CeLeBRaTe!! {Day 11 ~ Celebrate Autumn!}

The seasons are something to celebrate! 

When the flood waters receded, and Noah and his family left the ark for the first time in over a year, Noah built an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings. The Lord smelled that sweet savor and declared:

I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.

While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.

"While the earth remains," there will be seasons. 

The dependable changing of the seasons is a testimony to God's faithfulness. 

When winter days are gray and cold, I can look ahead to the green and lively days of spring. And when I am enduring the heat and humidity of a Mid-Atlantic summer, I can be certain that there will be autumn. 

Autumn. It is the best season in my book, and when it arrives, I celebrate! 

Some ideas for celebrating this glorious season...

• Buy a pumpkin (or two...or eight) and a few colorful mums.
• Indulge in a pumpkin beverage, or drink some apple cider or some spicy tea.
• Take an autumn walk and gather some treasures from nature.
• Bring a little autumn inside.
• Make an apple pie or a loaf of pumpkin bread. (Or buy an apple pie or loaf of pumpkin bread.)
• Burn a spicy candle.

On the first cool autumn day, I make pumpkin bread. There is something about the aroma of pumpkin and spices permeating the farmhouse that heralds fall's arrival to me.

This recipe was published in our local paper many years ago, and although I have tried several pumpkin bread recipes over the years, I always come back to this one. I usually double the recipe and make two loaves, one with chocolate chips (for the girls and me), and one with pecans (for Ron).

Ingredients: 1/2 cup butter 1 cup sugar 2 eggs 3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree 3/4 cup chocolate chips 1 3/4 cups flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon ginger 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves Directions: Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs and beat well. Blend in pumpkin puree. Sift dry ingredients together; add to pumpkin mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour into a 9x5 loaf pan which has been coated with cooking spray, and bake at 350 degrees for 60 to 70 minutes. Note: You can substitute 3/4 cup chopped pecans for the chocolate chips.

How do you celebrate autumn?

This is Day 11 in the series CeLeBRaTe!!  Click ~here~ to see more.

CeLeBRaTe!! {Day 10 ~ Five!...and a Borrowed Birthday Tradition}

Birthday blessings to an endearing five-year-old!

Happy Birthday, darling Ben!

With much love from Papa and Gran...

CeLeBRaTion Tip of the Day:

My daughter Kristin's family has a sweet birthday tradition. At birthday meals, they go around the table and each person says one thing that they love about the birthday boy or girl.   

I have borrowed that tradition on a few occasions, and today I'd like to tell you one thing that I love about my grandson Ben. I love that Ben has a zest for life; he gets excited over big and little things with equal enthusiasm!

This is Day 10 in the series CeLeBRaTe!!  Click ~here~ to see more.

CeLeBRaTe!! {Day 9 ~ A Real Life Story of a Birthday Celebration}

What a privilege to be able to celebrate a milestone birthday with a faraway friend!

Last month, we made plans to spend a few days in Lancaster while Ron was off in October. I emailed my friend Deanna to see if we could get together for dinner or something while we were there, and she graciously invited us to stay in their home!  

In the meantime, her daughters Lindsay and Emily emailed us about some secret plans for a surprise birthday tea for Deanna! How fun is that?! Not only were we invited, we were part of the intricate plan to surprise her!  

On Tuesday morning, the house was abuzz with activity and comings and goings as each person executed his or her role in the covert plan...and my lovely friend Deanna was truly surprised!!  

CeLeBRaTion Tip of the Day:

Be open to opportunities to celebrate the occasions of life! 

This is Day 9 in the series CeLeBRaTe!!  Click ~here~ to see more.

CeLeBRaTe!! {Day 8 ~ Birthdays, Birthdays!}

"We are glad that you were born!" 

That's the idea we want to communicate when we celebrate a person's birthday.  And there are probably as many ways of doing that as there are people! 

Today, I'll tell you some of the ways have celebrated the birthday person. You may have some of the same traditions, or you may find inspiration for something new!  

Start the day with a special breakfast.

