Flipping the Easter Bunny

Here is a fun and simple thing to do to help teach the true meaning of Easter. First, you talk about the Easter Bunny and the colored eggs and all of the things that the world associates with Easter while you draw this on a piece of paper or posterboard:





















Then you flip the bunny on his side and add the crosses and the open door (these can be made ahead and attached with tape) and talk about what Jesus did for us on the cross and why!










I remember when my Dad taught this in the 3&4 year old SS class over 20 years ago (I was probably about 12)! It is amazing how a simple visual can stick with you for such a long time. It is for certain that I have never looked at the Easter Bunny the same way!

I pray for all of you and your families during this Resurrection celebration: that your holiday and traditions will be truly God-honoring and blameless before Him. May ours be the same.

*originally posted 4/9/06

An offering for Good Friday

This coming Friday is the day that many Christians worldwide will ponder the death of our Savior and look to Easter when we will celebrate His resurrection. I have no great words to commemorate this occasion. But I can point to the words of others that have both inspired me and left me dumbstruck.

• The Passion of Jesus Christ, by John Piper-50 reasons why Christ died. I will never look at Calvary the same.
• On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ-this is an article published in the March 21, 1986 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA-vol. 255, no.11) that gives a very descriptive account of the physical aspect of crucifixion. Not for the faint of heart. (I had to go to the university and get a copy from the microfiche, but it was worth it. It is long or I would post it here. If you want a copy, email me your address and I will send you a .pdf file.)
• Lots of hymns-"'Man of Sorrows,' What a Name!", "What Wondrous Love Is This?" (all the verses), "O Sacred Head, Now Wounded", "Why?" and others.
• The Dream of the Rood-medieval English poem
• Our daughter J, who periodically asks, "Why does God love us?". It is such a simple question, and there are answers that can be given, but the truth is that there is no reason why He should and yet He does.
• Finally, here is an entry from the Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions:

The Grace Of The Cross
O My Saviour,
I thank thee from the depths of my being
for thy wondrous grace and love
in bearing my sin in thine own body on the tree.
May they cross be to me
as the tree that sweetens my bitter Marahs,
as the rod that blossoms with life and beauty,
as the brazen serpent that calls forth
the look of faith.
By thy cross crucify my every sin;
Use it to increase my intimacy with thyself;
Make it the ground of all my comfort,
the liveliness of all my duties,
the sum of all thy gospel promises,
the comfort of all my afflictions,
the vigour of my love, thankfulness, graces,
the very essence of my religion;
And by it give me that rest without rest,
the rest of ceaseless praise.

O My Lord and Saviour,
Thou hast also appointed a cross for me
to take up and carry,
a cross before thou givest me a crown.
Thou hast appointed it to be my portion,
but self-love hates it,
carnal reason is unreconciled to it;
without the grace of patience I cannot bear it,
walk with it, profit by it.
O blessed cross, what mercies dost thou bring
with thee!
Thou art only esteemed hateful by my rebel will,
heavy because I shirk thy load.
Teach me, gracious Lord and Saviour,
that with my cross thou sendest promised grace
so that I may bear it patiently,
that my cross is thy yoke which is easy,
and thy burden which is light.

*originally posted 4/14/06

My Contribution for St. Pat's Day

My children are still at the Shamrock and Leprechan stage for St. Patrick's Day, but I do plan on sharing some of the history (I have a unit from SchoolExpress.com) and the following poetry, which I love, next week. We'll probably watch Darby O'Gill and the Little People too :).

A Gaelic Blessing
(Adapted from an old Gaelic rune)

Deep peace of the running wave to you,
Deep peace of the flowing air to you,
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you,
Deep peace of the shining stars to you,
Deep peace of the gentle night to you,
Moon and stars pour their healing light on you,
Deep peace of Christ the light of the world to you.

A Prayer of Saint Patrick
(From Saint Patrick's Breastplate, 5th cent., tr. Mrs. C.F. Alexander)

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ above me, Christ beneath me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I have both of these in music form composed by John Rutter (on his album Gloria, available from Collegium Records), and sung by the Cambridge Singers. This was my first and still is my favorite CD! I copied the text from inside the CD insert.

