Love That Grows

Some people have children as a surprise.

Some get pregnant to feel special.

A fair amount hope a baby will save a marriage.

Others do so to fit in with the crowd.

By the grace of the Lord, my husband and I were so full of love for each other that it couldn't help but replicate itself. I recommend this option. I highly highly highly recommend it.

We didn't get there by ourselves, though. If you've been following me for long, you know the journey has been and continues to be long, rough and extremely worthwhile. To learn more....

Rejoice!

I found myself in bed this morning pondering my day. June begins tomorrow and I get positively giddy over sitting down at our family calendar and planning out our month ahead. This morning, I was mentally re-running through our weekly menu.

I enjoy keeping a menu for meal planning. I do not, however, shop according to the menu. I shop according to what's in season (this is best done at the local farmer's market if you don't have your own garden) and then come home and pray for inspiration! Our menu revolves around our shopping. I know this sounds a bit backward, but it works.

Seasonal shopping keeps things interesting (I don't like serving or making the same old dishes year-round) and keeps me learning. I often turn to the cookbook mid-week when we only have a few random pieces of food stragglers left in the fridge/pantry and flip back to the index to look up their suggestions for cauliflower, let's say. And I inevitably find a new way to prepare a familiar food. I have to be flexible (I may not be able to add sundried tomatoes or maybe it will have to be cashews instead of almonds), but if you don't mind the adventure (and potential call to the local pizza delivery in case you completely ruin everything--which has yet to happen, I am happy to report!) this is a great way to eat/cook in season without getting bored. In fact, Rory and I have found some of our favorite meals with index cooking! One of my favorite and most-used indexes is found in this cookbook.

And this morning, as I reminded myself that it would be broccoli and pasta tomorrow followed by ceasar salad, then BLT's (turkey bacon on spelt toast, fyi) and then a date night for Friday, it occurred to me that this is rejoicing in the day the Lord has made. Rejoicing in the day just might include the chores of the day. Rejoice in the diapers that will be changed, rejoice in the food you will prepare, rejoice in the clothes you will wash! And again I will say, Rejoice!

Recommendation

Take a beautiful photo of your child/children.

Have said photo enlarged, framed, etc.

Hang photo on wall in visible family space.

Watch as little eyes light up and tiny fingers point at the glory that is themselves on display for all to see. Hug child and point and exclaim, "Who's that?! That's my beautiful BABY!" with true and genuine glee.

This will thrill for days, weeks, months on end. As well as show our children, not just tell, that they are beautiful and loved.

Photo credit: http://www.simplysmittenphotography.com/

And the Younger Will Teach the Older...

The other day Jessica (my younger sister) was watching DD while I was having my hair done. These two usually walk around the shops and get coffee (well, Dia gets a straw to chew on) and come in and see me for the hour or so it takes to tame my mane, but as it was a bit warm, I suggested they turn the air on in the car and play with our bag of car toys.

(FYI--greatest idea ever! Buy a large canvas bag from one of the grocery stores and fill it with random toys reserved solely for the car. Place the bag behind the driver's seat for easy reach and grab while on the road and makes for super easy toy toting to play dates and park time! Since we aren't in the car that often, these toys end up being "special" for Dia and last a long time without boring her.)

When Dia's diaper needed changing, however, Jess let her play with the spray bottle we use for wetting our cloth wipes while she did the dirty deed. Dia loves water right now, so the spray bottle ended up fascinating our Bugs for quite a while!

Here's the great part: When Jess told me about the spray bottle fun, she said, "I hope that was okay. I didn't know what was in there for sure, but I tasted it and it tasted like water. Plus I knew the Holy Spirit would warn me if it was anything but water and He didn't, so I figured it was okay."

The only thing my little sister needed was an A-Okay from the Holy Spirit. If that isn't a living faith, I don't know what is.

I most certainly can learn a thing or two from my Jessi.

Six Years Later...

Yesterday marked the sixth May 15th since 2004. 2004 being
the simple four numbers that represent
the year Rory and I wed.

And I guess at some point, the date May 15, 2004 has become more than a date.
It's starting to feel like
a marking in history,
a specific and fixed representation of the alignment of the sun, moon and stars
on one particular 24-hour light and dark cycle.
And since 2004,
that alignment of planets and positioning of the sun (i.e., that day)
has become ours.
We own it.
Every kiss, every fight, every discussion and resolution has cemented our ownership.

It's our day and the last six summers,
autumns, winters
and springs with its
warmth
and cold,
light
and dark cycles

prove, to me, that we have earned it.

Yesterday was our holiday to stop, kiss, share and talk as we lived and loved during yet another celebration of the 365-day spin and cycle of the earth that brought us to our sixth year.

