Reading....and my heart

(First...sorry no pics. John left for Sudan today, with his computer & all the recent pics. If I get really bored I might just get the pics off our camera & put them on my computer also. However, my iphoto is a disaster so I doubt it. :) Sorry)

I have read several good articles/blogs lately. Some simple, some made me really think, and some I had to look words up in the dictionary to understand what I was reading. ha.

• An interesting on article on Sarah Palin & stay at home moms (surprising article) here

• A great read/idea on celebrating Easter/Lent here. Celebrating Easter in a more meaningful way , besides with an Easter egg hunt & only talking about it for one day-maybe 3 if you celebrate Good Friday-is something that John and I both feel very strongly about. I am still reading into how, and what we want our family to learn through this event. Both John and know that Christ's death & resurrection is the only reason we have life, real free, hopeful, sanctifying life. Why wouldn't we want to celebrate this season & talk about it all the time. We are so thankful for BOTH the cross and that empty tomb! I get excited just writing about it! ( I might even practice Lent this year, I'll keep you posted)

• Lastly, a short read on perspective here, particularly focused on Mom's. Its beautiful, especially the perspective on tantrums.

Enjoy these reads.

I hope to blog soon about a study on the book of Ruth that I am finishing up. And I hope to blog about my pregnancy as well soon! I better get busy. :)

Last post was in September?? WHAT!?

I am seriously only updating because A. I am tired of that cheesy cloth diaper post. (sorry for that, it was my attempt to win some more cloth diapers) and B. That post was in September. WHAT!?

So, this will be an update post, maybe it will encourage me to blog more. I have actually had things on my heart that I would like to write about or share. SO, no promises, but we'll see.

Update:
1. I am pregnant- 20 weeks in a few days. Due July 12th and we are not sure if we are going to find out this time. John says "let's not" and i say "I think I want to". We'll see.

2. John leaves for Southern Sudan on Wednesday through March 6th- please be praying for his trip & team. You can read about it here:

3. Olivia turned 1! We had a small birthday party for her. I had so much fun making the decorations and the cupcakes! I will post some pics asap.

4. John & I went to Chicago without Olivia for 4 days in January. It was just a few days after her 1st birthday. John's mom flew in and kept her for us. It was a great trip, we really like that city! It helped that Intelligentsia (one place JOhn orders his coffee from) was about 4 minutes from our hotel. This was the first time we had left Liv overnight and it went great! She did great and we realize it will be much harder to get away once we have the 2nd baby, at least for several years.


I need to get on John's computer to get some pics up so I will try very soon!

The Sense {or scents} in Cloth Diapering

Get it...diapers have a "scent"..typically bad, but there is so much more "sense" in choosing cloth when it comes to your baby's bum!

We found the most sense for cloth diapering in Bum Genuis!

I LOVE using cloth diapers on Olivia and recently that love increased. I just spend almost a month in Portland with John's family so we decided to just use paper diapers. We decided that when the plan was to stay for 1 1/2 weeks. I changed my flight and stayed for 2 more weeks which meant I had to spend more of our precious- one income family money- on things I was going to throw away! ugh!

My life is split into 2 spheres of people...Denton people and the rest of you. ha! ;) Anyone in Denton gets why I use cloth diapers and most of my Denton friends use cloth as well. The rest of you just think us Dentonites are crazy, and that is ok. But I do want to run down the list of "scents {or sense}" of cloth diapering. I'm going to give you the good "scents" first , because well, baby poop always smells better in the beginning when they are young. It gets worse as they get older so I'll keep the "smelly scents {or sense}" for later.

The Sense in choosing cloth: {These are the top reasons we chose cloth}
1. Cloth diapered babies typically potty train quicker & sooner. The research says that Babies who are put in cloth potty train, on average, 6 months sooner than babies not raised in cloth diapers-those 6 months could save you $600, not to mention the thousands you can save for all the years you choose cloth. Babies in cloth can feel the wetness/dirtiness more/sooner therefore become more uncomfortable & aware of their actions.

2. Cloth diapering saves thousands of dollars! You could have a vacation for that amount of money! The average family spends $2000-$3000 on diapers for one child until they are potty trained. The average cloth diapers family can spend from $300-$1000 (depending on your preferences) but this is can last through all your children! If you have 3 children that is $5000 at the very least!

