I have some winners to announce today. First up is the ever late Flip camera giveaway winner announcement. I had to wait until the kiddies were in bed to tally up and record this one!
Go check out Mayhem And Moxie, Better In Bulk, and Seven Clown Circus to see who won the other cameras…and be sure to congratulate our winner!
Next in line are the winners of the Motherhood carnival from two weeks ago. I didn’t want the Flip giveaway to overshadow the amazing posts they wrote last week and you all HAVE to read them.
After reading Heather of The Extraordinary Ordinary’s post I knew it was going to be a top runner in my book. Her writing style is different and insightful and I’m positive you will love her as I do.
Heather is the lovely winner of a post feature on my blog AND on the Eliza’s Motherhood blog! Congratulations Heather!! Here is what she wrote:
I don’t know how to be a mother, really.
I don’t have all the right words to tell them
I don’t know how to teach them
hardly ever
words and orders
my rules
obey!
repeating and explaining
Or
even more
how I live
how I speak
they will know and do and be
because of what I’m doing, not what I’m saying.
Tall order
living out what you say is right and good so they will act like you
because they will act like you.
I’m so often saying one thing and acting quite another thing out.
That’s the pressure in motherhood for me, the thing I worry over getting right.
Not when they potty train
junk food
paci
TV
co-sleep
ECFE
Maybe those things matter, but only for a time and then they don’t.
When I say I want to allow myself to fall into motherhood, I’m not talking about losing myself, I’m talking about allowing myself to be changed by it in the ways that I am meant to be changed so they will see it and want to live it too.
Being kind
Less Afraid
More vulnerable
Safe place.
Secure
Confident
Choosing happiness
Motherhood is all about changing. Our children, they change overnight, growing and learning and being more all the time.
I get scared that I won’t have enough time to make sure they understand what I’m saying but not living out. I hate it that my own growing up takes so much more time, that they may be gone before I’ve finally allowed myself to be the best version of me. Because the trickiest thing is that mothering is such sacrifice and there are so many demands in the daily grind, it leaves very little space and time for the growing up of me. There is no option other than slow to grow, when a mother is almost always buried in serving and trying to love it, distracted from herself. So, the cocooning process is terribly long, at least for me.
I make it no secret that I believe in a graceful God, one that takes our slow process and the ways we fail and redeems it, making butterflies out of sighing grumpy mother caterpillars,
up in the air.
And this is Grace, my children, already seeing me as that butterfly, even now on my slow-belly crawl through time.
And this is Motherhood, a chance to see myself through those merciful eyes of my children, and then live what they see, what I didn’t see without them.
Beautiful right!?! Stop by her place and become friends and give her some love.
Last, but not least, Liz from Mainly A Midwife won the aden + anais muslin wraps for writing a great piece about how becoming a mother has changed who she is. She talks about her former pre baby self, issues with fertility, losing a sweet twin when they were born prematurely, and so much more. Stop by and read her story if you have a chance.
