Happy Moms, Happy Homes

Happy Moms, Happy Homes

Empowering Moms to Live in Victory

by Christina A. Morley

About the Book:

Title: Happy Moms, Happy Homes | Author: Christina A. Morley | Pages: 174 | Genre: Christian Inspirational

Book Description:

Feeling Stressed-Out, Left-Out, or Maxed-Out? Don't Miss-Out! During times of stress, loneliness, financial difficulty, or whatever troubles life may bring, moms can still lead a victorious life in Christ. This book is sympathetic to moms and the challenges they face, offering tools to overcoming their obstacles. With heart, wisdom, and understanding, Happy Moms, Happy Homes offers mothers of all stages advice and direction as they walk with God and share his love with their children and others.

Purchase on Amazon:

Kindle | Paperback

An Excerpt from Chapter Six:

One thing I’ve come to realize about us moms is that we are quick to take care of our kids and slow to take care of ourselves. It’s also possible to neglect our husbands when we’re so concerned about our children. We may think that if we sacrifice our own needs all the time that we’ll build a perfect home where everyone is blissfully happy. The truth is that until we get our priorities in the right order, we’ll all suffer for it.

I was a stay-at-home mom for about four years. It was hard being restricted to the house for most of the day. Raising demanding and crying tots almost full-time drove me crazy. I was stressed out of my mind and very unhappy.…

If you feel guilty about spending time on yourself, then remind yourself that God’s love for you is greater than the greatest love you could ever have for your children. Of course, He loves your children with that same powerful love. Therefore, He doesn’t want you to neglect yourself. Sometimes you have to deny yourself for your family’s sake, but if you do it all the time then your family loses something very valuable, and that is you! Your family needs the real you with your personality, not a robot! Remember, God loves you for who you are and not for what you do.

Christina with her husband and four kids

Christina A. Morley is the author of Happy Moms, Happy Homes. She’s also a blogger, volunteer reader at the Blind Institute, and co-founder of Light and Life Bible Ministries along with her husband.

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Romano Family Series Books 5 and 6

Kiss Me at Midnight

Purchase on Amazon

My Review:

Kiss Me at Midnight (Book 5) is a fabulous romance that isn't easy to put down. It has characters that will stir your heart and it will make you sigh happily with just enough suspense to keep the story moving.

Filipe Romano is the new owner of SoliMar beach resort, which comes with an aquarium that isn't making any money. He has plans to fix it up in order to sell, but when he finds an old childhood sweetheart that he left behind years ago working there, he begins questioning his plans.

Celeste Ferreira knew Filipe growing up, but hasn't seen him since her brother's funeral. She was a teenager then, but now she's a single mother and works at the SoliMar Aquarium. Life has been hard, but she keeps going with a positive smile for her son's sake. Becoming reacquainted with Filipe brings a whole gamut of emotions her way, which complicates her life further. She wonders why he left in the first place and he struggles with having to face the past.

This is a clean romance and another wonderful edition to the Romano Family series. Each story is a stand-alone, written in chronological order.

Marry Me at Dawn

Purchase on Amazon

My Review:

Marry Me at Dawn (Book 6) is my favorite book and the final one in the Romano Family series! The story is a page-turner, which gets so intense toward the end that my heart was pounding! It's a well-thought-out marriage of convenience that had me rooting for both Damian and Gabriela. The characters are memorable, even though I did want to hit Damian upside the head when things started going downhill. Gabriela and Claire are wonderfully written. Baby Claire is a good introduction for soon-to-be parents with all the sacrifice and joy that babies bring. Luke is an awesome friend and he needs his own romance story!

It was good that cultural differences and challenges were briefly noted. There were a couple of quick scene changes, but one was particularly abrupt when Damian's mom takes Gabriela shopping. I was hoping that Gabriela would be able to put some of her advertising expertise to good use in helping Damian, but things never went that direction. I would have liked to have seen more of the Romano cousins. The epilogue felt a bit rushed with naming off Romano family members.

Even though this is a clean romance, there is sexual tension between Damian and Gabriela. Those parts were fun to read, but I would suggest that it's better suited for older teenagers and up.

