Posts Tagged ‘Books’

Great Things People Gave me when I had a Baby

April 29th, 2010

I got a lot of wonderful gifts when I had Thaddeus, but there are a few gifts that really stand out to me. Since I know a few beautiful mamma’s having babies in the not too far off future struggling to pick things for their registries I thought I’d fill you all in on the best things I got. These aren’t necessarily the most important things, or even essential things, but they have been some of my favorites. If you know someone having a baby then these gifts are things I would highly recommend and things that I personally use almost every day. Of course this is not an all inclusive list, but these are just the things that I have time and time again been exceedingly thankful for in the past few months.

1. Cloth Diapers

Cloth diapers were by far one of the best gifts we got when having a baby. We got a few cloth diapers at my shower, but the majority of our cloth diapers were hand-me-downs from some dear friends of ours and for me that made them even better. I love cloth diapers – they are super easy and I love knowing that I’m not filling up the landfill with disposable diapers. Did you know that by the most recent estimates it takes 200-500 years for a disposable diaper to decompose??? Isn’t that crazy?! Anyway, I’m a big fan of cloth diapers and would definitely advocate others using them.

2. Baby Carrier

We have two carriers – a Baby Bjorn that my sister found on sale and bought for us and a Sleepy Wrap that a friend gave me at my shower. When Thaddeus was little he didn’t like the Sleepy Wrap, but loved the Bjorn. Now he loves the Sleepy Wrap and I’m so glad because I personally like it better than the Bjorn although the Bjorn is a great carrier. Really I think every mom needs some sort of baby carrier, whatever kind it is. It makes life so much easier when you can put them in the carrier and have them close and happy being near you while you can still get a few things done.

3. Petunia Pickle Bottom Diaper Bag

With the above two things I am not really very brand specific, but with this I totally am. My sister has always loved Petunia Pickle Bottom, but I always thought I don’t really need a diaper bag that is that stylish or expensive. Then my sister gave me her used PPB Diaper Bag as a hand-me-down and I totally fell in love with it! I love this bag! It’s a backpack so it divides the weight nicely across my shoulders and doesn’t slip down my arm while I’m carrying my son like most shoulder bags do. It’s got pockets in all the right places and a big roomy middle space for putting all the necessary items. But, my favorite feature is that it has a changing pad that is attached to the bag with zippers – you just unzip both sides of one of the pockets and the changing pad folds out. It’s only attached with Velcro at the top so you can still take it off and wash it if needed. This has made changing Thad in public everywhere from airports to restaurants to friends houses so easy. It really is a great design and a great bag.

4. Board books

We only got a few baby books at my showers, but the few that we got are invaluable. The board books (like these ones) have been special favorites because he can’t tear the pages so he can grab at them and suck on them with being too destructive. They have been so helpful for me when I need something to keep Thaddeus entertained. He really loves when we read to him and he will often be happy hearing his stories over and over again. And I love knowing that reading to him at such a young age will help with his language skills and instill in him a love of reading latter on.

5. Bugaboo stroller

This was another thing that my sister raved about and we have been so happy with it. I know that there are a lot of great strollers out there and the bugaboo is just one of them, but I also know that I would definitely recommend this stroller. It looks great and it’s fairly intuitive to adjust and put together. It’s light and really easy to maneuver. It’s got great shocks and big wheels that are great even on the cobblestones of Europe and bouncing up and down stairs. I love carrying Thad in my wrap, but he’s heavy and for walking around the city a good stroller is invaluable. I have been really happy with this stroller and definitely recommend it.

6. Blessings and prayers

Probably the best gift of all, though, was the prayers and blessings that so many gave me as I became a new mom. At my shower in Prague a small group of close friends prayed and blessed me from head to toe. They wrote down their prayers and blessings and I often have gone back to those messages of love and encouragement on the days when I just need a little extra help. Becoming a mom for the first time can be scary and overwhelming and I can’t even say how much it meant to me to feel lifted up by a whole community of women who know and love me. That kind of encouragement was better than any other gift I received.

If you’re a mommy what was your favorite baby shower gift?

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany Stedman

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The Giving Tree

July 31st, 2009

My husband and I both have very fond memories of reading the book The Giving Tree as children. I always thought it was a wonderful book and it was one of the first children’s books that we put on our wish list. We were very excited to receive a beautiful hard cover copy of it as a gift for our baby. So, a few nights ago I decided to open it up and read it aloud to my stomach. Ever since then I have sort of been thinking about it off and on. Something about it really bothered me when I read it the other night and it continued to bother me throughout the last few days. Today thoughts started to form around this vague bothered feeling and I want to share them here.

I’m guessing that many of you have read this book as it is a very popular children’s story, but if you haven’t here is a short recap of the story from Amazon:

“In Shel Silverstein’s popular tale of few words and simple line drawings, a tree starts out as a leafy playground, shade provider, and apple bearer for a rambunctious little boy. Making the boy happy makes the tree happy, but with time it becomes more challenging for the generous tree to meet his needs. When he asks for money, she suggests that he sell her apples. When he asks for a house, she offers her branches for lumber. When the boy is old, too old and sad to play in the tree, he asks the tree for a boat. She suggests that he cut her down to a stump so he can craft a boat out of her trunk. He unthinkingly does it. At this point in the story, the double-page spread shows a pathetic solitary stump, poignantly cut down to the heart the boy once carved into the tree as a child that said “M.E. + T.” “And then the tree was happy… but not really.” When there’s nothing left of her, the boy returns again as an old man, needing a quiet place to sit and rest. The stump offers up her services, and he sits on it. “And the tree was happy.”

