The Blessing of Motherhood

Photo Credit: http://content.levoleague.com/lifestyle/a-mother-daughter-journey/

The days seem so long sometimes.  Mundane.  A chore list that seems to start again the moment it's finished.

An interruption.

        Crocodile tears.

                  Spilled milk.

                       An ear piercing cry.

                               A bruised elbow from too quickly pattering feet.

                                       An attempt to exercise.....a moment for myself.

A few minutes with my Savior that are so needed but most often are cut short to more interruptions.  

More tears.

        Books to read.

                 Tea parties to attend.

                                 Dolls to feed.

                                         Baths to give.

                                                 Meals to prepare.

                                                             Dishes to wash.

                                                                           Laundry.

                                                                                  Laundry.

                                                                                        More Laundry.

Often times I've found myself longing for the days of nothingness.

Only myself to take care of.

 Or just a husband and not something that needs so many moments of my day to take care of not only for myself but for her tiny body too.

Never in my wildest dreams did I realize how much God would use being a mother to completely rid me of my selfishness.

 Never did I realize the life of sacrifice of which motherhood is, but I'm learning.

 Learning that I like this life of rare moments of free time.

Learning that I like myself better as I learn to sacrifice more.

Love more.  Love deeper.   Love more fully.  Live fuller.

Learning that my Savior is not disappointed in me for the 5 minutes of time I spent with  Him at the breakfast table this morning before that was interrupted by empty bowls and sticky hands.

Learning that He meets me right where I am if I will just let Him.

No, He is not disappointed in me.

 He is honored.  Honored to know that the 5 minutes of free time I had in that one single moment, I chose to spend with Him.  

And I realize something in that tiny moment.   That this life of rare me moments...He has called me to it. 

This life of deepest sacrifice is the one He has chosen for me.

That I might realize how much I love those sticky hands I am blessed to wash everyday, those cheeks I get to kiss, those crocodile tears I get to dry....He hand picked that girl to be mine.  

That I would be so blessed to be called her mom.

May your heart overflow with blessing at even the tiniest pieces of the life He has called you to friend!

Blessings!

Bridget

First of all, if you haven't signed up for your chance to win Jill Savage's newest book "No More Perfect Moms" please visit here to enter for your chance to win!

And now onto the most important part of this post....a delicious recipe for a cold winter night!

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Biscuits

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour (I used  1 and 3/4 c. white whole wheat flour, and 1/4 c. all purpose)
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 5 Tbsp chilled butter
• 3/4 c. fat free buttermilk (or use milk with a splash of lemon juice in it)
• 3 Tbsp honey

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400F
• Place flour, baking powder, and salt in large bowl.  Cut in butter with pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal.  Chill for 10 minutes.
• Combine milk and honey- stirring with a whisk until well blended.  Add to flour mixture and stir until just moist.  DO NOT OVER STIR.
• Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead lightly 4 times.  DO NOT OVER KNEAD.
• Sprinkle small amount of flour on top of dough and roll out to about 3/4 inch thickness and use a biscuit cutter to cut our  your biscuits.
• Place on cookie sheet sprayed with non stick cooking spray.  You can use a light egg wash on top to give them a golden color.  I always cheat and use milk brushed on top or this time I used the pan spray with a light spritz on top.
• Bake for 12 minutes or until golden.  Remove from pan and cool on wire rack 2 minutes and then serve.

*The secret to delicious fluffy biscuits is to not over stir or over knead!

And now as I sit here and stare at the recipe I realize that I put too much butter in mine.  Too much butter is never a bad thing right? : )  Too bad I thought I was eating a biscuit a bit healthier for me at the time!  With the appropriate butter levels though, these biscuits come out to right around 130 calories a piece, and they were delicious with more butter, but I am confident even a little less butter would make them delightful and better for your waistline ;)   

Bon Appetit!

Let's Get Real: Mount Laundrymore & My 1st Giveaway!!!

I knew it was there.  I'd been staring at it since Monday.  The pile kept growing taller and taller, and I just kept moving it.  Out of sight.  Out of mind...or something like that.

 Really, it was in the back of my mind and I just had other things that I either had to do or wanted to do and so yet again, the large, ever growing pile that was about to topple over and fall off its cliff just sat there.  Staring at me.  What you ask?  The laundry.  This particular pile probably made my Top 10 list of tallest laundry piles that has ever existed in our household:

Exhibit A...  

 I planned on folding it after Abbie went to bed and so I left it there.  On the table where it would stare at me so I wouldn't ignore it one more day.  That is until my dad called.  He happened to be nearby running some errands and asked if he could stop by.  Of course he can, but dangit that darn laundry.  What to do what to do....remember that I am not perfect and just leave it sitting out on the table as we tried to have a conversation around it?  Or hide it?  Well I did what any sensible person does when company is on its way and the house isn't spic and span....I hid it!  

