Happy Birthday Jesus!

Well, so much for the countdown. :)

I guess that's what happens when you are too busy to get on the computer. Oh well. At least in our real world (vs this digital one), we still had a countdown that ended with a birthday party for Jesus. As soon as I get those uploaded, I will put them up. Then tomorrow, we will be heading down to Indianapolis so the boys can spend time with their cousins.

I'm so thankful for the preparations I did. They may have seemed like a bit much, and once my church turn is over in a couple of weeks, I think I will sit and reflect about what worked, and what didn't... if you have ideas of your own, I'd LOVE to hear them! I am so grateful though that Liam did seem to understand all that I drilled into him. How do I know that?!

1. When he received a thank you note from the neighbor for the cookies, he looked at me brightly and said, "Look mom. It's a Christmas card about Jesus!"  A bit taken aback because our neighbor is not a believer, I took a look at the card. It had a boy all decked out in his snow clothes looking at a pine tree in the forest that had been decorated. Nothing "religious" about it.

2. Christmas morning, he went downstairs, saw the presents and looked at the names of a few. Startled, he suddenly turned to Joel and I and asked, "Well, where is Jesus' present?" I said he didn't have any, and maybe he could share his gifts, but Liam shook his head and said, "No. Jesus doesn't want stuff. He wants us. He wants our hearts. You better wrap me in a box and give me to Jesus!". So we did. :)

 (We told Danya Jesus would want her to open the present for Him since she had the least amount of gifts under the tree...)

Merry Christmas!

I've gotten a few back this year. Some my mistakes. Some USPS. Glad to know we are all human. ;)

Sorry if you didn't get yours. Let me know and I'll send you one. :)

(DAY 3) The Joy of Giving, continued...

As I type the title, I'm trying to remember that we truly were joyful to spend the past couple weeks baking up a variety of wonderful goodies to hand out to our neighbors, mailman, etc. And I'm trying not to think about coming downstairs last night to find a large dark green stain on my carpet after my children decided to dump all the sprinkles on the ground, pour water on them, and eat them. Which really, if you think about it, sounds really gross. I think I'm glad Joel discovered it and not me.  And really, I should be both appreciative that one, even though their bodies went through sugar overload with the sprinkles, I'm sure they got some nice bacteria from the floor too to have a balanced immune system if they don't croak first. And, I have a nice brightly clean spot on an otherwise drab carpet. :)

But the truth is, I would do it all over again (except leave the sprinkles in an out-of-reach location). It was fun getting to make my Grandma's cutout cookie recipe that I grew up loving (thanks, Aunt Jane and Aunt Janice!), and watching the children go to town. The funny thing is, even though they saturated their cookies with sprinkles, they tended to choose my "light" ones to eat. After making those, along with other yummy ones, truffles, fudge, caramels and a whole bunch of other goodies, we lovingly delivered them to others, reminding Liam again how thankful we are to have these people in our lives, and to show them God's love. :)

After reading the story of the candy cane, we also made homemade candy canes to give to those we love as well! Pictures of those to follow... :)

Noah/Saint Nick

As I mentioned in a previous post, Liam is still a bit confused about who exactly Santa Claus is. Sometimes he will call the bearded man in a white trimmed, red velvet suit Santa. But still quite often, it is Noah- I mean after all, Noah was a white bearded man, wasn't he?!

Joel thought it would be nice to teach Liam who the real Saint Nick was, and after being gifted books from VoM of Saint Patrick and Saint Valentinus... well, we bought a Saint Nicholas book from them too. Unfortunately, it is lost in the bowels of the USPS system. No matter, because I am not necessarily a shopper to begin with, and hate crowds and parking nightmares, so I did all my shopping via internet this year-- long story short... he hasn't really seen a long line of kids waiting to sit in Santa's lap this year. And my sister isn't here to take the boys as she has the past three years...

(2012)

 (2011)

(2010)

What about Aiden? Doesn't he know who Santa is?? Well, I think he is still having nightmares of when my uncle played "Santa" last Christmas Eve at the Greenbank gathering...

