Guest Post // Our Mustard Seed Life

As most of you know we just returned from Thailand, which for our family, was an introduction to a life in missions. We wanted to experience the highs and lows first hand on what it is to follow God's lead even if it meant moving our whole family to another country, another culture, another way of life. This was one of the greatest and hardest journeys we as a family have experienced. And now when we hear of other people doing this we have a newfound appreciation for their faith to follow after God regardless of the sacrifices and challenges they may face.

Which leads me to introduce Catherine... she and her family we just met, but I feel like we know them without ever meeting them! It's pretty cool! She has written a little something for O+M so we can have a glimpse into how in the world they ended up in Africa! Hope your inspired by their faith and check out her blog for more good reads! Thanks for joining us today Catherine!

Hello Owls + Monsters readers! My name is Catherine and I blog over at Our Mustard Seed Life, where I write about mommy hood, missionary life, adoption + orphan care and life in Africa!  So excited to share a bit of our story today!

Our first years of marriage consisted of bicycling around our small, sleepy college town campus, seeing how far we could make $50 stretch on groceries, and playing intramural sports late into the evenings.

The orphan crisis, widow care,  and adoption weren't words we threw around at the dinner table. In fact, our dreams consisted of: graduating from college, getting jobs, and saving up to pay off our house. We knew how many kids we would have, how many years apart they would be and at what age we would retire. You might say we were the "oldest 20 year olds you ever knew."

And then, God completely trashed our plans. Through some difficult events in our lives: still birth, miscarriage, a health scare and infertility, He caused our plans to take a complete one-eighty. We found ourselves sitting in a pile of ashes begging God to do something beautiful with it.

And, He did!

One year ago, my husband and I kissed our two boys good-bye, and loaded up on a plane headed to Africa to meet 2 little girls that shared our last name. The 3.5 years we spent pursuing them through adoption taught us so much about God's never-ending, unrelenting fight for us as His children.

Six weeks after we returned to the States with our girls, our family of 6 loaded back up on a plane to move to Malawi, Africa.

Talk about transitions, huh!?

This past year we have had the privilege of getting to work at Esther's House orphanage in a rural village in Malawi, Africa. We have:

transitioned into a family of 6

watched our girls become fluent in English

became students of a new culture

moved onto campus at an orphanage

began new jobs

stumbled through language barriers

fell in love with 79 children we call "our own"

attempted to balance family life and ministry

tackled the learning curve of village life

functioned without our American luxuries (hello, electricity?!)

and began full-time homeschool

When I look back at our first years of marriage and our grandiose plans for our life, I am so thankful that God's Plan for us was so drastically different than our own. I think of all we would have missed out on if our plans had come to fruition.  His creativity and purpose for our lives completely knocks my socks off!

Following God has proven to lead our family on quite the adventure!

Guest Post - Overcoming a Five Year Old's Picky Eating

I'm happy to introduce Steph, who today has shared with O&M some great tips on how to curb your kids picky eating habits. I hope you enjoy her guest post and much as I did, if you would like to see more of her mommy wisdom and creativity please head over to her blog, A Time For Seasons!

I am very blessed that I have never had a super picky eater. All 3 of my kids never turned down much food. Yea, my youngest, Little Lady (17 months), doesn't care for raw broccoli, but that's an intense texture and taste, so we will just try again latter.

I credit most of that to one of our household rules: "You eat what is fixed or you do without... Mom is not a short-order cook!". Now like I said, my kids haven't been SUPER picky eaters so this rule worked for us. There have never been any nutritional issues or worries, and I think Rosey Posey (now 11yr) is the only one who was stubborn enough to skip a meal. She only did it once and was happy when dinner time came after refusing lunch. There have been pleanty meals where someone didn't like the food and was the last one to finish due to the procrastination of eating, but no one has ever really gone hungry.

When doing my meal planning I try to take into consideration the family's preferences. Bubee (5 years) dose not like spicy food. Since I don't like it and Little Lady doesn't need it, I really try to stay away from spicy food. Rosey Posey doesn't like tomato soup, so the only time there is tomato soup is when I'm fixing grilled cheese. That way she still has something to eat.  I also love to get everyone's feedback on dishes. When I fix something new I like to hear what they think, this way I can plan for next time.

My only boy, Bubee, eats ALL the time. Our family joke is we are not saving for collage, we are saving for a food fund for his teen years. He is the youngest in his class (July Birthday) and the tallest. One of our Doctors estimates he will be about 6'8" when he's full grown, so you can imagine what kind of food it takes to fuel that kind of growth. I keep a large supply of healthy snacks in the house.

About a month ago Bubee started not wanting ANYTHING I fixed for dinner. I was blind-sided! Getting him to eat was a battle every night and there were many times that 30 min after everyone else was done he was still starring at his plateful. He would always finish his dinner... eventually, but I was getting tiered of the struggle.

Then one day while meal planning I had an idea: Let him plan the meals, then there was no way he could refuse to eat! Great idea, but I didn't want pizza every night, so a compromise: If he eats his dinner each night without complaining, then once a week he gets to pick ANY normal meal for dinner (This way he can't pick Ice Cream Sundaes or something like that). We chose Tuesday nights since that's what works with our schedule.

I do all my grocery shopping on Mondays. So now, every Monday he 'places his order' for Tuesday nights. This keeps him from changing his mind 5 min before dinner and gives me enough time to plan and prepare. I have been so pleasantly surprised! Of course the first week he wanted pizza, so to make it fun we made a Snowman Pizza. After that it has been nice. One week he asked for breakfast for dinner; This means eggs, bacon, biscuits, and gravy. Another week he wanted fish.

It has been so wonderful! And through out the week usually a quick reminder of his Tuesday night privilege and he's more than happy to finish dinner. Some nights, if he's not thrilled with dinner, he will talk about his plans for that upcoming Tuesday night; but he always finishes his dinner now with minimal conflict!

It has been so successful that Thursday nights Rosey Posey gets to pick dinner. I like it because that's two less dinners I have to plan each week. And with Rosey Posey being 11, some weeks she not only plans dinner, but prepares it too. This has been a great tool in teaching her some household management skills.

So now, dinner time has once again become a peaceful family gathering at the dinner table with plenty of joy, peace and love!

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Steph Seibert is the WAH, homeschooling, mother of 3. After several years of missing seasonal activities, her family started making seasonal ‘bucket lists’. She posts about these adventures, crafts, DIYs, recipes and more at A Time for Seasons in hopes of helping other families get the most out of each season.



Check her blog out here: