Someone once said that you know you’re from Oklahoma if you started drinking iced tea before your second birthday. Uh, that’d be me for sure! I just love this new video by Anita Renfroe!
Author: Diana B.
I am a wife and the mother of two beautiful adult daughters and a wonderful new son-in-law. I am a seminary student and also do some part-time freelance writing, editing and graphic design work. My interests include reading, photography, baking (mostly bread and chocolate), and studying God's Word.
Our First Robin Tea Party
To the First Robin
by Louisa May Alcott
Welcome, welcome little stranger,
Fear no harm and fear no danger.
We are glad to see you here,
For you sing, “Sweet spring is near!”
Now the white snow melts away,
Now the flowers blossom gay.
Come dear bird and build your nest,
For we love our robin best.
Last month spring arrived in the Frozen Tundra. It came early — about a month earlier than usual — and our family celebrated with a First Robin Tea Party on the last day of March.
These teas are becoming an annual tradition around here, and we have a lot of fun with them. The only rule for our tea party is that everyone in the family must see a robin in our yard before we can have the party. (By the way, we stole this rule, and the whole tradition actually, from my aunt who also raised two girls in Minnesota.)
My daughters each invited one friend to join us. This way the party counted as lunch and two playdates! I would say we killed three birds with one stone, but that just seems disrespectful in a posting about the first robin.
Anyway, on our menu this year was an assortment of daisy sandwiches served with pretzel sticks, fresh strawberries, and cheese sticks. Laurel enjoyed a cucumber sandwich.
Linnea’s was cheese, and we also served a PB&J sandwich to one of our guests.
The day before the party, the girls and I made these edible nests using chow mein noodles mixed with melted chocolate chips and melted butterscotch chips. I forgot to include melted marshmallows, which really help the “twigs” stick together better. But these turned out pretty cute anyway, especially with the chocolate robin egg candies nestled in them.
During the party, we listened to some music — Carmen MacRae’s “When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob, Bobbin’ Along;” Joel Hansen’s “Songbird;” and “Carnival of the Animals: Aviary” by Saint-Saëns.
The best highlight of the party, though, was when the girls took turns making their own mud pies with earthworms. Here’s Laurel showing the ingredients for such a pie.
- small graham cracker pie shells (ours were from Keebler)
- finely crushed chocolate Teddy Grahams (the dirt)
- milk chocolate pudding (the mud)
- gummy worms
- whipped cream (melting snow)
Stick the worm(s) in first and then assemble as desired for a delicious mud pie!
Prior to the party, my daughters and I read A Nest Full of Eggs, by Priscilla Beltz Jenkins, which would have been great to include during the tea party. And, incidently, we found the robin poem by Louisa May Alcott earlier this year when we read a book called Louisa May and Mr. Thoreau’s Flute, which was also a great book.
Happy spring!
The Paramount Reason We Homeschool
Homeschooling — that’s what I having been doing with my daughters since birth, though I didn’t really realize it in those early years. Yes, I considered myself a stay-at-home mom, but I never thought of myself as a homeschool mom until much later. Even so, in those early years, we spent hours playing with playdough, baking together, digging in a makeshift sensory tub, going on field trips, coloring, pretending, making up stories and reading, reading, reading all sorts of children’s books. It was very challenging many days, but it felt like the most natural thing in the world.
Taking my oldest to preschool when she was almost 5, on the other hand, felt very unnatural. Yes, she had a wonderful time there and made friends. Yes, we both liked her teacher and the teacher’s assistant very much. But I just never had a peace about sending here there, especially after the terrible asthma episode she had that fall. She constantly needed breathing treatments and was still too young to use an inhaler. How I fretted each morning, trying to fit breathing treatments into the already tight morning routine. Then every time I kissed her goodbye, I wondered what her oxygen level was and whether her lungs were working well. Yes I prayed, but I also worried a lot.
In retrospect, I can say that God spoke to me that preschool year. Through my daughter’s asthma and the trials we faced, God showed me that He was calling our family to do something different. He showed me that — at least for now — homeschooling is an opportunity for Him to reveal Himself to our family and display His glory, power and strength.
In her book Discerning the Voice of God, author Priscilla Shirer says,
“When you face two options and each seems to please God, consider the one that displays God’s glory, power and strength. This makes room for God to reveal Himself to you and show Himself through you. God wants us to see the wondrous things He will accomplish in us. Don’t be fearful about the hard road He may ask you to take. Be encouraged and excited about seeing His divine, supernatural activity in and through you… God’s voice commands the option that will display His power. He desires to show Himself strong in you and will encourage you to do things that require trust and faith.”
In deciding to homeschool, I came across many, many reasons why it would be a good fit for our family. But this one is paramount — that God’s power could be displayed through homeschooling. For me, it requires much trust and faith to educate my kids. Since I don’t have a background in teaching, God really has to show Himself strong in our homeschool. And He does. Even in planning the little details, as you may recall in this post about orchestrating the swans. God is faithful to equip me and encourage me and do it also!
