On Christmas, Ruth, and Happy Endings

I think I finally get it!  Why I am drawn to "happily ever after" stories and fairy tale endings.  Why beauty is a very real attraction to my heart.  I suspect...I know I am not alone.  I witness it in my own children's love for the same fairytales, whether of the "Cinderella," "Frozen," or "Tangled" variety, or the epic stories of faith, bravery, and courage existent in Narnia or "The Lord of the Rings."  I see it all around me, in both its broken, and its redeemed forms.

And isn't Christmas the embodiment of hopes, dreams, and beauty?  It seems to draw out and make apparent all that we seem to long for.  Which also means it is often a very difficult and dark time of year for many in facing their own disappointments, hurts, and shattered dreams.  It just didn't turn out like I expected.

"But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country.  Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them."

~Hebrews 11:10, NKJV

Last night I said to my Warrior that Christmas just seemed to breeze by faster than ever this year.  That always makes me sad, because it means it's coming to an end.  And I didn't get to enjoy it nearly as much as I wanted to!  I had so many hopes to just rest in it and enjoy it and soak it all in.  But they didn't come to fruition so well.

I've been reading through these devotionals this year, and I have loved them!  It's been a brief survey through the Bible of how Jesus is the fulfillment of all stories we know and love in His Word.  And there is one in particular that ministered deeply to me.  "Jesus is the True and Better Boaz."

Perhaps it is partially due to my study of Ruth this year, which is one of the best I've ever undertaken.  And I'm sure a large part of its appeal has also been the life experiences of this year.  Whatever the reason, I find it so compelling!  I think here is the ultimate "happily ever after story" of the Old Testament.

Ruth lived in a world of brokenness.  She was a foreigner, even of the despised country of Moab.  And she was alone after the death of her husband.  She chose to forsake her own country's idols and her extended family to follow God and to care for Naomi, as they returned to Bethlehem.  In the midst of walking a faithful, yet certainly lonely, life, Boaz finds her.  He gave her a home and a place to belong.  He brought her intimacy and companionship.  He brought relief and help to her task of caring for her mother-in-law and just plain putting food on the table.  He served out his role as a kinsman-redeemer.  In short, you could very well say that Ruth's wedding to Boaz was the stuff of dreams and fairytale endings for her.

Jesus is the True and Better Boaz--the One who gives us a home and a place.  The One who brings us into the most intimate relationship we can ever know.  The One who brings relief to our weary hearts.  The Kinsman-Redeemer for us all.  All of this world's disappointments, difficulties, loneliness, and celebrations that didn't turn out the way we hoped or expected are leading to the Great Feast--the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new glorious morn
Fall on your knees
O hear the angels' voices
O night divine
O night when Christ was born
O night divine o night
O night divine

Today I am hoping to dwell on these thoughts.  Christmas may not be all I hoped or dreamed for this year.  But it will be good!  I am surrounded by those I love.  I have much to be thankful for.  And above all, I have the gift of a Redeemer to celebrate!

And I am quite certain there will come a day when dreams come true.


Here's a little Christmas gift from me to you......a song that I've really appreciated this year.  Merry Christmas!

The Music of 2014

Music.  Doesn't that word just stir up a whole lot itself?  There are whole histories and a gamut of philosophies that can be expounded on.  Let's not forget theology in there, either.

As I am thinking through my end-of-year book post (coming soon!), I couldn't help but reflect on music.  Now quite possibly that is because it is Christmas and our home has been filled with music...both on instruments and on players.  Adventure Girl and I were lamenting at the close of the evening yesterday, as we sat listening to some beautiful choral renditions of Christmas carols on Pandora, that the music of the season will soon be over.  And why does it not carry over past the Christmas season?  I think we concluded that it doesn't conclude.  It is just different.  The music of Christmas is its own entity and beauty.  The music of the rest of the year can be so in its own right.  It is also different, and perhaps there is a seasonal characteristic to it too.

