I am happy to report that this year was our greenest Christmas ever! And not because we didn't have any snow, but because we are learning to make better choices. Here are some of the things we did to have our greenest christmas ever.
We used last year's wrapping paper to wrap up gifts. We found environmentally friendly gifts for my parents: for Mom some pure beeswax candles (that way no petroleum products or nasty off-gasing) and for my Dad bamboo socks and organic/natural marzipan stollen bread. For my brother and his wife we got gift cards- which is a lot better than getting them something they don't want and will just throw away in a few months!
We also received some great gifts: stainless steel measuring spoons, the green parent magazine, organic fair trade chocolate and dried fruit, and a used astronomy book.
The boys received a crane by Plan Toys (www.plantoys.com) all wooden and made by decently treated workers in Thailand, who use organic rubberwood, as well as some organic cotton clothing from MEC (www.mec.com).
The best thing of all, since we've been trying to trim down the amount of stuff we have, was that no one seemed to get anything they didn't want and there just wasn't a whole lot of excess. We loved giving compassion gifts- The gift of chickens to a family in Africa, and dental care (www.compassion.ca) and receiving in our honour, a fruit tree given to a family in a developing country (world vision).
With some money I received I discovered a wonderful Victoria based store called Hemp & Co. There I got myself some hemp and wool slippers to keep my feet warm now that we have hard wood floors!
samedi 31 décembre 2011
jeudi 29 décembre 2011
La raquette à Mount seymour Snowshoeing at Mount Seymour
Here are some photos from snowshoeing at Mount Seymour. Josué really enjoyed himself.
dimanche 18 décembre 2011
Our boys are Young Adults. Nos deux garçons sont des jeunes adultes.
Quand Benjamin avait deux mois, Paul le Leader de notre église, nous a demandé de prendre en charge les jeunes adultes. Depuis ce moment là, nous avons adopté le style: où nous allons, nos garçons vont aussi! Et depuis Benjamin et Josué ont participé à de nombreux sorties jeunes adultes, mais ont aussi fait parti des moments de louange, prière, et partage. Nous croyons que c'est une investissement dans leur vie! Voici quelques photos (qui date de l'année passée! Des photos plus récentes à venir).
When Benjamin was 2 months old Paul, the lead pastor of our church, asked us to lead the Young adults. Since then we've adopted the where we go, our boys go policy. Josué and Benjamin really are honorary young adults- and we love that our friends have made them feel at home and given them love and attention. Josué and Benjamin have joined us for many events, but have also been a part of many times of prayer, praise and teachings. We trust that this is an investment in their lives. (These photos are about a year old- I'll post some more recent photos soon!)
When Benjamin was 2 months old Paul, the lead pastor of our church, asked us to lead the Young adults. Since then we've adopted the where we go, our boys go policy. Josué and Benjamin really are honorary young adults- and we love that our friends have made them feel at home and given them love and attention. Josué and Benjamin have joined us for many events, but have also been a part of many times of prayer, praise and teachings. We trust that this is an investment in their lives. (These photos are about a year old- I'll post some more recent photos soon!)
vendredi 16 décembre 2011
Becoming Green: cloth diapers
Cloth Diapers
The cloth diaper journey has been a great one. The other day I noticed a nasty smell in our kitchen. I thought “wow” “where is that coming from? It’s really gross!” Two days earlier a friend had been here, and had put a poopy diaper in the garbage bin. It had made our whole kitchen reek! We have never, in 3 years of diapering had to deal with such a smell.
We love cloth diapering. First of all it is better for the environment, no waste. And it is cheaper. Also, companies won’t even disclose what they put in their paper diapers to make them « super absorbent. » With cloth diapers and water & washcloths we know our babies bums aren’t being bombarded by chemicals.
We have really liked Motherease www.motherease.com cloth diapers because they are organic cotton (they also have regular cotton) one size fits all- newborn to 3 years old toddler! And are canadian made (St Catharines, ON)! For the first 6 months it is super easy, we’ve found even the poop (breastmilk poo) diapers can be thrown in the pail with all the rest and washed. Once solids come along we have a smaller pail for the poopy diapers that need a rinse before going in with all the rest. If I had a laundry sink, I’d work on it there. But I don’t so I put some water in the pail in the bathtub and scrub, I then dump the water in the toilet.
