Hope and help for new stay-at-home moms
Tomorrow, Little Man and I head out to Illinois to visit my dad.
Mister won’t be joining us, which means I’ll be flying with a toddler, unassisted.
I must be crazy. 
I’ll be taking a bloggy break to focus on family while we’re there, and I plan to post the super-easy meal plan with slow cooker recipes next week.
God bless,
Megan
Whether you’re dealing with a fussy newborn or a cranky toddler, there are days when it can seem impossible to get dinner on the table.
Mama, meet your new best friend.
My slow cooker and I are in love.
Okay, maybe the feeling’s not mutual. My slow cooker has never actually professed its feelings for me.
But at any rate, I am in love with my slow cooker. In fact, I use it so often that my dear husband has been known to light up like the 4th of July over a humble grilled cheese sandwich, just because it didn’t come out of the slow cooker.
Yeah, I use it that much.
So mama, if your slow cooker is collecting dust in the back of your pantry, if it’s in the section of the basement dedicated to unused wedding gifts, or if you {gasp} don’t own one …
It’s time to bust it out and get your slow cook on. This little guy will help you feed your family, even on the crazy days, without turning to frozen pizza or Burger King. Not that I’ve ever done that. {Ahem}
Here are just a few of the reasons I love my slow cooker:
I mean it doesn’t generate a lot of heat. I hate, hate, hate to be hot — which is why I eschew the stove from June to August and cook with my slow cooker all summer long.The slow cooker works around your schedule, which is why it’s so great for busy stay-at-home moms. Later this week, I’ll share a super-easy weekly meal plan that even the busiest mama can handle, with plenty of slow cooker recipes. Stay tuned!
God bless,
Megan
Four years ago, my husband and I had just packed all our belongings into a Penske truck and left our families behind. His job had taken us from Phoenix to Connecticut, and we were about to face one of the biggest trials of our married life.
New town, new apartment, new jobs, new church. Like an earthquake, the big changes we were experiencing shook us up and brought all the problems in our relationship to the surface.
And suddenly I found myself questioning my marriage. With no friends or family anywhere close.
I had never felt so alone.
There were moments when I thought it was all over. Broken beyond repair. Completely without hope.
“Never underestimate my Jesus. You’re telling me that there’s no hope. I’m telling you you’re wrong.” Relient K, from “For the Moments I Feel Faint”
I can’t tell you how much I cried during those dark months. Or how much I prayed.
“God, help. Redeem this marriage. Only You can save it, God. Only you. Help.”
“I waited patiently for the LORD; He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. (Psalm 40: 1-2)
This is what God did.
He turned to me.
He heard my cry.
He lifted my marriage out of the slimy pit, out of the muck and mire.
He saved our marriage.
We didn’t wake up one morning and suddenly everything was just peachy. But slowly, things began to change. Healing entered into our relationship. Peace entered into our home.
And today, our marriage is stronger than ever. Not because we’re awesome, but because He is.
We learned, in that trial, that only a marriage built on the firm foundation of Christ will stand.
I share this deeply personal story with you for one reason — to give you hope.
If you are facing a hopeless situation today, I want to encourage you to invite Jesus into that situation.
Where He is, there is hope.
The pain you are feeling is real, and it is big. I know.
I also know that…
Jesus is real, and He is bigger.
Just ask the demon-possessed man who lived in the tombs until Jesus delivered him (Mark 5: 1-20). Or the woman who had suffered with bleeding for 12 years until Jesus healed her (Mark 5: 25-34). Or the synagogue ruler whose little girl was dead until Jesus raised her to life (Mark 5: 35-43). Or the disciples whose boat was sinking fast until Jesus calmed the storm (Mark 4: 35-41).
No situation is without hope, if Jesus is there.
Invite Him in, dear one.
God bless,
Megan
The tattered Precious Moments children’s Bible sits on our kitchen shelf. Its pages are filled with pink notes written in my loopy 8th grade handwriting … and truth. Truth that’s been nourishing my spirit since my Grandma Marlene gave me that Bible for Christmas almost twenty years ago.
Truth that I’ve been sharing with Little Man since he was three months old.
And yesterday, this –
“Bah-buh!” {pointing to the Bible}
“You want to read the Bible, sweetie? You want to read the Bible?!?!” {Little Man nodding}
Now, I know, at 21 months old, that he was asking to read the Bible pretty much because it’s part of our daily routine and he’s come to expect it.
But I also know that although he understands very little of what we read today, these seeds of truth are nourishing his little spirit and they will bear fruit later.
I can’t put into words the joy that washed over me in that moment.
Or the panic that followed.
Because daily Bible reading isn’t the only thing that Little Man has picked up from his mama.
The smallest smudge of peanut butter on his pudgy little finger can spark a three-alarm meltdown. Music of any kind sets his feet a-dancing. One of his first words was “llama.”
