Good Friday lunch

A sunny day to look for flowers, rocks and sticks!

I'm sorry I didn't get to this more quickly!  We have had a very busy week.  It's been good, but BUSY!  We made our Easter mountain, and tonight we attended our church's Maundy Thursday service (a highlight in my year!).  I will not take time now to repeat detailed descriptions on our Easter mountain, but just put up a few pictures I have taken as well as the link to where I wrote about this in the past.

Decorating the Easter mountain

But before Good Friday is here, I wanted to share my plan for a special Good Friday lunch we are going to have tomorrow.  I have been trying to think of a way to make Good Friday special with a meal.  We are not often at home on Good Friday, because we tend to travel to visit family on Easter, but this year we are here, and I wanted to do something meaningful, as well as invite some friends to do it with us!  So here is what I came up with -- it's not amazingly original, but amazingly simple.

 I want to set the table using real china, silver and goblets, and as a centerpiece put our Easter mountain as well as a small wood cross and a red rose.  As we talk about Jesus dying for our sins, I will let the kids help me rip off the petals and attach them to the cross with push pins, so we can visibly see something beautiful and perfect be destroyed like Jesus was. I got this idea from Jessalyn at Desiring Virtue, and you can read her post and see her beautiful pictures here.  

For food, I will set a large tray with the following: slices of cheese, cut into a cross shape, olives (for the mount of Olives where Jesus prayed), carrots cut in points like thorns, matzo bread (which shows stripes and piercings illustration how Jesus was hurt -- also, we break it, as Jesus' body was broken), grape juice (which reminds us of his blood poured out), small tomatoes (which remind us of the stone -- you could use anything round) and a lamb cake (which reminds us of the spotless Lamb who was slain).  My thinking in making it all on a tray is that it will prevent small kids from complaining about what food they don't like, and instead focus on the descriptions.  I also thought of adding some elements of a Passover Seder like parsely and salt water, but we'll see if I get to that!

I don't plan to read a TON to the kids, but just show them the food, and pray a serious prayer of thanksgiving and maybe read one good book to them while they eat.  We are also planning to let the kids make Resurrection rolls after we eat.

Hopefully my ideas (borrowed from other people mostly) will inspire you to have good conversations with your kids on Good Friday!  If all goes well, I will take some pictures to add to this post!

Table set all pretty!

Kids eating the food -- not sure if anyone but Susie actually liked what they ate, but nobody complained.

Lamb cake for dessert -- will not win me any awards but my kids thought it was awesome.

Showing his Resurrection roll

Susie's turned out nice and open and empty! (note, after dinner, there was a bit of playtime, thus the costume)

Ellie, rolling her marshmallow.  I was impressed, she is only 2 and she did a great job!

Here are some pictures of our Good Friday lunch today!

Easter Tradtions

The final part of "making Easter a big deal for your kids" is traditions.  Now from the outset, let me just say a word about "the search".  You can find amazing ideas on blogs and Pinterest all day long.  I love to search and "pin" ideas of cute Easter crafts and desserts, etc.  But at some point, the search needs to end, and you need to just make your traditions your own.  Sometimes searching so much can rob me of the joy of practicing the traditions, because in my mind I see the pinboard with all the ideas I didn't get to.  Or I think about how amazing other moms are and how they are doing more than me and then I feel guilty or depressed.  Let me just keep it real here -- there are some days that our house sits rather messy and supper gets just thrown together because I am doing crafts with my kids.  Or my kids have fight about whose day it is to put on the paper chain link or open the egg in the chicken (more about those in a minute).  In many ways, these traditions are for ME right now as much as them, because I am the one who knows Christ and who is encouraged to think of his great love for me when I see the cross.  But someday I hope the traditions will mean quite a lot to my children as well.

That said, let me share some of my favorite traditions that I anticipate continuing for a good length of time unless they someday become unhelpful to us:

A new tradition I'm starting this year is hanging tags on our new Easter clothes -- I really love this idea from Jessalyn at Desiring Virtue (which is also where I got the free printable).  I have always done new outfits for my kids (and sometimes the grown ups in our family as well) at Easter.  But I have never had a real reason for it -- but here is a wonderful way to redeem our new attire.  When we dress in fresh new clothes (or homemade clothes, or new-to-you hand me downs), we can feel fresh and new ourselves!  Instead of glorying in our appearance, we can remind ourselves that Christ dresses us in our new self in Him "after the image of the Creator" and one day he will dress us in a new robe that will not fade away.  I think this is a tradition that will grow with us -- it will be especially helpful when my kids get bigger and may be tempted to be proud of their appearance.  It is helpful for me NOW when I am proud of my kids' appearance!  As beautiful as they are in darling fresh Easter outfits, that is just a tiny tiny picture of the glory that is waiting when we are dressed in Christ's righteousness!

