Erin Akin Carroll

Becoming a mom changed me.

Before I was a mom I was selfish. There. I said it.

Motherhood hit me like a sweet, squishy ton of bricks. I had no idea that I could just look at this little person who is the perfect mix of TC and me and I’d just burst into tears. How does that happen? My heart aches when I just look at either of those sweet boys.

Now that I’m a mom, I’ve realized so many things are important to me that I never even considered before becoming a mom. And I’m passionate about them. Passion drives me because I love my boys so much.

It never occurred to me to choose a home based on school districts back when we were buying our first home. But now, I’m determined to move and live in a home where our kids can attend the best schools.

I rarely paid attention to labels for food ingredients. But now, the amount of sugar contained in juice or yogurt affects how Hudson behaves. It can completely affect his mood.

I never shopped for organic foods because I wanted to save money. But now that I’m a mom I’m determined to feed them the best, healthiest food.

We never knew how much money we’d put aside to save for their futures. But their futures are the most important thing to us!

I find myself paying more attention to television programming and I’m much more aware of what is appropriate and what isn’t for little eyes.

And most importantly, I want to set a good example for my kids. I want to give back when and where I can and I want them to grow up to do the same. I want them to be grateful for what they have and share it with others.

I want them to be passionate and to take their time and resources to support something they believe in. And I want them to do their research so they can be educated and informed citizens.

I try to give back where I can and support the causes that are important to me.

Fortunately, the Moms Clean Air Force is helping me do that! The Moms Clean Air Force is harnessing the strength of a mother’s love to fight back against polluters.

Mercury, specifically, is something I’ve become much more aware of since having children and I want to make sure I know what I can do to help keep my children safe. Almost 3/4 of mercury air emissions come from coal-fired power plants and over 400,000 newborns are exposed to elevated mercury levels, in their mothers’ blood, every year. We have to protect our unborn babies, our newborn babies and our toddlers.

Do you want to know how you can help?

As moms, we can join forces by joining the Moms Clean Air Force.

Moms will do everything they can to keep their children safe and sound. We look for the healthiest foods we can afford; we avoid toxic chemicals in our products. But there are some things we simply can’t buy. Clean air is one.

This is naptime activism. We don’t have a lot of time, but we have the passion. We can join the Moms Clean Air Force and show our support while our kiddos nap.

In addition to joining the Moms Clean Air Force, you can support them through social media. You can also write letters to your Senator, congressman and the President.

Take a look at this video to learn about why actress and mom, Blythe Danner, joined the Moms Clean Air Force.

Join the Force at www.momscleanairforce.org/join

Passion, love and two precious little lives that are my responsibility? That’s enough to make me want to help make a difference.

I have so many favorite Christmas movies, but one of my favorites is Christmas Vacation. I can quote the entire movie from beginning to end and so many of the quotes are inside jokes within my family. I am pretty sure my parents let me watch it the year it came out. And I was in the 2nd grade. But whatever. It’s hilarious and I still laugh every time I watch it.

One of the main reasons that it’s so funny to me is because I can relate to Clark Griswold so much. Clark’s biggest flaw is that he sets such grand expectations for the whole family and no one can live up to them. He means well, but putting pressure on everyone else to make things “perfect” gets everyone down.

I had a huge list of things I wanted to accomplish during this Christmas season and traditions I wanted to start. But we’ve started a couple of traditions.

So why do I feel bad about not doing everything I had hoped?

All the wonderful blog posts about the creative activities that families do together and pins on Pinterest don’t make it easier to lower my expectations.

Why is my child the only one who doesn’t seem to “get” the Elf on the Shelf concept? We read the book once and Hudson just wanted to play with the elf, so we put it away. But all these other kids are doing it and the parents are having a great time!

I look up to so many bloggers and creative women who seem to be able to get it all done and still look happy. Their children pose perfectly for photos while mine can’t stand to see a camera.

One of my favorite things about Christmas these days is that I have children to share it with. I want to spoil them! Christmas through the eyes of a child is so magical. I want them to experience as much as possible and I have lists of things I want to do. I want to visit Santa, bake cookies, decorate a gingerbread house, wrap presents, wear adorable matching pajamas  and still focus on Jesus and what it means that God sent His Son as a baby to live and then to die for us.

I have a menu I want to fix for our family and decorations I want to put out. I want everyone to smile and look happy. I don’t want a picture where Hayes has spit-up on his shirt or where Hudson has apple sauce on his sleeve.

But this is our reality. This is us. We’re imperfect.

I know that other people in blog posts and on Pinterest have children who throw tantrums. I know other people make giant messes in the kitchen and have piles of dog hair lying around on their rugs. But we still want our memories and our pictures to be perfect and taken in manual mode with our fancy DSLR cameras.

I also realize that we all have gifts. And while I probably seem to be able to get a lot of stuff done, I don’t always do it without getting stressed out or rushing around. Then my expectations usually lead to some kind of mishap like locking myself out of the house or falling down the stairs on my way out the door.

Each day, as I read more in One Thousand Gifts and read more of Ann Voskamp’s blog, I am convicted a little bit more. These things are great for making memories, but I am in such danger of using all of these things to overshadow why we celebrate.

I read this post by Ann Voskamp the other day and it was a huge eye-opener. I had no words and I immediately wanted to scrap everything I’d been planning.

The reason that I strive for perfection and have such high expectations is because I want to help make amazing memories for my children. I want to have fun and enjoy the season. But life is not a blog post or a “pin” on Pinterest. We live in the real world and perfection isn’t attainable.

Like Clark, I have good intentions. I want to have fun and experience so much. But I also know that we are no less of a great family if that doesn’t happen. Christmas will still happen if these things don’t happen. And, most importantly, I need to be praying that my kids truly understand why we celebrate.

I need to be more focused on the Acts of Kindness list than the Traditions list. The Acts of Kindness list is the one that will help my kids become compassionate adults that show Jesus’s love to the people they meet.

*I just got caught up on my blog reading from the weekend and my friend, Kelly, wrote the sweetest post that brought me to tears. She is teaching her girls the Reason for the Season and they’re getting it!

Good morning, friends!

Today, I am linking up with the wonderful Nina of According to Nina as she inspires us with all of her holiday entertaining tips and ideas.

I absolutely love to entertain! I have dreams of hosting parties all throughout the month of December. I want to host an ornament exchange, a cookie exchange, a tacky sweater party, a white elephant gift exchange, a Christmas Eve open house and a Christmas Day breakfast.

But, I am a mom to two young boys and most of these ideas just aren’t possible for us right now.

I still want to make Christmas special for my family while I have fun planning, decorating and entertaining for a small crowd.

This year, I am hosting Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas Day dinner. Because Christmas is on a Sunday this year and we’ll be at church in the morning, we decided to have an evening Christmas Day meal.

Set the Menu

For Christmas Eve, our tradition is to have gumbo. It’s delicious, it’s warm, it’s hearty and it’s tradition! It’s also very simple! We serve gumbo with a green salad and French bread. I’ll post the gumbo recipe later this week when I link up with Molly from Duchess of Fork.

In addition to the gumbo, we have yummy snacks. This year we’ll have sausage balls, a cheese spread and party mix.

Set the Table

I like to keep it simple when it comes to “tablescapes.” I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew and I like to use things that I have around the house.

I use my every day china. Last year, my mom went outside and clipped some greenery from a neighbor’s bush and we put it in our center piece. Crafty!

Just tying a few little bows around some things can spruce it up. Maybe you have an apothecary jar, a trifle dish or a group of candles. Anything can be used as a center piece. Add some apples, oranges and ribbon and you’re set!

Set the Mood

Light candles, turn on the lights on the tree and the smell of delicious food will fill the home.

I love Christmas music and love my Christmas playlists on iTunes. My favorite for our Christmas Eve events looks like this!

Relax

After dinner, we wind down and put on our Christmas pajamas. Then we get ready for Santa Claus. All the grandparents are excited about Santa Claus visiting Hudson and Hayes, so we all take time to prepare. We read the Christmas story out of Luke and then The Night Before Christmas. Then we set out some treats for Santa on his special plate.

It’s not entertaining for a crowd, but it’s entertaining for our family and it is tradition.

My dream is to host a party for all of our friends who stay in town for Christmas. After Christmas Eve services I want to come back to my house and hang out while the kids all play together. That’s what I love about Christmas– it’s about celebrating the birth of Christ with family, friends and neighbors. As long as we’re together, it’s a party!