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Showing posts from July, 2011

With you always

Jesus tells his disciples "lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the age".(Matthew 28:20).  This was a very comforting thought in my devotional today.  It's my Father telling me, he will always be with me.  Who doesn't want that.  When you know your Father is with you, you can stand tall.  When your Father is with you, you can walk boldly.  When your Father is with you, you can love passionately.  When your Father is with you, you can give of yourself completely.  When your Father is with you, you don't have to be scared.  When your Father is with you, you feel accepted.  When your Father is with you, you feel strong.  When your Father is with you, you feel free.  The waves of life beat against and the current of life tries to drag you away, but you can take comfort that you are safe in the shadow of His wings and nothing can take you out of the palm of His hand.  You may feel the beat of the waves but they won't take you down.  You may feel the pu

Help Fight Cruelty to Animals

I am happy to announce my first online event in which a portion of the proceeds will be donated to a nonprofit organization.  The organization I'm teaming up with for this event is the SPCA of Anne Arundel County.  The SPCA is a nonprofit organization that removes animals from unsafe conditions.  They take in 3,400 animals annually and they do not receive any government funding. Please join me as I join them in fighting animal cruelty by shopping my online Avon store!  The link is below http:// andecarr.avonrepresentative.com/online_event/

Lazy Saturdays

I love Saturdays because I don't have to be on such a tight schedule.  It's the one day of the week that I don't worry about cooking or keeping the house in order.  I get to start my morning very slow and I don't have to worry about being ready to get Noah busy by 8:30am doing activities and playing with her.  I don't have to be "productive"  I guess Saturday is my "Sabbath" day in a sense.  Saturday is the day we hang out as a family.  Today we are suppose to go to the pool, then we have the sitter coming at 4pm to watch Noah so Reggie and I can spend some time together. 

Remembering and Reflecting

Almost 10 years ago I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior.  God somehow got me to the place and time of my conversion.  I can't take credit it.  Somehow God saved me.  I really don't know how He did it, He just did.  I don't know how in the world He reached into my heart and turned it towards Him.  Turning away from the partying, the drinking, the sex.  How in the world?  It wasn't an intellectual process of my thinking these things through and deciding somehow that they were not beneficial for me.  No, that wasn't what happened.  I know for a long time I wanted something better for my life, but I didn't know what that was or how to get there, but God did!  It was all God.  He appealed to my heart in a way that only He can to draw me to Himself and to the life He wants for me.  Trust me, God has a good plan for our lives if we follow His plan.  Then I got married almost 5 years ago.  I'm not going to lie it was hard in the beginning.  Your

Overwhelmed? Then God speaks.....

Sometimes.............ok, I'm lying.............Many times, I wake up and I don't feel ready to face the day. My to-do lists along with my aspirations and desires seem to crush me before I can even get started. I get overwhelmed at the very thought of tackling the various things on my plate and on my mind. Then I freeze. You know like when a deer gets caught in front of the headlights of a car in the middle of the night; he freezes right in the middle of the road. Today I had that very situation. So I stopped and took a look at myself. These days I don't like to spend too much time concentrating on myself, because it's not very fruitful. I'd rather look at God. There are times where it is beneficial for me to stop and take a look at what's going on with me (my thoughts, my heart, etc.) I only take a pause.Today, I considered and I said to myself and maybe God was listening (wink) "Can I just take peek inside my life and look at what's going on o

Compassionate and Gentle Discipline

Children can bring out the best and sometimes the worst in you. They challenge to your greatest depths and carry you to your greatest triumphs. You fustration and emotions can be taken to great extremes. But I know in my heart that children need to see self control in their parents. If children know they can trigger your fustration or anger than they will work to do it. They feel like they are in control of something when you allow them to control your emotions. One of the things that I don't like doing with Noah is raising my voice. It normally just makes situations worst and it doesn't exemplify a calm way of handling situations. So I am committed to trusting God to help me not to raise my voice at Noah anymore. You are much more in control of your child when you are able to institute punishments and consequences in a calm manner. When I yell at Noah normally it's because I'm trying to talk over her crying and get a point across to her. But I realize now th

Hard, but it works!

I love my little girl, Noah. There are times where Noah does some things that warrant more than a timeout or spanking. She gets an actual punishment. The punishments normally have the most impact on her. Most of the time she loses her T.v. Shows for an extended period of time, like for a whole day. If she misbehaves before bedtime and does one of those specific things that warrant a punishment I will let her know she gets no T.V. in the morning, which is her favorite time to watch T.V. This morning Noah is without her "Shows". When I start to feel bad about punishing her, I just remind myself of how much her behavior has improved in other areas as a result of being punished. I remind myself of some of the things she use to do and she doesn't anymore because of being punished. She has done well and I'm very proud of her, but I realize that I have to continue to allow her to experience the consequences of her bad behavior so she can continue to grow and learn.

