Bunny Maintenance

Here's Bunny getting his claws trimmed. I'm ashamed to say this is the first time we've clipped them since we got him 2 and a half years ago.

More Happy Snaps

Fluffy Mail

In taking care of Hamish's rear end, I have entered the world of "Modern Cloth Nappies" (MCN). There's a whole world out there of people crazy about cloth - I first got into it to save money, and also because I like the idea of being able to reuse nappies instead of chucking them out. So far it's going well - although I'd be stuffed without the clothes drier!

The bulk of the MCN business is online - mums at home making nappies and selling them over the internet. This adds to the appeal of the whole thing, as it's good fun to get packages in the mail, and a lot of the nappies are really cute. And to top it off, there's a special term for it - fluffy mail! It's actually easy to get slightly obsessed about it and order far more than you need, so restraint is necessary.

Here's Hamish modelling one of my latest purchases - it's called an Itti Bitti D'Lish:

I do use disposables as well, but I have to say that using cloth nappies has been one of the very satisfying aspects of baby care.

And just because he's cute, here's another shot of our model:

Esther not so pure?

Interesting article on Esther over at the Sola Panel. It suggests the heroes of the story, Esther and Mordecai, behaved questionably at key points in the narrative.

This is often the case in the bible - the people God chooses to do His work usually display a few glaring faults. They are all reassuringly human!

I might download the study notes and take a closer look at Esther...

Another classic moment in my life (not)

I was feeling pretty stressed out one day this week. I was getting ready for bed, and was very tired, yet not relaxed.

Standing in front of the bathroom mirror, I decided that the best thing to do to help me sleep, would be to get rid of some of the excess energy that the stress had generated.

So I started wildly waving my arms around like a lunatic. Crazy looking, but therapeutic. Seemed like a very good idea at the time.

Unfortunately for me, in my tired state I forgot that I was holding an open tub of moisturiser. As I flung my arms around, the tub went too, sending streams of thick, white moisturiser into the air. Some landed on me, some landed on the floor, some landed on the sink...in fact some of it is still on the floor because I couldn't be bothered doing anything about it. I possibly now have the best moisturised bathroom on the Central Coast.

I had to laugh - it reduced my stress - just not exactly in the way I'd planned!

Oh well

I found an old pair of 3/4 length pants in the wardrobe this week, and checked the size - 12. Would they fit? I doubted it, but thought I'd try them on anyway.

To my great delight, they did fit - in fact, they weren't even tight! Well done me - as you can imagine, this was Doing Good Things for my post-baby self esteem (as far as clothes are concerned anyway).

Then, today, I discovered something previously overlooked - they are maternity pants!! No wonder they are so loose...

Go Esther!

I am rather excited to discover that Equip '09 will be looking at the book of Esther. This was my favourite book of the bible when I was a kid, I think because it had a princess in it. I don't think I realised when I was little that Esther was a concubine - the subtleties of her spending a night with the King were lost on me at that age!

I recently re-read the book, and it is a cracking good story.

Wedding vows

Another idea that struck me from the DVD (see below), is that marriage is a covenant between two people. It's not, fundamentally, about feelings of love - it's about the making, and keeping, of promises. This is what distinguishes marriage from de facto relationships, where there are no explicit, public promises.

This means that the actual vows are really important - these are the promises we make and the core of the relationship! I wonder sometimes about modern wedding vows, whether the promises made are in keeping with what marriages need to survive and thrive. For example, some vows include sections about helping the other person reach their potential, or fulfill their life dreams, or become all they can be. This, in a subtle way, to me seems to be promoting the individual as more important than the marriage.

Of course there is plenty of room within the marriage relationship for people to achieve their own goals and develop as individuals, but when this becomes more important than the marriage things are in trouble.

If times are tough I try to ask not what do I need, but rather what does my marriage need. Why? Because I promised to. Here's what I said to Adam on 24 March 2001:

"I Alison, in the presence of God, take you Adam, to be my husband. To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to submit to all the time, as long as we both shall live. This is my solemn vow and promise."

Now, I love Adam very much. But if those feelings weren't there, the promises would be. That's why vows are important to the health of a marriage - and why we depend on them!

Sovreignty of the Individual

I watched a DVD yesterday of a talk given by Phillip Jensen at the Equip Ministry Wives conference earlier this year. The talk was on what the bible says about being a wife.

It was very interesting, and there were a few ideas I found particularly striking. One of them was that our culture practices the sovreignty of the individual, which by its very nature is diametrically opposed to marriage and families. For families to be healthy, individuals need to submit to and serve one another, and in a culture where individual is king, this poses some challenges!