Our marriage for me, at six years, is really and truly becoming fact. It's like breath. It just is. To live is to breathe, to exist is to be with Rory. Though I feel it taking more of me and more of him and slowly rubbing down the edges and delineations between our persons and our spirits and leaving an us.

Six years later, there is us.

Prepositions

I noticed today that we have entered what I am coining "The Preposition Phase." When I was in school (aka home with my mom), I learned my prepositions by drawing a big action scene with items and characters all in preposition form ,e.g., the bird "on" the rock, the pirate "aboard" the ship, etc. (very creatively, she put the random ones like "of" and "about" on a banner pulled by an airplane "in" the sky). Well, I am proud to announce that the prepositions still live and Dia is now currently studying them from a physical perspective (she's a genius, I know!):



"Under"--nothing is as fun as scooting underneath the kitchen chairs.


Except, that is, climbing "over" the chairs!


"Through"-- Mmm...doesn't that doggy door look inviting? Don't worry--she hasn't actually made it "through" yet....but I know my days are numbered!


"Among"--Dia can often and regularly be found among her best friends: Depot and Roxy. Surprisingly, Depot (our younger and more rambunctious pup) is dearest to DD's heart and they play amazingly well together.


"On"--She loves climbing on Depot! And he is so good to let her do that.


And everything ends up "in" her mouth!

It's probably because of these two new beauties:

The Monday after she crawled, she broke her first tooth, said "Papa" for the first time ("Mama" and "Mom-mom-mom" were her chosen first words earlier in the month--I've had to ask family and friends to confirm this because my heart literally stops beating each time I hear it!) and started clapping all at once! It's been like skiing downhill--on the most beautiful path in the world with the nicest pair of skis money can buy! I feel like the baby I once had is now well on her way to toddler-hood and beyond.

And then of course, there is all the fun that Papa brings. We'll just call this her exploration of gravity and balance--actually, I think she has balance pretty well covered!
(CAUTION: Do not view if you are faint of heart....)

The Stink Factor and Other Reasons to Use Cloth

I've been waiting on two things to happen before posting about using cloth diapers: mobility and solid food. Well, folks, the results are in!

First, let me say that the only reason that a lot of our lifestyle choices align with the "green," "hippie," "granola" movement is pure coincidence. We actually make most of those choices because research shows that they are truly better for us and our health--call us self-centered hippies. It just so happens that most of the choices that are better for our human health just happen to also be better for animals and land. Now I am not saying that maybe God had a plan in His design so that we could all live harmoniously while progressing, but...well, maybe He did!

Ok, so this brings us to cloth. While we were really turned off to the idea of disposable diapers sitting in a landfill for literally over one hundred years, to be honest, it's not like we ever see the landfill so we didn't think that much about it. (See? Self-centered hippies. I told you.)

But cloth kept nagging at me. And then I found this. Actually, the article I found was different but told the same story. "The new polyacrylate gel (found in disposable diapers) has been linked to some side effects, including allergic reactions such as skin irritations, and to toxic shock syndrome. In addition, the dyes in the diapers have been linked to damage of the central nervous system, and disposable diapers may contain low concentrations of dioxin, a by-product of the bleaching process used in the production of the paper pulp found in the absorbent layer. Dioxin has been linked to liver damage and immune system suppression."

According to the World Health Organization:

"Short-term exposure of humans to high levels of dioxins may result in skin lesions, such as chloracne and patchy darkening of the skin, and altered liver function. Long-term exposure is linked to impairment of the immune system, the developing nervous system, the endocrine system and reproductive functions. Chronic exposure of animals to dioxins has resulted in several types of cancer. TCDD was evaluated by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in 1997. Based on animal data and on human epidemiology data, TCDD was classified by IARC as a "known human carcinogen”.

WHAT?! Ok, first of all, Toxic Shock Syndrome has been like a monster hiding under my bed since the first time I used a tampon in junior high. But in a diaper? Is that even legal to expose babies, the most vulnerable of us all, to such a risk? Not only is it legal, it is the accepted NORM.

You can find "green" disposables, but according to my (limited) research, while they don't contain dioxin because they aren't bleached, they do use polymers to absorb the moisture. Not to mention that the super-absorbent diapers, while a seemingly smart solution for the diaper-changers, leaves baby feeling dry and yet sitting in their own uric acid for far too long.

In this issue of Mothering Magazine (one of the reasons I love the U.S. Postal Service--they hand-deliver this gem to me every other month), there is a huge spread on diapers and one writer explains that upon calling Proctor and Gamble (the makers of Pampers and Luvs), she was not able to get a list of the ingredients used in diapers. Apparently, this information is "sensitive and proprietary" and not all of the ingredients can "be disclosed." (Mothering Magzine, "The Diaper Dilemma," p. 58)

Suffice to say, after discovering all of this, we felt "disposables be darned!" We were gonna use cloth if it killed us.



Turns out, we love it.

