Creative Counterpart HAS MOVED

Yes, Creative Counterpart HAS MOVED. I will still be blogging at Creative counterpart, but it’s location is new!

Http://creativecounterpart.reformedchristianblogs.net

Please update your links to my site

Are Vaccines Safe?

A couple of days ago, my friend Ruth @ But First We have Coffee posted a video of Mary Tocco, an influential woman in their decision to not vaccinate their children.

Last year, before our second son was born, I had done a small bit of research about vaccines. Mainly I had found that some vaccines were manufactured by using aborted baby tissue, and was disgusted. We were in such a busy time in our lives and I didn’t feel I had the capacity to fight with my doctor to obtain vaccines that did not contain aborted baby tissue. We have vaccinated our second son thus far.

But Ruth was right; Mary Tocco’s videos are very eye opening and informing. She is a wealth of information that the average parent is not aware of concerning vaccines. The scariest part of her videos to me is when she talks about Thimerisol. Thimerisol is a form of Mercury that is used as a perservative and sanitizer in vaccines. She talks about the fact that Pregnant and nursing mothers are warned not to ingest too much mercery from fish, etc; But then we are injecting large amounts of mercury into pregnant mothers and newborn babies. Mercury is a highly toxic metal that causes liver failure, poisoning, and brain death in significant amounts.

You can visit Mary Tocco’s website Childhoodshots.com . Another great website is Thinktwice.com . Mary Tocco is an independent researcher (which means nobody pays her to do this) and has dedicated her life’s work to traveling and doing speaking engagements about vaccines. You can click on the video above and it will take you to youtube.com. The rest of her videos are in the sidebar there.

Oh What to Do

So, I’ve been contemplating the last couple of days whether to creat a new blog @ blogger.com. I Like the name creative counterpart and all, it’s just that I feel like I need something fresh, and something a little more catching and “me”. I’m a little frustrated with WordPress (unhosted). I havn’t a way to host my blog at the moment (unless I talk up a friend of mine into letting me borrow some hosting space).

I just feel restricted here. I also know that I want to share my heart more on my blog. I want my theme to reflect who I am and what I have to share, that is why I feel so stuck.

Any Ideas?

……

I tried Tae-Bo for the first time today. Oh my goodness! I couldn’t even finish the first workout video. I was sweating like a banshee. Maybe it’s just the thing I need to whip myself into shape. My weight loss to date is 21 lbs! Weight watchers is really working for me. I just have to keep up the work and stay away from the junk.

Happy Birthday Son!

There is something special about parenting. You get to see someones life take form right in front of you….

(Mommy pregnant with #2, wearing the same maternity shirt)

Happy Birthday Son!

(I can’t believe you’re 3)

2009 Goals Update :)

At the beginning of the year I posted a list of goals I would like to accomplish this year. Well, what good is a list of goals if you never look at it, check off the accomplishments, and reassess what you originally wanted? (Why do I ask so many open-ended questions?) So, let’s recap..

• Set up a sewing station in our new home and finish lots of projects! I just got this set up the other day, yay! Now I need to get to work.
• Specifically to sew: taggie blankets/soft toys, cloth napkins, aprons for the kiddos.
• Look ahead at next Christmas all year long, so I’ll be prepared with special gifts including homemade ones. (been looking ahead. Nothing made yet, haha.)
• Have Gregory recognize his colors, numbers, and letters. (He knows some of his letters and colors, yay! he’s a natural learner, so i didn’t really have much to do with this.)
• Paint and decorate our new house (Nope, still in the planning stages)
• Have a great stockpile from couponing It’s good, but could be better. I am focusing on only free things at the moment.
• Keep up with our new joint blog project, Big Red Deals, sharing the deals and savings with those in our local area. (The joint idea is scratched. Personal problems arose. I’d love to do this someday but now is NOT a good time.
• Teach other women how to be savvy shoppers and save their families lots of money. I’ve had the wonderful privledge of sharing some of my tips with other moms at a coupon swap.
• Donate surplus to charity and food banks. (Still need to do this. Goodwill still gets lots of our old stuff, though!)
• Keep up with everyones  birthdays and send them cards. (I HAVE done better this year than any other, but definately not met my goal.)
• Start Seminary (Not even close)
• Learn a little about cars from my husband (including how to change a tire, and other simple things that I’ve been too stubborn to learn.) Guess what, I’m still stubborn.
• Read to the boys more. We used to be really good about this but have gotten away from it since the birth of our newest. It’s very important and I need to make it a point everyday. We HAVE been reading more, thanks to the library and their summer reading programs!
• Visit my sister often who is now only a few hours away. She may be sick of me I’d love to see her more, but she has a life, you know.
• organize photographs
• get an SLR camera and get into photography  I don’t think this fits our tightwaddery at the moment.
• Spend more time with friends and make new ones I have made some new friends. Now, if I just had more time…
• Serve more Does serving more at home count?
• Get a practice pad and/or snare drum and practice.. introduce my son to it and let him get comfortable holding the sticks and making rhythms. I am a drummer and my goal is to teach him this instrument for home school. I’d love to do this NOW, but again… tightwaddery. I guess I need to “put the word out”.