But I think it is also because music tells something about us.  The what and why of our listening choices speaks something about the heart.  Like reading choices, I can tell something about a person by what music they listen to before I know very much more about them.  Which is probably about as far as I'm going to venture in this post on waxing eloquent about the meaning behind music

Which had me thinking...what have I listened to this past year?  What has been new?  What is on my playlists?  Have my musical choices been a growing experience?  It is true at this season of life, that what is on my children's (or husband's) playlists tends to be what dominates our home.   I don't often state, "Let's listen to....."  Except when it is related to purposeful education, or at the end of the day when I just need. some. calm.  Or Sunday mornings, when I can be picky about what style of music I want to hear.

What indeed IS a great blessing to me, is that by carefully crafting the sounds of our home over many years and hopefully giving them an appetite for beauty in all things, my children's music choices have echoed my own in some form or fashion.  We all have slight variations in preferences at any given time.  But we have a great deal of harmony about music in our home--in listening, that is!  We're still working on the singing part!

I think our music was most expanded on a local scale this year.  That is, we were introduced to music of a "locally grown" fiddler, Rebecca Lomnicky, and her duo partner, David Brewer, early in 2014 at a concert.  Country Girl, Adventure Girl and I went and we thought it one of the most fun concerts we have ever attended.  Maybe it had something to do with the homecoming enthusiasm for the musicians.  Or that we had never seen a bagpiper with so much energy or enthusiasm while playing (or Christmas lights and decorations on a set of bagpipes!)  Or the stirring strathspeys, lovely airs, and toe-tapping reels of Scotland and Ireland that we enjoy.  Or that she could make her fiddle play "Amazing Grace" in the sound of bagpipes.  All of it combined meant we had to listen to it often, so "Inspired" entered our home playlist.



I am not sure where this one has been hiding.  I mean, I have heard of Keith and Kristyn Getty many times the past few years.  Somehow I finally looked them up more closely and this is what I found:



"Joy, An Irish Christmas" has been our Christmas treat in music this year.  It has a very fun combination of traditional songs mixed into jigs or reels (to which I often give in to the call to practice my Irish dance steps we learned at a class earlier this year) and then their gift of hymn-writing shines through.  I think "Jesus, Joy of Highest Heaven" might be my new favorite hymn.  Kristyn Getty's "Magnificat" is beautiful and full of worship as well.  I only wish their tour this year had come to our part of the country!

But we did get to enjoy this concert, instead.  Tender Warrior and I went on a date night to "Winterdance" with the Celtic band, Molly's Revenge, Christa Burch, and Irish dancers.  I looked this one up, being introduced to Molly's Revenge, when David Brewer (the bagpiper mentioned above) noted that he had a Celtic band and that they annually came through our town every December. (You can click on the link to find a sample video from their tour in 2013).



It was full of energy, some lovely tunes, and the very Irish sing-songey voice of Christa Burch.  We enjoyed how she sings with hand motions.  All of it was accented with some phenomenal Irish step dancers with gorgeous costumes!  I kept thinking of how my little girls would be gasping "Wow!" at their glittery costumes.  David Brewer called it, "Irish Dancer Bling."

I do have to say, that Irish and Scottish folk music can very often feature songs that amount to "drown- your-sorrows-in-a-bottle" tunes, and those I do not care for (and we already know are not biblical)!  There are a couple of these on this album.  As with all things, discernment is in order.

These are just some new albums we've added this year.  They happen to have more of the Irish and Scottish folk music flair this year.  Having fiddle players in the home, and being a family who enjoys making music together, we have grown quite a bit in 2014. It's always a journey and doesn't come necessarily "easy" for Tender Warrior and I, as we seem to think it does for some families.  Maybe that is an illusion.  I know all who are musical work hard at it.  I just always feel like I have SO much to learn in this arena, even having played the clarinet for many years in my youth.  One of my joys is learning alongside my children, even if their abilities and understanding far surpass mine.  Warrior and I learn from them, too.

Aside from listening to music, we had several opportunities to play music throughout the year.  We had opportunities to play during church worship many times.  The older girls and I played piano, fiddle, guitar and harp for a women's ministries special event at church.  We gathered the courage to pull together a song as a whole family at the annual music camp we attend.  We participated in two fiddle contests.  Most memorable was probably blessing my 95-year-old grandmother with a concert on the porch of her care home, which filled her up immensely, and returning to sing some Christmas carols with her this season.

