holidays

Hymns for Mother’s Day

May 10, 2020 By Annette1 2 Comments

I’m going to do something a wee bit different today. Instead of focusing on one hymn I thought I would like to a number of youtube hymns for Mother’s Day. Afterall.. it is Mother’s Day today, might as well rejoice in all that is mother! 🙂

I could not find the lyrics to this Honour Christian Mothers. It’s sung to the tune Onward Christian Soldiers.

The author of Where Can I Turn for Peace wrote this song out of concern for her anorexic daughter.

As I was searching for hymns for mother’s day I was surprised that Count your Blessings came up a few times. Kinda makes sense if you consider the words you know?

A Mother’s Love is a Very Special Thing, sung by a group of children.

There actually aren’t very many well-known hymns for Mother’s day. You can find a good list at Hymnary, but honestly, I didn’t know any of them.

When Mother’s Day Isn’t

May 4, 2020 By Annette1 4 Comments

So what happens for Mother’s Day at your house? Is it a day filled with everything about Mom? Perhaps she gets a day off cooking? Presents? A chance to do her own thing without interruption? Isn’t it nice to have a day when you are recognized for all the unsung things that you do? But what… what if Mother’s day isn’t like that for you, what if your house is anything like mine. In my house, you’ll be lucky to get a “Happy Mother’s Day” greeting. Today I want to encourage mothers on a day when Mother’s Day isn’t.

The Hurt

Sometimes when the world is making a fuss, it’s easy to get hurt feelings if those around you don’t create a fuss too. I get it! Everyone else posts Happy Mother’s Day posts on Facebook, special mention is made at church, and inevitable questions of so how did your family surprise you for mother’s day? Hurt feelings are so easy to come by. Guarding our hearts, as well as the hearts of our loved ones, is sometimes a challenge.

How Do we Guard our Hearts?

Just how do we do that? Guard our hearts?

I’ve been listening to studies on Malachi lately, and one of things the prophet Malachi spoke against was how the Israelites had become lack lustre in their faith. Purely the result of forgetting who God was. They forgot to put God first in their lives, and so they were easily distracted from honouring him as they should.

God made us mothers, whether by birth, adoption, or the kindness of our hearts. We need to remember that, honouring him and how he brought us to this position.

We are in that unique position of being able to train up children in the way they should go. Proverbs 22:6 tells us that by doing so, as they mature they will not depart from it.

Sometimes we need to change our perspective. We need to take our eyes off the world and set them back on God.

But Deut 4:9 warns us to take care, even if we feel safe we need to guard our hearts diligently. Remember the Lord, remember all he has taught you, everything you have seen. And then teach them to your children. Tell the stories of God’s goodness to your family.

Be encouraged

Even if the world around you wants to exhalt Mother’s Day, even if your family doesn’t give much attention to the day, you are noticed and minded by the God who made you a momma.

A momma who minds her household, who keeps her finger on the pulse of the people entrusted to her care.

“She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.” Proverbs 31:26-27

A momma who shows Christ to those around her.

Isaiah 66:13 As one whom his mother comforts,
so I will comfort you;
you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

Be that momma, despite the externals. Choose to rise above the lack of attention.

Choose to ignore a money-making day cause ultimately that is what Mother’s Day is, a day to sell cards, flowers and chocolate. A day co-opted by the card companies from what it was meant to be. A day simply to remember the importance of one’s mother. We learned this with an Amanda Bennett Mother’s Day unit Study

Know that you are still cared for and paid attention to, even if the day just passes by in your household.

Know that you matter to your family, and more importantly to God.

The Crew does a weekly challenge, which for this week is Mother’s Day.

Join in on the Linky won’t you?

How can we Not have Easter?

April 6, 2020 By Annette1 2 Comments

The HomeSchool Review Crew has started something new which I think should be a lot of fun. For the month of April they have put together a challenge that we can tackle any way that we want to. Daily posts to Instagram for a week if we want, or write a blog post, post to facebook memes around a topic, .. literally whatever we want to do. This week.. EASTER! Later we have the challenge of Spring cleaning, gardening and Healthy Recipes. Here goes to doing something for Easter. I do hope you might join in (whether you are on the crew or not). I’ll provide a linky below.

Not have Easter?

I was browsing facebook this afternoon, as one is prone to do when condemned to house arrest due to a pandemic. Popping up in my feed where concerns in some cases, scoffing in others, about Easter being cancelled this year. My immediate thought was … Easter can’t be cancelled, what in the world are they talking about? How can we not have Easter?

