Have you ever wondered Christ had to die on a cross? Or did he have to die on a cross?
Why the crucifixion?
I know at different points in my life I’ve asked all these questions and more.
The Easter sermon we heard last year, dealing with this exact topic, had an impact on me that lasted all year long.
I am planning on listening to it again in preparation for Easter Sunday, and I would love it if you would, too.
by Dr. Doug Bookman, (one of Paul’s favorite professors!)
I want the girls to understand that Easter is our biggest celebration day of the year. It will take awhile (probably years) to figure out how to make this happen completely, but for now, we’re going to do what we can.
It struck me on Sunday that I should probably take this whole week to prepare/celebrate. Last minute plans and efforts make for stressful situations and divided hearts.
So I decided to do what I could, with a week.
I’ve looked at Easter crafts and lessons online and am largely unsatisfied with what I’ve found. The typical resurrection eggs, cookies, wreaths made out of eggs, and bunnies just don’t appeal to me. They might have a place later on, but for now, I want the girls to be really sure that we’re celebrating Jesus, specifically his victory over death.
Here’s how our first craft attempt went:
The girls have been begging me to paint forever; I found some paper and drew a picture of a cave with the stone door rolled off to the side and wrote at the top “Alleluia!” I figured they could paint it however they wanted. It was an in-the-moment idea, but it ended up pretty well.
We were not planning on Gracie joining us. I inwardly groaned when I heard her waking up, but she turned out to be a happy addition. (At first she said that she didn’t want to paint because she was scared. I told her she could just sit with me and… it didn’t take her long to dive in. = )
Here are pictures of the girls in progress.
Here they are displaying their master skills and unique styles. = )
Our work space; set-ups like this make me happy.
And, because I couldn’t resist. Mom has to have a little fun, too, right?
Ha! I love it!
And yes, they are wearing Mommy’s t-shirts turned inside out to protect their clothes.
So fun! I’m really glad we did it. I have a few more ideas for the rest of the week… we’ll see what happens.
Happy Celebrating!
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.
from “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”
Isaac Watts, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1707
Well, March Madness is big stuff around here. According to Paul, “It’s Christmas for me!”
So we have had a blast educating the girls about this tradition. Here are some of the funnier things they’ve said, or (mis)said. = )
Gracie pointing to the cheerleaders, “There’s the cher-ries!”
Sophia, who’s picked Florida Gulf Coast to go quite far, “I’m going for Florida Ghost Town!”
Mckayla, while watching the computer screen, “Go! Go! Go!” (not sure where she learned this one) = )
Gracie, when she thought Duke should be doing better, “Duke you have to be better! I want you to Come On!”
Hope, upon finding out that both of her championship teams had already lost, “It’s okay, it’s just a game.”
Gracie, “I wh-eally love popcorn! Boo-ha!”
(The key to keeping four little girls interested in basketball games is POPCORN!) = )
Actually, they barely see a whole game a day. With Paul at work, they maybe catch a few minutes before bath time; but man, can they put down the popcorn!
****
We had such fun helping the girls fill out their brackets. It was a big deal, complete with popcorn (Boo-ha!) and fruit punch (a very rare treat).
Paul would ask the girls match by match and I would write down their choices. Hope understands now about higher seeds and lower seeds, so it was pretty cute to see her ask Paul, “Who is the lower number?” Sophia and Gracie pretty much pick whatever team you say second. Except for Duke; they always chose Duke. = )
After the first day, Gracie was close to the top of our extended family’s bracket contest. Yay! We won’t talk about where the rest of us were.
Here are the pictures of our bracket party:
A lovely weekend to all.
Hello all! I have a bunch of pictures for you this week. The girls are currently building a fort in the middle of the living room while I am sitting on the couch working on this. We’ll see how it goes. = )
To start with, I know you’ve seen pictures like this before, but I just love them so much, that I had to share again.
Another one of Mckayla’s sweet smiles. She likes having her picture taken.
Gracie once again expanded her style this week, experimenting with mixing stripes and polka dots. Has she been looking at Pinterest?
This is the same outfit from before, just with a blue jacket added. = ) And is she trying to be Patch the Pirate?
Caught stealing my black beans while I put Mckayla down for a nap. The jacket was gross; definitely made a visit to the washing machine!
There is no better playground than Daddy laying on the floor. I love Paul; sometimes when he comes in the door, I think he can tell that the girls just need to play; so he lays down and they just crawl, climb, jump, and walk all over him. He huffs in protest, but the girls and I know he loves it. = )
And it’s been all about the brackets around here! (More on this tomorrow)
And two more fun pics from my phone: Sophia showing me that she could lift this giant branch,
and Mommy and Mckayla having some fun after bath time.
Love to all! (and it worked ~ hooray = )
Hope is intelligent, articulate and exact. Sophia is funny, crazy and mischievous.
They were sitting at the table, coloring. I was in the living room folding clothes. Which seminary class their father would attend that night was the topic of their conversation.
Sophia asks, “What class does Daddy have tonight?”
“Hermeneutics,” Hope replies.
“Oh…” and Sophia repeats hermeneutics. Except…she didn’t say it quite right. Almost, but not quite.
“No,” Hope corrects her, “her-me-noooo-tics.”
“Hermejetics.”
“Hermeneutics.”
“Herbejuckus?”
“Say ‘herm-”
“Herm-”
“-men-”
“-men-”
“-noo-”
“-noo-”
“-tics.”
“-tics.”
Hope is very happy with this. “That’s it! Now say hermeneutics.”
“Hermalexa.”
This went on and on. Sophia never cracked a smile, never changed her voice at all. Honestly, I didn’t know she had such creative, verbal-convoluting abilities in her.
