Free Children's Activities

My toddler is driving me wild with his need to, you know, move all the time!  (Also, did you know they need to eat supper every night?  Sheesh.)  Here are a few of the recent activities that have kept Samuel happy and occupied, and haven't cost me a cent.

#1 - A trip to a local farm.

It's amazing what happens when you just ask around.  I mentioned to some women I knew that I was looking to plan a field trip to a local farm, and it turns out that the sister of a friend of mine owns a dairy farm!  Who knew?  So we planned a trip one morning for all the children.

#2 - The good old park

I can't tell you how many times I've relied on the park as an easy outing that gives Samuel an opportunity to run those sillies out while I, um, sit on a bench in the shade and take pictures of him.  *cough cough*.



#3 - Playgroups

Samuel is really getting to a developmental stage where he doesn't want to go to the big playgroup here in town.  That's ok, but every once in a while, especially on rainy days, we still take advantage of it.  Also, they have cool 'new' toys.

#4 - Planning playdates around an event

When a friend (who has a three year old boy herself) was getting a big load of topsoil delivered, she called a few of us ladies to come over with our children and let them get dirty.  We brought over a batch of peanut butter cookies and it became a playdate. 

We really like this kind of a playdate, actually.  We've used it many times before and I'll tell you why I think it works so well.  First - it isn't a standard, usual activity.  So the novelty makes it fun.  Second - it usually involves a lot of physical action: dirt, water, mud, grass, etc.  Third - it's very easy to find.  Once you start to look for this kind of activity, you can find it everywhere.  Case in point:

#5 - Long walks

On days when I don't have anything else planned, Samuel usually gets taken on a long walk.

I realize that I am not in either of these pictures, but I assure you I'm there.  :-)  A note on walks: I personally find it's an awful lot more motivating to have a destination.  If I am dragging us out on a walk to a certain place I'm more likely not to turn around early and go back home, etc.

#6 - Let's Go Visiting

We'll often plan those long walks around a destination that includes people we like or a specific activity.  Here we walked to a friend's house to pick basil from the garden:

When there's a house at the end of the walk it serves a double purpose: there's a destination to look forward to, and it involves amenitities like a place to change the baby, a bathroom, etc.

#7 - Make your own free activities

Sometimes there are free things happening in town, which is great!  There are at least three places we can go every week to hear a storytime, there are several festivals with free admittance, there are a multitude of parades and other things like that.  But even if there isn't something specific going on, see if you can create it yourself.  A few weeks ago we planned an 'apple and raspberry picking day' with some friends.  Every Friday we gather a group together and go to the farmer's market and make an afternoon of it.  As soon as we started to think about what we'd like to do, we immediately thought of the people we'd like to do it with.

So those are a few of the free activities we take advantage of around here.  What about you?

Check out Jen for more seven quick takes.

Seven Quick Takes

Hello, loyal fans.  A million apologies, I'm really really out of the loop with writing these days, and it is completely not intentional.  Let me fill you in on a few of the exciting things that have been happening around here these days...

1.  Samuel is being weaned.  He's almost two and a half, and for many reasons it's just time.  Now, you can't just wave a magic wand and wean a two and a half year old, so we've been resorting to a lot of bribery and diversion to cut down the nursing.  So far we've put in place a few ground rules that he is still testing on a daily basis, but we have the actual nursing sessions reduced to 2-3 times a day.

2.  Unfortunately we can't say the same about night time nursing, because Samuel has developed nightmares, which he's having pretty much every night now.  Lots of crying, lots of nursing, lots of showing up in our room and wanting to sleep with us.  No one is getting much rest.

3.  David has another preaching opportunity, this one is pretty exciting because after all the pulpit supply he did in a local Anglican parish he finally has been asked to supply at a Wesleyan church!  It's scheduled for August 12th.

4.  And that's not the only ministry news.  David's student license was renewed and he also recieved notice in the mail that he has finished the 6 core courses necessary for ordination and is able to progress to a district license.  These are both great pieces of news.

5.  My bronchitis cleared up after 10 days of antibiotics, Clara got her two month shots and David apparently needs new glasses AND a new prescription.  We've started to work with Samuel on his colours (since he doesn't consistenly know any of them) and are still heavily into decluttering.

6.  And David's parents are coming to see their new grand-daughter from August 6-16.  I don't know exactly what we've planned for those days, but we're sure to have plenty to do.

7.  Finally, and if you're friends with me on Facebook you'll know this already, I've started a running program!

So you can see, I'm really not trying to ignore this poor blog, I'm just in a season of being overwhelmed right now.  Check out Jen at Conversion Diary for more 7 Quick Takes.

Seven Quick Takes: 40 weeks

Alright, already.  I'm full-term today, Heaven help us all.

And most especially the people who make comments about how big I am.  Which, har-dee-har, are actually Not Funny.  Isn't that surprising.

So what am I doing to celebrate this momentous and beautifully touching time in my life?  Yeah....well...

1) I'm eating a lot of scalloped potatoes.  Thanks to David, who made them. 

2) And I'm knitting, which is pretty much all that's keeping me sane right now.

3) And in between those two activities I'm still ardently attempting to kick start labour by doing crazy bouts of cleaning, drinking raspberry leaf tea, pressing various accupressure points and yelling at people.

4) I've heard yelling at people is actually a very effective form of induction.

5) And I'm trying in between all of this to remain somewhat a normal mother to Samuel, who, poor bean, has taken to sighing dramatically when asked to do things.  An action I found annoying until it was pointed out to me that I do exactly the same thing.

6) Alright, back to the potatoes.

7) Still pregnant.

Check out Jen.

Seven Quick Takes - The Frazzled Edition

1.  Every year the end of March surprises me.  Every year.  I suddenly realize that spring is here, I have to plan stuff for summer, are we going to take a vacation, oh my gosh Samuel's getting older, cleancleanclean, and now this year we can add on: I only have two weeks of work left and at least four weeks of work to squeeze into that timeframe.

2.  Once upon a time I owned a hairbrush.  It was a nice hairbrush, but then something happened to it and it disappeared, like so many other nice things I've owned since becoming a mother.  Maybe Sam threw it away, I don't know.  Anyway, I had to resort to using a comb, which since about two days ago has also disappeared completely.  This I know for a fact Samuel has taken and hidden somewhere.  I'm down to using a mustache brush now and finger combing my hair.  Do you remember finger combing?  I recall doing it in, like, grade six before school pictures to get my perm just right.  The main problem with finger combing your hair for a few days is that you quickly take on the appearance of the lead singer of an 80s band called Tortured Cindy and the Bangelettes.  I've taken to wearing a big, red plush hat that's the only thing that will fit over all of this hair.  This hat, along with the hair and my waddling gait, means my husband doesn't want to go anywhere with me anymore in public.

