Friday, January 30, 2009
Seth's tummy hurt yesterday!!!
I can't believe it. Seth came up to me and said "tummy hurt"!! It's the first time he's ever used words to communicate feelings. He usually just uses words to name things, etc. but never to actually tell me what he's thinking, feeling or needing. Not that I'm excited that his tummy hurt....but I couldn't help but be so happy when he said that! Yay!
Pregnant in America
Seth's birth (hospital birth w/massive amounts of drugs) was terrifying, cold and traumatic for both of us. It opened my eyes to realize that there was a better, more natural way of doing things. Ella's birth (at home) was the most liberating, empowering, amazing, joyful experience of my life. Her birth was a warm celebration of life and motherhood. I am so passionate about natural, at-home births.
If you are pregnant, going to be pregnant, know someone who might get pregnant PLEASE watch this movie.
This clip will only show you 54 minutes of the movie...then you have to wait a little bit to finish it. Let me assure you that it is well worth your time.
"Women don't know what they're missing, and it's so sad"
Link
If you are pregnant, going to be pregnant, know someone who might get pregnant PLEASE watch this movie.
This clip will only show you 54 minutes of the movie...then you have to wait a little bit to finish it. Let me assure you that it is well worth your time.
"Women don't know what they're missing, and it's so sad"
Link
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Playsilks for cheap
I've been wanting playsilks for the kids for a loooong time now. But, I can't bring myself to spending that much money on them. I found this website where you can buy the silk and dye them yourself, for much much cheaper! Yay!
Dharma Trading Co.
Dharma Trading Co.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
There's excitement in the air
....big time excitement. It's crazy out there! We ventured out to the grocery store this morning. The store is only a hop skip and jump from downtown DC. It was madness! Masses of people, limos and VIP buses everywhere, tons and tons of people out cleaning up the streets, etc. Mt. Vernon is just a 1/2 mile from our house, and Seth and I counted 25 charter buses parked out front unloading people! Everyone is getting pretty excited to welcome the newest member of our community. Everyone seems so giddy. They were even selling homemade Obama-decorated cookies at the grocery store.
I would (maybe) go to the inauguration tomorrow if I had a helper. But, tomorrow is going to be a crazy day for the taxi business. The craziness actually started on Friday for them. This is turning out to be bigger than New Years for them.
Most of the roads will be closed tomorrow, so I think we will be hibernating until sometime on Wednesday!
I looked on Craigslist and people in our area are renting out rooms (just rooms, not the whole house!) in their homes for up to $2,500/night. Hmmmm....
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Spoonflower
This is a website where you can design and print your own fabric! How cute would it be to make a fabric out of kid's artwork, special messages, etc.? Oh my goodness, so fun!
Spoonflower
Spoonflower
Blake Update
My brother, Blake, is almost done with his 2 year mission in Albuquerque, NM. He will be home in July! I can't believe it! We are so excited to see Blake again. He is doing so great. He's definitely made himself busy while he's been there. He's had quite a few baptisms and he's made some great friends. He's currently serving as the zone leader of his district.
I can't wait to see my brother! I miss him so much! The year before he left, while he was in Utah, we made a point to call each other once everyday. It was definitely a hard transition going from that to only talking to him twice a year. Also, I can't wait for him to meet Ella. The last time he saw Seth was when he was Ella's age! Blake emailed a couple pictures a few weeks ago. They aren't great, but they are recent!
He went from my favorite long-haired, guitar playing hippie...
...to my favorite clean cut missionary
(on the left)
I can't wait to see my brother! I miss him so much! The year before he left, while he was in Utah, we made a point to call each other once everyday. It was definitely a hard transition going from that to only talking to him twice a year. Also, I can't wait for him to meet Ella. The last time he saw Seth was when he was Ella's age! Blake emailed a couple pictures a few weeks ago. They aren't great, but they are recent!
He went from my favorite long-haired, guitar playing hippie...
...to my favorite clean cut missionary
(on the left)
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
The Simple Life
Living a Simple Life
by: Crystal Miller
Living the simple life is not always an easy task. In today’s world of hustle, bustle and busy lives, the simple life can be hard to find. It seems that the home can often become a rest stop to refresh a moment and then move onto the next activity. Life can become too busy. Perhaps in your heart you would like life to be a little simpler. You would like time to just “stop and smell the roses” but can’t quite figure out how to get to that point. Another down side to a life that is too busy is that I believe it can rob us of some of the greater joys of being a homemaker. I believe that as we live this “life in the fast lane” we can become discontent.
