On Hormonal Birth Control

Can I just take a moment to vent?

On Monday I had an appointment with the good ole female doctor. I went in to see her for a particular issue and we ended up discussing birth control methods. I made it clear that I was not interested in any hormonal methods of birth control, yet she tried to convince me to use hormonal birth control. But here's MY PERSONAL CONVICTION about hormonal birth control: there is a possibility that a fertilized egg would be unable to implant. For me, that means there is a possibility for a baby to be aborted.

Now, here's where my venting comes in (and I say this with genuine concern and in all gentleness):

46% of women use "the pill" as their primary source of birth control (MSNBC), but how many of them are aware that birth control pills can prevent a fertilized egg from implanting? How many doctors clearly inform their patients of this?

I am not saying that no one should use hormonal birth control. My concern is that as men and women of the Creator God we need to take this issue seriously and pray and read the Word for the answers and our own personal convictions, rather than being ignorant or apathetic.

If you can find one hour this week to set aside, please do it and watch this video from Mark Driscoll. He gives an incredibly balanced view of all methods of birth control, regardless of the recent controversy surrounding him.

TILALO: On My Nose

TILALO = Things I Love About Living Overseas

One thing that I really enjoy about living in India is the beautiful jewelry and how it is used to show a woman is married. A married woman wears:

• sindoor in her hair
• a bindi on her forehead
  
• earrings
• a nose ring or nose pin
  
• a gold necklace
• bangles
• anklets
• toe rings

I consistently wear most of these, especially when I go out in India. (A friend of mine shared that for the sindoor she just uses red lipstick, and it works...so that's what I do too!) And, yes, for those of you who don't know me personally or haven't seen me in awhile, I do have my nose pierced (I've had it pierced for 3 years).

When in India, I wear a rather large diamond and gold nose pin that my hubby bought me. (It is a symbol of how much your husband loves you, so the bigger it is the more he loves ya!) But now that I'm in the US for a while, I feel like I get some funny looks and even comments about my "piercing". So, for those of you who live in South Asia and have your noses pierced, I have a question:

What do you do about your nose piercing while in the States where people see it as a sort of rebellion or as counter cultural?

On Sanctification

I've been listening to several John Piper sermons this week that would be totally worth your time:

• Sustained by Sovereign Grace: How to Endure to the End
• Spectacular Sins (part 1)

And Jessica @ Making Home wrote a beautiful post on the role of mother.

As I have been reflecting on what Jessica said, what I've been reading in Sacred Marriage, what Piper shared and what we've been studying in church, the Lord has being teaching me a repeated theme:

God calls us to marriage and motherhood and even to a place or vocation to make us holy, not happy - to sanctify us.

So we should look at each moment as part of that process of sanctification, even when we must suffer or endure trials. All things work together for good (Rom. 8:28). That's the good - our holiness.



This post is part of What I Learned This Week. To read what others have learned or to share what you've learned this week, be sure to visit Musings of a Housewife.

On Replacing Lies with the Truth

When I was in grad school, I discovered my preferred theory of therapy was a combination of Narrative Therapy and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. Replace negative thinking with positive thinking. Retell your story from a more positive perspective.

At first, I was pulled into the post-modern idea that there is no absolute truth. Truth is defined by man. If society defines a behavior as good, then it is good. And likewise for evil or abnormalities (I'm not saying "evil" and "abnormal" are always the same thing). But as I continued trying to live life and help others in counseling sessions (as an intern) to live their lives with postmodern thought as the assumption, I realized there was no way for us to "get well" because society kept changing what they defined as good and evil, not to mention that everywhere you go around the world there are millions of different definitions of what is good and what is evil. My conclusion was that there must be an absolute truth by which to live.

Since I grew up in the church, I recognized pretty quickly that I needed God's Word to help me and help my clients replace negative thinking with the Absolute Truth and retell our stories with the underlying understanding of God's sovereignty throughout history. Societies around the world have simply distorted what God gave from the beginning of time as the Truth. The Logos line distorted has become the mythos line (Dr. Thom). I have found that this is so completely evident in so many ways in South Asia.

I have recently been reading "Lies Women Believe: and the Truth That Sets Them Free" by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. It's been beneficial at the very least to help me identify lies that can lead me spiraling down.

Here is a list of lies I found myself believing just last week:

• I can't make it in South Asia.
• I can't submit to my husband if he's going to make me do things I don't want to do like live somewhere I don't want to live.
• My kids are being deprived because we live in South Asia.
• Since I'm not thriving this can't be where the Lord wants us.
• It would be easier and I would be happier if we just stayed in America.
• I can't reach out to people in South Asia because it's too hard in that culture.

