~ William Stafford
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
What an awesome day!
As you know, babywearing has become of my hobbies (& passions) since I had KB. I am always looking for new ways to comfortable carry my baby, and new carriers to try. I typically wear KB on my front, in the ring sling (which she *loves*!!).... but with VBS starting tonight(!), was looking for a technique/carrier (like a wrap), so that I could carry KB on my back. While we were out with my MIL today (She likes to kidnap us occasionally - which I appreciate getting out of the house!), and when I mentioned my mission.... she just so happened to have Pitter Patter (one of our lovely baby/children's consignment shops here).'s number in her phone. I called, and sure enough... they had a wrap! I was able to get lovely heather-grey wrap for right at $20! They had a beautiful, (used) Natural colored Maya ring sling... which brand new run $45-$60..... marked $22, and then reduced (hence the red line through it) for only $11!! ::amazed look:: Given the awesome price, I *almost* bought it... but then decided against it, due to our current finances. But I did let the ladies know in my baby group, in case it could bless someone else!!
The other cool thing about my trip, was that I also was able to talk with/educate the gal working today, *all* about babywearing - complete with demos! :-) I gave her the info for one of the local babywearing groups, for when mommies come in with babywearing questions. (she says she gets a lot of them, and doesn't have clue as to what to tell them!). and even found the clip in "Mommy Magazine" which also gave her the gal-in-charge's number, reference! She was so happy to have met me... and I was so glad to be able to share & help! :-)
As you know, babywearing has become of my hobbies (& passions) since I had KB. I am always looking for new ways to comfortable carry my baby, and new carriers to try. I typically wear KB on my front, in the ring sling (which she *loves*!!).... but with VBS starting tonight(!), was looking for a technique/carrier (like a wrap), so that I could carry KB on my back. While we were out with my MIL today (She likes to kidnap us occasionally - which I appreciate getting out of the house!), and when I mentioned my mission.... she just so happened to have Pitter Patter (one of our lovely baby/children's consignment shops here).'s number in her phone. I called, and sure enough... they had a wrap! I was able to get lovely heather-grey wrap for right at $20! They had a beautiful, (used) Natural colored Maya ring sling... which brand new run $45-$60..... marked $22, and then reduced (hence the red line through it) for only $11!! ::amazed look:: Given the awesome price, I *almost* bought it... but then decided against it, due to our current finances. But I did let the ladies know in my baby group, in case it could bless someone else!!
The other cool thing about my trip, was that I also was able to talk with/educate the gal working today, *all* about babywearing - complete with demos! :-) I gave her the info for one of the local babywearing groups, for when mommies come in with babywearing questions. (she says she gets a lot of them, and doesn't have clue as to what to tell them!). and even found the clip in "Mommy Magazine" which also gave her the gal-in-charge's number, reference! She was so happy to have met me... and I was so glad to be able to share & help! :-)
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Multi-Racial dolls...
Someone recently asked the question: "Does/will anybody have dolls of other races for their LO's to play with? We don't want our DD to just have "white" dolls and toys. We want her to be exposed to different races and have multi-racial toys too. I grew up in a very multi-cultural city and want the same for her."
Here is my response...
Growing up, I know we had at least one black doll that someone gave us, and my sister LOVED it! However, I don't think having dolls of other races, really either helps nor hurts the racist issue. Personally, I wouldn't set out to specifically buy a muti-racial doll for KB.... if a doll was gifted to us, I would definitely let her have it, and use it as an opportunity (when she gets older) to talk about the blessing of adoption. On racism.... I believe the best way to teach a child to get along with all races, is to expose them to people of other races from a young age, without making it into a big deal. (for example, we have a few families in our church who are from Haiti... and one of them have an almost 2yo little girl who loves KB!) On the flip side, however.... while I have no problem talking to, interacting with, or having friendships with people of other races... I do believe there is a line as to what extent races should unify, marry or reproduce. I do not & will not judge other people who are in or the product of a bi-racial relationship, but personally would not enter into one, nor encourage my daughter in that direction, either.
Growing up, I know we had at least one black doll that someone gave us, and my sister LOVED it! However, I don't think having dolls of other races, really either helps nor hurts the racist issue. Personally, I wouldn't set out to specifically buy a muti-racial doll for KB.... if a doll was gifted to us, I would definitely let her have it, and use it as an opportunity (when she gets older) to talk about the blessing of adoption. On racism.... I believe the best way to teach a child to get along with all races, is to expose them to people of other races from a young age, without making it into a big deal. (for example, we have a few families in our church who are from Haiti... and one of them have an almost 2yo little girl who loves KB!) On the flip side, however.... while I have no problem talking to, interacting with, or having friendships with people of other races... I do believe there is a line as to what extent races should unify, marry or reproduce. I do not & will not judge other people who are in or the product of a bi-racial relationship, but personally would not enter into one, nor encourage my daughter in that direction, either.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Think Generous!
