A Peek At...
Our Life

May 23, 2009

Updates

Our house is back on the market. We took it off for a while during bedrest with the twins and the newborn stage. So we're back to pretending we live in a magazine.

The Buzz Around Me

Mingled mock screaming and giggling coming from the children's end of the house. Mr. Visionary is waking the children, which is universally understood in our home as an invitation to a group wrestling match.

Kitchen Happenings

The Engineer and I are tweaking the recipe of our lacto-fermented salsa to see just how spicy we can make it and still stay under the radar of the rest of the family. Just how far will they let us go?

In Our Schoolroom

I am scouring curriculum catalogs and making my shopping list for our homeschool convention coming up in a couple of weeks.

The Garden View

Wow... this thing needs a lot of work. I need to weed (that's never new, is it?) and divide up some of the plants I started in my hotbed. The plants are too crammed, but they look really good.

In The Sewing Room

Working on a few birthday surprises for the children, and I have a pile of summer skirts cut out for myself. Interestingly, pre-twins clothing doesn't fit quite the same. Ahem.

Home-keeping Agenda

With the house on the market, the house has to stay nearly perfect most of the time. It is working well so far with everyone having 'spot-check' areas that have to be perfect before each meal and bedtime. I am amazed how much more time we have when the house is spotless. Cool.

Simple Joys

Nine On Two. The whole family encircling the babies, enraptured with their giggles and smiles. This is the life. I may never sleep again, but this seems worth it.

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My 2008 Goals

Well...my hopes anyway


~Deliver two healthy new babies safely and not too early.
**Done! Two girls born 8/15 at 38 weeks gestation, and plump, too: 6lb, 12 oz and 7lb, 6oz. Thank You, Father!

~Switch to cloth everything...napkins, wipes, diapers, etc.
**Napkins, diapers & wipes done!

~Switch to non-electric kitchen appliances...grain mill, blender, food processor, etc.
**Got the grain mill with the money I made from selling junk stuff on eBay!**

~Learn how to make cold-process soap
**I did it! I really did it! I made Rosemary shampoo bars, Lemon-Calendula soap bars and Spearmint-Peppermint-Tea Tree soap bars. It smells so good in my closet where they are curing!**

~Keep a hand-written journal

~Begin putting our family photos into scrapbooks

~Maintain a "no backlog" policy with my sewing projects

~Purposefully put together an emergency plan and kit for our family with batteries, radio, canned food, clothes, etc. and have it packed and ready to *go*

~Begin building traditions, recipe files, scrapbooks, etc. for our family's celebrations of the Biblical feasts: Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Pentecost, Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles

~Read some fiction for a change!
**OK, just forget this one. Who has time for anything but the have-to-read non-fiction stuff?



‘Tis The Season

This is the season that several years ago, changed our lives forever. To be more precise, it was hindsight during the aftermath of this season that spurred our changing. In the midst of looking back over that recent ‘celebration’ of Christmas, we were led to go back to square one and determine the exact nature of our priorities and examine why we were doing what we had been doing.

As much as in years past, this kind of statement would make me roll my eyes and sigh with irritation at folks who did the same, our examination led us to completely revamp our celebrations of our Saviour’s birth. We no longer observe Christmas, even though at one time I snickered at my impression of others who did not, assured that they were sanctimoniously “holier than thou”. I was sure folks were making too big a deal of small issues and were highly uptight. Oh brother.

I’ll not go into all the reasons why we no longer observe Christmas, but will instead share a few links that intrigued us in the beginning of our journey back to the beginning. Those that are interested may study further and those that are not can go on without feeling judged. I do not begrudge anyone else celebrating Christmas - it is definitely a personal decision - but I wanted to share because I was glad to have my eyes opened to what I was doing, and how it appeared to Yahweh. There may be someone else who will one day be glad I shared.

Assuming that they do not care enough to ask, it hurts our feelings some that close family members have never asked about our reasons for changing our practices.  But should you wonder, we still celebrate the birth of our Saviour, but now it is during the Feast of Tabernacles when the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. We also now celebrate His conception during Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights (the biblical Feast of Dedication), because Yeshua is the Light of the World. We praise Yahweh for Yeshua’s birth, life, death and resurrection all through the year as well.

From our Torah Class studies by Tom Bradford, here is a short message that may help anyone who is wanting to dig a little deeper. It will at least give you some stuff to Google. Blessings!

Hanukkah Is For Christians (text file)

Hanukkah Is For Christians (MP3 file -about 30 minutes)

Comments

Comment from Annette
Time: December 3, 2008, 3:44 pm

Thanks for addressing the Christmas issue.
Although we observe the true meaning in our hearts and home, shedding some light on the original background gives us all something to think about. I appreciated the link “Hanukkah is for Christians.” (A bit more indepth than the Focus on the Family “history” I read earlier today. Let’s just say it was not exactly what I was looking for.) I intend to share it with my children because I feel it is important that we understand why we do what we do and where our traditions originated.

Wow….. I never realized the whole “halo” thing had to do with sun-god worship; so even Christmas wreaths have pagan origins. hmmmm

Comment from Mrs. King
Time: December 3, 2008, 4:04 pm

Julie,
Thank you for sharing those links, but more so for sharing your life. We too have had family that did not understand or that felt that we were judging them somehow by not participating in christmas anymore. One of our children’s aunts asked if it was okay to give them gifts since we had changed “affiliations”. Ohmy! Though it can be difficult at times with unkind things said to and about us, we are learning just to continue to love. 1 Peter 4:8 “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.” Theirs *and* ours . . . .

Comment from Kate
Time: December 3, 2008, 7:56 pm

That’s exactly how we believe!
I don’t even remember celebrating Christmas…
But I do remember celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles!

Comment from Trixi
Time: December 4, 2008, 9:16 am

We are right in the middle of this change. We did not do a deep study. We just simply started asking what does Christmas mean and its origin. Then we looked at what Jesus says about Birthdays. It is a tough road and we don’t exactly know what to do but we are taking baby steps this year, as our children are older. We are trying to just let them come to the same conclusions we are.
Thank you for sharing these sites. I will be doing some further study over the next year. I hope next year we have a little more drastic change.

Comment from oldpathsfamilyfarm
Time: December 5, 2008, 3:39 pm

Kate~

This has been nagging at me, so I wanted to come back and just mention one thing. :)

Don’t assume too much. (((warm smile)))

We may believe the same, but we may not. (I don’t know your family well enough to be able to say yet.) I never mentioned what we *believe*, only what we *do*.

Pingback from Crafting for the Holidays « Living and Learning in Beulah Land
Time: January 21, 2009, 5:40 pm

[…] I have enjoyed reading some really insightful posts about Hanukkah from fellow Torah-obedient believers which I will now share with you. They helped me to better understand the connection, and explore other areas in which I could yet be obedient. Why Hanukkah? (Check out the links she provides at the bottom of the post) Why Hanukkah? Check out the links at the bottom of this page. […]

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