Easter Outfits

Our family on March 31st, 2013, on the back porch.

Alright, the details are:

Samuel - Pants are second hand, shirt is brand new on super clearance for $1.94! 
Clara - Pants are second hand, sweater is brand new on super clearance for $3.94!
David - Pants are second hand, shirt was a Christmas gift.
Amy - All second hand.  Blazer was part of the giant $10 bag of clothing that the thrift store had on sale.

Linked up to FLAP and Clan Donaldson and Camp Patton. (and if you aren't seeing links, well, they're coming when they're coming...)

Yeah, that's right, I'm doubling up my What I Wore Sunday post with Snapshots.  :-)

We're pros on the family picture circuit.  I meant to share some of our photos on Thursday, but didn't get a chance to upload them all.  Anyway, we're a ministry family, so we do 'formal' pictures often.  If you've been a blog reader since the old blog then you will have seen them before...maybe I should do a big family picture post.

Have a blessed and wonderful Easter.  He is risen!

First Sowing

After buying all of our seeds about two weeks ago...my garden planning was put on hold for yet another late snow storm.



But today was the first planting day!  I planted kale, spinach, lettuce, radishes and two types of tomatoes.  I haven't got the greenhouse set up yet, so I'm using plastic strawberry containers.

The Hot Water Bottle Was Eaten.

David let me sleep in for an extra hour.  I suffer from nightmares, so sleeping in is somewhat of a hit or miss activity for me, but it's always nice to know that he loves me enough to be the dreaded First Parent Out of Bed.  The one who deals with any 'overnight poos', the inevitable pee-soakedness of everything in or around Samuel's bed, and the strange things you find in the morning.

Exhibit A:  What happened to this hot water bottle????  Was it eaten?  Torn?  Intensive toddler questioning has revealed nothing beyond "I picked up the pieces".

I was so optimistic about that hot water bottle, too.  I figured it could be the answer to Samuel's cold feet issue.  But it seems as though, yet again, reality has managed to rear her ugly head.  What was I thinking giving a rubber container with weird flappy bits on top, filled with hot water to a three year old and sending him to his bed?  Ugh. 

David has the entire weekend off (woohoo!) and we're spending half of today doing mundane stuff no one is interested in, a la buying eggs on sale, making some bread, cleaning, bathing the toddler in preparation for Easter services tomorrow and then threatening him with no-toys-for-a-week-also-no-chocolate if he goes outside and rolls in a puddle...

And then the other half of the day is going to be spent (theoretically, it's always good to note) at the local high school watching Joesph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.  I greatly enjoy amateur theatre because when it's good, it's just as good as the 'real thing' to my untrained eyes, and when it's bad it provides me with hours of mocking entertainment.

Oh!  I've updated the tab on my home page named Healthy, Happy, Holy.  You might have noticed the occasional post here and there with that title - and the tab explains the name and keeps a running list of stuff for me.  Essentially, I'm trying to focus more on what God wants our family to work towards; one of these things is simplifying, and I've been working on giving away 100 items towards that goal.  The 'given aways' are continually being updated so check it out if you're inspired to simplify your own abodes.

Pizza, Gardens...I'm all about productivity.

Miss mischievious with a) a glass bottle and b) a huge piece of pizza.

Thin crust, cheese, tomato sauce and capers.  Oh, the capers made this pizza.

Am I getting ready to anticipate a huge harvest?  Absolutely.

*David is on the last night of his week of shifts.  Tomorrow, if all goes well, we're actually going to go see a play together, with the children.  For realsies.  I'm terrified.

*Grocery shopping madness ensued last night!  There was much sale-ing.  This lady right here probably snagged herself close to two weeks worth of groceries for the price of one week.  I mean, there will have to be a little pick me up in terms of produce at the end of the week, and of course I forgot butter, but yeah, pretty much two weeks.

*I had a friend over tonight who specifically wanted to help out, just lend an extra pair of hands.  So she played with S while I a) bathed C, b) hung up or folded or put on the line about 50% of the laundry, c) used CLR to get a rust stain off the linoleum, d) changed the garbages, e) ate something, f) put the little miss to bed.  And then my friend vacuumed my livingroom and re-hung my weirdly sagging livingroom curtain for me.  So. Incredibly. Helpful.

Good Friday

Good Friday is about poverty.

It's about losing the most important thing in the world.  It's about everything, everything, being dark.  Very dark.  About hopelessness and heartbreak; curtains ripping from top to bottom, God turning away, blinking.

About crying.  It's a lot about crying.

