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I am an artist & teacher with a ❤ for visual expression, educational methodology, homesteading, & Jesus. My geek-love is The Joshua and we have three peanut-butters: Caleb, Jack, & Louritta.

My 2008 Reflections

12/31/2008

I took these 2008 reflection questions from simplemom.
1. What was the single best thing that happened this past year
Moving back to Minnesota into our lovely house.
2. What was the single most challenging thing that happened?
Moving. We were living in California and we had two weeks to pack all of our belongings (including 1 full pod and 2 cars), clean our old place, and move to Minnesota. This involved being stranded in the San Francisco Airport with 2 dogs, a cat, and a five-month-old, taking a crazy drive in the middle of the night to San Jose Airport so we could finally board a flight to MN. We lived with my parents for 2 months before moving into our current house. That was far too long to be living out of boxes!
3. What was an unexpected joy this past year?
Finding our house. Seriously, we looked at a ka-jillion houses and they were all more expensive and way crappier than our current house. Our house is perfect for us for so many reasons and we can somehow afford to live here even though I am not working. This is totally something I didn’t expect (we thought we’d end up living in the ghetto), and it is so joyful to be able to be here with my hubby and boy!
4. What was an unexpected obstacle?
Our driveway. Seriously, that sucker slopes down toward our house and it is slick ice right now. It takes a good several tries to get out of our driveway on bad days. You have to leave from the garage and kind of gun it and very strategically steer the car. And that’s just to get onto the crazy street, which is also on a hill and covered in ice. I watched the mail lady try to get up the hill like 6 or 7 times before she finally made it. Yes, we are shoveling, icing, sanding and all that!
5. Pick three words to describe 2008.
Boys, Move, Fix,
6. Pick three words your spouse would use to describe your 2008 (don’t ask them; guess based on how you think your spouse sees you).
Only I cheated and actually asked Josh. He said: Arrival, Refocus, Challenge
7. Pick three words your spouse would use to describe their 2008 (again, without asking).
Only I cheated on this one too and asked Josh. He said: Stress, Web
8. What were the best books you read this year?
I read a ton of books this year, but clearly the best is all of the Harry Potter books (I know, I’m late in the reading, but they were really good!). I also enjoyed True Woman by Susan Hunt.
9. With whom were your most valuable relationships?
For sure, Josh and Caleb. We have grown so much this year in fantastic ways. I would also say with both the Whiting families and the Lewis/Peterson families. When we lived in California, we only came back to visit for holidays or weddings. Now, we get to do the fun, “Want to come over and hang out?” time that are way more relaxed. I’m also really loving spending more time with my nieces and nephews, going swimming with them, going to parks with them, and other fun times like that. I really enjoy being able to be with my family in a more relaxed manner.
10. What was your biggest personal change from January to December of this past year?
Moving across the country. But I would also say getting used to being a homemaker, Caleb shifting from baby to boy, and the new responsibilities of being a homeowner.
11. In what way(s) did you grow emotionally?
The most significant way that I have grown emotionally is in my strength as a parent. I feel a lot more confident, comfortable, and able than I did before. I know I will never be the perfect, bionic parent, but even recognizing that and moving forward has been an important step for me.
12. In what way(s) did you grow spiritually?
I had many moments where I struggled with not being able to identify myself as being an art teacher or designer anymore. It was hard to shift from the working world to being a homemaker; I had to let go of so many things that I enjoyed and thrived on before. I had to revisit many basics of my faith to help me really understand that my identity is in Christ. It really stripped away at my self-pride (of which I had an enormous amount) and humbled me because I didn’t have any things to brag about anymore. I have also grown a lot through the memorization of scripture and by praying the scriptures regularly. I hope and pray that God’s word will continue to penetrate the dark parts of my heart and that my life will glorify Him.
13. In what way(s) did you grow physically?
My weight has been a concern this year for the first time in my life. Around Caleb’s 1st birthday (September), I was finally able to fit into my pre-pregnancy jeans comfortably, and that was fantastic. But, I’m still not at my pre-pregnancy weight. I figure I’m going to have to really focus to do this. I’m looking forward to the snow melting so I can use my new bike for some wonderful rides and exercise. I sometimes feel frustrated that my body just doesn’t look the way it used to. Actually, it kind of looks a little like I was attacked by Wolverine. But, I suppose I’ll just have to get continue trying my best to be healthy, while also realizing that my body will inevitably decline until I breathe my final breath (I’m shooting to make it into my nineties!).
14. In what way(s) did you grow in your relationships with others?
Um… read number 9.
15. What was the most enjoyable area of managing your home?
Getting all the stuff put away and fixed! Seriously, my house is totally functional and baby-proofed and that makes me love it here.
16. What was your most challenging area of home management?
Probably disagreeing with Josh about the rate at which things should be unpacked and fixed. We moved here in April and we had everything unpacked, put away, baby proofed, and repaired by September. That’s just how I roll. Josh thought we went too fast and I’m pretty sure I drove him nuts. But hey, we’re relaxing now!
17. What was your single biggest time waster in your life this past year?
Little House on the Prairie. I love that show and have decided to watch the whole series starting with the pilot. I’m currently on season 6. There is so much I love about this show, but I won’t go into all of that here!
18. What was the best way you used your time this past year?
Loving my family. I gave a lot of attention trying to learn how to be excellent at my job as homemaker. I want to be an excellent wife and an excellent mother and an excellent me. Time spent learning from others, reading, playing, teaching, fixing, cooking, cleaning, organizing, and other things that directly made my family more relaxed, joyful, and focused on the Lord are definitely my best spent hours.
19. What was the biggest thing you learned this past year?
To delight in the law of the Lord and to meditate on it day and night (Psalm 1:2). I also learned that happiness and joy is hard work. You have to want it and seek it out and choose to make it a part of your day. My attitude and demeanor has so much of an effect on my family and I hope that I will continue to fervently pursue happiness and joy for the rest of my life.
20. Create a phrase or statement that describes 2008 for you.
Started with a crazy pack-n-move, but ended with a happy, relaxed, love-infested home; always striving toward knowing Christ more.

