All through my childhood, and adolescence I was a swimmer. Every summer, and every winter in high school, I swam on a swim team. I was in great shape and had a killer metabolism. I could pretty much eat whatever I wanted (which is where a lot of my bad habits started) and it didn’t matter because whatever my body didn’t burn, I burned in the pool. I was swimming close to 2000 yards a day. I hit my peak my Sophmore and Junior year. Those two years I was swimming every morning and had drama every night. I was out of the house from 4 in the morning till 12 at night. I was very active and probably burned most of what I was eating, even when I ate junk, which is most of what I ate. My grades also suffered that year. They were never bad, just not as good as they could have been. So my parents insisted that I cut back on something. I had to choose, swimming or drama. As much as I loved to swim, I loved drama more, so that is what I chose. I knew that I would never swim competitively in college or beyond, I wasn’t fast enough, so I decided to focus on the drama.

That is what I would change. I would quit the drama not the swimming. I think if I had stayed with it my last year of high school, I would have been more likely to stick with it in college, even if I didn’t swim on a team, I had full access to a pool in college, If I hadn’t taken that year off I would have continued to at least swim on my own time at school. I stopped when I was 17, and except for a few half-hearted attempts I haven’t picked it back up. I do believe that I would in a very different place, weight and fitness wise if I were still swimming.

I do still think about joining a gym with a pool now and then, lately since GAG, it is more often than not. I still worry about putting the kids in the childcare. I am terrified that they are going to be sick constantly. In actuality it would probably be short lived, kinda like the first year they are in a new school. They catch everything that comes down the block, but then they build up immunities and they are fine.  I have actually considered telling people when they ask what I want for Christmas/Birthday, a gym membership, so that I can pick up swimming again. I hesitate though, not really sure why. It seems like an unneeded added expense.

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 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

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.

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