:( We had to do that at our church once, and it wasn't even a holiday. This morning, we decided not to go to church. We'll leave the seats for people who aren't regular attenders. The day turned out great, because DH read the resurrection story to the kids, and then we tried to fly kites (but the "ascension" will have to wait until a windier day ;)), and we ended up fishing. It was a fun family day.

We're considering making up our own garden/food-based seasonal celebrations, a la Thanksgiving (with all of it as more of a focus on thankfulness). Thanks for this description! It sounds like a meaningful tradition.

Do any Christians celebrate Passover instead of Easter? Just trying to think of alternatives...

My dad asks for sauerkraut every year for his birthday. Whenever we arrive, the house reeks of it. But we all keep coming, because we love my dad.

Unthinkable. I'm terribly sorry. :(

Our family is in the middle of discussing this right now. In the past, we've been really laid-back about how we celebrate holidays. I see it kind of like the "meat sacrificed to idols" issue in 1 Corinthians 10. I'm not bothered by the origins of holidays. But if someone else is, it would be wrong for that person to celebrate them. It is important to me that our family has regular, repeated traditions that bring us together, though.

My 22 month old ds is at the 2nd percentile for height. He drinks plenty of milk (and he's chunky). My 3.5yo dd has the same diet, and she's closer to 95th percentile for height. I'm concerned about ds, and I hope to get a more in-depth check at our next peds appt. I don't think it has anything to do with milk, though.

This is what I'd do, too - get my digital photos weeded out, printed, and into scrapbooks. If this task were done (definitely a fantasy) I'd spend my day... taking photos! :D Somewhere beautiful, of course.

It's hard for me, too. I'm 92% sure we're done having kids... but I'm also hoping my little sister will have a girl soon, so I can pass those big boxes down to her.

Wow, such a wealth of resources! I could get lost reading about Steiner/Waldorf. I've never read anything written by Maria von Trapp. She inspires me that our traditions don't have to look like everyone else's. I also read the morning prayers from the Common Book of Prayer this morning. There are lots of good things to memorize there (although I may use the translation of the Bible verses that is more familiar to me). I'm glad this thread has been useful to more than just me. :001_smile: Thank you, everyone!

bump I'm interested, too. I've marked it for "later years."

I'm trying to keep it at $500 per child per year. I could spend a lot more. My kids are just a little older than yours. One budgeting mistake I made was underestimating how much their abilities change in these early years. We're only ordering curriculum once a year, so I've had to scramble to find things that are at their level right now, until I can get the new order placed. In addition to the "formal" curriculum order, I spend completely unknown amounts of money from our monthly budget, just buying computer paper, construction paper, tape, staples, crayons, little activity books, stickers, self-contained craft projects, readers, and so on.

I don't have one, either, but I'm pretty new to hsing. I read these forums as I have time, which helps. I fit with classical in some ways (but not all), STEM in some ways, maybe a bit Montessori. I'm not worried about having a philosophy right now. I'm sure I do have one - I just haven't found a description for it yet. ;)

Thank you for all the resources and explanations, everyone. Bluegoat, thanks for your original quote and for the explanation of yearly, weekly, and daily cycles. I'll take a look at the Book of Common Prayer. This will be very helpful in talking to DH about the reasons for the dates. I think he is less than impressed by the origins of most of our holidays. It doesn't bother me at all, but I want to respect his point of view. Thanks for making it simple! :001_smile: It's easy to get overwhelmed with so many resources. We're not Catholic, so I'm also trying to figure out what we'd need to alter...

Thanks for the link. That post stretches my view of the Incarnation as much as anything. I'm not always sure I agree with Enns, but his POV gives a safe framework for looking at my questions. Whenever I read Enns, the arguments in my head end up pointing me back to the basics of the Gospel. Mostly, it's nice to be able to pay attention to the questions without having my entire faith wrecked because I don't know how or don't have the time to find all the answers. I can see how not everyone would feel that way... but so far, his writings have been what I need right now.

If you do anything with liturgy and the church calendar (two separate issues) at home, how do you do it? I'm asking the liturgy question because of this comment in the thread about introverts at church: DH and I like our church. We don't want to switch, but it is non-liturgical. I was wondering if there is a way to supplement at home. I don't even know if my question makes sense. I didn't grow up in a liturgical church, so I'm not sure how this looks or where to begin. Also, do you have any family traditions that are based solely on the church calendar, aside from traditional holidays? I can add more explanation if needed. We're usually very relaxed about these types of things, but DH threw me for a loop with some of his thoughts recently. Some part of me resists becoming strict about anything spiritual. I don't think it hurts to learn more about these things, though, or to teach them to my kids. We're just exploring right now, I guess. I hope this makes sense...

