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We would like to announce and congratulate the winners of the Scripture verse CD: God’s Word A to Z!

Erin – Eralel…@
Mary – [email protected]
Elizabeth – elizabethschwe…@
Angela – bkmoma…@
Mrs. Pear – Mrs.Pear…@

May God richly bless you as you fill your homes with His praises!

Aaron & Lindsay, Victoria, BC

It has been full and profitable month at our house. We celebrated Karis’ 3rd birthday in which we reflected back on her special arrival in this world via a natural breech homebirth and what a miracle that was. She has become such a sweet girl who loves to go on dates with Daddy, help mommy around the house, carefully organize her things, and explore the world of imagination with her dress up box (which we compiled for her for her birthday). Daily she will dress up in a lovely outfit and dance around the room while listening to her CD player with various Scripture songs playing aloud.

I completed my CAPPA training which brings me one step closer to becoming a certified labor doula and childbirth instructor. It was three intense days of training in everything related to birth. My brain was a bit overloaded. I am excited to see how God might use this training to minister and bless other women. My desire is to use it as a ministry to help empower families to have glorious birthing experiences.

Karis, celebrating her 3rd birthday, with her new chef costume!

Finally, Aaron and I visited Victoria, British Columbia this month in celebration of our 4th anniversary. We were able to get away for 5 days and invest in our marriage, tour the beautiful Beauchart Gardens, enjoy scrumptious food (including High Tea), hike and walk all over the city, and simply rest and relax together. We were so blessed to have Aaron’s parents willing to watch our kiddos for an extended getaway. It was amazing!

On top of all this, we put our house up for sale! We have been praying and deliberating for some time now, and felt it was finally time to start pursuing a move. We would like to move into Portland to be closer to Aaron’s work, church, and the potential of reaching out to his co-workers more effectively. Please pray with us that God would bring the right buyer, and if you know of anyone looking for a two bedroom condo in Vancouver, WA, pass on our info!

Book Reviews

With all the events taking place this month, I wasn’t able to complete as much reading as I would have liked, but have a few recommendations for you:

Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual by Michael Pollan – a quick, simple, and easy guide to real food based upon his book, In Defense of Food. Enjoyable reminder of the priorities to make in your food choices.

Gospel-Powered Parenting: How the Gospel Shapes and Transforms Parenting by William Farley – this is a powerfully eye opening read for every Christian parent. The gospel is the foundation, the training manual for our instruction when training and disciplining our children. The gospel is the key to effective parenting otherwise we can easily stray to the self-centered, child-centered, or power struggle oriented parenting philosophies of our day. We cannot overly protect them from the world, or assume that new birth has taken place because they are in a safe Christian environment, but rather actively pursue planting seeds of the gospel in their hearts and allow it to transform their lives, giving them vision and purpose for their future.

Blog News

I hope you will take a moment to check out our new sponsors for the month of June (see sidebar or RSS links below)! I wish to thank them all for their continual support for this website and ministry! Dr Mom’s Essentials is a site dedicated to equipping wives and mothers for do-it-yourself schooling, cooking, and doctoring at home. She offers a wealth of information on essential oils (stay tuned for a giveaway later this month!). Old Fashioned Homemaking offers a useful blog filled with pursuing traditional values in modern homes. FBS Books joins us again with a huge reason of Christian books and homeschooling resources.

I am also excited to welcome Michele at Frugal Granola as a new monthly contributor! Check out her biography on our contributors page.

I also want to give an update on our home sponsorship. As many of you know, we donate the majority of our profits earned through advertising and affiliates to support an orphan home in Cambodia. Over the last several months, we have been able to donate roughly $750 each month to support this orphan home thanks to your support! Please continue to join us in our efforts to get this home fully sponsored. Your purchases through our links make a huge difference! Learn more about our home, Phnom Thom, and the wonderful work that is taking place there. How did this vision come about? Read my story! Take part with us in spreading God’s love to the nations!

