Christian or Pagan?

This is a mish-mosh of things I read on the web regarding Haloween and it's origins. I've never celebrated it, except by going to church and playing games to get candy. My parents always put a sign on the door every year that said "no candy here." I'm torn, now that I have a little one. I still don't like the "trick-or-treat" idea and I've always felt that the "church alternative" should be more for a witnessing tool than a way to make sure my kids don't feel left out. "Awwww, no fair mommy, everyone else gets to celebrate and honor all things evil tonight...and get candy! Why can't we have fun too... and get candy?!" Anyway, here's what I found online. Maybe it will make you think again or reconfirm what you've come to believe about today's celebration.

Some historians (and my parents), trace the origin of Halloween to the Druids. The Celtic people feared the night of October 31. It was the night of their festival of Samhain, Lord of the Dead. Elsewhere, I read that Samhain signifies "summers end" or November, not a god. ??? The Celtics feared Samhain and in order to please him, the Druids (Celtic priests) held cruel fire rites in his honor. They burned criminals, prisoners, and animals alive. By observing the victims die, the Druids saw omens of the future, both good and bad. The powers to make predictions of the future were thought to be strongest on this night, because the Druids believed that the spirits were allowed to roam free on this night of the year. The Druids believed the spirits were powerful, and if they were treated right, they would help with predictions of the future. However, if the spirits were ignored, they would punish the Celtic community. They wore costumes to either frighten the spirits or to make themselves unrecognizable to them. Opinions differ.
Other historians trace the origin of Halloween back to the ancient and enduring Christian tradition of celebrating the lives of Christian martyrs on the anniversaries of their deaths. Pope Gregory III dedicated a chapel in St. Peter’s Basilica to “all saints” on November 1 (not sure the year) and November 1 became All Saints Day, otherwise known as All Hallow’s Day. The night before became All Hallow’s Eve (“Halloween” being a colloquial contraction of that phrase). While Halloween began as a localized celebration, Pope Gregory IV extended its observance to all of Christendom in the 9th Century AD.
Most of our holidays that began as Christian reverence for Biblical events have been supplanted by secular celebrations. For example, trick-or-treating has eclipsed pious regard for Christian martyrs.
So, hallowed or pagan, saints or evil spirits?
We are going to Hallowed We at our church tonight. Eden will be dressed in a ladybug costume. There will be candy and a funny program.
Our neighborhood is having a potluck, parade and games as a safe trick-or-treating alternative. I guess we won't have to put up a sign.
*sigh* Being a parent is hard.

Brrrrr

Our heater stopped working about 5 days ago. Day 1: It worked in the morning and then, about mid-day, it stopped. We put a service request in with our home warranty company and didn't think much of it.
Day 2: Chuck was on call the next day and night, so the baby and I stayed home and moved a lot to keep warm. I decided to check on our service request, looked up the number and pulled out the paperwork. To my dismay, as I sat waiting for a representative to take my call in the order in which it was received, I found that our home warranty didn't cover our heating and a/c units. I hung up and called Chuck to break the news and tell him we needed to figure out who else to call for service.
Day 3: The next morning, I was awakened early by a screaming baby. She had woken up cold and miserable :( so I brought her to bed with me and we were able to sleep a couple more hours. I called my mom and dad to ask if they had any advice before we called a service rep. Mom said to try and find the pilot light first and then call someone. Well, I'd rather be cold inside the house than cold under the house (that's where our unit is), so I had to wait for Chuck to get home. In the meantime, I looked over the paperwork for our warranty again and realized it did, in fact, cover the heat, thank the Lord. Chuck was finally able to get under the house around 4pm, but couldn't find anything that indicated a pilot light. He then called our warranty company, only to find out that we had not yet been matched with a service provider. We were matched over the phone, and we called the company to see what time they could come. They were swamped. It might be tomorrow before they could come, they said. *shiver* Ok, so our heat will be fixed the next day at the latest.
We decided to spend the night in a hotel for the baby's sake (and mine). This part of the story could be a whole other post, so I'll try to be brief. Eden chose that particular night to sleep from 9pm to midnight and then be up talking, crying or just sucking on her fingers staring into space the rest of the night. Of course, all this activity was not confined to her bed. If she was in her bed, she was screaming, which you can't really ignore in a hotel room. So, from midnight to 2am, I held her and rocked her and sang to her and glared at her and shuushed her because Chuck was trying to get some sleep (he'd only slept a couple of hours at the hospital the night previous). She really was dog-tired at that point, but wouldn't or couldn't go to sleep. I thought I'd let her cry it out in her crib for just 15 minutes so I could lay flat for just that long. I did, and she cried. Chuck got up to take a shift, and then brought her to bed with us to see if that would work. Nope... fussing and writhing and slapping us in our faces and pulling our hair was all she wanted to do. I couldn't stand it any more and got out of bed to rock her again. I told Chuck to just go back to the house, bundle up, and get some sleep. He did around 4am. I let her crawl around the hotel room until she just sat on the floor near her crib and cried then I brought her back into the bed with me and FINALLY she fell asleep. We slept from about 5:30 to 8:30am. I really don't know if it would have been better to just stay home. If I was going to be out of bed for most of the night, I'm glad I had a warm room to be in. The experience just wasn't quite what we pictured.
Day 4: We got a call at 1pm to let us know the service tech would be there before 3pm. He came and voila! fixed the switch. (turns out there's no pilot light) We had heat!!! Needless to say, we cranked it up. A few hours later, no heat. That's right, it's not working again. A call to the service company reveals that it's no quick fix this time, a part has to be ordered and it will take a week to receive it. Chuck prays that evening that our heat would be fixed as soon as possible for the baby's sake. We make it through the night with a brand new space heater in the baby's room and an extra layer of clothes and blankets for us.
Day 5: Today. The same guy comes back over around 9:30 to check on exactly what part is needed. He reminds me that it may take a week to get and adds that depending on the possibilty of backorder, it could take TWO weeks... or they might also have a similar part in their warehouse, but don't count on it. I told him we were praying for the soonest possible fix. He came back an hour later with a part that they found in their warehouse. Praise the Lord!
The heat is blowing from the vent onto my feet as I type and it is truly wonderful.