Caleb is Funny

12/18/2008

I love seeing Caleb’s sense of humor develop. Though he’s always loved to laugh, I can see him starting to find humor in more things and he is even trying to make his own jokes. His early humor was physical, he loved being tickled, kicking his legs, swinging around, and anything else that was very motor oriented.
Toward the end of summer, he started finding humor in things like hiding under a blanket or in the closet and laughing like crazy when we finally found him. He also put a hat on Ella and thought that was very funny.
About a week ago, I was reading him The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats (a fantastic book). There is a part where the boy hits a snow-covered tree with a stick, causing snow to fall on his head. I signed to Caleb and pointed to the picture, “SNOW fell on his HEAD!” He burst out laughing. He kept turning back to the page and signing that snow fell on his head, and then he’d fall over and laugh and laugh. Later in the day, I would say, “Snow fell on his head!” Caleb would sign “head” and laugh some more.
Today, Josh and I finishing dinner, Caleb decided to start a little sideshow to entertain us. He was attempting to throw a can in the garbage can for awhile. Then, he made the sign for “eat” and then pointed to the wall. He immediately started snickering so hard he had to cover his mouth. Josh said, “Eat the wall??? That’s silly!” And that unleashed Caleb’s laughter. Eat the wall indeed.
I can’t wait to hear more of his jokes. What a happy little boy!

What Does a Bunny Rabbit Say?

12/08/2008

I literally spat cereal out of my mouth today because Caleb was so funny. I tried getting it on video (he did repeat himself), but I can’t find where my Flip ended up after our trip to Branson. Hmmmm…
Anyway, this is what happened. We were looking at the Noah’s Ark snow globe and making all of the animal sounds. I have been trying to teach him that a bunny wiggles it’s nose instead of making a noise (the only rabbit noise I’ve ever heard is it’s death cry and I’m not about to teach that one to my kid).
So, I said, “Caleb, what does a bunny rabbit say?”
He looked at me, shoved his finger far up into his left nostril, then exhaled through his nose, causing a HUGE snot bubble to form from his right nostril (we’re talking golf ball here). He held the pose and grinned.
And then I spat out the cereal, which I think he took as encouragement… Oh, the wonderful joys of parenthood!