I'll offer a slightly different perspective. We had a ped across town, and we liked him fine. We switched to one who was closer to us, and she was very abrupt. I wish we'd stuck with the first one. At this point, I'm planning to switch to an FP who was recommended to us. My only concern is whether the FP will be willing to refer when necessary. I had an FP many years ago who kept trying to treat my condition for two years. He should have referred me at the first appt. When I did finally see a specialist, he referred me directly to a sub-specialist. (That FP had other issues that came up later, so this wasn't a normal situation.) Any doctor should be willing to refer as needed, and I'll probably be extra cautious about this because of my experience.

To make them true pets, you'd need to spend a lot of time with them when they're very young. You might be able to tame them a little bit later by offering grain or corn from your hand. I had a single pet duck several years ago. He was very tame - so sweet. Last year, we got a herd of ducks. These ducks aren't very tame, because I'm too busy to sit out there with them. But they're still fun to have, and they keep grasshoppers to a minimum around the garden. Ducks make easy prey to foxes, coyotes, raccoons, and even owls. We shut ours into a pen with a roof every night. They know where they're supposed to go, and it's easy to herd them in there. Our first duck used to chase the DH's lawnmower around the yard.

:grouphug: You don't ever really know what someone else's life is like or what may be causing them pain. We all do the best we can with what we're given. "Looking impressive" may not be all it's cracked up to be. I guess I'm at a point where I value friendships that look past all that other stuff.

DH is an MD. We've spent most of our dozen years of marriage finishing school.

I wear mine all the time, except a short period of time when I had an allergic reaction to it (pregnancy related). DH has to take his off frequently for his job. Sometimes he has it on, sometimes not.

B.A. in Communications Studies, emphasis in journalism Favorite job: Working for a public health department, editing research papers for submission to journals I'd like to go back to school, but like a PP said, I also like staying home. DH likes being the breadwinner, and he's good at it. Going to school purely for enrichment isn't on the priority list any time soon.

My dd got separated from me for 60 seconds in the mall, with a crowd of people between us. (A friend was with me, and there was momentary confusion over who had her.) When I got there, a handful of people had grouped around my crying dd, trying to be sure she was safe. I was so terrified that all I could do was hug her tightly. I regret that I didn't say a word of thanks to the people around her. I wish I could go back and tell them how extremely grateful I am, but my mind was frozen at that point. If my kid had fallen into a fountain... I would have been so angry with myself and so scared that I don't think I could have thanked anyone, either. I'm sure the parents are far more grateful than they could express at the time. You also never know how this will affect them. That's a pretty awful thing to happen. I won't go back to the mall again, ever, and I won't go to any busy place with a person who might distract me from keeping an eye on my kids myself. You never know how this experience might change that family. And, by the way, that was pretty heroic of you! :001_smile:

That's a great article. DH is an INTJ, and going to church has always been an issue for him, even though he doesn't seem to struggle spiritually in other ways. We prefer the style of "sociable" churches over the "liturgical" ones, though. Thankfully, we seem to have found a non-liturgical church that is guided by a large number of intellectual introverts - and plenty of extroverts, too. I'm an introvert, and I often feel guilty for not "welcoming" people around me all the time. I wish the article had gone into more detail about the ways introverts are valuable within the church. Thanks for this! :001_smile:

I understand your question - although I wasn't brave enough to ask! :001_smile: And part of the reason is that it hits a raw spot for me, personally. I've done just enough digging to know that I want to do more. I was both relieved and apprehensive to find his work. His writing begins to bridge the gap between my plague of questions and my conviction that God wants to be personally involved with us. My biggest worry is that TGS could over-intellectualize my kids' spiritual journey at a young age. I want them to learn a childlike love for God. I plan to use TGS this coming year or next, watching to see what my kids are picking up. A lot of that childlike love has to be learned from a parent anyway. ;) And for that reason, I almost want to go through TGS just for my sake, because it looks like it would at least acknowledge the questions that always pop up when I try to read the Bible. ( <=== raw spot :( )