We look forward to the musical adventures of 2015, both in playing and listening.   And how we might continue to grow, expand, and hopefully improve our playing to bless others with God's gift of music!

An Extra-Special First Sunday of Advent

If you are a Christian, you are already aware that today marks the first Sunday of Advent.  It is perhaps our favorite time of the year.  So what makes this one "extra-special?" 

Today marks the anniversary of the day my Tender Warrior proposed to me, 22 years ago.  What is more, it was a Sunday.  And it was the first Sunday of Advent then too.  Young college students that we were and starting to talk about a future life together, we had heard a stirring message about celebrating Advent in the home on the week prior.    That first Sunday of Advent was full of surprises, but I will never forget starting this tradition on that night as we sat looking out over Lake Washington, candle and book in hand.

We did not have any photos of the glorious event.  Back then, I think our lame cameras wouldn't have handled it--the candle lighting the darkness.  Beautiful, but hard to capture on a Kodak Disc or whatever other camera we might have had.  We didn't have any staged friends, hiding in the bushes, to capture photographs like some of our friends do now.  Here, however, is a photo of my Tender Warrior and I a couple of years ago.  We wanted to find the spot and the special bench and show it to our children.  So this was the 20th anniversary picture, I suppose you could say.

This morning, I heard this song on Pandora.  (I love the instrumentals available on Pandora!)  It was mixed in among many beautiful and stirring hymns.  Sometimes Pandora strikes me a little funny in that I wonder how it chooses certain songs when they don't seem to fit the rest of the genre.  However, this song was played.  And I believe the Lord knew it was one I needed for this day and this time.  We have had a bit of a health trial in our home lately, which is why I have been more absent than usual from the blogosphere.  It has demanded just about every ounce of extra energy, time and devotion I could have.  Sometimes it threatens to defeat me. 

So, hearing this....just what I needed. 



I devote this song to my Tender Warrior today.  Thank you for choosing a life with me and for the years of Advent celebrations we have shared together from the very beginning of our marriage and as our family has grown.  May this bless you today as you are working your "warrior" job.  I am so grateful that every year when this day comes, it is marked with an extra special beauty.

Soli Deo Gloria! 

Pondering Wisdom on Epiphany

Epiphany---it means "to make known" or "reveal."  And I am in need of revelation today.  I seem to be walking about in a fog--not at all with the kind of intention those wise men must have had in following the star to that wee cradle in Bethlehem.

It is the formal end of the Christmas season.  Difficult as it is in our culture, I am determined to hold onto Christmas throughout the twelve days (which follow, not precede Christmas Day).  Each year I slowly develop more thought as to how to make this happen.  It is far from a perfect thought, but it is in process.  And on this particular day in the church calendar we celebrate the arrival of The Wise Men to see Jesus, bearing their regal gifts for a true King.  Christ was revealed to them.  That HAS to be amazing!

 I have been thinking long and hard about this, trying to make sense out of my foggy day (it happens to be both foggy outside and foggy inside). What does it look like to be truly wise?  How do I live so that Christ is revealed to me and through me?

"Never be content with your current grasp of the gospel.  The gospel is life-permeating, world-altering, universe-changing truth.  It has more facets than a diamond.  Its depths man will never exhaust.    ~"The Cross-Centered Life" by C.J. Mahaney 

It's sort of a buzz-word (phrase) to say I must "preach the gospel to myself everyday."  But it is nonetheless true and wholly necessary.  On this day it has been particularly difficult.  I have wished for a heart like the Wise Men---offering the best that I have, seeking until I find what is truly worth finding, and letting Christ show himself to me.  Sadly, today that heart has been lacking.

It's been good to celebrate this day (though we really did most of it last night on Twelfth Night), turn our thoughts toward the Wise Men, and seek for God's wisdom.  At day's end my fog has lifted.  I wish I could see the stars outside, but I am ever so grateful that the star of His revelation has dawned right now.  And HE is the one giving gifts to me!  May my humble offerings (and even daily messes) somehow shine forth His glory.

"Each breath I intake,

ev'ry beat of my heart,

All pleasures well-tasted

are His to impart

Indeed, for such blessings

He should be adored

And honored supremely 

as eminent Lord."

