You are only as busy as you choose to be, everyone has 24 hours in a day. I personally don't like the word, busy. I then have to be intentional about applying that to my life. With that being said, this brings me to this: Our children are the greatest gift (after Salvation) that God has given us.

A stay-at-home mom, homemaker, and our January mom of the month, Laura Zimmerman, is from the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Her and her husband, Lewis are celebrating ten years of marriage this month. They have two children, Angelia (4 1/2) and Caris (almost 2). While cleaning isn't her first love, and organization is a struggle, she does enjoy being able to be at home with her girls... cooking, baking and doing laundry. While not exactly loving gardening, she is always grateful when the canning season is over and loves the feeling of seeing shelves full of bounty to feed her family. Hosting has always been enjoyable, but since the birth of her second daughter and moving to a smaller home, she has taken a break from it.

In this stage of life, I prefer to take meals to others, as every woman loves a break from cooking, and who doesn't enjoy food?! It's a gift of love and a way to serve people. Honestly you could cook for someone weekly, if not daily. There is always a new baby being born, a death, a birthday or so on. It doesn't have to be a fancy meal either. The older I get the more I realize, there is beauty in simplicity!

 After losing Lewis' mom a few years back, and with Laura's dad recently dealing with some health issues, it has really opened up their eyes at the brevity of life. Their focus is to spend more quality family time together.

I once heard a quote that really stuck with me. You are only as busy as you choose to be, everyone has 24 hours in a day. I personally don't like the word, busy. I then have to be intentional about applying that to my life. With that being said, this brings me to this: Our children are the greatest gift (after Salvation) that God has given us. Their souls are our heaviest responsibility he has placed in our hands. We need to take time with them, and teach them to have faith in God. To be a person in whom they can trust. When you are old, nothing else will have mattered as much. I often have heard it said that children grow quickly, in a blink of an eye and I now see it happen before my own eyes. My encouragement for myself and others is, they are only this little once, enjoy it! While we teach our children what life is about, our children teach us what life is all about. While we all love that feel of a perfectly clean house, Remember, in 100 years it won't matter. It won't matter if your house was messy, dishes not washed, and our garden was full of weeds, but what mattered was that you made a difference in the life of a child and others.

While not having any out of the ordinary hobbies or a side gig, Laura admires other ladies who seem to thrive on running a business while being a mom and homemaker. However, she is content with where she is now; being a wife, mama, and homemaker, but if God would give an opportunity, she would be open to it. Laura loves sewing and how it stirs up a desire to be creative, but a favorite hobby of hers is being in nature and capturing the beauty of it. Weather permitting, you will find her and daughters taking a stroll down their back country gravel road with a camera in tow! 

Nature reveals the everlasting presence of God to me!

Along with the love of nature, Laura and her husband love to globe trot. With the world being so big and beautiful, there are so many places on their bucket list they'd love to visit. After much deliberation, they plan on going to Key West, Florida this month in celebration of their 10th Anniversary. Along with taking time for the children, they believe that marriage needs to be prioritized too! Realizing that you cannot pour out, if you're not filled up, and additionally, your children need to see your spark for each other.

My personal testimony is nothing dramatic, but it is life changing! It was when I realized that we are saved by grace, and it is a gift of God, (Ephesians 2:8 & 9) and (Romans 6:23) and that our part is to confess and believe. (Roman's 10:9 &10) And afterwards is sanctification, which I believe is a life long process. Something the Lord has been teaching us lately, is the power of words and how we think. Scripture tells us that life and death are in the power of the tongue. (Proverbs 18:21) We are trying to be more intentional with thinking about the words we speak. Speaking of thinking, most of our battles are in our minds. Being sanctified/transformed is by renewing our minds, (Romans 12:2) and taking captive our thoughts. (2 Corinthians 10:4-6) This is a work in process, and as Paul wrote in Philippians 3:12-14 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.

Laura's current favorite Mama Java Coffees are the Toddlerproof Blend and the single origin from Peru. You can usually find her in her easy chair early in the morning having quiet time with a cup in her hands. In that afternoon, after putting her toddler down for a nap, she then sometimes enjoys another cup! Her coffee is enjoyed hot, black and strong with an occasional latte as a treat. Laura and her husband admit that they are coffee snobs, and Mama Java has been some of the smoothest coffee that they have ever had.