is not reality.

No woman does it all. I know it can be easy to look at our favorite podcast host, author, tv personality, or even the mom you follow on social media and wonder how she successfully conquers all she sets her hands to. The fact is, there is so much she doesn’t do while you are busy looking at all she does.

I have had several friends ask me how I manage to make book lists, write a blog, self-publish a book, home educate our four children, and make time for exercising. It might be tempting for someone on the outside looking in to assume I have it all together and do it all. Let me tell you, I certainly don’t do it all, nor do I have it all together. I don’t believe any woman does, not even Joanna Gaines! My laundry pile is always heaping and if it isn’t I feel a huge accomplishment as if summiting Everest. If I spend an hour on dinner I feel a pat on the back is in order. I never work in our yard; our kids and my husband do that. While I am passionate about our house being picked up, it is hardly ever deep-cleaned. We say no to outside commitments more often than yes, and our children are only involved in one extra-curricular activity each that occurs simply once a week.

I’m telling you all this mama to communicate a singular point: You do you. God has uniquely shaped your passions and interests. He has gifted you, equipped you, and molded your every day for the mission he has for you to fulfill. While we are all here to glorify God and love and serve Him forever, the ways in which we do this and the magnitude to which our efforts are visible are as varied as the colors of the sunrise and sunset around the world.

While my role as wife and mother at the core–to love, serve,and raise disciples–is the same as that of every mother in history, it is also varied by the period in which I live, the call of the Lord vocationally upon my husband and our family, my interests and abilities, and the opportunities that I either seize, strive toward, or let slip out of reach.

While your motherhood may not look like Marmee from Little Women (Puffin in Bloom) darning socks and working on the war effort, Ma from The Little House (9 Volumes Set), or even Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, your role looks like God has defined it for this period of time, in this season of life, and by His eternal plan. You do you in all the ways that God has called you to loving and serving your husband and children and your community in the unique ways that make up the fabric of your life.

Driving in my minivan and looking at the beautiful children who ride along with me, I am reminded that all too soon my van will be emptied of all car seats and the precious children that encompass it. In their place will be young men and women sent into the world to make a way for themselves. I hope that when that time comes I will have been faithful more days than not in the everyday in the way that God called me to walk out His purposes for my life in order to have the greatest impact on theirs.

God bless you mamas!

You can now purchase my book, Thirty Balloons: An Adoption Tale, on Amazon.

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Twenty Gifts for Book-Loving Women in Your Life

18 Apr

She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain. ~ Louisa May Alcott

On Monday, I posted 12 Books to Celebrate Mom to spotlight the mama in your home (most likely that is you!) as we approach Mother’s Day. Today, I am highlighting some wonderful library editions for the book-loving women in your life, in addition to some beautiful bibliophile accessories and bookish home décor. I think you will find at least one great gift to treat yourself, your mom, or a special mama in your life.

Inspiring library selections for moms of babies to teens:

Classics for moms of all ages:

This collection of Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, A Little Princess, and Heidi:

For Jane Austen lovers:

Give me all the bookish things:

I own this mug in orange and have gifted three colors. One of my favorite mugs!

Purchase a gift card which is always the right size and the right color!

With her Amazon gift card, she can preorder these beautiful library editions:

Don’t forget a yearly subscription to Audible!

 

Here’s to hoping you find the perfect gift for the book-loving women in your life…maybe even yourself!

 

 

You can now purchase my book, Thirty Balloons: An Adoption Tale, on Amazon.

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12 Books to Celebrate Mom

16 Apr

They’re typically the ones behind the camera and not in the pictures, the ones who stay up late and get up early to make sure the items and plans for the day ahead are in order. They’re the clothes washers, diaper changers, taxi drivers, heart shapers, and forever companions. Yes ma’am, I am talking about mamas.

We are a month away from Mother’s Day. With nearly every holiday I grab a heaping stack of books and read aloud to celebrate the occasion. I thought, why not highlight mothers during read aloud times too! Below are 12 books that highlight moms and the special place they hold in the family, and in their children’s hearts.

A few ideas for sharing this particular stack of books:

  •  place these in a book basket and encourage your older, literate children to read them to your younger children
  •  have this special stack set aside for dad to read aloud
  • snuggle in close with your children and read them aloud yourself

I’ve included board books, picture books, and one chapter book. Don’t forget, older children like to be read to as well, and they also benefit from and enjoy picture books.