Get comfortable, it never ends

Many a mom with grown children have told me once you become a mom, mothering never ends. It never stops. I believe them. Because I look at my mom and other mothers in our family with grown children and they are just as busy taking care of family as they ever were it seems.Not only are you still mothering your own children, but you are mothering your grandchildren and sometimes even mothering your own aging parents. This is the cycle of life. I am just beginning my journey in mothering. I think I need to grab some popcorn, a good movie, a cozy blanket and get comfortable because this is my life. There is no turning back now. Mothers are busy not matter what the situation is, whether in the workplace or at home. We are busy serving. However I tend to think a fellow co-worker or superior in the workplace has the capacity to show a little more mercy than a toddler at home. I'm sure many reading this can relate to this. But the minute I get up, the demands start to the tune o

My fellow "Mommy Bloggers"

I am so glad to have come across so many great blogs by other moms. I am learning and getting a lot of encouragement. Many of these women are great business women as well, I can tell. As a mom trying to build a business again, I think that all these friendships that are beginning couldn't of started at a better time. Thank you to all my new friends in the universe of "Mommy Blogging".

A little at a time

Being a stay-at-home mom and having a little one home with me 3 days during the week can make building a business into a very slow process.  But I have to remind myself of the saying that "slow and steady wins the race". While I'm sitting here building my business, feeling like I don't quite know what I'm doing yet, and feeling like the process is at a snails pace;  I remind myself that "my daddy" will bless my efforts.  It's not so much about whether or not I know what I'm doing, as it is about my trusting the Lord.  Trusting the Lord creates the soil that bears the fruit.

$$s for online hosting

I am looking for individuals to host Epartys for my Avon business.  If you would partner with me in hosting a party, you would receive 15% of all the sales from that party.  If you are interested, it's very easy.  I set it up on my Avon website and assign you a promo code.  That's how I will track the party so you get you 15% of the sales. All you would need to do is send out e-mails and/or post on your blog.  You can just tell friends. If you are interested send me your name, contact phone number and e-mail  Partnering is how businesses grow and I am looking for partners.  Fundraising is also an area I'm looking to create partnerships and use this business to help those in need.  Ande Carr womenntune@gmail.com

My awe factor

The childlike "awe" factor is an amazing thing in the life of an adult.  Just that thing that never fails to make your mouth fall open as you're thinking "wow".  Mine is the simple fact that God was here before anything thing else ever existed, when the earth was without form and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep.  The fact that God has always been here.  He is like this "Master of our universe, of our world". This person who has been here forever and created this entire world loves me individually, is my friend and my Father.  What kid wouldn't want the "Creator of the whole world" as his/her Father.  That's my awe factor.  God can bring out the child in you if you let Him. Genesis 1 The History of Creation   1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was [ a ] on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Keep it simple

We all have a specific way that we function best. Some of us enjoy being more structured and some not so much. Some of us like a tight schedule, some a loose schedule and some no schedule at all. I think it is important to discover and remember how you function best as a mom and as a person. This world pulls you in so many different directions as a woman, to be so many different things. But what God calls us to is normally simple. Consult the "Lord of Lords" for wisdom on your design. Ask Him the best way for you to function. I believe grace comes with being more accepting of yourself and how you are designed. How fustrating it must be for God, seeing us struggle the way we do trying to fit ourselves into molds that we were not made to fit into. He must wonder "Why doesn't she just ask me, I can show her the mold I designed her for". Keep your life simple and call Him when you need Him. Acts 4:12 New King James Version (NKJV) 12 Nor is there salvation

They can't help it!

Last week my pastor talked about how Jesus came to set us free. But what really stuck with me was the purpose for which we've been set free. We have been set free by Jesus's loving sacrifice so we would be free to love ourselves and others in a way the pleases God. Young children don't always make that easy. Especially when you are going through something. Like when you barely have a voice and you are trying to get it back for a cruise you are going on in 2 days. I'm just saying............ When I tell my daughter that I need to give my voice a break she goes on like I didn't even say anything, like "I still want you to give me what I want". I know kids are born with selfishness already programmed in them. My daughter seems to mistake me for a waitress/slave sometimes so I'm trying to set the record straight. People like to say that young children are pure. It's so not true. While I believe that when children are young and don't know