My Reviews of Books 1 - 3:
A Clean Romance Series

My Review of Book 4:
Keep Me at Christmas

About the Author:

Lucinda Whitney

Join the Readers Club at http://lucindawhitney.com/claim-your-free-book/ and receive a free ebook copy of Hold Me At Twilight! Lucinda Whitney was born and raised in Portugal, where she received a master's degree from the University of Minho in Braga in Portuguese/English teaching. She lives in northern Utah. When she's not reading and writing, she can be found with a pair of knitting needles in winter, or tending her herb garden in the summer. She also works part-time as a substitute teacher. Visit her website at www.lucindawhitney.com

Disclosure: I received ARCs of both books. These are my honest and voluntary reviews.

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Mother's Day Flowers and Gifts with a Linky

On Mother's Day, I was spoiled by my husband and Amanda. They made a yummy breakfast beginning with a pretty fruit salad and then it was on to croissants with scrambled eggs and slices of gammon.  Both had gifts for me too. Amanda bought presents with her own money and also made a card, which you can see in the last photo. Our three big kids weren't with us, but we did visit with my in-laws.

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Here's a peek at
my latest post

on 1camera1mom:

Simon's Town, Cape Town

My kids: Amanda, Samantha, Jessica, and Jeremiah

Beaded wire art for sale at Simon's Town

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My Latest Blog Posts:


A Healthy Self-Esteem and Self-Image

My Book for Moms!

Follow Me on Instagram!

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Happy Mother's Day! My book Happy Moms, Happy Homes is all about empowering moms to live in victory. This book is sympathetic to moms and the challenges they face, offering tools to overcoming their obstacles. And it's only $0.99 on Amazon Kindle! I have an excerpt on my blog, Amanda's Books and More. #SockSunday #motherhood #mothersday #happy #moms #happymothersday #parenting #empowering #inspirational #ebook #book #paperback #nonfiction #protea #flower

A post shared by Tina Morley (@tinarobmorley) on May 12, 2019 at 4:58am PDT

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*** If you want to comment or join the linky, then please make sure this page's permalink loads as http and not https! Also, my blog is hosted by Blogger, which uses cookies to improve your browsing experience. And, it's best viewed in Google Chrome. ***

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Now on to my blog hop...

Come link up your Wordless Wednesday

(with or without words) or any picture post

at this Picture Perfect Party Linky.

Join me on this fun and easy blog hop!

I would love for you to follow me on

Twitter 

Facebook
Instagram

and

Here are the easy rules:

• Follow me on one or more links above or via email.
• Link-up any family friendly post with a picture and follow as many new blogs as you like.
• If possible, copy the button code below and add it on your linked post or blog's side-bar.
• Tell others about this hop on Twitter, Google+ or Facebook.

The Button Code:

<center> <a href="http://abooksandmore.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img alt="Amanda’s Books and More" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitS14XLc-z2uSUW00dIvyZc7lEfLP2tkPgO3qmU3NWi_UObDs_d7XqpYhjp0BBeROyZot-8YlEFU9rguELrZYu3arN1qHHNpB4_ezrb-TlBlfHRSOvP7pBA0VI-j1RkUkF77wJxUc7M7ye/s150/Picture%2520Perfect%2520Party%2520Linky.jpg"/></a></center>

This is a Wordless Wednesday blog hop.
Please load page as http and not https.

How to use the linky widget:

First make sure that you load this page as http and not https if you want to see the linky. Type in the name of your blog post under Link Title, then type in your email under Email Address (which I don't sell to anyone), then copy your permalink to your post (most link parties ask for blog posts and not blog homepages) and paste that under URL (make sure that you use http:// or https:// only once), then click Submit Link and that's it!

Visit my Blog Hops page to see the hops that I often link up to.

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My Book for Moms!

Happy Moms, Happy Homes

Empowering Moms to Live in Victory

by Christina Morley

About the Book:

Title: Happy Moms, Happy Homes | Author: Christina Morley | Pages: 174 | Genre: Christian Inspirational

Book Description:

Feeling Stressed-Out, Left-Out, or Maxed-Out? Don't Miss-Out! During times of stress, loneliness, financial difficulty, or whatever troubles life may bring, moms can still lead a victorious life in Christ. This book is sympathetic to moms and the challenges they face, offering tools to overcoming their obstacles. With heart, wisdom, and understanding, Happy Moms, Happy Homes offers mothers of all stages advice and direction as they walk with God and share his love with their children and others.

Purchase on Amazon:

Kindle | Paperback

Only $0.99 on Kindle and

$5.99 in paperback!

An Excerpt from Chapter Eight:

Too many women wish they had different hair, or eyes of a different color, or different gifts and talents. Wishing we were something or someone else only cripples our potential and our joy. Some even think that they’re not a bit talented or gifted. Actually, we’re all talented and gifted, but in different ways and to different degrees.

