We're not crazy enough or to be truthful, NOT disciplined enough to give up one thing for 40 whole days. I don't know how Christ fasted for 40 days when I find it difficult to give up a small comfort for that long period of time. We want our "giving up" to bring us back to thinking about Christ's sacrifice for us on the cross and not just a meaningless tradition we start so we are easing ourselves into this whole idea of giving up. Instead of giving up one thing for a long period of time, we are choosing to pick four different things and putting those on hold for a week at a time. (So, do the math and realize we aren't even gonna make it to 40 days). Here are some of the HARD choices for our family of seven:
SODA
MOVIES
VOX (yes, I will actually go one whole week without a post :o)
SWEETS
IPODS
COFFEE
SNACKS
VIDEO GAMES
READING FICTION FOR PLEASURE
A lot of these are "good things" but can easily turn to idols and so it will be a challenge to give up some of these pleasures and depend on God when we find ourselves reaching for _________ during a particular week. Today was already challenging... I've given up sweets this week and I had to forego the desire of adding sugar to my coffee :o( God is good... He is much better than even sugar.
Next Lent, we hope to lengthen our sacrifices and give up 3 things for 2 weeks each and so on through the years until we can give up our biggest idol for 40 whole days!
We are continuing our celebration of the Christian year. Today is traditionally called Shrove Tuesday and it is also famous for Mardi Gras (translation, Fat Tuesday)... It's time to party before giving up and sacrificing during the season of Lent which begins tomorrow with Ash Wednesday! Being new to all this and trying to infuse meaning into these occasions rather than just celebrating empty holidays that many of these events have become to parts of the church and to the nation as a whole, we kept our first Shrove Tuesday relatively low-key sharing our time and our PANCAKES with friends. Yes you heard right! Pancakes for dinner with chocolate chips, strawberries, bananas, nuts and whip cream to top it all off... (Why pancakes? Read below if you're interested). It was yummilicious and of course as usual, we played some silly kid games and talked about the meaning of this holiday. Now, on to Ash Wednesday and 40 days of "giving up" as we await the glorious season of Palm Sunday with His triumphant entry and Resurrection Easter Sunday!
Shrove Tuesday: The Pancake Fest
Shrove Tuesday gets its name from the ritual of shriving, when the faithful confessed their sins to the local priest and recieved forgiveness before the Lenten season began.
As far back as 1000 AD, "to shrive" meant to hear confessions. (Trivia note: the term survives today in the expression "short shrift" or giving little attention to anyone's explanations or excuses).
Historically, Shrove Tuesday also marked the beginning of the 40-day Lenten fasting period when the faithful were forbidden by the church to consume meat, butter, eggs or milk. However, if a family had a store of these foods they all would go bad by the time the fast ended on Easter Sunday. What to do?
Solution: use up the milk, butter and eggs no later than Shrove Tuesday. And so, with the addition of a little flour, the solution quickly presented itself in... pancakes. And lots of 'em.
Us Coles and our Fernandez friends had a really special night at the Winter Sports Banquet at Grace Academy! We were thoroughly ecstatic when AMANDA received the most improved award for the individual who continually kept getting better and better from the first day of practice to the last meet with the most amazing amount of personal best times!
As for STEPHEN, we were overjoyed when his name was announced as the recipient of the Lion Heart Award! This award is given to the one who put the team above himself, was an encouragement to his teammates, employed consistent hard work at practice and meets and also showed increasing improvement during the season. We are so proud of him! He has really grown into the meaning of his name, "servant leader." This video is for Howard, who due to always having to work on Thursdays was unable to be there tonight....
Now that Grace Lions is over for the season, Steve and Sam have started a 3-month training stint with the Stingrays, a homeschool hour swim club down the street from us that uses the same pool that Grace did. That will take them through till May when our neighborhood pool is finally open for the season! Sam has decided that although he 'likes' basketball that it isn't a sport he wants to continue unlike his brother Chris who is learning to love it more and more. So, since big bro Steve loves swimming, he wants to learn to love it too. We shall see how he fares this Spring!
Now that we are in our 3rd year in a southern state, I figure it is about time to read the famous book and then watch the movie Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. So far, as I'm only a third of the way through, it has been riveting and eye-opening even if it is from the viewpoint of a very selfish and self-consumed charater as Scarlet O'Hara. It is quite a contrast to Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe and how the this novel portrayed the Civil war.
Yesterday, we visited the Latta Plantation up in Northwest Charlotte area and the reality of the backdrop of this book came alive to me. I saw pictures of slave cabins and slaves, the actual 'great house' on the plantation and the history of this cotton plantation family in the 1860's, the exact time and era of this book!
Although the war and the issues of the 1860's were not necessarily glorious days, there is something of the simplicity of the times in some ways that is intriguing. A volunteer showed us how to light a fire without matches or a lighter, we watched girls cooking over an open fire and baking apple pie in a dutch oven and we enjoyed learning how to dance together as a family. It was all very interesting but has made me even more thankful to be living in our times even with our current struggles as a nation and as a people. God is sovereign over all history through the good and the evil. It may be hard to understand and grasp the hugeness of it all but it is reassuring to know our Creator holds history in His hands.
The Grace Lions season officially ended yesterday with the team having their own private meet to beat their best times for the season. This truly was a bunch of neat teens; very encouraging and inclusive of one another from 7th to 12th grade. The Coach was also a big hit with the students, truly an "awesome" man and very inspiring!
The other four Cole kids were able to help time by pressing a button in case the touch pads failed and had fun contributing to the meet. Afterward, the whole crew was treated to a free dinner at one of the swimmer's family restaurant in Charlotte. What a treat!
up to the highest height.... Everytime a kite is mentioned, the song from Mary Poppings just seems to pop into my head! It's such a beautiful day today... 70 degrees in the middle of winter. So, the boys set off to enjoy the spring-like breezy afternoon.
For some reason, we all thought this Honda Civic 2000 was supposed to be 'black' and to our delight it is a blu-ish green tint. No buzzes and whistles (meaning you actually have to use your own elbow grease to roll those windows up and down) but it looks and drives like NEW although it is as old as Samuel and has less mileage than our 2005 one. With some TLC, it should last at least another 10 years. Now, she just has to keep driving and practicing until Nov 1st, when she is eligible to take the on-the-road driver's test and move from the driver's permit to Level 1 provisional license (unfortunately that privilege also comes with a higher price tag re: insurance which she isn't all that excited to help pay for). Seems like Tar's been saving forever for her car and paying for that cross-country trek from Cali to NC was a major chunk, but she is one happy young lady.
