The Vintage Effect: Etsy, Blog & Pinterest!

The Vintage Effect (Robin and my new Etsy store) is in full swing!

We have 52 items for sale on our Etsy site, with another 50 or so items soon to be posted!

We are pinning things away on Pinterest that we love to look at, and hope you will, too!

AND, we have a blog that is up and running, and will host lots of outfit ideas and favorite vintage finds for you to peruse and be inspired!

Check us out, follow us, give us feedback, or send us your favorite Vintage/Vintage inspired outfits for us to feature on our blog! We'd love to put your lovely face here. :)

My Thoughts on Birth Control Pills, IUD Devices, Etc.

Psalm 139:13-14a
For You formed my inward parts;
You knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

This one's gonna be tough. I've been waiting a long time to write this. Just never knew how.

In 2008, Garrett and I got married. I went on The Pill in January, we got married in April, and in October, while walking around campus I saw a book that caught my attention. "Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions?" (by Randy Alcorn) 

"Ha! That's crazy," I thought. I've never heard that and I'm on the pill. Of COURSE they don't.

*picked it up* *guy told me to take it with me* *took it home and read the first couple of pages*

Birth control pills work in three ways.
1. Prevent Ovulation (right, knew that)
2. Thicken Cervical Mucous to prevent sperm from getting to the eggs. (Gross)
3. Thin the lining of the Uterine wall to prevent a fertilized egg from attaching

Wait. Fertilized egg? That's weird. I believe in life at conception. A fertilized egg is AFTER conception. This can't be right.

*put down book* *go to bathroom and get my BC Pill pack* *read fine print*

Birth control pills work in three ways...
(See above. It was the same)

*sit down*

This can't be true. If this was true wouldn't someone have told me?

My response was quick. To me it was simple. I believed in life at conception. Conception happens when an egg gets fertilized. I believe in the value of human life and that every person, even a four week old baby, is precious. For me to take a pill that works to prevent a fertilized egg from implanting
is to take a pill that goes against what I believe.

I flushed them.
(If you're curious, most birth control works this way. IUD, patch, etc.)

When you start looking for other options of birth control that don't do the above things, the options slim WAY down. Yes, it was a bit of an inconvenience. Not big enough for me to even consider using something that went again what I believe in, though. A minor sacrifice.

I wasn't informed. Maybe you weren't either. Now you are. Do some research. Pray about it.

A couple of other things I want to mention:

1. Since 2008, when I first came across this information, I looked up every site I could think of, even ones that had differing viewpoints than my own, to make sure that this was true. Since then, some websites have changed the wording on their pages to sound less...harsh? Ortho-Tricyclen (my BC brand) removed the word "fertilized" from in front of egg. Planned Parenthood has taken the third function of BC off of its site altogether.

          When asked how BC Pills work:

           Medicine Net
           medicinenet.com actually seems to say that preventing ovulation isn't the primary function of
           birth control pills. That the other two, a thinned uterine wall and increased mucous is first and
           that the prevention of ovulation occurs in SOME women.

            Planned Parenthood

            Planned Parenthood leaves out the whole third mechanism: 

     2. How often does this happen? It's almost impossible to tell. It would be a very early miscarriage  

     basically, happening at 4 weeks, and would result in what most women would think was their   

     period. However, I tried to work up some numbers just to wrap my head around it. This is basic 

     math, and could be off a little. But even if it's off a little, the numbers seem staggering. Here's what I 

     figured: 

• Planned Parenthood says there are 62 Million women are in their childbearing years, and of those women, 28% are on the pill.  That's 17,360,000 Women. 
• Planned Parenthood says that a pregnancy occurs 2-9 women out of 100. We'll give them the benefit of the doubt and use the lowest number, 2, as these are probably the people that used the pill PERFECTLY. So 2 out of 100 is 2% of women who use the pill perfectly end with a pregnancy. 
• 2% of the 17+ million that are on the pill is...347,200 pregnancies with PERFECT pill usage. That means the Pill typically FAILS that many times in one year. Out of the 3 methods it uses,  (1. preventing Ovulation 2. Increasing Cervical Mucous 3. Preventing Implantation of a Fertilized Egg by Thinning the Uterine Wall) all three fail an average of 347 THOUSAND times. 
• There's no way of knowing how many times the job of preventing pregnancy is left up to a third and final method, the thinned uterine lining. But to know that all three methods fail at the staggering rate of almost 350,000 times per year makes me think it must be a large enough number to be considered. (Though, isn't 1 a large enough number to be considered?)

     3. Another thing to consider is the effect of BC on our bodies. When I went off The Pill my moods  

     leveled immediately. It was totally effecting my quality of life. I know this is subjective. What I'm
      not sure is subjective is the increasing number of miscarriages that women go through on their
      first pregnancy. Could a large number of these be a result of our uterine wall still not being
      hospitable enough to be able to host a baby? I think this is something important to consider.

     4. What about women with a medical condition that use The Pill to maintain bearable levels of
     cramps as well as help increase chances of fertility?

