Monday, April 16, 2007

hooray...

... for updated pages! All of our profiles are updated. So is our booklist and diaper page. Don't forget to check out our children's booklist; I am always thankful for good resource lists on kids books especially. There is even a link on that page where all the authors are listed alphabetically so you can have an easy print-out to take to the library with you.

I also put a perma-link on our sidebar to Hope's CD which you can purchase. It's awesome!

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Tuesday, April 03, 2007

From the desire of being esteemed, deliver me Jesus.

After nearly a year of regular posting, we are shifting gears here at Coffee and Diapers. We are going to put this blog on the backseat of our attentions and post only when drawn to a reflection or thought through the course of our regular mothering lives. Hope, Sia and Ellie all have things going on, as do the rest of you, and we're beginning to realize that we've sometimes pushed out posts like cans of soup just to have something new each day. We'd rather not sacrifice the quality of what we do by forcing ourselves to think of something clever for Mondays or something interesting for Fridays. We understand that many of our regular readers will leave us altogether; this is the nature of the blogging beast. If you don't stay current, you lose your crowd. But we aren't here to "save our readers" so much as we are here to "save our children" and our families first. It's time to step back and live the life our Blessed Mother lived... one that is hidden and holy in the shadows of the Cross. We still plan on using this space as a place of reflection and practical tips. But we are giving up on trying to be on the ball all the time. We don't pretend to be holy or interesting enough to supply our readers with juicy thoughts every day. We also want to avoid any growing sense of false piety or self-importance that is almost inevitable in the blogging world and stay true to the purpose with which we originated: inspiring and encouraging women in their vocations. We are just simple moms, dealing with groceries, diapers and temper tantrums like the rest of you. But we are trying to deepen our OWN spirituality, and if this blog is cause for us to neglect that... no matter how lofty our "mission"... we have failed.

For those readers who do stay the course with us, remember that there are plenty of archives to browse at the bottom of this page, as well as many other great blogs out there to read. We also want to encourage you, once again, to send us any of your own thoughts or ideas for us to consider sharing with our readers. Thank you so much and we wish you very happy mothering...

True merit, like a river, the deeper it is, the less noise it makes.
-Edward Frederick Halifax

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Tuesday, February 13, 2007

a humbling little honor

Thank you to the reader who nominated us for the 2007 Catholic Blog Awards. What an unexpected little delight to see our name on the listings when I went to place my vote. This little apostolate was nominated in four categories!

To put it in its proper perspective, there are MANY awesome nominees in all the categories... so it's a tough vote! Thank you especially to those readers who comment or email us letting us know that you appreciate what we write; it's nice for us to hear that this is a worthwhile endeavor!
-Ellie

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Tuesday, February 06, 2007

The pope, our families and YOU!

Katerina sent along these little quotes to us from our Holy Father and I'd like to remind everyone that we've always had an open invitation to you, our readers to write out your own thoughts, and reflections and e-mail them to us to consider for posting in this blog. We all benefit from different perspectives and experiences, so share away! Now this is what our pope had to say the other day, feel free to share any thoughts you have on this:

"The family, based on marriage, constitutes the natural environment for the birth and education of children and, therefore, to ensure the future of the whole of humanity."
"A peaceful family atmosphere, enlightened by faith and the holy fear of God, also favors the rise and flowering of vocations at the service of the Gospel."

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Friday, February 02, 2007

savor the goods

A little cluster of epiphanies came walking down our lane. We've been taking Sundays off in order to celebrate it as a sacred day. Starting now, don't expect much posting on Saturdays either. It may happen, but don't bank on it.

1- Three mamas are busy with their mothering.

2- Weekends are somewhat "off" weeks as far as routines go; many of our readers are rightfully busy with their own family lives and don't tune in online until weekdays.

