Today it's my pleasure to introduce you to my friend, Amanda Hunt.
Amanda is a stay at home mummy living in Perth WA with her hubby and 2 gorgeous girls. She is a Christian woman passionate about missions, her family and all things creative.
Amanda writes a regular blog (Amanda’s Musings) at http://blogs.oddsocks.net/ahunt/ where she shares a hodgepodge of fantastic things from motherhood, activity ideas, her thoughts on various issues as well as some of her amazing artwork and creative flair!
Amanda joins us today to share a little of her journey of motherhood so far.
Amanda, welcome to Moments for Mum!
* From reading your blog, I can see that you love being a mum; what do you enjoy most about motherhood?
It's very hard to pinpoint one thing I love about motherhood. I love spending each day with my girls, watching them learn, play and grow. I love doing all the everyday things like making them lunch and choosing out clothes. It's hard to remember life before kids sometimes!
* You probably did some ‘research’ about pregnancy/birth/babies before you had your children but once they arrived did anything about motherhood catch you off guard or shock you?
I got the usual amount of advice from all sorts of places (which I usually appreciated) but once my girls came along I think I was surprised at how far we can be stretched. Sleep deprivation is awful but I'm amazed that once its necessary for us to get up to our kids at night, we just do it. I don't think anyone told me quite how tired I would get. For some reason I was also expecting baby #2 to be exactly like baby #1. They are in fact quite opposite in almost every way. The way they sleep, eat, play, learn and talk are different as well as likes and dislikes. This completely surprised me.
* I’m sure you’ve had a few tough times since having your children? Can you share a really difficult ‘mummy moment’ with us and maybe what you learned from the experience?
The most difficult time for me would have to be when my child health nurse noticed that my second daughter's head was growing quite fast. She already had a large head and the nurse wanted me to have her checked immediately for Hydrocephalus (once known as water on the brain). I was told that worst case scenario would be that my child would have slowed development and learning as well as a shunt inserted which would be permanent. She told me all this on the Friday, doing her best not to panic me and we got a specialist appointment for the following Monday. That weekend I hardly ate anything. I hardly slept and I prayed and prayed that it would be nothing. By Sunday night I was convinced that she would have the shunt put in and our lives were about to change. The moment we walked into the specialists office and mentioned why we were there his words were 'wow, what a big head', followed by 'I can assure you its not that' (referring to the condition). He examined her and said that it was genetic. We had scans done anyway and they found nothing. She's fine and does not have the condition at all. This was very hard for me. I know I should have trusted God much more but I think my human Mummy instincts overpowered me at the time.
* We all aim to parent our children as best we can, but do you have any specific goals for your parenting or ‘hopes’ for your children?
I would like to see my girls come to know Jesus as their personal Saviour. This is the main thing I would hope for. I would also like to teach them to be kind, considerate, generous, hospitable and remember that God is in control.
* You are a Christian, how does your faith impact/influence your parenting?
Like many Christian parents I go by Proverbs 22:6 Train a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not turn from it. I suppose it depends on what your interpretation of 'train' is. I believe this verse refers to training according to God's character. This includes teaching them to love God with all their heart, to love their friends and family. To respect those around them, especially authority and to obey their parents and God. So much more goes along with this but these are the basics.
I also find that I pray about things more in the 'shoot a prayer to Heaven' style as the day progresses.
* I know you are a busy mum, but what do you like to do in any spare time you have?
I don't really see my day in terms of spare time and scheduled time. I am a natural organiser so yes schedules suit me but I have taught myself to relax a bit and be more flexible. This means that we do a lot of creative things in amongst the boring household things. On my own I am an artist using all sorts of mediums such as paint, polymer clay, pen and ink etc... I also love to knit, sew, do decorative cooking and anything else that allows me to be creative.
* Do you have a favourite bible verse? Why is this verse important to you?
Growing up Galatians 6:9-10 was important to me. It reads:
'Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.'
This verse taught me to press on with the right attitude, not a self righteous one but one of looking out for other people first. I need to be reminded of this a lot. It always reminds me to help out where I can. The preceding verses talk about reaping what we sow and I believe that this is a lifelong attitude we need to work on.
* Is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
As a Mum I feel that its important to keep checks on myself daily. For me it means watching my reactions, my attitudes to people and circumstances and thinking before speaking. It also means a constant battle in my own mind to watch how I think and what I say to myself in my head because God can hear that too. I feel all this is important because we cannot expect to genuinely hand down these things to our kids if we don't at least make big attempts to keep tabs on them ourselves.
Amanda has kindly agreed to write a guest post for Moments for Mum so pop by again tomorrow for her thoughts, "Trusting God, my non-new years resolution".
See you then,
