I know you're out there, but I don't know how many of you there are! If you read my blog often, will you please click on the "Follow This Blog" link on the bottom right? It's hard to keep writing when it appears I have no audience! Thank you, it will mean the world to me!
Recently I have been receiving far many too ecstatic compliments concerning my way of living, which is really not unique at all, just unique to my circle of friends. I feel very unworthy of such praises, but today I also found my pride puffing up in just the slightest. I took some time to contemplate what I really want to define me as a person and especially as a wife and mother since those roles are the very core of who I am and what I do at this present stage. So for those of you who aren't familiar with our various quirks...
I hate television. Corey hates television (except during football season). Asher has never watched more than ten minutes of TV. When we moved into our rent house a little over a year ago, we decided to take the plunge and sell our TV, to go unplugged. It was the best decision we could have made. I would never want my friends to come over scantily clad, swearing, making out and bearing fire arms, so why would I want Asher to be exposed to that from a shiny, blinking box? These days even if you watch "good" shows, the commercials are just as destructive as all the R rated TV going on. I just don't want to pollute the minds of our family with such brash behavior and clamoring for material things. But not having a TV doesn't make us better than anyone else, it just helps us be our best. And it certainly won't get us to heaven.
We eat healthy, unprocessed, organic food. (Except of course when we stop by Chick-Fil-A, our poison of choice!) A typical menu for the day means steel cut oats with butter and honey for breakfast with a "green" smoothie (meaning it has raw spinach and flax in it), fruit as a snack, a salad with home made bread for me for lunch; pasta with butter, broccoli and fruit for Asher, then any random thing I can come up with for dinner. We usually do have meat with dinner since Corey is so swole and needs to maintain his massive muscle index ;) I LOVE eating healthy. I love looking in my fridge and seeing lots of color and very few boxes. We don't eat things that come in cans. I take the nutrional density of our meals seriously, but what we put into us only matters for a small window of time. Our bodies WILL decay, fruits and veggies won't make the important parts of us last.
I cloth diaper Asher when we're at home. A few (though currently fleeting, cause who in their right mind wants to take on the powerhouse that is the disposable diaper industry) studies have shown connections between the chlorine and chemicals used forabsorbancy in diapers to infertility issues and prostate cancer. Even if only 2 studies showed a connection, I still wouldn't want to risk it. I use old school, unbleached cotton prefold diapers with water resistant covers. We use disposables for church day care and on the road, but at home it's cotton all the way. In addition to keeping little Ash's tush chemical free, it has a hugely positive impact on the environment. Disposable diapers don't degrade people. Even the ones that claim to be biodegradable WILL NOT break down in a land fill. In fact, nothing will. And who really wants to compost a dirty diaper? I love cloth diapers, but it doesn't bring me any closer to eternity.
The prince himself, modeling his clothed bottom.
I wake up at 6am and exercise 4-5 days a week and go on long runs almost every Saturday. I do this because my health is vital to my longevity, because I want to be an example to Asher, to my husband. I want to help motivate my friends, every one I love, to get fit because it means a longer, stronger, more aggresively lived life. But even still, if I can run 10 miles and am still wearing the same size jeans on my death bed, all that emphasis on taking care of my temple won't mean a thing, if I and my family never enter into the holy of holies.
Why to do I write all this? It's not to impress you, it's not to dote on the positive things in my life, it's because I don't want to miss the point. I don't want live my life with all of these good deeds and great living if it means my family, especially my children, won't love Jesus and through their love for him, love everyone. I want my family to be lovers of people, lovers of life, but to do so because it stems from an understanding of the unending and perpetual love and mercy we all receive daily from our Father. The blessings of a life lived in peace and with out fear due to a trust in something bigger and more powerful to guide your every decision are indescribable. It's free living, I hope you can all experience that peace, I hope in some small way we can be a part of your journey there.
Here are a few of the beautiful family pictures we took with our sweet friend, Carmen, who is in the very beginnings of starting her own photography business. Asher was WAY too busy watching her 2 year old and envying his running capabilities to sit still for many shots, so we were quite pleased with the result.
I follow the trends, I must admit. To the right of the posts on this page you'll see a gadget called "day to day goings on." It is a new app called Twitter that allows me to text message my blog with updates and just whatever randomness I manage to shovel up. Hopefully you will find it amusing. Corey is grateful we have unlimited texts on our phone plan...
