The Modest Mom Blog

Nursing Modestly Minus the Nursing Cover

May 16, 2012 by Caroline · 21 Comments

I had a reader ask if I had any tips on how to nurse modestly without a cover. I’ve heard some ladies say that when their child gets to be a certain age that they just can’t use a nursing cover anymore as the baby kicks it off. I’ve never personally had that problem with nursing covers. All five of my children have been happy to nurse under them in public, even though we don’t use them at home very often.

Every woman is unique in how she handles the issue of modesty and nursing. Some ladies are very vehement that it is a natural thing that God created, so there is not problem in exposing yourself while you nurse. I’m sure my boys have seen more than I would want them to, but I do try to keep myself covered up with my shirt while at home, and with a nursing cover when in public. I just can’t imagine baring all in public-as I’ve seen some nursing moms do, simply because I’m feeding my child.

If you are in public with a baby who just refuses to nurse with a nursing cover on, here is how I nurse modestly sans the cover.

If you have a lower cut shirt on, put a cropped layering shell on (they come down right under your bra and are very easy to pull up to nurse). This will keep you covered not only while you nurse but all day long.

Picture of cropped shell under my shirt. Little Deborah is refusing to look at the camera!

Pull up your shirt and cropped layering shell. Unsnap your nursing bra with has an undercover mama nursing tank attached to it.

Allow hungry whimpering baby to start nursing!

Your tummy and back are completely covered with the Undercover Mama Nursing Tank. Besides the modesty issue, who really wants to see a postpartum mama’s tummy complete with all her lovely stretch marks? I certainly don’t want to expose that if I can help it.

A lot of times people wouldn’t even realize that you are nursing unless they take a good look. At least that is what I’ve been told. I admit even with Deborah being my fifth baby, I still feel like all eyes are on me when I’m nursing in public.

A contented nursing baby complete with a modestly clad nursing mama = a win win situation!

Modest Monday and a link up!

May 14, 2012 by Caroline · 26 Comments

I hope everyone had a lovely Mother’s Day! My day started out with a special Mother’s Day surprise during our Sunday School time. The children from each family got up and sang their Mother her favorite hymn. Then the Father’s and children all got up and sang one last hymn to the mothers all together. It was really sweet.

We then had a picnic outside after church with my mother in law, sister and brother in law, went and visited my cousin (who is my mom’s age) and wished her a happy mother’s day, and finished the day out visiting my mom’s grave. I know she is not there, but it is nice to go once in a while and feel like you have a place to stop and honor her memory in that way.

My husband took my pictures and I realized we didn’t get a full length picture taken of my outfit. Sorry about that!

My brown outfit

Knit tan shirt

Brown Jacket-Local Consignment Store

Tiered Khaki Skirt-The Modest Mom (New Boho Skirt)

Sandals-Klogs brand from Zulily

Mama bird necklace – The Vintage Pearl

My favorite sandals-Klog brand from Zulily (a daily deals place, so you won’t find them on there now).

It seemed fitting to wear my mama bird necklace on mother’s day!

This little boy:

Was asking to take some pictures with our camera when he was outside. I think he snapped a sweet one.

Finally, I just want to give you a challenge this week. If you are pondering on the whole subject of modesty, and trying to decide how to implement it in your life, may I offer one thing you could work on during this week?

Don’t show your cleavage.

I was out shopping this week, and I’m just amazed over what ladies are bold enough to wear out. Whether the shirt is falling off of them, or it is so low cut you don’t have to use any imagination for what it is covering, many of the clothing choices I see in public are despicable. I did spot a woman wearing a tiered cotton skirt (similar to the boho skirt) and she had a green John Deere shirt on with it. I had to chuckle because that is so not my style, but I was so happy to finally spot someone in a skirt that I thought it looked wonderful.

Please remember that your cleavage is for your husband to see privately (or no one if you are not married yet!). If you need help in figuring out how to wear outfits that will not reveal cleavage, just leave a comment on the blog and I will try to help.

Link Up Time!

Please feel free to share posts about anything concerning being a godly feminine woman. Topics include: modesty, being a wife, mother, homeschooler, homemaker, cooking, sewing, ect.

No business links please!

Please grab the button below or use the code on the right hand side to link back here.

This post is part of The Christian Home Magazine in the Modesty/Fashion Category. To see more articles in different aspects of Home life, please visit the latest issue, hosted at Day by Day in our World.