~"A Gospel Primer" by Milton Vincent 

(And here's our King Cake to commemorate the occasion).

Candy Cane Pancakes

On a recent walk we were discussing food.  Food is a popular topic this time of year, after all.  Since Christmas Eve would be on a Saturday, we were thinking of creative breakfasts.  Saturday is our usual pancake-or-waffle-type day.  They take various forms and flavors from week-to-week or season-to-season.  And on most Saturdays my Tender Warrior even makes them.  Nowadays he even gets help from Young Warrior.

Our favorite pancake recipe has been in use for over a decade now--ever since I began milling my wheat and storing whole grains, and a like-minded friend in the South shared her recipe with me.  I've since adapted it some.  And I smile as I look in my recipe box and see how I've expanded the recipe to make enough for our growing family as they eat more and more pancakes.

 So I had this thought....what about Candy Cane Pancakes?  How should we make those?  I didn't want them TOO sweet, but I thought some kind of chocolate and peppermint flair was in order.  So of course I did an internet search.  I saw a few kinds of red and white pancakes--even ones in the shape of candy canes.  They really do look striking.  But I am not keen on red dye in my food.  Nor do I generally eat white pancakes.  I love my multigrain pancakes too much and I do prefer to eat something nourishing.  So here's where I landed---pancakes with a chocolate-peppermint syrup and chopped candy cane pieces on top.























This was my plate and it's true that I am usually sparing with the syrup so that it's not too sweet.  These were very tasty and I think they will make it into an annual tradition along with the Gingerbread Pancakes.  You could probably put candy cane bits in the pancakes if you so desire.  I think I would prefer to try them with those Andes Peppermint Chips sometime!

Multigrain Pancakes
Dry Ingredients:
4 cups golden wheat flour
1 cup oat flour or other flour (cornmeal, barley, buckwheat, etc)
4 TBSP Rapadura sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
Wet Ingredients:
4 cups buttermilk
up to 1 cup milk, as needed
4 eggs
4 TBSP coconut oil or Spectrum shortening, melted
1 tsp. vanilla


Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and whisk together to blend.  In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients.  Stir buttermilk mixture into dry ingredients until well combined.  Cook them on a griddle on medium heat, flipping when the edges look dry and there are bubbles on top.  Keep warm in the oven until ready to serve.


Chocolate-Peppermint Syrup
1 cup water
1/2 cup organic light corn syrup or brown rice syrup
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2.6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 tsp. peppermint extract


In a medium saucepan, whisk together the water, syrup, and cocoa powder.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and add the bittersweet chocolate and peppermint extract.  Let cool a little to thicken for serving.


Serve pancakes with the syrup and crushed candy canes on top! 


I hope you might enjoy a new Christmas-time treat. It was a fun and productive experiment in our home!  Candy canes and chocolate or not, these pancakes are yummy all year-round!  

Christmas Crafting----Transparency Stars

Two years ago, I took the children to a local "Winter Light Festival" at the Waldorf School.  It was a lot of fun and we came home with some beautiful handmade projects.  While I do not subscribe to the overall worldview of a Waldorf education, there are many things I find admirable about it.  I love the emphasis on learning through the hands and I love the quality of craftsmanship associated with their projects.  I also keenly appreciate their desire to engage children with the natural world (God's world) and natural materials to make things with.  When we visited the school, I needed a quiet place to change a diaper and lo and behold, found the room of dreams for creative play!  It would have been my childhood dream room to have one so filled with wooden play kitchens, tables, tea sets, dolls and doll beds draped with play silks.  Oh, I think I rather coveted it at the time!

So through the years I have collected materials and made many projects that are Waldorf-oriented----beeswax candles, books to teach children various hand skills, and the wonderful signature cloth dolls.  I think Tasha Tudor herself would have approved of such handiwork.

One of the things we came home with that day was a star made of colored transparency paper that has the appearance of something like stained glass when it hangs in the window.  So I determined to find some of those materials myself.  I've had them sitting around for at least a year and this year it was time to bring them out.

