Hot Momma’s blogspot

It seems like just yesterday I was busy trying to make days busy.  Going here and going there, doing this and doing that. 

Now it seems as though I have too much to do, and don’t do the things I need or want to do.

What is up with my crazy life these days?  I feel like my brain has been on overload.

Not complaining, just babbling.  I’m perfectly content and happy.  Just feel like my life is on fastforward or something.

Alright lata

Motherhood is not for wimps!

_________________________

There are those who would spurn the vocation of mothers

And say of careers, it’s inferior to others,

I’ll have to admit that it’s not easy work,

It’s relentless and from it you cannot shirk.

It takes all of your energy being a mother and wife,

Requiring daily commitment and a disciplined life,

It demands all your resources of patience and love,

Long-suffering and wisdom from the Father above.

It takes self-control and continual endurance,

It needs constant faith and great perseverance,

It means total sacrifice, forgetting your self,

Sometimes you think that you’re left on the shelf!

And what about time? It’s no longer yours,

It belongs to all those who come in your doors.

Claim your own rights? No, they’re all gone too,

Like your right to sleep the whole night through!

It’s not so easy to crawl into bed with a book

Or go off and dream in some quiet little nook.

It seems like you’re totally losing your life

To be a good mother and a submissive wife.

But oh, faithful mother, please do not despair,

In God’s perfect plan you do have a share,

To fulfil your destiny planned from creation

Which is to nurture children and BUILD A NATION!

You’re walking in the footsteps of Jesus your Lord

Who sacrificed all, His life He out-poured,

He didn’t cling to His rights with selfish futility

He didn’t claim any privilege but walked in humility.

He gave up His life to save millions of others,

This principle works in the lives of all mothers,

When you lose your own life you’ll find it again,

A rewarding life, without guilt or shame.

So lift up your head, embrace your calling so high,

You’re in God’s perfect will, there’s no reason to sigh!

You may often feel worthless – don’t listen to this lie,

Your influence goes higher than the clouds in the

   sky!

As you nurture and train your God-given seed,

As you sharpen these ‘arrows’ by word and by deed,

You shape the nation – you determine its course,

Your mothering’s not wasted, it’s a great mighty force!

As your children leave home and go into the world

The proof of your training will soon be unfurled

You’ll influence countries where you’ve never been,

And down the generations its effect will be seen.

Your work is so powerful, no wonder it’s tough,

But God is behind you, He’s the GOD WHO IS ENOUGH,

His strength and His wisdom He will give to you,

He stands by His promises which are totally true.

He’ll always be with you right through to the end

As you follow His leading and deny the world’s trend,

Each morning you wake, your strength He’ll renew.

He’ll fill your home with His presence and His

   blessed peace too.

Wow, words cannot express the emotions running through my brain at the very second this picture was taken.  Trying to gather my thoughts from a natural child birth, and the feeling of becoming a brand new mother.  What a hard but glorious day this was.  While it has taken much time for me to realize the blessing of this day, I think the picture speaks for itself.

Caiden is 2 and a half years old now.  Like any other 2 year old, he loves to rummage through photo albums.  Among his favorite is the album of his birth.  It is very graphic yet also very censored.  Anybody could look at it but it doesn’t leave much for the imagination if you know what I mean.

Today looking through the album started off like any other time.  Except today, Caiden realized what was really happening.  He sees my belly and understands he is inside.  When he sees his head coming out (and again it is censored!!) he asks me what was happening.  I said, Caiden this is how you are born and this is how sissy is born.  You start off in my tummy and then you come out this way.   His face lit up immediately and he proclaims, “Wow Mommy I was born!!”  His next question is “What is daddy cutting?”  I simply had to explain the umbilical cord but he still doesn’t understand that. 

This was a few hours ago, and he has proceeded to tell me every 20 minutes, “Mommy I was born!!”  Even while taking my bath tonight he proceeded to point to that particular area and say, Mommy I was born right there!! lol

It has done much good for him to remind me how glorious it really was that day he was born.  Oh how I can’t wait to do this again. 

I never really understood kids who loved Elmo.  When Caiden was born, he was never interested and I was glad to say the least. 

Ever since Jordan laid eyes on Tickle Me Elmo last December she has been hooked!  I mean literally she has these weird excited shakes when she sees him. 

In case some of you may not know, we took her to visit a man dressed up in an Elmo costume here in town.  If you are interested, check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVjNyMQ9k8k

I need to ask Erica how to post pictures on here because I have a few to go along with this blog. 

