I've talked before how DH and I have struggled to find a church. Between the two of us, we have had no problem finding problems with the churches we have visited - too big, no growth, too much like our old church, etc. If it was just DH and I, finding a new church probably wouldn't be such a big deal. However, since we have BB, we know that whatever church we join will most likely be the church that BB attends throughout childhood.
I personally think that it is important to not only attend church, but to also join a church. I think that becoming a member of a church adds a sense of ownership, if you will. With the goal of joining a church in mind, each church we've visited has gone through intense scrutiny. From these past few years, I have learned one important thing - everyone is wrong. There is no perfect denomination or church. Finding a church to join seems to mean finding one that has the flaws you can live with. Part of the problem is undoubtedly with me. I tend to over think things and nit-pick. I wish I could just subscribe to a system of beliefs without hesitation.
I think a Catholic might cite this as one of the problems with Protestants - there's too much of a cafeteria-style of belief. Growing up in the Bible belt, I have become accustomed to people leaving whenever a church becomes disagreeable. In my own town, there are over 100 churches with most denominations having several choices. I have made the comment several times to DH that I sometimes wish I lived in a small town that only had 1 church per denomination.
I know I'm not the only person to have ever faced this problem. Does anyone out there agree 100% with their church's teachings? If so, did you grow up in the church? For those of you who don't agree 100%, how did you decide to join? If you have children, how do you address the differences between what your church teaches and what you believe?

What do you think?

Earlier today, I wrote a keeping-it-real post. And no, I didn't publish it, so you didn't miss anything. As I wrote more of my post, the more it sounded to me like complaining. And I don't know about you, but I was raised believing that complaining is a sin. And that if a person complained, they shouldn't be too surprised if God took stuff away from them as a result.
I don't really want to get into the theological aspect of that, because that all leads to a big deep discussion about good and evil. And I for one am not cut out to have that conversation. But I do think that complaining is wrong. And I do believe that the Bible instructs us to not complain.
Yet it's unrealistic to go through life with everything a-ok. I don't think that Christians are to be some type of Stepford people. Denying real problems and frustrations is only going to make matters worse in the long run.
So - I have a question - in this day and age of keeping things real and being honest, what do YOU think is the line (if any) that divides acknowleding that life isn't perfect, and complaining?

Homeschooling Questions

Feel free to pipe up with your opinion, regardless of whether or not you're a homeschooler :)

• What phonics system do you like the best? BB isn't quite old enough to read, but he is interested in how to spell words and I've started to teach him letter sounds. Part of me knows that I could probably manage to teach him to read without a pre-made system, but the teacher in me likes having something to follow.
• While we're on the subject of phonics, is it really necessary to code those words? I learned how to read with ABeka phonics, and I taught my students with Saxon phonics. Both methods involve extensive coding. Now that I'm not required to code words, I'm wondering if it's really that important. My students would get so caught up in trying to remember all of the special symbols that they would forget to read the word. And let's face it - after you've covered the words with half a dozen pencil marks, it can be hard to even see the word you're supposed to read!
• D'Nealian or Zaner Bloser? I learned the traditional way, which is pretty similar to Zaner Bloser. I taught D'Nealian, because that's what my school system required. I like the traditional way of teaching, so Zaner Bloser appeals to me. But I do admit that cursive seems like it would be easier to teach with D'Nealian.

Desperate for Advice Here!

updated 1/6/10: As Kristen is having a backwards edition of WFMW, I thought I'd send this in. More opinions can't hurt!

For the past 5 months, I've been looking at pictures of kitchens. Lots. Of. Kitchens. I can't decide what I want to do with the kitchen cabinets, and it's driving me crazy. Currently, my kitchen cabinets look like this:
This is a perfectly fine color, but it's just not me (at some point in the future, we will replace the stove hood and back splash, but not right now). And currently, our countertops in the kitchen look like this:

Wilsonart Laminate Shale Moonstone #13045-60

I'm not crazy about them, but the countertops are staying for the time being. In a few years, we have plans for some light renovation to the kitchen which will involve changing the existing countertop layout. With that in mind, we don't want to replace something only to change it in a few years. I know that countertops can be painted, and I'm not against that idea. But if possible, I'd like to avoid that.
Some of the upper kitchen cabinets are going to have their doors removed, so that I can display some of my dishes. I also plan on displaying some of my dishes on some shelves by the kitchen table. I plan on mixing in some solid white dish pieces in with my Currier and Ives dishes, which look like this:
I want to install white beadboard along the bottom of the walls near the kitchen table, and in between the upper and lower kitchen cabinets. For the walls, I either want to do a very pale blue (Valspar's Laura Ashley Navy 1), or a light tan (Sherwin Williams Softer Tan).
My color choices for the kitchen cabinets are either a soft, distressed black (I LOVE Layla's kitchen!), white (like Traci's or Jennifer's), or a deep, chocolate brown (I have NO inspiration pics for this one, but it would go nicely with the existing countertops).
If I paint the cabinets white or black, would I have to paint the countertops as well? Here are some additional pictures of my kitchen. These cabinets are directly across from the previous picture of our kitchen:

When I do remove the doors, I am either going to remove the 3 doors pictured above, or the 2 doors that are on either side of the stove.
So - what do you think? Black, white, or brown for the cabinets? Thoughts on the countertop?

A Christmas Question

Am I the only one having trouble waiting to "Christmas-ize" my blog this year? I keep telling myself to wait until the day after Thanksgiving, but I don't know if I'm going to be able to last that long.
I am also fighting the urge to decorate the house for Christmas. BEFORE Thanksgiving. Do you think it's because I finally have a real house to decorate and I can get ALL of my Christmas stuff out?

My Interview

The "other Heather" over at Want What You Have has been conducting a series of interviews of fellow bloggers. As I can rarely pass up a chance to talk about myself (therefore, I blog), I signed up to be interviewed. My questions and answers are as follows:
1) Like me, you recently began a diet and exercise plan, and your ticker says that you've already lost 11 pounds! What advice can you give to other who want to lose weight and get healthy, but don't know how to start?
For a frugal (re: free) weight-loss program, check out www.sparkpeople.com. This site offers exercise guides, suggested menu plans, an on-line calorie tracker, health articles, and so much more. When I use this site regularly, I have great results.
I would encourage anyone who is trying to lose weight to spend some time learning how their weight came to be a problem. For many people, being overweight is so much more than just eating too much of a good thing. If the person is an emotional eater, than dieting alone is not going to be a long-term fix.
One thing that I am doing differently with this diet is praying several times a day about eating. I pray when I wake up that I won't eat too much or eat when I'm not hungry. I pray before I eat to not only give thanks, but to also be able to know when I have had enough to eat. At the end of the day, I give thanks for any success I might have had, and I pray for strength for the next day. I know this approach isn't for everyone, but for me, it really does seem to help. I haven't been as hungry as I normally am, and I haven't had as many instances where I have just pigged out on something. I am much more conscious of when I am full.
2) You used to teach in the public school system, and based on that experience, you've decided to homeschool your son. Can you explain your reasons, for those of us who are still on the fence about homeschooling?
Whew! This subject is a soapbox issue for me. I have written about homeschooling before on my blog here. To give a short answer, I will say that DH and I believe that one day we will have to give an account to God for how we parented BB. I want to make sure that BB has a strong foundation in both academics and faith. While BB is young and impressionable, I don't want to expose him to things that will undermine what DH and I are trying to teach him at home. For a more specific answer about a part of homeschooling, please feel free to ask me. I'm more than happy to give my opinion to anyone who asks! ;)
3) You are the mother of a little boy. What do you think is the greatest joy, and greatest challenge, of raising a son in the world today?
The greatest joy for me would be to see BB grown up to be a Godly young man. To one day be able to see this accomplished is certainly the greatest challenge as well. There are many day-to-day joys with any child. My day-to-day challenge is to remind myself that I am not raising a child to simply live in the present - I am raising a child to become a man in the future.
4) When I read your blog, I'm always impressed by the balance in your life, and the amount of time you devote to your faith. What advice can you give to other moms who are struggling to find time for God in their busy lives?
I know it has been said before, but getting up early is key to making sure that you have a daily devotion. I find that when I get up early to have my devotions, the rest of my day flows more smoothly. You don't have to have hour-long devotions. My favorite devotional is My Utmost for His Highest. I have read that countless times, and I find something new each time. I often pair the day's reading with either a Psalm or Proverb. When I am participating in a group Bible study, I will do the Bible study's assignment instead. If you have trouble fitting in a devotion, grab bits and pieces throughout the day. There's nothing wrong with leaving your Bible open in a prominent place to remind you to read!
5) If you could have one day to yourself, with no obligations or responsibilities, what would you do?
You don't know how good that sounds to me right now! Although I never thought I would be the type to say this, I am currently in love with the idea of going to a spa. I've never been to a spa, and the idea of a manicure, pedicure, massage, etc. sounds so lovely. If I weren't going to a spa, I would sleep in, take as long as I wanted to in the shower, and then find neat little antique or thrift stores in some quaint little town. I love looking through other people's junk!
Thanks Heather for the great questions! If anyone reading this would like me to interview them, please e-mail me or leave me a comment below. I'll look over your blog and then send you 5 questions for you to answer!

