Christmas Traditions and Decor

Today as it was snowing, I thought it to be the perfect time to share some of our Christmas traditions and decorations! Especially at Christmas time, we love to make our home a bright and beautiful place! Each year (even when we're not all in the same house) we all get together to choose our Christmas tree. It's a wonderful way to begin the Christmas season. The search for the "perfect" evergreen begins at a local tree farm. We search rows and rows before we choose the perfect specimen, while the boys intermittenly throw football. This year was particularly fun because Levi was able to enjoy the experience with the rest of us! I just love making family memories! On the hayride to our favorite spot!

Daddy showing Levi the needles and pinecones

Levi found his favorite tree!

Brittney and me standing by while the tree is cut down

Papi with the tree!

When we return home, we set up the Christmas tree and the ladies begin decorating while the men put up Christmas lights outside. I love how Christmas decorations create a beautiful glow in our home.

We love to use a lot of red in our tree to sybolize the blood of Jesus

Nana's Advent Calendar! Each date is made of a canning lid, scrapbook paper, and stickers.

On the back side of each date is one of the names of Jesus. We'll flip the date each day.


This is the "fun" area, Levi's favorite place to be!


Levi made a handprint ornament for each grandparent and great-grandparent!

While the snow was falling and I was snapping pictures, the finches came to visit!

What are some of your favorite ways to represent Christ in your Christmas decorations?

Teach Me Tuesdays

Advent Calendars and Keeping Christ in CHRISTmas

My family and I have been exploring ways to keep Christ the center of our Christmas celebration. Now that I have a child (soon to be children) of my own, I have been trying to be especially deliberate in placing the Christmas "magnifying glass" where it is meant to be.

As a child, it can be difficult to remove the gift fog that seems to blur the birth of our Savior. One thing my husband and I have decided to do to lift this fog is to give our children only three gifts at Christmas. This year, our son will be receiving a small play center, a set of Bible-based children's books, and a puzzle-type-thing that has several different latches. Starting next year, when he is two, Levi will choose three of his own toys to give to a child in need, assuming we can find a family in our community who will accept used toys. If not, he will donate his toys to a missions thrift shop nearby.

Another way we are deliberately keeping Christ in Christmas is by following an Advent Calendar, leading up to the day we celebrate His birth. I have made two calendars, and my mom will soon be completing one as well. (I'll try to post her completed project soon).

I found instructions to the first calendar on this site.

It's made of 24 matchboxes hot-glued together, with touches of scrapbook paper and sticker embellishments. I am very pleased with the quaint, wintry look of it, but I'm not sure if it will hold up through years of being packed away, since the matchboxes aren't very durable. I picked up the second calendar at Hobby Lobby in the Christmas craft section. It was plain cardboard, so I also bought red and green paint, white number stickers, and Christmas theme stickers. Everything was 50% off and I love how cute this turned out, especially for the low cost!

This will be the Advent Calendar we use with our kiddos. In each box, I placed either a name of Jesus, prophecy scriptures, or Gospel verses about Jesus' birth. Each day that has a name of Jesus in the box we will share a way that Jesus exemplifies that aspect of His being. For example, for Lamb of God, we will explain why Jesus is called the Lamb of God. For each day that has a scripture in the box we will look up the verse, read it, and discuss it.I am so excited to incorporate these ideas into our Christmas traditions to help us remember that Jesus is the true reason for celebration!

How about you? Are there any traditions your family has developed to help keep Christ at the center of Christmas?

Teach Me Tuesdays

Blueberry Muffins

I absolutely love to bake this time of year...probably too much! This evening I threw together some blueberry muffins from a Betty Crocker recipe I'd never used. The results are quite tasty and will be a nice breakfast for us at home in the morning, and also for the men who frequently eat on their way to work!

Recipe
1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/3 c. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 egg, beaten
3/4 c. milk
1/4 c. cooking oil
3/4 c. fresh or frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease muffin pan or use paper baking cups. In medium bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl combine egg, milk, and oil. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir until just moistened. Fold in berries. Fill muffin cups two-thirds full with mixture. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes on wire rack. Serve warm with butter or margarine.