 Little hands needed lots of help with the folding, but they could manage to choose colors and place the glue stick in the appropriate places.  Bigger hands enjoyed creatively arranging designs.

These look lovely in the windows.  And with all of us working, we have them in many windows.  Notice the patterns the folds make on the inside of the stars.

This one is made with foil paper and this is indeed the perfect spot for it.

Now I'm off for today's projects.  As always, so much we want to do.....never enough time!

Christmas Crafting---Glitter Cards

We are finally making time to do some of those much-anticipated craft projects .  I treasure these times because, like our read-aloud times, they are moments where EVERYONE wants to join in the fun.  Eager hands come to the table and little ones learn to be patient for their turn to have Mommy's attention for their own project.

What is Christmas without glitter?  Remember the days?  Oh, I loved this stuff when I was a child and my children love it just as much.  Day One was card-making.  Out came the blank cards, glue, and several colors of that magical shiny glitter that transforms everything!

Glitter, glitter everywhere!  Christmas trees, candy canes, Stars of Bethlehem, snowmen, snowflakes, holly and even nativity scenes (this one was a little tricky but Little Princess insisted on Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus on her card so I must oblige to such a scene as this!  With a little help from Tomie dePaola)

Country Girls are a bit more sophisticated in their designs.

When all is done, we have quite a number of cards all over the dining room table.  I think they're beautiful in all their simplicity.

Oh, and at the end of the day, I quickly put together these little guys.

I was a little caught off-guard by how fast St. Nicholas Day came around this year.  Plus I had some sick little ones on that day.  So when I took a little belated visit to St. Nicholas Center I found this idea and adapted it to something I liked better.  I think they're rather cute myself.  And I'm happy to be making them even if I am a little behind.  They will be ready for next Saint Nicholas Day!

I hope you are making time this season for fun projects with your children.  It passes so quickly.  I am about ready for Christmas to last 3 more months just to enjoy the sparkly lights and beautiful decorations throughout the dark days of winter.  And if I had my way, we would probably ONLY make crafts and read every day!  (Okay, we'd bake and eat too).

Scenes of Advent and the Hope of the Gospel

With some small ones with colds and coughs and Warrior on drill weekend, we are home this Sunday morning. It is delightful to sit together and sing the songs of the season that worship the newborn King come to save the likes of us. It's even more delightful to sing these songs, gazing into the eyes of my own little babe and wonder what it was like for those who followed the star to Bethlehem to see and for Mary, his mother. 'Tis incomprehensible, I think, even as a mother who tenderly loves her own children, to truly understand the mystery of it all.

I brought down the harp today. Almost nothing so soothing to my heart as the sounds of these strings. I wish I could do the instrument justice and maybe someday that might happen, but the beautiful thing about the harp is that you almost can't make it sound bad. My Young Warrior enjoys playing tunes by ear on it.

We chose a conference message by Pastor John Piper as our sermon for today. I am keenly aware of making my life count for God's glory. I am also keenly aware of the great chasm between the woman that I am and the one I really want to be! So his conference series on the theme of "Don't Waste Your Life" seems wholly appropriate. I think it's my favorite Piper book. Today he spoke on "The Origin of the Unwasted Life." What I didn't anticipate was just how encouraging a message on total depravity and the hope of the Gospel would be! I love his definition of what total depravity is. To paraphrase, it is that we prefer the beauties and pleasures of God's creation to God Himself (Romans 1:23). We prefer His gifts to us over Him. We prefer to be in darkness rather than in the light (John 3:19). We prefer to be comfortable on our cozy couch (his analogy) to preferring another. I appreciate that Piper chooses this definition of depravity over law-breaking. For he says that we can "keep" laws with a begrudging spirit (if you are a parent, you know all about this.....Amen??) So the recognition that we are totally depraved should drive us to the Gospel daily. Without it, we would be utterly hopeless. I am powerless to change myself. I don't especially like to admit that (because I rather like self-sufficiency). Yet this is so liberating.

Having heard these words today, I am left with an appreciation in my spirit even more for the joy and hope that Christmas symbolizes. So I thought I would share some scenes of Advent here.

Our Jesse Tree is a tradition we started 2 years ago. I love that it tells the story of the Gospel each day of the Advent season.

