Filed under: positive changes
I’m trying something new this week, and I really want it to stick. I woke up early this morning, and my goal is to start getting to bed by 10:00 and waking up around 6:00 in the morning. I have no particular reason to get up this early, but lately, I’ve found that I have very little peace throughout the day, and I’ve been getting very sleepy around 10 at night, even though I don’t go to bed until 11 or later.
The goal really is that when I get up in the morning, I plan on reading my Bible and exercising (Pilates) before the kids get up. This is a big deal to me, mostly because I haven’t really had time to do anything other than sew and watch kids lately, and my days have become really hectic. I have a lot on my plate right now, and getting sufficient sleep is important, but I found in the spring that reading several chapters in my Bible each day when it is quiet in the house can really do wonders for my mental attitude, not to mention it can be a real eye-opener when I read something that I never noticed before.
There’s a verse in Proverbs 31 that says something like “she gets up while it is still dark” and I have been hearing that verse spoken in my head a lot lately. It’s not that I want to get up so early that I don’t have any sleep, but that I can get a better handle on my day, and that I don’t feel like I’m rushing to get everything done in a short amount of time in the morning before everyone starts running 100 miles an hour.
I woke up at 6:30 this morning, because I got a late start to bed last night, and the past hour has been wonderfully peaceful. I forget sometimes that I’m very internal, and that when I spend my whole day with other people and taking care of other people without spending a little time to myself, I get hot tempered and I start to feel used. I really like order, and when my house is out of order I get even worse, just frustrated and grumpy, but when I can take a little quiet time to stay healthy (emotionally and spiritually), it’s amazing how it clears my mind.
I don’t know if anyone else out there is like me, who needs “me time,” not for selfish reasons, but for sanity and peace, and because it’s how GOD made you. I’m not really usually introspective when I’m alone, I usually think about random silly things, lately when I have nothing to concentrate on, my mind wanders to clothing designs I can make with Paper Fashions (so fun–it’s not just for pre-teens!), and what I can do with the designs once I’ve made them. So I’m not always a terribly deep person, but at other times, when I think I’m really just longing to read my Bible, I start to think about what I’ve read recently and how that has actually changed my thinking about other parts of the Bible that I never realized before were connected.
I try not to think too much about myself or my past failures, because whenever I do, I forget that you can’t change the past, and I start to have a mini panic attack. I have been reflecting lately on what I’m thankful for, especially when chaos begins to take over the house, and I have been making Christmas plans in my head, and working on some creative ways to share Jesus with my children this year. I’m very excited about this, and get teary-eyed just thinking and praying about Nour being receptive to the stories I’m going to share with her while doing the Jesse Tree this year. (Speaking of that, I will post up some links soon to the sites I found that I plan on using for our Advent calendar this year.)
Overall, I’m praying that this new habit will begin to bring the peace that I need, and it will help me get my days going in a more goal-oriented way.
Filed under: yearly goals
I’ve heard stories around the internet about some Christian groups having “100 year plans” for their families, which I find a little ridiculous, but it got me thinking, hey, I don’t even have a 5 year plan. So, hopefully with help from Sam on this, I want to begin working on a 5 year plan for our family.
Currently, there are 2 things I would like to see happen in the next 5 years, maybe 3, but specifically these:
Raise enough support to go to Egypt and start working with Sam’s dad toward a marriage and family ministry in his training center.
Get my Master’s degree.
Possible Homeschool both of our children (this is the third, more shaky goal).
There are other things, too, like learning Arabic and teaching it to our children, but in general, the top three are listed above.
I spent the morning looking through the Master’s degree programs at our alma mater (Cincinnati Christian University, AKA Cincinnati Bible College and Seminary), and at this point I’m seriously thinking I’d like a Master of Divinity with focus in both Biblical Studies AND Theological Studies. This would make the degree 12 credits more than the standard 90 credit hours for this degree, but I love taking Bible classes, I want to learn Bible languages, and I’ve always had something of an affinity for theology. I didn’t get a chance to take the languages as an undergrad, because I did a Bachelor of Science instead of Arts, which doesn’t require the languages.
