We have made it though a snowy February, and marked the beginning of Lent. It was a joy to have the opportunity to meet so many prospective ILS families during the admissions process, which included parent meetings and student assessments throughout the month. As parents ask about the nature of the ILS community, it has been a joy to share with them the numerous blessings of our life together. We are reminded daily of your strong commitment to our mission in the ways you help your children with their homework, engage and encourage teachers, and participate in the daily rhythms of the school, even if remotely. You pray for one another. You show love to your child's classmates and ask how to best care for staff and fellow families. You model Christian friendship and forgiveness. We are excited to welcome new families to our ILS community for the 2021-22 school year!
In February, we also enjoyed welcoming Lower School families virtually for our 2nd Trimester Lower School Showcase. As we kick off March, we look forward to meeting with parents for our Parent Teacher Conferences and beginning our final trimester of the school year. It is hard to believe we’re already at this point in the year! We are also all looking forward to Spring Break in just a few weeks, and some time to rest and recharge for the final months of the school year.
Please enjoy the March edition of our "What we're reading..." Blog. As always, we hope that you enjoy this variety of articles that we have found to be inspiring, thought-provoking or intriguing, and that these pieces continue to help to shape ongoing conversations. We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below as you read these!
Thank you for your continued partnership, and for engaging with us! Please feel free to share a link in the comments to email us any time!
The Beautiful Routine of the Liturgy - Mrs. Marie Greenway Prelude to Postlude: CPH Music Blog
“A day or two before Ash Wednesday, I remarked to my husband, “I can’t wait for Lent.” In a dreary year of isolation, anxiety, moral quandaries, political polarization, disease, and death, compounded all the more by the last few months of gloomy, wintry skies and cold weather, I am ready for spring. Lent means that spring is coming and that Easter is drawing ever nearer. It is a yearly routine that remains unchanging even in the face of a pandemic and societal disruption.
Routine and the “Merely Inconvenienced”
Among all the intense suffering we’ve witnessed recently, I might categorize a different group that my husband and I fall into as the “merely inconvenienced.” We give thanks that we haven’t lost jobs or loved ones to the pandemic, our mental health is generally intact, we don’t have a family of little ones to guide through online learning, and we have a wonderful church community to offer mutual support and encouragement. I remember early on in 2020 people criticizing another group of the “merely inconvenienced”: high school athletes who mourned the loss of their sports seasons. The sentiment of the criticisms was that these athletes shouldn’t complain because the loss of a sports season is inconsequential compared to all the other suffering happening around them.
These naysayers miss the point of all of the “merely inconvenienced.” Although, of course, we should be thankful for our blessings of health and an income, there is a very real suffering in the loss of those things we love that mark the seasons of our years. The loss of our routines is something to be mourned. Routine, and its partner, repetition, are vital aspects of humanity, and when we lose them, we lose the things that give us comfort and a purpose.”
10 Ideas for Observing Lent as a Family - Morgan Consier, Little Home on the Iowa Prarie
“Today I want to talk about some simple ways you can observe Lent as a family. Similar to my post about Advent traditions, this post will be full of ways you and your family can observe the season of Lent as we all look toward His glorious resurrection on Easter Day!
Give “Allelluia” a break
When I was younger, I thought all Christians stopped say “Alleluia” during Lent.
Then I was in homeschool choir with mostly non-Lutherans, and they couldn’t understand why my one Lutheran friend and I were so excited for it to finally be Easter so we could say “Alleluia, He is Risen!”
While it’s certainly not a sin to say the word Alleluia during Lent (hey, lots of us have to sing it in choir practice anyway), it can be a good way of reminding ourselves that not all the seasons of the church year are times of celebration.
As LSB #417 puts it,
Alleluia cannot always
Be our song while here below;
Alleluia, our transgressions
Make us for a while for-go;
For the solemn time is coming
When our tears for sin must flow.”
I’m Grateful to My Friends for Cleaning Their Houses - Anna Mussmann, Sister, Daughter, Mother, Wife Blog
“Domestic coziness is important. I know this. I believe this. However, after my third baby was born, I didn’t much notice what my house was actually like. I was too busy learning how to parent three children instead of two. It didn’t help that the basement flooded and I developed a case of shingles. I was too busy to even see things like, say, dust. My mind had streamlined the word “cleaning” to mean only three things: running the vacuum occasionally, washing the dishes, and telling the kids to tidy their toys.
And for a while, this was OK.