     This isn't my situation, but obviously effects a number of women. Randy Alcorn's daughter, the guy
     who wrote the book I mentioned above, is on The Pill for a medical condition and he addressed that
     in a radio interview he did. She uses other forms of birth control at the same time (condoms, etc.) to
     override how The Pill works, basically making condoms her main form of birth control to prevent
     sperm from even entering the equation (haha...wow). You could also avoid having sex on days that
     you are the most fertile to reduce the likelihood of this happening. Obviously, condoms don't always
     work, so there would be the occasional time that The Pill would then be on backup, and that's a
     tough thing to consider. He said this was a tough choice she had to make and does everything she
     can to reduce this chance.

   Some Links for further reading:

• "The mommypotamus"writes a much clearer blog about this with definitions on contraception and some quotes, etc. from sources. Very easy reading and insightful. 
• Facts and quotes from doctors and medical personnel can be found at www.abort73.com and    www.prolife.com 
• I also highly recommend the book by Randy Alcorn, "Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions?" It's written in FAQ format and based on years of research. 

Thanks for reading. I know it's a lot.
Please consider doing some research and making informed and prayerful decisions.

Can these bones live?

"For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23

Let me start this off by saying: I have been redeemed. 

There was a period of my life where sin ruled. Where I wasn't being sensitive to the Holy Spirit, which is actually a huge understatement. Not being sensitive = completely and totally ignoring.

God delivered me from my sin. But its effect on me maintained a tight grip.

For years I was so focused on my failures that I began to dry up. In my guilt, I avoided God. The longer I avoided Him, the farther I felt from Him. It was a distance that I was creating because of this feeling that I had that I needed to pay for my sin. It was over the summer of 2011, at a church in Chicago, that a pastor spoke about allowing the message of Grace to truly take hold of our hearts. Do I have a higher standard than God himself? Surely not. Then why in the world do I continue to hold my failures above my head, if God has already forgiven them? Do I not believe that the Jesus' death on the cross was big enough to pay for my sins?

What I have gotten caught up with in the past is the idea that because I chose to rebel, it is my duty to somehow pay for those sins. Because I have no way of doing that, I've often felt like if I show my deepest regret over them, I would somehow be able to come out from under their weight.

My payment was despair.

That summer was foundational for me in my walk with the Lord. It was the day I found freedom. It was a long time coming. Since then, God has slowly, but surely, been drawing me back to himself. And He is faithful to give me reminders that the Cross alone can pay for my sin.

In church this week, Erik (one of our teaching elders) said that whether you are in rebellion or despair, you're actually operating out of two scenarios that stem from the same cause - a focus on self.
(To watch the sermon, go here)

In rebellion, you're doing what self wants to do. It's acting in opposition to what you know God is asking of you or calling you to. It's a denial of the Holy Spirit's tapping, sometimes to the point where the tapping fades and you no longer hear it. "Our rebellion leads us to circumstances in life that break us."

In despair, your focus is on self. Self-pity, self-blame, self-loathing...lots of types of despair. It starts with depravity, "moral corruption or degradation", and as it continues, leads to despair.

At least that's how it was in my case.

To continue to stay focused on my own guilt, my own wrong doings or past sin, is to continue to reject the power of Christ's sacrifice on the Cross. It's to believe the lie that somehow, I have to pay for my own sins. This is an impossibility. It's through the Cross alone that sins can be covered. This is FREEDOM; from sin and from guilt. It's a call to quit with the self-loathing, and live in a new life that has been provided by the free gift of Grace.

I have a new favorite Bible Story.
It's The Valley of Dry Bones. Ezekiel 37: 1-15.

"The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley, it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold they were very dry. (Emphasis on the impossibility of bringing these dry bones back to life) And he said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And I answered "O Lord God, you know." Then he said to me, "Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the LORD." So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, "prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, THus says the Lord God: Come form the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live." So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived an stood on their feet, and exceedingly great army. 

I didn't muster up enough breath for myself and cause myself to go from dead to living. And to be honest, I'm still probably at the point where the bones are rattling and still trying to come back together.
But there is new life forming. And I'm excited about it.

Can these bones live? Absolutely. And I give God all the glory.

Turn my eyes to Your face
Let me draw from Your strength
And bathe in Your grace
Let me soar with wings to win this race
Let me have Your peace it's not a hopeless chase
'Cause I lose sight of all You have called me to be
And it takes so much to drop me to my knees

But I can't wait to be free
From this life of mindless sin that compromises me
I know one day I will be
There is a victory that You've won for me
And when You come back again
I'll be free

Sustaining Love

I haven't really ever written much on this blog that I would consider of "serious" matter. Maybe a better way to put that is I have written much that I would consider of true importance. A couple of outfit posts, some pictures of mugs, me in a Santa outfit. You know...trivial. I think that's about to change.