 Here are some traditions we have done in the past and are enjoying again this year:

1. Countdown to Easter -- I had an "aha" moment last year that I wrote about on this blog about how to count down to Easter by making a paper chain.  This year I cut 31 paper strips and taped one to hang from each day on Susie's calendar and the paper chain we have made is hanging from the kids' bedroom door.  I have mentioned multiple times how it keeps getting longer like our sins keep getting more and more.  I think my kids are going to get REALLY excited about ripping up the paper chain on Easter morning!

2. Easter tree/Resurrection eggs -- last year I put an egg in our glass chicken each morning for Susie to find when she woke up.  These eggs were a version of Resurrection eggs that I attached little ribbons to for us to hang on our "Easter Tree".  Susie has gotten REALLY excited about this again this year and can explain the symbols herself (except the coin, that one tripped her up).

3. Games and crafts --

• I like to hide puzzle pieces in eggs and have the kids hunt for them and then put together the puzzle.  I found small, easy puzzles on Oriental Trading that fit in the jumbo sized eggs well.  We enjoyed this activity last week with our neighbors, who are new to America, and have never before celebrated Easter -- I was glad I had thought through our traditions so I could explain Easter to her a little bit that day!  If I just had said "we do this egg and bunny thing. . . but . . . it's really about Jesus" it would just make no sense!  Instead I shared that eggs are a symbol of life and we celebrate that Jesus is alive at Easter.  She was interested and surprised that Chip recognized the picture of Jesus on the puzzle and shouted "Jesus!" when it was completed!  
• There are no end to the cute craft ideas out there!  I personally like to skip bunny stuff and most other spring-only type things to focus more on the cross.  My kids do have a collection of stuffed lambs, and I think lambs are a very appropriate animal to make crafts about (especially if you take time to learn about Jesus being our Shepherd, the Passover, etc).  Here are a couple adorable lamb crafts I found and may or may not create with my kids.  We have colored lots of pictures, done some paintings, and made Easter cards and bookmarks to share with friends. I'm posting links to some of my favorite coloring/painting pages. 

 4. Treats -- We sent an Easter care package to my sister who is in college and made a version of this treat.  It was perfect because the kids could help me make it, it was light to travel, and since I omitted the M&Ms, it was chocolate free (we try to use only fair trade chocolate, and make it rare and special).  We also like to make these Resurrection rolls with marshmallows, cinnamon and crescent rolls. Making treats to share for Easter gives us an opportunity to share our love for Jesus!  On a more every day level -- I have a small cross cookie cutter that I like to pull out from time to time and cut small cross shapes in my kids' pancakes, sandwiches or whatever just to make it a little bit special. 

Tomorrow I will post about our Holy Week traditions -- our Easter mountain, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday.  Enjoy a blessed Palm Sunday looking forward to the return of the King!

Singing for Easter

Susie at lunch -- looks like I felt extra Easter-ish that day!

My kids can sing Christmas carols all the live long day, mainly because I love to sing and listen to them during the Christmas season.  Chip could barely talk at Christmas but that didn't keep him from singing Silent Night and Away in a Manger from dawn til dusk during Advent (and a good while after Christmas too!).  However, it is not habitual for to me to swing into Lent and Holy Week and Easter singing good Easter songs (until Resurrection Sunday of course!) unless I really focus on it and try.  There are so many beautiful hymns and Christ-centered songs that I want my kids to learn and they won't unless we teach them!  So let me share a few of our favorites.

For very little children, I like teaching simple songs and choruses with hand motions.  So we sing The Gospel Song by Sovereign Grace and Easter Friday by Emu Music (the link will take you to the CD J is for Jesus and you can listen to Easter Friday).  Both my children have learned these songs before they were two (and a funny note -- they both called the song Easter Friday, "Jesus", as in "I want sing Jesus").  The Donutman song "Shout Hosanna" is also a favorite!  I don't personally have a CD with that song, but YouTube has several videos you can play for your kids to dance to.  It won't take long to learn any of those songs, even if you just look them up online and play them from your computer.

A friend recommended Passion Hymns for a Kids Heard book and CD set to me, and I ordered it for my kids this year.  My friend's family listens to the CD and reads the devotionals from the book in the days leading up to Easter for family worship and she has kids spread across quite an age range.  I have heard her 4 year old singing hymns while she colors in my preschool class and was impressed how many songs she knew!  Kids are like sponges -- why not play hymns for them that they will be singing all their lives? 

