sowing @ Courtney's today

Please join me at Courtney's  for our continued discussion on Chapters 17 & 18.  If you love to read and share about books - especially the Book- this discussion is for you. :)

(For a link to previous discussions, please click here.)

3 gifts on thursday: baby edition

Because we'll be celebrating the birth of a very special baby soon (Jesus). ;) For previous 3 Gifts installments, click here. If you would like to have a "gift" featured in this series, please see the bottom of this post for details.

1.Gift of Keeping a Diaper On
We often say Ben looks like Luke but acts like Reese. When Reese was Ben's age, he took his diaper off when it was dirty - an experience I'm sure most parents face unless their child miraculously is potty trained before the 18 month mark. Now Ben is at that stage. A decidedly messy and panic-inducing one (do you clean up the child or the mess first?!). The solution? Wrapping clear packing tape around the diaper to cover the tabs. With Reese, we had to make sure it was taped at the back so he couldn't pull at the tape ends. Ben requires less. You may need scissors to cut the diaper off your child - kind of disturbing to do at first, but for the sake of keeping everything in its place...


2. Gift of Natural Wooden Toys
I discovered Smiling Tree Toys while putting together this treasury list on etsy for items linked with charitable donations. I've always loved the idea of wooden toys for their durability and eco-friendliness and, as an extra bonus, Justin and Kathleen donate to youth development projects for every toy sold. In addition to their etsy shop, you also can check out their blog for a behind-the-scenes look of Smiling Tree: all about natural parenting, our journey towards rural sustainable living, the happenings in our woodshop, new toys, giveaways, and inspirational food for thought. As an extra bonus to you, they are offering you a 10% discount if you purchase from their shop between now through December 14, 2011. Just enter 10off4wits in the coupon code box. (They no longer are taking orders for Christmas, but you can read their shop announcements for what they can do for instead if you are intending this for December 25.) Here are some of my favorites from their shop:

3. Gift of Upcycling Baby Blankets


I saw this idea in Family Fun magazine a few years ago and tried it out for a St. Nicholas Day gift for Brianna. I can't remember the issue and couldn't find a link to it on their site - it was an idea submitted by one of their readers. Instead, here's a tutorial on making a pillow with a double sided blanket Or, as I did, take two coordinating baby blankets, trim as necessary to make them the same size, pin with right sides together and stitch leaving a 1-inch gap. Turn blankets right side out, stuff with fiber fill and stitch the opening closed. (I know these instructions are very brief - if you want more detailed instructions, please let me know and I'll do a more in-depth tutorial.) Granted, this is an idea to use after your baby has outgrown the blankets, but if, like me, you received a bazillion more blankets than you could ever use plus hate to part with fabric which contains so many fond memories, try it out.




If you have a "gift" you'd like me to consider wrapping into a 3 Gifts on Thursday package, please email me the details. It can be anything you are hosting or have heard about: from a giveaways to service projects, household/parenting tips, resources, promotions/coupon codes, items such as books, music, movies, etc (ones available for purchase online). If I choose to incorporate your gift suggestion into a 3 Gifts post, I will email you to let you know when it will be featured.

details

I have been praying lately that I would see God in the little things of each day. It's a prayer born out of love for reading or hearing about the times when God shows up in the lives of others. It's also born out of a jealousy to have those same kinds of moments - but I think this might be the kind of jealousy God is okay with - the kind where we are as jealous for Him as He is for us.

I want to have a radical walk with God - one where I believe Him for the big things, but also know He cares about the incidentals - the details of my day. In the devotional I do with the kids most mornings, this verse struck me: "The steps of the godly are directed by the Lord. He delights in every detail of their lives" (Psalm 37:23 NLT, emphasis mine). I love that - God delighting in every detail.

And in inviting Him into every detail, I begin to see Him in every detail...

Sunday:
I stayed home from church on Sunday with under-the-weather Reese and Ben. It turned into a lovely two hours of reading to and napping with Ben. A gift.

Later that afternoon, I took Luke swimming after feeling a nudge from the Lord to do so (Dave usually is the one to do these kinds of Sunday-afternoon activities because I take my "day of rest" literally. ;) ). Another gift.

Both moments an answer to my prayer for having more one-on-one time with my two youngest as much of my time during the week is focused on school with Brianna and Reese.

The swimming also was confirmation about my choice not to shower earlier that morning. Silly, perhaps, to pray about that - but it's a detail and the Word tells me God delights in these.

So I will continue to pray for God to be in the details of my life and that I would see Him in the details...in my day, in His creation and in the lives of others.

If you would like to share a moment of God in the detail of your life here, please do. :) I would love to rejoice with you over God revealing Himself to you in the details.

linking with Chatting at the Sky and with:

thus ends an era

Last week I combined pulling out our Christmas decorations with purging unnecessaries from our basement. Among the cast offs - the car seat which cradled each of our children in the car for the first year of their life.

As Ben is 2 1/2 and the car seat almost 9 years old, you would be right in thinking I might have pitched this item long ago. But it was so. hard. to. do. Despite common sense glaring me in the face, in the back of my mind played the tape, "maybe it will come in useful someday." Wistful thinking.

Finally, I faced up to reality and decided to let it go. Into the discard pile it went at the bottom of the basement steps awaiting its date with the garbage truck.

As it waited, Ben wandered in and joyfully set about playing in it. It was a good way to keep him amused and out of my crazy sorting piles and Reese and I enjoyed telling him it was his seat when he was a baby.

Fast forward to yesterday - garbage day for us.

