Easter Sunday; Boy is this Holiday Misunderstood!

Photo Credit




Although most people think of Easter as a Christan holiday, would you believe it if I told you it is actually not?

Easter gets it's root from pagan holiday rituals to celebrate spring and new life. The pagans used Easter to celebrate the god of fertility believing that she controlled the growth around them and if they didn't worship her she would harden their land and close their wombs.

When I look at Easter I don't see Christ in any common celebrations of this holiday either. Hunting Easter eggs, the Easter bunny, and candy are all the current celebration of the world around us and I don't believe that the dancing to the god of fertility exactly portrays Christ either. These things all has pagan roots and came not from the word of God, but from men and women trying to understand their world without God's view.

Don't get me wrong here, I don't believe that abstaining from holidays is going to help your children understand Christ better and I do believe that making things to point to Christ is a much better way to do it, but I think another key is not to emphasize those things that are not of God. Going to things like the Passion Play, or even putting on a Passion Play, reading about Jesus's sacrifice on the cross and even having a resurrection  party are all things we can do to celebrate Christ with this holiday.

But alas I'm not done rambling yet. You knew there was more didn't you?

This is not how God intended for us to celebrate his work on the cross.

What? Blasphemy you say? Well I don't see any references to Easter in scripture do you?

He gave us the high holy days in his word, those days that were written in the Torah to celebrate remember and worship him. Those days were all pictures that he wanted us to remember and to relive so that we would better understand who he is and how his words were fulfilled by Jesus dying on that cross.

The people of the old treatment had no idea the depth of what they were celebrating when they celebrated Passover. This holiday was made for them to celebrate their exodus from the slavery and bondage in Egypt. How many of us realize it was also made for us to celebrate our exodus from slavery and bondage to sin?

The pascal lamb or passover  lamb was the lamb sacrificed on that sad night that the angel of death tread through the streets raking the firstborn sons of Egypt. the first celebration if this holiday was on that night as they were to sacrifice the lamb and put the blood if this lamb on their door to show their covering of the Lords protection.

Looking more closely at the instructions gives us a big clue. They were to drain the blood of the pascal lamb and put the basin of blood on the ground at the base of the door (usually in the  center of the door way) then they were to take and dip the branches in the blood and strike the  top of the door and then the two side posts if the door. Do you see the picture yet? The basin for the nails in his feet, the top of the door marking the crown of thorns and lastly the sides marking the nails in his hands, altogether forming a cross on the door that the angel of death saw to tell him to passover that house for the Lord resided with those inside.

Is this staying to look like God's celebration for us yet? It should.Paul makes it very clear when he tells us that Jesus is our passover lamb, sent to take away the sins of the world. If this isn't a more obvious instruction, I don't know what is.

With all that being said, in this house hold we celebrate passover, and plan to explain Easter to our girls as well. Easter dinner with family and friend will most likely be common for us as well, but for me I want to hold the celebration of Passover in higher esteem since God specifically designed it for me to celebrate him with.

Ultimately, whatever we do we need to be sure to turn our eyes and hearts to his calling. He has instructed us to not stumble each other with legalism, so one plan to celebrate shouldn't hinder you from celebrating Christ as you see fit! But I am curious to know how many people know the roots of the things they celebrate. Have you researched the holidays you celebrate?

Celebrate for HE IS RISEN!

Does your family celebrate Passover? Why or why not? How do you celebrate Easter?

Complimentary Heart Mobile for my Valentine

 

This year I decided that I wanted to do something different for valentines. I mean really My husband is the love of my heart on more than just valentines day right. So I'm extending valentines to include the first two weeks of February. While I think it is extremely important to make sure he knows how special he is to me on a regular basis. This is my opportunity to make a big deal out of it . . so I am.

Every day for 14 days I plan to add a string of "complimentary" hearts to the mobile. Each string contains 3 compliments for my sweetheart. 3 things I like about him. 3 things he's good at. 3 feelings towards him. You get the idea. Each is written on it's own paper shaped heart and they are strung together and they will be tied to the mobile I made out of pipe cleaners and string.

I kinda made this halfway before I decided to post it, so I'll explain how it was done as well as I can . . .

The mobile itself is a circle formed from pipe cleaners twisted together with string tied at four points along it and tied to a longer string in the center of the circle. I added some ribbon for fun.

Then I cut out paper hearts, you know the method you used in elementary school of folding paper in half and cutting teardrop shapes. Yup that's how it's done.

Next each heart got a compliment.

