Why we're not celebrating Easter this year.

I ran into Target to grab some pull-ups the other day, and I was bombarded with a sea of pastels, eggs, and bunny ears. My first reaction was relief that spring is finally here. As I scanned the bins of cheap sunglasses and hello kitty coloring books, I soon became angry, angry that my saviors death and resurrection had been cheapened to sand toys and sugar coated marshmallows. He suffered not an easy death to conquer it forever and this is what it's come to? This is how we "celebrate"? Quickly enough the voice of reason kicked in and anger turned to pity. Really, my heart is saddened for those who don't know the shear joy that is only possible through this holiday.
This holiday is set apart from any other.
My life is only worth living because of this holiday.
This holiday defines my existence.
And really, there's just no room for a fluffy bunny after all that.

I spoke with my husband and that's when we decided, we're not celebrating Easter this year.  We're celebrating Christ's resurrection. Now, you may just think I'm playing with words but really I'm not. I find it interesting that the word "Easter" has been adopted and accepted while the word "Christmas" has not. We have holiday parties now, remember? We send out holiday cards too. While some people spend their time getting upset by this, it kind of makes me happy. There's something sacred still left in the word "Christmas", something that means when people aren't willing to accept Christ they aren't willing to accept Christmas. I can understand that. Now, with Easter it's changed. The world has been adopted the world has changed it into what it wants. Don't believe me? Go walk around target. Do you see the word Easter? You will. Take a look through the sale flyers. Do you see the word Easter? You will. So, no, I don't believe I'm playing with words. Out with "Easter", you can have it. This holiday means so much more. It's about a righteous man, who suffered on my behave, conquered death for all mankind, and LIVES so I can as well.

We never have done the whole Easter bunny thing at our house, but our kids would get a small basket full of goodies on Easter morning. We normally do some small egg hunt as well. This year will be different. This holiday means so much to us, we're going to be celebrating all week long. This week every ounce of energy I have, every story read, every creative crafty moment that we have will point us to the cross. No eggs, no chicks, no bunnies. THE CROSS. On Resurrection morning (not Easter remember) our kids will come down to the breakfast table and waiting for them will be a scripture stone (because my kids are obsessed with all things little that could be a "treasure"), a carefully picked out book from the Christian book store, and a cross necklace. That's it. No peeps, no jelly beans, no sidewalk chalk. Just a few little reminders that we can only live because HE does.

Have no fear, our Resurrection celebration isn't going to end there this year. This is it remember? The entire reason for our existence. It's worth two weeks. The next week we are going to be focusing on new life. The new life that comes through Christ. As we celebrate new life we'll talk about how spring is a time of new birth. Flowers and animals this time of year are a great example of the new life that's available after the resurrection. We'll do some fun "new life" crafts and there may even by some pastel m&m's  and jelly beans involved, because 1. Candy is fun and 2. It'll all be on sale.

Our hope is, our children will hold this holiday with reverence not just excitement. Our prayer is as they grow they will also become nauseated walking through target thinking about how many people just have no idea the joy and life that's available to them only through Christ, and that this truth will motivate them to live out their faith in every moment of their life.

Can you have fun with Easter and the Resurrection? Sure. I believe some people do it better than others. And, I would encourage you to ask yourself why your children get excited about the holiday. I don't know about you, but if I'm 4 years old, I'm more excited about candy and flip flops than a story I've heard a million times. I taught 3 year old Sunday School this morning and we took a 5 minute detour because when the word "Easter" was said, a little boy started jumping up and down because the "Easter bunny is coming". We're trying to be very intentional this year to display the beauty and mystery of the cross mixed with the wonder and joy of the resurrection without any other distractions.

Because, there really was a man named Jesus. He really walked this very earth. He really did suffer tremendously for nothing that he did. He really did die for me. He really did conquer death once and for all. He really did raise again in 3 days. He really does sit at the right hand of God. And, that is REALLY a reason to celebrate!

Can laundry really bring glory to God?

