Prayer is one of the best free gifts we receive

This came as an email where I was supposed to pick 12 women who have touched my life, and who I think that if this group of women were ever to be in a room together, there is nothing that would be impossible. I loved the message and decided that rather than forward it to 12 women I'd post it here. (I actually think that if you put any 12 women in a room that nothing would be impossible!)


"May today there be peace within.

May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be.

May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith inyourself and others.

May you use the gifts that you have received, and pass on the love thathas been given to you.

May you be content with yourself just the way you are.

Let this knowledge settle into your bones, and allow your soul thefreedom to sing, dance, praise and love.

It is there for each and every one of us."



We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance. ~Japanese Proverb =

Tie Dye Flower Child Hippie Dippie Baby Shower

Maria asked that the theme for her shower be tie dye/flower child. As you can probably imagine, there are no commercial baby shower party supplies in a hippie theme. (Perhaps an untapped market...) I was able to find some basic tie dye paper products, but we really developed the tie dye theme, by tie dying onesies at the party.

I didn't get photographs of all of the specifics, so I'll describe the party to the best of my ability. There was a clothes line with some white onesies hanging on it, as part of the decorations for the party. There were other onesies soaking in the soda ash solution. Guests picked a wet onesie out of the sink, wrung out the water, and set to creating their design with rubber bands and adding dye from bottles. We then bagged each shirt to let the dye set for a half hour. While those shirts were getting done, we took the other shirts off the line to soak in the soda ash solution.

We took the shirts into the bathroom and hung them on a clothes line in the shower to dry and catch the drips... The final product can be seen at the end of the slideshow. As you can see Maria now has 15 one-of-a-kind, made with love by family and friends - onesies for Alana.

Next, we played a couple of games - Baby Scattergories and Baby Express Yourself. Everyone was a good sport and had fun despite being squished into the living room. Maria was very anxious to start opening the enormous pile of presents.

You will notice the gorgeous assortment of tie dye gifts Maria is opening in the slide show. These are all from my Niece-in-Law, Tara Stonier. Tara tie dyed fabric to make the quilt and diaper bag, and dyed clothes and burp clothes as well. We all think Tara needs to go into business making tie dyed diaper bags. It is such a work of art!

There were other hand made treasures - a sweater and blanket, hand knit by Dean's Grandmother, Suzanne. A blanket crocheted by Mima (aka me). A frame decoupaged by Dean's mom, Wendy. Alana has the most wonderful new wardrobe, with a large selection of items in the chocolate and pink color scheme. She got more beautiful clothes than I can begin to describe.

Some of her other gifts included a baby monitor, a front/back baby carrier, a Boppy seat, port-a-crib, a crib/youthbed, butterfly bedding, and so much more. We ended with the Tie Dye/Flower Child/Hippie Dippie cake, compliments of Bernie Ratelle. Bernie's is Maria's dad's secretary and long time friend. She really pulled the theme together nicely.

We had a wonderful time. It was a great opportunity to meet Dean's family. His mother and grandmother, step-mother and step-sister were all able to attend. Maria was truly surrounded by lots of friends and family who literally "showered" her with an abundance of beautiful gifts. It was a day to remember as we get closer to Alana's arrival (around March 26th) and the real fun begins!

Maria's Shower

Laughter is the best medicine

The 'Middle Wife' by an Anonymous 2nd grade teacher

I've been teaching now for about fifteen years. I have two kids myself, but the best birth story I know is the one I saw in my own second grade classroom a few years back. When I was a kid, I loved show-and-tell. So I always have a few sessions with my students. It helps them get over shyness and usually, show-and-tell is pretty tame. Kids bring in pet turtles, model airplanes, pictures of fish they catch, stuff like that. And I never, ever place any boundaries or limitations on them. If they want to lug it in to school and talk about it, they're welcome.

Well, one day this little girl, Erica, a very bright, very outgoing kid, takes her turn and waddles up to the front of the class with a pillow stuffed under her sweater. She holds up a snapshot of an infant. 'This is Luke, my baby brother, and I'm going to tell you about his birthday.' 'First, Mom and Dad made him as a symbol of their love, and then Dad put a seed in my Mom's stomach, and Luke grew in there. He ate for nine months through an umbrella cord.' She's standing there with her hands on the pillow, and I'm trying not to laugh and wishing I had my camcorder with me. The kids are watching her in amazement.

'Then, about two Saturdays ago, my Mom starts saying and going, 'Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh!' Erica puts a hand behind her back and groans. 'She walked around the house for, like an hour, 'Oh, oh, oh!' (Now this kid is doing a hysterical duck walk and groaning.) 'My Dad called the middle wife. She delivers babies, but she doesn't have a sign on the car like the Domino's man. They got my Mom to lie down in bed like this.' (Then Erica lies down with her back against the wall.)

'And then, pop! My Mom had this bag of water she kept in there in case he got thirsty, and it just blew up and spilled all over the bed, like psshhheew!' (This kid has her legs spread with her little hands miming water flowing away. It was too much!) 'Then the middle wife starts saying 'push, push,' and 'breathe, breathe. They started counting, but never even got past ten.

