Journal: Easter 2016 (and lots of pics)

TODAY

Out my window:  Sunny and gorgeous.  The kids have the day off school and have been playing outdoors since we got home from our lunch out (see below) and errand eggstravaganza.  Funny though, less than 36 hours ago when I looked out my window we had about 4 inches of snow and the most beautifully (albeit odd) white Easter landscape you could dream of.  Yup folks, after a winter of literally no snow, we woke up to a white Easter. 

Around the house: I have this little space in our dining area, between the cabinetry and the deck door, where we have a rounded corner shelf mounted on the wall, below which is the prefect place to tuck our three drawer cabinet for craft supplies and legos (things used at the dining table).  It is one of my favorite spaces in our whole house (weird, I know) because a.) I am able to get so much bang for my buck space-wise, and b.) because the little shelf-top is the perfect place for our liturgically-themed items.  It is a place we see often (most of our prayers are said at the dining table) yet it is fairly out-of-the-way.  Win-win.  Enough of that.  As I accumulate more items over the years it is fun doing things for specific liturgical seasons and days, and this year I was pretty pleased with what I came up with for the Triduum.  Top L-R is Holy Thursday and Good Friday, bottom L-R is Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday/Easter Season. The white orchid (artificial) has been stored in the basement for several years, I am so glad I found an excuse to pull it back out (and that I didn't KonMari it).

The kiddos: Hmmm, not much.  Here's some pics from their Easter egg hunt at grandma's.  We really don't do much to observe the more secular aspects of Easter around here (don't shoot me, but the kids don't get Easter baskets or hidden Easter eggs or anything, shhhhhh, don't tell them that's a thing...) so it is fun for grandma to put on an egg hunt for them.

They were really excited to get to play in the snow Easter morning, and it was perfect conditions: wet snow, relatively warm outside, sunny.  I mean, the boys went back out in it after lunch barefoot.  BAREFOOT!  They built a few little snowmen in the morning, and then made a snow-blob with the remnants of said snowmen after lunch.  The snow-blob cracked me up.

In the kitchen: Today I took said children with day off on many errands and promised them a pizza date as well.  We went to Pizza Hut, and it was the kids' first buffet experience.  They had a blast!  Kolbe got two plates of pizza, a huge plate of vegetables (I know, right?) and then I think two or three more plates of pizza and dessert.  Clement got his dessert first (and last), and Gemma marveled numerous times that it seemed very wasteful to get a new plate each trip to the buffet. She also said she thought we should just stay there forever (um, is my cooking really that bad?) and asked me why I didn't order any wine.  Whaaaaaaa?????  It was lunch!  Barely noon!!!  Add to that the fact that we rarely eat out and I know for a fact I have never ever ordered wine when out with the family (and also don't make a habit of drinking at lunchtime).  And last time I checked, Pizza Hut's wine-lists wasn't all that stellar.  Where does she get this stuff? Gave me a good chuckle.

Learning:  The big kids both went to Holy Thursday and Good Friday Mass/services with me and Aaron respectively, and all three kids and I went to Stations on Good Friday.  I am hoping maybe we can go to both aforementioned Triduum services as a family next year, it has been years since I went on Good Friday.  The kids asked about the Easter Vigil, but right, wrong or otherwise, I just wasn't feeling it.  So long, so late, so past bedtime after two nights at Church past bedtime already.  Some year.  My point in putting this in the "learning" category: I just love LOVE that our Faith has such beautiful, meaningful rites and rituals that teach us so much about Jesus and our Redemption story.  

During the next few weeks we'll be doing Bible readings from the Via Lucis at the breakfast table.  I was really excited, for our Lenten Cross this year we only used our children's Bible for one of the forty readings, for the rest I just read straight from my RSV.  I love reading to the kids from the actual Bible.

Reading: Still working my way through Fire Within (Dubay).  Gemma and I are reading Caddie Woodlawn together, The Moffat Museum with the whole crew at the breakfast table, and Gemma is reading the Ramona Quimby and Betsy Tacy series' on her own.  No links today.  :)

Watching: Eh, not much.  Opening day is a week from today! But the Royals actually play Sunday evening.  Can't believe it's practically baseball season again.

Bringing me joy: Easter. Grace. Liturgy.  Incense. The Year of Mercy.  I am loving the Divine Mercy Novena this year. A pretty great end to errands today after a rocky start.  I love my kids.

