There I said it,

I am so tired of people going on and on and on about how horrible Halloween is. I can’t tell you the number of times today I have heard people, basically yelling at other people, about how horrible Halloween is and how they are going to permanently damage their children if they even acknowledge the holiday, let alone celebrate it.

(If you are one of those people who feel this way, than stop reading now, don’t send me any comments telling me how horrible I am, or why you don’t celebrate Halloween, I have heard them all, it is not going to change my opinion. This is my blog, I can write what I want and I am entitled to my own opinion, if you don’t like it, stop reading now.)

Yes we let our children get dressed up and go trick-or-treating. Yes we have pumpkins on our front porch. Granted they are plastic and store bought, but that is because I don’t really like the mess that comes with carving a pumpkin. When the kids really start asking to carve pumpkins, we will. No I don’t decorate for Halloween, other than the before mentioned pumpkins that don’t come out till the week before Halloween. Yes I decorate my front porch for Fall, It goes up in September and goes down right after Thanksgiving, when I put up my Christmas decorations. And yes I am a Christian, I believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Participating in the Halloween festivities doesn’t change what I believe.

Okay now that I got that off my chest, let me explain. I don’t see the harm in letting little kids be kids. I don’t dress my children up as devils, witches, monsters, etc.. If they wanted to wear something like that I would say NO!!! Celebrating Halloween by dressing up in innocent Disney or Superhero Costumes is not Pagan Devil Worship. I REPEAT, DRESSING UP AS CINDERELLA OR WOODY DOES NOT MEAN MY CHILDREN WORSHIP THE DEVIL OR PRACTICE PAGAN WORSHIP. If that were the case, millions of children around the world would be in trouble. Little kids play dress up everyday, I know my daughter does. I am sorry if I seam a little harsh about this. I have been hearing more and more about how horrible people are who celebrate Halloween. Yes I believe that the devil exists, and that worshiping him is just asking for trouble. But what harm is there in dressing up and begging your neighbors for candy.

If you look long enough and hard enough you can find Pagan roots to all of the major holidays that we celebrate. Does that mean we need to stop celebrating? I know some people would say yes, yes, yes. My thinking is than, how do you explain to you kids why they can’t do something as innocent and childlike as begging for candy (which lets face it, is what trick-or-treating boils down to) when that is what all their friends are doing. And before you give me the, if your friends were jumping off a bridge speech, No I don’t think we should just automatically conform to what the world thinks. What I do think is that we need to use some common sense and know and understand that our kids are going to ask these sorts of questions. Children are not dumb, even though they often act that way when you ask them to do something. If you don’t have a good solid answer then they are going to keep asking, until they get a good answer. I believe there are ways to let your kids celebrate, and still keep Jesus front and center. I know plenty of people who use the pumpkin as a way to explain how Jesus saves us. He cleans out our insides and fills us with his light. We don’t do that, but mostly because of my aversion to the mess carving a pumpkin makes. You want to get the Good News out there during this season, go ahead and do just that.

Instead of turning off all your lights, and locking your door and pretending that you don’t hear the constant ringing of your doorbell on Halloween, be The Light to your neighbors. One thing I have done in the past is hand out scripture candy, and special Halloween cards with scripture on them. Jesus tells us to get out there and spread The Word, how can we do that if we stay locked up safe and sound in our homes and churches.

Here are a few other things you can use to spread The Word.

S.H.I.N.E. Reflective Slap Bracelet

S.H.I.N.E. Squeeze Light with Carabiner

Let’s Shine Jesus’ Light on Halloween Board Book

Have a happy and safe Halloween.

(By the way, the pictures are from last year, I haven’t taken any pictures of the kids in their costumes yet this year)

I know I haven’t written much the last few weeks. The kids started school last week and Women of Faith was last weekend. Top that all off with a family cold that the kids brought home from school, I didn’t go near the computer as much last week. Other than the cold that kicked my but last weekend, It was a great week.

Alex started school on Monday. He now goes three days a week. I was a little concerned about this, since in the past he has not been able to handle that much activity for that many days during the week. I have always had to make sure that he was not out of the house for more than two days a week. Any more than that and he started to act out and make life generally difficult. I always just figured it was his way of telling me that this was too much. That is one of the many reasons we decided to homeschool next year. He is just one of those kids who does much better at home in the more relaxed environment.  So I was very pleased that last week he did great all three days at school. He didn’t have any accidents, and I didn’t get any negative reports from his teachers, in fact when I asked how he was doing, they had all positive things to say. We will see if he continues to do this well as the school year progresses, but I am very hopeful. He has matured a lot over the course of the summer. Here at home we are having much less problems with him then we were a year ago. This is how he always has been. I often say jokingly that he is like a plant or a tree. He grows a lot in the spring and summer months and than doesn’t grow much during the colder fall and winter months.  It seems that Lizzie is following in his foot steps in that regard as well.