Relief

I realised yesterday that I am not stressed about the housework; I am stressed about managing my time, and was transferring this onto the housework!

Funnily enough, realising this made me relax, so I don't feel all that stressed anymore. What a relief!

Funny sounds

I'm in the kitchen at the moment, near the baby monitor. I can hear it making funny noises - sort of like a squeaking, slapping, wet, kissy sound.

I know what it is - Hamish sucking his hand with great enthusiasm!

Three Months old!

Oscar helping me plan my week

Note to self - don't leave whiteboard lying around, or cat will helpfully erase anything written on it.

More on being busy

I guess what really struck me about the girltalk posts was the idea that if you're busy, it's really important to be deliberate about what you choose to do. That way, I control the housework - not the other way around!

Now, what does this button do...?

Playing with the webcam!

Being Busy

I've read a few posts today about dealing with busy times at home. You can find them here, here and here.

Anyone who knows me and has been to my house over the past 7 or 8 years would know that I am not exactly Martha Stewart. In our place at Leichhardt, it was a constant challenge to find somewhere to sit down because of all the mess in the way! The carpet, which started out sort of blue, was more brown and grey, not to mention hairy, by the time we moved out. And in our place now, you can walk through without touching anything and you'll still come out covered in pet hair.

Clearly I don't have a huge desire for cleanliness. But I do have a desire for order and since being home full time, my standards have risen to a perhaps unrealistic level. Being on top of the housework makes me feel like I've achieved something, and gives me a sense of being in control. Unfortunately the price I pay is exhaustion and an increase in stress.

The challenge for me, from the posts I linked to above, is to decide what's really necessary to get done, and what isn't.

The answer isn't to do nothing, because that would be unhelpful too - but to do enough so that the house runs relatively smoothly and our basic needs are met.

So my new plan of attack is to carefully consider what needs doing, and to try to get it done in the mornings, leaving the afternoons free for rest. And to not feel guilty for the things I don't get done!

New laptop

We bought a new laptop yesterday, to replace our desktop which is showing signs of passing over to the big computer network in the sky.

I love new gadgets - I'm not hugely into technology but I do have a tendency to get excited about shiny new things. This laptop is definitely shiny. Much more exciting than a desktop PC!

One of the rather useless but very exciting things about it is that it has a fingerprint reader on it. To login when I switch the laptop on, I don't have to type a password - I just swipe my finger over a little panel! This is probably old news to anyone who knows about laptops, but I hadn't seen it before and it makes me feel like I am living in "the future" (George Jetson style).

In fact, a lot of things that were futuristic in cartoons when I was a kid are now a part of everyday life. I remember in particular how the characters in Inspector Gadget had wristwatches they could communicate through - just like mobile phones today.

I do find, however, that new gadgets are a bit like hotel rooms - exciting to get to but after you've opened all the cupboards and checked out the mini-bar, there's not much to do and you sit there twiddling your thumbs! Perhaps it's the thrill of something new, which by definition must wear off sooner or later.

I'm not at the twiddling stage with this laptop yet though...

Being thankful

One of my favourite books is "The Hiding Place" by Corrie Ten Boom. It's her account of life in a concentration camp during the second world war.

She tells of how they were moved to a new camp, and their living space was totally crawling with fleas. For her, it felt like the last straw in what was an already horrific experience. Her sister however was determined to trust God in the midst of it all and convinced Corrie to thank God for the fleas. So they prayed, despite Corrie's reluctance.

To her surprise, they later discovered that the reason the guards left them alone so often, was because of the fleas - they didn't want to go near them! So God blessed them in this unexpected way.

This story has been on my mind lately, as there is so much I can grumble about - getting woken up 3 times a night when I'm already exhausted, dealing with lots of poopy nappies, dogs who howl when they hear the baby monitor making noises! I've been making a conscious effort to thank God for these things, even though I'm not enjoying them at all.

I realised today that God is blessing me through these things - for example, I realised that Saffy can hear the monitor when I can't (eg if I'm outside) and so if Hamish starts crying, so will Saffy, alerting me that Hamish is awake! Without her, I could be happily hanging out the washing or something without realising Hamish needs attention.

And when he wakes up and cries, although it means more work for me, it is so reassuring to hear him and know he's alive.

Reminds me of one of my favourite bible verses: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

Interruptions

This is a post very relevant to my life at the moment - it seems like one long interruption some days!

Although yesterday, for the first time in ages, I had more than say half an hour to do whatever I wanted in, and I was at a bit of a loss as to how to spend it!

Weekend away

Here we are at Adam's sister's wedding:

Hamish and the bridal party:

Our nieces, the flower girls:

And Hamish with a t-shirt on his head!