Month: May 2011

Quivering or quiver-full…

What are gifts from God? Should we desire all those gifts? Should we then desire as much of those gifts as possible? Is not desiring a particular gift, or not allowing God to give you a gift, sinning?

I love the Duggars on “19 Kids and Counting.” I can’t wait for the new season to start. I love how Michelle Duggar is always so calm, even with her 19 kids running around. Her children seem to be very smart, articulate, kind, responsible, and helpful. It was through this show that I first heard about a movement called the “Quiverfull Movement” which is taking place among many different evangelical Christian groups. Some parents are being convicted that the number of children they should have should be left up to the Lord, without any attempts on their part to limit the size of their family or space out how often their children are born via birth control or natural family planning.

Lately, I have been hearing more and more about this movement. I’ve come across several magazine articles in favor of it, and I’ve also found a web site called “No Longer Quivering” run by a woman who used to be a Quiverfull mom and seems to bear scars from those years. Therefore, this issue has been on my mind a lot lately, and I can’t quite figure out what I think of it. (I want to make it clear, though, that I don’t personally know any people who call themselves part of the “Quiverfull” group.)

The movement’s name comes from Psalm 127:3-5: “Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from Him. Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior’s hands. How joyful is the man whose quiver is full of them! He will not be put to shame when he confronts his accusers at the city gates.” Then, of course, there is the mandate in Genesis that mankind “Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28).

So much of a Christian’s journey through life is about giving up our own life and trusting the Lord to take over. It is not something we do one time, when we become a Christian, and then that’s it; personally, it is something I have to choose to do (or not do) on a daily basis. Giving up control over my own life is not an easy thing to do, especially for this independent-minded American. I look at these families that are trusting their family size to the Lord, and trusting the Lord to help provide for their larger families, and I feel they must have enormous faith to do so. Do I trust God that much? Should I?

I can think of many criticisms to this mindset. What about women with health complications during pregnancy? What about women who face multiple c-sections? What about families with special-needs children? What about families with limited incomes or small homes? What about women with a tendency towards postpartum depression? And I’m sure there are more. Should a Christian’s faith, if it is strong enough, be enough to overcome all of these complications? Is it wrong to use modern medicine (or natural family planning practices) to make informed decisions regarding fertility and childbirth? Can some people be “called” by God to have large families, while others are not? Or does the mandate to “multiply” apply to all Christian married couples? And how far does Psalm 127 apply?

I am not a confrontational person at all. I’m not trying to start a debate, but, rather, I’m just sharing something that I have been trying to make sense of for many months now. I’d appreciate (kind!) input!

Family News

Afternoon Thunderstorms & Homemade Ice Cream

Post author By Audra
Post date May 30, 2011
No Comments on Afternoon Thunderstorms & Homemade Ice Cream

Seriously, for the past few days I have felt like I am in a movie about old-fashioned summers. Except for Facebook and the Internet, of course. Today was a great, quiet day. Sarah is still waking up quite a bit at night because of nasal congestion. We both were awake at 5:21 a.m., but then we took a nap and didn’t get up until 8:45. The day seemed to go by very fast, probably because I slept through half the morning. Since Sarah got her cold, each night seems to get a little easier, so I have high hopes for tonight!

I made French toast for breakfast, but by the time I had fed Sarah and showered and, of course, checked up on Facebook, it was 11:30, so it was really more like lunch. I used some farm fresh eggs given to us by a church member, and some organic milk, but then I loaded it down with maple syrup and confectioner’s sugar. Oh well on the health factor. After lunch, Tim came home, and we all enjoyed a great thunderstorm. It rarely thunderstorms out here, and I was quite excited. We all went out on the front porch and watched the rain and hail and listened to the thunder. We didn’t see any lightning, though. And then the girls got to splash in some puddles.

For dinner, we went over to our wonderful neighbor’s house and had wings, burgers and homemade ice cream. We also got to play Rook for the first time since we’ve moved to Colorado!!

Tomorrow, it’s off to the library.