Shortly after we were married, I signed up for this daily email digest called "the Generous Wife" (likewise, my hubby gets companion elist, "the Generous Husband"). Everyday I receive an email with an idea on how I can bless my husband. (a mix of romantic, practical, sexual, relational, and spiritual). The tips aren't always appropriate for where we are.... but we are encouraged to take advantage of the ones that apply.... and then use the rest as a tool to spark your imagination, to find new ways to bless your husband.
Anyway, the subject lately has been a series "Things That Destroy Marriages"... talking to husbands about behaviors and attitudes that are destructive to marriage. Since the feedback from the series had been encouraging, they decided to send us wives the series... with a feminized/edit of the husband's tips and with a few more added that are more common to women.
Today's email esp. blessed me..
Tuesday July 22, 2008
From The Generous Husband series Things That Destroy Marriages ~.
From Paul to the husbands:
When you blow it, big time or in a minor way, do you deal with it in a way that blesses your bride? Do you apologize? Do you deal with it in a way that makes her feel you understand why your actions (or words) were wrong or painful? More than all of this, do you really repent - that is to change direction - make a real effort to not repeat what you have apologized for? If you are repeatedly apologizing for the same thing, something is wrong. If you care about her, you don't want to hurt her, and if you keep hurting her over and over for the same thing it quickly starts to look like you don't care.
By the way, you can also apologize for her feeling hurt by unintended consequences of something you say or do. Even though you didn't intend to hurt her, you can feel bad that you did.
But what about things that "shouldn't" hurt her but do? Maybe she is too sensitive about something - maybe she even admits she's too sensitive about something. Don't make it seem it's your fault if it's not, but you can say "I'm sorry that hurts."
My thoughts:
All of this is appropriate for us gals. Do say you're sorry when you've done something hurtful or wrong. Do be serious about changing when you need to. It's ok to say you're sorry over your spouse's pain, even when you haven't done anything wrong.
Never ruin an apology with an excuse. Kimberly Johnson
Think generous! Lori <><
Anyway, the subject lately has been a series "Things That Destroy Marriages"... talking to husbands about behaviors and attitudes that are destructive to marriage. Since the feedback from the series had been encouraging, they decided to send us wives the series... with a feminized/edit of the husband's tips and with a few more added that are more common to women.
Today's email esp. blessed me..
Tuesday July 22, 2008
From The Generous Husband series Things That Destroy Marriages ~.
From Paul to the husbands:
When you blow it, big time or in a minor way, do you deal with it in a way that blesses your bride? Do you apologize? Do you deal with it in a way that makes her feel you understand why your actions (or words) were wrong or painful? More than all of this, do you really repent - that is to change direction - make a real effort to not repeat what you have apologized for? If you are repeatedly apologizing for the same thing, something is wrong. If you care about her, you don't want to hurt her, and if you keep hurting her over and over for the same thing it quickly starts to look like you don't care.
By the way, you can also apologize for her feeling hurt by unintended consequences of something you say or do. Even though you didn't intend to hurt her, you can feel bad that you did.
But what about things that "shouldn't" hurt her but do? Maybe she is too sensitive about something - maybe she even admits she's too sensitive about something. Don't make it seem it's your fault if it's not, but you can say "I'm sorry that hurts."
My thoughts:
All of this is appropriate for us gals. Do say you're sorry when you've done something hurtful or wrong. Do be serious about changing when you need to. It's ok to say you're sorry over your spouse's pain, even when you haven't done anything wrong.
Never ruin an apology with an excuse. Kimberly Johnson
Think generous! Lori <><
Sunday, July 20, 2008
10 more days!
Only 10 more days until Marmee and the girls come down for KB's birthday! I can't *wait* till they are here, and I can hug their necks!! ...I could use a good hug right now!!
(A picture of my Marmee & Me - Fall, 2005) ----------------------->
Friday, July 18, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Homemade pizza!
Today, I made a chicken soup for dinner... but God had other plans for us. Wednesday nights are usually busy... and it's not uncommon for us to not eat until after church, late that night. This was the case tonight. Though the soup was about ready by the time B got home from work... we didn't really have time to sit down to a meal, before it's time to go to church. So I covered it up, turned off the stove, and off we went. Church started out like any other Wednesday night... The teens met in the auditorium, stayed through the song service, and then left during hand-shaking (right before the preaching) to go over for their own Bible Study with Pastor Dan - usually followed by some sort of outing. Only this week, instead of going over to the education building for a bible study... we all loaded straight into the bus for our outing. :confused look: Next thing we know, we are pulling up in front of the Losiers house... where they had graciously been preparing several delicious homemade pizzas for us to eat, and their home to host our bible study! We ate to our heart's content (they made chocolate cupcakes for us too!), had a wonderful bible study, and then headed back to the church, full & happy. :)
So God once again provided.. not only stretching out our meal plans, one more night... but also already having a wonderful chicken soup prepared for us, after what's going to be a busy day tomorrow! Praise the Lord!!
