A Purim Feast

This past week on February 28th, our family celebrated a typical Jewish holiday, Purim.

Although we are not Jewish I find myself constantly wanting to learn more about the Jewish background of our Christian heritage, and I felt that it would be a wonderful  concept to explore this year for our whole family.

So we decided to include it in our curriculum.

After much searching the web for good resources on how to incorporate Jewish studies into a Christian curriculum, here is what I came up with:

Hebrew4Christians- we began using this site extensively to help us learn the Hebrew alphabet, especially for handwriting.

TorahTots-Now this is a cool little site for kids that help them learn about the Jewish holidays, background on each, coloring pages, fun online games, and other little odds and ends that help bring the celebration of Jewish holidays into a realistic point of view for kids.

But probably the most helpful and insightful of all of my findings was the company, Heart of Wisdom.

Here is what owner and author of A Family Guide To The Biblical Holidays has to say about the Jewish aspect of our Christian faith:

We study a Hebrew book-written by Hebrews; we serve a Hebrew Lord-who had Hebrew disciples; we desire to follow the first century church-which was first predominately Hebrew; and through Christ, we are grafted into a Hebrew family! It makes sense to study our fascinating heritage.

During this season of my Christian journey I find myself completely in agreement with Robin and am very grateful to her for writing this book (along with co author Linda Pierce).  This book is an EXCELLENT resource for any Christian family wanting a gentle Messianic approach to incorporating the Jewish holidays, culture, and background into your home school or family life.

So, here is what we did:

• I am not much of a sewer, but decided to use the sewing version for creating the symbolic flags for our dinner centerpiece.  They are found on pages 72-73  of Robin and Linda's book, A Family Guide to the Biblical Holidays

My daughter and I decorate with rhinestones:

There was a learning curve involved for me.  I had no clue I was supposed to iron these studs on, so initially I had my daughter attempting to peel some "backing" off them individually.

Funny.  But we got a hang of it and figured it out.  We eventually got all the studs ironed on the correct way.  This will be good experience for me whenever I do learn how to sew, for real.

Now, on to the multi-holiday centerpiece flags.  We created two of these for Purim but will need to create a few more for future holidays.  I got all the fabric I needed for the upcoming holidays.  Here I cut out a few squares, made a photocopy of the pictures of the Star of David and Cup of Bread, provided in Robin's book on page 75.  I did a little painting on the fabric for decoration, added the wooden dowels, but instead of sewing I just ended up gluing them on.

Along with my styrofoam base, here is what my final product looked like for my centerpiece (on a small table, that is-crown and sceptre to be added later):

Now for dessert, where NyGirl insisted on using the beater for the cookie mix.  We decided on Hamantashen cookies (page 427 in the book).  Basically they mean "Haman's pockets" and are supposed to resemble the hat Haman may have worn.  Another traditional food she mentions in her book is Esther's Banquet Bars. We have the ingredients for this, but decided to wait until next week to cook this set since we had so much batter from the Hamantashens left over:

So, to wrap it up:

We cut the batter into circles using a cup, filled the middle with raspberry preserves, folded into the shape of hat, then cooked.

The next day, our feast was beautiful.  My two girls, husband and I enjoyed a yummy meal of baked chicken with rice and snap peas cooked in turkey bacon.  Yummy.  We had our Hamantashens for desert with sweet tea, and my husband enjoyed reading the girls a book about Esther.

In all, it was a beautiful Purim feast.

Dancing my troubles away

I began to praise the Lord at that point. I put on some praise music and began to dance before Him. I didn't care that my children were watching. In fact, they joined in because mom was so happy!!!

I recently started a thread at my online community for Christian women about the Fruit of the Spirit- Joy.  One of the ladies at the group made this profound statement:

What our God doesn't do when facing adversity is become doubtful, fearful, or anxious. He also never falls into discouragement, despair, depression, or self pity.

...this really made me think. I thought about all of the many times this past year that I have been doubtful and fearful and anxious and fell into discouragement and despair and depression and self pity.

Wow.
I have been a mess...and all because I did not understand how crucial the JOY of the Lord is in my life.

It was recently- about a month ago, that the Lord jolted me into reality.

As I was pacing about my house with a frown in my spirit, complaining and nagging and nit picking about what was NOT right about my current situation, He sat me down and convicted me of the Truth of His LOVE.
I felt ashamed to have been complaining when all along He loves me so much and is willing to give me His best.
Only, I must be patient for these things.
He wants us to have the desire of our hearts, but only when we delight ourselves in HIM first and foremost.

With delighting ourselves in Him, comes the spirit of Joy.

I danced and danced and danced until those nasty chains of depression and bitterness and anger fell off my spirit.
I danced and danced until tears streamed down my face in gratitude for what Christ has done.

I am reminded that only through Christ and in Jesus-Yeshua the Messiah, can I find any true joy.
His JOY becomes our strength in times of weakness and keeps us strong even in the good times.

Cooking Italian Bread- Eating Healthy

I have always wanted to learn how to bake bread.  It is one of those earthy, connecting with the homemaking part of me that yearns to leap out in the middle of all of my techie interests...