This post is linked up at:

Review of Joovy Caboose Ultralight Double Stroller

May 10, 2012 by Caroline · 7 Comments

Every mom with several young children knows the stroller dilemma. If you have 2 or 3 young children, you spend time researching strollers, trying to figure out which one would best suit your needs. Should the stroller be side to side, front and back, sit and stand, jogging or regular? I’m delighted to have found a stroller that suits our families need and is very versatile for the children we have!

The Joovy Caboose Ultralight Double Stroller is what I would call a sit and stand stroller. With a 4 year old, 2 year old, and a 4 month old baby this is the perfect stroller for us. The front part of the stroller can carry our baby, or our 2 year old. Actually our 4 year old climbed in the stroller and rode around for awhile and our 2 year old was in the back part! While the seat might look smaller, it actually has plenty of room.

Our older children love sitting or standing in the back of the stroller. I like how easy it is for them to hop on or off the stroller, as we all know older children don’t like to just sit in one place for a long time when there are exciting things to see.

What I liked the best about this stroller is how easy it is to push! You can tell this stroller has a very solid frame on it. I love, love, love how soft and cushioned the handle bar is. When you are at the zoo all day long, it makes it nice to have something that is cushioned to push.

This stroller is lighter than most double strollers – just 21 pounds. So I can easily pick it up and load it in our van. It does take up a lot of trunk space in our mini van, but most double strollers do. If we go on a trip we will just strap it to the top of our van since we have a luggage rack there.

The quality of the fabric is excellent. I like how the canopy is easy to adjust for either child as well.

The stroller came in the mail packaged securely in this big box.

All the parts were in one big bag, along with the frame of the stroller.

Everyone pitched in and helped assemble it, which was not hard to do at all!

I like to support companies in the USA, and I’m thrilled that Joovy is an American company. They seem like a very family friendly company. Overall I’m very pleased with this stroller, and anticipate getting many years of use out it!

You can read more about this stroller or purchase it on the Joovy Website.

*Joovy sent me a stroller to review, but I was not paid for this review. All thoughts are strictly my own.*

Adoption Fundraiser with over $700 in prizes!!

May 8, 2012 by Caroline · 157 Comments

Infertility is one of the most heart
wrenching trials that I can think of. Having been blessed with five
beautiful children I cannot imagine the pain that comes with years of
waiting to hold a sweet baby in your arms. Unfortunately someone very
close to me is currently going through this sorrow.

My older sister and brother in law have
been married for over three years, and in that time have been unable to
conceive a child of their own. Both of them dearly love children, and they
are the best aunt and uncle I could hope for my children to have. They
have decided to move forward with their plans to adopt. They were approved
to adopt with a local pro-life
Christian adoption agency and have hopes to add a child to their
family soon.

The following is their story thus far, that
they wrote for their adoption blog.

“It was a very happy day in October
2008. We flew off to Oregon for a lovely honeymoon, bought our house, and
settled into our new life together. Not a storm cloud on the horizon. Life
was beautiful. Then came the time we decided we were ready to add children
to our home. Our journey into parenthood was going to be simple. Or so we
thought. You see, we had it all planned out. Before we were married we
spent a great deal of time talking about our future plans and hopes. There
was no doubt in our mind that children would take a front and center spot
in that future home of ours. In fact, we were quite specific in our plans.
We would have our biological children first, then adopt the rest of our
family. Reality would not be following our laid out plans.

After a year of trying to have a
biological child it came to us that we just might have an issue here. We
read, talked, and read some more. A visit to a doctor was in order.
Without running any medical tests some advice was given. Advice that
didn’t work. Soon we made an appointment with a specialist. This doctor
advised treatments that would be time intensive, invasive, and stressful.
All in our effort to have a biological child. At that exact point in time
Jennifer didn’t feel she could go forward with such a plan. Jennifer’s
mother had moved in with us during the midst of her terminal illness, was
on Hospice, and Jennifer was her primary caregiver. Jennifer was unable to
leave her mother for 5 minutes in the house by herself at that point, let
alone for multiple appointments. That type of infertility intervention
would have to wait. A third doctor was visited to find some simpler
medical help. Several medications were tried to no avail. By now we both
were weary of the money, time, and stress involved with continued efforts
to have a biological child.

For some reason God has not opened the
door to biological children either through prayer or medical intervention
thus far. So we began the journey we had always intended on taking, the
journey into adoption.

We knew we could and would love our adopted children just as we
would a biological child. Jennifer had immediate family that was adopted ,
and we had friends who had adopted all or some of their children.

