Balance

*I realize my last post was very strange and random and somewhat ridiculous :). Sometimes thats just what's going on inside this head . . .


We are reading Richard Foster's book on Prayer in our Small Group (Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home) and I was so encouraged by this part:




Sacramental Prayer 


The true sacrament is holy personality. —P. T. Forsyth 
  
  Sacramental Prayer is incarnational prayer. God in his great wisdom has freely chosen to mediate his life to us through visible realities. This is a great mystery. God, who is pure Spirit utterly free of all created limitations, stoops to our weakness and reveals himself to us through the physical and the visible. The eternal Son becomes an infant in a feeding trough. The bread and the wine are invested with sacramental power. We bow under the wonder of it all. 
  Over the centuries an unfortunate and, in my opinion, completely unnecessary division has arisen among Christians. On the one side are those who stress liturgy and sacrament and written prayer. On the other side are those who stress intimacy and informality and spontaneous prayer. And each group looks at the other in pious condescension. 
  It is here that we need the holy conjunction “and.” We need not be forced to choose one over another. Both are inspired by the same Spirit. We can be lifted into high, holy reverence by the richness and depth of a well-crafted liturgy. We can also be drawn into breath-taking wonder through the warmth and intimacy of spontaneous worship. Ours is a spirituality that can embrace both. 
  Even now, many years later, I remember well my experiment with “religionless Christianity”—a popular notion of the times that had been inspired by the prison writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Here was my experiment: I would seek to live in continuous communion with God for three months without any outward “props” whatever—no Bible, no liturgy, no Eucharist, no preaching, no worship services, no set times of prayer, nothing. God was gracious to me during those ninety days, but far and away the most important thing I learned was how badly I need those “props” to keep me pressing in to the Divine Center. I discovered that regular patterns of devotion form a kind of skeletal structure upon which I can build the muscle and tissue of unceasing prayer. Without this outward structure, my internal heart yearnings for God simply do not hold together. These regular patterns—usually called rituals—are, in fact, God-ordained means of grace.


First of all embarrassingly enough I had to look up incarnational and liturgy. For those of you who would also have to look them up they mean:
incarnational - embodiment of God in the person of Christ
liturgy - a form of public worship; ritual; a collection of formularies for public worship; a particular arrangement of services.


And I thought of all the times I have wanted to explain myself on this blog or to people around me about the constant contradiction with the many things in life: the difficulties of having a newborn/the joys of having a newborn; writing serious stuff/writing light hearted stuff, etc. I was just encouraged by this portion of the book and I thought it could apply to many things in life: two things that when done by themselves can lead to imbalance - but when done in tandom, actually breed health. 


So, there's the nugget for the day. The book is phenomenal and I highly recommend it. I also recommend his book called, The Celebration of Discipline. Truly, it is the greatest spiritual book I have ever read. 


Have a great day!

Meat Lover

I do love meat.
We determined that this weekend.
I'm sure my friend, Anna,
has a hard time believing this.

You see, she thinks
we only eat
veggies and rice.
Which is partly true.
We do eat those
a lot.
They are around.
And easy.
and cheap.

But, I do love meat.
I love the bad meat.
Sausage
Bacon
Ground beef
Pork
I love a good burger.
I love the meat lovers pizza.
Mmm, hearty, filling, protein.

But I like some good meat
Turkey
and most of all
Venison.
I keep asking Tay
to shoot me a deer!
Or two
or three.

I love
having venison
in the freezer.
I can make lots
with the venison
in the freezer.

A funny thing
when I was pregnant
we went to pick up
the deer he shot
last year
and when
he was walking in
to the meat processor
a place that vegetarians
may just rather die
than going there
I asked him
"Get me some jerkey"
so yes
I like beef
(and venison)
jerkey
mmmmmmmm

This weekend he went hunting

He saw some deer
but they were too far
or it was too dark
so none were shot

And I just keep asking him
"get me a deer, dear"
that's all I ask
so my freezer can be full
and I can pull out the venison
when its time to make chili
or lasagna
or tacos
or spaghetti
or pizza
or anything else you would normally use ground beef

You can also make BBQ
or steak
or tenderloin
mmmmmmmm

but most of all

you can eat

JERKEY

 

Mwana Blanket Winner!

