The following is an excerpt from Sabbath in the Suburbs: A Family’s Experiment with Holy Time by MaryAnn McKibben Dana. The book chronicles the Dana family’s experience of taking a day-long Sabbath every week for a year and provides inspiration and practical wisdom for families of all shapes and sizes who want to make Sabbath … Continue reading
By Jennifer Mills-Knutsen Have you seen the trendy new poem-statement-manifesto that people are posting in their homes (and on Facebook and Pinterest)? You can buy them from all kinds of Etsy shops and online crafters, as signs or vinyl wall decorations. They are often referred to as “House Rules.” I don’t have one in my … Continue reading
From the Sermon on the Mount: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.~Matthew 5:9 Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. ~Matthew 5:44 Rather than reflections on the week’s Lectionary readings, I would like to suggest that we talk with our children about the heroic and loving … Continue reading
I am slightly obsessed with my compost. A few moments ago, I trekked out in the steamy heat to the Darth Vader-looking compost bin beside my house, and I dumped in a fresh bucket of rotting food. Sometimes the discarded food looks almost pretty. Some days I have bright green watermelon rinds, purple-stained onion peel, … Continue reading
August 21, 2013 In a previous post, I talked about the prayers that I routinely sing with my children at bedtime. There’s another bedtime practice I seem to have developed lately: getting them riled up. It goes like this: as my two children are going to bed, they each always want me to come in … Continue reading
Prayer Holy One, We give thanks for water when we are thirsty, Strength when we are weak, The promise of building again what has broken down. Teach us to love our neighbors and to serve you, That we might be part of this rebuilding. Amen. Scripture Reading: Isaiah 58:9-12 Then you shall call, and the … Continue reading
This is my 3 1/2 year-old son’s favorite prayer: Dear Lord (pronounced “Wowd”), Thank you for riding on steam train. Thank you for riding on trolley train. Thank you for riding on Thomas. You are my pray. A-men! I have heard this prayer for some time now at mealtime and bedtime, and it never fails … Continue reading
![[the] Breathing Room](https://practicingfamiliesdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/breathing-room.jpg?w=290&h=290&crop=1 "[the] Breathing Room")
We have recently weathered a transition from California to Oregon. With the right mindset, moving can be seen as an adventure. Some aspects of the process just plain stink, though, no matter your attitude. Taping up boxes. Playing “Tetris” with packed boxes while trying to fit your belongings in the ever-shrinking truck. Eating out more, … Continue reading
“Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; All I have needed Thy hand hath provided— Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me!” ~chorus of the hymn “Great is Thy Faithfulness” Prayer: God, We thank you that you have big ears to hear us, eyes to watch over … Continue reading
“…how I wonder what…you…ARRRRRE!!” On any given day, the gamut of songs that plays over and over in my head range from this little ditty to Mumford and Sons’ latest to my favorite Indigo Girls rockin’ classic. But there are other loops that get stuck playing in my brain. Tapes that play over and over, … Continue reading
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