Happy Reformation Day!

Happy Halloween!  While painting your face (or stuffing it with candy!) here is a great resource for you to listen, learn and celebrate the Reformation!


Click and select from a vast variety of topics relating to Reformation history, theology, biographies and more compiled from the archives of my favorite Lutheran radio program, Issues Etc.


Enjoy!  Happy Reformation Day!

The Reformation & Worship The Reformation & Vocation The Reformation & the Theology of the Cross The Reformation & the Means of Grace The Reformation & the Doctrine of Justification The Reformation Today Reformation Theology: Christ Alone Reformation Theology: Grace Alone Reformation Theology: Faith Alone	Reformation Theology: Scripture Alone The Reformation Hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” Papal Authority & Roman Catholic Dogma The Lutheran Reformers vs. Other Reformers Lutheran Church Bodies in America Are Lutherans Protestant? A Biography of Martin Luther The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification AND MORE!
LISTEN NOW   Shirley Temple 	 Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater! 

Reformation Red: Cranberry Applesauce

You've heard the old joke, "You know you're a Lutheran when...you only serve Jell-O in the correct liturgical color!"  Guilty.  Kind of.  You didn't really think I'd only serve my family a Diet of (gummy) Worms for celebrating the Reformation, did you? 


Adelae in her "Reformation Red"!

Tonight while the kids were carving a pumpkin with Daddy, I was busy slicing up some apples, making warm Reformation Red Cranberry Applesauce.  It's sweet and tart, warm and red - perfect for a cozy fall evening.  Even here in Naples, we have refreshing a bit of a chill in the air today.


First, the story.  Food is a great way to tell a story - full mouths make for a captive audience! In this dish, sweetness comes from the apples, tartness from the cranberries. While we celebrate the Reformation, it wasn't all sweetness.  Luther loved his church.  He never set out to create a new church, only to refocus her back to God's Word and His grace.  Amidst the celebration of God's grace and the Word, this break among fellow Christians casts a bit of a shadow, a tartness.  My heart also aches for those I love who can't quite rest in the knowledge of their salvation, needing to look to themselves, to being good enough to merit heaven.  Martin Luther was a great man, but a flawed man.  Jesus was the perfect man.  He gave the perfect sacrifice.  Salvation is paid in full through His death, without any merit or worthiness in me.  Sweet and tart.

Rough chop 10-12 apples - skin and all. This is a great use for your old, browning apples. I even threw in a couple pears too.  Place them in a large stock pot on high heat with about a half a cup of water.  Sprinkle in a tablespoon or so of pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon.  Once they start to soften, stir in a whole bag of cranberries and a squeeze of lemon juice. That's a whole lot of tart for my liking, so I add a little bit of granulated Stevia, maybe 1/3 cup.  Add more if you like.  Within ten minutes or so your apples will be nice and soft and the cranberries will have popped, releasing their beautiful red color.  Let it cook on high heat for at least 15 minutes, then use a potato masher to break down the fruit.  We like it a little bit chunky.  The skins do break down quite a bit and I hate to loose that wonderful fiber, but if you can always peel the apples if desired.  Serve warm.

Do you think Kate Luther would have approved?  I hope so!

Reformation Red Cranberry Applesauce

10-12 apples

1/2 cup water

1 T cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice

12 oz bag cranberries

1/3 cup sugar or sweetener of your choice

squeeze of lemon juice

Thank you for reading! 

If you've enjoyed my little work-in-progress please share it with your friends and family.

Email a link.

Pin pictures to Pintrest,

or, post a link on your Facebook page! 

Thank you!



A Mighty Fortress

My children feed off of music, and when they know the hymns we sing in church they enjoy being able to participate.  Even my little Pete recognizes and perks up when he hears some of his favorite hymns.   We especially enjoy the CDs Adelae gets each quarter in Sunday School.  Our church uses Concordia's Growing in Christ curriculum. Each CD has hymns, memory verses set to music and catechism songs, all in children's voices, so it's great for singing along.  Of course, this quarter Luther's hymn, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" is included on the CD. To prepare for Reformation Day, we've been working on learning the words to this song.