How does a busy life make us discontent you may ask? Well when life is too busy we find that that the home and family will suffer. Things in the home won’t run as we would like them to. The house may be more chaotic then we would like, household tasks are not being attended to, meals may lack nutritional value, too much money is spent on convenience foods due to lack of time, laundry piles up, we may not be able to get to some of the projects we have been putting off, and so the list goes. So we end up feeling discontent because things are not as we would desire them to be. Our homes are not functioning as though we are in control of our domain.
So we set out to make some changes. We have an idea of what we might like our homes to be and begin to figure our ways to achieve this. As we desire to make changes we start looking for ways to make our lives easier. We think that easy and simple go hand-in-hand.
We have countless appliances that will do every task imaginable. We seek out the latest convenience foods so we can spend less time in the kitchen; we stream line so we can accomplish more and more each day. Not all of this is undesirable or without merit, but is this the answer to a simple life?
To me simplicity is not dinner from a box; it is a home cooked pot of soup and homemade bread. To me simplicity is not a cake mix, but a cake made from scratch with whole wheat flour I grind myself. To me simplicity is not permapress clothing but a little time at the ironing board to think, pray, and learn to be content with my role in life. To me simplicity is not always wanting more stuff, but learning how to enjoy and appreciate what I have. To me simplicity is not sticking a DVD in for the kids to keep them occupied; it is spending an afternoon in the garden working side-by-side with them. To me simplicity is not buying my milk from the grocery store, but milking my own goats. Simple living is not always easy living. Simple living, to me, is taking a slower walk in life and appreciating the things that go to making our lives as homemakers complete and fulfilling.
The satisfaction and joy we can get from so many homemaking tasks can easily be lost unless we intend in our heats to live a simple life. But a simple life can take more time. If we can’t slow down enough to enjoy some of the basic fundamentals of homemaking then perhaps we are missing some of the very things that make a simple life an enjoyable life. A simple life is something one learns to love if it is a life that they desire to have.
Many simple living tasks have a multitude of blessing that go with them. When our dryer went out last summer we were learning how to enjoy the simple living task of hanging out laundry. We learned that sometimes working harder at a job has its own merits. I pointed out to my children that we saved money by not running the dryer and that in turn meant Dad’s hard earned dollars could be put towards other needs in the family, we also learned that putting clothes on the line at 6:30 in the morning is a perfect time to enjoy the quiet sounds of summer on our homestead. There is a peace in this that is hard to find in the middle of the day. We also learned that sheets that have been drying in the sun have the best smell!
The kitchen seems to be another room that abounds with simple living tasks. I think food and preparation of meals is something very important to a family. It is easy to be frustrated at the time spent in the kitchen, however it is an opportunity to look beyond the mundane and see the bigger goal being accomplished when you spend time preparing home cooked meals for your family. The health benefits alone that are received from home cooking can give us as homemakers much satisfaction. I love knowing that I am feeding my husband and children good quality foods that will assist them in living a healthy life. There are also financial benefits from it. Every frugal meal that is cooked from scratch for my family means my husband does not have to be working for boxes of Hamburger Helper or packages of Rice-a-Roni or any other costly packaged convenience food.! These types of realizations can hopefully be positive reinforcements on the value of simple living. Most of all, when your family sits down to eat at the end of a long day who could deny the absolute joy of setting down to meal of homemade, made with love from the heart, food?
Living a simple life may require changes to the way we live. I don’t have a busy life outside my home. I have it this way on purpose. I am happiest when my life is simple and serene. Well as serene as life gets with a houseful of children! I am the most content when I live a life in my home, doing the things that make my home run smooth and giving my family a quality of life that is fulfilling.
I am also passing on to my children the value of a simple life by my example. If I am always busy, busy I fear I may end up teaching them the message of discontentment. The message states that I can only be happy and satisfied if I am going and doing all the time. I have learned over the years that the two ways of life just do not mix. The dividing line for outside busyness and living a simple life at home will be drawn in a different place for each of us. I am not saying that all outside activity needs to stop, that would unrealistic. But rather when life has too much going on, it is impossible to live a simple life. I had to make very different choices in my life in order to achieve the goal of simple living. But I am more content and more satisfied today as a homemaker than every before.
