A few of my favorite things recipes...

I'm all about ease of use. I'm all about finding good deals and being thrifty. I'm all about craftiness, but prefer projects that a) have few steps and b) can be completed in a nap-time or two. I made this for Evie one Christmas, and I thought I was going to curse cursed a whole lot while finishing it up in the wee-est wee smalls on Christmas morning.

(Don't you judge me for that pink linoleum. It was a rental and we don't live there anymore. ;) )

So in the spirit of crafty-thriftiness-involving-three-steps-or-less-that-can-be-completed-in-less-than-a-nap-time, I bring you some easy-peasy recipes for a few of my favorite things:

Cana doesn't often have problems with diaper rash, since her cute little bum can breathe in her cloth diapers. And my all-time favorite cloth-diaper-friendly salve is CJ's Butt Butter, but as this works just as well (just not as yummy-smelling), it's hard for me to justify the extra expense. This cream is made with coconut oil, which is awesomely antibacterial and antimicrobial... and it's a really healthy cooking oil, too! This recipe is also good for eczema, dry skin, etc. But the Shea butter makes it kinda stinky, so I'd throw some of your favorite essential oils in there if you're using it for that purpose.

Homemade Diaper Rash Cream:
1/8 c coconut oil
1/4 c raw shea butter
3-4 tablespoons talc-free cornstarch or arrowroot powder (optional, to thicken)

Combine it all with a mixer and you're done. (I do use liners with our cloth diapers when we use this cream, just to be on the safe side.) Waaay cheaper than store-bought stuff, and so nice to know all the ingredients going on your little one's nether-regions. :)
(Compliments of Passionate Homemaking)

I might have posted this recipe before-- shoot me. I love homemade soup, but I am a pretty sucky soup maker. I don't actually know if Kristi "came up" with this recipe (if it can even be called such, since it is so easy!) but it is guh-ood. Hubby doesn't care for beans (what the world?!) so I save this for an easy lunch for the girls and me. They inhale it. I throw in a bunch of fresh basil and garlic, and whatever else I have around; I'm excited to make this with fresh tomatoes from our garden this summer (provided I don't actually kill said tomatoes with my black thumb of death).

Kristi's Yummy Tomato and Bean Soup
Large can of tomatoes
2 cans cannelloni beans (or whatever kind of bean tickles your fancy)
Fresh/dried herbs, garlic, onion, add-in veggies-- whatev.
Throw it all in the food processor or blender, heat it up on the stove, and enjoy. So good!

I'm not a huge fan of all of the chemicals and metals they put into commercial deodorant. Do they cause breast cancer? I don't know. I try not to be too much of an alarmist when it comes to stuff like that. But if there is an easier and cheaper way to use something that's completely natural...? Then I see no reason for not doing it. Also, commercial deodorants are expensive, and all the natural ones that I have personally tried-- work marginally at very best. I have tried several different homemade recipes, some involving making a paste and then shoving it all into an old deodorant tube. But I think this one works better, and is way easier. I guess feel free to correct me if you've been around me lately and I stink to high heaven. But fyi, that might have more to do with not having time to bathe than a homemade-deodorant-fail. Just sayin'.

Cheapo Homemade Deodorant
1/4 cup baking soda
10 drops tea-tree essential oil (I was sensitive to this for the first couple of days that I used it, but the ol' pits got used to it. Gah. I just used the word "pits" on my blog. That's disgusting.)
10 drops of your favorite essential oil. Or you can be all crazy and do 5 drops of two different kinds. I used lavender and patchouli, 'cause I am a dirty hippy like that.
Mix it all together. The EO will kinda glob up, so you either need to mash it all up with a fork or send it through the food processor to get it really fine. I store mine in an old jar I saved from the recycling bin, and I apply it with a big powder brush. A little messier than traditional deodorant, but what's a little mess when you're avoiding potentially toxic, cancer-causing elements? Sign me up!

Grateful

You know how life has ebbs and flows? Everything is great (until it's not). There's enough money (and then there's not). Everyone is healthy (and then they're not). I think marriage is a lot that way. It waxes and wanes with the seasons. Some days are unspeakably happy; others-- you wonder if God truly can give you sufficient grace to be married to this man for the rest of your life. Right now is a truly joyous season in my marriage. I'm not sure that Chris would say the same thing. But for me, I am feeling so grateful that Jesus has given Chris to me.

Being a mom of two little ones can often be an unflattering role. I lose my patience daily, I am unkind when I don't mean to be, I bribe my kids with lollipops, and am often completely inconsistent in discipline. Chris comes home to two three cranky girls, often unbathed and in stained, unmatching clothing-- all of whom are stuck to him like little leeches from the time he walks in the door. "Daddy, let's wrestle!", "Daddy, can I play the smashing ants game on your phone?", "Daddy, I HUNGY!!", "Honey, PLEASE take these kids from me-- I need a break!", "Babe, can you take the trash out?" etc. etc, ad nauseum, world without end, amen and amen.

