This Christmas: Avoiding the Magic, Celebrating the Miracle.

  This year I found myself preparing for the jolly Christmas season quite early. Our home won't be occupied for allot of December, so the after our time of remembering our soldiers on our Canadian Remembrance Day, up went the green garland, sparkling lights and festive ribbons.

  Growing up in a Christian home, the number-one meaning of Christmas was, of course, remembering the birth of Jesus - the Christ; the Son of God. Along with our Christmas tree and stockings hung on the television box, we set up our nativity scene, read the Christmas story in the different gospels, wrote encouraging Christmas cards and prepared specials for the candle-light service at our church. There was no question that Jesus was the reason for the season...but it was still fun and acceptable to have a few gifts under the tree from Santa that we knew Mom had wrapped up for us.

  Now, with a family of my own, we have cheerfully decorated the house. A quiet morning with my two-year-old son found us excited to have in our possession a set of DVD's with The Origional Christmas Classics! Examining the cover, I was pumped to be familiar with the pictures on it. We may have only had three channels on our TV set growing up (one being french) but come December, these TV classics aired and had me curled up on the couch for some fun winter tales. My son chose the "Santa one" first. The DVD menu option was selected and off to the couch we went to enjoy the stop-motion animation. 

  I was surprised to be re-introduced to the "Winter Warlock"...for some reason I didn't remember him. In fact, in the movie he is repeatedly called "Mr. Warlock" and he keeps correcting them to please refer to him as "just Winter". A bit disturbed by the creepy intro and the new realization that this character is essentially a male witch, I still told myself that these were acceptable when I was a kid and I'm giving my child more of an education on the classics than anything else. If there was any sign of fear or confusion, I'd do some toddler-version explaining. Next up, and plugged in this very morning was Frosty the Snowman. Again with the magic! Was I so dumb to expect anything different? Again my child finished the story and I'm sitting here realizing that today's movie was all about teaching him that magic is real, magic is fun, wouldn't it be neat if magic happened to you. 
Magic IS real, but not something to dabble in.

“Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God." - Leviticus 19:31

Behind any mask of fun and games in magic or sorcery, is sin.

Now, as I glance at our reindeer cookies, see holiday posts on social media and go through the seasonal aisle at the grocery store, I find myself surrounded by the magic of Christmas and, truth be told....critical. 
I'm not one to want to jump to extremes. I don't want to be the type to ban the name of Santa in our house because of his story's current popular reputation, just as I don't intend to pretend that the Christmas tree represents some sort of cross Christ died on. 
I'm simply motivated to try and take emphasis off of the famously acclaimed magical holiday season, and focus on Christ-mas - celebrating how Christ came and what He has done for us.

Some of the things our home (and other homes too, I hope!) will experience this year:

Bible reading - We have a the Jesus Storybook Bible that tells the story of Christ in a wonderful way for children to hear and understand. There is also reading you can do all through December! Find it on Pinterest here.

Nativity Scene - Set them up, draw them, learn about them! My sister had the great idea to make sure to have a non-breakable one for the children to play with. They can set it up and re-enact the birth of Christ. I found a cute wooden one here.

Candy Canes - According to Wikipedia, it was a german candy maker who came up with a staff-shaped candy stick to give to children in church services.

St. Nicholas - The magical legand didn't actually start out with mystics. Our home was happy to learn a little history and read about it's origin here. (from biography.com)

Neighbourly Giving - Reindeer or not, our neighbours received our plate of cookies along with our family Christmas card. Every year we choose a verse to be on the card - this year was Isaiah 9:6.

I would love to hear how other believers remember Christ in the season of sparkles and hocus focus!

40 Days of Dieting Better - Day 2

Isaiah 6:8 NIV
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
I like the way the message version puts it: "...I spoke up 'I'll go. Send me.'"
I feel the need to be ready to step out of my comfort zone!

Breakfast

Instead of buying my bread from a store, I made my own Life Changing Loaf! 

Lunch

Snacks

Supper

GymRa Forty day challange day 2!

Precious Gift

Well we made it! With the Lord's help we are aleady on day 12!

