by Lilbear
The winner of From Blah to Awe: Shaking Up a Boring Faith by Jenna Lucado Bishop is Cassi (c.hopecaptured@…). You should have received an email with further instructions on claiming your prize. A big thank you to everyone who entered! Huge thanks to MergePR for sponsoring this giveaway!
When my first child was born my husband and I had no idea what to do. I mean, we had the common sense to love, feed, change, and basically keep her alive, but other than that we had no clue. None. Zilch. No parenting manual came hidden with this tightly swaddled bundle of warmth, cooing, and sweet smells. There was no guide to instruct us on how to raise our precious baby so that she would one day have the best chances and make good choices.
We were as brand new as she was, and so we proceeded down the path laid before us and gratefully (though tentatively) embraced the roles of mommy and daddy, soon adding a son to the mix. But for years I wondered what nuggets of truth would have been found in the pages of that mythical parenting guide. Didn’t you?
Well wonder no more, friends! In the recently published book Growing Great Kids, Kate Battistelli weaves a true tale about how to raise our kids to grow into amazing adults. The parents of Dove Award-winning recording artist Francesca Battistelli (“It’s Your Life”, “This Is the Stuff”), Kate shares what she and her husband Michael learned about parenting while raising their daughter. Fifteen jam-packed chapters cover the following topics: gifts & callings; pursuing purity; encouraging your child’s walk with God; growing integrity; and more.
Kate makes it completely clear that it’s up to us as parents, partnering with God, to raise our children in the way they should go. We can’t afford to sit idly by hoping for the best. It’s our job to follow God’s leading and take action. Regardless of how we as parents were raised, it’s paramount for us to be proactive in raising our kids properly.
The Battistelli’s note the current “culture of drift” where young people lack their own goals and dreams, and instead are set adrift in a sea of mediocrity. We parents are challenged to swim against the tide of lackluster parenting to instead be intentional in guiding our kids toward discovering and growing their gifts and strengths. Speak words of affirmation. Encourage and provide opportunities for their dreams. Be the catapult that helps propel your child into success as an adult.
Whether or not your children may be headed toward the life of a recording artist like Kate’s daughter Franny, they will benefit greatly from the fabulous wisdom found on every page of Growing Great Kids. I urge you to get this much needed book, read it, highlight it…and then act on it. Align yourself with God’s calling on your heart: to raise your child with purpose to be a success for His kingdom.
Disclosure: Kate Battistelli generously gave me a copy of “Growing Great Kids” for this honest review. You can see my complete Disclosure policy.
Have you ever wanted to share your faith but didn’t quite know how in certain situations? Maybe your work environment frowns heavily on anything faith-based coming from anyone’s mouth, or your neighbors look at you as though you have five noses when you say words like “God” or “grace.”
Imagine those folks living in countries right now where even owning a bible is punishable by imprisonment or even death. But that’s where faith is growing rapidly even though it’s kept underground.
Thoughts of people not getting to share their belief in Jesus Christ…that just floors me. Here, we live in a country where we have the freedom to speak about our Christian faith, yet many choose silence. I think that’s partly because some folks just don’t have the foundation of belief. They never spoke of their faith or shared it in any way as children, so as adults they don’t quite know how.
But we, today, can make a difference in teaching our kids and giving them a strong foundation. One easy way to share your faith is through what you wear and your “accessories.” No, I’m not talking about purses {especially not for guys}. I mean “the stuff you carry around” with you.
Like these awesome notebooks and folders from [Dayspring]
photo credit: Dayspring.com
Aren’t they cute? I received this set from Dayspring and gave it to my 15yo daughter. She loves it! The black style is her favorite because she loves the verse and design. Right now she’s “letting” me use the pink notebook. You’re probably wondering how I might utilize it, but actually I take it with me to meetings and fill it with handouts and pamphlets. It’s a great organizer and it shows I’m not afraid to share my faith either. Kids and adults can send the best kind of message without even saying a word. It’s a great conversation starter. And when someone does ask about the notebooks and what the words mean, you can explain the message and therefore share your faith.
Granted, this review was supposed to run months ago when school started, but you can still find these and other school supplies on the Dayspring site. However, right now these items are marked so low they’re practically free! I’m going to stock up on a couple of notebooks now that I know I’ll use for my homeschool organizer and my choir music next fall.