Sometimes we have made birthday toast, using the "Happy Birthday" stamp my mother gave us. (Yes, Mom passed her celebration gene down to me!) Apparently, it's been awhile since we've done this, because when I toasted the prop for this photo, Bekah said "What is birthday toast?" I'll make her some this year.  

Let the Birthday Boy or Girl choose a special activity.

Whether it's going to the zoo, having a movie marathon, going to Starbucks, or staying in pajamas all day, it's a simple thrill to plan something fun. (As homeschoolers, we even take the day off from school.) 

Have the Birthday Person choose the meal and the birthday dessert.

I love cooking my family's favorite foods for their birthdays. Ron almost always asks for lima beans and dumplings and homemade biscuits...he's a country boy at heart! But I have made everything from macaroni and cheese to pancakes to chili. Nowadays, the girls usually choose to go to their favorite Mexican restaurant.

Birthday dessert is also open for requests. Sometimes there is the traditional birthday cake, but it could just as easily be pie or scones or rice pudding. One year, a birthday child asked for cheesecake, but when said child saw me looking through my recipes, the request was clarified.  "No, Mom...I want one of those mix cheesecakes," meaning Jello instant-just-add-milk kind of cheesecake. So much for Mom's home cooking that time! 

Make a singing phone call!

For years, my mom called her children and grandchildren to sing "Happy Birthday" to them over the phone on their special day. (She still calls, but doesn't sing these days...something about "sparing" us?) Now I make the singing phone calls to all of my grandchildren. And guess what? My grandchildren call and sing "Happy Birthday" to all of us! I have several messages on my answering machine of such calls. I. cannot. erase. them.  Cannot.  

The gift goes on. 

Tell your children the story of their birth. 

This is one of my favorite parts. At some point in the day, I tell my children about the circumstances of their birth. It is not always from start to finish. It might be about the day, or about who came to see them, or about what we were doing the day before. It might be about the months before the birth, or the difficult circumstances that preceded, and how the Lord provided. There may be laughs and there may be tears. But I want my children to know that they are loved and wanted and that God had a plan for them before they even existed.  

"My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them." (Psalm 139:15, 16 NASV)

How do you say, "I'm glad that you were born"?

This is Day 8 in the series CeLeBRaTe!!  Click ~here~ to see more.

CeLeBRaTe!! {Day 7 ~ Charting Growth}

"Cheryl," I hear you saying, "when are you going to start with the "easy ideas for home celebrations" that you promised?"

Today, readers!  

Although I don't promise that I won't return to the philosophy of celebration from time to time, I am ready to plunge into some simple, practical ideas for celebrations.  

One more thing.  Everyone is in a different place, so to speak. If you're a young mother with several small children, your celebrations will look different from those of a mother whose children have left the nest, or even from those of a mother with one or more older children in the house. If you're single, your celebrations will be different from those of your friends with husbands and families. But I am going to offer some simple ideas as a springboard...hopefully a little something for everybody!  

Here goes...

Celebrate a child's birthday by measuring his growth.  

Maybe you think the door below looks like an ordinary closet door.

But if you open the door, you'll see our very own growth chart!

A little closer peek...

(Can you see it?)

Over the years, one of the highlights of each child's birthday has been being measured on a bedroom closet door! Today, three of our four children are adults, but we have this tangible record of their growth from year to year. It is priceless to this mama!  

Sometime on Birthday Day, we go upstairs to the closet door whose inside surface was never painted, and have the Birthday Girl or Boy stand against the door while Mom or Dad marks the height of the child. Beside the mark, we write the child's name and the year. Then we linger for a while...remarking about how much the child has grown over the past year...comparing how tall she is compared to her siblings when they were her age...then reminiscing about how much everyone is growing and how time passes. It is sort of a birthday rite at our house. 

Granted, not everyone lives in the same farmhouse for thirty-two years. Maybe you move more often, or maybe you rent, or maybe you just don't want to permanently mark up a door. 

Well, how about this clever idea for a mobile growth chart?

Isn't that cute? It looks pretty easy. And inexpensive. And totally mobile.  Win-win-win!  (Click ~here~ for the simple instructions.)

