All Glory, Laud, and Honor

The children's choirs sang in worship this morning.  They processed in waving palm branches along with the adult choir, singing praises to God; the trumpet played, a mighty and powerful sound reminding me of the trumpets of heaven.  The arrival of the King is something to be celebrated.

All glory, laud, and honor

To thee, Redeemer, King!

To whom the lips of children

Made sweet hosannas ring.

Thou art the King of Israel,

Thou David's royal Son,

Who in the Lord's name comest,

The King and blessed One.

The people of the Hebrews

With palms before Thee went;

Our praise and prayers and anthems

Before Thee we present.

To Thee, before Thy passion,

They sang their hymns of praise;

To Thee, now high exalted,

Our melody we raise.

Thou didst accept their praises;

Accept the prayers we bring,

Who in all good delightest,

Thou good and gracious king!

An Easter Celebration

Today Christian's class had their Easter Egg Hunt and a small party in their room, preparing for this special holiday. When I say "holiday" I mean it in the most sincere way that I can-the day we celebrate our risen Lord Jesus, his victory over death and the power of sin, the reality of forgiveness and the depth of his love.  It is indeed a holy day. The children were asked last month to bring in a dozen plastic eggs and an egg carton for the hunt.  Each egg was to have one letter written on it, and together each dozen spelled out "JESUS IS RISEN."  Each child searched for eggs to fill in the holes in their carton, with the matching letters to the eggs.  It was a wonderful way to do an Easter Egg hunt, and they had a great time searching.  What is more precious is when the first kids finished filling up their cartons they continued to look for eggs in order to help their friends.  It was very sweet. "Christian, is something on your mind?" Some of the moms hid all of the eggs beforehand, and the great thing about doing it this way is that each child ended up with the same number of eggs, but they were different from the eggs each child brought in and with treats inside! Christian would pick up an egg, identify the letter, and check his carton  to see if the space had been filled or not. If it was an egg he needed, he would add it to his carton. No stone unturned, no bush unexplored... It was the perfect day for an egg hunt...sunny, warm, beautiful. Has he resorted to hatching his own eggs? A full carton, a complete sentence!  "JESUS IS RISEN." What a sweet class! After the Easter Egg hunt we returned to the classroom for a craft, a special book reading, and a snack.  The craft was a miniature garden, the scene of the empty tomb, made on a sturdy paper plate. Each plate had soil on it; the kids added a stone, rolled away from a tomb, as well as moss, an empty cross, and some plants. Here is the "tomb." Christian then added some moss all around... Each child worked diligently and with great attention to detail.  I love how unique each one turned out, even though they used the same materials. Michaela helped him a little... And Eliana was trying very hard to get in on this action.  Alas, her straps held her firmly in place... She did manage to get a cookie, though. And sadly, my camera battery died right at this point. There was an Easter story, along with the snack, and the children had all sorts of wonderful things to say about it. Regarding a miracle..."A miracle is when Jesus walked on the water and he didn't sink." (Not directly related to the Easter story, but in answer to the question,"What is a miracle?") "That was a great story!" "Why did they kill Jesus?"  The reader of the book said that they didn't like him...and paused to search for the words to explain such a sensitive topic...Christian said,"Because they thought he was lying and that he wasn't God, so they crucified him." Christian's teacher talked about how they had discussed earlier the mystery and the miracle of the Easter story; she asked what that miracle was and several hands went up.  The answer came,"When Jesus raised from the dead." These simple statements are so powerful, especially coming from such young ones.  How delightful that they can learn to honor and praise the Lord from the very beginning of their lives.  This was a joy to be a part of. I have to confess here that I have been struggling lately.  Maybe it's obvious from the more recent posts.  But being a witness to a seemingly small classroom activity has had a big impact on me.  Life is a series of steps, sometimes forward, sometimes back.  Sometimes more backward than forward...  At times like this (the stress of moving on everyone, sleep deprivation because Eliana is still a terrible sleeper at night, guilt over all the things not getting done) I need a reminder of the bigger picture.  Stepping back to look at it just might get me going forward again. I am grateful to have spent this time with Christian and his class.  I ended up being blessed!  Jesus is Risen, indeed!

Lunchtime

I got out some blueberries mid-morning because I needed to do something with them before they became trash.  Michaela got a bee in her bonnet about making something as well, and decided on "Pasta and Trees" by Rachael Ray.  So we got the water on to boil, the broccoli cooked, and the blueberries set out for muffins (did I hear someone say,"Unpack..."?  Please!  I have blueberries to rescue!).  I was holding Eliana all the while, and she was taking in all of our activity.  Michaela began breaking the broccoli into smaller bites, and I measured some of the blueberries into a small bowl.  Suddenly Eliana started chanting,"Bite, bite!"  I looked at her and looked at her choices... I couldn't imagine she wanted either thing, really.  This is the girl who refuses to touch a strawberry, a sweet potato, a pea, an apple...surely she did not want broccoli.  And she consistently rejects blueberries as well. She continued her chant, however, and so I held up a piece of broccoli.  She took a little bite out of the middle of the floret, and I just knew it would be returned for a full refund immediately.  She chewed it a bit, and then opened her mouth for the rest of the piece I had in my fingers! I looked at her closely to see if she really was Eliana, or some secret agent baby infiltrating my home to spy on all of my housekeeping/home managing (in)abilities. I found no wire taps, or double secret video recorders on her person, and concluded that this girl was indeed my own child, however mysterious she was behaving.  She called out,"Bite!  Mo-ey (more)."  So I gave her another little floret... She ate it so fast, I couldn't get a shot of it in her hand.  But I promise it was there!  Look, you can see a tiny bit of it sticking out of the corner of her mouth.  She ate several more, and I was shocked.  Speechless.  Amazed. Meanwhile, Michaela was busy with her recipe.  She got the butter and the olive oil ready, and waited patiently for the pasta to cook so that we could mix all the ingredients together. The finished product was good, a delicious lunch that we prepared together.  What fun. My muffins had to wait; they made it in after I ate my "Pasta and Trees" and they came out a bit overdone.  I am learning a new oven...this one seems to run hot.  Also, I have yet to find a blueberry muffin recipe that is great.  They don't taste quite right.  Maybe it needs the optional lemon zest, or maybe it's not chocolate therefore it doesn't suit my palate.  And chocolate blueberry muffins do not sound like the answer.

