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Eden Joy Edmonds
“Joyful Delight”
August 7, 2011
9:05 pm
7 pounds 14 ounces, 20 3/4 inches

Born at home in the hot tub  after a difficult labor, but a gracious God sent us a healthy gift of life.

“Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalms 37:4

Birth story to come.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers!

Waiting…waiting…this past week has been a challenging week of striving to stay focused while anxiously awaiting our third little one to arrive. I admit I have been very impatient. After my previous two little ones came 6 and 8 days early respectively, I was half expecting this one to arrive in a nice early fashion as well. God had some lessons in patience to teach me. I’ve noticed more grumpy tendencies creeping out of me. I’m large. It’s hot. My body hurts. My plumbing overflowed in the kitchen. I can’t do much even if I wanted to.

The Lord is gracious despite my weakness. His grace is sufficient for me. I have much to be thankful for. This month I hung curtains in my living room making it more comfy and inviting, we hosted a fun ice cream social reaching out to friends and neighbors, I learned all about infant massage and the benefits to baby, I had a lovely personal retreat preparing my heart for our new addition, I started reading all about classical education and became so excited for the potential of educating our children, and so much more. It has been a blessed month filled with lots of family time investing in our two littles ones before we expand again – picnics, summer reading, and tea parties.

Tea time with Karis

3 in 30 Challenge: August

I have really been enjoying recording three goals for each month following the inspiration of the 3 in 30 Challenge.

My goals for August include becoming more faithful in daily prayer for my husband and children. I was really challenged to see these precious individuals as my primary ministry more so and what better way to serve them then through prayer. So I set up a little nook in my bedroom with my nursing chair, a small lamp, table, and my Bible and journals. I taped the 31 days of prayer chart for your children and the 31 days of prayer chart for your husband to the wall next to my chair. I plan to use this not only as my nursing nook, but it will certainly double as my prayer/Bible study corner during those hours of nursing that I will be entering soon.

Secondly, I want to develop a basic chore chart for my little ones. I have been inspired by the materials provided by Preschoolers and Peace and plan to develop a chart along these lines for my 2 and 4 year olds. As we welcome number 3, I can see it being even more essential to begin training them in being useful helpers to mommy!

Lastly, I want to make a simple plan of learning activities for my 2 year old as we begin early Kindergarten lessons with my daughter in September. He is pretty independent and enjoys his own play, but I really want to make sure I have some scheduled quality time with him each day. I want to make a list of fun ideas and such that will help keep him busy during our lesson times. I recently found a new simple curriculum called Flowering Baby that I will be reviewing and sampling. I’m really excited to try it out!

Any tips you might have to offer on these things would be greatly appreciated!

1000 Gifts – My Thankfulness List

What a blessing to continue on in the pursuit of recording 1000 gifts of everyday blessings in our lives. This has been such a rich and rewarding experience. My little moleskin notepad stores such treasures and graces from our day to day life.

#568- Cool weather for a summer pregnancy

#569- Selling furniture for a good price

#570 – Chai milkshakes

#571- Hot tub family time in the morning

#572 – Neighborhood parades with free goodies

#573 – Karis’ excitement over science experiments with daddy

#574 - Summer picnics at the park

#575 – My own little reading/nursing nook

#576- Kids digging in the dirt

#577- Play dates with cousins

#578- Delicious lunch salad

#579- Impromptu family dinner out to support a friend

#580- Kiddos making a slide out of daddy’s legs

#581- Craigslist deal for last minute baby needs

#582- Girls night hot tub and foot massages with dear friends

#583- Catching up with a long absent friend

#584- Homemade mint chocolate ice cream

#585- A new comforter for our bed

#586- Pregnant mommy toes soaking in cold water with fresh air and a good book in hand

Summer beauty from our backyard

Book Reviews

The Core: Teaching Your Child the Foundations of Classical Education by Leigh Bortins – I have been enthralled in this book over the last week. The classical method has been opening my eyes to the potential for training our children to be equipped to make such a difference in our nation. The pattern for studying chronological history, using real living books, and following the pattern of learning makes a lot of logical sense. I read the Well Trained Mind earlier this year and highly recommend these resources if you are beginning your homeschool journey like me.

King’s Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus by Tim Keller – This is one of my favorite books by Tim Keller presenting the power of the story of Christ through the book of Mark and how it relates to our day and age. My eyes have been open to the beauty of the gospel in a new way through the powerful insight presented in this book. I will have to read it again and again to glean it all!

August Sponsors

I will be taking a maternity break from blogging this month, but you’ll still find a wealth of fun articles from our contributors and guest posts to fill in during my absence. I am excited to take some time to be able to rest and enjoy our new little one (once it decides to show up!).