Join me here on Thursday for a list of Mother’s Day gift ideas for your book loving mama and be sure to leave your own Mother’s Day book suggestions in the comments.


You can now purchase my book, Thirty Balloons: An Adoption Tale, on Amazon.

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A Mom’s Report Card

10 May

Let’s face it, most of us graduated long ago, but the truth is, we continue with the practice of grading ourselves and our efforts. Moreover, we grade ourselves on a scale of comparison based on the best we see posted by other moms or based on what we see of moms as poised in public settings. Much of our grading is based on our idealizations about other moms; what we assume to be true about them, and consequently what we know is not true about ourselves. Why can’t we cook like this mom? Have we given our children ample opportunities like this family? Are we doing enough to equip them to succeed in the future?

Our grading scale tends to be based on appearances.

Take for example, the mom profile picture I can post of me at my best verses the crazy-train selfies I send to my husband after a full day of mothering and homeschooling our four little people. Exhibit A, B, and C below.

Mom profile picture.

Text to husband a few months ago: I spend three hours of every day feeding our baby.

Text to my husband last week: Just unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher with baby in pouch.

There are of course more unflattering pictures and texts than this, but like I am going to post those!

When I talk with other moms, many of them sigh a breath of relief after I have confessed to my absolute need to repent of yelling at my children, loosing my temper, needing a mommy time out, or …you name it. We have all been there! Or at least I have been there more frequently than I desire.

There are no perfect mamas. There is only a perfect Savior. Yet, we will take the best we see posted or acted out with other moms and beat ourselves up that we are not meeting those standards.

Of course there are biblical mandates for parents. There are a multitude of resources for parents to seek out for better communication with and disciplining of our kids. However, the point I want to make to we mama’s constantly assessing our rank or status as a parent, is that God looks at our heart not our outward appearances. Lest we forget, in anointing the next king of Israel Samuel fell into a similar trap. He was looking for stature, strength, and a handsome appearance in the man that would be chosen to lead. But God had other qualities in mind:

The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.
~1 Samuel 16:7, NIV

I think we need to look at our heart this Mother’s Day and lay our report cards at the foot of the cross and our gracious Savior. Yes, some days we will accomplish, excel, and be on our game. Some days our children will behave as we have trained them to and hoped they would. But most days are muddled in the middle of planting, sowing, training, and teaching…repenting and trying again. Most harvest awaits a later day or an eternal time. Patience is a process and parenthood is a sanctification like few others I have ever known.  In the meantime mamas, between now and eternity, we need to look not at our outward appearance, our filtered Instagram or Facebook posts, or the mom next door, but look instead where the gaze of God falls–our hearts.

Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god. ~Psalm 24:3-4, NIV

The idol of comparison and appearances will get us nowhere. Likewise, shaming ourselves into thinking we are the only ones struggling to be the mom we want to be, and yet, can’t measure up to, will only make us feel worse. We must look at our heart, examine it, repent where we are in sin and ask the Holy Spirit to help guide us into the women He wants us to be. We must accept the grace God extends and the refining He provides. All our efforts apart from Christ are in vain.

This Mother’s Day, why don’t you and I rip that imaginary report card to shreds and spend some time thanking God for bringing us this far? We aren’t the same person we were last year, we aren’t the best images of ourselves we see on our social media accounts, nor are we what we see at our worst moments. We are image bearers of the Creator God, washed and forgiven in the blood of Jesus, and He looks not at our outward appearances, but at our heart. Our heart has a report card only God can assess and only eternity will reward.

Happy Mother’s Day,


 

 

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The Meanderings of Motherhood

8 May

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The anticipated birth-day of each of our children come. Then as we are wheeled out to the car with our new little bundles in hand it is strange the feeling of surprise that there are no oaths to take or more papers to sign to take our child home and raise them. After all, foster care and adoption require nearly a left arm and two quarts of blood. Furthermore, many of us depart from the hospital with thoughts like are we ready for this?

I think those are feelings shared by most responsible parents when their children first arrive into the world from the safe confines of the womb. We count the days, weeks, then months of our children’s age to find that the years add up before we grasp the time with our minds, much less our hands.