Next time, to add some extra flavor, I think I'll exchange the milk for buttermilk and oil for butter.
Hopefully we'll have enough left over for breakfast!

Jessica

We Are Thankful: Our Thankful Tree

While it is true that we should ceaslessly give thanks to the LORD throughout the year, it is wonderful to set time aside to refocus and reflect on everything for which we have to be thankful. This year for Thanksgiving (and the weeks leading up to it), we decided to do something special to highlight the many reasons we are greatful to God.

Enter "The Thankful Tree."

Yesterday, while the temperature was much warmer than today's delightful 50 degrees, we found two branches that had the perfect height, width, and overall appearance. This was surprinsingly more difficult than we anticipated! We brought in our branches and placed them in a vase weighed down with small stones. Scrapbook paper leftover from homemade wedding invitations was great for our "thankful notes." We simply cut it into squares, hole punched the top, and tied the ribbon through. Now all that's left to do is decorate each branch with thanks.

Our number one reason to be always thankful was the first on the tree: Perfect salvation through Jesus Christ

I'm excited to see all the things for which my family is thankful appear on the tree!

In our home, Thanksgiving is one of our most cherished holidays! (Especially for my Dad--also known as Papi) And since we're ALL together in the same house this year, we took great joy in decorating! Our favorite decor pieces are the floral arrangements that we used at my wedding almost two years ago. Yes, I will have been married to the man of my dreams for two years on November 28!

Oh, and I just love flipping this calendar over to the next month to see the beautiful scenery! Although we don't typically have Novembers that look like this in southern Indiana, it makes me smile with anticipation for the months ahead!

"Oh come, let us sing to the LORD! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; let us shout joyfully to him with psalms. For the LORD is the great God, and the great King above all gods... Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD our Maker." -Psalm 95:1-3, 6

A Smoky Mountain Summer

Imagine the heat of a Tennessee summer evening tingling your skin; the rolling hills yawning with each swoop and stretch; and the insects singing a sweet summer symphony, their unassuming lullaby soothing to the soul. This is just a glimmer of what Tennessee was to hold for me, only a glimpse of the rich nourishment that was to come from this shower of blessings.

On June 18th I began my trek to the Smoky Mountain Christian Village in Sevierville, Tennessee. What this six week adventure was to hold, I had yet to discover. After about a six hour drive, I arrived at my cozy summer home. It was upon my arrival that I met the young woman who would come to be such an encouragement to me, a true lady after God's own heart: Jacquelyn.



Jacquelyn is not your typical, run-of-the-mill woman. She is feisty, inquisitive, and oh so entertaining. Her spunk and passion are contagious and she makes your heart smile. (You should check out her blog: beneathakansansky.blogspot.com)

The Lord continued to bless me with priceless friendships. Andrew and Hunter were the maintenance crew additions for the summer, and what godly men they were! They had such zeal and love for the Lord that you couldn't help but feel the fervor emminating from them. Abbie and Ruthie, two darling Kansan recruits, were like a beam of sunshine in a grey sky. They added so much pizzaz to our little quartet of femininity. I would be working side by side with those two young ladies for my main duty of the summer: kitchen staff.

We were responsible for providing meals for week-long camps for two weeks. Now, I've cooked for ten people, maybe even 12; but that is no comparison to fifty. There was quite a bit of stress and a few messes made, but the additional help we received was wonderful! The camp director, Brock Shinkle, and his wife Annie have two little girls, a little boy, and just added another little man last week. Their two daughters, Emma and Elsie, were such a big help through the weeks. They were so willing to lend a hand and always wanted to know what they could help with.

Miss Elsie

The rest of the summer staff also assisted us in our mealtime duties. I know we were SO thankful for the extra hands!

While we had many responsibilities through the week, we always made time for a little fun. Jacquelyn, in all her brilliance, planned a tea party for all the girls. It was so fun and so cute! We had an exquisite tablescape and all kinds of delicious finger foods.

Ruthie and her moustache cup :)

Emma and Elsie all dolled up for the tea party!

