I'm not a better parent than you are!

Why do we feel like there's a parenthood competition? 
Like there's a trophy to be earned at the end of 18 years? 

What if, instead of acting like it's a competition, we started to encourage each other, love one another, respect one another...work together instead of against each other?  What an amazing world it would be!

Whether you choose to homeschool your children, put them in a private school or put them in public school, it's OK!  I'm not a better parent than you are because I choose one way and you're not a better parent than I am because you choose something different.

I think it's safe to say that MOST parents do the best they can.

MOST parents worry about making the right choice for their family and want what is best for their child(ren). 

Who are you to say that what I've prayerfully chosen for my child is wrong just because it's different than what you choose to do?

Whether you let your child watch only Disney movies or occasionally let them see an R-rated movie at your discretion, I'm not a better parent than you are and you are not a better parent than I am.  We all view things differently.  Growing up, my mom's philosophy was that she didn't want to shelter us from the world and allowed us to watch all sorts of movies.  As for me, in my job as a parent, I'm a lot more picky about what I let my kids watch and hey, that's ok.  My idea of appropriate for my child may not be your idea of appropriate for your child.  I'm not a better parent than you and you are not a better parent than me.

Whether you feed your child only grass-fed meats, organic fruits & veggies grown on your own property and absolutely never let them have candy or whether you do the best you can with the income your family has or the busy schedule you have and feed your kid McDonalds a few days a week.  I am not a better parent than you are and you are not a better parent than I am.

Whether you choose to work outside of the home full time or whether you choose to be a stay-at-home mom, I am not a better parent than you are and you are not a better parent than I am.

Whether you allow your child to have a boyfriend/girlfriend at 13 or whether you're choosing to have stricter rules on boyfriends/girlfriends, I am not a better parent than you are and you are not a better parent than I am.

We are all doing the best we can.  We make choices based on our beliefs, based on what we grew up with, based on recommendations from people/sources that we value.  We don't intentionally set out to destroy our childrens' lives. 

We are all different and that's a good thing.  That's how God created us.  Instead of putting others down or questioning them on every decision they've made for their children/family, why not encourage them.  Give them a pat on the back for being a caring parent and whether you agree with their decision or not, it's not yours to judge.  It's not your child they are raising, it's theirs. 
And most importantly, remember the golden rule:
Treat others as you would want to be treated.
And
If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all! 

(And just for the record, obviously if you see someone putting their child in dangerous situations or doing illegal things, by all means, speak up and speak up LOUDLY!)

Our Back to School Command Center part 1

We're 3 weeks away from school starting and now that I'm going to have 2 kiddos in 2 different schools I've been trying to think of ways to keep us organized and on the ball.  I decided that we NEED a "command center" where the kids can leave their backpacks, lunch boxes, library books, etc., where I can post scripture for us to memorize together, some place for me to keep all the important school information and papers and keep track of what's going on at each school. 

 

We live in a small place so finding a spot for this area was starting to stress me out.  I then remembered that we have a space behind our garage door that I've been using to hold my extra grocery bags and a drawer thing for Scentsy pens, ziplock bags, business cards, etc.  I also had a Thirty-One Hang Up Wall Organizer on my garage door that I used for Scentsy stuff.  I cleared it all out, ordered some more Thirty-One stuff so it will all match.  I'll post more pictures as I get things put up and ready!

 

Awhile ago I painted chevron stripes on some beadboard we had left over from our hutch project.

I found this cute picture frame on clearance at Michael's and decided to paint it gray and pink to match the new Thirty-One stuff that will be coming.

 

 

At first I painted the edges pink but after deciding to do pink on the glass (the area I'm going to use for dry-erase board) it was too much pink so I painted it gray and painted the inside pink.

 

 

 

 

I nailed it up (didn't take a picture of it) and I HATE those coat hooks but since we're renting, I'm not even going to mess with taking them down because our landlord is pretty proud of them.  LOL!

 

Now the style of this command center isn't my normal style of things but I wanted it to be bright, colorful and cheerful for the kids.

 

I can't wait for my Thirty-One stuff to get here!!! 

 

 

Uggghhh...CONVICTION!

Hi, my name is Christina.  I've been walking with the Lord for about 9 years now and you'd think I'd have learned this lesson by now.

I'm kid-free this afternoon and instead of doing my power cleaning like I usually do when I find myself alone I took full advantage to work on a project (I'll blog about that later).  Anytime I'm alone I blast music.  Confession time...most of the time, when I'm alone, I like to listen to secular club/dance/hip-hop music on Pandora.  Don't get me wrong, I love my praise & worship and contemporary christian music and 99% of the time that's what I listen to BUT when I'm home alone and working on something, the beat of club/dance music keeps me motivated to continue working on whatever it is I'm working on. 

