Maybe Gandhi had a point,..

Soak it in,... This quote by Gandhi I ran across this morning. It astounded me and made me really think a moment. Then it hit me. This is how outsiders, people not "raised" "born" and "bred" in church see the Americanized form of Christianity so prevalent in America today. Can we blame them? 

We preach Jesus but scoff at sinners and hate gays. We preach love and forgiveness but cheer when people hate and are the first to throw the stones when we think we see an offense in someone,... We preach we want to save the lost but we stick to our clicks, we don't want to reach out, that seems like too much work!" We say Jesus said feed the hungry but we gorge ourselves with the good stuff and give scraps to our neighbor who is hungry. Maybe Gandhi had a point, how alike of Christ are we. We are to be like" mini"Christ" but I think we are more conformed like "mini-Pharisees" look at some of the comparisons,.. 

Jesus walked with sinners, he was dirty I'm sure, he probably didn't smell the best, he touched lepers, he ate with sinners and tax collectors. He associated with the people no one wanted to be seen with because he wanted to share the love of heaven. 

Now lets look at the American church. We report Sunday and wear our very best, no jeans in church, wear a dress, make sure you look, smell and act your best.  Our churches aren't filled with people who look different than us, they aren't filled with lepers, they are filled with plastic American Christians trying to look their best,.. For who? God? Im pretty sure God can see how dirty you are on the inside he doesn't care if you shined your shoes or wore your best dress. 

I'm sorry if this comes across as harsh. But you know what. I've felt those stares. Of not being the best dressed or most appropriate. I wasn't raised in church! I barely owned a dress. I'm the girl in skinny jeans and a tshirt, my husband is the guy who has tattoos down his arms in jeans and a tshirt and we aren't perfect. We were once lepers who Jesus cleansed and so we want to go to church to raise our hands and WORSHIP and THANK him! Not to look good. We don't try and look different it's just who we are. We want to come to Him just as we are BECAUSE he's  cleaned up our insides.

 I guess if he decides to one day we might become penny loafer wearing people  :) but for now he loves me like I am :) I think when Jesus healed people we see it as he fixed their outside but I think he was more concerned about their insides.... We just fail to see that. Leprosy rotted people from the inside out. Not the other way around. Remember that.  

Strawberry infused water, oh my!

Well over the last few months due to some health reasons I've been trying to give up my horrible diet coke addiction! Don't get me started on how horrible the stuff is for you,.. However I still managed to slurp a good 2-4 diet sodas a day down shamelessly! I finally decided it had to stop! So even though I had been substituting my caffeine need with tea or coffee, I needed a filler drink! Something that would help me get my water intake without feeling like I was drinking water,... (I don't care for water) :/ I know I know horrible huh?!! 

Well I grabbed my kids koolaid pitcher, a handful of fresh strawberries and my truvia sugar**! I sliced the strawberries in fours, cut off the tops to trash and threw them in the pitcher then I added 1 quart of water with ice. After that, I poured my drink (making sure to get fruit in my glass) and used one truvia packet! It was delish!!! Just to note my second glass I cut it down to half a pack of truvia and it was just as good!

**(For those of you that don't know truvia is a zero calorie sweetener derived from the stevia plant! It's the best for you artificial sweeter there is! I like the green/white box one!) 

The end result! Zero calories! Vitamins infused right into my water without the preservatives and a healthy tasty drink you can have every day! 

Homemade vitamin water? Yes please! 

Until next time! 

The modest mom 

Amanda 

Mason Jar Sippies

It all started with this,.....

Sometimes I found myself scared to open these chamber walls for fear of what would topple on me. I spent days pinning organization and DIY. When one day I'd finally had it. I don't know if it was the semi-concussions from the cups that had fallen on me the many times before, or if it was my newfound love for DIY, but one day I opened my cabinets and started chunking cups like they were bad omens or something. I remembered a very cute DIY I'd seen before turning mason jars into cups with lids. Everyone with kids aged 9, 5 and. 2 knows the words "lids" is a very important word in our everyday language!!! With a quick google, I found what I needed. I bought two boxes of mason jars, 20 rubber grommets, a package of straws and some colorful duct tape and got to work. 