Then I poked holes in them and tied three to a string.

Over the next two weeks I will be tying them to the mobile 1 day at a time.

How are you planning to celebrate your Valentine this Valentine's Day?

Indoor Kid Fishing Sets

So this Christmas me being the crazy person I am, decided to make magnetic fishing sets for all the kids in our lives for Christmas (they are all under the age of 5) They actually were quite fun to make! Here are the individual pieces :o)

The Fish:

I cut a fish body out of felt and a few circles and triangles for eyes and fins. I sewed all of these together and stuffed them with Fiberfil. I made a braided loop with jute and glued a magnet into the edge. I then sewed the loop into the mouth of the fish to give kids two ways to catch the fish. They can be caught by the magnet or by the loop.

The Pole:

I had my amazing husband saw a couple of these bamboo garden stakes in two pieces (about 2.5-3 foot each) after sanding off the rough edges I wrapped the bottom (handle) in jute using hot glue to put a “grip” on the pole. Then I tied (and glued) a long piece of jute for the fishing line.

The Hook:

This was quite the challenge! I needed something that wasn’t going to cause severe damage if it was flung by a kid, be able to house a magnet and not be sharp edged like a traditional fishhook would be. I tried salt dough but my husband’s uncle (my kids’ godfather) proved that that wasn’t going to cut it by dropping it and watching it shatter into pieces. He then quickly twisted a hook out of thick copper wire that was almost perfect! The Magnet had to be wedged into the ends of the wire and wrapped in jute to hide, but the copper works well, is light, no sharp edges and well looks good!

The Bag:

My Simple Produce Bag pattern only made out of muslin and measured to the length of the pole.

Ta Da!! Full fishing sets for the babies!

Advent 2012

Advent is upon us and with that is my annual research into the holiday we commonly call Christmas. Every year I try to learn a little more about the holiday and "redeem" traditions of Christmas past.


Although I can't go into the specifics of my Christmas research right now, I'm sure you'll get to hear about it eventually on this blog. Today, I am sharing our Advent plans.


Advent is a time for us to prepare our hearts for the coming of Christmas, the day we celebrate as Jesus' birthday. For us we have decided to also try and make it a time for us to draw closer in activity and time to our kids and our family. Each day there is an activity planned as well as scripture to read. Time together as a family and time to discuss and spend with/for the Lord.


I also decided to make a simple Advent Calender for us to follow . .


First our lists . .


1. Put up the tree and decorate the indoors
   Isaiah 40:1-5
2. Decorate the front door and balcony
   Isaiah 52:7-10
3. Watch St. Nicolas as a family (on the computer)
   Isaiah 40:9-11
4. Make Paper Snowflakes
   Genesis 3:8-15
5. Watch A Little Drummer Boy as a family
   Genesis 15:1-6
6. Make Christmas Ginger Cookies for the Neighbors
   Deuteronomy 18:15-19
7. Make Neighbor Cookie Boxes
   Psalm 89:1-4
8. Make Hot Cocoa
   Isaiah 11:1-10
9. Hand Out Neighbor Cookies
   Zech 6:12-13
10. Make Cinnamon Christmas Star Ornaments
   Micah 5:2-4
11. Make a Christmas Candy (probably fudge)
   Mal 3:1-6
12. Sing and Dance to Christmas Music
   John 1:1-8
13. Watch The Toy That Saved Christmas as a family
   John 1:9-18
14. Take family Christmas Photo
   Mark 1:1-3
15. Decorate Christmas Gifts (for everyone else)
   Isaiah 7:10-14
16. Make Construction Paper Nativity
   Luke 1:1-15
17. Make and Decorate Christmas Cookies
   Isaiah 9:2-7
18. Make an Apple Cinnamon Struesel Dessert
   Matt 1:18-25
19. Make Pom-Pom Snowmen
   Matt 2:1-2
20. Make a Gingerbread Nativity
   Luke 1:15-25
21. Look at Christmas Lights around town
   Luke 1:25-35
22. Play a Christmas Game (toddler Friendly)
   Luke 1:36-50
23. Make Cinnamon Rolls
   Luke 1:51-66
24. Hot Cocoa and Christmas Cookies
   Luke 1:67-80
25. Christmas Breakfast
   Luke 2


So now that we've gone over the Advent daily activities, we can go on to how I made our advent calender. . .


I started by cutting and folding a piece of cardboard into a "Chinese take out" shaped box based on one I got with some dishtowels.'

I then folded up the edges using eyelets to hold the sides together,  I also ran ribbon with bells through the eyelets.

 I then made sleeves and numbers for our paper advent plans to reside in . . .

 I then wrote our plans out rolled them up into the sleeves and stuck them in the bucket. . .

 Cute little Advent calender for our family this year.

Oh and I'm sorry this post is slightly tardy. I was going to post it earlier, but then the baby got sick and clingy . . sad news!

Broken Silence and Thanksgiving Photo's

Sorry for the silence around here the past few days (or has it been weeks?). We have had quite the busy days lately!

We hosted our first Thanksgiving as "Real Foodies" this year and I think it was a great hit! My mom fell in love with some recipe's in the Williams and Sonoma Thanksgiving menu this year and so we tweaked and nudged their recipe's Real Food style.

We had the Turkey, which my husband didn't do "out of the book" he makes the best apple baked turkey ever so we stuck with that and although I can't tell you what's in it (because I never cook Turkey) I can say it was awesome!

Creamed mashed potatoes are another great traditional dish, which we did, but we used 1/2 red and 1/2 russett instead of the traditional all russett potatoes and heavy cream instead of milk which was an idea inspired by Williams and Sonoma, which was great! Plus whipping them with my hand blender made them extra creamy, which is a good plus!

We made cranberry compote out of their recipe book too. That. Stuff. Rocked! Of course as I'm not big on wine I substituted for the wine, but it was awesome all the same! (Oh and just and FYI type of deal, I have NO problem with occasional drinks, it's just not a flavor I like)

And there were a few other dishes, but if you ask me the show stopper was the amazing Maple Pumpkin Pecan Pie from Kelly at Imperfect Homemaking. That thing took the cake and is now my favorite pumpkin pie ever! Thank you Kelly for that recipe!

And so now you know what took up some of my absence time on to the rest.
I worked on Christmas presents and my advent list, which I'll get to more posting here soon (Kid's toy Fishing Sets, Handmade Dolls, Cloth Napkins, Vanilla etc.) But what really took me away . .

Potty Training!

My kiddo has been potty aware for quite some time now, we have been changing her exclusively in the bathroom since we moved here at the beginning of the year and have been sitting her on the potty (with this amazingly cool kid potty seat) since she was about 6 months old. Well in the past week something clicked. I made a couple new pairs of underwear for Miss Noodle and she decided she wanted underwear every morning. Although she isn't doing quite as well today as she was this weekend, she only had 5 total accidents in 3 days! One of those days she wore one pair of underwear the entire day! She has been doing better and better over the past month and I think, she may be ready for underwear during the day all the time! But of course, it's time consuming for the mommy and daddy, hence silence. . .

And now . . The awaited . . Pictures! Our table this year was simple, but I think pretty. I used a sheet for the tablecloth and made some cloth napkins out of some linen I found in my spare fabrics pile. You can tell me what you think. . .

and there you have it. Our Thanksgiving and last couple weeks!

Excellent Salted Pumpkin Seeds

Ahh! Fall is here, pumpkins, falling leaves, pumpkins, acorn squash, pumpkins, leaf fights, pumpkins, thankfulness; did I mention pumpkins?

We love everything pumpkin around here this time of year, or at least I do. I make pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice latte's, pumpkin cream cheese muffins, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin seeds. Oh there are a million more recipes, but these are by far our favorites. While I will most likely post more about the other recipes later on, today is about the seeds.

Aside from storing them for planting next summer, one of the best uses for those seeds after you carve out your pumpkins is a treat for, well, most of the people I know. Salty, buttery, snack pumpkin seeds.

So without further ado here is my recipe for pumpkin seeds

You will need:

1- 1 1/2 cup of Pumpkin Seeds (about two carving pumpkins worth)
1 1/2 tbsp Sea Salt (Divided)
3 tbsp Butter (we use Homemade)
water to fill pot to 1/2 full

A small sauce pot
A Colander (or a lot of patience)
A cookie sheet (with or without tin foil cover)
An Oven or Toaster Oven

Bring 1/2 pot of water to boil. Reduce Heat. Add 1 tbsp of your sea salt. Add seeds. Boil for about 15-20 minutes stirring occasionally.
Drain and rinse your Pumpkin Seeds in cool water (colander is really helpful for this)
Melt your butter into the pot you just used. Add remaining salt to the butter.
Toss your seeds back in the pot and cook on medium low in the salty butter for about 3 minutes.
Dump the whole pot, butter and all onto a cookie sheet, lined with foil makes for easy clean up but isn't necessary. Spread out to approximately single layer.
Pop in the oven at 300 Degrees. Stir about every 10 minutes. Usually it only takes about 35 minutes to get the crispy golden seeds.
Let Cool.
Enjoy!

