I am Woven & Spun

33 Blessings - Catching up

2011-01-03T01:22:00.001-05:00

Since life pulled me away from blogging for a while, I will finish up my previous series with one post. To learn more about this series read this. I was able to change my Power Point presentation into photos so I will upload them here as the full list of my 33 blessings:

33 Blessings - #5 My Salvation

2010-10-09T21:48:00.000-04:00

My parents are both Christians so I went to church pretty much from the time I was born. The first church I remember attending is First Alliance in Mansfield, OH. We went there from the time I was 18 months until I was 11. At some point when I was very young (about 4) I made the decision to personally trust in Jesus Christ for my salvation. While I am sure that I did not understand all the finer points of doctrine at such a young age, I accepted it with child-like faith. Since that point I have been a constant "work-in-progress." God has been teaching me who He is and who He wants me to be. I believe that my salvation comes from the grace of God which I receive through my faith in the death of Jesus Christ as atonement for the sins which I have committed.

Ephesians 2:8-10 (New International Version)⁸For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

My favorite verse is Ephesians 3:20-21:

Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

When it came to choosing a bead to represent my salvation I wanted something really significant. I finally chose to use spacer beads that I would place between all the other beads. This is really symbolic since my salvation impacts every other aspect of my life.

33 Blessings - #4 My Sister

2010-10-07T11:07:00.000-04:00

I have to laugh as I write this post because my sister told me that she checks for updates to my blog like 80 times a day. She knew that she was the next blessing, but she is driving to the place where they are moving and will be on the road when this posts. Sorry I didn't get it up sooner, Rach!

My sister, Rachel, had been a constant companion since the day she was born when I was 3 years 7 months old. I didn't always appreciate that companionship as much as I do now. We were 4 years apart in school. This didn't really lead to closeness growing up since we were rarely in the same school (and explains why I wanted my girls to be born closer together). However our friendship has evolved as we've gotten older.

Rachel and I in 1981(?). Gotta love my bowl haircut!

We fought A LOT when we were younger. I remember we she was little she would climb on my back when I was watching TV and pull my hair. As we got a little older, she would crawl in bed with me at night when she was scared and I would kick her and try to get her to leave. We could get kind of violent with each other! We lived together in an apartment for a year after I finished college and she finished high school. My husband likes to remind me of the time when he and my sister's boyfriend (now husband) had to come over to our apartment to break up a fight between the two of us. Thankfully, we don't fight like that anymore.

Rach & I at my wedding in 2000. She caught the bouquet (we rigged it) and got married the following year.

Rachel and I are different in so many ways. She is outgoing and very social whereas I am more introverted and don't mind being alone. I don't really know how to explain the other differences, but rest assured they are there. However, we are alike in many ways too. I love how I can go to her house or she can come to mine and we can cook in each others' kitchens and instinctively know where everything is because we just think alike in that way. When she was commuting to Akron for college and I was home with two little girls we would talk on the phone for 30 minutes to an hour each day.

Rach, Mom, & I last December

We support and encourage one another. When my husband and I were going through a very difficult time in our lives (more on that in another post), she dropped everything and came and stayed at our house for a week to help me take care of Sierra. I so appreciate her love and support and humor. Rachel was always the one that would have our whole family in stitches growing up. I think I appreciate that in my Raquel so much because it reminds me of Rachel. I am so thankful for her spunk and fervor, love and laughs, encouragement, and just knowing that she is there! I will miss her when she and her family move in a few weeks, but I know that there will be some long phone calls! Love you sis!

My sis and her family at Easter this year

The bead that represents my sis. I chose pink because it is her favorite color.

33 Blessings - #3 The Konves Family

2010-10-05T23:23:00.000-04:00

My mom's parents were the grandparents that I saw the most growing up. From age 1.5 to almost 12 we lived only about 15 minutes from them. They were the ones that were there for all the school plays and birthday celebrations.

Me with Grandma & Grandpa

My grandma also took care of my sister and me for many years while my parents were at work. I remember hiding grandma's shoes or her purse when it was time for her to go home because we didn't want her to leave. She used to come to our house early in the morning before our parents left and make us yummy breakfasts. I remember dressing grandpa us with bows from presents at birthdays and Christmas. He was so funny! He loved to whistle and sing and I remember him "cleaning" glasses with his beard. They took me and my cousin to Disney World when we were 5. I remember going to Circus World and getting our faces painted for a parade. My grandparents used to host most of the family dinners. I remember bartering with my cousins for candy after the Easter Egg hunts. I have such wonderful memories of being at their house for holidays, eating grandpa's mashed potatoes and grandma's yummy turkey and dressing. Some of my favorite recipes are ones my grandma makes.

