children Archives - Page 10 of 29

1K Giveaway!

This past week, Five in Tow reached another milestone: over 1,000 Facebook fans! I have planned a week of great giveaways to celebrate your faithful readership. I am so thankful for each of you!

I am also thankful for a great group of fellow bloggers and sponsors who gladly stepped up and offered some great prizes. I received so many donations, in fact, that I get to offer several prizes daily for eight days!

Would you like to see what you can win? Take a look…

Monday

Whether you’re newly married or an oldy-wed like me, keeping romance alive in a marriage can be hard work. Jami Balmet makes things easier with her e-kit packed full of creative (and doable!) ideas for romancing your spouse. You can win one in time for Valentine’s Day!

Speaking of romance, nothing says love like a homemade dinner. You may not be a raging gourmet, but anyone can cook with the help of Rachel Ray! Shock your spouse by whipping up a great dinner in less time than it takes to watch a sitcom. Win a set of Rachel’s cookbooks, donated by the fabulous newlywed, Emily Gardner of Primitive Roads.

Tuesday

One of my favorite companies is Hazelaid. Their products have helped my family so much, I brag about them everywhere I go (including here). Hazelaid has donated a $25 gift certificate to one winner! The only bad thing about this prize is you will have to choose your prize. That is tough stuff.

Tuesday also gives you the opportunity to get to know my friend Emily Cook through her book, Tend To Me: Devotions for Mothers. Emily is a mother of six with a precious heart and God-filled story. She is a constant source of encouragement to me as I follow along with her.

Wednesday

Right smack in the middle of the week, just when you’re feeling the most overwhelmed your household responsibilities, I will come to your rescue by offering you the chance to win Kayse Pratt’s e-book, Getting It Together: Your Guide to Setting Up a Home Management System That Works. Oh. My. Goodness. I think she wrote this just for me. It contains everything you need to keep (or find) your sanity except for chocolate. You have to provide the chocolate yourself (or win it on Saturday, ahem).

After all that home organizing, you deserve a prize! How about jewelry? Enter to win a handmade necklace of your choice, donated by The Mighty River Project. Each necklace is made by artisans in Uganda, and each and every necklace helps to end the problem of poverty in that part of the world. It just doesn’t get much better than that.

Thursday

Thursday is all about the tremendous job of childbirth and parenting. First, I will be giving away Angie Tolpin’s groundbreaking book Redeeming Childbirth, graciously donated by the author herself! It is a must-read for all moms!

I will also be giving away the book 21 Ways to Connect with Your Kids. Cheri Gregory is sponsoring this giveaway. She will also provide a personality assessment and make personal applications for you to use with your child. I wonder if she’ll do five?

Friday

Friday night is date night! That means I’ll be giving you yet another chance to win Jami Balmet’s Rekindling Romance kit.

Also, my friend Sunny will be shipping one winner a box of Belgian chocolates straight from her home in Belgium! Those are almost too good to share. Almost.

If your date night takes you out into the chilly night air, you’ll be thrilled to win a hand-knit scarf from Auntie Annie. She’ll make it to order!

Saturday

Saturday, I have the pleasure of giving away some fabulous Norwex products, donated by my long-time friend, Andrea McNally. These are the ultimate products for cleaning, as I wrote about here.

With the help of Norwex, your Saturday chores will be done in record time. So…why not kick back with a little light reading? Vicki Lucas is giving away a copy of her young adult Christian fantasy book, Toxic. There’s an epic battle between good and evil, the potential of global destruction, and a story that will strengthen your faith…what more could you ask for?

Sunday

Sunday is a day of rest. One winner will be able to get away from the weekly grind with a prize package that includes homemade soaps and lip gloss individually crafted by Sharon Rowland of Lovin’ the Lather.

If the children have not interrupted you a million times while you soaked in the tub, you might have some time to journal. Author, speaker, and life-coach Laurie Wallin is giving one lucky winner a beautiful journal. If you need help filling it, she’ll gladly help you find a million things to be joyful about!

But that’s not all! Author Jessie Gunderson has been published in the devotional If I Can Do All Things Through Christ Why Can’t I Find My Car Keys? She kindly donated a copy for us because she knows most moms could use a book like this. Also, the proceeds of this book go to help fund her family’s adoption efforts. Now that’s cool.

Monday

Janine from True Aim Education is giving away a complete Christian preschool curriculum from Blue Manor Academy. Whether you’re thinking about homeschooling long-term or just want to give your child a head-start, this package will provide everything you need. This is a tremendous prize package! Be sure to tell all your friends with preschoolers to enter!

Doesn’t this sound like a lot of fun? Come back Monday, and every day all week, to enter. Each giveaway will be open for three days, and you’ll have lots of great chances to earn extra entries by visiting our sponsors and sharing your favorite posts. It will be a roaring week here at Five in Tow!

I hope to see you all back here first thing Monday morning!

100 Beautiful Days of Motherhood: Sin and Snakes {15}

This is not our snake.

Sin snaked its way into my home yesterday. Slippery-bellied and silver-tongued, it took me by surprise.

I am old enough to know better than to be surprised by sin. It is not my first time around the garden. It is not my first time standing under a tree, looking into the beady eyes of one who wants nothing but destruction for me. I should know better than to be surprised to find him lurking and to find myself listening.

