Celebrating Special Days in the Church Year

Not being raised in the Lutheran church, it took me a while to understand and come to appreciate many of the visual aspects of our church's liturgy. The vestments our pastors wear, the paraments on our altars, the stained glass in our windows are just a few visual tools that point to greater teachings in Holy Scripture that are good to be reminded of each week. I knew that once I had a family of my own I would make a point of teaching my children what all these tools point to.

So on days like today, which is Reformation Sunday, a special celebration in our church, I do little things that give emphasis to what we are celebrating. Church life and home life should not be separate things.


Our church year has six seasons and for those seasons we see different color paraments, each with its own meaning. Since on Reformation Sunday our paraments are red, (the color of fire and blood, symbolizing the Holy Ghost, martyrdom, fervor, and love) we wore red clothing to church and set the table in a special way for our Sunday lunch, yes, a simple red table cloth is "a special way" around here!

Never a Dull Moment

Learning Basket

This week: Church Life

Because Sunday is Reformation Day I decided that this week we would focus on what we see, do and hear in church.

Praying
Our Bible and Hymnals
The Crucifix
The Baptismal font and Baptism
Holy Communion

Activities:
Maybe take a tour of our church and let Lily see the altar more closely than she does on Sunday morning
Color pictures of things we see and do in church
Look at pictures from the children's baptisms

Songs:
Favorite hymns
Songs from "Growing in Christ" hymns for children
This is the Way We....go to church, etc.
The Bible is God's Word

Golden and Noble Works

"A wife too should regard her duties in the same light, as she suckles the child, rocks and bathes it, and cares for it in other ways; and as she busies herself with other duties and renders help and obedience to her husband. These are truly golden and noble works. This is also how to comfort and encourage a woman in the pangs of childbirth, not by repeating St Margaret legends and other silly old wives’ tales but by speaking thus, “Dear Grete, remember that you are a woman, and that this work of God in you is pleasing to him. Trust joyfully in his will, and let him have his way with you. Work with all your might to bring forth the child. Should it mean your death, then depart happily, for you will die in a noble deed and in subservience to God. If you were not a woman you should now wish to be one for the sake of this very work alone, that you might thus gloriously suffer and even die in the performance of God’s work and will. For here you have the word of God, who so created you and implanted within you this extremity.” Tell me, is not this indeed (as Solomon says [Prov. 18:22]) “to obtain favour from the Lord,” even in the midst of such extremity?

Now you tell me, when a father goes ahead and washes diapers or performs some other mean task for his child, and someone ridicules him as an effeminate fool, though that father is acting in the spirit just described and in Christian faith, my dear fellow you tell me, which of the two is most keenly ridiculing the other? God, with all his angels and creatures, is smiling, not because that father is washing diapers, but because he is doing so in Christian faith. Those who sneer at him and see only the task but not the faith are ridiculing God with all his creatures, as the biggest fool on earth. Indeed, they are only ridiculing themselves; with all their cleverness they are nothing but devil’s fools."

-Martin Luther from The Estate of Marriage 1522

Commitment to Loveliness

Thanks to Mat. Emily for the inspiration to do some lovely things this week! Here are my goals:

1. Invest in some real facial cleanser and moisturizer. You'd all be appalled to know what my current skin care regiment consists of!
2. Finish Thank You notes
3. Send a Get Well note to a congregation member.
4. Paint my toenails (it's the little things!)
5. Bake pumpkin muffins

I'm half way through my thank you notes, yay!

What about you ladies? Any goals to increase femininity and loveliness in your week?

The Lily Show

Lily's new thing is wanting to look in the mirror at herself while she cries and if she's not crying hard enough by the time she gets to the mirror she'll pretend she's crying so she still gets a good show. She must get this from me.

Learning Basket

This week: Pumpkins

Activities:
Visit to the Pumpkin Patch
Magnetic Jack-O-Lantern

Crafts:
Apple Stamp Pumpkins
Finger paint (Red and Yellow make Orange) paper plate pumpkins

Books:
Our Library has a lot of books about pumpkins. I'm looking forward to taking the girls on Tuesday.

Songs:
I'm not that crazy about the pumpkin songs I've found so perhaps I'll write my own.

Snacks:
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Never a Dull Moment

So So Great

One of the blogs I read is having a contest to see who has the best response to the comment bellow. One of the readers (a mother of 4) entered this list. I had to share them or remember them for myself really. She writes: "The first is my favorite, although I've never had the guts to actually say it."

"Wow, you sure have your hands full!"

1. "Yes, I do. But making children is so much fun!"

2. "Better than empty!"

3. "Not at all, you see, a handful is 5. Times that by 2 hands and that's 10. I only have 4. Then of course, my husband is a big help and he has two hands as well..."

4. "I have lots of help from my 3 children. Many hands make light work!"

5. "My children are not a burden, in fact the Bible calls them blessings."

6. "Praise be to God that He has filled them!"

7. "We only have 4! How many more do you think I could have before menopause?"

8. "Oh, this is just our 'starter kit'"

9. "Well, when you have kids a beautiful as mine, how can you resists?"

10. "Did you know there is a woman in Arkansas with 19 children?"

And here's the clincher that I would never use, but sometimes I really really want to.

11. "I'm working hard to make up for all of the kids that abortion has killed."

My favorite is #2 or "I'm thankful that God has filled them!" would be a nice response. I have actually used #9!

Honestly I'm not too bothered by this comment, it's a true statement in many ways . But there are several others that Phil and I get that I am bothered by and would like a better response to, for example the "You know how this keeps happening don't you?" variety of comments. Grrr.

