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10/24/2012

The lifestyle I seek

Yesterday my husband, sister, and father shamelessly made fun of me when I assured them I would not scream while giving birth.
I don't blame them because I am a known pampered cry-baby that makes quite the scandal at the doctor's office. I've been embarassing my mom and even my husband with my tantrums even as an adult :S. I happily report that since I've been married I've only misbehaved once at the doctors and have been a good girl ever since.
Obviously, childbirth is not nearly at the pain level for which I've screamed before and thus they are in denial at my statement, but they forget how stubborn I can be when I make up my mind.
A dear co-worker told me that screaming during childbirth takes strength away from the baby. She is an even bigger cry-baby than me and if she can do it without screaming, I most certainly can.

When talking of childbirth and having a baby at home, people are always trying to discourage me from my desire for many children (I want at least more than 4). Most common remarks:
"Once you have your first child, you'll tell me if you still want those 5 or 6 kids."
"Sleep as much as you can because when the baby comes you won't sleep again."
"The cost for having children is too high. I only want two at the most and you should too."

Most common questions:
"Are you scared?"
"Do you know which daycare you'll use?"
"How are you going handle the new expenses?"

Sigh, I get discouraged, but not at my convictions, but at people's heart.
Lets talk about my convictions to get the whole picture:
1. I believe having children is a blessing not a burden.
2. I believe the job I have to do is care for my husband and my children at home.
3. I believe the school is an invention of the world and thus my children will be homeschooled as it was God's intention for a mother to educate her children.
4. Since I will educate my children, I seek to be the most prepared, qualified, and educated teacher for them through study and research (And a year of a Pedagogy Masters) and mainly study of the Word.
5. I believe that whatever need that may come my way, God is my provider, not anyone else, thus I do not worry.
6. I believe that a good help meet for any husband should cut costs in any way she cans. Thus, I'm planning a garden of veggies and berries, I am a prolific DIYER, I learn how to sew, I learn how to cook, I seek the grreener alternative to everything, and I do the work I can myself. So, if I can make it homemade, I'll make it homemade (This includes cleaning products). If I can use non-disposable,budget-saving, but time-consuming diapers, I'll take the time.

I'm sad there aren't many men and women, christian and non-christian, seeking this lifestyle.
Most newly couples say they need to wait till their near 30's for their first child because first they need money and a house of their own. These are also the couples that say two children or less is the best way to go.
Small parenthesis (If you are a couple that fall in this category, please know I do not judge you for your choices. I'm just painting the general picture around me).
For these couples, children are expensive because schooling, clothes, and food are expensive. This is because most believe their kids HAVE to be in the most expensive schools, have to have this or that brand of clothes, and shop at the grocery store or eat out.

There are alternatives!!! Why won't people take them?
Here are many reasons:
1. More children means less comodities.
Yes, it probably means you won't buy the cellphone of your dreams.

2. More children require more time and effort.
Yes, it means you get out of your comfort zone. It means you spend less time on the TV. It means you have less time to do nothing. It means you get more tired. You know what? God also promises strength for you and not more than you can handle.

3. More savings means less indulgence and more work.
Yes, you probably can't go to that beach resort you wanted to go and have to settle for a different vacation.
It means you spend the weekends working on your garden.

4. Surprisingly, most think they can't do it
People thought I wouldn't learn how to cook or how to sew and I'm already producing both. It's funny how they judge me because I will teach my own children saying I'm not suited for it but they paid me to educate THEIR children since I was a teacher for 3 years in formal schools. To these people I always say: Have you even tried? How do you know you can't sew if you've never tried? I've never tried planting a garden and I'm already sure I'll succeed on it, even if it takes me a few tries.