Anyway, this is not something we could do right away, it would be either next year (fall or winter) or after we spend two years in Egypt or so. I want to continue to pray about the right direction to go as far as the Master’s, but I know that getting one is in my future eventually.
Our work in Egypt would be focused on developing a program for marriage training, mentoring or coaching, for pre-marital couples or couples who are struggling. We would not do all of the coaching but would teach others how to coach couples through their marriages. Much of the beginning work would be translating materials that have already been written and making them culturally relevant. A lot of that work could be done in the United States, and I wouldn’t exactly have a big role in that. 
Ultimately, I would like to really have a plan pushing us forward on these things, and be able to set small goals each month or year to get to the place where we feel God leading us. This isn’t something we are taking lightly or even just doing on a whim, it’s something we’ve felt for a long time has been coming. It’s just a matter of getting it planned out and set up.
Filed under: cultures
How we (I) plan on celebrating Christmas this year.
I have not veered off of the traditional Christmas plans, but I have realized that there are some particularly good opportunities that come with Christmas to introduce symbolism and history to young children, and I want to take advantage of that, and bring special meaning to Christmas, without doing a lot of extra work to make it fun. I want it to be fun for me, too!
So this year I have decided to add a Jesse Tree to our Christmas tradition, which means that we will set up our large tree, and also our small tree. The large tree with have our typical Christmas decorations, but the small will be simple, and each of the children will get an ornament to add to it each day for the 28 days prior to Christmas (starting the Saturday after Thanksgiving). I will make the ornaments with some foam board and printed ornaments I found on the internet, and each child will get a different symbol to put on the tree. Since I only have two children, this will be fairly simple, because there are lots of websites and I only need two different pictures for each day.
We have done advent since Nour was 2, lighting candles in the wreath and reading the Children’s Bible stories related to the birth of Jesus. I hope one day to actually have children’s books directly related to each candle, but that probably won’t be this year. Each Sunday we will light a new candle plus the older candles, and we will read the stories each day, building upon the previous story until we get to the story of the birth of Jesus and the Magi.
I’m excited to involve Alex more this year, he was so young last year that he didn’t take part. He’s getting old enough to sit for a story and place ornaments on the tree, and that should be very interesting to observe!
The last thing we are adding is a tradition that I have not celebrated before, but it is something that I hope to help separate Santa Claus from Jesus’ birth a little bit. We will be giving a small gift to each child on the feast of St. Nicholas (which is Dec. 6). I will tell the story of who St. Nicholas was, and why he is part of Christmas. I hope that this will help put Santa into perspective, and keep the kids from thinking that Santa is not “real.” He was a real saint, and he was a very generous person. I think generosity is a very good quality to teach children, and I think that it would be good to do some generous things on his feast day. One idea is to go out the day before and buy a bag of non-perishable groceries to donate at church for our food pantry the next day. This could be a very wonderful way of teaching children to do the same, since St. Nick gave money to the poor and needy.
I believe that one of the “gifts” that is typically given on St. Nicholas day is chocolate coins. These are already readily available at Christmastime because of Hanukkah, as well, and the typical way that the Dutch children receive these gifts is by putting out their shoes for Sinterklaus (sp?) to put gifts into. I think we would probably just put their shoes outside the bedroom door for them to find in the morning. I don’t know what other gifts I would be able to find that are small for this unique day, but I don’t want it to just be chocolate candy!
Finally, I don’t know yet if I will celebrate this tradition, but I’m thinking about it. My mom has done the “12 days of Christmas” in the past, and that would start Dec. 14th with Christmas as day 12. Another way of celebrating this is having Christmas day be day 1, and January 5th be the 12th day. January 6th is Epiphany on the Christian calendar, but the Orthodox Christmas (which is also the “Egyptian” Christmas) is celebrated on January 7th. This is the day that we take down our Christmas tree. I keep it up that long because of our Egyptian family, and it helps me to remember the date. I have not decided what to do about the 12 day gifts, but if I do end up doing 12 days, the gifts will be small and directly related to presents the children got for Christmas, or clothing. Last year, Nour got socks and small books for most days.
