Celebrate Today- ceremonies and celebrations to make your days count

Today is the 25th of July which is celebrated as Christmas in July by some.  When I sent some candy canes this morning for Anna to share with some of the girls at her running camp for the occasion, she loved it and described me as "festive" when she passed them out and explained the reason behind the peppermint treat.  On the other hand, when Taylor saw that I had gotten out a few Christmas decorations for a dinner party tonight, he pretended to gag and thought I was so weird to get out Christmas decor in the summer.  Oh well- it was indeed festive at our house, and I'm grateful for a chance to be merry anytime of the year.  with the Whites and some new friends we met from UPC from Brazil 

Every year at our Teacher Brunch, I pull out these two copies of this classic Dr. Seuss book Oh, the Places You'll Go!   We started getting teachers to sign these since Anna and Taylor were in preschool and kindergarten, and it's turned into quite the time capsule through the years to have this window into teachers' comments through the years.  I sent the book to school with Anna and Taylor the last week of school to get the final signatures from teachers who could not come to our brunch, and I finally pulled the books out of the kids' backpacks just last week. I am grateful for these teachers who have invested in them and who have been a part of their stories this past year. 

Pentecost always reminds me of this favorite benediction  from our sweet church family in Knoxville at St. John's Lutheran.  "It is time to go and be His witnesses. And as we go we pray that the Lord would bless us and keep us, the Lord make his face to shine upon us and be gracious unto us. May God give us grace never to sell ourselves short, grace to risk something big for something good, grace to realize that the world is much too small for anything but love, and much too dangerous for anything but truth. And now may God take our minds and think through them, and may God take our lips and speak through them, and may God take our hearts and set them on fire. In the name of Jesus Christ who goes with us always. Amen." red decorations at UPC today to celebrate  balloons from our kitchen today to mark the day... 

Easter was on April 16th. Today is May 11th.  We just got around to digging up the Alleluia ribbons that we had buried on Ash Wednesday.  In some traditions, the word "alleluia" is not used during Lent, but then the word is brought back on Easter with great celebration throughout the service with shouts of praise and with songs.    These ribbons that we stick in a bag and bury underground during Lent serve as a tangible picture of that.   The thing is that this year, we just forgot to get them on Easter and then we kept putting it off. On one day that I remembered, it was raining hard and we did not want to make a mess with the mud. Another time I remembered, but it was getting too dark.  So, finally today, we got out the shovel and freed them from their time underground.  According to the church calendar, Easter is a season (like Advent or Lent) that lasts 50 days. So, it's still Easter and we can keep on celebrating the resurrection...

Happy May Day! While  May 1st totally slipped my mind last year , I had it on the calendar this time around so that I would not forget to make little flower cones for the kids to deliver after school today. When I picked them up, I reminded them that it was May Day and that they got to take a few spring flowers to some neighbors while trying not to get caught.  After I announced this in the car, I pretty much got the response of " Mom, do we have to ?!" But they did go and they even let me take a few pictures.  And for the record, they came back with hearts racing as they had tried to be sneaky,  and I think they might even admit to having had some fun.  I just have to trust that someday they will look back on these little traditions and smile  (even though I know I might get a few eyes rolling in my direction at some of my ideas to celebrate the day every now and then!) 

This Lenten season, I found myself so aware of my need to turn to God as my disappointments and failures led me to depend on God more fully. This crown of thorns is such a gift to me each year, but it seemed especially poignant this year as it was a tangible reminder of the choice I have each moment to run to God and not away from him.  Hallelujah!  Today we celebrate that are beloved and set free.  He is risen. He is risen indeed!  holding onto our faith that we can wear forgiveness like a crown ... 

This morning, I had the idea of swapping Anna and Taylor's blankets on their beds, but even through I woke up early, it completely bombed.  I went in to take Taylor's comforter off his bed and was successful in not waking him up. But when I went in to get Anna's blanket, she felt me removing some of the pillows off her bed, and I quickly snuck out of the room. Jason was in the hallway and then went into check on her. She opened her eyes and said, "Ha. Ha. Happy April Fools' Day." She was groggy and did not know what we were up to, but she had a suspicion we were up to no good.  I gave up this plan and left Taylor's blanket in the hall thinking that I might be able to still make this work if they fell back asleep.  But, Taylor woke up about 30 minutes later and was wondering where his blanket was at all. So, Taylor thought that my prank was just stealing his blanket and making him cold rather than my brilliant plan to have him wake up with a flowery c...