Does that mean we won't do any gifts? Well, no... though my husband would be quite content with one/child. Maybe someday I think I would like to tie the gift-giving into the Three Wisemen a bit. (Have you heard of that approach??)  But Liam has had fun helping me wrap a few gifts, and as he gets excited about the approach of Christmas and Christ's birth, it has been fun to watch his sweet spirit pour out generously, by giving to other people. So we are teaching him that Christmas is about giving, not receiving (though every time he talks about Katie, he still talks about "little itty bitty legos"). Yesterday, he even reminded me of John 3:16, and how God gave us His Son, so we need to give Him our hearts... a lesson he learned from his Sunday School program :)

Day 4... Giving Generously as unto the Lord

Through our church, we took a nice tote laden with goods to our elderly neighbor who can't get around so easily.I try to have a few dollars in my jacket for everytime we pass by a Salvation Army bucket. We also baked up a nice selection of goodies, and then passed them out to some of our neighbors. He even tried to give one of them a gift bag filled with some of his most treasured things (school book, crayons and colored pencils, a game, his newest Christmas cd, a Bible, and some snacks). It made my heart melt. She was sneaky enough to thank him profusely, then fill up the gift bag with a couple books for him, and send him back out the door with his and her gift both ;)

And last night, after generously picking out some special things to give to his brother and wrapping them up, he also decided to make his own "carriage boat" and "wear a winter hat like Noah" and go about giving gifts to little boys and girls that don't have any (and maybe a cousin or friend too :)

(I've currently misplaced the camera, but will try to put those pics up later!)

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

Out of 5 years here in Michigan, we've only been around here twice. The first was out of necessity, as we left a couple of days later to head on the long trek down to Tampa for Joel's four month trauma rotation. Remember what our Christmas tree looked like that year?

This year, it was again out of necessity, as it was just not feasible for us to pay $2500 to fly the five of us out to Phoenix for a week. Nor was it practical to spend the time driving out there if we only had a week off. So we decided to enjoy Christmas out here with just our little family this year.

But this year, Liam is old enough to not let his Daddy off the hook when it comes to a Christmas tree. So we put it up. And decorated it.

Now, I know there is a bit of a controversial debate over Christmas trees. Some could truthfully state that they have pagan origins, but then so also do many other things in our daily lives (days of the week, and some months, as a small example). Even Christmas Day was placed conveniently by the early Christians during a pagan festival. And didn't the New Testament allow us to have food offered to idols? And isn't God bigger then all of that, and uses creation to point back to Him?

So, at least in this house, we are ok with it ...either that or my husband decided this is not a battle he desires to fight! ;)

All controversy aside, I think our Christmas tree has some great symbolism that I can use to try to teach my children, and as I said earlier... point back to Him.

So thus, Day 5 in our intentional Christmas season using the Christmas Tree to show our children that Jesus is the everlasting Light of the World.

Here are a few that I have... let me know if you have more :)

• Evergreen- show him that all other trees have died off, but the evergreen is continuously green all year round (aka it's name ;), just like everyone on earth will one day die, but Jesus died, was resurrected and lives forever
• Lights- Jesus is the Light of the World
• Angel/Star- announced/pointed the way to Christ's birth

As for the Ornaments, ours happen to be red and gold. Joel wanted something that coordinated and I was willing to compromise. (though I do look forward to when my childrens' homemade ornaments also garnish the tree!) But with the red/gold, I told Liam that they are good reminders that Christ our Saviour shed his blood on the cross and that He is the King of Kings.

 (Don't you love how you can tell just how high the arms go (the uppermost ones were with a stool :)

Parousia

I've always been more into Greek then Latin.

Sure, it can be very accurately argued that Latin is more common in today's society, but with ancient Greek you can really get an in depth understanding of the Word. Sometimes there is a lot of more "meat" to a word then the English translation lets on. It might not necessarily be the case in this instance, but I thought it was a fun to look back at the root anyways.

Did you know parousia is used over 20 times in the New Testament, and the vast majority of them are used in reference to the second coming of Christ? It means "coming, arrival, personal presence" and is usually in reference to royalty.

Can you guess what is the Latin equivalent of parousia?

Adventus.

Hence, the anglicanized... Advent.

I introduced Advent calendars to Liam this year. In two different ways. We have a "Christmas Countdown" created by a couple of wonderful Botsford wives and I back in our crafting glory. And we have our advent calendar. I like the countdown, because it is sequential; he goes to the calendar every day to count down the days until Christmas and then writes down the number in the little chalkboard circle.

(Here is a pic from yesterday)

And I love the Advent calendar, because the numbers are mixed up, so it forces him to have number recognition (gotta learn something through it ;), and then we read the verses that pertain both to the birth of Christ and His divine care for His children... and then he runs around the house trying to figure out how much money we get to donate to Lifesong (e.g.- today was donate 2 cents for every pair of shoes in the home). It also has a prayer guide on the back. A bit nontraditional, but it helps him see the more global perspective-- and I love that!

