OUR LENTEN WREATH

I'm excited about this for two reasons. 1, I am NOT crafty, and 2 ,we made it. I thought of taking the black ribbon to Veronica (our Catholic RE Coordinator) on Sunday because SHE makes gorgeous bows, but this worked, and 2. It is serving its purpose. Zander walked by the wreath 3 minutes after we hung it and said, "Why are there coins on that wreath?" I explained that Judas betrayed Jesus. He said, "But did God give His Son life again?" - YES! Thanks, Michelle, for sharing this idea.
I am also happy that we were able to use our spike from Valdez, our thorns from our TX walk, our little bag from Mike's hometown....
Below are the symbols used on the wreath and their meaning. I did ad-lib a bit (is anyone surprised?). We talked about each symbol and read the verses as we made the wreath. I'll spare you the ad-lib - you can tell the story in your own words. I KNOW YOU CAN!
Souvenirs of Jesus' Last Week/ Tokens of Jesus' Identity
Vine & Branch; Grapes - reminds us of the Lord's Last Supper (and Maundy Thursday). John 15:5, "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing."
Palm Branch - Triumphant entry to Jerusalem (Palm Sunday). (Yes, ours are exotic fern because we couldn't find palm fronds). Eph 2:14-16 "He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall...." Michelle used Micah 5:5 "He will be their peace..." I just had to use Ephesians as I'm currently immersed in the book.
Wheat Stalks - Lord's Supper - Bread of Life. John 6:35, "Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst."
30 Pieces of Silver - Judas was paid to betray Jesus. Matt 26:14 - 16, "...What are you willing to give me to betray Him to you?" And they weighed out thirty pieces of silver to him." Michelle used Zechariah 11. The bag held pretty stones we bought in Crescent City, CA - we didn't use the stones but thought the bag would work for a money bag.
Thorns - Crown of thorns fashioned by the soldiers. Matt. 27:29, "And after twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand, and they knelt down before Him and mocked Him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!"
Cross - Crucifixion. John 3:14-15, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life."
Nails - Crucifixion. Colossians 2:13 - 14, "When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which were hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
Black Ribbon - Death and Mourning - Good Friday. Luke 23:27, 46, "And following Him was a large crowd of the people, and of women who were mourning and lamenting Him....And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, 'Father into your hands I commit My spirit.' Having said this, He breathed His last."
Linen Ribbon - Grave Clothes. I added Matthew 27:59, "And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth...." and Michelle had Rev 1:18 - great verse - "I am the Livng One, and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades." I bought muslin and tore it.
Stone - rolled in front of the tomb and sealed. Rolled AWAY from the tomb on Resurrection Day. Matt. 27:60 - "....and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away." Matt 28:2 - "...an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it." (preceding were my ad-libs and here is Michelle's verse which we also used). Matt. 21:42-44, "Jesus said to them, Did you never read in the Scriptures, the stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief cornerstone; this came about from the Lord and it is marvelous in our eyes; therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it. And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust."
Lily - Dogwood bloom/ Resurrection. Isaiah 35:1-2, "The wilderness and the desert will be glad, and the Arabah will rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it will blossom profusely and rejoice with rejoicing and shouts of joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the Lord, the Majesty of our God."

*Butterflies - New Life in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:16-19, "....Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation...."
*I know - I know. My wreath can't be a true Lent wreath can it? I know that the season is somber, but when we were shopping, Nolan and I HAD to get the butterflies and the whole time we were making the wreath I debated if we'd use them...but these verses in 2 Corinthians - some of my favorites - kept ringing in my spirit....His suffering bought my metamorphosis - my new life IN Christ, and as I abide, I am like those grapes.  This was a great project.


Tools of the trade...Mike had taken the glue gun away from me years ago as I always burned myself and glued things that would be better fixed in other manners. I found the glue gun.


We had a plan - would it come together?

Nolan at work

Our finished wreath

THE HUNT CONTINUES

We did School. 
I worked out.