As the years pass, the diaper bags are placed in the Goodwill or yard-sale pile. Next, the pack-and-play too finds a new home and the toys that we once tripped over have been replaced with big-kid toys we continue to trip over.

That’s the season of life we are in now. Legos have replaced teething-toys, and baby dolls and books have replaced boppy pillows and burp cloths.

I don’t carry a diaper bag anymore, but I rarely leave the house without a few snacks and a water bottle. Even though my children are five and seven, I think they still equate sight of me with hunger. Just ask my husband or the grandparents. The kids could have eaten minutes before I arrive home and one of the first sentences out of their mouths is, “Mom, I’m hungry.” Really?! It’s quite laughable.

Like the meandering path of a river, winding, bending, and curving its way to the sea, so too parenting is not a straight course. Sometimes our children will seem to be independent and free of their need for us in certain categories of life, only to need us greatly in similar categories once again. Occasionally, our well-developed children will hit a bump in the road and need us more than we anticipated at different points throughout our lives together.

I think about the choices my children will make as they grow. These are the easy years–I’ve been told, and I agree. The decisions they make at five and seven are far less reaching than at 12, 16, 18, 21, and even 35. Jesus wisely knows that as the course of our lives wind and bend to our final destination, that we will be prone to worry–not about the bend in front of us, but about the possibility of a twist in the rivers flow a few yards, or even a mile, down. He guides our worry with these words:

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Matthew 6:34, KJV

Prayer and praises to Jesus today, and prayer and praises to Jesus in the morrow. So the saying goes, and is good advice based on Matthew 6:34, One day at a time, sweet Jesus.

Prayerfully, our faithfulness in this day reaps rewards in the days to come. Therefore, we need not face this day with worry for the next that has not dawned.

The most precious gifts I have been given in this life are a result of one of the best choices I made in marrying their daddy. I am so grateful for the choices that led me to Ron and for the gift of being a mom to two of the most remarkable people I have ever met.

Happy Mother’s Day to each woman with children of your own and to all women of spiritual children in which you have invested love, prayers, and guidance. May this be a blessed Mother’s Day for you.

Take heart and fear not the morrow,

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Happy Mother’s Day

9 May

Mothers Day

Dear Moms,

Happy Mother’s Day.

For the dishes that never clean themselves, the dinners that do not cook themselves, and the laundry that never washes and puts itself back in its place.

Your work makes a difference.

For the times you cuddle, caress, and hug. The times you pick up, encourage, and kneel in prayer. For the thousand reminders you give each day.

You are instrumental in shaping a life and future generations.

For the sacrifices you make. The instruction that you give. The books you read and the trips you take your children on.

You are impacting the people your children are becoming.

For the early mornings and the late nights. For the doing without so that your children may have. For the life on mission you live and not simply preach about.

You are laying a path for little feet turning man and woman to follow.

For the cheers and clapping over accomplishments big and small.

You are cherishing champions and reflecting the Father who loves when His children walk in obedience and give their best offerings to Him.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms who frequent This Temporary Home. A mother’s work is never done and the mundane feels as if it may not make a difference most days. But…

Your faithfulness in the great and the small will be rewarded and you are living as a sacrifice like Jesus–the King who came to serve.

God has entrusted you with His highest creations. You are indeed blessed.

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. (Psalm 127:3)

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Because They Call Me Mom

10 May

beach 2013

 Mother’s often struggle with mommy guilt over words uttered in anger, cookies unmade, plans not brought to fruition, and energy misappropriated.

The heart of most mothers’ is full of good intentions, noble purposes, and best-laid plans. However, the crumbs, melt-downs, mood swings of teens, and business of life leave the portrait of our days painted differently than the landscape in our minds-eye.

Take heart: God redeems the imperfections and the masterpieces of those who seek to live and love through a righteous life.

 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8, NIV)

Mom’s, under normal circumstances children will remember much of the good and less of the bad. That is what equips them to make their own parenting choices in the future. It leads them to the Father. It reminds them of an agape love that only the one Father can provide all of the time.

God has equipped children with the greatest capacity for love and forgiveness. It is true, our children reflect the gospel.

Yesterday at breakfast, one of my boys was crying over the way I had prepared his English muffin. That did it. The crying over his daily bread broke me into fitful pieces and  the peace in our home was sliced right through.

