I am so thrilled to have Chrissie Grace from In His Grace with us today. She is wife, a mother to 4 adorable children, and an artist. She made the pillow in Lauren’s room and I have admired her blog and her work ever since.

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When Melissa asked me if I'd like to write a guest-post for Mothers Day coming up, I was honored!

Being a mother is one of (if not the greatest) joys in my life. And then I read the line-up of the other mothers. Seriously, I have to go after Shawni from 71 Toes? She has it all...she is like Mom of the Year...no literally, she is!

I got a little nervous and insecure...little ol'me with my flaws and my never-ending mistakes. Who am I to talk about motherhood? Let's screech all that to all a halt right now.

And so I come to #1 on my top 5 list of things I've learned by Becoming a Mother:

1. Don't compare yourself to anyone else...

It starts when we're pregnant...we feel bad if we can't breastfeed.  We look at our neighbor's 8 month old walking and get embarrased when our 18 month old isn't yet.We feel pressured to buy our daughter cute Gymboree clothes to fit in when we can't afford it and have been blessed with a set of hand-me-downs.

You know the drill... we compare ourselves (and our children) to what "everyone" else has or is doing. What an unfortunate deal to pass on to our kids.  Let's stop that nonsense now.  Let's teach our kids that God makes everyone different for our reason.

There is so much beauty in that.

our first guest poster for the week, is Shawni! She is a mom to 5 and blogs at 71 Toes. In her own words, her “blog has become a way to share photography and parenting ideas, to promote the joy of motherhood, and has been a huge comfort as we have dealt with various issues involving our daughter's syndrome diagnosis.”

I grew up with stars in my eyes about motherhood. I daydreamed about my future family on a continual basis. I pictured my children all lined up in a row, perfectly groomed with matching outfits. Their hair would be perfectly in place and of course there would never be any arguing. 

Just a whole lot of nothing and everything going on around here. I always forget how darn busy the end of the school year is!

I thought the lily pads were so cool.