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!

Mother's Day Tribute

With Mother's Day approaching I thought I'd share this little gem I found.

Borrowed From "Charming the Birds"

At My Place, Every Day is Mother's Day
By Scott Simon

My wife doesn't work. She's a full-time mother. She luxuriates in bed until 6:30 a.m., when our 2-year-old chants, "Mama, Mama!" like some ancient war call, and she trudges into the kitchen with our baby on one shoulder to use her free hand to heat milk.

I stay in my office, writing, procrastinating and checking baseball scores until I need another cup of coffee.

My wife tries to go to the bathroom. Our 2-year-old clings to her knees. Using a bathroom with a 2-year-old on your lap should be a rodeo event.

Our 6-year-old gets up and chirps, "Mama! Mama!" My wife holds our 2-year-old in one arm, our 6-year-old with the other, and heats up more milk with her third hand.

I come into the kitchen for more coffee.

She dresses our daughters. It's like trying to put tuxedo shirts on two squiggling ferrets. My wife walks our daughters 10 blocks to kindergarten, but it takes half an hour because our girls won't step on cracks, stop to look in every window and stomp in every puddle. She has to pull them along like sacks of nails.

When she gets back to our apartment, my wife can finally relax. She does laundry; pays bills; stays on hold with the credit card, Internet and phone companies for 45 minutes because the bill is wrong, while our 2-year-old swings from her neck like a chimp; resets the wireless service; changes diapers and light bulbs; buys food; picks up toys; cleans the fish bowl and hermit crab habitat; organizes closets; cleans what our cat coughs up; schleps to the storage locker; tries to take a shower but can't because our 2-year-old can't find her stuffed dog; picks up our 6-year-old from school and takes her to ballet; makes three meals and innumerable snacks; calls our mothers and sends them photos of their grandchildren; and wipes up milk, water and diaper spills the way Red Adair put out oil fires.

I help by calling my wife a couple of times a day to tell her how busy I am and ask, "Um, darling, can you find my red socks?"

She has four minutes a day to herself and eats only Cheerios that fall on the floor. She works 15 hours a day with no breaks or mandated meals, 365 days a year with no real vacations. Our daughters feel free to cough up and sneeze things into her hands. If Samuel Gompers heard about my wife's working conditions, he'd say, "Organize and fight!"

Instead, she knows that in these times it's a gift to be able to be a full-time mother. You know: just to be home with the kids.

My Own Christmas

Christmas 2008

Yesterday I turned up the Christmas tunes I keep going 24/7 and wrapped christmas presents, one of my favorite things to do in December. Today we shipped them off to Texas. I wish I could hand deliver them all. Not being with my family is especially hard during this month. There are many theories on what makes this time of year seem more special than any other and I'm not sure I have a definite answer to why it seems that way to me. There's just something wonderful about the mystery of the virgin birth and God becoming a tiny baby, the joyful and familiar music we hear everywhere, the fun of finding and giving gifts, the baking, the cold weather, the cards in the mail, the decorations and pretty lights, but why these things make me so happy is beyond me. I'll just enjoy it and not worry about trying to figure it out!

I have such fond memories of Christmas during my childhood so I love thinking about all the traditions I'm getting to start with my girls. I get to bring them the traditions I had growing up and some new ones our new family can create. Everything is new to them and that adds to the fun. I look forward to when they're a little older and can participate more in all the Christmas preparations.

Halloween Blues.

I called my mom today to whine about living where it will be perpetually COLD on Halloween night. Where it's cold babies have to wear coats and probably hats if they have good mamas, neither of which do much for an adorable and well planned Halloween costume. So we're doomed to only dress up as Molly the Mountain Climber or Susy the Snowman if we want to stay warm and be able to show off. I should have just gone with one of those woolly baby suit costumes that always looked way too warm while I was in Texas. They're cute, easy and key word here....WARM. Oh well. I'll be better prepared next year I hope!

Halloween Cometh!

Well, October is coming and with it one of my favorite 'holidays', Halloween! Which means time to be cute and creative and come up with something adorable to dress my girls up in. Last year was a chance stroke of brilliance but what to do this year? I wanted to dress Lily as an Elephant since that has been the first animal sound she could make and she thinks all animals are Elephants until recently they are becoming Horses, but I'm not sure how I'd pull off making ears and with my limited amount of time to devote to it I don't want to do a lame-o job. So an Elephant might be out, same thing with the Monkey idea I had for Clara. So perhaps Pooh and Piglet? That might be easiest though I'll still have to get pretty creative and do some shopping. I'll have to go through their clothes this week and see if anything jumps out at me like last year.

Ideas:
Pooh and Piglet
Chicken and an Egg
Rag dolls
Hobos
Farmer and a Cow

**Update** I've found the greatest costume and idea for the girls. Bring it on Halloween!