But yesterday sin did not come for me. Sin was after my children, and I stood shocked by the underhandedness of it all. These are children. What a low-down and dirty thing to do, to come slithering into the playroom while I am busy about other things.

I should not have been surprised. I know enough to know that sin is no gentleman. He does not care if he hurts my feelings or harms my children.

This common thief of children’s hearts was all too willing to abandon the rules of engagement to go after the innocents. That has been his game all along. He lures with lies and covers with shame, and it all works so well that most of the damage is done before anyone even notices.

But this time, shame did not work. It only took one little child’s voice to open the door to truth and it all came tumbling out, ugly-faced and squinting from spending so much time in the dark. Sin. From the looks of its tangled coils, it had been there for quite some time.

Micah (4) Also, not our snake

My heart felt sick and heavy. I did not know what to do or how to do it. We talked about discipline, and I wondered if I had the strength to follow through with a punishment that seemed to be more a punishment for me than a penalty for them. For a brief moment, I actually felt a little sorry for myself because I was inconvenienced by it all. But then I recognized the hiss of an all-too-familiar foe, and I remembered. That was just another one of his lies.

Sin is not an offense against me; sin is an offense against God. My mother-heart aches when I see the sins of my children loud, audacious, and messy, when other people notice, when consequences are difficult to dole out and require a bit of mutual suffering on my part.

But if my heart is heavy, it should be heavy because my children have been caught playing with a snake in the garden of God. My children have bought into the lie. My children have offended a holy God. My children deserve punishment.

Faith (10) DEFINITELY not our snake

But this God is a Father-God, so unlike the destroyer. He is all of kindness, justice, and mercy. He longs to restore what sin has taken, and so He deals with my children’s sin the way any father would. He gives them a second chance.

Gently, God uncovers the shame. He throws open the windows and lets in the light. He exposes their sin and allows their father and me the opportunity to discipline them now so they are not found lacking later, when life is harder and the stakes are higher.

It is a grace that He does because it is far better to have to deal with the consequences of my children’s sin than to let the consequences of sin deal with my child. It is far better to deal with sin in this world than in the next.

It is not as if I can make it go away simply by ignoring it. I know my children sin. After all, they take after me, and I am well-acquainted with the Fall. Still, it is hard to see, so hard that I might be tempted to ignore the fact that it is a grace to see where my children fall short. It is a grace to be allowed an opportunity to help my children recognize and repent of sin, to correct their natural tendencies and be restored again to God before further damage is done.

So on this beautiful day, I am thankful for sin brought to light. It was not beautiful to see. It was not lovely or good. But also, it is not here anymore.

100 Beautiful Days of Motherhood: Environmental Responsibility {14}

“Are they all yours?” the woman in the checkout line asked.

“Yes, they’re all mine!” I said as I lugged two milk jugs onto the conveyor belt.

“Don’t you think that’s…irresponsible?” she asked. I noticed my older two children looking up at her, soaking in every word. “I mean, don’t you care?”

“Of course I do,” I said carefully, trapping other words that threatened to spill out along with those four. I barred them in with a smile I didn’t feel. “I care about lots of things.”

“That’s not what I meant,” she huffed. “Don’t you care about the environment? Don’t you care about the fact that you’re using more than your share of resources?”

It was a question flavored with accusation. I had heard it more than once since the twins were born from people withered by greed and a sneaky kind of selfishness that passes itself off as responsibility.

I was a woman with a big family, and big families are not in vogue anymore, especially in this very progressive part of the country. She felt it her obligation to tell me so.

I ruffled my son’s hair and didn’t say anything. I wanted to tell her the story and share a little bit of the justification for why I had five children in the first place, starting with the fact that it was not my idea.

But mostly, I wanted to tell her that my children are not a strain on this world. They are not a hindrance, a plague, or a pest. They do not make it a habit to eat more than their share of the pie.

My children are little stewards, little princes and princesses of a mighty kingdom. They are going to grow up to be kind caretakers of this land and humble servants to its people because that is what they were made to be. They were chosen for that role, along with all the King’s children, not by the will of man, but by the kind intention of the Creator-God who made my children to rule over His creation with the same kind of kindness with which He rules over us.

As my children learn to love their King, the more they will be able to perceive the hand of God in it. They will understand that this world and all the life it contains is worthy of protection because God made it and declared it so.

God’s face is all over this world, and the King’s children are the few who will know it when they see it.

I looked at the woman in line behind me and I realized that her kingdom was crumbling. She did not know how not to die, how not to burn out and be used up and wasted like the earth she thought we threatened. She grasped and clawed for a life she could not keep and clung to an earth that could not save.

“What do you think would happen if everyone had kids like you?” she demanded.

I smiled. This was a question I could answer. “I think, if everyone had kids like me, the world would be a better place. Because I am doing my very best to make sure that my children are exactly the kind of people this world needs more of.”

The woman stared at me.

I leaned in a little and said, “I’m giving you, and this earth, the very best I have.”

On this beautiful day, I am thankful for the ability to raise up caretakers of God’s great earth, little Adams and little Eves who will care for this kingdom long after I am gone. I am thankful that in leaving this earth to my children, I am leaving it better than I found it.

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