Eric and Lisa
I ended up walking the race, while pushing Ian half the time in his stroller. (I was walking with my mother-in-law, Pam, who pushed the stroller the other half of the time.) We finished in about 42 minutes and Ian had a great time. By the end of the race, he was clapping his hands and singing as we fast-walked to the finish line.
Eric and I have pretty much decided that we're going to try to find a 5K to run in every year, no matter where we end up. It's just such a fun way to keep in shape as a family and have some sort of measure for our health. We have so much fun participating in the race that it makes all the work and sweat leading up to it completely worth it!
--Lisa
At any rate, after much consideration and research, we decided that the best thing for our family was to switch to gDiapers for at night and while travelling. And they really work well! They're kind of a hybrid between our cloth diapering technique and regular disposable diapers. They have cloth covers (gPants) with velcro fasteners, water-proof polyester snap-in liners, and environmentally-safe "pads" that get pressed into the liners, which are then either flushed or composted when dirty or wet. We've even been able to switch from using pins and plastic pants with our cloth diapers to using the gPants with a cloth liner instead of the flushable liner. This also makes potty training much easier since we can much more easily take off Ian's cloth diaper right at the toilet, without having to mess with pins and whatnot.
We've been fairly
happy with the results, too. The gDiapers are really
an ingenius invention that could possibly change
diapering as we know it. They certainly changed our
lives, and in the process, also made us more aware of
our waste in general. I was reading in the book of
Genesis some time ago, and in chapter 2, verse 15, it
says, "The Lord God took the man and put him in the
Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it." In
the original Hebrew language, "work" has more of a
meaning of "serve" and "take care" has more of a
meaning of "protect." Adam's first job was to serve
and protect the land that God gave him! How does this
not apply to us, as well? This earth is a gift from
God, and we are responsible for serving and
protecting it as best as we are able. Therefore,
we've become really convicted in this area about
making sure we're not polluting the land with our
trash, and have stepped up our recycling habits. Our
next step will be working on a good compositing
system so we can throw away even less waste. It's all
a process, and I'm sure God has more steps to take us
through!
--Lisa
Eric is plugging away at his dissertation and was able to run the first two subjects of Experiment Three for his thesis this past week. He feels really good about how things are going and thinks that, at this rate, he'll be able to accomplish his goal of finishing up by next spring. He's been working really hard at searching out potential job opportunites for us for when we leave Bloomington next summer and has found some intriguing possibilities.
I'm wrapping up the first fall session at the IEP, and the second session starts the week after next. Next week is our big "Week Seven", which is full of exams and whatnot, which means that my schedule gets upended and, hence, so does our family routine. Flexibility is the key!
Ian is suffering from a nasty chest cold, which I think I contracted today. (Fun, fun!) He's got all four of his first molars in, and is working on a fifth. He's eating everything in sight and having a lot of fun being independantly mobile. Playing outside and "going bye-bye" are some of his favorite activities. He's also graduated to a "big boy" bed -- we took off the front of his crib and turned it into a daybed, with a little guard rail to keep him from falling out. He loves getting in and out of bed by himself, and does really well with going to sleep when he's supposed to. That kid loves his sleep -- thank goodness!
All in all, things are well with us.
--Lisa