Goodbye September

I haven't even posted anything this entire month, my favorite month of the year! This month is special to me because I celebrated a birthday the other day. I'm 29. It's my last year in my twenties!! I definitely have to live it to the fullest!

My daughter turned two years old, and my son turned three years old!

I try to count my blessings everyday, because everyday is a blessing! The weather is beautiful and I am blessed to have my family around me.

Multiple Sources of Income from Home

If you are interested in earning money from home, even on a very part-time basis, you can use your interests and skills in writing to earn some income. Here are a few places to get you started that I have not mentioned before.

1. Textbroker

You can write articles of your choosing and receive payment for them at Textbroker. I haven't written for them before, so I'm not sure how much they pay, but the pay increases as your article rates go up.


2. Examiner

Examiner is looking for writers to write about family and parenting. If that is right up your alley, then go to their website and apply to be a writer. A few examples of topics they are looking for are: baby and toddler gear, attachment parenting, frugal families, kids nutrition and exercise, and many more topics.


3. Outdora

Outdora is looking for writers and bloggers. They are looking for writers with expertise in cooking, gardening, wine, feng shui, and outdoor patio design.

For those who have high traffic blogs, they are looking for bloggers to post on their blogs about assigned topics.

Email marketing@outdora.com and put which job you are applying for in the subject line. Also include links to your blog or writing samples.

Go to Frugal Fridays to find out more ways to earn and save money!

Have a great weekend.

A Better Way to Prepare Daughters for the "What If"

Preparing daughters to be homemakers may seem like a fairy tale idea to some. What if a young woman goes through a divorce, her husband dies, or in some other way is left to raise her children and support them.

What are we as parents to do? I have read a number of articles about preparing daughters for the "just in case", and I recently read a wonderful article by Mrs. Wayne Hunter of Fascinating Womanhood Alaska about ways that parents can still raise their daughters to be homemakers, but still prepare them to remain a homemaker if they are suddenly found husbandless.

Reading the article opened my eyes to ideas that I had not thought of in blessing my daughter for the just in case. I think it is one of the best articles on how to truly prepare daughters for the "what if". I encourage you to read it.

Here's a snippet:

Many mothers want to prepare their daughters by insisting that they get college degrees for professions in case they: never marry, marry but their husbands abandon them or the marriage ends in divorce, or marry but become widows at a somewhat early age. While this seems logical and like a good plan to many, the damage done by it can be irreversible and can undo a lot of teaching we’ve given our daughters on to how to be God-fearing women.

Read the full article here.





Check out Raising Homemakers for more great posts on preparing daughters to be homemakers!

Marry Wisely So You Can Be A Homemaker

Last week I discussed how important it is for us as mothers to help cultivate a spirit of service in our daughters to help prepare them for motherhood.

In raising a homemaker, I aspire to raise a daughter who loves Jesus and serves Him, who delights in taking care of others, who uses her gifts to the glory of God, who is a competent cook, can clean efficiently, and basically run a smooth running home. In other words, create a wonderful home for her family.

There is something else that I want to encourage my daughter to do as she grows up:

Marry a man who will protect and provide for her, and SUPPORTS her being a homemaker!

Lakita Garth, a powerful woman of God who inspired me greatly when I was in college, said that two of the greatest decisions that we will ever make are 1. Who we will serve. (Jesus) and 2. Who we will marry.

Both of those decisions greatly affect the rest of our life. I did not understand how who we married could be number two on the list, but I understand now.

Who we decide to marry influences our life, even whether or not we can be homemakers or not!

There are women who want to stay home, but do not because their husbands do not want them to be at home with their young children, and these women feel they must submit to their husbands and remain working outside of the home.

Of course, a wise woman will discuss whether her future spouse supports her desire to stay at home BEFORE they marry.

A wise older woman told me to make sure to marry a man who supported me in staying at home. It is not fair to marry someone and expect their views to change, because what if they do not? If being a stay at home mother is important to you, then do not marry someone who does not support that.

So, I want to train my daughter to be an excellent homemaker, but also to look for a man who is Godly and who supports being the sole financial provider while she stays home with the children. Even if it's for a season. Young children need a mother at home. As they get older, the situation may change, and so can circumstances. But, it's important for a young lady to marry a man who will support her in her endeavors to be a homemaker, if she knows up front that being a homemaker at home with her children is what she wants to do.

Purposeful Toddler Homeschooling

Homeschooling is fun! I didn't realize that it could bring such focus to my day, and make me bond with my children more. I see how much fun learning can be, and how excited my children are to learn new things. They are eager to learn and work on projects and such.

For the past year or so my "homeschooling" has basically consisted of me reading the children books, teaching when we go outside to play, and teaching things here and there, like teaching scriptures, a bit of Spanish, numbers, colors. All of it was done in a random way, and my children just kind of absorbed it, like how they both know The Lord's Prayer, from hearing me pray it. My son can recite the entire prayer, and my daughter can recite about half of it.




It is much more relaxed and fun that way. But, yesterday, I decided to be more focused with our school time. My son will be 3 and my daughter 2 in September, and suddenly I have been bombarded with people asking me is my son going to start Pre-K this year. Like everywhere I turn someone asks me when I'm going to start him with school. I haven't told anyone that I teach them at home, because it's not in a structured way, but they always comment on how smart they seem to be, and how much they know.