What is Being Said

What This Means

I know it seems silly to spell this out but it means that there will be no

Easter Egg Hunts
Photography sessions with Easter bunnies
Ham, turkey, chicken or rabbit dinners with extended family
Brand-new Easter outfits (unless you ordered them on-line and they got shipped on time), but the spring outfit showing off will have to wait for a later date.
Good Friday services, Easter Services, Maundy Thursday, or any other services in person.

We need to simply STAY HOME.

Does this mean we won’t have Easter?

Just because we do things differently doesn’t mean we can’t still have Easter. It just means things will be different.

Family gatherings will be smaller. Less money spent as smaller meals are made and less driving is done. You may find easier conversations not trying to reconnect with everyone, just being able to focus on the few gathered around. The world might be a bit happier with less pollution in the air. The health of the community will be increased if you just focus on distance. You might have the time to make Braided Easter Bread.

There will be no crying or disappointed children who couldn’t gather all the eggs that they wanted. Instead, families can be creative in planning smaller Easter egg hunts with their children. And since you aren’t having to rush out for an early Easter egg hunt you’ll be more rested for your online church service.

Since you don’t have to get all new Easter outfits you’ll have more money available for summer day trips, or on unique Easter crafts.

And since you have less rushing around to do, you’ll have more time to read stories with your youngsters, going over the real story of Easter, or just taking in fun Easter stories.

Easter is still coming

You can’t stop it from coming, you can’t avoid it when it comes, Easter is on April 12 this year.

As a believer Easter has already happened, Christ died and rose again. A whole new paradigm shift occurred. The holiday is simply a yearly celebration of that fact. You might add your bunnies and your eggs but the base of the holiday is Christ risen from the grave.

Our celebration will look different this year than other years, but it will still be here. We’ll protect the vulnerable among us because we don’t always know who they are. For all you know it could be your sister or nephew, or your own sweet mom. Skip this year, keep them safe, and find ways to make special memories with your loved ones.

Join in on the linky won’t you? Share your Easter posts!

Family Day 2019

February 18, 2019 By Annette1 10 Comments

Today was Family Day. We were able to show our student a good time today. We did horse-drawn wagon rides, darts, pool, a movie and fireworks. It was a rather busy day but it was a good day.

Family Day is not a statutory holiday, but it is only observed in New Brunswick, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Saskatchewan and in British Columbia. PEI also has a February holiday called Islander Day, and Manitoba has Louis Riel Day holiday. Since it is not a federal holiday, federal employees still need to work (total bummer). I was concerned that my darling wouldn’t be able to join us, but…. his work CHOOSES to celebrate Family Day so he got it off. WOOT WOOT!

Anyways, Family Day was originally created to give people time to spend with their families. The date in February was chosen because it provides a day off between New Years Day and Good Friday.

We were promised a classic snowmobile show so we headed off to the Rec Centre to check them out but… No snowmobiles. What a bummer! They did have a guy there handing out free bananas and apples.

After the wagon rides we headed off to play pool and darts. Oh.. we laughed! I used to play pool fairly frequently, but you’d never have known based on how I played today. Hubby on the other hand played well. The lad learned quickly, and our student well.. let’s just say that some things got last in the translation. Pool was a bit beyond him but we laughed a lot! 🙂

I am so happy that our current student doesn’t let the unknown stop him from trying something new. 🙂

From there we moved to darts. This is a fairly individual sport, so after the gentlemen on deck showed the boys the basics of how to shoot with an elbow at 90 degrees.

We watched the Movie Inside Out at the Elementary School.

We went home for supper where I tried out a new dish. It was kinda fun to play around making up a new recipe. I’ll have to share it with you later. 🙂 Huge hit with our student! Then we headed off to the fireworks.

Wow! It was SO pretty watching them over snow. I didn’t expect how wonderful they would look. I would have taken a longer movie of them but my hand started to freeze (it’s rather cold up here). And the video doesn’t do them justice over the snow, but it was a really nice show.

Merry Christmas!

December 25, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

From my house to yours, I just wanted to wish you a very Merry Christmas. Enjoy this season. Enjoy the time with family and friends.

Take a break from your regular routine and remember what truly is most important.

Remembering the saviour, Son of God, born to a woman.