I believe God designed me to be a help meet. In this design, he intended for me to stay home to care for the ones in my family. This is not a prestigious job in the eyes of the world, but the job I was given by God.
Many christian men and women do not desire this for themselves. Husbands want their wives working outside making money to cover their expenses to live more "fully". Wives want to make a career and a name for themselves and even desire to be equal or higher than the men around them .
Right now I have a career and a work. Why? It is the help meet my husband needs right now while he finishes his studies.
"What if your husband still needs you to work outside?" a coworker asked me. "If it is what he requires of me and needs of me, I'll do it. I'm here to be his help meet however he needs it."
I feel blessed that I have a husband though that thinks the same way I do.
My husband understand NO ONE else will educate my children better than me.
He knows it's is a greater benefit for his family and his budget to have me home than outside.
He desires this for myself as well.
If I need to make money, I've been learning skills that would allow me to work from home, including the career I chose (I can program software from my home! ^_^).
The people who saw my nurseries proyects here all said the same thing to me: "These are so pretty you could sell them." Not the purpose for which I did them, but I'm glad God has made me resourceful.

To the remarks and questions made before:

"Once you have your first child, you'll tell me if you still want those 5 or 6 kids."
I don't see why I would change my mind on the convictions God placed in my heart.

"Sleep as much as you can because when the baby comes you won't sleep again."
Myth! Babies can be trained to sleep all through the night at 7 weeks of age (Even earlier). I've never done it and yet I know I'll succeed. Why? I've prepared myself to guide the upbringing of my children, not let them dictate what they'll do; there is plenty of research that proves they can be educated. And as I tell the unbelievers: "If I can teach my month old puppy not to pee inside, I can certainly teach my child what to do."

"The cost for having children is too high. I only want two at the most and you should too."
Thank you for the advice but I rest in God not in the economy or anything else for security. God says many children are a blessing and I believe Him and His Word before anyone elses. Plus, I'm prepared to make the sacrifices for them.

"Are you scared?"
Not at all. I'm anxious if anything. I wish the days went by quicker and Emmalee was already in my arms.

"Do you know which daycare you'll use?"
While my husband finishes his studies and he is able to fully sustain us without me having to work, she will stay with my mother-in-law, a godly women who is the best example of a help meet in my life who will teach my daughter like I would.

"How are you going handle the new expenses?"
Hard work. It doesn't scare us. I see many couples do it with 6 or more children. And so can we!

I just felt I need to share this. I pray more women take this path and make it the desire of their hearts to be homemakers. I pray they understand how important their design is for their families, society, and mainly God.

Matthew 6:21
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

   

10/21/2012

My Felt Nursery Projects

I've been thinking this over and over.
Ever since I knew I was having a baby, I've been planning her nursery. 
It's only 8 weeks till she arrives, so I'm getting everything done ASAP. 
However, I've been fearful of sharing more projects with you.

Why, you ask?
I hear stories of ladies that plan nurseries and come back home from the hospital empty-handed. 
Boy, just writing that down brought so many tears to my eyes, you don't even know how many! 
What if I get really excited to come back empty-handed?
What if all these projects will be for nothing? 

Oh boy! Linda!!! Where is your faith? 
As I mentioned in a post before, my husband asked me once who I was putting my trust in. 
And as you know, I answered that just because I trust God doesn't mean the empty-handed scenario could not be in His plans. 
I was told I needed to monitor the babies movements every two hours. 
As you may well have guessed, I've been losing my mind! 
We've had two runs to the doctor's because I didn't feel her move in a lapse of 5 hours just to find out she is perfectly fine. The doctor sternly asked me to stop crying wolf! 
I think it's perfectly normal to feel like you don't want to be overly excited, but the alternative (fear and expecting disappointment) doesn't show true hope. 
So, I'm getting over myself and my dumb ol' fears. I'm chosing hope, excitement, trust, joy, and peace that God is in control and there is a bunch of people praying constantly for Emmalee's well-being. 
Ánd in that spirit of breaking free of my fears, I share with ya'll my felt nursery projects. 


Animal mobile:
Boy was photographing this project hard. 
Here are the best shots. 
 In this one you get a good look at the turtle, the lamb and the hipo. 
 And in this one you get a good look of the elephant, the owl and a little bit the giraffe. There was no pic where you could make out the giraffe well. 
And here a shot at the complete mobile! 


Door wreath:

This one I made with some cloth pieces my husband's grandma graciously collected for me. It didn't have a sign originally, but I felt it was missing something.