I want to start this post off by saying, it's going to get worse before it gets better. If I were to describe my marriage, I think I would akin it to the Rocky Mountains and the Mojave Desert. Long, high mountain tops with weeks of fun between the two of us and pretty solid communication. But these experiences are almost always followed by some sand and grit.

I...was a terrible wife this week. Dreadful. I found myself in the Desert and decided to set up camp.
That's right, I chose to wallow.

I think that I've confessed this already to almost every person that I've had a conversation with. For some reason, if I've had a moment alone with a friend, I haven't been able to hold it in. I think I have felt so despicable that it seemed like the only way to redeem my "horrible wife week" was to confess it. To every.single.person.i.know. It's come up a lot.

It all started pretty harmlessly. Marriage is tough, ya know? I absolutely love my husband, I truly believe he is God's gift to me, but sometimes I just get a little irritated. The annoying things stand out a little more. And if you're married, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Because you, my friend, are 1.married, but 2. human and 3. married to another human. We love each other, but every now and then we get annoyed/irritated/fed up with/angry at/moody to...each other. It can be the teeniest, tiniest little thing that set it off, but then it starts to snowball. This annoying thing leads to that annoying thing, and before long you've got the Abominable staring you in the face.

And when that happens, my gut reaction is: alone time. Leave me alone. I hole up. I find reasons to avoid. I don't answer questions with full sentences...or even half sentences...and sometimes not even with WORDS. Grunts, head nods, etc. I'm SUPER mature this way. How MISERABLE. He tells me details about his day. "That's cool." He tells me it's fun to have me working from home. "Yeeeaaaah." He continues, in spite of my snark-i-ness, to pursue me. And I continue, because of my snark-i-ness, to chafe at his pursuit.

Oh, I notice I'm doing it. That's the worst part. After each one of my half-hearted, let-me-show-you-just-how-much-you're-annoying-me responses, when G walks away without success again, I have a pang of guilt. Something is tapping at my little soul. My little ungrateful, caught-up-in-my-self again soul. And hour after hour, day after day, I continue to ignore the tap. It's telling me I'm being rude. Ignore. It's telling me that I'm not demonstrating love. Ignore. It's telling me I'm putting myself above him. Ignore.

And I continued to ignore it. Until a week and a half later, I've built a wall up that's higher than a hot air balloon on a windy day. (Pretty high, right?)

And then one day, now that the tension in our little apartment is thicker than my own head-o-hair (wow), I realize that I don't even have a valid reason to have pushed him away, and suddenly my cards are showing. I'm now vulnerable, because I'm left with needing to explain what is wrong...and I've got nothing. A couple of annoyances? Really, Beth?

Wow. What a lame duck I am sometimes.

All I can do is apologize. And pray that this instance will prove to be useful in future instances. That I'll remember how not beneficial this has been. How damaging and hurtful it was to avoid.

Thank goodness that I'm married to man and serving a God who both love me in spite of myself!

I read an incredible quote today about marriage from Dietrich Bonhoeffer (no, I can't claim I was reading his book. This is a stolen from facebook.)

It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, 
the marriage that sustains your love.

I do admit, sometimes in leaning on the Covenant of Marriage that I made with my husband, I find myself falling back in love with him all over again. The Covenant that we made keeps us together, even when we have a hard time loving each other. And by staying together, we continue to find love in ways we never expected. It's a pretty beautiful thing. 

My Daily View

Bella Boo.
Miss my sweets.

Who says you can't have favorites?

I realize that I write about very inconsequential things.
Woah, big word.
Sometimes I have no idea where those come from.
Believe it or not, I actually looked it up in google to make sure I was using the right word.
Hahaha. Wow.

ANYWAYS.

I play favorites.
I do.
There are many a neglected mug in my cabinets, because I have one mug that I love. I bought it back in 2006 when I was an Admissions Counselor for Bethel College. Myself and another rep, Shannon, from Huntington University, spent about two weeks together that October, going to college fairs and high school visits and splitting hotel room costs. It was a blast. We stopped at Starbucks at one point and grabbed breakfast and saw these lovely mugs that we just couldn't leave there. She got one color and I got the other, and it's been my favorite mug ever since. Garrett chipped the bottom of it one time, but we got it all glued back together just fine. She's one of the two items I own that I, halfway unashamedly, don't share. She, and my purple down blanket I got at high school graduation from my pastor's wife. Inseparable.

Well TODAY is a monumental day.
I have a NEW favorite.
I must first say that she doesn't replace my old favorite by any means.
But the feelings are starting off pretty strong.
I now wouldn't mind grabbing for EITHER of these two lovely ladies. :)
The original favorite is on the right.
The new addition on the left.
Welcome to our kitchen, pretty little dots. :)

For anyone interested, Dottie is from Target. :) 

Honey Butter

Whipped up a quick batch of honey butter tonight. Literally the easiest thing I've ever made.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter (cold)
1/2 cup honey

Beat till light and creamy.
Eat.

And we highly recommend it! It comes out of the refrigerator creamy and spreadable. Yum!
Just imagine it for pancakes, or crescents, or biscuits...or...wow...