We are THAT Family

UPDATED with WINNER: Comment #108 has been randomly selected – Congratulations Vanessa!

My real life intersects with my online life more and more.

I love it.

Except when people see me mopping up a broken pickle jar in the middle of The Wal Marts and say “yep, you are that family.”

I will deny and run.

But usually, it’s a great experience! It turns out another preschool mom has been reading my blog for awhile and when we bumped into each other, it was so fun! She has a heart for God and Mercy House, plus (bonus) she has an adorable business called Tippie Toads that offers fun, awesome personalized gifts!

She created some darling items to benefit Mercy House.

Cute, huh??

She’s selling them in her store and get this: 100% of the profits from the Love Mercy line go to support our girls in Kenya!

Cute with a cause is my kind of shopping!

Check out all her awesome items here.

Plus, Tippie Toads is giving away a Love Mercy tumbler set and choice of Love Mercy clipboard or Post It Note Set today to one lucky reader (more than $75 value):

Leave a comment if you’d like to win.

That Works for Me! Contest

We are running a contest on the website thru the month of April for a gift card for house cleaning ($150 value). We are asking readers to “submit a tip” as an entry. You can submit as many as you’d like (for multiple entries) with 25 categories! This contest will run thru April 30th.

UPDATED:  Congratulations to the following randomly selected winners:  Jennyroo, Karen, Bobbi, Brenda Torres, Wendy, LeAnn H, Rachel, Nicole, Angela
And the grand prize winner – Lacey C.

Moms everywhere have one thing in common: they all know how to replace toilet paper rolls when they are empty.

If your house is like mine, this is a rare gift.

It doesn’t matter what mothers “do” for a living, how famous in infamous they may be, moms also do one other thing well: they fiercely love their kids.

It’s in our blood.

I think that’s probably one of my favorite things about Christy Nockles. (Her brand new worship album Into the Glorious debuts this week!) She’s a fantastic singer, an inspirational worship leader, a renown recording artist, but her greatest legacy is her three young children.

Plus, y’all: she writes some of her songs in her minivan with her kids. It just doesn’t get more real than that.

I almost wrote a song once in my van, but I couldn’t think of anything that rhymed with I’M SO TIRED.

This week, Christy launched her new CD, Into the Glorious.

I asked Christy Nockles a few questions-I think you’ll love her Mom-heart as much as I do:

1. How do you juggle being a mom and a recording artist?

Well…juggle is certainly the right word.  When they were little I
think I tried to compartmentalize my world…but later I realized the
best thing for me and for my family is that we are all in the middle of
it together.  In order for them to see me walk in my gifting and my
calling, I’ve learned that to involve them and invite them in is the
best way to also mother and mentor them inside of it.  When I was
getting ready to write songs for this record, I sat all 3 of them down
and asked them to help me write the songs.  They looked at me really
funny…  I asked them if they knew some ways that they might could help
me write the songs… It was crickets at first, but then our youngest,
Annie Rose (4), spoke up… “we can be kind to each other!”  She totally
got it. Then the older two began to spout off all the ways that they
could help me while I was songwriting. I now see allot of fruit from
that decision to invite them into it.  Even yesterday, our son Noah saw
my finished record that had arrived at our house in the mail and he
looked at it and said, “I remember when you were writing these songs,
can’t believe it’s already done.”  I was really excited that he
remembered the writing process and it appeared to be a good memory for
him. : )  So… all in all, it does take juggling.  I do have some great
helpers who love on my kids!  We have 3 young women from our church that
take turns…they nanny & tutor & even sometimes fold clothes and do the
dishes!  We do kind of a “hybrid homeschool” program where they go to
school twice a week and then homeschool the other three days.  It works
well for our lifestyle, but I need lots of help!  But you know what?
Even the Proverbs 31 woman had help!  It says she gave a portion to her
servant girls… I think it’s a beautiful thing to invite some young
women into your life to help you, and in turn you are helping them have
means to live and they are getting to see inside of a mother’s life.  It
can be a real win/win thing… I also have learned to write songs during
the mundane, ordinary things… I write while I’m cleaning, running
errands and in the carpool line!  That’s what “Into The Glorious”
means…we are invited into the glorious every day of our lives…all we
have to do is accept the invitation and step into it.  A few years ago I
asked my friend Terry Price, whose a mother of 9 and a songwriter this
very same question…”how do you juggle it all?”  She said, “you have to
invite the glorious into the mundane”.  That stuck with me from that day
on… The invitation is ours.  The minivan really can become a sanctuary
and a place of worship…and a much needed songwriting session.