Caleb’s 15 Month Stats

11/25/2008

Caleb had his 15 month checkup today and, despite his current cold, is a very healthy little boy. We were able to look in his mouth and he has his 4 upper and 4 lower teeth fully grown in (that he’s had for awhile) and is currently sprouting 2 bottom teeth on each side and one on his upper left. That’s 5 teeth coming in at once! The doctor said it’s rare that they get that many in at once. Poor little guy! His gums are all swollen, but since the teeth have all broken through, Caleb has enjoyed grinding his teeth while walking around the house. Such a pleasant sound!
And get this, since his 12 month checkup he’s gained less than a pound, but he’s grown a little over 2.5 inches! So, we have a tall, skinny kid here.
Here are the 12 month & current 15 month stats for comparison.
Last Checkup (12 month):
Weight: 20 pounds, 5.5 ounces (15th percentile)
Length: 28.7 inches (16th percentile)
Head Circumference: 18 inches (30th percentile)
This Checkup (15 month):
Weight: 21 pounds, 2.2 oz. (10 percentile)
Length: 31.25 inches (61 percentile)
Head Circumference: 18.31 inches (33 percentile)

Fiction for Geek Children

11/17/2008

Or should I say, “Literature for the children of geeks?”
Recently, I was looking over Caleb’s Wish List with Josh and asked him his opinions on books or other Christmas gifts that would be good for Caleb at this point in his life. He couldn’t really think of anything so I asked, “Well, what are the children of geeks reading these days?”
Initially, nothing came to mind. Then, he said his buddy gosnat had suggested the book Ping, ping.jpga book about a duck crossing a river. And it’s geeky because it’s about pinging.
That being said, we laughed heartily at one of the customer reviews of the book left by John E. Francisco. This was our favorite part (which explains the book and is also hilarious):

Using deft allegory, the authors have provided an insightful and intuitive explanation of one of Unix’s most venerable networking utilities. Even more stunning is that they were clearly working with a very early beta of the program, as their book first appeared in 1933, years (decades!) before the operating system and network infrastructure were finalized.
The book describes networking in terms even a child could understand, choosing to anthropomorphize the underlying packet structure. The ping packet is described as a duck, who, with other packets (more ducks), spends a certain period of time on the host machine (the wise-eyed boat). At the same time each day (I suspect this is scheduled under cron), the little packets (ducks) exit the host (boat) by way of a bridge (a bridge). From the bridge, the packets travel onto the internet (here embodied by the Yangtze River).
The title character — er, packet, is called Ping. Ping meanders around the river before being received by another host (another boat). He spends a brief time on the other boat, but eventually returns to his original host machine (the wise-eyed boat) somewhat the worse for wear.
If you need a good, high-level overview of the ping utility, this is the book. I can’t recommend it for most managers, as the technical aspects may be too overwhelming and the basic concepts too daunting.

Moving on, we felt sad that the great, vast, and powerful geek community had no children’s books that we could think of besides this one (which, by the way, was published in 1933. Seriously. If that’s not total hardcore old school 1337, I don’t know what is).
I continued by googling “books for geek children,” and the search engine immediately asked me, “Did you mean: books for greek children”? We also found this to be hilarious. And sad. It was both hilarious and sad.
We did find a few notable things. The first being the Geek Parenting site, which listed 10 Superhero Comic Books your Kids should be Reading. Most of these were Marvel comics (Fantastic Four, Hulk, Spider Man, etc.). Some could say that comic books are more on the “nerd” side of the line than the “geek” side, and I know there are lots of people who straddle the line quite gracefully, but I’m not here to hold the nerd vs. geek debate. (Note the funny conversation between daughter & father on the Geek Parenting site — Daughter: “Daddy, what’s a multiverse?” Dad: “It’s a plot device for lazy writers.” LOLZ.)
Back to my conversation with Josh. We recognized that many geeks are totally into comic books and that they are a fantastic genre. But, in this case we were instead looking for books that taught about geek topics of interest like net neutrality, digital privacy, digital rights management, intellectual property rights in the digital age, topics considered by the Electronic Frontier Foundation… you get the idea.
(Sidenote: We then stumbled upon a link to the still-funny Children’s Books that Didn’t Make It. We came up with a few of our own and enjoyed the general hilarity of it all. But that is a huge digression from the topic at hand.)
In the end, our search was mostly fruitless and disappointing. With so many great and interesting topics swirling around the geek community these days, there has got to be something that our children could enjoy right along with us. The wheels are turning. I’m not promising anything, but the wheels are turning. So far there is a boy and a bird….