Hope never caught on. Okay, she caught on when Sophia digressed into using bathroom word endings. Ay-yay-yay. That’s when I stepped in between peals of laughter, “Okay, okay.”
Was that really my three and four year old? Yep. Thanks for the reminder that my husband’s stellar sense of humor …has definitely been passed down.
Can you say “hermeneutics”?
Sometimes love feels like the cold blast of air that greets you as your faithful husband walks in the door from work
Sometimes love feels like hot, stinging dishwater.
Sometimes love feels like a heart that’s hurting inside while your mouth voices thoughts you’d rather leave unsaid.
Sometimes love feels like a tiny hand connected to a very wobbly, newly walking body.
Sometimes love feels like the side of your husband pressed up against your own as you do absolutely nothing.
Sometimes love feels a lot like playing ring-around-the-rosie.
Sometimes love feels so amazing you can only respond in wordless worship.
Sometimes love feels like a rock in your stomach once you’ve decided to apologize.
Sometimes love feels like a four year old climbing on you as if she was still two.
Sometimes love feels like your heart is bursting.
Sometimes love feels not so much like a dramatic explosion inside, but thirty pounds of soft, squishiness sitting down in your lap.
Sometimes love feels like a fuzzy sleeper holding a body that’s collapsed on your shoulder.
All the time, love feels undeserved.
So today I’m going to tell you about how I made this totally disgusting, inedible attempt at applesauce. It was so easy! Literally, it took less than ten minutes and we had awful aromas and puzzled children. All the ingredients were right on hand, just waiting to be sacrificed. Here’s the recipe: you’re going to love it!
First, randomly decide to make it (in the middle of lunch) and don’t bother to look at the recipe; I’m sure your memory is as reliable as mine.
1 chopped apple
a few tablespoons of water
squirt of honey
spoonful of brown sugar
cinnamon (optional) because I couldn’t find mine
Dump all ingredients in a small microwave safe bowl. Don’t bother to stir or cover; everything will be just fine.
Microwave on high for five minutes. (Small note: I did remember exactly that the original recipe said ten minutes, but I knew I was doing a smaller amount so I cut the time in half. Didn’t want it to burn or anything.)
Remove from microwave; groan; fill with dish detergent and let soak until washable; continue groaning.
(Yeah, I was feeding Mckayla these little chopped apples. She had enough teeth to do it, but I thought, “This is going to take a while, why don’t I just make them into applesauce real quick?”) Think again, genius.
The smoky, steamy, apple-y, s’mores-y gas that covered me when I opened the microwave was wretched. NOT what I was looking for! The apples? Completely burnt and black – like a rock! To further my lapse in judgment, I tasted them. Moron! …gag… basically charcoal.
Will my aptitude for disaster in the kitchen ever come to an end?
If you haven’t seen it already, check out the first post in this series: The Name Game.
If you were to ask me as a piano teacher, “What is the one common denominator among happy, successful beginning piano students?”
The answer would be easy: “Parents who are involved with the child as they practice.”
It took about two weeks of being Hope’s piano teacher and her mom to realize, “Wow! This being the mom of a child taking piano lessons is hard work! The teachers have it way easier.”
My hat (that one that everyone carries around for the sole purpose of saluting) immediately went off to all the parents of my past students. They had been the ones responsible for their children’s accomplishments. With that little mental ceremony over, it was time to face reality: I wasn’t just a teacher any more, now I was a mom.
And with my sweet little Hope taking piano lessons, it was my job to help her practice.
Being your child’s teacher does not exclude you from being their mom during the week.
I now have to live up to the expectations that I placed on parents:
*Help your child practice every day
*Make sure they closely follow their given assignment
*Assist them with any theory work
*Be there to answer questions and give common sense guidance
It takes work to build a daily practice time into your already busy schedule. It was quite a challenge for me during those first few weeks. I would think, “I already did the lesson, now we have to practice, too?” Yes, you spoiled person; just like you made all those other people, now you have to practice, too.
Currently, she’s dying to practice every second of the day, so that makes things a little easier. I do try to not just put her off when it’s not a good time, but explain that we will do it later and then follow through with what I’ve said. Most of the time, practice happens while the little girls nap, and I sit right with her. Sometimes it happens when the others are awake, and I’m just barely supervising her work, and sometimes I let her practice by herself while the little girls get baths.
It’s quite the juggling act, but we’re determined to make it work.
And one more thing, it is hard to not jump back into that teacher mode during the week. I have discovered a few things that have been helpful, and I’ll share them next time!
Until then, thanks for reading!
I think the most significant event of this past week was the time change. I just could not switch over. Thankfully, the girls were very flexible; waking up later, but still going to bed when they should. Maybe we’ll get it this week??
Hope and Sophia finished this after detailed instructions from Dad on the proper way to put together a puzzle. They had a lot of fun working on it with him, and I even did a little bit, too. (Though I’ve never put a puzzle together properly in my life = ) Sophia never even got frusteratered, which was a great improvement from last time. = )
Gracie decided to expand her style a little bit and go for more layers.
Mckayla fed herself pudding!
Gracie and Mckayla sitting on the kitchen floor reading one of Sophia’s birthday cards. Gracie still wears her coat and hood every chance she get. This picture is particularly fun because she’s also carrying a pig in a carseat on her back (another one of her favorite activities) = )
As I said before, the time change was not kind to us this week. During a late dinner on Tuesday night, I noticed Gracie and Sophia starting to put their heads on the table. As I took some dirty dishes into the kitchen, I jokingly said, “All right, everybody just go to sleep on the table,” then turned around to see this…
And Daddy’s newest little cuddle bug; she hurries to him every time he comes home for lunch.
Word of the week (used by Hope and Sophia): Apparently.
small steps, big picture 