*originally posted 3/7/06

A Tribute to the Demise of Winter

All that is left of our beautiful snowman is a very soggy purple scarf, orange hat, and red mittens,a muddy clump of buttons and stump of carrot. J sighed wistfully looking at it and stated that she wished we could have our snowman forever. Since I almost pulled my arms out hefting his sizeable midsection, I sort of wished he had lasted longer too.
Then Roger McGough's poem came to mind and I had to smile.

The Snowman
Mother, while you were at the shops
And I was snoozing in my chair,
I heard a tap at the window
It was a snowman standing there.

He looked so cold and miserable
I almost could have cried.
So I put the kettle on
And invited him inside.

I made him a cup of cocoa
To warm the cockles of his nose.
Then he snuggled in front of the fire
For a cozy little doze.

He lay there warm and smiling,
Softly counting sheep.
I eavesdropped for a little while
Then I too fell asleep.

It seems he awoke and tiptoed out
Exactly when I'm not too sure.
It's a wonder you didn't see him
As you came in through the door.

Oh, by the way,
The kittens made a puddle on the floor.

We have the poem on the King's Singers album, Kid's Stuff, and it is narrated by Judi Dench. The whole album is thoroughly wonderful for young and old alike.

I'm sure that I don't have the lines and punctuation correct on the poem. I'll correct it when I can find it in print (possibly in the book The Kingfisher Book of Funny Poems?)

*originally posted 3 13/06

Bad Kitty!

It was as beautiful as the day I brought it home five months ago and I was going to plant it out in my yard in a couple of weeks. Not anymore!

*originally posted 4/25/06

Close Call?

I stepped out on the porch on Tuesday evening intending to snap a photo of a baby robin that was sitting on my strawberry pot. This is the picture I took instead:
It's enough to make your heart skip, especially when you're not looking for it! I called my weather buff hubby outside and we watched the funnel form for a few minutes while we tried to decide if we should call someone and if so, who. There was visible rotation, but no sound and it had not touched down yet, so the panic quickly subsided. We had the girls come out and see and then they promptly went down to the basement, without being told. They know the drill. Before we actually made up our minds, it fizzled and was gone. It was a better show than anything on TV though!

*originally posted on 7/13/06

A Wind Experiment

The last three days have been a bit blustery around here. Somewhere between a 2 and 3 on the WINDCON. I gave up on transplanting the tiger lillies because the wind kept throwing the dirt back in my face. I checked each day with a hand held anemometer and Tuesday the average was 28 mph (34 at night) and Wednesday it was 22 mph.
Then yesterday I decided to try something. After I took my afternoon shower (so I'd be clean and pretty when my hubby got home!), I dressed and immediately went out on the porch. With a comb. It took me exactly six minutes to blow dry my hair without the blow dryer!!. That's about what it takes me normally, I think (I've never actually timed it)!!
Thank goodness it's a bit calmer today. Back to the lillies! Only about 500 more to go!

*originally posted 4/13/06

WindCon

NORAD has its Defence Condition Categories, or DEFCON. Here on our farm in North Central Illinois we have WINDCON, or wind condition categories. Just like the military, we have five.

• WINDCON 1 is the normal state of affairs. Except for about a half dozen days of the year there is always some kind of breeze out here.
• WINDCON 2 is a very common occurance also. This is the category of wind that makes the water in the toiletbowls suck in and out and whistles at the corners of the house. They are great days for hanging clothes outside.
• WINDCON 3 is fairly common in the Spring and Fall. These are days when you think twice about the morning walk. Going would be really easy, but you're not sure you could make it back! You have to hold on to your car door or lose it and use plenty of extra clothes pins. And something in the chimney chase (that runs through the wall right at the head of our bed) squeaks and creaks.
• WINDCON 4 happens several times every Spring and Fall. In this category, the wind gets a little scary. You avoid driving if you can, can't stand up to hang the clothes on the line and have to take all the porch plants inside if you want to keep them. The fiberglass bath tub creaks, and the whole house shudders along with everything in it (computer monitor, beds, pictures on walls...). We can count on first losing our satellite signal and then our electricity.
• WINDCON 5-I don't even want to know!