Thursday Thirteen Tightwad Things

It is no secret, our household is on a tight budget. With cutbacks in hours at my husband’s job and the recent purchase of our home, we’ve been forced to scale down on luxeries and get creative with our money. It’s a good thing I stumbled upon a copy of the Tightwad Gazette at the local library, and have been devouring it ever since.

Here are thirteen tightwad things we plan to try:

1. Cut back the cell phone plan. Last month I did some looking at the minutes we were using on our cell phone plan and determined we were paying for way more than we need. My husband called the company this evening and reduced our plan. We’ll keep track of the minutes we’ve used mid-month and save around $30 a month.
2. Check freecycle, craigslist, & our local partyline often. All of these are sources of free and cheap stuff.
3. Bake our own Bread. I am currently trying to “start” my own sourdough starter. You can, too with Candy’s easy instructions.
4. Make homemade deoderant, dishwashing detergent, & laundry detergent. Candy has great recipes for these as well.
5. Start a price book. I’ve been meaning to do this for awhile now. If anyone has good ideas for a less tedious method, let me know!
6. Line dry clothes. My husband is in the process of making me an indoor clothesline in our mudroom. A perfect spot because the windows can b opened to let a breeze in, and I can even line dry in the winter. I plan to dry blanket, towels, etc on the line.
7. Ditch cable/sattelite TV. I haven’t convinced my husband yet. I’ll admit it, we’re spoiled.
8. Use cloth diapers. We have been users of Miracle diapers on and off in the past, and plan to use it again. Hopefully any future babies will have a nice stash to call their own.
9. Plan ahead by making homemade gifts for Christmas this year. You and I will both be glad we did.
10. Save everything and find a use for it. Tubs from butter, sour cream, etc can be used as tupperware. Ziploc bags can be washed and reused. Milk jugs can become anything from a pooper scooper to a scoop game for kids. Have fun coming up with new uses for everyday items. You’ll wonder why you ever wasted money throwing those things away!
11. Cut out Convenience foods. Substitute with homemade cookies, muffins, jello, pudding, etc.
12. Scrutinize spending and use what we have. This one’s tough, but essential to a tightwad lifestyle. We’re more content to do this when we find a way to achieve the same result with things we already have. Creativity is the key.
13. “Put out the word”  If you are in need of something or just casually looking, let people know! “Hey Jan, if you know of anyone that has a stroller they don’t use, let them know I”m looking for one.” That person might have been waiting to find someone who could put it to good use.

I’m going to cheat and add #14. I think the most important thing to living a frugal lifestyle is trusting in God. It’s easy to become bitter in tough times if we are not relying on the Lord for our strength and to meet our needs. He is sufficient and he is able.

Trust in the Lord, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will act.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday.

—Psalm 37:3-6

Can Babies Understand the Word “No?”

Oh, my poor son! My poor first born. They really are the test babies, aren’t they? For a couple who knew nothing about disciplining children according to the biblical model, our first son was (and still is) the lesson. We could blame it on the fact that he was 6 months old before we both knew Christ as our Lord; But, either way our son is doing well not because of our first attempts at discipline, but inspite of them.

