And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us!

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it... He came to his own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth... And from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

John 1:1-16 (emphasis added)

Merry Christmas!

Nathan thinks Christmas is quite exciting!

A little stressful, though, when you aren't allowed to eat the ribbons off the presents...

But all in all quite interesting and fun...

... and sometimes a bit exhausting, requiring a long winter's nap...

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Fa-La-La-La

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Christmas decorating!

Meredith at Like Merchant Ships posted recently on decorating with what you have, and posted a lovely photo of her aunt's mantle, which was decorated beautifully and had glass cylinders with oranges and cryptomeria. When I read her post, I was amused by the similarities between her aunt's mantle and my piano top decorations! (Which aren't done, I'm going to decorate the wreath still, and add a table runner... and see what else ends up there!)

I had the cranberries already (I brought them home in a vase with flowers that had been a table decoration at a wedding reception we attended), and the way-too-tall-for-almost-anything candle, and the vase...
Of course, it looks better with the candle lit, at night, but my attempts to get a picture of it in that lighting were less than successful. :-)

Ah, the marvels of technology...

Home computers are being called upon to perform many new functions, including the consumption of homework formerly eaten by the dog.
- Doug Larson

Flannery on Writers...

Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.
- Flannery O'Connor

Here is the recipe I use to make liquid laundry soap. I was going through so much that I decided that it would be worth the effort to make my own. Also if I run out I just make more instead of it being an emergency shopping trip! The friends who gave me this recipe thought it worked better than store-bought, and I completely agree. The load of Micah's work clothes that I tested it on came out cleaner than usual! The people who gave me the recipe calculated that it was about 2 cents per load of laundry. My washing soda was three dollars cheaper than theirs was, but I'm not motivated enough to do the math. ;-)

Liquid Laundry Soap
1/2 cup Borax
1/2 cup washing soda (or sodium carbonate)
1 cup soap flakes or a grated bar soap
2 gallons water
20 drops essential oil (optional- I didn't have any)

Combine Borax, washing soda, and most of the water. Boil soap flakes in remaining water, and add to first mixture. The soap will help gel the mixture. If your water is hard, add more washing soda. This recipe makes about 2 gallons, so have some jugs ready before you start!

Use about 1/2 cup of laundry soap per load.

If you have trouble finding the washing soda/sodium carbonate, as I did, check the pool section, where you might find it intended for use as a pH balancer. This is fine as long as it is only sodium carbonate. (I couldn't find washing soda at my Walmart, but my small local grocery had some.)

An alternate recipe I make just for our cloth diapers is 1C Borax, 1C Washing soda, and 1C Oxyclean (4 tablespoons for a medium load). I use this instead because I was told that the bar soap in the other recipe could make my diapers retain odor and repel water! This recipe has been working very well, and I like the fact that there aren't any scents or unknown ingredients going on a tender baby bottom!

My friend Anna also posted today about making laundry soap! She makes her own powdered version, which is very similar to my liquid recipe. She points out that it takes up less storage space, so if you're interested in making your own and that is a factor, you should definitely head over there!

Nathan

New studies on caffeine and alcohol intake during pregnancy...

'U.K. policymakers are shifting recommendations on consumption of low levels of alcohol and caffeine during pregnancy in reaction to two recent studies on the effects of the drugs, the Los Angeles Times reports. The studies -- which were the "largest and most rigorous" to date on low-level alcohol and caffeine consumption during pregnancy -- challenge the notion that alcohol should be avoided entirely during pregnancy and that light caffeine consumption has no effect on outcomes, according to the Times. The Times reports that the two studies suggest that "limited alcohol consumption is not so bad, while regular caffeine intake is worse than we thought."'

Whole article here.

Fortnightly Purse is up!

And wow is it a fun one! :-) Take a peek and enter here!

Bellybutton?

Lord, give me a bigger container...