We would like to thank our wonderful selection of sponsors for the month of August, including:

Beyond Organic - a newly launched company founded by Jordan Rubin desiring to provide you with organic and raw delicious food products delivered to your door! Set to begin deliveries in October 2011.

Fertility Flower - Fertility Flower helps you build your family or practice natural birth control using the sympto-thermal method.

Graham Gardens - Wonderful natural soaps, bug repellent, and more from this wonderful company!

Willow Store - So many wonderful options for using natural cloth alternative in your home instead of disposables!

Sweet Bottoms Baby Boutique - My all time favorite cloth diaper and natural baby/mom products company with free shipping, wonderful customer service, and a fantastic rewards program!

Have a blessed August! May you be encouraged and strengthened in your homemaking and mothering!

Wow! Another amazing month has gone by filled with crazy adventures around the world. We spent a week in the Philippines with Compassion and our lives were changed by the amazing faithful work this organization is doing. We came home and had a very challenging week of adjusting back into life here. My pregnant body did not want to sleep for a week! Baby was on a different time schedule as well and would be kicking like crazy at night time. But finally, I feel half-way normal again (besides bearing all this extra prego weight!). The Lord has been gracious and merciful.

I set about my before baby #3 goals, first of which was to potty train my son. And the Lord was merciful again and he has got it down in his own cute little independent way. He doesn’t want Mommy’s help or reminders. He will go in his own due time. It has been an hilarious experience! I love his little, “I did it!” I get a diaper break now for 4-5 more weeks.

We spent a lovely weekend at the Oregon Coast with Aaron’s family and what a sweet bonding time that was. With 4 of the 7 brothers in his family married and 5 grand babies (with two more on the way!), the house was lively and full! But what a blessing to have wonderful supportive family nearby. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

My next goal is strawberry freezer jam and stocking the freezer with bags of strawberries! We will be doing that this weekend!

We are 35 weeks along! Only a few more weeks to go before we welcome baby #3…what’s your guess? Boy or girl? All the  Philippinos guessed a boy. In the last few weeks here, I hope to be able to invest some quality time with each of my little ones, finalize our fall Kindergarten plans, rest up, stock up on a few freezer meals, and prepare my heart for welcoming another precious little life into this world.

3 in 30 Challenge

Need some help setting and accomplishing goals? I have found the 3 in 30 challenge to be so incredibly helpful over the last few months. Set 3 goals to be accomplished in 30 days is actually a manageable task!

1000 Gifts – Continuing the Journey!

What a blessing to continue on in the pursuit of recording 1000 gifts of everyday blessings in our lives. This has been such a rich and rewarding experience. My little moleskin notepad stores such treasures and graces from our day to day life. When I am down and discouraged, it is a sweet reminder that God is good no matter what. It has been a springboard of wonderful times of prayer and thanksgiving. With each record of thanksgiving, my eyes are opened in new ways. It has been the best practice in cultivating true joy and contentment. We passed number 500 this week!

477. Early morning prayer moments with my hubby

480. The healing power of tears

486. The blessing of laughter

487. Making friends in other cultures

491. Pleasures received from teaching and planning our homeschool curriculum

495. A precious girl painting (literally) flowers

496. Success in potty training

501. Karis at her pretend baking station

503. Fresh flowers indoors from our own backyard

505. Baby in position and ready to go

506. The delight of a bubble bath

508. Tucking the kiddos snuggly in at night

511. A thoughtful pedicure from a sweet sister in law

514. A windless day at the beach

515. Wonderful fluffy pillows to aid sweet sleep

516. Delightful lemon bars

517. Chocolate milk tea party on a humid afternoon amidst an array of books

518. A short walk to a fun playground to explore

519. A surprise gift card to welcome baby from co-workers

June Book Reviews

Give them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus by Elyse Fitzpatrick – a truly great read for gospel centered parenting! A new favorite on my list to be read again and again. I love this lady!

31 Days to Clean: Having a Martha House the Mary Way by Sarah Mae – A fabulous short easy read inspiring a vision for biblical homemaking with easy step by step tasks to do each day along with the encouragement. Both vision and practice in one!

Loving the Little Years: Motherhood in the Trenches by Rachel Jankovic – a sweet real life view of delighting in motherhood even with multiple little ones! I thought it was quite randomly laid out but overall very encouraging with lots of practical advice.

We will not have a specific theme here for the month of July but rather be talking all about different aspects of homemaking and parenting. With with the joys of summer ahead of us we wanted to have the freedom to just have fun as we feel led to share about.