So, whether you are contemplating homeschooling or contemplating some other hard road, may you listen closely to God’s voice and allow Him to display His incomparably great power in your life!
Our Flower Girls
“See the winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come.” -Song of Solomon 2:11-12
When Michael and I got married nearly 14 years ago, we had dozens of tulips but we didn’t have a single flower girl in the ceremony. We just didn’t know any young girls of the proper age to assign that role, except one whose family wasn’t able to attend the event. So I felt a little sad not having a flower girl in my wedding, but it was just as well. God’s desire was to bless us far beyond getting someone else’s a little girl all dressed up to toss out a few petals and fidget for the rest of a 45-minute ceremony.
Yes, God’s blessed us far beyond our wildest imaginations. Today we have two flower girls, and cumulatively they have blessed us with 11 years worth of all things flowery, dressy and girly — and I have a feeling there are still many more years of that to come.
Since they were wee little ones, hardly able to walk, our daughters have been our flower girls, pondering many a petal and sniffing each bloom thoughtfully.
Linnea always has been the chief flower sniffer among us.
When she was small, Linnea demanded to sniff any real or fake flower within a 5-mile radius.
She gladly helped me plant Impatiens in the backyard, and she sniffed them plenty, too.
Just a few weeks ago, she confirmed that this lily smelled quite lovely indeed.
Now Laurel, on the other hand, always has been the chief caretaker of the flowers.
She’s always eager to relieve the Impatiens of their endless thirst.
And she’s always quick on the draw with a watering can.
Even the petunias wave in delight when Laurel comes share her sprinkles.
I’m sure my daughters’ flower sniffing and watering obsessions have nothing to do with the fact that both their names are also the names of flowers (Linnea is the national flower of Sweden, and the Mountain Laurel is the state flower of Pennsylvania and Connecticut.)
I’m sure it has more to do with the fact that God created in them a need to behold and connect with something beautiful, a need for Him. Flowers are His creation, His handiwork. And right now God’s handiwork is blooming all over the countryside, beautifully showing us just a glimpse of our Creator’s indescribable glory.
“See the winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come.” -Song of Solomon 2:11-12
In Oregon earlier this month, the girls found flowers on a little nature walk we took in Lake Oswego.
Our stroll took us along part of this avenue of blooming crab apple trees.
Also, if you read this earlier post, you may recall the magnolia tree I mentioned was almost done blooming in the courtyard when we visited Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland. The blooms looked like this:
And beneath the tree, the girls scrambled to collect fistfuls of fallen blooms.
Surely by now you can imagine why we just had to take our flower girls to the tulip festival in Oregon.
With tulips in nearly every color of the rainbow, the festival was truly a tulip-lover’s paradise, a botanical feast for the eyes.
It wasn’t easy, but somehow our flower girls victoriously overcame the temptation to pick the tulips. We did buy a lovely bouquet of tulips for my aunt, which helped us not feel so empty-handed. I kept longing to bring some of the tulips home with us, but instead I brought home another treasure: this picture of our flower girls admiring the tulips.
I love that they are equipped with rubber boots and raincoats beneath a bright blue, sunshiny sky. The path was muddy and bumpy, and they splashed through dozens of puddles along the way. But the beauty around them made it all worthwhile.
I also love that this picture offers so much perspective on life. If I focus too much on my own two boots and the muddy trial I’m walking through, I get bogged down and discouraged. But if I look upward, I see the rain is over and gone. I see the Son shining down on me, lighting my path.
And if I look out beyond my path, I see fields of precious people, flowers quickly fading. They are here today, but many will be gone tomorrow. Some are ripe for harvest. Some have already turned toward the Light. Others will turn to Him eventually. And still others will never turn toward the Light of the World, Jesus. That’s a godly perspective of which I need to be constantly reminded. When I see those around me as flowers quickly fading — here today and gone tomorrow — I treat them differently. I am more loving, more patient, more heart-broken, and more passionate about sharing my faith in Christ Jesus.
So, because I love this picture and because I love our precious flower girls, and yes, because I love tulips — in case I left any doubt about that — the tulip festival leaves big shoes to fill on our next nature walk!
Wouldn’t you agree?
Victory over the Giants
“For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.” – Deuteronomy 20:4
You’ve read about Goliath and maybe even Jack and the Beanstalk. Tucked safely inside a storybook is indeed a wonderful place to keep a giant. But did you know there are bigger giants lurking around your homeschool?
They aren’t often named, but giant pitfalls do threaten our homeschool families, says Rachael Carman, a homeschool mother and an author and speaker for Apologia Educational Ministries.
In some families, these giants take the form of unrealistic expectations, over-spending, over-scheduling, or isolation. In others, the giants are making family an idol, having a tendency to judge, being overly dependent on authority and control, or striving to convince everyone else that they should homeschool, too. Still countless other giants threaten to steal the abundant life Jesus offers us.