We bring God glory when we embrace the unique way that He made each of us. The best part is that whatever we’re born with doesn’t just end there. There’s more for us because there’s much more in Christ.

It’s good to note our weaknesses, but if we spend time trying only to improve our weaknesses then we may forget about our strengths. This can have a bad effect on our self-esteem, to the point where we finally just give up on ourselves. We need to keep our focus on God and His potential not on our own abilities or seeming lack thereof. Even our strengths can be our greatest weaknesses when they are not properly harnessed. We just need to stay available and teachable, and God will do the rest....

We are like life coaches, but we can’t coach our kids about discovering their identities if we don’t know our own. Therefore, we need to be thankful and honest about ourselves and not pretend to be someone we’re not. By modeling this we will help our children confidently get to know who they are. Peer pressure doesn’t have to get the better of them if we create an atmosphere that strengthens their self-esteem.

Check out what I recently wrote:

A Healthy Self-Esteem and Self-Image

Christina and Robbie with their four kids

Christina Morley is the author of Happy Moms, Happy Homes. She’s also a blogger, volunteer reader at the Blind Institute, and ministers alongside her husband at a Christian drug and alcohol rehab.

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A Healthy Self-Esteem and Self-Image

A Healthy Self-Esteem and Self-Image

By Christina Morley

I have four children; three are adults and one is an adolescent. Being a parent, I have endeavored to give each child encouragement and praise as often as needed. In other words, I have tried to build up their self-esteem. I want them to be confident individuals and not inclined to compare themselves to others.

Let me give you an example of a healthy self-esteem. When my youngest daughter, Amanda, was around 9 years old, I drove her to a friend’s birthday party. The mom and daughter met us as we were walking up to the house. The friend was excited to see Amanda and exclaimed to her mother, “This is Amanda! She’s the smartest kid in our class!” Amanda quickly responded, “One of the three smartest.” By amending her friend’s statement, Amanda was putting her ability into perspective while accepting the praise.

Having a good self-esteem is not the same as having a big ego. Kids are prone to thinking too highly of themselves when they can do no wrong in their parents’ eyes. Unfortunately, some parents are not only guilty of raising narcissistic children, but also guilty of teaching their kids to hate others. These kids later become adults who think the world revolves around them and their egos.

One way to combat egocentricity is to be sober-minded by not thinking too highly of yourself. It’s about being sensible or pragmatic. It’s about knowing your strengths and weaknesses and being aware that you aren’t a god. If you are sober-minded, you will know that you need God in your life and that apart from God, you can do nothing with lasting success. You will also not be rigid or dogmatic in your beliefs. You will be of the shared belief that we all see through a glass dimly.

Another way to combat egocentricity is to practice kindness and generosity. Instead of focusing on yourself, focus on others. We all go through times when we focus on ourselves and get so wrapped up in our own problems that we become stressed, anxious, or depressed. By shifting our focus and taking note of others (paying attention to their needs), we can figure out ways that we can get practically involved. Helping others has a profound ability to improve our emotional and physical well-being!

A good self-esteem means that you feel positive about yourself without any grandiose ideas. A good self-image is similar. It’s being able to see yourself in a favorable light and to believe that others do to. How much time is wasted worrying about what people think of you? American jokesmith Olin Miller once stated, “You probably wouldn’t worry about what people think of you if you could know how seldom they do.” That puts it into perspective!

When I was in the 8th grade, our school had a dance. The dress code for the girls was a cocktail dress or something similar. My mom took me to one store and I had to find my dress there. I can’t remember what her reason was, but it certainly limited my options. I found one dress that suited me and it was a hideous mustard-yellow. I didn’t want to feel embarrassed the entire time, so I decided to own that dress. I went to the dance with my head held high and a big smile on my face. I wasn’t going to let others dictate how I felt about myself. If anyone wanted to make a rude comment about the color, I was prepared to tell them that I agreed with them, but surprisingly, kids complimented me on my dress!

People with a good self-image don’t try to be someone they aren’t. They don’t want to be someone else either! They are happy in their own skin doing their best with the personality, skills, and talent that are uniquely theirs.

My kids - from youngest to oldest (left to right):
Amanda, Samantha, Jessica, and Jeremiah

Christina Morley is the author of Happy Moms, Happy Homes. She’s also a blogger, volunteer reader at the Blind Institute, and ministers alongside her husband at a Christian drug and alcohol rehab.

