14 Ways to Get Back to the Heart of CHRISTmas

 I love Christmas. 

There’s just something about the red decorations, houses decked out in icicle lights, and candlelight church services that make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside even though it’s bitter cold outside. 

A half-inch coating of snow on Christmas morning (that magically disappears by Christmas night and doesn’t show up again for the rest of the winter) is nice and festive. 

Snuggling under a blanket and sipping peppermint hot chocolate while watching Claymation Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas is one of my all-time favorite winter activities. 

And who doesn’t like renditions of “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” and “Baby It’s Cold Outside”? 

All these things and, of course, celebrating our Savior’s birth by acting out the Christmas story, worshiping with Christmas hymns, and singing Happy Birthday to Jesus and eating a homemade birthday cake are just some of my favorite activities.

But there’s a Grinch inside of me that despises what this season has become...

... the materialism and selfishness that often accompanies the “wish-list mentality.”

... the gluttony in which we engage, while much of the world is starving.

... the way so many people feel obligated to spend money on people they see once a year and almost resent the person for “requiring” a gift (that they never asked for).

... how so many people go into debt to buy things they don’t need with money they don’t have to impress people they don’t like.

... that people have to be reminded to stop the hustle and bustle and just be still and enjoy the blessed time with family and loved ones.

... that the self-inflicted “must do’s” of the season cause anxiety and a desire for the season to be over.

... that the fat guy in the red suit gets more attention than the baby in the manger.

I suppose I have a love-hate relationship with Christmas - not because of our Savior’s birth, but because we humans have cheapened Christmas to make it all about sweets, Santa, and selfishness. Which is why I decided to make it different for my family. When Dan and I got married four and a half years ago, we decided to simplify Christmas, and every year Christmas just gets better and better... and simpler and simpler.

Following are some ideas that we have learned - some we have done, some we have not yet implemented - for ways to simplify the holiday and make CHRISTmas more Christ-centered and others-centered, and less stressful.

Read (or act out) the Christmas story in Luke chapter 2.

Doing this before opening gifts really helps to put Christ FIRST and remind us of the true meaning of the season. Find some costumes and dress up each member of the family for a different part.
Look for other Christ-centered Christmas books. My favorite is “The Crippled Lamb” by Max Lucado.

Have a birthday party for Jesus.

Celebrate Jesus’ birthday just like you do for the other members of your family. Have cake and ice cream, put up decorations and balloons, sing the Happy Birthday song, give him gifts, and play games.

Give only three gifts to each person. 

This is a great way to limit the materialism the runs rampant this time of year and encourage giving. It also mimics the Biblical account of the wise men who gave Jesus three gifts (Matthew 2:11).

Make homemade gifts.

Everyone has some kind of talent; use whatever gifts God has given you to bless others. Are you a handyman? Give your family members a needed service call for Christmas. Do you bake? Make mini loaves of sweet bread, wrap in festive cellophane, and give as gifts. Sew a blanket. Knit scarves. Burn a CD of yourself singing, playing an instrument, or reading a children’s book. Build a small table. Paint a 5x7 canvas. Take pictures for family members. Write someone a nice card. Create a scrapbook page. Offer your cleaning services. Edit a paper for a college student. Whatever you do, do it for others as a gift!

Give homemade coupon books.

Use scrap paper or index cards to write out coupons for services for your family and friends. It could be anything from “I’ll make the dinner of your choice” to “30-minute massage” to “bouquet of flowers” to “pick out a new purse.” Tailor the coupons to fit things that the recipient would really enjoy. This gift keeps giving all year long!

Adopt a family. 


Ask churches and schools if they know of a family in need. “Adopt” the family by buying presents for them, visiting with them, and sharing the true meaning of Christmas. If you can’t find a family to adopt, donate several items into the Toys for Tots bins at stores.

Support "Operation: Christmas Child."

