Sunshine & Cotton Giveaway

One of my real life besties, Jessi, is doing a fun giveaway for you!
She's recently opened up shop, Sunshine & Cotton Designs,
and I can't wait for you to check it all out,
and WIN something today!!

SOooooo
for you new mommies, mommies-to-be, or gifts for the new mom...
this is PERFECT!!

up for grabs:
Custom Carseat Canopy and matching Carseat Arm Cushion.
YOU get to pick the color theme!
(and can I just say, I have a cushion on my carseat and it makes a HUGE difference!)

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Jessi is a military wife to one of my husband's best friends,
and mom to one of my Abigail's bffs, Caden, who is 2 1/2.
She loves to be creative and to bless others, and she is an amazing teacher to her little boy, always finding creative ways to help him learn!
And not to mention, she is one of my very best friends and we have walked through a lot of things together.
I love her more than she knows and I am so proud of her for
taking the leap and started her business!!
(she also makes beautiful nursing covers and coffee cozies...
I use my nursing cover she made me all the time!)

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required entries:
follow my blog
&

additional entries:

Leave a comment for EACH entry...
you can have up to 5 entries!

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aaaaand, through the end of April,
she's offering a 15% discount on all orders, just tell her the code "April" when you order!!

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good luck!
Winner picked by random.org and will be announced on Monday!!
and remember, even if you aren't a mommy to a little one, this is a GREAT gift!!

THANKS JESS. love you girl.

grace for the new mom


I am SUPER honored and excited to be guest posting today
over at one of my very favorite blogs, Top of The Page.
Leslie is one of the first blogs I ever read and I admire her SO much.
She asked me to share about "grace for the new mom"...

Mommyhood was the hardest adjustment I have ever had to make, and only by His Grace have I gotton through it....and part of my blogging journey is to share that with you.

{and you should get to know Leslie and follow her blog if you don't already -
she is a treasure.}

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Oh, and come back tomorrow (Friday) for a fun giveaway from one of my real life besties!!
love yall.

a few randoms

I've been sick again the last few days so been missing my blogging...
but thought I'd just share a few randoms from last weekend!
love yall.

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is she not the cutest? ahhh! :)

our new favorite snack, thanks to my friend Carina...scrambled eggs with broccoli!
"eggs and trees pwease mama!?"
protein AND veggies?! this is perfect. :)
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some rainy day snuggles...
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Is it okay to be jealous of your two-year-old's hair?
seriously love those thick curls (she clearly did not get them from me!)

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how we roll at the grocery store with 2 littles now...
Abigail "drives" and Bethany rides on top of the groceries!!
(the bread may get smashed but hey, you gotta put your kids somewhere!)

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me and my little bit.
(forgive my sickly no make-up face.)

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Abigail looking out of Daddy's new office windows
(its under construction right now)
In case you were wondering, that's our "downtown"...we are in the tallest building in this picture (6 stories! haha)

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Anywho. thats all for now. talk to yall soon!
MUUUAHH!

Becoming a Woman of Old - guest post

I have a good friend, Sarah, who is
just one of those women I not only love as a friend,
but look up to as a woman and mother.
(she has 5 amazing children!)
Our families have been through quite a few crazy seasons together
and we have lived by faith side by side,
encouraging each other and learning what living life with each other truly means.
I am THANKFUL for her.

I've asked her to share here about her heart and passion for living
as a woman of God.
Trust me, she is a woman of wisdom who has a lot to offer.

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As a young wife and mother, I was overwhelmed with all the information available to becoming a great wife and mom. If you go to the bookstore, the shelves are lined with advice in both categories. Looking around my world it seemed that every family was doing things differently and adhered to their own brand of family.

Overwhelmed, I started praying a lot and reading through the Bible. I had made a decision long ago to live my life as closely to scripture as possible. When I read the Bible, I try to imagine I am alone on an island and that the only way to read the Word is by taking it at face value.

While reading through the scripture, I stumbled upon 1 Peter 3:5-6:

"This is how the holy women of old made themselves beautiful. They trusted God and accepted the authority of their husbands. For instance, Sarah obeyed her husband, Abraham, and called him her master. You are her daughters when you do what is right without fear of what your husbands might do."

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I long to be counted among the β€œholy women of old.” Have you ever read their stories? Miriam, a leader of Israel who was so passionate and fiery. Or how about Deborah? She was the ruling judge of Israel that led an army into battle. What about Esther? She was a beautiful queen whose actions saved people of Israel. And so many more.