Coming up this month, we will be talking all about traveling – how to eat nutritionally on the road, traveling activities, exploring the world without even leaving home, and other fun topics! What would you like to hear about? Please share!

We are excited to announce that our new blog design is live! Welcome to the new and improved Passionate Homemaking – a place where you can be inspired to live a more natural, simple and intentional life as a wife, mother, and homemaker. We have redesigned the site to make it more clean, simple, and easy to navigate. We hope you find this useful!

The drop down navigation above will give you access to all the resources we have compiled for this site, including recipes, natural living links, local food sources (for those in the PDX area), and my recommended reading lists (including my lists from 2008, 2009 and the lastest 2010). You will find updated simplified category buttons on the right, and a new tab box below it including our most popular posts, the latest posts, and recent comments. We will also be adding my twitter feed here eventually. Our site is now really easy to subscribe to with our new social media buttons!

We wish to give a hearty thanks to Katie at Flibby Pie Design for her kind assistance in designing our new look. It was an absolute pleasure working with this young woman! My husband, Aaron, as well deserves my undying love and thanks for his faithfulness in being my web developer and making everything work! I love him so!

Please let us know if you find anything on the new site that does not work…as there are still a few kinks and bugs. We also love to hear your feedback! Take a minute to look around and let us know what you think!

Thank you to all our lovely readers for your continued support and encouragement! It has been a rich blessing!

What do you like? What do you not like? What would you like to see added?

Our Family - March 2010

Spring is here and the weather outside has been truly delightful! I love those first sprouts of warmer days, spring walks with flowers blossoming around you, thoughts of summer, and true gratefulness at the beauty around me. I have been blessed this month to celebrate our son’s first birthday, have some spring family photos done (thanks to my wonderful sister, Christa), and continue to adjust to cultivating more of a simplicity and intentionality in my homemaking.

I did have another bout of insomnia this month, but the Lord is again graciously carrying me through this trial and helping me work through my emotions and struggles. My husband has been so supportive and encouraging.

Aaron is thriving at his new job and loves the corporate environment! His job has provided stability in our finances more so than we have ever experienced. Direct deposit is a wonderful gift. With this blessing, we are purposefully paying off the remainder of business debt that had accumulated and get into a purposeful savings plan. We love Mint for our financial tracking…it’s free!

The kiddos are doing very well. They love routine more than I ever realized. Since we are limited to one car for the time being, we are staying home a lot more. We established a good morning and evening routine. Taking a daily walk (along as the weather proves endurable) with the kids helps refresh our spirits and get us tired for good naps. Karis and I have a quality learning time together each morning now, doing a focused learning activity, reading, baking, or simply giggling over tea. I love it! I have learned the importance of scheduling in these times together or they get forgotten. I am blessed with two lovely children that love to smile!

Titus & Karis

Welcome Contributors!

I am excited to announce that I am welcoming three new monthly blog contributors to join me here at Passionate Homemaking! Please welcome Vina, Kat & Ann – three amazing inspired women! They all equally have a passion to encourage women in all things natural, simple and mission-mindedness. I am thrilled to have them join my team. Please check out our new contributor page which includes their bio’s and personal blogs.

New Blog Design!

Another exciting event in process is the redesigning of our blog! Yes, it has been a long time in coming, and we hope to launch the new site by May 1st. I am simply thrilled!

Relevant 2010 here we come!

I stumbled upon the Relevant Conference 2010 this past week and just fell in love with the vision and theme of this conference. It is all about purposeful, intentional, real blogging. I love the mission statement:

The Relevant Conference exists to offer a place of face to face interaction with Christian women bloggers who want to be relevant in the larger blog and social media world. Our goal is to go beyond the surface into intentional blogging and real life living. We support women turning their hearts toward home and using their blogs to bless their families while also engaging the world for the glory of God. Relevant is a one-of-a-kind conference that seeks to engage women by teaching blogging techniques and social media skill while also urging and encouraging women to live fully integrated lives with their faith and family.

