Author: joyfuldomesticity

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Music for Little Saints

Psalm 9:11
“Sing praises to the LORD, who sits enthroned in Zion!
Tell among the peoples His deeds!”

A number of weeks ago I wrote about how I have been trying to incorporate the Small Child’s Catechism into my discipleship of Gabriel. We haven’t added lots of questions yet, but we’ve got a handful & they’re down pat. Gabriel has also turned a corner in suddenly asking all kinds of questions: mostly about God and heaven and respect and obedience… you know, super good stuff that really challenges this mommy to learn how to put big concepts of Truth into phrases and littler concepts that he can understand and absorb.

Anyway… one of my friends pointed out something in a comment on that previous post that I wanted to follow up on. Music is a truly excellent way to work on discipling our little saints. It’s a truth that I have clung to for years! Back when I was a little girl in Sunday School I struggled to memorize the weekly Bible verses. I have never been known for having a good memory, and memorizing passages of Scripture has certainly never come easily for me. But my dad knew precisely how to help: put the words to music, and I could memorize anything. So he, being a very creative dad/guitarist, would come up with tunes for my verses so that I could literally sing them to my teachers. You know, so I could obtain that oh-so-important piece of candy (or whatever the incentive was…) like the rest of the kids.

Memorizing songs has always been the best way for me to memorize anything. Scripture is no exception. It’s still like that for me even today. I know Psalms better than any other book of the Bible because we have spent over a dozen years singing through psalms in The Book of Psalms for Singing and in Cantus Christi. I also can remember all kinds of random pieces of Scripture that my dad put to music when I was little that he would sing with me and for me almost every day of the year (sweet memories). Things like Isaiah 26:3 and John 17.

Psalm 30:4
“Sing praises to the LORD, O you His saints,
and give thanks to His holy name.”

Gabriel has shown a love of, and talent for, music since he was extremely tiny. He comes by it naturally. 🙂 But we have also worked to inculcate a culture of music into our home ~ specifically Christian music. Now, when I was particularly young, I remember singing along with Psalty the Singing Songbook and The Donut Man ~ and yes, I can still sing some of those ones too! 😉 And while there is nothing wrong with them that I can think of, they aren’t necessarily the best. And why would I want my own son, this little saint who has been entrusted to our care, to have anything but the best I can find for him? Of course, obviously, “the best” will be highly subjective and that’s okay too. My job is to train him for the Kingdom to the best of my ability by God’s grace, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. My responsibility is before God. Just like yours is. The Lord gives us each wisdom, He directs each of us, and He provides things for our families ~ so I recognize that what may be best for us may not necessarily be best for you.

Psalm 89:1
“I will sing of the steadfast love of the LORD, forever;
with my mouth I will make known Your faithfulness to all generations.”

Filling up our home and our car with Scripture set to music has been such a blessing for us! How thankful I am that I get Scripture stuck in my head throughout the day. What could be better?! Well, I can top that for you: I am even more thankful that I hear my little boy singing Scripture throughout the day. Ah, the glories of a little saint who loves the Lord and loves His music! Gabriel mostly sings music from the Cantus, since that is what he most often hears his parents sing (at church, family worship, bedtime, etc). He knows the Sanctus, the Gloria Patri, the Lord’s Prayer, God that Madest Earth and Heaven, Holy Holy Holy, Psalm 128… I know there are more but they’re slipping my mind at the moment. All this to say: it is truly glorious and rather humbling to hear these praises streaming from the mouth of a little three year old boy from hour to hour throughout the day. He literally goes to bed singing, wakes up singing, and sings two dozen times in-between. During meals, we often have to remind him that he ought to finish eating before he starts another song. 😉

Psalm 98:4
“Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth;
break forth into joyous song and sing praises!”

Another way that we have recently been saturating our home with Scripture put to music, is by the ABC Bible Memory Verse Songs CD that I reviewed not long ago for a homeschooling magazine. I have been delighted to memorize these, and am eager to see Gabriel start memorizing them more as well.

A longer-standing musical presence in our CD library has been a collection of discs by Jamie Soles. While Gabriel used to prefer the more child-geared CDs like “Fun and Prophets” and “The Way My Story Goes” (which have lots of Bible stories put to music, lists of the kings of Israel, the geneology of Christ, the Apostles’ Creed, the books of the Bible, etc) he has recently shown a bigger fondness for the Scripture-set-to-music discs like “Pure Words” and “Ascending.” These are excellent resources for ways to hide the Word in your heart, saturate your children with words inspired by the Spirit, and fill your home with tasteful music.

A few months ago we were given a CD by Nathan Clark George called “Pull Up A Chair.” Our favorite songs on the disc are the ones that are straight from Scripture, or close to it. But his music is another resource for good music for the whole family; not only the texts but the music as well.

I have heard of other good music resources specifically geared toward kids, such as Songs for Saplings and Seeds Family Worship. I have never yet gotten my hands on any of those discs, but have listened to some clips online and think they might be fairly good as well.

