"mom, do you know what advent is?"

a couple of weeks ago our middle son, luke, came up to me (in the middle of hustling around the kitchen making lunches, cleaning up breakfast and yelling at the dog) and asked, "mom, do you know what advent is?"  in that split second, i shrank back and thought, dear God where is dave when i need him, i don't remember, oh wait maybe i do, crap.....thankfully, in a moment of divine intercession i replied, "do YOU know what it means?".  he looked up at me, while pouring his cereal and said, "yes".  it was not an emphatic YES! - it was more of a thoughtful, almost whispered, yes - as if he knew a secret.  he than went on to say, "did you know that one day Jesus is going to come back and make everything perfect?"  i stopped what i was doing and looked at him and replied, "yes".  he went on to say, "i didn't know that.... did you know we celebrate advent not just because Jesus was born but because he is coming back.... isn't that cool?" yes, luke, that is super cool!  when i asked him how he learned about advent he told me his dad had talked to him about it.  how crazy cool is that?  it's tough to always know whether or not your kids are listening, it's awesome when you realize they are.

so, yesterday was the first sunday in advent.  dave went out earlier in the week to hobby lobby and bought all the supplies to make this beautiful advent wreath.  he spent a total of about $15 on everything, or you can find a pre-made one online or at your local christian book store.  Here is a link to the daily scripture reading.

this week we lit the hope candle.