But I wanted to share my real laundry pile with you, and it's hiding place so that the next time you come over you can totally call me out on it, open the door to my laundry area, and see my pile just waiting to be tended too :)

Now you see it....

Now you don't!

I'm real friends just like you.  Imperfections and all!  My breakfast dishes and dirty highchair tray sometimes sit for hours.  My laundry piles (we won't even talk about the to be ironed pile....we'll just nickname it "Too Be Ironed By the Year 2020 Pile) can sit for days, and I've never cleaned my windows since moving into our home over 3 years ago...gasp!  (Really that last one is not too hard to let go of for me.  I honestly don't care :)   

And speaking of not being perfect.....my copy of No More Perfect Moms just arrived in the mail!! 

 It's Jill Savages gift to us for being a part of her book review.  I'm so excited for each of you to have a chance to get one in less than 2 weeks!  That's right!  The week of February 4th is when it will be available and you can sign up here to be reminded of its release!  

And on that note....I am pleased to announce Full Heart Full Homes first EVER GIVEAWAY!!!!

One lucky winner will be receiving their own FREE copy of Jill Savages book "No More Perfect Moms" after it's release date!!! (because of this it may take a few weeks after the winner is announced to receive your copy)


How to Enter the contest:

Just enter using the Rafflecopter entry below:   In order to enter you must become a blog follower (look in the right hand margin of this blog) of Full Heart Full Home, and also Like Full Heart Full Home on Facebook here.  Once you are following both (or if you are already a follower and want to enter the giveaway just select the things you chose to follow/do in the Rafflecopter form below (actually selecting that you did something in Rafflecopter won't really link to you liking my Facebook page or blog).  Each thing you choose to do or follow gets you more entries into the contest....so a better chance to WIN this awesome book!!!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Winners will be announced on February 3rd!

I absolutely cannot wait to see how God uses this book in women's lives!  

Blessings,

Just One Change

If there was only ONE thing...that you would choose to CHANGE in your life TODAY what would it be? 

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images

No matter how bogged down by life you maybe friend, keep putting one foot in front

 of the other, one CHANGE at a time!

What is it that God's been calling you too that you haven't said "YES" to yet friend?!

Blessings,

Bridget

Intentional Marriages: Date Night

We are so blessed to have my husbands parents living right down the street from us.  They are such a blessing!  They have encouraged us time and time again to take advantage of them being so close and ask them to watch Abigail so we can have a date together.  This past weekend we did just that.  Our budget is still pretty tight so we opted to come back home and have a date night in, but it was just what we needed.

After I dropped off Abbie at grandma and grandpa's house I came back home and Dave had a fire blazing in the fireplace, a pot of coffee brewed with my favorite coffee cup waiting for me to fill, and the Chess Board set up.  We played one round of Chess, and I, being the gracious (insert sore loser here) that I am didn't want to play again after my obviously lacking Chess skillz were beaten to a pulp by my hubby :)

So we discussed other options.  Most of the games we like to play are good group games but we don't have a lot of two player games around.  Oddly enough I started thinking about card games that I played 20 years ago as a child with my sister and one came to mind that I knew we would both enjoy....Speed (according to google it is also known as Spit or Slam).

We played and played and played.  Laughed a lot and really had a great time.  It's one of our new favorites!

Photo Credit:  www.redbookmag.com

What You Need to Play:

1 full deck of cards

How to Play:

• Shuffle the cards and deal out 2 piles of 6.  Face your opponent.  Put these two piles in the middle between you about 3 card widths apart.
• Deal out the rest of the cards equally between you and your opponent.  
• Once cards are all dealt, each player is allowed to have 4 cards in his or her hand at one time.  You don't want the other player to see your cards.  
• When you are both ready, each should flip one card over from the 2 piles in the center of the board and place them next to each other in between the two piles.  
• You can then play your cards numerically in order using the two cards you just turned over as your starting point.  

           Ex:  Player 1 flips over a Jack from center stack and player 2 flips over an Ace from the
                  other center stack.  Player 1 has a ten, a two, a five, and a seven in his hand.  So he
                  then could lay the ten on the jack and the two on the ace (going up or down in
                  numerical order is fine as long as they are in order)

• You can lay as many cards down as you are able.  Keep replenishing your hand as you get rid of them though, but never hold more than 4 at a time.  If you run out of options to play in your hand and you are already holding four you get to sit and graciously :) watch your opponent get rid of cards faster than you...ha!
• Each player must lay down one card at a time as fast as they can.  If both players are trying to play on the same card whomever laid their card down first gets the play.  
•  If both players come to a standstill each flips over another card from the two center piles.  If  the center drawing piles run out, flip over the playing card area and use those to play on (one at a time)
• Whoever runs out of cards first wins!