A favorite CD in our house (or I should say our van) is Songs Jesus Said by the Gettys.  We have listened to "Christ Has Risen" on that CD on Easter morning for several years now -- it's a great song to get up and dance to in celebration that the Lord is risen!  I like quite a few of the other songs as well, even if they are not specifically Easter related because they are about the life of Christ.  The other day in the car, after listening to "Once Upon a Boat" 95 times in a row, Susie suddenly piped up "Mommy, I think this song is about the time Jesus fell asleep on the boat and then he woke up and made the storm stop!"  HAHA!  It was quite the "aha" moment!  If we want our children to have the Scriptures imprinted on their hearts, then it is wise to have them "sing the scriptures" as our worship minister Chip Stam used to say. 

Let me just add a quick word about Scripture memory.  Though reciting Bible verses together is not actually singing, you will be surprised how quickly even young children will learn to memorize Bible verses if you take time to teach them.  This year I decided to have my kids learn a couple verses from Isaiah 53 and I'm so glad I did!  As I mentioned earlier, Chip is still not a huge talker, but he does a fantastic job reciting with us!  I use hand motions with our verses just as I do with songs, which helps tremendously.  I have been writing the verse of the week (it's been more like half a verse) on a little chalkboard as a decoration in our house, and it helps to remind me to quote the passage with them.  We usually practice at lunchtime or any other time I think of it!  Of course they cannot quite grasp what they are saying, but the exposure to bigger vocabulary like that is great -- we have talked about the words griefs, sorrow, esteemed, smitten, stricken, afflicted, wounded and transgressions.  I do not expect them to totally understand, but I do hope they will one day and that those words and verses will make a precious impact on their hearts.

Christ Centered Books for Easter

I have been building my kids' collection of Easter books and Christmas books since I had a newborn, adding to the collection each year.  I also used to work in a Christian bookstore, and took charge of the children's section there.  I will tell you something -- it is MUCH easier to find good Christ centered Christmas books than Easter books.  Some Christian books take Christ's death and resurrection too lightly and and some are way too wordy or heavy for young children.  But there are really good books out there, and I'm sure there are more I don't even know about!  Start your collection now if you haven't before, by adding one or two to your child's Easter basket this year!  Here is my list of good choices, broken down into 3 categories: Storybook Bibles, Bible narratives and allegorical tales.

1. Storybook Bibles -- I am so thankful for the increasing number of really good storybook Bibles that have been published in the past 10 years or so, especially when it comes to reading the Bible as one whole story to young children.  My goal is to build our collection of good children's Bibles so we are always working through one together (right now we are reading two!) Why not make it an Easter tradition to receive a new story Bible? My personal favorite is the Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones.  We gave this to our kids for Christmas this year and Susie (3 1/2) is absolutely enamored with it.  I would recommend this Bible to young preschoolers up to early elementary (but be prepared to be challenged yourself while reading it!).  Here are others I like, roughly in age order:

• Jesus Hug-a-Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones (I have written about this quite a bit before! My favorite for babies.)
• God is Great Bible Stories for Toddlers by Carolyn Larson (we wore ours out and I have a new one coming for Chip's Easter basket this year).
• Big Picture Story Bible by David Helm (we put this one in Susie's Easter basket last year and loved reading it together -- so well done).
• Read Aloud Bible Stories 4 Volume set by Ella Lindvall (don't have these, but I have read them many times in our church nursery, and they are excellent!)
• Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones
• The Golden Children's Bible (a classic older one with fewer pictures)
• The Child's Story Bible by Catherine Vos (another older one with very few pictures -- I love the way this is written!  We read this to our 4 year old's SS class, but I would typically recommend it for early elementary and up).

2. Bible Narratives -- In some ways this type of book is a dime a dozen.  You can certainly find inexpensive paperback books about Christ's death and resurrection, and perhaps some of those are just fine.  But some are certainly better than others! I like to have a good assortment in our collection because some have better pictures, some are better for different ages, etc. Yesterday Chip was flipping through one and pointed out and said "Jesus!" "Cross!"  He is not a fantastic talker, so I was so excited that his exposure to good books has taught him this.  Here are my top choices:

• Christian Focus has a little collection of board books called "Sent to Save" that each focus on how Christ saves his people that are really well done.  I don't think anyone does good serious board books like Christian Focus (side note: I also really LOVE their board books about God's character and prayer).  They will not have flashy sparkly pictures, but they have very sound content!  I would recommend Jesus Helps His People or Jesus Finds His People for your littlest readers this Easter.
• Bright Easter Day by Julie Steigmeier is my new favorite!  I love the realistic illustrations and well written story.  Even though it rhymes, it is very true to the Biblical account.  
• The Very First Easter by Paul Maier is still too long for my kids to sit and listen to all at once, but it is top notch for sure.  I think this beautiful book holds the bar up high on Bible narrative books -- there just isn't a better one (in my opinion!).