So can you guess what my Day 6 is for intentionally focusing on the Christmas season with my children?!

I think he was excited as soon as he saw the decorations in stores. But his excitement became greater when he saw wrapped presents begin to appear underneath the Christmas tree. He was constantly asking me when he could open them up. After I told him, "Christmas time", I was reprimanded that it was indeed already "Christmas time"... true true.

And so, we wait.


Oh, to have that anticipation and expectation not just for the remembrance of the birth of Christ (and all it entails today in America), but for the second Advent coming of our risen Lord and Saviour. And to have it not just during the holiday season, but all year round. The apostles had it. They waited with expectant hope. It might not have come in their lifetime, but it is promised. And to have it constantly be on the forefront of our minds. It is so beautiful to see a childlike version of it in my son, who speaks of the approach of Christmas with certainty. And be able to relate that to how we are to wait with same fervor for our Messiah to return. I love that almost daily he is talking about wanting to be in Heaven with Jesus someday.

As we celebrate the time when people waited in darkness for the coming Savior, let us be thankful for His light that He brought to this world and remember to reflect it as we wait for His second advent.



⁷ Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. ⁸Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

James 5:7-8 

Celebrating the Season Intentionally

Hello again!
It's been a little while hasn't it.

The Christmas season.

If you are in retail, it begins November 1st, if not sooner.... "Thanksgiving Thursday" or "Black Friday" at the latest.

For me, I refuse to let it even touch the Thanksgiving weekend. My one unadulterated holiday for thanking the Lord for His many blessings-- and I try to keep it that way (besides the Virkler family celebrating Christmas at Thanksgiving, since it is the only time we are all together... but I let it slide.)

It is so easy to get caught up in the "Christmas spirit"... but the spirit of what? Baking and caroling? Shopping and photo cards? Liam is about 25-30% of the time realizing that "Noah" might have another more popular name... can you guess what it is? ;)

And with this innocence now disappearing, I'm determined to make him realize all that the true meaning of Christmas entails... not just the thesis, namely that "Christ was born in a manger to live on this earth and die for our sins..." but to know and apply it to our lives, intentionally living it out.

Thank goodness I have the whole season.

And really, in this case, I hope the Christmas season is all year round.


So what were some of the small things we did, to emphasize Christmas with the boys this month?


Well, for the next 7 days I hope to have a countdown of sorts of ways which we've tried to be intentional with our children. (And yes, my days will be off a day from Christmas day, because I thought it'd be fun to end on Christmas :) 

So here it goes...



Day 7... Giving your Time...

I know, this one may sound a bit lame-o, but with Joel gone last month, well, let's just say that I really saw what happens when children do not have a father in the home. Yikes. I'm still trying to deal with the aftermath of it all. It really helps me see the value of a good Christian, two-parent home (not that kids can't thrive under single parent, or non-believing homes).

But anyways. This month Joel has his last out rotation, and every once in a while, he has actually had an afternoon off. Yay!!

He asked me a few nights ago if I'd be ok with him taking Liam skiing. Thought it'd be a good Daddy date. And apparently it was. Bonus points for making it a cheap date (Liam is under 5, so Joel only had to pay for ski rentals), and going during school hours so the bunny hill was pretty quiet. God is good. :)

It's been cute to hear Liam's prayers since... asking Jesus to help him not need the rope next time. Remember his bike helmet. And be a good skier like his Daddy.

Oh, and funny story. Joel told Liam they were gonna go on a date and where should they go... Liam said how about Home Depot (though he was just there with me earlier that day), Starbucks or the movies. Joel asked what about doing something in the snow... Liam said, "well, we already went sledding together... maybe we can shovel!"

Gotta love it when they still think work is fun :)

 By the way... the swim goggles... yes, I know. A riot. Liam hates getting water (or snow) in his eyes. So he came up with that one all on his own.

 Joel said this conveyor belt moved 5-7mph. Apparently that was too slow for him, so at time Joel just carried him up the hill. Must've been a sight. :)

As for the video... well, Joel's phone died shortly after. But apparently Liam went down the hill a few times without falling! :)  They even stayed til dark, cuz Liam was having so much fun

So yeah, the gift of time. I would almost say this one can't be beat. (And the later ones aren't necessarily better). But that is a way we can be intentional with our children. Some gifts can't be seen.

Book Review: Strange Fire

I was looking for a book to read while with the family over the Thanksgiving holiday. Unfortunately, it didn't arrive before I headed out of town, but it has filled up whatever precious little time I've had in between the baking, wrapping, decorating and teaching that inevitably (and at times unfortunately) comes along with the Christmas season. I haphazardly chose the book, desiring a productive, but not thrilling read, which eliminated all the fictional novels that floated about. It ended up still being quite intriguing. The book? Strange Fire.