We also had a fun friend to add to our entertainment: Waldo. Waldo was our Japanese transportation adventure, through which I learned to drive a manual for the first time! He was our trusty truck to take us to and fro about the campus and also aided in a pretty epic water balloon fight.

Through the duration of my stay at my home away from home, the Lord opened these droopy eyes to so many vibrant truths. The girls and I did a study on the book of Ruth. We worked through the beginning of the wonderful book "Lady In Waiting." (I highly, and I mean highly, recommend this book for any single woman of any age.) God opened my eyes to idols I had hidden in my heart and renewed my spirit within me. The encouragement I received from all of my fellow servants and the friendships I gained are priceless.

A scripture I have learned to cling to is 1 Corinthians 7:27, 32-35: "Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be loosed. Are you loosed from a wife? Do not seek a wife... But I want you to be without care. He who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord—how he may please the Lord. But he who is married cares about the things of the world—how he may please his wife. There is a difference between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she who is married cares about the things of the world—how she may please her husband. And this I say for your own profit, not that I may put a leash on you, but for what is proper, and that you may serve the Lord without distraction."

My heart's desire is to have a family of my own, but I was made aware through my study of Ruth that my singleness is a blessed time, not a cursed one. God has entrusted me with this time to whole-heartedly serve Him. I have opportunities now that I will not have as a married woman and I want to be a good and faithful steward of my time. Jesus needs to be, has to be, my primary focus and the only God in my life. No man can fill that part of me and now is the time to really solidly establish Christ as the center of my life.

Words seem much too empty in comparison to the fullness I received in my six weeks in Tennessee. In its majestic mountains, its trees so tall and protective, its simplicity, calm and soothing. God is an artist of works refined, an author of words sublime, and a Father of love divine. Behold, what manner of love the Father has given unto us! This love was only deepened and magnified in my short but life-long adventure. My mission to the mountains. My Smoky Mountain Summer.

~Brittney

We Will Never Be the Same

Lord of All

This week has been a reminder that the God I serve really is Lord of All. I am humbled daily that the King of Kings chooses to bless me...me, an undeserving servant with gifts greater than I could ever imagine.

Wonderful Blessing #1: Three weeks ago, my hubby put our house up for sale by listing it on a website. He is quite the visionary and keeps me ready and waiting for new adventures. Neither one of us thought that it would get much interest, much less an offer. However, yesterday, we officially sold our sweet, red farmhouse. It took a mere three weeks from listing to closing for this process to be completed. What's more, the profit we were blessed to receive will be most helpful in putting a down payment on our home-to-be, wherever that home-to-be may be. We are so excited to see where the Lord takes us from here and what he has in store. I am so abundantly thankful to my amazing husband for following the prompting of the wonderful Counselor, and I pray that we are sensitive to his timing as we search for our next residence.

Wonderful Blessing #2: My parents have graciously opened their home to us for an undetermined amount of time while we house/land hunt. This week we will be moving in, which will be like a trip down memory lane, because we are staying in the room my sister and I used to share. My sister has moved from her room into what used to be the office/homeschool room, and the office moved to what used to be the dining room. Everyone has been so accommodating and hospitable through this transition. We are happy to be together and (Mom and I especially) are excited to be refining our creative homemaking skills together...(sewing projects, experimental bread and cinnamon roll recipes, and the like) We like to think of our soon-to-be full house as an "Incubator for Sanctification." And a full house it will be: My sister, who is commuting to a nearby college, by brothers, who are both homeschooled, my mom (Nana), my dad (Poppy), my loving husband, and our baby boy, who is nine months old...Which brings me to...

