The conscious choice I made to embrace Christian music and reject hypocrisy

An old friend of mine recently made the comment to me at a wedding reception that he was surprised and caught off guard that the newest mix cd I made for friends was steered in the direction it was. He isn't, and never expected me to be, a fan of "Christian music" of which many of the songs I chose were. It didn't surprise me that it surprised him. It was a surprise to myself. Not because I am not a Christian, because I am. But because it's a genre that I'm only recently exploring over the last two years. One of the slightly intoxicated comments he innocently made was that he has always felt that Christian music is an oxymoron.

I have been chuckling about this, in small doses, ever since.

It started that I simply didn't listen to any music with profanity in it once I had children. They were always with me in the car or anywhere, and if we weren't listening to the rock-and-roll version of the ABC song, or talk radio, then it was family friendly music, of which I had a descent collection of anyway, (I've never been 'mainstream' in music) just weeded out a few cds here and there that weren't appropriate for young, precious ears. As my young daughter has approached the tender age of 5, and is growing her range of friends, I found myself analyzing things deeper. Her friends in our homeschool group and in girl scouts range in age. She has best friends who are 4, and best friends that are 5, 6, 7, 8, and even 9. She spends quality time at length with some of these older girls from our hs group, and luckily because they aren't mainstream families, I don't have to worry about them influencing her in the same way older girls of mainstream would. (They play with Barbies and My-Little-Ponies together, not blaring Hannah Montana and trying on training bras!) As she grows through her childhood, her friends will pick up more influence of her, too. My husband and I have issues with the way society tries to steal the youth of little girls. Dressing them as if they were young Britney Spears wannabes, or entire lines of clothes that are aimed at creating fashionable miniature sex objects. Six-to-eight year olds are being sent to school even in our small town with skimpy skirts, "sexy" shirts and, yes, even knee-high black boots. I don't know why some moms feel pressured or agree to allowing their young daughters to be visually prostituted in this way. Is it just like anything else people give no thought to? Do they simply go with what they find on a mainstream rack at the store because the ads and their girls tell them "it's the style" and play on their need to conform and have their children fit in? At what expense? You aren't helping that child's self esteem by making them think clothing and conforming is the way to attain it. But it expands beyond clothing. The media uses every opportunity to market to young girls in this way. That includes television, movies... and music.

Knowing you want to combat our culture and actually doing it, are two different things. Many songs, even if I'm not a fan, have catchy beats and attract attention... but as one good friend humorously pointed out, I don't need my 4-year-old daughter asking me what Lady Gaga's disco stick is.

So it started me on the path to find "cool" music that also packed a meaning. Striving to live the character model I'd like the kids to follow started me down the road to Christian music. My kids are growing up and starting to slowly notice that the world has things to offer. Someday they'll be immersed even more in the consumer-driven world, and hopefully by then we will have instilled the values they need to fully be individuals and make their own decisions. I can't control everything that they see, hear or do. But it is my God-given job to shape it, and that means living and leading by example. I'm thankful for the change in perspective, because I've made the conscious choice that listening to music that reflects your values is not just a smart moral imperative when it comes to raising kids, but even a very cool oxymoron. Yes, it may be rhetorical, even though there is no inherent contradiction, but the properties of faith and music most certainly can occur together. In fact, the irony is, I find the contradiction to be on the contrary. Kids have enough idioms in the world, and the obvious is never "needless to say". Indeed, the trap of allowing things to go unsaid or grow in assumption when it comes to little ones is, at the very least, irresponsible. It matters more the older my children become. Not that we'll "exclusively" listen to just Christian music. But doing what's in the best interest of my children has continued to shape and inspire me into a better version of myself. As with so many other outwardly choices I've made in my life as a parent to avoid dreaded hypocrisy and to show through example what matters in life, I've embraced the journey of finding music that moves me body, mind and soul, and I've grown beyond the need to disregard such inspiration simply because it's considered "cool" and "clever" to only imply and read between the lines to find the depths of revelation.

I find much more grace and revelation in dancing in the kitchen with my kids to Jamie Grace's "Hold Me," than in Gwen Stefani's "Holla-back Girl."

