Seven Fast, Part 2 (Feb.- Clothing)

If you saw me in February you saw me in one of two shirts-- purple or grey long sleeved--likely with a black sleeveless top under it, and either my jeans or my grey skirt with leggings.  My new black leather knee-high boots & my blue Sperry loafers rounded off my seven articles of clothing.  Why, and what did I learn?  Here's the best I can do:  thoughts on the topic in no particular order. :)

This month's fast was in partial preparation for the "possessions" fast, when I will be trying to give away 7 items every day.  Wearing two outfits for a month really does open your eyes to see how unnecessary the closet & dresser full of clothing are, especially when you remember that you have additional bins of seasonal clothes as well.  I really didn't miss my other clothes.  Sure, there were the "ugggh, I need to wash this AGAIN and I really just want to go to bed" nights-- seven clothes get filthy quickly when you have a nursing baby, a preschooler and make most of your food from scratch.  The low point was the morning I had to unexpectedly take Liam to the doctor early in the morning-- the morning I was planning to wash my clothes-- and all I had clean was the black sleeveless top, paired with jeans.  Did I mention it was February?  I cheated and threw on a wool coat... and then realized (after I'd already spoken with the receptionist & nurse) that my shirt was on backwards AND inside out.  Classy.

Getting dressed was super easy.  No stress.  I really did like that.  

I understand why women wore aprons before.  When laundry was a once-a-week chore, and you owned one or two everyday dresses and one or two fancy "church" dresses, you would want to keep as many stains from happening as you could.  But I would want an apron with at least some shoulder covering as they are always filthy by day's end from dirty little faces all snuggling up against me.  :)

Need is such a relative term.  How many times have I said "I really need a new dress for ___."  Actually, no I don't.  Not only will I not die of exposure without it-- I have plenty of warm clothes-- but  I also have an abundance of outfits to choose from.  I am not a huge clothing-buyer, but even I can get emotional attachments to clothing.  This month helped those "bonds" wither. If I can live for a month on 2 outfits, I can definitely give away half of my clothes.

I learned to mend and make do.  Wearing the same clothes meant they got WORN.  One day my shirt snagged and tore across the back.  Instead of throwing it in my mending pile for the next 4 months (by which time it will likely be too hot to wear it anyway), I sat down and sewed it up that day.  I did get a little tired of my pants by the end of the 4 weeks.  When the jeans ripped in one knee I actually got a bit excited at the idea of patching them-- just so I could get some variety!  Patching jeans is actually pretty tricky with my machine... but I do like the final version and it saved a pair of pants from languishing in my craft room!

I feel so blessed.  What a privilege to have so many shoes that fit, that feel nice, that keep me warm-- enough that I could pick TWO pair, and have many left over!  What a privilege to have multiple PJs, underwear, socks even as I wore the same 2 outfits during the day!  And how amazing is it to have so many warm, fitting and cute options to wear every day!

If you only had 7 items of clothes to wear, what would you pick?  Have you ever done a clothing fast? What did you learn?

Seven Fast, Part 1 (Jan- No Sugar)

Wow, it's been a while.  I have Christmas, and Valentine's Day, and Liam's monthly shoots, and St. Patrick's Day, and everything in between, like doula-ing and natural living, and cloth diapering ...because surely everyone wants to stay caught up on the minutia of our lives, right? :)  My blogging has been on a downward slope every since getting a smart phone.  Facebook is so easy to upload pictures and quips and my children's adorable sayings to-- just a little downward swipe of the thumb and a few touch-screen typies... whereas blogging means I have to open the laptop (which I try to avoid doing while my children are awake if I can).

So... Seven.

It started with me loving a blogpost about Santa & Jesus by Jen Hatmaker.  That got me loving her whole blog.  I linked to it on Facebook (wow, amazing how much that comes up!), and an old friend mentioned a book she'd written on eliminating excess.  The title was simply, Seven.  This friend, Sarah, invited me to participate in our own 'Seven Fast' in the new year.  I ordered the book and signed on.

You should all beg, borrow or buy the book.  It's laugh-out-loud hilarious while being very pointed and convicting.  I really enjoyed it.  The basic jist of the book is that Jen & 6 of her friends decided to fast in 7 different areas (4 weeks in each area):  food, media, clothing, waste, possessions, shopping, and stress.  One month she ate only 7 foods, another she wore the same 7 clothing items for a month, and in another she gave away 7 items each day. We've loosely imitated this by picking an area each month and fasting, keeping each other in the loop throughout it.

An example of what I couldn't eat...

