TulipGirl

The Mothering by Grace online community is giving away a copy of Families Where Grace is in Place this week. I’ve mentioned this book before and find it to be an encouragement to us as we think through what it looks like to live out Gospel in our daily interactions with our spouse and children.

And to celebrate their one year anniversary online, the Babywearing.Com community is giving away a gift set of a Moby stretch wrap, babylegs, and swaddler. Very helpful for new moms and babes!

Enjoy these goodies!

I’ve only been online lately in fits and starts, hence the sporadic blogging. But I keep coming across really good and encouraging things online and think, oooh — I should share that! Of course, by the time I sit down to post links, I can’t remember half of them. Ah, well. . . Still, here are some things that I think are cool or worth the time to read.

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Kim explains to her son that, yup, Christians can be annoying and unlikeable. “My answer to my son was that I, too, dislike Christians at times. I followed it up with the fact that I am probably disliked by other Christians at times, and so is he. I reminded him that we are not perfect, that we make mistakes, do stupid things and are unkind. And I reminded him that all we can do is continue to make an effort to love our fellow Christians even when it is hard.”

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Camille has been reflecting on Things I Never Heard in Fundamentalism (1) (2) (3). And while our backgrounds are very different, the familiar refrains of grace, grace, God’s grace reverberate in my soul when I read of God’s comfort and faithfulness in her life.

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TAKS — easy-peasy assessment tests, online, free and instantly scored! Errr. . . easy-peasy as far as doing it online, not necessarily for the student. The boys have been worried about their “gaps.” But as my sister reminds me, “gaps are just spaces waiting to be filled.” Thanks to Jess and Bayou for directing me to the TAKS site.

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The dragon-mommy very thoughtfully reflects on The Irony of Ezzo and AP (1)) (2). It concerns me that there seems to be a resurgence of the popularity of Babywise. With a generation of moms and babies who have already been there, done that, regretted it. . . why do people not learn from the mistakes of others? I still find the Ezzo materials introduce such an antagonistic mindset to the parents who read it — as one mom said recently “Do you hate me that I am a Babywise mom?” How sad. Sure, I try to caution moms about the misinformation in Babywise, but I don’t “hate” any moms.

How firmly I believe that God gives just the right parents to each child, and just the right child to each parent. Our love, our mistakes, our triumphs, our struggles — the Lord uses those in both our lives and our children’s lives as we grow into the people He created us to be. I believe it is so important to communicate respect to other parents — and still point out the problems in basing decisions on flawed information and problematic principles.

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Some freebies, giveaways, and contests: Dada Ring Sling from Babywearing.com (deadline 4/30); Online Kitchen Garden Planner via CleverNesting, a little critter giveaway (’cause I was too late in posting about the neato mobile from royal buffet). . . ack, saw some other good ones this week and can’t find them now!

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Remember, local art and music in Sarasota / Bradenton on May 1 & 2. I read a blurb in the East County Observer, unfortunately they don’t put their articles online. (Nor the pics the publish in the paper version — which is disappointing, ’cause they had a cute one of my little protesters.) I also saw a column that mentioned the art show in the BHT. If you are local, it’s a great place for a low-key date night. Local music, local artists, good coffee. . .

I like having a clear demarcation for starting afresh, making new plans, dreaming new dreams. In years past, I’ve made resolutions — who hasn’t? — planned goals, compiled reading lists, made a mondo-beyondo list, started blogging. . .

This year, instead of resolutions or goals, I’m planning my 2009 Projects. I’m borrowing this idea from Sherry at Semicolon (thanks, Belinda, for reminding me who introduced me to the idea of “projects.”) Periodically throughout the year, I’d like to assess how each project is coming along and see what needs to be tweaked to meet our project ideas.

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Projects for 2009

Connecting in Community Project
We live in Florida and we have for the past 3 1/2 years. But I’m just now feeling settled — even though another move may be on the horizon. Still I want to live connected with people in our community, not just our immediate, local, and church families. In that vein, I’ll continue to volunteer with the Wellness Community, start participating with the ThinkTank philosophy club, and get to know my neighbors more.