The past two days have been so much fun as I have focused more on incorporating "school" into our everyday routine. I have a block of time in the morning and in the afternonn strictly for school. They have been soooo excited to learn new things and work on skills. I am more intentional in teaching them things, and being creative with it as well. I feel a greater sense of purpose at home and with my children.

Teaching Our Daughters To Love Motherhood

Precious Moment
by Hulis Mavruk


I have been really blessed by the Raising Homemakers website, and today I want to share about ways to teach our daughters to love motherhood. Because as Titus 2 mothers, that is one of the things we are to teach the younger women (our daughters), to love their children.

How do we do that?

For me, I think about the biggest challenges of being a mother for myself. They are:

1. Patience

2. Desiring too much "me time." A.k.a. Selfishness

3. Selfishness

4. Training/Discipline

The common attitude among many women, and people in general, is that children are a burden. It is implied in the many remarks that people make about having children, like how their children drive them crazy, why would you want more than one or two, how they can't wait for their children to leave the house, etc.

Some people say that raising children is easy, and that it is not rocket science to raise good children. I think that's great for those people, and I wish that I could join their ranks. But, I am not at that station in life yet. For me, right now, I think that motherhood is hard.

There is a great post at Generation Cedar about the blessings of having children here. It was quite thought provoking, and I came away from it thinking, the reason a lot of women do not embrace having a lot of children is because it is HARD! At least for me it is. It is a daily struggle to fight my selfish nature and be the servant that God wants me to be. I want my daughter to enjoy motherhood, but what can I do as she grows up to prepare her for the joys and challenges of motherhood?


Our Little Angel
M.C. Wrey


The main thing that I can think of besides her committing her life to Jesus Christ is learning to

SERVE OTHERS.

Motherhood is about serving others, and I think the more of a servant spirit one has, the easier it is to embrace motherhood. Serving others helps to combat selfishness. The more you do it, the more natural it becomes. Serving the needs of others is key to being a great mother. Especially with mothering young children, you must anticipate and take care of their needs, even when it is inconvenient for you. And, that was a hard pill to swallow, and sometimes still is. I now have a smile on my face when my daughter wakes up in the middle of the night and disturbs my sleep. Thankfully it doesn't happen often, but I've learned to embrace the inconvenience and snuggle with my baby for a few moments and lay her back down.

I think it is important for mothers to help cultivate a servant's spirit and heart in our daughters. Doing so will help mold daughters who anticipate the needs of and delights to serve the needs of her family, whether it's helping her mother around the house, taking over the cooking, caring for her siblings, giving her mother a break, and just finding ways to be an asset to her family.

I think it's important, too, to make sure that our children volunteer outside of the home and serve others. The few times I did so as a teenager made me feel so great inside to know that I was helping others. What a blessing to volunteer on a regular basis so that it is a habit to always think of the need of others, and not just focus on our own wants and needs.

I will end with an excerpt of a great post from another blog, Virtuous Living. A woman with 12 children tells of how she learned to embrace motherhood, and all of the children God wanted her and her husband to have.

She said,

It is true, that when you trust the Lord you are blessed in abundance. Children truly are an heritage of the Lord and happy is the man who's quiver is full of them. I would never change a thing. I have no regrets, nor do I feel I have neglected the ME in myself. Whosoever will find himself will lose it, and whosoever will lose himself shall find it. That's what I did. I put the ME away and tried with all my heart to do as the Lord bid.

Visions for my Daughter

*m.c. wrey, "my precious"

I delight in being feminine, and I want my daughter to do the same. It's amazing that so many people around me, who know that I delight in femininity, enjoy telling me that my daughter is going to be a rough and tough little tomboy, because she is an active almost 2 year old and she loves to climb on things. When we go places she usually wears a dress, unless she is going to be outside at the park and could get dirty then she'll wear a pair of shorts.

These same people, usually women, tell me that they were tomboys, and it's a good thing. I'm starting to think that they are secretly hoping that she will reject being a feminine, girly girl.

I usually don't respond to their comments, because I do not think there is much need. Young children will be young children, and that does not make them a tomboy. I enjoyed climbing trees with my brother, riding bikes, exploring in the woods, and playing basketball when I was younger. It was fun, and it was part of having a great childhood. But, I never considered myself a tomboy. I also enjoyed playing with my dolls, pretending to be a teacher to them, helping take care of my younger brother and sister, and wearing dresses and "looking pretty."



What things am I doing now to help nurture my daughter's femininity?

- Letting her help me clean. She enjoys dusting and wiping off the table.

- Dressing her like a little girl.

- Encouraging her to speak with a soft voice when she likes to get loud and boisterous.

- Letting her watch me cook, and "help" me with simple cooking tasks, like stirring.

- Praying vigilently over my daughter that God would mold her into the young lady that she needs to be, that He helps her maintain her purity until marriage, and live a life that is pleasing unto Him.

- Be an example of a feminine, Godly wife, mother and woman for her to see everyday. Knowing that I have little eyes watching me and mimicking me forces me to constantly try to be the best that I can be.

Do want more inspiration to raise your daughter to be a homemaker and embrace her femininity? Check out RaisingHomemakers.com !!