The Gospel: Life for Me

In Sunday school, we went through the book The Gospel Primer. At the end, our assignment was to write a poem or hymn about the Gospel. Ryan wrote a really cool hymn set to the music of Ode to Jupiter. My brain works a little differently, so I went with a poem that reflects on how the Gospel has impacted me in each season of life. It is encouraging to see God's faithfulness.

 “For God so loved the world,

He gave His one and only Son…”

I learned the Gospel with my ABC’s,

Until its truths my heart had won.

At four, I knew that God loved me,

Knew of His sacrifice so great;

It gave me peace and sweet assurance,

Even at such young an age.

In our family I see God’s faithfulness,

Passed from each generation to the one ahead.

Great-grandmother, grandma, mother…

To God their children have they led.

Through the Gospel each year I grew,

Convinced of the Bible’s Words so true;

At 12 I pledged again to serve my Lord

As faith and devotion sprang renewed.

The Gospel gave me strength to stand

Against the world’s whims and wiles.

Trusting God’s Word above all else

 Gave strength through each teen trial.

In singleness the Gospel was sweeter still,

To know my Savior’s amazing, personal grace.

To know that if my life looked different –

Well, He had assigned me my place.

His faithfulness was evident again

When He brought me to my man;

To serve together with Gospel-driven hearts:

This was our joyful plan.

As I became a mother,

I marveled at the Gospel once again.

That God would give His only Son –

I imagined the greatness of that pain.

The Gospel sustained me as we moved

Into a foreign land.

The hope of heaven was more real

As I felt earth not my home firsthand.

The Gospel gave a strong place to cling

When loneliness struck time after time.

His faithful plan, foreknown ages past

Included me here; what peace is mine.

The Gospel showed me how we have such hope

When all around were those that didn’t.

To know the end, the goal, the place –

I prayed my friends would see the difference.

When our baby died while in the womb,

The Gospel promised that life has purpose.

It was rest and peace amid the tears,

And one day faith-made-sight assurance.

God’s faithfulness sustains me still

Through motherhood’s demanding days.

I have the privilege now to teach my own

The wonder of God’s truth and ways.

That Jesus died on a cross for us –

It’s my two year old’s favorite story.

So simple, and yet so profound.

May I never fail to give Him glory.

Creative Space

This post could also be titled "How Felt Food Saved My Sanity."

It was 9 AM - just 9 AM - on Saturday. And already I couldn't take any more noise. Dassah was being her usual full of energy self, getting ready to go out with Ryan, and Ellie was slightly protesting her morning nap from her bed and I just had to cover my ears. It felt so weird to be so affected, but I so needed quiet! I'd felt the urge for a few weeks, the urge to have some time alone to create, but each weekend had been full. But finally, there was space and quiet. Twenty minutes later, all I could hear was the hum of the sewing machine and the praise music of Chris Tomlin, and I felt at rest. It had been too long since I had time to work on a fun project in the morning hours before my brain felt totally fried. After an hour and a half of such glorious, creative quiet, I was ready to be Mommy again. Sometimes moms just need time off...

This week has been an "off" week for the country of China. As most everyone celebrates the nation's birthday, and a ton of people travel to see family or sites, we've been having a quiet vacation at home. But it's been far from boring! While we've gotten out to a few parks, spent quality time as a family, and had dinners with friends, I've also gotten wonderful creative space.

I always have things I want to make. Always. About 10-projects-in-mind always. Sometimes it's discouraging, because there is so little time with small children to work on projects! But overall I am thankful, because I am definitely never bored! So with Ryan home during the week, he took Hadassah out three different mornings during Ellie's nap, so that I would have glorious time to craft. Getting a project going also gave me motivation to work on it in random other moments, such as while playing a game or watching a show with Ryan. I also gave myself a slight break with cooking and other chores... I figure if we had traveled we'd be eating out anyway, so I "let" myself take the excuse and go out for one meal each day, saving on cooking and cleanup, and thus giving me more creative time! And while the pile to iron has become a mountain and I really don't want to look at our bathroom sink, my brain is happy and all 'a buzz. I've done things that won't be undone in a day - or an hour or a few minutes! ;)

 First I cut up ingredients for a felt pizza. And while Dassah had fun making it a few times, I quickly saw she was a bit more interested in putting little pieces in her mouth. And I could see little pieces going everywhere, or Ellie eating them...

 So I glued and sewed, and now we have four slices of different kinds, so everyone can have their favorite! :)

For the following food, I found free patterns online, and tweaked some for my own preferences. Links to most of the patterns (and more ideas!) can be found here.