As I stood looking at the heaping mound of clothing that lay In front of me waiting to be neatly folded and put in its proper place, i couldnt help but think how food droppings, dirty hand marks, and just plain dirt on these very clothes would meet me again in a day or so. Then, Steven Curtis Chapman's song "Do Everything" popped into my head. The chorus says something like this, "Do every little thing to the glory of the one who made you". So as I starred at the laundry I couldn't help but think, "Can I really do laundry to the glory of God?"

I prayed for God to right my wrong attitude and I told Him I wanted to do this trival little task for Him. Honestly though my real thoughts were, "Does God really care about laundry?" I picked up a pair of pants and shook them out and kept thinking. I realized, the absence of complaining does not equal bringing glory to God. I began a pile for my son by setting down the folded pair of pants. As I held up my daughters dress, something came over me and I began praying for her. I prayed for her tiny heart to be sensitive to the word of God and eager to follow him throughout her life. Then I picked up my husbands t-shirt and prayed that God would give him strength to stand firm with his values and beliefs in a corporate bag stabbing world that encourages anything but. I continued to pray over my family as I touched each piece of clothing. Soon I was scrapping the bottom of the laundry basket. I can't explain the emense amount of joy I felt when I was done. Somehow this mundane everyday task was suddenly joyful an rooted in deep purpose.

I'm going to do everything I can to make this a habit. I don't know about your house but laundry is kind of a given. Everyday we put on new clothes and take off old ones. What an amazing opprotunity I have to lift my family up in prayer.

I am convinced more than ever the answer is yes! God does care about laundry. And yes, you can bring glory to God while doing the mundane tasks of life. It's not just the presence of a good attitude either, it's taking a moment to praise Him, to ask of Him, to simply talk to Him.

Suddenly, there can be beauty everywhere!

So go ahead. Go fold your laundry, wipe the noses, mop the floor, prep for dinner......do it, and do it to the glory of God!


Here's Steven Curtis Chapman's song:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uVTeIMursb8

Remember

Between the head colds and the literal cold outside, we've been cooped up in the house for the past few days. As the kids go stir crazy, I have to admit I'm not far behind them. I believe these words recently came out of my mouth, "The next person to yell at someone else will put on their shoes and run a lap around the house in the snow." So before I lay down tape in our living room and make my children run suicides (remember those?), I removed myself from the house (or my husband came home and saw the "I might physically harm the next person to speak" look on my face and he sent me out) and I'm sitting at Panera bread taking time to tell myself to remember.

Remember.
Remember when you would lay awake at night thinking about how amazing it would be to have a family.

Remember when you got engaged and realized you found the man that you wanted to make that dream a reality with.

Remember when even though you were young when you would hold a baby, that sour milk and baby lotion smell would make you weak at the knees.

Remember how excited you were the first time you peed on the stick and saw two lines instead of one. (and the second time and the third!)

Remember when you were light headed, puking, and couldn't sit or stand without help yet all you could do was smile at your baby.

Remember the first real reciprocated smile.

Remember upset little ones that can only be comforted by your arms.

Remember how peaceful they look while they sleep.

Remember the joy of teaching things like manners and watching them be used.

Remember it matters. What you do matters!

Remember your children are a God given gift. It's a divine privilege to guide, instruct, and love them everyday.

Remember its just a phase and they'll grow out of it. Whatever it is its just a phase and as soon as you figure it out they'll be on to something new for you fret about.

Remember tickle fights and belly laughs.

Remember a quick "help" prayer is always answered an always does help.

Remember the special hugs that only little hands and arms can give.

Remember everyday there's a mother that due to illness, tragedy, or infertility is without a child. She would love to be up all night with coughs and deal all day will fighting.

Remember being a mother is one of the hardest most important thing you will ever do.

Remember! Most importantly, remember years from now these will be days you look back on and REMEMBER!

Just do it!

It's done!
Christmas is over, our move is complete, and its time to get back to our "normal crazy" instead of the crazy crazy that was the month of December! Our Internet isn't connected yet so I'm typing this on my phone which means it'll be a short one I'm sure full of errors.