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Calvin Quincentenary Project
Those who don’t attend reformed or presbyterian churches may not be aware that 2009 marks John Calvin’s 500th birthday. So the other day I was playing with the idea of what we might do in celebration. . . Wouldn’t you know, today I heard that several people from church will be reading through and discussing the Institutes this year? I don’t think I want to quite take that challenge. Instead, for my Calvin Quincentenary Project, I’m planning on reading a biography of Calvin (any good suggestions?), listening to the David Calhoun’s lectures again, and reading parts of the Institutes of the Christian Religion.

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Homeschool Habits Project
Hubby has directed the boys’ schooling the past few years, and we’re now transitioning again to both of us carrying that responsibility again. We’re still working on exactly what this looks like. . . In part, however, the boys will be required to more closely track the work they do and the books they read. Along with that, I want to get back into the habit of reading aloud to them each night. We’re pulling more ideas this semester from Ambleside Online, and working with the boys on narration and composition.

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Regular Reading Project
If George W. can keep up the busy schedule of a president and always have a book at hand, why can’t I? If Megan can keep reading while busy with four girls, then how can I blame my four boys from keeping me from good books? I skimmed most of, but didn’t actually read any, of the books on my ’08 targeted booklist. I used to be an avid reader, and still am in my self-conception. I want to be that person again. My regular reading project is going to include actually listing the books I read and skim, along with writing mini-reviews.

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Family Fitness Project
Spend more time outside together, playing tennis, letterboxing, hitting baseballs, taking evening walks. . . Keep more fresh fruit and veggies in the house. . . Do a 5k fun run together as a family, in memory of Grampie. . .

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More Music Project
The boys usually get one “big” present at Christmas, and this year the theme was music. We gave them speakers for the kids computer and an MP3 player with music and audio books downloaded. Also, we gave them the same piano book I had as a little girl with a promise of a piano as soon as the right one shows up on craigslist. (We’ve had several leads, but not the “right” piano yet. . .) Music can nourish the soul, and we want to feed them good music while they are young.

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(Okay, okay. . . the alliteration is a bit much. But after the first two, I couldn’t help myself!)

Does anyone remember Under Midnight, the cyberpunk rock opera of the early ’90s? More than once recently, I’ve thought they were amazingly prescient, especially considering just how limited we were with iTech when they wrote their music. One of the things that brought them to mind was just how infused into our daily life all of our net/tech stuff has become (images h/t Joe.) Virtual reality, biotech, everything and everyone jacked in. . . not just in the imagination of Phillip Dick anymore.

If you want a little taste of U/M, there are a few vids on YouTube. I couldn’t find the lyrics posted online, though they still run through my mind from time to time.

Reality, imagination. . . Love, truth, pain, fire. . .

If you haven’t, then check out Winged Feet Designs and the amazing array of holiday designs. . . The quality is amazing and the personal service is great.

So, I’ve been having really bizarre dreams lately. Stressful dreams. You know how it is when you have an emotion-laden dream and you wake up with your body still feeling the emotions? That’s how it has been. And I’ve been cussing a lot in my dreams (not taking the Lord’s name in vain, but definitely foul language) and found myself the past two days using words uglier than my normal vocabulary. I find it kind of interesting that the stress from real life is bleeding into my dreams, and my reactions in my dreams are bleeding into real life.

Saturday morning I woke myself (and Hubby) up yesterday yelling “Help!” In my dream, I was nekkid in a bathtub at my aunt’s house, and people and kids kept coming in to books on bookshelves. (It was a large bathroom.) And I kept telling them to go out and let me get dressed, but they wouldn’t–they just laughed. I was trying to get Aunt Sherry to come and get them out, but my voice was hoarse and so I knew I couldn’t yell “Aunt Sherry!” So I gathered all my energy to yell “Help” and actually did! Bizarre, huh? Totally freaked Hubby out. Woke me up.

If you are taking an undergrad class and studying for an exam, google the textbook title. Often the publisher has study guides, quizzes, glossaries and interactive tools for students on their websites–like this one for Cozby’s Research Methods. It’s even possible the the prof will use the same questions on the exam.

Just sayin’.

eta. . . got a 99% on one test and 90% on the other, for the ones I used online studying to prepare.

Arrrrrr! Thankee, Jago.

As part of our homeschooling, Hubby has been reading poetry to the boys. Today he exegeted this gem from Kipling for them.

The Betrothed

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