Boiling the seeds sucks the salty ness into the seeds and makes them a bit more flavorful than if you were to simply rinse them and bake them. We have also done seasoned seeds in the same manner and they turn out just as great! Experiment for yourself!

What kind of pumpkin treats do you like? Have you made pumpkin seeds before? What are your favorite methods?

The Great Halloween Debate

Photo Credit: http://blog.tinyprints.com/Cards/fall-decorating-ideas/

A post I was reading re-kindled a few thoughts I have studied in depth on Holidays. I thought I would share them here. Today I will share specifically on Halloween, later on I will post more on other Holidays especially Biblical Holidays.

While I will primarily rely on Wiki Links for my sources know that I have done furious research in the past to this effect and I would encourage anyone with a passion for anything to do the same. (thorough research, be a Burriean as Paul states)

There is a great debate in the Christian community about Halloween and what should Christians do about it?
Here I thought I would shed some light on some preconceived notions.

Halloween is not a secular holiday.

Yes you heard me correctly. Halloween is actually based on a Christian root. Misunderstanding early Christians clinging to the Abraham's Bosom of the Old Testament came up with this idea of purgatory when told that Abraham's Bosom no longer existed. (as Christ abolished the need for separation from the Father through his death and resurrection) The idea was that recently deceased would go to purgatory to wait until the one time every year that they could all continue on into heaven. This continuation was All Hallow's and therefore All Hallow's Eve was a day to celebrate the saints and bless them as they went into paradise. As you can guess the Devil knowing full and well that the idea of purgatory being false used this idea to spark fear. It was twisted by saying that souls could haunt the earth on all hallow's eve and seek their revenge one final time before entering their final destination whether that be Heaven or Hell. This incited fear and people would don costumes to hide from the spirits. This tradition spread much more than honoring the saints. (The devil is clever you know!) and now it has become either very ugly or very perverse.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween

So how do we fix it? How do we celebrate a holiday that has become so ugly?

Personally I don't think abstaining is a good idea. Jewish kids in this country that abstain from Christmas celebrations are often jealous of friends and neighbors that get to participate and there becomes a negative stamina about their parents ideals on the holiday. Here is what my family is doing to "change what is"

1. We will be doing costumes, I think letting kids "dress up" spurs creativity and helps them to grow and learn. However we will be doing "cute" costumes and later on (once they are out of baby phase) they will have to come up with creative costumes. i.e. my sister one year got a bunch of mini boxes of  cereal and knives glued to some black clothing and went as a cereal killer . . . Which they can then help to build. We will not allow Gory, Gross, Demonic or Sexual Costumes. We will be emphasizing that this is just for fun etc.

2. We will not be participating in Trick-or-Treating. There really is no need for all the sugar and etc. Instead we will be eating a healthy "feast" and trying to talk any family members or friends into joining us.

3. Fall activity time. The week surrounding Halloween will be perfect for creating fall luminaries, wreaths, and garlands. As well as making pumpkin pies, pumpkin spice lattes and other fall favorite recipes.

and finally 4. The most important part I think is to give kids a proper understanding of what happens after we die. We will discuss Christ and what we can expect as "souls". This will more than likely change in what it looks like as our kids grow, but this is what I want to center our conversation around as we feast with friends and family.

Other things we may or may not do as a family throughout the years to come:

Harvest Carnivals- I think there are so many cool fall celebrations that we could attend at churches. They are also a great outreach to kids who don't know the Lord.

Fall nature walks- How much fun is it to watch the leaves change and collect pine cones and sticks? Nature is glorious and God gave us so much to see why shouldn't we see it?

Opening our doors- I think it's important to reach out as much as we possibly can and using a holiday to reach out and preach is a really great thing. So can the neighbor, stranger, neighborhood kids join our feast?

Have a Halloween Party to celebrate what an amazing gift we have to know that when we are absent from our bodies we will be present with the Lord.

This kind of "Godizing" modern holidays is what early Christians had to do with Christmas and Easter, which today are commonly known as Christian holidays but actually hold roots in pagan holidays. If they could turn a pagan day into a Christian one we can certainly turn a Christian holiday into a Christ focused holiday once again!

How do you plan to make God and/or Fall the center of your Halloween Celebration?