Building a Christian Family

Seven Tips for Building the Christian Family You Never Had

-Read parenting books with a caveat of grace.
Don't berate yourself for not being a perfect Christian mom. Offer yourself grace when reading these books.

-Find or observe a parenting mentor.
If you notice someone you think is parenting her kids well, ask her questions and observe her!

-Say, "I'm sorry."
All parents make mistakes. Asking our children and others for forgiveness opens the door to improving relationships.

-Understand that parenting is not outside-in but inside-out.
God is in the business of cleaning, healing and rejuvenating our hearts from the inside out. The greater the healing, the more authentic and effective our parenting will be!

-Forgive your parents.
Forgiveness sets you free- free to love your imperfect parents, free to give grace to your imperfect self as you struggle to parent.

-Stop the comparison game.
Few acts are more destructive than comparison. God asks us to concentrate on our own families and revel in what he has given us.

-Find support.
When you talk to other moms, you realize that you are a normal parent with typical struggles. It's a true blessing to have other parents to talk, learn and laugh with, as you go down the parenting path!


(Article from magazine "MomSense" and adapted from "Building the Christian Family You Never Had by Mary E. DeMuth)

Eat What's In Season

We, as mothers are always health conscious when preparing meals, making sure we include plenty of fruits and vegetables in our family's diet. However, produce can be very expensive. To cut costs, check out this site to see what fruits and vegetables are in season in your area. Go to nrdc.org/foodmiles.

Reading Made Fun!

BOB Books are simple, effective books to begin teaching your child how to read. It's not intimidating for the parent or the child. These simple books begin with a letter chart in the front of the book that your child can refer to with familiar images to remember the sounds of each letter used in the story. For example, the letter "M" sounds like moon, and there is a picture of a moon next to the letter.

The book is light, little, with very few pages. BOB Books start with simple phrases and progress with your child to BOB Books that are more advanced.
Borders or Barnes & Noble are sure to have them.

A Steward

"A steward is someone who manages another person's wealth. As stated in 1 Corinthians 4:1-2, the most important quality of a steward is that he be faithful: "Men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the... things of God. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful." The term "those entrusted" means house managers or stewards. Therefore, the challenge of a manager is to be creative, thoughtful, and sensitive to available opportunities that will benefit his master."

As I was reading this explanation of a "steward" from the Community Bible Study workbook (Luke 16)... it made me think of the fact that not only has God entrusted me with many things and expects me to be a good steward... but the fact that my HUSBAND is daily entrusting me with our children, our home, our possessions and how we spend the money that he is working hard to earn.

I took the last sentence of the passage above and changed it to: "The challenge of a wife is to be creative, thoughtful, and sensitive to available opportunities that will benefit her husband and her family." It's important to keep this in the forefront of our minds and evaluate our spending to see how it is affecting and/or benefiting our husband and our family.

Affordable Decorating

I was delighted to visit a friend's home decorated with such lovely expressions! I was surprised at how easy and affordable these decorations can be! Depending on size, these lovely expressions can be as inexpensive as $24.95.



These expressions will adhere to any smooth surface -wood cabinets, car windows, walls, etc.



Easy to apply by removing paper backing and sticking to the surface. Takes only a few minutes. Easy to remove, just peel off! Leaves absolutely no residue.



The chalk board and custom photo decors can be removed and applied elsewhere again and again! Extremely affordable and instantly adds style!!!


Personalize your home with vinyl expressions and decor with Uppercase Living! For further information go online to http://stefs.uppercaseliving.net

The Frugal Girl

Okay. The Frugal Girl is ridiculous.. ridiculously GOOD at being frugal!!

This mama of four started "The Frugal Girl- Cheerfully Living On Less" blog about two years ago and now have many many fans and followers. According to her, she has always been a frugal person... always saving instead of spending... which makes sense why she is so darn good at it! But with all that she does; full-time homeschooling mom, part-time piano player and part-time piano teacher.. it is certainly inspiring to read her posts about how she saves money by planting her own garden, baking her own bread, making her own yogurt, shopping at thirst stores... and most impressive of them all SPENDING LESS THAN $100 on groceries per week (to feed a family of 6)!!

If you are like us, desiring to live more frugally and trying to find ways to spend less on groceries.. this site may help you to do so... and inspire you to "cheerfully live on less"! :)

Some highlights from her site:

-Wednesday Baking- recipes and "how-to" for baking all sorts of tasty bread and treats!

-Food Waste Friday-posts pictures of food she has wasted that week to motivate herself to use up the food instead of wasting it.

-Grocery Spending and Menu Plan- Records exactly what she spent on groceries (plus photo of all the items she purchased) and menu plan for the week.

You can connect to The Frugal Girl website here.

Those With Young...

God promises in Isaiah 40 verse 11 that He will:

"gently lead those who are with young."

Isn't it comforting to know that God is guiding and leading us Mamas with little ones... gently and patiently (He must have known that it was not going to be an easy task).

Dont' be hesitant to ask God for help with anything (strength, wisdom, sanity, breastfeeding, discipline, you name it!)... He desires to help us and mold us into wise, strong, patient, intelligent and beautiful Mamas that He has created us to be!!


Image Source: MS Clip Art Gallery