I struggle with balancing this darkness with the knowledge that daybreak is coming again.  I also struggle with Holy Saturday, but for entirely different reasons.  But on Good Friday my problem is simple:  how to feel deep, lasting, spiritual mournfulness when I know how the story ends.  In two days He rises from the dead!  Let's just skip all of this sad stuff and get to the happy ending!  Right?

Hmmmm.


{Okay, after reading another post on Good Friday I feel like, just in case anyone decides to mis-interpret the above sentences, I need to just add a small bit of clarification.  I am a Christian.  I understand in both a historical and a spiritual sense what the death of the Christ meant to me as an individual and to the world as a whole.  I know of the horror He would have endured and, as much as a woman who has never been beaten who is sitting in front of a computer in 21st century Canada is able to, I understand the story.  This is not me saying 'Meh.  It wasn't that big a deal.  He comes back to life."  This is me saying "It IS a big deal.  It is the biggest of big deals.  And I don't know HOW to make it a huge big deal in the context of the entire Easter story."  Because when you know how the story ends, sometimes you have trouble with the emotions that are supposed to be there when you don't know how the story ends.  Anyway, end of rant.}

Samuel turns three

Happy Birthday, my sweetest, dearest, most wonderful of boys.  You and I have a special little chat all the time, and it goes something like this...

"Did you know, my baby, that if mama could pick a little boy, any little boy from the whole wide world...she'd pick you???"

And then you smile at me.  And oh I just adore you.  You are the answer to prayer, a child we weren't sure we could have, a blessing of a son and the most precocious, stubborn, amazing, ridiculous, wonderful, infuriating, holy-making little guy.

We had your party on Saturday, so today was a quiet day.  It was pretty much just the same as a normal every-kind-of-day, except that you spoke to your grandparents, and your great grandmother on the phone, and you played with a present that had been carefully set aside - wooden trains and tracks from my parents.

C

And you had french fries for supper.

Random

C is an eating machine, a bottomless pit, a hungry hungry hippo of a child these days.  She's shaping up to be the exact replica of her brother in this regard.  Big feet, hungry stomach, lots of hair, adorable and terribly good-natured.  She a good sleeper, not happy with the diaper changes, and only content with being held on her terms.  On the other hand, I'm really starting to see the big differences in the children as well.  C is determined to get her own way, where Sl is much more easy-going.  C is going to shake the world, but S is going to be the stubborn, kind type.

Look what I did!  Desperate for spring (and by the look of it, you'd assume desperate for a home filled with hipster versions of Ms. Stewart) I've resorted to injecting sunshine wherever I can find it.  Did you know, by the by, that P.interest has pages and pages of pictures of painted clothespins?  I mean, not the painted clothespins the like of which you see above, but ones with tiny miniatures of sea creatures painted on and such.  It's...almost creepy.

So.  The church we attend is going through a lot of upheaval right now; big changes are happening in the staff.  Currently the church employs a lead pastor, an assistant pastor, a youth pastor and a children's pastor, along with a ministry assistant (different from the assistant pastor - confusing, I know) who is also the office administrator.  Well, the assistant pastor has announced that he's retiring, and the children's pastor has announced that she's resigning, and the ministry assistant is moving to the States with her family!  And the youth pastor is a newer hire so really, of the old guard only the lead pastor is left.  Add to this that several families who are heavily involved in the church are embarking on new adventures with their families, and there is going to be major reshuffling.

I don't like reshuffling.  I like settled.

I also like cooking.  Which I do a lot of around here.  It's my 'fun chore'.  Do you have one of those?  You might not want to admit it because then people are going to actually make you do it, but it's nice to have one occasionally.  I like the cooking.  Well, I like it better than dishes.  Dishes are the worst.

What I Wore Sunday - Palm Sunday

Fuzzy Picture...

You've seen it all before, my friends, except for the skirt, which I got in a giant bag of clothing (for only $10) from the thrift store!  I love it and it's tweedy goodness.

And some not so fuzzy Biblical close reading...

The sermon today talked about Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem, and I discovered that Jesus didn't ride into the city on just a donkey, but the colt of a donkey.  A baby donkey.  A full grown man, a 'famous' miracle worker riding into the holy city for passover on the colt of a donkey - that's humility in action.

I kept thinking back again to that baby donkey all afternoon, and tonight (I'm very late to the link-up) I thought I'd share what I discovered in my mini Bible study.

