One of my favorite digi designers is having a sale at 2Peas this week:

I’ve already gone and gotten myself the January + February 365 Kit (yes, I’m starting my 365 Project in April.  So what? I’m a bit quirky!) and a cute little graph paper.  Crystal’s work is fun and fresh, and makes seriously awesome pages, so go check it out!

I’ve been struggling, a mighty soul-sucking struggle, with one of my boys. More days than I can count in the past several weeks, I’ve locked myself in the bathroom and broke down crying, calling out to God, asking for a break. Today, I nearly felt that I was at break-point, when I came across Owlhaven’s oh-so-wise words in her recent post Parenting: Hard Stuff:

As a human, I can’t ever affirm my kids perfectly– heck, on crazy days I struggle to do it even to a small degree.  It is darned hard in the busyness of life to really LOOK people in the eye, to make them know just how precious they are. It is doubly hard when 80% of the hassle in your day is coming from the kid most in need of affirmation.  I take great comfort in knowing that God loves my kids more than I do, and that He, unlike me, is a perfect parent.

I cannot tell you how mary’s words spoke to my heart.  As I struggle through this trying season with this precious boy, I need to remember that I am not a perfect parent (gracious, I am so far from a perfect parent!) but that I can only strive to be a human, imperfect parent and rest in the comfort of knowing that my boys do have a perfect Father.  and I need to remember that the God who loves them perfectly also loves ME the same way.  Even when I lock myself in the bathroom to escape my boys for 5 minutes.