Where’s he getting this stuff? {ahem}
Our children are sponges, mama. Sticky, loud, adorable sponges. They soak it all in.
Everything we do, everything we say … they absorb it all, and their little hearts translate –
This is the way things should be done, this is the way things should be said.
The enormous weight of that responsibility sends me to my knees.
Please, Lord, when he looks at me, let him see You. Let him see the joy, the peace that comes from knowing you. The sin that I struggle with … let it not touch him, Father.
When my son looks at me, I want him to see a woman whose heart is on fire with love for the Savior who redeemed her, whose knees hit the floor daily on behalf of her family.
What do you want your children to see? What are you modeling for them today?
God bless,
Megan
Healthy, peaceful, Spirit-filled. If you asked my husband or my son to describe me, this is what I hope they’d say.
Anxious, frazzled, stressed out. If you asked my husband or my son to describe me, this is what they probably would say.
(Well, Little Man would probably say, “Mama!” But only because of the limitations of his 21-month old vocabulary.)
I want to start each day in His power, not my own. To wake up, reach out my hand, place it in Christ’s, and count on His power to pull me out of bed. To kneel before Him and place all my burdens at His feet, before the day has even started. To trust Him for the strength to take care of the body He’s given me. To submit my time and my plans to Him and allow Him to direct my paths.
“In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.” (Psalm 5:3)
And so…
I’ve signed up for the Hello Mornings Challenge.
Hello Mornings is a movement created by Kat over at Inspired to Action. The idea is that you commit to waking up for your children, instead of waking up with your children, and spending focused time in three areas.
God. Exercise. Planning.
Now, Kat inspires my socks off. Her Maximize Your Mornings e-book gave me a fresh vision for my mothering. I love her because she encourages us to be better for God and our families, but she doesn’t promote a perfectionist, all-or-nothing way of thinking (which is a trap that I fall into all the time). Instead, Kat encourages women to start small and focus on creating a habit.
Which is exactly what I intend to do.
I want to develop the habit of waking early, to spend time with my God and let Him transform me into the wife, mama and woman He created me to be.
One of my excuses for not getting up early has always been the darkness. Especially this time of year, when the sun doesn’t come up until, oh, 7:30-ish, it is just. so. hard. to get out of bed when it’s dark out. It just feels unnatural.
So I let a few sessions of the Hello Mornings Challenge go by without signing up. And each time, I’d think, maybe next time I’ll sign up. I’m just not ready yet.
And then I came across this passage of scripture.
“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” (Mark 1:35)
Okay, Lord, I got the message.
So I will count on Him to help me get up very early in the morning, while it is still dark, to go to a solitary place and pray.
I won’t do it perfectly, I won’t always do it joyfully, but I will do it.
This year, I will allow Him to develop a holy habit in me.
Do you have a fresh vision for 2012? What will you allow God to do in you and through you this year?
God bless,
Megan
It must be January. Everywhere we turn, the message is there.
New year, new you!
The diet plans, the gyms, the makers of those revolutionary skin care products. They’d all like us to believe that we can be that beautiful, that healthy, that youthful.
The power to change is within us!
(Well, we might need a little extra help with the whole “change” thing, which is where the pills, creams, and plans come in.)
But here’s the thing, mama. Don’t fall for it.
The power to change is not within you.
It’s within Him.
Only Jesus can make us new.
Do you want to be a more loving wife? A more patient mama? A more effective teacher to your little ones?
Do you want to be healthier? Leaner? More well-rested?
All your hopes and dreams for this new year are possible, if you place them in His hands.
This is His promise to you –
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean.
I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.
I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
(Ezekiel 36: 25-27)
On Friday, I’ll share what I’m trusting Jesus to accomplish in me this year. What hopes are you entrusting to Him in 2012?
God bless,
Megan
Bad blogger.
It’s been more than a month since I’ve posted. A month since my life got swept up into the vortex of holiday busy and travel crazy.
Turns out, my blog-by-the-seat-of-my-pants strategy didn’t hold up well to the increasing demands on my time. (Shocking, I know.)
But it’s a new year, and here’s what I love about the month of January.
It feels like a clean slate.
And here’s what I’m writing on it –
My time is a gift from God, to be used as He leads, for His glory.
Sometimes it seems there aren’t enough minutes in my day to accomplish all the stuff on my to-do list.
But I serve a God who created time, and He — and He alone — is able to help me manage the minutes to His glory.
So here’s my goal for BrandNewMama in 2012.
This blog is for His glory, created to encourage new stay-at-home moms and point them to the Savior who alone is able to gently guide them through these (sometimes overwhelmingly hard) days.
And here’s the plan that He placed on my heart to carry this out.
By his grace, and with His help, I can do it.
And how about you, dear mama? He’s placed a clean slate in your lap. What’s He leading you to write?
God bless,
Megan
