A Mother’s Day Gift worth Giving

I want to challenge others to support a family that is on a journey to adopt a little boy this June. They have only a couple of weeks to raise the money to get him home. Every penny helps! If we each only do a small amount I believe it will multiply into enough to change this little boy’s life. He has a loving family waiting on him and we have the opportunity to help. If you are not in a place to help financially then help by spreading the word.

Check out there Adoption Video below.

For Mother’s Day how about giving a gift that honors the true meaning of being a mom.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO BABY BOWSER

Stay updated with their adventures by liking their facebook page!

 Do for one which you wish you could do for millions.

You were born to be real, not perfect

Little voices fill our thoughts with the many things we lack. We are a pinteresting, dieting, comparing, self-help book reading society. The constant need to reach the next phase of our perfect self surrounds us.

I appreciate becoming ‘the best version of you’. If we settle for where we are than we could miss out on some of the amazing opportunities God has planned for us. We should seek improvement in our lives to find the highest potential for joy that the world was created for. I love discovering new ways to style my hair or how to be a fun mom. The climb is literally a joy filled adventure for me. I like to look at something and say “Yay, I did it!” Everyone loves to see hard work pay off, right?

but..

Sometimes there isn’t enough time in a day to accomplish all that we want to. Sometimes life places us in circumstances that prevent us from reaching goals. Sometimes God’s plan for us isn’t that thing, that job, that house, that baby, that man, and we don’t get what we want. No matter how cute our hair is, our latest craft project, that yummy cobbler, and our well-mannered kids are we just can’t control everything.

It’s important to face a reality of “imperfection is who we are.” We are beautifully imperfect. The faults in our lives make our successes what they are. Without the failures and the need for joy we can’t appreciate the full meaning of Christ. His perfection is the only perfect thing within our reach.

Don’t feel the need to fake it for the opinions of others. Who cares what they think? Who cares what I think? We are all just trying our best and sometimes we will come up short. If you show people in a humble, honest way who you are, you are showing them what God wanted them to see. When you fake it you are hiding a Van Gogh behind a knock off.

Don’t hide an original “insert your name here” for the sake of posing as “insert who you wish you were’s name here”. It depreciates your value and steals all potential of God working in your life.

Bottom line is, be real. Be the awkward, clumsy, frizzy haired, big butt, horrible cook that God intended you to be.

PS. I don’t like my arms, I can’t sing, I use spell-check more than necessary, and I sometimes talk too much. #BEREAL

xoxo
April Walker

Give Your Marriage Grace

When Rhett and I got married we were forced to learn quickly how to make it work. We had exactly 9 months to get our act together so we could then begin learning how to be parents. This boot camp marriage scenario isn’t ideal but with 10 years under our belt we can testify that it is possible to have a great marriage regardless of your circumstances. There was a lot of trial and error, and more errors… But the fruits from our labor have been well worth it.

I know marriage is hard. I can honestly say that the fighting sucks, learning to live with someone with different opinions sucks, and humbling yourself to admit when you are wrong sucks…..

We had and have our share of “passionate” discussions.

I think that was one of the biggest obstacles for us. Realizing that fights are going to happen and that the fights lead to growth, gave our marriage a chance to breathe.

After the many romance comedy’s I watched I was under the impression that true love doesn’t fight. That if we fought we were doing it wrong.  We had 3 strikes and your out mentality. So each fight built up more tension because we began fighting about the fact we were fighting.

If someone with a marriage I deemed as “true love” and “they are meant for each other” status would have told me they still fight, the pressure of a perfect marriage would have been replaced with grace. I couldn’t give my spouse grace because in my mind I was fighting for our marriage. I was right regardless because I was making our marriage work and become “better”. But the fights were soooooooo stupid. They were created from petty, selfish insecurities and ideas formed from the “how it’s supposed to be” mindset.

Let me take the opportunity to tell you that Rhett and I fight. He drives me insane and I do the same to him. But now that we realize we are allowed to not agree, allowed to be different, and allowed to do things separately, we don’t fight as hard. We accept the differences. And even learn to love them the most.

I love my husband and I know he loves me. I like my husband and being around him as much as possible. But we are different people and we will disagree at times. Once you give your marriage the grace it needs, it is so much easier to give your spouse the same grace.

xoxo
April Walker

Free Girls Birthday Invitation Printables

Print your own birthday invitations! Just pick the background of your choice (click to enlarge – right click to save), add text in a graphic program or Microsoft Word, and then print at home on card stock or take to Office Max for them to print for you!

Enjoy!

xoxo
April Walker

Confessions from a Nit-Picking Mama

Nit-picking: minute and usually unjustified criticism

Today I thought I’d share my recent self discovery. I have found myself “nit-picking” my littles. I seem to have my homeschool mindset on at all times. I find lessons in every moment.

My intentions and heart are all in the right place but my timing and over indulgence of the habit create anxiety in me and the Littles.

My children are extremely respectful and smart due to my educational narrations of life but they can never fully let their guard down. I don’t want that for them. I want them to have the freedom for their own self discoveries. I want them to not develop a fear of trying and allow them times to fall. If I never get out of the way then that can’t happen.

Once I noticed my bad habit I began a conscious effort to not direct the little instances.  No more, “Riles quit fidgeting” just because I want her to sit still. I understand there is appropriate times for sitting still but there is just the same time for being a wiggly, silly child. No more grammar corrections during non-school hours. No more, “Jett calm down” just because he is a rambunctious 8 year old boy. No more life lessons in every conversation they try to have with me. No more unnecessary don’t touch, be quiets, sit still, fix your clothes, put that away. I want the times I do correct them to be intentional and with value.

This purposeful neglect to correcting them is not out of laziness. It’s mama pulling her grip back a little to allow them to be children. I want them to know how to be real and cut loose. Not feel the need to put on fake persona’s whenever they are around their parents and other adults. The manners and intelligence are tools I’ve equipped them with and I now need to give them reasoning skills to use them based off of their personal experiences while it’s still a safe environment.

One day I won’t be there and I want them to understand making mistakes now while the mistakes are harmless. Embarrassing, humbling moments will happen in life and it’s important to know how to handle them.  I’m going to give a lot more grace, observe from the sidelines, and patiently trust I don’t pull my hair out trying not to correct the little things.

xoxo
April Walker

February & March Calendar Print

Here are the calendar prints for February and March that I made for us!

Enjoy! Just click on image to enlarge then print.

xoxo

April Walker