Thinking about: 

Pictures to share: 

Family at Church after Easter Mass. Love all the bells and smells of the Triduum services and the flowers and brand-new Paschal Candle Easter morning. He is risen! He is risen, indeed!!

Journal: almost Easter

TODAY

Out my window: Sunny and cool, but we have some hot days in the forecast (mid-upper 80s) and looks like it will be favorable weather on Easter!

Clothing myself in: jeans, blue tank, pink T, grey cardi, my hair hasn't been washed in mumble mumble mumble days and I'm looking forward to getting it trimmed this afternoon!

Around the house: Once the kids are in bed tonight I will put the rest of our Lenten items away and get out our Easter candles, flowers, window clings etc.  That is always an exciting transformation.  I ordered some art! after agonizing over it for close to six months.  I ended up with a 12x16 (that I will matte and frame in a 16x20 frame) of The Presentation in the Temple, and an 8x10 (matted and framed in an 11x14 frame) of Mater Boni Consilii.  So excited!  I still don't have a definite spot for the one of the Blessed Virgin, but it was a good price and so beautiful.  I will find somewhere.

The baby/toddler:  Got his own fishing pole this week.  We had a minor setback when Kolbe got it stuck in a tree (don't ask) but he loves it.  It just has a little rubber fishy (read: no hook) on the end and he is learning to cast (sort of) but man he thinks he is big stuff. 

 

The kiddos: Gemma has a four-day weekend for Easter.  Yesterday was a little tenuous.  Today has been better.  Kolbe has his last day of speech this coming week.  Can't believe we are down to the last seven weeks of school!

In the kitchen: This morning we had hot cross buns for breakfast, that Gemma made with her grandma yesterday.  Easter feasting with both our families tomorrow. Next week,
Monday: shepherd's pie and steamed broccoli.  Making a Cherry Cream Pie for the Fathers.
Tuesday: crispy chicken salads
Wednesday: crock pot shredded pesto chicken, whole wheat pasta and sauteed green beans
Thursday: grilled meat of some sort and Friday: maybe leftovers?

Crafting: I've got nothin'.

Learning:  This morning we counted our Lenten alms.  I am so excited about what we are doing with them this year!!  Gemma's school has snack sales on a semi-regular basis, where one (or several) classes bring snacks and all the school kids get to bring a quarter and "shop" for snacks.  The last and next sale, they are doing what is called a "virtual snack sale" instead, and the kids bring money but instead of shopping for food, it is being sent to a mission our church is affiliated with in Guaymas, Mexico, where a gentleman from the US has moved down there and has a little snack-shop of sorts for the kids to come and eat, play, etc.  This money will allow him to buy more food and especially milk (which is a rare treat) for the kids in Guaymas.  SO cool!  So we are sharing our Lenten alms with them.  Also in our alms jar the kids put their purple beads for sacrifices and acts of love done throughout Lent.  This morning I cut out a white foam cross and the kids glued their purple beads on the cross.  We talked about how all those acts were deeds that we do to "work out our salvation", but we can't do it on our own, so the white cross is the part that God makes up for what we cannot do ourselves.  It was really neat.  I have always struggled with how to tie in the sacrifice beads at the end of Lent, and this just came to me this morning kind of spur of the moment and it worked out so well.  We will do it again next year.  I will keep the cross in our prayer corner during the Easter season as a tangible reminder of our salvation.   

Reading: the usuals.  I finished Saints: A Closer Look and am planning to jump back into Introduction to the Devout Life.

Watching: we have a new Survivorman: Bigfoot on the DVR that we are looking forward to watching and some special beer for an Easter beer date!

Bringing me joy: Holy Week and the coming Easter season.

Thinking about: Redemption.

Pictures to share:  

Dying Easter eggs this morning.

The boys with their fishing poles.  We sure do love fishing around here.

Journal: He is Risen

TODAY

Out my window:  Cloudy and gray and cool.  Grateful for beautiful weather over the Easter weekend, and looking forward to the end of this (hopefully) last cold snap of the season.  Have we ever had a later Spring?  I don't think I can remember a year that we didn't have pear blossoms in March (although I did see a tiny one on Saturday).  I looked back at pictures, and last year trees were blooming on March 10!!

Clothing myself in:  Monday clothes.  Nuff said.