My first fasting area was food.  Since I'm still breastfeeding Liam (in January he was still 100% ebf) and also already quite restricted in my diet (no soy, no gluten), a seven-food fast seemed a bit too tricky.  I also already make most food from scratch and eat a whole-foods diet, so restrictions towards healthiness seemed a bit moot as well.  But sugar, now sugar, THAT sounded hard to me.  As much as I tell myself that I don't eat much sugar, I still felt quite attached to that little bit.  Meaning... it should go.

So for a month I eliminated all refined forms of sugar.  I allowed myself 1-2 tsp of a honey or maple syrup per day (in baked items or in tea)... and that was it.  Good thing I already drink my coffee strong with cream (a habit I've passed on to my daughter)... anyway.

What did I learn?  Three things, briefly, that I think are learned by all fasting.
1.  It's good to say no.  I think the mental clarity that can accompany a fast can come less from the fast itself and more from the discipline the fast teaches.  When we learn to say "no" to self, just for the sake of keeping our word and doing something that we don't really want to do, I think it creates a frame of mind that's more amenable to godliness.  We can obey better, listen better, wait better.  And that's how God often meets us.
2. Remembering how much I need the Lord.  Every time I wanted sugar for a pick-me-up or for something sweet, I would remind myself that the Lord is my strength, that He's enough, that I can be thankful and I don't really NEED a pick-me-up.
3. Making me pray.  Every time I felt that sugar-craving, I used it as trigger to remember to pray.  Since I wanted sugar a lot, I prayed a lot. :)

So that was my first month of 'Seven' fasting.  More to come.

St. Patrick's Day

Eowyn LOVED pinching folks not wearing green, and was careful to wear her green headband/bow all day
"So my head doesn't get pinched" :)

If you've read this blog long enough you've read me quoting one of my heroes:  St. Patrick.  No, he wasn't a leprechaun  and no he didn't only wear green.  But he DID bring the Gospel to the very people who had kidnapped and enslaved him, and he DID serve as a faithful pastor to thousands of new believers, using even simple shamrocks to illustrate Truths like the Trinity.  He rocked.  I kinda think of him as the Hudson Taylor meets John Piper of his day.  Anyway... in his memory in our family we all wear green on March 17, and this year I read Eowyn The Story of St. Patrick, More than Shamrocks & Leprechauns. She also got to watch the Veggie Tales "flannelgraph" telling of St. Patrick's story-- which is quite well-done (it's a featurette on "The Sumo of the Opera")!  My sister & I took our babies to the park to snap a few shots of them in their greenery. :)

I now want to re-read That Hideous Strength (CS Lewis) and A Swiftly Tilting Planet (Madeleine L'Engle)... both feature the Celts, St. Patrick & even Merlin.  In a year or two we will probably add the "Patrick" chapter of Lloyd Alexander's Time Cat to our read-alouds on this day.  Eventually, we'll read directly from Patrick's own writings (Confession & Letters).  They are inspiring!!

I wonder what foods I can make next year to make the day even more festive...

~St. Patrick's Rune

Do any of you celebrate St. Patrick's Day?  What traditions do you employ?

St. Valentine's Day 2013

Some of the valentines we mailed.  First time I've sent mail to Pakistan!

So glad there are several holidays in winter to break up the monotony of indoor cold days!  I've always loved Valentine's Day as a day to show love to everyone around us (thank you, Mom, for that legacy), and lately have come to appreciate it as a day to remember and show love to the persecuted church!  Did you know St. Valentine was a real man, one who was a champion of Christian marriage, a bold declarer of the Gospel, and ultimately a martyr for his Lord?  Yeah, forget Cupid!

 We had some friends over, read The Story of St. Valentine, More than Cards & Candy Hearts, ate heart-shaped sandwiches & cookies, made valentines to send to Christians imprisoned abroad for their faith, talked about the reality of persecution in our day (just as it was a reality in Valentine's day), and wrapped up in blankets we mailed to Sudanese Christians through VoM's "Blanket and a Bible" program.  I used the Voice of the Martyr's resource pack "Letter Writing Kit" to get the photos, addresses & backstories for several Christians currently in jail, many facing death, for loving Christ fearlessly.

Jillian munching

Two of our other lil guests

Ginger hearts with chocolate buttercream frosting.  Yum.

The full table

Liam, our youngest Valentine :)

Another friend!

Bouquet fresh from our backyard

 

Friends had been bringing by blankets for weeks! 

After naps for all, Eowyn & Liam enjoyed a treasure hunt through the house, supervised by our sweet friend from church, "Miss Jen," while Ryan & I got to try a wine-beer-chocolate-and-cheese tasting at The Community Tap.  Really fun!! Ryan LOVED the Beats Solo HD headphones I gave him for Valentine's Day (a prayed-for found deal!), and I'm excited about reading through the book he picked for us to read together!  PS the chocolate at the Community Tap is AH-MAY-ZING!!!!