When we first started with diapers we found after a while cloth diapers were just as convenient when we were out, we’d just put the dirty diapers in a bag (a plastic bag before we bought the wet bag) and wash them at home. We found this to be great: we saved money and it was better for the environment. The other thing about disposable is that technically it is illegal to put human waste in the trash. With cloth all the poo goes in the toilet where it belongs! For wipes at home we just use cloths, but sometimes when we are out we use disposable ones because hot water is not always ready to wet the cloths. I have found 2 companies that make biodegradable wipes (and disposables). Brody chick & Mamazone. Both include natural products - agains, no harsh chemicals. The cloth diapers we bought for Josué are starting to get holes (but are still working). They’ve had 3 1⁄2 years of use (Josué still has a diaper at night.) and have seen a year of Benjamin’s infancy and 2 years of Josué in full time diapers. Not bad! We bought 24 for Josué and added 12 new when Benjamin was born.
If you want to save even more energy you can consider cold water washing and line drying. Hanging them out in the sun is a natural bleaching and disinfectant.
We love cloth diapering. First of all it is better for the environment, no waste. And it is cheaper. Also, companies won’t even disclose what they put in their paper diapers to make them « super absorbent. » With cloth diapers and water & washcloths we know our babies bums aren’t being bombarded by chemicals.
We have really liked Motherease www.motherease.com cloth diapers because they are organic cotton (they also have regular cotton) one size fits all- newborn to 3 years old toddler! And are canadian made (St Catharines, ON)! For the first 6 months it is super easy, we’ve found even the poop (breastmilk poo) diapers can be thrown in the pail with all the rest and washed. Once solids come along we have a smaller pail for the poopy diapers that need a rinse before going in with all the rest. If I had a laundry sink, I’d work on it there. But I don’t so I put some water in the pail in the bathtub and scrub, I then dump the water in the toilet.
When we first started with diapers we found after a while cloth diapers were just as convenient when we were out, we’d just put the dirty diapers in a bag (a plastic bag before we bought the wet bag) and wash them at home. We found this to be great: we saved money and it was better for the environment. The other thing about disposable is that technically it is illegal to put human waste in the trash. With cloth all the poo goes in the toilet where it belongs! For wipes at home we just use cloths, but sometimes when we are out we use disposable ones because hot water is not always ready to wet the cloths. I have found 2 companies that make biodegradable wipes (and disposables). Brody chick & Mamazone. Both include natural products - agains, no harsh chemicals. The cloth diapers we bought for Josué are starting to get holes (but are still working). They’ve had 3 1⁄2 years of use (Josué still has a diaper at night.) and have seen a year of Benjamin’s infancy and 2 years of Josué in full time diapers. Not bad! We bought 24 for Josué and added 12 new when Benjamin was born.
If you want to save even more energy you can consider cold water washing and line drying. Hanging them out in the sun is a natural bleaching and disinfectant.
dimanche 4 décembre 2011
What is a friend?
Today, thanks to facebook, we can easily "count" our friends- sometimes well into the hundreds! We can post our ideas, news in our lives, or even our feelings and be ensured that someone, yes at least one of our friends will reply.
Nathanaël and I have had many different experiences of friendship over the past few years, and one of the conclusions we have made is that friendship takes work! Alas, gone are the days of "wan't to play school?" and "come see my new toy truck!". In the adult world it seems to be a little harder to make friends, and to maintain friendships.
In fact friendship in the Bible is seen as a serious thing! Proverbs 17:17 A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity. And the verse that tops all "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends" John 15:14. This is no small thing! Jesus is the ultimate example of friendship, and love, since he lays down his life for us.
One conclusion we often come to is that in order to live out this kind of friendship we may have to sacrifice breadth (ie. not try and maintain friendships with 100 people!) and go for depth (focus on a few). The moments in our lives when we've been blessed to connect with good friends has been well worth the effort.
One set of friends that we admire is our friends up in Kirkland Lake. When Graham and Melodie were called to serve up North, Dan and Julianne were there behind them saying us too! And now up there they have a sweet little community where they are making a difference together. These families remind us of David and Jonathan's relationship, described in the Bible. In fact in several places in the the book of 1 Samuel, Jonathan is described as loving David as himself. "And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself" (1 Samuel 18:3).
This is the daily challenge for us: to keep laying down our lives.
Nathanaël and I have had many different experiences of friendship over the past few years, and one of the conclusions we have made is that friendship takes work! Alas, gone are the days of "wan't to play school?" and "come see my new toy truck!". In the adult world it seems to be a little harder to make friends, and to maintain friendships.
In fact friendship in the Bible is seen as a serious thing! Proverbs 17:17 A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity. And the verse that tops all "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends" John 15:14. This is no small thing! Jesus is the ultimate example of friendship, and love, since he lays down his life for us.
One conclusion we often come to is that in order to live out this kind of friendship we may have to sacrifice breadth (ie. not try and maintain friendships with 100 people!) and go for depth (focus on a few). The moments in our lives when we've been blessed to connect with good friends has been well worth the effort.
