Here is our newest baby! A Girl!! Faith Irene, weighing 7 lb.s and 5 oz.s Born via c-section on April 2nd, 2019. Now we have 5 boys and 4 girls! And I am now not only the youngest of 9, but also the mother of 9 too! The delivery went great. Wow, c-section is sure faster and easier than going through the long hard labor I have been use to. But the recovery process slower, and I am certainly more sore. But doing good. And baby is all healthy and eating and sleeping great! I was in the hospital for 2 days after the birth. The children sure were happy to have me and baby come home! You can see their joy and excitement in these photos. There is certainly nothing like a new baby in the house! And no better gift to give your children than the blessing a new brother or sister. Do you know what you're having? We never find out head of time if we are having a boy or girl, so the big gender reveal is at birth. Sometimes we have had a strong feeling one way or the other during pregnancy and we have been right. This time Paul felt it would be a boy, and though I had felt right off to begin with it was girl, I nearly lost that hope near the end due to him being so certain it was a boy. But she was a girl! The name Faith came to me shortly after I knew I was expecting. I had just had a miscarriage the month before. And when I found out I was expecting again, though I do not recall how it cam to me exactly, rather by a dream or just something that pooped in my head, it was like I was told by God we were going to have a baby girl and her name would be Faith. Something that was really neat was that I ended up with 3 wall hangings all about at that same time with the word Faith on them. I thought that was really cool. I have 5 in all now. Though along the pregnancy I did wonder if we would end up with a girl after-all. So I would often say I am holding out faith that this baby will be Faith. Since we were not completely sure our baby would be a girl we did not have a middle name ready, though I had played around with a couple names, but none I was really satisfied with. And honestly I really didn't hold out too much hope at that point for a girl anyway. Paul and the boys were all very confident we were having a boy. I was out numbed! So how and when did we get our middle name? Well the day she was born we started thinking of names. And asked others what they thought sounded good with Faith. We were given many great ideas, but really I wanted a name with a special meaning, something that meant life or restoring of life. With this new baby right from the beginning of pregnancy I was over joyed that God gave us new life again after loosing our son Clayton in April of 2017. I didn't know if He would bless us with another baby or not, though I was hoping. Especially with the baby being due in April was very special too. It was like God giving us a new date in April. One with good memories. So back to choosing a middle name. We googled names that meant life or restoration of life. And there was several, but none really seemed right. Then in the evening after Paul had gone home for the night, he sends me a text and ask what i think of the name Irene. Now Irene is one of my middle names. I would never ever thought of using it. It just never came to me, and I certainly didn't know it had any special meaning. But guess what, Paul said he googled it and it means peace. So what did I think of Irene knowing it means peace? I told him I thought it was great! So Faith Irene it was! And the more I thought about the name Irene and how it meant peace, the more I realized just how special, meaningful, and very appropriate it was. Peace and faith go together wonderfully! It is when we have complete faith and trust in God that we will be at perfect peace. Isaiah 26:3-4 KJV ) Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the LORD for ever:for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength: And that is what God did for us after loosing Clayton. We had faith in Him, that even though we could not understand or know why this happened, we trusted Him just the same. And with that trust and deep faith in Christ, in return He gave us such deep peace and loving comfort. It was amazing the peace I felt right after our tragic loss. The pain still very real, but a deep and underlying peace that one can not even begin to describe, and that only God can give. And God is still doing that for us. We keep trusting and believing that He is working all things for our good. And He keeps giving us peace and joy. Only in God! What are you going through that you wonder if you can even keep on going? What are you trusting God for? What is it that has you barley hanging on? Do you feel like you've almost lost all hope of anything ever changing in your circumstance?
Please keep believing, keep trusting, and keep up your faith in God that He is in control and that He is working all things out for your good. ( Romans 8:28 ) Keep your mind on God and the things of God. Keep in His Word. And he will give you peace and comfort. And a reason, a purpose, and hope to keep going! In Him, Mae P.S. Please feel free to contact me if you would like someone to talk to as you are going through a rough time in your life. I would love to be an encouragement and support to you. And offer the comfort God has given me.