Since Nina started the treasure-hunt-tradition...

... she did another treasure hunt at her house that weekend! 

 Happy Valentine's Day!

Looking Forward to K4...

Several friends who remember my preschool-teaching days have asked me what we're thinking of doing next year for Eowyn's school.  While much is still up in the air-- will we supplement with dance? music? What about staying at the 2-day-a-week-school where she's/we're so happy now? Will there be room for Children's Bible Study Fellowship?-- I am working on some sort of pattern or low-stress plan.

I don't really know how much, when or where.

from The Read-Aloud Handbook, Jim Trelease

What I do know is that we will be doing at least a half hour of more "structured" instruction at home no matter what else we do.  I'm a big believer in the power of doing nothing more than reading aloud to your children and allowing them plenty of creative opportunities-- time outside, dress-up clothes, pretend-play toys (kitchen, babies, paper dolls, trucks), construction toys (blocks, legos, lincoln logs), and art supplies (paint, crayons, cutting, fabric, stickers, chalk).  However, I also know that the more experiences a child has with letters the more likely they are to be an early reader, and an early reader has a great head-start over non-readers.  Somewhere between rigorous formal instruction and the freedom to explore lies my philosophy of early education.  I don't sell children short on learning opportunities, as I think parents tend to do-- but much of this doesn't happen at a desk.  It happens in choosing quiet toys over battery-operated ones.  It happens in pulling up a stool and teaching them to sort the silverware and measure the milk and crack the eggs.  It happens in doing a chore chart and hanging their coat where they can be responsible to hang it up.  It comes in turning the TV off and filling little book shelves with books.  It comes in teaching children to ask questions and answer them too.  It comes in playing with them and in requiring them to play by themselves.  It comes in consistent discipline and the incorporation of Scripture into daily life.

So... without further ado, here is our low-stress "curriculum" for next year:

-- Math:  pocket calendar from Oriental Trading Company-- to learn/review months, days of week, counting, number recognition, weather, holidays, and today/tomorrow/next week/yesterday, using different songs as well as the actual calendar.  We will also practice skip counting by 2s, 5s and 10s with songs (Sounds Like Fun, Discovery Toys), fingers (high-five for 5s, two-handed high-fives for 10s), and with coins (nickels, pennies & dimes).  Other play opportunities include a "store" with her cash register, numbers puzzle and other number coloring pages.  She's already quite familiar with numbers and recognizes the numerals fairly consistently.  If I can find it on the cheap, I will pick up Saxon's K.
-- Reading:  Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, modified for a young child without much fine-motor strength. It's quite rare for any 3 or 4 year old to have the muscular strength and fine-motor skill to properly write. This is the reason for big chunky or triangular crayons, finger paint, and fat paint brushes on the market-- littles really just can't do the other stuff well for very long at all. That's a huge reason to really minimize worksheets and do way more "exploration" with many textures and using just the fingers-- whipped cream, shaving cream, sand paper, sand box, finger paint (add a bit of sand or glitter), glue spread with a finger that you then sprinkle with glitter/sand, erasing chalk letters off a chalk board with a finger tip-- all these allow for proper hand motion learning (start here, pick up here, etc), without reinforcing improper pencil-holding or tiring muscles that just aren't ready to hold a pencil. These give letter experiences without teaching something that later has to be unlearned.  So we'll be doing any of the above instead of the writing exercises the book suggests, as well as more standard tracing and my-hand-over-hers writing.  If I can find it I'd love to buy a Handwriting Without Tears manipulative set, but in the meantime we make letters out of blocks and E finds that exceedingly fun!  One more note:  let kids experiment with both hands, as many don't have their "handedness" determined yet.
-- Science/History: What Your Preschooler Needs to Know: Get Ready for Kindergarten... and we use each holiday as a learning point too.  The books from Voices of the Martyrs on the namesakes of holidays are great (just bought their books on St. Nicolas, St. Valentine and St. Patrick)!
-- Writing: Cursive First... I think.
-- Literature:  LOTS of reading!  Picture books from the library galore! Starting on some longer books to be read aloud too.  I refer to The Read-Aloud Handbook and The Well-Trained Mind for ideas.
-- Music-- lots of experimentation with pitched (especially xylophone) and percussive instruments, and plenty of pitch-matching games with me!  We sing songs on sol-fege regularly (a favorite is the "Tallis Cannon" at bed time), and I'm trying to teach her that we do NOT EVER end songs on "ti" or "re"!  We also like the first part of the Song of Aeolus (it's a minor song tune pitched in the relative major, so it's all about "la" instead "do.")  Also exploring madrigals and Broadway songs-- she LOVES the CD of my senior recital right now!  We will go to our first symphony concerts so she can see the instruments up close, and will do fun stuff with Peter & the Wolf and Carnival of the Animals.  
-- Language-- we are reading books and watching DVDs in Spanish (our library has a great selection!), listening to music in Spanish and French, and occasionally reading books in French.
-- Art-- I'd like to make use of this website (Deep Space Sparkle).  Also on my to-do list is a sewing kit for her!
-- Bible-- continued memorization of The Children's Catechism, and memorization of one verse a week using the book My ABC Bible Verses: Hiding God's Word in Little Hearts (Susan Hunt).  We rotate The Beginner's Bible, The Jesus Storybook Bible and The Big Picture Story Bible for nightly family devotions-- I look forward to introducing the audiobook versions for her to "read" to herself in the mornings!   We listen to the Seeds CDs, Hide Em in Your Heart, Rain for Roots, Judy Rogers' and other Bible-based songs all the time!  I hope to add in some GT & the Halo Express soon-- if I can find some somewhere!

