The Stepping Stones Community Walk: Please Come!

Rory and I have become involved in our local pregnancy center, The Northfield Women's Center. Rory serves on the board, and recently I signed up to help lead a community walk for one of the many programs the center runs.

Here's what I love most about this center: they are fighting for the mama just as hard as they are fighting for the baby. Whether you are pro-choice or pro-life, there isn't much you could disagree with at this center. They are a life-affirming center that respects the unique situation of every woman. They help her see the value of her own life, and the value of the life of the baby she is carrying. 

They don't only want the baby to survive, they want the young mother to thrive.

So they work tirelessly to provide resources, programming, childcare and empowering education to help these moms find their footing once again.

I think the reason I adore Stepping Stones so much is because I get it. Stepping Stones is for young moms who need some help and support to get back on their feet. Hello. As a mom who is in the thick of it, and struggles herself, I can think of no more important work. I think I have been honest enough on the blog that it’s no surprise that motherhood has been hard for me. And I even have a supportive husband, an awesome mom, family in the area and friends who have all helped me. Stepping Stones is the safety net for the mama's who don't have such a broad support system.

Stepping Stones connects a young mom with an older woman in a one-on-one mentoring program. Together, they walk through a curriculum that helps the young mom see her future as one that is filled with hope, with a plan to not only get through the day at hand, but to dream about what her future might look like with an empowered heart.

And this is why I'm so excited about this walk. And why I really, really would love for moms and their families to walk it. Because moms fully know how hard the hard days can be and that a woman has to have help and support to keep things sane.

Frankly, I don't just want moms and dads and families to walk it. I want everyone who is able to come out and walk it.

The walk is one mile, paved and takes about 15 minutes to walk. It's a great little trek that ends at Mill Park in Dundas (where all of these pictures were taken). The walk begins at 10 am on (the date has changed to:) Saturday, August 16th at Rejoice Church in Dundas, right next to the Menards on Highway 3. It promises to be a fun morning, with the Stepping Stones Community Walk concluding in the heart of Celebrate Dundas the small town's big summer fair with food concessions, a kid’s carnival, a car show, musicians and a magician.

The cost is $30 a family for the walk, $15 for an individual. This is how we are raising money for Stepping Stones. We decided not to have people gather pledges and instead charge for the walk. The charge is basically a donation given to support the Stepping Stones mentoring program at The Northfield Women’s Center.

I really hope you will join us for this fun summer morning, supporting a program that is transforming lives, supporting moms as they get back on their feet and celebrating the community that we share.

And all are welcome. Whether you live in the area or are looking for a fun summer outing and want to support a program that supports and empowers young moms, I would love to have you join us.

Register at: http://www.steppingstonescommunitywalk.eventsbot.com/

Happy Father's Day Rory!

Becca: "Ivar, what do you love about daddy?"

Ivar: "I love playing colors and shapes!"

Becca: "Elsie, what do you love about daddy?"

Elsie: "Nah nah. Daddy-hoo? Mama Dada Mama Dada!

the brown and orange mcdonalds

We have lots of different McDonalds in our life. Sometimes we go to "the blue McDonalds" which other people might call Culvers. Sometimes we go to the red and yellow McDonalds, which other people might just simply call McDonalds.

Well last night I took the kids to the brown and orange McDonalds. The new favorite of all the McDonalds. Here they bring out the kids size(!!!) float just after you order. By the time the burger and fries show up, they're old news, and may not be touched. But those floats...they are amazing and messy and sticky and so, so worth it. While Ivar looked at his mug he said, "I see the letter A and the letter W!"

We'll be back brown and orange McDonalds.

Clever Child Care

I'm starting to get smart about child care. Or at least I have friends who are smart, and it's starting to rub off on me. It's a funny thing to "get a sitter" when you're a stay-at-home-mom. It's hard to justify spending money on a sitter when your primary job is to be home with your kids.

But it is also super easy to justify spending money on a sitter when your primary job is to be home with your kids. Because you can never leave your job. Ever. Unless you have a sitter.