3. Allegorical tales -- some books teach about Christ in a different way, without actually telling a narrative account of the Easter story.  I like to read allegories myself, and they are a great way to teach children!  Remember when you first read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and rejoiced with all your heart that Aslan was alive again?  Allegories give us a new look on a familiar story.  Here are some I like:

• The Tale of Three Trees (classic -- there are several versions out there)
• The Legend of the Easter Lily (I like this story but wish it would be redone with more serious pictures since the story is more grown up than it looks)
• Benjamin's Box (a good one to go with Resurrection Eggs)
• R.C. Sproul's children's stories, especially The Prince's Poison Cup and The Priest with Dirty Robes.  We don't own these yet -- again, I'm saving them until my kids are old enough to really appreciate them, but they set the bar on allegories.  Just like Maier's book on the first Easter, these books are so well written, they can be enjoyed by children of all ages.  Well worth the price you'll invest.

 What are your favorites?  Do you have some I haven't yet seen?

Making Easter a big deal for your kids

A couple weeks ago I shared with some ladies at church 4 ways we can make Easter special in our homes so our children know that this is a time of year when we rejoice in our risen Savior.  I thought I'd share them here and then discuss them more in detail in the coming days.  These ideas are very simple, but can make Easter a big deal for your kids!

Working on a painting -- keeping it real with the messy house in the background!

The lambs are peeking out of the book basket

1. Books -- get some really excellent books celebrating Christ's death and resurrection and put them in a special place in your home.  I dragged down a large picnic basket to hold mine, and put them out in the living room so they are accessible to my kids all the time, but also have a designated place so it looks nice (our collection of stuffed lambs is in the basket as well).  Start now to build your collection by buying 1 or 2 books each year, adding one to each child's Easter basket, or trying to find good titles from your local library (I wouldn't count on just that -- but you can find some!).  I gathered together all our storybook Bibles as well so we can read about Jesus' life in each of those, and read and re-read the accounts of the Holy week so that when they know the story very well.  Tomorrow I will  Here is a post a suggested list of Resurrection titles I like to read for children.

2. Music -- just as Christmas has its carols, worthy of singing because of the great truth and tradition, teach your children songs about Easter!  When my daughter was not quite 2, we just sang the Gospel song and "Easter Friday" over and over with lots of motions.  Now that she is almost 4 we are learning a new song every week this year.  I think you have to be a bit more intentional with this, because Easter songs are not marketed and available like Christmas carols, but you can glean wonderful songs from here and there, and play them in your home, sing them before a meal, listen to them in the car. . . my daughter has been known to belt them out in the grocery store. ;)  Please comment if you have a favorite Easter song or hymn!  I will be posting links Here is a post I wrote about some of ours.

fabric scrap bunting

3. Decorate your house -- in some ways this is less essential than the first two, but it does speak volumes to your kids that you are remembering a special occasion when you get busy making your home look fresh and springy.  Here are some suggestions for a VERY everyday person:  (I am NOT a decorator by any means!) There are lots of free printables on Pinterest you can print off and frame you just have to search through the bunnyish ones to find the good stuff!  You can write scripture passages on a chalkboard (I borrowed some from my neighbor who decorates for weddings.  I do not own cute things like that!).  You can hang a banner or bunting (I made mine by ripping scraps into strips and looping it around a ribbon), a wreath, spread a special tablecloth or use spring colored place mats.  I like to cut branches with small buds on them and put them in jars to watch them open, and then use that for our "Easter Tree" that we hang small trinkets on each day when we open our resurrection eggs.  I have my kids paint and color and use markers on special coloring pages and crafts I print off and then hang those up as well, as part of our decor.  There are so many possibilities for decorating if you are actually artistic and crafty! :)

This year I received a very special quilt that belonged to my mother that is a gorgeous bright colored antique.  I think it will be a part of our Eastertime decor every year from now on as it was the quilt that we draped on my mother's coffin at her funeral.  When I look at it, I remember that we have hope because Jesus crushed death on Easter morning.

Susie helping make a tasty treat to send to her Aunt who is in college

4. Traditions -- when it comes to Christmas, we have Christ-centered traditions like crazy!  I want Easter to be no less for my kids.  So I have been planning certain foods we make each year, certain activities and outings and crafts.  You certainly don't have to do everything, but if you choose a few things and do them well, and intentionally, it will become a tradition your kids look forward to each year! I will be posting more about activities we enjoy doing in the coming days, but for now, I will link my posts from past years if you are interested in reading what we have done in the past.  This year is much easier because I am really just re-doing what I have done before with a couple of additions!  That's one bonus about traditions!

