Getting It Together, One Project at a Time

You may remember me mentioning a somewhat involved organizing craze a while ago? Well, it's has mushroomed into a near-frenzied state. Furniture has been moved, storage containers have been purchased, and items have been homed/re-homed. It's all rather exciting, really.
My plan is to share at least one finished project with you each day next week. That may not actually cover all that's been done, but it would be nice to document some achievement before the kids totally wreck all my new systems. I'm hopeful that won't happen, but I'll not hold my breath...

Learning to Worship

A friend of mine asked me this week about what the expectations are for our children during worship in church, and how we train them. Since this is probably something many families are seeking to train their children in (and because my friend asked me to), I thought I'd have a go at addressing it here.

First of all, I want to point out a few things:

1. My children are not perfect angels and do, at times, act up during worship.
2. Any good idea we have, we probably got from someone else.
3. It's hard work, requiring us to regularly remind the children (and ourselves) of why we do what we do.

Having said all that, our primary standard is that the children are with us during worship, standing. Having them stand is huge. There are several reasons for this. First of all, we are training them not to simply be quiet and non disruptive during worship, we want to teach them to worship, so we want them to have a posture of worship, and at our church, that means standing. We've noticed that if they don't sit, then they are also not laying around, reading, coloring, etc. We have also noticed that as they get older, they are more likely to take part in the actual singing if they are standing up like all the other worshippers around them.

One of my children has a regular problem with the standing, complaining about having tired legs. This child is regularly (as in, every week) reminded that they have plenty of energy for running and playing, so they can use some of that energy to worship Jesus, even if it only means they are standing. That is their act of worship. Another child who is often tempted to suck their thumb is reminded that they may not do that during worship. That might sound a bit uptight, but aside from the fact that it's time to give up that particular habit, for this child it fosters a sense of passivity and boredom, and we want to foster an engagement and excitement for worship - after all, Jesus is worth all our praise!

We have a very determined, wriggly and persistent 2 year old. I may have mentioned him before. :) We have made a consistent effort to make sure he is held as much as possible, usually by Toby. Thankfully, he usually seems to nod off at some point during worship, which does make holding him a little easier, though a little sweaty. On the days when he's up and ready for a wrestle, it is harder. There are some tears, maybe a trip to the back of church for some correction. We just keep reminding ourselves/each other that it will be worth the fight if we can teach him now so that we're not fighting this same fight when he's 10.

 I will note that if Toby is unable to hold him for any reason and I have to do it, I tend to sit down with him on my lap. The other children have to remain standing because, as I point out to them, they are not carrying one baby on the inside (that is crowding out my air supply) and one on the outside. They get the point. 

If standing is a major challenge or new to your children, practice at home. We've done this for a number of new experiences - in this case, have the kids stand still around the dining table or in the living room while you play a worship song or two on a CD. Pick songs that you often sing at church, and the lyrics will become more familiar - 2 lessons in one. After a few days, add in another song. They'll get in the habit.

Our final trick it this: find surrogate grandparents. If you sit near a bunch of other families with young kids, consider moving to an area of church where there is an older couple or single who would love to help out. We have a wonderful couple who sits behind us most weeks, and our kids love them almost as much as they love our kids. Ellie, in particular, loves to go and sit with them during worship, and they are glad to have her. We don't normally allow the kids to sit with others or allow friends to come sit with us because we've learned that the kids are just not attentive, but we've made an exception here, mainly because they sit right behind us and we can keep an eye on her, plus they respect our standards and are keen to help us parent our children, rather than just spoiling them. I would suggest looking for an older person/couple, though - in my experience, younger couples or singles without children tend to make it more a time of fun and games, rather than helping kids prepare to worship. So, if there is a couple in your church that you would like to have invest in your children and be able to bless with your need, ask for their help. They will probably love that you did.
 I know we are far from having cornered the market in Early Childhood Church Training, so please share what your family does that helps your children and your whole family to worship on Sunday morning!
P.S. In the typing of this post, I had Toby look over it to be sure that I didn't leave anything out or grossly misrepresent what we do. In talking about it, we were reminded of the vital need for prayer in all this. Too readily we rely on our own cleverness and systems to produce good behavior in our children, and settle with that result.  But what God wants, and what we should want, are worshippers of Him, and we are wholly unable to produce such things.  Without seeking God on our children's behalf, the best we could hope for are well-behaved children.  True worship requires the Spirit of God to transform the hearts of His people, and we are freshly reminded of the need to bring our children before the Lord, pleading for His Spirit on their behalf. It's not hard to do, but so easy to forget, and it's the most important thing we can do.