First, the gospel accounts (for ease, I'm using the KJV):

Matthew's gospel reads:

"And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her:  loose them, and bring them unto me.  And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them.  All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.  And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon.  And a very great multitute spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strowed them in the way.  And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David:  Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.  And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this?  And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee." (Ch. 21: 1-11)

Mark's gospel reads:

"And when they came nigh to Jerusalem, unto Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount of Olives, he sendeth forth two of his disciples, And saith unto them, Go your way into the village over against you: and as soon as ye be entered into it, ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat; loose him, and bring him.  And if any man say unto you, Why do ye this?  say ye that the Lord hath need of him; and straightway he will send him hither.  And they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door without in a place where two ways met; and they loose him.  And certain of them that stood there said unto them, What do ye, loosing the colt?  And they said unto them even as Jesus had commanded: and they let them go.  And they brought the colt to Jesus, and cast their garments on him; and he sat upon him.  ANd many spread their garments in the way: and others cut down branches off the trees, and strowed them in the way.  And they that went before, and they that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna:  Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord:  Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord:  Hosanna in the highest.  And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when he had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve." (Ch. 11: 1-11)

Luke's gospel reads:

And when he had thus spoken, he went before, ascending up to Jerusalem. And it came to pass, when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called the mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, Saying, Go ye into the village over against you; in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him hither.  And if any man ask you, Why do ye loose him? thus shall ye say unto him, Because the Lord hath need of him.  And they that were sent went their way, and found even as he had said unto them.  And as they were loosing the colt, the owners thereof said unto them, Why loose ye the colt?  And they said, The Lord hath need of him.  And they brought him to Jesus: and they cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus thereon.  And as he went, they spread their clothes in the way.  And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. (Ch. 19: 28-38)

John's gospel reads:

On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's colt.  (Ch. 12: 12-15)

There are some major, glaring similarities between these accounts, enough to write a hundred sermons and another hundred bible studies, I'm sure.  Probably more.  But I'm going to focus on that donkey everyone is talking about.  In Matthew, there's a female ass and her colt and the disciples take both, and at first it seems a little fuzzy on which one specifically Jesus is riding since both have clothing on them, and he is simply described as "sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass".  (In the other three gospels, however, the mother isn't mentioned, and Jesus is simply riding on the colt.)  However, in both Matthew and John, a prophecy is mentioned, that the king will arrive in Jerusalem astride a donkey, and I found this prophecy in Zechariah 9:9, which reads "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass."  To me this prophecy read more like 'he's riding on a donkey; a baby donkey'.  Rather than implying that he is riding on both, or either the mother or the colt.

All this is to say, Jesus is on a small, clearly baby donkey, to show his meekness and his fulfillment of the old testament prophecy.  Imagine for a minute what this looks like.  The donkey is definately not fully grown, that's clearly stated, and a grown man is riding it, on a roadway strewn with branches and leaves, with his animal covered in clothing.  I think the image we get from this is one of great humility.  This is not the conquering hero on a stallion, but a meek king entering a city.  He is a different kind of king, a king who has never been seen before.  And look how the people adore him!  The hosannas, the cheers, the branches, the declarations that he is a prophet, the son of David.  The people certainly don't seem to mind that his ride is a baby donkey.  But the image is clear - here is a man who is humble.

Now, to the Greek.  I'm going to be super concise because this post has already gone on too long and I'm surprised if you're still reading.  In Matthew, the words used for donkey and colt are olon and polon.  In Mark, Luke and John, polon is used again.  In Zechariah the Hebrew word is ayir, the colt or foal of a donkey.

The gospels match in their translations of polon, and Zechariah also seems to back that up in Hebrew.  This is just me being terribly nerdy - I like to check the original text.

Anyway, the humility of Jesus on this occasion really spoke to me, and the mini study I did this evening, despite resulting in a lot of computer time and bibles and commentaries scattered around the livingroom and dining room and my husband repeatedly asking me "WHAT are you doing?" was fun.  I don't do this enough.

Okay, now seriously, go read the other ladies at Fine Linen and Purple. 

I'm really not awake

Well hello there.

It's snowing.  I'm not happy about this - I was completely certain that spring was here just a week ago, and now spring is most certainly NOT here, and I feel kinda teased about it, frankly.  This happens every year; I always get convinced in February during that first warmish day "Oh spring is here!  Yay!" And then every year I am disappointed.  I also firmly believe in the childish method of cleaning as much snow as possible off my driveway in order to hurry spring along.  Last week I was buying seeds for the garden and cleaning up the fallen sticks on the muddy ground around my house.  This week I'm shovelling.  And by me I mean my husband.

In other news, today was the big birthday party!  Pictures will be forthcoming, I think, if I can get them cropped and improved slightly.  My camera is decent; my techniques...not so much.