So does it stink? Does it leak out of the side when she crawls?

No sir!

And here's why if you are trying to avoid stink, cloth diapers are actually the better choice: the Bum Genius Diaper Sprayer. I have baby-sat, nannied, lived with two younger sisters who were once babies and had many a friend who used disposables. And while not one of them went to the outside trash every single time they changed a diaper, many had diaper genies and other such products to eliminate stinky diapers, but they still stunk! The waste just sits on the diaper in the trash in your house and, well, putrifies everything! With cloth, you get a little poo, you use a little spray and then voila! Poo flushes down the toilet like all human waste should (that's right--throwing human waste "away" aka sending your poo-filled disposables to sit in a landfill for literally one-hundred years until they begin to decompose is disgusting and yes, this is where I get all "Sierra Club" on you, seeps into our land and waterways).

So while the solid food certainly has added an "air" of awareness to Dia's diaper situation, after cleaning her off, I simply take the diaper to the toilet, shake it into the toilet and if need be, reach for the handy sprayer that is attached to the back water pipes and sits nicely on the side of the toilet. It's small, hardly noticeable and super easy to operate. No stink, no stench, no smell, no problem!

As far as mobility, we did have a hard time at one point with "leaking," but went to Wildflower Diapers here in town and they showed me that I wasn't fastening the diaper tight enough. A couple of re-tries and now we are old pros. That isn't to say that a blow-out couldn't one day catch us off-guard, but I'll never forget holding my infant-charge while nannying and feeling that warm gooey sensation run down my leg as his disposable diaper got a little too full (I hate to think it may have been from my inadequate changing!).

But so far, it's been a blast--oops, bad lingo. I mean, it's been great.

Plus, she only just got her first diaper rash when we started solids--thinking maybe from the acid change in her diet/waste. Plus plus, these diapers are CUTE! Have you seen all the super adorable designs? Animal print, bright colors, pastels, you name it.


We use the wool covers which aren't quite as fashion-forward, but you have to admit that bottom is cute in purple!

As far as laundry, I do about a load every three days or so. And the cost? Well, put it this way--we went to the cloth diaper store once and got everything we will ever need for Dia AND every child to come after. We didn't spend much because Grandma and Oma helped out and that was one of their big gifts for their granddaughter. You can also get pre-loved diapers at great discounts, not to mention that once you're done with the baby years, you can actually sell your used diapers and make some extra cash yourself!

The big sell for me: no late night diaper runs to the store. Just think, husbands--your wife will never turn to you at 4am with the plea of desperation, "Honey....? We're out of diapers....." I don't like shopping and really dislike being dependent on stores for survival and let's face it, diapers are a survival item!

I know that cloth is not for everyone, but there is a very reasonable, rational, health-conscious reason we use it and if it just so happens that it's better for the earth our daughter will soon inherit, then so be it.

Do You Grocery?

In case you haven't noticed, I am passionate about food. Organic, locally grown, nutrient-rich and color-loaded nourishment. Obviously the best place to get such deliciousness is from your own garden/farm. Second choice: the farmer's market. My third choice has always been Whole Foods, but a few weeks back, my sister changed my mind.

Ever been to the Phoenix Public Market? It's like farmer's market...but in an air-conditioned building with a deli and wine bar! And from our first little visit, well, let's just say I spent a lot of money and they were very, very nice to us. :)

It's a cozy little place with a coffee bar just outside the doorway and all of the food and other products (you can get Tom's products and Braggs and other necessities) are either locally produced/grown, organic or both. And the best part? You don't have to get there at the crack of dawn for the best produce! That's right--strawberries will still be there even at noon!

Not to mention that the extremely helpful staff (they actually hand-carry by many, many bags out to the car for me!!! Should I repeat that? Hand-carry--and I never even asked!) is all local (obviously...) and make a point to get to know you and build relationships with you.

We used to spend our weekend going to the many various stores/farmer's markets around town to get all the good stuff we like, but now (besides a few necessities) we can get just about everything at one great store! And actually support farmers/growers/businesses right here in town. You can get milk (soy or dairy), meat (AZ raised and grass-fed), chicken, eggs, yogurt, cheese (so far only dairy and alternative, no goat yet), pasta, cereal, baby food, deodorant, floss, olive oil (from Queen Creek), produce (they carry a lot of Maya's Farm which is primo quality in my book) and more. Plus, they only offer in-season produce (that which the AZ land can produce at the moment), so it's significantly more trust-worthy than Whole Foods who import a lot from Chile and other cities/states/countries.

Basically, we're in love. If you're in the downtown area (we make the drive about once a week and find it completely worthwhile), stop in for lunch, wine, coffee, or your entire grocery list! It's a fun place to visit and extremely valuable endeavor to support.

(Photo credit: http://www.phoenixpublicmarket.com/)