Lizzie started school last week as well. She goes to her play group two days a week. The first day was a little dicey, the teachers told me that she didn’t listen as well as she should have, but she did much better the second day. She seems to be enjoying school, but she still tells me every day that she doesn’t want to to go back. I think she is more trying to exert some control over the situation.  She likes it and does want to go back, but wants me to know that if she chose to, she doesn’t have to go. It is just her strong willed personality showing through. Nobody makes Lizzie do anything that she doesn’t want to do.

I am not doing a daytime Bible Study this year, nor am I doing Mom’s Time Out this year. I decided that with the kids in school so much this year that adding a weekly Bible Study, and Mom’s Time Out would just be too much this year. I miss all the wonderful ladies that I have gotten to know through both those activities, but I am so glad that I am not doing that this year. I have been so relaxed the last few weeks. I am just not feeling the stress that I used to feel about getting everything at the house done and all the outside activities done as well. We seem to have fallen into a great workable schedule, where I don’t feel like I am neglecting any thing that needs to get done. I also think that is why the kids have been so well behaved the last few weeks. I am not nearly as stressed, so they are calmer and more behaved as a result.

Even though I am not doing a day time Bible Study, I am still participating in a Bible Study this fall. I am taking a study with the women’s group at our church. We are going to be reading the book, “Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World” I am really looking forward to this study for a number of reason. This book being the first one. It is all about finding intimacy with God in the chaos of our busy lives. Something I can def. learn more about. I am also looking forward to getting to know the women in the study more. It is such a great bunch of women, and I have always had a heart for Women’s Ministry. I loved organizing Women of Faith this year and I can’t wait to get started on next year. I found out this weekend that I will be going to a group leader seminar for Women of Faith in Texas this January. It is aimed at helping us to be more effective group leaders. I can’t wait to go and hear what they have to say. I already have several ideas floating around my head for next year. I can’t wait to get started.

All in all, I am a really good place right now. I have a great, awesome, husband who is so supportive of everything I do. I am finally losing this weight that has hung on for years now. The kids are doing great, and I am enjoying being their mom. I also really feel like I have found my place at church. I am doing what it is God wants me to be doing, and hopefully doing it well. I am really looking forward to the rest of this year.

Heather

I hope everybody has a great Easter Sunday. Enjoy the time with your family and take the time to remember what God has sacrificed for us.

Heather

This is my favorite time of year. Not only is winter finally over and hopefully the cold along with it, but we get to celebrate my favorite holiday, Easter. I just love celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior. Nothing makes me happier than to know that because he died for me and rose again, I have been forgiven of all my sins. How can you top that.

What has got me thinking is the term easter. Last year and this year I have become increasingly aware of the controversy surrounding the word easter, and the pagen roots of easter. I have heard of more and more people who refuse to celebrate any holidays other than the Jewish holidays outlined in the bible. This is primarily the 7 feasts, as well as the Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah) Now I have no problem celebrating those holidays. They are part of my heritage as a Christian. Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law, he came to complete it. Mt. 5:17. What I am still having trouble understanding is how you could not want to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus. That is the whole point. If Jesus had not risen again, where would we be, dead. The basis that Jesus does not command us to celebrate the major Christian holidays of Christmas and Easter is complete baloney. He doesn’t tell us in the bible to celebrate Hanukkah, yet this group of people do just that. Hanukkah is described in the book of Maccabees, which is not in any of my bibles. Yes Hanukkah is mentioned is the book of John, John tells us that Jesus celebrated the Feast of Dedication Jn 10:22. To say that we shouldn’t celebrate Christmas and Easter because Jesus never celebrated them is in my opinion wrong. How could he have celebrated them, we have them because of him. It just makes no sense to me.

I understand not wanting to associate The Resurrection with a pagan holiday. Instead of using the term easter, call it Resurrection Sunday. I know plenty of people who use that term rather than easter. You don’t want to have any of the commercialized trappings of easter than don’t. Alex and Lizzie have never even heard of the term easter bunny, let alone seen one or had their picture taken with one. Yes our children get baskets, but I try to put something in them besides candy. Something that helps them to understand the very abstract idea of The Resurrection.  One thing we use is Ressurection Eggs, along with the movie, Miss Pattycakes Egg Stravaganza This year I plan to put the Resurrection eggs in at least Alex’s basket, along with his candy.