Here's a closeup of the sign! 
I LOVE her name ^_^

Emmalee name piece:
No idea what to call this piece. It's a project to put infront of the changing station. 
 I just knew I had to do more projects with her name! It's adorable!
And I couldn't resist adding more giraffes to the nursery. One of my favorites!

Animal Bottle Holders:
By now you must know that I'm making an animal themed nursery. When making an animal themed anything, people tend to chose between jungle animals, farm animals, or forest animals. I'm sorry, not me! There is no way I was having lovely giraffes and hipos and no pigs! And I have plenty of turtles and frogs in the mix too. 

 I drew inspiration for these from a cow with similar design some dear friends gave me for my birthday. 
Since I have a cow-themed kitchen, the cow will not be in the nursery but happily holding my honey bottle. 
forest, jungle, farm? Who cares, they are lovely! 

ABC mantle:
So this one is not finished yet. I'm still working on the frame for the mantle, but here's a preview. It is not completely animal-themed and again I have no problem mixing farm, forest, and jungle animals either.

 It'll look better with the frame but I wanted to breakdown the alphabet mantle for you.
 a: alligator, b: butterfly, c:cat, d:duck, e:elephant
 f:frog, g:giraffe, h:hipo, i:igloo, j:jet, k:kite
l:lamb, m:mouse, n:nation (no brown felt for nest and I just couldn't find anything else to put for the n. I tried). o:owl, p:pig
q:queen (I know I made a crown, forgive me), r:rhino, s:seal, t:turtle, u:unicorn, 
v:valentines, w:worm, x:xylophone, y:yo-yo, z:zebra.


Well, I'm not a photographer but I tried to capture them as best as I could. 
I hope you like them. 
I draw inspiration of things I see in the web. Here is my pinterest link so you can see where I find projects and inspiration for proyects here.

I have more project I haven't posted! Hopefully my girls are coming this next weekend to finish the mural. I hope you enjoyed my DIY rocking chair project here

Please keep praying for Emmalee and that we may all have her with us soon!!!!!! 
^_^

10/02/2012

A battle with Pride and many thanks!

I battle with pride. 
I think it's everyone's battle but I'm grateful through the years the Lord has made me more aware of this pride. 

Romanos 2
15 They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.

If you read the context of the verse, you'll see Paul is praising this accusing the mind does to oneself. 
I for once had never been grateful for it. 
I have to confess I sometimes resist it. 

Let me give you a small example I experienced yesterday:
Here at the office we all cooperate with a little cash to buy cake, sodas, snacks, and icecream at the end of the month to celebrate the birthday boys and girls of the month. There is always someone assigned to pick everyone's share to place the cake order and buy the rest. The guy picking the contribution asked for my share, to which I replied that I was a birthday girl and those being celebrated don't contribute that month. He said this month was different and he was requiring everyone to contribute. I had no money available so I told him I would not be participating on the celebration.
When the time came to sing happy birthday, everyone asked me to head to the dinning room. I told them I was informed I was not able to participate of the celebration because I had not contributed. 
They all told me what the guy had said was a "joke" and that I could participate. 
I remained firmly in my desk, despite their trying to convince me. 
The more they tried to get me to participate and more stern my face became, I could feel my mind accusing me: "You are being prideful." 
I really wanted them to stop trying to convince me because I was inmovable from my decision to take to heart the words of the planner. 
"You know how he is, he probably didn't even know you were a birthday girl," they begged.
"Well, I told him, and he still said I couldn't participate," I replied. 
One of them even went to the dinning room to pick up my slice of cake and icecream. It looked really good. 
To this action, I refused to grab the plate he was handing me and instead took out a yogurt from my lunch box and told him I already had dessert. 
My mind continued to accuse me of prideful attitudes and my spirit was so disturb by my stubborness I even felt like crying. I got a call from my husband that he was waiting for me outside so I was able to leave before I actually started crying or had to more firmly ask them to stop trying to convince me. 