The party was good, though.  The theme was a Construction/Bob The Builder/Building etc. sort of theme, and it went over very well and was actually very easy.  I found construction hats at the dollar store, the children built a giant fort out of a huge cardboard box and spent time playing with tools by hammering nails into wood and that sort of thing.  There was cake and junk food and all those things that are nice a few times a year to gorge yourself on until you're ill.  Samuel was thrilled with his gifts (a t-ball set, two playdough sets, some really nice garden tools, a train table...he was spoiled).

And there's leftover pizza.  So I didn't have to make supper.  Win win there, I tell you.

Weirdest quote I've heard all day "There were three prop men, and they just alternated throwing birds at me."  David is watching a very old documentary on the making of Hitchcock's films, and they're discussing the Birds.  Bad background noise to have while typing.

Alright, not a great time to post, but I've been trying to be more daily about it.  Time for bed.

Tuneless Me.

K.

I'm going to tell you a story.

Once upon a time there was a very nice lady.  Let's call her Amy.  Amy liked to sing and was charitably known as 'someone who could sort of carry a tune within the confines of a varrrrry small range and only if in the close proximity of others who she could follow along with'.  Also, Amy couldn't read music.

Ahem.

Annnnnnyway.  Long story very very short, she decided to publically embarass herself and join in with the church Easter choir and do this neat not-very-good-singing trick publically.  With a capital P.

I don't know what I was thinking.  Want more?

We're singing this:




You're welcome.

Five Things You'd Never Think To Clean - And How To Clean Them

I'm sitting here, on the day before the big three year old's birthday party, when thirteen people are going to descend on my house, bringing the 'under ten' count to a whopping NINE children, and I'm feeling pretty good about it all, actually.  Yesterday the family did about 60% of the party shopping, and today really all we need to do is pick up the uncooked party size pizzas, the balloons, and a few odds and ends.  There are 50 chicken nuggets and 32 mini pogos in my freezer, so if nothing else, everyone is getting fed.

And because well, all I'm going to do today is try and clean the house and keep the children from making each other cry, all I really have to blog about is cleaning.  Unless you'd like to hear my kids fighting?  No?  Okay then.

I bring you...Five Things You'd Never Think To Clean...And How To Clean Them!

1)  Silver (Sterling or Plate)

So I have a few pieces of silver in my house and they get tarnished so quickly.  I don't mind using them like that, but sometimes it's nice to clean them up a bit.  But, and this is the big but, I have no intention of (or time for) sitting around polishing silver the old fashioned way.  Not to mention that I don't want toxic silver polish in the house, and I don't want to rub away at silver plate and possibly thin it or damage it.  My mother shared her technique with me a while ago for getting silver clean without any harsh chemicals or rubbing, and I'm going to share it with you now.

Here's a silver serving dish.  Badly tarnished.

Now, what you do is fill your kitchen sink a few inches deep with hot water, and add a piece of tinfoil to the bottom.  Then sprinkle on about a Tbsp of washing soda.

Add your clean silver to the sink.  Anywhere the tinfoil touches, the silver will clean.

Now, since the tinfoil needs to be touching the silver for the tarnish to leave, you may need to do what I did and hold (or gently rub, no scrubbing necessary) the tinfoil against the metal.

Then just drain the water, rinse and rewash the silver, and dry.  Done.  I wash my silver again at the end only because the washing soda is NOT meant for consumption - it's poisonous.  But it's a product I'm comfortable using in my house under some self-emposed rules.

Look at how nice and shiny it is!

Tomorrow, if my computer decides to work, I'll post another 'thing'.  Spring cleaning is a lot more fun if you can share it with others.

Linked to My Green Resource.

Reducing the children's wardrobes

I've been working on a plan to streamline the never ending confusion of children's clothing that seems to occupy vast amounts of our home, and take up way too much of my time.  Would you like to hear it?  It's fairly extreme, I'm warning you...

Alright then, here it is.

I am cutting down each child's wardrobe to *gulp* ELEVEN outfits.  Seven daily sets of clothes, and four 'nice' or church sets.  Ideally, this number will be dropped even further in the future, to nine outfits, seven daily and two church.  Each 'outift' will consist of a bottom, a top, a sweater in cooler weather, underclothing, socks, etc.  The whole outfit.  So yes, seven pants, seven long sleeve shirts, seven sweaters, seven pairs of socks, etc.  At the beginning, I'm going to allow each child unlimited pajamas and for Samuel, unlimited underpants while he's still newly potty trained.  Again, eventually my goal is to have underclothing limited to seven sets, and pajamas to perhaps two or three sets.

Why so drastic?  Why bother to do this at all?

Two reasons.