I immediately felt like the Lord wanted me to attend this conference. My husband was supportive and in one day, the Lord provided my airline ticket and registration! Paula’s Bread is assisting me with sponsorship, and they provide safe kitchen appliances for your kitchen (including Bosch, Nutrimill and other stainless steel gadgets). Please check them out!

My amazing hubby and I!

March Book Reviews

Steady Days: A Journey Toward Intentional, Professional Motherhood by Jamie Martin – a short and sweet read (I read it in one day!) with creative ideas to organize your life, create memories, and build a learning environment in your home. I love her idea of a learning board and memory books. Such a sweet mama!

The Birth Partner: A Complete Guide to Childbirth for Dads, Doulas, and All Other Labor Companions – the best book I have read to date on this topic! This would be an excellent companion guide to carry your through a birth, as it is easy to navigate to find different ideas for labor positions, what to do in various situations, etc. Thorough resource!

Sacred Influence: How God Uses Wives to Shape the Souls of Their Husbands by Gary Thomas – I gave a more thorough review of this book last month, but I did complete it and cannot say enough as to how valuable this book has been for our marriage. Gary lays it out there before you from a man’s perspective, giving you a peek into the man’s brain, and I was blown away. I discussed each chapter with my husband through the process of reading it and dialoged extensively. At every point, my husband heartily agreed with this man! If you want to strengthen, protect, and grow your marriage…then you must read this book!

Dancing with My Father: How God Leads Us into a Life of Grace and Joy by Sally Clarkson – Sally is one of my favorite authors on the topic of missional motherhood. Her book, The Mission of Motherhood: Touching Your Child’s Heart for Eternity, is on my annual book reading list. Dancing with My Father is her newest release and it focuses on the topic of cultivating joy in the weariness of life. It mainly shares her own personal stories, but there is valuable studies at the end of each chapter for you to personally search the Scriptures more thoroughly. If you are struggling to remain joyful as a wife and mother, please read this book (along with Choosing Gratitude)!

Many blessings upon you all! May you have a glorious Easter weekend, enjoying the beauty of our Savior’s resurrection!

Welcome back for my monthly chronicle of life at the Edmonds. I am taking a picture of our family each month and record all that God is doing in our lives, plus my book reads for the month.

There has been one significant change taking place at our house this month. The Lord has been so good to us in more ways than one. After being self-employed for several years, the Lord opened up an amazing job opportunity for Aaron at Lacrosse Footwear (a local high quality boot manufacturer) as a web developer. It was totally and completely the Lord’s provision for us. We enjoyed the benefits of being self-employed but there were many challenges that we did not really possess the skills necessary to thrive in that self-directed environment. It is hard work! Now that he is working fulltime for this company, he is truly thriving like I have never seen him before. He loves his work, his co-workers, and the corporate environment.

In the meantime, I am learning to enjoy the limitations of only having one vehicle and staying at home more now. It was a struggle at first, but I am finding the limitations to be very beneficial. For one, I have to be real strategic about coordinating all my errands and grocery shopping for my once a month run. Previously, I would make short more frequent outings which usually leads to increased spending. It has helped me get more organized in my homemaking/planning notebook which I look forward to sharing more with you all. I am able to focus more on my children and cultivating the relationships there. And lastly, it gives me opportunity to invite others into my home for visits. Tea anyone? Taking regular walks with the kids has been a great means of encouraging and strengthening my spirit when I become weary. It is doing a good work in my heart, and I am thankful for that.

Karis and Titus are continuing to grow and develop into two adorable loveable munckins! Titus will turn 1 year old this coming Thursday (March 4th), and it seems just yesterday when he was born. He started to do a full crawl this past week (after doing his own invented crawl, getting up on his hands and knees and then diving forward – we called it the “Ty dive”), matching Karis’ record in learning to crawl one week before their first birthdays. I found that truly hilarious.