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Hi, welcome to anther video blog post! I have lost track of which week this is since I've started doing my weekly video blog posts, but I guess that part is not really important. This video will be the last one now for a couple weeks since we have our newest baby arriving via c-section on April 2nd, 2019. But I will do a written post soon as I can to share pictures and baby news. In this video you will hear about spring news, what I've been up to lately, our library, ladies Bibles studies, and upcoming baby news. Stay strong in the Lord! In Him, Mae If you're in our area, come check out our library. You can browse our books online as well at www.renfroelibrary.weebly.com
I also hold Ladies Bible studies in our library every Thursday evening. Good news everyone! Our newest blessing is arriving April 3rd! My due date was April 10th, but due to me being on blood thinners to prevent blood clots, the Dr.s want to induce a week early to prevent my going into labor on my own. With me being on blood thinners it needs to be a more controlled birth, and I will stop the blood thinner about 24 hours before delivery day. At my last week's appointment and sonogram our baby is laying transverse instead of head down so that throws a new twist do this delivery too. The Dr. said if the baby has not flipped head down by this next appointment that we would be looking at C-section instead of the induction. C-section is certainly all new to me so even just at the mention of that word I get scared. Just recently I got too talk to a couple moms who have had c-sections and they have put my mind to rest on a lot of questions I had, so that has really helped me be more comfortable with the fact it may come to c-section. And to tell the truth induced labors are not much fun either! All my labors have been quite long and hard for me. There was a couple shorter ones. But otherwise labor has not been something I looked forward to because of how long and hard my labors were, and then my last 2 I was 42 weeks overdue and had to be induced. Induction seems to make for a harder and more intense labor experience. So a c-section could be a very welcome break for me! And give me an all new and better delivery experience. This would be the first for an epidural for me as well. For now I am enjoying the remaining days of my pregnancy. Only eight more! I am honestly not ready for it to be over that soon, I love this part too much!
I have always loved pregnancy. I love the attention I get. I enjoy maternity clothes. I love seeing my belly grow bigger and bigger. But I especially love the movements, the bumps and the kicks. And just the fact at how amazing it is to have a baby in the womb growing so perfectly and wonderfully. What a miracle it is. I love it all! And life it's self is a miracle. How easy it is to take our lives for granted. And how easy it is to think that we will always be here, until we are old anyway, right? But are days are all numbered. and each new day God grants us is a gift. Not to be taken for granted, but used wisely and for His glory knowing that it is a miracle we are here. And that God has a plan and a purpose for us. Our time is not to be wasted, but to be invested! All for His glory! In Him, Mae P.S. I will post here soon as I can after baby arrives with the delivery news, and baby pictures. Welcome to week 3 blog post video! In this one I am talking about and encouraging mothers ( but not only mothers ) in spending quality time with their children. I know as a stay-at-home mom, we are at home with them all day. But from my past experiences we sometimes have to put out a special effort to really connect with our children in a purposeful and meaningful way. In this video you will hear my heart on the matter, and little ways you can connect with your children. Below is a poem I just wrote after I made this video. I was laying a awake that night about 3:00 a.m., and thinking of a creative way to share about how we have to be very careful of social media, and gadgets that can steal our time from our precious children. I prayed for ideas for a poem. And then these lines started coming to my mind. So I quickly got up, and went out to the kitchen to write it down on scrap paper. Then the next morning I turned it into this image here. Hope you enjoy! I may have been a little crude with the wording. But if those things get out of hand, they sure can steal our time, and how annoying is that it! Be blessed and inspired! In Him, Mae Hey everyone! After completing my Life Coach course this fall, and now a few months into doing the practicum part, where I get my practice coaching hours in, I have finally came up with my coaching niche. Super exciting! I have two specific areas that I will be assisting my clients with through my life coaching. Parent CoachOne niche is parent coaching. Narrowing that down more, it's Purposeful Parenting Coaching. And narrowing it a bit further, my focus is on mothers, helping them to find and achieve purposeful mothering in their parenting. I know first hand as a mom of 8 children, and now one more one the way, that mothering is a very hard job, as well as a very vital role, and one of the highest callings we can ever have. It has always been a passion of mine to be a support and encouragement to fellow moms. And now as a life coach I can do that in a big way! We can use all the help we can get to raise these children God has blessed us with, to be strong men and women of God. Grief Coach My other niche is grief coaching. Helping women get back to a new normal, and get their life back on track after the sudden and tragic loss of a child or other loved one. Since loosing our 14 year-old son very suddenly in a tragic quad accident in April 2017, I know how hard this can be. But through God we have had joy again, and peace and comfort that only He can give. I want to be a support to you. And help you rest and trust in God through this. This is not the end of your story. He's got something beautiful for you! As of right now I am still a student life coach in need of several practice coaching hours, before I can receive my certification as a Christian Life Coach. So I am really looking for anyone that can benefit from either area, that I am focusing on in my life coaching, so that I can be a help to them and they can be a help to me! And it is all free. No worries!