3.  Speaking of waddling, when did it become socially acceptable to comment so thoroughly on another's physical appearance?  There's a man in my church with only one arm, and honestly if every Sunday I saw him I loudly exclaimed "Hey!  Still got just the one arm, eh?  Wow!", I'd expect him to smack me with the other arm.  And yet I deal weekly with poking, prodding, touching, and comments.  The comments!  Holy mackerel people will say almost anything to a pregnant lady.  They tell me how big I am, how much more time I have to wait, how I walk funny, how tired I look, how pale I look...I need more witty comebacks.

4.  Yeah, so Easter is almost here.  Last year David and I didn't really 'do' the Easter bunny thing.  Instead, I picked up a few little things for Samuel to find, hid them under some cushions, and he wandered aimlessly under my guidance to find them.  It was fun for me, but I don't know how into it a one year old can really get.  This year, though, he is old enough to really enjoy an egg hunt, and I'd like to give him one!  Problem:  do I need something else on my plate right now?  How will I manage this?  Hmmm...

5.  I've been saving up treats for myself for several months for just this time, the last month of pregnancy.  Today I used a coupon for a free hot chocolate that I've been hoarding for about six months now!  Call it lame, but knowing I have something to look forward to makes it easier to get up in the morning.

6.  I think that most of the pregnant women I know have weird, unexplainable pregnancy symptoms that medicine insists are figments of our imagination.  For this pregnancy, I have lost my ability to cook.  Don't try and tell me this isn't related in some way to being with child because it totally, totally is.  I'm usually a pretty good cook, in fact some of the food I make falls into the 'really, really good' category.  But the last several batches of bread I've touched have refused to rise, my cookies are burnt, my baked beans a few nights ago were barely edible, and despite using essentially the exact recipe I use every time I make chili, the chili I'm eating right now as I type this is watery and weird tasting.  If nothing else the end of this pregnancy will bring good food back to our house.

7.  It's so beautiful and soothing outside right now.  I love the excited noises of birds this time of year, but even more so I love the colours.  The pale, muted colours that don't scream and draw attention to themselves.  What a blessing to live where this is what I see in the spring - the world slowly waking up.

Have a great week, all.  And check out Jen at Conversiondiary.com for more Seven Quick Takes.

Seven Quick Takes

Check out www.conversiondiary for more 7 Quick Takes.

1.  Rather than shrinking as the days go by, my To-Do List is growing weekly as the due date for baby approaches!  It now includes such items as "completely get all of the Spring cleaning done", "Plan the Summer's preschool homeschooling for Samuel" and "Rearrange livingroom furniture".  Since this is insane, I propose all pregnant women cease and desist this crazy talk and reformat their lists to three items: 1) Make sure we have food in the house.  2) Eat something every day and 3) Squeeze out a baby.

2.  Samuel figured the baby needed a bath last night and vigorously scrubbed the area-that-used-to-be-my-abdomen with a cold, wet bib for several minutes before informing me that my stomach was 'icky and dirty'.  His reasoning, as far as I could tell, was that there is a large stretch mark on my right side that has turned an appalling shade of flourescent pink, practically day-glo really.  He refused any and all biological explanations for the 'icky and dirty mark' so now the baby is branded as 'requiring a bath' immediately post-birth.

3.  Last month we started what seems to be becoming a trend - slow but sure movements towards a healthier lifestyle.  I know, I know, I'm jumping on the bandwagon, and that annoys me too, but these changes really have (so far) been pretty simple.  Last month we gave up margarine and switched to using butter.  I thought it would be harder on the budget, but honestly I've found it to be pretty much ok and I use less butter than I would margarine anyway.  This month we are making the switch from store bought to homemade bread.  This second switch is saving us money, which I think counteracts the extra money spent on butter, and so I'm doubly happy.  Plus, have you seen the ingredients in storebought bread these days?  I'm using this recipe for an easy no-knead bread that rocks my world.

4.  You can read last night's lengthy post on our latest attempt to fix the 'sleep issue' in our house with Samuel.  After we prayed last night, he slept through until 7:30am!  It was amazing, truly.  About 11.5 hours of sleep, IN HIS OWN BED, and with dry pajamas and sheets and NO cup of water.  It can only be attributed to prayer because after weeks of struggling it certainly wasn't anything I did.

5.  There's a new site on the Interblogoweb called The Provision Room, and if you get a moment, you should check it out.  They just did an interview with Kelly from Generation Cedar about being a woman of God who can "laugh at the days to come".  Am I ready for disaster, if it should strike?  Not like Kelly was when her family of 11 (including a 3 week old baby) lost everything in a devastating tornado last year on the same day that her father suffered a massive heart attack.  This sort of interview ties in so nicely with my obsessive compulsive nesting right now it's shocking.

6.  Speaking of links, Owlhaven put out a post on cooking with 2-5 year olds, and another on meal prep with a one year old. 

7.  We hit 'unidentified meat' gold!  My friend, upon moving several provinces away, kindly emptied her freezer into mine, which resulted in several Ziploc bags of 'stuff', the most curious being some sort of large piece of...something meaty.  I felt brave and curious last night and defrosted it to discover what we had was a giant chunk of rustic ham!  Ham and eggs for all today!

I'll have pictures to share with you tomorrow!

Seven Quick Takes

1.  David's resume has gone out to TWO churches this week!  I think the mere fact that paper has been mailed has made us feel an awful lot more productive.

2.  I've spent my every free minute this week doing 'baby prep' in various forms.  I've boiled the 13 new cloth diapers we bought in Moncton, folded them and arranged them in the dresser.  I was so hopeful that Samuel would be potty trained by the time our girl got here, but no such luck.  It's ok, it's ok, I can diaper two children at a time.  HAHAhaha.  ha.  *ahem*.

But then again, he was diaper free all morning today, so no doubt he'll lull me into a false sense of security by becoming completely potty trained, and then revert back to full diaper status as soon as she arrives.

3.  The bassinette sheets from Walmart, of which I was so proud, once opened turned out to be the wrong size again!  AHHHHH! 

4.  We have made some serious headway on this storage room, I'm telling you.  David is even organzing his DVD collection, which, let me assure everyone, is no small task.  I wish I was joking when I said he owned thousands of dvds.  We keep running out of Rubbermaid containers, but I'm thinking another 6 would completely see us to the end.

