Weekend Reading

Blessed Laws of Motherhood @ Growing an Olive Tree

Now, a women who is not permitted to go into the Temple, be out in society, or cook or clean for her family is bound to what?

REST!

I look at the laws of motherhood and interpret that passage as a special time the Lord has designated to set a woman and her new baby apart for bonding and postpartum recovery. By limiting her social and family responsibilities, the Lord is giving provision for her body to heal and the breastfeeding relationship to be established. Other women of the community were likely present to care for her, and the needs of her home. She was blessed to be totally free to focus her care and attention on the new baby, because she's not busy with household chores. In the words of the doula movement, I suspect the community was "Taking care of the mother so she could take care of the baby."

Thriving Is More Than The Specifics @ Rosmarinus Officinalis

We didn’t choose to cosleep because API recommends it, but because we valued her nighttime needs as much as her daytime needs, and having her with us allowed everyone in the family to sleep better. It didn’t interfere with our sex life, and it wasn’t a drain on our marriage. We know that children whose needs are met promptly and gently use that extra energy towards their emotional and mental growth. All three of us thrived, and she slowly moved to sleeping in her own bed when she showed signs that she was ready. We have an open-door policy and she still ends up with us most early mornings, but she has a healthy relationship with sleep in her own space and in ours. It goes back to being a safe place for her.

Finding Joy @ Simple Homeschool

Yes. I am a happy person. But sometimes I forget that joy and play are worthy of a spot on my “to do” list.

Sometimes I even behave as though work and joy are mutually exclusive.

But they’re not.

The God of the Mundane @ Internet Monk

The church is awash in the belief that the extraordinary acts of faith – missions, vocational ministry, street evangelism – are our marks of meaning and significance.

“Do something radical. Or crazy. Whatever you do, don’t be ordinary. Because, obviously, you cannot live a mundane life unto God.”

I wish I had looked in the eyes of homemakers and electricians, accountants and actuaries, farmers and physical therapists and told them differently.

Am I alone in worrying there is no God for the mundane? You know for those who, in the name of Jesus, are simply faithful spouses, honest in business, love their children well and enjoy the world they live in while waiting for the next — is there a God for them?