True Random Number Service

List Randomizer

There were 13 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Becca
2. Becca
3. Laina
4. Almand
5. Laina
6. Mary
7. Catie
8. Laina
9. Cassie
10. Catie
11. Becca
12. Laina
13. Tiffany

Timestamp: 2011-11-28 15:30:12 UTC

Congrats Becca!! Thanks everyone for entering the Giveaway! Wish I could give it to all of you! 

If you are still interested in buying one, go here 

or 

enter another giveaway here!

Hope Everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Giveaway X2!

That's right! 
You heard correctly!


Our very first giveaway on BabyBukes!

You may have read a little bit about Mwana in the previous post. Just in case you missed it, Mwana's vision is "to make a difference for the children of Africa. A visit to the small
village of Mgyawi in Malawi, Africa identified a specific need of its children—to receive 
shelter from the cold night. They are impassioned to help. You can too. For each Mwana 
blanket purchased, an additional blanket will be personally delivered to a child in need in 
Africa. Make a difference. Share Warmth." (see bio page for donation details)

Brooke has so kindly offered to give a blanket to one of you lucky readers here! What's the deal with the title of this post you ask? Well, remember, when one is bought, another is given. So, in this particular case - when the winner gets this giveaway, the child in Africa will also receive one! Giveaway X2!


I have seen, felt and cuddled with these blankets in real life, and trust me, they are as awesome as they look! I may have even bought a few :)

My favorite parts?
1) Each blanket has an applique of Africa hand stitched onto the back 

which serves as a reminder that


2) you have shared warmth with a child in need in Africa.

3) you will get to see pictures of the blanket drop when she returns in May 2012!

 

So, which lovely blanket has she chosen to giveaway to you? "dumdumdumdumdumdumdumdumdumdudumdudmdumdudm......." (that was serving the purpose as a drumroll)

This beautiful baby blanket is perfect for any girl OR boy!! Print fabric is made with 100% cotton designer fabric. The back is a super soft blue flannel. The blanket is top stitched on the edges for durability. 

This blanket measures approximately 36x32. It would make a great blanket to use as a receiving blanket or to just snuggle up.

ISN'T IT AWESOME!?!?!?!

How do you get it?

1.) Tweet about Mwana (you can include a link to fbook or etsy shop or just say the word)

2.) Make Mwana Share Warmth a Favorite on your Etsy Page

3.) Like Mwana on Facebook
4.) If you have a blog, mention Mwana in a post

5.) Leave a Comment here for each one you do

The Winner will be announced the Monday after Thanksgiving! So, you have until Sunday night November 27 to enter!

Make two babies warm :)

If you don't win my giveaway - here's another chance to win a blanket - Recycled Interiors!

Mwana

Let me introduce you to Mwana! It is the new business my amazing and talented cousin, Brooke, has just started.

She went the villiage of Mgyawi in Malawi, Africa for the first time two years ago. Upon her return from her second trip this past year she brought to life an idea to meet a specific need of the children of this villiage - shelter from the cold nights. So, she started sewing blankets, and for each one she sells, an additional blanket will be personally delievered to a child in need in Africa.

Make a Difference. Share Warmth!

My friend Chrissi is giving away one of Mwana's blankets on her blog!
Go check it out...

Who knows we may just have to do a giveaway for one here!!

Trust me, you dont want to miss out on learning about Mwana and cuddling a precious bundle within the sheer warmth!

Daye's days

I have a beloved blog 
I like the way she writes

because it makes sense to me

to read her posts 

when she writes like this
So, today,
I'll write a little like her

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Can you believe it?
7 & 1/2 months?!
Sheesh

Don't you remember
when you used to wait
sooooooooooo looooooooooong
for Christmas to come?

And then, all of the sudden,
one year it comes faster
than you expected.

And you are standing
at the front door
telling your mom
how Christmas didn't take
soooooooo looooooooong this year

And she looks at you
and says,
"You're getting older -
the older you get,
the faster time goes . . . "

and then you do get older
and older
and have a kid
and it goes EVEN FASTER

I remember hearing

the days are long

the years are short.

I love my days
with my Daye
A part of them goes
something like this:

She wakes up
then we eat
and change a diaper
and then we play.