When becoming like the holy women of old, two requirements seem to stick out to me. First, you have to live full of faith and trust God completely. I don’t know another way to live without fear as the verse requires. Second, we have to accept the authority of our husbands.

This little command is such a stumbling block. I know. It makes me stumble. A lot. But, I believe that it is a hidden part of the recipe that enables us to have successful marriages, peaceful families, and become the amazing leaders that God desires us to be.

This journey to be like Sarah and the women of old is not an easy one. But, I have seen such amazing fruit in my life that I cannot depart from this path.

And I can’t wait to see what is around the corner.

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Thanks Sarah. I love you!!
Tune in every other Sunday to hear Sarah's heart about
becoming a "woman of old".
You will be blessed. :)

one of the scariest moments in my life.

I want to share one of the scariest moments in my life with you today.
and also about the supernatural protection God provided.

I feel led to share it here because I KNOW the Lord is prompting
me to write about FEAR on this blog.
About my battle with it, and about how HE has given me freedom from the chains it used to keep me in.

I will be very detailed here because I want you to be able to see God's hand in it as I now do...
and I pray that if you read this it would NOT cause you to fear yourself, but instead it would encourage you regarding God's protection.

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One morning in July 2010, I was sleeping in the guest bed in Abigail's nursery, and she was sleeping in an inclined rocker near the bed (she slept in that to help her reflux).

I usually wore my contacts to bed for weeks at a time so I could see when I got up to nurse Abigail. But my eyes had needed a break the night before, so I took them out.

That morning, I woke up, and because I could not see Abigail very well with no contacts in,
I thought to myself that I needed to pull her rocker closer to me.
And in that instant I also had one of those mommy moments where
I just wanted her to be close.
So I reached over and slid her right up to the side of the bed,
as far up as it could go so that I could see her.
She was still sound asleep, so I went back to sleep too.

literally LESS than 5 minutes later,
the loudest crash I think I've ever heard woke me up. Abigail started screaming and so did I.

The ceiling fan had literally COME OUT of the ceiling, and fallen to the floor...
the light, the fan, the wires, the motor...ALL of it.
Glass, wood, and metal in a heavy heap on the floor.

RIGHT where Abigail had been sleeping not 5 minutes before.
I don't need to tell you what 50 pounds of ceiling fan
could have done if it had landed on my tiny baby girl.

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Though the edge of one fan blade hit Abigail's sleeper,
she was perfectly fine...just completely scared and screaming, as was I.
Needless to say it took me a long time to get over this (and to trust using a fan again).
Fear crept (well, fell really) into my heart.
But here is where I want to point out the AMAZING protection of the Lord.
Had my eyes not been tired, I wouldn't have taken my contacts out.
Had I not taken my contacts out, I would not have been unable to see Abigail,
Had I not been unable to see her, I never would have moved her sleeper.
And had I not moved her from where she was...

But I haven't told you (shown you) the most amazing part of this story.
The DAY BEFORE this happened, we were at a 1 year old birthday party and my friend Jessi took a picture of me and Abigail.

This picture is not edited in any way, her camera was working just fine, and no other pictures came out like this.

I don't know if you believe in the supernatural, and in the Lord's protective angels...but we do.
And after this picture was taken, we KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Lord had already summoned His angels to protect our little girl
from what would happen the next day.

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crazy, right? or not.
just plain God, that's what we think.
Oh I am in tears as I write about this and see this picture. God is SO good.

The point in sharing this with you in regards to fear, is that my desire is to live
expectant that God will protect.
I believe that as humans, protection is one of the main fears we struggle with.
I want to live in expectation that He will orchestrate HIS plans in my (and my children's) best interest, because He loves me.

"For He will command His angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways.
they will life you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone..."
Psalm 91:11

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I have spoken with several of my good friends just this week, and read several blog posts lately about it...and it seems like all of us have been battling fear.
And It's unfortunately kind of a "given" when you are a mother, that you will feel even more fear about loss, sickness, injury, heartache, etc for your child...

But I'm on a journey to believing that it doesn't have to be our mode of operation.
I'm LIVING proof that there is freedom from the prison of fear.
I look forward to sharing more of my testimony with you about this.

I am going to begin a "series" about fear every Thursday on this blog.
Just about my journey and battle with it.
It is a powerful spirit that is NOT from the Lord.
It is one that I lived with for WAY too long, to the point of making me physically sick.

And I want freedom for YOU too.
Maybe through the power in testimony, we can walk through this battle of fear together.


{linking up here.}