Finally; we are sending out the March-April 2023 Newsletter for The IN SEASON Lifestyle Blog. I’ll bet you thought we just forgot all about the March Newsletter. Nope; but due to reasons beyond our control we are running a little behind on our Newsletters publications. So we just decided to combine the last two months together into one publication.
We have thought about going quarterly with our Newsletters anyway. This is a constant consideration because often the seasons and lifestyle events for a month are divided into two consecutive months on the calendar’s pages. Prayers are still going up about whether or not to make this change. We would love to hear your opinion.
There has been so much LIFE going on here at the home-front during the last few months. Spring is always very busy for us. We celebrated the Passover, Unleavened Bread, Early First Fruits and began counting the Omer. March and April were full of devotional articles for counting the omer.
Personally we celebrated our sweet granddaughter turning 9, and my Mother turning more wonderful with every passing year. They have birthdays close to each other and the older and younger of our home crew kept us busy right after all of the Spring Holy Days activities. I enjoyed spending a whole day eating out and shopping with my Mom.
We got to visit with our granddaughter’s other two sets of grandparents (from the sunny state of Florida.) It was nice to catch up with old friends from out of state.
Springtime has been amazing this year. My husband and I took some of the scenic backroads and toured a few places close to home. We celebrated Resurrection Day (Early First Fruits) near some crashing running waters in the woods away from the hustle and bustle of all the crowds.
It was such a peaceful way to Thank God for the Resurrection of Jesus and our salvation as we were totally surrounded by so many forms of fresh new life. As much as we love corporate worship, it was so wonderful to have some quiet meditative time to thank God for the Gift of His Son rising from the grave and bringing us into eternal life with God forever. Also, it was refreshing to get out into the beautiful Alabama sunshine after the end of a long winter season. Spring always brings us that exciting hope of new life and new beginnings.
Because all those I have worked with for years in the professional field retired; I found myself leaving the day job I had worked for many years and making a few new employment changes. One day I suppose I will retire and just continue writing forever. I’m just not ready yet. I love the structure of the working world and having others around me daily and routinely. So; I’m looking for a way to keep working, but cutting down the hours a bit as I go along. I’ll probably write a few articles in GROW OLD WITH ME about sticking your toes into the waters of retirement before taking the great plunge. If I do; it will be speaking from personal experience. I can’t find the world “retirement” in my bible anywhere.
Before the new professional move began though; I took a few days off. Retirement still scares me a bit; but down time doing the things I love with the people I love is really what life is all about.
One perk of having more time was being able to meet for lunch in the middle of the day with one daughter at one of our favorite new local dining establishments. I hope to do an article recommending this restaurant soon. We totally enjoyed our meal. If you are not into oysters; no worries. I don’t eat those poisonous bottom-feeders either. They have plenty of biblically correct sea foods as well as other dishes. We loved every selection, but they did present one special favorite. I’ll tell you more later in an article in May in our MONDAY NIGHT MENUS section of the blog.
I think we are a little caught up on life on the home-front now; but in spite of the very busy schedule here, there was also much blogging going on during the last two months. Here is a rich recap of what we have been posting during those days. Enjoy catching up on any articles that you might have missed.
COME AS A CHILD BIBLE STUDY
Somewhere in between March and April we finished our Joshua Study and moved on to our Judges Study. I hope you learned a lot from the lessons on Joshua. I’m happy to announce that we are going to encounter some interesting facts in the Judges study too.
SEASONS
Springtime began with a celebration of Purim and St. Patrick’s Day. We posted summary articles about both holidays. Check them out in our review below.
Of course we loved every moment of the Spring Holy Days. We had articles on Passover, Unleavened Bread, Early First Fruits and we celebrated Resurrection in a joyful way. God has truly blessed us with new life in abundance through His Son Jesus Christ. He has risen!
We began counting the omer and printed and published articles with meditations for each day of this process. There will be continued counting in May; so keep checking the posts.
SEASONS – COUNTING THE OMER ARTICLES
We hope you are counting the omer with us and pondering your life with God during the 50 days leading up until The Day of Pentecost. These 49 days will prepare us for Pentecost. Each day’s devotion helps us to understand the fruits of God’s Holy Spirit.
The attributes of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, mixed with the attributes of charity, dignity, goodness, longsuffering, even temperament, faith and modesty, all help us to move and thrive in God’s best ways to live from following the commandments given in the holy scriptures.
We will continue publishing these omer-counting devotions daily until The Day of Pentecost arrives. Hopefully, by that date the ways of God will be firmly grounded within our souls and we will be able to move further into God’s Great Kingdom of Heaven each day.
Are you feeling richer in your spirit for having managed to follow along and count this far? I know I do. God is so good to give us so many ways to understand Who He really is and what He is all about. This is yet another bonus of belonging the The Great Family of Believers.
LOOKING FORWARD TO MAY
There were so many seasonal things to post in March and April that we barely had time to focus on any other subjects or topics.
May will begin more coverage of Spring happenings. We hope to share some new recipes and new travel articles again as well as some new An Apple A Day articles with tips on living a healthy lifestyle.
Of course our weekly (every-Thursday) bible study on Judges will continue. There will be many more seasonal articles on Pentecost, Memorial Day and Mother’s Day.
The month of May is always full of surprises. Sharing this great month on the blog is a lovely way to ease into the summer season.
Keep following us for ways to live out The IN SEASON Lifestyle. Our publication summary of our Exodus study is now heavily in the works. We hope to publish it by the end of May. However; it may not go on sale until we near Passover next year – as that is the time that we feel will be most significant for this new publication. Keep watching for the “sneak preview” we want to give away to all of our followers soon. Who knows; we may even throw a few podcast samples into the blog posts as we go along. Time will tell.
The Exodus study revealed many interesting facts to consider about modern life today. So much of that has to do with our spiritual journey together toward freedom. We can’t wait to get this summary into your hands. It is something to look forward to for the future.
Thank you for being an important part of our IN SEASON Lifestyle Community!
Until we meet again; happy summer!
GAIL LANDGRAF/WRITER/EDITOR/PUBLISHER of The IN SEASON Lifestyle