Today we decided to build our own fortress using chairs, ottomans, blankets and pillows!  What is it about kids loving small spaces?  Adelae hasn't started building blanket forts yet, but I knew this was a great opportunity to introduce her to the idea, as well as the concept of a fortress as a safe hiding place.  Amidst tumbling pillows and falling blankets, God is our true, unshakable safety.

At first I had to do most of the building labor, but she caught on pretty quickly!  She wanted it small and positioned right in front of the TV so that she could watch "mosies" (that's Adelae for "movies")from her fortress. 

Now, if you haven't already gathered this, I'm pretty much a big Lutheran nerd.  I also have no problem talking to my children about things that are suppose to be way over their head by breaking the concepts down as simply as I can and answering their questions.  It will be no surprise to you that from within our fortress we watched the first half of the 2003 movie, Luther.  Watching such a movie with her basically means that I run an on-going commentary and answer her questions as we look at the screen together. It is great because I can repeat some of the themes over and over again, "money can't buy heaven. Who gives us salvation and heaven?  yes, Jesus.  Jesus earned our forgiveness by dieing on the cross for our sins..." throughout the viewing. This movie is pretty scary, but Adelae can handle it when I watch it with her. 

We also enjoy reading the Paul Maier's Book, Martin Luther: A Man Who Change the World. Instead of reading every word of the book, we really just look at the pictures and have some pretty great conversations.  She asks a lot of questions, and I love answering them. In a few years she'll be ready for the entire text.

After his nap, Pete enjoyed being the fortress invader! Man-made fortresses are never so strong anyway!

Spooky Tree with Glittered Spiders

Sometimes it's fun to be a little scared! My little 3yr old loves to have me tell her sad and scary stories.  Halloween is a good time to have a little fright in your life, especially while knowing that you are safe and loved.

Today we made a "Spooky Tree", and it was great fun!  I got the idea in the most unlikely place.  My Grandma "Dee" has a dear friend named Mary, an Amish lady from Charm, OH.  Most Amish homes are quite stark, but Mary belongs to a more lenient church that allows her to decorate her house a little bit - not that she decorates for Halloween!  The tall leafless branches were striking against the white wall of Mary's living room, and I knew I'd have to find some bare branches for my fall centerpiece for my dining room table.

We wandered out to the side yard and found a couple dead limbs.  They are about three feet long; I was looking for drama!  I spray painted them black, then silver and added a few shots of earthy green.

After the branches were dry, we dropped a few black river rocks in the bottom of a clear glass vase. We ppositioned the branches, and filled the vase with more rocks.  The rocks have a nice shiny luster and are heavy enough to anchor the big branches in place.  

Now for the really spooky part!  Everything creepy is spooky when you're three - or even when you're 33 - so we added SPIDERS - little plastic spider rings made faux faberge fabulous with a little glitter! 

Take a little glue and dilute it with a few drops of water.  Hold by the ring and brush the glue all over the plastic spider. Hold the spider over or in a bowl and shake with glitter to coat.  We used silver and gold, but black or purple would be really fun too! 

While the spiders are drying, start to pull some fake spider webbing into long thin strands.  Most people use far more webbing than is needed.  The trick to making it look real, or not so fake, is to really stretch and pull it, using very, very little.  Hang the strands on the tree, from branch to branch.




Adelae counting spider legs while they dry

 Once dry, cut off the ring portion of your glittered plastic spiders. Strategically place your spiders on, or dangling from, the webbing.  I love that without any adhesive these little fancy spider friends just hang from their webs!

Dramatic, fun, cheap, easy, and just the right amount of spooky - what's not to like!? 