We're a needy bunch, us Strayer women. And when you add pregnancy to the mix, it's like the perfect storm. Let me preface this by saying that, for the most part, I have had relatively easy pregnancies. And for the most part, I try to make a conscious effort to not be that pregnant lady-- the one who's always complaining about being nauseous or swollen or sore or miserable. 'Cause truly-- the ends more than justify the means. And in addition-- we know several families who are dealing with the frustration and aching sadness of infertility... or the blinding pain of losing a child... and I remember that I have no room to complain about swollen ankles. That said, pregnancy does have a way of humbling you; you physically cannot do all that you would wish, you're tired all the time (but can't sleep), and your normally-oh-so-very-steady hormones are all over the place. It's a (God-given) reminder of our limitations and our fragile humanity.

I need Chris. Desperately. Need him for the mundane "man-chores", and need him to hold me up when I'm feeling weak. He has been such an extension of Christ's grace to me; he comes home from work, exhausted (I mean, he works three jobs, after all!) and still listens to us, plays with us, laughs with us. He gives me needed time away from the girls, and plans special little projects and "daddy dates" to the utter delight of our children (raising ducklings, Chris? Really??). He's always working on projects to make our home more beautiful and functional; he picks up the slack when I am too tired to finish my tasks. He doesn't complain when the house is a wreck, or when dinner is peanut butter and jelly (again) or when all we have to eat in the house is eggs and lollipops. In fact, he just doesn't complain at all.

I wrote earlier that I am not sure Chris would agree that this is a blissful time in our marriage. Though pregnancy can be difficult for women, I think that it is often just as difficult for their husbands. And not for nothing-- but I am the one who is being served by all of Chris's thoughtfulness and care. He's the one who is constantly putting aside his own agenda, his desires, his plans--- laying down his very life for his family. I am intensely grateful for my husband, and I am glad I have the rest of my life to "pay him back" for his attentiveness and compassion for me in this season.

Just as soon as my ankles aren't so friggin' swollen. :)

Top 10 Parenting Must-Haves

I am sure you moms out there remember the drill: you're 20 weeks pregnant with your first kid (or waiting to bring your adopted baby to his "forever-home"), and you have it on the DL that some friends are planning a baby shower for you. So you grab your husband and jump into your (probably clean-ish, since you don't have kids) car, and head out to the local Babies-r-us or Target. You grab a registry gun (while your husband checks his email on his phone) and go.to.TOWN! 'Cause it's your first baby-- and of COURSE you need all that stuff that Babies-r-us recommends. A swing that records your own voice singing lullabies, rocks six different directions, and shoots beams of light across the ceiling? Check. Some new-fangled electronic crib monitor that sets off your smoke-detectors and simultaneously calls the fire department and the pediatrician if your baby ceases movement for 3.5 seconds? Check. A convenient hand-held Itzbeen timer that lets you record when you last fed your baby, when she last had a bowel movement, what her daily horoscope is, and a handy feature that randomly picks her lucky lottery numbers. Check check check.

Things are usually different with your second kid. And as we await the birth of Girl #3, I can already see where this one is headed. The thing is, I hate baby gak. I HATE it. (I mean, unless it's really cool... but it's usually not.) It clutters up my house, is usually done in tacky primary colors-- or, if you're a bit more "progressive", pink and brown. You spend $9394857495 on it (or assume that your friends should, when they throw you a shower), use it approximately 3 times each (until you realize that all your baby wants is a boob, a clean diaper, and you) and then sell it all at a yard sale for $2. In my very humble opinion, it's largely a brilliant marketing move on the part of baby-gak makers; they convince you that you need this stuff, and if you don't have it, your neighbor will probably call CPS on you.

That said, there are definitely some essentials that have made my parenting experience a much saner and more pleasant journey. So, in the spirit of preventing you from putting that Itzbeen timer on your registry, I bring you my Top 10 Parenting Essentials. Don't leave your postpartum period without them.