Lily Pants 2.0

So, you may remember some time ago, I designed (copycat-like)  a new style of pants for little girls - the Lily Pants. I've since had another commissioned order for a pair of Lily pants - this time, with a coordinating print ruffle. Dreadful photo, but you get the idea...

Doesn't "commissioned order" sound really fancy? Really, my friend mentioned she'd like me to make a pair and sent me a link to another blog to give me some vision. Not so fancy, but very helpful and very fun.

I really liked making them with the coordinating fabric, too, which I don't think I would have thought of on my own.

I must make some more of these. I know I said that before, but it's true - they're so cute! I now have 2, possibly 3 different sizes worked out, so I'll be all set to add some to my empty etsy shop - if I ever get around to it...

Food and Family

Yesterday, we had some of my favorite people join  us for the day: my siblings, their families and my mom (and her friend).  Since there are so many of us Gayners and all the birthdays seem to happen in rather close succession through the summer months, we decided to try something new: a family party to celebrate all of the kids' birthdays. With a water blob, sprinkler, water balloon sling shot and a trip for some ice cream, I'd say the experiment was successful.
Of course, there was also food. A lot of food. I teased my brother that in many of his memories and stories, food serves as an anchor. That's probably true of most of my family - I know it's true of me. And so for this get together, I suspect that our cous cous salad will be the focus - everyone loves cous cous, everyone loves salad, everyone ate loads of it. Would you like the recipe? Of course you would.
I found the original recipe here, but I tweaked it a bit, mainly by adding cous cous and cucumber, so I shall also share my own version:

Tomato, Chickpea & Cous Cous Salad

1 cup cous cous

1 cup cold water

1 tin chick peas, drained and rinsed

1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes, halved

1 cucumber, peeled and cut into chunks

25 basil leaves, chopped

3 cloves minced garlic

1 1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp honey

pinch of salt

Pour water over cous cous and leave it until the water is absorbed, about 10 minutes. Then add in all the other ingredients and mix well. Leave it in the fridge for about 30 minutes to marinate, after which time you can eat it. All. In one sitting, if you like.

Big, Fat Timewaster

I am guilty as charged and feeling convicted. I've been wasting my time, and I, of all people, have little time to waste. In about 7 weeks, we will welcome our 6th child and my 3rd son into our family, and there's only about a gabillion things to do before then. There's the normal, every day, taking-care-of-the-basic-family-need things, there's the it's-summer-and-we-want-to-have-some-fun things, there's the projects that I've committed to (that might end up with me being committed), the meetings and the planning for next year and the getting ready for baby things. That sounds like a lot - and it is - but I really do have the time for it if I exercise a smidgen of self-control and stay off the stupid Internet! I could blame Pinterest and interesting blogs for increasing my project list, but that would be false - they are great tools if used correctly. I could blame Facebook and people posting about their lives, but who makes me sign on? And it's important to me to keep in touch with friends and family, which Facebook allows me to do with relative ease. I'm very tempted to blame the singular game on my iPhone for spending so little time reading and knitting, but really - I'm the idiot that installed the thing. No, the fact of the matter is I am choosing to fritter my time away on things of less importance because I don't want to invest the time and energy on the harder jobs.

Some might say I need to step back and re-evaluate my commitments and see if there's anything I'm trying to do that is best laid aside for now. That might be necessary, but for now, I can see the problem, and the problem is the lady in the mirror. I think what she really needs is a good stern talking to ("What do you think you're doing? You've got more important things to be spending your time on than beating your high score on Bejeweled Blitz 2!"), some prayer and repentance (my time, my life, is not my own, since I was bought with a price), and the practice to continuously choose to weigh the options of how I spend my time. I do not have the luxury of going into autopilot - I need to be fully here, exercising wisdom and making good decisions.

I know I'm not the only one who deals with this - I suspect it is a common temptation in this time and culture. My question now is Who else is noticing this trend in their own lives? and What are you gonna do about it?

Last week...