Karis has become quite the mommy’s helper lately. She loves pulling up a chair and washing dishes, grating cheese, or stirring up ingredients in a bowl. It has been quite adorable to watch her blossom in this way. She is counting to ten, learning her alphabet and loving reading a wealth of library books together. One silly thing lately has been her confusion with the following two questions. When asked, “how are you?” she responds “2″, and to “how old are you?” she responds “good”. A little backwards but it has provided us with a good many laughs. We are working on it.

What was I reading this month?

One Million Arrows: Raising Your Children to Change the World is a new release by Julie Ferwerda and what a wonderful challenging call drawing our attention to this thought-provoking question: Will the world change our children…or will our children change the world? The truth is…time is short and lives are at stake. Right now, God is inviting our families to become part of a bigger story—a vision that will engage hearts to make a radical difference. One Million Arrows is an inspirational call to raise our kids to impact their culture, community, and world for Christ. One powerful quote that stood out to me was this thought:

“I’ve realized that, in the grand scheme of life, more than just raising my kids to ‘keep the faith,’ I want to raise my kids to save lives. I want to raise firemen. Not necessarily the earthly fire-fighting kind, but the heavenly fire-fighting kind. Kids who are well-trained and ready to help save as many lives as possible. Kids who grow up, remembering at the forefront of everything they do, that time is short and lives are at state, and who will one day be seen as spiritual heroes for helping many lives to safety. I want to raise kids who love like Jesus.”

I found this book to be similar in message to Family Driven Faith by Voddie Bachum Jr, but it takes a more focused direction on stirring up the vision of preparing our children to be world-changers and cultivating a heart for orphans around the world. It did lack in the area of practical examples and steps from the author’s own personal experience (as her children are practically grown before she caught this vision), but she drew a lot of suggestions and tips from several real life families in our time, their stories which are shared throughout this book.

As Dennis Rainey of FamilyLife Ministries says, “This is not the time for peace, it’s time for war. Raise your kids to become arrows for war.” A must read for every Christian family! You can download the first chapter for free here.

Sacred Influence: How God Uses Wives to Shape the Souls of Their Husbands by Gary Thomas is definitely by far the best book for wives I have ever read! So many truths that I have been learning lately (i.e. letting go of unrealistic expectations) were so powerfully shared in this book in a fresh and beautiful approach. Yes, written by a man that understands men and what they need, every wife needs to read this book to transform their understanding of the purpose of marriage and how you can powerfully shape and influence your husband to be the man God wants him to be. I love how he began by showing the glory and beauty of a godly woman and how she can take an active powerful role in her marriage.

I cannot sing the praises of this book enough! This book has been challenging me to see that men need affirmation and I am the first to admit that I have lacked in giving my husband the admiration, love and respect that he deserves. Men rise to praise. That is where lasting change can take place. If we think negatively it will only increase dissatisfaction, but if we affirm his strengths we will likely “reinforce and build up those areas you cherish and motivate him to pursue excellence of character in others…To move a man, you have to learn to appreciate him for who he is and for what he has done…Rule number one for influencing your man is this: stop taking your husband for granted.”

“A good marriage doesn’t happen by accident, and a good marriage isn’t maintained by accident. This endeavor requires deliberate choices and much perseverance. When you start acting instead of merely wishing, when you begin taking initiative instead of simply feeling sorry for yourself, you become an active woman, and active women mirror the active God who made them.” – Quotes from Gary Thomas

I am only halfway through this book to date, but I have already grown in more ways than one. Read this book with a humble teachable spirit and God will use it mightily!

May God richly bless you all this month!

I am re-introducing a monthly update post that I used to maintain regularly…I cannot remember the last time I did one, but I want to use this report to share all that God is doing in our lives as a testimony to His grace. I will also be highlighting the books I have read each month here and chronicling process on our 2010 goals.

God has been so good to us! How richly blessed I have been over the past few weeks to enjoy good rest and sleep. A small glass of wine before bed has really assisted getting my sleep patterns back on track (and it has helped increase my milk supply too or maybe just getting sleep has!), in addition to cutting back and simplifying our lifestyle quite a bit. I stopped teaching piano, backed down from a few leadership/organization positions I was maintaining, and refocused my priorities on three things: my relationship with the Lord, loving my husband, and training and nurturing my children.

Aaron moved his web developing business out of the house this month and began renting an office space. This has been a very good adjustment for our family. I am no longer tempted to bother him throughout the day. We have both increased our productivity. The children and I could distract him so easily because he loves us so. This move has also helped us establish our morning routine. We are now waking up by 6:00am and how wonderful it has been. We treasure our times together so much more… absence makes the heart grow fonder! It also means we get to figure out how to live with one car!

Karis and I have begun using the Before Five in a Row curriculum for some fun learning activities using classic children’s books. It is designed for 2-4 year olds. Some of it is beyond Karis’ abilities at 2 1/2 years old, but it is also fun having a little structured learning time each day. We sit down for 30 minutes or so and read and discuss the book and materials. We also are using Learning for Littles, which is a fun little ebook from Graham Family Ministries, teaching basic numbers, letters, days, months, etc. Karis loves the colorful pictures and making her own preschool notebook! Beyond this, she has a lot of creative play time, including sand play, painting, and play dough.

Ty man is growing like a weed. Ty is rolling around and getting up on his hands and knees and diving forward, but has yet to start actually crawling.

We began hosting a community group at our home once a week. This is a small group of sorts that is focused on reaching out into our community together. Everyone that attends lives within a 5 mile radius of us and we are eagerly praying, planning, and working together to be salt and light to our neighborhoods. We eagerly anticipate all that God will do in and through us. We are using The Story of God, a powerful evangelistic tool chronically the Bible from start to finish in simple stories that encourage awesome dialog. They even have a Story of God for children that would be a great tool to use for family devotions, if you are looking for something like that. These tools are free for download here.

I am participating in the Bookin’ It Challenge over at Life as Mom for the accountability and fun in sharing all that I am reading this year. You can check out my 2010 Book List for my full reading goal. Here are my January reads:

The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential…in Business and in Life. Aaron and I read this book and found it very helpful in learning how to manage your time effectively, focusing on your priorities, establishing your three most important tasks, and learning how to establish and accomplish goals. I found it very practical although slightly repetitive.

Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters by Tim Keller was a powerfully convicting book. He helped open my eyes through the use of Scripture to see the hidden idols we set up in our lives, things from which we strive to gain our satisfaction and security. He had incredible insight into the lives of Abraham (and his idolatry with his son Isaac), Jacob (and his idolatry of Rachel) and Jonah. I believe this is one I will need to read again and again.

The Duties of Parents by J.C. Ryle is an awesome book for Biblical parenting. It is a short, easy read (just 51 pages), and yet so rich in solid biblical parenting advice that has withstood the test of time. Aaron and I read this together and found it very convicting. It is no longer in print but you can purchase an e-book version from Graham Family Ministries for just $3.95. When the Mahaney girls at GirlTalk said this was their favorite book on parenting, I knew we had to read it and now I am so thankful we have!

Choosing Gratitude: Your Journey to Joy by Nancy Leigh Demoss was a life-changing read for me. I have come to realize how quickly and easily I complain through the struggles and trials of life without first reflecting on the glorious mercies of Christ in my life. Choosing Gratitude was a challenge to change from “whining to worshiping” in all areas of life. Have I considered thanking Him for all the little gifts He has provided for me in addition to all that He has protected me from? I made a “blessings list” through her challenge and each day I am seeking to add 5 things to that list and to thank the Lord out loud for those gifts. It has greatly enriched my walk with the Lord. She has an awesome 30-day devotional challenge in the back of the book that I have been working through and plan to repeat several times throughout this year as I seek to become a radically thankful woman this year. More to come on this book and goal…

Thank you all for your wonderful support, encouragement and prayers during this season. The Lord has used this trial of insomnia to teach me so many things, including identifying idols in my heart as previously discussed in regards to my marriage and pursuit of natural living. It has been so rich! Blessings upon you all!