In this episode we visit with Margaux Krause about her debut devotional book for moms which launches today and her blog for helping moms navigate shepherding their children.
Our Guest: Margaux Krause
Margaux Krause is author of the blog “A Momma and Her Flock” and member of the national organization Inspire Christian Writers. She enjoys being a stay-at-home mom to her two toddler daughters, and a wife to her husband John. Margaux also serves on the leadership team for the moms’ ministry at her church in Michigan. Be sure to check out her latest book Feeling like a Mom Devotional.
Book page: https://amommaandherflock.com/feeling-like-a-mom/
Books Discussed in This Episode:
Transcript with Links:
Terrie:
Welcome to “Books that Spark,” a podcast for parents and caregivers, celebrating books, that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion, leading to teachable moments with our kids. Today, we have a special guest. Margo Krause is with us, and she is a brand new writer who has her first book launching today. Her book is really going to bless you, and her website is called “A Momma and Her Flock,” and there she has a blog she’s going to tell us about, so we are very excited to welcome Margo with us today. Thank you, Margo, for joining us today.
Margaux:
Thank you for having me.
Terrie:
So you have a book launching soon. Can you tell us about it?
Margaux:
Yes. My new book is called Feeling Like a Mom Devotional, and it’s a 40-day devotional for moms to process the emotional struggles in the day to day of raising our kids. As I was developing my website and wanting to write more devotions for moms, I started to go to the moms in the Bible and look at what kind of problems that they went through. And I noticed that a lot of the challenges that the moms in the Bible face are not just the external challenges, but the internal struggles, the emotional heart challenges. And so that really led to the theme for these devotions that moms have to face negative emotions and reconcile that with a loving and faithful God. God gives us emotions on purpose that gives us a richer interaction with all of our relationships, especially our families. But we have to learn to bring these emotions under the rule of Christ so that He can redeem them and use them for good and not give them over to our sin nature.
Terrie:
Oh, that’s wonderful. I love that. So the devotions all kind of start with one of the moms in the Bible. Yes, that’s fantastic.
Margaux:
Yes. So I feature the first mom Eve from the beginning and then several other moms like Hannah and Sarah and what they go through with their children. And also just the thoughts in their hearts.
Terrie:
That’s great. Oh, I can’t wait to read it. You also have a blog that deals a lot with being overwhelmed as a mom, you give us a lot of pointers and some great resources on your blog. And I just want to encourage people to check it out because there is a lot of good information there and a lot of good resources, but first, what do you think is the most challenging part of parenting toddlers?
Margaux:
They can really try my patience, and so trying to always be joyful and loving towards them with the love of Christ can be difficult when they’re giving us a hard time.
Terrie:
Starting to get their own little opinions out there. In those years, their independence– but I love it because it’s a sign that they’re going to be strong people. How can moms keep themselves from getting overwhelmed or discouraged?
Margaux:
It’s important to find our strength and our identity in the Lord, and one way to do that is by connecting with our Bibles and other resources like devotional books every day to be filled up so that we are overflowing with God’s love to pour into our kids.
Terrie:
That’s great. What would you say is your best advice for parents today? Just a piece of practical advice.
Margaux:
Just to appreciate the small, joyful moments with your kids. It’s really the, the little things that add up to fulfilling life together.
Terrie:
That is so true. Just cherishing those moments and, as the mom who no longer has the toddlers in the house, oh my goodness. It really does go fast. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but it does and I miss those days so much. So here on books that spark, we advocate reading to children and the importance of it. Do you have any comments about how important reading is to your children?
Margaux:
I just know that reading was a really important foundation in my own life as a child. And so I try to give that same opportunity to my kids, to read to them, and also encourage them to pick up books and start learning how to look at the pictures themselves.
Terrie:
What are some of your favorite books to read with your kids?
Margaux:
They’re still pretty little, so they like the lift-a-flap and interactive books. My oldest daughter’s favorite book for the longest time is called Goodnight God, and that’s by Ginger Swift. And then the younger one likes Baby Duck, which is a finger puppet book.
Terrie:
How fun, how can we find your book?
Margaux:
My book is coming out May 31st. It will be available on Amazon and Barnes and noble websites. So you can look up feeling like a mom devotional. You can also find it on my website and get some more freebies and learn about other add-ons to the book at amommaandherflock.com. That’s A-M-O-M-M-A-A-N-D-H-E-R-F-L-O-C-K. A momma and her flock.com.
Terrie:
And I love the name. How did you come up with that name?
Margaux:
Actually, my daughter has this stuffed animal sheep and it reminded me of all the verses about how Christ is our shepherd. And then in turn, we are called to raise up other sheep as disciples. And those aren’t just the people around us, those are our kids that we are called to shepherd.
Terrie:
That’s right. Yeah. And we will have a link to your website in the show notes. And so people can look for it there and easily link to it. So as moms and as Christian moms, how can we help our toddlers? When should we start really helping them understand God and the Bible, and how can we speak to them at their level and help them understand what they’re capable of grasping about God?
Margaux:
It’s never too early to start talking about God around your children, even from the time they’re in the womb.
Terrie:
Amen.
Margaux:
You can sing songs and read Bible stories, so it just starts with bringing something into the home. Or, we do a lot in the car. We sing little kids worship songs in the car, and over time, my daughter– older one is learning how to sing all the words with me. And then just the little teachable moments, going through the grocery store or walking through nature, just little moments to point out that God created this whole beautiful world that he created us and he calls us to live for him.