• We picked 13 lbs of blueberries. My freezer is now awash in them.
• We finished snake-sitting. The pleas for a snake of our own have already begun.
• We bought a new (to us) van. A twelve-seater, it has enough room for us, our junk, and some friends. I can now spend time intimidating other drivers on the road with this beast. Not really - I try to be a polite driver. But we have started referring to the old van as "the little van".
• We got to look after a couple of my friends' daughters for a couple days while she had surgery. We were so blessed to serve this family that has so kindly and faithfully served us for so long. And my kids loved having some extra playmates for a couple days. There were tears when they went home...
• We got to hang out with some excellent couples. One evening went particularly late - I remember looking at the clock and thinking, "It is sooo late, but I don't want the evening to end, so I'll just keep quiet and hope no one else notices." That happens rarely, but it's so fun when it does.
• I've had a growing awareness that the summer is almost half gone (!), I have about six weeks left until this baby arrives (!!), and I have done no planning for next year. I have all of my supplies (I think), but no plan for how to use them. So, I anticipate spending more time this week looking through my materials and coming up with a game plan. That may mean you hear less from me over the next few days, but don't worry - "it's just a break". "It's not you, it's me." "I really need some time to focus on my 'career' right now." "I hope we can still be friends." Really.

Gayner family summer

This is what it's looking like: 



Crazy Hat Day at Summer Blast, our church's VBS program

Chillin' on the deck while assorted children play with their favorite water toy (in lieu of a pool)E

Enjoying the very first cucumber from the garden this year, and knowing there's more to come

                                                              Getting in plenty of playtime outside

How's your summer looking?

Baby Knitting - In Threes (again)

I mentioned earlier that I had cast on another In Threes to use up the other skein of that lovely Malabrigo yarn - well, here it is!

 Not the best pictures, as it's still on the blocking board, plus a busted camera means my iPhone camera is my only option. I should have a go at running some of these photos through Instagram or something interesting. Maybe one day.

I may or may not be somewhat addicted to baby/kid/little thing knitting. It's so nice to have something to show for your efforts in a short period of time. I still want to get into something that requires more of an investment, but using up small amounts of yarn and finishing some comissioned items before winter (ahem) seems to be where it's at for the moment...Maybe if I finish my other projects soon, I can justify my big project, right?

May I remind you how lame I am?

Because I am lame, and you need to know that to explain why I get so excited about little things. Like taking something not very pretty and making it (I think) prettier. Take this notebook, for instance:

I've used these notebooks for sometime now as my daily to do list and general notetaking. I call it my brain, and it goes almost everywhere with me. But it's not pretty. Granted, coloring in all the white speckles is fun. but that wasn't really doing it for me anymore. So, I went to my sewing room, found some fabric in my stash that would do the job, and came up with this:

At first, the cover was plain, and I liked it well enough, but it lacked umph. Also, I was regularly getting confused between the front and back, top and bottom (lame, I know), so one of Martha Stewart's cute little stencils came to the rescue. I traced the little birdy to some card, used it as a template to cut out some more scrap fabric, ironed on some fusible interfacing to give it some backbone, and stitched it on.

And now, I'm happy. I may at some point in the future add some extra visual interest (like a branch for birdy to perch upon), but for now it makes me happy. I consider it a mark of good character that it takes so little to make one happy - wouldn't you agree?

We have a guest

A little over a week ago, we welcomed at temporary guest to stay with us. Fred has been a very pleasant guest to have in our home, making no mess, being very easy to get along with, need very little attention and being overall a rather fascinating fellow. Oh, and Fred's a ball python.

Fred's family is enjoying a wonderful cross-country road trip, and it's been so nice looking after him while they're gone. The kids all love him and are keen to keep his tank misted, and even Toby (the least snake-interested of the lot of us) finds him utterly fascinating.

Fred eats only once a week, and Friday was the day. The kids had been eagerly anticipating it, and Tobes wanted to witness the event before he left for work, so we woke them up this morning with the rally cry, "It's Feed Fred Friday!" That got them moving.

Once the frozen mouse (otherwise known as "breakfast") was thawed, Fred was removed from his home, placed in his feeding container, and provided his meal. Being a constrictor, it didn't take long before he coiled around it and got down to the business of getting it in his belly. I thought it was going to be pretty gross, but actually, like most of what Fred does, was just downright fascinating.

We get to enjoy Fred for another week before his family returns to claim him. After that, I fully expect to be petitioned to get a snake of our own, and perhaps some other caged critters (Abi has been interested in getting a mouse for years). And I gotta say, it won't take much to convince me - Fred has been an ideal pet: he doesn't shed, bark, get underfoot, or leap up at guests. He's been pretty easy to care for, not very expensive, and it's much easier to have someone look after your contained pet when vacations roll around. Any thoughts (like how we must be nuts)?

Does anyone else have some weird and wonderful pet experiences to share?