Needless to say, the point of this blog is to express my sorrow towards this whole Elmo obsession.  My precious baby has yet to call me Mommy, or even momma for that matter.

After this weekend, her favorite word is Elmo.

I am heartbroken =(

So the Lord was really testing my faith these past few weeks.  I would typically say I have an unusal amount of faith.  To the point where I really never “care” or “worry” about anything for that matter.  It is obviously not perfected but it is always never lacking. 

When Caiden started to have some intestinal problems earlier in January we kept an eye on it until it got to a point where we had to take him to a specialist for it.  Our appointment there was 2 1/2 weeks ago and the doctor told us we need to test Caiden for Cystic Fibrosis. (typically people with this disease dont live past their early 20’s)  We have a friend whose son has this illness and he is always in and out of the hospital even at the young age of 19.  Every time he is admitted, we think it will be the last expecting he won’t ever make it out.  The Lord pulls him through every time, and thankfully so because he is lacking salvation.

Two days ago Caiden had his test to determine if he had CF and I called today and got the results back.  His test was definately not positive, but in the upper range of the normal level.  They were testing his pancreatic levels if that is any help to those trying to understand what I am talking about.  Anyway, I just wanted to express my gratitude that the Lord has spared us through the trials of possibly having to go down the road of CF.   It is a long hard one.   Not to mention it was horrendous in the waiting room because we were next door to the cancer patients.  Seeing infants and small children with cancer rips my heart out.  I was so nauseated and thanked the Lord that much more for the blessing of life he has given me to nurture my babies in the training and admonition of the Lord.  Afterall, Caiden and Jordan are not mine. =) 

Pray for the boy with CF though, his name is Jeremy and Eddy has been trying to share with him.  He has always thought he was a christian but through the Grace of God the Lord has shown him through Eddy that he really isn’t a believer.  The way I look at it, the hardest step is admitting that you are lost. 

Needless to say, hope you all have a blessed weekend.  I know I will. (esp if I conceive haha)

So, I had another Woah moment today.  The Lord answered a prayer I didn’t even request.  I guess that is what it means when the bible says He is our provider! =) 

Okay so when I got pregnant with Jordan I decided was going to Cloth diaper.  I met a lady on the internet and bought enough to start an awesome awesome stash!!  They were beautiful expensive diapers I got for dirt cheap!!  Needless to say, I decided last minute not to go that route and sold them and lost about $40+ in the process.  I even sewed about 4 of my own!!  I am still impressed with that by the way haha.

Anyway yesterday I went shopping for diapers at Sam’s.  A box of 200 huggies Size 3 diapers (which will soon be 178 sz 4 for jordy) will last me 3-4wks maximum if I’m lucky.  The price has gone from 35 to almost 40 dollars since I last bought them.  At 35, it was a lot but now closer to 40 that is way too much!!  That’s like 80 bucks a month for diapers once we have another one.  I’ve been down that route already and it is costly!!

I began to ponder the idea of cloth diapering again knowing very well I will have more babies and will get my money worth in the end.  Plus I decided to transition Jordan.  So I began to think last night, wow I wish I knew where that lady was so I could buy more diapers from her.  I did some searches on Ebay, and Craigslist with nothing that caught my eye really.  The more I thought about that lady, the more annoyed I got and said Oh well just buy new ones.  That was my final conclusion.

After more internet reading and searching I decided to check Ebay and CL again.  What do you stinkin know!?!  I see a posting for a great lot of diapers for a very CHEAP price.  I see that the location is in OP, which is where I got my diapers before.

A little boy picks up the phone and I say hello, is your mommy there?  He says, no she just left.  I then asked him if he had a baby sister named addison (she was 8wks when I got the diapers before).  He responded with yes.  I ABOUT FELL OUT ON THE FLOOR!  His mom ended up being there, and I asked her if she had been trying to get rid of these for a while. (I just wanted to see how coincidental this was or not) and she said no I put my first posting up last night.

Thank You Jesus for leading me to this lady again!!

Im stoked!

So my goal to not eat chocolate for a while came to an abrupt end last night.  I could easily blame Eddy since he specifically drove me to Wal-mart to buy candy, but afterall it was my stupid behind that picked out what I wanted and made the purchase.