So God once again provided.. not only stretching out our meal plans, one more night... but also already having a wonderful chicken soup prepared for us, after what's going to be a busy day tomorrow! Praise the Lord!!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Food
Today I found myself feeling weary over the current (sparse) amount of food in our kitchen... and I had come to a point, where I was at a complete loss as to what other creative things I could do, with what little bit we had left. We are desperate need to go grocery shopping.... yet I knew just getting all our pending bills paid, was going to be a miracle in itself! - It was all becoming way too overwhelming to my mind, emotions... and stomach. In a state frustration, desperation, & tears, I called my earthly lifeline.... my mom (Marmee). I can't tell you how thankful I am to have such a wise, resourceful, & creative role model in my life! She assured me that it really will all be okay.... and then (over the phone -praise the Lord for free Alltel to Alltel!) patiently walked me through making a list of everything I had in my refrigerator, in-house freezer, chest freezer & pantry... and then helped me brainstorm creative ideas for meals. The more I sorted, the more the Lord began showing himself strong. I began pulling out things I never remember having... several chicken breasts, a chicken carcass with a little meat on it (to use for soup), a pork tenderloin, some sweet potatoes fries, some brown rice, two and a half bags of frozen fruit, some whole wheat flour, and lots of peas! Wow! Between shouts of amazement & declarations of praise to the Lord, mom began listing meal ideas as I am madly scribbled them onto my scratch paper! When everything was said and done - to my delight & surprise - we were able to come up with 10 full dinners... all possible without ever having to step foot in the store! (Thank you Lord!) I never in a million years thought I would come up with that much! God is SO good!
On tonight's menu... Whole wheat blueberry pancakes & smoothies! (yum!)
On tonight's menu... Whole wheat blueberry pancakes & smoothies! (yum!)
This morning, I received a little hope! After B's response to seeing KB's invite last night... (basically he went into this little rant on how he had to get an advance on this week's paycheck b/c of all the bills scheduled to go out in the next few days... and we hardly have enough to cover them, so don't get my heart set having anything to spend on a birthday party, etc.).... I was feeling slightly discouraged. Today, as I was talking to Marmee, I mentioned what happened and she helped me brainstorm ways we could make her party work... without spending very much money. (she's SO good at that!!) Here's some of what we came up with....
Location: Unless you reserve them so they are all yours, the Fountains are free. They open at 10am, so though her party isn't until later, we'll go first thing, claim the tables, and then work around any extras as they come.
Food: It's going to be a potluck... so everyone bring a dish, and we'll provide drinks, & cake. For drinks we are going to borrow some of those big 10-gallon drink dispensers from church, and have one filled with lemonade, one with water, and one with sweet tea.... all easy & cheap!
Cake: Mom is going to make/decorate the cake, as one of her gifts to KB. She will decorate it to match the same theme as the invitation... and even offered to find & use a healthy recipe which uses a natural sweetener, so that we're not dealing with a ton of sugar (something we're trying to avoid with KB)!!
Decorations: From all of the past birthdays my mom has done for us... she has enough [solid] colored cake plates, in the themed colors to not have to go buy anything! Praise the Lord!! We will use plain white Styrofoam plate for the food... and plain little Dixie cups for the drinks... both of which, we also already have. Mom has a "Happy Birthday" banner in similar colors as the theme, with little cute butterflies and dragonflies on it... not the exact same style... but it will definately work! And a ton of little bubbles left over from H's wedding that we can use as favors if we want!
Invitations: I am having them printed as regular 4x6 photos (like I did for KB's birth announcements) through Wal*mart. For 30 prints, shipped directly to my home, it only cost us a little over $5, (that's only about 16¢ a piece! - 29¢ less than the pre-printed ones!! - Whoohoo!)... which my wonderful Marmee paid for! They should be here by the end of the week! (next Tues at the latest)!
God is SO good!
Location: Unless you reserve them so they are all yours, the Fountains are free. They open at 10am, so though her party isn't until later, we'll go first thing, claim the tables, and then work around any extras as they come.
Food: It's going to be a potluck... so everyone bring a dish, and we'll provide drinks, & cake. For drinks we are going to borrow some of those big 10-gallon drink dispensers from church, and have one filled with lemonade, one with water, and one with sweet tea.... all easy & cheap!