Holiday Dinner circa 1985

Grandpa and Grandma with Uncle Greg

On this side of the family I also have my great grandma Miller. I spent a lot of time with her growing up. She used to babysit us when my parents went out some Friday nights. She also came to church with us. She is still with us at the 95 and the girls and I go visit her nearly every Wednesday at the nursing home.

Rachel & I with Great Grandma Miller in about 1983

5 Generations - 2007

I don't see my aunt, uncles, cousins as often as I would like, but I have wonderful memories growing up with Brandi, Candie, Julie, Ian, Nick, and Ross.

Uncle Greg, Aunt Lori, Brandi, Ian, and Ross - 1996

Uncle Doug, Candie holding Antonio, and Nick in 1996

The cousins (minus Candie), Great Grandma, and Grandpa in 2000

The bead that represents the Konves side of my family

33 Blessings - #2 Roelant Family

2010-10-04T22:15:00.000-04:00

Well, the flood has dissipated. I am so thankful for Mike and all the equipment he lent us to dry out our home after this happened. Now that life has returned to some kind of normal state I want to get back to my series. If you want to know more about it, read this.

The second blessing that I want to highlight in my life is my dad's side of the family. My grandparents had 16 biological children (no twins or triplets) - 13 boys and 3 girls - in a 23 year span.

My grandparent and their children in 2004

They are all still living except for my Uncle Don who passed away at a few days old. They have 48 grandchildren and 36 (so far) great grandchildren.

My grandparents and their grandchildren and great grandchildren in 2004

They have been married for 66 years. They were (and still are) farmers who instilled in each of their children the values of faith, family, and hard work. They love each of their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren individually and are faithful with birthday cards and Christmas gifts. I know that I am lifted up in prayer often. They are getting older, but still do as much as they can. My grandpa turns 90 next week!

I can remember going up to the farm for a week for several summers. I would help grandpa drive the tractor, work the farm stand selling sweet corn, and help grandma in the kitchen. I have fond memories of playing with my cousins. Not everyone has the privilege of growing up in a large family. It really can be a lot of fun. When I graduated high school two of my cousins did as well and we had a joint graduation party. While I was pregnant in 2003 so were three of my cousins and two of my aunts. I had a joint baby shower with my cousin Debi who gave birth to her daughter just three days after Sierra was born. I am so thankful for the entire Roelant family and the love and support they have given me over the years!

The bead that represents the Roelant Family

Sanity Break

2010-09-30T10:15:00.000-04:00

We take a break from our regularly scheduled programming to bring you this important sanity check. Can I just say AHHHHHH! I am missing my days of working in a restaurant (I don't say that too often) because when you got frustrated you could just go in the walk-in refrigerator and scream as loud as you want and no one could hear you. Well, today I am screaming on the inside so as not to cause the neighbors to call 9-1-1. I'm sure you're thinking, "what's the story here?" so here goes...

On Wednesday nights I lead a small group of high school girls. I normally have to be at church at 6:15pm, but last night was our local school's homecoming parade and two of my girls were in it. So I left the house right after dinner (about 6pm) to go to the parade and then church. James was going to bring our girls and Sierra's friend for church at around 7pm. He was trying to get them ready to go and told Raquel to go to the bathroom and then come to the van. Meanwhile, Sierra's friend arrived so James just stuck his head back in the house to call Raquel out to the van. Little did we know what we would find later that evening.

James brought her home from church at about 8:30 and called me. His words, "Raquel flooded our basement!" sent me reeling. I was picturing the stacks of pictures and photo albums I had left sitting out after going through them to prepare for my talk last week. Also, we have our desktop computer, a TV, all my craft supplies, our guest bed, and all of our storage down there.

Turns out that Raquel had put a paper towel in the sink AND left the HOT water running the entire time we were at church (not quite two hours).

I called my dad to have him come over and help us. He told us to call my sister's husband's sister's husband Mike who does restoration after property damage. He headed over to our house too. We managed to get it all at least on the road to repair. So I don't get sucked into the spiral of negativity amidst the noise of 5 fans running in my house right now, I thought I would make a list of things I am thankful for in this experience.