Holy Week Last Year
Decorations and Easter Baskets
Countdown to Easter
Easter 2011
More Holy Week activities 2011
Holy Week 2011

What My Kids See

It's about time I write on my blog!  I have left it dormant for so long because I felt like it was an easy thing to let go, and then I felt sheepish about picking it back up again.  Well, I can't promise I'll post consistently, but I can at least make the effort to do a bit, and I have in mind a little series I'll post about what we are doing in preparation for Easter (so hopefully we'll get at least that far!).

But for starters, I just wanted to post this picture of myself my 3 year old daughter took last night while I was making dinner.  Maybe it doesn't blow you away, but I really liked it.  Not only did she center it somewhat and not make me look like I have more chins than I do, she captured me in the middle of my small messy kitchen finishing supper preparations.  I did not have a picture like this of myself (before now) and do not have anything like this of my mom.  But I sure remember what she looked like in her kitchen.  Day after day, night after night -- there was a meal on the table for our family.  We thanked Jesus for it, but otherwise mostly took it for granted -- Mom had done that work for us, AGAIN.

I liked getting a chance to see what my kids see.  I hope they see me the way I look here -- busy but HAPPY about my job!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

My Year at Home

Today marks the 1 year anniversary of my "last day at work" -- that is work outside the home.  It's been such a joy-filled year of learning for me, and I wanted to share a little of how I have grown and developed as a homemaker -- mainly to encourage myself to keep going and growing!

First, I want to say that even though women who are stay at home moms work very hard (or should, it's certainly a temptation to be lazy without any deadlines), nothing can compare to how hard I worked while I was a working mom, especially with an infant (which was most of the time).  Perhaps it's easier to be a working mom if you have a nanny and pay someone to clean your house and pick up your groceries, but I couldn't say since I didn't have those things (and most working moms don't).  So I want to give a little shout out of encouragement to the working moms that I do not think my life is harder now.  NOooooo, quite the contrary!  I certainly think my life is easier!  It's hard to even remember the details of that crazy, rushed around time in my life, packing my lunch and storing breastmilk, and carrying so much stuff to the car each day for my kids and for me.  It's probably hard to remember because I was still so sleep deprived getting up with Chippy every couple hours at night and bringing HUGE mason jars of iced coffee to work to get me through the day!

So when this year began, my babies and I were on detox mode.  Susie had a rather rough adjustment to me going back to work after my maternity leave with Chip because her world just kept flipping over and over, and now she was with different babysitters every day.  Josh was so gracious to me as I seriously spent so much time in my days snuggling on the couch with my kids.  We were making up for lost time, and Josh understood that my priority was just being with them!  He would say "I understand, 'Babies don't keep'." (I had that poem framed in the kids room).  We spent several months of very loosely scheduled days, with tons of trips to parks last fall, often just the 3 of us.  I have lovely sunny memories of sitting on a quilt at the park eating lunch with Susie and nursing Chip, and not missing grown up conversation! I didn't do much at that time to develop my homemaking skills, other than maybe menu planning and little bit of frugal living stuff.  But that was ok!  I knew it was our "honeymoon period".

Then it seems like the next 6 months were pretty much solid holidays, one after another.  It was really wonderful to be WITH my kids during all of those, and I did quite a lot to try and make them special.  I took on more crafting and sewing projects -- starting with Christmas and all the way to Susie's birthday at the end of May, I was always working on some sort of project for a holiday or event, though I usually did so during naptimes or in the evening.  Yesterday I was working on some sewing and realized that I've gotten a LOT faster and more confident sewing than I used to be, and that's just because of my practice!

Brother and Sister Playtime

At some point in the spring, I started having Chip and Susie have "Brother and Sister playtime" in their room after lunch.  Susie would call "come on, Chippy, it's brother and sister playtime!!" and he would crawl like crazy to follow her in there.  Some days they would play together longer and better, and I would get more cleaning done than usual, but typically, I would have them play for about 20 minutes while I did the dishes and cleaned the kitchen.  Chip went through a little phase where he didn't like to go in there without me, so I just let Susie play by herself (it seemed like punishment for her to make him wail in there!), but mostly they are happy for a while that way.  It was pretty much still the only consistent thing I had in my housekeeping schedule, other than making dinner! 

This summer I realized to have some sort of cleaning system was going to be better than having nothing at all, because even if I deviated from it or just mostly failed at it, I would probably do more trying to keep it than I would otherwise.  So I found a sample schedule on Pinterest and printed it off, and have tried to follow the best I can.  While it doesn't address deep cleaning or decluttering or anything, it's actually been simple to follow!  My main trial was vacuuming because my kids are both freaked out by the vacuum cleaner and it's so hard to find a chance to run it when they are getting stuff out all over the place -- to both tidy and vacuum seems overwhelming at times, so I would usually do it when Josh was home or when it was my day for an errand swap!  Well, for about a month now I've been having them read books together on the couch while I vacuum and it has worked really well!  If Chip gets anxious, I tell Susie to cheer him up by smiling and saying "it's ok, brother!!' and she is usually so focused on how happy he is that she has gotten over her own anxieties!  My house has CERTAINLY been looking better these days, even though I am usually not able to quite do everything on the housekeeping schedule, it still gives me a framework.