And while I'm on the subject of unnecessary comments the one that infuriates Phil and confuses me is the one we get over and over during each of my pregnancies, when inquiring about the sex of the child we hear "Oh it doesn't matter right as long as they're healthy!". I just don't think people think about what they're saying when they say this. Would we not want our child if he or she wasn't healthy? Healthy or not healthy, God would still have blessed us with a child. So PLEASE don't ever say this to anyone!

Our Own Learning Basket

October in Polka Dot Wellies by Sarah Jane

Inspired by one of my blog crushes and eager to begin schooling Lily I'm going to attempt a themed lesson plan throughout this year. Each week the girls and I will learn about something new through, books, pictures, crafts, games, songs or videos from our "Learning Basket". Lily is so bright and I think would do very well in a school type setting but unfortunately at her age this is not an option. She needs more structure, challenges and outlets so I think this plan will help us both in providing that.

Next week I will begin with Leaves.

Discuss their different colors, shapes, where to find them

Books- Go to library on Tuesday

Activities-
take a walk collect fall items

Crafts -
Handprint Leaf (finger paint and trace)
Glue leaves on tree
Color or paint leaf pictures
Large leaf cutout and fill in
collect leaves for wreath

Pictures -
Find in magazines, online, create slideshow

Songs -
Found here and here

Video-
Autumn & Vivaldi
The Leaves Are Falling

Mercy

Many days feel like a downward spiral into sin, sin and more sin. My failings as a wife and mother are always in my face and if I stop to take a closer look at things I'm easily overwhelmed with the immensity of how awful I am. I thought for a while that if I could just read my bible more, pray more, be alone for a while or have the chance to go to a bible study around other Christians that I would somehow do better. Better at controlling my temper, have more patience with my babies, not complain and pout as much, be less negative. Of course I knew that as poor miserable sinners we can't "do better" and will always struggle with sin, but at least maybe we could do a little less sinning right? Well, no. I'm not sure that it works that way. I realized over the last couple of weeks that all I can do is repent daily. Repent to the Lord, repent to my husband and even repent to my children. That's all I got. Daily repentance and contrition as our Catechism instructs. I think I'm finally getting it.

I've felt very overwhelmed with the responsibilities I've been given. I have many anxieties about how I will "successfully" care for my three children, keep the house relatively clean and straight, keep meals on the table at the right times and be the loving supportive wife I want to be. With all this weight on my shoulders I feel helpless at times. Some days I'm good. I have a better outlook, I know to take care of priorities and let other things go. I also have huge help right now with my mom being here. I have yet to see what life will be like once she's not here, washing, changing, feeding, cooking, cleaning for me. But I'm also beginning to learn that I MUST take one day at a time. Christ says "Let tomorrow worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of it's own." Get what you can get done today, tomorrow will be another day to get another thing done. And the days that I feel so totally overwhelmed I have to be reminded that none of this is permanent. My babies will NOT be babies forever. They will at some point sleep most or all of the night, they will be able to clean up after themselves, they will get out of diapers , they will be able to feed themselves and play in the back yard alone. And one day I will have a quiet and empty house. I will have "time for myself". And I will I'm sure miss some of this current "chaos".

I was happy to find this post a mother of 6 wrote on one of the verses that often comes to my mind and I'm beginning to understand, "She shall be saved in childbearing." 1 timothy 2:15. In other words, she shall have to fiercely hang to Christ's promises of salvation when she feels salvation is far from her, she shall daily have to die to her own desires, she shall daily have to live for others. The flesh that is this frustrated and the soul that is this desperate for Christ's forgiveness can only be saved. Finding no help in myself, no strength, I have to turn to Christ. And He is always there to give me this help and strength. Honestly there are days I don't feel that He's given me enough but then there are times of clarity that I look back and can see that yes, He did. I made it through. My husband gave a sermon this Sunday that gave me comfort. Reminding me that faith is in things not seen. If we could see the things hoped for we would not need faith. I have faith that Christ will take me to His heaven, that my children will be cared for by His loving hand one way or another, and that I will get along day after day with His provision even when I can't see how.

Though I don't want to "just make it through". Some days are just gonna be that way I know but one of the reasons I began to blog was to write down the moments that I love about being a wife and mother. To remember the days that are wonderful, the priceless gifts I receive through my babies. I want to remember these moments more often. I want to be patient more often. I want to pray more often. It is God's will that I do so He will help me. I just can't expect that I will want to and certainly that I will be able to do it on my own. I was encouraged to read this from evlogia:

A mother must be creative in prayer. Taking utter chaos and through it, by God's grace, affecting the order of her heart. Nights of nursing become opportunities to keep vigil. Mealtime interruptions, serving a hungry child, become moments to fast. Overflowing baskets of laundry become concrete reminders to pray for each family member, as each article of clothing is folded and put away. Little ways to capture the grace of the smallest, most ordinary moments. The art of motherhood.

Instead of beating myself up for not making time to pray I could find times to pray throughout the day.

Again from evlogia: The search for quiet has long been abandoned and I now listen amid the noise, creatively searching for any opportunity to catch a brief moment of grace. Within the clamor, the quiet of God's voice resonates clearly in the heart, but only when the noise of my complaining ceases.

I must remember that my salvation and standing with God doesn't depend on what I do or how close I feel to Him. He is always faithful to me and His promises of forgiveness, life and salvation will be kept. I'm doing what He has called me to do. I must trust that while I've got my hands deep in Teddy Grahams and my head in dirty diaper pails He will do what He has promised and preserve me in the one true faith. The days get long and I get very hateful in my heart at times but I know He's always ready to forgive and each Sunday I hear His words of forgiveness even while a wiggly whiny baby makes it hard. We mamas can only hope and trust that His words are true and do what He says they do even when we feel like Polly Pagan. That's what we are apart from Him anyway, lost, condemned, utterly helpless, there's no use fooling ourselves into thinking otherwise. So we cry, "Lord have mercy".