"It’s good to see our limits and remember we have them. At the same time, as long as it is possible for us, we should be asking God to increase those limits, to open our hearts more and more, to give us the stamina we need on order to keep up with all He has given us to do. As we age and become more frail, He lightens our load. But all along the way we need to be asking for bigger containers to receive more grace and goodness so that we will have a greater capacity to give. And the more we give, the more He blesses us, the more He gives back to us."
- Nancy Wilson, in her latest blog post, "Large Hearts"

(Go read the rest!)

Pregnancy Ticker

Car Seat Safety

Deep Questions that Demand Answers

Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone?
- James Thurber

Somehow this doesn't make any sense...

"Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it."
- Ellen Goodman

Yum!

Nathan likes avocados, but even better is the joy of wielding a spoon!

Musings on Slipcovers...

I'm very tempted by this slipcover tutorial I ran across this morning, titled, "The Laziest Slipcover Tutorial EVER!" We have a great chair, ottoman, and couch that I love- they are really comfortable and roomy and the pillow covers come off for washing, and they were free. I mean, can you beat free? I submit that you cannot.

So I really like them, and want to keep them around for a while, but unfortunately whoever designed these amazing pieces lost their mind around the fabric selection part of the process (or had a showroom in mind instead of my living room, populated with real people), and chose a lovely cream with lavender stripes. MmmmHmmm.

So I've been thinking of slipcovering, but every time I look at the couch, especially, it just seems too big and overwhelming. Also, I get distracted by the piping and the way the stripes line up and wonder whether the slipcover should go under or over the cushions, etc. Also, I'm intimidated by fabric selection. It is one thing to buy fabric for a skirt, or a window treatment, or a mai tai- if you change your mind, it is a small amount of fabric. But a couch is pretty big, and I would want to get duck cloth or something similar, heavyweight, and that adds up quickly. So I don't want to make a mistake, but I'm not sure what is most practical.

I was thinking maybe white- then I could bleach it if it got stained, and line dry it to help brighten it up before it needed the heavy hand of bleach. On the other hand, everything will show up on white.

What do you think? Would white be best? If not, what would be better? A dark pattern? I kind of like the bright, airy look of the cream and lavender, so I think I'd like the white, but I don't want to bring down extra furniture maintenance or extra laundry on my head. Thoughts?

Amoretti giveaway!

Enter in the Fortnightly purse! This time, including tea, digestive biscuits, and a polka dotted tea tin!

quote of the day

The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.
- B. F. Skinner

This makes a similar point to one Douglas Wilson made in his talk "Devil in a Blue Dress" in the "Church and Pop Culture" Ministerial Conference, which I've just started listening through.

The technology in and of itself- internet, television, ipod, cell phone - isn't sinful. It is the way you use it that determines whether it is helpful or problematic, acceptable or sinful.

Trailer for "Is Christianity Good for the World?"

So true

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Today...

A small time town parade and town days. Booths everywhere. The perfect necklace, but made of healing magnetic beads that the vendor assured me would be "too strong" for me unless I had chronic pain issues. Hmm. Decide to pass on the necklace in case she is right that it will make me sleepy or unconfortable if it is "too strong". Kettle corn. Brisket and chips. The parade, prominently featuring tractors, four wheelers, bicycles, and horses, wound around the streets. Small dogs in costume. Scary clowns. Kids, high on sugar, and face painted. Sweet tea. Too loud local bands replace country played over the PA after a while. Cedar chests are down the way, on the left. People know us that I've never heard of. They've already seen the baby, he's been up and down the street already, aunts escorting him hither and yon.

Amoretti is having another giveaway!

This time, it features sea salt and an antique silver urn, as well as a Skirty!

Laughter

The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.
- e e cummings

'How to make Yorkshire pudding

Ok, this is not an endorsement, because I haven't tried it, but my "how to of the day" widget displayed the link this morning and I didn't want to misplace it.

Quote of the moment...

