SAHM

For those of you without babies, or that are not involved in online message boards, SAHM stands for Stay At Home Mom. And that is now what I am. After 2+ years of being a "boob lady" (Lactation Consultant) at a local hospital, I have decided to stay home with my babies. God has used many situations and circumstances to get me to see that this is the right choice for my family. I am very happy, excited, peaceful, and interested to see what this season of my life brings. I have never been a full time working mom or a full time stay at home mom. I have been blessed with this middle ground of working just enough to make the extra money we need and still spend lots of time with my kids. I have also been blessed with family and friends that have watched my kids (usually for free) so I could feel comfortable leaving them. This being said, I just kind of thought I would always continue working since it was such a perfect arrangement. But deep in my heart, God put the desire to be with them always. It started off as a dream, and then a wish, and ended in a necessity. God prepared my heart to stop working, while at the same time showed me how much my kids needed me. He took away almost all of my trusted caretakers, and made it impossible for me to deny that this was the right choice. I can now live out one of my favorite verses, "You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." Deuteronomy 11:19 ESV. On the other hand, as much as I know this is the right thing, it will still be a transition. I have always scheduled my life around what days I had to work, trying to cram everything else into the days I had off. I have never been able to make a weekly schedule for school work, cleaning, etc. because I was always working random days. I know that it will be a slower pace then I am used to, but there is nothing wrong with that. I will also be with my children 24 hours a day without the once or twice weekly break of going to work and being alone. But that is what comes with being a SAHM. I am ready to see what this season brings. I know God takes care of those who are faithful and I know this is what He wants. It will be a test on the fruits of the Spirit, (especially patience and self-control :-) but I am ready to take that on. Everything is for His glory, I'm ready. As a nice side effect, I look forward to having more time to blog as well :-) So, hopefully you will be reading this again sooner rather than later.

The reason God put me on this earth <3

Time Flies By...

I have no concept of time. I feel like I blogged not that long ago, but in reality it has been 27 days. This is why the library and I are not friends. They don't care that I thought it had been 2 week when in reality it had been 6 months. I don't know exactly where all my time is going, but it is escaping me. There are some big life changes going down in the Balderas home. Beginning the homeschooling process has been awesome. I love Tucker being home with Ava and I every day. His behavior has significantly improved and I love teaching him how to read, write, study the Bible, and be a responsible human being. Ava is talking so much and she loves Tucker more than anyone in the world. The increased time they have together is really strengthening their bond and it is beautiful to see. Another aspect of homeschooling (and this is probably where all my time goes.) is that I am never alone, or even with just one child. It is increasingly hard to get anything done including cleaning, laundry, and, you guessed it, blogging. It is a price I am willing to pay to oversee my child's education, but it does take a toll. Oh yeah, and there is that baby I am making. That doesn't really take up any time, just energy. So anytime I do get alone, I usually want to sleep or sit on the couch in a daze. So, that is kind of where I am out right now. But most importantly, I want to share a quick story with you.
I am so blessed to be on the leadership team of the Moms of the Movement group. It is my favorite place to be and I am glad I get to be with these women every week. (For those of you who are wondering what exactly this group is...it is a group primarily for preschool aged children that meet for fellowship and are enlightened by a speaker generally sharing about parenting or marriage. I strongly recommend anyone to find one in their area!) So, this week our Children and Family Pastor Pat Lynch spoke on parenting. He was speaking on Ephesians 6:1-4-"Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. "Honor your father and mother"-which is the first commandment with a promise-"that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on earth. Fathers, do not exasperate your children; bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord." The point the struck me the most was this, "Disciplined parenting begins with Disciplined Parents." This is so true. I do not want to be the parent that says, "Do as I say, not as I do." I cannot ask my children to be disciplined if I am not. On top of this, Pat stated that we need to be parents that exhibit the fruit of the Spirit. If my attention wasn't already completely focused on Pat, it was now (which it was by the way :-). This reminded my that I need to get back to blogging. I love how God ties in the scripture to every part of my life. I am determined to not be a hypocrite, I will be a disciplined parent. I want my love for God to be the reason they believe, not just because I told them to. So, here I go to exhibit the fruits of the Spirit to my babies. Will you join me?