Around the house: Laundry day today.  Sorting through the kids' Easter baskets from grandparents and getting stuff put away.  It no longer looks like Lent around here, I took our prayer garden down, the alms jar is gone and we have our Paschal Candle as our centerpiece.  I really do love this time of year.  Closets are a bit schizophrenic with the crazy weather we've been having.  I will be glad when it's warm for good and I can pack the long sleeve stuff and pants away (especially since they are all starting to look to small on my getting bigger littles).

Oh, and the laptop.  Sigh.  My USB ports quit working a couple weeks ago, which is kind of a huge deal as we don't have a desktop so I use this for printing (and don't have a wireless printer), uploading pictures, getting MP3s on my phone (as I don't have a SmartPhone) and my wireless mouse.  The mouse isn't a huge deal, but the other things are.  It has been hard going with out a printer, and thankfully my parents are letting me upload pics and such on their computer in the meantime, but it's still a pain.  It appears the problem is hardware not software, (something with the motherboard and/or a solder) and fixing it would be just about as expensive as buying new.  Did I mention my laptop is only 2.5 years old?  Blurgh.  We've had two Toshibas but are looking at going Dell this time.  Any recommendations?  Oh technology...

 

The baby: Has started trying to clap his hands.  Will stay on all fours if you put him there instead of immediately flattening out, and likes to creep his hands down into a quasi-crawling position from sitting. LOOOOOOOOVES his daddy when he wakes up in the morning, and often cries when he has to come to me so daddy can get ready for work.  Aaron loves it!!

 

The kiddos:  We went to Art Class last week for the first time in close to a year.  Gemma was soooo excited to go again, and Kolbe was old enough to go this time too.  He had fun, I think he likes the idea of art class more than he actually liked the class itself, but he had a pretty good time and felt like quite the big kid.  Kolbe is currently painting and Gemma is drawing an elaborate rocket that takes up two pieces of paper.  Seriously, sometimes I wonder why we have toys. 

Gemma has just this past week started sounding out words on her own and writing notes.  Today when I came out from nursing Clem down there was a letter for me by his door that said, "Cam se mi pat it is a bane Love Gemma I love u mom."  Translation: Come see my pet, it is a bunny (she got a stuffed bunny for Easter).  Pretty cute.

Kolbe has a big problem with putting his fingers/hands in his nose and mouth.  It is really gross and I am at a loss as to how to, errr, break him of this nasty habit.

In the kitchen: Homemade pizza tonite: beef, sausage, mushrooms and spinach I'm thinking with some leafy green salad; Chicken Stuffing Casserole with mixed veggies; a tasty recipe using link sausage (thanks Vickie!) and butternut squash and some other goodies; Aaron will probably grill on Thursday; breakfast casserole on the menu for Friday but as of now I'm not feeling it.  Too many brunches over the weekend...maybe I'll change my tune by then.

Crafting: I made a Paschal Candle for our Easter centerpiece.  (Read about it here.)

Learning:  Nothing too out of the ordinary this week.  We'll be doing this Divine Mercy craft later in the week.  I recently discovered That Artist Lady and may use some of her Easter ideas with the kids during the Easter season.  Other than that we have some cutting and handwriting work on the lesson plans this week, and a trip to the library.  Between three littles and winter our weekly trips to the library have been, errrr, not always weekly.  Hopefully warmer weather will spur us to be a bit more regular about that.  It is just really hard for me to get motivated to get out of the house with three little kids when it's cold and windy.  And by cold I mean anything below about 55.  Yes, I am a wimp.

Reading:  I'm a ways into section II of the Catechism and am really enjoying my readings.  I received Navigating the Interior Life as my next review from The Catholic Company and am looking forward to starting that.  Review to come.  On chap8 of Heidi with the kids.  I have a couple fictions sitting on my end-table but haven't picked them up yet...  I've also pulled Walking With God back out and been reading/skimming along as we watch The Bible (see below).

Watching:  I thought I'd add this category...We started watching The Bible on History here a couple weeks ago and set the DVR to record the entire miniseries. So far (we are up to David) it is really, really good.  I would highly recommend it.  Aaron has discovered Duck Dynasty and is completely obsessed.  He told me one night, "hon, if it weren't for my job, and if I had a brother to do it with me, I would totally grow my beard out like that."  Then he felt the need to look me straight in the eye and say, "really hon, I'm serious about this."  Oh dear.  All that said, I will sheepishly admit to finding the whole show pretty stinkin' entertaining.  Looking forward to a new season of River Monsters starting next week, we always catch Pawn Stars when it's new and looking forward to Gold Rush's off season, this summer I think??  And if we have nothing better to watch we like to make fun of Finding Bigfoot.  Yes.  We are nerds.  Oh, and Aaron has really gotten into The Men Who Built America as well, and I usually end up watching with him although I'm probably not quite as enthralled with it as he.