Uncategorized

Small Towns

Post author By Audra
Post date May 28, 2011
1 Comment on Small Towns

The last time Tim and I watched a “chick flick”–which he claims he was tricked into seeing, as if I would do that–it was Have You Heard About the Morgans? Or something like that. Anyway, this NYC couple was put into the Witness Protection Program and moved to a tiny town somewhere in Colorado. (It actually wasn’t a bad movie.) I loved the little town and told Tim, “I want to live there!” and he pointed out that we DO live there.

I really do like living in a small town. I like being able to walk to the library and to the post office (where there is never a long line and they know who I am). I like the neat blocks with sidewalks, and the park that is just down the street. I like the Pepsi machine outside the small grocery store where you can still get a can of soda for fifty cents.

Now that it is summer, Naomi and Rachel have been playing outside by themselves quite a bit, which is a first for us. I never before let them outside unsupervised. But now they have been given boundaries–they can play in the backyard, front yard, and church’s side yard, and they can ride their scooters on the wide sidewalk that runs from the parsonage to the corner. I enjoy having the windows open and hearing them as they play outside, and having them run in and out of the house throughout the day. It feels nostalgic, like this is the way summer used to be for kids. But I do still worry when I can’t see them every minute. I wonder, are they too young for this responsibility? Will they remember all the rules I’ve told them about not going anywhere near the street, and to scream if an adult they don’t know approaches them? (I actually told them to scream and run back in the house if an adult they don’t know tries to talk to them, and I told Naomi to grab Rachel.) I struggle to balance their growing independence vs. my desire to always protect them from everything.

So my question is…at what age did you allow your children to play outside with limited supervision?

Uncategorized

Summer, day 1

Today was Naomi’s first day of summer break. Somehow, I feel like I’m on sumer break, too. No keeping up with homework or spelling words or reading lists. No setting an alarm clock in the morning (even though Sarah inevitably woke me up at 6:30 this morning anyway!) I am looking forward to summer. For one thing, I am not moving while 8 months pregnant, so this year is almost guaranteed to be easier than last!

Tim has been faithfully getting up at the crack of dawn for a few weeks now, so that he can have some quiet time before the rest of us wake up and start creating noise and chaos. So, this morning, when Sarah woke up at 6:30 a.m., I just brought her out to the living room and gave her to Tim and went back to bed so that I could rightfully sleep in on the first day of summer vacation (Thanks honey!) I got up at 8:30, just in time to put Sarah down for her first nap, ha. Then I headed out to tackle our flower beds. The previous pastor’s wife planted huge flower beds all around the parsonage’s front and back yards. I, on the other hand, have never planted anything. My parents gave me a plant once, when we bought our house in Alabama, and it died…I was so embarrassed I eventually threw it out, pot and all.

I spent about an hour and a half raking out the flower beds, just trying to clean up all the old leaves and twigs and tumbleweed. Tumbleweed is everywhere out here! I’m sure I also pulled up a few good plants…but, a plant that is going to survive in my garden is going to have to be able to handle more than a few tugs from a rake. The wind blows all kinds of things through the yards. A few weeks ago, Naomi drew a picture for her friend who lives down the street. She went over to her friend’s house and they were not home, so she left the picture on the doorstep. Of course the wind blew it away. Well, I found it the other day cleaning up the yard! It blew across the street and up against our fence. It is now on our piano. Still hasn’t made it to the neighbor 🙂

So I am not sure at all if the flowers are ever going to bloom again, but we are trying. Tim got out this afternoon and cleaned out two flower beds, removing the weeds (or at least we are pretty sure they were weeds).

The kids ran in and out of the house all day. It is NOT HOT here. I can’t believe how different the weather is from Alabama. I actually got cool this afternoon and shut the window!

Sarah was quite crabby this morning and just wanted to be held, nurse, and sleep. Very unusual behavior for her. Teething? Coming down with a cold? No fever yet.

We are planning our first trip back to Alabama. We’ll be leaving after church on June 12 and arriving in Alabama on June 14. Part of me is looking forward to the road trip with 3 kids: am I crazy? I flew out here when we moved, so this will be a new drive for me. I enjoy road trips because let’s face it, you don’t have to do the dishes when you’re driving. I’m trying to come up with a good stack of books to take with me.

I am so excited about going back home. I think the coming visit has brought on a new round of homesickness. I can’t wait to see my family again, visit with friends, and go to the BEACH!