I busted myself this weekend finishing up organizing, making one last purge of anything I could, and prepping to start school again. School took a backseat through moving over the holidays, which is ok because you know what? I can do that!

In this afternoon coffee moment ,that is surprising quiet filled as the kids play upstairs, I'm at great peace. I've accomplished so much today and I feel great. We hit the ground running early and accomplished 2 1/2 hours of hard core school by 11:00. We ran errands, did laundry, mopped floors, cleaned bathrooms, wrote a large sum of emails concerning the weeks activities, made some phone calls related to the move which are always fun, and finished up my Bible study for tomorrow. It's 3:30 and I'm feeling good!

Then I realized. Do you know why I'm feeling good? It really has nothing to do with the crossed off to do list, the happily playing children, or the cup of coffee in front of me. It's because this morning as I ate my breakfast I had some sweet time with The Lord. I opened the work of God and was filled. Then I gave my day over to Him, I asked Him to use today for His glory. Before we sang one song, read one book, or did one lesson my children and I opened their Bible and read from it. Then we did a mini study on stealing (just the next trait word not something we're having a problem with), then we all prayed over our day and each of the kids picked a prayer stick that had someone's name in it to pray for.

Today worked because we gave it to God first. I wish I could say we're good at starting every day like this one, but truth be told we fail miserably. However, being able to pinpoint why I feel so filled has me motivated to do it again tomorrow. Around here that's about as far as I can go.....tomorrow. But you know what? If I do it tomorrow that will help motivate me for the next day and so on. I ache for the discipline to not be able to do anything until I've had my time with God.

I don't know how you started your day today, but info know that tomorrow's coming around. I just wanted to encouraged anyone I could to try it, do it, or keep doing it.

It'll make all the difference. Even during the not so productive days......

Minimize to Magnify

The month of December always has the tendency to fly by at wicked speed leaving us feeling frazzled instead of filled like its supposed to. I have become determined not to let this happen, but this year there's one more thing being thrown into the mix. We're moving right after Christmas! Yes, we're a little bit crazy, but to be honest, I'm not at all surprised. We have a tendency to do things this way, and I've also learned to go with the flow and try not to stress too much. You know what? This move will happen even if I stop packing to read books and even if I put down the label maker and we load up the car to go look at Christmas lights.....I can sleep in January!

On my quest to not flip out (because lets face it, that always one step away), I have to constantly remind myself what this move represents. This will be our 7th move in our 9 years of marriage. I've made good friends with my favorite moving buddy: the Jumbo Sharpie marker. This move, however is different. This move is not about bigger and better. Even when we lived in a tiny apartment the move was about sacrifice to get to the bigger and better. But, this move is about simplifying, reprioritizing, and minimalizing.

We lived in downtown Chicago for 6 years, so we're no strangers to small living spaces. I didn't however realize how much I  liked it until we had much more. Not only liked it, but how much we need a smaller living space. This big amazing house that I'm sitting in right now has been great to us these past 2 years. We've been able to open up our house to Bible studies, youth events, and many church gatherings. We have also made dear friends with our neighbors. I will greatly miss the "I haven't showered for 2 days but need a coffee playdate" relationship that we have. I'm so grateful for our time here, but its also provided something unexpected: perspective.

When you have a school room, a playroom, a rec room, and two kids bedrooms that just equals a whole lot of space that is mostly just used to sit a whole lot of stuff that is mostly just not used. And, what do kids do? Make messes. I'm all for it really I am. I love that my kids make airplanes and pretend to fly to Grammy's house, and "Camp out" under the stars that requires every blanket and pillow in the house. Here's the problem: when one area of the house gets to messy to play they just move to the next area. Why wouldn't they? Sometimes I do the same thing. I'd prefer to not look at the stack of laundry so I'll conveniently spend my day on the other end of the house.