When the baby was around four months old, we went on a road trip and stayed with friends. My friends had cleaned. In their houses, the floors had been washed. The sunlight poured through glossy windows and lit up well-cared for houseplants. There was a feeling of spaciousness and comfort in the absence of clutter. It was so restful to be in those homes. It was beautiful. It made me remember.
The first thing I did at home was to wash my electric kettle. It’s ceramic with a pretty white and red pattern. I like the feel of the handle and the swoosh of water when I pour it into a waiting teacup. It’s basically domestic coziness in itself. The thing is, though, the outside of my kettle had taken on the orange hue of dozens of forgotten dinners. You know how it is—little bits of food splash when you’re cooking and you’re too busy to wipe them off. I hadn’t even noticed the specks before. It was embarrassing to look around my kitchen with newly opened eyes, but it was nice to see the kettle look glossy again.
I didn’t have time to scrub the whole house at once. My baby was still pretty needy and the other kids wanted my attention, too. However, I had made a start—I had begun to notice things and to work on them in odd moments. ”
Sermon for Ash Wednesday - Pastor Noah Rogness, Rogness on Tap
“We heard in the Lenten address read at the beginning of the service, “From ancient times the season of Lent has been kept as a time of special devotion, self-denial, and humble repentance born of a faithful heart that dwells confidently [in Christ’s] Word and draws from it, life and hope.”
In other words, Lent is a time of fasting. Lutherans, however, have long correlated a fast with the works-righteousness of the Roman Catholic Church. The world often correlates fasting as a discipline for the body to trim-up or lose a little unwanted weight. Yet, another manner of fasting is required prior to having your blood drawn. This fast reveals the true health of your body, the true health of the blood that pumps and flows from your heart and within your veins below the mask of your exterior surface.
So, what does it mean to fast? It means to set aside a time of “special devotion, self-denial, and humble repentance born of a faithful heart that dwells confidently [in Christ’s] Word.”
We heard from the prophet Joel in the Old Testament reading “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” (Joel 2:12-13a)
As you approach this season of Lent - fasting, weeping, and mourning are expectations of the Christian. What is of the most serious importance is what is within you – what is beneath the shell and lies within your heart and pumped throughout your veins. ”
The Value of Struggle - Emmett Bicknell, CLT Blog
“In today’s world, there is a desire for comfort, and a fear of failure. People do not want to have to work at something again and again. Instead, they want to be able to do something right on the first try. If they cannot, often enough, they just quit. Although this avoidance of difficulty may seem harmless, it can have negative repercussions for future endeavors. Struggling with difficult problems leads to growth for future, seemingly unrelated, scenarios. Learning to struggle builds several skills.
The first skill that struggling with difficult challenges builds is the ability to persevere through adverse circumstances. If students are taught to keep going even when they don’t see an apparent way to solve a problem, they will grow in their ability to persevere. Although it may not benefit them immediately, this perseverance can be immensely useful later in life. For example, although struggling with problems in high school may not increase one’s grade significantly or change one’s circumstances, in college and in the workplace, the ability to keep plugging away at something can reap enormous benefits. In addition, as this skill develops, it continues to grow, giving greater and greater benefits.”
Do Not Allow Virtual Learning to Steal Our Snow Days - Joshua Gibbs, CIRCE
“School was cancelled today on account of snow, so my children got up early, dressed themselves in coats and mittens, and went outside to play with the neighbor kids for three solid hours. This is simply what happens in a sane world. In an insane world, my children would have woken up and planted themselves in front of a computer screen for three hours.
Allowing children to waste a perfectly good snow day watching cartoons on Netflix when they could be outside living is just lazy parenting. However, robbing children of a legitimate snow day by forcing them to sit in front of a computer screen for six hours, even if school is on the computer screen, is a complete betrayal of the basic principles of adulthood— or what used to count as adulthood.
Do you remember, my thirtysomething and fortysomething friends, when you were young and desperately wanted some overhyped, mass-market plastic contraption on sale at KB Toys? Do you remember what your parents used to say? They used to say, “You’ve survived for twelve years without this thing. I think you’ll be fine.” Or parents would zoom out and go Stanley Kubrick on you, saying, “Mankind has survived for thousands of years without this thing. You’ll make it a little while longer.” Granted, these were vexing replies to hear, for your parents seemed to entirely sidestep the poetry of your argument—which was really nothing more than “the heart wants what it wants”—but even in sixth grade, you could not deny the stone-cold logic your parents employed. Alas! They were right! Baffling as it was, mankind had survived for thousands of years without the Game Genie. ”