Might As Well Talk about Religion Too...for Thanksgiving!

We are quasi religious I guess.

Our family does believe in God. I was raised Catholic, James was "raised" Protestant. We have both always been deeply spiritual but never quite connected with our religions. We have studied a lot and taken a lot of lessons from Buddism, Taoism, Judiasm, and Christianity, as well.

However nothing felt right. I do not like the concept of religion because of a Buddist lesson/saying--"the moon that can be named is not the true moon". Or in Catholic terms--man cannot explain God, ever changing, ever reactive, unknowable, unfathomable. I have only (and just a small one, at that) a personal sense for what God is which I could never force upon someone else. A force, the goodness, an entity (and of what form)? I know none of these.

My opinions of the Bible, Torah, Quran, etc, is that they contain some of the true "qi", the original energy from the Teachers--Jesus, Buddah, Moses, Muhammed, Da Mo, Gwan Yin, Lao Tzu, etc . . . but it can be very difficult to access, learn from, use effectively . . . furthermore, the true teachings are watered down, filtered through a screen of time, power, priorities, of language, mistranslation, editing . . . hence the difficulty in learning--the ease in twisting messages so that people can claim to kill for God or war for Peace. Soooo, I believe you should only take positive messages from things written by humans. Jesus taught us that humans erred. The Bible, Torah, and Quran are as flawed as their writers/recorders, unfortunately--humans, many of them politically motivated, who lived long ago and not only in one period of time but continually changing, editing, twisting, translating. Therefore, any negative messages that get twisted into these texts should be ignored. Like those that make terrorists think God is on their side, or those who inspire our young homosexual boys and girls to commit suicide because they think God/the religious masses hates them.

However, there are also excellent messages in these texts. Like that forgiveness is a way to heaven/enlightenment. Or that honoring your mother and father is a requirement. Or that all people deserve freedom and the opportunity to work and live.

James and I are very lucky to have found a way to learn from these excellent messages, as well, through Yan Xin Qigong. James started practicing in 1998, when he was a freshman in college. I started in 2003, when I was a sophomore.

It is not a religion, but I would consider my Teacher, Dr. Yan Xin, to be a true Teacher or more traditionally called "Master". I don't believe Jesus was the "son of God" in a more specific way than Buddah, Moses, Muhammed, Da Mo, Gwan Yin, or Lao Tzu. I believe that people who attain far along the path of enlightenment become closer to God in, through, and by way of the process/journey. I believe all of these Teachers went far along the path of enlightenment, and that many fully achieved it. As far as my OWN teacher? Well, who am I to judge my own Teacher other than to say he is my true Master. Through his teaching I am able to learn from all the Masters, all the Teachers . . . It is a Thanksgiving Topic for sure.

On this Thanksgiving in particular I wanted to be Thankful for the blessings Yan Xin Qigong has brought to my life. For my family, my husband, my baby, my life . . . I do have so much to be Thankful for.

Happy Halloween!

(Let's just pretend I actually did publish this on Halloween!)

James' Vegan Easter Basket!

I intend to get on later and post about our Easter but in case I don't (or either way), I wanted to share about James' Easter basket (which I was so excited about that I made on Thursday and am up at 1:30am on Saturday morning blogging about it, :P)!

So I started with an Easter Basket.

Then I created "grass" from tissue paper. I rolled the tissue paper up into a long wrap . . .

. . . and then I cut "slices" off of it . . .

. . . which, when unrolled, made long paper grasses! I needed a lot more than I thought, so I ended up adding white paper, too, so I could line the bottom with that, and then put the colored grasses on top . . .

So I filled up the basket with the grasses, and then it was all ready to be filled with Easter goodies!

For a 5 month old baby, this includes absolutely zero edibles, though I was honestly tempted but could think of nothing I was willing to give him that I would put inside an Easter Egg. . . . I'll admit now I ended up getting more than I meant to, but he actually "needed" (will USE anyway), most of it!

Firstly, three books. One, which I am currently realizing I neglected to photograph, a board book about a bunny. Two, a version of Old MacDonald that is a glove and each finger is a different animal puppet, hehe, with a little book on the palm. Also neglected to photograph that until after it was wrapped, but look how pretty I made it!

And the third book, which didn't actually end up fitting in the basket, a Peter Rabbit Easter pull-the-tabs book--it is very cute!

Another thing I forgot to take a picture of before wrapping was these strap covers I got him. Let's see if I can find a demo pic online . . . sort of like these . . . but instead of animals there are just bright colored "buttons" for him to look at/chew on/play with. Anyway, here's what they looked like after I wrapped them!

And there were plenty of other things in his Easter basket, too. A little stuffed bunny, a card from grandma, and the plastic eggs with some change in them for his (future) savings account! And, let's be honest, the eggs themselves will be an awesome toy I'm sure.

Anyway, here's the final product! Can't wait to get some cute pics of James with it on Easter!

Obviously I had far too much fun making up my first Easter basket! ;-)

P.S. Have to give myself big props at 2:30 am for mastering along-side photo publishing which really was a struggle, but I made it through!

Happy Pi Day!

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Can you find the pattern?

Top Christmas Moments

On Christmas morning, before we went downstairs to open presents, when James was so excited for Christmas that he got on my sister's bed and started jumping on the bed, only to bang his head hard on my parents low 7-foot high ceilings.

On Christmas day at my in-laws, when we dressed the baby as Santa and we all agreed that if he got any cuter we would all explode because of the cuteness.

On Christmas day when we sat all together as a new family--me in my red pajamas, James in his green pajamas, and baby James in his white snuggly pajamas, and we loved each other as we opened presents with my family.

On Christmas Eve at my parents' house, when we brought little James outside for the first time (besides just going to and from the car). He was crying and as soon as we got outside, he got so content and alert--he loved the outside and being surrounded by our family doing the annual luminary design (this year was Rudolph).

On Christmas day evening at my in-laws, when we lit the Christmas figgy pudding, and watched the blue light at it danced, and then circled around the bottom of the pudding again and again and again before it burned out, and we all decided that this would be an annual tradition.

And the top Christmas moment . . .

On Christmas Eve when my family was gathered in my parents' living room singing Christmas Carols (as we do every year), and my uncle, our guitar accompanist, asked for volunteers to sing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah". My two sisters volunteered, and squished on the loveseat with my uncle so they could see the lyrics to sing. I was sitting on the ground breastfeeding James, but the song was so beautiful that I had to join in. So I perched on the arm of the couch while nursing James, and leaned over my sister to see the lyrics so I, too, could sing hallelujah and give praise for being so blessed.

"I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah"

Merry Christmas Everyone.

So Excited for Christmas!

As a change of pace, I figured I would stop talking about the fact that I'm still pregnant, and instead talk about how excited I am for Christmas!!

Part of it is that it will be Little James' first Christmas, and honestly the first time he will really meet most of my extended family, but part of it is just that I LOVE Christmas and it is my absolute favorite holiday. I am listening to Christmas music on Pandora right now!!

We usually set up our Christmas tree in one of the couple weekends after Thanksgiving. Since James will be home every day, though, we could probably do it anytime. My sister lives in the same town as us, and my two cousins are going to school in the next town over, so maybe we can have a little tree-decorating party and listen to Christmas music and snuggle Little James! Maybe since my Mom is going to come stay with us for a little while after James is born, she can even be here!

DOESN'T THAT SOUND FUN??? Hehehe. Yay Christmas! I'm going to put in a Christmasy picture just to get the point across. (God so many options!)