From My home to Yours!

Hello!
I am a Mom! I am a woman who is just an everyday woman! I am trying to be an intentional mom, wife, friend, daughter, follower of Jesus and homemaker. My heart is that this would be a place that you could come and connect with my life and the different things that I walk through on a daily basis. I find myself in conversation often with different women and it seems that living LIFE with others is the most common thing that comes up!

So I am going to share my life here and I invite you to join in. Maybe you can learn along with me on how to be more intentional in our lives in every aspect that we are living!

Most Recently-
I am a passionate follower of Jesus and that will always be at the fore front of what who I am and what I do. Just so you know!
I have 3 bio children (8, 5, and 3) and 1 fairly new addition to our family (17). 

Lately what we have been dealing with in our home is how to treat each other and loving each other well. These lessons are usually not just for my children but apply to us "Big Kids" as well! I believe this lesson of loving each other well is one that we all learn on an every day basis. It is something that we can never think "we've got" and just sit back and coast. Because, at that moment, we will realize we have not loved people as well as we thought we were.
Today was the first time in my mothering career that I experienced the all out, major, no turning back, hair raising, toe curling, grocery store tantrum! I have had my kids have melt downs, cry because of one thing or another, and generally not be happy because I told them no. But I have never, until today, had the all out WAR in the store over my saying "no" to my child and he deciding that my saying no means that I am "the MEANEST mom EVER!" Well ladies and gents, today I had that experience and let's just say it was INTENSE! As I was trying to get my youngest son to calm down and listen to me, while he is crying and throwing this massive fit, I was thinking "do i just throw him over my shoulder, grab my purse and the other two kids and leave? Do I try to drag him to check out and get the few items that I have in my cart? Do I sit here and keep working this over with him, until he calms down and can listen to me? AAAAHHHHH What do I do? He is screaming, everyone can hear him, and this is crazy!" Well, I decided to grab the recently dropped package of cars he was throwing the fit over and put them back up onto the shelf, and just walk away from him. He quickly realized and ran after me. I got up to the counter, where I was the only one in line, thank you Jesus! I put my 4 items up on the counter and apologized to the woman who was ringing us up; On a side note, when we walked into the store, this woman greeted us, my youngest decided today was a good day to go out to run errands in his Hulk costume. She thought he looked pretty cute and he charmed her with his comment about his muscles, in his Hulk voice! Fast forward, my "Hulk" is now truly being "Hulk" and she looks at him and asks him why was he so upset now? When I apologized to her, she told me she understood because she has three kids of her own and applauded that I wasn't giving into him because he wouldn't learn if I did. We gave each other the all knowing mother look and I grabbed our things, my children and walked out to our car.
This is the part where what we are working on in our home comes in; "How do we love each other well?"
I took our youngest to the car where he continued to throw a fit and I continued to plead with the Lord to help me know how to get him to realize that this wasn't ok! After a few more not so lovely moments, he calms down and I am able to sit there and talk through things with him. My child "listen to my instruction and be wise; do not disregard it." Proverbs 8:33 "Listen, my son, to your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching." Proverbs 1:8 These are some of my hearts cries for my children and for myself! As I sat there talking with my little one, I really wanted him to understand that, no, it is not okay to yell, it is not okay to throw a fit because you don't get what you want, it is not okay to be aggressive when you are upset, it is not okay say mean things because you are mad, and it is not okay to be selfish. But mostly I wanted him to understand that he was choosing to be hurtful to those that he is supposed to show his love to the most! Because of what he didn't get and what he wanted everything that he was doing was being totally un-loving. I want him to know that God has given us the job of loving people "because He first loved us." John 4:19 and we talk about this a lot in our home, as we each go out to our jobs and schools. But in this moment my young child needed to understand that he was choosing himself and his sin over the command that God has given him to love others. I know that he doesn't fully understand the weight of all of this, but I also believe that he is capable of understanding glimpses and that it is my job to "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it." proverbs 22:6 God's word doesn't give me a time line that says, when he is 5 or 10 or 16 to start teaching these things and so because I believe that from birth we are broken and sinful, from birth we need to start learning how to draw ourselves back to the Lord and His heart for us, His creation. As the parent of my sweet children, I am their first exposure to the message of God's reconciliation plan for them and the world. That is a big deal and a tough job. Especially as they are flailing and also embarrassing me in a public place. But it is a job that I am trying to do and do it so that at the end of this race I am running, I will hear "Well done, my good and faithful servant!" I struggle daily with these tasks and many more. And my own sin gets in the way of my "Loving people well" all of the time. As we go about things in this home I am just trying to strive towards the gospel and Jesus and disciple my kids alongside me!
I hope this might have brought some encouragement to your heart and maybe even allowed the Lord to speak to you in your home and what you are walking through! 
We are not alone, if we are following Jesus, the Holy Spirit is walking right beside us, ready to give us just what we need for each moment. Even the out of control parenting/kids moments! And we have each other!!
If you have anything, parenting or otherwise that you are walking through I would love to hear about it! Questions that you would love to hear another Mom's thoughts on. Things that would be helpful to know that someone else is walking through the same stuff as you, share them! I would love for this to be a place where I can share my love for being a Mom, Wife, PASSION for God's Word, and REAL life with all of those who just might need that!!