Also, big house = big cleaning day. I could clean my condo in Chicago in an afternoon. I'm lucky if I tackle a quarter of this house in an afternoon. The bigger our house the more time and energy we devote to filling it, decorating it, cleaning it, and maintaining it. All of a sudden we don't own our things; they own us. I love it when God  convicts my husband and I of the same thing at the same time. It's great confirmation and makes the decisions that much more easy.

It's not just about the stuff. I haven't mentioned that word that plagues us all, yet we love to love it: Money. We had about 2 weeks to find a place when we moved here and I still believe we made the right decision at the time. However, living here has meant we've been living right at our means. Not above it ,we make sure we're not doing that, but not below it either. Well, living right at your means can only mean one thing. We have very little freedom with our money. This has been a thorn in our side for years quite honestly, but for the first time ever, we're taking drastic steps to gain that freedom back. We thought we've been doing good. We don't have cable, we don't go on extravagant vacations, my husband drives a car he needs to start with a hammer about once a week, and we don't overspend on the extras like going out to eat. Having financial freedom on one income is possible. There was just one more big thing we needed to change and that was our housing.

So, we're downsizing. Considerably. We're very excited about this and I'm praying the new year will bring a new perspective that becomes a new normal for our family.

Our kids will all share a room, which is fine because they're old enough it'll work and young enough to think it's still fun. We all will be giving up things we enjoy. My husband looses the hot tub that he uses every day, we will no longer have a school room, and there is no luxury of keeping the pickle jar for the pinterest project I swear I will get to one day.  My days have been spent purging and organizing and purging again. Craigslist is my best friend and the salvation army has had a severe increase of donations this past month. As I've gone through my house I have to admit I feel foolish for even having all this stuff. We're far from hoarders and yet I'm shocked how many bags of trash I've filled. Not worthy selling or being given away simply just JUNK! We don't want our life full of junk and full of stress to figure out how to pay for the place to keep the junk.

No, we want freedom! Freedom to meet a need when we see it without having to think about money. Freedom to obey God instantly when he calls us to do something. When God says "Jump!" we want to say "How high?"

When or if God says "Adopt", we want to say "Yes"
When or if God says "Go", we want to say "Yes"
When God says "Give", we want to say "Yes"
And, not just "Yes we want to" but "Yes we're ready now!"

So, as I'm going nutty over here preparing for and preserving the glory of the Christmas season and packing and getting rid of things, I need to constantly remind myself it's for a greater cause. We're minimizing our stuff so we can minimize ourselves to Magnify the Creator and giver of all good things. (Which is all we really NEED anyway.)

**Disclaimer: Not everyone needs to do what we're doing. We needed to take drastic steps to make sure our outcome was as drastic as we want. However, I do encourage everyone to take the time to evaluate where you are with stuff. Do you have the freedom you want? What would it take to get there? The lights and glitz of Christmas will be over and boxed up far too soon and with that comes a new year, it can be a new clean start for whatever you need it to be.

56 Days of Homeschooling

Today will be 56 days we've been officially "schooling". I have to confess the biggest homeschooling shocker has been what a crazy roller coaster ride it can be. There's those moments when you shut your eyes tight and you could just swear the only way out is certain death, and then there are the moments when your hands go up in the air, a smile creeps across your face, and you realize how fun it is. I was just telling my husband yesterday I believe "Homeschool" is a nice word for "Yep. We mess our kids up all by ourselves!". No need for society's help, we corrupt our children enough on our own. And, to add to it, there's no one else to blame! I can't tell you how many times I wish I could say, "They learned that at school." Kind of makes you have to own up to everything! As you can tell, we were having a bad day over here. One of those days that makes me scratch my head and think, "What have we done?" "How could we possibly have thought this would be a good idea?"

BUT, His mercies are new every morning! Thank the Lord!! Today we spent all day at the library, discovery place kids, and taco bell. Then we came home and read books and baked brownies. Throw in a reading lesson and that's one fantastic homeschooling day filled with laughter, play, memories, and learning. Within a span of roughly 14 hours I went from thinking we had to have irreversibly messed this child up so much, there was no hope; to praising God for the freedom and means to homeschool my children.