I borrowed my husbands drill,... I've been begging for one of my own for weeks now, "no honey I don't want that new coach purse I'd like a drill and sander please," ;) here is a quick picture tutorial how I turned my cabinets from scary to simple! 

 

Step 1: gather the necessary supplies 

It took couple trial and errors so I will tell you what did and didn't work for me. At first I tried taking the lids off and drilling them on the cardboard. The hole was jagged and not circular. I also tried drilling them silver side up, which left jagged pieces in the inside of the cup which I didn't like either. Finally I discovered the best way was,...

Step 2: Leaving them in the box, turning the lid upside down and re-screwing the cap on. 

Step 3: Drilling then with them in the box (hold with one hand I just am not pictured here doing that because I had to snap a picture ;) ) drill completely through making a nice round circle.

Step 4: Some jagged edges may be left around the top just hammer them down and they will flake off.

 Step 5: Squeeze the rubber grommet down and wiggle it into the hole. 

Step 6: Pinch and insert straws.

I will note that finding small rubber grommets are HARD! After numerous calls and searching I located them at Lowes in the hardware drawers! They sold them in packs of two for $1.09 a piece!! 

Step 6: (optional) I also decided I wanted to spice my cups up a bit! So I bought some of this pretty turquoise waterproof duct tape from target! After embellishing make sure you hand-wash them really well since there will be small metal shards from the drilling. 

This was a very fun, easy and cheap DIY! It wouldn't take but a couple hours to transform the inside of your kitchen cabinets from scary to simple!! Now every time I get a drink I can enjoy them in my mason jars like I used to when I was a kid!

Switching gears...

One of the hardest things I've discovered about our transitioning me back to stay at home is the ability to switch gears. It seems like I find myself constantly rushing. Rushing kids to eat breakfast, rushing to clean the house, rushing to school, rushing home, rushing here to this appointment or that priority. Yesterday during all the chaos The Lord brought building blocks to my mind. No I'm not crazy just hear me out. He just said "build blocks" at first I thought.. Are you kidding me? I have laundry, dishes, this and that to clean and do. But being the unhappy "obedient" daughter I was attempting to be, asked my two year old if she wanted to build blocks. She cheerfully agreed and we dug the dusty blocks out of the closet and started to build. I looked up and caught this face. 

 

This face was looking back at me across from her block tower. So proud. My heart sank as I realized I couldn't remember the last time I sat down and played blocks or anything for that matter with her. We built towers, we knocked down towers, we laughed we played. 

I realized I tend to find myself usually either wanting mom time, or doing what I always assumed was serving my family, by cleaning, cooking, tending to their daily needs when I realized I maybe had neglected the one thing I should have focused on more,.... time. Time is a tricky thing. We are convinced we have plenty of it. When I'm starting to realize this is nothing but a lie from the enemy. Don't get me wrong coffee alone is glorious, a clean tidy house is wonderful! But sometimes we need to set down our cups of coffee or bottle of pine sol to look at the face staring at us on the other side of their block tower. Too soon their face will just be a memory we have. I'm thankful The Lord brings me little teachable moments on busy days. I've been in high gear for close to 12 months, so it's going to be an adjustment switching it to low gear but I am thrilled I haven't waited until my children are grown to realize I need this. I need to set my cruise control and enjoy these small moments. Not for just my children but for me, and my soul. I want my kids to remember ME and my love for them, Not that they always had clean socks...

Blessings again,

The modest Mom 

Amanda 

It is time,...

Do you see this picture above? No it's not a boob haha! It's a circle! Get your mind out of the gutter geeze! It's a circle with a speck In the middle, but do you notice your eye automatically goes to the speck! That dot takes up less than 10% of that entire circle, but you see the speck,... Remember that...

