Steve and Jenny Valentine

Being a stay at home mom (SAHM) brings me many days full of joy and is an extremely rewarding role.  But...there are days that are also very lonely and where I feel I will lose my mind if I have to tell my child to "stop doing that" one more time! I find great encouragement when I read thoughts from other moms who have been there or are currently in the trenches of motherhood themselves...it's a salve to my soul to know that the things and thoughts I deal with day in and day out are normal daily happenings!  The following post is one such encouragment. I trust that you moms will find some encouragement with her words too. I also hope that you husbands and dads reading this find it encouraging as well.  I am very thankful for my husband and appreciate the many moments he cares for me with his words. Enjoy! http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/what-every-husband-should-know-about-stay-at-home-moms#.T9IFsA18VAg.twitter

Our mother's day was pretty low key...mostly because I was out of town the days prior and flew back to Orlando returning the evening of mother's day.  Steve had a meal planned to cook, but had to adjust plans since my flight was delayed and we were pushing up against Karis' time to eat!  So he took me out to eat at Longhorn steakhouse.  I think the best part of my day was Isaac and I coming home and getting to spend the evening with Karis and Steve!  It was fun to be away, but I was glad to be home.  Steve and Karis had spent time planting flowers with cousins, Char and Eloise, along with Uncle Rob on the Saturday before mother's day to give to the mommy's in their lives.  It was fun to hear the stories Steve told about Karis "helping" plant.  Apparently she liked playing in the dirt more than anything!  I didn't get a picture of Karis with my new plants until a couple days later, which was perfect because there were several really pretty blo...

Before I even became pregnant with Karis, I knew I would want to stay home eventually with our children.  It wasn't until I had our little girl, where that feeling only intensified.  Steve and I feel blessed that we have been able to make that transition of me leaving a job outside the home to stay at home with Karis...and now soon to be Isaac too!  I dealt with a lot of mixed emotions and negative thoughts at the time of leaving my job: sense of worth in doing a job outside the home, will people judge me or think I'm lazy, will I get bored, etc.  I realized that most of these thoughts were attacks from the enemy on my personal self worth that should only be found in Christ.  My worth doesn't come from how much money I make, where I work, how well I do my job, but my worth comes from Christ.  It's because of Him, I am motivated to do a good job at whatever my role is...for now it's being a stay at home mommy.  I came across this b...

So I realized I started this post back in December and never finished or published it.  I figured I would find time to do just that now! Back when I was pregnant, we started considering using cloth diapers...you're proabably reading and thinking CRAZY!  Well at least that was most people's thoughts and comments were like when we talked about it.  Even my mom was like, "what?"  My typical response is, cloth diapers are not what they used to be...in fact they are very similar in design to how you would use a disposable diaper.  Karis wore disposable diapers for the first 7 weeks or so of her life (mostly because we were given a ton of newborn diapers AND because she was so little to fit into the cloth diapers).  Once we got to the point where we transitioned into the cloth diapers, I admit, I was a little nervous as to how things would pan out.  Well, I can safely say we are well into the use of the cloth diapers and we are VERY PLEASED with our de...