It was soooooooo delightful.  I want to quit, but then realized maybe I don’t.  I am not fat, I exercise, and I am eating healthier.  Except for the chocolate that is.  It’s not like I sit around during the day eating it either.  You see, I am selfish and don’t want to share with my kids lol.  JUST KIDDING!!  I just don’t want them to develop bad habits.

Here is an article I just googled.  Lord help me!!:

How much chocolate do you eat? Millions of kids and even adults are addicted to chocolate. In fact, we consume over 2 billion pounds annually in the U.S.. That adds up to over 11 pounds per person (I know I consume atleast 20lbs. a year alone). Indeed, the typical American chocolate consumer knows he isn’t nibbling on chocolate bars for health and dietary reasons. It is the one confection we literally hate to love, but it seems the wages of sin make it taste that much better.

If you’re one of those who secretly knows that you are a chocolate addict and frequently go on chocolate binges, it’s time you realize and read up on some of its effects on your body.

During the last several decades the scientific literature has pointed to chocolate for its alleged role in many body maladies. They have discovered that chocolate can cause migraines, acne, obesity, dental cavities, heartburn, rectal itching, and coronary problems. And a new study implicates two chemicals in chocolate – theobromine and caffeine – as villains in a disorder known as fibrocystic breast disease. This benign ailment is characterized by fibrous tissue and cyst fluid in the breasts. Chocolate also contains methylxanthines which accelerate chemical activity involved in the body’s cellular metabolism and can cause certain sensitive tissues to proliferate. WOMEN WITH FIBROCYSTIC BREAST DISEASE ARE FOUR TIMES MORE LIKELY TO DEVELOP BREAST CANCER AS NORMAL WOMEN.

Chocolate also is loaded with another chemical, phenylethylamine, a compound related to amphetamine. This can lead to emotional problems such as feelings of anger, irritability and confusion, depression, hyperactivity, hallucinations, and even violent behavior. Dr. Marshall Mandell, in his book “5-Day Allergy Relief System”, noted that milk chocolate caused impaired memory and deteriorated penmanship as well as mental confusion for a nine-year-old boy.

Frequent consumption of chocolate leads to addiction, and many people are allergic to chocolate and don’t realize the symptoms they have are caused by it. Psychiatrists have pointed out that people resort to chocolate binges when they are depressed.

Chocolate is very high in sugar and some sugar junkies need a fix every three to four hours. Most candy bars contain at least 45% sugar, and the rest is fat. A mere ounce of the stuff contains 151 calories. If you reach for a handful of almonds that aren’t mired in the gooey confection, the calorie count is only 60. And a few slices of apples contain only 65 calories.

Getting kids to crave things like ice cream, cookies, candy, and chocolate is not only bad, IT’S EVIL… Nowadays they even manufacture millions of pounds of fruit covered with chocolate. And mothers complain immediately if schools quit serving chocolate milk because their kids won’t drink milk without chocolate. Well, I read recently of at least one institution that quit serving chocolate – our local prison – because the prisoners kept BREAKING OUT.

Well that explains the rectal itching now doesn’t it?! lol …kidding.

Alright well that’s enough chocolate talk.  Too much and I might bust out the kit-kats!

When Your Quiver Overflows

Stacy McDonald

Growing up in the 60’s and 70’s I was in the midst of a world that was changing rapidly. No longer was it the norm for a mother to happily stay home with her babies. Although it was not as prevalent as it is today, there were many career moms in our neighborhood. There would be several day care buses lined up outside of our elementary school ready to pick up the children whose mothers were at work. Many women were choosing to limit the number of children they had to pursue careers. Some chose not to have any at all…or at least “wait” until a more opportune time in life. I wonder how many of those women sadly “waited” too long.

In spite of the trend of the world around me, I would line up my dolls and “pretend” to be a mommy and enjoy the fantasy of many children. After my first baby was born I remember being in awe. Only in child-birth does God give us such an awesome love for a human being we’ve never before met. To never have laid eyes on someone one day and be willing to die for them the next…only God is capable of empowering us with such love.

God used a ladies’ Christian email list to bring me to the conviction that God should be in control of our wombs. When I first joined the list, I read all of the articles on birth control and sat down committed to writing in and proving them wrong. Every time I looked up a Scripture to dispute something, it backfired and I realized I was wrong and they would probably use this or that Scripture to prove it. The more I searched the Scriptures, the more certain I became that I had been fooled by the world AND MOST OF THE CHURCH! It’s hard to swallow when every pastor you’ve ever known believes birth control is the “responsible” thing for married adults who feel they have had “enough” children. I had always thought I wanted a “bunch of babies” but with certain new transitions going on in our lives at the time, I had changed my mind and was certain we now had ENOUGH children. Some days, I thought we had MORE than enough! I viewed my children as burdens and NOT blessings.

