My prayer for the irrelevance of beauty.

There have been so many beautifully written articles about self-esteem and body image in young girls. Ones about how to talk to your daughter about her body (don’t.) and How body image starts in the family. Having dealt with an array of eating struggles and insecurities, a struggle that stays with you for long after the ‘thick of it’ has passed, this is a subject that is important to me. I decided I would add my 2 cents, take it as you will.

My goal is not for my daughter (which I don’t yet have… pretend with me) to feel beautiful all the time, my goal is for my daughter to be too busy being strong, independent, caring, prayerful and hilarious for the word beauty hold an relevance in her life. I fear that in our attempts to protect our girls fragile self esteem, we may be cushioning them too much with comfortable words and not the truth. 

Don’t tell your girls that they are perfect in every way, (news flash: they aren't) Instead, lead by example. Be imperfect in front of them . Make mistakes—laugh at your mistakes. Say sorry for them. Don’t dwell on them. Give yourself grace in your weak moments in front of your kids. It will teach them to give themselves grace in their weak moments.

The best things we can do to ensure our daughters have a healthy body image—pray for them and love them. We have very little control over what our daughters are exposed to beyond our doors. We must pray without ceasing for their minds and more importantly their hearts. Don’t pray that your daughter sees her true beauty, or never feels fat, or never struggles with eating and weight—Pray that your daughters heart is ignited with love and passion for Christ and the will he has for her. Pray that your daughter enters into her school and her activities with fierceness about her that draws attention to her inward worth, to her king. Pray that your daughter is a prayer warrior and a faithful servant of God. Pray that your daughter falls madly in love with your Jesus, and that he becomes her Jesus. Focus less on your daughter, her body and her body image—and more on the power of your God.

My prayer is for a confident, gentle, loving generation of girls who have made beauty and all of the not-so-beautiful pressure that comes with it irrelevant in their world.

Rashes, vomit, cat puke, dog poop.

And coffee.

lots and lots of coffee.

Lord, help us.

This is my "I've been up since 6 am with vomiting children" look. It's complete with the clothes I slept in, yesterday's make-up, the biggest coffee mug I could find, unbrushed teeth, and a smile. (because honestly, laughing is the only way to look at these situations.)

 

My friend and I are tag team babysitting, around the clock (give or take a night where the grand parents are sweeping in to save the day) until Monday when she heads to school and I head out to yet another nannying job. So far the weekend has been full of pee, poop, vomit, mac & cheese, and nerf gun battles. We're babysitting three boys, so the typical agenda, I guess.

 

I always leave these type of jobs with 2 things

1) A crap ton of funny stories

2) An overwhemling desire to call my mother and apologize for my entire childhood

 

Okay I'm kidding about that second one, kind of. Stay tuned if you want more tales from the poop, pee, and vomit diaries.

A good cup of coffee. A healthy snack. A Finished to do list.

Deep breaths.

Now onto.

A crazy whirlwind weekend of exams, studying, working and babysitting.

What I've been getting into lately;

Pap-pap's surprise 80th.

 

"I wuv you, emmawee."

Laughing.

Snuggies and snuggles.

 

Homecoming.

Panera and surprise friends.

 

Braving Sandy.

 

Love.

 

 

 

Life has been so very crazy lately.

Class. Coffee. Exam. Babysitting. Coffee. Class. Friends. Class. Babysitting. Sleep. Repeat.

Literally.

I've been home for fall break and have had lots of things to blog about.

All coming soon!





Today,

I realized:

I started a sentence with "Earlier, I was thawing breast milk"
I have a "mom" planner, with a spot for all of the kids, because I basically have 40 of them

I have maternity shorts I borrowed from a mama, they're comfortable!!

I wiped a nose with my sleeve and didn't think twice.

I said, "It's a good shirt because you can't see the spit up when I get hit with it."

 

 I'm the weirdest 19 year old. Ever.

Homemade Play Dough!

This is one of my FAVORITE crafts I've done with kids.

I made it a while back with a few of my favorite kiddos.

Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 cup water
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
liquid food coloring

Directions:
1) Mix the dry ingredients in a medium sauce pan. (B loved pouring the stuff in the pan for me)
2) Mix the wet ingredients in a measuring cup.
**Some recipes say to mix the food coloring in measuring cup, I never do this because I seperate the dough after and color it instead of making a new batch for each color**
3) Pour the wet ingredients in until throughly mixed.
4) Put on medium heat and stir occasionally.
5 )Remove from heat when you see a skin (took like 4-5 minutes for us) and let it cool for a few minutes.
6) Remove from pan and kneed the dough
(This is when I seperate the dough and mix in the colors)
7) Give to the kids and let them have at it!!

Their mom said the kids played with it for hours at the table. We put it in ziplock bags and it lasted for months. It may even still be around, I didn't check last time I was home from school!!