2. Tell us about your children:

Our oldest is Noah Luke, he is 11.  Noah is very passionate… He
loves music, is a very naturally gifted drummer and his newest passion
is film making.  He’s witty, creative and sensitive.  He walks closely
with his Daddy, we realized early on, even at the age of 9 that Noah
already needed accountability in his life.  They talk openly about life,
love and other mysteries and I’m so grateful for their relationship.  It
allows me to be just “mom” in his life…the one who comforts, cooks,
and sits on the edge of his bed every night to talk about life… while
I scratch his back of course.  Elliana “Ellie” is 9.  She is so much
like her Daddy…quiet, even keel most of the time, inward,
peacemaker…she looks around to see what needs to be done and she does
it.  She’s our little artist…she loves painting, drawing and creating.
Annie Rose is 4, she’s spunky, funny, and a little bit too smart for her
own good sometimes. She actually appears kind of serious a lot of the
time, which I think is her own way of just playing it cool… I have
loved getting to mother 2 girls!  I’m constantly amazed by their love
for each other, despite the occasional spats, and I realize more and
more that it’s my job to mentor them first.  It’s a new season of life,
moving from child-bearing to child-shepherding on a daily basis, but
what a privilege! So rewarding…

3. What inspires you to write a song?

It usually starts with needing Truth to cover my own heart…then it
branches out from there.  It will sometimes start with a passage of
scripture, something I heard a teacher say, something we are
experiencing together at church…or even something my kids say.  It’s
different all the time, but the main motivation is Truth.  I have always
loved putting truth to song in an artful way, and I love that it helps
people articulate things that their hearts want to say to God, but they
may not know how to say it.  Songs do that and I love it!  I love the
idea of helping people communicate their heart to God…so incredibly
inspiring.

4. What would you like to tell moms?

I love how motherhood is being celebrated in our generation.  Now
there are so many moms who can connect to each other all over the world
and share stories, art, and beautiful photographs of their children and
feel like they are walking closely with others in the same season of
life.  However, I think there are still the days that some of us wake up
and we let the season we are in completely overwhelm us.  Maybe there
are dreams and plans that you had early on that stretch beyond the walls
of your home…maybe you have a cause in your heart…a passion that has
been lying dormant in your soul. There’s a verse of scripture that
probably all of you know well, but it’s Psalm 37:4-6.  The first part
says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of
your heart.”  For many years I read that like, “if I do this for God, He
will do this for me”…but instead, He began to show me that the word
GIVE in that passage can also mean SHOW or INSTILL or PLACE IN… He
will show you what your desires are… He will place desires IN you for
different seasons of your life.  Then it goes on to say, “Commit your
way to the Lord, trust in Him and He will do this: He will make your
righteousness shine like the dawn and the justice of your cause like the
noonday sun”.  The Message says it like this: “He will validate your
life in the clear light of day and stamp you with approval at high
noon.”  Isn’t that beautiful? It’s such an amazing way to live to be
able to trust God with our dreams and plans.  He says if we do, HE will
validate our lives and He will lift up the cause of our hearts for all
to see… We have assurance in the every day ordinary things of life,
that God will take our faithfulness in the ordinary and truly do
something extraordinary that we never could have imagined on our own!
“Into The Glorious” is proof that I can be a very normal wife, mom and
homemaker and the times I choose to give Him the mundane moments, He
sweeps me up and shows me that the cause He put in my heart is His to
lift up…and He does just that.  He will do the same for you…

In honor of moms and Christy’s amazing new album, Into the Glorious, (click to listen or purchase),  NINE commenters are going to win a copy  of her new album, Into the Glorious plus her Life Light Up CD. In addition, one Grand Prize Winner will win a Mom Gift Basket!

Grand Prize: Mom Basket Contents:

$15 gift card to Bath and Body Works

$10 Starbucks gift card

$50 gift card to Toms Shoes

Plus, Christy Nockels new CD, Into the Glorious and Life Light Up

UPDATED with winners:  Comments 303 and 72 were randomly selected; congrats to Rachel & Lori.

If you’ve ever caught vomit with your hands.

If you’ve ever considered a trip to Target alone a mini-vacation.

If you’ve ever told a group of adults you need to go potty.

If you’ve ever hidden in the bathroom to talk on the phone.

If you’ve ever had a funeral for a cricket or pulled a soggy lizard from the washing machine.

If you’ve ever used your own spit to clean a face or adjust a wild cowlick.

If you’ve ever thanked God for Magic Erasers.

If you’ve ever hidden chocolate in the house.

If you’ve ever lied to children.

If you’ve ever shaken a pile of crumbs from your purse.

If you wouldn’t trade your unpaid job for all the money in the world.

If you’re not a mom, you certainly had one

And she (you) deserves to be celebrated! Mother’s Day will be here before you know it. Mothers are beautiful and they deserve a bit of beauty.

Today, in honor of the women who make the world go round, The Vintage Pearl is offering two $50 gift certificates!

Take a look around and tell me what you’d give a mom (yourself included) in your life. And for fun, fill in the ____.

You might be a mom if . . .

This giveaway ends Thursday.