The Samaritan’s Purse ministry gives you the opportunity to send a shoebox of gifts to a needy child in another country. Go to your local dollar store, pick out the items, and send it off to the organization, who will be sure it reaches the hand of a grateful child. Click here for more information.

Sponsor a Child.

This Christmas we visited World Vision’s website and adopted a little girl in Peru who is exactly a year older than our daughter Mara. We look forward to supporting her monetarily through the years and watching her grow. When she gets bigger, she will also send us letters and pictures periodically. The money we send every month helps her to have access to education, medical care, and a church that will provide spiritual training. Find out more about sponsoring a child through World Vision or Compassion.

Buy a Goat.

When we were searching for a child to sponsor, we saw that World Vision also has many different things you can buy to help families in other countries (and here in the United States). Buy a goat, which will give a family milk and some income from the milk. Help pay for a deep well to give a family fresh drinking water. Purchase an insect net to help protect families from malaria-ridden mosquitos. Two chickens will give families fresh eggs to eat and income from the eggs. Seeds will allow families to plant crops to eat and sell.
     There are so many opportunities to help; I wanted to get all of them! Allow each person in the family pick out one area in which they would like to help. Print pictures of the item you are buying and hanging it on the tree as an ornament and a reminder of how you are giving to Jesus on his birthday.

Give KIVA loans.

This organization gives loans to people in other countries who are in need to start a business, etc, but can’t afford the high interest in their own countries. You can browse through pictures of people and their explanations of what they will do with the loan money, and donate as little as $25 toward the person or group of your choice. When the person pays back their loan, you get your $25 back to reinvest in another person or put back in your pocket. Visit kiva.org to get involved!

 Clean out your house.

We all have old toys, clothes, household items, and tools sitting around that we don’t need anymore. Why not donate them to someone in need, or to an agency such as Goodwill or the Salvation Army that helps people in need? You will feel better with less clutter, and someone will benefit from the items you gave away. 

Work at a Soup Kitchen.

This Christmas season, volunteer to work at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter in your area. Talk with the people there and share about the true meaning of Christmas. Remember how blessed you are to have a home and three meals a day and thank God for this gift. If you cannot work at one, could you donate some food to help needy families?

Buy a new family game.

We started a tradition when we got married of buying a game for Christmas that the whole family will enjoy. We believe that nurturing our family relationships honors God, and playing games is just one of many ways you can do that. Also, playing games with other families can help build relationships together!

Send Christmas scripture-picture postcards.

People love to send (and receive) fancy cards with pictures for Christmas. You can do it all yourself for less! Take a recent family photograph, add an appropriate scripture and Christmas greeting to it with an online photo editing program, and print 4x6 photos from Wal-Mart's one-hour photo. You can write on the back with a thin Sharpie and mail them as postcards! We found it's a very fun, personal, and cost-effective way to send photo Christmas cards.

I hope this list provides some ideas for how you can make Christmas special and simple for your family, and keep the focus of CHRISTmas! If you have any more ideas, please add them to the comments section so other people can benefit from your ideas!

Merry CHRISTmas!

Our Christmas Postcard

 

Peanut Butter Pillow Cookies (...because they're so SOFT!)

So today my sweet tooth weakness was like a thorn in my flesh. After downing more fun size candies than I'd like to admit (which, by the way, who decided that only one bite of chocolate was fun?!),  I decided to make a healthier treat satisfy my craving. 

I remembered that a few months ago a friend introduced me to a new kind of peanut butter cookies.  I was pretty pleased with the simplicity of the ingredients! Here is the original recipe: 

     ~ 1 cup peanut butter 

     ~ 1 cup sugar

     ~ 1 egg

     ~ 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

     Mix, roll, and smash! Bake at 350 degrees for 6-7 minutes.

Now, when I make cookies, I replace the sugar with another sweetener (usually honey, but recipes typically only require half as much honey as sugar). And I wanted to add some fruit (banana). And when I finished mixing, the batter looked like it could use some thickening, so I added oats. 