So here are three creative sitter ideas I want to pass along:

1. Hour for Hour: The most obvious of the babysitter swaps. My friend Ali and I try for this once a month. We set the dates on the calendar. One day a month I'll drop my kids off at her house from 9-1. And then later that month she'll drop her kids off at my house from 9-1. It means when my kids are at her house, I can be at my own house, without kids. Which is one crazy, amazing feeling. I've also noticed how much easier my own kids are when Ali's kids are over. Everyone seems a bit more self-sufficient because they have playmates. I still have to help with toy disputes and sharing from time to time, but I love having her kids here. And I love having my own time too. And when my kids go to her house, she feeds them her food. When her kids are at my house, I feed them our food. No packing lunches...that just makes more work for the mama who is getting the morning off!

2. Parent Date Night: My friend Allyson thought this one up and it's brilliant. At the beginning of each month she emails me dates they are available for the next month. Any nights of the week are game. Then I reply with the dates that work for us. We narrow down to two different nights. One night Rory and I will bring both cars and our kids to her house, while she and her husband go out on a date. When bedtime comes, Rory loads our kids in one car and takes them home for bedtime. I put Allyson's kids to bed and then cozy up on their couch with a good book because the deal with this swap is that it usually allows for late night dates. The couple on the date isn't paying for a sitter, which means this date can be longer than normal. And when they return, I get in my own car and drive myself home. It eliminates paying a sitter AND driving to pick up and drop off the sitter! The babysitting itself is a family affair...I love having Rory babysitting with me and it's easy peasy because our kids adore each other and entertain themselves nicely.

3. Monday Morning Babysitter: This one costs money. At some point it dawned on me that dollar for dollar, I would rather pay for a babysitter for four hours on a Monday morning than for four hours on a weekend night. So I have a girl from church come for just four hours each week. I pay a little more because she's married and this is her income. But it's worth every dime. The bonus is that when I wake up on a Monday morning around 7, I have this two hour high productivity window that amazes me. I know my reward is coming at 9:00 in the form of a babysitter, so I get the house in shape, clean the kitchen, do some laundry, get myself ready and at 9:00 I fly out the door to a coffee shop or whatever. And sometimes Rory and I will arrange to meet for lunch, which makes this a legit date with my husband, as well.

And finally, I can't number this one because I haven't done it myself, I have a friend who used to live in South Dakota and swapped with two other friends. One loved to watch kids, one loved to make soup and another loved to make homemade cleaning products. So once a month they swapped these services. How clever is that?!!

So these are my latest discoveries in the world of Mama Self Care. Anyone else have any clever babysitting ideas?

Honey Bee School 101

So Bee Keepers are passionate people. There is a whole movement out there to save the honey bees and this week I have jumped on the bandwagon. Each night we've been watching another movie or youtube video and trying to educate ourselves as quickly as possible. And it's true. All that is happening to our honey bees is a really big deal. During one movie I turned to Rory told him that I'm really proud to be keeping our own bees.

Today I wanted to pass along a few of the movies and videos and sites that I have discovered. Two movies were recommended right in the comments of this blog. Brad (are you high school Brad?) recommended a great video called Portrait of an Urban Bee Keeper. It's 20 minutes long and really well done. Enjoyable to watch and worth your time. Also really cool to think of keeping bees in the city!

Then I found beverlybees.com and the resource page on that site is fantastic. This TED Talk she has on her site is an incredible overview of what is happening to our world's bees and why we should care.


We watched every other video on the Beverly Bees Resource page. Really fascinating stuff there about verroa mites and foul brood and colony collapse.

Rory's brother Kyle told us about the movie More Than Honey and we ordered that on Netflix. I enjoyed this movie a lot and was amazed at the up close footage they had of the bees doing their thing, even the birth of a queen. Really fascinating. The transportation of bees to big monocrop operations is pretty terrifying. The whole time we watched I kept shaking my head, "this is all against God's created order. God never designed the world to work this way..." It's sobering to watch.

And my greatest resource is our teacher, Adam. He came out again this week and was so excited to see our bees thriving. We even added a box so that one hive can spread out and make more comb! That's a great sign of a healthy hive and I was so excited.

And finally, there is Oma Zina. Oma Zina is my sister-in-law Lisa's mom who came out for her 77th birthday. She loves it out here and really loves our bees. She and her husband used to keep bees and she has a lot of great lessons to pass on about swarming, drones and even has her son sending her late husband's bee suit so she can get in on the action. What a joy!