Hypothetically

Have you ever played Chinese Checkers?  I loved this game growing up and remember playing with my best friend for hours. I just introduced the big kids to the game a couple of days ago, and they enjoy playing too. Instead of regular Chinese Checkers, though, it has a twist...it's hypothetical Chinese Checkers. Is anyone else familiar with this version of the game?  Talk about playing for hours...you see, the possibilities are endless.  My kids like to play like this:  one makes a move; the other says,"What if you did this? (He or she moves the ball/marble to another possible hole)  Then I could do this."  (Then this child moves another ball several different ways, and then we have to try to remember where all the balls were at the end of the last person's go, before all of the possible variations were played out.)  Then the next person goes.  One of the kids says,"What if you did this?  (They then proceed to move the ball just played into a new spot which could have been a possibility, except the ball had already been moved)  Then I could have done this..." (and then they move their own ball all around, skipping and jumping across the board in several different ways, and then we have to figure out where all the balls were at the end of the last person's go, before all of those variations were played out.) This is a mentally exhausting game, not to mention a test of one's patience and endurance.  It is always amazing how well they remember where all the balls were originally, though.  I have to give them credit-they can come up with some interesting stuff (however crazy it might drive me at times).  One good thing about this game is there may not be a winner, because the whole thing is hypothetical.

Tunnel Vision

Well, here it is quarter 'til midnight, and I'm sitting at the computer because then my back is turned to the DISASTER LURKING BEHIND AND ALL AROUND ME. There, that feels better.  No secrets here.  Everything out in the open. And when I say everything, I mean everything.  Like all of the boxes that we moved from the old house (that is a slight exagerration-a lot of the kitchen boxes were unpacked right away.  But everything else...lurks).  And all of our towels because I haven't been able to get the bathroom shelves clean yet.  And the toys.  And the books.  And the clothes that have not made their way into closets, dressers, or armoires (for the record, moving has not solved my clean-laundry-problem; you could read about that elsewhere on this blog if ever your heart desired to be informed of such a thing).  There is a tripod keeled over right behind me.  I need to put that away before it is broken (I'm sure we have no use for a bi-pod).  There is a cute little lamp peeking out from behind some boxes, waiting to be perched somewhere, in order to offer a tiny spot of light.  There is a broken doll table I've been meaning to fix for a couple of months now; it survived the move without further damage.   There are garbage bags of toys that were hiding beneath furniture over there.  Bathroom boxes, plastic Easter eggs, shoes. My kitchen is cleaned up, though. See, I have to keep telling myself,"Look at what you did do."  Otherwise, I would be so sad.  The regular, everyday stuff takes so much time.  And I am not even managing to get those things done well, either.  It can make a person feel...inadequate. Then there is a rush of folks saying,"Don't be so hard on yourself!  Look at what's going on all around you!  You have so much on your plate!" I wish I had a piece of chocolate cake on my plate; how about that? I know there is a lot going on.  Mike is busting his buns to get everything out of our old house and over here, as well as helping get this house clean (which, if you know me, you can understand what a ridiculous task that is-I know I make things complicated...but that's me).  I'm trying to keep Eliana out of the bucket of cleaning water while cleaning shelves (this house has three thousand built-in bookshelves, and I want to clean them all-that takes time, you know?), feed Michaela, because she wants to eat something small six times a day (who told her about that eating plan, anyway?), play games with Christian while Eliana naps in the afternoon so that he gets some attention and has a positive thing to do... I feel like normal people can do all these things while unpacking, redecorating, organizing, gardening, grocery-shopping, planning and cooking large and nutritious meals, making meals for the folks in the community or church who are in need, remembering all the things they need to do for the stuff going on at their kids' school, getting the laundry done and put away, feeding the homeless, teaching their children good manners, cleaning the toilet regularly, ironing the clothes, picking up the dry cleaning (on the way to the grocery store, because these people are efficient), mending the holes in pants and socks, building a new coffee table and headboard in their spare time, and painting their toenails on top of all that. Um, did I brush my teeth today?  Yes!  I did do that. I know that there is a light at the end of that tunnel.  But the tunnel seems so long.  Can I borrow a flashlight for now (ours is in a box somewhere...)?