The struggle for order

Being a homemaker is a challenge for me. It really takes a lot of skill to do it well, but it is a job with little training, few incentives, and little respect. As someone who thrives on the approval of others, it can be a tough row to hoe. Maybe this is one way that God is starving that human-pleasing side of my personality.

With a new baby life seems especially overwhelming at the moment. So in a grasp for sanity, I created a home organization station on the side of my fridge.



I'm hoping that this will help keep me on track. No more losing the calendar or not looking at it for days, no more scraps of paper with "to-do" scrawled in crayon, buried under a pile of old mail. Since it is in itself a giant to-do list on display, I wanted to pretty it up a bit to encourage myself. The elements of the organization wall are pretty simple. My calendar, some scripture verses, a daily to-do list, a weekly to-do list, and our menu plan for the week.



I created a master to-do list of things that I find myself writing down on my lists every day and added things that ideally should be done each day. I know that I won't get everything done, but it gives me a goal to shoot for. I'm hoping I will fall into a routine and that things will run more smoothly, but if it doesn't work, I'll change it. Motherhood is teaching me to be flexible, and learning to keep house teaches me to keep experimenting with things until I achieve some level of mastery. When I first got married, I quickly became frustrated when I discovered I didn't have the skills of a woman of 50. Now I know that housekeeping is an art and a skill, and like anything else, you get better with practice.

I used magnets to keep the list on the fridge, and I taped down a piece of scrapbook paper I like to serve as a frame. I printed it front and back, so I reduced my paper waste. I put check boxes next to each task, and also added a section for Iain's chores.



I got some coordinating card stock and choose Bible verses that either encourage or exhort to display in this clear magnetic photo frame.


I found some pretty magnets to coordinate after a lot of hunting around.


This is my weekly menu plan. This is a tried and true household tool for me.


Here are the things that should be done on weekly basis (if not more frequently, but hey, we're taking baby steps here).

Domestic bliss. I hope so at any rate!

A New Baby!

I can't believe I haven't logged into this blog since November! But it makes sense, because I pretty much stopped doing everything in November. The last months of my pregnancy were very difficult due to Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction which causes severe pelvic pain. Mine was so bad that couldn't tolerate standing or walking for much longer than 5 or 10 minutes at a time. It is already becoming a bit of a vague memory, which is amazing, because it was extremely painful.

Our miracle baby, Elinor Joie Douglas, arrived on January 22, 2010. She was 8 lbs, 5 oz. She was born on the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. What a testimony to the power of God! He truly does set the days and dates, as well as open and close the womb.

Her name means: God has given us light and joy! The verse we chose for her is Psalm 30:5b: "Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning."

Here is her birth story.

On the evening of Thursday January 23 Brian and I were watching television together (The Office, I think) and Iain was safely tucked in bed when... pop! Gush. I said that I thought my water might have broken. Brian said he didn't think so. I called the doctor. I read the internet. We decided to wait and see. After about 30 minutes it became apparent that we needed to go to the hospital because my water had definitely broken. I was excited and scared and there was a lot to do. We called our friends, the Goodwins, who had kindly agreed to watch Iain when The Time Came. We got Iain out of bed and explained to his groggy little self that we were going to the hospital to get his little sister. I don't think that sank in. After Stormy came to take Iain, it was off to L&D Triage for us. They confirmed my water had broken and we were off to our own room.

The only problem was that my contractions weren't coming regularly or with any strength. So we waited through the night at the hospital. I walked the halls, I tried to sleep. At 6am our wonderful friend and doctor, Dirk Carlson, came in to check on us. We started a low dose of pitocin and waited some more. Now I was having some contractions!



After 6 hours of induced contractions, I still had not dilated at all. I was probably hitting a 7 or 8 on the pain scale. We tried an epidural as a last ditch effort to see if it help me to dilate. No dice. At 1pm we decided to go with the c-section. I'm considerably more relaxed in this picture as I'm enjoying the effects of the epidural.


At shortly after 2, Elinor was here! Papa got to hold her right away, much quicker than with Iain.

And of course, Mama got to have some snuggle time too.



When I got to recovery, Elinor was already there, screaming her little heart out. This is a sound that has become oh-so-familiar around here! After they finished checking her out, I got to hold her for the first time.

They put a sweet little bow in her hair at the hospital and everyone told us what a beautiful baby she was! She has pretty blue eyes that I just love:


After several days in the hospital recovering (which went great-- I think I'm pretty much to 100% now) we brought our little girl home.


We are so thankful for this baby, completely unexpected, nearly inexplicable. We look at her and are in awe of God.

Brief autumn recap

I have been increasing tired and having trouble getting around, but we still managed to have a little autumn fun in the past few weeks. Iain loves to cook and was very excited to help me make and decorate these sugar cookies.


He also throughly enjoyed pumpkin carving. We read "My Happy Pumpkin: God's Light Shining Through Me" before we carved it, and Iain took it as an instructional manual for the whole procedure. He turned the pages and told us the steps to follow.