Our Little Princess received this set last Christmas. I so appreciate having nativity sets that can be played with by little hands.

And we still have this set I found at a Playmobil store in Florida on a special trip we took when our Country Girls were small. I think we've lost a few bits here and there (if you know Playmobil, you know this is easy to do). But it remains a highlight of every Christmas for the children.

And I have the "big people set"--the breakable one that sits up high. Alas after about 18 years or so, it does have a couple of small casualties like a donkey's broken ear and a shepherd's broken arm. But I still find it a sweet reminder of a shopping trip with one of my still-kindred-spirit friends in the days of that first AF assignment. We both bought one for our homes. I think of her every time this nativity set emerges from its storage box.

And my favorite picture of peace today....(I can't resist pictures of my little ones asleep).

As today is Sunday we will all gather together this evening at the table, lit by lantern and Advent wreath, talk about our weekend, and read from our Advent devotionals. We try to make a simple tea-time each Sunday, but especially during the Sundays of Advent. There are far too many recipes to try and never enough time to try them, but we rejoice in the bounty of what the Lord has blessed us with. Last week it was two kinds of cranberry bread including my recent favorite cranberry-pecan sourdough artisan bread, homemade eggnog, peppermint crunch chunkies (oh, these are so good!) and always the bowl of popcorn. It's a delightful way to end the Sabbath and begin a new week. Here's to the hope that the power of the Gospel will penetrate my heart in new ways this week and this Christmas.

Celebrating Advent---the Book Basket

The celebration of Advent season has a long history in our family---that is to say, long for one generation, as in the length of time WE have been a family. It was on the first Sunday of Advent that my Tender Warrior proposed to me as we sat on a bench overlooking the waters of the Montlake Cut connecting Lake Washington and Lake Union near our college campus, our one candle aflame while we read from a devotional these verses:

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given;

and the government shall be upon^[a] his shoulder,

and his name shall be called^[b]

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and of peace

there will be no end,

on the throne of David and over his kingdom,

to establish it and to uphold it

with justice and with righteousness

from this time forth and forevermore.

The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

~Isaiah 9:6-7, ESV

On that evening, candle held steady to illuminate the pages, a drop of wax landed on the page. It is still there today--a sweet reminder each time we open its pages.

So it is with such delight that we approach Advent each year. I confess this season makes me want to drop all of the daily responsibilities that are pressing, curl up on the couch with my children to read, read, read. Then pause and do some fun crafting with them. Make cookies. Nestle in in the evenings by the cozy Christmas lights and peruse the Christmas issues of Victoria magazine. Take my time to soak in my Tasha Tudor Christmas books and video (I would have LOVED to visit her home in Vermont and have tea!) Knit soft and cozy hats or sweaters for my loved ones......well, you get the picture. It is true I will do all of these things in some way during this season. Yet I'm still trying to find a balance between simplicity, schooling, and the desire to create.

Last year one of the fun things we did was to wrap children's books---one for each day of Advent. This year I had a notion that I wasn't looking forward to gift wrapping them all and throwing paper away every day. Not to be a Scrooge, but this has been a year I've been trying to make more reusable options for various things around our home.

So, I came up with the idea of these little book jackets! There are so many adorable Christmas fabrics this time of year. Country Girl and I spotted the horse fabric a while back and couldn't think of anything to use it for. So I was delighted to get some for this project. It's just such a beautiful design!

This is essentially like a little pillowcase for books to hide in. I know it might not keep the littlest of children from opening them too early, but that could be fixed by tying a ribbon around it just like a gift-wrapped present. Right now it works perfectly for us. I keep the books, wrapped in their sleeves, in a basket near our Advent tree. Each day one child gets to choose the book (we rotate through the children). The Christmas books return to the basket to be enjoyed throughout the season. When the season is done I have 24 book sleeves (that probably only took me as much time to make as it would to gift wrap each book) to tuck away and pull out for next year, when I can quickly select books to tuck in and assemble my basket.

One simple solution I am rather happy about! I look forward to continuing this tradition for many years. Hopefully it might leave a little extra time for looking over those Christmas books, magazines and cookbooks, or creating other fun projects.