Sometimes I think I spend most of my time coming up with excuses, why I should or shouldn't do something, what someone might think or frankly maybe I spend alot of my time preaching about embracing change but when it comes down to me being the change I see coming my way, I panic. The opportunity has presented itself to me many times in the last year, a pin I pinned on Pinterest, a mothers blog written from the depths of her heart, a picture, a feeling, a smell. A year ago I pursued my dream, to become a hairdresser! Something thankfully Im good at! Something I love! I love that feeling of helping someone feel the best about themselves. They come to see me sometimes, sad, discouraged or feeling down on themselves. By the time I'm done with them I hope that they leave with the feeling of happiness! A smile on their face, the way it lights up with their satisfaction, it means the world to me and its what fuels me every day! I left the full time job of being a stay at home mother. Something I have to be honest with you, I wasn't very good at!! Surprised? Don't be! This is what being a stay at home mother consisted in me, I got up late, kids were at school late, I didn't cook a balanced breakfast, I threw pop tarts at their heads as we were running out the door, I was tired, yeah the house was clean sometimes, I longed for naptime. I did the occasional craft with them or outing but you see I was missing the point. I was missing what I was supposed to be doing because all I could focus on was my "speck" my failures, my weaknesses, my flaws. I critiqued my mothering abilities and went on a downward slide until I finally gave up. 

Yes you heard me correctly. I gave up on being a "mother". I decided the easiest way to fix this was go to work. But really i was searching for satisfaction in myself. i wanted to do something i was good at,something  that i felt like gave results. I overnight decided to put my one year old in childcare and pursue something I felt like I wasn't going to fail at! Something I had control over. It has been a journey that has lasted about 11 months. I've done everything I set out to accomplish, depending on what standards I'm looking at. Sadly I've not been the best mother. I'm not bashing anyone's ability to mother and work I'm simply telling you my ability and its not good,... I basically went on a rabbit chase because I was so scared at failing on being a good mother ... All I ever wanted was the picture perfect stay at home life, I wanted to be up with my makeup on before 7, coffee drank, house tidied, kids in order, lunches packed, errands ran, dinner cooked and sexy and appealing to my husband after being pooped, kicked and puked on for 12 hours straight. When I couldn't do this, I essentially figured I wasn't cut out for the job. You see, I focused on the wrong things, i didn't see my daughter who learned to walk because I was on the floor helping her as an accomplishment, or my 4 year old learning to hop on one foot because I traced hopscotch on the sidewalk as an accomplishment. It grieves my heart to look back at what accomplishments I so easily took as nothing.  Lately The Lord has been moving in our lives in ways my mind has never fathomed... (Ill leave those details for another blog) He's shown me weaknesses and ways I cope with situations that are frankly costly and dangerous. He's shown me how my selfishness and need for satisfaction and success has lost me precious time ill never gain back. He's showed me that I was the one setting standards for how "good" of a mother I should be. And when I didn't reach it and essentially failed I was the one who wouldn't let myself forgive myself... 

So in obedience what I've done as my full time job will now become my part time hobby. Yes. In the last 10 months I've loved the people I've met, my clients my friends. I've grown In ways I can't describe, but it was never my intended full time job. Not the job I was supposed to have from the beginning. I'm not quitting my lovely hair cutting career for good. I'm just cutting it down to bare essentials. After discussing with my husband and praying about it we have decided 4 days a month will be what I'll do, two days every other week. My full time duty is now to my children. One day when The Lord has my child raising over, I can't wait to spend the rest of my days making people beautified!! Until then it's going to be an adjustment as I learn to focus on my circle, not dots allowed! 

   

Learning more about myself daily,

Amanda

The Modest Mom 

I would like to thank my very best friend Tara Vandiver. She has loved me through it all. She has listened to me cry, helped me laugh at my bitterness and been the sister I've never had. Shes inspired me, hoped for me and always helped me remember what is important. This blog is dedicated to her. 

 

Becoming a minimalist of sorts.