There was a hiccup this week, though, when I had to go to the emergency room, and now I really can't lift heavy stuff.  I mean, I wasn't 'supposed' to lift heavy stuff before but, meh, who would know, right?  But now it's gotten into the realm of "Really probably shouldn't do this."  So, I've only disobeyed about twice since coming home yesterday - and if you knew me you'd know how amazingly fantastic that is.  Anyway, the storage room has to be on hold for full-out cleaning and stacking because although I can pack the boxes, I can't then lift the boxes.  But David can!  It will get done, I'm determined.

5.  In the meantime, I started the Spring cleaning in Samuel's room.  This morning the closet was thoroughly attacked.  Things and stuff were both discarded with almost wild abandon.  Mama was ruthless with her "If the book is ripped in half it gets tossed" rule, and also with her "No little boys need several bouncy balls specifically for kicking.  One nice ball per little boy is sufficient" rule.  There were tears, but there is also now a closet that fits clothing.

6.  And, speaking of getting things done, remember the baby clothes debacle?  I thought I had this figured out, truly I did.  I was turning away all offers of clothing and purging ruthlessly.  I had even sent three or four stuffed shopping bags of boy's clothes to a family expecting their first son.  And then yesterday I arrived home to find a giant black garbage bag on my front step...filled with baby girl clothes.  The kind family who had received my offerings sent one of their own filled with their daughter's sweet little outfits.  You can try and escape it, but clothing has a way of hunting you down.

7.  Only 38 days left of work.  Only 52 days left till the due date.  I'm not ready, I'm not ready, I'm not ready for two children.  It's a wonder I've kept one alive for this long, surely God in His mercy wouldn't give me another if I couldn't breastfeed again, right?  If I couldn't clothe her, if her brother hated her, if the birth went terrible, if nothing got finished, if if if ifififififififif....okay.  52 days.

As always, check out Jennifer @ Conversion Diary for more Seven Quick Takes.

Seven Quick Takes

Lent coinciding with the end of an increasingly difficult pregnancy has given me some significant spiritual insight into my character flaws. I think it goes without saying that I'd rather that Lent gave me significant spiritual insight into something else, but you take what you can get. Like I told the nurse who measured my belly last week:


"Ma'am, the baby's in a funny position and I read that you can move them by standing on your head. So that's what I do every day. I stand on my head. At 32 weeks pregnant I'll take all the excitement I can get."

But back to Seven Quick Takes.

1. I often have this terribly weird moment when I'm lying in bed on my back but I want to turn over to my side, but instead of just doing it, I imagine myself turning to one side, and then the other, in a bid to pre-determine which side will feel better to lie on, thus, I dunno, saving myself from the horrifying prospect of choosing the wrong side? I think this qualifies as over-planning...

2. If I could give unmarried Amy one piece of advice from married Amy, it would be this: The things that you think are going to drive you crazy aren't the ones that actually will drive you crazy. Be on the lookout for hidden crazy-inducers. Mine right now? Curtains that are not all the way pulled or all the way drawn. These floppity bits of fabric that hang like a dead rat over my livingroom window are making me yell.

4. We're ready for the baby. No kidding. If she came today I would completely have stuff for her. I have a place for her to sleep, clean clothes in drawers, a carseat, blah blah blah. However, if she's anything like Samuel she will still spend the first few weeks dressed in socks, a diaper and a swaddling blanket and attached to my breast 50 gajillion hours a day, so who cares what her clothes look like.

5. As I type, two burly looking men are wrestling windows into holes in the side of my rented apartment in a bid to make the place more energy-efficient. Now, I'm no contractor, but I'll tell you that my livingroom is so cold you could safely keep meat in there. Samuel's bedroom window is a depression-era sash style, except it's actually depression era, which is, ironically, pretty depressing. But are they changing either of those windows? Nope, they're changing the three newest windows in the house! Hurray for incompetance!

6. I've officially entered that stage of pregnancy where people are pointing out clothing flaws to me. "Darling, there's a giant hole in the side of your shirt" my ever-so-sweet husband declared this morning. Some kind soul mentioned that you could clearly see my underwear through my leggings the other day, and I have now on multiple occasions taken off my shirt at the end of the day to discover exuberant mustard stains all down the front like some sort of grade school collage gone horribly wrong. You have to wonder "how long has that been there?" Or maybe you don't. Maybe you don't.

7. And this, I think, adequately sums up what I feel like right now.




As always, thanks to Conversion Diary for hosting Seven Quick Takes!

Seven Quick Takes - Jan. 20th

Check out Jen at Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes

1.  It only took a week, but I've washed, dried and sorted all but three small bags of the baby's clothes, and we are seriously set for anything this little girl will need from newborn sizes until 9-12 months.  It's currently arranged by size and sitting in plastic bags in my storage room and so the next step, of course, is to figure out where we're going to PUT all of this stuff.  I think a new dresser is in order.  If I can find one that's big enough to hold both Samuel and his sister's clothing; I think that might work best with the space limits that we have in our home.

2.  And speaking of little girl things, we still don't have a name.  We had a name, but I wasn't 'feeling it' (try explaining that concept to a man!) and now we're back to the drawing board.  {Update:  I think we're in the home stretch...we may have narrowed this down significantly, although I'm having to let go of Philippa, which I think is the most perfect little girl's name and David will not budge on.  But then, I won't give in to Hazel, so I guess we're even.}

3. If you haven't already, you should check out http://www.thehomemadeyear.blogspot.com/, which is a project that my friend and I have been crazy enough to undertake as our New Year's Resolution!  We're trying to make all of the gifts we give this year, and so far, it's been exciting.  Especially since tomorrow Samuel and I are going to a birthday party for two year old triplets!  I'll be posting the second part of my birthday present making either tonight or tomorrow, so make sure to stay tuned.

4. On Sunday I'm going to be over at Cari's blog for her monthly Snapshots From A Sunday series.  In case I forget to tell you between now and then!

5.  Did you ever have a scent that you just loved, and now you feel sort of meh about?  I feel that way about the satsuma line from The Body Shop.  I just loved it in college, and now...meh.  The bottle on my desk at work is almost finished and I have to buy more hand cream but now what?  Satsuma was my thing.  Now it isn't.  So now what's my thing?  You know what else gives me the same feeling?  Tresor perfume by Lancome.  I loved that perfume in high school, which is odd because it is SO not a teenage girl scent, but I loved it, and now it reminds me of my sister going to prom when she wore all of my Tresor samples and, granted, smelled fantastic, but still.  It isn't mine anymore.  On the other hand, there was this store called Fruits and Passion that sold scents in my home town, and they had a room spray called Vanilla and Bourbon which was my absolute-to-die-for favourite spray, and now they've discontinued it!  Bah!  I'm not lucky with smells, I tell you.