Cake: Mom is going to make/decorate the cake, as one of her gifts to KB. She will decorate it to match the same theme as the invitation... and even offered to find & use a healthy recipe which uses a natural sweetener, so that we're not dealing with a ton of sugar (something we're trying to avoid with KB)!!
Decorations: From all of the past birthdays my mom has done for us... she has enough [solid] colored cake plates, in the themed colors to not have to go buy anything! Praise the Lord!! We will use plain white Styrofoam plate for the food... and plain little Dixie cups for the drinks... both of which, we also already have. Mom has a "Happy Birthday" banner in similar colors as the theme, with little cute butterflies and dragonflies on it... not the exact same style... but it will definately work! And a ton of little bubbles left over from H's wedding that we can use as favors if we want!
Invitations: I am having them printed as regular 4x6 photos (like I did for KB's birth announcements) through Wal*mart. For 30 prints, shipped directly to my home, it only cost us a little over $5, (that's only about 16¢ a piece! - 29¢ less than the pre-printed ones!! - Whoohoo!)... which my wonderful Marmee paid for! They should be here by the end of the week! (next Tues at the latest)!
God is SO good!
Monday, July 14, 2008
Invitations...
I finally sat down, focused, and finished KB's 1st birthday invitations today! I am SO happy with the way they came out!
And considering it was going to cost us approx 45¢ a invitation, to buy them pre-printed.... hopefully making them myself will save us money, and help B not be quite so worried about this all working out!!
And considering it was going to cost us approx 45¢ a invitation, to buy them pre-printed.... hopefully making them myself will save us money, and help B not be quite so worried about this all working out!!
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
My new clothes line!
I have been wanting a clothesline for sometime now.... (I have been hanging KB's diapers on the kitchen chairs or DH's 6-foot ladder to dry)... and this weekend, B bought me the stuff and put one up! Yay!! Due to the rain, today was the first day I could use it.... and I *love* it!!
Sunday, July 6, 2008
B-day Party location found!!
As hard as it is to believe, in just 5 short weeks my baby girl with be one. (word. how did that happen?!) and so, as much as I *don't* want to think about it... I have had to start making plans for her first birthday party! We have this really neat park with a little fountain "water park" next to it, and I have been thinking of having her birthday there. Not knowing how she'd react to "shooting" water, I wanted to make sure she liked it before we set any plans in stone (it would have stunk if she was terrified of her own b-day location!). We took her there a couple of Sundays ago (while my sister, Ashlee was here)... and despite the kinda rough ground, she crawled in and out of the various fountains, and had a total blast! :) After we were there for about an hour, a storm blew in and they had to turn off the water. Well apparently my little drama queen was *not* ready to be done... and started crying & reaching for the water. She loved it! So I am happy to say, we have definately found our location! Now I just have to decide if I want to pay $75 to rent it for 2hrs. (so it would be closed to just us).... or just claim the near-by tables and endure whoever may be there at the time (which has the potential of being crazy busy, or absolutely fine)... At this point, with our financial situation being as it is, I will probably just use the "grin & bear it" route... (as I'll be lucky if we can even afford to get the decorations I wanted for it. - arg. I hate money!! Anyway, enough of my rambling. Here's a few pictures of KB at the water park (didn't get any of the playground)....
(ignore the strange face I am making!!)
and she's off...
Our little family...
she loved stepping on the water!
Not ready to go....
The rest of the pictures here
(ignore the strange face I am making!!)
and she's off...
Our little family...
she loved stepping on the water!
Not ready to go....
The rest of the pictures here
Saturday, July 5, 2008
4th of July
We had a delicious dinner at the in-laws.... Lemon/Chicken soup, Greek salad and (4th of July tradion), watermelon.... and then headed out to the bay to see the fireworks. Thanks to my FIL knowing/befriending *everyone* he meets, we were able to have the most awesome Birdseye view of the fireworks - from the roof top of a beautiful [ritzy!] 12 story building, overlooking the marina... it was breathtakingly spectacular!! Unfortunately, I forgot to grab the Rebel as we were running out the door... but I did try to get a few pictures via our little Sony point&shoot (diaper bag backup camera)... next year, we're definitely taking the good camera & a tripod!!
A view from the Marina/fireworks launching spot....
The middle building is our viewing spot...
The middle building is our viewing spot...
Daddy's little Firecracker...
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
"When you write, you give your readers a chance to look into the inner workings of your mind and heart. The act of putting thoughts on a page forces you to evaluate your ideas more objectively than when you merely think about them. For that reason, creative writing is the sweetest agony known to man."
- Howard G. Hendricks
- Howard G. Hendricks
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