Timing: We caught it relatively quickly. Thankfully we were not gone all day with the water running. That would have been catastrophic.
Help: My dad lives nearby and was able to bring a dehumidifier, fan, and help with the manual labor.
Mike: We know Mike and he was willing to come over to our house at 9pm with an industrial blower fan and he is bringing more stuff today. He also was able to tell us what steps were a priority and what to do
Location: It happened in the girl's bathroom and not ours. Their bathroom has vinyl flooring and ours has carpet.
Floor Vents: There is a floor vent in the girls' bathroom. It acted as a drain to get a lot of the water out of that room. Mike said just turning the fan on on the furnace would get the air out of the vents.
Carpet Cleaners: I own one and it was a huge help. I just turned it on the water extraction mode and sucked a whole lot of water out of the carpet.
Sleep: The girls' room, which is directly across from their bathroom, only got a small area of the carpet wet so they were actually able to sleep in it last night (with 3 fans running).
Rugs: I own some really heavy rugs. Our basement is unfinished, but we have it set up so it has carpet and wall-coverings in about 70% of it. The area where the water came down was our storage area. On the perimeter of that area I have some rugs. These rugs absorbed a lot of the water. My pictures were actually on the opposite end of one of the larger ones, but it acted like a dam and stopped the water from getting to them.
Little sisters' friends night: Because Sierra needed a flashlight for church, James had come downstairs to find one. He had moved his sleeping bags in such a way that they caught a lot of the water and funneled it away from our stuff in storage.
Floor Drains: We have a drain in our basement floor less than 10 feet from where the bulk of the water came down.
Attitude: I am thankful that I was not upset at my husband. He was upset at himself, but I knew that it could have easily happened to me. It would not have helped anyone if I had been angry so I am so thankful that God allowed me to remain calm (could it have been that lesson on peace that I had just taught at small group?).
Protection: I am thankful that nothing of great importance or value was ruined.
James' Work: I am thankful that James was already working in Wooster today so he did not have to leave until 8:15 as opposed to his normal 7:15 departure time.
Finances: While it won't be fun to pay the water and electric bills connected to this experience, I am thankful that God has blessed us with some savings so we will not have to go into debt.
Blessings: I am so thankful that I have a home to live in, food to eat, cars to drive, a family that is healthy and many other blessings. When I compare this occurrence to what many people, especially in the developing world, have to deal with on a daily basis, my light and momentary troubles pale in comparison.

Well thanks for listening to me vent. I feel a lot better now that I have put this into perspective. I hope your week is going better than mine!

33 Blessings - #1 My Parents

2010-09-29T12:03:00.000-04:00

For an explanation of this series, please read this.

I really struggled with the order of these blessings. I knew that there was no way that I could put them in order of importance or impact on my life; there are just too many important ones. So I decided on a rough chronological order. So today we begin with the people that brought me into this world - My parents.

I was blessed to grow up in a Christian home where my parents loved me and loved the Lord. They were (and are) a constant source of love and support. They have been married for 37 years now and have two daughters, two sons-in-law, and three grandgirls (as my dad calls them). They are both social workers, though dad is "retired" now. He enjoys wood-working and gardening and keeps us supplied with fresh produce all summer long. My mom, after years of doing often court mandated chemical dependency counseling, is now an independent counselor enjoying a variety of voluntary clients. I am so grateful for them and the influence they have had on my life.

My parents on their wedding day - August 4, 1973

My family in 1984. My mom was 32 (same age as I am now) and I was 7 (the same age Sierra is now).

My parents a few years ago

The bead that will represent my parents:

Sometimes the bead's color or composition will represent something about the person or experience, and sometimes not. This time I chose a pink bead because it is my mom's favorite color.

33

2010-09-29T11:00:00.000-04:00

It seems like such a nice neat number. It was the number of years that our Lord walked this earth. It is also the age that I will be next month. When I was younger I am sure that 33 seemed so old, but I feel so young! Now I look at my parents and think that they are young too! I guess our definition of "old" changes as we age.

Anyhow, last week I spoke at an event at our church. There were 45+ women there and I was terrified. Thankfully I had many wonderful friends and family praying me through the experience. I was supposed to share my testimony and then teach a jewelry making class. I was desperately trying to think of a way to combine the two. Then it came to me (thanks, God!). I decided to make a bracelet with 33 beads to represent 33 blessings in my life. These blessings may not all be positive memories, but things that helped me become who I am, and, hopefully, who God wants me to be. So, today I am beginning a new blog series where I will share with you these 33 blessings. God is truly faithful and I hope He is glorified through it!

Of False Starts & Rest Breaks

2010-08-24T17:28:00.001-04:00

It kind of felt like a false start. If you ever ran track you know what that is. It is where someone starts coming out of the blocks before the gun goes off and everyone has to turn around and start over. Anyway, yesterday felt like that. Yesterday I sent my baby to kindergarten.