Right now my friends at (in)courage are offering one of my readers a $35 coupon code towards any purchase in the Dayspring store. That’s any purchase, y’all! They have so many beautiful and heartwarming items, and so many things are on sale now. Plus, this is the perfect time to do your Christmas shopping. {Psst! Remember to check out their Christmas selection, too.}
Here’s how to enter:
Visit the Dayspring store and come back here to leave a comment on what you love!
For additional entries:
1. Subscribe to Once Upon a Muffin through your favorite reader
2. Follow @DaySpringCards on Twitter
3. Follow me on Twitter @LilbearMe
4. Like Once Upon a Muffin on Facebook
5. Tweet about this giveaway. {one tweet per day}
Be sure to leave a separate comment for every entry so each one will count, and please include your email in the comment form {only I will see it}. This giveaway will be open until Monday night, November 28th, and the random winner of the $35 coupon code {not including S&H} will be chosen Tuesday, so check back next week!
Dayspring generously gave me the “I Know Where Love Comes From” and “He Has My Heart” notebook sets for this honest review. Please see my complete Disclosure policy. Some of the above links are affiliate links.
Have you looked at the calendar lately? If you’re like me, you glance at the current month’s page on your laptop’s calendar because that’s where you live much of the time, in the “right now.” Not that I don’t look ahead and dream and plan, but when my days are filled with homeschool biology lessons on efferent and afferent lymph vessels, reminding teens to fold and put away their own clothes, and doctor’s appointments that take for.ev.er to get to because they must be located in Timbuktu, the brain things in my head revolve around this week alone.
So imagine the dumbfounded expression on my face when I saw an ad for Mother’s Day recently. And the fact that it is in less than two weeks. In case you’re having a hard time imagining this look let me help. My brow is furrowed, my mouth is open, and I’m uttering some sort of gibberish which clearly shows my inability to speak anything that resembles intelligible words.
Less than two weeks?! How can this be when I haven’t even finished my kids Easter candy yet? I’m used to there being at least a month between celebrating the resurrection of Jesus and the honoring of moms. A whole month. Just enough time to purge the massive amounts of candy that is being consumed from Easter baskets, the chocolate that is now coursing through my body and making me giddy {from lack of sleep, no doubt…cocoa-laced caffeine will do that}.
But no matter how surprised I am at my lack of calendar reading, the fact remains that moms everywhere are going to get some props real soon. Are you ready? How do you celebrate Mother’s Day? I remember my dad taking my mom, her mom, and all four of us girls {or whoever was still living at home} out to brunch at some restaurant in Miami. From what I remember, it was fancy and I had to dress up. Bummer. Dressing up wasn’t the problem really, as I loved wearing something pretty {all girls do}. It was having to wear something with lace on it that inevitably was near my face or neck and made me itch. Yep, that was a fun afternoon.
These days my idea of dressing up is wearing one of my fave tee-shirts and a cute skirt. With hoop earrings and sandals, of course. Because the whole ensemble would just not be complete without the earrings, okay? Good.
You’re in luck as one of my fave tee-shirt companies is having a great big awesome deal right now! Wild Olive Tees is having a special where shipping is only $1.99 right now through May 1st. Just a buck ninety-nine shipping, people! And their tees are so fabulous. In fact, I wrote about how great they are here and here {psst! go check what I wrote…I’ll wait}. So go get one already! Your mom {or you} will loovve one of these tees and a box of chocolates for Mother’s Day. {But to hold you over until May 8th, keep the Easter candy real close. You know, just to be safe.}
Today, instead of sharing how I made connections with others, I want to give you a bit of my story and a connection that was made with my family. Maybe it will inspire you in your walk somehow.
When I gave birth to my first baby over 15 years ago, my parents were ecstatic. They already had three grandsons from one of my sisters and were overjoyed to have a little girl to dote on again. Well, two weeks after Catz arrived we learned that my dad had pancreatic cancer. We knew the prognosis for this specific disease, but we prayed for healing all the same. A year later, at the age of 60 and on Mother’s Day weekend, my daddy moved to heaven. We were thankful he knew Jesus and there would be no more suffering for him, but ultimately we were heartbroken.
All I could think about were the missed hugs and fun times my kids would never have since my dad was gone. My mom more than made up for the hugs and fun, but a grandpa is different and I missed that for the kids.