So if this is you, if you are feeling a little lost in your mothering, or things are not going just as would like, and you seek new vision and purpose in your mothering, then contact me and I will see how I can best assist you in making these changes happen. Or if you have recently gone through a loss and you can't see how you can go on again, and get your life back to a new normal. I will work with you to rediscover, or renew your vision and propose in life, and to find hope again. Even if your loss has been awhile in the pass, you still may feel you have never truly or completely recovered from that. I know our lives are never the same again after a loss, but I believe we can heal and go on victoriously! Please contact me with any questions you may have, and if you are interested in my coaching services. Coaching is almost all done over the phone, so I can do coaching with you regardless of where you live. But if you are near me, then we can do in-person coaching too! Mae's Life Coaching God Bless! In Him, Mae I have had many people ask me how I manage with our 7 children ( one more due in April, 2019), homeschooling them, keeping up the house, feeding my large crew, and even still manage to have time for writing. So I have decided to write a post here to let you know how I do it. It is no magic, no quick recipe, and no special super mothering either. I get the feeling sometimes that people think I must have to be this super mother with a ton of patience and that I have it all together. Well here is a few quick confessions. I am no super mom. I quite often lose my patience. And I certainly don’t have it all together. My house is usually very loud and noisy. I go through all the children’s names until I get to the one I want. The children are not always perfectly behaved. And the floors are not always swept. But I do manage. And I am not going insane or pulling out my hair either! I have compiled here some things that I do that help me to manage! How we home-school Though I have always been very committed to homeschooling my children it has never been an area of mine I really excel in. I’ve known there are super moms who have it all together, have various grades and ages all going at the same time, and everyone is learning what they should. Well, it doesn’t go so smoothly at my house. This is what is working this school year for us though. Sam is doing 8th grade and works on his own up in his room. Nathan, 18, who graduated last year from our home-school correct Sam’s quizzes and tests. Nathan is also helping Ben in grade 2 with his school. Both Ben and Anna who is in grade 3, need one on one help for nearly all their school work. And I know there are super homeschooling moms who seem to manage just fine with 2 students needing her full-time help. But I confess I don’t know how I could ever do it without my son’s help. I feel like I would go crazy for sure. Sarah in grade 6 works on her own with me correcting most of her lessons. I work with Anna and when she is on a break I get a break, but if I was helping Ben as well I would have to alternate working with them and wouldn’t get a break till school day was done! I guess I would get a lunch break but that is it. Thankfully this is working for us for now. Glad that my oldest son has put off getting a job for this winter. How housecleaning gets done The children are assigned the dishes so I am not responsible for any dishes. They are my dish washer! I do almost all the cooking but I do include their help a lot. I get my oldest son and the girls to do or at least help with the baking. The children set the table and clean up after meals. I oversee all this though. Besides these task mentioned above, I have the children do 3 at least other chores each. More if I needed it, but that usually gets it, for the day to day work anyway. Weekly cleaning is done on Fridays and generally, there is more chores to do, but again when each of the children does 3 each that about covers my whole list. Fridays is when the mopping is done, the toilets, and bathroom cleaned. How I find time to write My writing is squeezed in here and there in any free minute I get. Here are a few things that give me time to write. I don’t watch T.V., and only about one movie a week. I don’t have a lot of people I call. I only spend about 30 minutes a day on face book which is the only social media I am on. I check email periodically throughout the day on my phone which I feel is less time to consume for me than getting on my laptop. What I do to make a simpler and more manageable life
Actually, this is a list of things we don’t do that makes life simpler and more manageable for me. This is how I am able to stay sane with a big busy family and not running the roads to this and that.