Wonderful Blessing #3: Just a few short hours before we closed on our house, I was surprised and overjoyed to find that the Lord is blessing us with another gift, a precious baby, due in late April. The joy that fills my heart is indescribable! I had this wonderful plan to tell my husband in a cute, creative way (which I had to come up with quickly on my own, because the ideas I looked up on the Internet were not so creative.) I left the house and headed for a card store where I bought a Daddy-to-be card. I put it in the envelope and wrote our address on the front, with a made up return address (in handwriting that looked nothing like my own)and headed home to stick it in the mailbox for him to find when he got home. That's when he called me, wondering where I was...Yes, he had beaten me to the house. Shortly after I hung up the phone, I remembered that I had left the pregnancy test in the bathroom! I called back, trying to think of a way to keep him out of the bathroom until I got home. Ring, Ring, "Hi, Honey. Do you have something you want to tell me???" my husband questioned. "Ummmmm, like what?" I replied, trying to hold in the news that was about to burst at the seams. "Honnnneyyyy..." Yep, again I was too late! But all I could do was giggle like a little school girl! Hubby asked, " Are you being serious or are you joking?" I told him I was serious and that there is no way (that I'm aware of)to fake a pregnancy test. I also told him that I had just called to keep him away from the bathroom and away from that pregnancy test. When I arrived at home, I still gave Hubby the card and he gave me a sweet hug and two kisses (one for me and one for the baby) When the surprise of it all had worn off a bit, Hubby told me that it wasn't the pregnancy test that he found. He opened the computer to check an email from the realtor and what popped up but a web page that said "Creative Ways to Tell your Husband You're Pregnant." Oops! I guess this was as creative a way as any...or at least as surprising! Needless to say, I will do a better job of covering my tracks next time! :) But any faint disappointment I may have had from my plan being for naught, was swept away with the elation we are feeling!

So there you have it, three wonderful blessings packed into three wonderful days. A brilliant husband who loves me fully and introduces me to new adventures, a sweet baby boy to love and to train, a gracious family who is a great example of hospitality, and a chance to live out the faith I have in the One who writes my days, not knowing what is written in the next chapter, or even on the next page. I am so grateful to my God for providing, and even going above and beyond what I need. Yes, my God is a magnificent Savior, Redeemer, King of Kings, and Lord of All.

Jessica

Biblical Womanhood

Is my behavior reverent today?

Meditating on the Cross

Sometimes when I read God's word, I feel overwhelmed with love and encouragement. Other times I'm struck with conviction that burns in my gut. Just when I think I am reading too deeply into a passage, or I am more concerned with man's judgement than that of my Father, the Lord faithfully shows me the weaknesses in my heart.

My flesh is far too easily swayed by this sinful world in which we live. The enemy cleverly and craftily uses the culture to seduce me into believing there is no black and white, only grey. That lie would be easy to swallow if it weren't for God's Word.

There is a delicate balance between being in the world but not of the world; loving my neighbor without shrouding that love in social tolerance. My heart's greatest desire is to love my Lord through obedience to His Word. Many times He draws out of me a love so deeply laden with passion and zeal for His testimonies, and I struggle to contain it. I pray that living out the love I have for my Savior, however pathetic my attemps, brings Him glory and draws others to Him. But there is still a longing to speak truth in love to my sons and daughters, brothers and sisters in Christ, as well as the lost. However, I know my words must come from a humble heart, and sometimes my passion and zeal begin to override humility. I am so grateful that Jesus is my navigator through these mine fields. If I continue to trust His sovereign voice, He will be able to use me in ways I am not able to foresee.

As I seek to daily die to self and live for Christ, the Holy Spirit empowers me to fight the battle that rages on within my flesh. The battle that tells me to keep silent; to speak an unfit word; to fear persecution; to fear being labeled judgemental and legalistic. But, Praise be to God for the encouragement and strength that only comes from Him. He provided the remedy to the disease of this world, the way to overcome sin. Jesus died on the cross, rose from the grave, took His place in Heaven and draws us, His followers, away from the world's allure and into His arms.

Sinful man lives in a corrupt world rescued by a perfect Savior. That is what I must keep in perspective. That is what must motivate my heart into action. C.J. Mahaney beautifully draws the scope of this issue into focus in this excerpt from the book Worldliness, "Meditate on the cross. Consider the wonders of the Savior who died for sinners and rose victorious over sin and death. Dwell where the cries of Clavary are louder than the clamor of the world."