A Good Habit

We were just remembering a funny incident. It's extremely short, but I had to put it here and share. (Hopefully it's not one of those "you had to be there" moments)

I have had to learn the hard way not to grab any of Chuck's pants that have been worn, but not yet placed in the dirty clothes basket unless I check all the pockets. If I just grab the basket, I can be assured that he has already done the pocket checking and I won't end up with checks, cash or receipts in the wash. This being said... apparently, it is so much of a habit for him to check pockets before throwing pants into the basket, that Eden's tiny jeans were no exception. I think we may have been unpacking from a trip and as we sorted the dirty from the clean, he happened to come across a pair of Edens jeans, which I deemed dirty. He stuck about three fingers (all that would fit) into each front pocket as I just stood and watched, thinking he was joking. He looked up at me looking at him and I could see the realization cross his face. Eden probably doesn't have anything in her pants pockets. We both had a good chuckle. Habits know no boundaries.

The Avoidance of a Mess

I have a little rant about one of the moms at playgroup. This makes me wonder what people have to rant about when I'm not there, but, hopefully, I will not make the same mistakes that I get upset with. I'll probably just make different ones.
What frustrated me so, was a mom not taking a close enough interest in what her child was doing or had the potential to do at someone else's house. The scene: This child is a big boy, cruising, curious and a cross between a whirlwind and a bulldozer. He has pushed Eden over before just to crawl in a straight line to his destination. I had brought lunch and was eating it on our hostess' coffee table, including a drink. The hostess has an infant that she was tending to and I was about to have to feed Eden.
As I was eating the first part of my meal and just giving Eden some puffs, I was having to fend him off because he was so interested in my food and especially my drink. He had a sippy cup, but, of course, my drink was more interesting. His mom was sitting about 5 feet away saying "no" and his name in a menacing tone over and over... and over. I kept blocking my drink as she explained that he wanted to touch it or play with it. (duh, I know that) This would be when I would expect you to redirect your child physically or try to entertain him. Am I strange? Then, I had to start feeding Eden her baby food and could no longer protect my drink and the hostesses carpet, but I was not done with my meal yet, so I wasn't going to throw it away. I told his mom that I couldn't block him from my food anymore and she said "It's ok, I'm watching him." From five feet away!!! This boy was exactly six inches away from my drink... well within slapping distance and I could just see it all over the carpet. Apparently, so could my hostess, because she felt the need to grab him by the back of his overalls and put him in her lap with the pretense of wanting to play with him. I'm sure she didn't want his mom to suspect that she was really taking the preventative measures that the mom should have been taking. The mom seemed oblivious. "Oh yes, he loves to be bounced and held up in the air." Hmmmm. So that's something you could have been doing with him. I see. *sigh*
Later in the playdate the little boy had gotten a couple of wooden coasters and was banging them on the glass coffee table top. It sent shivers down my spine. She didn't take the coasters away, oh no, nope... she just went with a trusty "no." (trusty isn't really a good descriptor of how effective "no" is for her, by the way) Once again, the hostess stepped in and took her coasters away from him, apologizing (yes, apologizing) for them being out. "That's ok, he gets into everything at our house too." Wha? I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but wouldn't you want to try and find an effective solution for that? Isn't that stressful?
The kicker is that this mom's about to become a nanny and have her child over at someone else's house all day while she watches their kids. eek.
Training, people! Training! Train up your child in the way they should go. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. Get involved, redirect, sidetrack, substitute, then work on more training at home!
Ok, I'm done.

OK GO!

I cannot get enough of this video. I have no idea why I like it soooo much, but it makes me smile. I don't know what else to say, except that it is one of my favorite music videos...ever.

My Cup Runneth Over

I have a new blog now! I decided I needed another one since I would want to write about my pregnancy, but still want to save this blog for other life stuff. So add www.twoinmycup.blogspot.com to your list and come check on me from time to time.

Casting Crowns

AAAAuugh! I missed another Favorite Friday. Sorry guys. Here's the make-up one...

Here's a video compilation with the words to my favorite song from one of my favorite Christian bands; Casting Crowns. This song always moves me. I want to create some choreography to it, but I just haven't felt released to do it yet. Maybe God has it planned for the future.
The basic truths in this song always bring me back to how small I am and how BIG my God is. It's kind of absurd to even have to remind myself what a big God He is. It's absurd to have to remind myself that He has no beginning or end, that He created all that is and knows all that will be. It's absurd to be afraid when I have the knowledge of such a great God. But I forget, and I fear. Imagine how we would live if we never had to remind ourselves. Imagine how unimportant our needs would be. Imagine how trivial our stress would be.

Lord, help me be reminded of Your greatness so often that it may finally become a part of who I am. I am Yours. I am a branch intimately connected to the Vine. Cause your Life to flow through me, affecting not only me, but this life inside of me and the lives of all I meet. Make me Yours. I want to be aware of Your greatness and Your ability and my puniness and inability. When I realize those truths is when I am happiest. Thank You for being infinitely patient and everlastingly loving. I praise You and You alone, for You are worthy of all my praise.