**This is the version we played but from what I can tell online there are many different variations of the game**

The name of the game is Speed....so get on your game face ladies....and show your hubby your mad playing card skillz!

Have you had a date night lately?  Whether you have a babysitter or not make a date for after the kids go to bed or during nap time and just enjoy spending some quality time with your spouse!

What frugal date nights are a favorite in your home?

Blessings,

Banana Chocolate Chip Protein Pancakes

I absolutely love finding recipes of some of my favorite foods and turning them healthy, or at the very least semi healthy food.  So what better food to do that with than good ole pancakes!  I love pancakes but I hate the sugar high and sluggish demeanor that follows when I eat them.  So I set out to find a better alternative to one of my favorite things and I came across this amazing blog and ultimately found my new protein pancake recipe!  I did modify the recipe a bit so I will list those below as well.

Banana Chocolate Chip Protein Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup old fashioned oats
• 1 small banana, mashed
• 1/2 cup cottage cheese  (you can use yogurt in its place)
• 2 egg whites (or 1 whole egg)
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

1. Place oats in blender or food processor and blend them until they are a gritty flour type mixture.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend well.
3. If mixture is too thick add a bit of milk or water so that it is a medium to runny gruel mixture.
4. Heat griddle on stovetop and use nonstick spray or butter on griddle.  
5. Spoon pancake mixture onto griddle into medium size pancakes.
6. Throw a few chocolate chips onto your pancakes (5 per pancake is plenty!)
7. Flip when surface is starting to bubble.

A Few Side Notes:

• I also tried using a flavored yogurt the other day cause it was all we had on hand (happened to be strawberry) and it was delicious!
• This is a much more dense pancake but still takes care of the craving, fills you up, and there is no sugar high afterwards.  Bonus- because they are much more dense and moist than a regular pancake, you can use very little syrup and cut down your calories and sugar intake as well.  It simply doesn't need all the syrup the fluffier pancakes just continue to soak up!

My guaranteed way to know if a modified healthy recipe is a winner or not is if I get the chef's approval and he did indeed enjoy these and so did our little Sous Chef.....

Do you have a favorite dish that you've found a way to enjoy and still be healthy?  I'd love to hear what it is! 

Bon Appetit! 

Bridget

Loving Even the Worst Parts of Our Children

At the beginning of the year I signed up for the email challenge for Jill Savage's newest book "No More Perfect Moms."  In case you didn't catch my post about this book at the end of 2012 you can check it out here.  I am currently on the review team for this book and though I'm not finished reading it yet ladies let me tell you what I've read so far will not disappoint!  It's not too late to join the email challenge either.  Each email is packed full of tips to get you thinking and help you really grow in so many areas of your life as a mom!

Today's challenge resonated with me quite a bit.  It was about our children.  The challenge is simple, but something that I know will change each of our hearts for years to come as we watch our children grow, change, and learn.

Today's Challenge:

"Take time this week to study your children.  Write down their good qualities.  Record the way they matter to the family.   Tell your children you are learning about them and want to know more.  Thank God for growing you as He grows your child.

We think we are in control, shaping them to become the perfect children we'd imagined them to be.  But sooner or later we realize they have their own personalities, their own temperaments and they make their own mistakes along the way.  We can dress them in our own image but it doesn't change the truth God designed them to stumble and fall as they discover the person He made them to be.  Our job is to hold their hand and guide in the process of discovering their interests, talents, assets and limitations all well letting them know their worth in God's eyes."

Would you join me today in this challenge and if you are inspired then sign up for the email challenge?

Often times even I, the mother of only one child who is only 21 months old hear myself saying "Boy is she independent!"  or "Wow she is stubborn (quickly followed by a ...like her mama :)  As I read this challenge today I realized how independence, and stubbornness can be trained into good things....don't I want to raise my daughter in such a way that she will stand up for her beliefs?  That she won't be a rug to others that gets trampled on but that she would humbly, yet still boldly exhibit Christlike actions in both word and deed?  I can already see so much life in her sweet personality!  She can talk/babble a mile a minute and she is so adventurous, but already I fault her for some of these traits and why?  I love how the challenge today points out that our job as parents is to guide our children in the process of discovering THEIR interests, talents, assets and limitations all while letting them know their worth in God's eyes.  Their interests.  Not mine.

Such good truth for each of us!  Any "bad" traits that you find your children frustrate you with regularly?  Please share them today and also share your new perspective a bit...you might find that those "bad" traits aren't quite so bad after all!

Blessings,

Forward Focus

Photo credit:  http://liveholiness.com/2012/02/the-path-of-prayer/

This morning I found myself penning the following words in my journal....

