I just found out that The Simple Way, in Philadelphia, with Shane Claiborne lost their house and community center to a 7 alarm fire on June 20th. This is a ministry in the Kensington area, a few blocks away from where we do our Philly outreach trip. Watch this video and consider how you can help by visiting their website and getting involved.

While listening to Ranger baseball games recently we heard this service announcement which just makes me laugh. So take a moment, press play and listen.

Now that is funny!

I read in Newsweek that a lady was charge with indecent exposure for nursing in a park in New York. The article went on to say that states are making laws to protect mother’s rights to breastfeed in public and that there is a new push to encourage mothers to nurse for 6 months to a year. Evidently women will start with nursing but stop after a month or so, or when they are heading back to work. I think this song is a great way to get people to think about breastfeed and laugh at the same time It is a part of a new breastfeeding campaign.

I have nursed each of our four children and had some interesting experiences along the way. I think I have nursed a baby in more places and circumstances than I could count. I usually get some interesting looks and comments. In NY once a man said to me “Oh, I know what you are doing under there” (although I am a breastfeeding advocate I choose to do so with blanket coverage while in public.) Recently, a man in a nursing home went to move the blanket to see Owen and I had to ask him to wait. I always get lots of questions from little kids. A five year old friend of Emma’s wanted to know if I was feeding the baby from my belly button. It is always funny to see my girls pretend to nurse their baby dolls.

Reasons I love breastfeeding:
1. It is a great way to connect with my babies
2. It is healthy and best for my kiddos
3. It saves a ton of money
4. It is quick and easy in the middle of the night or anywhere
5. It helps my body recover from delivery and get back to my pre-pregnancy weight

So for all those lactating women out there…. you can do it! Keep “giving from your heart or somewhere close by”

Do you ever need to know who Geerhardus Vos is or need to look more deeply into monergism? Well, I have found the place to go…it’s called Theopedia! You’ve probably heard of Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia of “open source” information (currently at 1,836,908 articles in English), well now there is a place to go to look up or contribute to “open source” information on Biblical Christianity (currently 1,434 articles in English).  So next time someone asks you one of those questions that you just don’t know the answer to but know someone does, try Theopedia.  And if you are the more scholarly type you can become a contributor of information for the world to consult.

We got to do something fun today, Owen did a model shoot for a car seat/stroller! This is actually his second time being the cute baby model, the last time was for a front baby carrier. We happen to know a graphic arts designer who often is doing promotion stuff for baby products and therefore needs baby models. Isabelle got to do it once when she was little. I don’t think her pics ever made it anywhere as far as advertising goes, and we will not know about Owen’s until we run into one in a store someday. So look for a front baby carrier pic with a cute baby back head and dangeling legs (you actually can not see his face ) and keep an eye out for Owen in a stroller looking oh so cute with his “parents” looking on (who look nothing like Brian and I and if you look real close you can see my wedding ring on her finger!) Give it a few months and then be on the look out Let us know if you spot him!! (I don’t think I can tell you the company because I signed a paper saying I would not inform people about the product before its release.)

I had a great time being on the “set” of the photo shoot, because it reminded me of my childhood. Both my parents (Dean and Linda)are professional photographers and I grew up around all the sights and smells of photo land. It was great to be around it again, I just felt at home. I just love photography!! What a joy to capture an instance of life and freeze it in time forever. I must admit I often go about doing things thinking what would look best in a photograph. I am often tempted to dress my kids a certain way thinking of the photos we might take. And my love for photography has spilled over into a love of scrap booking, but more on that another day!

As a bonus you can check out our own modeling pictures of Owen at 4 months in our gallery

I always like to go to Starbucks to get some good coffee, but I like it more to go with others and sit and talk about life, or read off some Cranium trivia cards. That’s what Starbucks has tried to do from the start, to be a “third place” where people go between work and home, experiencing and processing life together. Along those lines they started a, sometimes, controversial campaign of putting quotes on their cups from various people from all walks of life. In their words:

Sparking conversation In the tradition of coffee houses everywhere, Starbucks has always supported a good, healthy discussion. To get people talking, “The Way I See It” is a collection of thoughts, opinions and expressions provided by notable figures that now appear on our widely shared cups.

So maybe we can extend that…since I got this cup of coffee alone, I didn’t get to talk with anyone about the quote on the cup: The Way I See It #248:

“Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. Wikis give us a place where anyone who is kind, thoughtful, and intelligent can come and join us in building a better and more rational world.” - Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia and Wikia.com)

What do you think about Jimmy’s thoughts on the power of human knowledge? What do you think about the project of Wikipedia?

I have a great family (immediate and extended)! This morning I woke up to three girls and Mandy singing me happy birthday with a tray full of breakfast. So we sat and talked about birthday memories while I ate pancakes, bacon, grapefruit, orange juice, and coffee! THEN I got an 8 hand back massage…aahhhh.
When I came downstairs, I had postal cards, e-cards, email birthday messages, and gift certificates from family across the country! I am blessed!
One of my presents was given to me early, a personal photo shoot. Here is one of the pictures that Dean took of me in mid-May. We had fun and were up till about 1 a.m. when we did it.
On Friday I get a full hour deep-tissue massage appointment set up by Mandy! I haven’t ever had something like that and look forward the relaxation.
On top of it all, today is a BEAUTIFUL day in PA! Although I don’t think God made this day just for me(there are a lot of people celebrating a birthday in hot muggy rain or dry, dusty, ugly weather), I thank God for sunshine, 70 degrees, and a slight breeze. He has been faithful to me and has blessed me with his grace and freedom to become what he has created me to be…so I can glorify him by being most satisfied in him!

About 5 years back Mandy and I sat down to make a list of our family values. These 7 values help us know what to say “no” to in an ever expanding demand for our time and help us make plans for the future, understanding what God’s best is for our family energies. From time to time we will share a value and how it affects our family.

Today we want to talk about one of our values, “Appetite for Adventure”. This is something that God has wired in us and developed over time, growing up in two different adventurous families…families that weren’t afraid of taking risks and trying new things. We understand that God has created us and put us in a world full of new things to experience and new people to meet. We desire to enjoy his creation as much as we can and impart that same love to our children. This value has given us the green light to go camping with our two month old, sleep in a tent for a week with our 3 (at that time) children, go backpacking, kayaking, whitewater rafting, move to Pennsylvania, take a family mission trip to Mexico City, take another family mission trip to Switzerland, and much, much more. Praise God for his gracious love to give us these opportunities for adventure! I have this dream of climbing Denali with the whole family someday…who knows if that will become a reality, we shall see as the kids grow up.

We have been further inspired by our friends, the Talbott family here in Lancaster! They have organized part of their family to bike coast to coast this summer! The team is the dad and 4 of his 5 daughters. Two of the daughters have been part of the student ministries at Calvary Church. Check out their trip blog…they are in the beginning stages, making their way through Idaho right now! They are raising money for the Alliance Defense Fund through their summer adventure. The way we figure it is that in 2019 Owen will be 12 yrs. old and we can do our own Team Moore bike across America adventure!!

Oh yeah, a few days ago Emma asked if we could take the training wheels off her bike…I say we do it tomorrow, we got a long road of training ahead!!