Fully divine, fully human. Leaving glory to come to earth so that we might be made right with God. OH.. what a reason to celebrate!

You may have noticed I’m not on the blog as much. It’s a good time to be away and play board games with my lad or make cookies to munch on. Let’s enjoy the season eh? (we’ll lose the weight later)

Luke 2:11-14 English Standard Version (ESV)
11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
14
“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Stille Nacht (Silent Night)

December 23, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Originally I wanted to find a Christmas song from Austria/Hungary. Or Bulgaria… and then I sussed out Great Britain. I had no success in my first two searches, and Great Britain only provided me with more modern songs which I didn’t really want. I got to thinking about other European countries affected by the war and thought… The Netherlands! My mom, being of Dutch origin was a natural for me to call, she suggested I do Stille Nacht.

I’ve already done Germany, Italy, Poland and Russia.

Here it is in Dutch

And now in English.

Lyrics in English

Silent night, holy night!
All is calm, all is bright.
Round yon Virgin, Mother and Child.
Holy infant so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace

Silent night, holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight.
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia,
Christ the Savior is born!
Christ the Savior is born

Silent night, holy night!
Son of God love’s pure light.
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus Lord, at Thy birth
Jesus Lord, at Thy birth

Lyrics in Dutch.

I’m including these because as I was looking for information I learned there are two versions in Dutch. This one and the Roman Catholic version.

Stille nacht, Heilige nacht,
David’s zoon lang verwacht.
Die miljoenen eens zaligen zal,
Wordt geboren in Bethlehems stal.
Hij, der schepselen heer,
Hij, der schepselen heer.

Hulp’loos kind, Heilig kind,
Dat zo trouw zondaars mint.
Ook voor mij hebt G’U rijkdom ontzegd,
Werd G’in stro en in doeken gelegd.
Leer m’U danken daarvoor,
Leer m’U danken daarvoor.

Stille nacht, Heilige nacht,
Heil en vree wordt gebracht.
Aan een wereld, verloren in schuld,
God’s belofte wordt heerlijk vervuld.
Amen, Gode zij d’eer,
Amen, Gode zij d’eer.

Four Ways to Remember the Reason for the Season

December 10, 2018 By Annette1 6 Comments

Tis the season to be jolly fa la la la la la la la la.

It is the season to be jolly, it’s great time of the year, this time of hope that we are in. There is so much to see, do and be involved in. But think.. What’s the real reason? It’s the hope of the Saviour… not coming as a baby, as important as that is, but as the Saviour of the world. We so need to remember and to contemplate what that really means,. 🙂

It’s hard not to get caught up in the busyness of the seasons. In this post I will talk about some of my joys of the season, as well as some ways to remember the reason for the season.

My Joys:

In the baking of cookies. Papernauten anyone?

In the putting up of a Christmas village.. I do have to admit this year, I’ve reduced my Christmas village. We are trying to light our load abit and I’ve needed to cut my village. A hard decision but it all needs to fit into ONE bin.

Sometimes it’s hard to remember, to focus on the fact that Christ came to earth FOR US. And not just for a generic us but for a specific ME.

Four ways to Remember the Reason For the Season

So the question arises. Just how does one remember what truly is the reason for the season?

These are things that help me
1. Doing a daily advent activity. Often we have used a Lego Advent Calendar. 🙂 What can I say… it’s fun to put together Lego as one thinks about the events of Christmas. But lately we just have those dollar store chocolate Advent Calendars and read scripture daily. Different passages that speak to the true meaning of Christmas, and the story of Jesus’ birth.

2. Spending time alone. YES.. alone… in fact sometimes I will squirrel myself away like a little spider, getting away from the noise and bustle of the world and just stay within my own cozy home. Reading a book, going out for a walk when no one is around, getting lost in the world of colouring and a Christmas movie. Just stuff for me alone. 🙂

3. Christmas music and books! In the past I read lots of books (like Alabaster’s song). Now I play Christmas music as I bake cookies, pumpkin spice muffins, and meals) and even while I’m sweeping the floor or doing laundry. Bring music that I like into the house. 🙂

4. Spend time with the Lord in church services, readings from the bible and Christmas poetry that reminds me of the season. There are some you might want to check out here and here.

We all have ways that help us to remember what is important about the Christmas season.

So tell me then, what’s important to you? How do you focus on that importance? How do you remember the reason for Christmas?

holidays

Hymns for Mother’s Day