One of the Best Birthdays - Ever!

This week I celebrated my birthday! on Thanksgiving Day! It's not often that my birthday falls on that wonderful day. Mr. M asked me what day of the week I was born on - that's easy, Thursday! Easy to remember because I was born on Thanksgiving. We had been talking about what day of the week the different holidays are on. "I thought Thanksgiving was on the 25th?" "No. It's always on the fourth Thursday of the month!" his older brother chimed in.

The story goes that my due date was long past. My parents and sister went to one of our parent's parents' house for Thanksgiving dinner. Then they went to the other's parents' house for Thanksgiving dessert. Then they went to the hospital and had me! :)

So what about this year made it one of the BEST birthdays EVER??

• It was on Thanksgiving Day
• Mr. Gehrke was actually home to celebrate with us (last year he was gone hunting)
• My guys all helped make the Thanksgiving meal
• My little family was with me

It was a low-key celebration. We couldn't find enough candles to stick in the homemade pumpkin pie. :) (whew!) There were cards from everybody. They wanted me to pick out my own birthday gifts the next day.

Last Saturday I ordered myself a Freeset bag through The MOB Society blog. Every bag sold helps free a woman out of sex slavery and into freedom in India. My bag came today! I'm so excited! It's beautiful in so many ways - what it stands for and the simplicity of it.

Each bag is unique. The fabric is cut from a recycled sari. It's one of my favorite shades of blue! I can't wait to start using it!

I also got some beautiful scented candles and a couple new hats. The best part of my birthday was spending it with the ones I love. :)

Hope for the Weary Mom: Where God Meets You in Your Mess {expanded edition}

Hooray! Stacey Thacker and Brooke McGlothlin have joined together to expand their book, Hope for the Weary Mom: Where God Meets You in Your Mess! Today it is available on Amazon.com! AND...for the first 48 hours is 100% FREE for your Kindle!! Thank you Stacey and Brooke! :)

* * * * *

Except for writing book reports for school back in the day, I've never written a book review before. There, that's out in the open! Now hopefully the jitters will go to sleep and I can share with you a few of my favorite parts. :)


FAVORITE QUOTES:

"'...I’m going to explode within the next ten minutes if you don’t COME HOME AND BRING ME BEER AND CIGARETTES RIGHT NOW!' He brought me a Coke and dark chocolate." 

(Quite possibly my most favorite quote from the whole book! Why? I know that feeling - when everything that can go wrong seems to happen...ALL WITHIN 3 Minutes! But Jesus, in all His goodness, puts his arms around me and says, "I love you. Lean on me.")

When we decide to lay aside the shame, open up and be truthful about what's really going on in our lives, it's incredible how many lives we encourage. I love that I am not alone. And that it's all right that I'm not perfect. :)

"The point of Hope for the Weary Mom is to help mamas point their eyes and hearts to Christ. Because as much as we sometimes want God to remove us from our messes, more often He just gets in it with us—lifting our heads, giving us strength, helping us put one foot in front of the other as we slosh our way through it (see the intro!).

But it is nice to have some practical tools in our back pockets for those days that just seem out of control. What’s a weary mom to do to find some rest in the midst of the crazy?"

Amen! There are some great tools and resources at the end of the book.


FAVORITE REVISIONS:

Study questions are now at the end of each chapter. I personally just read each question and answered out loud...to my little Chiweenie. :) She doesn't critique me or make fun of my answers. And it helped me to be honest with where I'm at in the moment.

FAVORITE TOPICS:

Weariness
Grief
Weakness
Healing
Shame
Grace
I Am Not Alone
Hope

I appreciate how the authors have shared intimate portions of their lives with us. They are real women with real struggles and weariness. They know what life is like. They know where their Hope comes from. And that makes this collaboration all the more precious to me.

The section on grief has helped me grieve the death of my own mom a year and a half ago. You know, it's going to take time. The emotions are going to flood over me at unsuspecting moments. And that's all right.

I could have used this book ten and a half years ago when my oldest was born four and a half weeks before his due date. The struggles of trying to get him to feed (and thrive) after ten days in NICU were taking a toll on me. Not to mention lack of sleep from feedings every 2-3 hours 24/7 - even with my husband getting up to help with the bottles. I felt like I was all alone. But I wasn't then and I'm not alone now. Back then the book was still a "Twinkle in God's eye" as I say to my boys when they ask about something that happened before they were born. :)

Sometimes books can travel back through time to help heal old weariness. His timing is always perfect. And so today I hope you will go and get your copy of this reborn book, and be blessed and encouraged by the Hope that you are not alone!

I pray that you are blessed abundantly by Hope for the Weary Mom: Where God Meets You in Your Mess. :)

~ Cresenda

*I am also Guest Posting this entry over at friend Melody's blog - Stirrings!

*Please join in the Facebook Party tonight and enter to win some amazing prizes!

*One more thing - would you please leave a review on Amazon.com when you buy your copy (or get it free in the first 48 hours!). Thanks! Here's the review I left:

"On those days when I am especially weary as a mama, Hope for the Weary Mom: Where God Meets You in Your Mess has encouraged me! What a relief to know that I'm not alone in my experiences with boys chasing each other with light sabers down the hall, yelling at the top of their lungs, or wrestling in the house! :) This expanded edition brought tears to my eyes and laughter to my mouth - the LOL kind! :) It's like medicine. :) I have a copy of the first edition on my Kindles and read both copies side by side. The authors, Stacey Thacker and Brooke McGlothlin, have gone more in depth, sharing from the depths of their experiences when they could have hidden away and pretended to be perfect. That vulnerability is refreshing and encouraging - gives me strength to keep moving forward in the most amazing role I've played yet - Mom. They've also given us examples of women from the Bible who could have hidden, but instead embraced their weaknesses. I encourage every mom (no matter what age) to read this book, be encouraged and strengthened by the words inside, and share with other moms. You don't have to be weary to enjoy it! :) And if you are weary, don't be discouraged - you are not alone! :)"

The Back Story or How I Found "Hope for The Weary Mom"

Maui 2011

A picture is worth a thousands words... I look at this picture today and it represents so much of the last year in my life. There's peace and turmoil all at the same time. And hope. Hope for the future. Hope that in spite of all the ups and downs, twists and turns that life throws my way, Jesus is always there with me. He never leaves me nor forsakes me. (This promise is found numerous times in the Bible - here's a few for you to read: Deuteronomy 31:6, Joshua 1:5, Hebrews 13:5.)

This past year has delivered more than it's fair share of weariness to me. I'm sure that some, many, or maybe all of you can relate! My life isn't very tidy and pretty (there's a reason most pictures are close-up shots!). In fact it's rather messy. My emotions tend to creatively go all over the place. :) Early in 2012 I discovered first a website called The MOB Society (Mothers of Boys) where other "MOBs" wrote truthfully about their lives, and I could relate! So amazing how freeing that was to find out that I am not alone! :) I signed up for the newsletter and received a free copy of Hope For The Weary Mom by Stacey Thacker and Brooke McGlothlin. Who doesn't like something FREE? :)

That little e-book encouraged me in so many ways! So when the authors posted a few months back that they were expanding Hope For The Weary Mom and asked for Moms to join their Launch Team, I applied for a space on the team not really believing I'd be accepted. Silly me! I couldn't believe it when they said I was on the Team! Woo hoo! :)

It's been an amazing couple months being a part of something bigger than my mess. :) And TOMORROW (10/23/12) is the big day for the expanded edition of Hope for the Weary Mom: Where God Meets You in Your Mess. :)

Come back tomorrow and I'll tell you more about the new edition and how it's touched my life. :)