3- Our blog is a very dense blog as it is. We don't have a lot of the casual, chattiness that many other bloggers do to provide several posts a day. There are many, THICK, posts to wade through during the week; oftentimes, Sia, Hope and I don't find time to even read each other's posts! Perhaps we 3, as well as our readers, can sort of catch up on any reading over the weekends...

4- We're bound to run dry if we expect to post interesting things EVERY DAY. So we need to pace ourselves a bit.

We usually put our hearts into what we write and it'd be a pity to watch those throughts get driven past in our traffic-congested lives. So there's that... enjoy what's up and we encourage you to explore our archives if something new isn't up on the weekends and you're in need of a thought to chew.


-Ellie

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Thursday, January 25, 2007

another disclaimer

We've said this before in the early days, but it's worth repeating in case some of our readers find themselves disgruntled with the things we post. All mothers are not created equal. Our tastes and thoughts are just that: ours. We don't hold it against ANYONE who parents in a manner different than us. Please just take what you can from this website and know that though we sometimes write more forcefully than we maybe should... we aren't dogmatic about everything we say! So if you use disposable diapers and your kids are in public schools wearing the latest Sponge Bob fanny pack... that's fine; there's much more to be gleaned from this website than things like this! We're here to stay true to the goal as stated in our side bar: finding dignity and encouragement in our vocation.

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Thursday, December 14, 2006

A little note to our readers

As you might suspect, Sia, Hope and Ellie are as busy as the rest of you preparing for Christmas and simply doing our day-to-day winter lives. While we do still have posts lined up for the next few weeks, we are all a bit preoccupied with travelling or family and such and these posts might not make it up first thing in the morning (for you East-Coasters... I wouldn't even bother checking the blog before noon EST). Additionally, there will likely be days when something doesn't come up at all, or we don't recognize every saint's feastday on the calendar. Be patient with us as we are on holiday break too! We expect things to regularize a bit more after the New Year so please stay with us...

Pax et Bonum!

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Thursday, November 23, 2006

Another update

As we move to a new blog format, you'll notice categories at the bottom of each post. I've gone back into ALL of our archives and labeled everything. So if you are looking for something specific or simply want a somewhat "organized browsing" of older posts, this should make it easier to find things. Simply click on the title of the label and you'll be taken to a page with all of our posts in that category. I encourage our newer readers especially to look into the older things, there's some notable posts that may be of interest to you.

Pax!

-Ellie

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Wednesday, November 22, 2006

prayers are up

Check out the new inclusion for expecting mothers on our sidebar. There's room for more if you are in that category. Just e-mail us. We also respect that some don't want their names published and include them in our general prayers for the readers of this blog.

Our Lady of Milk and Good Birth, Pray for us!

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Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Coffee and Diapers News

*We are creating a permanent section on our sidebar that will be dedicated to prayer for expectant mothers. This is one thing that will be frequently updated so names will come and go. If you would like to be included in this, please e-mail your name and due date for listing.


* We wanted to announce that we've created a little partnership with amazon.com so that when our readers use OUR links to buy books we suggest, we get a certain percentage of the sales. We will be using all the profits from this to buy lovely books for needy children or mothers. So we encourage you to support us in this if a certain title catches your eye. Ellie will be working on creating links for all the titles on our bookpage but she's only going to be able to do that so fast... if there's something you plan on purchasing that we suggested, and it doesn't have a link yet... please e-mail us and it'll get forwarded to you ASAP. So far the only links we have done are the last two books listed (laundry & liturgy and the Eric Carle book).

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Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Faces to the Names

Here are some recent pictures (last month) of your blogging hosts. The first is a montage of Hope's clan. The second is both families of Sia and Ellie. I wanted to also call attention to the obvious again: Hope has been settling into her new home; hence the lack of recent posts from her. We are excited that she'll be up and at it again sometime in the near future...




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Friday, November 03, 2006

It is with great pleasure...