Back to Cloth

11/10/2008

Well, today marks our transition from disposable diapers back to cloth. We initially started with a mix of disposable & cloth, but decided to go to all disposable because of the whole move across the country, live with my parents, search for a house, buy a house, move again thing. Now that we’re nice and settled, I figured I’d switch back.
SuperBrite_Green_M.jpgI’m using cloth diapers with the Bummis covers. We have both the Super Brites and the Super Whisper Wraps. They worked great for us before and I’m hoping they’ll work great again this time.
I will be using my front-load high-efficiency washer (which has a special setting just for diapers!) to wash them myself instead of doing a diaper service (I don’t even think they’d do that in the boonies where I live!). I think it should go pretty smoothly, but we’ll see!
Before the change back to cloth, Caleb had started notifying me when he needed a new diaper, usually by going into his room and getting a clean diaper out of the cabinet. I think this communication will make it easier on him to use cloth since he can tell me when he’s wet.

Houdweebie

11/06/2008

Josh’s parents have often spoken of Josh’s childhood in terms of “Houdweebie” stories. They are basically odd things that Josh would do to escape situations and pretty much just be the weird kid that he was.
Here is a recording (from Josh and Kevin‘s college radio show Mission Control) of Josh’s mom sharing some Houdweebie stories about Josh:

Well, I think those wonderful genes have been passed down to Caleb.
First, Caleb has escaped the church nursery (out the first gate only) twice. TWICE. How many other babies have I known that have escaped even once? None. I haven’t even seen another child consider it. But, Caleb has learned to sit very very quietly near the gate (while feigning interest in a toy) and pay close attention to adult movement. When he sees an adult reach for the gate, he quickly slips in step behind them. Luckily, the second gate is not as easy to get out of, and he has just cried and banged on it, which alerts people that he escaped (again) so they can put him back in the nursery.
I have since had people in the nursery, upon finding that I was Caleb’s mom, say, “Oh, he’s the escape artist.” Indeed. He’s our Houdweebie.
On a similar note, although not a story of escape, we have found that Caleb has also developed excellent slight of hand skills. In the nursery at our church, babies are labeled on the back so we know who they are and if they have any special needs. So, every baby has a name tag, and some babies have special instructions (usually “diaper rash,” “spits up,” etc.). Recently, while I was working in the nursery while Caleb was in there, another volunteer pointed to an unidentified child and said, “Who is that baby?” It was at this point in time that we realized that not just that one, but FIVE babies did not have nametags on their backs to identify them. This baffled us since all of these babies had nametags when they came in.
Well, I didn’t have to look any further than my own son, sitting quietly in the corner playing with five sticky nametags. Though we were all playing with the babies, none of us noticed Caleb’s little collection spree.
The next time I picked Caleb up in the nursery, besides having his own name stuck to his back, he had another identifier “Escapes. Steals nametags.”
So, already at 14 months of age, Caleb has begun racking up his own Houdweebie stories. But, now he’s going to have to up the ante because we’re all on to him. I hope his next attempts include something cool like a top hat and a small flock of doves.

My Little Lion

11/03/2008


Caleb’s Lion Costume 19, originally uploaded by StephLewis.

Caleb was a Lion for Halloween this year. I made this costume for him out of fleece and ribbon. I made it a little big (with room to let out) so that he can still play in it over the next couple of years. He loved being a lion and even got the hang of roar-ing towards the end.