Bringing me joy: Easter and the Risen Lord.  

Thinking about: The range of religious emotions (for lack of a more theological way to put it) experienced from Holy Thursday night to Easter morning.  I am always filled with such an overwhelming sense of joy at Easter Mass, but even then the crucifix hangs above the altar, an ever-present reminder that only because of the Cross do we know the true joy of the Resurrection.  This really should strike me every week, but for whatever reason it always gives me great pause on Easter Sunday. 

Pictures to share:  

Clement's first Easter!

At Church on Easter

Holy Saturday: Paschal Candle prayers at home

You know how you see one thing that looks like a nice, small, good idea and it snowballs into a much bigger production than you initially foresaw?  Read on.  A couple weeks ago I stumbled upon several posts about making your own Easter Paschal Candle at home and in a burst of productive insanity decided to give it a try.  It actually wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it might be, and it was FREE (or more accurately, I already had all the items it took).

• a 3x6" white pillar (of the Wal-mart variety, I am told to be 'legit' it should be at least 51% beeswax, but oh well)
• acrylic paints (yes, they really do work on wax, and let me tell you I was dubious)
• red gems (in place of incense grains, I just wasn't seeing it...)
• dull pencil to etch your pattern on before painting.

I started by drawing a simple cross on a piece of paper and then traced around it on the center of the candle with the dull pencil, letting it make a nice indentation.  I probably went over these indentions 5-7 times to get a nice clean line.  I added the numbers for the year, an Alpha at the top and an Omega at the bottom (free-hand) and then painted inside the lines as shown.  I let everything dry and added the gold paint on the inside of the cross.  We'll add the gems (I am praying my glue-dots will do the trick) when we bless the candle tonight...

Because after I made it I realized it would be nice to have some sort of prayer and blessing for it, rather than just sticking it on the middle of the table.  And since the Easter Vigil is just not an option for our family at this point in our lives, I thought it would be nice to incorporate some of the prayers and rituals done there.  I drew from several sources for this, namely The Year and Our Children and my Magnificat (for the prayers).  Here is what we will do.  

Begin with the Sign of the Cross and pray the below, tracing the parts on the candle as noted.

"Christ yesterday and today (vertical bar of the cross)

the beginning and the end (horizontal bar of the cross)

Alpha (A, above the cross)

and Omega; (Ω, below the cross)

all time belongs to him (2, upper left quadrant)

and all the ages: (0, upper right quadrant)

to him be glory and power (1, lower left quadrant)

through every age for ever. Amen." (3, lower right quadrant)

(while adding the gems to the four ends and center of the cross: ) 

"By his holy and glorious wounds may Christ our Lord guard us and keep us."

Light candle.

"May the light of Christ, rising in glory, dispel the darkness of our hearts and minds." 

V. The Lord be with you.

R. And with your Spirit.

V. Let us pray:

O God, who through your Son bestowed upon the faithful the fire of your glory, sanctify (at this point sprinkle candle with water) this new fire, we pray, and grant that we may be so inflamed with heavenly desires, that with minds made pure we may attain festivities of unending splendor.  Through Christ our Lord, 

R. Amen.

V. A reading from the Holy Gospel According to John.

R. Glory to You oh Lord. 

 (Read from the Bible John 20:11-18 -- the story of Mary Magdalen at the tomb).

Litany of the Saints as prayed at Mass, adding our family member patron saints to the end. (found in Magnificat)

Renewal of Baptismal vows (bless family members with Holy Water). (found in Magnificat)

V. Now that the days of the Lord's Passion have drawn to a close, may we who celebrate the gladness of the Paschal Feast come with Christ's help, and exulting in spirit to those feasts that are celebrated in eternal joy.

R. Amen 

Sign of the Cross to close.

Our candle will be our centerpiece for the 50 days of Easter, and we will use it throughout the year on special feast days and such.

Wishing everyone a blessed joy-filled Easter.  REJOICE, for He is risen indeed!