Faithful Mommy

Grief is so weird. Sometimes it is calm and steady and other times it’s like a rip current. Grief is always there. You don’t stop grieving...you just learn to build your life around it. It becomes a part of who you are. Forever changed and different. Not all of the changes are bad, just different. This past year has gone both quickly and slowly. It’s been gut-wrenching and it’s been happy. I’ve been the weakest and strongest I’ve ever been. I’ve felt isolated and I’ve felt loved. I’ve been both angry with God and comforted by Him. I’ve learned a lot about God, Heaven, myself, and family and friends I love dearly. In the most heartbreaking circumstance of my life, when my trust in God felt betrayed, I somehow came out of it all trusting God more than I ever have before. The moments where I most doubted His goodness led me to a place where I am 100% sure of God’s goodness. The moments that shattered my faith brought me to the strongest faith I’ve ever had. God has used the worst t

We all experience some sort of situational anxiety in our lives. We may fear speaking in front of a crowd, flying on an airplane, being in a social situation, or riding a rollercoaster. Our palms are sweaty, heart is racing, and we may nervously fidget with our clothes or hair. Once the experience is over, we feel immediate relief and can usually move along with the rest of our day. We might even feel a sense of   pride in ourselves for going through something so scary. Can you relate? Many of us, though, experience intense worry seemingly all the time and about nothing in particular or about everything in the universe and all things in between.   Excessive worry is something I’ve struggled with my entire life. I’m a self-proclaimed worrier. When there is nothing to worry about, I worry that I’ve forgotten to worry about something. I worry about my worries. You name it, I’ve worried about it at some point I’m sure. We fear uncertainty and things we cannot control. We all

nytimes Movie: Bad Moms                               What makes us mothers? Are we mothers because we brought little humans into the world? Literally speaking, yes. What does it mean to actually mother our kids, though? To mother, by definition, is to bring up a child with care and affection. Isn’t that what we all want for our children…that they feel loved and cared for? Yet, for many of us, in this age of social media and comparisons, we’ve sort of made motherhood into some sort of competition or at the very least a large motherhood clique in which we judge our friends and strangers based on their parenting choices. Who wins at momming?                 I don’t know about you, but for me, being a mom is hard enough without all the comparing myself to others and dealing with mom shaming. You’ve been there; I have, too. I’d go so far as to say that all of us moms have not only been victims of mom shaming (directly or indirectly), but we’ve been the perpetrators at some po

"Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." --Deuteronomy 11:18-19 My daughters are six and two. My oldest is pretty much like a tiny teenager and my youngest is what happens when a tiny T-Rex crosses paths with a tornado. I love love love my girls, but raising little women is the toughest task I've ever been given. Many days I feel like all I do is correct and discipline. I often sing to my girls (only half joking) "Y'all gon' make me lose my mind up in here...up in here." They pretty much know the entire song by now (oops!).  Lately, I've felt convicted by the verses above (Deuteronomy 11:18-19). I've been so busy building my expectations of my daughters up so high while lowering my expectations of myself. I've

Hi all! I'm Ashley! I'm a Daughter of the King of Kings, a wife to my amazing husband Brian who is a Psychiarist, and a mother to our two girls, Scarlett (6) and Isla (2). Though I'm a mental health therapist by training, God has steered me towards my true calling...full time wife and mommy and Christian Blogger/Writer. My family and I have settled down in Bowling Green, Kentucky. We absolutely love this town. I grew up as an only child in the small town of Shelbyville, Kentucky. My childhood was the absolute BEST thanks to my parents, extended family, and friends. God sure knew what He was doing when he gave me my people.  I'm my Daddy's daughter for sure. He taught me so much about faith in God, walking with Jesus, and just how to be a good and loving person. My heart was shattered last year (July 2018) when my Daddy was called Home to Jesus after a four month battle with Stomach Cancer. So much of him lives within me and I am already seeing parts of