First we went to Grandpa & Grandma Whiting’s house and trick-or-treated there. They loved how cute he was with his little tail. Then we went to visit the Peterson & Lewis families in White Bear Lake. We trick-or-treated with Elise (a clown) and Maia (Robin Hood). Andrew & Karina (superman & wonderwoman) joined us for the first house, but then stayed back because we party to hard for them. So, Jon & Emily and Grandpa & Grandma Lewis all came with us trick-or-treating.

Caleb was confused at first until one of the houses had a dog. He was excited and stood at the door looking at their dog. I think after that he thought trick-or-treating was so we could look for dogs in other peoples’ houses. Once he realized a house didn’t have a dog, he seemed disinterested. If a house had a dog, he would get excited and stand at the door bouncing up and down. (Note: I think I would actually prefer Halloween if we went from house to house admiring other peoples’ pets. It would be way better than candy.)

When we were finished trick-or-treating, we went to Trinity Baptist where we played some games. Caleb enjoyed jumping in the giant inflatable dog, and also spent quite a bit of time pointing at the giant inflatable dog making “woof” sounds.

All in all, we had a fun night out!

Craftivism

11/03/2008

I’ve been reading the blog Soule Mama for quite some time. I so loved the writings of Amanda Blake Soule, that I also purchased and read her book The Creative Family: How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections. It is fantastic and has helped me to think differently and wonderfully about how I view and use art and craft with my family.
But, now she’s done it again with her new project Mama to Mama: Connecting Families Through the Gift of Handmade. She speaks in her book about a concept called craftivism, “the concept of using craft for social action.” This intrigued me as I thought about what people need around the world and how there is something more connected to sending handmade goods than just flinging money (although sometimes money flinging is needed, I think handmade is also needed). And how wonderful it can be when women, families, classrooms, and other groups meet together for the purpose of creating goods for others in need. I have known of church organizations that quilt or mend for good causes, but other than that I am not aware of how craft can be used for social activism and helping the downtrodden.
In her introduction of the project Soule describes why and how her idea got started. She also describes the first project, The Caps to Cap-Haitien Project: A partnership with Konbit Sante. She describes how crafters can create newborn caps, following a pattern that you can download off the site, send them to her and they will all be donated to the project.
I’m excited by this idea and I look forward to where it could lead. Crafters unite!

What I’ve Been Up To

11/02/2008

Sewing
I made a halloween costume for Caleb. He was a lion. It was a fun costume to make. I made it a little big (with purposeful room to let some parts out) so he could play in it for the next couple of years.
Designing
I’ve been designing a quilt square for Abby as well as a ton of Christmas presents. I can’t divulge them all here though because it would give it all away! I’ve also been working on a redesign for this website (the current one is so horrid, but it actually wasn’t so bad when I designed it back in… 2002). I need to upgrade my Movable Type really badly too. I’ve also been doing some contract web work. So, yeah, lots is going on in the design front.
Cooking
My favorite thing that I’ve made lately is my pumpkin spice bread. That was WAY good. I stuck walnuts in it this time and that just sent it over the top. I also enjoyed making Sour Cream Apple Pie, which was also pretty delicious. Caleb and I usually make cookies or mini muffins once a week, so we’ve been doing that too. I also have been making our bread at home because it’s super good, but mostly because I just enjoy making it!
Church Stuff
Josh and I just finished our membership class and elder meeting to become members at Bethlehem Baptist. I’ve also finished my Nursery training and have been working in the nursery. I’ve also been attending MOMS group and am doing some activity coordinating for them. It is SO GOOD to be connecting with a church body. We miss PBCC so much. But, Bethlehem is proving to be a great place for us too.
Playing
Caleb now enjoys kicking and throwing and pushing balls around. He also loves swinging, sliding, crawling through tunnels, driving his car, pushing the dump truck, digging in the sand box, painting, coloring, reading, cooking, singing, dancing… so I pretty much am playing or watching playing most of the day! What a joy he is!

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