                                               

The last year or so for my family some could argue has been lapped in luxury. No I don't drive a BMW or eat caviar and drink fine wines, but as a simple middle class family we enjoy eating out 2-3x a week, buying hoards of junk food, candy bars and expensive cuts of meat, I buy a minimum of 3 bags of chips to sustain my family of 5 weekly and personally drink about 3 sodas daily. If I want chocolate cake, or Mexican food for dinner, well I get what I want. These last few weeks The Lord has been working on me and my so-called lavish lifestyle and my ever growing debt and insistent need for "things"... Then I read about a minimalist mother who inspired me and make me take a closer look. I took this excerpt from www.frugal-living.yoexpert.com

"Minimalism is more of a process of living than a destination in life. It is something that must continually be worked on in order to maintain an uncomplicated, clutter-free existence and live a minimalistic lifestyle. Because the vast majority of the world seems to believe that wealth and happiness is attained with material possessions, there are constantly a number of influences that will complicate things for the person trying to live a minimalistic lifestyle. "

That pretty much hits the nail on the head. From food to clothing, to fancy cars, to obsessive career paths that we let consume who we are. All to achieve a better way of life, a better tomorrow when in actuality I feel like we are just sucking the value out of tomorrow because we are too worried about what we can gain today. So my family, our journey begins. Our first step, we are cutting back on is our eating out and obsessive junk food spend binging and putting it towards credit cards until our bills are paid down. We will spend a set amount on groceries each month around $20-$30 a week cutting back to an occasional bag of chips, as that's definitely not a necessity. I'm excited about my minimalist journey. I'm not expecting it to be perfectly easy but I'm expecting it to be easily perfecting! I realized today though I'd rather be a poor poor minimalist eating beans and rice than a rich person unhappy and self absorbed or a person intent and content on freeloading. There are families all over the globe living off of $1 a day. Im shooting around $5 a day. So I raise this can of diet coke and the crumbs left In my last bag of cheetohs and say, cheers!!! I'm off to find a better more inspired me. 

Until Next time, 

Amanda

The modest mom 

Learning to ask for directions.

I think it's a fault most of us cling to,.... the idea we know where we are going and to ask for any other input other than what is bottled up inside of our smart little heads would be simply absurd.

As a mother, I attempt to teach my children basic learning skills such as, "Ask before you get a drink of milk so this can be prevented Emy." As I'm wiping up a gallon of 2% milk spilled into every crevice of my kitchen floor. I look at the curly blonde headed girl with hair twisted and sticking in every direction staring back at me with icy blue eyes that would penetrate your soul and the innocence in her little voice managing barely a creak. "But I thought you were too busy, and I was so thirsty I couldn't stand it."

There is was. A reflection of myself. Thinking to myself, even if I was slightly busy doing the dishes or folding laundry. She knows not once has mommy ever let her go thirsty. She just knew that in order to get the results she wanted which was indeed prompt action and forgo having to wait, she knew what she must do. She must do it herself. As the old saying goes its better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

Oh the little lessons in everyday life that have me laughing at the hypocrisy in myself. One of these little learning moments which make me realize, that the strong will of that little girl comes very deeply rooted in her DNA. As a matter of fact, that little girl is me.

More often than not I find myself in a puddle of milk in the floor looking up and asking my Creator, "Why?" Or justifying my situation as, "Well I couldn't wait any longer so I thought you wanted me to do something!" I make a mess of my life more often than I should thinking that I know exactly where I need to be. Or how to get what I want.

About a year ago, I had a crazy notion that I want to go back to school. I had all these ideas to fix a life and happiness that I was convinced was broken. So I pursued school, without thoroughly consulting with the One I should have to begin with. Lets just say I asked for directions but was already a 1/2 mile down the road before He had a chance to open His mouth.  I threw all caution to the wind and gave up my 100% stay-at-home-mom status and I chugged myself full steam ahead through school, getting a job, establishing a career I had always wanted and creating a financial burden on myself that I didn't feel the slightest bit concerned about until the day it dawned on me, I had pushed my family aside, I had pushed my children aside and all I was learning was simply how to live a self consumed, materialistic, life for me. "The American Dream." (shudder) Not to say the direction I had been traveling was necessarily a bad direction, I'm convinced now it was more in HOW I traveled this direction. Are there things I wish I could take back when the burden of my choices sit on my chest like a concrete block? Yes. However, the more time I spend with my God the more the solution becomes more clear.