But eventually my eldest brother-in-law, Roger, took on that role. Eighteen years older than TechDaddy and me, Roger became a close friend to my husband and sort of a father figure for me. But what really made an impact was his relationship with my kids, Catz and MrC.
He was their uncle, but Roger became like the grandfather they never knew. Though he lived over an hour away, Roger would sometimes stop by our house out of the blue. To deliver a birthday gift or just to say hi, he really made a difference. But in the fall of 2008, at the age of 58, Roger went home to be with God after a massive heart attack. This time all four of us were devastated. We all felt his loss deeply and still do.
Last year I had often prayed that God would provide a man to fill that gap with my kids. Not someone who would be exactly like my dad or my brother, but a man who could share a little bit of that grandfather-like wisdom with them. I stopped praying for that, deciding that God would grow my kids the way He intends, that we didn’t need someone like that.
And then we met Ray. This past February our church started a food pantry to help supply the needs of several large food banks in the area. My kids and I joined the ministry and met Ray, the leader. Over the next couple of weeks we got to know Ray as we stocked food items at the church. He and his wife are the sweetest people! As retired parents and grandparents with family living nearby, they already had their hands pretty full.
But knowing a little of our story, and that my kids don’t have a grandpa, Ray made a huge gesture one day in an email: he wanted to become the honorary grandfather to Catz and MrC. Wow. I was stunned but in a good way. After talking it over with TechDaddy, and making it clear to Ray that we had no expectations, we happily accepted.
Since then we have felt so blessed. Ray has sent birthday cards with a cool button to each of the kids as well as Easter cards. When he sees them after church he gives them each a peppermint {my grandpa used to give me mints, too}. And every time Ray’s around he gives them a hug and tells them that he loves them. Gee, makes me misty-eyed just remembering.
Isn’t that so cool? You see, connections can be made in any number of ways. What ways has someone connected with you that made a positive impact on your life? What connections have you made?
Sometimes when I wake him I forget how much he’s grown. In the dim light of morning, I see him snuggled under the sheet with only his head showing, and I think on his little voice that used to ask for snuggles after I’d read to him before sleep.
We still read together at night by the light of his lamp. And sometimes he asks “can we talk for a little while?” where he’ll share his dreams or what he’d like to spend his allowance on or a joke. And he’s growing even still, but this time it’s in manly things. My boy is growing in integrity and becoming a gentleman. My mothering is changing again as he spends more time with his dad and a little less with me. And my heart hurts a bit even while cheering him on.
I know this is what he needs. I know that growth is good even while the hurt is still real. Without growth people become stagnant and stunted. But with it you see independence and responsibility. This man-cub is moving toward his future. I ponder over what that could bring, his “future.” Learning… falling in love… marriage… travel… children… adventure… leadership…
{Note:My tongue is firmly planted in my cheek for this post, y’all!}
Do you remember Peewee’s? When I was a little girl back in the 70′s — the Dark Ages according to my chicklets — my daddy would once in a while bring home little bottles of Peewee soda for my sisters and me. I was about three or four then. I don’t remember much from back then, but I think those drinks are partly responsible for my love of grape soda today.
The other reason I love the fizzy grape stuff? My daddy. He loved grape soda. My mom made sure we all ate healthy food most of the time, but on special occasions we had plenty of not-so-healthy snacks and soda. And we always had the grape stuff on hand.
And with most things we parents love, we usually want to pass that love of something special down to our kids. So imagine my disappointment when my kids turned their noses up at the offer of grape soda. Ah! How can it be? What could possibly have caused this dislike of something so pure, so right, so full of massive amounts of sugar and food coloring?
It was…children’s pain reliever! {gasp} Oh no! How did TechDaddy and I miss this? We should have seen this coming. Seen it and stopped it in its fever-and-pain-reducing tracks. Who knew so many years ago that in its ability to make my achey, feverish toddlers feel better, this charlatan would warp my kids taste buds and brain cells to produce one of the most heinous of circumstances…the taint of grape soda!
Why, oh why, didn’t they just leave well enough alone? So what if the old pain reliever was bitter and caused your tongue to curl up in a wad in your mouth and cry. So what if it made your kids run and hide in the bathtub. They didn’t have to take down all things grape in order to get kids to “like” their medicine, did they??