6.  I was at a meeting yesterday and the mothers who were attending started discussing this group that offered something called a 'milk bank' where women who couldn't produce enough milk to feed their babies could be matched up with women who produced more than enough and share the overflow, so to speak.  I'm assuming that there is testing for safety that goes on, but even so, the women in the meeting were firmly divided on this issue.  Some thought it sounded like a creative and age-old way to solve a problem, while others were thoroughly grossed out by the idea.  Personally, I thought it sounded neat.  Provided it was safe and clean, why not?  What do you think?

7.  And speaking of sharing things, I was the lucky recipient of a whole load of maternity clothes from a friend of mine who just had a baby and they are significantly nicer than anything non-maternity I own!  Which is starting to present a problem since, well, in about three months I'll give them back and then be stuck with wearing MY clothes and not hers.  I wonder if I've been spoiled for good?  I think that since she is planning to sell the returned clothes that I will just take out what I really love and make her an offer on the items.  When else will I have had a chance to test-drive a wardrobe before buying it?

seven quick takes

As always, check out Jen at Conversion Diary to find more Seven Quick Takes.

This past week feels like it's been stuck in molasses, one of those periods of time where, despite having been moderately productive, you feel as if you've done nothing, accomplished nothing, have failed, failed, failed...and so I'm going to try and remind myself of at least seven things I've done this week, and maybe get this week into some perspective!

1.  Samuel and I spent several hours going through bags and bags of girl's clothes, sorting, tossing, folding and organizing according to size.  Our goal was accomplished:  there is a neat pile of all of the clothes I'll need for baby Presley in the children's room and everything else is organized according to size and sorted into marked bags in the storage room.

2.  I mailed our annual Christmas box of presents to family in Ottawa, got out over half of our Christmas cards and bought American stamps for the rest.  They may end up being Epiphany cards, but they will arrive, eventually. 

3.  Every last gift, with the exception of Samuel's present to David, has been wrapped.  Including stocking stuffers.

4.  Thanks to a final shopping push, and the judicious use of several grocery store gift cards I've been hoarding, Christmas dinner is not only fully purchased, but only cost me 34 cents!

5.  We made a Christmas stocking this week, and clay beads as a craft.

6.  I prepared our favourite only-at-Christmas dessert...and you'll have to be surprised!

7.  David managed to catch up on the laundry completely on Thursday, so despite the rest of the house being in some disorder, we all smell nice, and that's what counts, right?

And I need to remember the things not on our Christmas to-do lists.  The hour of pre-dawn snuggling with the family in bed this morning, the new word from a 21 month old: "Angels, Dada!  Angels!".  The nativity scene is up and admired, the weather unseasonably warm and mild but pleasant for long walks, the last Wiggle, Giggle and Munch lunchtime play group until January 4th, the cheerful phone conversations long distance as we catch up with friends.

So that I try and stop, for even a few minutes, every day in this time of wonder and grace, you may notice I've been posting a 30 second video each and every day.  Something that makes me wonder at the season, or at my fortune, that God should look so favourably upon me and those in my charge.

Merry Christmas.

seven quick takes - the dairy free life edition

As always, Jen at Conversion Diary is hosting this fun link-up.

SO HOW HARD IS THIS DAIRY-FREE THING ANYWAY?

1.  On Wednesday David and I had a little powwow to discuss the whole elimination diet thing.  Were we going to do something radical like this?  Could we?  (Considering that I do the bulk of the the meal planning/shopping/cooking - could I?)  I think David was, perhaps, less than thrilled by the prospect, but I really pushed for it because I would so like to see an improvement in Samuel's overall health. 

2.  I made a run to the grocery store which, on top of my massive shopping expedition last week, put us over budget by quite a bit.  I spent $25 and picked up random things in more of a panic than anything else.  I knew Samuel would drink chocolate soy milk so I got a container of that on sale.  I also picked up a lot of produce, some sausages, and a container of coconut milk.  My small rural grocery store didn't have a lot, and I started to experience the first sense of 'what are we going to eat?' that I'm sure will become a regular feeling around here in the next month or more.

3.  A very strange dinner appeared on the table for Wednesday night.  We had sausages, sliced apples, olives, avacado, tomato and organic greens with dairy-free salad dressing.  Samuel happily ate the apples, sausages and olives, and with a bit of prompting ate a bit of tomato, but the avacado was a firm 'no' from the toddler, and he detested the dairy free salad dressing.  David and I ate it, but it was such a strange and unfilling meal. 

4.  Thursday's meal planning was non-existant and also showed the first signs of 'dairy-free' mistakes.  Samuel and I had porridge with chocolate soy milk on it for breakfast.  I've never used chocolate milk on cereal before, but it wasn't as gross as I expected.  I had planned on pasta with tomato sauce for Samuel's lunch, followed by jello with mandarin slices, but for myself I only packed an apple on the way to work.  I don't know why I did this, because I knew I'd be at the office for a full day, but around 2pm I was starving and at a loss as to what to eat.  The only food place near me was a convenience store, where I quickly learned that you cannot purchase dairy free food!  I ended up with a bag of plain potato chips and a sausage on a bun.  I couldn't find any dairy on the bun's ingredients list, but I didn't look too closely, I was so hungry I knew I needed to eat something fast.  There were no ingredients listed for the sausages, so I just ate it.

5.  Thursday night I got home from work and tried to throw together a 'quick' dairy free supper for the family.  To tide Samuel over for supper I gave him some sliced salami to eat, which I later discovered contained dairy.  We had baked rainbow trout, spinach and sauteed fennel, and again Samuel had jello and mandarins for dessert.  I found myself having a real issue with the 'no butter on my vegetables' problem.  After discussing with several friends, I'm no closer to a solution since we have such a limited grocery budget and no access to traditional 'health food stores' around here, and so no chance of picking up a vegan option.  Samuel ate everything, though, and I packed up the leftovers for his lunch on Friday; at least I'd have food for him one more day.

6.  Friday, early morning.  Is my stomach-ache, the one that has me writing seven quick take at 3am, because I ate so much meat and processed foods yesterday?  Is it a dairy sensitivity myself?  Questions start to roll through your head constantly.

7.  I hoped that the diaper situation would improve at least a little, and it seems to have slightly.  No more mucus, no blood streaks, a normal brown colour.  He's still got a mild temperature, but he does have a cold so I'm associating it with that.  Of course, the eczema is still very much present, and he's still scratching at himself a lot, not to mention his stools are still very loose.  But they aren't liquid.  Just an overly hopeful Mama this early in the game?  Maybe.

seven quick takes - the 2am edition

Are you pregnant and waking up with the same old worries every morning at 2am, unable to go back to sleep?  I can help with a whole slew of brand new things to worry about.  Are you not pregnant and have no idea what I'm talking about?  Read on.

