March 2007

I live with my ideals plastered in the back of my mind for quick reference all the time. When I need to buy a new pair of shoes I think of all of my ideals: inexpensive, comfortable, stylish but not trendy, well made, etc. And then I do my best to find the pair of shoes that best represents the conglomeration of my ideals. Sometimes I can get all the ideals wrapped up into one. Sometimes I have to choose between affordability and well made, but in the end I feel like I can be proud of a shoe purchase, otherwise I wait until I can find the choice that better fits my needs.

I’m even worse with food. I have a LOT of ideals for my food purchases. I only feel good about eating at Chipotle and Aladdin’s because they have the healthiest options for the price. When I buy groceries I shop at the grocer that has done the most locally to build our community in terms of creating jobs and developing land responsibly. The food I buy is measured by the ideals of affordability, healthfulness, locally grown/processed, lack of non-food additives… OH, the list goes on and on.

I spend $4.35 for a half gallon of local non-homogenized whole-fat milk because I want the cows to be happy and it comes in rented and reused glass bottles instead of cartons. I skim the cream off the top to make butter.

Anyway, the point of this post is not to brag about how I live at a very high standard, or something. This post is because I have totally fallen flat on my face in regard to living up to my ideals for the past two weeks. Rob had been in Egypt on business since 2 Saturdays ago. We are running on auto-pilot. I have gotten my girls fast food 5 times in these two weeks. That’s more often that I have the whole year up to this point.

I am looking forward to Rob coming home, and I’m trying not to feel guilty that I am a failure at keeping up with me.

I need to get used to this. My standards are high, but God’s are higher. And if I can’t keep up with my own requirements, then what does that tell you about how I stand with God? Praise be to God that Jesus has worked all of this out for me. It frees me up to focus on loving my family, my neighbor, and the cows in Wooster that give our family its milk.

Actually it’s here!

HT Kristen.

Edited to add: notes from Andy, worth reading as always:

Andy S says : I feel that this test is great, but that a young, up-and-coming student of Devona like myself is likely to become discouraged after basically failing (unless you\’re on the 10-pt scale) the first quiz. Isn\’t there a study-session or something? More questions would help the student have a higher percentage, I feel.

Olivia was rocking to sleep with Rob the other night when she said, “I love my little baby.”

Rob said, “Who’s your little baby?”

“Elise. I love my baby.” said Olivia again. “Soon she will learn to talk.”

“Yes she will learn to talk. When she gets bigger.”

To which Olivia replied, “She will say, ‘frisbee.’”

You should! Here’s my Etsy shop, which I am finally listing items on.

Yesterday I found a button I could post on our blog to advertise my shop, but now  I can’t find it again. That’s a little frustrating.

So if you are getting lost linking around their site (like I always do) and you come across that button maker thing, let me know ok?

Oh. And if you want a baby carrier, buy one from me!

I can see my grass (now that the snow has melted and I’ve cleaned up the debris from over the winter) and it is time to start planning this year’s garden/yard work.

I think that I’m not going to make any new beds this year. I have a hard time keeping up with what I already have. Though I plan to put a strawberry patch in the place of some really ugly plants I ripped out in the fall.

I also want to use my veggie space more wisely this year. I now know that peas grow up (I had no idea last year, embarrassing as that is) and so I can plant my rows differently. Less squash, more peas and beans. Maybe I’ll add something else in there too. We’ll see.

The other thing I want to be sure of is that I don’t neglect mulching the front yard flower beds this year. Last summer we looked like a jungle of weeds. Very embarrassing, but I think people gave me some slack, being enormously pregnant and all.

Happy spring!

All of you still on Blogger and using the word verification thing… I can’t post on your blogs because the verification thing isn’t working or me. I could use a different browser I guess…

So, that makes me sad.

but the best mom for my kids? I hope that’s true.

I have a lot of childcare experience. I read too much about child rearing. I love staying home. But I am way too critical of myself.

Olivia is a handful, in a good way most of the time. But when she’s in her moods I don’t always know what to do. So I just do what I hope is the best in the moment, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

This is why they say the first child is an experiment… I hope I don’t accidentally blow her up.