And here is the finished result:


On Halloween we went to the Reformation Celebration at church. I was so busy, that I didn't get a chance to take many pictures, but here is Iain as a train driver and me as a medieval lady.

Holiday Food Fest

I think this looks like fun. I will probably at least follow along and check the blogs. If I get super ambitious, I may even cook something! I know. My eyebrows are climbing into my hairline too.

Here is the schedule:
Thanksgiving & Fall Desserts November 5th hosted at Hoosier Homemade
Thanksgiving & Fall Dishes November 12th hosted at Tasty Eats at Home
Gifts of Good Taste Novemeber 19th hosted at Getting Freedom
Holiday Cocktails, Mocktails, & Appetizers December 3rd hosted at Simply Sugar and Gluten Free
Holiday Dishes December 10th hosted at Gluten Free Easily
Holiday Desserts December 17th hosted at Life as Mom

As everyone who has read this blog for a while knows, I love Thanksgiving and Christmas. So I'm excited to have some seasonal reading and some inspiration for new dishes. Some of the hosts are gluten or sugar free, but the recipes are open to all kinds of cooking. Happy Christmas!

Nesting: Part 1

I don't remember ever feeling a strong urge to "nest" with Iain, but it may be that my memory is faulty. At any rate, I'm absolutely chomping at the bit to work on my little girl's room, but it involves moving heavy things around, a definite no-no for me right now. We've been very blessed by the Lord and our friends to receive a number of things secondhand including our changing table, some clothing, our bedding, a bouncer, a highchair, 2 strollers, and a car seat. We also purchased our crib off craigslist and a swing from a yard sale.

Nevertheless it is easy to covet the brand new items, magazine-ready nurseries, and the slew of matching equipment that is on display at Babies-R-Us. I really wish my heart wouldn't go there. It is such a disrespectful discounting of all that God has done and the practical love of Christ that my brothers and sisters have poured out on me.

I am so thankful to have what we need for our precious little girl. God is so good.

At any rate, the first and only thing I have accomplished for this girl's nursery (I promise we are working on a name for her!) is recovering an ottoman. I'm really rather pleased with how it came out considering my general sewing ineptitude and the reckless fervor that came over me when I decide to attempt this project. I was inspired by several blogs (readers, don't get any ideas!) and decided to take apart the crib bumpers for the fabric to recover one of the black ottomans that currently reside in the office. I was pleased with this since I already have the crib bumpers and didn't intend to use them in the crib, and I already had the ottoman. So if the grand scheme failed, I wouldn't lose anything but time.

Ok, here are the before and after shots:


Oooh, just realized that is a bit blurry. I do really hate using my flash. Anyway, that is the remaining ottoman who has relocated to our living room. I recovered its twin.






Well, there's my first project for our little girl. I basically made a paper pattern, cut and sewed the fabric to fit, and then had Brian help me staple it on (our staple gun is very heavy duty and I couldn't manage it on my own). Overall, I'm pleased with it, and when she outgrows it I can pull the staples out and have two black ottomans again.

Autumn Mist

We had a lovely rare fog this morning, so the boys and I decided a little trip to the Greenbelt was in order! It's so fun to see Iain developing friendships.


It was pretty chilly this morning. There was even snow on the foothills.



We saw some geese gliding quietly in the fog. They were beautiful, but the the boys were so excited that they quickly scared the birds away!


Just a hint of fall color in the cottonwood trees this morning.



Iain and his buddy had fun "taking a race" down the Greenbelt. I walked as fast as I could and jogged a bit alongside them-- hopefully I won't feel that later.


Of course when we got home, we had to have some hot "tocolate" with "marshmelons." Yummy! I love autumn, and I'm thrilled that we've settled in a place that has it!

Lord of the harvest

The LORD will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest. Psalm 85:12

We've had a cold snap here lately-- the first taste of fall. With my new internal heater, I'm only too happy for some cooler weather. Alas, the cold has killed our garden. I harvested the last four zucchini yesterday. For novice gardeners we had a great crop and we learned a lot. We planted onions, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, basil, cilantro, mint, pepperchinis, and strawberries. Our apple tree bore loads of apples, but they are sadly infested with worms. Next year we will be better prepared and spray in the spring.


I made fresh salsa, zucchini grinders, zucchini muffins, zucchini bread, and pesto. We had the blessing of sharing our abundance with friends and neighbors too. Next year I hope to learn to can and make more of our harvest last through the winter. I do have about 18 cups of shredded zucchini and some pesto frozen. We are also hoping to plant more variety and a much denser garden to increase yield and keep weeds out. Iain is very firm that next year he wants to have corn! I'd like to plant pumpkin and bell peppers as well. Next year our strawberries and rhubarb will be more mature and hopefully we will see more fruit from them.


It has been amazing to see food coming out of the ground in our backyard-- truly more than we were prepared to handle. What a blessing and such a wondrous testimony to God's loving care for His people and His world. It was great for this city girl to get a taste of the rhythm of the natural world this year.