1)  I'm Not Doing A Good Enough Job At *blank*

Here's a multipurpose little number that fits everyone.  Stay at home moms can worry about how well they're managing meals after the third consecutive day of everyone eating chili for all three meals, which happened to me last week.  Breakfast, lunch and supper everyone had chili.  For working mothers the options are excessive as well.  I like to let my imagination really fly with this one and get concerned about not doing a perfect job, dwelling on any slightly negative comments I may have recieved in the past year or so, and then wrapping it all up with a neurotic "I'm going to get fired and we'll all end up working night shifts at the mine".  Hours of entertainment.

2)  She said WHAT?

Has someone, somewhere, at some point in your recent life said something about you that was less than flattering?  If not, you're probably not going out much, because everyone has a public opinion these days.  Well, 2am is the time to dwell on it.  Dredge up the nuances they used, elaborate on what they might have meant, try and really get inside their heads and picture what they think about you, your faith, what you were wearing when the two of your spoke, whether you had brushed your hair that day, what your child's drippy nose situation looked like, etc.  Linger lovingly, despite having claimed to have already forgiven them and moved on.  Don't believe it.

3)  Who's Up?

Burglers are passe, my friends.  The new 'what's that noise?' game at 2am is 'Who's Out of Bed?'  Start with your spouse, who, providing they still want to sleep next to your crazy self, should be fairly easy to recognize.  Then lie awake wondering which child and/or pet that noise sounds like and questioning what they might be doing at this hour and if/when this is going to require you getting out of bed to 'handle' the situation.  Every time you start to drift to sleep again, remind yourself that any second now the baby is going to wake up or want to nurse or need changing and so there isn't any point in sleeping.  Repeat until dawn.

4)  Bedside Diary

Whoever claimed that keeping a pad of paper and a pen beside your bed to write down things you remember in the middle of the night clearly slept next to a pregnant lady.  Except that you didn't put that paper and pen there, did you?  No, you were busy living life yesterday and so was I.  So now that it's 2am and you just remembered your PIN to that bank account you need to pay hydro out of, or that it's your mother in law's birthday tomorrow or where the baby stashed that bottle of milk five days ago, the only way you have to effectively keep the thought in your head until the next day is to repeat it, over and over again, until you see it on the back of your eyelids.

5)  I Have A Strange Feeling...

My knee hurts, and it could be the fifty times I bent down to move stuff from the washer to the dryer yersterday, or I could be dying.  What's more fun to think about when it's dark outside?

6)  Unprepared

No one has clean clothes, there's no milk in the house, the cats are out of food and if you move they'll discover you're awake and stare at you till you feed them the pork chops you'd defrosted for supper, or maybe guests are coming, and it will require a massive transitioning of beds, a re-allocation of room arrangements and a massive shopping trip, none of which you've done yet?  Fantastic!  What can you do at this very moment?  Nothing?  Even better.  Also good for more long-term concerns, such as my current "I have no one to watch my son when I go into labour...in April."  or maybe "Let's think about taxes!"

7)  Other People REALLY care

If you're one day late on your phone bill they take your children away from you and lock you in a Dickensian jail and your credit rating is shot forever and the secret service follows you and you have to get divorced and work at a sewer cleaner.  Did you know that?  Did you know that if you haven't bought winter mittens for your child by November 1st you lose your house and your job and all of your clothes and have to wear a sack and live in a box?  Because it really matters that much.

There you have it.  Check out Jen at Conversion Diary for more Seven Quick Takes.

Seven Quick Takes for...um...Saturday

Alright, alright, it isn't Friday.  But on Friday my food had a date with my sink, so you get a blog post today.  And since it isn't really Seven Quick Takes, I shall call it, um, Amy's Random List of Saturday Things That Go On Until I've Stopped Talking.  Otherwise known as Arlosttgouist.  And everyone loves a good Arlosttgouist.  The 'G' is silent.

1.  It hasn't been a good week.  And I'm really struggling to think of nice, happy, chipper things to say that will somehow make this week better.  I really am.  Part of me wishes I could write a long blog post about the beautiful fall weather and how happy my life makes me and post a bunch of pictures of pumpkins my family has carved along with cute things my baby said.  And the other part of me wants to stab someone.  So, um, the best middle ground I can find between those two extremes is to vent to a select few lucky people who I know will keep what they hear to themselves and not let it taint their overall impression of my mental stability.  Although I will toss in that Samuel calls his bottle a 'bobble', and that is pretty darn adorable.


Although there is a bottle CALLED the bobble.  Which isn't as cute at all.

 2.  Someone close to me made a decision that really negatively affects me.  Not in a serious way, just in an emotional way, as in it makes me sad and upset and feeling really left out.  And the worst part of it is that in making that decision they used a completely different set of parameters than I would have.  In fact, their logic was so completely different than mine that it really brought into focus an aspect of my faith that I don't usually have to contend with; sometimes, the things that I think are stupid, actually make sense to other people.  They make sense.  People aren't making these choices blindly, or stabbing wildly in the dark.  They aren't under hypnosis or mentally deficient.  Sometimes, people look at all of the options before them and, after careful consideration and lots of research, they chose the WRONG ONE.  And they can back their decisions up.  And that bothers me deeply.

3.  My morning sickness reached new depths (heights?) this past week.  It was extreme.  I'm not particularly concerned about weight loss, because I'm no twig and nothing living in me is going to starve for QUITE a long time, let me tell you, but I was worried about dehydration when I pretty much stopped going to the bathroom for a while.  Nothing was picking that up, and my mouth had started to get very dry as well, so I was considering heading up to the doctor to get an IV of fluids when I discovered apple juice.  Oh my word apple juice, love of my life, only slightly behind gravity in your importance to me right now.  I can drink apple juice.  Do you know how amazing this is?  For the past two months I have watched my fluids dwindle down to ice water.  Without ice.  But it had to be very very cold.  But not slushy.  And my water in the fridge was starting to smell like fridge, which is a terrible smell and reminds me of the two giant zucchini oozing malevolently on my second shelf.  Then about a week ago I discovered that in the morning, I could drink powdered hot chocolate.  This was a discovery on par with insulin (which I am going to need alot of if I keep drinking this much powdered hot chocolate) not only because it gave me another beverege option, but it allowed me to hide up to a quarter cup of dairy in the hot chocolate and give me some calcium.  And then, the apple juice discovery.  So today I went to the health food store and bought two litres of pure, unpasteurized, locally pressed apple cider.  It is defrosting on my counter as we speak.  I may hide it.