We have an anemometer to mount on the house so that we can see just how windy it does get, but we have to wait now until it isn't so windy that Chad will blow off the roof! According to the local airport (if you can call it that) gusts over 75mph aren't that uncommon.
I don't dust much in the Spring and Fall because it just doesn't pay. Even with the windows closed, the dust off the fields gets in. In town you see lots of trampolines in people's yards. Not out here. I don't think there would be a way to anchor them well enough! On the positive side, we don't have to rake leaves in the Fall. They just blow into the next county.
I tell you all of this because we have been at condition 3 and occasionally 4 since Sunday night. And I'm exhausted. And our Missions Conference starts tonight. And there is a dinner at church beforehand. And we have AWANA tonight. And our ensemble sings tonight. And we have two days of school to do today. And the house is getting away from me. And the only way I am going to make it to tomorrow is by God's Grace and possibly a considerable amount of caffine (could it be that God provided caffine as part of his grace to us? HMMM....).
More on wind tomorrow. See? I'm already assuming that the grace will come. What an awesome thing to be able to count on!

*originally posted on 3/15/06

The Secret Lie

One of two things usually happens on the nights I don’t even try to pretend that I’m going to be able to sleep. I either stay up and accomplish something or, more likely, I end up getting sucked into some ridiculously inane television show. Last night it was a new show premiering on one of the “discovery” stations, called The Secret Life of a Soccer Mom (SLSM). The premise of the show is to secretly whisk a stay at home Mom away from her family for a week and allow her to experience the dream career that she gave up in order to stay at home. In the pilot episode, the mom had gone to school to be a fashion designer, but decided not to pursue it in order to be home for their three daughters. At the end of the show she was offered a full time job with a design studio, and accepted.

Now, I can’t begin to tell you the many reasons why I disliked this show, but I am going to try really hard not to rant here. Instead, I’m just going to share a few observations that I made and have been pondering upon.

• Her husband’s point of view—at one point, her husband, who is a physician, was in tears because he regretted that for the past 10 years he had been unable to give her what she needed to feel fulfilled. He let her take the job because he just wanted her to be happy. But he also praised the job that she had done at raising their children and voiced concerns about what would happen when they were sick or needed her.
  
• When struggling with the big decision about accepting the job, she stated that she didn’t regret being home with their three girls, and wished that she didn’t have to choose.
  
• She did design a dress that someone famous wore at the Oscars or Emmys or something like that. I know I have a completely different set of values, but I also know that would be a big deal to some people.
  
• Two of their children were too young to understand why everyone was so excited.
  
• The creators of SLSM gave her only a matter of hours to decide about the job offer.

Perpetuating the lie that women cannot be satisfied or lead a fulfilling life while being a stay at home mom is nothing new in visual or printed media. But more than that, what struck me was the obvious solution for this family that the show failed to offer.

The mom wanted to create and design clothing. She also was torn about leaving her family for a full time job. The dad was concerned about the impact on their home and children. Why not design fabulous clothes for children? She had three beautiful girls who would probably delight in modeling for her, and would certainly appreciate the clothing far more than an actress who would wear a dress once and toss it aside. She could design her own line and work from home and have the best of both worlds. No decision to leave her family would be necessary. Of course that option was never even brought up.

And that is because true fulfillment cannot be found in a workplace, a career, a marriage, or a home. Ultimate Satisfaction can only be found in Jesus Christ and in surrender to God’s Sovereign plan. Then it doesn’t matter if we are changing diapers, or flipping burgers or juggling spreadsheets. It also doesn’t matter if our spouse and children can’t give us everything we dreamed of or expected. And it doesn’t matter what we drive, or live in, or wear. When we are satisfied with God, regardless of our circumstances, we are:

Complete in Thee! No work of mine
May take, dear Lord, the place of Thine;
Thy blood hath pardon bought for me,
And I am now complete in Thee.

Complete in Thee—each want supplied,
And no good thing to me denied;
Since Thou my portion, Lord, wilt be,
I ask no more, complete in Thee.*

But you’ll never hear that from The Learning Channel.

*taken from the hymn, Complete in Thee, by Aaron R Wolfe.