Children love to see how much they've grown! It's one way to "mark a notable occasion with gratitude and rejoicing."

This is Day 7 in the series CeLeBRaTe!!  Click ~here~ to see more.

CeLeBRaTe!! {Day 6 ~ "Thus Far the Lord Has Helped Us"}

Have you been thinking this week about marking occasions as an Ebenezer?  I have!  (To read about Ebenezer on Day 2, click ~here~.)

And while I have been pondering, this song has been playing over and over in my mind. I have been singing it as I have washed the dishes, as I have driven the van, as I have dried my hair.  

Won't you take a few minutes to listen to this version by Fernando Ortega and let it fill your heart?

"Thus far the Lord has helped us."

This is Day 6 in the series CeLeBRaTe!!  Click ~here~ to see more.

CeLeBRaTe!! {Day 5 ~ Inspiration}

At our house, we are celebrators! We never miss the opportunity to celebrate a birthday...and the celebrations often cover several days! Thanksgiving is a big deal. So is Christmas. We celebrate the beginning of all the seasons. We can make an occasion out of almost anything. (Recently, we had iced mochas to celebrate the end of jury duty. It was indeed a happy occasion.)  

I'm not implying that you need to celebrate as much as we do, or to celebrate the same things that we celebrate. (Remember Romans 14:5?)  But since I know you wouldn't be reading this series if you weren't interested in celebrations at all, I'm going to talk about some sources of inspiration.

We are inspired by our own families' celebrations.

When you marry, each person brings his or her own family's ideas and traditions. Think about the celebrations that were meaningful to you growing up. Consider your spouse's celebration traditions too. Of course, you'll also create traditions of your own, but there is something special about incorporating some of the "old" along with the new to continue generational identity.

We are inspired with our own thoughts and desire to celebrate.

Sometimes, inspiration just comes. Our hearts want to celebrate something, and an idea is sprung. We are joyful and we look for a way to express it. You want to find a way to make an old tradition better, and you are inspired with a fresh idea. (Or you color your eggs blue with a natural dying process, and a whole table setting comes to you to celebrate Resurrection Sunday. It's the little things. ~smile~)

We are inspired by others.

Our original copy, published in 1983

One Christmas when I was a very young mother, my mom gave me the book Let's Make a Memory by Gloria Gaither and Shirley Dobson. Within its pages were myriads of ideas for celebrations. Making memorable holidays, making memories through the seasons, making memories with special people, and more. I ate it up. Some of our traditions that were inspired by the book are still a part of our celebrations today!


A recent source of inspiration is the new cookbook Mennonite Girls Can Cook: Celebrations. I was inspired by the celebration musings and memories that the authors shared so beautifully alongside their many recipes.  (To read more about how I won the book and how much I loved it, click ~here~.)

Books, magazines, our friends...all can be wonderful sources of inspiration.

And then there's Pinterest. Inspirational at its best, overwhelming at its worst, but there are certainly ideas to be had at the click of a mouse.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

There are so many sources of inspiration for celebrations. You can never do it all, or even come close. (Nor would you wish to.) What's important is to mark an occasion in a way that is meaningful to you and that fills your heart with gratitude.

What gives you inspiration for celebrations?

This is Day 5 in the series CeLeBRaTe!!  Click ~here~ to see more.

CeLeBRaTe!! {Day 4 ~ Invest}

Celebrations. 

They don't just happen, do they? Someone must expend some effort to make celebrations happen. 

Plans must be made. Food must be purchased and prepared. Gifts must be wrapped. The calendar has to be organized. For some celebrations, invitations must be sent. For others, decorations must be coordinated. Thought and effort are usually integral parts of celebration. 

Is it worth it? 

I think so.

When we celebrate, we mark the event. 

Giving time to an occasion attributes significance to it. We indicate that it is valuable to us if it is worthy of our effort. 

When we celebrate, we create family culture.

What we choose to honor, and how we choose to honor it forms family bonds, family identity, family history, and family memories.

When we celebrate, we give opportunity for gratitude.