“There are giants in the land,” Carman says. “But God is bigger.”
So whatever giant you face, don’t minimize it. Take it on in the name of the Lord. And be sure you give that giant a name!
“Acknowledge them. Write them down. Lay them before the Lord,” Carman says. “Acknowledge the giants, and then when God slays them, celebrate what God can do.”
God doesn’t want us just to survive homeschooling, she says. He intends for us to soar beyond survival. He wants us to love Him, love each other, and learn something. What’s more, He wants us to pass it on – not because homeschooling is the answer, but because Jesus is the answer.
Carman says we are called to total satisfaction – an abundant life that is beyond what we could ask or imagine. We are also called to faithfulness.
“God is going to walk with you when you put your hope in the Lord,” Carman says.
Likewise, Isaiah 40:29-31 says: “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
Carman offers four sure-fire tactics for taking on these giants in our homes.
1. Set your mind on God’s word. Meditate on it and memorize it.
2. Fix your eyes on heaven. Imagine heaven and press on toward it, she says, just as Paul talks about in Philippians 3:13-14.
3. “We are in a battle and not at a tea party,” she says. “Fight! Use the shield! It is not your imagination; you are being shot at!”
The word of God is the sword of the Spirit, and that sword is heavy. You must build up your muscles in order to use it well, she says.
“The only real word of encouragement comes from the word of God,” she says.
Stand firm and suit up for battle. Carman points to Ephesians 6:10-17, the passage which details the full armor of God.
4. Train your mind to think on the things listed in Philippians 4:8 – “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
*Note: Rachael Carman spoke at the Hearts-at-Home Conference in Rochester, MN, last fall.
Our Oregon Trail – Part 3
12 Reasons to Go Back to Oregon
Aside from the fact that we now have relatives living in Portland and several relatives within half a day’s drive of that charming city, we came up with still more reasons to visit Oregon again someday. I thought I’d share them with you, just in case you get there before we do!
5. Myrtle wood
9. Astoria
12. Mt. Hood
Our Oregon Trail – Part 2
8 things we loved about Oregon:
1. Wooden Shoe 25th Annual Tulip Fest
2. The Bishop’s Close Elk Rock Gardens
4. Pipe organs at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral
7. Mt. Hood
8. Oregon Zoo
Our Oregon Trail – Part 1
More than 150 years ago, pioneers traveled west along the Oregon Trail — from Independence, MO, to Oregon City, OR, — in wagon trains. In early spring, folks loaded their most essential belongings into covered wagons, and their difficult journey took months. They overcame countless challenges along the way, like encountering unfriendly Indians, crossing raging rivers, passing over vast mountain ranges, and dodging herds of buffalo and other wild animals. If and when they finally arrived, they had to start anew just as winter weather set in. But the beautiful, lush and fertile lands of the Willamette Valley offered settlers great hope for a bright future.
Those old covered wagons were probably only slightly more roomy than the space allowed our family of four airline ticket holders bound for Oregon. We packed our most essential belongings into five suitcases, a camera bag, and two small backpacks.
By comparison, our journey west wasn’t difficult at all. It took only a few hours to fly from Minneapolis to Portland. Cruising at 36,000 feet, we safely crossed many a river and mountain without even noticing them. The only challenges we faced were crossing through airport security, hunting for much-loved relatives scattered across the city, and adjusting our stomachs and sleep schedules to Pacific Time.
But like those early pioneers, we found the Willamette Valley lush and beautiful.
During our five-day trip, we rendezvoused with my grandma and lots of other extended family to celebrate her 90th birthday.
Also during our stay, my uncle was ordained and consecrated by the Episcopal Church as the 10th Bishop of Oregon. It was quite an elaborate ceremony, especially for a Baptist like me who rarely experiences “high church” as some call it. His attire included these ornate vestments – a cope, stole and mitre.
On Sunday, our family attended church at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in downtown Portland.
The century old building is a work of art, and the beautiful blooming magnolia tree in the courtyard was quite a sight to behold as well.
Come back soon! I’ll share eight things we loved about Oregon in Part 2.
All Dressed Up
A couple of weeks ago, Laurel received the costume she will wear at her dance concert in May, and she had to try it on of course.
Linnea just received her costume for the ballet concert this week.
Words to Ponder
resurrection power now
These are words to ponder.
God has led me to the first chapter of Ephesians this week and — as He would have it — the passage I am focusing on is the same one that Pastor John Piper (Desiring God/Bethlehem Baptist) preached from on Easter. He titles his sermon The Immeasurable Greatness of His Power Toward Us.
Ephesians 1 is also the topic of this Daily Reflection post over at The High Calling of Our Daily Work.
May the eyes of our hearts be truly sharpened to spiritual reality so that we may know this resurrection power now.
Also, homeschool moms will find more words to ponder in this post: Homeschooling with Grace.
Starlight Writer 