Psalm 104:33
“I will sing to the LORD as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have being.”

I love having music geared for children, but I am an even bigger fan of having music that is appropriate for the entire family. If I’m going to have a little ditty stuck in my head all day, I don’t want it to be something meaningless and annoying (like Pop Goes The Weasel or The Wheels On The Bus or whatever else we all grew up singing!) when I could have it be wonderful gospel-truths or portions straight from Scripture. Teaching our children how to praise God with their hearts and their words and their songs is such an incredible responsibility, privilege, and joy.
How excellent it is to have good things filling our hearts and flowing out from our mouths ~ not to mention, the hearts and mouths of the littles in our homes.

Psalm 8:1-2
“O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is Your name in all the earth!
You have set Your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
You have established strength because of Your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.”

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Gabriel’s Kipper Party!

For Gabriel’s third birthday party, we did a Kipper theme. Gabriel loves Kipper ~ Kipper is a British cartoon dog character. He watches the Kipper shows on Netflix, has Kipper books and toys, and now a Kipper t-shirt! So anyway, we had a Kipper party. I did what I could (without wanting to spend the big bucks of ordering supplies from England!) to bring Kipper into our party, and stuck with a color theme of orange, white, and brown (like Kipper!) for everything else. Some of us even dressed according to the color scheme for the party. 🙂

At any rate, the party was a hit. So was the kid-friendly food. And although we didn’t end up playing Pin-The-Tail-On-Kipper, doing the Kipper coloring pages I had, or watching one of the birthday episodes of Kipper… it was still pretty well Kipper-saturated, and Gabriel thought it was peachy. And that’s obviously the point.

This morning while I decorated cupcakes, Gabriel enjoyed a breakfast of chocolate milk and a donut topped with mini m&ms. 🙂

I had a good time planning all the set-up, decorations, and necessities. The birthday banner (birthday #3!), paper circle garlands made from orange & brown scrapbook paper hung here & there, orange & white balloons that were decorated with sharpie & pictures of Kipper, bottles of root beer and orange juice boxes (for brown & orange drinks), orange straws (some striped, some solid), bundles of napkins & utensils packaged together with orange & brown scrapbook paper & topped with a Kipper image, a picture of Kipper on the wall, Kipper’s birthday book & Kipper himself set up on the table, etc. And then of course the orange and brown food: grilled cheese sandwiches (on dark brown bread that I colored with molasses, cocoa, and rye), mac & cheese (from the box! <gasp>), orange fruit salad (mandarin oranges, peaches, and cantaloupe), pretzels & Cheetos, and carrot sticks (leftover from my garden last year).

It rained off & on today, but we were able to have some of the party outside: mostly the present-opening and lots of playing.

When we came inside to eat lunch, the kids were going to eat picnic-style on the floor until Grandpapa brought in the birthday gift he made for our boy ~ his very own little table and chairs! What a hit! Gabriel immediately loved it. Now it’s set up in our family room, and I am envisioning all kinds of eating and playing and coloring and homeschooling adventures at this tabletop.

Finally it was cupcake time, although Gabriel was so immersed in playing with new things that he didn’t even want to eat his cupcake until rather a bit later. 😉 Although I had wanted to make some kind of fancy Kipper cake or specially decorated cupcakes (remember the alligator cake from last year??), this was all I had in me to pull off this year. Thankfully Gabriel loved it, simplicity and all. And I was able to bring orange and brown to the cupcakes, and Kipper to the little toothpick flags I made. Perfect. Our little birthday prince thinks so too. xoxo

More to come, after the actual birthday on Monday…

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Who Can Do The Most

I read this excerpt on Pastor Toby Sumpter’s blog recently, and it’s just too good not to share. No, I haven’t read this book by Spurgeon… but still… the quote is just excellent even out-of-context. 🙂

Husbands should try to make home happy and holy.  It is an ill bird that fouls its own nest, a bad man who makes his home wretched.  Our house ought to be a little church, with holiness to the Lord over the door, but it ought never to be a prison where there is plenty of rule and order, but little love and no pleasure.  Married life is not all sugar, but grace in the heart will keep away most of the sours.  Godliness and love can make a man, like a bird in a hedge, sing among thorns and briars, and set others to singing too.

It should be the husband’s pleasure to please his wife, and the wife’s care to care for her husband.  He is kind to himself who is kind to his wife.  I am afraid some men live by the rule of self, and when that is the case, home happiness is a mere sham.  When husbands and wives are well yoked, how light their load becomes!  It is not every couple that is such a pair, and more’s the pity.  In a true home all the strife is who can do the most to make the family happy. — C. H. Spurgeon, John Ploughman’s Talk, pp. 79-80.

