After the super growth period of summer and the harvest time of fall, along comes winter. My faith garden moves inside as everything outside is covered with snow. I spend more time with my houseplants.

This philodendra has been a long time favorite of mine. I allow it to hand off of planters all over my house. If you go through a doorway and get hit in the head by something it is most likely a hanging philodendra. Interestingly, this plant is listed as a tropical climbing ivy. I never knew that until I noticed the one in this picture. It evidently got tired of hanging.

My grand kids are always hanging from me or climbing on me. As I age, I realize I have to be sure that I am anchored someplace before I get hit by a running 2 year old. My oldest daughter always tells the kids I’m not a jungle gym.

I have to tell you, I love to have the kids climbing all over me. Laps are nice, but how do you get them there safely? I believe the best equipment for grand parenting is a lot of stools. I have ottomans on all my chairs and stools where I can sit and hold kids. And did you know, that when your knees are tired, the ottomans actually roll across the floor? Try getting out of a recliner holding a child and you will soon know that stools are the
greatest place for grand kids to climb and hang.

Each year, I fill the flowerpots on my front porch with natural items. A long time ago, I learned that the cost of greens was not equal to what I could do with twigs, branches, grasses and seedpods. I wet the dirt and when it freezes in a few weeks the natural items will freeze into a winter arrangement that will last. These natural items go together in a natural combination. It’s a minute of creativity for me to find and place things together.

In your home school there are also natural combinations. When a teachable moment comes, it is natural that you stop work and help kids learn in a new way. Consider this.

The kids are doing Math at the table. A 1st grader is working on one thing and a 4th grader is working on something else. You are washing dishes while supervising. The 1st grader says, “This is hard.” The 4th grader says, “That’s the idea, butt head.” If you don’t drop a dish, I’m proud of you. No one wants one child calling another names. The natural combination here is to stop Math and deal with name-calling. Creative teaching during the moment becomes necessary.

That can only happen in home school. In larger groups kids are great at name calling under their breath and half of it goes unheard by adults. But in home school the immediate apology teaches lessons of forgiving and forgiveness.

Your ability to combine teachable moments and home school is a gift from God. After they kids do Math, try a walk to collect natural items for your very own, front step pot to celebrate winter.

When my kids were little I loved surprising them. I would do little chores and leave a note that said, “the good elf was here”. I would pack notes in lunch boxes and make bed on busy days. Surprises were for both the kids and because I loved the to keep them uncertain about everything but my love for them. Daily faith is being uncertain at times, knowing only that God’s love for us is true.

This picture is a repeat. It’s an annual called Cosmos. It is one of my favorites because there are so many pinks and it makes it until frost in the fall. AS a Grandma I get to repeat my surprises to the grand kids. I’m headed to see my grand kids and they don’t know I’m coming. Today a certain oldest grand child was asked to clean the bathroom. With a fast swipe across the counter, he says, “why, nobody is coming”. His Mother who is in on the surprise said, “Well Grandma might come and tell you it’s not clean enough”. Boy will that be a fun surprise.

Grandson #2 turns 5 in a few days. I sent his present but I will personally deliver the card. Boy will that be a fun surprise.

As Grandparents we can surprise the little ones in a million ways. A card sent with “your secret pal” is great fun. Or bring a spring bulb and some dirt and show the kids how to bring spring inside in the winter. However you surprise them, remember it’s the act of passing on unconditional love that is more important than the surprise. Have fun!

I’m thinking Adam and Eve had it made. No clothes meant no shopping in the malls or in stores. No sweat about staying in style, which has never been my problem and what about laundry. I bet that fig leaf didn’t need much washing.

Look at this bush that is so beautiful without leaves. It is a dogwood bush that is often used in landscaping because of winter interest. Where I live winter interest is important because any day now, everything will be white. And white some more and white some more. Whatever is NOT white will keep us interested in getting out of winter.

So here is the question. How does God feel about the human preoccupation with clothing? Yesterday I got 16 clothing catalogs! Somewhere I bought a gift and the address list was sold and here we go. 16 catalogs with winter clothes that someone thinks I can’t live without. Hmmm…

This is a special post to celebrate some great kids.
Last weekend I worked with a cool bunch of 3rd-6th graders exploring together, Prayer Patterns. I had them unscramble some words about prayer. One of the words was “silent’ for silent prayer. The object was to unscramble and then put all the words together into a sort of cross word by sharing letters.

One group took their letters and made the word “listen”. They placed it in the puzzle and I was so proud of them. Unfortunately with all the words we couldn’t make listen fit. But they went back to try again and figured out silent.

