The Rendezvous 2014

It was very early in our relationship, and one of the first few visits to his parents' house that we found ourselves traveling to Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin to partake in something they referred to as "The Rendezvous." What?! I had no idea? In fact, I still don't know exactly what it is... but I LOVE it! The best I can do is that it is a camp/faux settlement where the public walks through on-going demonstrations at individual camps such as blacksmithing, pottery, weaving, storytelling, etc. At times there are competitions like the Black Powder Competition at the rifle range, or Knife and Hawk Competition... why we missed these things... I'll give you TWO blonde-haired guesses.

Here is what I know, the first time I was there my innocent eyes were exposed to more than they were accustomed. Now-a-days, I have made my Rendezvous goal a butt-check sighting. Well, this year we brought the kids to The Rendezvous. There were ups: I sighted butt-checks before we even parked the car. There were downs: we forgot the stroller and therefore our kids touched EVERYTHING in the entire "settlement."

Prepare for an overload of pictures... of my sweet fur-babies!!

This boy found every type of weapon and tried it out!

This girl asked her Grandpa to take her into this tent so she could "look at all these pretty things." Grandpa was a good sport!

Checking out the inside of a real teepee.

Learning how to make glass beads.  This was really quite interesting!!

Then there were the animal skin hats... oh the hats!

The various faces of MAK:

Finally, just right...the Goldilocks of animal skin hats.

I'll give you hint... she was bossing him around! He cared very little!

 Did I mention that we forgot the stroller...

Magic!

Just Warming Up

Our little family of four lives for summer! Summer is our favorite season for one very specific reason... for we do not like hot weather, we do not like clothes that stick to us, we do not like to sweat or be at the beach for hours and hours in the hot, hot sun. We love summer purely for the lack of S.C.H.O.O.L! That's right, this teacher is training her spawn in they way they should go!

This was their reaction to the first day of summer!

Summer allows us to focus on our favorite hobby...staying home! For it is at home that we do a lot of honing our skills of imagination. Mostly due to our level of thrift, or frugality, or just plain cheapness, our kids have few toys, and most of the toys they do have are from their early days on this earth. When we play outside they fill up their little kiddy pool and they have two cups, a truck, and boat that won't float. This can amount to hours of fun with a commitment to imagination!

Then there is my boy who soon tires of being the subject of pictures! You may have some difficulty interpreting his feelings, so I thought I would go ahead and clear them up for you.

Corpus Christi Both Noun and Verb!

Wait... its not just a city in Texas?! It's actually fancy (or Latin), for the body of Christ. Corpus Christi is a day that was set aside by the church to intentionally give thanks for the Institution of Holy Communion. After all, the term Eucharist comes from the Greek word which means to give thanks.

Thanksgiving in June? It's okay, you can take a moment if you need to.

To give thanks--with the emphasis on the action "to give." So, to live out the Eucharist would imply to live out a life of thanksgiving. I find that when I stop--when I pause to drink my coffee with two hands--I often find that I am overwhelmingly thankful... for my life, my family, my friends, for all things that make up my life. Though I would not go as far as to say that I live a life of thanksgiving, a life that thanks God for the day-to-day, step-by-step little things of life. I have moments of such things, but probably not a lifestyle.

As of late, I've been stuck on the Last Supper... on the actions of Christ and what-the-junk He was thinking. I mean, fo'shizzle... there were no questions, no mystery in His mind as to what was about to happen. He was well aware of the impending betrayal, beating, mocking--all things crucifixion, and yet "He took the bread and he gave thanks." Come again?

Jerusalem Jackson Greer said it well in her book, A Homemade Year. "He gave thanks knowing He would be betrayed. He broke the break knowing His body would break much more painfully, and still He gave thanks, and He told us to give thanks, and He told us to keep giving thanks together."

Growing up in the church, and being a Jesus-lover for the vast majority of the moons of my life, I have taken communion loads of time (at the very least, quarterly... for decades) but I have, for so long, had a very dejected sense of the whole thing. It always seemed so empty to me, which then led to guilt, which is like... totally getting it wrong. If you know me, I don't do things I'm not good at. (Seriously, why would you?) And, as simplistic as it sounds, I am not good at communion. I just plain didn't get it. Somewhere along the way, I missed the boat on this whole Eucharist thing! I always put the focus on the "taking," when in reality, it is on the "giving!"

"'Do this in remembrance of me. Eat this in memory of me.' His directions are active, not passive. Do this, he says, and then he gave thanks. We are commanded to take his body and his blood past our lips and into our body and our blood, accepting its nourishment. And we are not commanded to do this alone, but instead to offer our gifts of thanksgiving in the context of community--to come together, sharing in the same meal, the same body, the same blood." (Greer)

Though my kids are young and there is no way they can understand fully what-the-junk all this Corpus Christi is all about, we are trying really hard to set some foundations for them to possibly "get it" sooner than I did! So, we set out to offer thanksgiving to some of those in our little community. Taking an idea again from A Homemade Year, we made jelly and jam, and Silas and I made biscuits from scratch (Oh my! Buttery-salty goodness. That did things for my soul that only bread can do). I mean, how can one break open a warm, salty biscuit, heavily scoop homemade jam on it, and not smile with a heart of thanksgiving!?  I mean, seriously... this would be an impossible task!

