Handmade Christmas

I'm not the craftiest knife in the drawer, but wanted to share some of my handmade Christmas gifts.

When we asked Nicholas what he wanted for Christmas, he would say:
You! (Cute)
One big happy family! (Cuter)
A giant robot to destroy Michael. (Not so cute)

Giant robots being hard to come by, I made him a "Make Your Own Robot" Kit instead:








I gathered a bunch of beads, blocks, and other wood findings and painted them a metallic silver. I added a silver glitter to some as well. I added details with a Sharpie and then used adhesive velcro. I threw in some silver pipe cleaner lengths as well. I was afraid the velcro would fall off, but so far, so good!


Nick loves his robot army.


And so does Daniel!

Handmade (but NOT by me!) is this great robot shirt I bought from Bellflower Textiles on Etsy. Ignore the chocolate dribbling out of his mouth.


For Katie Grace, I made this hair accessory organizer:


I bought this great handmade-by-someone-else diaper for Daniel from Tot Wraps at the Hyena Cart website:


And my friend Lisa knit these longies for Daniel before he was even born, but I never had a shirt to go with them. Thanks to Marisa at The Funky Giraffe, I do now!




And look- I made them myself!

Long time, no see.

So, as usual, we had our usual Christmas outbreak of the plague... erm... of illness... this year. Michael threw up the Sunday before, then we had a few days off. Then Daniel started hurling, and then it was my turn. I couldn't even go to church on Christmas Eve. I couldn't even direct my own choir--my husband had to do it. I don't have pictures of everyone wearing their Christmas outfits and standing around the church tree. *weeps*

Nevertheless, we had ourselves a merry little Christmas. By Christmas Day I was well enough to cook dinner, if not to eat it. And now, two days later, we mostly seem on the mend. Here's hoping the rest of them don't get sick!

And despite my lack of photos of the children clothed in Christmas splendor, I do have a picture of them dressed up in their tradition Christmas jammies a nice church lady gives them each year:

More to come, hopefully. I hope your Christmas was merry, bright, and blessed!

Take action! Save handmade.

Remember Christmas a year ago? Hundreds of toys were being recalled for having dangerously high lead levels, small parts that could detach, and unsafe components. Toys had magnets that could be ingested and dangerous chemicals that could and were making our children sick. By and large, these recalled toys were from major toy manufacturers who outsourced their labor to China and other developing nations.

Fast forward to August, 2008, when Congress, recognizing that the Consumer Product Safety Commission lacked the people-power to stop dangerous toys from coming into the US, passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, or CPSIA. Among other things, this Act bans pthalates, lead, and other dangerous chemicals in toys, mandates that all toys be tested for these things, and requires a date and batch number be placed on each toy.

Sounds good, right?

Well, it is if you're a large toy manufacturer with the money and means. For small American, Canadian, and European toy makers who haven't been a problem in the first place? Not so much.

The costs per toy are going to be upwards of $4,000. Per toy.

That's an impossible sum for the dad in New England carving wooden cars, or the mom in the country making dolls, or even Selecta, a German company who has already announced its plans to withdraw from the US market.

It's not too late. The CPSIA can still be modified to exclude a class of toymakers that have never abused the consumers' trust--small American, European, and Canadian toymakers.

Take Action!
Find your congressperson here, and your senator here. Write to them. The Handmade Toy Alliance has a great sample letter here, as well as a more thorough explanation here.

You can also sign an online petition here.

Save handmade!

Winter Saints: Elizabeth Has a Baby

I've always loved the story of St. Elizabeth, not just because it's another story of a woman longing for a child and God blessing her, but because he gave her another gift as well-- nine months of silence from her husband, Zechariah.

Let's think about it for a minute- this is a man who argued with an angel, a messenger from God. I can only imagine what he must have been like to live with.

Nine months of silence did Zechariah good, though. When he finally spoke, it wasn't to question or criticize, but to praise God.

You, child, will be called Prophet of the Most High,
for you come to prepare a pathway for the Lord.

Winter Saints: Lazarus, Come Forth!

In Scripture, the story of Lazarus ends when Jesus calls him out of the tomb. He walks and breaths and eats, a witness to a miracle. But legend picks up where the Bible leaves off, and tales are told of what Lazarus made of his second life.

One such story tells of Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha, sharing the gospel in Jaffa. Their enemies put them in a leaky boat and sent them out to see, but God intervened once again and saved them, settling them on the island of Cyprus, where they settled and lived and preached for 30 years.

