Birth & Parenting Series
We talk about something super interesting to me today: learning to like (more) the person whom you already love. Youtube ep here and podcast here. Anthony came up with this topic and I was delighted to talk about it, largely because I think people assume that once you’re married, you just like each other more and more. Not true. Besides love being an act of the will, it’s also a habit we have to practice over and over again. Part of my sharing on the episode focuses around that we can *only* control ourselves and how we respond to our beloved. We can’t try to make them change or do something in the hopes we can manipulate their emotions or *get* them to change. Simply being emotionally healthy and being as loving as possible is a big undertaking for our lifetime. Then acting out of love to our significant other is a whole new challenge and layer. Okay, I love his Saint Francis de Sales quote at the end. Do you have a take on it??
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How is your global pandemic? How’s the work situation, school situation, hopes & dreams situation? We have friends who have been really sick and family whose businesses have no revenue. These are challenging and scary times. None of my feelings about it all are linear, either. One morning, I’m a pro distance-learning mom. That afternoon, I’m crying and sweating. Maybe you’re on a rollercoaster, too. So what have we done? Anthony and I started a podcast because I need to laugh and he’s allergic to the internet. It’s called “the hermit + his wife” and we’re streaming it on YouTube and wherever you listen to podcasts. We also pray morning prayer live sometime between 8-9am central on instagram. We also celebrated a handful of family birthdays in shelter-in-place (which is just weird and sad), are eyeing family reunion plans for the summer on the East Coast, and I am NOT called to be a homeschooler after this plunge into the depths of distance learning. I was going to sew up a bunch of sweet linen Easter dresses but made 200 masks to give away instead! Now my sister sent me supplies so if you’re looking to buy a mask, keep an eye on her online store: Brooklyn Herborium. That’s the TDLR. Love & hugs to you and yours!
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Confession: I’m a birth story junky. I just can’t help it. I love reading about the fear, the joy, the trauma, the drama. So many late nights of all three pregnancies have involved reading other moms’ journeys on the interwebs. {Tell me you’ve read through the linkup over at Grace’s!} I just celebrated my daughter & my birthday. We share a birthday! How awesome is that. I love writing mine as well, processing the sorrows and triumphs. {SuperBoy’s || SweetPea’s || BabyLove’s}. So when Jill contacted me to tell me about her project Yellow Light, Write, a Twin Cities based writing workshop that guides women to write their journeys of motherhood and birthing, I was all um LOVE THIS KINDA THANG!!! So we did a little Q&A to tell you about what she’s got going on, because it’s really really wonderful and a real asset to our birthing community! Find her on the web || Facebook || email {jill (at) yellowlightwrite.com} You began this writing workshop for parents to understand their journey into parenthood and tell their tale. Who comes to the workshop and what do you see happen to them while working through this journey? The workshop is for mothers of all ages. I’m often asked if it’s “too late” to get a story down on paper…because 2 or 10 or 20 years have passed. I can not be more emphatic about the fact that, if this is something that resonates with you in the slightest, you are welcomed with open arms. The workshop is not…
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This sweet friend, L.R., from law school & her husband emailed me the happiest news! After suffering loss and hoping to have a baby make it past the first number of weeks, they are 20 weeks along in their parenting journey!! She had shared about their losses in a previous guest posting. Read more of the Birth & Parenting Series here. —– Praise be to God: We are Expecting It’s finally our turn to make this amazing announcement! What you maybe don’t know is what a long journey it has been. During that journey I made a promise to God that, if He ever gave us this chance, I would give Him the glory; so He set about making sure I knew that He truly deserved the honor when the time came. Though we’ve been married almost 9 years, we didn’t really start trying to expand our family until about 3 years ago. As we came up on a year of trying and as I was beginning to grow frustrated and discouraged, I was thrilled to see our first positive pregnancy test on Easter Sunday 2012. The excitement was short-lived, however, because it was over in less than a week. Since I didn’t even make it to 5 weeks pregnant, I later learned that I had experienced what is considered a chemical pregnancy. It was a heart-breaking loss but I tried to take comfort in knowing that it was possible for us to conceive and believed that the next time would be…
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This is our 23rd guest post in the Birth & Parenting Series! The other 22 guest writers’ stories may be found here. Contact me (wholeparenting@gmail.com) anytime if you’d like to share your story of your child’s arrival, or a parenting perspective. This girlfriend shares her story of her harrowing birth experience of her sweet daughter. My heart races along as I read it and is filled with relief and joy at the ending. I hope you find the beauty in her story as well. I feel blessed to be able to share it! She blogs over at Mom of My Word–follow her and hear her journey. —- One year ago, the Lord gave us the gift of sweet Cadence. When I first began to write this story, I asked myself the crazy question, “Is it silly to ask God to bring suffering into our lives because it helps us see him more?” After experiencing the joys that rocked my world one year ago, I hope to be able to say, in the words of Dr. John Piper, “Bring it on.” Two weeks before Cadence was born, we sat in the sanctuary of Bethlehem Baptist Church to hear Jason Meyer, our new Pastor for Preaching & Vision, describe the surprising road that led him to what was initially an undesired role. As he challenged what God ordained to be his path to become our new pastor, God challenged him: “What if this is how you get more of me?” We remembered…
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A girlfriend from the natural birthing & parenting community around here shares her incredibly interesting perspective on how her little one is such a communicator. Love this revival of our Birth & Parenting Series. This is our 22nd guest post in the Birth & Parenting Series! The other 22 guest writers’ stories may be found here. Contact me (wholeparenting@gmail.com) anytime if you’d like to share your story of your child’s arrival, or a parenting perspective. Maybe it’s because he’s part Italian, probably because we talk a lot? Sam, our 15 month old boy is definitely a communicator. A typical day with Sam does not leave room for much guessing of what he needs. He will be clapping his hands, meaning… I want: … point (this); hands to mouth (water/food); hands up (pick me up); tap tap (help with this); hands together (more): tap tap between legs (sit/play with me) and so on. I could probably teach him a new sign everyday, but we are working on words now and mama doesn’t get enough sleep yet to be that inspired. Our families are both amazed and terrified as we have a tiny dominator ordering all of us around. Ofcourse he doesn’t always get his way, but who can ignore a simple request from a cute little baby boy, when it’s asked so nicely? Apart from the ‘useful’ hand gestures Sam has figured out how to communicate with strangers, woman mostly (did I mention he’s part Italian). There is the usual smiling to…
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