Advice Needed

DH and I are replacing the cabinet hardware in our house. We currently have ugly gold knobs. Really ugly. We're trying to do some relatively inexpensive upgrades with lights, cabinet hardware and faucets to make our house more appealing when we put it on the market.
We have a brushed nickel light fixture over the kitchen table. While the kitchen light is changeable, we don't want to change more than we have to.
In the bathrooms, we have chrome light fixtures as well as chrome cabinet knobs on the medicine chests. We just redid the light fixtures in the bathrooms (well, we really only have 1 up so far), so we're keeping the chrome in there. There is only 1 cabinet in each bathroom that would require a cabinet knob.
The choices are:

Chrome - you can't tell too much from the picture, but this is super shiny. I'm thinking it would also show fingerprints, etc. really easy. Since we already have chrome in the bathrooms, I'm thinking we should do chrome knobs at least in the bathrooms. Does the kitchen and the bathroom hardware have to match?

Brushed nickel - this matches the existing light fixture in the kitchen. To me, I'd think this would be similar enough to the chrome - what do you think?

Black - this is a matte black. I really don't care for this one. By the way, we are going to paint our kitchen walls what Sherwin Williams calls "Softer Tan" - a neutral color. I don't want to repaint the kitchen, but I can't see the yellow being a big draw.

Antique Bronze - I personally like this one the best, but we'd have to change the light fixture in the kitchen for sure.
Any opinions? Am I overlooking something?

A Question for You

As part of this year's study on discipline, I am taking a look at the Proverbs 31 woman. Anyone interested in following along? I've thought about blogging what I learn as a way to reinforce. Too often I read something, make a quick jot of it down in a journal, and before long it has completely slipped my mind. Would this be an interesting read to anyone else, or would you rather look at one of the other 3 million Google results for such a topic?

Questions...

Has anyone else ever heard a toddler babbling and been reminded of the Swedish Chef on the Muppets?
Does the new JC Penney back-to-school commercial make anyone else want to dress in 80's clothes and watch Brat Pack movies all weekend?
Just some random thoughts that keep me from being productive...

Agree or Disagree?

While reading another blog, I came across this quote:
"Tell me what the world is saying today, and I'll tell you what the church will be saying seven years from now." - Francis Shaeffer
What do YOU think about this quote? What evidence do you have to support your opinion?

A Question

Is there any connection between BB suddenly wanting to be Mr. Nakedy-Butt 24/7 and potty training? He has decided that diapers are Public Enemy #1 and he has been caught numerous times flashing his nakedy butt. Should I start tying to potty train, or is 22 months too young? I don't want to make a battle or a big issue out of training, but it sure would be nice if he got a head start!

!!!WANTED!!!

If anyone knows where I can find a nightstand that looks like this one (or very similar to it), PLEASE LET ME KNOW. I've been trying for several years to find another nightstand like this at thrift stores, e-bay, etc. but with no luck. Until we have a bigger house, we're stuck using this furniture in the master bedroom. It's the same furniture that I had as a little girl, and I want to keep the furniture in case I ever have a little girl. I only have one nightstand for the set however, and with our plans to list our house for sale while we're still living here, I want our house to look as nice as possible. Currently I'm using a brown chest for my nightstand, and it doesn't really match. I'll even settle for buying additional pieces of this furniture, if it means that I can get the nightstand.

This is Driving Me Crazy

Does anyone know the name of the monk who lived a couple hundred years ago and worked in the kitchen of his monastery? He wanted to do great works for God, but he was assigned the kitchen. He at first resented the work, but then he came to realize that his work in the kitchen was his great work for God. He wrote reflections on work and doing any task, no matter how small, for God. I've been trying to find what he wrote, but I can't remember his name. So if anyone out there knows his name, please tell me! I've been trying for the past week to remember where I read about him, and I can't remember for the life of me.

Bread Machines

I've recently gotten into making my own bread. I'm not entirely sure if I'm saving money or not, but making bread can't cost much more than buying bread, at any rate. I am currently making bread by hand using the oven, but I would like to get a bread machine. Does anyone have a bread machine that they love and would recommend? I have limited counter and storage space, so I would like one that doesn't take up too much room, isn't too heavy, and makes a square(ish) loaf, without a hole in the middle of the loaf. Any suggestions?