1)  Like every at-home mother worth her salt, I spend a lot of time maintaining my home.  Washing dishes, making beds, cooking food, doing laundry, etc. etc.  A lot of time.  I think if I was honest with myself I could easily spend the same amount of time working at home that my husband spends working outside of the home.  And don't for a moment think I'm complaining!  I love my job, it's just that I see it as a career choice - and like any career, I think efficiency is key.

The way my children's clothing is set up right now is inefficient.  They have too many clothes to manage in any reasonable fashion.  Clothing gets misplaced within the 'laundry cycle' "where are the purple pants that go with the purple shirt??" and I don't have an area designated for clothing that requires stain removal (oftentimes I can't even remember that a shirt had tomato sauce spilled on it, because dirty clothing goes in the laundry hamper, and laundry for the children is done when the hamper is full, which could be days and days away because they have so. much. clothing.).  The result is that I spend an inordinate amount of time managing the wardrobes of two small people.  I like my children to look nice, which means that every few weeks I'm combing their closets removing what I can remember is too small, or trying to bring in clothing that was too big and now may fit, or taking clothing with stains down to the laundry room to attempt to remove them, or else making piles of 'clothing to become rags', 'clothing to become cloth wipes', 'clothing to be donated', 'clothing that I loved on the kids and can't bear to part with so will be stored in totes in the basement'.  I'm a little embarassed.

2)  On a more global scale, I think we are called to live simply.  Certainly as a Christian family we are not to put our hope in worldly goods, nor to concern ourselves with what we wear.  Our needs will be provided by God, and for us this is certainly true!

We've never worried about where our children's clothing would come from.  I've always found exactly what I needed at clothing sales, or thrift stores, or else a bag of beautiful second hand clothes has arrived on my doorstep from a friend with kids just a bit bigger than my own.  We've always managed.  And so why the overabundance of clothing when others could benefit from what we have?  Other children could use these clothes, which we have more than enough of.  As WE have been blessed, so we can bless others.

And perhaps equally as important, I want the message I send to my children and the world to be one and the same:  Be clean, be neat, but don't be vain.  The clothes you have are functional and sufficient.  They don't have tears or rips or stains, they aren't old fashioned or impractical for life, they are (fortunately for us, others in the world are not so lucky) attractive and cute and adorable as well as being just. fine.  Just fine.  I don't need my daughter to keep every pretty dress I come across.  I don't need my son to have 15 pairs of cords because I like cords.  That is overkill, and it's just plain wrong in the face of other people's needs.

Reading...

On our bookshelves these days...



Photo Credit



Photo credit



Photo credit

 Desperate is the latest of Sally Clarkson's books, co-authored by Sally Mae.  It's the title we're studying right now in the mom's group I belong to.  If you are a Christian mother in a time of life where you are feeling seriously overwhelmed, this is a book for you.  I love how it focuses on building support networks, mentorships, and breaking out of the 'formula parenting' we're all so very fond of.

Seasons of a Mother's Heart is another title by Clarkson.  It was thoroughly recommended to me by my friend Ellie, a homeschooling mother of six (!) and future missionary to Bolivia.  Let me tell you, if Ellie recommends I read something, I read it.  Clarkson seems to have a way of explaining how making a home, being a mother, homeschooling your children...are all ministries.  She walks you through the 'how' of doing these things, but also the 'why' - this is a woman who knows her stuff.

Three Cups of Tea - well, so many people have read this book that I wonder if I'm the last of my friends to pick it up.  I'm trying so hard to focus on the wonderful work of Mortenson, but I have to admit that I'm getting a little sidetracked by the non-essentials of the book.  The co-author is effusive in his praise to an almost embaressing degree, and Mortenson's adoption of Muslim prayer and customs strikes me as a little...odd.  Did he convert to Islam?  Why is he praying in a mosque here?  Were the Muslim's insulted by this?  I know this has pretty much nothing to do with the basic premise of the book, but it's still really distracting to me.

Samuel is reading...


Photo source

{Oh, and I just have to share what we had for supper tonight...

Thyme Chicken (all approximate quantities - we're bad at measuring)

A Tbsp of thyme
Salt and Pepper
About 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
A small chicken

Mix the spices and oil together and rub all over the bird.  Roast breast side down in a cast iron frying pan until done, basting once.

Mmmmm.}

Healthy, Happy, Holy

This pretty much encompasses what I want in this life for myself and my family...

To be healthy
          :: to eat well, to limit our exposure to chemicals, to know what 'enough' is, to experiment in our   
             kitchen, to garden, to foster a love of quality food in our children, to encourage understanding
             and compassion in regards to other's choices for their families, to not be afraid of medicine
             and science, to preserve traditional choices, to make our home calm...