I have been thinking about starting my kids on a "play alone time" -- we did it yesterday afternoon so I could change the sheets on my bed (side note -- our bed is totally their fave place to be!  If I go into my room, Chip follows me and stands by the bed reaching up and whimpering for me to put him up on it!).  It didn't last long, but I think Chippy may be big enough for it now.  It might take Susie a while to adjust to the concept since she is pretty social, and she already has her alone time reading during naptime (which does not include any sleeping for her).

It may seem like I am a pretty slow learner -- that it was almost a year before I started a cleaning schedule!  It's true, I was slow.  You know how it is -- life just goes on: teething followed by sickness then some other bump in the schedule.  Chip didn't start sleeping through the (whole) night until he was nearly 14 months old, so I really did cut myself some slack.  Maybe too much, but I don't think I will regret it in the long run.  I know I did spend plenty of time just devoted to my kiddos and enjoying our life together!

This morning I thanked the Lord for the wonderful responsibility of caring for my kids and home full time and asked him to enable me to be faithful in my calling!  A clean house is not my goal, but rather living out Christ in front of my kids, and loving my family by serving them.

Happy Birthday Chip!

Our boy was sick the weekend before his birthday, so we had to postpone his party until the weekend after.  It turned out great, and of course we much prefer to have a healthy happy birthday boy enjoy his party!  I wanted to have it at the park because we were having a woodland themed party -- seemed perfect for a boy named Chip!  Here are a few pictures of Chippy's woodland party.

Big sister helping me carry the decorations

Table all set and pretty!

Mommy with her birthday boy

Closer look at the bunting

I made the cake stand with an old candlestick glued to this 1970's wood cutting board

We ate sticks and berries, tomato toadstools and cupcakes -- all the clever sandwiches had to be tossed a week later and I wasn't going to rebuy and remake them all! There was really no room on the table anyway.

Not interested in the cupcake.  Just eating blueberries.

Singing Happy Birthday.  We love our Chip!

So Thankful for My Boy

On his first Easter

I just wanted to write a little post in Chippy's honor since his birthday is a week from tomorrow.  I cannot believe how quickly this year has gone.  I cannot believe how big he has gotten.  Sometimes I still cannot believe I'm the mommy to a little boy!  

When we did our gender reveal party and I cut that blue cake, I COULD NOT have been more surprised.  A boy?? A BOY??  Did not see it coming!  I couldn't imagine how it would be to have a boy!  I feel like his young life so far has been rather full of surprises!  He was supposed to be a scheduled c-section on May 31st -- a full week before his due date.  I almost wrote it in the baby book!  But as time passed and I never grew bigger than I was at 28 weeks, my doctor was concerned that he was perhaps not growing either.  So on May 9th just before 36 weeks, I went in to have him.

Chippy, I will never, ever forget that day.  I walked into the hospital, not knowing what we'd face, but resting in God's grace and trusting his goodness.  He who knit you together in my inward parts was sustaining your little life -- I could tell that something was wrong, you weren't moving as much as you had been even just a few weeks before.  You seemed to be resting, just tiny kicks here and there.  I lay there during the operation, waiting for a flurry of activity and my baby being whisked away to medical treatment, but instead heard a cry, and Josh saying, "oh, he's little! He's so LITTLE!"  In just minutes you were snuggled up to my face. You were ok.  Just small.  The Lord had protected your life, sustaining you all the way, even though I was no longer supplying just what you needed to grow.

You had BLONDE hair!  My teeny 4 pound 5 ounce blonde hair boy was a blondie!  I still can't get over it when I see your chubby cherub face with your huge blue eyes and blonde hair.  You couldn't be cuter!  Your smile is so winning -- with a little dimple on your cheek and those four gleaming white Chicklet teeth.  When you lean your head back and chuckle you can see your sweet fat chins and all your teeth at the same time and it seriously COULD NOT be more adorable!

And you still surprise me because although in many ways you are so much like your sister -- pretty happy and fun, loving to play outside and read books, easy to get a response out of, ready to laugh and ready to snuggle -- sometimes you do something that is just YOU. Like figure out toys all by yourself, and manipulate your pacifier, and crawl like a speed demon to something you think about and STILL wake up (and wake up and wake up) at night!  You are awesome at entertaining yourself, even though you would much rather have everyone at least in the same room as you (or better yet, watching you proudly).  You still take a morning nap at church during Sunday school!  You beat Sissy on that by about 6 months!  You have been a pretty great eater, and able to feed yourself from a pretty young age.  When I sneak you some avocado, though, you fish it out of your mouth immediately with a look on your face that says "VILE WEED!" like Newman on Seinfeld.