3.Cloth diapering is being a good steward our Earth. God has created an amazing creation for us to enjoy. Now I understand the Earth isn't perfect & me choosing cloth diapers doesnt "save the Earth" or preserve it back to the Garden of Eden but I do believe that in choosing cloth diapers I am helping to take care of the Earth and its resourses. Please don't hear me say that if you don't choose cloth that you are not being a good steward. This is just one of the ways the Lord has weighed on my heart to take care of the Earth. The US uses 27.4 Billion diapers each year, which will amount to about 3.7 million TONS of landfill waste....which could take between 250-500 years to decompose.


Ok, now for the scents {notice the change from "sense"...scent=smelly=the down side to cloth}:
Yes, there is a bad side to everything in life, although the "sense" definitely out weighs the scents... so choose Bum Genius people. ;)
1. Sometimes they do leak. This is usually because I don't have them adjusted properly, possibly due to a recent growth spurt or if I have left it on her too long. ( and to set our record straight- Olivia has never blown out of a cloth diaper but has blown out of several paper!)

2. Forgetting about a cloth diaper in the car or diaper bag....this is worse than if its a paper because you can just throw it away, you have to wash it.

A few Myths I heard:
1. Your baby's poop/pee will be all over the couch or anywhere they are. I was seriously told this. This is not true, cloth diapers are made so different and much better than when our parents were diapering us as babies.

2.It causes more chemicals to go into the ground in the washing process...nope not true. You use clean detergents on diapers as to not ruin their fibers or ruin your little baby's bum!

3."Don't you have to use those big safety pins?" Nope. Again, cloth diapering has come a long way, IF you use a type of cloth system that requires fastening like that you would use a snappy from Cotton Babies.

We use Bum Genius diapers and another brand, that I will leave nameless because we are very sad that we don't have all Bum Genius diapers. We bought the other brand first but I am SO much happier with Bum Genius!!


For more statistics on cloth diapering Click here.

Compassion

Ann Voskamp visited Guatemala City with Compassion International recently and blogged about it here. My heart breaks, my heart is convicted. How i just live my life with my new kitchen sink, my front loading washer & dryer but they don't even have running water. Their worry for the day is if the rain will wash their home away or if gangs will convince their boys of a life no one sees as good.
Compassion is about Jesus, they are motivated by how Jesus would take care of these families. They help clothe,feed and educate children.
Whether you are a christian or not, believe in Jesus or not, I would challenge you to find a reason not to support a child through compassion. They are an amazing group of people saving the lives of others. Please read Ann Voskamp's blog (linked in the first paragraph) and also consider sponsoring a child from Compassion here.

Update on us..by "us", I mean Olivia

I am really not wanting to Blog lately. Ugh! I have been thinking a lot lately about the whole, facebook,twitter,blog world and what I want it to look like for me. Because, yea, I could post lots of funny things or cute pics of Liv (which I do) or cool things that i may be eating or doing but really....do I want to spend my time doing those things. I don't think any of these things are bad & I am not judging you if you do them. I love them, maybe a little too much and that is why I am trying to draw some lines for myself otherwise I would sit on my computer all day & not get anything done! I have been updating fb and tweeting lately but I may just drop it all one day. We'll see.

For now, here is a quick update.

We flew to Oregon a couple weeks ago (this was Liv's 2nd plane ride). Spent 3 days in Portland and then"surprised" John's mom for her 60th birthday by driving to Sunriver (where she was at the time). We spent a long weekend in Sunriver with the whole family. It was a great time with great conversations, biking, swimming, trips to Goodies (yum!!), and a few intense games of Monopoly. ha!

We are back in Denton. Olivia is still a little off kilter since we have been back though. She had to get back on CST , has been teething and is learning to crawl. Yep, that is what I said. Our 5 month old is already army crawling. She started getting on her hand/knees while we were in Sunriver which just shocked John and I. She is now getting around by scooting and army crawling pretty good. It scares me a bit! ;)

• Olivia is just so much fun though, here are some things she loves:

• To chew on anything made of fabric (or anything else for that matter)

• Tags

• Stewart (this is a new found interest-she lights up and reaches for him. He has been really patient so far!)