 Cookies were the easiest to make and seem to be Dassah's favorite. I can see myself making these for gifts for children of friends, as they're easy and a hit! Dassah seemed to be on a high the first few days to have so many cookies for her to pretend to eat, since we only ever give her one (or even just half!) cookie at a time. :)

 These ice cream cones (pattern here) took a while to make, but it was fun seeing how all of the lines make a cool weave. I have cut out four different flavors of ice cream to make as well, but they'll require a lot of hand sewing, so will happen in moments over the next weeks. ;) But Dassah woke up from her nap before I was done, saw all of my cotton filling and the cones, and started filling them with "ice cream" herself to gives us. ;) A fun idea, though not a lasting one, as I could see cotton going everywhere!

 These donuts also took a while, with all the hand sewn sprinkles. But they're pretty and fun!

 We have a complete breakfast set... The eggs make me smile every time. :)

 And Dassah enjoys making us sandwiches!

 It's amazing how simple felt can really look like food and provide for so much fun imagination!

A set of chocolate cupcakes is just right for playing birthday! I thought about making a cake, but directions seemed pretty complicated. These were time consuming enough since they were almost completely hand sewn, but I did them in moments watching Downton Abbey while Ryan stretched before bed, and now that they're made, they'll provide years of fun! :)

 We set up a restaurant the afternoon I finished it all and Dassah had great fun serving us. :) She's proceeded to even serve guests that come over - I love that these toys are great for imagination and will last!

Once I finish the ice cream scoops, I plan to make a menu for Dassah to give us, complete with pictures of what she can make. Playing with this food will hopefully provide many hours of happy play for her and Ellie and children to come (should the Lord so bless!).

 And then there were skirts to make!! Cute and pink and polka dots and ruffles, I mean, what could be better?

 An adorable little girl laughing as she walks to you, that's what! :)

 Oh how I love our not-so-little baby Ellie! She is taller and rounder than Dassah was at her age, so I didn't have enough skirts that fit her well in the size she needed. Sounds like a good excuse to make cute skirts to me! ;) I patterned it after a skirt I liked of Dassah's, and used materials I already had on hand. I think little skirts may be my new favorite thing!

Especially ones like these - so easy! I took a shirt of mine I'd retired due to the neckline being annoying, and cut off the bottom - instant fabric with a hem already in place and a great width for a baby skirt! I angled it slightly, sewed the edges, added trim (bought cheap on Taobao!) and elastic at the waist. So easy and so cute!

 Especially when I hadn't even remembered that Ellie already had the perfect outfit to match for a happy fall outfit!

Ryan goes back to work tomorrow - he's working on Friday, which is technically still a holiday, so that he can take off on Sunday (because, yes, both weekend days are work days now to "make up" for the holiday!). My goal was to finish these skirts and, thanks to him taking Dassah on another Father-daughter date, I did it! I've decided sister skirts are likely to be worn more than sister dresses, since nice dresses tend to be mostly just worn for church. I accidentally cut things wrong, so ended up having to piece together the bottom of Ellie's skirt. But nothing an extra row of trim couldn't fix!

I think they like them. :) So far Dassah is always excited to match! When she put hers on this morning and I told her Ellie was wearing a matching one, she ran out to her, gave her a hug and said, "We are sisters, so we love to snuggle!"

Making some of the things I've been wanting to make for months also cleared creative space in my brain to plan more of the girls' birthday party. As in my-brain-won't-turn-off so it kept me up 'til 1 AM one night, but I got the details planned of the human "candyland" game we'll do at the party, with fun crafts along the way. Paid for it with a headache the next day, but it feels good to have a head start. Hard to believe we'll be celebrating them turning 1 and 3 at the end of this month!

These happy, ordinary days...

 These "sticker stories" as we call them, entertain her for sometimes half an hour at a time. They got relocated to her table in her room to prevent the now-mobile baby from eating them, and she'll disappear back there and just tell stories as she puts them on in different places. Pretty amazing! When she first got them as a Christmas gift from friends, she would just randomly put all the stickers in a pile, though she would often beg me to "tell a story with them please!" So to see her progress to this in just half a year is pretty incredible to see.

Bonus tip: remove all of the sticker outlines! They used to sit unused for days because it took way too long to match them all back on to their individual spots on their page. Sometimes I would sit up after the girls were in bed to put them back, knowing they'd buy me time the next day, but still.... Just removing the dividers and teaching her to put them back on the page after she uses them has helped a ton!

 This little one is pulling up on everything! She's one determined little miss, and for the most part hasn't had any major falling accidents. Always keeps us on our toes though!

