I like to party - and when I say party I mean read books

I didn't set out to blog. There are so many blogs. My original idea was to throw a party - and because I'm a nerd - it was going to be a book party. Most people couldn't make it...a complete shock to you I'm sure. That sparsely attended, albeit fabulous party was the beginning of this blog. Let me explain..

I am deep in the trenches of mommy world right now. I had a different life before kids and I imagine my life will look drastically different within the next two decades but right now, this is my world. Because this is my world, many of the people I interact with at play dates or parks or home school co ops are also moms. Sometimes I look around the room during a play date and think about how many future families are represented in that room. Often a mere three moms can represent 12 children! (My friends have lots of kids.) So in that little room, we are pouring into 12 children who will grow up to pour into 12 different families. There is then exponential power involved in the raising and the loving of a child because that child grows up to be a mom or a dad - a matriarch or a patriarch. We only get a few years to teach and train and shepherd our children who will go on to be the voices and leadership of their generation. When you are raising people who raise people who raise people it's sort of a big deal - in fact, I would go so far as to say that this work of parenting is eternally significant.

As I began to feel the weight and the opportunity of my current life stage, I immediately wanted to share this with other moms and to encourage us all to be intentional and faithful in the ways we build our homes and build our kids.

So...getting back to the book party. I happen to enjoy reading and in recent years I have started enjoying research. I know! Not just any kind of research...I mostly enjoy seeking out the best resources available to help raise my children to be godly, courageous, well-educated, well-mannered individuals. And guess what?!? There are so many GREAT resources available! Here's a little bit of trivia about me: when I discover something good, I want to tell everyone about it! So I decided to throw a party. I invited many of the young moms I know in hopes that some of the treasures I have collected might be something that would help them in their homes as well. And I really hope it did help the four, sweet ladies who attended.

But since most moms are too busy to attend wild book parties, I thought I would create a website/blog where I could post new resources I discover and write about some of the things I've been learning in the process. One hesitation I had in creating this blog is that it might not be well-received because I'm still relatively inexperienced at this whole parenting thing. I thought I might need to wait until I'm gray-haired before I had the right to speak into another woman's life. But the truth is - we can help each other. We don't have to have all the answers in order to speak bits of truth into each other's lives. You speak God's word to me and I'll speak it to you and together we can spur one another on to love and good deeds. And when neither of us knows what to say or do...there's probably a book for that!

So....do you want to come to my party/website? I just finished a new page called Recommendations where I've listed some of the wonderful resources our family has been enjoying. If you are one of those normal people who doesn't enjoy reading book reviews then please allow me to do that for you! All of the items on that page have been carefully selected and James family approved and I pray they will be an encouragement to you and your family. I'll be adding to this page every few weeks so be sure to check back. If you have any resources that you'd like to recommend, I'd be thrilled if you would leave those in the comments or shoot me an email!

Well...the kids are in bed and the house is quiet so it's time to party...and we all know what that means...