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Costa Rica: stuff we do – in video!

By on January 26, 2012 in Costa Rica, stuff we do, the cuteness, ♬ music & art ✎

as previously mentioned, we’ve established a bit of a weekly schedule here in sunny Costa Rica. it just seems to make sense in the communal living situation we’ve got going on (which we’ve always wanted to have and are happy to be trying out!).

for the first two weeks we were here Krista had her own room and the kids were bunking with us in our room. honestly, I really like all sleeping in the same room – I don’t feel like I have to sleep with one eye open, or ear, as it were, so I just sleep better. but Mr. D definitely prefers his privacy. it finally worked out for us to help Krista set up her little living space downstairs on Sunday (and by we I mainly mean Maeve), and so for the first time in 2 years Mr. D and I have had our own room as the kids moved into the space Krista had previously occupied. (Maverick was still in the pack n play in our room in the States because we only have one other bedroom and hadn’t gotten Maeve’s room moved around to accommodate him yet – we had actually figured we may as well make the transition here) anyway, it’s kinda weird! actually, we only had the room to ourselves for 6 months or less in between Maeve being born and then transitioning to her own room until Maverick was born, so yeah.

speaking of sleeping – Maverick didn’t go to sleep right away for his nap the other day and when we spied on him to see what he was doing it was NOT good…

back to schedules and routines, Mr. D is in charge of breakfasts, Krista – lunches, and moi – suppers. even dividing up the work like that it still feels like we are cooking, eating, and cleaning up CONSTANTLY. I am really thankful to be able to eat, but it just feels like the day is not long enough to eat so MUCH. case in point, I spent two hours cooking supper (picadillo, tortillas, and rice) and then we ate for a good half hour I guess, after which we had to clean up for another half hour. that was 3 hours out of my average 17 hours awake and it was only one meal. I don’t know, just kinda feels like a big fat waste of time to me. but I guess it beats buying more expensive food?

after eating breakfast or brunch (or once in a while lunch if we had to do something else in the morning) we have a little “company meeting”. we are on a rotation for who is in charge of the devotional/meditation/encouragement of the day and then we talk about whatever we might have going later that day. once that is sorted out Krista and I discuss progress on whatever projects she is working on and then we all generally settle in to work for a few hours before lunch. the kids usually run in and out between the courtyard and Tia’s house and generally play together – thank God for two, right?! most of the time anyway :)

apart from the little weekly traditions I’ve already referenced, we have also now established Sunday night as popcorn, smoothies, and movie on the wall night. I’m sure you’ll see bits of all of these little traditions at some point, but for today I present to you, Bread Day! (thanks, of course, to Krista for the fun editing and actually, in this case virtually all of the videoing :) )

check out our facebook page for more videos or subscribe to our youtube channel if you are so inclined (aka have good taste :) )

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and the award goes to…

By on January 24, 2012 in au naturel, HA! ☺, Lifestyle, Musings, Random, ♬ music & art ✎

us! woot! :)

the ridiculously beautiful Jamie over at I Am Not the Babysitter (whom you might recognize from my guest post there the other day) so splendidly bestowed on us the coveted Versatile Blogger Award last month and this is the first I’m finding time to accept – thank you silly holidays and move to Costa Rica :) .

I would personally like to redesign the button for more my style…being the little researcher that I am I went searching to figure out the origins of this prestigious award. from what I can tell there are two versions floating around the interwebs, but I will just stick with what I got from my nominator.

mostly it’s a way to recognize, appreciate, and encourage blogs that you have that special “connection” to, that have impacted you in some way, or that you just plain enjoy.

here are the responsibilities of accepting such an honor:

nominate 15 fellow bloggers (below)
inform the bloggers of their nomination
share 7 random things about yourself (keep reading)
thank the blogger who nominated you – Jamie, you ROCK :)
add the award on your post (check)

without further ado, 7 random things about me:

1.) I am a new writer at revolutionizeHer; my introductory post is scheduled for tomorrow up! I’m excited to be part of a great team of strong women seeking to encourage and inspire others!

2.) I have an average voice, but a motivated dad, which in my case equals 2 Chinese worship albums. (my family lived in China for a part of my teenage years and he really wanted to give the house church we left there some worship music in their language. so after we got back to the States he got some songs together and I worked with a friend of ours on having them translated and then the guy at the recording studio, Mark Pence, created all the music tracks from scratch working with my dad on ideas and sounds. the second album was the same way except that I picked the songs. it was 1999 and 2000 (2001?), folks, lol)