But God is the one keeps me going. I couldn’t do it without Him! He’s my driving force, my director and guide. He gets me going and keeps me going! And He gives me the reason and purpose for my life and mothering! So really when it comes down to it how I manage with my busy family of 7 is spelled in out in one word, GOD. May you too rely on Him for your every day in everything! He is sufficient! In Him, Mae Hey, just wanted to share our new and exciting news here with everyone!
Baby coming in April 2019!! Not only is God blessing us again with a new baby, but He is giving it to us in April right around the time of the second anniversary of our loss. I feel that is so special. We will have nine children then! Praise the Lord! He is good! In Him, Mae It is here! My latest book project to bless and encourage mothers. Go to our book page to see how to buy a copy.
Hi, I am so happy to announce my latest project!
It is a pretty little book for mothers. Like a gift item. The title is More Than a Mother. And the subtitle is Embracing and celebrating motherhood. It is going to be a special little book just for moms to encourage them and keep them doing what they are doing!! Full of powerful sayings and quotes that moms will love to read and reread!! And will be beautiful enough for your coffee table or end table in the living room! I am so excited about this book. And want to get it finished and available as soon as I possible can. So any spare minutes I have I quickly work on my book! So that explains why I have not been posting much on here lately. I would love to have this book ready for Mothers Day, but I know that is impossible for me. But we know that all things are possible with God! So we shall see! :) Will share more about it, as well as other great things here on my blog when I can! In Him, Mae Through these past 16 plus years in my journey with the Lord and my experiences with my raising my children thus far I have complied here a list of my top 10 mothering tips. Things that are top most important to me in my parenting. I will share them here for encouragement and inspiration for you. 1. Give your children lots of love, time, and attention- you can't give them enough of your time. 2. Pray for them everyday, for every little thing and concerns you have for them. Pray, and then pray some more. 3. Read the Bible to them daily- twice, along with good books and reading materials to build their faith in God, and shape and build good Godly character and personalities, teach them what you want them to become, act, ect.. 4. Firmness and consistencey in correction, but not in anger. And have rules and stick to them. 5. Lots of praise and affrimation for jobs well done, for good attitudes, good behavior, and for unity between siblings. This is great for taking preventive measures to reduce the negative out-put from the kids. 6. Take a nap after lunch -- its what keeps me going the rest of the day! Or even just a quite time in my bedroom like reading a deotional or good book. 7. Say paryers, and Bible verses together when tucking them in bed. This aslo is a good time to review the day with them if there was any issue, or somthing that need further disscusion and an apoly, either coming from child or from parent to child. I find often certain issues that happen during the day do need fruther disscusian and bed time is a perfect time for it. Both parent and child should are no longer be mad about the isssue, and now each can see the issue rationaly or in a new light. And now the child can ponder things youv'e just said as they lay quitely in bed, and can you pray togther about it too. 8. Patience _ you can't have enough of that! 9. Home schooling them with God filled school. So all day they are learing about God and godly things, in a godly atmosphere. 