Celebrating Halloween on Reformation Day

I get it.  A lot of Christians don't want to celebrate Halloween because of the devils, witches and the like.  After all, the meaning of the Second Commandment, "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God", includes not using satanic arts.  Certainly, as Christian parents, we would never want to encourage a day for celebrating the devil!  Many choose to celebrate the harvest or, in Lutheran circles, emphasize Reformation Day.  Still, there is some good in celebrating Halloween, and I'm very glad that Martin Luther chose the eve of All Saints Day to post his theses, because Reformation Day and Halloween are very easy to celebrate hand in hand.

First, I do choose to celebrate Halloween with my family.  Candy and Costumes.  Enough said!  What fun!  If this isn't reason enough, consider this: the devil is very real. Halloween is a good opportunity to recognize and discuss the reality of Satan and our inevitable death because of our sin.  The devil IS scary. The devil IS bad. There is no candy coating this topic, except of course the hope of eternal life earned by the conqueror of death, Jesus. Halloween is scary, but Jesus is our salvation. 

All of this business about Halloween being a pagan holiday is further rubbish. Celebrating "the harvest", like Earth Day, can just as quickly be turned into a pagan day by worshiping creation instead of Christ. Halloween is no more pagan than those who worship Santa at Christmas or the Bunny at Easter.  In fact, many of our Christmas traditions, such as Christmas carols, are actually pagan traditions that have been baptized, so to speak, and given new life in the church. No one would ever think of carols as pagan today, and in fact they are one of the few explicit declarations of the Gospel that you might hear at the grocery store.   

Getting struck by lightning, pounding on doors after dark, being kidnapped by horsemen, hiding in a lonely old castle, dressing up as a knight...the story of our Reformation is a pretty good scary story!  Halloween and Reformation seem to have the same shroud of danger and excitement.  I can't imagine celebrating them apart from one another.

Of course, decorating the house for Reformation Day, or making Reformation Day treats can require a bit more creativity, unless you set out a bowl of gummy worms and tell your family you'll be having a Diet of Worms for the day!  One of my Reformation staples is setting out my Luther and Kate heads.  My Lutheran friends recognize them, and everyone else just thinks they are scary old people in my window.  Either way, I think they're really fun!


 To make them,  just find an old black and white image of Luther.  Mine are by Lucas Cranach.  Blow them up, either on your computer or on a copy machine, increasing the size until the head is as large as you can make it while still fitting on one sheet of paper.  Cut around the head and glue it to a piece of foam core board.  Cut the foam core around the head and voila!  I like to keep mine the window among my pumpkins!
Happy Halloween!  Happy Reformation!



Candy Corn Towel Folding

While visiting family up North last week, I noticed that my mom and Aunt Cindy both had out their orange and yellow towels.  Knowing these fine ladies, I am certain that this festive decor was no coincidence!  But I thought, how cute to also add a white towel and have a candy corn inspired towel set.  With a sigh, I dismissed the idea, not wanting to spend the money on an orange and yellow towel just for a couple weeks of the year.  When I got home, I realized, that I DO have orange and yellow, and white, washcloths.  So with a little "fussing" (as Dee would say), I folded them candy corn style to the delight of my little Adelae.

There are a few tricks for folding towels.  First, double folding and layering them before hanging or setting them next to the sink gives a full luxurious look.  My mom, formerly a display artist at the old Lion Store in Toledo, OH, shared that towels on display are always doubled on top of each other on the bar, giving that big, fluffy appearance.  Second, also a tip from Ginny, always hide the edges within your folds for a finished look.

To make a candy corn stack like mine, start with an orange, yellow and white washcloth or set of towels.  If you are using towels you might want to use progressively smaller towels or fold them smaller and smaller from orange to white, like I did.  I used washcloths, and here is how I folded them.

Fold two, opposite, sides of your orange washcloth into the center, leaving about an inch in the middle.  Remember, orange is the widest section of a candy corn.

Fold it in half, with the exposed end on the top and the folded end closest to you.

Fold two sides of the yellow washcloth to meet in the center, leaving only the slightest gap in the middle.  Fold about a fifth of the towel in on the left hand side. 