They call it "work"
since this is what she does
at this age
when she plays she works
and she loves to work.

She crawls a lot
and just when I think
she's in a safe spot
she starts to choke
on a leaf.

Phelps tracked it in
so she coughs it up
and I scoop it out
and pick up the others
he tracked in
so she won't choke again.

She goes back to work
and I sit on the ground
because it's easier there,
to sit on the ground
than in the chair
so that when she picks up my shoe
that has dog poop on it
(thanks phelps)
I can quickly slide over
and keep her
from putting it in her mouth.

but if she does,
my dad sent me this article
on what to do
if your baby eats poop
so, we'll be ok
if she puts it in her mouth
she puts everything in her mouth.

Then she crawls over
to the diaper champ
and that thing is a champ
but it holds poopy diapers
so, we move away
again.

Then she can crawl
over to the couch
and pull up on the couch
and reach for the channel changer
and pat her hands
and smile over at me.

Then she falls down
but we have carpet
and a rug
so she doesn't mind.

And then she crawls
to the fireplace
and pulls up on the gate
that keeps her from burrowing
in the fake coals

And then she falls down
and this time she cries
there's no carpet there
or a rug

So I scoop her up
and let her cry
and tell her I love her
and hold her close

because I know
when she realizes
that she is ok
she'll want to get down
and crawl some more.

And sometimes I wish
I could hold her a little longer
but she's growing
and exploring
and curious
and able
and I'm so thankful.

Because we're raising her
to send her off
we're raising her
to be on her own
we're raising her
to know
she's loved
she's secure
she's significant

And I get to do this
every day
and sometimes
days goes by slow
but then all the sudden
it's 7 months later
and it's not so slow

so each day that is long
I hope she's understanding
she's loved
she's secure
she's significant

so that when

the years have flown by
she'll still know that
she's loved
she's secure
she's significant

I love my days

with my Daye

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

on another note, I am looking forward to seeing this:
being elmo

He's holding my world in His Hands

And this is Your world, You made it

And all of creation is breathing because You sustain it

Jesus, by Your powerful word, You spoke out the earth and the heavens

So I will not worry or fret

My God is the God who will never forget

All of His goodness and all of His promises

He's holding my world in His hands

And these are your days, You give them

All for your fame and all for Your glorious kingdom

Jesus, You have ordained all things to dwell in Your purpose

So I will not worry or fret

My God is the God who will never forget

All of His goodness and all of His promises

He's holding my world in His hands

And I am Your child, Beloved

And all of my days my future is laid in Your promise

Jesus, to the end of the age, I am not alone of forgotten

So I will not worry or fret

My God is the God who will never forget

All of His goodness and all of His promises

He's holding my world

So I will not worry or fret

My God is the God who will never forget

All of His goodness and all of His promises

He's holding my world in His hands 

Kristian Stanfill

picture post

Don't I look like a little lady?

I love my cuz and I love to dress like her!

This is my older and more studious cuz, Beau

Handley Reid and I swung together in our pumpkin dresses

These are my mom's favorite series of pictures ever . . . I am having quite an exciting time, if you can't tell!

Oh boy, this is great!

Ah-hehehe! I LOVE this!

All of us missing our Daddy's and hubbys in Africa!

Mama, what are you doing with that camera?

My parents like to dress me up, but I think I like it too!

Fun at the library with my buddy, Brooks (aka Monkey of the southeast). Sometimes I get a little aggressive when I'm around him!

Aunt Hal took some more pictures a few weeks ago. Isn't she talented?

I am giddy about life! A wonderful trait I get from my Daddy!

If my aunt Sifter and aunt Becca saw how much orange I was wearing in this picture, she may never speak to me again. 

Daddy had to yell to Mama the other night, "Sal, hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Come quick!"

But there was no need for her to hurry because after I pulled right up, I just stood there . . .

and stood there. . . (and Mama told some people I looked like I was about to do a bank heist dressed in my all black turtleneck and tights. . . I'm not quite sure what a heist is)

And isn't this furry little friend so stinkin cute?!

I decided to just rock the headband because that little hat was too small. I'm what you call a gangsta lady

My cuz the cow and the older and more studious spidy

Here I am again . . .

just thinkin it's so fun to stand here . . . 

and stand here . . .

and stand here with a hat!