Interview with a Mom - Karen

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your family.
I have been blessed with a wonderful husband and five beautiful daughters and I am a stay-at-home mom.

Why do you love being a mom?
I love that everyday I make a difference in the lives of five young girls. I love that for all the many challenges faced each day, the rewards are even greater!

What has been the most challenging part about being a mom for you?
Discipline. It is so hard to do, but such a huge part of parenting. God has entrusted these children to us and Godly discipline is part of our responsibility as we raise them to be Godly children.

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. (Heb 12:11/NIV)

What advice do you have for moms in the preschool years?
Enjoy! Challenge yourself to find contentment in the everyday things…holding them in your lap to read books, snuggling up with them to take a nap, sitting on the driveway together doing sidewalk chalk, eating peanut butter and jelly for lunch together on the front porch. It is a very busy time but there is also a simplicity about it.

Share your favorite bible verse and why it means so much to you.
One of my favorites as a mom is James 1:5…If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

So many situations, questions, etc. present themselves each day and I don’t have the solutions or answers. Each night when I pray I ask God to give me wisdom from above to best direct our girls.

What is your favorite lunchtime meal?
Sandwich and chips.

What is your favorite summer activity?
Packing a picnic lunch and heading to the swimming pool for the afternoon. Summer evenings are my favorite. Riding bikes to the park, playing outside, and sitting on the front porch swing.

Share one good “mom tip” that you have learned over the years.
Kids first, housework second. This is one of my favorite poems:

Babies Don’t Keep

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth, Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing and butter the bread, Sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking? She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue. Dishes are waiting and bills are past due.
The shopping is not done and there's nothing for stew And out in the yard there is a hullabaloo.
But I'm playing "Kanga" and this is my "Roo." Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?
The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow, For children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

Ruth Hulburt Hamilton, 1958

Thank you Karen for the good reminders and encouraging words!

If anyone has any questions they would like me to ask in future interviews, let me know! Also, you have until July 1st to leave a comment on the Mary DeMuth interview post and have a chance to win her book Ordinary Mom, Extraordinary God.