It all started out very “innocently” (or shall I say ignorantly?) When he was a baby I had read a lot about attachment parenting and natural parenting, and gotten quite a few ideas in my head that a baby was just an innocent human being, who with the right positive reinforcement would wind up as a gentle, loving, person. HA! What little did I know. In such denial I was. If only I could have had a glimpse into the life of my future “strong willed” child.

Though honestly, I don’t know very many children who are not strong willed. Do you? So, around the time my son began to walk (at 10 months), his will began to multiply and manipulate. My husband and I already had our work cut out for us in reversing the bad habits we had taught our little monster. We had to begin teaching him discipline at 1-1.5 year old that we should have been reinforcing from the beginning.

The Lord and his Word (and the help of several other mature Christians) has helped us along the way. In that short span of time we have learned as much about parenting as we have about our own attitudes. With the birth of our second son, we were determined to do things differently. I taught baby how to go to sleep on his own. I used the wake, nurse, play, sleep cycle (as opposed to wake, play, and nurse to sleep cycle I had gotten in with our first.) We just finished night weaning at 9 months, which I think could have been acheived sooner and was done easily when baby was moved in his big brother’s room. And finally to the title of this post, we began teaching him the word “No” at about 8-9 months of age.

I had heard many times with our first, that he was too young to know what “no” meant. But, I have in fact learned from my own experience that babies can learn the word at a young age if you teach them. They know far more than they can tell you! We began with telling him no when he squirmed and wiggled during diaper changes. At first, it seems like a game to them. In a few short times during the day we would practice obedience around 8 months of age. He would squirm, and I would tell him no and set him firmly and still where I wanted him. If he would squirm, I would tell him no again and set him back. If he still didn’t get it, a light tap (and I do mean light, it doesn’t take pain to train a baby) on the booty would get his attention. I would do this until he layed still. Some babies have quite the will and will still think this is a game. The goal is the obedience during each “session”, however much patience and time it takes. Never get angry or upset. This is a learning experience for them. Praise them when they obey. Sometimes they will obey and sometimes they will test you. YES, an 8-9 month old WILL test you! In our experience, our 10 month old knows clearly what “No” means and obeys. He gets praise for listening. It is such a joy to see obedience at this young age. It is so much easier and gentler when you start early. It takes much more time and effort (and frustration) to undo the will a child acquires when they are not trained young. It must be very confusing for them, also! They are able to do anything they want with no consequence for months or even years, and all of a sudden mom and dad (and everyone else) is telling them “NO!” and expecting them to obey. Why should they believe you?

I know this was a bit of a ramble. I had many thoughts pouring out of my head that I wanted to get down!

Berry Bonus

This morning, my son picked up off of the ground in our backyard what appeared to be unripe mullberries. My husband and I thought, “Well, they couldn’t be mullberries, those grow on a bush.”; Or so we thought. Our friendly neighbor (who loves to garden and has a beautiful backyard and garden which I must admit I envy) said she would take a leaf from the tree and look it up for us. This evening, just before we sat down to supper, she told my husband that she had looked it up and it was in fact a mullberry tree. The tree is probably near 100 years old.

So, I have been looking around online and am excited to know that we can use the berries for all kinds of things like dried fruit, jelly, jam and even wine. For the frugal, I must say I am delighted that we have this bonus on our property. Now I need to get a dehydrator and canning jars and learn to make jam! I already wanted to get a dehydrator to dry some of our garden peas. I want to try some dry and some frozen. I suppose we could also freeze the berries If I cannot make jam right away.

Tonight I am making up the menu for our camping trip this weekend, hoping the weather will be favorable. My husband has been out in the garage this afternoon putting together his new propane grill. Yesterday he spent a lot of time in the garage putting up bike hooks and organizing the garage. It looks nice now, and we can actually walk around in it! Our next project will be to finally get most of the boxes that we’ve shoved in the spare bedroom downstairs put away, and clear off the other side of the desk once and for good so I can set up my sewing station! Maybe I’ll get around to making more sewing projects if I have a permanent place for my sewing machine and supplies. It was such a hassle pulling everything out and then putting everything away again at our old place.

Well, I’m off to join my family outside!