It’s fun to get creative with Christmas gifts and Christmas traditions, because there is so much to pick from. I don’t want to go overboard on decoration, but it is one time of year that there is a lot to talk about regarding the meaning of traditions, and I personally feel that my own children ought to understand the meaning of the things we do, rather than just doing them without understanding. It is part of living our faith and being able to give an explanation for our beliefs, rather than doing things robotically and not knowing why certain things are important.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Yesterday was Sam’s and my 11 year anniversary of our first date. It is interesting that on our 10 year anniversary, Barack Obama was elected president, but our 11 year was something of a reverse day, because we didn’t get to see a whole lot of each other, and it was a hairy, crazy day. Still, it was special, because it was our day. We got to sit down together to learn about a couple that we are going to be coaching (premarital), and they are about the age we were when we were getting ready to be married, so it brought back a lot of memories of us at that age, and it was a good thing!
But it’s great to think about being together such a long time, because many relationships don’t last even that long, and I am really glad we have both committed to each other and to working out problems and not trying to run from them. I’m confident that we have a solidly founded marriage, and because it is founded on a mutual love of Jesus and each other, I think it would take a lot for something else to destroy it. I believe that the marriage contract in a Christian home is not just between a couple, but it is a three-way contract with God as well. I recently heard about old friends whose marriage collapsed last year, and it broke my heart, because when I knew them, they were both solidly Christian. I know if you ignore the part of the vows you made to God, the rest can dissolve quickly if you don’t work at it. There are certainly many non-Christian marriages that last forever, and I often wonder what their secrets are, but a solid foundation of choosing to love when it isn’t easy (which hopefully isn’t often) is one of the keys to a lasting loving marriage.
And now I realize that I’m going to be 30 in less than 6 months, actually less than 5, but who’s counting? I am excited about it, not worried, because I don’t mind getting older. I don’t mind because I’ve been mistaken for a much younger person twice in the last week. Yes, that feels good. I had a little boy ask if I was my daughter’s sister (so sweet!), and a friend’s sister thought I was 20. After having two kids and not feeling like my body is what it was even 5 years ago (okay, 5 and a half), it felt really good that someone else still saw youth that I don’t always feel. And I’m only 29! (for the FIRST time, mind you.)
But that brings me to my birthday. I am excited, as I said, so I am planning on having a really fun, crazy birthday bash, incorporating the last 30 years of pop culture into the theme of the party, the cake, and the decorations. I’m inviting lots of people, and the part that is most exciting (to me, anyway): there’s going to be a contest and people will win actual prizes of monitary value. What might the contest be? Well, I’ve decided to throw a costume party where you have to come dressed as an icon or event that happened in the last 30 years. From 1980 to 2010, the best costumes will win something (and I’ll be buying the prizes, so my costume doesn’t count). So if you are reading this and you are in the Columbus area, and you want to come to my party, start thinking now of a really creative idea for a costume! You never know if yours might be the most creative!
Filed under: diapering
I’ve recently created a useful one-size diaper pattern that can be sewn by just about anyone with basic sewing machine capabilities (that would be me.), and it occurred to me to talk about some of the issues I see with a lot of one-size diapers I’ve seen sold around the internet, and why they are best left to people who can buy them already made, not for those of us who have to be thrifty and sew our own.
One of the first things you see when you look up “One size cloth diapers” is that most, if not all, of them have some sort of snap system that makes them larger or smaller. The snaps themselves do not cost a whole lot, but when you consider how many pieces have to be put on, you end up with a lot of snaps on one diaper, and that can begin to consume a lot of your diaper-making time, not to mention a little more money for each extra set of snap parts that goes on the diaper. All in all, they are the biggest reason that I stay away from those diapers, because it’s a lot of effort, which translates to time and money, particularly if you are buying/selling. You want to get your money’s worth if you are buying, and you want to get your wages if you are selling, which bumps up the cost considerably. If you are willing to pay for this work to be done, that’s great, but if you’re like me, you think “there must be a cheaper/easier/better way.”