Peanut Butter Pillow Cookies

Here is my new and improved recipe! (Disclaimer: all amounts are approximate! This recipe is hard to mess up, so use your own judgement as to whether it "looks right"!)

     ~ 3/4 cup natural peanut butter (the only ingredient is... well, peanuts, of course!)

     ~ 1/4 cup mashed banana

     ~ 1 egg

     ~ 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

     ~ a few handfuls of oats (as many as you like in your cookies!)

     ~ cinnamon to sprinkle on top, if you desire!

Mix, roll, and smash! Bake at 350 degrees for 6-7 minutes or until golden brown on bottom (mine took a little longer).

Mmm... a few cookies later, my sweet tooth was satisfied (for an hour or two, at least!).

Let me know what you think and if you can modify it any more to add the health benefits! (I think chocolate chips (or, better yet, raw cacao nibs) would be spectacular!)

Eat and enjoy!

Fat Free Zucchini Brownies

Though we were gardening novices when we planted our first garden a few springs ago, my husband and I quickly learned that zucchini is VERY easy to grow in northern Illinois. TOO easy. In fact, it's so easy to grow that everyone practically gives masses of the squash away! We had been eating zucchini every way we could think of since it had started growing in our garden, but we were growing sick of it. In a desperate search for some kind of different recipe, I found my new favorite: 

                                                 zucchini brownies!

I found a recipe for zucchini brownies online, but I modified it quite a bit to be even more healthy. My husband Dan likes that he can eat them without feeling guilty. (We both have a sweet tooth, which gets in the way of trying to eat healthy!)

So... are you ready to learn a great way to use up an overabundance of zucchini? Look no further! This recipe is fantastic!

Ingredients: 

1/2 Cup applesauce (OR use 1/2 cup mashed banana and 2 eggs)

1/2 to 3/4 cup honey, depending on how sweet you like it

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1.5 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 to 3 cups shredded zucchini (depending on how much you want to use up at once!)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 9x13 pan. In large bowls, mix wet and dry ingredients separately, then together. Fold in the zucchini. Batter will seem thick and dry, but the zucchini will moisten it during baking. 

Spread into pan. Bake 25-30 minutes until tester comes out dry.

Mmmmm... eat and enjoy, without feeling guilty!

Prayer Warrior

Pray continually.  I Thessalonians 5:15

 I have always wanted to be a prayer warrior. Oh, how I have dreamed about praying in such a way that I could move mountains (Matthew 17:20)! 

I have always admired Angie Whitaker, a true woman of faith in my home church of North Hills Church of God in Springfield, Ohio, who would meet weekly at the church building to pray for needs. She believed in the power of prayer. And I have always wanted to believe in prayer, but I rarely prayed enough to be able to see the results of being a prayer warrior.

 Have you ever felt this way? Every time I would pray, I would get distracted. Something else would catch my attention. (Maybe it was the enemy trying to hinder my prayers...?) Even if I was in a dark room alone, my thoughts would wander. I felt like my poor students at the elementary school where I worked who wanted to learn, but their bodies and brains just couldn't focus. That was my conundrum with prayer.

I've tried so many things throughout the years. Prayer journals worked for awhile, but then I got sick of writing out every word. Sometimes I would sit next to an empty chair and pray as if Jesus were right there beside me, but that didn't last long and my mind would still wander. I had a prayer app on my iPod touch, but I didn't always have the internet access it required. I wrote prayer requests in a notebook, but then I'd lose the notebook. I set up a "prayer and exercise" room in my basement, but when the weather was nice, I much preferred to ride a real bike than a stationary one! I found myself so very frustrated and not even desiring to pray. Prayer should be the foundation of every believer's life - and I, a long-time Christ-follower and pastor's wife, could not seem to master this basic part of the Christian walk. 