• Other babies

• To grab my hair with both hand and pull my face to hers (and then suck on my face) ;)
• To scream (its just what she does, not a cry/scream)
• To play on the floor alone (too much people time & she's done...sound like her Daddy???)
• To watch us eat (her interest in food is peaking)
• Looking in the mirror
• To be naked
• Outside

Olivia does not love:

• The carseat ( I think our 5 hour drive to Lubbock ruined it for her)
• Her last late afternoon nap...we don't even really try for it anymore unless really needed
• The time (seconds) in between sides while nursing (I think its hilarious though)

She is a great baby. She sleeps great and is very content most of the time, plus she has been a great on the planes. Olivia hasn't had any trouble going to other people or staying in the nursery at church. We are so proud of what a happy, healthy & well behaved baby she is. The Lord was gracious to us!

Here are some recent picture of us- well-mostly her. ;)


Some of the Family: (mostly from march)

Liv- asleep on Grandma (March

John, Liv & I (March)

This was at John's Dads' 60th Birthday Party (March)

The girls (minus Sarah & I) by the pool

Olivia has many faces:

These are 2 of our favorites!

Hope you are all enjoying this summer!

It's Official

Today is my first day back as a full time wife and Mommy! I am so excited to be done with school. To be able to love and take care of my daughter the way I can do best. To take care of our home. To serve my husband and this community. I don't want to take for granted the reality that I do get to stay at home and I pray that this is a reality in our life for a very long time. I am excited for what I will learn and what the Lord has in store to teach me...probably more than I am ready for. I think there will probably be more sacrifice than I am ready for. More things I can't buy, more places we won't be able to go and I will probably struggle with laziness, entitlement or who knows what else. The very things I just listed is so telling of where my heart is. I don't want that anymore. I want the Lord to strip those things away. I want a heart that the Lord sees as beautiful, that is full of service and love and joy and peace and encouragement. He is going to do a good work and I am so excited to see what and how. I know he is always at work in me but I am especially excited about this new season and all that will come with it.

{Sorry I have been gone for so long, I have been working the last 2 1/2 months-finishing out the school year for the last time...so here is hoping to being back in blogworld}

Olivia Brooke Warren

It's a Girl!
7lb. 4 oz
20 1/2 in.

9:22 pm

Many of you have been asking to hear about my birth, so here you are. Please be cautioned that I had a pretty quick labor so don't hate me. I already had one friend tell me that we aren't friends anymore because of this- she was only kidding of course. (Love you friend!)
I had 2 due dates- Jan.7th and Jan.16th. I was confident it was really the 7th and we had a Dr. appointment that day. I had also been diagnosed with this thing called INTRAHEPATIC CHOLESTASIS OF PREGNANCY (ICP) or "Baby Itch". Less than 1 % of women get it and it causes your body to itch all over. This can be a real alarm and can even cause your baby to be still born. Praise the Lord that my levels were not super threatening but we did want to get labor started just to prevent anything from getting worse. SO, on the 7th, at my appointment I was already dilated to a 2 and 90% effaced. My midwife swept my membranes and we thought we would have a baby that weekend.

Monday came, the next weekend came....and NO baby. John's parents had even flown down for the whole week, just waiting on her to come. My mom was also here waiting for our little baby to come. Through that week I had progressed to a 4 but pretty much stayed there until the day of delivery. There was a lot of frustration and stress that week through which the Lord began showing me that life just isn't all about me anymore...as if it should have been before this but that is a whole separate blog.

Several trips to the midwife, lots of walking and pumping and some crazy ligament pains later we had an appointment on the 21st. We went in at 9am and I was a 5- yay! Jean, the midwife, didn't really give me a choice...she said "go home, pump for 30 minutes and walk for an hour. Do this until 4pm. Call me if you have any signs of contractions." We went home and did that. Before all the regiments began I had to do a heart check. John and I prayed together in the car when we pulled in the driveway. This was not how I wanted my labor to start. I wanted it to just come naturally, surprisingly. I didn't want to have to work for it. On top of that, pumping was painful and this is not what I wanted to do to my body! It was my body afterall. Again, this was the Lord showing me that it just isn't all about me anymore. Not even my body is just for me anymore. I was thankful that I really felt the Lord speaking these things to me and knew that it was Him working through this childbirth. Difficult, yes and I didn't have the best attitude most of the time but I knew deep down that the Lord was going to purify my heart and show me new glimpses of who He is.
Around 1pm, I called Jean because I was having very light contractions. I wasn't sure though, because they just felt like cramps. Jean told me to come back up to the birthing center at 2; she checked me and I was dilated to a 5 and she was very sure I would have the baby that day (which, I did). She told me to go back home and pump/walk more and call her by 7pm. She also said that she expected to hear from me sooner because she thought my water would break before then.