4.  Samuel and David and I went on our monthly emergency room visit at midnight last night.  Well, it isn't monthly, but it is too frequent for my liking.  I tried everything to stop his hacking, wheezing cough at home.  We elevated his crib mattress, let him sleep with us propped up by pillows, put ice water in his sippy cup, used acetominophen for pain, vapour rub on his back, ventalin puffers for his lungs, a warm mist vapourizer in his room, hot showers, cold air, everything.  We tried everything.  We even went out and bought expensive herbal cough suppressents for infants, because apparently you can't give regular medicine anymore.  Nothing worked.  Then last night he was coughing so hard he started to throw up.  And so the usual gears kicked into play at our house; we've done this many, many times, and up we went.  Verdict?  A throat infection caused by a sinus issue, a round of not too expensive antibiotics, and a baby who got to bed about 1:30 in the morning.

5.  It has been nothing but disheartening news on the church front for us the past few months.  David got the position of communion co-ordinator at the church, but since then there hasn't been a glimmer of hope on the horizon.  We had been told to start looking out for jobs in December; today I was told a more likely possibility is January/February.  There hasn't been a job posting in Canada in months on the Wesleyan employment website, and we're starting to worry.  What if we don't find David a church position this year?  What if there just aren't enough positions to go around.  What if it was all for naught?

6.  In continuation of those concerns we have begun to think about the upcoming move.  Nobody panic, we're not moving anytime soon, but we do have to move.  It isn't rational to stay here, in a teeny little New Brunswick town.  We have nothing here to support us.  There are no job opportunities for David in ministry, or even out of ministry for that matter.  We don't have enough of a one-person income to manage much, and so I have to work, which isn't going to get easier in the months to come.  We're stuck in an apartment and will never, ever, be able to leave it because we can't afford anything better and a mining boom is coming, which will push our rent up even higher.  And with two small children, and no opportunites for them here, we both feel the need to move.  My son has never seen a museum, never gone swimming in a lake, never visited my family cottage or eaten out at an exotic restaurant or, or anything.  And while that may not be of any great importance right now, one day it will be, and I've seen the youth in this town and what happens when your world is nothing but a mile long stretch of road.  It isn't pretty.

7.  so not a good week.

Check out http://www.conversiondiary.com/ for more seven quick takes.

Seven Quick Takes - September 9th edition

I started this post yesterday but, despite my best intentions, didn't get it up until today...check out http://www.conversiondiary.com/ for more seven quick takes!

1.  This morning we woke up early, dressed warmly, and eating slices of wholewheat bread for breakfast (if was a rushed morning, what can I say?) we walked briskly up to the park by the arena to watch our local hot air balloon festival!  Samuel loved seeing them fill up with air, rise into the sky, pulling their tethers taut and then drifting slowly up.  Of course, I'd forgotten my camera {OF COURSE!  Grr.} but don't worry, we plan to do it again tomorrow and I'll get pictures then.  We saw Pepe Le Pew...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zanastardust/3855867920/in/set-72157621986472137/


and Annie the Ladybug...


http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/rss/article/1436987

and maybe a dozen more lift up and drift away.  It was magical.

2.  It looks like this week may be the last truly crazy one in terms of David's work schedule.  Next week he should be back down to 32-35 hours instead of 40+, which isn't great for money, but really helps me out in terms of getting to my job at the church!  Something else that will help, and that I'm trying to be positive about, is that I lost my little job at the cafe.  Yes, it was only three hours every Monday, but it added up to just enough to cover our hydro bill each month.  But I knew it would happen eventually because the cafe was so slow and practically no one bought anything anymore.  The owner was so apologetic as he let me go this morning, telling me it wasn't me, that I felt terrible for him.  I need to pray that his business succeeds.

3.  According to my doctor's appointment, I am measuring 'large'.  At just under 8 weeks, that can't be good!  Dr. H. is pretty sure he can feel my uterus already and it shouldn't be out of my pelvis yet, and I can tell you, I'm definately showing.  Now, I've been told and told again that women show faster with each consecutive baby, and this is my fourth pregnancy, not to mention the fact that Samuel was a big baby as are most of the wee ones on my side of the gene pool.  However, because of that, and the general haziness of my dates, we're getting an early dating ultrasound.  Which would also tell us if the roundness is caused by anything besides a fat baby and no abs...namely, twins. Which run in my family.

4.  I've been listening to music in the church office when no one is around.  My favourites this week are:





5. After the balloon launch this morning I headed off to work and spent almost ten hours straight at the church.  On top of being just exhausting, I really don't think it's good for me.  Perhaps I need to re-instate my rule of 'one big thing per day'?  Actually, this is something I've been working on in terms of handling how much worry I have on my plate these days.  Every day, I have to do something towards fixing a problem I'm worrying about.  Not a big something, but something.  Inaction is my new enemy.

6. Because God like to laugh at my plans, it is now, two months after I threw away all of my maternity clothes in the Great Closet Purge of 2011, that I need maternity clothes again.  But fortunately the Salvation Army thirft store was having their 'anything you can shove in a giant garbage bag for $10' sale, and a friend and I shared a bag, so I bought all of the maternity clothes I will need for only $5.  I probably only have about half a dozen shirts, two pairs of pants and a few skirts, but it'll do.

7.  I don't have a #7, so that's it!

Seven Quick Takes - September 2nd.

It's been a while since I've done a Seven Quick Takes post...I barely know what to write about.

1.  Well, as I mentioned before, David got the volunteer position of Communion Co-Ordinator at our church, which is exciting.  We've also volunteered to help run a new Youth Alpha program starting up in October, so I imagine we will be very busy with church work in the next few months!

2.  The Christmas gift cycle has already started in our house!  Can you belive it?  Believe it - we like to get it revved up early around here.  First we start with the "we'd better order the gift catalogues" statement.  We always get World Vision, MAF and Samaritan's Purse catalogues, but then EVERY. YEAR. we question whether to get something for people, and if so what to get, and whether to get a big gift for each family or multiple smaller gifts, and what qualifies as a big gift, and whether to get my non-Christian family gifts that aren't 'Christian' per se, or whether that matters...and so forth.  This can occupy us for-to-the-ever.  After the gift catalogue debate comes the Christmas cards, because again, every year, I lose the Christmas card address list and have to call up my grandmother, my mother-in-law and multiple other people to get my addresses together.  And then we have the 'whose getting what card' conversation 'cause I keep all of the odds and ends from previous years, and then who gets the snowmen we're still using up from before my conversion in 2004?  What about the Mary and Jesus scene?  Will my parents FLIP OUT if we send that to them?  After Christmas cards I like to panic a little bit about whether to try and knit gifts, because, I don't know, I'm good at panicking I suppose, and it all goes downhill from there.