July Sponsors

We are excited to welcome back Sweet Bottoms Baby Boutique (my favorite source for cloth diapers and gear all with free shipping!) and Willow Pads (dryer balls, diapers, and more!) as continued sponsored for July, along with Graham Gardens (wonderful lotion bars, natural bug bar, and other skin care goodies). Check out these awesome companies for quality natural care products for your family! We greatly appreciate their support!

Photos by Christa Taylor Photography

My husband and I depart this morning for the Philippines to participate in the Compassion Bloggers team. I am thrilled to see and hear all that God has in store for us! I will be blogging daily here this next week (May 29-June 3) about all our adventures, so stay tuned!

I would appreciate your prayers for our safety, health (at 30 weeks pregnant!), and the ability to express all that God desires me to communicate with you! I want to see my vision for His mission expanded!

Join us in sponsoring a child from the Philippines! We get to meet our special little girl, Jerry (age 4), during our visit!

Our home has been overflowing with visitors this month. We were blessed to host our first overnight guests for a few nights, and then came church gatherings (we hosted an Easter sunrise breakfast and weekly community group), a baby shower, and a birthday party for my sweet Karis (she is 4 years old!). We had over 130 people come through our doors in one week! I am enjoying a quiet recovery this week from all these exciting events. It has truly been a joy to open our home and use this gift to bless others!

We have been enraptured in the beauty of Spring peeping out in our backyard, bringing flowers indoors, taking nature walks, climbing trees, and exploring as the sun begins to make an occasional warm spring day. I have grown to realize how easily it is to fill our days with such activities that we have no time to stop and treasure the beauty that God has placed around us. I am eager to glean fresh eyes.

Karis & Ty waiting at the window anticipating Daddy's arrival home

We arrived at 26 weeks in my pregnancy this week! Wow! It sure is flying by…but definitely starting to feel it more in my physical body. After that busy hospitality week, I felt like my legs would fall off from all the standing and hosting. You will see me sitting a lot this week just to give my body a rest. Baby is healthy, head down, and growing every day. Now if I could just deny my cravings for sweets!

I would appreciate your prayers as my husband, Aaron and I, prepare to go to the Philippines on May 28th. We will be leaving our kids with extended family and joining the Compassion bloggers team to see the work and ministry of Compassion International in the Philippines. I am praying the Lord would sustain me physically (I’ll be 30 weeks pregnant at this point!) as well as keep our children safe and comforted during our absence. I will be recording our adventures here during the first week of June. So excited!

We also will be celebrating our 5 year anniversary this month! May 21st marks 5 years with my wonderful hubby – who diligently provides and cares for our family! I am a blessed woman!

April Reading

Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand – I greatly enjoyed learning a little American history and the enthusiasm that rose around this little horse during the trying years of the Great Depression. Hillenbrand is a excellent writer!

Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan – a powerful challenging call to see the magnificence of Christ and to motivate us to display that love to a dying world around us by living intentionally for his glory. This is a wake up call to the Christian church to live radically for Christ as we witness the crazy love that He has given to us.

Idols of the Heart by Elyse Fitzpatrick – Another good read by Elyse on the topic of helping to identity and battle the idols in our lives with the truth of the gospel. Lots of encouragement and practical advice for making sure Christ is first on the throne in our hearts and not this world, beauty, the opinion of other’s, or anything else that might shape our purpose in this life.

May Theme: Pregnancy & Motherhood

With the celebration of Mother’s Day this month, we wanted to focus our May theme on tips, inspiration, and encouragement for natural pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood. We hope you will join us as we share encouragement regarding the beauty of birth, inspiration for motherhood, advice for new moms, and more.

May Sponsors

We want to take a moment to highlight and thank our May sponsors!

Your Gardening Friend - check out this fun blog highlighting lots of tips and advice for natural gardening!
Azure Standard: Midwest Route facebook page - If you reside in the Midwest, you don’t want to miss out on learning about Azure Standard and the wonderful natural food co-op that delivers all over many parts of the US and recently expanded into the Midwest. Join the conversation!
Paula’s Breads - Find high quality kitchen gear and resources for your home at Paula’s Breads!

I finished unpacking my final boxes this month, and what a joy that was. I feel so much more settled and our pictures and photos are on the walls making it our home. We’ve been doing some more focused organizing and gardening to get things arranged to make them workable for our family. The Lord also provided some great renters for our condo this month! This was a huge blessing and answer to prayer. It had been vacant since our move (for 2.5 months), so the Lord really stretched our faith in His provision, but He was faithful once again!