However, because our school district does a staggered start, she was back home today. This messed with me emotionally. I went through all the sadness of letting her go yesterday and then she is back again. I made up my mind to make it a low key kind of day, especially since she got up at 6am this morning. She played by herself most of the morning while I tried to get caught up on laundry and other stuff. I let her watch TV since she will not be able to when she goes to school all day. Then, just as I was heading to get some laundry, she walked up with a book for me to read to her.

image from amazon.com

It was THE book. Until I read this book, I had been doing fine with her going to kindergarten. I thought I was ready. Then I got this book from the library on Saturday. I had checked out every book they had on going to kindergarten the week before, but they had just gotten this one in so I could not check it out yet. I placed hold and then went to pick it up when the girls turned in the final cards from Summer Reading Club. I read it that night and then gave it to my husband. We both got a little emotional. Instead of talking about what kindergarten will be, this book talks about growing up in the years prior to going to school (when you were one...two...three...etc). It is really cute. It reminds me that she is growing up.

So I stopped. We plopped on her bed and I read her the book. We cuddled. I chose to see her request for what it was. Not an interruption, but a rest break. A gift. A reminder that come Thursday she will not be there for me to read to during the day.

Today I am linking up for the first time with Tuesdays Unwrapped at Chatting at the Sky

Playing Catch-Up

2010-08-23T22:11:00.000-04:00

It is very difficult for me to believe that it has been 2 years since I have blogged. I guess that life got in the way and I make no apologies for that. When I last posted our oldest was starting Kindergarten. Now she is in 2nd grade and our baby went to Kindergarten today. Time surely goes by quickly! I have gotten a lot of "what are you going to do with yourself now that all your kids are in school?" questions over the past few weeks. I don't really have an answer. I may try to find some sort of part-time work, but for now I am happy to be a wife and mom. A lot of "stuff" has fallen by the wayside over the last couple years. I really need to get caught up...

I feel like that is the story of my life...

Getting caught up...

...on blogging

...on cleaning

...on laundry

...on organizing

...on our scrapbooks

...on reading my Bible

...in my prayer life

...with my friends

...with my family

...with my life

sometimes I feel that I can get so caught up in getting caught up that I miss what is going on right now! I am resolving to live in the moment more often. Yes, I am still planning on getting "caught up" on my laundry tomorrow, but I hope that I can be more aware and willing to stop and enjoy the simple things along the way. Will you join me?

What a whirlwind!

2008-09-25T09:29:00.003-04:00

It seems that life has been non-stop for the last couple of months. Sierra started school at the end of August. Then James ended up in the ER with chest pains which turned out to be pleurisy (a complication of pneumonia). He was sick for a few weeks. Then he had a golf tournament for our ABF that he helped plan. Then we had the fair, which is a must do here in Wayne county. Then we had Raquel's birthday. Mix all that with regular stuff like church, small group, and family and we have been busy. I feel that I am finally getting into a routine though. It seems like as the girls are getting older I spend less and less time "at home" as a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM).
Tuesdays I have begun attending a Connecting in Christ Bible Study at our church. We are doing a Beth Moore study on the gospel of Luke. We had our first session this past Tuesday and I think that this study is just what I need right now. I was in a really great Bible study in Michigan before we moved down here (I miss you Kirsten, April, Marcia, & Amy!). It has been really hard for me to get into the Word consistently without that weekly accountablity. The study has five days of "homework" per week that take about 30 minutes each day. That is surely some motivation for me (as the over-achiever student it is hard for me to leave homework undone).
On Wednesdays I take Raquel to the library for story time. This is her first experience with the concept. Sierra went for years at our small (and I really mean small) library in Michigan. When I told the librarian there that we were moving to Ohio she said that Ohio is "library mecca" as the libraries here are funded like few others in the country. I guess that is true as our town has just built a huge new building and has a great children's department. Sometimes I miss the intimacy of our small town library though.
Fridays are my day to go grocery shopping and Raquel and I usually make a fun morning out of it. Sometimes I will take her out to breakfast before we head to the store. We always go to the Wal-mart Supercenter and Aldi and sometimes others depending on what we need that week. Here I must put in a plug for those reusable bags that most stores are selling now. I bought mine at a year ago at Beuhler's a local grocery store. I love them because they hold about 3x what those cheap plastic bags hold and they are easier to carry. Mine have a little hook so they hook right onto the holders that hold the plastic bags at the store. This makes it much easier for the cashiers to fill them. Before I found these bags I was actually considering making my own because I couldn't find any that would be easy on the cashiers (this was a requirement as I was once a Wal-mart cashier myself). I will step off my soapbox now...
I am going to try to do a better job updating this blog. I am trying out a new schedule at home and will actually put blogging time into it. :) I have been sewing a lot lately and will probably do a post about that as well as some books I've been reading.
Have a blessed day!