Childbirth on my Mind

Ya, I know it’s kind of a strange time for me to be so interested in researching childbirth options; But, it has been weighing heavily on my mind for about a week now. I have a hard time occupying my mind with anything else at the moment.  TMI to follow….

Last week I awoke from an all-night dream that I had started my period. I immediately remembered something I had heard ladies talk about before, that they often dream of their period before it starts or pregnancy before they find out they’re pregnant. I pushed it aside a bit and said, “we’ll just see, i guess.”  As it turns out, I started my period two days later.  I guess it’s not a surprise to me as I just finished night weaning my youngest. Since then, my mind has been focused on childbirth, knowing that another baby could be in the future for us at anytime now, and knowing that I had begun chaniging my mind about childbirth in our last pregnancy. I felt an overwhelming sense that we (as a patient/doctor relationship and as a society) are treating pregnancy as a medical illness rather than a natural occurance created and controlled by our sovereign God. I spent much of that pregnancy visiting the doctor for needless “routine visits” and submitting to our family doctor’s “expertise” over our personal wishes. Overall it left me frustrated, anxious, and impatient. All-in-all I felt as if God was leading me to trust in him more through the entire process, and rely on myself and the medical establishment less.

A frustrating reality is found in looking at the options a woman in the United States has for an intimate birth. In Nebraska, Certified Nurse Midwives (CNMs) are prohibited from attending home births. There is absolutely no regulation for Entry Level Midwives (ELMs), and at this point it is not clear what would happen if the state decided to try and prosecute them for attending a home birth. Although it seems reasonable that this would not hold up if they are not presenting themselves as a CNM, it is not fullproof, and many ELMs are unwilling to attend, or are working “underground”. A families choice for home birth in Nebraska is limited to the difficult task of trying to find an ELM that will attend or having an unassisted childbirth. There is a group currently working to change the laws in Nebraska for Midwifery, Nebraska Friends of Midwives. By the way, it is a misdemeanor in Nebraska for a father to catch his own baby, even though my husband caught our first son in the hospital. That one just cracks me up.

Online I have found quite a bit to ponder. My husband, the skeptic that he is, will not discuss it until he can make an informed decision about the safety of each choice, namely homebirth. His reasonable fear is the death of either I or the baby.

Here are a few links to information and support for Natural and Unassisted Childbirth that I found helpful: (note many of these are not Christian and in fact “spiritualistic”, but still very helpful if this is not a stumbling block for you)

Birth Junkie

Is Homebirth Safe? storknet

Independent Childbirth

Birthing Naturally

Joyous Birth (Australia)

The Skinny on January (Unassisted Pregnancy UP & UC personal blog)

Unassisted Pregnancy & Childbirth Australia

Birth & Motherhood

I am also interested in hypnobirthing, but will be doing more research. I would really like to find a Christian hypnobirthing resource or have even had the thought of making my own. Especially the hypnobirthing affirmations, I would include more affirmations about trusting in the Lord through birth.

Hypnobirthing Birth video ~

Hypnobirthing, Getting Started

Hypnobirthing Affirmations

Merging with the Homeschool Crowd

We participated in the local homeschool group for the first time on Friday. They held a spring picnic at the park. We all had a blast. We already knew two families there but met a couple of new ones as well. They invited us to a homeschool concert this evening, and I’m still deciding if we will go. It will be pretty late for the boys, Zeke especially; But, I’m hoping that if I bring the stroller he might enjoy sitting in that and listening (or falling asleep.)

Gregory will be 3 on June 14th and although he’s not of ’school age’ he’s been learning abundantly as far back as I can remember. He’s always full of a desire to learn something new, and I love that about him. His current obsession is fire trucks, and he can tell you a lot more about them than you probably currently know! Although a strong will comes along with his vibrant spirit, he continues to bring me even more joy each day. We may see the sinful side of him more than we care to, but we also see a personality growing in him that is much to be desired. For example, as we were sitting down to our dinner last night and before he had taken a bite, he said with the utmost sincerity, “Happy mother’s day!”  A smile was instantly brought to my face, turning to my husband and asking if daddy had told him to say that. Daddy had not. My son had heard it in church that morning and carried it with him all day, waiting until just the right moment to tell me. He also added, “And thank you for supper. Thank you for chicken and rice, mommy.”  I was mush