I am 4 1/2 months along (otherwise known as 22 weeks) with #3 and we are doing very well. Naps have still been essential, but my little ones surely keep me busy and distracted. I cannot wait to see our new little one. Thankful to be able to prepare for another homebirth with my same faithful midwife. Mommy’s belly is certainly expanding. I have to mention how much I have loved my Bella Band though! I have been able to wear my normal jeans all along with this little helpful tool. And now that I am starting to wear maternity jeans, it is helping keep them up! What a blessing!

We just returned this past weekend from an inspiring weekend beach trip to our favorite spot on the Oregon Coast. It was such a rich time. Scheduling in time for rest is so fruitful for the soul. I enjoyed delving into the Word more, reading more on identifying the strongholds in my life (via Idols of the Heart by Elyse Fitzpatrick), and just basking in the beauty of God’s creation. God is good!

March Blessings

I am continuing on in my recording of 1000 gifts to tune my heart towards starting each day in a spirit of thankfulness. I have been lazy and stopped it for a bit of time, but the Lord challenged me anew this month to continue on in my pursuit. It is so refreshing to start your day journaling His gifts. I hope you can join me in this pursuit! Here are some of His sweet gifts to me this month:

#294 – accountability time with a sweet sister
#295 – a missing special dolly for Titus is replaced
#297 – Quinoa porridge
#306 – unpacking the final room
#308 – the ability to read
#310 – learning her ABC’s (I love hearing Karis says words and trying to identify the starting letter – so much fun!)
#313 – a friend’s shoulder to cry upon
#314 – an evening stroll as a family in the Spring sunshine
#318 – utilizing our basement for worship practice
#321 – little hands to help mommy
#325 – two little ones sleeping soundly together
#326 – grace to wake up at 5:30am even after a poor nights rest
#328 – giggling babies under the blanket
#331 – sweet kicks in my womb
#334 – enjoying glimpses into history and amazed at the privilege to learn
#338 – a greater understanding of God’s amazing love

To be continued…

March Reading

I have been inspired by my friend, Kat (through her awesome blog, Inspired to Action), to begin to listen to more books on CD or via my ipod. What a great way to get some good books and sermons listened to while our are doing various housecleaning or traveling. I started listening more while I did my housecleaning, laundry, and dishes, and found I really could get a lot listened too when I used this time wisely and discovered that I enjoyed doing these tasks more when I had something enjoyable to listen too. And with one ear bud in and another out, I can always hear the needs of my children and stop to address them. Sermon apps such as Mars Hill Church and Revive Our Hearts are my favorites for Christian living/doctrine inspiration. Christianaudio.com also offers a wide selection of books, and I especially love their monthly free downloads. Audible.com has a great selection of books as well at very reasonable prices. For a wide selection of free public domain books, visit LibriVox.

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hilenbrand – I listened to this book on tape this month and was in utter amazement and awe the whole way through. I couldn’t stop listening. It is a powerful story of courage and redemption highlighting the life of a World War II prisoner of war. You see immense struggle, purposelessness, and God’s grace entering in the end via his salvation to birth a story of beautiful forgiveness. Highly recommended!

April Theme: Hospitality

I am excited to announce that our April theme at Passionate Homemaking will be all about hospitality and cultivating a mission-minded family and lifestyle. I am excited to share about how to make hospitality and loving on others doable and practical while being wives, mothers, and homemakers. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas too!

Thanks to The Willow Store (dryer balls, cloth diapers, menstrual care and more!), Apple Valley Natural Soaps (a wide assortment of natural homemade soaps), and Paula’s Bread (every appliance you need for a natural kitchen!) for your sponsorship of Passionate Homemaking for April!

What has God been doing in your home this month?

Painting, decorating, housewarming party, praying for a renter for our condo, enjoying some snow, and more has filled our lives this month. It has been a true joy to make our new home more our own with some lovely new paint, furniture, and pictures on the walls. I stepped out in faith and painted our family room gray with red accents and we love it! I painted our fireplace and took down all the random assortment of blinds and curtains that were left from the previous owner. It feels so much more open and clean now. I’ll have to give you a tour soon.

We have been blessed with a wonderful assortment of furniture that makes it easy to comfortably sit a good number of people. We hosted a successful open house inviting all our neighbors, co-workers, and other church friends and had a blast. Over 100 people stepped through our doors within a 4 hour period. We feel so much more settled into this Portland life and excited to invest more in our community. This city needs Jesus and we want to be a light where God has placed us.

We reached 18 weeks into my pregnancy with #3 this week! So far it has been smooth and peaceful. Pregnancy treats me well. I was tempted to find out the gender of this little one, but my husband swayed me otherwise once again (all three will be a surprise for us now!). There is nothing like that expectation in birth to see what kind of blessing the Lord has specially packaged for us.