Summertime

2008-08-23T12:19:00.000-04:00

Please forgive my lack of blogging (at least on this blog) lately. The summer has been so busy that I feel that I cannot even keep up with the mundane, necessary tasks, let alone the fun ones like sharing my thoughts with the rest of the world. The summer has been an absolute blur. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be adjusting to Sierra being home all the time. Although she is a really good kid, I found that I really missed the time I had to be alone with Raquel in the mornings. Also, it made going anywhere that much more difficult because I had to take both of the kids with me. However, it is almost over as Sierra starts Kindergarten on Monday. I am part excited and part nervous. Part of her life will now be out of my control. Thus begins this process of letting go. I will just have to trust God to take care of her when I cannot.
I guess that I will give you a brief synopsis of our summer so that you can get caught up with what's been going on...
In June James flew down to Baton Rouge for his biological father's wedding. As is usually the case, I ran myself ragged trying to get stuff done while he was gone. I got the entire garage and the majority of the basement organized and cleaned. He was really excited to see all the work I had done.
In July the main event was Sierra's birthday. James took Sierra for her first campout the night before her birthday. It was a little hard for me having her gone because, since she was born at 12:20am, I usually stay up until that time and look in on her, but this year I couldn't. She still managed to turn five though. On her birthday we went to lunch at Bob Evans and went to the pet store to pick out her present, some fish. We wanted to get her five fish for her fifth birthday, but the associate said that our tank could only handle two right now. So she got two fish that she named Nemo and Butterfly.
The next week we had her birthday party. It was a lot of fun. You can check out our family blog to view pictures.
My grandma was here for about a week and we were able to enjoy lots of family time.
On August 5th James and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. We had a appetizers at the Olde Jaol tavern, went to a movie at The Big Picture (Get Smart - pretty funny), and had a nice dinner at the Olde Jaol. James and I were both not feeling well so that put a bit of a damper on our evening, but we still had a nice time.
I will try to do a better job of keeping up. I have a few more books to write about sometime soon.
Stay tuned...

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

2008-06-10T15:15:00.006-04:00

I apologize for my lack of blogging lately, but as many of you know we spent just over a week on vacation in Hawaii. I thought that I might be blogging from the beach, but, besides the fear of getting sand in James' laptop, I was way too busy taking pictures and video to blog. I will be posting a daily summary blog on our family blog soon, and I will blog my thoughts about the trip here at some point. In the meantime you can check out all our photos (400+) from the trip on smugmug.com (See the link "Our Photos" to the right).
With that caveat out of the way let me tell you my main reason for this post. As I was stumbling around the house this morning in my pre-coffee, jet-lagged stupor I realized that today is June 10th. While this date may not have significance to you as the reader, it was a very important date for the Dewald family. In 2005 it was the date when we closed on our first home. Little did we know that changes that would take place in three years. At that time we were living in Michigan and James had been the youth pastor at our church there for over 18 months. We had searched long and hard for a house that would meet all our needs. We needed a large room to host gatherings of youth and we also needed a guest room as all our family lived far away and needed a place to stay when they visited. We also were working with a very tight budget. We settled on a four bedroom bi-level in a nice neighborhood in Perry, Michigan. It was just 6 miles from our church. We closed on June 10th and moved in about 10 days later. We did a lot of work making the home our own.
As I said above, if we had only known the changes that would take place while living there. Two months later James was let go from his position at the church, which of course necessitated us finding a new church home (which we did the very next Sunday, BTW, at Red Cedar in Okemos ). Six weeks after that our second beautiful daughter was born. Then James, who had been working at Dick's Sporting Goods to make ends meet, found a job in the mortgage industry and proved to be very successful at it. After about 18 months the economy in Michigan started to turn south and he began to look for a position in Ohio. As soon as the position at the church was gone, our reason for being in Michigan ceased to exist. We knew that we wanted to move back to Ohio eventually, but were waiting until we could get a little equity in our house. When James was offered a position with RH Donnelley we knew that the time had come. We prayed long and hard for God to provide a buyer for our house as James began work in Ohio on June 4th 2007. We spent most of the summer separated as the girls and I were in Michigan trying to sell the house and James split his time between Ohio and North Carolina for training for his new job. By God's grace we were able to sell our house. We closed on August 13th 2007 and were finally able to be together as a family again. We lived with my parents (with most of our stuff in storage) for about six weeks until we settled on a nice duplex to rent. We moved in on September 9th. So now we are finally getting settled.
Since June 10th 2005, we have lived in three homes, gone to three churches, had three jobs, and added one child to our family (at least it wasn't three children - that would have been too much). Even though at times I've wondered "what the heck is going on here" God has always been in control. On that day in June 2005 HE knew where we would be three years later, even though I had no clue. Looking back I can see His hand in everything we faced. He held us as we cried over friends lost. He encouraged me as I locked the door on our beloved house for the last time. He provided new jobs, churches, and friends just when we needed them. I am so thankful that He knows what He is doing. Thanks Lord for being there all the time and for the many lessons you've taught me along the way!

