It Takes a Village

So raising children is hard work. It's exhausting, right? Thankfully, God sends us resources and people to encourage us and spur us on. It is a battle to raise children in this chaotic world.  My best friend recently sent me a transcript from a Family Life broadcast about discipline in 2-4 year olds that is fantastic. I love when my friends send me stuff like this, it reminds me that there are others out there who are praying for strength to love their kiddos enough to grow as parents and do the best thing which is usually the hardest thing. Because it is a journey; Josh and I are perpetually reevaluating our parenting techniques and what works best with each child, they are so different! So Sarah sending me this reminded me of all the parenting resources I've cataloged over the past few years, and I wanted to share some of them. God gives us community to exhort one another towards godliness, to love each other, and pray for one another when things inevitably don't go as planned:-). 

Discipline 2-4 year olds: Transcript/Audio from the Family Life radio broadcast Sarah sent me. So much good advice. Part 2 is here: Discipline 2-4 year olds-Part 2. 

Children are a Blessing: Lots of succint, applicable advice here. Josh found this, summarizes a lot of what we've read in parenting books. My favorite part is the guy's first point, children are a blessing. How often have I seen my children as a burden or as impeding on what I want?? Get your eyes off of yourself, Smeader!

10 Ways to Love Your Kids: Great reminders.

So the above links have some practical parenting techniques, and I hope they don't overwhelm you. I know I get overwhelmed when I think about discipline. So here is some encouragement! A quote from the Discipline 2-4 year olds link from Dennis Rainey:

"You know, after hearing this many principles and stories and all that, it's easy 

to get something like parenting down to a formula, or an "A + B =C" type of approach.  I just want to encourage you that, don't remove God from the equation.  Because he has all kinds of surprises that you're going to discover as you raise your family.  Some of what's going to happen with your children is going to help you grow up. 

We mistakenly thought God gave us six to raise them; He gave us six to finish the

process of growing us up.  It's interesting how many times you can observe behavior in your children, that's a real reflection back of your own devious heart.  What I'd just encourage you to do is keep following Christ, and don't lose your first love for him in growing as a follower of Christ. 

Because, it's your relationship with Him, that's going to enable you to stay ahead of your kids. Because he knows where they're headed; he knows what they're dealing with.  He does feel sorry for us at times, as we raise our family.  He will help you catch them, when they're doing something wrong and when they're doing something right.  You need to celebrate the positive, and we've talked about what you do with the negative, but in all of those things, have courage that you can do the right thing and finish the course, and raise the next generation who are going to take our places."

So from that...here are links to remind us who ultimately is in control:-):

Behavior vs. Heart Change: This is NOT to hate on homeschooling. Not at all. This article simply encourages all of us, home school/public school/private school, to check our hearts that we don't think our particular "brand" of parenting is the best. Lots of good reminders to lean on and press into God first in all decisions and not judge others with their particular choice.

My Favorite: This is my favorite. She just nailed it. We are so dependent on His mercy.

Trust In His Love: God can restore brokenness. That's what He does, that's who He is. So remember, when you fail, he offers grace. As a parent, this is a truth I have to remember constantly.

Overall, I remember in a women's bible study once, a woman who had had some struggles with her teenage son saying she held on to this verse through it all - 1 Peter 4:8 Above all, love each other deeply, for love covers a multitude of sins.  That just struck me. I need to LOVE my children. Well what is love? Well first God is love (1 John 4:16).  And then the beautiful definition from 1 Corinthians 13 that we use so much in the marriage relationship, but definitely translates into the parent/child relationship - ⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.⁸ Love never fails. What a great reminder of how to love on our babies as they grow and most importantly to draw from the powerful love offered to us in Jesus Christ.  

If you have any good parenting resources, please share! Would love to hear from you, we're in this together!! Let's fail together, pray for one another, quit judging each other, and realize that we have the same goal if you're a believer - children who love jesus first and foremost, right?? 

Refurbishing fun

My husband recently started a photography business and his equipment was taking over our house! So we decided to turn our "catch all" room next to our bedroom into his office. We got some fun shelves from IKEA, a bookshelf from a local secondhand store (Kalamazoo Kitty kzookitty.com), and a desk and chair off of craigslist. I wanted to make my hub a cool, manly desk for his photography stuff and his baby aka the iMac. The desk we got was a great size with lots of drawers which is what he wanted. But it was pretty scratched up and well-loved as the old owners would say:-). I look at some design blogs and was noticing people doing some neat things with spray paint, so I let my creative side fly! I knew I wanted something kind of metallic looking, which terrified Josh, but he trusted me and let me go at it.
Here is a pic after the sanding was done:

I then put on 2 coats of Kilz white primer:

Then did 3 coats of silver spray paint. This is a pic after the first 2 coats:

My husband was freaking out at this point. After the third coat of silver spray paint, I had turned his desk into a version of the Tin Man from wizard of oz. This was not what I had envisioned. So I sanded down the edges and basically all over to take away some of the bright "silveriness."  Then I applied ebony stain all over. I painted on the stain with a sponge brush and then wiped off after about 30 seconds. On a couple of the corners and edges, I let the stain sit for the night. Then sanded some more where it was too black. It was still a bit silvery, so I sanded over the whole thing one more time (all sanding was done by hand, not with a machine). I then added new hardware that I found at Lowe's and put on a coat of Minwax clear gloss polyurethane. 
Here is the finished product:

Thankfully, he loves it! It's nice and smooth, fits all his stuff, and looks fairly manly:-). I had a ton of fun doing it, would love to refinish more furniture, but with a 2 and 3 year old, most work is done between 9pm and 12am. Momma needs to sleep!  I wanted to share in case any of you have the itch to refinish furniture but are fearful...don't be! I am not "artsy" in nature, I just decided to go for it, looked at some blogs, and had a good time. Plus I was only out about $50 bucks if it didn't work! So be courageous and be creative!!