...that we introduce Hope's CD Faithful and True! She and her husband Justin worked long and hard to finally put their talent on album. The result is awesome... you can hear 30 second track samples on that link and buy a copy for yourself. We'll be putting a permanent link up soon but in the meantime, go check this out... she's too good to stay "undiscovered"for long...

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Sunday, October 15, 2006

Sunday Posting

Given that we have some new readers now, we thought we'd share with you our thoughts on Sundays regarding this site.

Although writing, maintaining and such for this site is never a chore or work for us, (on the contrary, it's a joy) it is indeed something that is a regular part of our days/week which we feel we need to take a break from on Sundays. This assists us in our efforts to keep Sunday as sacred as possible. Being on the internet can be a very good, edifying time if one uses it wisely. However, looking at a computer screen does not contribute to that quiet mindset, that building up of fertile ground which is neccesary for our growth in holiness, for the sharpening of our minds....

This being said (if it made any sense), I wish you all fruitful, happy, peace-filled Sundays.

~Sia, Vancouver, WA

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Tuesday, October 10, 2006

THE MINISTRY OF THIS SITE

I hope that so far our site is in keeping with what we originally set out and intended to do. Our vision remains the same, and I think we are still trying to put into practice everything we had hoped for regarding the ministry of this site, including reminding our readers of the DIGNITY and SACREDNESS of our vocation, and so on. Looking back on a lot of our posting, I am seeing a LOT of practical imput. I'm seeeing a LOT of ideas on fun activities, useful tips, practical how-to this and how-to that sharing. A lot of this comes through in Making Do On Mondays. -This is good, because our vocation indeed is a very practical one. It is very hands-on, very physical. So these tips and such (we hope) are very useful and appropriate. I'd like to continue this. We also have added fun things which may interest our readers, such as Friday Coffeehouse, (books, music, tea, coffee art and culture...) We have introduced a Question of the Week (an outlet for discussion and sharing.)

However, I'd like to remind our readers of some aspects of motherhood which are very important and which perhaps wehaven't been focusing on as much lately. We hope to impart through this site the following:

  • Liberation and freedom found in suffering: (The joy we find in being mothers. The liberation and freedom we find through the sacrifices motherhood brings. Many folks see motherhood and marriage as captivity and LOSS of self. We see it as a DEEPER understanding of self and true freedom and liberation, full of joy!)
  • A Call to MORE; call to holiness; deeper prayer, deeper wisdom, deeper faith, increase and growth in all virtues
  • Inspiration and encouragement
  • Giving/showing a spectrum of different personalities as mothers, (our own 3 as well as our reader's)
  • Practical applications and help
  • Ministry to what the Church's call is for we mothers
  • Education and sharing in the joy and feasts of our Church, for the sake of all of our growing families in this generation.

We hope that we will all continue to be as active as we have been to keep this site updated and moving, but we also hope to really keep each post GOOD and wholesome. We welcome any suggestions or ideas from our readers in comments or email. We also urge any readers who would like to post something they themselves would like to share, within the outlines of the goals above, to contact us by email (Click on "Contact Us"). Also, if any of our readers have ANY ideas on our weeekly post titled "Question of the week", please share them with us! Although we love to throw questions out there, it is hard sometimes to think of a new question every week which we hope will trigger inspiration and discussion. So share your own ideas with us or simply tell us what you'd like to take part in or see discussed. (Once again, please email us at coffeeanddiapers@gmail.com.) We all learn from each other and we especially welcome any mother's inspirations at this time.

God bless you all and, as we've been saying, Happy Mothering! I will leave you with some quotes:

"Motherhood must be treated in work policy and economy as a great end and a great task in itself. For with it is connected the mother's work in giving birth, feeding and rearing, and no one can take her place. Nothing can take the place of the heart of a mother always present and always waiting in the home. True respect for work brings with it due esteem for motherhood. It cannot be otherwise. The moral health of the whole of society depends on that."
~Pope John Paul II, Homily, June 7th, 1979


~May our Lady teach us her gentle ways throughout our daily lives. May we imitate her in all we do, treating every child with dignity, love and reverence...

