Geaux Tigers! {And MomSense: A Giveway}

{Critical Post Update: LSU won their game! yay!
and also,

my hair never did fall around my shoulders in soft waves. Oh well.

You can't win them all.}
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It's Game Day today and I am so excited I'm about to bust!

Maybe you've had your head in the sand, and didn't know that my team, the #1 LSU Tigers, are playing silly old Alabama tonight!!

No big deal, right??

Those are two good teams, so I sure can't predict who is gonna win,

but I am happy to be cheering alongside the cutest little Tigers fans EVER!

(Ok, well, technically they will be in bed during the game. But still.)

I didn't want to disappoint the LSU family and not have my girls wearing purple and gold today!

I sure wish I lived close to some Tiger fans, but this is the closest I'll come. (And don't worry, I have plans to force Joe into an LSU shirt later today.)

(It's so fun to take a picture with two squirmy children.)

(Also, I curled my hair this morning hoping by later this afternoon it would be falling around my shoulders in soft waves. I don't have high hopes.)

IN OTHER NEWS, not related to football...

I was recently contacted by MOPS international to read and review a new book, Momsense: A Common-Sense Guide to Confident Mothering by Jean Blackmer.

I love MOPS...which stands for Mothers of Preschoolers if you aren't familiar with the organization. I am indeed a mother. And I do, indeed, have preschoolers, so I am uniquely priveleged to be a part of a MOPS group. It has been a neat place for me to form relationships and get to use some of my talents, especially as we have moved to new cities.  All of the women in MOPS are right where I am in terms of mothering young children.

They get it.

They understand why I might have spit-up on my shoulder or a small spaghetti-sauce handprint on the leg of my jeans. They get why I am running late or have dark circles under my eyes from a sleepless night.

Often, they are the first to celebrate a new pregnancy or bring meals after the birth of a child.

MOPS has been a blessing to me in many ways. A place to minister and a place to be ministered to.

Jean Blackmer describes momsense as your unique mothering intuition and your commen-sense forming together to create your specific mothering personality. We are all different, and even given the same basic set of facts, we can all come to differing conclusions about what is the best way to mother our children.

I definitely believe that to be true in many ways. Even within a Biblical framework for parenting, our choices for our family in how we discipline and our parenting style can differ based on our personality and our child's personality.

MomSense gives practical tips on ways that a mom can think more critically about her mothering, but also how our natural emotional tendencies (as women) can be a benefit to our mothering! I especially enjoyed the chapters on respect and self-control.  The author consistently repeats that these two attributes are best taught to our children through modeling, and I am in firm agreement that our children learn a great deal from our behavior as parents.

I am happy to be able to give away a copy of MomSense: A Common-Sense Guide to Confident Mothering!  You will find good advice on many different aspects of mothering, such as being consistent, maintaining perspective, and keeping your sense of calm and joy as you parent.

In order to enter the give-away, just leave a comment telling me why you also love MOPS!

{And if you aren't in MOPS, just leave me a comment that says "GEAUX TIGERS!"

because we all know you want LSU to beat Bama tonight!! Right??}

You can enter a second time if you announce this give-away on Facebook. Just leave me a second comment telling me that you have done so!

Happy Winning.

And

GEAUX TIGERS!

(If you are in the Knoxville area, you can check out the Two Rivers Church MOPS group, that I attend, here!)
**Give-away ends Tuesday/midnight EST.