Sadly, most of today's dance music has awful lyrics.

It's close to the time that my children should be returning home and a song is playing and most of it is about sex and I found myself worried that my friend was going to show up and hear the music I was listening to and think that I'm an awful christian.  Seriously. 

Then...I heard it...the Lord!  He's always so loving and gentle with me when He convicts me even with things that He's convicted me about in the past.  Uggghhh...  You see, I go in spurts.  When I started walking with the Lord 9 years ago, I came home and threw out EVERY.  SINGLE.  cd I owned!  My poor husband (who is not a believer) thought I was nuts but I didn't want anything filling my head that wasn't about the Lord.  Fast forward to now.  Over the years I will find myself listening to secular music that talks about things I shouldn't be filling my head with.  Then the Lord will convict me about it and I'll quit listening to it.  Then I'll start wanting to work out and add dance/club music to my ipod to get me moving.  Then I'll get the conviction and quit.  Then I'll hear a song somewhere and look it up on itunes, add it to my ipod, hear more songs, add those.  Then the conviction...on and on.  I've always been pretty good about not listening to it around my kids.  I mean come on, have you heard a 5 year old singing lyrics to a song that made your mouth drop?  Yeah, I have and I don't ever want it to be MY kid singing those words.  If you haven't, all you have to do is look on youtube and people have posted videos of their kids dancing and singing to some songs that they shouldn't have been listening to in the first place, let alone memorizing!  YIKES! 

Anyways, back to my conviction.

As I had my little panic, the Lord ever-so-sweetly spoke to my heart.
"What about me?" I heard Him ask.

Here I am, worried that my friend would hear me listening to this music when all along, the Lord has been by my side all afternoon, listening to it with me.  :(
O-U-C-H!!!

Why am I listening to music that I won't allow my kids to listen to?
Why am I listening to music that I don't want my christian friends to hear me listening to?
WHY AM I LISTENING TO MUSIC THAT I WOULDN'T WANT JESUS TO KNOW I'M LISTENING TO?

If I could physically see Jesus in my house, would I have EVER turned on that Pandora station?  HECK NO!
It's so easy (sadly) to forget that He's here all the time.  He sees everything.  It's not like I can hide it from Him.
I want desperately to have my whole life bring nothing but glory and honor to my Savior.  We can only pour out what we take in and if I'm listening to these inappropriate songs, what am I thinking about and what is going to pour out of my mouth?  Inappropriate stuff, that's what!

Alright, so that's my big conviction of the day! 
This goes for movies & tv shows too.  I shouldn't be watching anything that I wouldn't sit down and watch with Jesus. 

Time to weed some stuff out!!

Home Sweet Home wooden sign

I am totally obsessed with wood signs.  Pretty sure my house is going to be plastered with them at some point.  Maybe I'll dedicate a whole wall for them.  :)  Ok, probably not but I do enjoy making them! 

 

For this sign I decided to go with the good ol' "Home Sweet Home".  I swear, figuring out which font to use is the hardest part!  I chose a few different ones and then took a vote from my Facebook friends on which one they liked the best:

 

 

 

Forgive the poor picture quality, most of these are taken with my cell phone.

Most people liked the 2nd set.

While I was still figuring out which one I wanted, I decided to start painting the base coats.  I went with cream and a red color.

 

 

Decision time!  Which font do I go with??? 

Most voters liked the swirly fonts the best but for me, it was a little TOO much of swirly so I decided to actually go with the font in the 2nd picture for the words "Home" and the font from the 1st picture for "Sweet".

 

 

I thought it was a good compromise!  :)

This was after one coat of black.  After it had dried I went back over it to make it smoother.

Painting words is hard for me because I'm naturally a shaky person so I get a lot of squiggles where I don't want squiggles so I have to try to go very

S L O W L Y.

 

I then used my trusty antique glaze after I sanded down the edges and scratched up the words a little bit, to give it a more distressed look (my favorite).

It was hard deciding what exactly to use to hang the sign but I ended up using twine.  I then added a burlap flower and some cute bakers twine to give it more personality. 

 

 

I think it turned out SUPER CUTE! 

I'm hoping the flower stays on good!  It sticks out a little ways but hopefully it's hung in a spot in my hallway that won't get bumped or rubbed against too much to knock it off.