During the making of biscuits and jams, I asked the kids about the things for which they are thankful. The first responses out their mouths were people (they are tender like that)! Oh, "Miss Marcia's fluffy cat that talks" made the list as well, thanks to MAK's delight in all things ridiculous! It was through that list of people that we came up with whom we needed to share our gifts of thanksgiving. So yesterday, we went around and "Corpus Christi-fied" people in our little community and it was heart-smilingly awesome!

Party for the Pentecost 2014

Last Sunday we followed through on our family mission to be more intentional about celebrating the gifts, promises, and just straight-up goodness of the Lord, Christ—and specifically last week, the Holy Spirit. Party for the Pentecost 2014 was a huge success. We capitalized on the intended purpose of being united under the fulfillment of divine promises.

We put our own little spin on the Feast of Pentecost. We invited a bunch of Jesus-lovers and asked them to bring a side dish that represented their backgrounds, where they came from, and/or their heritage. We unified under the language of food. I mean, who doesn’t fluently understand the language of food?

Nothing needed to make sense. Nothing needed to “go together.” The food was to serve as an avenue to show from where we have all come. The idea was to bring different people together and remind ourselves that we are all fighting the good fight together, with each other, and with the aid of the promised Holy Spirit. Folks, it was AWESOME-SAUCE!!

We ate internationally from Belgium to Germany, Poland to Italy, and Ireland to Scotland. We ate nationally from Michigan, to Iowa, to Georgia. We even drank locally with some iced-nettle-tea from “the swamp lands of Kankakee.”

For dessert we went a bit more in-your-face Holy Spirit with a “Pentecost Cake.” This cake was heavy on the symbolism and appealed to my inner yearning for tradition. The cake was entirely white and red, white to represent the dove and red for the tongues of fire. There was a larger central white candle for Jesus who promised the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Jesus candle was surrounded by twelve smaller white candles for the twelve apostles, so we lit them ablaze for the tongues of fire. The kids blew out the candles with a mighty rushing wind. (See what I did there?)

There were to be seven red hearts on the cake for the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Though our cake only had six hearts (Ben says I would make a terrible Jew…), we’ll just say that our seventh heart was within each of us. You know that four-chambered muscle located in your thoracic cavity. Lastly, around the outside of the cake were twelve raspberries for the twelve fruits of the spirit.  #HollaPentecost!

Ben read an abbreviated Pentecost story from the Jesus Storybook Bible “for the kids.” The brevity was most due to the fact that the twelve apostles’ tongues of fire were rapidly melting Jesus and coating the cake in wax! Though what we lacked in completeness, we made up for in dramatic light effects.

Riveted...

Carrying the tongues of fire theme outdoors, we rounded the evening out with a fire in the pit. Good friends, good conversation, and laughter all around! I believe for the first time ever our children saw 11:00 pm as they shut their eyes for nocturnal rest! Oops, we had no idea… to much celebrating to remember to look at the clock!

Good times were had by all. Christ and the Holy Spirit were celebrated. Traditions were initiated. We hope it catches on. One of the goals in doing this will be to increase the diversity year after year. Let’s paint the town Pentecost in 2015!

"Do this..."

As of late I would say that Lord is doing a bit of stirring my life. I can’t tell how major of a stirring it is but none-the-less, things are a brewin’. This dynamic churn has no real start date nor any foreseeable end date for that matter. I can't really put my finger on what it is, but the “why-it-is” I  am gradually understanding. The why is this: this girl has become complacent. Comfortable. Cozy, even. In her Jesus. In her day-to-day, ho-hum of a life. I have neatly, oh-so cutely, wrapped up my faith and displayed it on some life shelf for safe keeping. Safe keeping from what, exactly? Not sure. But it has become apparent that this gift-wrapped faith is no good. Not right. Straight-up wrong! (This paragraph was brought to you by the hyphen.)

Not long ago, I started envisioning some small, easy changes to our family’s goings-on. (Baby steps.) I started to branch out in my reading material, going past the youth mythological fantasy books (though still reading them, just not as exclusively. I mean Camp Half-Blood is my JAM!). Then there was Jen Hatmaker, who oh so kindly confirmed a whole bunch of stuff... just great! Then there was the Engage conference at church, encouraging and preparing, coming alongside parents as they tackle the task of being the primary faith trainers of their spawn. After being divinely slapped around a bit, I had to own up to my half-hearted job of being a "faithful" Christian, which also equates to a quarter-hearted job of "faith training" my kids, my little at-home tribe. Something-s have got to give...