Here is how I've replaced those lies with Truth:

• "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." (Philippians 4:13)
• "Now as the Church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands." (Ephesians 5:22)
• "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life." (Matthew 19:29)
• "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good." (Romans 8:28)
• "Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!...Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and joy are in his place." (1 Chronicles 16:11, 27)
• "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." (Acts 1:8)

What about you? What lies are you believing?

WFMW: On the iPhone App "Lose It"

Last week I read Glenna's post on weight loss. She was completely honest and open about her struggle with the food god.

Since reading her post, I've been counting calories. I've finally had to admit that I am fat. I've been in denial, but my BMI doesn't lie. (And let me just tell you it's been interesting to see how much fatter Americans are than South Asians!)

To help me keep track of the calories I consume each day, I downloaded a free app for my iPhone called Lose It! (FYI: this app can also be used with the iPod Touch)

The application allows you to:

• enter your weight and height
• set weight loss goals
• estimate the date you will be able to reach your weight loss goal (based on how many pounds you plan to lose per week)
  
• search foods for nutrition info
• search exercises to calculate the number of calories burned
• enter your own nutrition information on recipes

Though I wish it included more restaurant nutrition information, I countered that problem by also downloading the app called Restaurant Nutrition.

So far, I've lost two pounds! :D And that's why my review of this application is that it works for me!

For more Works for Me Wednesday posts, be sure to visit We Are That Family.
For more reviews of the Lose It! app for iPhone/iPod Touch, visit this website.

On Learning (from a Mouse) to Find Contentment

Last night as I headed to bed (around 11:30 - what was I thinking?), crossing through the kitchen right by the stove, I saw it - two beady little eyes staring at me and then quickly turning to disappear under the right back burner. Ugh! A mouse. I scampered off to my room with a little screech (at the risk of waking the kids).

Then, just as I was about to doze off, I could hear that dern mouse walking on my dirty dishes. ching * ching * ching. (Guess that's what I get for not doing the dishes.) And then he knocked a spoon on to the floor. CLANG! (Like my sound effects?)

At that point, I did not care that it was midnight - that mouse HAD to go. "Lee. Lee. Wake up. The mouse in the kitchen is eating all of our food. He just knocked the dishes off the counter! Please go get it." (And I wonder why my daughters are such drama queens....)

Hubby stumbled to the kitchen and tried to smash the mouse with my brand new, unworn $6 flip-flops from Wal-Mart. (Eww! Gross!) No success (thank God). Then, after just enough effort to satisfy me, he laid out a glue trap on the counter.

This morning, the glue trap had a little bitty spider on it, but no mouse (though there was plenty of mouse poop on the counter and a partially eaten banana).

Other things that annoy me about where I'm at right now:

• roaches
• a leaking, stinking toilet
• expected plumbers that didn't show last night
  
• unexpected plumbers the next morning (and I was still in my p.j.s)
• snakes in the road that keep me from going on all those long walks I dreamed about in India
• unscheduled days that make planning meals and library trips much more complicated

So...we have a mouse in the house...and we're not even in India! And that is the exact point of this post: in spite of what I tell myself on those tough days in India, America is NOT perfect.

But, when I opened the curtains after Daddy took the girls over to "Aunt 'Chelle's" house to play and to give me some quiet time, and I saw the four beautiful horses that graze in the land right beside our rent house, and saw the beautiful, blue, Oklahoma sky, I remembered what "Aunty Mindy" said:

"You have to learn to be content wherever you are."

{To read what others are learning, check out What I Learned This Week @ Musings of a Housewife.}

On VHS

Last week I mentioned several of the things that my mother and mother-in-law saved for my kids. Among those keepsakes were several VHS tapes. The girls have been enjoying watching Disney movies on the VCR and some other classic cartoons. Among my favorite - Hanna Barbera's The Greatest Adventure (remember those?) and Superbook (which has a current fan site!). I've also been doing a bit of garage sale shopping and have found that VHS tapes sell for cheap! I'm talking 25-cents-cheap. Of course, lots of The Greatest Adventures videos are also available on YouTube here and Superbook is here.

That works for me!

TILALO: On Raising Kids Overseas

TILALO = Things I Love About Living Overseas


You know you're raising kids overseas when...

1. Your children don’t know your brothers or sisters, but they have at least 50 Uncles and Aunts who are no relation to them at all.

2. Your kids can translate between American, British, and Australian English.

3. When you say, “We’re going home,” your kids ask, “Which one?”

4. It’s 27 C outside but your kids want a jacket.

5. Hundreds of total strangers have photos of your children on their mobile phone.

6. When you’re in a restaurant and the server doesn’t try to pick up your toddler and carry him around, you’re surprised (and a bit disappointed since now you have to watch him yourself).

7. Your children know exactly how to behave when the customs official looks in your car at the border.

8.Your kids flew before they could walk.

9. Your kids can greet strangers appropriately in multiple languages and cultures, but they’re not sure how to relate to their cousins.