3.  Re: Christmas Fiasco.  This year will be different.  I know I say that every year but I mean it.  I can't do that whole rigamarole this year.  Here's what's going to happen.

a)  I will make a list of addresses.  I will buy one Christmas card design. I will send out my cards.

Everyone will get the same card.  Everyone's card will be sent on Dec. 1st.  If it isn't sent on Dec. 1st it isn't sent.

b) Every family is getting a 'family gift' this year.  No individual gifts.  This means that we will send out

four family gifts.  Plus 2 gifts for our nephews and one for my grandmother, who don't fall into the 'family' categories.

c)  I will buy Christmas paper at Walmart.  We will not be making our own/knitting our own decorations/painting hand-gathered acorns to tie onto bows or selecting special Christmas stamps for each family.

d)  All Christmas gifts go out on Dec. 1st.  By post.  Not like last year when they all went out via bus...gosh what a nightmare that was.

4.  The great closet purging of 2011 let me drop off a bag of boy's clothes to a local mom of triplets yesterday, which made me feel wonderful!  She's such a nice gal, and could you imagine, triplets?  Sheesh.  What a surprise!  My closet is done now, Samuel's closet is done...we just need to strong-arm David into letting me into his closet and we'll all be much happier.

5.  I realize that this question will forever mark be as incredibly boring but does anyone know a good brand of clothespin?  I've tried the wooden ones, but if they stay out when it rains they get rusty and then the rust gets all over your clothes.  And then I tried the plastic ones but they break like crazy!  I'm on my second brand of plastic ones, but they don't have that little hole that fits around the clothesline and allows you to move the pin down the line as you go so you have to manually move each one, which is tiresome.  Are you asleep yet?  Can you help me?  We've been really lucky with our laundry situation so far in this apartment.  We had a laundromat right around the corner, which closed this Spring, but when it closed our neighbour was more than happy to let us use his washer and dryer, and his clothesline, which was very helpful.  Then once he got busy and soon moved, we had saved up enough to buy our own washing machine (we had bought a washer and dryer last year that both broke) again, and then our neighbour in the apartment next door said we could use his dryer for free.  Hallelujah.  Except that then his dryer broke (not our fault!!) and he hasn't gotten it fixed, leaving us back with the wash-and-hang-to-dry routine.  Except that our neighbour with the big line has moved so we can't use that line.  Not a problem, I'm just doing smaller loads and hanging between my back porch and the small line outside.

6.  The same neighbour who moved a few days ago (leaving us without a clothesline!) pulled me aside the other day and asked if we'd like the contents of his fridge/freezer, since there was no way he could finish all of that food by the time he moved.  I have never turned down free food and I don't intend to start now!  So, I picked up the two boxes and brought them home.  Until I got inside and unpacked them I hadn't realized exactly what he'd given us, since at first glance the boxes seemed to be filled with the usual collection of partially used condiments.  But no, there were club packs of bacon wrapped chicken breasts, ten huge sausages, perogies, about 12 frozen meals, a container of ice cream, two full containers of high-end juice, and on and on.  There was a $20 pack of chicken breasts in there!  I was just speechless.  Our freezer is full to bursting and I love having all sorts of foods to offer David and Samuel.

7.  We had a movie night the other night!  I love movie nights, but we are almost never home at the same time, and if we are movies are so expensive to rent.  But we got The King's Speech and Soul Surfer.  I knew I was going to love The King's Speech, but after watching it, I don't know, I found it more disturbing than Soul Surfer in a lot of ways.  When he tells about how his nanny woudl pinch him till he cried and then refuse to feed him...that really bothered me.  Whereas the arm-eating-shark bit was handled so well that I wasn't disturbed at all.  You never know.

There.  That wasn't so hard.

Controversial Christian Blog Posts!

I haven't been well the last week or so, and especially not in the mood for blogging.  When I'm not feeling the blogging vibe I tend to collect my favourite 'blogs to read' and slowly troll through the past several posts, posts I've been too busy to read in the previous weeks, catching up slowly to the present and feeling order coming out of chaos until I'm all caught up.

But I'm coming out of my blues a bit this evening in order to answer the challenge set by Cari at Clan Donaldson (I get the impression you don't mess with Clan Donaldson, they have mad nunchuk skillz) and blog about, what else?  My blog.  Cari has put out the challenge to tell your readers the answers to the following Seven Bloggy Questions.  Here goes...

Most Beautiful Post
I'm very fond of this one, but I like this one, too.  I don't know, you tell me!

Most Popular Post
This one is sadly easy, I'm afraid.  The Guestbook, written last November, has 638 pageviews to date.  At least one of those views was me going back to re-read it and try and figure out if I said something fascinating in the post that would account for 638 pageviews.  Like: "And thus ends my discussion on guestbooks.  Now, let me tell you all why I'm a lesbian."  Or perhaps: "I have warts on the end of each finger.  Now back to guestbooks and my fake flower centerpieces."  I dunno.  You're all nuts.  Or else really bored.  Or possibly addicted to guestbooks.

Most Controversial Post
Er, I often write controversial things!  Like why my child should have a Christian as a best friend, why women should wear modest swimsuits, the pluses and minuses of covering your hair, whether to allow God to control the size of my family, and my opinions on Zumba.  I hope I make you think, but I probably just make you fume.

Most Helpful Post
That is laughable!  What's helpful about how I write?  I often vent, sometimes ponder, but rarely advise, I think.  I did write a post that offered a fool-proof gruyere cheese white sauce, however, and frankly, I think cheese counts as help.

Post Whose Success Surprised You
I find it hard to believe people followed the saga of Concerning Kitchen Snobbery.  Post 1, Post 2, Post 3, Post 4, Post 5, Post 6, Post 7 and Post 8.

A Post You Didn't Feel Got The Attention It Deserved
This is a tough one, because I feel that when I write, and you read, that IS the attention the post deserved!  If it's a 'good' post, or especially interesting, then someone may comment on it or share a link or something, but I can count on one hand the number of times a 'complete stranger' (aka: a poster I don't usually get) comments.  So that means my blog is somewhere between 'meh' and 'ummm...' - and that's okay!  I write anyway.  However, (if I had to choose) I wish more people had read and commented on my posts about secular holidays and the church, cultivating a servant heart, and thinking like an atheist. 