Second, I think that many of these diapers have an option of velcro OR snap closures for the actual flaps (the part that keeps the diaper together!), and if you like a certain diaper, but it only has the one choice, that can be a bummer. You could always ask if they have the other, but chances are, if it’s not on the site, you can’t get it. I like velcro, because it’s quick and much more adjustable, and you don’t end up with lots of snaps that could break. Velcro can be replaced by anyone with a sewing machine or needle and thread, but snaps require a pro, or at least a costly machine (this is true for the size adjustment snaps, too).
Two more things that I should address that a lot of people might be concerned about are bulk and pockets.
Bulky diapers are unavoidable with cloth. My son’s butt is twice as big with cloth than with sposies (that’s cloth diaper speak for “disposables”), but I think it’s cute, and it helps with pants that are a little big. They actually fit a little better when he’s wearing cloth. But there are places where bulk is unwanted, and bulk in the front is no laughing matter. Many of the snapping one-size diapers create a large amount of weird bulk in the front, particularly those that have all the padding built in, and there’s the folding issue, which basically means that there are folds within the diaper that can create a pocket for unpleasant things to get stuck in (and if you don’t unsnap, there’s a chance that part won’t get totally clean, jsyk. So I prefer diapers that actually have levels of closures and the rest folds down. The diaper I’ve created has three levels of velcro, folds down and the folded part is covered with an insert pad, so that it doesn’t get overly messed up. The best part: very little excess bulk from the diaper itself. The insert can be folded for smaller babies, but the diaper is two layers of fabric plus the velcro (which makes it a little thicker, but not too thick). The best part of this is that there are no tedious snaps to re-snap or adjust, and this can shave time off of a diaper change, which is good for everyone.
There are many who love pocket diapers, and for them, this is no big thing, but for me, as someone who sews my own, the pockets are a big hassle, and seem to be counterproductive, at least when it comes to removal of messes. I prefer a diaper that the “stuff” can come off of easily by a little shaking, or with a nice removable pad that means you aren’t holding the whole diaper precariously over the toilet hoping you don’t drop it in. (Look, if you’re reading this and you aren’t a cloth diaperer, don’t say “ew! gross.” If you’ve ever changed a dirty diaper, it’s exactly the same, there’s always the risk of getting something gross on your hands, just wash them with soap and water when you are finished for crying out loud! Babies are messy, and there’s no getting around it. It’s safer for you and for them if you wash your hands after changing ANY diaper anyways. No harm, no foul.)
Pocket diapers don’t really allow for simple removal, in my opinion, and many people don’t like to have to stuff them, so it’s definitely a preference issue. I like something you can just lay in the diaper and pop out if needed.
One last thing about diapers that I want is elastic in the back. Many diapers don’t have this, and I think it can be a vital element, because if your baby has a blow-out, elastic that stretches just right around the thighs and behind can keep you from having to do a lot more laundry. I’m not saying every mess will be contained, that is really dependent upon the force and how well the diaper fits in the first place, but it may be the difference between 1 and 2 loads of baby clothes every day!
For anyone who is reading this thinking, those things don’t bother me, I mean no offense, this is my personal opinion on what I like best in a diaper/don’t like, and there are literally dozens of diapers out there, any one of which could be best suited to individual needs and preferences. I choose to make my own, including the pattern, and I think it works best for my needs. I think it’s also a great idea to talk about what expectations are for a good cloth diaper because people who may be considering cloth should know what it’s like to use them. Every baby is different, each baby is shaped different, too, and what works for some may be disastrous for others. The best part about cloth is that it has become far more versatile than it used to be (folded diapers and plastic pants), and it is so much more versatile than disposable diapering–and cuter, too!
