Lenten Season 2009

We went to Ash Wednesday service this week and began the season of Lenten reflection. Like many people, we try to give up or add something to our daily lives in order to remember the sacrifice that Christ made for us. I'll admit that giving up anything food-related is a struggle in pregnancy! So, we decided to spend time specifically memorizing and teaching our girls hymns and Scripture during this time. I asked our church's immensely talented music director (come check out our church sometime and see for yourself!) for her suggestions on how exactly to do that with toddlers. Here is her response:

YAY! One of my favorite questions!
--447 Jesus, in Your Dying Woes always works well because the little ones can pick the "Hear Us, Holy Jesus" line at the end.
--420 Christ the Life of All the Living also has that wonderful refrain.
-434 Lamb of God, Pure and Holy is also rich yet repetitive and even if they only get the "Have mercy on us, O ... Read More Jesus!" what else do we really need!?!
--I am always a fan of 433 Glory Be to Jesus (what we will do in SS opening all through Lent), especially the first two stanzas because it gives such a tactile reference. I like to show the little children the veins on the back of their wrists, talk about how that is how blood runs through our body. Then you talk about how Jesus was both a God and Man and had veins just like ours and how His veins were pierced by a nail for us.
--And, of course, the parts of the liturgy are so wonderful, especially the Kyrie and Agnus Dei.
Enjoy! And thanks for giving me ideas of what to do with my boys this Lent.

(hymn numbers are from the Lutheran Service Book)

How are you recognizing Lent this year?

Weekend Retreat

We had only planned on staying overnight at the Meyers' new home in Fort Wayne this week, but God knew what he was doing when he sent the most recent winter storm that way. We needed an excuse to stay a day longer! Unfortunately, the bitter cold made even sledding to difficult so we just enjoyed chatting, eating, coffee, and watching kids friendships develop. We even got to check out their wonderful new church! Mali became so inspired by Ben and Timmy's maturity that she too dropped the diaper habit this weekend! With the oh-so-subtle encouragement from her parents of course. Maybe dry nights will be in our future someday too. And Brinnly loved the attention from her godparents although she wasn't too keen on newborn baby Miriam at first. "NO BABY, NO BABY, NO BABY!" she said when she saw me holding her. If she only knew what was coming...

We love you and your new home, Meyers! Especially since it's only a naptime drive away!

Who needs Hallmark?

Four on Friday

1) Spring WAS here for a few days this past week and we were all glad for a chance to see the outdoors. For those of you that live in Pittsburgh--take advantage of those parks! We miss them.

2) Second midwife appointment yesterday and all is well. Our due date (not that our kids follow things like that) is July 20, and we will NOT be finding out the gender ahead of time. Stay tuned for the baby pool...

3) As many of you know, we've stumbled onto Facebook in the past few days. It's very intriguing to see up-to-the minute updates on friends. Oh, Kellie's taking a nap! Karianne just talked to her realtor!

4) Valentine's Day is full-force around here. I wrote a valentine to Brinn, dictated by Mali that says "You are good at drinking water. And good at drinking juice". Oh, the closeness of sisters.

Ponytails

It was a cute five minutes.

Steeler Nation

We may not live in the Steel City anymore, but we were all decked out in our black-and-gold all day yesterday. The party we were invited to was a mixed crowd, but we held our own cheering for our faves Hines Ward (no relation in case you were wondering) and Jeff Reed. What a memorable game. All of us lasted until the very end. And then wished we could be there in Oakland, celebrating with the rest of die-hards. Nevermind that you can't really do that well with 2+ kids.



Mali even wore her shirt to bed!