Place the yellow washcloth on top of the orange, leaving a couple inches of orange washcloth exposed and the folded portion of the cloth closest to you.

Flip the yellow underneath itself to butt up to the orange washcloth.  See how the multiple folds and layering makes towels look fluffier!

Fold the sides of your white washcloth to the center so they just overlap.  Remember, white is the smallest section of the candy corn.  Then, fold in, about a quarter of the cloth, the left side. 

Finally, place the folded portion of the white cloth on top of the yellow and tuck the excess underneath, butting it up to the yellow cloth.


Fast, easy, cute, and fun!  Place it beside a decorative hand soap and charm your family and friends by making hand washing a little more sweet!

Peter Pumpkin Eater: No-Sew Pumpkin Hat

Peter, Peter pumpkin eater,

Had a wife and couldn't keep her;

So he kept her very well

Safe within a pumpkin shell

My little Pete is going to be "Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater" for Halloween this year. Basically, I plan to serve him some nice orange pumpkin, sans bib, and let his white onsie get all stained up.  He'll carry a little pumpkin with one of Adelae's thumb sized princesses as his "wife".  Still, he needed a finishing touch - a hat!  I didn't really have a plan beyond "hat" when I ran out last night, but found this orange long sleeve T-shirt for only $2. 

This is so quick and easy, absolutely no-sew, and can be completed in about 10 minutes.  All you need is a man's long sleeve T-shirt, sharp scissors, matches, and a strip of green felt.

Cut the sleeve off the shirt, including the seam connecting it to the body of the shirt. 

Measure about 12" from the shoulder of the sleeve, and cut. Carefully, singe the raw edge - the top of your hat.  If you roll up from the hemmed side, your hat's base, you'll see that it's starting to look like a hat, but is a little asymmetrical. 

To make the hat symmetrical, refold the fabric to place the vertical hem (shown on the left above) in the middle of the back side of the hat.  Next, fold the top corners inside of the hat, so they meet at the top-middle forming two overlapping V's

Place a 7-8" strip of felt or green fabric between the two V's on the top of the hat.  Gather one "V" in each hand and half-knot together over the felt. Draw the felt up and over your shirt's half-knot, and knot the felt tightly. 

Place it on your child's head, then roll up to achieve the desired fit and look.  Fortunately, shirts have two sleeves, because Adelae wanted one too! 




Want to know what my little pumpkins are eating?  Here is a family favorite, healthy treat, and how I intend to get that nice orange stain for Petey's costume!

Pumpkin Applesauce

1 46oz jar applesauce
1 15oz can pumpkin
2 t pumpkin pie spice


Stir it all together in a Tupperware container and store in the fridge.  Serve chilled or warm.  Add more spice if you like!  I always use all natural, no sugar added applesauce.  For a very special treat, serve with Gingersnaps!





Pounding Theses on the Front Door

Last fall, while pushing my then two year old daughter in the stroller on our afternoon walk, I started talking aloud, but more to myself at first, about the upcoming Reformation Day.  I went on to tell her all about Martin Luther, the 95 Theses, and the revolutionary message of Grace, Faith, Scripture and Christ Alone.  Forgiveness of sins and eternal life is ours, not because of the good we do, but because of the love of God, who sent His son, Jesus, to die in our place. By the power of the Holy Spirit, through Word and Sacrament, this faith is ours! To my surprise, she was actually listening!   We got home, and I asked if she’d like to see a picture of Dr. Luther.  The Cranach painting sparked further conversation, and before I knew it this little girl was using her fist as a hammer, pretending to pound the theses to the front door!  With this nugget of inspiration, we began the tradition of pounding Reformation messages on the doors of our home.

Materials:

Paper, I used some old yellowed paper

Markers

Masking Tape

Luther Seal Stickers (Optional)

The process is so simple.  Make up a few Reformation slogans or select some of your favorite Bible verses, maybe from the Reformation Day readings. (Romans 3:19-28, John 8:31-36)  Write them in big, bold letters on the paper.  Older children can copy the verses, but for my little ones I did most of the writing, and then as we talked about each poster, Adelae added a few embellishments in her own hand. 