Link
by: Crystal Miller
Living the simple life is not always an easy task. In today’s world of hustle, bustle and busy lives, the simple life can be hard to find. It seems that the home can often become a rest stop to refresh a moment and then move onto the next activity. Life can become too busy. Perhaps in your heart you would like life to be a little simpler. You would like time to just “stop and smell the roses” but can’t quite figure out how to get to that point. Another down side to a life that is too busy is that I believe it can rob us of some of the greater joys of being a homemaker. I believe that as we live this “life in the fast lane” we can become discontent. How does a busy life make us discontent you may ask? Well when life is too busy we find that that the home and family will suffer. Things in the home won’t run as we would like them to. The house may be more chaotic then we would like, household tasks are not being attended to, meals may lack nutritional value, too much money is spent on convenience foods due to lack of time, laundry piles up, we may not be able to get to some of the projects we have been putting off, and so the list goes. So we end up feeling discontent because things are not as we would desire them to be. Our homes are not functioning as though we are in control of our domain.
So we set out to make some changes. We have an idea of what we might like our homes to be and begin to figure our ways to achieve this. As we desire to make changes we start looking for ways to make our lives easier. We think that easy and simple go hand-in-hand.
We have countless appliances that will do every task imaginable. We seek out the latest convenience foods so we can spend less time in the kitchen; we stream line so we can accomplish more and more each day. Not all of this is undesirable or without merit, but is this the answer to a simple life?
To me simplicity is not dinner from a box; it is a home cooked pot of soup and homemade bread. To me simplicity is not a cake mix, but a cake made from scratch with whole wheat flour I grind myself. To me simplicity is not permapress clothing but a little time at the ironing board to think, pray, and learn to be content with my role in life. To me simplicity is not always wanting more stuff, but learning how to enjoy and appreciate what I have. To me simplicity is not sticking a DVD in for the kids to keep them occupied; it is spending an afternoon in the garden working side-by-side with them. To me simplicity is not buying my milk from the grocery store, but milking my own goats. Simple living is not always easy living. Simple living, to me, is taking a slower walk in life and appreciating the things that go to making our lives as homemakers complete and fulfilling.
The satisfaction and joy we can get from so many homemaking tasks can easily be lost unless we intend in our heats to live a simple life. But a simple life can take more time. If we can’t slow down enough to enjoy some of the basic fundamentals of homemaking then perhaps we are missing some of the very things that make a simple life an enjoyable life. A simple life is something one learns to love if it is a life that they desire to have.
Many simple living tasks have a multitude of blessing that go with them. When our dryer went out last summer we were learning how to enjoy the simple living task of hanging out laundry. We learned that sometimes working harder at a job has its own merits. I pointed out to my children that we saved money by not running the dryer and that in turn meant Dad’s hard earned dollars could be put towards other needs in the family, we also learned that putting clothes on the line at 6:30 in the morning is a perfect time to enjoy the quiet sounds of summer on our homestead. There is a peace in this that is hard to find in the middle of the day. We also learned that sheets that have been drying in the sun have the best smell!
The kitchen seems to be another room that abounds with simple living tasks. I think food and preparation of meals is something very important to a family. It is easy to be frustrated at the time spent in the kitchen, however it is an opportunity to look beyond the mundane and see the bigger goal being accomplished when you spend time preparing home cooked meals for your family. The health benefits alone that are received from home cooking can give us as homemakers much satisfaction. I love knowing that I am feeding my husband and children good quality foods that will assist them in living a healthy life. There are also financial benefits from it. Every frugal meal that is cooked from scratch for my family means my husband does not have to be working for boxes of Hamburger Helper or packages of Rice-a-Roni or any other costly packaged convenience food.! These types of realizations can hopefully be positive reinforcements on the value of simple living. Most of all, when your family sits down to eat at the end of a long day who could deny the absolute joy of setting down to meal of homemade, made with love from the heart, food?
Living a simple life may require changes to the way we live. I don’t have a busy life outside my home. I have it this way on purpose. I am happiest when my life is simple and serene. Well as serene as life gets with a houseful of children! I am the most content when I live a life in my home, doing the things that make my home run smooth and giving my family a quality of life that is fulfilling.
I am also passing on to my children the value of a simple life by my example. If I am always busy, busy I fear I may end up teaching them the message of discontentment. The message states that I can only be happy and satisfied if I am going and doing all the time. I have learned over the years that the two ways of life just do not mix. The dividing line for outside busyness and living a simple life at home will be drawn in a different place for each of us. I am not saying that all outside activity needs to stop, that would unrealistic. But rather when life has too much going on, it is impossible to live a simple life. I had to make very different choices in my life in order to achieve the goal of simple living. But I am more content and more satisfied today as a homemaker than every before.
Link
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Apron Evangelism
I will be wearing an apron tomorrow. A long skirt and pearls? Don't count on it. But, an apron? Yes.
Apron Evangelism
Apron Evangelism
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