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Breaking Ground


Officially breaking ground and getting the real work started! Finally! It’s exciting stuff. I’ll post updates as I can along the way. 😀

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a year of paradise for Victory Athanasius

My little Victory-girl (who I had been so certain was a boy), it has been an entire year since Daddy and I had the pleasure of enjoying your presence here with us. I can’t pretend to know what time is like in heaven, but here on earth the time has both flown and crawled.

Your name reminds me of the beautiful victory you have obtained by flying to the glories of heaven. One of my little immortals. Oh, how glad I am to have the confidence that, since you are a child of the Covenant, I will see you again. How thankful I am for the promises which are not only to your grandparents, but to your parents, and thus down to you!

You make heaven that much sweeter. Oh bliss!

iloveyou, Mommy

1 Corinthians 15:54

“When the perishable puts on the imperishable,
and the mortal puts on immortality,
then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
‘Death is swallowed up in victory.'”

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Maybe Baby

Since I don’t have the “normal” luxury of saying things like, “we’re having a baby” or “my due date is xxx” or “Gabriel is going to be a big brother again,” there are a lot of “maybe“s and “if“s and “we’ll see“s in my conversations these days.
This reminded me of a poem I wrote when I was pregnant with my little boy, Hosanna, last fall. I don’t know if I ever shared it here or not. I can’t remember. But it feels true again even now. I find myself somewhere in the middle of this poem currently. Knowing that today this baby is alive ~ what an incredible, surprising, stunning thing! One we will never ever take for granted.
But there is still the “maybe” factor, even if it is only because of my history. While Number Nine has given us zero indication that he/she will head to heaven anytime soon, there is always that question for us. There is always the qualifier of “maybe.”
So here I share with you the poem I wrote called “Maybe Baby.”

Maybe Baby
by MJC, October 2010

This might be the month
When I will conceive you in my womb.
Or just as likely, this might not be.
But I cling to the hope of that tiny chance.
Maybe, baby; just maybe.

This two week wait feels endless
As I wait to find out the truth.
Are you there? Are you created?
Or will we begin this circle all over again?
Maybe, baby; just maybe.

I thought I saw two pink lines
But now I just can’t tell.
Going cross-eyed staring at the test,
Nobody else can confirm or deny ~ are you here?
Maybe, baby; just maybe.

Waiting for the lab to ring
To tell us what facts my blood revealed.
Soon I will know if you are here
Inside me, in my womb ~ or not.
Maybe, baby; just maybe.

You’re here! You’re real! Alive!
One hurdle down, a hundred more to go.
Don’t know how long I have you,
Perhaps not long, perhaps many years.
Maybe, baby; just maybe.

I tell myself not to think of milestones:
Don’t let my brain head down that path.
Maternity clothes, kicks, hiccups, waddling…
Will we reach that point together ~ you and me?
Maybe, baby; just maybe.

Will my belly get round, and its button pop out?
Will your brother be able to feel your kicks?
Will you hear your daddy talking to you?
Will we get to kiss you, hold you, raise you?
Maybe, baby; just maybe.

The one thing I know for certain, little one,
Is that you are alive. Amen!
You are an immortal, and we will live forever;
Together for eternity, no matter what earth holds.
Not maybe, baby; not just maybe.

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Mother’s Day 2011

Mother’s Day is always bittersweet for me. It reminds me of the precious children who I anticipate reuniting with in the glories of heaven when my Father calls me home. And it makes me thankful for the son I am blessed to mother here on earth, and the child who inhabits my womb (what a tremendous mercy) even now. And it overwhelms me with gratefulness for the gift of devoted and godly mama, mom-in-law, and grandma who remain with me on the earth. It reminds me of the grandmother who I loved and who I miss.

It reminds me of the beauties of womanhood and the fruitfulness that God blesses us with, even when it is tainted with bitterness. Go to [http://naomiscircle.weebly.com/2/post/2011/05/proverbs-31-for-pregnancy-loss.html] to read my friend Kristi’s take on Proverbs 31, from the angle of a bereaved mother ~ it is beautiful.

And it reminds me that the monotony of every-day living is glorious, thanks to the glorifying work of God. In the very apt words of a dear friend of mine (if she is okay with me sharing her name, I will!),

“Isn’t it amazing that God takes the daily humdrum and drama of living in a family (the never-ending service of washing loads of laundry and cleaning and drying dishes, and wiping faces and sweeping up after small feet, and reminding and re-reminding learning brains in what they need to and need not do, and so many more things that I neglect to mention), and turns it into the glory of growing His kingdom, of building healthy bodies and sound minds and Godly souls for eternity? It is one of the sad paradoxes of our world that so many people think this job is for the lazy, the incompetent or the small-minded, when it is the task that needs the most visionary and quick-minded and hard-working people to do it well!” ~R.J.D.

The Lord is good, my friends. My husband, my son, my baby, my in-laws, some particular friends… God has enabled these people to specifically bless me this weekend, even when my heart could be tempted to be overwhelmed by the bittersweetness, or by anxiety. God is good to give me rest in Him, and to remind me of His continued daily mercies which simply never end. Hallelujah!