I am not a very flighty person. It takes quite a bit for me to hit deep lows and high highs, but this homeschooling thing has my number! I think it's because you have to jump in with both feet. You have to become completely invested. So, the bad days hurt worse and the good days feel better.

Here are some of my insights 56 days in:
- My biggest teaching obstacle is BY FAR is the two little ones. It doesn't matter how many busy bags I have or how cool of an activity I have for them to do, someone always needs to poop or needs a drink or a snuggle, and it messes up the rhythm of learning my daughter and I have going.
- My daughter is wicked smart!.....(I'm pretty sure I could just say, kids are wicked smart!)
- I REALLY need to try to get up before the kids do and shower, read my Bible, and have coffee so I can great them with a smile and start our day. (I've never been good at this. I wake up when someone cries.)
- Having at least 1 hour of planning by myself on the weekends can seriously transform what goes on during the week.
- Whoever invented the English language had to be on drugs.
- 99% of the things I worry about work itself out all on its own with no help from me.
- I need to use the library regularly.
- A support system is an ABSOLUTE must!!
-Repetition works!
- Understanding and patience pushes my child in the right direction far more then harsh tones and threats.
- My mind boggles at what we ask our teachers to do with 15-20 kids in a class.

Before we started the year I was full of doubt about how it would all shake out. Now, I can say I seriously couldn't imagine doing it any other way. Some days as a mom are super rough and some days as a teacher are super rough, but overall I'm so glad we get to all experience the rough days together. And now the good days we experience together are DYNAMITE!

Are We Holding Our Flag Too High?

Twelve years ago, I was on my feet with many of my classmates (yes, I was still in high school!) watching, captivated, and mesmerized by what we were seeing. As we watched the second Tower fall so did the pit in all of our stomachs. Somehow we all knew the world would never quite be the same. For a high schooler with her whole life ahead of her, this is quite a scary thing. No one really knew then how day to day life would be affected.

For the thousands of people who lost loved ones on that day, their day to day will NEVER be the same. For political world leaders that now need to think and act on another level, their day to day will NEVER be the same. Boarding an airplane will NEVER be the same. There is a long list of things that will NEVER be the same, but the fact is we've taken pride in the fact that our lives have continued in many areas unaffected. While we vow never to forget, a huge part is glad that on the other days of the year we can.

You see, we've bounced back! WE'RE AMERICANS!!! We're proud to say it. You pop our bubble, we'll get it back! You tear us down, we'll rebuild better and stronger!! I'm so prone to jump on this bandwagon myself. I love our country and the freedoms it allows. The first time I went to a NFL  football game and they stretched that gigantic flag out that covered the whole field and sang the national anthem, I got tears in my eyes. There's something beautiful about our country and its story. (This is perhaps why it pains me so much to see it go the direction that it's going.)

Today, 12 years after our country was attacked, 12 years after many lives have been lost in the name of "security", 12 years of rebuilding, and I had to ask myself:

Do we hold our flag too high?

Another thing I did that day, along with countless others, is pray. What did you pray for that day? Safety? Peace? Strength? Answers? A phone call from a loved one letting you know they were alright? I did too. I prayed for peace and safety and wisdom for our leaders. I prayed with urgency. I prayed with passion. I prayed through pain and confusion. When was the last time I came to God like that? How about you? When our safety and security were threatened it was easy to run to God. The pews were full the next Sunday, if you know what I mean. So, 12 years later, how are the pews? How are the prayers? How is our faith?

While I am very proud to be an American, I'm not proud with America. Yes, 9/11 was a wake up call, but a wake up call for what? I think we came out on the other side, that much more confident in our flag and not necessarily our faith.

It's not hopeless. I have to remind myself to never give up hope. I know God is GREAT, and He LONGS to gracious. Revival can happen. It needs to start in my heart and in my home before it can impact anyone else. Lets try to make sure the next time we run to God to pray, isn't the next tragedy. What could America look like if we pray with urgency and passion everyday and not just on "that day"?

It could look like an America "Under God". The CROSS above the flag!