We learn so much from children when we work in faith communities. I learned that kids understand the depth of prayer and have language to go around their understanding.

Good job kids! Thanks for teaching me!

When I teach prayer with kids, I always tell them a life of faith is more about being prayer than doing prayer. We look for all the times, places and experiences in our day where we could pray. Eventually, we hope that kids will weave prayer into their entire life.

Clematis’ are one of the most varied and beautiful vines. They climb fences, trellises and any place you want. The blooms on mine last about a week and I just have to go out and look at them several times a day. I always miss the blooms when they make these interesting seedpods and then disappear. One day I noticed the cool weaving vines that is the base for the blooms. The vines are really strong and make beautiful patterns.

Prayer is like clematis. The blooms of each prayer are beautiful, but the patterns that give strength are the true base for our lives. In your home school, look for ways to weave a strong base of prayer. Yes, pray at meals, bedtime or for special days. But help kids understand that we can pray continually to God for strength, patience, help, thanks and a million other ways. Try these activities.
1. Touch the door frame of each door as you go through it both inside and outside. Pray for safety, learning or good experiences as you touch the door. (How were doors important to the Exodus story?)
2. Hum familiar tunes to faith songs like “Silent Night”. Talk about chanting being a way to pray that has been present for centuries in religion.

The best thing about grand kids is that they keep us so focused on now. We can’t worry about the past because grand kids point you toward the future. Their growth potential shows on their faces and in their actions. They go from gurgling to single words to sentences to the “they can’t be quiet” stage. They grow by inches every year. You buy clothes and they outgrow them immediately.

I love the pointing stage. When they don’t say a word but just point. These toddlers think that by pointing they are communicating. Sometimes they point to themselves as an answer to your question. “Do you want to have a snack?” Little one points to self. And you know what? We figure it all out.

These pumpkins are pointing, too. Can you figure out the wordless message? Ripening in September then Halloween in Oct. and now they are pointing to pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. May you have many moments with grand kids that wordlessly point you toward time with family.

For thousands of years the birch tree has been a symbol for various cultures. In ancient Russia it was planted along side houses for protection. There are legends about the birch tree from several Native American tribes. Birch bark was used in healing in times past.

These are river birch surrounding a fountain. We inherited this configuration from the people who built our home. The birch clumps keep growing. We have had many storms. We lost pine trees and flowers, trellises and bushes. But the river birch are still standing because they don’t break, they bend.

In faith communities, bending is an important characteristic. This does not mean we do not stand up. The birch tree stands up during a windy day, but when the storm comes, it bends. Storms happen in all congregations. How can you bend enough to save your strength for another day? Can you be part of healing for your congregation, like the birch? Think about it.

At the very end of the fall, my tall sedum blooms. This sedum is called stonecrop and is a late bloomer. They provide food for the last bees of the season. The small delicate pale pink blooms bunch into a larger flower. It gets crowded on those bigger blooms. The pink turns darker as it gets colder.

I think of families as those big blooms. Gathering everyone together to feed. Families often gather in the fall with its many holidays. Individual family members are gently gathered together. Connected by their common purpose of shelter and food, families self-define.

There are so many people, organizations and media types that are ready and willing to tell you that you are a good or bad family. Or even that you are or are not a family. Take care and gather your own family gently. Families are delicate and a collection of many small blooming moments that willingly give to each other and others.

Blessings on your family of faith as they gather…

Often the pictures on this blog are full of happy sunshine and beautifully colored blooms. Daily growth celebrates beauty. Lots of actions happen before the beautiful bloom. The decomposition, the cold that is necessary for some seeds, the shorter days and the moisture through rain and snow. We need gray days as well as blue bird skies. We need black manure and white mold. Daily growth in nature needs all the colors. Look at all the colors in just this goldenrod plant.

There are many colors of faith, too. There are relationships that make us feel yellow, blue, red, green and purple. There are experiences that seem black, grey and white. Faith is not one color or one dimension.

In your home school environment, do the following activity with children of all ages.

Materials needed: Large paper, water color paints, brushes, water, classical music to listen to as children paint.

In these words or your own words.
“Today we are going to paint the colors of your faith. Think about how you feel today about God. Is there a color you can associate with that feeling? Was your faith stronger earlier in the day? How did that change the color? How do you hope your faith will show in colors tomorrow? We are looking for just color, not specifics objects. Let’s paint the colors of your faith.

Share the paintings with one another.

Talk about how the color changes are subtle or bold. Answer the question together, “How is our faith subtle or bold?”