kim through
   the looking glass

On Sunday, we were planning to plant three new trees - a plum tree and two apple trees. On the agenda? Thawing both Gwen’s and Gil’s placentas in order to plant under them and nourish the new trees.

Brad pulled the frozen placentas out of the freezer on Saturday and as I watched the 4L ice cream container thaw, I got a bit nostalgic and, after seeing this onesie, started (re-)researching placenta prints. After a bit of coaxing from Brad to make up my mind already, I decided to go for it - if they didn’t work out, I had at least tried and if they did, I would have some beautiful art. I decided to do the prints on canvas with acrylic paint.

Following is a tutorial (sadly, without pictures other than the finished products!)! Read the rest of this entry »

Head on over to Bellies and Babies to check out her introductory post on International Doula Month! Nicole will be hosting a bunch of birthy stuff giveaways! I know a number of doulas and would love to win some prizes for them!!

Can we please be daring enough and creative enough to change this five-hundred-year-old ritual - which incidentally doesn’t have a shred of biblical warrant to justify it? Can we accept the challenge to equip God’s people to function under the headship of Christ without human control? And if we don’t know how to do this, can we please be humble enough to bring in someone who can and see what happens? (Reimagining Church, p. 266)

What a fantastic book! While Pagan Christianity exposes the non-scriptural nature of most of our church practices, Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity discusses what church would look like without them - and challenges its readers to act on their new knowledge. Author Frank Viola walks the reader through reimagining the following:

• the church as an organism
• the church meeting
• the Lord’s Supper
• where church is held
• the family of God
• church unity
• leadership
• oversight
• decision-making
• “spiritual covering”
• authority and submission
• denominations
• apostolic tradition

This book packs a big punch and led me, for one, to see what church could look like done in the tradition of the apostles and the first century Christians - truly a Christianity of which I would be unashamed to be a member, and Christianity for which my soul cries out!

The biggest things that stood out to me is that being a passive spectator to a once-weekly ritual is waaaaaay easier than being in real relationship with other Christians. Consider the following quote:

“There’s a price to pay in responding to the Lord’s will for His church … You’ll bear the marks of the cross and die a thousand deaths in the process of being built together with other believers in a close-knit community. You’ll have to endure the messiness that’s part and parcel of relational Christianity - forever abandoning the artificial neatness afforded by the organized church. You’ll no longer share the comforts of being a passive spectator. Instead, you’ll learn the self-emptying lessons of becoming a responsible, serving member of a functioning body … And you’ll incite the severest assaults of the Adversary in his attempt to snuff out that which represents a living testimony of Jesus.” (Reimagining Church, p. 278)

Interestingly, while my intellect shudders at that description, my spirit jumps with joy - or perhaps it is His Spirit within me? Either way, I’m excited - excited that perhaps I’m not crazy. That I’m not alone in feeling that if Jesus were here on Earth today, He wouldn’t exactly be thrilled with the way we “do church”.

I’m not sure where to go from here. I’ve signed up to a forum for organic churches and have been invited to a conference event to hook up people looking for organic church. I don’t think that there are any organic churches in our area - not that I’ve been able to find. So what do we do? Wait for someone else to plant a church? Pursue planting one ourselves? Do we even know enough people passionate about this type of Christian living to make this a reality?

Questions, questions. I’m hoping to purchase Finding Organic Church. It is apparently a very good book - discussing finding, planting, and sustaining organic churches.

I never knew how intense being a mother could be until I experienced being solely responsible for two kids under two for 8+ hours per day. It’s intense! Most days are good … although I still don’t feel like I’ve got a “rhythm” yet. When Gwen was a wee babe, I’d found my stride by now, but two is completely different!

Look at this little guy’s rolls! Read the rest of this entry »

Um. I have a confession.

I have a new favourite blog.

Click on over to Clean, LuSa Organic’s blog. You’ll be stuck there for hours - I promise!

I was lucky enough to piggy-back on an order that Brad put in for some programming books a few weeks ago. He ordered me The Birth of Hathor (which took me completely by surprise!), Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves, Pagan Christianity, and Reimagining Church. I quickly dug into Pagan Christianity and would like to offer a short review here. Read the rest of this entry »

As the mommy wars wage on, a new article by the BBC points to science, yet again, to prove that cry-it-out is bad for babies. A quote from the author and mother of two, Dr. Penelope Leach states:

If you do not respond and if you refuse to respond, the baby knows no response is coming … The reason that a baby gives up after half an hour, three-quarters of an hour or an hour is that it has given up and that its expectations have been altered … I’ve heard it said that babies stop crying because they have learned that mummy wants them to go back to sleep. Babies are not capable of that sort of learning.

Now it remains to be seen. Will the proponents of cry-it-out ignore yet more scientific evidence that this method of ’sleep training’ is harmful for babies?

I hope not.

Gwen sat beside me playing while I nursed Gil. Saying “Pile!”, she stacked all of her puzzle pieces.

Then she pointed to one piece and said “Cheese!”

I gave her a funny look as she put the stack of pieces to her mouth and chewed on the side.

“What are you doing, sweetheart?” I asked, confused.

“Sammich!” She grinned, holding it out for me.

“Oh, yum,” I smiled. “A sandwich!”

“Tend!” Nodded Gwen excitedly.

“Pretend! Yes!” I replied, pretending to take a bite.

Two HUGE thumbs up to my friend, Jen, who wrote a post entitled, “You’re having your baby where?!“. Click on over to read about what her decision to homebirth is all about!

I adapted an internet recipe I found and they are YUMMY!! This recipe makes 30-36 cookies (mine made 33). I might try this next time with a non-nut butter (such as sunflower butter) to make cookies that we can take to the park!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups natural peanut butter (no sugar added)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 tbsp baking soda
• 2 eggs

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F and grease cookie sheets.
2. Mix peanut butter, sugar, and baking soda until smooth.
3. Beat in eggs.
4. Roll into 1 inch balls and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet. Flatten cookies with a fork, in a criss-cross manner.
5. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until just browning on the bottom - you want these chewy
6. Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes then remove to a cooling rack.
7. TRY NOT TO EAT THEM ALL!