Guided By Grace Life Coaching

This parenting thing is not for the faint of heart. When my kids were little, all my friends with older children (e.g. older than mine were at the time) would always tell me how much harder parenting is as the kids get older. "Yeah, right", I thought. Raising twins was never a cake-walk from the moment I became an immediate mother of two! I thought that surely nothing could be harder than two newborns, or two toddlers, or two pre-schoolers. Well, here's what I think today: parenting the little ones is physically exhausting, while parenting the olders is emotionally exhausting. Want to know when parenting is REALLY hard? When you see your childhood struggles rearing their ugly heads in the lives of your children . Ugh. It stinks. Nothing can throw me back faster to my childhood hurts than when I see similar things happening with my kids. Talk about Momma Bear mode? This is like Momma Bear with a wounded paw mode. Not. Pretty. Right now I see my kids walking...

Over the weekend, I managed to squeeze out enough quiet time to be able to read the August digital edition of my favorite homeschool magazine. Note: "squeezing out quiet time" looks like this: me sitting in comfy chair with feet up; child #1: "Mom! I'm hungry!", me putting feet down, going to kitchen, making them food, returning to chair with feet up; child #2: "Mom! Will you move the truck out of the driveway so I can play basketball?!"; me putting feet down, moving truck, grabbing glass of water because I'm now thirsty, putting feet back up; phone rings; husband (on phone): "Whatcha doin'?"; me: "nothing". And THAT, my friends, is what I mean by "squeezing out quiet time." It's a miracle I did get it read. Anyway, back to my story... One of the articles had a quote from a book that really touched me: There is a time to treasure every fleeting minute of their childhood. Just eighteen precious years to in...

From one mom to another - guess what I got to have earlier this week...go ahead, guess! One. Entire. Hour... ...of floating in the pool... ALL      BY          MYSELF! Can you even believe it?! The only sound I heard was the neighbor dog barking to be let in. But seriously. No children. No splashing. No one to bump into my float. I went from: floating on my back in the sit-up raft, to floating on my stomach on the other one. (Very important not to get an uneven tan, you know.) Then, when the heat got too much to bear - because we ARE having a heat wave here in Michigan - I just got off and swam a bit. Seriously. Are you feeling it? I was actually ALONE for an HOUR IN the POOL! I know. I am still in disbelief as well. But, don't worry. In case you fear that I just lied there wasting away my brain cells or something, I actually did a lot of praying and pondering. Actually, I wish I didn't have one of those...

Mom. It's the title I'm most proud of. The biggest blessing I've ever experienced. My daily prayer is that I don't screw this up. Well, not exactly, but I most certainly want to get this right! Life is fleeting. Time with these precious beings living under our roof will be gone before we want it to be. God has given us these little blessings, and therefore we have a responsibility to train them up according to His will. I do NOT recommend taking this motherhood thing lightly. God's Word has a lot to say about training up our kids and not leading them astray. Some days, the whole thing can feel pretty overwhelming! Today, I'm just enjoying my kids. Preparing to spend time in the pool as the heat index reaches 100+ this afternoon. Thinking about some fun mom moments from the past week. Wanting to just savor some of the recent blessings just a little bit longer. Here's one of my favorites: last Friday I was at the Speak Up! Conference and left the hous...

"Lord, are You talking to ME?!" I've been saying this a lot lately. Trying to discern if the promptings I'm feeling are actually God trying to direct my paths - or just me trying to create them. It all started when I said "Yes!" to the Speak Up! Conference. I love to write. I have a passion for God's Word and allowing it to make an impact in my life. I want to encourage others with the things God is teaching me. But it might all just be a pipe dream. This might not really be anything God wants me to do. Two summers ago is when all this really started. I was able to be part of Lysa TerKeurst's "Made to Crave" DVD filming. (You can read my initial thoughts on that here .) Having not even known when I said yes that the study was about turning our food issues over to God, is just one of the many reasons I knew God was up to something big. It was only THE biggest roadblock of my life. Well, in a nutshell, that experience was the cata...

"Like a Garden" by Anna Holden King                     Friendship is like a garden, Of flowers fine and rare, It cannot reach perfection, Except through loving care, Then, new and lovely blossoms With each new day appear, For friendship, like a garden, Grows in beauty year by year. I found this poem on friendship and thought it was good enough to share. Seems very insightful, doesn't it?  Friends are like a beautifully maintained garden. Such a great visual. Gardens, when given the proper time & care, are gorgeous! So is the promise of our well-invested friendships. Really the garden analogy could be carried on quite far. (I'm thinking of pesky weeds, and how the novelty of the garden can wear off once the hard work of the weeding sets in.) So, even though my search through Scriptures on friendship was a fast one, I thought I'd share my ...

I have a little time to reflect, on this cold & rainy June 1st day. Seems nice to actually have some time just to sit and think. The big kids are relaxing with Mikayla's friends downstairs, and lil' Squirt is at a sleepover. The house is clean. The dishes are done. That means I can write! I've been thinking a lot lately about friendships. I have realized that my outlook on "true" friendships has certainly evolved over the years. In school (I went to a tiny K-12 Christian school - with a graduating class of 18), since I wasn't part of the "in" crowd, I just assumed people didn't really like me. My closest friends constantly changed because people kept coming and going (moving away or just switching schools).  I couldn't wait to graduate and get away from feeling like an outcast. I was very surprised when nearly everyone in my class showed up at my graduation open house though. Turns out I must have been more well-liked than I thought I...