Another story, much like the first, has them landing on the coast of France, where Lazarus became a bishop and was eventually martyred by the Roman emperor.

What would we do with a second chance at life?

Winter Saints: Lucy, the Stubborn Teenager

We were out of town on Saturday morning (though we did wake up a little earlier so we could have our St. Lucy buns, masquerading as muffins!), so we didn't get to the story of St. Lucy until today. But what a story!

Legend has it that when the man chosen to marry Lucy was rejected, he denounced Lucy to the governor as a Christian. Lucy sat in a chair and waited to be taken away.

When the soldiers came, they found that they couldn't carry her out. They even hitched a team of oxen to her, and they still couldn't carry her out! They poured boiling oil on her and set the house on fire, but she would not move, nor would she die. Said Lucy,

To bear witness to my true bridegroom Jesus Christ, I do not burn.

It was only when a soldier ran a sword through her throat that she finally died.

We celebrate St. Lucy, whose name means "light" as one of the many lights along the path of our Advent journey.

Saint Lucy,

you did not hide your light under a basket,
but let it shine for the whole world,
for all the centuries to see.
We may not suffer torture in our lives the way you did,
but we are still called to let the light of our Christianity
illumine our daily lives.
Please help us to have the courage
to bring our Christianity into our work, our recreation, our relationships, our conversation
every corner of our day. Amen

Winter Saints: Old Testament Justice

This week, we've visited some women of the Old Testament:

Hagar, who conceived and bore a child as part of her duties as a slave.

Sarah, who wanted a baby more than anything in the world, and laughed when she was told that it would be so.

A woman known only to us as "A woman of Zorah," who was also visited by an angel, and given a pregnancy to-do list that makes "What to Expect When You're Expecting" look pretty mild in comparison.

Hannah, who wanted a child so badly that she was willing to give him back to God in return.

God, who heard the cries of their hearts, protected them and their children. During this Advent, we can seek to be like the women who place their hearts' desires in God's hands, like their families and friends who supported them, saying "Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant what you ask", and like the angels sent by God to bring good news and peace to broken hearts.

Winter Saints: Our Lady of Guadalupe

"My little son, there are many I could send. But you are the one I have chosen."

Once again in Advent, we have a story of an unlikely messenger. The Mother of God appears not to a king or even directly to the bishop, but to a member of the lowest, despised class of the Aztecs, who themselves were now despised by the Spanish conquistadors. She chose him, not in spite of his lowliness, but because of it. He said:

"I am a nobody, I am a small rope, a tiny ladder, the tail end, a leaf"

And Mary replied:

"My dear little son, I love you. I desire you to know who I am. I am the ever-virgin Mary, Mother of the true God who gives life and maintains its existence. He created all things. He is in all places. He is Lord of Heaven and Earth. I desire a church in this place where your people may experience my compassion. All those who sincerely ask my help in their work and in their sorrows will know my Mother's Heart in this place. Here I will see their tears; I will console them and they will be at peace. So run now to Tenochtitlan and tell the Bishop all that you have seen and heard."

Buy My Stuff

If anyone is interested, I have tons of stuff for sale here on my yard sale blog. So far, it's lots of books and DVDs-- homeschool, homemaking, Waldorf, and more. I have lots more to add!

Winter Saints: Franco Lippi

Some saints get an early start. Like St. Rumbold, the infant saint who supposedly said "I am a Christian" when he was three days old, and then died. Or St. Therese, the Little Flower, who began seeking God early in life.

Other saints get off to a later start, like today's saint, Franco Lippi. After a life of sin, he fled Siena when accused of murder. He became blind, and went on a pilgrimage to Spain. When he returned, he sought to join a monastery, but was turned away. And really, who can blame them? He left an accused murderer and returned a saint-wanna-be. They instructed him to come back in five years, probably figuring he would be dead by then, since he was past fifty years old. He continued his life of penance and returned to the monastary in five years, where he was taken in. He died at the age of 70.

Where does this fit in on our Advent journey of social justice? Like Franco Lippi, we're all living a life of self-indulgance. We may not think we're as deep in as he is, but the truth is that every instance of putting ourselves above others grieves our Lord. And also, like Franco Lippi, we can remember that it's never too late to turn and repent, to put away the old person and be born again. And a final lesson, I think, is to remember that sometimes, even when we have a conversion experience and change our ways, we need to give those around a chance to see the change in us before they can believe it.

Peace and grace to you along your Advent journey!