Shortly after my daughter was born, I began reading an excellent book called "Taking Care of the c Me in Mommy" by Lisa Whelchel. This book is packed with excellent information for moms! However, I think the best part of the book for me was the section about prayer. I found out I wasn't alone - Lisa also wrestled greatly with this issue, and she gave me pointers for how to help my focus with a Prayer Journal. Though I did not make mine as intricate as hers, I have found great value in my prayer journal.

I used to get so overwhelmed with all the things I wanted to pray for, and it seemed I always forgot to praise and thank God and ask forgiveness for my sins. So I created a notebook with a simple folder with tabs for inserting pages. On the front, I used a decorative paper and wrote four parts of prayer:
   
         Adoration
         Confession
         Thanksgiving
         Supplication

I also made other notes to myself on the front about remembering to listen to God, and reminders to pray BIG prayers because I serve an even BIGGER God!

Then I created a chart in Pages (you could use Microsoft Word) with 7 columns and 5 rows. At the top of each column I wrote the days of the week, respectively. Then I printed out the sheets and wrote different topics for which I want to pray, one on each sheet:

* My husband
* My children
* Family
* Friends
* Church
* World
* Myself
* Timely (things that are "temporary prayers", like selling a house, a brief illness, etc)

I wrote one request in each box on the appropriate paper, as many as I could think of for each category (and as I think of more I continue to fill them in). Then I put them in sheet protectors and inserted them into my prayer folder. This is my new guideline for prayer. Every day I have a maximum of 5 items to pray for in each category, and all the people and issues that I want to bring to the Lord in prayer are written down. I am no longer overwhelmed trying to remember them all; I pray for a few each day. (You can find a copy of my prayer journal page here!)

If you have been looking for something to help you grow closer to the Lord through prayer, I hope that this is an encouragement and inspiration to you, and maybe a starting point to find something similar that works for you!

I look forward to my prayer time now, and I am excited to see what God will do inside me and through my prayers on my new journey as a prayer warrior!

Healthy Granola Bars Recipe

I must make a confession: I am a granola bar junkie. I LOVE granola bars of various flavors. They are a quick on-the-go, pick-me-up snack. However, most granola bars are simply glorified candy bars, laden with high fructose corn syrup and artificial flavors and all kinds of other not-so-good-for-me stuff that I don't want to put in my body regularly. Therefore, I am a "granola bar snob"; I am very picky about what kinds I will get. I realized that I spend quite a bit of money on granola bars (they're a staple item almost every time I go to Whole Foods Market or Trader Joe's!). A few days ago I had a revelation: Why don't I just MAKE granola bars and save some money?

I searched for a recipe online but was not totally pleased with the ingredients; this recipe is loosely based off another recipe, but I played around with it quite a bit and took some liberties to make it healthier. I think they turned out really well! It yields a dozen or more granola bars depending on how you cut them.

*Please note: all amounts and cooking times, etc., are approximate; I tend to just put certain ingredients in until it "looks right", but this recipe should get you pretty close.

Ingredients:


- 2 cups oats
- 1/4 cup honey

- 2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 cup oat flour (you can use regular all-purpose flour; if so, then omit the guar gum)

- 1/2 teaspoon guar gum (if you use oat flour)
- 3/4 cup raisins
- 1/2 cup mashed banana

- 1 egg, beaten
- 1/2 cup all-natural nut butter (I used peanut butter in which the only ingredient was peanuts... no sugar, oil, etc. added)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- sprinkling of flax seeds
- cinnamon to sprinkle on top after baking


Directions:



1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a large cookie sheet.
2. Mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately, then together.
3. Press the mixture onto the cookie sheet to the thickness you desire.
4. Bake for about 20-30 minutes in oven until the edges turn golden. Allow them to cool for a few minutes and then cut them (don't wait until they cool completely because they will get harder).
5. Sprinkle cinnamon on top! I like my granola bars to be individually wrapped in plastic wrap and stored all together in a container or zip-close bag in the fridge so I can grab one on the go!

Mmmm... eat and enjoy this healthier granola bar! Mix it up and add/take out/modify ingredients as you wish!