As I said before I see nothing wrong with celebrating the feasts of the OT. In fact we celebrate Passover every year with my parents. The kids love it. This year I am thinking about having a mini Seder every night of passover.   I am also thinking about celebrating in some way the other feasts with the kids, especially as we homeschool. I think it is good for all of us to remember our roots. I just don’t think  we should forget about Jesus in the process of remembering our roots, He is our roots.

So I am sitting here listening to Alex play his new Wii game, looking out at our beautiful back yard filled with snow and feeling guilty because I really should be doing the many things that need to get done today, number one being laundry. I realized this morning that it has been a while since I posted anything other than my weekly menu plan. So I thought it was time for an update. For the one person besides my lovely husband who reads this, keep any eye out, I have many things running around in my head that I am planning to post about in the next few days.

So here we are at the end of January already. I can’t believe how fast the month has gone by. It seems like just yesterday that the kids were racing out of their rooms on Christmas morning to see what was waiting for them. Both the kids are getting so big. I am now officially the mother of a preschooler and a toddler. No more babies in this house. Jason is probably doing a cheer as he reads that statement. It is hard to believe but in less than a week Alex will be 4 years old. How did I get a 4 year old? He is turning into such a big boy. He is now in school two days a week and loving every minute of it. He attends a sports class once a week and thinks he is such hot stuff when he shows us what he learned during class. As I type this he is playing a new game that he got for his birthday and it amazes me how well he can play the Wii. Not all games, he still has some trouble with some of the harder games like Mario and Star Wars, but over all he has picked it up pretty fast. I am still deciding on whether or not to home school, I change my mind every day. Fortunately I have a whole year before I have to really make a decision. For now he is enjoying school and we plan on sending him again next year. The last “Toddler” milestone we have to get past with Alex is the potty training. He is 95% there. On the days that he is home with me he is in underwear all day except during rest time and bedtime. Now I just need to get him to the point where he is dry and clean at school as well. We are a long way from where we were 6 months ago. If you had asked me 6 months ago if we would be at this point, I would probably have laughed. So who knows where we will be 6 months from now, maybe I won’t be changing any diapers. Hey one can dream right.

Lizzie, how do I describe Lizzie. Lizzie is unique. It is fun and frustrating to watch her grow and change every day. In a little over a month she will be 2. Again how did that happen, my baby is 2!!! While the past two years have gone by amazingly fast, they were also the longest days that I can remember. Lizzie was not an easy baby, and I doubt that toddler-hood is going to be any easier. When James Dobson wrote about Strong Willed children I often wonder what he would do with Lizzie. Jason calls her Iron willed. She knows what she wants and will stop at nothing to get what she wants. She is rough and tumble and loves to dig in the dirt, but at the same time is a beautiful princess. She loves shoes. Any shoe, any size, any shape. She can’t stand it when she doesn’t have something on her feet. She has princess slippers that she wears when she is in PJ’s and will only wait just long enough to have pants or stockings on before she will be reaching for the shoes she wants to wear that day. Once they are on they only come off for nap time and bath time. When we have lunch at Chick-Fil-A once a week, I often find her in the playroom trying to put everybody’s shoes on. Lizzie has two goals in life right now, go to school like her big brother and annoy her brother as much as humanly possible. She will be going to the schools Mom’s morning out program next year, and she can’t wait. I have to drag her out of there every day when we drop Alex off. For now she and I spend quality time running errands on Tuesdays and walking the mall on Thursdays.She is such a joy to watch as she grows and learns every day. She has started really talking and you can almost have a whole conversation with her. Yesterday we were at Target and she felt the need to let the whole store know that “MY DADDY WORK” over and over again. A few months ago she barley said anything, let alone a whole sentence.

As for me, this is a busy time of year for me. I am involved in two bible studies this year, not sure what I was thinking, but I am really looking forward to it. It is giving me a chance to not only grow and learn in God’s word, but I am also getting an opportunity to get to know the women in our new church better. The other study I am taking is through our old church FAC. A good friend of mine is teaching. I am really looking forward to both studies. I am about to start my last semester of Mom’s Time out. In fact it was supposed to start today, but we were snowed out. That is a little bitter sweet. I have really felt like my season for MTO is over. There were many times in the last few years where I depended on that ministry to keep me sane. But it seems that it is no longer necessary and I have felt more and more that I needed to give up my spot to someone who needed it more than I do. I truly believe that I would not have made it through Lizzie’s first year without the support of many people, MTO being a big one. But seasons change and I am moving on to a new and exciting one in my life.

That is where we are at. Busy but loving every minute of it.