We are at this time praying that God
will open the doors to the children who are to be in our home. We look
forward to the day when we will be parents, and prepare ourselves for that
time. We don’t know when that door will open, but we hope that the time
will come soon.”

Currently they are waiting to be chosen as adoptive parents and are
working on saving up the money for an adoption.I am delighted to be able to host this online fundraiser for them!

Many companies came together to offer thank you gifts for some of the
people who enter the fundraiser. While I wish we had gifts for every
single person entering, we have 18 awesome
prizes, so there will be 18 winners-each person
receiving one random prize.

To be entered to win these fantastic prizes, I am encouraging that
you donate $5.00 to their adoption fund, which is set up through
Paypal. You can pay through a credit, debit, bank account, or
Paypal account. If the Lord lays on your heart to give more, feel free to
do so. Just $5.00 by itself will not go far towards an adoption, but if
multiple people donate $5.00 it will quickly add up! Remember how the Lord
multiplied the fish and bread!

Here’s how you can enter to win one
of these prizes:

You can earn two entries towards
winning these prizes.

1. Leave an encouraging comment for
Neil and Jennifer!

2. Earn an extra
entry for sharing this blog post on Facebook, Twitter, or your blog! Leave
the link below of where you shared it at for a second entry.

The following companies have graciously donated prizes for this
fundraiser. There are over $700.00 worth of items below!

Doorpost is a Christian company that
focuses on Character Training from the Proverbs. Known for their helpful
training charts, they have provided wonderful materials for parents
looking to train their children up in the Lord. They are giving away a complete character
training package – value of $157.00!

Beco Baby Carriers are
one of the best carriers on the market! I love using my Beco with our four
month old baby, and our two year old loves to be carried in it also. This
is one of the best purchases a new mother could make. You can follow them
on Facebook to stay
up to date with new products. They are generously giving away a Gemini carrier in
the Sierra print-value of $130!

More Than Alive
sells quality vitamins, herbs, Berkey Water Filters, Essential Oils,
Books, and more! They have a unique Mother’s Day package that would be a
wonderful gift for that special mom in your life! This package includes
Supermom Vitamins, Herbal Antibiotics, Moisturizing Lotion, Raw Cocao
powder, Peppermint essential oil and more. One person will receive this Mother’s Day
Package, a value of $79.00!

The
Modest Mom is devoted to providing feminine, modest clothing for women
and girls. You can find women’s,
maternity,
and girl’s
skirts, layering tank
tops,
nursing covers, and more! The Modest Mom is giving away a $50 gift
card to their store!

Evy’s
Tree makes embellished hoodies and cardigans
for women, children and men.
They are simply lovely! I’ve never seen hoodies like this anywhere else.
Evy’s Tree is graciously giving away a $50 gift card to their store.

Here is a $50 Amazon gift card so you can pick out just what you would
like or need on Amazon!

The Etsy Store Rubys
Americana makes these lovely wooden growth charts. This over-sized growth chart
solves the problem of writing on your walls, when measuring the height of
your children. Black, hand-stenciled numbers top this creamy white,
hand-painted 6′ by 8″ wood growth chart. Hang 6 inches off of the floor,
with the attached saw-tooth hanger. This is a value of $45.00!

Marci is a consultant for Blessings
Unlimited, a business that offers beautiful christian products for
your home. They have lovely dishes, wall decor, stationary and more! Marci
is giving away this Vintage
Block Set that allows you to create different scripture verse messages
in your home-a $42.00 value!

It’s A Blessing makes
beautiful
bracelets, bookmarks, keychains and more! They are given away a
complete Proverbs 31 set-a value of $30.50!

Agape
Love Boutique sells adorable headbands for women, girls, and babies.
They also sell lovely jewelry, This hand stamped “You
& Me” necklace can be personalized with the initials of you and
your loved one! They are donating one personalized necklace-a $30.00
value!

Mya Bruce
Designs make personalized necklaces in many different designs. This necklace
is hand stamped, and comes with an 18″ chain. You can personalize it with
1 or 2 names, or initials. Value of $26.00!

Light of Faith is a
family owned company that provides books, DVD’s, puzzles and toys, godly
music, and more! I love visiting this booth whenever I attend homeschool
conferences, the family is so sweet and helpful! They are blessing someone
with a $25.00 gift card to their store.

Say it on the Wall offers vinyl
pictures and sayings for your walls, posters, doors, vehicles, and much
more! They are giving away a $20.00 gift card.