Head here to see my thoughts on this controversial and informative book by John MacArthur.

A (dairy) Lesson on Selfishness

Someone once said marriage teaches you how selfish you are and children teach you how impatient you are.

While I agree with that statement, I'm learning that children try my patience with my self-centeredness also.

While there are many ways this is true, I'm going to beg sympathy for my latest frustration.

But first, a bit of history...

When I married my husband, I had to learn to try not to cook with too much dairy. He was lactose intolerant. There went me ever trying to make one of my favorite desserts (cheesecake), and knowing I couldn't consume a whole half gallon of ice cream alone without knowing that yes, yes indeed I did in fact eat the whole container.There also went all those easy-peasy, AC-friendly casseroles with the main ingredient being either cream-of-this or cheesy that.

But a nice little pill with a friendly little enzyme mostly helped us carry a somewhat normal lifestyle.

And so life continued marvelously past my firstborn, and through my pregnancy of my second born, until he was about 7 months old and was slipped one half-spoonful of gelato from his loving grandmother. The result...

This would continue and get worse, even if he put his mouth on a "clean" spoon his brother ate yogurt with. Not only would he break out in hives, but even too much butter baked into goods brought on bleeding bottoms that lasted days. A trip to an allergist "slightly" confirmed the obvious. (He actually tested positive mostly to beef, chicken, eggs and dogs and barely to dairy-- another story for another day). Sigh.

For some reason he didn't react when I nursed him, which was a bit unusual, but I gladly took advantage of it to still consume dairy to my heart's delight. It was a bit more challenging then I thought it would be, as all of a sudden I had to learn the in's and out's of cooking "dairy-free" (vs just trying to avoid too much lactose), seeing what milks worked and what didn't, and trying not to look at my grocery budget sky rocket when I was buying yogurt, milk, cheese, and ice cream for outrageous prices. Because at least we had it available to us, right? I just counted my blessings that I didn't have to consume that stuff, because I do not care for the taste of any of it.

And thus I learned how to survive...

And then this happened.

Totally different rash. I've tried everything, although deep in the back of my mind, I tried to resist the word "allergy" from springing to the front. And yet, it kept creeping forward inch by inch as one after another of my alternatives were tossed aside. And the knot grows heavier in my stomach. And I daily check the rash and hives.

He hasn't even had dairy yet. Sigh.
Which means it's coming from my breastmilk. Double sigh.

(The dead giveaway was when the small patch that I thought was eczema disappeared from his face while I was DF in Indiana at my in-laws and then erupted across his face and eventually his body the day after I started drinking milk again at home).

So this girl that loves her cheese, fancy cheeses, cream cheeses and ice cream can't have them.

You remember that Fage yogurt that is amazing that I eat almost every day for breakfast? And makes great post-workout treats. Oh yes, I can't have that either.

Oh, and those two gallons of milk that I single handedly can put down in a week. Yup, well I can't have those either.

I think I could cry. (And maybe I did. Pathetic, I know)

Because if I cheat, it turns out those dairy proteins are hardier then some bacteria, surviving within my breastmilk for 2-3 weeks, and lingering in the child for upto 1-2 weeks after that. Are you serious?!

I'm such a semi-closet advocate for breastfeeding, I seriously could probably be a lactation consultant. There are soooooo many benefits, and if a mother can do it, I really do think they should. That being said, can you believe I seriously have harbored thoughts of giving up nursing my child so that I can enjoy my milk? How selfish is that??? Here I donate my excess breastmilk to mothers who can't produce for their own children and yet I was contemplating not being willing to give up drinking dairy for the benefit of my own child's health?

Sheesh.

God may or may not have convicted me a few times (yes, I did contemplate it more then once), that I was being absolutely ridiculous.
We may or may not have had conversations about the creative ways He teaches us to think of ourselves less, and strip us of our sinful nature that likes to cling to us so that we can be conformed more into His holy image.
He may or may not have told me this "fast" was for my own good, as I love food (and dairy!) a lot, and this could remind me to lean on Him, rely on His grace, and use this purging to focus on Him and the things that truly matter.
I may or may not have still begged Him to not let me become lactose-intolerant during my dairy fast.

...Oh, the things a mother will do for her child... ever so begrudgingly
(and with much protest and whining).

But I might not last the 20 months of nursing I did with the other two...