In politics, absurdity is not a handicap.
- Napoleon Bonaparte

That explains a lot about our current political situation. Politicians do something ridiculous, and we all go, "Hmmmmm...." and stretch our minds to figure out how it could somehow be ok or mean something completely different. Either way they've got our attention.

Amoretti Giveaway!

You can visit Bekah Merkle's new blog and enter to win a Skirty and some snazzy bookplates too!

So what are you reading?

I'm reading The Penguin Complete Father Brown, and I'm really sad that I'm 7/8ths through! I wish it was much bigger. :-)

Nathan's newest accomplishment...

is switching things from hand to hand! So far he only seems to switch from left to right, so we're wondering if that means he is right handed. I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

quotes

"Try to learn something about everything and everything about something."
- Thomas H. Huxley

"You probably wouldn't worry about what people think of you if you could know how seldom they do."
- Olin Miller

I've got three quotes daily on my homepage, and I liked these two today.

The countdown has begun

I've got a little pregnancy ticker on my iGoogle page now, and it tells me that I have 220 days until my due date. Of course, it would be normal to go a few weeks before or after that, so that's just an estimate or guess, but it is fun to count down even if it isn't a "set in stone" date.

220 days to figure out whether I want to move Nathan into a crib or toddler bed instead of the playpen next to our bed, and whether I want to turn our room into the nursery and the loft into our bedroom. The advantage to that would be that we would be between babies and the stairs.

220 days to complete three baby quilts. (Nathan's is almost done!) The other two, a boy and girl baby quilt, will hopefully get done this time before baby arrives!

220 days to wonder if we're having a boy or girl!

220 days to toss name ideas back and forth.

220 days to wait until we meet this little one face to face!

8 1/2

...weeks along, that is. :-) We're looking forward to welcoming our second little one around April 6th!

C-Sections Shown to Increase Risk of Type 1 Diabetes

"New research¹ reveals that mothers giving birth by Caesarean section have a 20 per cent higher risk of their baby developing Type 1 diabetes in childhood compared to those having natural births, warns leading health charity Diabetes UK.

The research examined 20 published studies on children with Type 1 diabetes born by Caesarean section and found that there was a 20 per cent increase in the risk of babies born by Caesarean section developing Type 1 diabetes. This could not be explained by other factors such as birth weight, the age of the mother, order of birth, gestational diabetes and whether the baby was breast-fed or not.

On average 24 per cent of pregnancies in England are delivered by Caesarean section, which is significantly higher that the World Health Organisation's recommended rate of 15 per cent.²"

From this article here.

The United States has a Caesarean rate of about 30 percent, according to this article.
This article from Childbirth Connection looks at the factors going into that, including care providers who put a low priority on supporting normal labors, side effects of common interventions, and a limited awareness of the risks.

In Memoriam

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My cat Oreo disappeared recently, and I've given up hope. I'm guessing she met her end. Such is life for an outside cat in the country. But she wasn't always an outside cat. I acquired Oreo about 10 years ago, and she was an inside cat then. And one of her favorite things to do was crouch in the dark and wait for me to go to the kitchen and get a glass of water at night. And she would spring.

I've heard that its good for you to have your adrenal gland stimulated. ;-)

iGoogle

If you don't have an iGoogle page set up, but you have a google account, you really should take advantage of it. I love my new iGoogle page! It is easy to customize, and I added widgets that give me a preview of my gmail inbox, let me play hangman, display quotes of the day, track Nathan's age (4 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days old!), have to do lists, weather, and the latest? A great little widget that lets me post to my blog from the same page. Gotta love it!

LOL!

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This is even funnier because my parents recently had a problem with a cat that killed chickens. Not even chicks, really... they were 10 weeks old.

Summer...

Hanging clothes on the clothesline. Eating dinner on the porch, sitting on the porch swing. Flowers blooming unexpectedly. The fair, and free ice cream. Perfect pasta salad weather! Green fields. Margaritas. Afternoon naps.

These are the good things I'm enjoying.