I made 4.5 gallons of spaghetti sauce. I'll freeze most of it, and we'll have it for all sorts of yummy meals....spaghetti, baked penne, manicotti, lasagna... Ok that one line, "I made spaghetti sauce" doesn't do this justice....I chopped and diced 12 onions, I opened 16 cans of tomato paste....::snort::

We went on a HUNT - a walk, but we had to find THORNS and a STONE for our Lenten wreath. I was drawing blanks at the store...when I remembered we LIVE in WEST TEXAS.

MESQUITE IS EVERYWHERE!


Ah Thorns....


And a Stone!


We should have skipped the stores and gone for a walk earlier in the day!
I bought Stacia a few dresses for $5.94 at Walmart.

That's about all we did today.

A Protesatant/Low Church Family Does Lent....

I have learned a lot in the past weeks.  I assumed that I would find lots of fun, Protestant resources to build excitement as we lead up to Resurrection Sunday/Passover....but such has not been the case as of yet. I received an email from Arnold Ytreeide saying that Mystery of the Temple Court will be available NEXT year. 

I assumed that since Michelle makes Lenten Wreaths  and she is Catholic that this is a wide-spread practice. It's not. ::snort:: I also assumed the cross with candles (see that also at Michelle's link above) and/or wreath with candles were common, but I'm learning they are difficult to find, too, and evidently not well-known.
Several have also voiced concern that we are putting ourselves into bondage or legalism by celebrating Lent and Passover. We are a busy chaplain's family. Busy, busy, busy. It is incredibly easy for meaningful training of our children to get lost in the schedule if we are not intentional in our focus. We want our children to UNDERSTAND the services they attend, the season that we celebrate. We LOVED the anticipation of Advent. We began celebrating Advent about 10 - 15 years ago. Over the years our focus has totally changed, and the season is totally Christ-centered now. We've never done the whole bunny, egg, candy, basket scene. We've rarely done the Easter Outfit scenario. We've tried to focus on the MEANING of the season, but we've always sort of done the Resurrection Eggs, read the right chapters, thrown in Easter Story Cookies or Resurrection Rolls, and rushed to the many services we have this time of year expecting the kids to catch the AWE of it all at the services. In other words, we had slowly quit doing even the bit we had done as the older kids "aged." The younger ones were missing out on those traditions.
We began to think that Passover would help our family to reclaim the focus of the season. We believe the Biblical feasts are full of amazing object lessons for children. All the feasts celebrate Jesus (at least the ones I've studied so far - and we don't plan to do the ones that aren't mentioned by God). We decided to add Passover this year.
It seems that if we had those nightly readings that focused on the season (like Jotham's Journey did), if we focused on the Resurrection for longer than the week or 12 days before Easter, the same sense of awe and worship may result. I began to crave a way to slow down and focus on Christ. We CELEBRATE CHRIST year-round in our home. It began to perplex me that we spent 4 - 5 weeks building up to Christ's birth, but only one hectic week building up to His sacrifice and Resurrection. I prayed about this and began to think. I began to question others; I noticed friends who were doing more than we did, and I wrote that infamous Lent /Resurrection Celebration post. We've decided to celebreate Lent/Passover for many of the reasons that we celebrate Christmas.
Several have emailed me to ask what we decided to do this year as a family.
We're reading nightly devotionals out of "A Family Journey with Jesus Through Lent". It's a wonderful book and we are loving the focus, we've edited a few sentences on the fly (as many Catholic homeschoolers do with Protestant curriculum they like). The devotionals are told from a child's point of view. They follow the life of Jesus...the gospels..  This week we've done The Widow and Her Gift, The Healing of the 10 Lepers, the Transfiguration.  You get the idea. We could also have simply read through the gospels.  We're also using Family Celebrations at Easter by Ann Hibbard. I got this one off Paperback Swap. We are going to use their haggadah for Passover - I think - unless I find something else that is messianic and that I think the children can sit through. I did find a Jewish 30 minute seder - but I'm not sure about it. LOL
Yes, we are going to celebrate Passover this year. We are going to do this on April 19/20, and I think it will be a great way to extend our focus and illuminate the meaning of the Resurrection for our children. I'm reading A Family Guide to Biblical Holidays for ideas for Passover, meanings, and background.
I'm making a Lenten Wreath though I'm quite sure ours won't look like Michelle's. We've decided to work on it tomorrow. I will post photos and such tomorrow - or you can click Michelle's name at the beginning of this long post to see HER wreath.
We're going to do weekly candles during our nightly readings as many do with an Advent Wreath.
We're going to read Benjamin's Box in conjunction with the Resurrection Eggs. I think we'll have a "holy treasure hunt".
I also received The Very First Easter by Paul L. Maier from PBS. We'll do either the Easter Story Cookies or Resurrection Rolls ( linked above). We may also do soft pretzels with the story (gotta find it online first).
We're going to make a Jesus Tree. I am hoping these symbols will correlate well with the devotionals we are reading about Jesus in A Family Journey with Jesus....
This will all merge right in to our celebration of Passover. I know we'll have a seder meal. I'm not sure if we'll decorate the "right" way, and I'm not sure what things we NEED to buy and look for - I'll save those questions for another post. As a chaplain's family, we are never going to skip Easter in favor of Passover - we are looking to enchance our celebration of Christ, and I believe both holidays will serve that focus.
What about fasting and giving up stuff for Lent? Several of us fast weekly at our home. I've not been led to fast more....I'm not sure if others have...that is between God and them. I've not been led to give anything up per se - but I've been convicted to ADD in my 90-day reading...which takes a good 45 - 60 minutes a day to complete...and involves my giving up all sorts of things daily. ::snort:: Hey - I'm nearing the end of Isaiah, I think I'm going to make it this year.
And that's how this Protestant/Low Church family is celebrating Lent.