To be happy
          ::  to rejoice, to pray, to shout for joy, to rest in comfort, to be at peace, to love and cherish each
              other, to live abundantly, to give willingly, to offer it up, to pour it out, to have fun, to be silly,
              to strive for knowledge, to be merciful, to offer friendship, to support and console, to be saved.

To be holy
          ::  To follow Christ, to be missionaries wherever we are, to listen to the Holy Spirit, to know what
              we believe and why, to be lights, to stand up, to hold on, to believe in love, to say grace, to
              pray first, to go to heaven...

Yes, I think that about covers it.

So in keeping with this...I'm trying to live it out here, in this house, in this family.  I'm working on giving things away right now, if you're curious, and my goal is ONE HUNDRED items!

Today, a friend who is expecting was the first recipient - three changing pads and a nursing cover found their way to her.

Tomorrow, several items of clothing are getting passed along to a little boy I know who will fit them quite well.  I don't need to hold onto these things - let them go.

Green

I know Spring is coming; I know it.  But it feels so so soooooo far away some days.  And this is why I'm taking stock of the green things around me, the bits of Spring that are popping up whether I feel warmed and happy and refreshed or not!  For more bits of green, you can check out Cari's link up.

Our old planting bench, sitting on the porch and waiting for seeds...



The feathery mosses and evergreen boughs from our sleigh ride two weeks ago.



Carrot tops...essentially the only thing green and growing in the house these days besides some onions.

Ministry Update - March, 2013

It's been almost four years since we moved from the big city to the small town where we live and serve in ministry.  That service looks a lot different than we imagined it would four years ago, let me tell you.  I'm not entirely certain what I thought it was going to be like, coming here, but instead of that reality what we see is a life that looks a lot more like missions work than pastoral ministry!

Our forward 'career' (hahahaha!) movement has, for the most part, been in brief bursts followed by long periods where nothing happens.  And in those nothing periods we spend a lot of time just being Christians - sharing food and fellowship, inviting people into our home, giving stuff away, investing in the local church...

There are always a variety of possible opportunities ahead, for which we are grateful.  Right now we're considering some summer intensive courses for David.  Pieces seem to be clicking into place for these courses to happen for David, and I truly hope they do, for his sake, since he thrives on classroom interaction and has only been able to attend distance education classes in the last while.

And there are the pillars of our service here, of course, our involvement in our church and David's personal ministry experience work.  He continues to provide pulpit supply for several churches in the area, both Wesleyan and Anglican.  We are still members of a small group at the church, and David still holds the position of communion co-ordinator for our congregation.  All is much the same on that front as it has been for close to a year now.

Of course, he keeps up his qualifications as well, today was David's DBMD meeting for the year (District Board of Ministerial Development).  He meets with the board annually to discuss, oh, all sorts of things.  What he's done over the past year in terms of ministry, what his goals are for the coming year, how he's managing his courses, where he's applied, etc.  And based off of this meeting the board decides whether to renew his student license for another year.  It can be stressful, although this year was David's third DBMD meeting and so we really aren't as overwhelmed by the process as we used to be.  It went well, he thinks, and though we won't know 'for sure' about his re-licensing until the district conference this summer, we're confident that his student license will be renewed.

We're right in the middle of resignations/re-hires in our area, spring tends to kick start that process in preparation for the district conference in July.  Our family has applications in at several churches, and we'll see how those applications pan out.

All of this is to say that things look pretty much the same now as they have for a while.  And yet...

The work we do here is not in vain.

And surprisingly, I think we would both agree that the most important work we do here is not the stuff we get paid for, or that which comes with a title, or which provides us with any sort of resume fodder.  The hard and real work is stuff that God has dug out of me in the past four years - the small victories won for the kingdom.  It's here, in this town, that we had our first home that we could truly open up to guests, and learn what it means to be a place for people to stay.  It's here that we have learned to host.  It's here where I've learned how to be frugal.  It's here where we have stepped out into the street more than we have before, and met people.

This is like missions.

Monday

Good afternoon! 

I'm feeling the Mondays today, on this, the first of FIVE straight days of evening shifts for David.  Day six of a ten day stretch of work.  Ugh.  The children are doing their little bests to keep me on my toes; Samuel is still sleeping at 4:30pm, so he'll be up until all hours tonight.  And Clara is grouchy and fussy and who knows what.

But there are some exciting (in our world, at least) things afoot this week.  We tried a new and much anticipated restaurant in town this morning for breakfast, and the children did not humiliate me in the process, which was great.  I found an amazing sale on laundry detergent and sweet peppers, and we did a little recon. trip to the thrift store in preparation for the big bag sale tomorrow where you can buy a garbage bag of stuff for $10.  I have a few things in mind in case they're there when I show up tomorrow morning.