And yes, all things grape have been tainted. Why, the other day my 12-year-old son was looking for a snack {after eating enormous amounts of healthy fruit first, of course}. He found a grape-flavored lollipop sitting all alone on the pantry shelf and said “Can I throw this away? Nobody’s going to eat it.” After asking why he wouldn’t want to enjoy it, he reacted with a grossed out face and replied “No way, yuck. It’s grape. It tastes like medicine.” And my 14-year-old agreed. Oh, the horror.
He then turned into MacGyver, whacking the pop with a hammer just to see it splinter into a zillion pieces all over my kitchen. And he didn’t even flinch when he saw it’s chewy-chocolate center. This is how bad the taint of grape has become! And it doesn’t stop at grape. Oh, no! Orange soda has been tainted as well as bubble gum flavor! So protect your legacy of all things yummy, and beware of the grape soda taint!
Today I was told that my nephew and his wife – my niece-in-love – are going to have a baby! With that wonderful news came a certain realization for my husband and I. I quickly texted the expectant parents saying,”When the baby arrives we will be a Great-Aunt and a Great-Uncle!”
When my wise 14yo, Catz, heard what I posted, she asked a pertinent question. “Since my cousin is pregnant, aren’t you already a Great-Aunt?”
Hmmm. Good question. I had to quickly think about that one.
When do a couple actually become parents? When the baby is born? When they feel the baby’s first kick from inside the mother’s womb? Or when the pregnancy test stick shows the outcome to be positive?
I think that in our culture we are so used to referring to a young baby in utero as an embryo, and then an older baby in utero as a fetus, that we miss the boat entirely. With terms like that I can see how some women are mistakenly convinced that what’s in them is not actually a baby, but some kind of mistake to dispose of. How heartbreaking for them.
While a sweet baby grows in the womb, the couple is not actually “parenting” anyone at that time. I mean, there’s no “Eat your peas,” or “Please take out the garbage…now.” But wouldn’t you consider them to be parents?
As parents, my husband and I take our kids to the doctor for checkups. An expectant mom and dad do the same, though mom has a much more convenient way of carrying her child. As a parent, I make sure my kids are eating healthy…with the occasional candy bar. A pregnant mom eats carefully, making sure she’s getting the right nutrition for her baby… with the occasional pint of Ben & Jerry’s. 
But in reality, we parent as soon as we know we are blessed with new life. There’s no confusion as to what may arrive after 9 months. It’s not like the doctor is going to say “Oh look, you had a puppy. I guess you’re not going to be parents after all.”
So tomorrow I’ll be calling my nephew and niece-in-love to make sure I state the obvious: I am a Great-Aunt! And, as I will also say to them, I’m excited to be the youngest and best-lookin’ Great-Aunt their baby has!
Overheard this conversation just before Catz & MrC were about to drink some soda…
MrC: Catz, I need to teach you how to burp.
Catz: Uh, no thanks.
MrC: But you need to have some rough edges. You don’t have any.
Catz: I don’t want to learn how to burp.
MrC: You especially need to know how to burp around your husband. Men like that.
Catz: What?! So you’re saying that when you get married you want to marry a girl who burps.
MrC: Look at Mommy…she’s got rough edges.
Catz: She doesn’t burp either.
**Daddy walks in the room**
MrC: Daddy, do you like it when Mommy burps?
Daddy: Yea…it’s kinda cute. Not ladylike, but cute.
Catz: Uhh!! Can we smack them?!?
***For the record…no, of course I don’t burp!! The males in my family must have me confused with some other female. Who, apparently, burps! ***
That title above might be a bit misleading…sorry ’bout that. I’m not referring to the funnies as in “the funny pages”. In this post I’m going to point you in another direction.
Seeing as my foursome are still on an extended Christmas break, I’m a bit too busy to post in great detail every day.
Okay…truth is, I’m feelin’ lazy. Happy? But I love a good laugh and especially love sharing laughs with others, so until my funny bone gets back in gear you might like reading about the cat, the lizard, or the squirrels.
In any event, hope you enjoy the rest of 2009!
Hey there, it's me Susan. I'm a follower of Jesus, life photographer, pretty good baker, stumbling learner, roadtrip traveler, gigantic dreamer, adoring mom, and lovestruck wife. Want to know more? Check out my about page! |
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