Adelae added "Jesus Saves"

We also added a few Luther Seal stickers to our posters.  To make these just copy and paste a Luther Seal multiple times into a Word document, then print it on sticky label paper.  If you print them in black and white, you can always fill in the color with red, blue and yellow markers.  Cut them out, and stick! Or, just print them on copy paper, cut and glue.

Finally, pop a few tape rolls onto the back of each poster and let your children use their fist as an imaginary hammer to display your posters on the doors of your home.  As you walk from room to room one can't help but read the verses, and hopefully this will prompt further conversations about the free gift of grace, the forgiveness of sins, and the eternal life that is ours through the saving work of Christ Jesus.

Scrub-a-Dub, Luther in the Tub

October is Reformation Month.  I know, I know, only Reformation Day is listed on the calendar, but with all of the candy coated excitement of Halloween, why not celebrate the Reformation all month long? 'Round about the same time I start setting out the pumpkins and filling Andy's dish with candy corn, I unpack our Reformation Day goods too. 


Our Luther's Seal bath puzzle was a favorite from last year that came out of the box again today.  It's origin is simple. Adelae has a set of ABC's that are nothing more than colored foam, made fun in the tub when the water suctions them to the bathtub wall.  I thought, why not make more foam bath toys? 



2010

Is there any place better than the tub to share Luther's Seal with your children? Not only do you have a captive audience, but the tub is always an ideal local to share the faith by remembering our baptism.  Martin Luther designed the seal as a summery of his Christian Faith. Introducing Luther's Seal as a puzzle allows children to identify all of the components individually, while we explain the "what does this mean?" of each piece.



2011

To make a Luther's Seal Foam Puzzle for your tub, trace and reduce my template to make each of the pieces. You'll only need scissors, a pencil, large foam sheets (small red, small black, large white, large blue and large yellow), and my template or another image of Luther's Seal, printed on copy paper to the size desired. Ours is 8.5" in diameter.

If you'd like a template, please email me at skoehneke@yahoo.com.  I'll be happy to share it with you, but cannot post a PDF file here. Or, you can try to use the picture of my template, posted above.  Until I come up with a different strategy for posting a template, this will have to do!


First, cut out the paper seal, place it on the yellow foam and trace around the outside. Cut in and around the interior of the paper template "gold ring", then trace the interior line of your ring onto the foam. Cut out the ring from the center of the foam.

Place the reduced paper template on the blue foam, trace, then cut the foam to create the the "sky blue" layer. 

Again, cut your paper template, this time reducing down to the rose.  Place the template on the white foam, trace, and cut out your "white rose" piece. 

Cut the flower off of your template, down the the heart.  Trace and cut the heart out of the red foam.

Finally, cut down to the cross.  Trace and cut your cross out of the black foam. 


Now, all you might need is a tub of water and a quick review of each part of Luther's Seal.  Here's how I explain it to my children:
          Black Cross - Black can be a sad, dirty color that reminds us of our sin.  Jesus took our punishment and died on the cross for our sins.
          Red Heart - God loves us.  He sent Jesus to be our Savior.  The red color reminds us of the blood He shed for our salvation.
          White Rose - Flowers are happy.  The Holy Spirit gives us joy as He brings us to faith, makes us clean and gives a new life in Christ.
          Sky Blue - God gives new life to those who believe and trust in Him. We look forward to going to heaven because Jesus died for our sins.
          Gold Ring - A circle goes around and around forever.  We'll live in heaven with Jesus forever. Everything will be complete and perfect, like gold.

This year are also having fun sounding out Reformation words, such as The Solas, and then posting them on the tub wall.  

There you have it!  Scrub-a-dub, Luther in the tub!  

**More Reformation, Fall and Halloween crafts and activities coming later this month, so please check back!  Thank you for sharing my new little blog with your friends and family! **