Vintage Handmade Soaps
uses all natural oils in their soaps, as well as silk milk for extra
moisturizing effect. Each bar is scented with either essential oils or
fragrance oil. With scents such as Chocolate
Mint, Tiger Fever, or Peach Blossom, there is sure to be a scent that
will appeal to everyone! Vintage Handmade Soaps is giving away a $20.00
gift card to their store.

Lilla
Rose offers beautiful hair products. The
flexi is beautiful, unique, and well-made. It is also very
comfortable, and many ladies say they no longer experience pony-tail
headache! It works in all types of hair, from baby-fine to super-thick.
The best thing about the flexi-clip is that you can do your hair
beautifully in only seconds, and be ready for the day! One person will win
a $15.00 coupon good for anything at Lilla
Rose.

Family Vision Films is a
family run business that offers high quality films for families to watch
together. They are the producers of the excellent “Homemaking
101” DVD, and sell many documentaries, how-to films, movies, and more.
Family Vision Films is giving away a $15 gift certificate to their store!

Scarfs are a wonderful way to compliment a
cute
skirt! This white ruffled scarf from Maurices will create a finished
look for many outfits. This white Chiffon
Elastic Scarf is a value of $14.00.

Covering her courtship and marriage to
Steven Curtis Chapman, struggles for emotional balance, and living with
grief, Mary Beth’s story is our story–wondering where God is when the
worst happens. In Choosing to SEE, she shows how she wrestles
with God even as she has allowed him to write her story–both during times
of happiness and those of tragedy. Readers will hear firsthand about the
loss of her daughter, the struggle to heal, and the unexpected path God
has placed her on. Even as difficult as life can be, Mary Beth
Chapman Chooses to SEE. Includes a 16-page full color photo
insert. A value of $12.00.

Thank you to each company for donating
these prizes!

Here’s how you can enter to win one
of these prizes:

You can earn two entries towards
winning these prizes.

1. Leave an encouraging comment for
Neil and Jennifer!

2. Earn an extra
entry for sharing this blog post on Facebook, Twitter, or your blog! Leave
the link below of where you shared it at for a second entry.

Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give;
not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. 2
Corinthians 9:7

This giveaway will end May 22 with winners being
announced after that.

Modest Monday and a link up!

May 7, 2012 by Caroline · 24 Comments

I was excited with this outfit because the skirt is new to me, and I just love it! I spotted this skirt on Zulily a few weeks ago and instantly grabbed a blue and white one. They were just what I was hoping for when I pulled them out of the package! Oh so pretty, and light and flowing for summer. A slip is definitely needed with this skirt though.

My top is one that I love but I don’t wear nearly as often as I would like because it’s a little low for me. I’ve tried layering it with a modest layering shell, but since the top is a square cut neckline it just looks funny with the round shell. I need to make a square one for me to wear with this top. When I do wear it I’m careful to always put my hand on my shirt when I bend over…my mother taught me well in the area of low cut shirts.

My special Vintage Pearl necklace from my sweet husband.

Lace at the bottom of the skirt and my white shoes I wore.

I curled my hair and put it up with a dangly flexi clip from Lilla Rose.

White lace top – I purchased at Marshalls

Blue Skirt – Purchased from Zulily

White Shoes – Walmart

Necklace – The Vintage Pearl (I engraved on it “Sean holds the key to my heart”)

Dangly Flexi Clip- Lilla Rose (I was using a size medium clip for this hair style)

Link Up Time!

Please feel free to share posts about anything concerning being a godly feminine woman. Topics include: modesty, being a wife, mother, homeschooler, homemaker, cooking, sewing, ect.

No business links please!

Please grab the button below and share on your blog post so others can come and join in the link up as well! You can grab the code to this button on the right hand side of the blog.

This post is part of the weekly Christian Home Magazine, as the Modest Fashion post.

New Modest Tanks at The Modest Mom Store!

May 4, 2012 by Caroline · Leave a Comment

We have added two new tanks to the store!

The popular layering tank is now available in a feminine pink color! It comes in sizes small – xx-large.

We have also added my favorite nursing tank top! The Undercover Mama Tank makes it possible to nurse modestly without exposing yourself to the world! I don’t spend money on nursing shirts, I just buy these and then any of my shirts turn into nursing shirts.

The tank can be attached to any bra, and you can even attach it to a non nursing bra to extend the life of this tank!

You can save 10% off your orders with the code: raisingarrows at the checkout!