Motherhood Is a Calling (And Where Your Children Rank)

What a wonderful post to encourage mothers!
"Behold, children are a gift of the LORD. The fruit of the womb is a reward." Psalm 127:3

Motherhood is not a hobby, it is a calling. You do not collect children because you find them cuter than stamps. It is not something to do if you can squeeze the time in. It is what God gave you time for.

Christian mothers carry their children in hostile territory. When you are in public with them, you are standing with, and defending, the objects of cultural dislike. You are publicly testifying that you value what God values, and that you refuse to value what the world values. You stand with the defenseless and in front of the needy. You represent everything that our culture hates, because you represent laying down your life for another—and laying down your life for another represents the gospel.

Our culture is simply afraid of death. Laying down your own life, in any way, is terrifying. Strangely, it is that fear that drives the abortion industry: fear that your dreams will die, that your future will die, that your freedom will die—and trying to escape that death by running into the arms of death.

Run to the Cross
But a Christian should have a different paradigm. We should run to to the cross. To death. So lay down your hopes. Lay down your future. Lay down your petty annoyances. Lay down your desire to be recognized. Lay down your fussiness at your children. Lay down your perfectly clean house. Lay down your grievances about the life you are living. Lay down the imaginary life you could have had by yourself. Let it go.

Death to yourself is not the end of the story. We, of all people, ought to know what follows death. The Christian life is resurrection life, life that cannot be contained by death, the kind of life that is only possible when you have been to the cross and back.

The Bible is clear about the value of children. Jesus loved them, and we are commanded to love them, to bring them up in the nurture of the Lord. We are to imitate God and take pleasure in our children.

Hands Full of Good Things
When my little girl told me, “Your hands are full!” I was so thankful that she already knew what my answer would be. It was the same one that I always gave: “Yes they are—full of good things!”

Live the gospel in the things that no one sees. Sacrifice for your children in places that only they will know about. Put their value ahead of yours. Grow them up in the clean air of gospel living. Your testimony to the gospel in the little details of your life is more valuable to them than you can imagine. If you tell them the gospel, but live to yourself, they will never believe it. Give your life for theirs every day, joyfully. Lay down pettiness. Lay down fussiness. Lay down resentment about the dishes, about the laundry, about how no one knows how hard you work.

Stop clinging to yourself and cling to the cross. There is more joy and more life and more laughter on the other side of death than you can possibly carry alone.

To continue reading click the link:

Motherhood Is a Calling (And Where Your Children Rank)

Divided: Is Modern Youth Ministry Multiplying or Dividing the Church?

Counter-Cultural, Controversial, Challenging, Life-Changing

To watch DIVIDED the movie, now for free, click HERE

God Gives the Increase

"So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor." -1 Corinthians 3:7-8

Funny how an ordinary little thing like canning Green Beans spurs me to ponder something deeper and much more significant than the art of canning. I love that the Scriptures are filled with metaphors which compare the simplest of things to the most extraordinary of truths, drawing our attention constantly to the power of the LORD. Yes, we can plant the beans and water the beans, but without God, all of our labor would be for naught because He is the one who provides the growth. Without that growth there would still be only a seed under the soil. Amazingly, we benefit from the reward of fresh, delicious Green Beans though we can take no credit for the harvest.
It is the same way when we share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We may plant the Gospel Seed. We may water the seed. But it is God who gives the increase and grows deep-rooted faith in the "soil" of the heart. It is good to be obedient in the sharing of the Good News, but just as with the green beans, we can take no credit for the growth in a person's life. Still, each one receives an award according to his labor. I cannot fathom, that we, undeserving servants, should receive an award more than what we have already received by the grace of God and the blood of Jesus. How grateful I am to my wonderful Savior for the ordinary and the extraordinary things in life!


Our cans were filled with Green Beans!


We filled the cans with water, leaving 1" of space at the top.


With three quarts of water in the bottom of the canner, we put on the lid and turned the heat to high. When the steam escaped steadily for ten minutes, we put our pressure regulator on top, with ten pounds of pressure for 25 minutes.


When the canner depressurized and cooled on its own, we removed the lid and took out the jars. (I just love the smell that escapes from the canner! The aroma of freshly canned Green Beans is such a summertime smell!)


Our final product!