I am a FULL time mom!

This was taken from an interview that the girltalk bloggers did with Mary Mohler... read the whole article here.

This question really spoke to where I'm at in life. I've often felt defensive about the fact that I'm just a SAHM. The reality is that I'm happy where I'm at, and as long as possible (hopefully forever)... Here it is :) (I added the bold print).


What do you think is one of the greatest needs among mothers today and how would you encourage them?

As I said in the "Motherhood Matters" article that you kindly referenced above, I think moms need to stop apologizing for doing a full time job full time! I am not going to state that all moms must be stay at home moms but for those who are, they must stop feeling inferior for their decision. I am tired of the mentality that is becoming more and more prevalent that says women who stay at home raising their children are wasting themselves even as they serve to drag down the economy. That’s a lie. Women who are home raising their children should do so with gusto and no regrets. No one can love your children like you can. God made you to be their mother and no one else. Learn everything you can about how to be the best mom you can be by God’s grace. Hold your head high when you state that you are a mom—not “just a mom” but a mom full time. Love your job because the days are fleeting. Those precious little ones will be grown up sooner than you think. Motherhood is a high calling now just as it has always been. Those who think otherwise are deceiving themselves.

New York, New York

Julie and I got back from a 3 day/3 night trip to New York yesterday afternoon. Seriously, Julie is the best baby ever. She slept all but 15 minutes on both flights. Happily rode in her stroller while we were sight seeing and shopping, and in general was in an excellent mood the whole trip.


I had an awesome time, and really enjoyed seeing Janet's home and also seeing the city (I've never been before). Peter held down the fort (Grandma Sue and Aunt Laura graciously helped while Peter worked on Friday--THANKS guys).

I can't find the cord to connect the camera to the computer, so pictures will have to come later :)

2nd First Day of School

Here's a pic from the 2nd First Day of School. Confused? You should be ;) Matt and Kayla's first preschool option did not turn out to be what we had hoped and prayed for. After consulting with a couple close friends and family and praying, we decided to pull Matt and Kayla out of their current school. After numerous calls to a bunch of different schools, we decided on a "new school" that actually had their first day on Tuesday. They had a great second first day!

In other news, Julie is talking! You can go ahead and think I'm crazy, but the kid says like 8 words. She's saying things like "yea", "bye (while waving)", Dada, Mama, "more", peek-a-boo ("eek oooo"). Trust me, I think it's as crazy as you do! (Although she has been waiting for 8 months to be able to join in the chatter around here). Speaking of the peanut, she's also working hard on learning how to walk. She takes some steps with furniture, will walk a bit with her push toy walker thing, and has lunged from one piece of furniture towards another (resulting in many bumps and bruises to the melon).

AND, Julie's switching partially to cloth diapers (eventually fully, probably). Julie has the most sensitive skin (thanks daddy), and gets diaper rash all the time... after Laura mentioned that she plans to cloth diaper... I thought... "hum, it might not be THAT bad". So, I did the Nicole thing and researched the heck out of it, and decided on a couple things to try. It's not too bad so far, and we still haven't received our super easy cloth diapers (meaning, I'm the only one on diaper duty cause Peter won't touch a prefold)... but we're doing okay with it. (And it saves a bunch of money!). Thanks Aunt Laura!

Last weekend we went up to State to celebrate my dad's and Jillian's birthday. It was cool seeing Mark and MacKenzie's apartment (my parents swear married housing is WAY better than it used to be), and we stopped by Dan's dorm for a minute too.

Its been busy, its been good.

1st Day of School EVER! :)