Category Archives: Everything Else

An Open Letter to My Mom: A Joyful Song

Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Psalm 100:2

By: Sarah Smith

For my Mom’s 70^th birthday in 2006, my sister created a scrapbook to celebrate her life. It contained pictures from my mom’s childhood, young adult years and beyond. I love to look at that book and remember our time together. Several pages were a collection of letters written to my mom from those who loved her. Below is the letter I wrote. Next to it was a copy of the song “Sing” by Joe Raposo (made popular when the Carpenters performed it on Sesame Street.)

All of my memories of you, Mom, are accompanied by one song or another. I now know that you had to sing to keep your sanity! It’s hard to be grumpy with a song in your heart. This song really brings back the memories and it seems to summarize the way I feel I was raised. Continue reading →

The View from My Phone: Butterflies and Bloom 2013

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Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Mark 2:3-5

I had the awesome opportunity to attend the Fourth Annual Butterflies and Blooms fundraiser for Saving Grace Inc. of NWA. The theme was “Be the One”.

Jenny Broughton and Jennifer Mullen

The speaker, Jenny Broughton, was absolutely hysterical but equally inspiring. She talked about the paralyzed man in Mark 2 who was taken to Jesus by his friends. She said each time we mentor, write a check, or pray we are lifting a corner of the mat and leading these girls to Christ to be healed. I sure can think of a lot of people who lifted the mat for me! Continue reading →

Oldies But Goodies

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We are working hard on a new layout for our blog which we hope will help you to be able to locate the posts that you want to read more easily. We hope to go live with the new look and our official logo sometime next week. Until then we will be posting links to old articles on our Facebook page that have been popular or particularly moving to our readers. (If you haven’t already, go “like” our page now.)

Being that this April is Autism Awareness Month we are going to start by highlighting a two part series on that topic. We had two amazing guest writers. One- a parent of a child with Autism and the other a Speech-Language Pathologist. Enjoy.

Parenting and Autism Spectrum Disorders: Part 1- By Julie Delucchi

Parenting and Autism Spectrum Disorders: Part 2- By: Laura Merriman

Signing Out For a Few Months

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“Return to your rest, my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.” Psalm 116:7

by: Kerri Young

As I have alluded to in my last post, we are in the process of moving. (You can also read about our fun preparations in a blog I wrote awhile back here.) Since we are moving to the other side of the world and everything about life is going to be new and challenging for a bit, I am taking a rest from blogging on Mosaic of Moms for a few months.

The plan right now is to take April, May and June off, and return in July with lots of stories to share. We are excited to watch God’s faithfulness and provision continue to unveil before our eyes and would be grateful for your prayers as we march forward in obedience into the unknown. If you feel so inclined, here are some specific prayer requests:

1. Please pray we would find our strength and identity in El Shaddai as we walk through the changes of the next few weeks.

2. Please pray we will trust Jehovah-Jireh to provide all our needs in the next two months as we prepare to leave, Lord willing, on May 25 (including the sale of our house and the completion of the rest of our financial needs).

3. Please pray we will parent our children well through the midst of extreme life change and that our children will find perfect peace in Jehovah Shalom when things are new, scary and uncertain.

Thank you!

I will not be posting, but I will be checking email. If there is ever a way I can pray for you, friends, please don’t hesitate to let me know. Until July, I will be praying we can rest in Jehovah Raah together….

Chore Charts/Menu Planning Take Two

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This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series Gretchen's Menu Planning

Entrust your efforts to the LORD, and your plans will succeed. Proverbs 16:3 (GW)

By: Gretchen Speer

Is it just me or is time FLYING by these days! We moved into a new house last fall. (For a funny little story about settling in click here ) While I have had time to get us unpacked and somewhat settled, we are still a little out of whack where our routines are concerned. After months of chasing my tail trying to keep our house clean it finally dawned on me that I had not done new chore charts for the kids since the summer. I knew I wanted to try something a little different that I had done before, and after looking through my office this is what I came up with:

Frames I found on clearance at hobby lobby for $2.99 a piece, card stock, stickers from the dollar isle at target, dry erase markers, and of course, a sharpie.

These came together in just a few minutes since I knew what chores I wanted each kid to have. For some ideas on what chores work best for what aged, and how to implement them here is my chore charts post from last year.

Since I had four of these frames I decided to make a menu board too.(Eventually my littlest will need one, but not yet!) My kids, and my husband, are always asking me what’s for supper. It drives me a little bit crazy, so I was hoping this would remedy that. For the most part they refer to the menu board now, and if they ask me I just point to it:) I still like to plan my menus two weeks to a month at a time, but I do like having this weekly one up to remind me daily what I’m fixing.

For some more detailed help on menu planning and grocery shopping, click here. For a more in-depth menu planner click here.

If you are wanting a quick easy chore chart and menu board these are definitely worth a try. My kids have done really well with them. Actually, they have done better with these than they did with the ones I was making before. I think simple is better for now.