Hello, anybody home!? Life has been crazy over here lately. Update:

Me. I marched along the whole month of March until I got mastitis, again. Then I got it in April, May, and June, before I figured out the cause: candida (thrush!). Now I’m on a hefty dose of Diflucan and just laughing at the fact that the problem’s been right in front of me the entire time! So, I didn’t achieve my goal of getting a cute butt, but I did figure out why my boobs were trying to kill me. Can we call that a win? I figure if nothing else, these are all just more lessons in breastfeeding that I can fill my arsenal with and share later.

I try to focus on parenting my children with the gospel in mind and my eyes on Jesus the whole time, but I fail regularly. Thankfully, I have grace and mercy from God and a helpmate in my husband, and I’m able to try better each time.

One of the things I’ve been focusing on lately is when it comes to extending what’s been extended to me (grace, mercy, love, forgiveness, etc.), I struggle to extend in the same way to my children. It’s like I’ve been given some leeway after acting up, but I expect everyone else to act perfectly all the time around me. That’s hard to admit: I think I’m good at displaying mercy (not getting a punishment you deserve), but I’ve become increasingly aware of my need to extend more grace (getting a gift you don’t deserve).

Who is the boss of your body? The one thing that really brings out the mama bear in me is the thought of someone abusing or molesting my children. On the wings of the #metoo movement, and with all the sexual assault in the news lately, it makes me relive my own experiences as a child and strive to do everything in my power to protect my children from any harm or wrongdoing. This book “God Made ALL of Me” was recommended months ago in a Twitter conversation between a co-author and Beth Moore, and I bought it immediately. I wanted to prepare myself to protect my children long before there was ever a need. I wanted to be proactive, rather than reactionary or defensive. I didn’t want to wish I had read this book after something happened, or worry that it might be “too late.”

The Importance of Anchoring Your Furniture!

Did you baby-proof your home? I normally hate to overstep and tell a mom how to parent, but below is an email I received a few months ago from my friend about baby-proofing: a large bureau dresser fell on her son. A lot of times we (read: I) view these stories as examples of neglect, but I have known this friend for several years and she is a diligent, involved, aware mother who never leaves her kids unattended. She’s an ER provider and has seen the worst.

Thankfully her son is ok, but it made me rethink ALL of my reasons for not fully baby-proofing by anchoring some of our furniture (in our house, all furniture in kids’ rooms are anchored but not in our guest or master bedrooms because we were afraid of holes in the walls or wanting to move the furniture around eventually). When we think of baby-proofing, most of us think of outlet covers and door/drawer locks, but it is so much more than that!