One thing amongst the myriad convictions--one that at first seemed insignificant, but for my family will be significant because it is kind of core to our unit--celebrations. I mean, we are a family that celebrates the big, the small, the seemingly trivial. Yet, outside of Christmas and Easter... well... we suck at celebrating Jesus. And His life's work. And His gifts to us. It is shameful, truly. We get together and do community for the 4th of July, Memorial Day, Labor Day... oh, but when was the last time we got together and "did community" with Christ as the central focus? Easter. Christmas. End scene. 

I am speaking from my heart--from my family's heart. We need more Christ-centered, coming-together, celebrating in our lives. We love traditions. We love celebrations. I need very little reason to bake and I'm thinking Jesus needs to be my reason to bake more often! I know you feel me on this one! I am pledging to put as much attention and effort into celebrating the life, the gifts, and the thankfulness that Christ has brought into our lives as I do Halloween costumes! (so I guess if the Halloween costumes are subpar this year, you know things are not going well!) 

My point is this: I want to be more intentional about "going and doing community." Ben and I are on the same page that one of the shifts we need to make for our family is to start celebrating more of the church calendar. We are well aware of Presidents Day, Valentine's Day, St Patricks Day, Halloween but what about Whitsunday, Corpus Christi, Holy Cross Day, Michaelmas, or Christ the King Sunday. What the what?

We want to bring the traditions home and make them a part of our family, giving our kids tangible ways to show service, thankfulness, and love to those in their little communities. For this is what Christ has called us to do, to be active in our thanksgiving. To add to that, He commands us to do this together, to offer our gifts of thanksgiving in the context of community... wait like a "party"!? Like share a meal with people!?!  Get outta here... WE LOVE DOING THAT! He said, "Do this..." so I think we have to! Our family is going to do this and we are going to start with getting together, in community, and ringing in the Holy Spirit! Party for the Pentecost it is!

Mostly because I would feel guilty if I didn't say this, I will be stealing ideas from a book that I asked Ben to get me for my birthday, and people this man takes care of his lady! I haven't read the whole book (its not that kind of book) but from what I have read, I want to be this woman's BFF. I believe us to be kindred spirits-ish. The book is "A Homemade Year" by Jerusalem Jackson Greer... if you are a family that celebrates, that likes a good tradition, that loves to cook and craft, and you want to do all of these things with Jesus as your focus... get the book! The End

So This Guy I Know...

 So, this guy I know became a doctor this weekend. NBD.

In all seriousness I thought I knew what I was signing up for, marrying a guy that was in the middle of a masters degree with full intentions of completing a doctoral degree directly afterwards. And then seven years later... to say that this degree was anxiously anticipated is the understatement of the century! Though this weekend, as this phase of life was coming to an abrupt end, I found myself reminiscing about all the things that have happened in these last seven years.

I feel like this journey really began nine years ago when Ben started his maters degree and half way through that we got married, because most people just get married in the middle of graduate school.

During this time we moved into our first place, then purchased it from the landlord, then six-ish weeks later bought a house, spent time doing small-ish home remolding, then graduating with a masters degree and promptly starting a doctoral degree with no break.

Then we thought why not start having kids? So we had one of those.

Turns out she was kind of a handful...yeah, that seems the easiest way to describe that.

In the midst of all of that...why not just have another kid...seems legit!

Then he decided to be a handful as well...to which we thought, here we go again but alas he didn't have it in him...maybe we didn't either... glad we didn't have to find out! His little episode barely counts when we look back it.

Then there were, papers to write, practicums to do, an internship (gross), gas bills, hours to log, lessons to learn, birthday parties to be had, Christmas programs, emergency room trips, Easter musicals (yeah that "part-time" job), more driving, oh and lets move AGAIN into another house and do some MAJOR renovations... WHAT. THE. JUNK were we thinking?!

Then came the dissertation, this soon became an off-limits topic, well unless one of us was up for a good fashion argument... yeah, we'll call them "arguments."  I know I wasn't' the one writing it, but I sure did have some strong feelings about it and though the strength of those feelings may have been shared by my one-and-only the expression of those feelings played out in polar opposite ways.

Though there were some "not fun" times, one might even say stressful times, there was never a day that he didn't stop and tell me he loved me, hug me good and long, help with dishes/dinner/cleaning up/putting the kids bed. He helped with many a midnight feeding, cleaning up bodily fluid from a little one that I was having no part of! Sleeping in chairs and/or little beds with sick kiddos, only to get up and drive to class or work or both, plus church. He still gets up every morning and gets the kids cleaned, dressed, feed and out the door... the list is enormously long! I guess I could sum this up by saying there was never a day that went that by that the three of us didn't feel loved, special to him, and supported by him. He is more than awesome!

So here we are nine years later, classes are well over, internship has been done for a while, the dissertation is complete, and Dr. comes before his name!

This weekend people kept asking me questions like, "Oh, I bet you are ready to have your husband back, huh?" My initial response was "oh yes!" but then wait, I've never had a husband that wasn't in school or working on a degree or had something to turn in or finish, and somehow (because he is so amazing) I don't feel like I missed out on anything!