Post You Are Most Proud Of
I will probably always be proud of my series on domestic vocation.  When it started, I had little idea of what God was calling me to, but slowly over the past year I've come to realize that this desire on my life is more than just me, it's HIM.  Here they are, One, Two and Three.

Okay, now it's YOUR turn!

Deborah @ http://deborahgilbert42.wordpress.com/
Morgan @ http://mmdwilson.blogspot.com/
Erin @  http://erinsenigmas.blogspot.com/

Seven Quick Takes for June 9th

1.  I have a laundry buddy at last!  I'm sure it won't last for a lot longer but I'm milking it while I can.  "Push this bucket to the washer, buddy!  Yes, that's great!  Now take the clothes out!"

2.  My home made crayon endeavour has turned out badly.  I gave it a good shot, even using a recipe, which let me say is pretty dang unusual for me.  But, alas, no to avail.  Rather than yellow crayons I have five smooshed penguin-shaped blobs that taste like curry powder.  I'm not giving up, though.  I will make these things.  It's too depressing to post pics.

3.  Eeek!  We HAVE BEETLES!  And not the good kind, either.  Bad, nasty, icky little things that I find everywhere.  They eat the cat food, they crawl on damp clothing, they appear dead in my saucepans.  They are, in short, revolting and should all die.  A destiny I am hastening with a lot of cleaner and a vacuum nozzle.  Mr. Google informs me that they are larder beetles, and apparently perfectly harmless and very common, which does nothing to lessen my gag reflex when I see one.  David, I think, is a little weirded out by the shrieks of glee when I kill one, though.

4.  There are quite a few things I don't like about the Maritimes, but there is one very special thing that we do here better than anywhere else: Lupins.  It's lupin season and it makes my heart soar.  Last year, with a tiny, disgruntled baby in tow, I discovered a robin's nest hidden at the base of a small tree near my lupins, and I peeked into its shadows to see 2 perfect blue thumbnails nestled in the depths.  And then I crept away and never returned because I didn't want anyone to follow me and destroy the nest.  But I did sometimes think about it.  And it reminds me of lupins.

http://www.hickerphoto.com/lupin-photography-new-zealand-15954-pictures.htm

5.  I just have to pass on this news to any and all readers...Hallie Lord (aka Betty Beguiles) has launched a personal shopping business that looks, well, fantastic!  I can't imagine using it myself because all of the boards seem so professional and I've pretended not to notice a button missing on my current shirt for months now, but you know what this would be good for?  Presents!  For those gals you can't figure out what to buy for?  Well, I think Christmas might be covered in this house.

6.  David finished his second sermon at the Anglican church, but they like him so much they're trying to rearrange the preaching schedule to squeeze him in there next month, too!  Once he finishes at that church he has an opportunity to preach on a Sunday night in the city for a crowd at a homeless shelter/soup kitchen.  It'll be a whole different ball of wax, I should imagine.   

7.  We miss the farmer's market vegetables this year...they don't seem to have them.  But I've heard of a CSA in town, and I'm wondering if anyone has had good/bad experiences with them?  Community Supported Agriculture groups take a fee from you and in return you get a big box of fresh stuff from their gardens weekly.  In our case it would be $40 per week, but I might try and split it with another family.

And, as always, if you read Conversion Diary you will laugh at Jen's Seven Quick Takes much more than mine.  Enjoy.

seven quick takes

It's dorky confession time!  Sometimes, when we don't think anyone is listening and the baby has been asleep for hours and there's nothing good on TV and I've already had my shower...well, my husband and I sneak into the bedroom very quietly and cuddle up under the blankets and then...

We read to each other!

We do, it's true.  So here, from the shelves of David and Amy's collection, are seven books you should read to your spouse.  But only if your spouse is also a dork.

1.

http://www.amazon.ca/Does-Believe-Atheists-John-Blanchard/dp/0852344600/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299889917&sr=8-1

I'm not gonna lie, here, this one is thick, and difficult.  It categorically annihilates every atheistic argument I've ever come across, and if only I could get some of the atheists I know to actually read it, I might be able to give them something to think about.  But, as it is 656 pages long (with SEVENTY pages of notes) this will never happen.

2.

http://www.amazon.ca/Mark-Everyone-Tom-Wright/dp/066422783X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299889947&sr=1-1-spell

We each read this as a prelude to teaching at a Lenten bible study cell group a few years ago.  For me, it marked my very first time teaching, so I appreciated Wright's no-nonsense, clear style.  David had taught many times by this point, so he found a lot to like in Wright's grasp of the gospel.  For both of us, this was an excellent choice.

3.

http://www.amazon.ca/Shepherd-Looks-At-Psalm-23/dp/0310274419/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1299889979&sr=1-1

If you never read another explanation of God's love ever again, you need to pick up this book.  I don't say this lightly.  It completely revolutionised how I thought of shepherds, the shepherd metaphor in scripture, the idea of sheep and why I am called one...it's very well done.

4.

http://www.amazon.com/Church-insiders-John-G-Stackhouse/dp/1573833533

A series of essays that touches on all different aspects of this living, breathing, strange creature that is the body of Christ on Earth.  Excellent bedtime reading because you can pick it up, finish an essay in a few minutes and fall asleep happy.



5a.

http://www.amazon.com/Launch-Starting-New-Church-Scratch/dp/1459606574/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1299890925&sr=1-1

Sometimes I finish a book, and I love it, and insist that David read it.  Here's one of my suggestions to David.



5b.

http://www.amazon.com/Four-Views-Youth-Ministry-Church/dp/0310234050/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1299891821&sr=1-1

And here's David's most recent suggestion for me.

6. 

http://www.amazon.com/Bruce-Stans-Guide-End-World/dp/0736900004/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1299888860&sr=1-2

I added this partly for fun, but also because I think it takes a basic-level approach in dealing with a topic that a lot of Christians have mixed feelings about; the end times.  On the one hand, yeah, we know this will happen but on the other hand, sometimes some of us get a little, um, obsessive about it.  Or a lot obsessive.  If you just want the facts, and reading Revelation will simultaneously confuse and scare the living daylights out of you, this is a good place to start.

7.
The last book is not a book at all, it's a media resource.  Let me step up on my soapbox for a moment, if you will.  This ministry is completely free.  They will send you a print catalogue to browse through and make your selection from or you can look at their offerings online.  They have Christian music, sermons, dvds and mp3s.  We have watched tours of the Holy Land with commentaries, heard famous preachers recorded and downloaded free concerts of great Christian artists.  We have taken advantage of this service for years and years, completely free of charge (including the shipping, no cost at all) and they having been an amazing resource for us.  The website is http://firefighters.org/.  They change their selection of media all the time, so if you don't see what you want, they may have it later.