Terrie:
Yeah, that’s great. Okay. I want to talk a little bit more about your blog because I, you know, I mentioned there are a lot of great resources there, but you talk about a lot of great topics. You have cleaning hacks, frugal hacks, parenting hacks, and productivity hacks. Can you talk just a little bit about those and what people will find when they get to your blog?
Margaux:
Sure. So a mom hack is a tip or trick to make life just a little bit easier with the kids. And so the cleaning hacks are how you can get your home cleaned up a little bit easier, or some ways to clean up after your children that are always making messes. The productivity hacks are about managing your time because kids take up a lot of our time and we still have to keep everything running and going. So how can we segment our days? How can we make the most of our time? The parenting hacks, figuring out how to get kids to do things like potty training or developing into, you know, putting on their own clothes and getting dressed themselves, how to encourage kids to want to do that and grow that way. Frugal hacks. So as a stay at home mom, I’m not bringing in an income to our family, but by saving money, that’s a way that I can help manage our family’s budget. And so I talk about ways with groceries, where to buy kids clothes at discount and other tips for helping save money. And then we can save money to go on family vacations together and fund things like that.
Terrie:
That’s great. And when you sign up for her mailing list, Margaux sends you a set of Bible verse cards to just encourage moms as you go through your day to be strengthened and uplifted through those verses and those reminders. So that’s a freebie you get, as soon as you join her mailing list. One of the biggest issues I had as a mom when I had toddlers was when I had another baby and went through postpartum. That was the hardest thing for me because I still had to parent my other children and also was on bedrest during my pregnancy. Do you deal with those kinds of issues on your blog at all?
Margaux:
Yes. So in between my first and second daughter, I had a miscarriage and had to process that while my oldest was still too young to understand what was going on. And it was really nice because whenever I was feeling sad, she would just come and give me a big hug so I didn’t have to explain it to her, but I still had to be her mom and be there for her as I was going through those emotions. So there was a lot of prayer and going to God for the strength to get through that season.
Terrie:
Yeah. I did the same thing. I lost one in between. We have four and I lost one in between each of the births– live births. And so we had three miscarriages and, wow. It’s sometimes challenging to, well and the bedrest nearly killed me because I had two toddlers with my third child, I had two toddlers already and I was on bedrest for gosh, I guess, two months. And so we wore out a VCR and just videos and video after video, after video; we didn’t have cable at the time, just keeping them occupied so that I didn’t have to get up anymore. Then I wasn’t supposed to get up except to go to the bathroom. And here I’ve got two toddlers running around. It was wild.
Margaux:
Yes. I can only imagine
Terrie:
So, oh gosh. Okay. Margaux, usually on this podcast, I ask all my guests what their favorite books were when they were children. What were some of your favorite books to read when you were little?
Margaux:
So the first book I learned how to read was Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. And my parents would read it to me every night. And then one night I started reading it back to them and they thought I had just memorized it. But then they started pointing to the different words and they realized that I had learned how to read. And from there I became a very voracious young reader. I really remember all the chapter books that I started reading maybe around first grade, but from then on, I got into the series like Nancy Drew, the Boxcar Children, the Cul-De-Sac Kids. And I would just tear through books and bring home more every week from the library.
Terrie:
Oh, that’s great. I love the Boxcar Children. Those were such great books. We don’t talk about them as often as we do some of the others, but I loved those books. Thank you so much for joining us today. I’ve really enjoyed talking with you and I highly recommend that people go and check out your blog. I think they will be really blessed and I cannot wait to read your book. It sounds wonderful.
Margaux:
I cannot wait to share it with all of you.
Terrie:
Thank you for joining us for books that spark, a podcast celebrating books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussions as we disciple our children and help them follow Christ with their whole hearts. If you would like to connect with Margaux, you can reach her at her blog at amommaandherflock.com and you can email her from there. You can check out her resources. She has so much information on her website and you can find her book on Amazon or Barnes & Noble or on her website. And we would love for you to check it out. If you would like to connect with me or join my mailing list, you can find me at TerrieHellardBrown.com. If you enjoyed this episode, please share. And like we would love for other people to know we’re here, and the more you share, the more that our numbers rise up and our name is available and visible to more people. You can always connect with me on social media. I’m on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. And I also have a private group on Facebook where we discuss the topics of being parents, discipling our children and also growing as disciples ourselves. So if you would like to join our Facebook group, you can look for that from my writer page on Facebook, that is Terrie Hellard Brown.
Your Host:
Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials.
Her podcast, Books that Spark, reviews children’s books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion leading to teachable moments with our kids. Her podcast posts each Tuesday morning.
Her blog posts discuss living as a disciple of Christ while parenting our children. She challenges us to step out of our comfort zones to walk by faith in obedience to Christ and to use the nooks and crannies of our lives to disciple our children.
Terrie uses her experiences as a mother of four (three on “the spectrum”), 37 years in ministry (15 in Taiwan), and 32 years teaching to speak to the hearts of readers.
Her motto is “Life doesn’t have to be perfect to be WONDERFUL” and keeps her childlike joy by writing children’s stories, delighting over pink dolphins, and frequently laughing till it hurts.