"I'm realizing when I play the comparison game I am just asking for a battle.  When I look to the left or right or behind me...I'm setting myself up for attack.  I really truly just have to keep my eyes on you Jesus."

I am a planner.  A list maker.  I pencil in dates on my calender for the year 2050.  To be honest ladies before the holidays I actually had myself so stressed out about by life that I literally made myself physically ill.  To the point where I marched myself to the doctor and he looked at me with genuine concern and said "Bridget, I'll run tests, but I am not sure its a physical problem.  I think you might be struggling with anxiety/depression from so much stress in your life."  

And right he was....tests came back.  Everything was normal, but I was not.  I was stressed.  Anxious.   Strung out.   Overwhelmed at all that I had on my plate, but God brought peace.  He always provides it when we sit at His feet and ask Him for it.  It's when we refuse to rest in His presence that life gets overwhelming.  

This morning as I penned these words "I really...truly....just HAVE to keep my eyes on you Jesus,"   I realize...it is the only way.  When I look to my right or my left....oh the comparison that happens....she is prettier, thinner, has a cleaner house, has a better job, is more successful  has a better car......when I look behind me the lies that satan throws at me are almost unbearable "Remember that time you failed, lost, were made fun of, didn't make the team, made a fool of yourself....the list goes on.....the past haunts me.  Immobilizes me.  Enables him, the enemy to make me utterly useless in the kingdom of God, but when I keep my eyes on Jesus....I'm not distracted by my past.  I am not focused on what she has and I don't have.  I am focused on one thing.  My Savior.  My Maker.  And it is to Him that I give all glory. 

As I spent time with Jesus this morning He whispered sweetly such wonderful truth to me from Philippians 3:

"....one thing I do:  FORGETTING WHAT LIES BEHIND and STRAINING FORWARD to what lies ahead, I PRESS ON TOWARD THE GOAL for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

I pray that each of you too will forget what is behind you.  Let Jesus use your past as a way to mold you for the present and the future, not as a way that the enemy gets to immobilize you.  Instead press on toward Him.  Towards life.  Towards his amazing call....that He wants for you.  All of you.  Not just a part of you.  All.  Of.  You.

Blessings,

How Many Plates Are You Juggling?

Happy New Year friends!  Our family had an amazing time on vacation last week, filled with laughter, memories, relaxation, and lots of coffee!  Like many people, at this time of year, I often spend time reflecting on the past year, reevaluating goals, and setting new ones.

One of my goals this year is to decrease the "clutter" in my life.  No, not clutter that is on counter tops  but instead the clutter that I fill my life with due to my bad habits like people pleasing and my own high expectations.  Lehman's term:  My over-commitments.  So I put together a little list of things I'm in the process of evaluating.  There is still more work that needs to be done, but hopefully it helps you to do a little reevaluating of your own!

What is in my life that really matters?  

My relationship with God-  my days don't go well when time isn't spent with Him.  When I start my morning with Him and give Him control of my to do list for the day, then everything that needs to get done does and the things that don't....I don't stress out about because He gives me peace about letting them wait.

My marriage-  our time looks so different now that we have a child, but in the time that we do have couldn't I get off my computer and snuggle up to my handsome hubby longer?  Couldn't I sit down for a few minutes and stop worrying about the dishes and enjoy watching a football game with him.  Couldn't I for one moment stop worrying how much the date he is taking me on costs and just trust him and know that he wouldn't chose to do this if we couldn't afford to?

My kids-  I don't know about you but I spend far too much time worrying about my to do list and not nearly enough time pausing to take time to invest in the "Read book mom" that I hear requested from my sweet 21 month olds voice.  I want to read more, play more, love more, laugh more and kiss those sweet cheeks as much as I can.

My friendships-  I worry far too much about all I need to get done that I rarely give myself a break to go grab coffee with a friend.  I need these people.  I need girl friends.  I need time to talk.  I need realness from other moms and women who are in the trenches of life too. 

What is in my life that needs to change?

The computer/internet-  I need to do what I need to do and get off.  Too much of my time is wasted on something that is so unimportant.  

My attitude-  This is probably the biggest thing that needs to change.  I need to be ok saying "No" to someone when I can't commit myself to one more thing.  I need to be ok not having perfectly clean floors.  I need to be ok with letting an undone task be left undone in order to invest in something that is more important at the time.  I need to be ok with not being perfect.

What about you friend?  Are you juggling too many plates right now?  Are you really joyful about all that is on your To Do list or is it time for you too to clear out some clutter and really evaluate what's important in your families lives so that you don't miss out on God's best for you?  

Do yourself a favor and spend sometime today or someday soon writing out all the things you are doing right now and spend sometime praying and really evaluating what is important to keep and what you need to release from your tightly clenched up fist and trust that God will take care of even if you don't have your hand on it anymore!

Blessings,