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Teaching Amanda Her ABCs

Most of you know that Amanda turned 5 this year.

I was concerned that she had to remain in the

playgroup another year before graduating to

Kindergarten (Grade R in South Africa) and
that she'll only be in Grade 1 when she's 6

turning 7.

From what I understand, that's a
whole year later than in the States.
So, I decided to start teaching her at home,
after school. I only spend about 5 - 10 minutes
with her, but I've seen that it makes a difference.

Today I'm sharing about 3 of the books that

I've been using with her. We have several

other ABC resources too. Some are
battery operated with sound. I like variety,

so I don't focus on the same books or

teach with the same method every day.

I also like to be spontaneous. Here's

a peek into a few of our lessons. Enjoy!

First Fun ABC is published by Miles Kelly.

I like this book, because Amanda gets to

practice the alphabet at the top of the page.

Also, the letter that the page is focusing on

is highlighted in the alphabet row.

I noticed that Amanda

was running the letters L - N as one

word, so here we practiced slowing

the famous alphabet song down and

saying each letter name carefully.

I got My First ABC Glitter Book on sale.

It's published by Hinkler Books and they have

a whole series, including Colours and Numbers.

Amanda commented that it was for babies.

I liked the shiny pages. I also knew that

even though it's in a toddler's book style,

it's still right for her age.

I like that each picture has the upper case

and lower case letter. I think it's better

if kids learn both from the beginning.

What I didn't like is that the letter A

on the inside of the book stood for

"alarm clock" and R stood for "rubber

duck." Amanda saw the clock and said,

"A for clock" and saw the duck and said,

"R for duck." This was too confusing.

Amanda got this wonderful Animals, Wipe Clean,

Learn to Draw Activity Book for her birthday

a year or two ago. It's published by Priddy

Books. She used her marker until it ran dry,

so the one in the photo is not the one that

it originally came with, although it does

look similar. This book also comes in a

series, including Letters and Numbers.

What makes this book so versatile is that

it not only teaches drawing, it also teaches

how to write the alphabet in upper case

and lower case letters.

I got Amanda

to practice some of these letters on a

white board that we could wipe clean

and use again and again.

We could have used the book

for this, but I wanted her to

see how the letters make words.

In the last picture, Amanda had a word

with a missing letter. Each time I gave

her a different missing letter for the same

word, to help her see what letter was

missing and to put it in the right place. 

If your child isn't old enough to write yet,

you could simplify this exercise using magnetic

fridge letters. Let your child place the

correct letter in the missing space.

I found this neat ABC internet resource today.

It's called ABCya and has free games and apps

from Grade K to Grade 5. I'll let Amanda

check it out with me tomorrow. Maybe

you've already heard of it. I'm living in a

corner of South Africa, so I'm still

discovering these things.

I'm linking with the Kid Lit Blog Hop.

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Learning Good Behavior from a 4-Year-Old

When writing posts about parenting, I usually try to put my best foot forward. Sometimes I allow my readers glimpses of my weaknesses, but mostly the topics give me the opportunity to share from years of experience. This is one of those posts where I let my readers know that I’m far from perfect, because today’s two lessons on good behavior I have learned from a 4-year-old. My daughter, Amanda, is that 4-year-old.

The first lesson I learned is on sharing. I have a sweet tooth. In the first years of married life, if I bought a soft-serve ice-cream and my husband wanted to share it, I’d tell him to buy his own one. If I had a candy bar, oh baby, I wanted that thing all for myself! For some reason, my husband loves sharing my sweet indulgences. It works with him the other way too. If he has something that looks really good, he will never not share it with me. Over time, I loosened up in the area of sharing.

So, what has Amanda taught me on that subject? She has taught me about the joy of sharing. She would rather share her few Smarties (M&Ms) than keep them for herself. You should see the smile on her face when she goes around to every member of our family with candy in her hand. I have tried to stop her from sharing in the past. That’s because we don’t allow her a whole kid’s size box (with M&Ms it would be a small packet) at once. We limit the amount that she’s allowed to eat just like we did with our other kids.

I would reason with her whenever I suggested that she shouldn’t share. My reasoning was that there are six members in our family, and if she shared her few treats with everyone, she’d have hardly any left for herself. Once, I even put my foot down, but you should have seen how sad that made her. I felt really bad. She wasn’t uncomprehending what I was trying to say, she was just finding more joy in sharing than having those extra sweets for herself. Now, I’ve learned that there is a greater joy in sharing than in self-indulging.