I quoted this a while ago in my September 6th post titled "The Blessing of Being With Child", but I feel that it's fitting to put it into this post as well to again remind us of the beauties and sacredness of motherhood:


~"Pregnancy is depicted in Psalm 139 as a season of divine activity, as the Creator knits a child in his mother's womb. What does a child need at this point? Only his mother, his Paradise. Mary is often called the New Eve, but she is also the New Eden. Her body is her child's garden of delights, and her love radiates to her little one every time she sings, or prays, or breathes it's name...
~Research has shown that the newborn's sight, generally hazy and undefined, is designed to come to a focus at one specific distance: 8 to 12 inches, not much more and not less. Why 8 - 12 inches? Because that's the distance from a nursling's eyes to his mother's face while he is being cradled at her breast. Increasingly, within weeks of birth, he's not looking at her breast. He's looking at her eyes.She fills his whole range of vision: she satisfies his hunger and thirst, succors him with warmth and comfort; the timbre of her voice (the higher female tone) is precisely the range of frequencies his ears are fine-tuned to hear. She is his Universe: to the nursling, she is the Immensity."
~from Mothering and Justice by Juli Loesch Wiley


~Sia, Vancouver, WA

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Wednesday, August 09, 2006

a couple additions

Just a note that our Contact Us page is finally up and there are two more little recipes on Ellie's food page (the zucchini bread is divine... and the salmon recipe couldn't possibly be easier). More to come from all of us in due time!

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Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Pray for us Joshua...

On July 8th, something so tragic happened that it's taken a long time before I could post on it. Regina, the woman who designed the template for this blog accidently ran over her four-year-old boy in a church parking lot. The way this has gripped me and hit so close to home has been monstrous. I can not imagine, with any of my faculties, what kinds of thoughts must be going through this family's head.

Here is Joshua Michael Schmiedicke's eulogy given by his mother. The grace with which she is coping with his death is very humbling and inspiring. Let's pray for their whole family. Also, the family is trying to replace the vehicle that killed this little boy. If anyone would like to help in this regard they can send a donation made out to Mike Schmiedicke or Andrew & Regina Schmiedicke to this address:

Mike Schmiedicke
PO BOX 1963
Front Royal VA 22630

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Saturday, July 01, 2006

An Open Invitation


This blog was designed with a collaborative attitude in mind. We would love YOUR help. Oftentimes, our creative juices are running a little dry or, more often, we get wrapped up in the duties of our lives and can't keep the blog as updated as we'd like.

SO, if you have any ideas regarding mothering/wiving related topics or just want to speak your mind on a certain issue... we would love to post your thoughts on our site. Of course proper credit will be given. So, if you're feeling brilliant or even just want to discuss a particular aspect of how the Faith relates to YOUR life... please, please send us your ideas at:

coffeeanddiapers@gmail.com

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Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Plaudits!

drum roll please...

The blog is finished (tentatively anyway)! Not only has our lovely designer Regina fine tuned our design and header... but we also have all of our links active and working now! Getting the recipes from three different homes wasn't the easiest task... but it's up. A work in progress mind you... but a great start anyway.

Hooray!

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Thursday, June 15, 2006

updates to the blog

Starting tomorrow we will be adding in three new regular features to "Coffee and Diapers." Sia will kick it off with a Friday coffee-related thought; she is definitely our coffee expert and will offer some little reflections or reviews centered around this theme. On Monday, Ellie will be starting a practical tip section... she used to be a volunteer "Budget for Baby" instructor and has learned little tricks here and there to cut corners on various topics. Hope, on Wednesday will be spearheading what we hope to be a very active discussion. She has an uncanny knack for bringing together different people and thoughts and so will begin a "Question of the week" feature to our blog.

Also, the next two weeks should be the timeframe to expect our Recipes and Prayers pages to finally be available... so be watching for those!

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