When I celebrate Christmas, I am thankful that Jesus came to redeem us. When I celebrate my son's birthday, I thank God for who he is and for placing him in our family. When I celebrate my daughter's graduation, I am thankful for the privilege of homeschooling and for what God has done in her life. When I celebrate the beginning of a season, I marvel at God's faithfulness in His creation. 

Celebration is an investment...in time, thought, money, effort. But oh the dividends this investment pays!

This is Day 4 in the series CeLeBRaTe!!  Click ~here~ to see more.

CeLeBRaTe!! {Day 3 ~ It's What's In the Heart}

Does the Bible have anything to say about celebrations?  

It does!  Consider this...

~We must observe a day (or not) with a clean conscience, and with a pure and thankful heart.

One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks. Romans 14:5, 6

So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. Colossians 2:16, 17

~ When the heart is not pure, even celebrations that God Himself appointed are unacceptable to Him. 

Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; they are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Isaiah 1:14, 15

Hmmm...looks like it's all in the heart, doesn't it?

This is Day 3 in the series CeLeBRaTe!!  Click ~here~ to see more.

CeLeBRaTe!! {Day 2 ~ Ebenezer}

I think that marking an occasion is one way of raising an Ebenezer.

What is an Ebenezer?, you ask.

Ebenezer Scrooge? No.

An obscure line in the hymn "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing"?  Getting closer.

The real root of the word is in the Bible, in I Samuel 7.
After a series of battles with the Philistines, Samuel had called Israel to repentance and they had responded. They gathered at Mizpah...they fasted, they confessed their sin, and repented.  But as they were gathered, word came that the Philistines were again coming against them in battle. They called out to God, and Samuel offered sacrifices. The Lord answered with a "great thunder" that confused the Philistines, and Israel soundly defeated them.

(Now we come to the Ebenezer part.)

Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying "Thus far the Lord has helped us."

Ebenezer: "Stone of Help"

I propose that celebrations can be a sort of Ebenezer. As we mark an occasion, a milestone, or a holiday, we can say, "Thus far the Lord has helped us." 

We can celebrate that birthday person while being mindful that God has brought him into our lives, while thanking Him for the circumstances of her birth, while rejoicing in the blessing that this person is to us."Thus far the Lord has helped us."

We can celebrate that milestone of graduation or anniversary or first day of school with gratitude for God's intervention and acknowledging that He has directed. It is His gift. "Thus far the Lord has helped us."

We can celebrate a holiday with sincere hearts, hearts that are mindful of the purpose of our festivities, hearts that are filled with gratitude for what He has done. "Thus far the Lord has helped us."

Marking an occasion as an Ebenezer, a "stone of help," can make all the difference in how we celebrate!

This is Day 2 in the series CeLeBRaTe!!  Click ~here~ to see more.

CeLeBRaTe!! {Day 1 ~ The Focus}

Because I am going to spend the entire month of October talking about CeLeBRaTiOnS, you might assume that this series is all about parties and games and happy-happy-happy. And while there is certainly an element of "fun" in many of my ideas for celebrations, I must tell you up front that "happy-happy-happy" is not the focus.

What?!  How can we "celebrate" if FUN isn't our focus?  

Consider my definition of the word: 

cel·e·brate  /ˈseləˌbrāt/ (v.) to mark a notable occasion with gratitude and rejoicing (synonyms: commemorate, observe, mark, keep, honor, memorialize)

If our focus is marking the occasion, commemorating its significance, if our hearts are full of gratitude knowing that everything comes from His hand...then our celebrations will be those of true rejoicing, and not just meaningless exercises in "having fun"!

This is Day 1 in the series CeLeBRaTe!!  Click ~here~ to see more.

I am joining in with a gazillion other bloggers who are posting for 31 Days!
Click on image to visit...

September

September is full of beginnings. 

The beginning of a new year of life for a 3-year-old granddaughter.
The beginning of 7th grade for Bekah.
The beginning of homeschool gym class.

Fresh paint on the front porch.
Fresh apple pie.
Freshly baked pumpkin bread. With chocolate chips.

New goals.
Newly turning leaves.
New compassions.

It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22, 23