Our home in Michigan when we purchased it

Our home in Ohio last October with James & the girls playing in the sprinkler out front

Jesus Land

2008-05-19T10:24:00.004-04:00

Well if you read my last post you know that I have rediscovered the joy of reading of the past several months. After the Narnia series the next on the list was a memoir recommended to me by my good friend Christina. We have always enjoyed a relationship of deep thought and discussions. Although we do not always agree, she challenges my in my thinking and I really appreciate her for it. I read "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver on her recommendation several years ago (actually now that I think about it it was almost a decade ago - wow I am feeling old) and I really chewed on it for a long time. "Jesusland" by Julia Scheeres has proved to be the same. I actually had to put it down a couple of times because it was too much for me to handle. It made me so angry and sad and disgusted all at the same time. I think one of the hardest parts for me was knowing that the story was true and the author and her brother actually had to endure the things that made me physically ill. It all still haunts my mind. I was going to summarize to book here, but I figure that you can read it for yourself if you're interested. Instead I will try to tell you what I've learned from it.

1) Christianity is so much more than words. It is who you are, both in public and private. We need to strive to be examples of Christ's love in our homes first and foremost.

2) I never want to waste an opportunity to tell my children that I love them and shower them with kisses and hugs. Just reading about the distance between Julia and her mom and knowing that Julia never felt loved and appreciated by her mom makes me strive to never give my children cause to feel that way.

3) Discipline that does not strive to change the heart does not work. I already knew this one, but this book really made it hit home. When Julia and her brother were sent to the reform school they learned behavior modification very quickly. They learned to act the way that their superiors told them to act in order to make life more tolerable (if that word could describe anything at La Escuela Caribe). It did not make their hearts more open to the ways of the Lord. It anything just the opposite happened. Because of the demeaning and demoralizing punishment they were forced to endure, they actually became more antagonistic to the Lord. Discipline should always be done from true love.

4) "God is who HE says He is not who these people say He is." This is a quote taken from the website that contains people's stories about their time at one or more of New Horizon Youth Ministries reform schools (where Julia and her brother were sent). We need to hold to the truths of the Bible, not to what other people tell us or want to "shove down our throats."

5) People can do some really awful things in the name of Jesus Christ. I'm sure that some of the people who worked at these reform schools had good intentions, but their actions were not representative of what Jesus would want them to do. It is really sad to read about what was done to these children.

6) We can never assume that we know what is going on in someone else's home. Even the most wonderful looking Christian homes can hide the most horrible abuse. We should always be sensitive to the needs of children - no matter how wonderful their home life appears.

7) Racism is a sick horrible thing. Again, I already knew this one, but the book really made me take a more activist stand. We should not only strive to be accepting of all races, but work to make others more so as well.

I know that this is just a small sampling of what I have learned from this book. If you enjoying an engrossing & challenging read, please pick it up. It sure will make you think.

Narnia

2008-05-19T10:01:00.005-04:00

So with the writer's strike that happened this winter and TV being a "reality" wasteland, I have returned to an old favorite pastime of mine: reading. What a pleasure it has been to pick up a book and allow my imagination to go to work instead of having all the colors and shapes dictated to me by my television. Always being a "read the book before you see the movie" kind of person my first quest was to read the Chronicles of Narnia series by CS Lewis. I know that it is crazy that here I am 30 years old having never read these wonderful books. Thanks to the CLEVNET inter-library loan system I finished them all over the course of a month. I really enjoyed them, although I told my husband that I wished that I had not known about the allegory (Aslan = Jesus) before reading them. I would have loved to discover that for myself and pick it apart in my brain. I found the last book the most interesting as I think that it has the most parallels to the Bible and some of Lewis' statements really made me wrestle with my ideas of eschatology, mythology, and even theology.
Last week my husband and I watched the movie about the second book "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" that Disney made a few years ago. I found it to be pretty true to the book. The scene where Aslan is killed by the White Witch is well done and moved me like no human rendering of the crucifixion ever has. I am excited to see "Prince Caspian," which is based on book four, soon (we were unable to get a babysitter this weekend). Friends that have seen it have said that it is very good. I know that they are making book five, "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader," to be released in 2010. That should be good too. I hope that they will go on and make the rest of the series, but only if they stick to the books. "The Silver Chair " (book 6) is a really good story about the power of evil to enslave us and of course "The Last Battle" (book 7) is awesome and beautiful. It had me in tears more times that I can remember. What a thought-provoking experience it was. So thank you Hollywood writers for helping me rediscover the joy of a good book!