Also tomorrow - mother's Bible study, always exciting.  We're starting a study on this book:

And then tomorrow night I'm helping out a friend and watching her two children while she goes to an appointment.  Wednesday we've got a big playdate scheduled and the week gets a little fuzzy from there on - although there will be grocery shopping at some point, and I need to buy seeds for the garden, and certainly something should be done about washing all that new foam play flooring we were the fortunate recipients of.  But then on Saturday we're arranging a trip to the local ice caves with friends, and on Sunday we're off to the sugar bush with our small group from church!

Oh, and let's not forget that Samuel's birthday is a-coming up!  Oh, my baby, my sweet baby is going to be three. 

On Samuel's reading shelf this week:

link

link

I haven't forgotten my promise to write about the green cleaning book I've been reading...I'm just not quite ready yet.  Stay tuned, stay awake and stay happy.  Or at least awake.  Awake is good.

What I Wore Sunday

We need to subtitle this post 'the cop-out edition'.  I had an inspiration outfit all ready to go, and still, somehow, I managed to revert this Sunday to Ole Faithful.

Sweater:  Same as always.
Skirt:  Under $5 at a second hand store.
Tights:  Wally World.
Scarf:  A pashmina store in Ottawa.
Picture:  A farewell gift from an old workplace.
Cat:  My sister's pet's indiscretion resulting in kittens.
Paint colour:  A bucket in the basement.
General look of distain:  Just me.

In other news...

Only a little over half of the cloth diapers I own.

A lot of time and energy later, and I finally have stripped ALL of the cloth diapers in the house.  Hallelujah.  They've been washed, rinsed, soaked in bleach, rinsed, washed in Dawn detergent, rinsed again, washed in plain water, rinsed again, hung up to sun and air out, taken down, run through the dryer and are now getting individually ironed.  If this doesn't stop the rashed, nothing will.  And it's made me come to grips with my diapering obsession.  I'm cutting the diapers in half - about twenty diapers and three covers are going to my sister in the post next week.

A group of our friends went on a sleigh ride last Saturday, through the beautiful woods not too far from where we live.  These horses, which were huge (I mean, h.u.g.e.  I'm 5'4" and I probably came to their back) are Belgians.  After the family ride we had a picnic lunch in the skate shack next to a rink where the children played hockey before we all headed home.  A perfect late winter family outing.

Do you fall into the same category of reading mamas that I do?  The ones who read all of the children's books before they pass them along to the kids to read themselves?  I have been collecting books for Clara and Samuel since before David and I ever had children, and each one is carefully vetted before it hits the shelves (at least in theory - and I'm not this good with media picks, that's for sure) including the above Ramona series.  I re-read them all this week to see if I thought they'd be good additions to the other Cleary books we own.

Also on the reading list this past week was Green Up Your Clean (I'm going to talk about this one more later) and Julie Powell's (who wrote Julie and Julia, that memoir of spending a year cooking through Mastering the Art of French Cooking) newest book, Cleaving.  I hated it.  It was awful.  In fact, I couldn't finish it.  Her mouth is foul, her writing was awful, she was coarse and the story was completely pointless.  I really liked Julie and Julia, which is why I picked it up.

Have a great Sunday, all. 

I'm linking up to What I Wore Sunday.

Wednesday

Discovered I have a crazy number of cloth diapers, oh my goodness!  Enough to send to Cloth For A Cause, give a starter kit to my sister who is expecting her first, and keep a stack for myself to use on Clara. 

A further note on Cloth For A Cause:  this is an amazing Canadian charity that offers cloth diapering families a place to donate their old, new, extra or whatever diapers.  They can use almost everything, as this post on their blog shows.

This break from the computer at home has been good for us.  The amount of work I got done today was amazing - the bathroom cleaned, the bedding washed, bacon and eggs for breakfast...even a trip to a science group for Samuel today.  I'm not going to deny it, I miss the contact, the social aspect of Facebook, and I miss being able to work throughout the day on a blog post, but I couldn't allow myself to keep getting sucked into playing around on Facebook when I was home with the children - and already I have seen the rewards.

On another note, some of the books we've been reading these days...



Amazon link



Amazon link



Amazon link



We're off to a coffee evening tonight to meet some of our neighbours - well, at least one of us is.  I will not be bringing the children, so David and I might switch up.

Have a great night.

Tuesdays

It's been a hugely busy day today, lots of diaper stripping and hanging (I didn't take pictures, more's the pity) and a long walk to the other end of town to do some window shopping for decorations for a certain boy's third birthday party, which will be happening oh so shortly.  This is also David's last day off work before a ten day stretch, so I'm trying to fit in as much family time as possible.

