in {her} shoes...amy

hello my dears! it's moMMa moNDaY again!

can you all believe that it's august already??  wowsa!! 

Amy has danced over from her blog, One Artsy Mama 

for this week's in {her} shoes guest post.

Amy is an amazing lady who has become a great bloggin buddy of mine!  She does some great, inspirational projects with her little man and creates amazing jewelry!  Check out my giveaway here to learn how you can win a $25 gift certificate to buy some of her beautiful jewelry at her Etsy shop.  so, here's amy...

Hi! I'm Amy, otherwise known as One Artsy Mama. I've been married to my best friend for almost 10 years, and I'm the proud mama of a loveable, smart, adorable little guy I like to call my Little Crafter. I'm also a professional Ballroom and Latin dancer who's on a temporary break from working outside the home so that I can enjoy watching my two-year-old grow up.

The most challenging thing about being a stay-at-home-mama for me has been feeling torn between my love for my job and my love for my son. I really think I have the coolest job in the world, so it was hard to walk away even though I keep telling myself it's only temporary. The unfortunate thing about teaching dance is that most of the hours are in the evening, so when I tried to juggle home and family, none of us were happy. I felt like I never saw Hubby, and we had very little family time for the three of us. Since we've decided that our family is complete with one child, I know I'm not going to have the opportunity to watch another little one learn and grow, and I felt like I was missing out on some important things. I love having my evenings at home with the boys now, but there's a big part of me that misses dancing and working with students. And I do miss having some "me-time" where I'm not responsible for anyone else and I'm not defined as "Noah's mom." It's also difficult sometimes dealing with the societal pressures from people who don't understand our choice to have a small family and try to tell me I'm depriving my son by not giving him siblings to grow up with.

Overall, though, the benefits outweigh the costs, I think. Noah is such a fun little man and the fact that he's an only child combined with the fact that I'm home with him all the time has created a really special and unique bond between us...and it allows us to get into all kinds of fun projects. Noah is quite an accomplished painter and he enjoys anything that involves glue, googly eyes, pom-poms, or sticky foam shapes. Together, we made Christmas gifts for each family member this year, many of which were coffee mugs he painted at the local pottery store. It's rare that a day goes by when we don't make something {or go to Michaels to get supplies for our next adventure}, which I doubt we'd be able to do if I were working or had several other young children to care for at the same time. I love love love watching the process as he learns new things, and the teacher in me gets really excited about finding ways to make things we do fun and educational at the same time.

One of my favorite things we do is have our own little "church time" just for him each week where we sing songs, learn a Bible story, and make a craft related to it. It blows me away how much he can remember! Hubby and I are hoping one week at a time to teach him to love and trust Jesus. We're also working on being generous and kind to others by sending them cards, making gifts for people who are sick or lonely, and giving money to help other people. Every time we go to Panera, he wants to put money in to help "feed udder people" and at WalMart he puts money in to "help sick children" at St. Jude's. And we're working on honesty, which is so important, because as one of his favorite Berenstein Bear books says, "Trust is something you can't put back together again once it's broken." I'm hoping that when Noah looks back on his childhood, these words will come to mind: unconditional love, family fun, and joy. As for right now, when he hugs me, gives me a big kiss, and says, "Noah loves his mommy," or tells me he knows I love him "forever and ever and ever and ever and ever" it's enough.