 I saw a Pinterest idea called "invitation to create" with different shapes cut from construction paper to make cupcakes. Given that Hadassah usually uses a glue stick more on her hands then the paper, I thought making them out of felt might be more fun - plus they're reusable! They weren't the hit I thought they'd be, and toddler fashion, in an unsupervised moment while I showered, she spread all of the "sprinkle" pieces all over her rug, then reported she had made a "big mess." I had her help clean it up, and put this away for another time. I can see it being fun when she's a little older!

 I've enjoyed picking up one Chinese lesson a week while Alex and Danielle are here! My teacher is wonderfully teaching me only things related to children and my daily life. Finally I am learning answers and phrases and adjectives and nouns and verbs so maybe I can talk more with the people always trying to talk to me about my children! What I've learned so far in two sessions is so useful... Now I just need to make sure I study and retain and use it!

Ellie naps during my lesson (and Alex plays with her if she wakes early) while Danielle takes Hadassah over our friends' apartment (where D&A are sleeping at night) for some special play time. Pretty convenient!

 Then Alex has a turn! He's taken 2 lessons a week, adding to his knowledge from the year of Chinese he's taken so far in high school. There's nothing like learning in the country where it's used and you'll be able to apply it more easily!

 One day Ryan had to leave early from lunch to get back to a meeting. Hadassah said "I'll miss you - I'm lonely!" so we suggested Alex scoot over to sit next to her with Ryan gone. She was happy for that, and afterwards wanted to sit in his lap and read a book. :)

 Baby in a box! Alex has come up with lots of creative things to do with Ellie - she loves zooming around with him pushing!

 Hadassah is fascinated with tape. After I fixed a book accidentally ripped with tape, she wanted to rip it again so SHE could tape it. I quickly diverted her to this instead, cutting out shapes for her to tape on a page. She couldn't have been happier. :)

 Alex has also discovered that Ellie loves the guitar. She really seems specially tuned to music. She smiles when he takes it down to play for her, and loves it when she can bang on it too! Ryan bought this the day we moved to our first apartment in China, as he couldn't live without some outlet for music. He deliberately bought the cheapest one, since we won't be here forever, and so he could let the girls play along with him with no worries!

 I had a pretty bad cold + migraine on Wednesday. Help with playing with the children, Danielle taking Hadassah to a special play place in the morning during Ellie's nap, tylenol, and people to play a game with during afternoon naps and distract me from my dripping nose was just what I needed. And seriously, this game is pretty cool. "The Golden Ages" - made completely by Alex, looking at some pictures online, pulling together directions from various sources, hand drawing all of the cards and board, and getting pieces for the game from various games we already own. Pretty amazing!

A post wouldn't be complete without a food picture, right? Ryan had a co-workers goodbye party to attend tonight, so we did breakfast for dinner, something I don't often do with my meat loving, not-big-on-sweet-bread-things man. And boy was it good! Peaches and cream were just made to go with pancakes I've determined! Turned out so well I'll have to try it again and see what Ryan thinks. :)

Based on the pictures, it's a very Alex-y post. :) But Danielle has been pretty amazing too. She just steps in often at all the times I'm busy and can't take pictures. ;) She takes Hadassah out or does activities with her when I need to get something done. She's Ellie's second mom when we go on dates or I take Hadassah swimming for a special mommy-dassah time, like today. She makes two meals a week, helps with others and instead of me facing a mountain of dishes right after I finally get both girls tucked in bed, she's done the dishes and the kitchen is looking ready for the next day. Add to that Alex doing both breakfast and lunch dishes every day since they've come... Seriously, every mom of a baby and a toddler should have teenagers too. It's a pretty awesome combination! :D

Wednesday Walk and Concert from Taiwan

 Wednesday was an absolutely beautiful day. Rainy days with kids are not my favorite - being stuck inside an apartment all day is not all that great. ;) But the pre- and post-rainy days are absolutely beautiful this summer! See that blue sky? And despite it being JULY, there was a nice wind and the weather was mild enough that a walk wasn't too hot.

 Alex and Danielle spent the morning downtown at a museum (so glad the subway allow them some time to explore the cool things Shanghai has to offer on their own!) and then they made supper. So I got to enjoy a mommy-girlies day, and take them for a walk after afternoon naps with no worries about getting supper done in time. What a blessing to enjoy time out and then arrive home to supper on the table!

 We walked through our favorite spots on campus and took Ellie for the first time to a little garden I used to take Hadassah to when she was Ellie's age. Oh the memories such places bring back... Where did my baby Hadassah go? And how did I end up with another cutie? How fast 2 years can fly...

