kenny and i met, married, and baptised our three baby boys in the episcopal church. for the entire time we’ve been a family, we’ve been liturgical. from the grace we say at our table before dinner every evening (from Kitch’s “Anglican Family Prayer Book”) to the books that i cycle in and out during the church and seasonal calendar, our home follows the rhythm of the Church year.
about 10 months ago, we stopped worshipping on sundays in our episcopal, liturgical church and found ourselves in a church at the opposite end of the worship spectrum: contemporary and non-liturgical. it was probably a “God-thing” that we returned a second week and have been returning each sunday since (as we never found ourselves returning to the contemporary services we were trying out at the time we left the Episcopal Church): the pastor invited all the children to the front and gave them each a Bible and told them that without them, our church wouldn’t be there. that struck a chord in our minds: this church loved our children. not only because they are “the future” but because Jesus loves them, and instructs us to love them (even when they’re not our own).
but that’s not the point of this post.
even though we worship in a non-liturgical church now (and love this new church, by the way…), we still celebrate our liturgical family life. everyone can celebrate and find enrichment in their spiritual lives by following the liturgical calendar (even if they sing Casting Crowns songs on Sunday mornings instead of reciting the Eucharist from the Book of Common Prayer!).
and here we are in autumn, nearing the beginning of the church calendar: the time in which we prepare our hearts for our Messiah. we have already begun planning our advent observance. a few weeks ago, i ordered a book written by the authors of our spelling/reading curriculum called Advent Foretold along with instructions on building your own Advent Banner to be used with the daily readings. my sewing machine will get a workout this november!
i love st. nicholas day, and we plan to celebrate that the same way we have in years past.
i love looking back on these posts from the past few years, seeing the advent and christmas memories we’ve been making as a family. i’m excited for this year’s observance and celebrations! i know it’s merely autumn, but there’s lots to do to get ready for the season of getting ready!
so we got ourselves a donkey this weekend. meet Geneva:
donkeys protect sheep extremely well, and we found one on craigslist last week, being sold by a retired sheep farmer. she’s the sweetest, most gentle thing. however, she really knows how to BELLOW and put her foot down so you cannot move her. she’s strong and for the first day or so, was very afraid and missed her previous owner. but for the past two days, she’s been in the pasture the whole day, following the sheep around….and yelling for them when she looks up from grazing and can’t find them right away.
the sheep were quite accepting of her. violet (the big brown fuzzy one on the left) stares at her for long periods of time and runs from her when she tries to sniff her.
it’s been quite interesting watching the relationships form between them – protector and protected.
i find myself in a season with this blog….i haven’t written more than a few posts over the past few months! oh, i remember the days when i’d write a post a day for weeks on end. and it’s not that i’m short on material as i have daily blog posts i could be writing that my boys provide to me in forms of phrases, games they make up, picture they draw, inventions they think up..
i am, however, short on energy to dedicate here. when i started this blog, my 6-year-old was only 13 months old! he wasn’t even talking and barely walking and my 5-year-old was in utero. so my “kids” were in bed way earlier than me. these days, i have to rise way too early in order to have time to myself since i’m going to bed just after the boys (at 9:00!). they’re getting older, and we’re entering that next “tiring” stage of parenting: we’re not walking zombie-parents like we were in the newborn days of zero sleep. we’re also not walking around following a toddler all day long, keeping him from dangerous steps, lower-level cabinets and from eating all the cat food. no, it’s definitely a new phase in parenting. three boys between the ages of 3 and 6 requires stamina to answer 100 questions a day (and ones that you have never asked yourself so you’re not prepared with the answer), provide food on a near-constant basis AND have energy (intravenous-caffeine work wonders!) to drive them to soccer games, swimming at the Y or all the grocery shopping trips you need to keep them all fed!
by 7:00 pm, i’m done with the day. it’s a lot of energy just to have a conversation with my husband…and no offense, but he’s much more important.
i’ve blogged for 5 whole years now, and i’m certainly not ready to give it up. but this season of very few blog posts is in full swing, and i wanted to just pop in and say… don’t go too far away! i’ll see you next month …or next week. whenever the caffeine is still kicking at 8:00 pm.