1) 7th Generation Lemongrass/Thyme disinfecting spray. Kids are gross. And this yummy smelling cleaner almost makes you forget that you are cleaning up petrified kid puke from the plastic base of the carseat. Almost.
2) Dishwasher. This is a new-ish one for me, since we never had one until we bought our house 6 months ago. Seriously, it changes my life. Throw one of those little jelly-looking tabs in it, fire it up, and git 'er done.
3) A good sling/soft structured carrier/wrap/mei tai. Different parents prefer different types, but whether it's an Ergo or a Storchenwiege (or both), it's the best piece of baby gak I have ever purchased (a good carrier is pretty pricey-- but a) I buy them used and b) if you're not buying the crazy seizure-inducing swing and the 17 speed baby bouncer, you're actually saving money in the long run.)
4) booze Diet Dr. Pepper (for me, not the kids). Since I have been pregnant for 3 out of the last four years, and breastfeeding straight through the last four, the booze is low on the list. But Diet Dr. Pepper. Yum-stinkin'-O. As my dad would say, it's like little angels dancing on my tongue. Yeah, yeah, I know... caffeine, artificial sweetener- not so good. But so far not associated with fetal alcohol syndrome, so I am feeling pretty good about this choice.
5) Yummy Earth lollipops. I'm not disillusioned here. I know that organic evaporated cane juice= sugar. But somehow when it's made organically with beet juice and "other natural flavors", I feel like I am making a more righteous choice. I distribute them pretty much indiscriminately at our house. And I mean, how can you say no to flavors like "pomegranate pucker" and "tooberry blueberry"? You can't. Case in point.
6) Lunchables. Which leads me to a less-righteous choice, one which I hesitated to include out of fear of the backlash. But I am just gonna lay it all out there. Ok, my kids have MAYBE had these 3 times; it's not like it's an everyday occurrence. I am not gonna lie, though-- there are times as a parent that I plan very, very poorly. And I find myself at Target at 8 pm and I haven't fed my kids dinner. Yes, I understand that it's processed cheese food and congealed pig fat "turkey" slices-- and it probably can't qualify as dinner. So shoot me. The few times I have bought them, they saved me from meltdowns of epic proportions, and for that, I am eternally grateful to congealed pig fat and processed cheese food.
7) Bumgenius cloth diapers. I am a big fan of both the organic all-in-ones and the Flip covers with prefolds. GREAT diapers, and way cuter than disposables. (Oh, yeah, and they don't fill up the landfills like the plastic trays that Lunchables are packaged in. I figure they cancel each other out.)
8) Bank drive-through. I used to work at a bank, and felt righteous indignation at the frazzled moms in their dirty minivans who came through the drive-through with 17 different transactions. The only difference with me is that I usually try to take as many detours through the DT as possible, breaking up my transaction into 17 separate trips. 'Cause I've caught on to the fact that, not only does it get me out of the house, but my kids get a lollipop each time through. This, in turn, buys me approximately four minutes of peace and quiet. Which to me, is vastly worth it.
9) Burts Bees Baby Buttermilk lotion. This stuff smells divine. And here's the thing: my kids don't get bathed all that often. (Again, spirit of complete candor here...) The first-born used to get bathed at least once a day, far more often if she happened to pee-out of her diaper or spit up her breakfast. Now we've adopted a more laissez-faire, "Little House on the Prairie"/once-a-week approach... minus filling up a tin tub in the kitchen with buckets of melted snow. I have found that if you smear some baby buttermilk on those dirty little chillins' and pat down their hair, they are pretty much good as new.
10) Nap-time. Seriously, does anything else need to be said about this? If I could go back in time, I would skip the Itzbeen and swing and register for 2636463436437 of these bad-boys. And never once feel a moment of buyer's remorse.

Even though we ain't got money...

So I know it's not just us. Nobody has money in January. In many cases, it's because we've overspent on Christmas gifts or spent a small fortune traveling to exotic locale for the holidays. In our case, it's neither. Although I would commit murder to be in an exotic locale right about now.

It's our first winter as homeowners, and predictably-- there are expenses that we underestimated, didn't expect, or didn't plan well for. And as any do-it-yourself-er could attest to, home renovations always end up costing more than you anticipated. Especially when that home renovation project involves turning an old, musty garage into an awesomely adorable abode. Crazy how that works. And there are always things that need to be fixed or tweaked or replaced; I spent a portion of yesterday, during our snowstorm-going from room to room- identifying new places where our ceiling was leaking. And then in true melodramatic, stir-crazy, wacko-pregnant-hormone fashion, I began thinking about all the other things that need to be done... and about how the oil man just came and left us some oil and a huge bill... and about how we'll need to fix the clutch/heat/radio in my car, oh, wait! get a new car so that when the new baby is born, I can fit all my kids in it. And my heart immediately began to give way to fear. "Lord, what will we do? How will we pay for these things? What else can I cut out of our budget? Lord, what will we do??"

Let me first say-- I think we live fairly frugally. We don't eat out, I am trying to learn to be better with coupons, we cloth diaper, we almost always buy used clothing or get hand-me-downs from generous people in our lives. We don't have a fancy car, we keep the heat at 62; we're typically not reckless with money. And while we are feeling the "pinch" right now more so than in other times in our lives, we are, by God's grace, not behind on anything-- and have always been able to pay our obligations on time. These financial issues are what my missionary sister calls "first-world problems."