Today my goal for the day is to make a morning-routine chart for her... I'll let y'all know how that goes!

Chart Love

Much as I love poetry, sometimes a simple chart says it way better.

These three are some faves these days:

-- Essential Oil Use chart --by oil--from Family Essential Oil
-- Essential Oil Use chart --by need-- from Heritage Essential Oils (this whole site is great, as is Linda, the owner)
-- Nutrient-Dense-Food Source chart from the Nourishing Gourmet (the last 2 links in this great little post are to a handy-dandy PDF chart!)

I'm excited about some classes I'll be taking soon... on lacto-fermentation & on soaking grains... enjoying learning about using essential oils, continuing to explore my new sewing machine with new projects, kicking into nutrient-dense-meal prep gear after the holidays and the Newborn Exhaustion.  Just packed away the Christmas decorations a bit sadly... soon I'll have to post about our wonderful Advent & Christmas 2012!

Epiphany 2013

For Epiphany this year we had some friends over to celebrate "the Last Day of Christmas."  I reeeeally wanted to make almond cookies or at least a "Galette des Rois" like I remember from my childhood in France, but everything I found had gluten in it... and I didn't have the time to make every single component (like almond paste) from scratch.  This year.

The kids didn't mind. :)  We made crowns, and I read about the Magi coming to worship the King, and how that was so amazing-- that finally God was telling all people everywhere how to be forgiven! I taught them how to play "Find the Baby King"-- I hid Baby Jesus and we all mounted our camels and trotted off to find him, with me giving "hot" or "cold" clues.  They really got into this game, though the littler ones didn't exactly "get" the hot-cold concept, hah. But they seriously would have kept on playing for an hour.  I should also point out that Eowyn didn't want to be a Magi-- she insisted on being Mary.  Not sure what that means about her mothering skills, if she kept losing her own child...

My friend Sarah (mother of the other munchkins at our celebration) had pulled up some blogs of friends of hers who are missionaries abroad, and we talked about how our job is, in a sense, to bring Epiphany to everyone.  Lots of people still have not heard of the Messiah who brings Light into our Darkness-- and it is our joy to tell them about Him!  I think the kids made the connection better than I expected, between a Baby King revealed to faraway Gentile star-gazers, and a Reigning Forgiving King revealed to faraway pagans today.

Of course I didn't think to take any pictures during the actual party, but I did manage to prop the kids down in front of the tree before we took all the ornaments off and said goodbye to Christmas.  Next year I'd like to do a little celebration every day of Christmas through Epiphany, but at least I'm glad to have managed a party to finish off the season.

[One last thought on the Magi.  I think they really could read the stars.  I think that God really has written --in sweeping, broad non-specific parameters-- His purposes in the skies.  He calls out the starry hosts by name, after all!  I think those ancient magicians (Magi) were onto something-- they studied for years upon years.  I don't mean piddly little horoscopes or personal life-stories; rather epic history foretold.  Rising of good & evil tides.  Scripture from Genesis to Revelation seems to hint at such incomplete revelation   My guess is that Rowling's & Lewis' centaurs are right-- but we have long forgotten how to read the stars.  ...if you really want to cook your noodle, what about Lewis' take on Merlin as an ancient Celtic Christian earth-magician?  Read The Hideous Strength and get back to me.]


“Never," said Hagrid irritably, "try an' get a straight answer out of a centaur. Ruddy stargazers. Not interested in anythin' closer'n the moon.”   :)
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone