We've Got It All Wrong . . .

I don't do many "religious" posts per se, but this one has been brewing in my head for awhile now, so I'm going to see how it looks on "paper" . . .

Something that's been striking me more and more lately is how "backwards", we, as Christians tend to have things . . . our tendency to view things as "have to" instead of "get to" . . .

The book I recently reviewed about the Sabbath, highlighted one area where we do this.  The whole premise of the book is "the Sabbath is a delightful, exciting celebration that God wants to share with us each week".  And yet, it seems like we all (or at least most of us) don't "get" that . . . many Christians, of course, don't "keep Sabbath" and accuse those who do of being legalistic and sticking to the law that has been done away with.  I'm not going to get into a discussion here, at this time, as to what laws were and were not done away with or anything like that, because in this case, I see it as a moot point. . . The Sabbath is not about a LAW! It's about a wonderful chance to celebrate!! To say "well the law was done away with, you don't have to keep Sabbath anymore" is (or should be) like me telling my children, "hey, guess what, they've proven that Santa doesn't exist, so now we don't have to have Christmas anymore!"  Think it would go over well? (and just to clarify, my children have known since they were old enough to know who Santa is, that he's not real, and yes, we tend to focus on Christmas being about Jesus, not Santa, but just go with me here . . . for the sake of the illustration . . . ).  I can tell you, my kids' response would be WHO CARES?!?!?! We LIKE Christmas, we want to keep having Christmas!!! And THAT should be our response to the Sabbath "law" question.  WHO CARES if it's no longer "required"!! God still wants to spend one day a week celebrating creation with us, Woo-Hoo!! Let's PARTY!!!

Which brings us to those of us who DO "keep" Sabbath . . . at least the vast majority of those of us that *I* know . . . that's what we do, we KEEP Sabbath. We don't CELEBRATE Sabbath  . . . and therein, I think, lies the problem. Others don't see us reveling in our celebration, so they don't get why we do it . . . and ummm . . . sometimes I don't either.  I once mentioned to a friend, that if the Sabbath is truly a day of rest, FOR ME, it would be a day spent alone in nature instead of getting up and rushing to get children ready and to church on time, and such . . . And I'm not sure how to address that issue, in my life, right now. . . I'm not sure how, within the body of Christ, we balance the fact that a celebration and rest mean different things to different people . . .I love my church family, but for ME, getting up early and getting dressed (and getting 3 kids dressed) and wrangling said kids in a setting that isn't always the most interesting and exciting for them, isn't quite the celebration that I would like Sabbath to be.  I'm not sure how to address this with my kids either. They love our church family, they love Sabbath School, they love our pastor. But understandably, sitting quietly listening to an adult-level program isn't quite their definition of a celebration either.

So, I don't have all the answers, but I do know this . . . when Sabbath becomes a day of "have tos" and "can'ts" we're not celebrating the Sabbath the way God intends us to!

And that's not the only area where we tend to get it backwards . . . tithe is, in my opinion, another one. My husband and I were talking about the home church movement recently, from a bookkeeping standpoint (don't ask, we're accountants, we get into these discussions from time to time . . . ) and I pointed out that, a home church wouldn't have need of much, if any, bookkeeping. That there would be no "facility costs" because people would meet in each others homes. No rent, no utilities . . .. meals are potluck style . . . no corporate structure to support. If, as individuals or a group, the church decides to help those in need, they just pool their money and DO it! (well, if they decide as an individual to help those in need, they just . . . help those in need, but you know what I mean).  To which my husband replied "But then who do they pay tithe to? You have to pay tithe".  And it struck me, we have that backwards to . . . God set up the laws about tithe (and again, not getting into the whole law abolished or not thing here at this time), because the people weren't giving willingly. When we're only giving because we "have to", we ask "so how much do we have to give?" and God says . . . well, give at least 10%. BUT . . .if we're giving from a loving heart, we don't ask how much do we have to give, we ask, how much CAN we give?  A couple years ago a friend was sending Christmas boxes to an orphanage in Hati. I read the e-mail I'd gotten to the girls, describing the conditions at the orphanage, and what these children did and didn't have. And then I took them shopping and let them each make up a Christmas box to send. And you know what? They didn't ask "how many things do we have to put in the box?" they kept begging, "Please Mommy, can't we put this in too? Just one more thing, PLEASE . . . those kids don't have this . . . " Now granted, they were spending my money (although they did also share some of their Halloween candy, and some money from their piggy banks), but I don't think that matters here. They WANTED to give to these children. They felt compassion for children living in a world they couldn't fully fathom. And I didn't have to put a bottom limit on their giving. And THAT is how we should be! We should be looking at our budgets and saying "how much can we give, where can we cut back in order to give more? And if we are doing that. If we are truly embracing God's love for ALL people, and are trying to help as many people as we can, as much as we can, with the resources God has given us, I can guarantee, we'll be giving well over 10%!!

And finally . . . children.  I have a quote in my sidebar that says

"The Bible calls children blessings and debt a curse. Yet in our society we apply for curses and reject blessings. Something is wrong with this picture. -Doug Phillips"

and it is SOO true of our society! Even in the church.  Recently I happened to read my church's "official statement" on birth control, and a portion of it says


 "The perpetuation of the human family is one of God's purposes for human sexuality (Gen 1:28). Though it may be inferred that marriages are generally intended to yield offspring, Scripture never presents procreation as an obligation of every couple in order to please God." 


And I thought . . . that's true! God doesn't want the bearing, or raising of children to be an obligation! He intends it to be a blessing!! To say "God doesn't say we HAVE to have children" is, in God's eyes, like my child saying "well, Mom doesn't say we HAVE to eat dessert!" It's a true statement,  BUT . . . just like the Christmas example, my children would find it ludicrous. Of course they don't HAVE to eat dessert, they want to and they beg to and they are very excited when they get to eat dessert. And THAT should be our view of children. Children are an amazing, miraculous blessing from God! But we, as a society, have come to view them as an inconvenience. Have you ever stopped to consider how many parenting articles, and baby/kid STUFF is designed to make children "more convenient" to parents? There are countless books, articles, message board posts, facebook statuses and playgroup conversations about getting baby to sleep through the night. And yet, a baby is a baby for such a short time.  Now don't get me wrong, there are nights when I've BEGGED Little Bit "PLEASE, just let me have ONE NIGHT of sleeping all night!!". There are days when I don't think I can handle the sleep deprivation . . . but then, I look at my big girls. And I remember feeling the same way when they were babies/toddlers, and it seems like it was just yesterday, but it was SIX YEARS AGO (they're almost 8).  Now, I tell them to go to sleep and, unless they are sick or something else completely out-of-the-ordinary, I don't hear from them until morning. And suddenly, as I look at how big they're getting, I find the strength to cuddle Little Bit when she wakes up at night. And keep on going when I'm tired during the day (because I DID cuddle Little Bit half the night instead of sleeping . . . she's a wiggle worm, I can't sleep through her nursing like I could the big girls AND she has a rather frustrating habit of sitting up next to me and flinging herself back against me, and she has a HARD head . . .).  So, I "get it" sleep deprivation can be hard. But it's a short time. And they're SOO little and SOO special and before I know it, instead of Little Bit pushing herself against me at night, as if she couldn't possibly get close enough, she'll be jumping up and down, excited to go on a trip "without Mommy" like the big girls did this fall . . .  I'll take the cuddles, and sleep deprivation, thankyouverymuch.  And that's just one issue.  My girls and I somehow got into a conversation about bed & breakfasts recently. Over the course of the conversation, I explained that often B&Bs don't allow children, and then, in trying to verbalize how a B&B is different from a hotel (afterall, we generally stay in hotels that offer free breakfasts, so to a literal child, with no true point of reference . . . what's the difference?), I described it a being more "like a family" . . .But Mommy? They don't allow CHILDREN?!?! Hmmm . . . good point . . . don't ask me, I don't make the rules . . . 


So, what's my point? I'm not really sure . . . I think it's that I know *I* need to focus on my relationship with God, and seeking His will, because it is HIS WILL . . .not just HIS REQUIREMENT. Perhaps it's that, if we are truly focused on a relationship with God, so many of the rules and arguments would become non-issues . . . maybe it's just to give us all a little something to think about . . . 


What do YOU think? 

Introducing . . .Little Bit's TOT SCHOOL!

Little Bit is 22 months old

I came across this blog awhile back, and loved all her ideas for fun things to do with the little ones. I finally decided to start doing my own weekly(ish) Tot School posts.  We don't do a formal "school time" with Little Bit, but we do have some special toys that we only pull out during the big girls' school time (she calls her Lauri Toddler Tote "school" because that's when she gets to play with it, hee hee), but those are generally things that don't require much supervision, since I'm busy with the big girls.

But at this age EVERYTHING is educational . . . so I decided rather than trying to show something specific we do each day (since we don't introduce new toys every week, so it would get repetitive fast . . . ) I'd just highlight one or two things that she's currently enjoying each week.

I already mentioned her Lauri Toddler Tote otherwise known around here as "kool" (school, in Little Bit talk).  She LOVES it! And it's something she can play with all on her own. Though it took us awhile to learn that we can't eat the foam pieces. She really likes building with the little peg things in it, I'm thinking next time we need a new distraction I might get her some more of those . . .

Another favorite right now is puzzles.  This is a Melissa and Doug farm puzzle she got for Christmas when she was a baby.  It's fun because as a baby, very young toddler, the wood animals were fun toys all on their own, and now it's a fun puzzle, AND she likes to stalk all the animal pieces up like blocks.  She's really moving beyond this type of puzzles, and starting to enjoy ones where the pieces fit together, but she still likes this one. Especially since just this week she found the long-lost goat piece (we somehow had misplaced it when we were in the baby, just-play-with-the-pieces as animals phase, and I couldn't find it when she started wanting to do the puzzle. Then this week we pulled out the basket of wood blocks for her & ta-da there it was. She was VERY excited.

She CAN do her puzzles on her own, and does sometimes, but she seems to prefer them as a group activity, so the above pose, with the puzzle in my lap & her standing in front of me to put it together, is pretty common (the lack of clothing is pretty common too, though she's starting to voluntarily wear clothes abit more often, finally . . . ).

And THAT is Tot School for this week! Hope you enjoyed peeking into the world of an active 22 mo old. You can check out what everyone else is doing for Tot School here.

Weekly Wrap-Up - January 30

This was a very snowy week! First we got snow, and then we got SNOW!! And then we got snow and more snow . . .  And of course, we still HAD snow on the ground when the week began. So by now, when I try to walk through our yard the snow comes in over the top of my boots, sigh . . .

Needless to say, the girls have LOVED all the snow. They have an ever-changing fort at the end of our driveway where the plow pushes the snow. They built an AWESOME snowman (see the last post for a picture) with the "snowman kit" that Miss Judy gave them for Christmas. They did some sledding early in the week but by now it's too deep for good sledding.

Little Bit is starting to get over the "mess" factor of snow, but now it's way too deep for her. I took her out a couple days ago, and she couldn't even walk in it. Needless to say, we didn't stay out long.

Sunday we visited some friends who recently moved closer. They have an 8 mo old, so Little Bit had fun exploring his toys.  He has a walker, and Little Bit quickly figured out how to climb in and out of it all on her own. At least she was big enough to not be able to make it go very fast when she was in it, she was kind of scrunched up, hee hee. Pastor Andy let the big girls choose their kinds of tea and help him make it, and pour it out of tea pots, so they had fun with that. They had small (not as small as the girls' play tea set, but still small) tea cups, and Little Bit LOVED that. She claimed mine for herself and drank several (small) cups of tea out of it, soo cute! I think I have a couple smaller tea cups in the china cabinet that were my grandmother's, I need to find one of those for her when we have tea here at home.

We've done a relaxed school week. We've continued with our Bible curriculum most day, Speekee a few days. The Spanish calendar for the week . . . not alot extra though, it's been a primarily "PE" week with all the snow play.

When we were visiting Miss Judy this week her niece Sara came over. When Sara drove up we asked Little Bit "who's here?" so she climbed up on the sofa to look out the window. She looked kind of confused for a minute, until Sara got out of her car, then her face just LIT UP and she jumped down off the sofa and ran to the door, saying her version of Sara which I can't begin to figure out how to spell LOL.

I thought such a "bad" week, weather-wise might mean lots of fun kitchen and sewing projects, but it didn't, the girls were outside all the time. They DID make bread though, and we made butter. I can't begin to figure out why I haven't been making our butter all along! With the price we pay for raw milk, I can make butter for $0.78/lb! And it's fresh, raw, and as good as organic. So, making butter is now going to be a regular part of our schedule too. The girls think it's great fun too! We timed things well and made the butter and bread on the same day, YUMMY!!!

I feel like I'm forgetting something we did during the week, but I can't think of it. And my phone's being annoying uncooperative so I can't get my pictures I took this week, sigh . . .

The Homeschool Mother's Journal

I recently stumbled upon a new meme, The Homeschool Mother's Journal, that Sue runs each Friday. 

I thought it sounded like a fun way to summarize our week (I'll still do weekly wrap-ups on Sundays, at least most of the time . . . hee hee).

So, without further ado . . . 

In my life this week...

I've started making it a point to have morning Bible time again. While I've done pretty well at getting SOME Bible time all along, having a dedicated few minutes each morning just hasn't been possible since Little Bit was born. Even when she slept great overall, she still tended to nurse frequently in the early morning hours, and wake up if I wasn't in bed with her, so getting up ahead of her has never been an option, and trying to have Bible time first thing with an awake baby, just doesn't work for us. I would grab some time during her nap, or sometime. Thanks to the Bible app on my android (phone), more recently I've been reading a chapter or so in the morning WHILE she's nursing (while she's nursing during the night or early in the morning is also a great time to pray), BUT I still wanted to get back to having a set Bible time, not only for my own benefit, I "learn" better if I can underline things and make notes and such in a REAL Bible with a REAL notebook next to it, rather than just reading on my phone, I love having it as an option, but  . . .but also because I feel the children benefit greatly from seeing that Bible study is a priority for me! That whole "learn by example" thing . . . So,  in the last week (or so . . .but since it's my first time on this meme, we'll call it this week), I've started taking a few minutes to read the Bible when I first get up. Little Bit's older now, AND when we were getting ready to host Christmas I had dh carry a large ottoman up to our room to get it out of the living room while so many people were going to be here, turns out, it makes the perfect "step" that allows her to get on/off of our high bed by herself.  So, she can either sit with me (she often "reads" my prayer journal, while I read my Bible. I did bring a storybook Bible into our room and have it with my Bible study supplies so that she can "read the Bible" too, but so far, she prefers my prayer journal), or go find her sisters, or Daddy (he's generally home, but downstairs, so she'll go cuddle with him, or tell him "eat" "food" until he finds her some fruit or something).

In our homeschool this week...

We've had lots of "snow days". I figure we can "do school" anytime, but they might as well enjoy the snow as much as they can while it's here (and BOY is it here!). So, while we've done a few minutes of quick "school" each day to keep up with our review items, they've spent countless hours out building snow forts and snowmen and sledding and . . . who knows what all else they've found to do out in all that white stuff.

Places we're going and people we're seeing...

Sunday, we went to visit friends who moved nearby (comparatively speaking) recently.  As if visiting with friends, and eating pizza wasn't enough, we got to try yummy tea, and the girls even got to help Pastor Andy make it!! AND they had tiny little tea cups that Little Bit thought were just her size!! Wednesday we went and visited our neighbor/adopted Grandma. Snow can't keep us from that, we can walk.  Little Bit was cute, we were getting ready to go & she told me "back", meaning she wanted to ride on my back in the baby carrier. So I put her on my back. But then, when we got outside, she said "oooooh, snooow . . . walk!" and wiggled to get down and walk in all the whiteness. (I think, since the windows in this house aren't down on her level, she'd forgotten there was snow out there LOL). Since it was Wed. when we only had a few inches (instead of now, when it's almost to her waist), she got to walk.

My favorite thing this week was...

Seeing A begin to do required chores without reminders (they go in spurts, sometimes they're good about this, lately, they haven't been), AND seeing things that need to be done, and doing them without being asked, or asking "what can I do to help?".

What's working/not working for us...

My reluctant writer, A, really took to the idea of notebooking for history. I printed out notebooking pages and asked them to draw a picture and write "at least one sentence" about the topic. She filled the writing part of the page and asked for another page!!

L isn't as excited about the history notebooking, she does it, but no extra, BUT she is keeping a journal, and writes in it every night at bedtime. I don't know what it says, but it's a daily dose of writing practice with no prompting, much less nagging, from me. 

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have...

How do we balance "keeping the momentum going" on what we're studying &/or using review products to their full potential within the review period, with being relaxed enough to take snow days and visiting days and . . . all those "we're not tied to the books" things that are one of the reasons we homeschool?

A photo to share...

Book Review: Sabbath, The Ancient Practices by Dan Allender

Dan Allender presents the Ancient Practice of keeping the Sabbath, not simply as ceasing all activity ,but a day of delight and celebration with God of His creation. The main message of this book is that the Sabbath was instituted, not as a burden but as a joyous feast day and celebration. He looks at history and the Bible to determine what this special Day can be, when celebrated and delighted in, the way God intended.

I was interested to get a new perspective on this special day. I've "kept the Sabbath" all my life, and struggled with the balance of rules, and delight. This book, helped me to see better just how this can be a day of delight & celebration. How our entire week should revolve around this special weekly feast day that we are privileged to share with the King of the Universe. I want to absorb the ideas in this book more fully, and discuss them with Rodney, and my hope is that we will decide together how we will delight in and celebrate the Sabbath, not just "keep the Sabbath", going forward. I love the idea that, we cannot celebrate God's creation without spending time in some way, in, or with, God's creation. Our children love being outside, and this book has challenged me anew to make it a priority to go for walks or otherwise celebrate the beauties of God's second book, nature, on this special day. It also challenge me anew to make it a priority to welcome the Sabbath each week. I want to talk to the girls about this, and come up with a plan, with them, on how we can use music, candlelight, special foods, special dishes, and special traditions to welcome God, in a special way, into our home each week.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Homeschool Review: Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Today I'm going to tell you about an AWESOME resource for ALL Christian families! Whether you homeschool or not, if you have kids, and they ask questions about Bible stuff, you NEED this book!! Ok, I'll stop sounding like a commercial now (maybe) but seriously, this is such a great resource!

As part of the TOS Crew, Lifeway Christian Stores sent us the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary for Kids ($14.99) to review. What a FUN book! It is SO bright and colorful! With a great mix of photographs and artwork, and BIG! It is over 200 pages long, and these are not small pages! School or no school, we have this book laying out & we just plain enjoy looking through it! It has TONS of pictures of every imaginable thing from the Bible.

We use this book ALL the time! We use it when we read their Sabbath school lesson. . . "Mommy, what would King David's palace have looked like?" "Hey, lets go find out . . . palace starts with P" . . . "cooool, that looks really old!" We use it during Bible time for school. We use it during history too (we're studying ancient history right now, it works well). And we flip through it just for the fun of it.  You can see a sample of the inside of the book here.

The stated age range for this book is ages 5-10 but it seems like younger children would enjoy looking at the pictures, and I KNOW older . . .er . . .children . . . would love it. At least *I* do, and I'm quite a few years past 10, hee hee. Maybe the forgot a zero, 5-100 might be a better age range, I'm pretty sure my 95 yr old grandfather would enjoy it too!

When I asked L to bring me the book because I was writing the review, she said "we DO get to keep it, right?" When I assured her we did, she said, "oh good!" I asked her what she thought of it, and she said "it's great, you can look up about all kinds of things from the Bible!" A was very busy with something else when I asked her, so her response was simply "it's nice" but as you can see by the picture, both girls get quite engrossed in it at times.

In addition to this great resource, Lifeway Christian Stores offers a wide range of Christian books and other products.

Disclaimer:  Lifeway Christan Stores sent us a copy of the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary for Kids in exchange for writing this review. No other compensation was received and all opinions are my own.

Review & GIVEAWAY!!! - Homestead Blessings The Art of Quilting

Giveaway is now closed! Thanks to all who entered!! Congratulations to Jess and Beverly!!

This month the Homestead Blessings DVD that Franklin Springs Family Media sent us to review was the Art of Quilting!

As with all the Homestead Blessing DVDs, this one was excellent! The West Ladies are so personable and do a great job of explaining things, giving options, and making it all look so easy!

I figured these cold, snowy days were a great time to learn quilting. But I'm also realistic enough to know that a full size quilt would be abit ambitious for us (though I'd LOVE to get to that point eventually), but conveniently, one of the projects on the video is a quilted pot holder, THAT we can do!!

L had another project she wanted to work on first, but A was ready to jump right in. I pulled out my box of fabric, and she chose the fabrics she wanted. I'm sure all who know her will be shocked to hear that she chose purple, hee hee.

I helped her trace the pattern onto the fabric, and then set her to work cutting out the pieces and pinning them together.

At first she wanted to hand sew the whole thing, but in the end she decided she wanted to learn to use my sewing machine (what she'd REALLY like is to be able to use a treadle machine like the West Ladies use on the video, but alas, I don't have one . . .A is definitely my daughter in her love of all things old fashioned! So she settled for using my very basic electric sewing machine.

She took to it quite quickly. Quilting is a perfect first project for learning to use the sewing machine because it's nice straight rows. We're still working on the potholder, but she got her quilt block done, now we need to sew the border around it and then sew the backing (and batting) to it, then actually quilt it. I'll be sure to update, with pictures, once it's completely done (and L's ready to start her potholder now too, so I should at least have progress shots of hers by then).  They're calling for a nasty wintery mix tomorrow, so we should be able to get some sewing done since it won't be fit to go out.

In addition to the potholder, the DVD shows how to make an actual quilt, and shows a few different quilt blocks and talks about how to design your quilt. And they showed some other techniques like whole cloth quilts. It also shows (in the "bonus material") how to make a really easy cobbler carrier using 2 quilted place mats, I'm filing that idea away for wedding gifts and such.

And now for the GIVEAWAY!!! As with the other Homestead Blessing DVDs I've reviewed, Franklin Springs Family Media has generously offered 2 Homestead Blessings: The Art of Quilting DVDs for my readers!! To enter, go to Franklin Springs Family Media and look around, then come back and leave a comment telling me one product you'd love to own! (mandatory entry)

For additional entries do any (or all) of the following, and leave a separate comment for each:

• Follow my blog with Google Friend Connect (if you already do, just leave a comment letting me know)
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• "Like" Franklin Springs Family Media on Facebook (or tell me if you already do)
• Follow me on Twitter (or tell me if you already do)
• Post about this giveaway on Facebook
• Post about this giveaway on your blog (including a direct link to your blog post)
• "Tweet" about this giveaway

And now for the rules:

• This giveaway will close on February 1, 2011
• Winners will be chosen on February 2, 2011
• Please make sure I have an easy way to contact you. If I can't easily find your e-mail address or post to your blog, I will have to choose a different winner.
• You will have 2 days to reply to me with your address or another winner will be chosen.
• This giveaway is open to US residents only.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of Homestead Blessings The Art of Quilting in exchange for writing this review. No other compensation was received and all opinions are my own. Giveaway items are provided by Franklin Springs Family Media.