A Monday Holiday

 Monday was a federal holiday. This means that it was a day off for Mike. Strangely enough - both boys also had the day off from Chick Fil A. Rodeo/Stock Show begins tomorrow and they will be working a lot then so they had a slow schedule early in the week. We took advantage of having everyone home.
Boys will always be boys!

Almost a good picture.


WooHOO!

Stacia's Spare.

DQ after bowling....

A Day Simply Gone

 TUESDAY -

Yes, I missed Monday - but I'll post about it tomorrow - that would be Wednesday. ::snort::

I'm not sure what happened to my day - it is just gone! I DID workout - that counts.

Nolan and I went on a Lent hunt....oy vey. The Easter stuff is now out at the Family Christian Store, and it wasn't what we were looking for. We ran to the local Catholic store. They'd NEVER heard of a Lenten Wreath or a cross we could put candles in....We ARE enjoying the Family Journey book, Michelle.

I ordered a kit to make a Jesus Tree - I'll write more about it later.

We went to Hobby Lobby. We're going to make a Lent Wreath, and I'll post links and photos and all tomorrow - AFTER we do it...IF we can find all the pieces we need....and hey...if they waved some sort of exotic fern on our wreath - so be it. I have to go find some thorns and a suitable nail...and now I realized that I'm not sure I have a hot glue gun....so that's how the day went....it just went.

I did make wonderful homemade hamburger buns, and we had some of our SAFE hamburger....which I know was wonderful because all TOLD me so and there was none left when I got home from Bible Study. ::snort:: That's really about all I accomplished today - like I said the day is simply gone.....

Hail, We Had Hail

Yes, HAIL....and it was exciting. Mike and Jared had a "hail fight". ::snort::

Sunday Celebrations

Sunday we celebrated Josiah's 19th birthday (2-9) and Jamin's 17th birthday (tomorrow).
After church we came home and had Cy's choice of Chicken Divan. We had gifts, played games, ate one of Mike's spectacular creations, and went and saw "The Pirates Who Don't do Anything" at the base theater.


Josiah got a Nikon digital camera from us.

Jamin got an MP3 player (which none of us have figured out how to use yet ::snort::).
MEN! - Exchanging gifts - $20. ::Snort::

Mike's imitation of Death By Chocolate - it was good!