God Bless

Heather

As we are getting closer to the Holiday season, Halloween is just a week away, I am reading more and more blogs about the holiday season and how the economy this year is going to impact that. One in particular that I read has posted a no spend challenge for the rest of the year. The idea is that people are spending way too much as it is and then add to that the holidays and the spending goes through the roof. She has said that other than basic necessities, and emergency needs she does not plan to spend any extra money the rest of this year. When I read this my first question was, as I am sure yours is as well, what about Christmas? Before I had a chance to post a comment with my question, somebody else asked the same thing. Her reply surprised me. She said that they do no celebrate Christmas or Easter. That took me back a bit. I know that they are a family that believes in Jesus (she has said so many times on her blog.) Before I comment on her blog I wanted to get some other opinions.

To me celebrating Christmas and Easter is much more than presents and Santa or the Easter Bunny. Much Much more. For me during those two holidays we are celebrating the gift of Jesus. First with the celebration of his birth and second the celebration of his Resurrection. How can you not celebrate those two holidays. I look forward to Christmas and Easter every year, I love celebrating with my family and teaching my children all about the holiday and why we celebrate. I am having a lot of trouble wrapping my head around this idea. It just baffles me to no end. It is not that I think we have to spend a ton of money on either holiday, in fact I agree with the idea that we spend less. In fact I am going to give it a try this year, Spend much less on gifts for friends and family, and try to make many of the gifts that I give this year. I had already planned to help the kids make gifts for each other and family members this year. Santa is a very small part of Christmas for us and the Easter Bunny does not exist in our house at all. I have to believe that you can celebrate the holiday and not be too materialistic and go overboard.

Heather

I am taking a new Bible study this semester at a local church. This is nothing new. I have taken Bible studies since I was pregnant with Alex. I have always felt that it is important to study the Bible, and not just by myself. I need the guidance and input form others around me. I can read and study the Bible on my own all I want, but what is to stop me from reaching the wrong conclusions and going down a path that is not what God intended. That is not to say I don’t read the bible on my own. I try to get in at least 10 minutes every day to at least do devotionals. If I don’t I usually don’t have a good day.

Anyway back to my point. I am taking a parenting study this semester. It is nine weeks long and it focuses on getting to the heart of your children to parent them. I had a very hard time deciding which study to take this semester. There were three options, this being one of them. I finally decided that given the fact that we were experiencing some behavior problems with Alex, and even Lizzie, that the parenting is probably what I needed to take. Now I am starting to wonder. We are now four weeks into the class and I am really not getting anything out of it at all. It is very frustrating. I have never felt this way about a class before. Usually by the end of the first week I have already learned something and can’t wait until the next class to come back and learn more. This is not the case with this current study. I go every week hopeful, and come away every week disappointed. Usually whatever they are talking about is something that I am already doing. The topic this week was discipline. The main point was that we are going to have to discipline our children. Well no kidding, you mean that our children are born with the same sin nature that we have and therefor are going to do things that are not right or what is the best thing for them. And get this that we as their parents need to correct them. Get out of here. I mean really, are there people out there who don’t know that children have to be disciplined. The speakers also said that we need to have a discipline routine for our children and that it needs to start with words, rather than action. Again, who wouldn’t start with words. I commonly make it a practice to send my children to time out without first giving them a warning and telling them the correct thing to do. Time out is another big thing they talked about yesterday. Apparently the speakers don’t like time out. I personally have no problem with it, when it is done correctly. The speakers talked about using a break to help the child get their emotion under control. For me that is time out with just a different name. I don’t use time out as our usual punishment, it is a way for the kids to sit back, think about why they got in trouble and suffer the consequence of missing out on a fun activity while they are in the time out spot. So for the second week in a row I have come away from the study with no new knowledge. Everything that they talked about was something that I already do.

The other thing that I find hard about this study is my small group. Normally I am at least indifferent about my small group. This is the first time I have not liked the women in my group. And it is not all the women, in fact now that I am writing this It is really only a few of the women. One in particular is one of those people who talk nonstop. She is the table co-leader and I can tell this is her first time, so I am trying to be patient. However several times yesterday I had a point to make and by the time I was able to get a word in she was four topics away from what I was going to be making a point on. It was very frustrating. I don’t feel like I am connecting with any of the women at the table. That may be due to the fact that I have to come late from dropping Alex off at school, so I am missing out on the first fifteen minutes of the study, which is fellowship time. Since I do come late there is never a chair available at my table, so overall I am just feeling very down about the whole study.

Oh well, I will have to push through this. I am sure that if I keep at it, God will show me something, even if it is just that I can get through a rough class.

Heather