You love to sing and bop when you hear music.  You go nuts when we turn on Laurie Berkner -- singing and bopping like crazy and getting as close to the TV as possible!  I'm always impressed when I see you play.  What are you thinking about?  You consider what you are holding.  You turn pages, take objects out and put them in containers, push buttons, and move parts with extremely nimble fingers.  You pretend to draw like Sissy, with her markers, with her magna-doodle.  You pretend to cook, you stir and stir, and even pretend to eat play food making tasting noises!


You hate getting dressed.  You hate getting your diaper changed.  You do NOT like me to keep you from throwing your food.  You have strong opinions about these things.  You love baths!  You love pouring cups of water.  You love taking bites of our food. You love snuggling in bed with Mommy and Daddy and giving hugs and being held and played with.  You love to wave and say hi to people and pictures, mirrors, and animals at the zoo.  Sometimes with both little hands.

Chip Neisler, you are a GIFT.  A precious, amazing, surprising gift from the Lord.  He is so so good to lend you to our family for a season.  We praise him for your first year of life, and celebrate the Creator and Sustainer of all things by celebrating your birthday.  May your life be lived to the praise of His glory!

 

My Greener Life

Over the past year, I have bit by bit changed some things in my life/household/family that has enabled us to live more resourcefully and frugally.  I was felt concerned about the waste in my life, and caring for our planet, which God has given to us stewardship over and while I'm sure I have plenty of room for improvement, I just thought I'd write about some of the changes we've made and how the adjustment has been.

Susie in a Econobum diaper -- so cute!

1. Cloth diapering -- this is probably the biggest step I've taken.  Last year I had $30 free to spend at a local little store that sells a small variety of diapers because of a Living Social deal, so I figured it was a no-loss venture!  If I didn't like them, I could resell them or pass them on, and not lose any money.  Well, I liked them better than disposables right away!  I had one bumGenius and 1 pack of Econobum (which is a cover that comes with 3 prefolds) so I could try out a couple different styles.  It wasn't long before I invested a bit of money in 2 more Econobum 3 packs (they were only $11.95!) and then a friend shared some extra prefolds and made me another cover, and suddenly I was cloth diapering Susie full time.  The adjustment was not hard at all.  I imagined that she wouldn't fit her clothes anymore because of the CD booty she now had, but actually that wasn't a problem, and she wore more skirts and bloomer-type shorts as summer came.  By the end of the summer, Chip was big enough to wear cloth diapers as well, and so I had 2 in CD!  The main problem (for me) was how/where/when to wash them.  We don't have a w/d in our home, which is one reason I had shied away from trying CD earlier.  My kind friend Sarah (who had lent me some extra prefolds) lets me wash them at her house weekly.  It's not as easy as if I could do them at home, but she does live nearby, and often lets me throw them in with her diapers.  She even stripped them for me!  I never would have guessed how much I prefer cloth diapers to disposables, but I really do!  I love how much money I've saved, I love reusing them over and over and feeling like I'm putting $ in the bank each time I put one on, and I LOVE my kiddos CD booties in them. :)  Susie pretty much self-potty trained, and I do think CD was a huge part of that -- she had learned to hold it so she didn't feel the wet.  I could go on and on about cloth diapers, but I'll draw the line there.
 
2. Switching to Norwex -- for sure the 2nd biggest change in our greener life is using Norwex products.  6 months ago I hosted a party for my friend who just started selling Norwex, and earned quite a few products for free, and I am HOOKED!  This company sells household and personal care products that aren't made from chemicals.  Among other things. I have several microfiber cloths that I use with water to clean the house with, and I use their detergent for our laundry.  My other favorite product is a mattress cleaner I spray on our beds/pillows/upholstered furniture that has greatly improved our sleep because we aren't coughing and sneezing from the dust and dust mites anymore!  I really think switching to Norwex has helped Chip's eczema because it's reduced the allergens in his environment.  I do not have to buy paper towels or household cleaners anymore and I'm SO glad I don't have a cabinet full of poisons for my kids to discover.

3. Natural personal products -- my friend and I made our own deodorant which I think works pretty well.  I use coconut oil to moisturize (I just started using it for Chip, but borrow it myself too!) most of the time -- though I do still enjoy Bath and Body works lotions!  I use the Norwex toothbrush and Tom's of Maine toothpaste -- but I think I may try making my own toothpaste as well before too long.  These things are all cutting down on the chemicals in our house and also are really cost-effective!