The second lesson I learned from her is on having a gracious attitude. Yesterday, she demonstrated it so well for hubby and me. Every Thursday she’s allowed to take her little Disney Princesses bicycle to school with her. It’s part of her teacher’s preschool program for the kids, and she loves taking her bike, but sometimes we forget.

Amanda said to her daddy this time, “Daddy, it’s okay if you forget. Teacher also has bikes that we can use.” Her words were like a healing balm to my soul. If someone forgets to do something that I’ve asked them to do, then I throw a small fit. I need to be more gracious toward the people in my life.

Related post: Learning Doesn’t Only Happen in School

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Amanda and Me Time

Most of the afternoon and evening, Amanda and I had the house to ourselves. Since it was just the two of us eating dinner, I asked her what she wanted. She chose chicken noodle soup, but I only had cream of chicken soup, so she went with that. It’s wintertime in the southern hemisphere, so soup was perfect for a cold rainy night.

The two of us built puzzles, watched Disney Junior, played with wooden blocks called Planx and then made cinnamon sugar popcorn. The popcorn was delicious and I had four small helpings. Amanda kept track of how many servings I took, because she wasn’t sure if it was fair that I had four helpings while she only had three. I told her that I was bigger. That answer usually works.

After getting her ready for bed, I let her snuggle under a blanket with me on the couch while I watched the Style channel and Home channel. We only recently started paying for a few more channels; mainly so that Robbie could watch his sports, but we knew that there would be a bigger selection for all of us. Up until about a month ago, we had four South African stations plus a few on religion and news.

One of our new favorite programs that Robbie and I like to watch is Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. The food always looks so amazing. I’ve been really out of touch with what goes on in my home country of America. I watched a bit of Extreme Couponing and I was impressed. Coupons are hard to come by in this country and the savings that they offer are very low. If we ever move to the States, I’ll definitely take advantage of coupons.

I’m leaving you with an original piece of art by Amanda. She drew and painted it all by herself. I think for a future Wordless Wednesday I should post more of her work.

By Amanda Morley age 4 (July 1, 2012)

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Baking and Counting

Amanda loves helping me in the kitchen, especially when I’m baking, because there are things that she can safely do. The other day we made pancakes together. (I know, technically it’s not baking, since we use a frying pan.) Her job was to add in the ingredients once I’d measured them and then to help me mix it all together.

The recipe that I used is from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. My mom brought the cook book with her from the States some years back and I’ve used it more than any of my other cook books. I usually like making the buttermilk pancakes, but when I don’t have buttermilk in the fridge then I just make the regular milk pancakes.

Since I have a big family, I tripled the recipe. Tripling the recipe meant that we got to add more of everything, which meant more fun for Amanda. I had her count the quantities as we added them to the bowl. When we got to the sugar, I used a teaspoon instead of a tablespoon, which meant that she would have to count that much higher.

I can tell that Amanda is getting more confident with her numbers and simple math. The other day she asked for two slices of avocado on toast. (We mash them up and add a bit of freshly squeezed lemon juice with salt and pepper to taste, but leave the pepper off for Amanda.) I didn’t think she’d finish two, so I tried to make one slice look like more by cutting it into four squares. I was unable to trick her. She said, “Mom, that’s not two slices. You cut one slice into four!”

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Text Messaging

My eldest daughter is 14 years old. At the moment she is going out with a well-brought up boy who is 2 years older. They hardly ever see each other, which suits us as parents just fine. They go to different high schools and he plans to become a professional golfer, so he’s always jet-setting inside South Africa from one golf tournament to the next. Also, his parents don’t allow him to socialize much, because they want him to focus on his grades when he’s not playing golf.

About a week ago, he sent her a text message at night. He asked her what she was doing. She texted him back to say that she was on her laptop (not literally, of course) and asked him what he was doing. He said he was on his way home and he could hardly see his mobile phone. Being the no-nonsense kind of girl that my daughter is, she asked him if he was being driven home by car. He replied that he was on his motorbike. She quickly sent him back another message, which stated that he must get off his phone immediately and not reply until he got home. Thankfully, he listened to her and later sent her a text to say that he had arrived home safely.

It just goes to show that young people, even the ones with strict parents like her boyfriend’s parents, still do foolish things. Recently, I’ve seen two different images on the internet of car accidents where the car was completely written off and a caption that read, “Hope the text was worth it.”

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