3.) this item is kinda related to the last. it’s been almost 14 years since I’ve lived in China, but at the time it was very common that your average Joe (Li? :) ) did not have a shower in their home at all. most people went to bath houses for all their showering needs. living on a college campus, it was very normal for me to see people wearing the same clothes for a week at a time, especially in the winter. I know there’s a stigma in the States about not showering every day, but I personally do not subscribe to it. I understand people have gotten in the habit of it, and it certainly makes a lot of sense for some occupations and such, but the reality is that I just do not get all that dirty in my normal day-to-day life – my work is at a computer and my hair isn’t the greasy sort. I tend to shower based on smell, how I feel, or whether or not my hair needs a refresher, as opposed to following some sort of societal stipulations. if that is disagreeable to you, do consider that I save on time, water, bath products, and don’t need to use nearly as much lotion as dear Mr. D. (also, pssst, pretty sure most moms out there have been forced – whether willingly or unwillingly – to give up a shower here and there or many wheres) I do generally change clothes every day, however :) which I realize is mostly just as silly.

4.) I’m always really authentic in relationships and care a lot about supporting other people. I have recently been wondering what my love languages are because it can be a struggle to not feel hurt when I feel like someone isn’t doing something for me that seems simple and I would bend over backward for them. I started suspecting that acts of service might be one of mine. I’ve never felt like I identified with that one, but I am now starting to wonder if I’ve been looking at it from the wrong angle all this time. and it turns out my wondering was right! my top two languages are Acts of Service and Physical Touch. if you’ve never figured out your love language and those of the people you interact with most, save yourself a lot of unnecessary frustration and go take the assessment!

5.) since we’re talking about personality type stuff, which I absolutely love and am fascinated by, I’m supposedly an ENFJ, which apparently means I’m a female Obama. ha. ha. the funny thing is that Mr. D is a male Michelle (INTJ), so… I guess we fit? lol. my semi-complete personality profile is here.

6.) along with what makes people tick, I very much enjoy observing and contemplating relationship dynamics. if I wasn’t in a creative profession I think I’d be in some sort of counseling field. I’d love for Mr. D and I to be couples’ counselors in our old age or something. maybe I’ll be able to get him to agree by then :) .

7.) aaaaand, last but not least, ummmmmmmm… thinking… thinking… ok, here’s a funny one – I’m always curious how people choose to arrange the pictures they get from Christmas cards and such every year, if they even bother to put them up somewhere at all (and how someone “makes the grade” for getting put in their display area). is there rhythm to your madness??? discuss.

I am nominating the lovelies below:
(and all you have to do to accept the award is follow the guidelines listed above :) )

A Curious Thing – Jess is open, honest, and refreshing, as well as having fun hair and tattoos – we email back and forth and exchanged some fun snail mail recently :)

Ma Nouvelle Mode – Natalia is a sweetie, down to earth and real, just what I like in a bloggy friend :) she also has some great tips on girly stuff! I did a fun guest post on her blog last month about making and keeping special traditions.

Create with Christina – um hello, her name is Christina! she can’t help but be awesome :)

Girl Willow – I just discovered her blog and ended up reading a bunch of posts because I feel like I could have written half of them. she likes ellipses almost as much as I do!

Delirious Rhapsody – recommended by Girl Willow, and for good reason. I kind of adore sarcasm. plus I’ve been wanting to start vlogging and I like the way she’s doing it. last but not least, her son Gage says crazy funny stuff – possibly even funnier than the stuff our kids say that I generally post on twitter… though they’d give him a run for his money :)

Life of Love – I just find Sar delightfully amusing. I mean, go check out the pic she has on her about page :) she and her man do funny vlogs also.

Sunlight After Rain – Sarah is an aspiring actress. I think it’s awesome that she’s following her dreams.

Not Hip Enough to Blog – with a title like that, what else do you really need to know? I appreciate when people just put their cards out on the table. unless of course we are actually playing cards, in which case I want to skunk you fair and square. ACTUALLY, Ali is a stellar musician and a cool peep :)

Elle Keeps Moving – I’ve been enjoying Elle’s blog for quite a while now, though I haven’t commented a ton. I. just. like. her. :)

Our Beautiful Little Journey -I came across Noelani’s blog last fall and she is great!

Sweet Green Tangerine – I like her style and gel with her “about” :) plus she recommends great indie music!

Behind the Scenes – Liz is a fellow RH writer. I don’t know her very well yet, but she seems pretty cool and is starting a girls’ ministry type of project called GLOW.

Stacey Nicole – I think she is a kindred spirit and you should check out this post.

The Neesby Lookbook – can you believe I chauffeured this little chica around one summer back before she had her license and now she drives a school bus? she’s adorable :)

Someone in Mind – because whenever I find a hip 30-something blogger it gives me hope, and Erin is definitely dope – and I am not a poet :)

some of them might already have this award, I am not 100% sure, but if not they should because it’s just fun :)

Comments { 3 }

Knowing the Face of God: A Personal Relationship

By on December 26, 2011 in God and stuff, Musings, Reviews, ☞ Truth, yo, ♬ music & art ✎

One of the main reasons for this blog is growing and learning. There are many books that have a big impact on our journey and we want to make notes and impressions here so that what we learn is imbedded more deeply in us and we are also able to come back and review it later. If our musings are able to encourage anyone else, all the better.