 I had simply fallen into a kind of selfish, depressed sort of living thinking the world absolutely owed me something, digging myself into a financial burdensome hole trying to use material possessions to satisfy my hungry disobedient soul. Until one day I was asking God. "How am I going to patch things up this time, I've really made a stink of things." When he brought the incident to mind of spilled milk. Life is about learning to ask for directions. It's about learning that sometimes we must wait for our glass of milk. Sometimes God isn't ready to put us where he wants us to be. Or frankly sometimes we aren't ready to be where God needs us to be, and when we go on our own taking the road we think we need to travel just because we get tired of waiting it sometimes is just a way to take the long way around. 

That's not to say we don't make a mess in the process. But luckily Jesus is there to wipe away the spilled milk mess, just expect maybe a little bit of scolding in the process, but love too reminding us he's never let us go thirsty before and He's not about to start now.  There however is a good chance our kitchens might smell sour and our glass of milk we craved so longingly is delayed even further until Mom can get to the store to buy more. But He's there to reassure us that he will provide us what we need when the time is right. Not when we think it is. So the next time the burn and thirst of this world overtake my throat I think instead of asking for forgiveness, I've decided from here on out I think I'll just try to learn and ask for directions.

Signing off,
Amanda
The Modest Mom

Whoever said being a stay-at-home-mom/homeschooling teacher was easy obviously has never tried it!

So as I sit here behind my laptop sipping my warm coffee and have hopefully five minutes to spare while my fingers type as quickly as they can possibly move the thought comes to my mind "i must've been crazy!" Just as quickly as it enters my mind with another sip of coffee I'm able to push it aside.

This year I attempted something rather ambitious if I do say so myself. I decided I would be a full time stay-at-home-mom AND a full time homeschooling teacher to my 7 year old. Wow, let me say this... if you think either of those jobs are a piece of cake,.. I'll trade you one day in my life! Haha! Easy--no,.. rewarding--of course! Homeschooling has taught me more about myself than about phonics I think! haha! It has tested my patience, it has forced me to work through problems head on until they are solved and its helped me to learn how to multitask for sure! 

Whoever came up with the sterotype that stay-at-home-mothers sit around, watch soap operas and eat bon-bons all day has obviously never been one. If you question how much context is put into my day here is a sampler from the menu: 

I change a childs clothes at least 3 times. 
I change a minimum of 10 dirty diapers a day. 
I wash a minimum of 2 loads of laundry daily =average 14 loads per week. 
I am responsible for a meal 12x a day (4 peoplex3meals)
I am responsible for getting at least 8 snacks prepared daily.
I teach all subjects, including morals when my kids decide its fun to throw sand in each others eyes. 
I read stories, I conduct science experiments and grade papers. 
I have to constantly remind a 7 year old he indeed CAN NOT play his games right now for 1,200 time in 24 hours. 
I have to yield off a 3 year old that's constantly bored and "hungry or thirsty" despite her 3 daily snacks and 3 full meals and a baby that thinks being sat down is the end of the world and lastly I'm pretty sure its been been so long I forgot how apply eyeliner haha! 

And my list could go on so long that I'm pretty sure it could have its own blog topic!! 

Is homeschooling a job, YES! Is it rewarding, YES. Are there days I want to switch jobs with my husband, YES! Homeschooling was a decision we thought out very thoroughly and I don't regret it at all. To have the freedom of training up my children and their rearing be my sole responsibility is a huge reward. I love that. Homeschooling has forced us to work on relationships.. its forced us to recognize where problems are and to work on them. Are we close to be refined? Of course not.. are we ever even as a adults for that matter! 

Today I feel like society in general lacks a certain amount of respect, families lack a certain amount of closeness. We have all this technology and somehow instead of bringing us together, its really tearing us apart as we don't talk to people, we email,.. we distance ourselves from the actual person.




Update July 5,2013

This blog was left unpublished even though it was written approximately 2 years ago! I was amazed and Inspired when I came across it! Sometimes The Lord knows exactly the direction you were needing and who would've thought I found it inside an old blog post. I want this woman back! This woman who was concerned more about growth and sacrifice no matter what it took! This woman was strong determined and focused... Alot can change in two years, alot can falter,.. Sometimes we need to be brought back to reality in a sobering manner... Today I'm thankful I found this. And I'm inspired to find this woman in myself again... 

Signing off today, 
Amanda
The Modest Mom