But none of that is the point, because there are always things that we could do better, always ways that we could be wiser stewards of our money. It's not the point, because God is not so concerned with my finances as He is with my heart. And the moment that my heart began to fear, I began to accuse the character of God: "You have not been good. You have not been faithful, You have not kept Your promises." WHAT?! Let's quickly pass over all the material stuff-- you know, a house, job, clothes, food-- "little" things that I somehow feel God "owes" me, and consider this: my soul has been purchased with the blood of a spotless Savior. The deepest need I have, the only one of eternal importance-- has been secured at the expense of Another. What arrogance-- that I can accuse God of not providing for me! That I can accuse Him of not being good! What a wretch I am.

Today, as the girls were napping, I was painting a closet and enjoying having a few quiet, kid-free moments. As I was cutting in the trim, I was reminded of the Scripture, "Your Heavenly Father knows that you need them." You remember the story, right? Jesus is teaching on a mountainside, to a people probably well familiar with poverty, and He cautions them to not be like people who don't know God-- who run after food and drink and clothing as though their lives depended on it. He reminded them, "your Heavenly Father know that you need it." I immediately saw my sin and began weeping into my paint. God met my deepest need in sending a Savior, and yet He still concerns Himself about the minutia and lilliputians that can seem so pressing to me. In addition, He gave me a wise husband who works unfathomably hard for our family; and even though I know he sometimes doesn't feel it, He gives my husband wisdom to lead our family with shrewdness and purposefulness.

I look at the heating oil bill; He knows that I need it. I look at my growing daughter and think of spring clothes for her; He knows that I need it. I look at my little car and my growing family; He knows that I need it. I look at our leaking ceiling; He knows that I need it. I look at the state of my soul, lost in sin without a thought of God; He knew that I needed it, and send His Son so that I could be reconciled to Him. May my soul be quiet and still before my God; He is, by His very character, faithful. My God is for me. I have nothing to fear.

Another post about my kids...

I know, I am one of those super annoying people who only ever post about their kids. Well, KID, in particular. It's not that I don't love Cana to smithereens, but she's still kinda... you know, a baby. I promise that once she's bigger and cracking me up more (rather than just waking me up), I'll be annoyingly persistent in sharing stories about her, too. Shoot me-- my kids are cute. I can't be held responsible for that.

Today, Evie was telling me about a scene in Popular Mechanics for Kids, a series they carry at our library-- and that is currently Evie's answer to life.

She said, "Mom. There was a commercial in PMK... and this man was in the hospital and he had those sticker things all over his chest..."

"Oh, yeah?" I absentmindedly replied.

"Yeah, just like me--when my heart was broken!!"

"That's right, honey," I responded, "You did have lots of EKGs."

Evie paused for a moment, then added, "Mom, Jesus GAVE me that hole in my heart so that He could walk through it and LIVE there!!!"

*Sigh* I love that girly. I mean, I realize that her theology is in need of some serious adjusting in more than one area... but come on, people! This kid is awesome.

Evie: thoughts on candy and theology

Driving in the car to the grocery store, I hear Evie in the backseat consulting her "list".

"Mom," says the wee miss, "I have a list of all the kinds of candy that we need to get for Daddy at the store."

"Oh, you do?" I question. "Is it just for Daddy?"

"Well," ponders Evie, "My dad is a good man. I think he'll share with me. So, for Dad AND me."

Dubiously I reply, "Evie, I don't know that we are going to be getting any candy at the store today."

Incredulous, Evie asks, "Why NOT?!"

"For one thing," I respond, "it's not good for our bodies. Or our teeth. Or our skin."

Evie ponders for a few moments, then counters, "Mom... I guess I will just have my rules talk to your rules."

"Oh, you will?", a bemused mama snickers.

"Yes," Evie confidently replies. "And MY rules are GOD'S rules!"

Well, I guess there's no arguing with that.

Giveaway @ Our Adoption Adventure: 100th Post and A Giveaway

So honestly, I have only met Michelle and Herb a handful of times, though I have high hopes of gaining their real-life friendship at some point! ;) I can't really personally relate to Michelle's emotions and fears and hopes as she follows Jesus on an adoption adventure-- but I do know the unsurpassable joy of being a mama, and I understand that it is a position to be coveted. I love Michelle's honesty, and I can't wait to hear that they are bringing their baby home to his or her forever family!

Michelle is doing a giveaway over at her blog, and it's super cool! Check it out! (But don't win, cause I want to win!)


Our Adoption Adventure: 100th Post and A Giveaway