I started reading Knowing the Face of God by Tim Stafford earlier this year. It’s an older book, one which we gleaned from the library of Mr. D’s grandpa after he didn’t need it anymore, and it’s been sitting on our shelf for years. This felt like the right time to read it. Not too far in I realized it was going to be one of those books that changes the way I think about things. I always markup books, of course, with highlights and underlines and tiny notes in the margin, but for a long, long time I have been wanting to do a much better job of recording what I am learning. Thus, I greatly slowed my reading in the book and in fact now have been waiting to continue until I get caught up on hashing out my musings. I prefer to record first impressions.

The author sets the stage by describing the struggle of wanting to know God and be in relationship with him in an undeniably real sense. He talks about the effect that others’ apparent spiritual lives and interactions with God have on one’s own sense of God; the feelings that arise when you allow yourself to go to the recesses of your mind and contemplate the questions that linger there but are not often fully formed; the longings that are often stuffed down by the realities of simply surviving everyday life. These are my words, and the reasons I sought out this book.

I have experienced times of intense connection with God where I felt my spirit fully alive and engaged in constant dialogue with him throughout my day. It is these experiences which educate my understanding of Paul’s recommendations to not marry. Marriage and subsequently children add so many more things into your mind and heart which were previously much less cluttered. It is unquestionably more difficult to find that sense of communion with God on a regular basis with all the extras floating around in one’s brain and constantly engaging all the other 5 of one’s senses in the impossible-to-ignore way that diapers and hunger and little squabbles do.

I find, though, that it is much more noble to engage fully in life and these kinds of relationships, even if that means accepting the struggle of knowing God on a different level and in a more complicated way, than to choose a path of hermitude and a selfishly monastic lifestyle which enables one to seek out intense feelings of heavenly connection at all times.

If you are not the type of personality given to connecting with your emotions like a surfer at home in the ocean, you may not understand the desire to embrace the melancholy and contemplative moments and cling  to them until you have wrung every drop of emotional high out of them. Have you ever tried to have a good cry with kids hanging on your leg, needing lunch?

You can’t very well be in your own little world and at the same time be any good in relationships. I think this may be why the most celebrated artists are often those who meet or have met with tragic ends – they seek out the intensely dark place of creativity where no one can follow, and people are not made to be alone – it is actually, then, a somewhat self-destructive state, a twisted version of creativity.

I do believe, however, that there is a place of creativity that is much more open and vulnerable and engaging. God is a creator, but he involves us in his processes, he does not turn inward and isolate. It is this journey I find myself on, of learning to throw off insecurities and the perceived comfort and gratification that isolated creativity provides, and rather join God in embracing the joy and pain of creating while being fully engaged with all the complexities of LIFE and relationships with others.

So there is this reality that feeling and interacting with God on a day-to-day basis seems to be much less an ethereal experience, and much more a volatile trusting that our present state of mind does not change who God is our relationship with him. It is simultaneously that simple and that complex. And it is this struggle of wanting more that we shall continue to explore in part 2.

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get your free stuff here!

By on December 12, 2011 in giveaways, ♬ music & art ✎

if you would be interested in having this

or this

you should hop your cute butt over to our friend Nicole’s blog and enter to win!
your chances are pretty good right now, and giveaways are fun anyway :)

Comments { 2 }

being true to yourself – a follow up

By on December 7, 2011 in Confessions, ♬ music & art ✎

I realized after mulling it over today while cleaning (blech!) that I should probably clarify yesterday’s post for those of you who have known me forever.

it’s not that I haven’t been me or have not been real with all of you.
I would say I probably mostly stopped caring what other people thought
in my mid-teens living in China.
so it’s not that I’m not me in real life,
but I guess there are just parts of me that I’ve always held back
that have been my own private little world of sorts.
I think it is the creative and emotional side of me that I have never felt completely realized,
that feels very vulnerable and raw to put out there to you
because I’m not sure you’ll really know what to do with it.
growing up in a small rural area in the midwest,
homeschooled none-the-less (looong before it was cool with lots of options, lol),
did not make it easy for me t0 be true to that side of me or even really understand it.
I have no trouble sharing with complete strangers or basic acquaintances online.
but now I’m not going to hold back and edit anymore.
much of the inner workings of my brain and heart
are going to be freed from their cave-like existence for whoever bothers to read and discover it.
and that is freeing…
maybe you haven’t been exploring some of the aspects of yourself that feel vulnerable either?
I really encourage you to do so.
if you blog about it I would love to read it, just let me know!

Comments { 9 }