Additionally, I've decided that in the next few weeks I'm going to refrain from using the computer at home at all.  Instead, each of the posts that you'll read here in the next little while will be typed from the library computer.  The reason?  I can feel myself relying too much on the internet for entertainment during the day, and I want to focus entirely on my children and my home right now, so refusing to even turn on the computer means that I am present in a more tangible way with the things that are most important to me.

I am keeping up the blog, and checking Facebook, but only by making a trip once a day (if I can manage it) to the library.  So if I'm able to do so without children, you may see pictures, and if I'm not, like today, well then you get just text.

What I Wore Sunday - Plaid Inspiration

I posted on Facebook Friday night that I was feeling a little bored by my wardrobe choices recently.  I mean, I have a 'type' when it comes to my Sunday best.  Ok, honestly, I have a 'type' when it comes to all of my clothing.  I mean, take a look at some of my outfits so far for this linkup.

I wear a knee-length skirt, a modest top, and tights to church pretty much every week.  There's no reason for this, per se, it's just that much of my closet consists of this type of outfit.  I look clean, neat, pretty, and ordinary.  I don't know, maybe it's stretching it to imagine that I could pull off anything even vaguely hip, but geez, I could try.

So I went on La Pinteresta and scrolled around a bit looking for inspiration.  I needed an outfit that was something I could see myself wearing, but that stretched me as well.  Something that was not, in other words, clothing I would generally wear or buy or look twice at - but at the same time wasn't neon green spandex leggings or something.  This is the Lord's Day we're talkin' 'bout here - I have to look presentable.

Here's what I came up with:

As you can see, it's a super duper change from my usual.  But at the same time, it's not extreme, at least in my mind.  Now, there are a few things I can't/wouldn't want to incorporate, but at the same time my intention is to use the outfit as inspiration, not to try and copy it exactly.

I'm not going to wear a mid-thigh skirt and a knitted toque to service, for example, and I haven't got over-the-knee length wool socks (Why don't I, btw?  Those look very comfortable.) but after looking at the outfit for a few days I think I have an idea of what makes it look the way it does.

1)  Dark colours.
2)  Belted waist.
3)  Plaid pattern.

Here's my interpretation:

I wore: black dress pants, a blue oxford shirt, black belt and beige cardigan, all second hand.  And a plaid wool vest that I've had forever and I believe I actually got from my grandfather.

So let's talk about the first impressions, shall we?  I debated a lot about this look because it's just so different from what I would normally wear on a daily basis.  And have I mentioned I'm not hip or trendy or really knowledgeable about fashion much at all?  Yeah, that definately came through in the decision process. 

"Do I tuck in the blue oxford?  Surely I don't tuck in the cardigan???  No, that can't be right.  Ok, let's tuck in the blue shirt but NOT the vest and cardigan.  Now where does this belt go?  OVER the cardigan?  Over the vest but not the cardigan?  Ugh."

If you'd heard the internal monologue you might have been under the impression I'd never actually dressed myself before.

I tried to draw as much inspiration from the model as I could, or felt comfortable with.  I stuck with darker colours in blues/greys and a brownish cardigan to replace the brown coat she wore.  I also attempted the thick black belt, and the plaid, as well as the buttoned up neckline.  I replaced the dress with pants, obvi. and ditched the hat.

My impressions:

On the positive side, after all the angst getting dressed I actually am not appalled by the result.  It is honestly not something I would have thought to try before, which is kind of the point, right?  It utilized pieces (like the vest) that I truly never wear.  I was initially awkward leaving the house in it, but no one laughed, which was good.

On the negative side, you cannot cannot cannot nurse in this outfit.  Cannot.  Well, I mean you can but it is very revealing and requires some skill.  Bring a blanket.  Or a sense of humour.  Maybe both.  It's also incredibly hot.  I think I forgot that I was wearing a buttoned up to the neck shirt with a wool vest and a cardigan overtop and then a tight belt, because I was very warm. 

Other people's impressions:

My husband said nothing until I asked him, which probably means he just didn't notice that I was wearing anything different at all.  But when pressed for his opinion he said he wasn't sure about the belt, and he didn't know about the brown sweater.  Only one person outside mentioned it at all, and they said I looked very 'school teacher ish'. 

I feel really optimistic about this experiement, so much so that I'm going to do it again next week!  Maybe, if you're bored with your outfits, you can join me in getting inspired to try something new.  My plan is to really push my boundaries next week, so we'll see how successful I am.

I'm linking up with Fine Linen and Purple and Watch What I'm Wearing.