Easter Sunday; Boy is this Holiday Misunderstood!

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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?

Devotional Excerpt: Regrets and The Past

Why wasn't I saved sooner? Why did I have to go through all the things I went through because of my sin? The Lord tells us in Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:5, Galatians 1:15) that we are set apart for his purpose from the womb, why then did I have to do the awful things I did, or deal with the consequences of my actions? 

When reading through a bible study I have been following recently, one thing smacked me square in the face, I'm harboring feelings of regret. I never used to do this, I used to hold the philosophy that no matter how something turned out, it was what was meant to be and every experience was worth it. So why was I holding on to these feelings? Realizing my sin. Knowing that the things I have done bring disgrace to the Lord, how could I say they are worth it? The 'what if's' took hold of my mind and heart and weighed heavily on  me. How could I ever face up to things that scar my dear Lord's reputation just by the fact that I am now his.

My husband and I have only been married a short time even though we were engaged to be married 14 years ago. We both made choices and sinned both together and apart that led to a 10 year separation. We married other people, had extremely rough marriages and divorces and the Lord led us back to each other.

Although I grew up in a Christian home and lived a 'Christian' life as a child, when My husband and I originally met, I didn't know the Lord. I knew of him, and I honestly hated him. Circumstances in my childhood had led to bitter feelings towards God. 'If there is a God, I want nothing to do with him' I thought. I was not anywhere near what the Lord had planned for my future.

Through a painful marriage to an abusive husband the Lord brought me to understanding, and a place of repentance. The Lord met with me, in my sin, convicted me and redeemed me to use me for his plan. However, I was still living in sin. I was married by law to a man that the Lord did not intend for me. I was struggling against the Lord in every way because of this. My peers all pushed me to stay in my marriage and attempt to bring him to the Lord, to love this man as my husband the way it was intended.(1 Cor 7:13-14) Although in a lot of cases and ways this road of thinking is proper and correct, I had forgotten about what marriage really is. I had forgotten about my first husband. The man I was sharing a home with was not what the Lord desired for me, and somewhere inside me I knew it. Psalm 127:1~ Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchmen waketh in vain. The Lord had given me a husband and built a relationship for me, even before I became the Lord's child, I had turned my back on it.

I worked hard to ignore the Lord telling me that this wasn't right for me. I threw back his words of encouragement to the married as he gently showed me time and time again of his laws in Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy of what engagement means,and what actions required marriage. He gently reminded me over and over about my first husband. This battle between self and the Lord lasted three years. I had known all along that I belonged with Mike, I knew when we separated that we were doing something wrong. I had long thought about leaving and going back to the man who had stolen my heart and married me as a young girl. If it weren't for my confusion and circumstances, I would have left and gone to him years before.

As a baby Christian I thought the Bible was clear and obvious, rules are rules and the rules were that you stayed married, period. I didn't bother to read the Bible, those were rules I knew growing up that's what every Christian says about marriage, I didn't need to read the Bible for the Lord's take on it. But I had still forgotten, I was married to Mike. In the Bible an engagement was a marriage. The marriage contract started from the day a couple became engaged. The law required a divorce decree to separate an engaged couple just as though they were married. (We see this in the story of Mary and Joseph for example, they were betrothed to each other and when it came known to Joseph that she was with child he intended to divorce her quietly until the Lord sent an angel to inform him that Jesus was to be born of his beloved and she had not betrayed him, Matt 1:18-20) To make even clearer the case that we were married the laws of Deuteronomy concerning fornication state that any couple caught in the act of consentual fornication were to be married quickly. (Deut 22:28-29) So by our sin of having sex while engaged but not married, we married each other spiritually. In essence I was living polygamy. In spite of the Lord leading me to this understanding, I ignored him and tried to fix my worldly marriage because people who didn't know my story or understand the abuse I was taking would look down on me for leaving!

You can't let what someone might think of you, even in the church, stop you from doing what the Lord prompts you to do. Things are sometimes more complex and sometimes people with the best intentions don't know you or your story well enough to guide you in a Biblical manner. I've learned that no matter what people say, you must allow the Lord to guide you around the Bible. He is the author of it as well as your creator, he knows what you need to read and when. This is not to say that you shouldn't seek Godly counsel, you must always seek Godly counsel, but you also must seek to understand the Lord's law and his leading and guiding as well. Not only that, scripture interprets scripture and the Lord will make things stand out all over the place if he is guiding you. One reference can be misinterpreted, repeated consistently and in several places the Lord will concrete the concept he is teaching you.

With that being said, I still fought to save my worldly marriage for three years. Finally after my prayer and cries for understanding the Lord brought to light my husbands affairs. The affairs that had undoubtedly been going on for the entirety of our life together. The Lord had released me from the bonds of my worldly prison. (Matt 5:32, 1 Corinthians 7:15- If the unbeliever should depart, the brother or sister holds no bondage) Now given this story, and the brief peek inside my past, can you see where the regrets and 'what if's' leading to them hide?

In reading through Lord help me grow spiritually strong in 28 days by Kay Arthur and David Arthur, day 9 speaks to my soul. She paraphrased her story (much as I did here) and explains how she was entrenched in a deep jealousy of the teenagers she was teaching because they, if they heeded her advice, had the opportunity to skip the dreadful things she endured because of sin. Then she shared what the Lord led her to.

The apostle Paul, formerly Saul, has a life story that would definitely bring forth some regret. He prosecuted and murdered Christians as a steadfast Jew thinking that these men and women were insane to believe that Jesus was the Christ Messiah and one true King. How high must his regret list have been? Yet we see him humble and Jesus led in the letters he writes as Paul to the Christian churches in the gentile nations. His sin and his past brought him to understand his desperate need for Jesus' work on the cross. He is one of the most influential New Testament authors, he is also one of the best examples of what God can use for his purposes.

The Bible tells us that everything written in it is written for our learning. When you look at Paul's life before Christ, the ugly sins that he perpetrated are driving curiosity into those who saw him later head over heels for Christ. What would that curiosity have driven these people to do? I know what curiosity leads me to, research. When I research truly seeking out truth, guess what, I find the truth. That's exactly what was intended because the truth can only be truly found in one, Jesus Christ. So taken that into consideration, what is my past for? Why did I have to be saved so late in the game? Why did I let my sin carry me away from my beloved? For Christ's purposes, he saved me when he was ready.(Gal 1: 15-16) Just like Paul, I have a past that shows my desperate need for Jesus. My need for Christ is like oxygen, we need it to survive, and I only understand it and fully comprehend it because of my sin. (Rom 8:1) But maybe that isn't all it's for. Maybe Jesus plans something more for it. Just like Paul reached some others through his story. Jesus might plan to reach someone through me.

Maybe your past is something you wish to bury and forget. Maybe you regret it like I did, but maybe just maybe there is a bigger reason to ask yourself  'Who is Jesus going to reach using my story?'

Is there something you struggle with because you are ignoring the prompting of the Lord? I pray that the Lord release you from those bonds and abundantly clarify his will for you.

Living More Simply: Dishwashing

Ah the dish washing chore. People around here, ok I, despise washing dishes. I thought that the dishwasher was God's gift to me, and people like me. Until I did some math and some real evaluating.

Have you ever noticed how much work a dishwasher really is? Really unless you have that stellar reputation of person who rinses and loads the dishwasher the very second after the dish is dirty, you have to scrub your dishes before they go in the dishwasher, or as everyone has witnessed from time to time the entire load ends up with crummy yucky stuff plastered to it.

Now that alone, seems like extra work to me. Usually if I've rinsed my dishes well enough to put them in the dishwasher I might has well have added the soap and they'd be clean by the time they got there! Seems like I just wasted time!

After pondering that, I started looking at all those things I cannot wash in my dishwasher. My pans. aren't the pans the worst part of the dishes? Couple that with the fact that most pans, especially those with any kind of non-stick coating, are not dishwasher safe, so if you are putting these things in the dishwasher you are voiding your warranties and not guaranteeing the safety of your pots and pans. The cast iron that I use often, can't be dishwasher-ed unless I want to re-season them every time I cook. Not a real useful thing.

Looking around at that I started wondering if there was more that I wasn't seeing. We stopped using the dishwasher and started washing ALL of our dishes by hand. I mean I was essentially doing that anyways! We stuck a towel on the counter and used that to lay dishes out to dry and after a month, lo and behold our electric bill was TWENTY DOLLARS cheaper! I never in my wildest dreams thought that the dishwasher could possibly eat up that much money!

After a few months of watching our electric bill being consistently cheaper, my husband had an assignment for his environmental science class to measure the amount of energy you used on a daily bases for something like four days. Now I had no idea you could actually calculate this total! I know I must be blonde right? (actually red-head, worse than blonde!) We did the math our dishwasher eats up 120 volts at 8.5 amps, meaning it eats up 1020 watts (volts times amps) while it's running.  If I did the other math properly (hours of use times current cost of electricity) with running the dishwasher once a day (about an hour) it eats approximately 17 dollars or electricity a month, not including the gas to heat the water it uses. So my totals were not that far off!

Looking at the hand washing method, I can safely assume that the amount of energy to heat three to five gallons of water that I use while hand washing (and sometimes used while rinsing and loading the dishwasher anyways) is significantly less than the dishwasher eats up. While I can't calculate for the water usage as we don't pay for water where we are at currently, I still would guess that it doesn't cost as much because I was using the water to rinse the dishes before they went into the dishwasher anyways. All in all for our family washing the dishes by hand is far simpler than washing them with the machine. As an added bonus my dishes have never been cleaner!

Now I'm not saying go out and tape off your dishwasher, never use it again. That would be crazy! But, if you are interested in living with less work and using less energy, it might be time to evaluate your dishwashers actual potential. Are you getting the bang for your buck? Turns out, we weren't!

Combining and Condensing: Baby Clothes Edition

Over the past few months we as a family have been condensing and ridding ourselves of the excess stuff that has accumulated just about everywhere we look.

The other day I decided to tackle the baby clothes pile. We regularly sort through toys  and remove excess toys from the bin, but the baby clothes get a little overwhelming. Every month or so I'm sorting new clothes in and out of their dressers since my girls are so little and my system my lovely system, falls dreadfully short. Here is just one example of how:

This photo is of all the clothes that my kiddo's grew out of that should have been in the hands of someone else in need, some of them over 1 year ago. There are actually six boxes under that pile!

When you look at that pile, you might think that my girls must be running around naked right now. Nope, in fact, they both have boxes of growing into clothes waiting for them still and dressers still annoyingly packed to the brim.

But today, I am laying out for you my system.

We are blessed to have several families giving us some amazing clothing and we hardly ever have to buy clothes for our girls. But if we were to keep everything we get right off the bat my girls would wear a new outfit every single day (some of them I really wouldn't like!) and still not make it through all the clothes before they grew out of that size.

So we start as soon as we get a new set of clothes, We go through all the clothes with our girls in mind, would I ever consider putting my child in this shirt? If no it goes in the blessing pile, if yes it goes in a box for them to grow into. When it comes to my kiddo's since they are born in different seasons I have to watch what I keep and save because chances are if I'm sorting their clothes they won't transfer over to the next kid!

I then go through the keep pile again and make sure that everything will be worn, and that it fits into the box, I only allow myself to keep 1 box of each size (sometimes less than that!) and it has to work for both girls! Once that is finished we determine where the blessing box is going. Sometimes, unfortunately, we can't find a family that needs them and in that case it goes to the nearest Salvation Army, but we do try first to see if there is a family that can use the clothing.

When I am dressing the girls and I find that clothes don't fit, they get tossed into a bag hanging in the closet to be sorted the same way as the new clothes. I re-evaluate every item once again so that we are not storing useless items. Since we plan on having more children, I keep clothing after the youngest as well albeit in much lesser quantities.



About every two months I do a massive dresser dump and I sort, clean up, and size up their dressers. anything that's too small goes into the evaluate bag all the stuff that fits gets neatly folded and returned to it's drawer and the box of clothes to be grown into next moves into the dresser and becomes the  box for the set of clothes coming out.

Does it seem like a lot of stuff and sorting? Yeah it does to me too!! That is why I've limited myself so much that 6 months of clothing they have grown out of literally fits in one box now! The more we go through things the more I am realizing how little of their clothing actually gets worn! Why do I hold onto sixty shirts when my daughters will wear the same five over and over?

Do you have a system for your kids clothing? Share it!

Like this post? Stay tuned more condense and combine articles are coming!

I'm Back! Well sorta . . .

More awesome recipes projects and other musings are coming in 2013 but first an update . .
Our silence was not intentional I promise! The main computer in my household crashed and we're now re setting all of those fun programs and pictures and all that fun jazz that was lost! Oh and did I mention the pictures? No? I lost pictures! Sad Sad day! Luckily my husband never empties his camera so I still have all of the birth pictures for my newest wee one, but my camera, you know the one with the beautiful blog post photos and a few other kiddo pictures, I empty out regularly, I back up files onto disc periodically but since Zaba's birth I haven't done any of that! Smart huh? So my intended photos for you all have to be re-shot. In a nutshell what that means for you my dear readers, is that I will still be on a mini vaca whilst I fix and find new photos (and posts I had written in word and not uploaded yet).

Please be patient! I promise to return!

Stephie

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!

Devotion Excerpt: Who is this God we serve anyways?

With the challenges of Christian life, what are we passing on to others around us? Do we know who God really is?

This week in an effort to know God I am going to be more intentional about my devotions. The sitting down and just reading is great, it's important, but I want more. I need desperately to know this God that we pray to work for and are supposed to teach our kids about. No matter how often in my life I've thought "I totally understand God" I am beginning to realize it has never been true. I really don't know God like I would like to. I don't understand the depths and heights and lengths of his love, chances are I never will. But I do know that I can make an effort to know him better. We all know that every relationship begins with getting to know each other. So here is the beginning. . .

To know God as I am reading I am going to start taking special notice of where God is mentioned in the script I read. For example:

Romans 11:33-36 reads ~
Oh, the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements and unfathomable his ways!
For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?
or who has first given to Him  that it might be paid back to Him again?
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.



Do you see him? Do you see how this passage describes who God is?


The first part praises him for his knowledge and wisdom, tells of his character in how we will never fully see it all at once. The next asks why we think we know when we don't. The third asks why we think it was us who brought us what we have. The fourth explains who did, God. He created all, Sustains all, and Owns all. That is why we need to glorify him.

That is how I am trying to read the text from now on. What does the text say about the God of the universe?
My hope is that by reading it this way, I will come to have a better understanding of who God is and what he has to say to me.

Which brings me to part two of my new study method. Life application.My life is supposed to mirror Christ to the world around me. Does it always? Do I truly show God to the world? The first step is to know who God is the next is to apply his attributes to my life.

In the passage above it states that the Lord knows all and has wisdom beyond what I can even imagine. So in my time of need, God already knew. I can have peace in the fact that God knows what comes next too. How many people can we say that about? and If he already knows and is wise who should I turn to for the answers? God's word. The Bible tells us that we cannot counsel the Lord, but he can most certainly counsel us! The next reminds us that He gave us what we have, even that which He takes away. We have nothing without him.Which also means we have all through him. We shouldn't worry about anything because he holds the future. He will sustain us.

Now if I apply this to my life. Say that giant bill that looms that I have no idea how to pay, or even the Job applications my husband hasn't heard back from. The possibility of a move. None of these things should worry my or trouble me. God knows, God has a plan to pay that bill, the perfect place for us to live is already in the works and God will hand Daddy-O the job he needs when the time is right. So what do I do? Relax! Rest in him and let him take care of it. Makes it so easy right? But only if I truly throw it on him. If I worry and fret and dwell on the maybe's I dwindle away that precious time Jesus is giving me to rest. What does my obedience look like to the rest of the world that needs to see God? Guess what? They can see him! When I obey the Lord and rest, they see the peace of Christ surrounding me. How cool is that?

What kind of things do you look for when you read God's word? Is there a devotion method that has brought you a better understanding of God?

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?

My Natural and Green Laundry Routine

I promised I would share with you how I keep my diapers clean and sanitary. Really I do all of my laundry approximately the same as my diapers so this is my “kill two birds with one stone” post.

First of all, I can’t stand all of the nasty chemicals and scents etc. that are in commercial laundry detergent/ products. We have been ridding our lives of everything chemically loaded why should we coat our clothes in them?

We separate out our clothes pretty simply. Clothes and Diaper covers go together and Diapers, wipes and rags go together. The clothes and diaper covers are washed in cold/cold cycles to preserve clothes and water resistance. Diapers, wipes and rags are washed in hot/cold cycles to sanitize.

We use Charlie’s Soap as our laundry detergent because it is naturally derived and rinses clean. It has no added scents or well anything really. It gets our clothes beautifully clean without anything added but . . .We have hard water. . Bad, nasty, difficult water that threatens to turn all of our clothes into burlap. Water softeners are expensive, one thing I realized, they are all essentially salt. So rather than spend a fortune on water softeners I decided to spend 59 cents and buy a can of salt. I now throw in about a teaspoon of salt in every load and BAM. No more hard water. So far our clothes are softer, the diapers are feeling more and more comfortable on the babies and I haven’t noticed any ill effects on our clothes. Every once in a while I will use vinegar in the rinse cycle as well as a fabric softener and in cloth diapers as sanitizer. Most of the time however I forget the vinegar, the washer doesn’t normally give me warning when the rinse cycle comes up.

Stains if treated quickly can usually be removed by one of three methods, I either 1. Let them soak in the sink and swish them around a few times before throwing the item in the washer (normally stain is pretty well gone when I throw it in the wash) 2. Rubbing a bit of baking soda into the stain to scrub it out or 3. This awesome stain remover made from ¼ cup of dish soap, 2-3 tbsp of vegetable glycerin, and about ½ cup of water mixed in a spray bottle this stuff rocks!

The one difference in the diaper loads is that we need to disinfect the diapers regularly as to not spread bacteria between the kids. To cloth diaper loads I add 10 or so drops of Tea Tree oil and about once a month I add a ¼ to ½ cup of lemon juice to sanitize and bleach them, leaving them to soak for about a half hour. This keeps our diapers fresh and mostly stain free. If I had the ability to line dry them this would accomplish all of this in one as sunlight is a natural disinfectant and bleaching agent!

When we pull things out of the washer Diaper Covers and Wet Bags, Wool items and Gentle Items (I.E. Bra’s) get thrown over the clothes line in the laundry closet the rest get thrown in our dryer with dryer balls I made with this tutorial from Kelly at ImperfectHomemaking. 

We usually fold the clothes when they come out of the dryer because I have nowhere to store unfolded laundry, but a lot of the time I really wish I had somewhere to toss it instead!!

Well that’s it, our lovely laundry routine! I hope you enjoyed our tour!

Slave Driver Mommy ~ Toddler Chores

In our home we all try to pitch in on the housework. Our oldest is just moving into the stage where she can start to help out too! Here are the things we've been having Noodle Doodle either help us with or do herself (mostly help us with)

1. Dishes- She actually loves to do the dishes! We wash all of the sharp things and then hand her the scrubbie and she goes to town on those dishes. Mostly we end up washing them, and the floor, and the cabinets under the sink, but she's learning valuable skills here so why stop her.

2. Loading/Unloading the Dishwasher.- Before we quit using our dishwasher Noodle would routinely load and unload everything she could reach.

3. Picking up her toys.- If she plays with it and pulls it out from it's home, she can most likely put it back! We are working hard to help her to play with one toy at a time. It doesn't always work, but it's a start!

4. Washing cabinet fronts - When mommy cleans the cabinets, I'm a neat freak and I wash them about every two weeks if not more often, Noodle has a rag and gets to do the scrub down on the lower cabinets too.

5. Bringing things for the New baby.- Blankets, Sucky's (pacifier), Burp Cloths, Diapers; when mommy and daddy's hands are full, Noodle Doodle's hands are big help!

6. Folding (and unfolding) laundry- I just started trying to teach her how to fold washcloths. It's not perfect but she enjoys tearing through the house with our laundry!

7. Wiping up spills on the floor.- Noodle is excellent at finding every floor mess there is. Since she is such a pro at finding them, I started giving her a rag so now she even wipes them up.

8. Cooking.- Now this could maybe not be a chore to some people, but to others it is. I actually enjoy cooking, but anyways that's beside the point. Noodle helps us mix things and is eve beginning to stir things on the stove, We're teaching her about the hot and cold and in's and out's of cooking now so that hopefully she can have better luck learning how to cook as she grows up. Plus it is super cute to see her stir a bowl of flour!

So these are the basic chores we have Noodle Help us with. They are all simple enough that she can do them, but learning for her that helps her with coordination, following orders, basic homemaking skills and mostly they are fun for her!

What kind of chores do your toddlers do?

Love the Unexpected

gotta love surprises! My internet service provider has decided that we need to pay m more to use our service on the computer, so my posts may not include our pictures for a couple days, oh and don't expect them to be long, the phones keys are awefully small! Here's hoping I get it straight quickly!

A Bridge, A Park, and One Exhausting Day Out!

Saturday was quite the amazing day out for our little group.

Daddy-O and Momma-N

 Daddy-O had a field trip for Geology class and as the increasingly curious Noodle Doodle is obsessed with rocks right now, I thought a field trip learning about rocks would be a cool thing for her.I was soooo wrong! We spent most of the morning bored in the car because the rocks they were exploring and talking about, were stops on the side of main roads. . Not exactly my idea of a fun thing for a 18 month old and a 2 month old. So rather than watch my precious Noodle Doodle try and play chicken with the cars, we opted to stay in the car while daddy did his extra credit field trip.

Gorgeous Bridge 

Now this isn't to say the field trip was all bad or that they stayed in the car the whole time, but a lot of it we did. Man were the girls bored! Abba Zaba hates her car seat with this awesome passion and Noodle Doodle was just about done with it so after the field trip, we all headed up the mountain and found this really cute little park with this shallow little stream and this beautiful, and I mean beautiful, old stone bridge. We had our little picnic and had some time to play in the water (shallow enough for a toddler, always nice!) and went on a short hike. I think that must at least slightly make up for the morning long car ride. (I hope) The girls loved getting out in the air (Abba Zaba slept but, I think somewhere she still enjoyed it) and Daddy-O and I got to see some incredible views that unfortunately are not part of our every day life anymore. This kind of place and these treks are where Daddy-O is happiest. Teaching Noodle about plants, taking in fresh (er) air, and just enjoying the natural world God created for us. Since we moved farther into the city fresh air is harder to find. We can't wait to move again! But then I'm still apprehensive.

Pretty View, Love this Park!

Standing in the forest on a hiking trail with beautiful views is always almost serene. I love my little corner of the world in so many ways, but I think seeing these little corners is so rare that I am almost excited about the possibility in front of us. We may be leaving this crazy area and finding a new corner to raise the girls, and a new beauty to discover. While this idea has been making me very nervous and pretty crazy, this notion to move has been on our hearts for several years now. Since before Daddy-O and I got married. Daddy-O didn't actually want to stay here when he got home from Japan. So now I am feeling more and more that God is calling us away. He has been preparing me, I feel more prepared for a move now. I will miss this little corner of heaven on earth, but I know a new little corner of heaven is right around the next bend. It helps that I can take part of it with me, my little family :o)

Daddy-O and Noodle Doodle

Abba-Zaba's

Happy Trekking!!

Stephanie