I have great friends!

2008-05-15T08:58:00.001-04:00

Check Out this Thinking of You Card I Just Received!

Create your own!

I've Been Chastised

2008-04-13T22:17:00.002-04:00

My sister and I went shopping last night. At about 7pm we left Wooster and headed for the sprawling metropolis of Wadsworth where there happens to be a Target. I was looking for a swimsuit bottom (I had already found a top at Kohl's, but there was no matching bottom to be found) and some other clothes for our upcoming vacation and my sis was along for the ride while perhaps looking for a dress for her college graduation. We spent a long time in the dressing room and my sister found a pants, capris, shorts, and various shirts that all looked great. Guess what I walked out with...another swimsuit top without matching bottoms! If you know me at all you know how practical I am and that it is not like me to buy something that is not useful (unless it is really on clearance). Obviously I will not be wearing a swimsuit top with no bottoms, so right now they are not very practical. However, I will not be defeated! I will find swimsuit bottoms!
--On a side note, who designs these swimsuit bottoms anyway? Both of the tops I bought are mediums. When I try on bottoms that are a medium or even a large I am exposing more skin than I (or anyone else for that matter) should feel comfortable about exposing. I swear the people that design them must have absolutely no rear-end (I wanted to use that other word there, but I am not sure who reads this :) Anyhow, I digress.--
So my sister and I left Target at 9pm and headed to Kohl's. There I actually found some clothes for both me and my husband and one of my girls, but, alas, no swimsuit bottoms. My sister did find her graduation dress - a really cute one at that - and some other stuff. In all it was a very fun trip. We got back to my house at about 11:30pm both exhausted, but in a way refreshed.
So you're probably wondering about the title of the blog. Well somewhere in the course of our conversations my sister scolded me for not blogging recently. She said that she checks my blog every time she logs on and I haven't written anything new in over a month. Shame on me. So, I decided to use our trip as my topic. See Rach, you complain - you get written about :)
I do have a lot of stuff to write about. Hopefully I will be able to catch up this week. We'll see...

What A Week

2008-03-04T09:42:00.003-05:00

Last Sunday (Feb 24) I started to feel a little under the weather. It wasn't any better when I woke up Monday morning, but I thought I would shake it. So my husband left for work and I took my oldest to preschool. Little did I know that by the afternoon I would have a fever of 102 and would be on the couch wrapped in blankets trying to get rid of a horrible case of chills. Thankfully my mom was able to come and get my oldest, but my youngest ended up spending about four hours in her crib until her dad came home and rescued her. Yes, I did change her diaper and give her books to look at, but I was in no shape to chase her throughout the house. She survived (no worse for the wear) and I sprawled on the couch. I knew that I wouldn't be sleeping with my husband that night (to keep him from getting sick) so I tried to get comfortable on the couch. After a horrible nearly sleepless night moving from the couch to the futon to the floor and back again, I went to the bed at about 3am and told my poor sleeping husband that I was desperate for some sleep and laid down. I couldn't sleep there either and went back out to the couch until morning. Finally, the next morning I went into the bedroom and feel asleep on our queen size bed. I ended up staying there until Saturday, getting up only to make myself food (when I could eat) and to go to the bathroom. I also took a brief trip to the Dr on Wednesday where I was told (big surprise) that I had the flu. I must have looked awful because a lady in the hallway actually offered to get me a wheelchair. It was an awful week as I had every symptom that can accompany the flu at one point or another. On Saturday James had a meeting in the morning so I told him that I felt well enough to take care of the kids for a few hours. I got up and saw the state of my house for the first time - I don't mean to insult James; he did a wonderful job taking care of the house and the kids, but I could tell that a lot had piled up in my absence - and did WAY too much. I did three loads of laundry, changed the sheets and towels, cleaned up the living room, and who knows what else. By Saturday afternoon I was having trouble breathing and called the Dr. Well, if you've ever called the nurse on call and told them you are having trouble breathing, you know that they tell you to hang up and call 911. I didn't feel that it was that urgent so James took me into the ER. The checked my vitals and gave me some Tylenol and Motion (I could have done THAT at home). They really didn't do any other tests (except to make sure I wasn't dehydrated), but the Dr said that my symptoms didn't really fit the flu exactly any more. He believed that I had developed an infection secondary to the flu. This one was likely a bacterial infection so this time I got broad spectrum antibiotics. So back to bed I went...