My little man, Titus, turns two this week, and what a joy that is to behold. It is a precious season of life, and yet one that is really draining with it being chalked full of necessary training, disciplining, and discipling. Praying for grace to let go of my idols of desires for control and peace in our home, when making the nurturing of their hearts my priority and mission at present. God is granting grace to let go of my schedule and to-do’s and see their hearts as the priority. Now is the time when they are tender and need to be shaped so they see their desperate need for the Savior. Thankful for resources like the gospel, the book of Proverbs, Gospel Centered Families, Gospel Powered Parenting, and Shepherding a Child’s Heart during this season.

Philippines!

I cannot believe my teenage dream of going to the Philippines is coming true, but it appears that God has opened up the doors. I was honored to be invited to participate on a trip with Compassion Bloggers to see the ministry and work of Compassion International first hand and share of my experiences here. I am so thrilled to go this coming May and learn what God is doing in this beautiful country. And guess what, my hubby gets to go too! Due to my pregnancy, my husband gets to accompany me to offer support and help for my prego body.

February Reading

The Mom Walk by Sally Clarkson is a beautiful challenging and inspiring read for any mother. Are you needing fresh inspiration and encouragement in the journey? How do you stay close to Jesus in the walk? You will find a wealth of life experience, stories, and wisdom from my all time favorite writer on the topic of godly motherhood here in the Mom Walk.

March Theme at Passionate Homemaking: Identity

We had a lively February theme on marriage that was full of great discussion. For March, we are excited to launch a series on Identity - covering topics such as dealing with comparison, criticism, your identity in Christ, becoming God’s true woman, strengthening your soul, naturally battling depression and fear, etc. Have a particular question on this topic you would like to see discussed? Let us know!

Bless you all!

It’s been an exciting month of settling in, getting used to a new city, and adjusting to a new routine at our home. The Lord has been gracious every step of the way. I have made the error of turning the wrong direction on a one way street (and enjoyed a nice pregnant mommy cry in response). We found having a lock on the kids bedroom door was not a good idea when Titus locked himself in (thankful for the locksmith who rescued him without a charge!). I have discovered that consignment shops in the city are ridiculously priced (who wants to pay $12 for a used shirt?). And that you have to go to the outskirts to find good deals on pretty much everything.

We did find an awesome co-op from which we can purchase everything from local milk, to meat, to produce all in one stop – which is a huge blessing! We also discovered it is a 15 minute walk to church and the library, and we have a school playground practically in our backyard. The people we have met have been so welcoming, loving, and smiling. We also learned that it is possible to only have our garbage picked up once a month (you can recycle and compost practically anything in this city – check out Far West Fibers!). Now, does anyone have tips for composting in your back yard? God is good all the time!

1000 Gifts

I am picking up where I left off on my thankfulness list, as I didn’t include any last month, but I am still making my way towards completing my list of 1000 everyday gifts thanks to the inspiration of Ann Voskamp. This has been a transforming exercise and I highly recommend it! Has help transform my perspective in seeing each mundane moment as truly a gift.

#264 – A new home dedicated for hospitality
#265- Ty is rescued from bedroom for free
#268 – The gracious welcome from new neighbors – including dinner
#269 – An easy 5 minute trip to church
#270 – A discarded item is sold for a profit
#271 – An hour nap on a couch
#274- Being able to continue with my midwife – she is willing to make the extra trip! Yippee!
#277- Delicious filtered water
#278 – Fire oven pizza while dating my husband
#279 – All the boxes unpacked
#280 – Three mouths enjoying a juicy grapefruit
#289 – Walking a mile in heels and my feed didn’t fall off
#290 – A tummy beginning to pooch with new life
#291 – Making a new friend a library storytime
#292 – Cream soup – a favorite during this pregnancy!

To be continued…

January Reading

Ruth, A Portrait: The story of Ruth Belle Graham by Patricia Cornwell. I am so thankful for the list of wonderful biography recommendations from you all, and though I had read many of them already, this one stood out to me. It has been such a wonderfully refreshing and enjoyable read about such a courageous woman who was willing to sacrifice so much for the ministry God called her husband too. She was a beautiful and humble woman who did not like the spotlight and would sit somewhere hidden among the crowd rather than center stage. Highly recommend!

February Theme: Strengthening Your Marriage

We are excited to launch our new theme for the month of February here at Passionate Homemaking on the topic of building and strengthening your marriage. We’ll be chatting a bit about intimacy, date nights, special goodies for your man, and more. Do you have a topic idea for us? Please share.

May God richly bless you and yours!