"Something better" is the watchword of education, the law of all true living. Whatever Christ asks us to renounce, He offers in its stead something better. Often the youth cherish objects, pursuits, and pleasures that may not appear to be evil but that fall short of the highest good. They divert the life from its noblest aim. Arbitrary measures or direct denunciation may not avail in leading these youth to relinquish that which they hold dear. Let them be directed to something better than display, ambition, or self-indulgence. Bring them in contact with truer beauty, with loftier principles, and with nobler lives. Lead them to behold the One "altogether lovely." {1MCP 342.6}
We don't do a lot for holidays. Most of them just don't have much personal value to us and we'd rather avoid the secular focus and the commercialism and that is usually connected to most of them. We don't entirely ignore holidays but we don't go all out with countdowns and decorations either. I don't want my kids to feel like they are "missing out" on all the fun that most people experience, so we like to give them something better. The Sabbath.
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| This picture was from a while ago, but in the background you can see everyone lined up on the left side of the table eating popcorn and watching a nature video on David's computer screen. Now we get to use a projector that we borrowed from church :) |
This is something we LOVE to celebrate. We don't have to wait for one time out of the year to feel justified in resting, in being with family, in having special food, in listening to special music and in exciting the senses. Once every week we get to do that. It has become a day that our whole family looks forward to. It begins Friday night with a prayer and supper. We usually eat popcorn, fruit, smoothie and sometimes a special dessert while we watch a nature video. With every bite you can taste the REST.
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| This is a carob cake with pudding on top to make the fruit stick. Notice it spells REST :) |
The last couple of Sabbaths have been unique. We actually ditched church and spent the whole day in nature. Last Sabbath we wanted to get some good quality time with Julie before she left so we went to the Desert Museum in Tucson. Though we've lived here for 2 1/2 years, we had never been! In a nutshell,
"The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is a world-renowned zoo, natural history museum and botanical garden, all in one place! Exhibits re-create the natural landscape of the Sonoran Desert Region so realistically you find yourself eye-to-eye with mountain lions, prairie dogs, Gila monsters, and more. Within the Museum grounds, you will see more than 300 animal species and 1,200 kinds of plants. There are almost 2 miles of paths traversing 21 acres of beautiful desert."
A perfect overcast day, we did not have to sweat and wilt as we walked. We even got to go into an underground cave! Here is David wearing bat ears to experience what good hearing they have. 
Better than any video, the kids thoroughly enjoyed seeing real live animals. Their favorite was the otter, the beaver, and porcupine.
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| We are making paint brushes like native Americans would have done by pounding the end of a fibrous plant. |
Three Sabbath's ago we spent the whole day at Turkey Creek. We had some things we wanted to discuss and pray about and it was nice just to do something different than spend half the day at church. This time of the year there's actually water so we hung out at a little waterfall. David built a small dam so that the kids would have deeper water to romp around in. In the process they dug into the bank and found these little grubs which we saved in a paper bag to give to our chickens and roosters.
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| Omega has this crazed look in her eyes. She's posing for the picture, but her eyes want to watch something else. |
And, just yesterday we came back from church and had a very pleasant afternoon at home. At first the kids were asking me to take the cover off of the sand box but we do that during the rest of the week. I want them to remember Sabbath as a special day, a day where we are together making memories, doing things we don't usually do the rest of the week. I don't want it to be a day where all they remember is "you can't do this, and you can't do that" and they look forward to the sun setting. Instead, I like to give them something better. We got the hammock out and it was non-stop giggles for several hours! Sandbox? What sandbox?
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| David doesn't like posing for pictures. |
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