10. One of the first phrases you learn to say is, “Can you split that onto 2 plates?”

11. You wish strollers came in 4-wheel drive models.

12. You know that the best toys are twigs, rocks, and cardboard boxes.

13. Finding your children in a crowd is easy: they’re at the center of it.

14. Your kids think change is normal and normal is boring.

15. You teach geography by saying, “And Uncle John lives there, and the Johnsons are from there…”

16. The thought of sending your children on an unescorted plane trip doesn’t scare you nearly as badly as putting them back into your home country’s public school system.

17. You realize one day that your definition of “home” isn’t even on the same continent as your children’s definition.

18. Your kids have more stamps in their passport than most backpackers.

19. Your baby's never sat in a baby swing, but he loves the hammock.

20. You're too busy to write notes like these.

21. Your kids think another plane ride or border crossing is routine but the sight of a park with real grass makes them ecstatic.

22. Your kids would rather drink Pepsi from a bag than a bottle,

23. Your kids can sing the water buffalo song and mean it.

24. You had to get new pages in your child's passport before he turned five.

25. You put your children to bed at 9 pm and your neighbor marvels at how early it is.

26. Your children are as comfortable with adults as they are with their peers and don't like always having to be separated to be with their own age group.

27. When visiting the US, your kids look at their grandparents' back yard and exclaim, "Oh look, a whole park just for me!"

28. When you're on home leave, you're disappointed when no one comes up to you at the mall or playground and tells you your kids are cute. Just another blond kid running around.

29. When your kids think wearing shoes is optional.

30. When your kids want to hand thier lunch out the window every day to the homeless person at every stop.

31. When your child can fall asleep while riding on a motorbike.

32. When your child hates mashed potatoes, gets tired of bread after awhile, and love rice.

33. When your child can speak three languages very clearly: English, the national language, and broken English complete with an accent.

WFMW: On Hand-Me-Down Toys

I've recently really come to appreciate hand-me-down toys. Somehow, when I was in high school sorting through all of my stuff before heading off to college, I managed to save a few of my own toys for the kids I thought I might have one day. I saved...

• three cabbage patch dolls that are now dearly loved by my little girls.
• a bouncing Tigger that has given us all giggles.
• several stuffed animals that have provided lots of cuddles and tea parties for my little ones.

And just this week I've realized I wasn't the only one that saved toys for our kiddos. My mom and mother-in-law so wisely saved some toys as well. Stuffed animals, rocking chairs, dolls, and even a homemade swing set, welded together by my father-in-law. Tonight, Lee and his dad (a.k.a. "Papa") got the swing set up for the girls to enjoy. The chains and swings are all new but the poles were what Lee grew up with.





Even though it's incredibly wonderful that hand-me-down toys are completely free, I think the best part is seeing my children enjoy them as much or more than I remember doing so myself. :)

For more ways to fight summer boredom, be sure to check out Works for Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family.

Tueday I'm Learning: On Breaking the Rules

Over the last week I've broken a lot of rules. A couple of days the kids have had lots of candy and lots of gum. On several days they have slept in their clothes or watched a movie first thing in the morning. They have skipped naps, not brushed their teeth before bedtime, had snacks at odd hours, and stayed up late. But I'm learning that it's ok to break some rules - especially when we're jet lagging.

We arrived back Stateside last weekend - two months earlier than we had originally planned. (Another broken "rule" I suppose, or is it just a broken plan? It's all the same to me.) We changed our tickets, packed up our house, packed our suitcases with the "necessities" for our survival and trip back to the US for several months all within one week (thanks to the help of some friends). And even though a lot of these broken rules are really silly, it's a big step for me - rule breaking, that is.

You see, I'm a lot like Mister Dog. I'm "a conservative". I like the sun to rise at sunrise and the sun to set at sunset. And everything to be in its place, because everything has a place and everything should be in its place (at least that's what my Dad always taught me). I'm also a J on the Meyer's-Briggs. So, I'm learning that breaking rules is part of surviving sometimes, and that's a good thing. Here's why I found breaking the rules to be helpful:

• Candy and gum on the forever-long airplane ride from one side of the world to the other is a great way to keep kids entertained and not crying.
  
• Trying to keep the kids awake as long as possible inevitably meant not putting them in their pajamas at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, which is the time they ended up falling asleep for the night. It also meant skipping naps and teeth left unbrushed.
  
• Falling asleep at 4 pm means waking up at 4 am. Putting a movie on for the kids while we went back to sleep for a couple hours was great! (We also took the opportunity as a family one morning to watch the sunrise.)
• Waking up so early meant eating a snack before breakfast!

So, what are you learning today?

(On a side note: I'm thinking I might turn this into a meme of sorts...with Mr. Linky. What do you think? I'd love to learn what you're learning and it'd save time if it was all linked right here. Would you join in and post about things you're learning every Tuesday?)