I think NyGirl caught my bread-baking bug, and she decided one school morning she wanted to help me bake italian bread sticks for that day's dinner.

Forming the dough into shapes

Finally on the pan (not perfectly shaped, but the best we could do!)

Oh, and the pot on the back of the stove top is lentils.  We have begun a new healthy eating regiment in our family that I think is working out okay...though, I won't say perfectly.

The way it works is very similar to the ideas found in Deceptively Delicious.

The basic philosophy behind the book and my ideas of how to incorporate veggies into my kids' diets is pretty much all about camouflage.

For example, today I used one of the recipes found in the book that helped me to get some spinach into my girls' tummies.  Here is a paraphrase of the Pita Pizzas recipes and how I got my kids to eat spinach for lunch today:

Pita Pizzas (with hidden spinach)

• Whole wheat pita pockets
• About ½ cup spinach puree
• About 2 cups of tomato sauce or pizza sauce
• About ½ bag of mozzarella cheese
• About ½ bag of cheddar cheese

Set the oven to 400 degrees.  Spread spinach puree  on each pita (if you don’t want your kids to detect the spinach only spread it to about ½ inch from the edge).  Spread the sauce over the spinach.  Cover the sauce with cheese.  Bake for about 10 minutes.  Let the pizzas cool for about 5 minutes so the cheese doesn’t pull off and expose the spinach!

My kids love these, I like it...and I even think hubby likes it too- which makes it a hit in our house!

As for the Italian bread...it turned out really well that evening last week. We paired it with plates of spaghetti and pasta sauce (blended with a puree of steamed broccoli- another hidden green!)  Turned out well :-)

And though I haven't turned full fledge into a bread baking mama, I am enjoying skirting around the idea of it.  Meanwhile, I get a kick out of baking up cupcakes, cookies, and other sweet treats.  My next goal: to find fun ways to "healthify" our sweets.  I think I may try some sweet potato purees...

We shall see.

And I promise, in one of these next few posts I am going to get back to the techie stuff!  So hang tight. :-)

Sisterly Love

One of the things I enjoy most about homeschooling my kids is observing them and watching them grow close together.  The love these two sisters share is inexpressible:

Snow fun!

We woke up this morning, and boy did we get a surprise!

Snow in west Alabama?

So we celebrate!

Jesus, My Valentine

I am sitting here alone in my office, relaxing to soft worship and blogging, while my wonderful husband is taking care of the kids and cooking up a yummy spaghetti dinner for us.

(You don't have to tell me twice...I know I have a great husband! And on this Valentine's Day this is probably the greatest gift from him I could have asked for).

But as I sit here, I am listening to the sounds of my family, and the most repetitive sound I hear is my toddler's ambitious squeals and stubborn "no's".

And while my husband deals with all of this tonight, I remind myself that as we both traipse the journey of life called "parenting", that it is only for a season.  And it is during this season that we must be so careful to impart wisdom, not only to our older kids, but to our little ones as well.

I am thinking of obedience, and God's calling for us to be in submission to proper authority: Himself.

How beautiful is the picture of the family whose children obey out of love, rather than fear.  I have yet to see a picture perfect family....no one that I know of has perfected this craft.  The generation in which we live is a difficult time in which to raise truly obedient and godly children.

But I believe, with the wisdom of God's word, the fervency to stand strong and not waiver from His truth, and lot of splashes of true parental love and commitment, we can make it happen for our kids.

And yes, even for our little ones.

So when I hear my toddler getting into some of her typical trouble around the corner, I simply think about all of the many, many times my Heavenly Father has so patiently led me by the hand back to His throne.

"No, Demetria," He would say to me.  "Not right now".

Or...

"No, my Dear.  This is not good for you.  I have something else for you at a later time.  Step away from it".   And gently, yet firmly, He grabs my hand and leads me steadily away into the safety of His loving care...

And with time, guess what?

I grow up.  I mature.  And I begin to actually SEE the promises that He had in store for me all the time!  And it is in those moments that I am ever amazed at His goodness.

That my Father could tell me "no" in order to tell me "yes" baffles me beyond belief.

The fact that my Heavenly Father loves me so much He is willing to tell me "no", despite my temporary broken heart, in order that His promises of "yes and amen" should be manifest in my life when I am ready to receive the full blessing is nothing short of...

A Valentine's gift.

I am so glad that Jesus loves and cares for us more than we can imagine.

Whether you are parenting an ambitious and stubborn toddler, attempting to love a spouse through a broken relationship, or suffering through the loss of a loved one this Valentine's Day, I want to remind you that Jesus loves you dearly.

As we obey Him and submit to His love for us, we'll find that Jesus is our Valentine, not just on February 14th,  but every day of the year.

Learning to Serve

Ny is learning to serve through her Girls Club group at church.  Together, they pulled in resources to help make the day of a church widow- plus, gave her a breakfast and spent some time with her.

Gathering for a prayer breakfast

Praying for and spending time with the lady of the church