Happy Thanksgiving!

Enjoy your cranberry sauce, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, and whatever other festive trimmings are tradition around your neck of the woods... and do it all to the glory of God!

Peaceful Moments

It is always a good idea to have a toy or two stashed so that your toddler finds it a new and novel distraction when you really need him to play happily in the other room and let his sister nurse. She tends to get distracted when he is in here kissing her feet... although it is so sweet it's more than worth the delay!

uh oh...

I am a novice in such matters, but surely it is bad if smoke is pouring out of my beloved cherry red KitchenAid?

*sigh*

To use Nathan's new favorite word, uh oh...

Carry of the Moment...

Picture This...

...a rainy fall day.

I found my card reader, finally.  I found it in the couch cushions while looking for the keys, which were actually behind the couch so I wasn't too far off!

A perfect day for a snuggly nap.

Or an adventure in a playhouse! :) 

Gardasil - dangerous, and does little to reduce cancer rates

"To date, 15,037 girls have officially reported adverse side
effects from Gardasil to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System
(VAERS). These adverse reactions include Guilliane Barre, lupus,
seizures, paralysis, blood clots, brain inflammation and many others.
The CDC acknowledges that there have been 44 reported deaths."

 These girls received the vaccine despite the fact that:

"Dr. Diane Harper, lead researcher in the development of two human
papilloma virus vaccines, Gardasil and Cervarix, said the controversial
drugs will do little to reduce cervical cancer rates and, even though
they’re being recommended for girls as young as nine, there have been
no efficacy trials in children under the age of 15."

From this article.

Storing Linens

How do you store linens? I know how Martha Stewart does it, but I don't happen to have a spare closet... we have ONE closet for the house, and it doesn't have any room to spare! Mine end up stacked in a laundry basket, but that isn't really a good solution, especially after the laundry basket gets knocked over, etc, by a busy toddler... I do have a blanket chest (the current job of my hope chest), and like it, but it only fits the blankets, not the sheets, pillowcases, extra pillows, or towels... any suggestions? I was thinking as a temporary solution I'd just get another Rubbermaid container... the cheap version of another blanket chest. ;-) 

Or I could just leave them on the clothesline.  They look much nicer that way, out there in nature with the leaves and spiders and birds...birds?!  Um, or not.  The rubbermaid will work, I think...

adventure or inconvenience?

An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered.  - G. K. Chesterton

A good thing to keep in mind when you discover a diaper blowout in the parking lot and you're running late and running short on extra clothes and have no wipes.*  Adventure!

* Extra prefolds in the diaper bag are a very good idea! :) 

monday musings

Today is Monday, a grey, drizzly Monday.  I have no stamps, and I do have bills that need to be mailed within the next few days, but the postmistress assured me when I called that she could have the mailman remedy that if I left a check in the mailbox.  Earlier, I dropped the milk jug lid in my mug of hot chocolate.  And before that, we had a rousing game of hunt-the-keys (and then a bonus round of hunt-the-shoe, thanks to N's love of wearing our shoes all over the house) this morning before Micah left for work.  

Yep.  Monday!  Back to the joy of the mundane.  Here are a couple links to what I'm catching up on reading this Monday-

This NY Times article on the safety of posting children's photos, names, info, etc, online has me thinking. I am going to be rereading this article a few times and thinking over whether there are things I'd want to change.  I do think I want to do watermarks on my public images... can Flickr do that for you?

...and...

I LOVE this beautiful post on babywearing by Leigh at Marvelous Kiddo.  She articulates well the ease and benefits of a lifestyle of babywearing.  She also had another great post recently with lots of pictures of babywearing around the world. 

happy Monday, friends!

A Rainy Fall Day

Today is the kind of day that just doubles the joy in baking, cups of hot tea, curling up with a book and two cuddly kiddos, wearing those warm winter clothes that have been packed away, and toasting your toes in front of the heater.

The maples are golden outside, the clouds are grey, but the fields are still green. I can't find my card reader, but when I do I'll have some pictures to share...

Introducing Fred

Meet Fred.

Doesn't he just look so angelic?

Well, he is a pretty good dog (except for his love of chewing anything).  But you can get a better idea of his true nature here as he chases Wilma, the cat...

Wrapping Away

Last Friday, I purchased 5 yards of fabric, washed and dried it, and wrapped it up!  We are loving the wrap, and although I still needed (in this picture) to cut it lengthwise (so I look less like I wrapped a king sized sheet around myself), and I still need to taper the ends, and hem or serge the whole thing, I love it!  Very very comfortable and distributes Miriam's 15 pounds very well across my whole back.  It feels very secure and although it takes longer to get on than the ring sling it is more comfortable for longer periods.  We took a evening walk and it was a lot more comfortable than the sling for a brisk pace.