Ron helped clean up the crumbs of crisis and loaded the kids in the car for a park date and me some much needed alone time. Before leaving,  my son came bearing good-bye kisses and kneaded the dough of love into his mama’s heart. I needed that.

As he left, simply these words, “I have hugs and kisses in my heart for you and dad when we get back too mama.”

Great love. Great forgiveness. Great grace. Those are the ingredients of the spiritual and the generational families of this life and the next.

Because they call me mom I must call on the Father more.

Because they call me mom I have added accountability to practice what I preach.

Because they call me mom I have kisses and hugs in abundance.

In short, I am blessed…because they call me mom.

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This post is in honor of my mom. I am blessed to call you mom and live in your love. ~Brooke

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For Those Mourning this Mother’s Day

8 May

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Mother’s Day 2012 was bittersweet. The month of May brought much heartache to family and friends through the loss of two beautiful women. One a grandmother the other a young mother. As my heart aches for the families grieving I pray for answers to questions and new challenges that these women’s absence continues to bring.

The pain of death is surely felt by the undeparted.

 I was reminded that God is a parent that outlived His son. God the Father did not spare His own son, but gave Jesus as a sacrifice for our sins. We cannot rush through this fact: God. sent. His. son. to. die.

We anticipate reunification with our loved-ones in death because Jesus died and rose again. His resurrected body is reunited with God the Father as our’s will be with those who have gone before us into heaven.

As a result of Jesus rising from the dead He is restored to not only the Father, but to all mankind as well. Further, those who place their faith in the cleansing blood of Christ Jesus will be reunited with family and friends in heaven who are of the same conviction and belief.

Bible verses preached at the grieving absent the Holy Spirit seem dull and lifeless. However, with the Holy Spirit, God’s living word soothes our anxious grief-stricken souls–if even moment by moment. God’s well of mercy has not run dry nor shall it til Christ returns. He promises He will comfort us; both parent and child.

When a child dies before his or her parent, or when a child looses their parent, the Trinity is familiar with this pain and will  give us all that is needed to walk through our tragedy and loss (Romans 8:32). If Mother’s Day is a day of grief for you this year due to the loss of a mother or child I pray God’s peace and blessing on your soul. May the God of all comfort comfort you in your time of need (2 Corinthians 1:3-5). Those who mourn shall indeed be comforted (Matthew 5:4) both in this life and in eternity. Harder days may lie ahead but you never walk alone.

Home is indeed a place called heaven. Perhaps you are more anxious to arrive now that you know more familiar faces await you…He has already wiped away your loved one’s tears.

Photo by my friend Hannah F.

*A re-post.

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A Bittersweet Mother’s Day

14 May
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This Mother’s Day was bittersweet. Last week brought much heartache to family and friends through the loss of two beautiful women. One a grandmother the other a young mother. As my heart aches for the families grieving I pray for answers to questions and new challenges that these womens’ absence brings.

The pain of death is surely felt by the undeparted.

On Sunday, I was reminded that God is a parent that outlived His son. God the Father did not spare His own son, but gave Jesus as a sacrifice for our sins. We cannot rush through this fact: God. sent. His. son. to. die.

As a result of Jesus rising from the dead He is restored to not only the Father, but to all mankind as well. Further, those who place their faith in the cleansing blood of Christ Jesus will be reunited with family and friends in heaven who are of the same conviction and belief.

Bible verses preached at the grieving absent the Holy Spirit seem dull and lifeless. However, with the Holy Spirit, God’s living word soothes our anxious grief-stricken souls. If even moment by moment. God’s well of mercy has not run dry nor shall it til Christ returns. He promises He will comfort us; both parent and child.

When a child dies before his or her parent, or when a child looses their parent, the Trinity is familiar with this pain and will  give us all that is needed to walk through our tragedy and loss (Romans 8:32). If Mother’s Day was a day of grief for you this year due to the loss of a mother or child I pray God’s peace and blessing on your soul. May the God of all comfort comfort you in your time of need (2 Corinthians 1:3-5). Those who mourn shall indeed be comforted (Matthew 5:4) both in this life and in eternity. Harder days may lie ahead but you never walk alone.

Home is indeed a place called heaven. Perhaps you are more anxious to arrive now that you know more familiar faces await you…He has already wiped away your loved one’s tears.

Photo by my friend Hannah F.

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