Ben in his seat circa 2009

The car seat was on the tree lawn and Ben was at the window watching the garbage truck activity on our street. I stood with him for a few moments then returned to the kitchen to finish the breakfast chores.

Minutes later, he entered the kitchen, crying and uttering something undecipherable. I could make out a few of the words - seat, huh-dah (his word for truck) - but could make no sense of what he was trying to tell me. It wasn't until I left the kitchen and saw the car seat gone from the lawn that I finally understood.

I stooped down, looked in his eyes and asked him, "Did the garbage truck take your car seat away?"

"Yeeeeaaaah," he wailed, starting a fresh wave in tears.

I chuckled and hugged him and we repeated the tragedy of seeing the garbage truck taking away his seat several times over in his language.

And God spoke to my heart about this episode...

In Ben, I see myself. I see myself at a window watching God cart away something I no longer need, but something I enjoyed. It could be something He gave me for a time to delight in. It could be something I never needed in the first place. It could be an object, a season of life, a sin. At first, I may be upset with Him for taking it away because leaving can hurt. But as He stoops to look in my eyes and kiss away my tears, He reassures me of His purpose in removing it. He may not tell me why but He asks me to trust that His purposes are always good, always right, always exactly what I need.

Do you find this too? Has there been something you've watched God take away, something you weren't ready to part with?

linking with Chatting at the Sky and with:

reap to sow: Chapters 17 & 18

I can't believe we're almost done with The Power of a Positive Mom: Revised Edition by Karol Ladd! How time does fly.

Please wander over to Courtney's  today...she's leading the discussion on one of our favorite topics - books (the theme of these chapters).

(For a link to previous discussions, please click here.)

an oops corrected

If you tried to download the "Immanuel" letters, which I posted about on Thursday, only the first page appeared in my scribd page. Not sure what happened. Anyway, I re-uploaded the document and now all three pages appear to be there. Here's the link again. If you try and download it and it still isn't working, please email me and I can send you the document that way. Sorry for the glitch.

sowing: worn out knees and planting seeds of tradition

If you're just joining us (and we're so glad to have you along!), we're taking two chapter per week from the book, The Power of a Positive Mom: Revised Edition by Karol Ladd.

On Mondays we focus on reaping: What are we gleaning, discerning from the reading?

On Fridays we focus on sowing: What actions from the Power Points can we apply in our lives in order to become more positive mothers?

(For a link to previous discussions, please click here.)

To read what we reaped for Chapters 15 &16, please see Monday's post.

Reading Karol's stories about the two moms on pages 192 and 193 convicted me. I often do as the Mom-who-used-her-voice did - trying to get my words to do the work for me. But, oh, how much kinder, gentler and Jesus like it is to be the Mom-who-gets-on-her-knees.

I often feel my husband does a better job of this...I tell the kids to clean their room and then leave to go about other tasks. My husband will sit in the room with them and help direct their focus. A Martha/Mary (or in this case, maybe it's Martin?) story played out in our home.

Since reading this chapter, I have tried to be more intentional about getting on my knees and helping my children with their tasks, and in the reverse, to have them help me with mine. And God had me notice something in one of my on-my-knees moments...my jeans. Specifically, the knees. Almost thread bare. And I felt a whisper to my spirit that this is something He loves to see. Clothes worn out from loving and serving and giving and getting right in there to tough it out with the ones He loves. The knee on those jeans finally gave out yesterday. They were always my favorite pair - now even more so. While I'm now in the market for a pair of new jeans, I want to hang on to the old pair as a reminder of the message in the worn out knees.


Paging over to Chapter 16...
So far this week, I've written about a Christmas tradition that wasn't and shared yesterday about my favorite tradition we started with our own family...the seeds we began planting several years ago. It's only fitting today, especially given the title of this book, to share another day our children look forward to...St. Nicolas Day (December 6).


In a nutshell, it's the day when the kids get their "stockings." I put stockings in parenthesis because I don't really use them. Instead, depending on the gifts for the year, I set them up in different ways. One year I used my riding boots from bygone days. It mixes it up a little and keeps them guessing. :) Up until this year, the kids always were surprised by the day itself. Now that Brianna and Reese are learning about the concept of time, I don't think I can sneak it up on them.

Why St. Nicolas Day and not the traditional Christmas morning?

It's an attempt to share the joy of giving and receiving gifts while wanting to keep the focus on God's gift to us on Christmas.

You see, when I was growing up I loved the whole Santa and getting presents thing, especially the stockings - 99% of the time I was the first one to wake up every year. And, although we went to church and I knew about Jesus, I didn't know Him. Christmas never was about Jesus for me. So it wasn't too hard to justify celebrating Christmas as an atheist. Also, I was impacted a few years ago by the Christmas memories my brother-in-law shared. He grew up in a family who actively knew Jesus. His memories? Not one centered around the toys he received. Instead his family choose significant ways to help those in need.

This history and knowing all my fond Christmas memories revolve around the stuff I got, cause me to pull back from those childhood traditions and anything less than a focus on God. It's a big part of why I wrote this post.

For our children, my hope is that, as adults, they will look back on St. Nicolas Day as a time we rejoiced in giving gifts to one another and Christmas as a time we rejoiced in a baby in a manager who would grow up to die for us so we might live.


Now it's your turn...how have you sown seeds from the chapters this week? Any memory makers you'd like to share or ones you'd like to try? Please join us in this discussion by leaving a comment. If you blogged about it, please leave a link to your place so we can find you there.