A Quote
"Feast, Christian, feast! You have a right to feast. Go to the house of feasting tomorrow! Celebrate your Savior's birth. Do not be ashamed to be glad - you have a right to be happy. Solomon says 'Go your way, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God now accepts your works. Let your garments be always white and let your head lack no ointment.' - ' Religion never was designed, To make our pleasure less.' Remember that your Master ate bread and honey. Go your way, rejoice tomorrow, but, in your feasting, think of the Man in Bethlehem - let Him have a place in your hearts, give Him the glory, think of the virgin who conceived Him - but think, most of all, of the Man born, the Child given! I finish by again saying - A Happy Christmas To You All!"
-Charles Spurgeon
Ever since reading this last year in this book, this quote comes to mind when I am anticipating Christmas festivities, especially the part about having every right to be happy. We have every right and reason to celebrate, don't we? We can approach the throne of God with full confidence, knowing He has credited to us the righteousness of Jesus - and it all started with Jesus's birth, God made flesh for us. There is happiness to be found there, in pondering the great truths of His works on our behalf - more happiness than in all the trappings of Christmas!
A Book
Oh, don't ask me about books right now - I'm stuck in the biggest reading rut I've had for years. I've started probably ten books in the last couple months, and nothing is sticking! The only books that are getting read consistently are the ones I read with my devotions, so I'll just mention Worship by John MacArthur. Our church has introduced a "staff recommends" library this year, and there are some good picks in there, so I've been trying to choose one of the recommended books to read after I read my Bible in the mornings. I love the way MacArthur presents worship as something that we do in every aspect of our life - it's not about singing only. One more quote!
"Rather we have been redeemed so that God may receive worship - so that our lives may glorify Him...The sole purpose of our being in heaven is that we might worship God rightly and forever. We, along with the redeemed of all ages, are saved to that glorious and unending end."
-John MacArthur, Worship
We also started our advent with the kids, and we've been reading through Jotham's Journey, which my aunt surprised us with in the mail! It could be a little scary for young or sensitive kids, but my kids have been really riveted to find out if Jotham will be reunited with his family. Each chapter, meant to be read each day of Advent, also ends with an advent devotional that ties in with the story. It's been a really fun addition to our advent time!
A Bit Of Nature
As I came to this prompt and looked through my phone for some nature pictures, I realized how little we have been out in nature this last month! It would be a good time to be outside, because it's been unseasonably warm out. But in a way, I think that's putting a damper on nature exploration for me right now. I want some snow! If I wanted 60 degree weather in December, I'd move to Florida with the rest of the country. We actually need some snow to prevent wildfires next year too, so I hope we get some moisture soon. One advantage to the warm weather is that our yearly Christmas light adventure was much less complicated, and that's the last time we were in nature, so some light-covered nature pictures will have to do.
A Recommendation
I really have to recommend Pam Barnhill's morning time plans. At first I thought they wouldn't be worth the money, but I tried one out, and oh my goodness, they are so rich. Her full morning time plans are especially meaty, and they tie concepts together in different ways by coming at a theme with math, art, music, books, etc. I request the books from the library, and the rest of the activities are usually links to free activities or videos online that go with whatever we are learning about. All the work is done, I just open up the document and follow the plans, and it's added so much enjoyment to our homeschool this fall! I actually joined her membership, because I loved the one set of plans we tried so much, and I'm so looking forward to working through many of the plans in years to come. If you want to try out a mini version of her plans, the Christmas Around The World morning time explorations are free right now. I would say they are good for elementary and up (it might be trickier to use with preschool and kindergarten).
A Moment Of Happiness
My happy moment goes back again to when we went to a local "trail of lights" this last weekend for my dad's 60th birthday. As I mentioned, this year has been weirdly warm outside, so we didn't even need to bundle up in snow clothes like we usually do. We walked through all the lights, and the cousins ran and played, and Georgie kept making her cute four-year-old quips, and I was just so thankful to be able to do something like that with family. Then we all went for pie at a restaurant after the lights, and gave my dad presents, and laughed when the restaurant hostess brought out a pan for the "birthday spanking" (we didn't actually subject my dad to that, but it was funny). It was a lighthearted and cheering evening, a perfect night of just being together.
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