Ok, so I have always thought that this story was a great example of selflessness and generous giving, but as I read it again as an adult I found a whole different story within it and it was honestly unsettling.

Let’s talk about the boy first. The little boy, who grows into an old man through the course of the story, is definitely not someone I want my son to be like. He’s selfish and an incessant consumer. He takes, and takes and takes. He knows the tree loves him and he uses that love to his own advantage to get what he wants. He has no thought for the destructive force of his actions. I do not want my son to manipulate others love for him in the way this boy did. I don’t want him to selfishly walk all over people the way this little boy did. I don’t want him to endlessly consume from others and from the natural resources around him the way this little boy did with no thought of consequences. The boy is not a character I want my son to emulate.

So, how about the tree? When I was younger I felt that the tree was the real hero in the story, the character that should be emulated. I thought the tree’s selfless giving was beautiful and fulfilling, but now I see a different story and a different side of things. It’s true the tree is selfless and giving, generous and loving and these are all characteristics that I want my son to have and strive after. But, as I read the story this time, I felt uncomfortable with the tree’s giving. It seemed unhealthy. The relationship that the tree has with the boy seems abusive and the tree seems to be victimized in the story. The tree allows herself to be walked all over and taken advantage of time and time again. As I read it I felt uncomfortable with the way that the tree enabled and sustained the little boys consumption and selfishness. I do want my son to be giving, I do want him to pour himself out on behalf of others and love others generously, but I do not want my son to become as weak as this tree and allow himself to be abused and taken advantage of like that. As I look more closely at this story I don’t think that the tree is really worthy of emulating either.

I think the story actually shows us how messed up two good things can become in a relationship. Here’s what I mean… Giving selflessly to another is incredibly beautiful and valuable. And I personally also believe that allowing ourselves to accept and receive and take from another what they freely offer us is also incredibly beautiful and valuable. Relationships need and should have both these things. We should be able to give freely and receive freely in relationships. But, I think there needs to be balance. The problem comes when the balance is lost and it becomes all giving or all taking – it’s then that the relationship can become unhealthy like that of the little boy and the tree. At least that’s what I think at this stage in my life as I read this story. Anyone else have any other thoughts on this classic children’s book??

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany

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Outliers

January 26th, 2009

Today I finished reading Outliersby Malcolm Gladwell. I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it. I have really enjoyed all of Gladwell’s books (The Tipping Pointand Blink) and find his writing style to be clear and intriguing and his topics to be highly interesting.

This book is about “The Story of Success” – basically he talks about how many of the things that we think make people successful aren’t necessarily the whole story. He argues that much of what makes someone successful are the opportunities they are given and the culture they are born into. He writes:

“People don’t rise from nothing. We do owe something to parentage and patronage. The people who stand before kings may look like they did it all by themselves. But in fact they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot. It makes a difference where and when we grew up. The culture we belong to and the legacies passed down by our forebears shape the patterns of our achievement in ways we cannot begin to imagine. It’s not enough to ask what successful people are like, in other words. It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn’t.”

This is not a book to help you learn how you can pull yourself up by the boot straps and be successful. It’s much broader and bigger than that. It’s more about how we as a larger group of people can understand success culturally and instead of blocking success for people can extend the boundaries and give more opportunities for more people to be successful.

“The lesson here is very simple. But it is striking how often it is overlooked. We are so caught in the myths of the best and the brightest and the self-made that we think outliers spring naturally from the earth. We look at the young Bill Gates and marvel that our world allowed that thirteen-year-old unlimited access to a time-sharing terminal in 1968. If a million teenagers had been given the same opportunity, how many more Microsoft’s would we have today? To build a better world we need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and arbitrary advantages that today determine success – the fortunate birth dates and the happy accidents of history – with a society that provides opportunities for all. If Canada had a second hockey league for those children born in the last half of the year, it would today have twice as many adult hockey stars. Now multiply that sudden flowering of talent by every field and profession. The world could be so much richer than the world we have settled for.”

I found this book to be incredibly intriguing and I encourage you to read it as well.

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany

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Book Review: The Shack

June 11th, 2008

I just finished reading The Shack by William P. Young. I’m not sure where to start in writing about this book. I guess I’ll start by saying that I’ve never cried so much during a book. I found myself almost constantly fighting back tears while reading this book especially the whole second half of it.

When I started reading The Shack I was on an airplane nearing Prague, I felt excited and joyful. I read the foreword and the first chapter of the book and knew right away that I couldn’t continue. I was getting choked up already.

I picked it up again about 2 days ago and continued reading knowing a little more of what I was getting into this time. This second time I picked it up I really struggled with it. The writing style felt a little clunking (which is understandable since this is the authors first book), but really the sometimes awkwardness of the writing just added to the rawness of the story. It felt painful to read – the hurt was so raw and real. Then God showed up and I could feel myself really fighting the picture of intimate love that the author used to portray God – I found myself asking what about justice? What about wrath? What about holiness? And otherness? And an appropriate distance between the God who is other and sinful creation? But, slowly I was drawn in… I was touched and moved, often to tears, at the picture of God I saw here.

I am still processing this book. I’m not really sure what I thought of some parts of it, but I know that overall it really touched me. I would be very curious to know what others thought of this book. If you’ve read it please feel free to tell me about your thoughts on it and your experience with it in the comments.

Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman

A lot of other people are writing about this book. Here are a few other reviews of the book that you might find interesting:

Here is a review about the Shack which I thought made some great points and raised some good concerns.

Mark Peterson wrote his thoughts on The Shack here and here.

There’s a review on Promomusings here with a lot of interesting comments as well.

Andrew Jones writes his thoughts about the book here.

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