Christmas greetings from Mongolia!
New books (Hannah received her first Bible this year too!)
White Christmas!
More White Christmas!
Another Spiderman item to add to his collection!
Julia and her first doll!
Our blind snowman!
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Quotes from C.S. Lewis
I have been reading C.S. Lewis' "Reflections on the Psalms" and thought I would share a few gleanings from his writings:
"Of all bad men, religious bad men are the worst."
"Indeed what is commonly called 'sensitiveness' is the most powerful engine of domestic tyranny, sometimes a lifeflong tyranny. How we should deal with it in others I am not sure; but we should be merciless to its first appearances in ourselves."
"'Have I forgiven him for what he did that day? I've forgiven him more times than I can count.' For we find that the work of forgiveness has to be done over and over again. We forgive, we mortify our resentment; a week later some chain of thought carries us back to the original offence and we discover the old resentment blazing away as if nothing had been done about it at all. We need to forgive our brother seventy times seven not only for 490 offences but for one offence."
"Of all bad men, religious bad men are the worst."
"Indeed what is commonly called 'sensitiveness' is the most powerful engine of domestic tyranny, sometimes a lifeflong tyranny. How we should deal with it in others I am not sure; but we should be merciless to its first appearances in ourselves."
"'Have I forgiven him for what he did that day? I've forgiven him more times than I can count.' For we find that the work of forgiveness has to be done over and over again. We forgive, we mortify our resentment; a week later some chain of thought carries us back to the original offence and we discover the old resentment blazing away as if nothing had been done about it at all. We need to forgive our brother seventy times seven not only for 490 offences but for one offence."
This Week in Pictures
This week I attempted to get a good picture of the kids for our Christmas cards. Here's some of our shots! Some of you just might be lucky enough to get one of these in the mail!
Monday, December 3, 2007
Christmas Liturgy
A few of you were interested in the liturgy we have adopted from Doug Jone's Christmas liturgy. You can find the link to it right here:
http://advent.files.wordpress.com/2005/12/Christmas%20Liturgy%202004.pdf
It begins I think about 9 or 10 days before Christmas, and you need a few "props", so make sure you read through well in advance to be prepared!
Here is something else Doug Jone's wrote on Christmas in a past Credenda Agenda that is very helpful in explaining why things like trees aren't such a pagan Christmas tradition afterall!:
http://www.credenda.org/issues/14-5thema.php?type=print
You can take Doug Jone's liturgy and add your own creative elements to it. We find that it adds a whole new depth to the Christian season...for both adults and children alike.
Ben was very creative in adding to the liturgy (or maybe he got the idea from somewhere else; I'm not sure): On Christmas Eve we hang some more decorations to our Christmas tree...fruit (orange candy slices), bread (cookie wafers), and chocolates. Trees are an important theme in Scripture, so Ben goes through the Scriptures and explains our Fall in Adam with the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (we eat the oranges), our Redemption in Christ with the tree that Christ died on (we eat the wafers that represent His body), and the Consumation of all Creation with the Tree for the Healing of the Nations in Revelation (we eat the chocolate). This really brings the whole story of the world into a tangible form for the kids (and us grown-ups too)! Then the kids get to open their special presents from Papa and Granny: pj's and books!
Hope you have fun developing your own Christmas traditions and liturgies. I would love to hear if any of you have any ideas too!
http://advent.files.wordpress.com/2005/12/Christmas%20Liturgy%202004.pdf
It begins I think about 9 or 10 days before Christmas, and you need a few "props", so make sure you read through well in advance to be prepared!
Here is something else Doug Jone's wrote on Christmas in a past Credenda Agenda that is very helpful in explaining why things like trees aren't such a pagan Christmas tradition afterall!:
http://www.credenda.org/issues/14-5thema.php?type=print
You can take Doug Jone's liturgy and add your own creative elements to it. We find that it adds a whole new depth to the Christian season...for both adults and children alike.
Ben was very creative in adding to the liturgy (or maybe he got the idea from somewhere else; I'm not sure): On Christmas Eve we hang some more decorations to our Christmas tree...fruit (orange candy slices), bread (cookie wafers), and chocolates. Trees are an important theme in Scripture, so Ben goes through the Scriptures and explains our Fall in Adam with the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (we eat the oranges), our Redemption in Christ with the tree that Christ died on (we eat the wafers that represent His body), and the Consumation of all Creation with the Tree for the Healing of the Nations in Revelation (we eat the chocolate). This really brings the whole story of the world into a tangible form for the kids (and us grown-ups too)! Then the kids get to open their special presents from Papa and Granny: pj's and books!
Hope you have fun developing your own Christmas traditions and liturgies. I would love to hear if any of you have any ideas too!
Quotes on Hospitality
Here's two quotes on hospitality I came across recently...
Blest be that spot, where cheerful guests retire,
To pause from toil and trim their evening fire!
Blest that abode where want and pain repair,
And every stranger finds a ready chair!
Oliver Goldsmith
"Making your guests feel at home is truly an art and it's one worth cultivating."
Kate Spade
Blest be that spot, where cheerful guests retire,
To pause from toil and trim their evening fire!
Blest that abode where want and pain repair,
And every stranger finds a ready chair!
Oliver Goldsmith
"Making your guests feel at home is truly an art and it's one worth cultivating."
Kate Spade
This Week in Pictures
This picture tells of a crazy morning. While I was downstairs with Julia, Elijah started destroying styrofoam packaging. The little balls of styrofoam ended up everywhere...in his room, in the hall way, in the girls' room, in the kitchen, in the living room, and down the stairs. Since it was electrically charged, it refused to be swept up, so I had to use the hand vac for over an hour vacuuming floors, walls, doors, rugs, Elijah, each little toy on the floor, each individual article of clothing, Elijah's bed...it was just magnetically stuck everywhere! And then even after an hour of vacumming, I kept finding throughout the rest of the day, in my hair, inside Julia's diaper, just to name a few places. And that's not all of it! While I'm vacumming it all up (it took priority since anytime one of the kids walked anywhere, they took the stryrofoam with them on their bodies and deposited elsewhere), Julia was crying (really not very happy), and Abigail had poop running down her leg, Hannah was calling for me to help her with her math, and Elijah kept telling me, "Good job, Mommy." And then he accidentally wacked me on the head with Dr. Octopus. "Watch this Mommy." Wham! All in a day's work! 
Dish duty...Ben taught the girls how to wash and dry the dishes yesterday. It took them a long time, but they got the job done!
Julia's first rice cereal...she likes it!
Pops and Julia.
Dish duty...Ben taught the girls how to wash and dry the dishes yesterday. It took them a long time, but they got the job done!
Julia's first rice cereal...she likes it!
Pops and Julia.Sweet bath-baby!
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