Mom of the Week – Melissa

I am honored that my good friend, Melissa, has agreed to be my very first Mom of the Week. Such a blessing and inspiration to me and so many others, she so deserves the spotlight.

After knowing such a wonderful person for so long, it was hard to come up with questions that can highlight what I admire about her…. Here you will see just a small glimpse of why I love her so.

Me: Have you always wanted to be a mommy?
Melissa: Yes, being a wife and mommy is what I always wanted – though I never realized all it entailed! I have to say that I can’t think of anything else which tends more toward a woman’s sanctification than being married and raising littles ones!

You are the wife of a police officer, mother of five beautiful girls, you are the keeper of your home AND you home school… What is your secret for time management?
I tend to be a very routine oriented person – and my girls just thrive on a faithful routine. While we are always open to God changing our plan for the day I find that our days are much more peaceful when I keep the girls on a fairly steady routine.
I love the book Managers Of Their Homes! It helped me to create a schedule for our day, which simply shows me how much I can do in a day. I rarely follow the schedule, but as I didn’t come from a large family, the book has been somewhat of a mentor (so many wonderful mothers posted their daily schedules for us to learn from!)
I also find that remembering this is a season helps me not to try to do too much that I simply don’t have time for – and to be content with that. I am blessed with a wonderful husband, without whom I couldn’t do any of this! And I read aloud a lot – simple, yet it gives me and the girls snuggle time, restful time and learning time together.

I love answering the most common question for moms with lots of little ones – “How do you do it?” I’d love to hear how YOU do it.
I think I’ve realized over the years that God gives us the grace to do the task He’s given us NOW – not the one we might someday have. When I had one and two children, my days were pretty full. There were times I wondered how I would do it with more. Now that I have five little ones, my days are still full, but as He’s given us each new child, He’s allowed it to “feel normal” to have that many children. Aside from those occasional “pull out my hair” days, I don’t feel overwhelmed by my task, but I also try not to imagine how another mom does it with a different/harder task. I realize that God has given each of us the grace for OUR situation, not someone else’s.

You have all girls, one of whom you adopted from Africa. Are you planning on having more, maybe try for a boy?
We LOVE having girls. We definitely hope to have more little ones, but not to “try for a boy” – simply to welcome all the children God desires to give us. We’d be thrilled to have ten girls!

If you could choose only two books to read to your girls, what would they be, and why?
Oh, this question is too hard, but I’ll take a stab at it. I’d have to choose the Bible and The Narnia series (I know, it’s not one book!) The Bible, of course, is what we live by, love and desire to learn more about, so we could never be without it. The Narnia series, of all our books is one we keep coming back to. It so beautifully “tells the true story”, and I’ve yet to meet a fiction series that’s made me love God more, or created such enjoyable times while reading! But that doesn’t even count all of our “little one” books!

As the mommy of so many myself, I know it’s hard to find “me” time. If you had one whole day to yourself how would you spend it?
Hmmm, I think ride a horse for a few hours, take a bubble bath and read.

You know I hate doing laundry… Do you have any tips for me?
Try to make a habit of doing it every day (at least, unless you prefer one huge laundry day) – I just do one or two loads so it never builds up. The only day I try not to do it (barring any exploded diapers) is Sunday, but other than that I do it daily. Oh, and every other week I’ve started trying to wash one bed’s sheets each day, so I don’t get overwhelmed trying to do them all at once. Course, if we lived near each other, I think I’d happily do your laundry if you’d like to do my deep cleaning!

Thank you so much, Melissa, for taking the time to visit with us! How can we pray for you this week?
My biggest prayer is that I would not only do my job well, outwardly, but that I would DELIGHT in it. I so long to delight daily in God, delight in my husband, and delight in and enjoy my girls. Sometimes I struggle with going through things by rote, yet not in God’s abundant joy. Please pray that I would love Him above all else, that I might be able to rightly love my family!