Around 4pm John left the house to go to an event at church. Literally, 3 minutes after he left my water broke. I called Jean and John, John came back home and we went back to the birthing center. (yes, for the 3rd time that day-ha!) By this point I still wasn't having any major contractions, they still just felt like cramps. I believe I was still a 5 when she checked me this time. She sent us back home to get something to eat, get our things, etc and instructed us to come back at 7pm.

When we got home (we live less than 5 minutes away) I was on the floor, literally, within minutes. My contractions had finally hit! They were less than 5 minutes apart and lasting around 1 minute. John loaded the car, and we went straight back to the center.
We got to the Center around 5:45. My contractions were pretty intense and I labored for about an hour in the room where I would deliver. Jean would come in periodically and check the baby's heart rate and see how I was but for the most part she left us to ourselves unless we called for her. Soon I told John to ask Jean if I could get in the tub. To be honest I didn't feel like getting in there but I knew that would help the pain to lessen. Jean wanted to check me before I got in because being in the tub can actually slow your labor down (she didn't tell me that at the time though ;-)- I probably wouldn't have gotten in.) I was dilated to a 7 at this point so she said I could get in. The tub relieved quite a bit of pain during my contractions so I stayed in for about an hour when I started to feel the urge to push. I sent John to tell Jean. Jean came to check me and I was a 9!! She suggested I get out of the tub and onto the bed. At this point I could push whenever I was ready. My good friend and prayer warrior, Kimberly came up to the center and just prayed in another room for the entire time that I spent pushing. That was a huge blessing!!
I pushed for about an hour and mostly because Olivia came out with her hand in a fist on her face. Jean said that if her hand would have been down I wouldn't have pushed for so long! I remember looking down as soon as I knew the baby was out and just blurted out " Its a girl!" I loved that I was the first one to say it and really saw it along with everyone else. That is a moment I have a picture of in my head and don't think I will ever forget!

A few other moments and pictures that I won't forget:

* John starting to cry at my first push. (little did he know there would be lots more pushes!)
* Knowing that Kimberly was in the next room praying for me and Olivia.
* John sitting beside me, encouraging me on.
* Jean and Charity encouraging me and seeing their smiles after every push, they knew how close Olivia was.
*Imagining my Mom speeding across west Texas to try and make it for the delivery. (she was only 1 hour late)
*Being so sure the Lord would be my strength and rock while pushing
* Praying out loud during my last couple pushes
*Having our dear friends Scott & Lyn, Beau & Kimbo come up to the center right when we had Olivia
* Being home by 12:30 am, that same night (or next morning- however you see it)!!
* John making me eggs when we got home, I was starving!
* Our little babe sleeping with us those first 2 nights. (then to her crib she went on the 3rd night)
* Scott asking if he could touch my empty and squishy belly, yes, he did... ha!
* Being so sure of God's faithfulness to His people as I experienced that night

In a later blog I will share with you why I chose to do a natural childbirth and how the Lord proved to be faithful through it.

But after many requests, here are pictures!

I never understood why people put such terrible pics of themselves in public but now I get it, you just don't care because you have this amazing prize to show for the reason why you look terrible. ;-)

Charity (birth asst.), Jean (midwife), Olivia, Me, John: in the room where I birthed

John and Olivia cuddling

Look how sweet she sleeps!

She is giving that cute little sleep smile here!

On Dad's lap

We are arranging their marriage now
Haddon and Olivia Hughes....haha!

Getting some cuddle time & laughing bc the first 2 pics I had a huge double chin!

More pics coming soon! I promise!