On day 7 we had our first doctors appointment and we passed with flying colours! ...Even though things were healthy, I knew it had been a long week when I parked the car in the driveway and gently whispered "shhh...it's okay" to the door chime. :)

My delivery story:
So our little guy was overdue and we went in for an induction appointment last friday at 7am but there were 3 other mothers in active labour so the hospital wanted to wait until things slowed down. Hubby and I just hung out in our shared room (we were waiting for a private one to open up...but we were the only ones in the shared room anyways the whole time)...did crossword and sudoku puzzles, visited, tried to sleep...then finally at 2:20pm they were able to insert the cervidyl to see if that would get things going.
Praise God, there was no need for the IV drip, I started contractions an hour later...the weren't awful right away, just super uncomfortable...then getting worse ...then a little before midnight i was 3cm and they broke my water...wow, did things progress! (PTL I made it through with no drugs except the gas mask for the pushing!) So around 1am I was 7-8cm and felt the need to PUSH and we went to the labour room. It was steady work from there. I was pushing for over an hour and getting tired so my Dr asked if she could help me out with the vacuum. The very last push she gave a little tug to get his big head out :) didn't even leave a bruise or cone or anything! She flopped him right onto my belly just like a fish, all wet and sliding around -loved it! His eyes were open right away and he was so alert! I was like "is this normal?" To the nurse and she said that's one of the benefits to not having drugs! Wow!
Hubby cut the cord and the doc stitched me up. I tore quite a bit.
My husband was so good about everything! Telling me I was doing a good job all along. RUNNING and getting me water between contractions as I pushed :) He also thought it was all very "neat" to see everything  and how it worked and stuff...he's certainly not queezy!

So that's the story!  ...so far breastfeeding is going excellent and I'm starting to see a sleep pattern developing so I can start to be a bit more organized with MY sleep and my day.

More to come I'm sure!

Contemplative Waiting

Psalm 22:10
"Upon You I was cast from birth; You have been my God from my mother's womb"

What a desire I have for this to be the sweet words of my son one day! (Yes, we know now it's a boy!) I pray the Lord be real and alive in him; that he not just have a lukewarm faith passed down from Christian family but that he would be on fire for and personal with God; that great things may be done through him, glorifying the Father.

The story on the gender:
My husband and I couldnt decide whether or not to find out our little one's sex so I had a plan to have the technician write the gender on a paper and seal it in an envelope so that we could go on procrastinating. So the day came and my sweet mother in law took the day off to fill in my husband's place and we went to the ultrasound clinic for my 5 month check up.
When I inquired about my plan, the tech said she was unable to do that for me. She happily confirmed that she had the gender pegged but that I would have to find out from the dr. Now, just before sitting up from the vinyl covered bed I happened to look up at the screen (now showing a complicated chart) and I noticed the words "sex: female"!! Whoa how sneeky was I! I had discovered the gender all on my own! I had always imagined having a boy first, but I was so excited about a girl I called Nathan and began to text the family with the good news.
...12 weeks later at another appointment with the same routine...my husband and I prepared to sit back and enjoy another inside peek at our little one. The tech said she noticed that we identified the gender at our last visit. I concurred and told her that our dr. did not recieve notification for that. She promptly asked if I would like her to tell me and so I quickly agreed (thinking of course that I already knew but it would be nice for her to make it official). She took one more glance at her screen and announced "it's a boy." Wow,  I was in shock!  I'm sure my facial expression and surprise confused her until u explained what I had seen the previous visit. Smiling, she explained that it was my gender that I had seen and a common mistake.
How happy I was, I have to admit it. Even though I had gone through 12 weeks of thinking PINK and enjoying the little dresses and feminine outfits displayed in the stores....now I was back to envisioning a son. Maybe he'll grow up with a love for the farm...I sure hope he'll be a mama's boy!  :)

Starting Small

"For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb"
-Psalm 139:13

What a joy to know that my awesome God has been carefuller weaving my baby together right inside of me! Praise God he is fearfully and wonderfully (being) made.

I am a 25 year-old living with my husband in the farm prairies of Manitoba, Canada. I'm currently 37 weeks and 5 days along in my pregnancy and getting very excited to embark into motherhood! I wanted to start this blog to give glory to God in all the amazing blessings, challenges, and adventures to come.