This is one of those time pride hurts you, but not that "much". 
How about the times when my mind accuses me of arguing with my husband over nothing and asks me to stop arguing but I instead continue on and resist it?
How about the times when my mind accuses me of not forgiving and trying to hold on to a grudge my Spirit is trying to get rid of and I'm resisting it? 
And truthfully, it wasn't as insignificant as it may seem. To my coworkers, I am a stubborn, inmovable, prideful person that makes the smallest insignificant thing bigger than it is. 
I mean, seriously, no one takes the guy who was the planner seriously, so why was I?
Why was I? 
Why?
Stinking pride. 
That's it. It's the only answer. I preferred being prideful than humble. 

I was very admonished by this verse:
Romans 2
4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of His kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

This accusing of the mind is God's kindness to try to save us from ourselves. I chose to show contempt. No more, please! 

I'm sorry Lord. Please save me from myself. 

*520 Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!! Thank You so much for bringing my mom safe and sound to visit me this weekend. I needed to see her SOO badly and she needed to see us too! 
*521 Thank You because mom got to meet Emmalee. It's the funniest thing, Emmalee doesn't move that much and even my husband has had trouble feeling her move in the belly. Not mom! Emmalee just hears her voice and starts jumping around. I'm serious! Mom just has to talk to her and put her hand on my belly and Emmalee will start moving around like crazy!

*522 Thank You for the blessings mom brought for our baby girl: she has not one but two strollers (a more complete and a more compact for easy travel), a gorgeous vintage winnie the pooh playpen, bottles, shampoo, lotion, dippers, baby monitors, breast pump. You name it, she brought it. Even a lovely maternity summer dress for the mommy-to-be.

*523 Time with my mom. Agh! Time with mom has been wonderful. Just lying next to her caressing her back and hair and feeling her warmth next to me! 

*524 My guest room! Rodol and I worked really hard preparing that guest room and making it comfy so mom could stay home with us. It has been such a blessing to be able to host her and wake up early to make french toasts for her and just know she is under the same roof as me!

*525 Our car. Thank You because mom helped us buy a new battery when it was an emergency and that we were able to pay her back really quickly. Our car has blessed us to move around and have a nice ride to keep mom happily with us with no need of asking my grandparents for help for transportation. 

*526 Time with my mom's family. We don't get to see them much and grandma hadn't even seen my huge belly. It was great to hear of their European venture of last month when my Aunt Jenny got married in Italy to her Italian husband. They had some funny stories of mom. I am truly grateful You gave her that gift and glad she enjoyed it so. We also got to celebrate my grandpa's early birthday (his birthday is the 9 of this month) and mom bought a cake she had been craving for more than a year. We went to this gorgeous restaurant outside of the city that had a gorgeous garden. It gave my husband incentive to start working on our huge yard.

*527 My mom's Great Comission Church in Panama. That's right, she is going to the brand new Great Comission Church of Panama City with Pastor Juan Carlos Chavarria. I'm so happy to hear that she is very comitted in the church and they have been like a family to her. The pastor and his wife took her out to dinner for her birthday and bought her a gift, dropped her off at the airport when she was coming here, and even sent Emmalee gifts and a card that said: "De sus tioabuelos"! :') She sounds so happy when she talks of her church and that fills my heart with so much joy! 

*528 My mom enjoying such good health. She looks beautiful. She is thin, has great hair, great skin complexion! I'm so happy to see her looking good outside because she's been good inside (Because of good physical health and good spiritual health). 

*529 My mom loves my husband. She does! And he loves her! and She loves my in-laws and they love her. I'm so,so,so grateful for that! But the special bond is between my mom and my husband and that is priceless.

*530 A lovely dinner with my mom and my in-laws at my house eating baleadas. Mom was so excited to eat baleadas Hondureñas and we were even blessed to have Isabel's homemade flour tortillas. Yum!

*531 a lovely dinner with my sister and her boyfriend Rodrigo. We hadn't shared much with Rodrigo and were all very happy he is very agreeable and nice. Mom was really happy to be with Lilly because she was really desiring to see her. 

I could keep giving thanks non-stop. I'm so blessed and happy. Thank You, Father. Truly, thank You! Please take mom back to Panama tomorrow safe and sound and give her grace before her employers to allow her to spend December here for when Emmalee comes. Please teach her how to pronounce her darling grandaughters name! :P

I love You with all my heart.