4. Sewing/upcycling/reusing -- I'm a pretty novice sewer, but I did make a set of cloth napkins out of a bedsheet to expand what we already had.  Now we use cloth napkins almost exclusively!  I'm trying out a few more sewing projects because I do like making things with my own hands rather than buying disposable items (like birthday banners and tablecloths for my kids birthday parties -- they are special and reusable!). I also sewed myself several sets of nursing pads.  Probably the biggest reusable part of our life is the kid's clothing.  The majority of what they wear are either hand-me-downs, from our church's Essentials room where I can get free second hand clothes or if they are purchased by me, I frequently buy them at consignment sales.  Obviously this is a big money saver!  I find I'm pretty picky about the new clothing I buy because I know I can usually find at least SOMETHING usable for free!  I only buy a few special items or necessities.

Got these second hand for Susie and now Chip wears them

Do you have any greener life ideas for me to take on next?

Kisses from Katie

I finished reading Kisses from Katie in the middle of the night last night because my 11 month old was awake and so was I.  I've read her blog for a couple years now, and have been taught by her lessons in motherhood, suffering, and loving in Christ's name.  I was eager to read this book and learn about her whole story.

Katie Davis lives in Uganda, where she moved after high school to serve the poor and suffering (mostly orphaned) children there.  Several years later, she has adopted 14 orphaned little girls and works long days feeding, caring for medical needs (she has to look up how to do things online since she doesn't have medical training) and visiting the poor and needy in their affliction.  She is certainly being the hands and feet of Christ and the stories of human suffering that she has seen first-hand -- and so often been instrumental to help relieve -- are astounding.  Her ministry, Amazima, pays to enroll extremely poor children in school, provide the uniforms they need as well as school supplies and medical care.  She also feeds the children at least weekly in her house -- hundreds of them!

While I don't necessarily share all of Katie's views theologically (she often talks of missing God's will or being in the center of God's will), she is clearly being used by God in a place where most of us would not even want to VISIT.  Reading about her life shows me how very easy mine is.  I see how it is petty to complain that my baby woke up last night. . . because he wasn't awake dying of hunger or fighting HIV, so my care for him was pretty easy.  I often lament not having a washer and dryer, but I am only caring for a family of 4, not 15, and not in a place where everyone gets really dirty each day.

I'm so thankful for Katie's work and her writing!  May the Lord bless this modern-day Amy Carmichael in all her endeavors!

Holy Week and Coloring Eggs Naturally

This year I spread out my "Holy Week" celebration a bit so that we did some Easter-focused activities over the course of Lent.  But this week, a few special activities seemed the most appropriate (such as the Easter mountain, which I am planning to do tomorrow). On Sunday we celebrated Palm Sunday by waving palm branches and singing and painting a picture of Jesus on a donkey.

Just beginning -- not too messy yet

Today we colored Easter eggs, and I made the dyes out of vegetables and fruits with some water and vinegar added.  I liked not buying the chemical dye since my kids are so young and apt to put the colored eggs in their mouths, and lick their fingers while dyeing them.  I took the whole operation outside so it was handy to just let the drippings run off the table and then pour out the cups in the grass.  The bees were pretty interested in the grape juice dye that was covering the entire area, but fortunately Susie was (in her words) "pretty brave of bees". :)

The dyes were really easy to make, and CHEAP since I just used stuff I had on hand.  I found the recipes I used here, and adjusted a couple of them.  I chose what I made based on what I already had, so I didn't have to go buy anything.  We did brown (coffee with a bit of vinegar), purple -- which turned gray/blue (grape juice with vinegar), orange -- this one turned out the best (simmered onion peels), blue -- which didn't look much different from purple (frozen blueberries) and yellow (spinach simmered in water -- I made this up myself because I had wilty spinach on hand).  The main drawback is that to get a deeper color at all, you had to leave them in a long time, which is a little hard with a 2 year old who kept grabbing the white eggs and popping them in cups and then popping them back out. 


But I still think they turned out pretty, and since Susie didn't know the difference, she wasn't disappointed that they were lighter colored.  She LOVES them, and LOVED the activity.  I gave her total freedom to play around with them because I wasn't concerned about the mess or her tasting them.  So as we leisurely colored eggs, we talked about how the colors made me think of Jesus (grape juice was perfect because we've been teaching her about the Last Supper so much). I will totally do this again next year!  

Finished product!

I let them play with them for a bit after we were done

Final note -- I did get the book Petook, and I liked quite a bit, but I think it was a little too old for Susie.  The wording is kind of flowery, but on part of it, I just told about the story and pointed at the pictures.  Maybe in a couple years it would be worth buying, and certainly if you have school-aged kids.


Tomorrow is big for us, since we are traveling this weekend -- so we're fitting in a bunch of stuff early.  We're doing the Easter mountain, and having a special Easter supper to celebrate.