Proud!!

I was watching Losing it with Jillian tonight. She was talking to a mom about her son and mom was saying how proud she was of her son. Jillian replied she should be proud of herself for raising him.

This struck a chord in my heart. I always tell my kids how proud of them I am, but I never tell myself how proud I am of me for being a great mom! My kids haven't turned out the way they have on their own. I had a part to play.

I have raised two wonderful biological children who are getting their lives together. They have such strength and they deeply love the families they are making.

And yet my internal conversation is rarely that I'm a great mom. Instead, I pick apart my performance and most times, I judge myself lacking. I rarely give myself grace. I wound myself with my own criticism and then refuse to let those wounds heal.

Recently I was reminded that I have a Heavenly Father who sees me differently. He loves me perfectly, accepts me perfectly and despite how I tend to view my motherhood prowess, He gave me two more children to raise.

Today, I'm choosing to rest in His view of my motherhood. I'm telling myself what a great mom I am and I'm leaning into Him for my strength.

Nothing better than ....

being a grandma!! My beautiful granddaughter was born yesterday at 6:59 pm.

So very proud of my son and daughter-in-law and oh so grateful to my Heavenly Father for granting our family this miracle baby.

I found out on Sunday afternoon that she truly is a miracle baby....

My daughter-in-law had been told she would never have children when she was a junior in high school.

She was in the ICU at six months with severe asthma and pneumonia...so severe the question had been asked by the docs, "Who do we save?"

So Marley Marie's arrival is truly a precious, miraculous gift. And we are so very, very grateful.

Seth Godin, Jack Canfield and me

I've recently subscribed at the recommendation of a friend to Seth Godin's blog and he posted something today that struck a chord with me.

You're already self-employed

It reminded me of Jack Canfield's Success Principle #1. Take 100% Responsibility.

If you're not where you want to be professionally, then you need to own that. Take 100% of the responsibility for it.

Once you do, then you'll see that no one but you is responsible for your career track...

No one but you is responsible for how your co-workers perceive you.....

No one but you is holding you back.....

No one but you.......


Hate your job? Go do something about it! You're self-employed! You don't have to stay where you are! Create a new job for yourself!


Yes you can.......

No one but you.....

Musing today about America's young families

My bedside table is stacked high with books for me to get to, but lately those that are holding my interest have a lot to do with money. Not the love of it, mind you, but how we as a country have gotten to the point where families are staggering under a mountain of credit card debt, student loans, car payments and so on.

We're beginning a new ministry at Calvary called the Money Mentors. This team of eight will be available soon to help people get back on track financially in private sessions. So in preparation for this new ministry, I have been doing a lot of outside reading. Two books which have moved off the tables and into my hands and brain are Linda Kelley's Two Incomes and Still Broke? It's Not How Much You Make, It's How Much You Keep and Tamara Draut's well-researched tome', Strapped: Why America's 20- and 30-somethings Can't Get Ahead.

Strapped, while I am still reading it, has already provided some food for thought. My older children face the issues she addresses. According to her book, The average college student borrows $20,000 for a bachelors degree, while the average graduate student accumulates $46,000. And low-income students and students of color take on even more. Federal grants for student aid have rapidly declined since the 1980's and now federal help for college comes mainly in the form of loans.

In addition, according to a Nellie Mae study (one of the Sallie Mae student loan companies), the average college senior had six credit cards and an average balance of just over $3,200 in 2002. College students are heavily marketed to by the various credit card companies. The top 300 state schools in the country received $1 billion from the credit card companies in marketing arrangements.

It's a depressing financial picture, isn't it? You are starting your new life as an adult already deeply in debt. Putting those two debts together, debt load for new college graduates could easily reach $25,000 eating away 40 - 60% of the income from the new job. Add on to that the new car, the furniture for the new apartment and you're drowning in debt within no time!

Draut also points out that Gen Xers and Milennials have mostly retreated from the political arena so there is no one pushing for economic reform for this age group. Instead, congress is being lobbied by the credit card companies who made almost $8,000,000 in political contributions in the 2004 election cycle.

More to come.....