As God pricked my heart, I shared my concerns with my husband who had already been having the same doubts about birth control being Biblical. I had even pressured him about having a Vasectomy. He shared with me how he felt that we were putting our trust in ourselves and not in God by “taking matters into our own hands.” Didn’t God know what He was doing? Isn’t He the One who opens and closes the womb? At first I thought he was just afraid to “go under the knife” for the Vasectomy. Then as God convicted my heart, I began to understand what he was trying to show me. God has been very sweet to bring us to the same place at the same time on these issues.

After reading the articles I gave him, he was even more certain that birth control was not God’s will for Christians and we never used birth control again. Technically, we weren’t using any traditional form of “birth control” anyway. We were just using an “early withdrawal” method. That was part of the problem. We couldn’t come up with a form of birth control that we felt comfortable with. We knew the pill and IUD could cause a spontaneous abortion, so that was out of the question. We had attempted to use condoms at one point, but it seemed like such a cold and dirty way to celebrate the wonderful gift of love-making that God provided for a husband and wife. We considered the diaphragm, but I have Scoliosis, so I was told by my doctor that it would not work for me because it would not fit properly. I wasn’t going to use the Norplant as it seemed so new and risky so we just practiced “early withdrawal” and hoped it worked. This method was less than romantic by the way. It was also stressful because I always fretted afterwards, wondering if we made it in time and “was I going to wind up pregnant anyway?” Which I did! In June of 1998, Abigail was born. What a tremendous source of joy and blessing she has been!

As I studied Scripture in relation to the form of “birth control” we were using, this is what I found:

Genesis 38:9-10
And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he
went in unto his brother’s wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that
he should give seed to his brother. And the thing which he did displeased the LORD: wherefore he slew him also.

Now, it is true that part of what was displeasing to God, in this instance, was the fact that he was deliberately trying to avoid carrying out his duty to his dead brother in carrying on his family line. (called a Levirate Marriage – Deuteronomy 25:5) But he was also enjoying physical sexual intimacy while trying to manipulate the function of intercourse. The
bottom line is that he “spilled his seed” to avoid having children. Whatever his motive in doing this thing was, he was trying to manipulate God. He was pretending to obey God (by marrying his brother’s widow) while at the same time rejecting the whole purpose of the Levirate Marriage….which was to give his dead brother a child to carry on his name.

I believe this also applies to the Rhythm Method in the sense that this method’s purpose is still to AVOID children, which God says are a blessing. No matter what “form” of birth control we use, it is still what it is called….birth CONTROL! We are trying to control conception instead of trusting God to control it. Make sense?

Whether we use a medical form of birth control, or Early Withdrawal, or use a calendar to try to avoid conception….it’s all the same. It says to God, “I want to be in control of this because I don’t trust You to make a wise decision in this area…..so here’s a little help!”

Sometimes it is so hard to trust God completely, especially when we’ve been raised around Christians who think God needs help. I was one of them! It’s one of those “everybody else is doing it” concepts. But God wants us to look at Scripture, NOT what everybody else is doing or what everybody else thinks is acceptable to God.

Sometimes I think about Susanna Wesley….they were in an incredible amount of debt, she had a very unhelpful husband and she was ill much of her life. I wonder, if she would have had the option to use birth control, would John and Charles Wesley have ever been born? (They were some of her younger children). I tend to think that she would have been quiver minded, but we’ll never know, because thankfully, she did not have the option or the same social pressure that so many ladies have today. Suzanna herself, was the 24th of 24 children! Who would have blamed her mother if she had said, “surely God knows we have enough children, one little simple surgery can cure this!”

What is interesting is that since we made this decision, it has actually changed our relationship with our children. We have had to repent of seeing our children as burdens. We now truly see them as blessings from the hand of God. We never would have actually admitted that we thought this way, but now that we see the change, we realize that is what we were doing. I was really afraid that I would have 20 kids! My husband started to point out how there was no birth control in Biblical times and women did not ALL have 30 children. Some only had one or two children and some begged God for even one little blessing! God truly is the One who opens and closes the womb. I also realized that if God gave me more children I should trust Him enough to know that He would also provide the strength to handle it. For me to say,”Lord I love you, Lord I trust you with everything, Lord take my life, take all of me,” but then not trust Him with my womb, then I was a liar if I said that I trusted the Lord. The excuses that I gave for not wanting more children were all selfish and unBiblical:

1. ” I can’t handle the ones I have…I’m so tired! ” – I truly needed to cast my cares upon the Lord. I was so wrapped up in “poor me” that many times it caused me to take my eyes off of Him.