Stone Soup, making memories along the way

Cold rain was drizzling down the windows of our Thursday. The kids started out the school day reading and listening along to "Stone Soup" on tape. A story where an old woman says she has no food for a tired boy, so he asks her instead for a stone to make soup from. She has never heard of it, so she wants to watch him make it. He gets her to add things by saying stuff like, "it's cooking fast now, but it would cook faster with some onions... it's smelling good now, but it would smell better with some carrots... it's thin now, but it would be thicker with some butter and barley" etc. etc. She doesn't catch on that the stone really has nothing to do with it. It's just vegetable soup (& beef and potato) that happens to have a stone in the bottom of the pot. There are many different versions of the story. We used Stone Soup by Ann Mcgovern.
My kids listened to it twice, as I added wood to the fire. It was the perfect day for soup. We decided to make real Stone Soup for lunch and turn it into a small unit study for the day. It took all morning to make. As it cooked, we colored a variety of Stone Soup pages and incorporated Bible verses, too, from Lapbooklessons.com. We also used it as an opportunity to talk about the Bible story of Five Loaves of Bread and Two Fish with some of the pages provided. We followed the recipe from the book and added a few small things. The kids did nearly all of it. They also had fun comparing that the stone would sink, while the onions would float. The soup was so tasty, and no, we didn't eat the stone. :) (We saved it for dad's bowl, though.)





Stone Soup
Scrub a stone clean, boil it in a pot of water.
Add onions, garlic, celery, carrots.
Potatoes (not in this version of the story, but is in others and tasty! We cut them up and left the skins on)
"Beef Bones" (we added chunks of beef roast)
Salt and pepper
Butter & Barley (and a little bit of milk, from another version of the story)
A tiny bit of beef broth, if needed.
Enjoy, and share! ;)

Egypt Excitation: Our Educational Adventures

"Mom, can we learn about Egypt?" my kindergartner inquired in August. Absolutely! Using multifarious library books, and Susan Wise Bauer's "Story of the World: Ancient Times" curriculum, we were off. Bauer's history text and study guide start off covering archaeology, a fun subject for our house (See my posts Treasure Hunting and Archaeology Dig Day).

From building (and flooding) the Nile River to creating cuisine fit for a pharaoh, we've occasioned ourselves to many adventure over the last 2 months. My kids don't want the fun of Egypt to be over, so we're continuing. The best blessing of all came from our trip down to the Indianapolis Children's Museum this month where our friends invited us to stay. We were able to explore their phenomenal, elaborate "Take me there Egypt" exhibit, as well as their National Geographic "Treasures of the Earth" archaeology exhibit. The entire museum was incredible, and added the most amazing hands-on learning opportunities for our homeschool.






Egyptian Ful Medames
I'm actually going to keep Ful Medames in our rotation of recipes, it was so simple, nutritious and fun for the kids. Hard-boil some eggs, peel and mash them small. Add them into a saucepan of beans (I used pinto), fresh garlic and a tablespoon or so of olive oil. Heat. Serve it on a circle of lettuce (think like a leafy bowl) with bread on the side. Yum!! Thanks, Egypt! :)



^ Reed Boats made of straws





There was a passenger jet at the entrance of the Egypt exhibit in Indianapolis. It was meant to simulate our flight to Egypt where the kids could then explore Egyptian homes, marketplaces, herbalists, transportation, etc. etc. As the "flight" started, my daughter looked over at me with genuine panic and exclaimed, "I'm not buckled!!" It was epically awesome.
















It's been absolutely amazing and the fun still isn't over. Where will our home education journey take us next?
"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." -Albert Einstein

Mississinewa: Stepping back in time to 1812

Mississinewa 1812 is the largest War of 1812 living history event in the United States. It is literally like taking a step back in time 200 years to 1812.

British and American Military Encampments and battle reenactments, Indian villages and legends, hundreds of merchants demonstrating 18th Century arts, food and drinks, muskets, candles, soaps, clothing and entertainment, including an old fashion miming clown and a fire-swallowing performer who entertained us in the town square. Even life along the rivers and streams in 1812 was recreated in the longhunter, trapper, voyager, and wilderness camps along the river.

Experiencing Mississinewa is hardly describable. It stretched for acres. The hands-on learning was endless, and the people reenacting the period were happy to talk and teach the kids as we explored their camps, browsed their shops and enjoyed the period food. It was an awesome, historical day. Leading up, we touched on a few books, including William Bennett's "Children's Book of America", that included the story of the Star Spangled Banner, which was written during the war of 1812.

We'll be making reference to the battle reenactment and the entire of experience of Mississinewa 1812 as a learning tool for a long time.