MOTY's Unite

I've been thinking a lot lately about what balance consists of.  I feel like I am constantly on the search to find some.  Taking care of myself.  Exercise.  Eat right.  Work hard.  Family time.  Stay connected with friends.  Cook.  Date my husband.  Invest in my kids.  Homework. Volunteer.  Clean.  Laundry.  The list goes on and on.  It feels impossible to balance it all.  Maybe its an empty dream I'm chasing...at least for this phase of motherhood.  But the one thing I've noticed is that peace is present when I feel balance.  At least a sliver.  Peace can calm me in the midst of the worst storm.  Where does my peace come from?  My faith. When I feel lost, distracted, frustrated, hopeless...I call on God with a prayer of surrender.  In return, he gifts me peace. Maybe your peace comes from somewhere else, but peace is what I've found to be the key to balance.  Eve...

Acts 10:34-35:  Then Peter began to speak:  "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right." Its hard not to show favoritism.  Even between my two beautiful boys...that are so different and who are blessings and challenges to me in different ways in different phases.  When one is going through a hard time, its easy to play favorites with the other.  Even in our society, many feel that we should play favorites.  Other feel that we should include everyone.  Without this turning into a political post...I want to take our attention back to the top where I quoted scripture.  You see, Peter was feeling a little high and mighty because he was summoned by God, who gave a Gentile a vision from an angel to invite Peter to his home.  Peter was days away, in another city (its not like he was invited next door for dinner).  He was even so bold to say, upon arri...

I read a book last year sometime (wish I could remember which one it was) that talked about being aware of the energy you share.  We each start the day with a limited amount.  Each day that amount is different.  Although there are things that demand our attention and energy (work, feeding our families, laundry, etc), we need to really try to reserve some of that core energy for our inner circle...whoever that may be. So many times we tend to get caught up in outer-circle demands and distractions and our energy gets sucked outside of the realm and people who need it most. For me, this is my honey and boys.  They definitely deserve my best reserve of energy.  And some days they demand it (girl...you know what I mean!).  But during the summer months, I find myself slipping into the all-to-familiar bad habits of checking social media too often, taking phone calls to catch up with my brother or friend that linger a little too long (for my kids liking), getti...

There is a part in the movie, Ratatouille, where the lead rat, Remy, finds some edible trash treasures and heads up to the top of a house in order to get struck by lightening, causing them to come together is a rush of flavor.  He closes his eyes and you see colorful fireworks...and imagine the explosion of flavor. Summertime reminds me of this scene in that it is a rush and a high of the combination of sunshine, lazy mornings, late nights including s'mores around fires, and long days at the pool.  I find myself in love with summer and at the same time ready to pull my hair out.  Although I do try my best to coordinate with my boys' friends when we go out for adventeres, there are days when I just need to stay home and pay bills, edit photos, send out billing for my husband's company, and clean.  Not to mention the mounds of laundry summer accumulates. The boys seem to ride this high...the explosion of flavor/fireworks...in thinking every day should be a grand ge...

There has been an impression on my heart for years (probably over a decade) to write a book about our experience in blending our little family.  I actually wrote a book when I was in the thick of it.  But  as I read through it, it was more a platform for me to express my woes than a place of vulnerability and transparency that could potentially help others.  So I tabled it.  For over 5 years. Just recently I have started working on it again.  From scratch.  Started over.  Its more of a memoir styled book which explains to you how I got the the place of being a full-time stepmom, what it felt like to live with that title for over six years, and where it led our family, now six years later, with all of our flaws. As I've written before, my dad passed in December of 2014.  That sadness.  That depth of grief...changed me.  We also built a home and moved cross country that following year.  To say the very least, we've had our pl...