10. Help them to deny the flesh, hate eveil. And don't allow them to watch or read anything that is wordly, it can effect them more than you think. One way is that these things can become more excting and intertaining to them to read and to filll thier time with than a good wholesome book or even the Bible. Mothering is a tough job! It is probaly one of the hardest and most time consuming occupations we will ever do in life, yet also probably the most rewarding one ever. So after it's all said and done it is worth all our time and effort and then some!! I am privileged to have been a mother now for over 16 years with 8 children aged 16, 14, 11,9, 6, 5, 2, and new born. So I am a mother with a wide range of ages. That is what I find the toughest, is the diverse ages. I feel like all older ones, or all younger ones would be easier. Sure then I would not have teens to help me, but I also would not have the older ones bugging the younger ones or vise versa. The older ones sometimes tease and aggravated the younger siblings, and the younger ones annoy the older ones. Since mothering is such a hard job, and a huge responsiblity I want to give as much encouragement as I possibly can to other fellow moms. I want to uplift them in thier great God given role, and encourage them to keep doing that awesomly tough job they are doing day in and day out over and over again! I have learned so much since I became a mom to my first son at the age of 21. I have growed in patience tremendously, though I need a ton more of it! I have made many mistakes over the years, apolized time and again when I really blew it with the kids, and have been imlimenting differnt things with these younger children than I did with the older ones. I think any mom will more and likly parent thier younger ones some differnt, if not majorly differnt that the olders ones, just because they have learned many things along the way. Despite all that I have learned though over these 16 years, I know that I have much more to learn yet! Maybe when the last of my crew are grown and gone which will be about another 18 years at the very least, I should have it all figured out!! And enmagine how old I will be then too! But let's not go there shall we!? :) I would say one thing that has really made a great differnece in my mothering is my walk with the Lord. I was whole heartily commited to God at the time I began as a young wife and mother, and several years pirior to that as well. But I did not really have that close of a relationship with Him I must admit, though I never would have really realized it at the time, nor knew at all what direction and areas in life God would bring me, and chnage in me, ect.... I have came a long way in my spituall life, and have a much closer walk with the Lord now. And that is just the way it ought be, we should be growing more and more in our spirtual life as each day goes by from that first day that we first comttied our lives to God. We have to keep digging into His Word with an open mind and heart and seeking deligently what all the Lord has for us to learn. One particular area that has been really inriched for me is my prayer life. I pray now about almost any little thing. I can't do it on my own. I can't make it one day with out God and his help. When you have all ages of children all needing your time, attention, and correction, with some trying on your patience much more than others, and so on, you need somthing for greater than your self to rely on to give you wisdom and to keep you going. There is many ministries out there that are very great recourses for moms, that give them very helpful support, encouragemnt, and inspiration that has been a great help for me. With all that we mothers face to day with our parenting in this modern and sinful world, I often think that being a mother back in the Little House on the Praire days when Laura Ingles was growing up would have been much easier. Sure maybe more hardships, and alot of physical work, but less decisions to be made. Like there would have been no video or cummputer games, no cell phones, no i-pods, no internet, no T.V. None of these many things that grab our children attention, and demand that they just have to have all thses gadests. As well not all the many sporst and activies they have to be a part of. Life would have been simpler for sure, and mothering more straight forward. But I am a parent of today, and I have to make the most of it. And with the Lord's help I can! And so can you! In Him, Mae |
Meet Mae
I am a wife to my wonderful husband, Paul, of over 22 years. Mommy to 9 blessings, ages 21 to 3 years. Our 2nd oldest son, at age 14, has gone on to be with the Lord on April 19th, 2017. I share about that new road we are on here on my blog. Categories
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My first 7 years of blogging.
Great inspirational reading! "I believe a greater intimacy with God leads us to an inner peace, unquenchable joy, & an ever-lasting hope regardless of what we go through in life." Mae Archives
December 2023
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