2. “We can’t afford more children….”- God supplies for our needs. If I am truly trusting him and acknowledging that all we have comes from Him, then I should be confident that He will supply what is needed for each additional child that He places into our hands.

3. ” I’m getting too old! “- I found out many of the stories of dangers in child birth for moms in their 30s and 40s are just myths. But again, God knows how old I am and He is in control of my body. If he places a child in this old body whether it be 34 or 94, He knows what He’s doing….do I trust Him?

4. “What about my other kids? They won’t get enough attention from me…it just won’t be fair to them” – Do you know that the more children we have, the less selfish the kids become? It’s amazing how God has done such miracles in the family as it has grown! We’re closer now than EVER. Also, it keeps me from spoiling the younger ones (my tendency) the older ones keep me in check on that one…you can BET on that! When you have a larger family, there’s just no time for selfishness, excessive privacy, or petty fighting! It would get way too loud! They still try it now and then, but our family size forces us to keep things under control. I have also become extremely organized out of shear necessity. Just another “extra credit” for having a large group in the house.

I noticed that after we repented, and as God has worked in this area of our lives, the fear of weariness, finances, medical problems, pain etc. have all left…..they have been replaced with the precious gift of faith. Faith that God will provide the physical needs of our family and the strength and wisdom to raise all of our children for the kingdom of God. As we have grown, not only has the fear left, but a sweet eagerness and desire for more children has blossomed. At first, we just kind of closed our eyes and said, “OK God, if you MAKE us have more children, we will….we will obey if you give us ANOTHER one, but I just can’t look!!!” As we opened one fearful eye, and saw we weren’t yet pregnant, we then opened a second eye…a little braver this time..and yep, I still wasn’t pregnant….until finally we were saying, “Hey….I’m not pregnant yet???? In fact, to our surprise, we now WANTED more babies! God is so good!

So I have had a real problem with eating chocolate in large amounts as long as I can remember.  Yesterday when I went to wal-mart I paced the candy aisle for 5 minutes trying to decide what I wanted.  I wanted so much!  I almost bought a nine dollar 2 1/2lb. bag of a mix of whoppers, kit kats and reese’s but I decided instead to buy them in a smaller amount.  I bought the 60 cent packages of each individual candy that I wanted.  Last time I bought a 5lb. bag at Sam’s  I ate it in a matter of days all on my own!  (On a side note there was a woman in there buying a 20pk of candy and she was so obese she had to sit in a electric chair.  Then to top things off she told me she was buying them with her food stamps.  Some people are so ghetto! lol)

So needless to say, I bought my stash and headed home.  I planned to watch 24 but then realized I didn’t do my quite time yesterday so I sat down at the table to do it.  The subject this week is on personal spiritual growth.  I won’t go into great detail about that but last nights specific lesson was on “Physical Growth.”  I opened up my kit kat and slowly began to eat the outer layer of chocolate from the wafer and it was SO satisfying!!

That is until I got to question 6 in my study.

#6: The way we care for our bodies, the food we eat, and the exercise we get directly influence our spiritual health and our witness for Jesus Christ.  Read 1 Cor 10:31.  What should influence the way we eat and how we treat our bodies.

Suddenly my kit kat wasn’t so satisfying and I was not happy.  Moving on…

#7:If you need further encouragement to pay attention to your food choices and the care of your body, read Romans 13:13-14.  Summarize in your own words the challenge stated in these verses.

Again..OUCH.  Here I was making my provisions to fulfill my flesh. lol 

In question 8 I was forced to admit my chocolate addiction.  While I do exercise, that is not the reason I am skinny and I use that as my crutch to eat bad food. 

So this was my conclusion.   No more chocolate for me except when AF is on her way.  Also, I am going back to my water only diet.  Not because I need to diet but because there once was a day when all I drank was water for years.  The taste of sodas/tea and juice were horrendous.  I long to be back there.

When I drink anything except water, it effects my ability to run.  I simply cannot breathe if I have had anything except water to drink that day.  It is weird.  But they are related and I notice. 

Anyway, thought I would share.