I can't say I'm necessarily looking forward to Wisconsin winter, although I am definitely glad to have a short commute. But what I can say for sure is that fall here is at least as beautiful as it was in the town I grew up in.
I may be about 2-3 days past the peak, and pictures don't do it justice, but we took some photos on our walk today. Breathtaking colors! Enjoy!
This is right behind the church. That red tree, while beginning to lose its fullness, has taken my breath away every day this week.
We have a church member who decorates the church--outside and inside-- every season. This week I'm preaching on Genesis 2.
Fiery Ivy
Well, the coat's big but it has to last her all winter.
Someone needs to work on their parallel parking skills.
Maic remembered a tradition his family had of filling contact paper with leaves and putting it on the window. I love how it looks.
Well, this pastor mom is off on a much-needed retreat as soon as church ends tomorrow until Tuesday afternoon. The retreat is for Wisconsin clergy, and while I look forward to meeting many of my colleagues, I look most forward to some time to gather myself and resort my priorities, so that I come back to on Wednesday as a recovering workaholic. It's too soon for me to be this exhausted.
I took an absolutely necessary and absolutely lovely day off this weekend with my family and our good friend Stacy for her birthday. We went to the Shaw Nature Reserve which is associated with the Missouri Botanical Gardens, but I had never been there before.
I love being in nature, because it is so easy to meet God in everything I see, which was exactly what I needed to continue working on my thesis-- a reminder of God's presence and encouragement. It's due in 17 days now, and I'm just chugging along.
The sermon I preached for my ordination interview was all about having a sense of awe for God's Creation. I talked about the way that Evelyn looks at things and how much amazement she has for everything she sees. Some of the photos that we took on our hike at Shaw Nature Reserve are perfect illustrations for this sermon. They reflect the sense of wonder for God's Creation that Evelyn is helping us to discover. One of my greatest hopes for her is that she will always have this much awe.
This one is not at Shaw Nature Reserve, but instead at Maic's work.
Look at that wind in her hair! She is so happy.
Feeling the wildflowers
So beautiful
Looking for Crayfish
Aunt Stacy found her a Twirly Twig
Carrying the twirly-twig Stacy found for her
Grabbing the branches
She found a Daddy Long Legs,
and watched it until it was out of her sight
Still watching the Daddy Long Legs
Watching the Dandelion blow
Aunt Stacy teaching Evelyn about how flowers reproduce
Look at that HUGE tree!
Evelyn's not the only one in awe-- I love the way he looks at her!
My nod to the photo here, which inspired this post.
I just started a January term course at Eden called "Greening the Bible: An Ecological Reading of Scripture." We are talking about how the environment and our faith are so deeply intertwined that we cannot ignore the ecological crisis that we bring upon the world when we fail to realize that our resources are not endless. We are all united in God's creation, and we are called to take care of the earth and one another. It was a bit of a coincidence that I happened to open the daily e-mail from Cotton Babies, the store where we stocked up on all our cloth diapers, and found out that they are having a contest to win 12 free BumGenius All-in-One diapers.
I've decided to give the contest a shot. I just have to write a blog entry about how easy and inexpensive cloth diapering is. This is not something that I'm getting compensated for or anything, just a contest and if I don't win, at least I told some people about an aspect of parenting that I think every Mama and Daddy should try. Here's a link to the invitation to the contest.
When we found out about Evelyn, we didn't even consider disposables. We have a good friend at the seminary who cloth diapers both her babies and we learned from her how easy it is. Plus, we were broke and disposable diapers are significantly more expensive in the long run. Finally, because we see stewardship of the earth as a part of our commitment to the Christian faith, it seemed so right.
Turns out, it's a lot easier than I ever would have thought. Maybe it's because I don't know any different, and if I had to transition from disposable diapering to cloth diapering, I might find it pretty difficult. The single pack of newborn disposables we went through in the first week were pretty tempting in those middle of the night changes sometimes, but after the first couple of weeks it didn't seem to make any difference in terms of difficulty.
Here is a video we made about how we put Evelyn's diapers on:
Other than the actual act of diaper changing, our routine consists of washing every two days (the average baby goes through 8-10 diapers a day; newborns closer to 12). We use an apartment washer that hooks up to the sink, and we hang dry on a basic folding drying rack. When they are dry, we fold them all into the origami fold so that they're ready. About every other week, we will throw them in the dryer in our apartment complex just to get some softness back into them, and when it's sunny outside we put them outside to sun-bleach any stains. It may sound like a lot of work, but it really isn't. And, honestly, if we were using disposables we'd be taking garbage to the dumpster twice as often.
We got an amazing deal on our diapers. We went around Easter and they were having a sale and we landed on a 30% entire purchase deal. So we went ahead and bought six covers (which can be used more than once before being washed), flats, and odor removal spray for $70. It was enough for us to diaper her for two days. Even without the discount, though, it is still so much cheaper!!
Most of our diaper stash from left to right--
4 Oh Katy pocket diapers, 2 out of 3 Econobum covers, about 1/3 of our flats,
4 Thirsties covers, and 3 Flips covers
Eventually my very generous Mother-in-Law, who cloth diapered all six of her kids bought a few more diapers, including some BumGenius Newborn diapers, which were amazing. And we had an Amazon.com gift certificate with which we bought some Oh Katy! diapers which are a bit easier to explain to babysitters. So, with the original purchase, our Mother-in-Law's purchase, and the Oh Katy's, our stash probably costs $200 total.
Evelyn, a few days old, wearing one of
the Newborn All-in-Ones her Nana bought her
Finally, I just want to add that cloth booties are stinking cute!
Thanks for your time! Please leave comments, ask questions, etc. and the best part is that if I win, I get to choose one of YOU to win 12 free diapers as well!