I'm sure that it is horrible when any mom gets sick, but I think it is especially problematic for stay-at-home moms. If I had a job outside the home, I would already have childcare arranged for my children and would just continue to take them to daycare while I recuperated. As a SAHM I don't have that option. There is no one else to take care of my children. Therefore my poor husband was left trying to come up with childcare options at the last minute. Thank you so much Mom, Heidi, Carol, Marghie, and Rachel for taking one or both of my kids while I recovered. James only ended up having to take one full day of work off. PTL!

Now it is Tuesday and I am still sick. However I am well enough to take care of the kids. I had them by myself for the first time yesterday. It went pretty well. James had gone grocery shopping (for the first time in years) and gotten some convenience-type foods for me to feed the kids so I wouldn't have to cook too much. I took it easy and spent much of the afternoon in bed. Raquel actually took a nap so I am so thankful for that. Today is another day trying to get well and get some stuff done around the house without doing so much that I relapse. We'll see how it goes. As for now my voice is still weird and when I cough it still sounds like I am going to hack up a lung, but at least I can move. Thank God for small miracles.

Something about Wednesdays

2008-02-21T13:09:00.002-05:00

Our youngest daughter, who is almost 2 and a half, has always been a great sleeper. I sincerely hope that she will be one of those children who takes a nap up until the time they start Kindergarten (I would not know anything about such children since my oldest stopped napping at 22 months - but I've been told that they exist). Several months ago she stopped napping for several days. I was bracing myself, thinking that she was giving up her nap. However, suddenly and inexplicably, she started napping again regularly after about ten days. So when she stopped napping last week I began to wonder if this was another "episode" or if she was actually giving it up this time. She stopped napping last Monday (2/11) and has not had a good one since, except for Wednesdays. It is the strangest thing because that is the night when we usually go to church for dinner and New Community. It is the one night that we keep them up late so if she doesn't nap it becomes unbearable. It's like she knows that she needs to take a nap those days or we will be stuck at home. So thanks Raquel for taking a nap on Wednesdays so that mommy can go to church. I appreciate it! Now if we could just go back to napping everyday...

Life after Death (and Taxes)

2008-02-13T16:00:00.003-05:00

(For those of you out there who are Relient K fans, yes I am aware that I stole the title for this post)

Well, as you can guess I finished the taxes. What an absolute pain. I know that I should not complain since we are getting money back, but you would think that the government would make it a little easier. I even used H&R Block Taxcut (I've got people, apparently). But the tax software doesn't actually help me determine when we stopped being Michigan residents and became Ohio residents. It was a very ambiguous experience. Anyway I think I figured out the dates that were both accurate and got us the most money back. At one point I just sat at the computer and cried. We probably should have broken down and paid an actual person, but I've always done my own taxes and it is something in which I take a lot of pride. Since I don't bring home a paycheck, it is nice for me to be able to say that I got my family some money! Next year should be a lot easier since we will have lived in the same place the entire year. Yippee! I must say however that Ohio has the coolest tax filing system. They let you do your taxes online through an interview process and then you can submit them online for FREE! Take that H&R Block! They even let me file them online with a part-year resident status. Taxcut said that I couldn't do that. Score one for the Buckeyes!

A Foray Into the Known

2008-02-11T21:32:00.000-05:00

I've finally gotten around to making my own blog. Aren't you so proud of me? It has been a long time coming. I have my own Facebook page and my own photo website (smugmug.com - it rocks), but for some reason I haven't made the time to jump on the blogging bandwagon. My sister and a bunch of my friends have them and I've heard it's very cathartic. So here we go..

It has been a long day (aren't they all) and I decided that I deserved some computer time this evening. We had our friends Matt and Abby and their daughter Claire over for dinner this evening. It was a really fun time. We are really enjoying getting to know the people in our ABF better. It is so nice to be able to swap stories with others in the same stage of life. We ended up spending the majority of the time talking about Facebook and how cool we think it is. What a bunch of dorks we are! Earlier today I cleaned the entire house. I told James that we should have people over at least once every two weeks so that I have motivation to clean the house. I also did all the laundry. Then, of course, Raquel decided not to take a nap and had a leaky diaper all over her freshly changed sheets. It never fails! Oh the things we do for our children!

Anyway, it feels good to have gotten so much accomplished today. Maybe tomorrow I will finish the taxes. It looks like we are going to get money back so I guess I should be looking forward to it. Well, I think I am just rambling now so I will sign off. See you soon...