As well as the back carry in the mei tai! Which makes hanging clothes on the line, making pasta salad, etc, easier which makes more time for afternoon naps. :-)

New Favorite

If you're like me, most of your furniture comes to you in a condition which suggests that it has been either extremely well loved, or abused.

If you're like us, the furniture continues on the same path of heavy usage after we acquire it.

This is the dramatic story of a coffee table.

I was given this hand-me-down coffee table shortly before we got married last year, back when we could count the pieces of furniture we owned on our fingers. When I came into possession of this table, it had glitter and marker all over the top. Fortunately, that came off with elbow grease, and I gave it a little shine with some furniture spray. Until now, that furniture spray was the big gun in my furniture improvement tool box. Well, it's been replaced by a better solution for most of the problems. This Old English Scratch Cover (yes, this is the part of the post where it starts to sound like an advertisement, skip to the end of the paragraph to miss that part) is amazing. I like darker colored wood furniture, but scratches show up really well. And if, hypothetically, the puppy chewed on the legs? Well, all I can say is, that would be really bad.


Like, really, really bad.

So, anyway, I found this scratch cover, and I tried it, and I like it. Here is the before:


...and here is the after.




True, this is still not perfect. You can still see the tooth marks from that scourge- er, I mean, adorable puppy. But it took me less than 15 minutes, and since it darkened all the scratches they aren't the first thing I notice about my coffee table anymore! And THAT is something to smile about. :-)

Win a babywearing stash!

Win the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride (one Beco Butterfly, one Hotsling baby pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Zolowear Ring Sling, and one Gypsy Mama Wrap)



I love my ring sling and mei tai (the picture is Nathan enjoying the view from the mei tai)... but that doesn't keep me from wondering what I'm missing with pouches and wraps! :-) Definitely still room for exploration here...

Mark Twain on Friendship

The holy passion of Friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money.
- Mark Twain

This is slightly disturbing if you use CFLs

Because they contain mercury, if a Compact Fluorescent Light bulb breaks, you need to open a window and evacuate the room for 15 minutes, turn off the A/C, and (the following is for hard flooring, quoted from the EPA website, there are different instructions for carpet):

• Carefully scoop up glass pieces and powder using stiff paper or cardboard and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
• Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
• Wipe the area clean with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes. Place towels in the glass jar or plastic bag.
• Do not use a vacuum or broom to clean up the broken bulb on hard surfaces.

Nathan

"What is that funny square thing that goes click?"

Spring

Midwife "not practicing medicine without a license"

"The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruled 5-2 on Friday that a Lancaster County, Pa.-based midwife was not practicing medicine without a license by assisting at home births, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. The ruling lifts a cease-and-desist order from the State Board of Medicine against midwife Diane Goslin. State officials initially charged Goslin because she is a lay midwife and not a nurse midwife (Couloumbis, Philadelphia Inquirer, 5/24)."
- From an article here, which showed up in my Yahoo! News Alert for "midwife".

This article mistakenly refers to Goslin as a "lay" midwife. This is incorrect, because as this other article notes, Goslin is certified as a CPM through the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) which is recognized in 22 states, but not in Pennsylvania.

True Story!

Read it here.

And you thought we were sleep deprived just because of Nathan!

Meanderings, with links

* Here is a great page on how to wear your baby in a ring sling (that's what I'm using right now) or pouch. This was really helpful to me since I've only seen one person using a ring sling, and hers was slightly different from mine. Great instructions on how to use it for different carrying positions. I wish I'd found this earlier!

* A new study warns about the possible dangers of mobile phones and pregnancy. Hmm. They do also add that "there might be other possible explanations that they did not examine – such as that mothers who used the phones frequently might pay less attention to their children – and stress that the results "should be interpreted with caution" and checked by further studies. But they conclude that "if they are real they would have major public health implications"."

* It was a disappointment last week when the Missouri legislative session ended without passing the midwifery bill that we were hoping would go through. Here is an article with more details- note, however, that it incorrectly states that the bill would've legalized "lay midwives". It would've legalized CPM's, which isn't at all the same thing.