Then, all of a sudden, out comes my brother. He was covered in yucky stuff that they all said it was from Mom's play-center, (placenta) so there must be a lot of toys inside there. When he got out, the middle wife spanked him for crawling up in there.' Then Erica stood up, took a big theatrical bow and returned to her seat. I'm sure I applauded the loudest. Ever since then, when it's show-and-tell day, I bring my camcorder, just in case another 'Middle Wife' comes along.

Hope is in the Air!

What a Joyous Day! How lucky we are to live in this time, and to have the opportunity to witness this, the greatest legacy of our time! Let us all resolve to be better human beings and come together and show the strength and power of people united in mutual respect for the good of all.

(And, damn, doesn't she look good! What a Woman!)

Angels Everywhere

Angels take many forms. Last night, they took the shape of 4 village employees who came to our house at 7:00 at night because we had no water. Now, while that wouldn't be too surprising, since it was -27 (27 degrees below zero!) that morning, but our basement is 60 degrees, so it never occured to us our pipes could freeze. Apparently pipes can freeze coming into the house not just in the house. These 4 angels worked for almost 2 hours until we finally had water again. I really have no idea how they did it, they brought some machine that flushed water somewhere or something. But they fixed it, and I'm so grateful!

I was reminded of Hebrews 13:2 - Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. I wanted to offer to make them coffee until I remembered I had no water. God takes care of us is so many different ways. He places people in our path to help us, we just often never stop to see His hand in it. The other thought I had was how thankful I am that we are all given different gifts. I love the gifts God has given me, but being able to even figure out where the water comes into the house isn't one of them. I value those who have the gift of making my water run, because if you've been without water, you quickly realize how LIFE truly does depend on it.

What other angels has God sent to take care of me? or to take care of you? What opportunities to be thankful for the solution to the problem, rather than focus on the problem itself have we missed? It's so easy to get stuck being upset and distressed that the problem (frozen pipes, no water, 7:00 at night on a long weekend...) exists, and lose sight of God's promises to never leave us, to hear our prayers and to strengthen us with the Holy Spirit. Not only am I thankful for the village workers who labored on my behalf, but also that God helped me stay positive and trust that He was going to take of it, take care of me. The more we trust and turn situations over to God's Mighty Power, the greater our confidence that He truly is going to be our savior in all things becomes.

Stress Free Christmas

We made a commitment, a conscious decision this year that we were going to have a stress free Christmas. If it wasn't fun we weren't going to do it. We were going to focus on family, fun and festivity. If we started to fret about the "perfect" present or getting everything done, we'd just remind ourselves that this was going to be a stress free Christmas, and we were able to let go and enjoy the moment(s). What is even more wonderful - it worked! We had the best Christmas ever, not just in our opinion, but the kids felt the same way too. One of my favorite things at Christmas is the lights on the tree. I love to turn out the lights in the house leaving only the tree lights on, Christmas music playing and a glass of wine with my honey - my idea of cozy. This year we gave ourselves an early Christmas present, Melissa Etheridge's "A New Thought for Christmas". Her "O Night Devine" is a guitar solo interpretation of "O Holy Night" that is completely reminiscent of Jimi Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner". Check it out on Amazon or iTunes to hear the clip, I promise you will love it! A friend also gave Carol a mix of Ella Fitzgerald Christmas tunes. Add Charlie Brown's Christmas Soundtrack and that is a perfect mix of music to set the perfect holiday tone.

We didn't put up every decoration we own. It saved some time and was in keeping with our stress free theme. However, we all have one favorite decoration that we always put up and that is "Lynn's ornaments". For years my sister hand painted each family member a one of a kind ornament. On this picture you can see a star and a stocking that are from her, with a close up of the star. These are truly precious treasures and each year as we unwrap the tissue we 'oh' and 'ah' over them all over again. Everyone of Lynn's ornaments will always make it on the tree.

We haven't done Christmas cards yet. We are thinking about starting a new tradition and doing New Year's cards. They were the biggest casualty of our stress free Christmas, but since we haven't decided to "never" do them, we aren't feeling too guilty about it. One other little thing we gave up was putting ribbons and bows on the packages. A couple might have snuck in here or there, but for the most part we wrapped and tagged and called it "DONE".

As a family present we got Guitar Hero World Tour Band Kit for the Wii. (We got one of the very scarce Wii last year for Christmas, thanks to my cousin Paula who braved bad roads to get to Best Buy early one Sunday morning, and then rode the ferry from VT to meet me to exchange the goods. Thanks Cuz!) We rocked out!! As you can see we are almost world tour ready! Truly a fun for the whole family game.

More than anything we found that our stress free Christmas was a state of mind. A decision to be joyful, grateful and to not give into the chaos and frenetic pace that can be Christmas, made all the difference. I'm hoping we can use the same plan to create a stress free New Year - No stress in '09! Cheers!