 While we were walking, Dassah said "Let's get some Christine's!" I'd been thinking of going to buy some bread since were walking that way anyway, so we made a mommy-daughter date of it. :) We got our favorite treat and this time split it three ways! Though Ellie only got tiny nibbles of the pretty non-sweet muffin (treats here are, usually, not as sweet as in America!). This one has cream filling and melted cheese topping so it's pretty tasty. And Dassah was so excited when I told her Ellie would get a taste, telling her, "Ellie! You're going to get your very first Christine's! Isn't that so exciting?"

 Then we got to the bus stop to meet Ryan a little early. All the better to get cute pictures, right? :)

 That night, Yinyue treated us to a concert on campus. It was of children's choirs from Taiwan, who through these tours got money to pay for school. It was beautiful music and very relaxing to just SIT for two hours! Ryan kindly stayed home and got Hadassah to bed and I put Ellie down and then arrived at the concert just a few minutes late. But Danielle and Alex had saved great seats!

 There were two different nations represented. They wore the ancient dress and sang the ancient songs, a way of preserving them. I have heard an African children's choir in the past, and their music was similar, with the beautiful melodies, often acapella, and the calling back and forth. Reminded me of my dad. :)

 Proof we were there! And we really need to work on taking pictures of two people... for some reason our camera tends to focus more only one person.

 Yinyue was really sweet to think of getting the tickets for us and treating us to the concert. It was really good to visit with her during the intermission too.

It was really neat too, how certain songs had dance. The girls were graceful and flowy while the guy's part included a lot of jumps, running and just strong actions. The guys looked like they were having tons of fun on those parts. :)

We're definitely experiencing a lot of things! And it's neat how the memory works - we'll always be able to have an association with what older Taiwan was now.

Life around home with little loves

 I love being a mom. It's crazy and exhausting sometimes. I cry sometimes because I can't figure it all out and my baby's not sleeping as I thought she should (though she's done better these last few days thankfully!). But these little girls? I get to spend all day with the cuteness and dress us all in jean skirts and floral shirts by accident and then cuddle up for a picture just because... I'm living my dream.

(and yes, we are working on Hadassah's affectionate choke-hold of Ellie... She does it with goodwill - usually! - but Ellie doesn't always appreciate it!) ;)

 This little miss is officially getting so so grown up. It's hitting me that she'll be three in four months, and I don't know where the time has gone... We went to the "secret garden" (botanical garden on campus) last week, and she was the one to pick out spots to take pictures, and do the posing herself.

 Her "cheese" face gets me every time!


 But as we were still getting over jet lag, the still beauty did us all good...

 Though I do NOT like the wind in the winter, I'm realizing just how wonderful all the winds are in the summer. It's been so hot and humid recently, but often in the late afternoon and evening it's bearable as the breeze blows in....

 And see this? No people. Soon after we came back to China I took Hadassah to campus but she started crying because she wanted to go somewhere without people. I know, little girl. I do too sometimes... But it's hard to find. So this place, just a 10 minute bike ride away, is a solace to both our hearts sometimes. There are people, but it's spread out enough and full of nature, that you have moments of aloneness.

 And it doesn't get much better than a little girl walking among big trees, feeling like an explorer.

 We're also getting to try new crafts, with new supplies bought in America and the heat outside not tempting us out mid-morning. And I have to say, tempura paint is awesome. I tried quite a few "homemade paint" recipes, but they've got nothing on store bough tempura paint!

The pinterest idea was to make flowers with forks, but I love how Hadassah comes up with so much more! She was swirling all the colors by the end and it was so pretty!

 We made "stick people" the other day. She helped pick out the pipe cleaner color for the arms and legs of our family, and drew all of the faces. Somehow in the last month she went from scribbling to actually drawing, and I love how she draws people! I've always thought kid drawings were cute, but it's so just much more amazing when it's your own child and you've seen them go from just eating crayons to actually making understandable drawings! :)

 This little miss is crawling all over the place now. She chased her ball all the way under the jumper and then crawled in after it! It's fun seeing her discover new things, but keeps me more on my toes, especially since she craws the fastest when she's after something Hadassah has. She's just so interested in big sister...

 Hadassah is enjoying dress up more these days, though she seems to find more joy in dressing me up than in dressing herself up. So I end up with huge flowers in my hair and crazy glasses, but who cares? I'm living my dream. And it is such a blessing to be home with them. And we've truly made it a home. In China.

Who knows where this girl will go? At under three she's already crossed the ocean 7 times. We pray much for our Hadassah Faith. She's understanding more about God and people and sin and worship. She wakes up singing often, and the songs she makes up about the Lord are just beautiful. One of them was "Come to me, Jesus. Come to me... I love you! I want to give you a hug!" May that always be the cry of her heart.