Cute Baby

One Hand

...is all I have to type with, at the moment, so I'll keep this short...

Nathan weighs 12 1/2 lbs! He is 1 month old and becoming more aware and alert. He has rolled from tummy to back several times, and kicks a lot while on his tummy. Gearing up to go. :-)

Meredith at Like Merchant Ships posted a Fruit Tea recipe that looks delicious! Especially with warmer weather, and summer on the way.

On the topic of recipes, check out Luke's Cookies! These are reaaly, really, really good. Really. But unless you're going to freeze pre shaped cookie dough (I've done it with this dough, works great- the perfect thrifty convenience dessert!), or you're planning on feeding an army of cookie monsters (or siblings!) you'll probably want to halve the recipe. I usually do. This recipe is in the Hot Providence cookbook, which I absolutely love. Nothing I have tried from there has failed, which means I can cook with confidence and try new recipes without wondering if they'll work.
(In the middle of that paragraph Nathan woke up and I switched him from my left arm to on my lap, so I've had both hands. There. Full disclosure.)

Well, he's waking up, and a bit fussy, so adios! Have a blessed Tuesday. :-)

Sleeping Nathan

Nathan was sleeping yesterday, and I took a few pictures. Then he almost woke up...
made a few funny faces...
yawned...

and settled back down again. :-)

Nathan Laurence is here!

Nathan Laurence arrived at 2:38 Sunday morning. He was 8 lbs. 3 oz. and 21 inches long.

The week has passed quickly and I can't believe he'll be a week old tomorrow! Thursday (four days old) he smiled for the first time, and Friday (five days) I got this picture:

Currently...

... waiting for the baby.
... drinking tea.
... sitting on an exercise ball.
... thinking about what to have for lunch.
... appreciating the glorious weather and...
... wishing I'd taken my camera out when I walked this morning.
... planning on hanging some laundry on the line this afternoon for the first time in a while.
... wanting Hostess cupcakes. I know, I know. Fortunately I don't have any or any way of procuring them.
... wondering whether I should put more energy towards the baby quilt or the housecleaning.
... wondering how hard it would be to make a baby gown.
... deciding to go eat lunch before making any decisions.

Country Quiz

34
I think this is kind of embarrassing. My mind went blank at the end and I just sat there staring at the little unlabeled globe, knowing that I had woefully neglected South America and Africa, and couldn't remember any more. My best excuse is that I'm usually not awake this early, far less being tested in geography. I bet I'd do better in a few hours... can I get a retest? :-)

It is dangerous...

... to laugh this hard when recovering from a cough.

Cold Season

Yesterday, we had some more icy rain. Not too much, just enough to prompt the grown up equivalent of a snow day. :-) Curling up with tea and books is an excellent way to spend a cold day, especially if you're all shtuffy and congethted and every so often think you're about to cough up a lung.

Cold Prescription
- hot tea (repeat as necessary)
- warm blankets
- chicken noodle soup (or equivalent)
- books
- sympathetic person, either well or less sick, to turn on the kettle at intervals, bring more books/tea/soup/etc, and inquire about how you're feeling.
- gatoraid, fruit juice, water
- cough drops
- vitamin C
- sleep, sleep, sleep!

So far it seems to be working. :-) I am definitely improving, I feel much better than yesterday.

Our New Look

A recent picture. :-)

100 Cupboards

Normally, I read fast. If a story grips me, two to four hours later, the book is done. I find a good story very addictive, and a good plot can induce me to forgo sleep, food, showering, and other basics of civilized existence.

However, I'm discovering that there are other ways to enjoy a good story than by snarfing it down as quickly as possible. Micah's reading 100 Cupboards aloud, and I'm really enjoying it. It is forcing me to slow down and enjoy each part of the story, instead of rushing to the end to find out what happens. Which is definitely the fate this book would have had, since I can't wait to find out what comes next. But I will anyway.