One set of friends that we admire is our friends up in Kirkland Lake. When Graham and Melodie were called to serve up North, Dan and Julianne were there behind them saying us too! And now up there they have a sweet little community where they are making a difference together. These families remind us of David and Jonathan's relationship, described in the Bible. In fact in several places in the the book of 1 Samuel, Jonathan is described as loving David as himself. "And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself" (1 Samuel 18:3).
This is the daily challenge for us: to keep laying down our lives.
samedi 3 décembre 2011
An ending and a new beginning/ Une porte se ferme, mais d'autres s'ouvrent
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Cet automne nous avons célébré la fin de notre Maîtrise en Education, tous les deux. Ici vous pouvez voir que nos garçons ont célébré avec nous aussi! Josué, 4 ans, et Benjamin 1&1/2. Nous avons beaucoup appris, et nous aurons peut-être l'occasion de partager certaines choses ici sur ce blog. Nous reconnaissons que c'est Dieu qui nous a aidé à passer à travers ces moments très occupés de nos vies et il a pourvu pour nous tout le long!
La naissance d'un nouveau blog/ The birth of a new blog
Many of you are familiar with our past blog: www.lisimaques@blogspot.com and much enjoyed seeing pictures of our boys. But alas, life became too busy last year with both Nathanaël and I completing our Masters, leading the Young Adults of our Church and working, at times 3 jobs. So here we are MEds completed, our christmas cards about to be sent out, and that for us is enough motivation to get this thing going again.
Over the past several years we have been "becoming" many things. We have been:
-Becoming more Christ-like
-Becoming green
-Becoming better parents
-Becoming teaching professionals
And amongst all this becoming, we have been thinking about and talking about a lot of our ideas. Therefore this blog's purpose is two-fold. To share some of our thoughts and discoveries as we continue to grow, and secondly to share some of our pictures too!
We trust you will be encouraged and challenged to grow with us as well!
__________________________________________________________________________________
Plusieurs d'entre-vous connaissent bien notre blog www.lisimaques.blogspot.com et avez bien apprécié voir les photos de nos garçons. Malheureusement l'année passé nous avons été trop occupé pour pouvoir maintenir le blog à cause de la maîtrise, le fait qu'on dirige le groupe de jeunes adultes de notre église, et que parfois nous avons eu 3 emplois à la fois. Alors maintenant que nous avons terminé nos MEd, et que nous allons bientôt envoyer nos cartes de Noël, nous sommes assez motivés pour remettre la main à la pâte!
Depuis quelques années nous sommes
-Des meilleurs disciples de Christ en devenir
-Des professionnels en devenir
-Des meilleurs parents en devenir
-Des environnementalistes en devenir
En dans tous ces moments de croissance, nous avons beaucoup réfléchi, et beaucoup parlé alors nous avons maintenant envie de partager quelques unes de nos idées. Ceci sera le premier bût de notre blog, et le deuxième sera, bien sûr, de partager quelques photos de nos garçons.
Nous espérons que vous allez être encouragés et parfois mis au défi pour grandir avec nous!
Over the past several years we have been "becoming" many things. We have been:
-Becoming more Christ-like
-Becoming green
-Becoming better parents
-Becoming teaching professionals
And amongst all this becoming, we have been thinking about and talking about a lot of our ideas. Therefore this blog's purpose is two-fold. To share some of our thoughts and discoveries as we continue to grow, and secondly to share some of our pictures too!
We trust you will be encouraged and challenged to grow with us as well!
__________________________________________________________________________________
Plusieurs d'entre-vous connaissent bien notre blog www.lisimaques.blogspot.com et avez bien apprécié voir les photos de nos garçons. Malheureusement l'année passé nous avons été trop occupé pour pouvoir maintenir le blog à cause de la maîtrise, le fait qu'on dirige le groupe de jeunes adultes de notre église, et que parfois nous avons eu 3 emplois à la fois. Alors maintenant que nous avons terminé nos MEd, et que nous allons bientôt envoyer nos cartes de Noël, nous sommes assez motivés pour remettre la main à la pâte!
Depuis quelques années nous sommes
-Des meilleurs disciples de Christ en devenir
-Des professionnels en devenir
-Des meilleurs parents en devenir
-Des environnementalistes en devenir
En dans tous ces moments de croissance, nous avons beaucoup réfléchi, et beaucoup parlé alors nous avons maintenant envie de partager quelques unes de nos idées. Ceci sera le premier bût de notre blog, et le deuxième sera, bien sûr, de partager quelques photos de nos garçons.
Nous espérons que vous allez être encouragés et parfois mis au défi pour grandir avec nous!
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