Morning Grace

I'm a rule-following kind of girl. Its a great trait to have...sometimes. Sometimes it can really get in the way, though. When it comes to my morning quiet time, it can be downright dangerous. As a college student and into my early married years in my 20's, it was easy for me to get up early and spend an hour ir more with God every morning. Then we had kids, and everything changed. Suddenly I was a 22 year old stay at home mom who considered taking a shower a major accomplishment. Days went by without me ever even opening my Bible. My prayer time dwindled to, "Lord, how am I going to get this done?" I'm a voracious reader, so as my kids got older, I started reading again - along with my Bible, I read books on marriage, parenting, and being a Godly woman. I learned a lot from those books - mainly that I was failing. One book said I should spend an hour or more a day in Bible study. Another told me it should be easy to pray for an hour a day. Still others told me I should tithe my time - spend 10% of my time with God and never miss a day. I beat myself up a lot during those early years of marriage and motherhood. I knew there was no way I could live up to what those books suggested. I was breaking all the rules. Then, a few years ago, I discovered something amazing - grace. Its my morning grace - grace for my times with God. My goal is to get up early every morning and spend time with God. Most days it happens, but if not, there's grace. Some days its long, other days its just a short devotional. One day I might spend more time in Bible study, another day might be focused more on prayer, and still another might focus on journaling or scripture memory. Whatever I'm doing, there's grace. I believe that God delights in our efforts and our successes to spend time with Him, but I also believe that He's ready to wrap His arms around us and carry us when we're frazzled, frustrated, and struggling to keep up. He made us, He knows us, and He understands our ups and downs. My morning quiet time is again something I look forward to. In fact, its one of my favorite times of the day. Do you want to have consistent time with God every day? Sign up for Hello Mornings! It has inspired me so much that I'm going to be an accountability captain for the 2nd time in the winter session!

When Mom Gets Sick

The past couple of weeks have been interesting...and challenging.  I finished the fall semester two weeks ago today and threw myself into getting ready for Christmas. Despite my plans to rest, I was doing anything but resting. Finishing my shopping, taking Christmas card pictures, helping my husband get ready for Christmas events, going to church Christmas parties....

Then, while teaching my preschool Sunday School class last Sunday (the 17th), my throat started hurting. It went downhill from there. I think I just had a bad cold, but it hit me really hard. I'm sure my immune system was down from the stress and exhaustion of school. Whatever it was took me down in a hurry.

Suddenly, Mrs. "I-get-up-at-5:00-a.m.-every-day" was rolling out of bed at 9:00 a.m. Instead of running 90-miles-an-hour at work, I was rescheduling appointments and struggling to even show up at work. I think this was God's way of saying, "Look, you need to rest, and if you won't take time out for, I will make sure you get the rest you need." It worked.

Thankfully I felt much better by Christmas. I'm almost 100% now, although I'm still fighting a little bit of a cough. I'm gradually getting back to a normal routine...although I only managed a 7:45 a.m. wakeup time today. Gotta work on that... Its good to be back to even a kind-of normal life though. Back to blogging, back to planning, back to normal, and definitely back to enjoying every second of my Christmas break.

Not Quite According to Plan...

I've been so excited about Christmas break.  I have so much I want to accomplish over this month-long break - books to read, projects to work on, cleaning and organizing to do.  I was ready to hit the ground running Thursday, my first day with no classes.  It started out okay, although I had a busy end of the week last week.

Then this week happened.  My week so far...

• I cooked for a church dinner.
• I almost destroyed my cake for the church dinner.
• I went to church.
• I got sick.
• I slept in.
• I went to work.
• My washing machine broke.
• I got sicker.
• The dog puked on my pillow.
• I sat in the puke on my pillow.
• My house is a mess.
• My presents aren't wrapped.
• The boys are fighting.
• I yelled at the boys.
• The toilet overflowed.
• ...Merry Christmas - where's my Grinch hat?

Thank goodness for God's grace, even when I'm exhausted and nothing is going according to plan!  One day, hopefully soon, I'll look back on the week before Christmas 2011 and laugh...

A Digital Scrapbooking Giveaway!

I was very excited to recently get the chance to review My Memories digital scrapbooking software.  I posted a few weeks about wanting to be creative again and starting new projects, including digital scrapbooking. 

I had a lot of fun playing with My Memories.  It's very easy to use.  I created a couple of pages right away...

Althought was my first ever attempt at digital scrapbooking, I already love it!  My Memories software is just as versatile and fun as traditional scrapbooking, but it takes so much less time.  Plus, it's really easy to share albums and pages with others.  I also love the fact that there are so many add-on packs available for a very affordable price.  I can't wait to do more!  I'm already planning albums I want to put together.

If there was anything I didn't like about My Memories, I wish there were more embellishments available in the starter pack.  However, as I said, there are so many very inexpensive add-on packs available, that's really a minor thing.  Overall, I think this is great software that will really help me reconnect with my love of scrapbooking.

Now for the really fun part...the giveaway!  One lucky winner will win My Memories for FREE and all my readers can receive a special discount code that provides a $10 discount off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the My Memories store - a $20 value!  Just enter code: STMMMS56503.

To enter to win, go the My Memories website and then leave a comment here telling me which digital scrapbooking kit you like best.  For additional entries: follow me on Twitter, subscribe to Confessions of a Wannabe Supermom,  like the My Memories Facebook page, follow My Memories on Twitter, and leave a separate comment for each one.

Entries will be accepted until midnight on Saturday, December 24.  The winner will be announced Monday, December 26. Thanks for entering, and good luck!

Real Women, Real Health, Real God

I am so excited about the new website/forum/ministry my blogging friend Kristi is launching! January 1, 2012 will mark the launch date for Must Love God, where women can find support for total health - physical, emotional, and spiritual. This has been on Kristi's heart for a long time. She has covered this in prayer, and so have many others. I'm so excited and honored to be a contributor for this. Watch for updates and like the Facebook page. I can't wait to see what God is going to do!