The Oxen are In

I am no stranger to household messes.  My husband and I had our first five babies in six years. Lots of messes there. Then we continued on, to have six more babies.   Five children plus six more children equals eleven, which equals mess after mess, and messes on top of messes!  Our oldest was 21 when our youngest was born, so even when we had older children that weren't still making messes, we also always had younger children that were. I remember sometimes, back then, I would think of  Proverbs 14:4 (Where no oxen are, the crib is clean, but much increase is by the strength of the ox) and I would comfort myself those words.  Not that our children were oxen, or our house  a barn.  But somehow I drew comfort from the fact that all my hard work wouldn't be in vain. Someday much increase would come through those little mess makers. So when this title caught my eye, on the Femina blog, I had to smile. I knew what it would be about.  The Oxen Are In.  Read it here on the Femina blog.

                                                                He looks innocent enough.

                                             

Good Friday

 Painting: William Bouguereau (1825-1905) Pieta

And Simeon blessed them,

and said unto Mary his mother, 

Behold this child is set for the fall and rising again of many  in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

Luke 2:25-35

A children's alternative to YouTube

Here is a helpful app if you ever let your young children  watch videos from YouTube on your iPhone or iPad.  If you're like me you cringe at all the "related videos" that are on the side or bottom of the screen.  Try this app.  It is called KidsTube.  

Step 1. Search for the videos you want for you child and click the add button - these will be added to your child's library

Step 2. Lock the library - passcode so no videos can be added or deleted with out you

Step. 3 let your child watch the videos you selected without additional content bombarding them. 

There is also a feature to save the videos to your device for future playing when not connected to the internet. 

Enjoying God's Creaturely Gifts

"...In believing that  'All things are pure to the pure in heart,'  Luther's faith was simple enough to trust that after a conscientious day's labor, a Christian father could come home and eat his sausage, drink his beer, play his flute, sing with his children, and make love to his wife -- all to the glory of God!..."

 Quote from From Luther on the Christian Home by William H. Lazareth.
Painting: Fredrick George Cotman (1850-1920) One of the Family

My Bold Assertion for the Day

Stress and strife and un-forgiveness are worse for your body and your home than food not made from scratch.

So while I'm on a roll learning how to create a more healthy lifestyle for my husband and children, there's always this as the bigger picture: that man does not live by bread alone (Matthew 4:4) and that it is not what goes into a man's mouth that defiles him, but what comes out of his mouth (Matthew 15:11). 

We live on the mercy of God. Our lives, temporally and eternally, are staked on Him alone.
And in that we can rest and enjoy the life we are living and the food we are making, or not, this day. 

A Christian Perspective on Children

These are excerpts from a lecture given by Anthony Esolen. You can watch it here onYouTube.

"Do you remember when you were growing up, back in the day when there were these things called children? And they ran around in what used to be called yards and streets. And they engaged in an activity called play? 

...[As a culture] We have become the kinds of people who do not like children. Why do I say we do not like children? We have few. If you really do like children, you have them. And if you can, you have quite a few of them. You like them. You like their company. You like their ways. You find them somehow to brighten your life. You enjoy them.

...Children remind us of our weakness and destroy our illusion of choice.

...People are afraid of children because they think that children will destroy their lives.They are absolutely right! Children will destroy their lives. That's why God gave us them. Because otherwise our lives are like little hard kernels of selfishness. Kernels of egotism. And it's really hard to break through that shell. But God sends children, as invaders, precisely to do that. To break open that hardest substance in the universe, the human heart. The child comes to break open our dead lives, and to show us what life is, and life in abundance. And that’s what the Christ child came to do."  

Paintings: Theolphile-Emmanuel Duverger (1821-1901) Hopscotch, and  Gaetano Belli (1857-1922) Grandmother

Children Are an Heritage of the LORD

"Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.

Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate."     Psalm 127:3-5

Congratulations Ben & Mary,
on the birth of you wonderful daughter!