I opted not to get a stretchy fabric because I read that was better for smaller babies and that a non stretchy would be better for older babies and toddlers.  I've done a back carry with Nathan, which worked great- still working on doing the back carry with that wiggly little one... Daddy helped us with this one and we both loved it!

 

Hide your hearts, girls...

He's amazingly cute AND has a great sense of style. 

I assisted him in getting the backpack and slippers on, but he chose all the accessories here and put the hat on himself.  I do admit to dressing him in a long sleeved shirt and shorts, but the rest is allllllllll Nathan.

Beauty of the Mundane

This is a great post on Anne Bradstreet,  but I also loved how beautifully Mrs. Friedrich put this:

But the word "mundane" also refers to things pertaining to this life rather than things that are spiritual. In other words, everyday life is mundane. But it acquires a beauty and holiness when we see those everyday things, even the dirty dishes, as opportunities to serve God and bring glory to Him.

Mondays

Mondays are for dishes.

 

And laundry.

And catching up on baby cuddles.


(This is Miriam in the ring sling watching me pick blueberries this summer.)







Happy Monday, friends! :)

Welcome, Fall!

It is officially fall!  Well, it actually has been fall for ten days, but now that it is October it feels much more like fall.  And the weather seems to be in fall mode as well, we're having a nice blustery grey day today. I love days like this!  They make me want to put the kettle on, light a candle, and sit down with some knitting or a good book...

I love so many things about fall...the crunchy leaves, the beautiful colors, the crispness in the air, the excuse to wear hats and scarves and gloves, or to curl up in a soft blanket inside.

Rachel over at One Pretty Thing put together a great collection of fall DIY ideas, and I drooled over loved this fall makeover for a mantlepiece.  I was grieving over my lack of a mantle, which has really cramped my garland making desires, when it hit me.  The odd wide trim over the window over the sink!  Viola!  For some odd reason there are three nails already in the board, left behind by the previous owner, so I was saved the laborious task of trying to remember where I last put the hammer.  And where the bigger nails are, since I can only find the teeny tiny ones that are a step up from a pin.  But I digress (isn't that what blogs are for, though?!)... anyway... I think it needs some bulking up, but here is the basic garland:

Are you doing anything fun to welcome fall? :)

International Babywearing Week is here!

I LOVE babywearing.  :)  It makes my life so much less stressful- lots more baby cuddles and I can get more done with a happy baby along for the ride.  I wrote here about ring slings... just some info about making or buying one, and how much I love mine!  And here is the fun video for babywearing week... I love all those happy toddlers and babies who are "close enough to kiss"~ this year's theme for babywearing week. :)

True Dat

Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

LOLZ!

This brings back vivid memories of my mom bathing my orange tomcat, Tiger.  He put up a valiant resistance, but it availed him nothing!













see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Butter in the carpet...

I just turned around and noticed in horror that Nathan had two large handfulls of butter.  He was standing there in the office, on the carpet, and then he gaily threw each handful down.  Oh. my. I thought we were doing better about him getting into the butter, but maybe that was just me getting better about putting it away after meals.  The tally - 3/4 of a stick of butter, divided among the office carpet, living room rug, and dining table chair.  No real lasting damage.  This is precisely why I hate carpet and bought an inexpensive rug for the living room!

And it isn't even 9 AM yet!  Maybe mama's computer time needs to wait for naptime...? ;-)

Marrying Young

I've been reading this post from Nancy Wilson on marrying young (not teen, but not waiting till 35 either.) Love it, and especially enjoyed the comments, lots from of women who married young and don't regret it. Yeah, financially it is probably tougher to marry young instead of waiting until you have lots of savings, a very good job, etc. But this quote from Brandy's comment just hits the nail on the head for me- "some parents would rather their child struggle with sexual temptation than have any financial struggles."

Is it better to have young Christians struggling with sexual temptations while getting all their financial ducks in a row, or to encourage getting married younger and provide support for that?

When we got married, we were overwhelmed with the generosity of our church family- from a shower that mostly equipped the kitchen, to the people who asked us if we could use the furniture they were getting rid of (yes! yes! yes!), to the huge generosity of our families (who gave liberally in working on our house, as well as in helping us to equip it).

We don't drive fancy cars, have the latest gadgets, or vacation anywhere exotic. But we're getting to share these years, and I wouldn't trade this for the world.

Us, dancing at our reception and being madly in love. :) Photo taken by Sarie, I think... all I know is I stole it off Facebook and I love it!