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!!

Living liturgically: morning prayers

Recently I read this post on Living Liturgically as a family, and it got me reflecting on the things that our family does to live liturgically throughout the year in our little domestic Church.  I think my favorite part of this article was the very first point she made: it takes YEARS to build up traditions and become familiar with the liturgical year.  True. That.  I remember being a young(er) mama with a toddler and a baby and feeling so.overwhelmed. at all the different things that we could be doing but weren't doing.  But slowly over the years we have added this, tried that, quit doing something else because no one would cooperate, etc. etc. etc.  And now, what may seem like a lot for someone from the outside looking in, is simply the rhythm that our family lives throughout the seasons of the Church year.  Do we have it all figured out?  Nope.  We're still adding and molding and forming, and I am amazed how traditions evolve through the years as the kids get older.  I may have gotten a little teary last year when there was really no reason to sing our little "Jesus is Coming" toddler-song around the Advent wreath.  But I think that's the key to traditions, letting them evolve and take the shape they need to for your family wherever you're at, and realizing that traditions can change (or go away) over the years as children grow, and that's OK.  

I also liked her point #2: living liturgically happens year round.  I noticed this year, profoundly, that it didn't seem like we were doing much for Advent...and then I realized we were doing all our "regular things" but since the liturgical year has become such a natural part of our lives year round, Advent was more-or-less a bit of a change-up in the regular things we do daily instead of the "radical switching of gears" she mentioned.  

The rest of her points are good too.  Seriously, check out the article.  But I'll stop now and get on to the point of this post, which was supposed to be family Morning Prayers.

One of my favorite liturgical-living traditions that our family has added recently (past 6-8 months or so) is using the Prayer found at the end of Morning Prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours (I use the one volume version, Christian Prayer) at the end of our family morning prayers.  Our morning prayers typically consist of the Bless us, oh Lord prayer (since we pray them before breakfast), the traditional Morning Offering, stating the Holy Father's monthly intentions and also praying for a specific priest or seminarian from our diocese each day.  We also add any family member/friend who may have a birthday or anniversary (or something else going on) that day.  We pray a simple prayer that goes along with whatever the month's theme is (did you know that each month has a particular devotion in the Catholic Church?  See here for more on that...) for instance, a Hail Mary in October or the Act of Contrition or Act of Love during Lent (this is also a great opportunity to help the kids memorize their rote prayers).  Then I say the Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours (which takes all of 10 seconds) and we're done.  I love adding this Prayer because it is such a simple way to focus on what is happening liturgically on that specific day, be it a Church season like Lent or Advent, or a feast day or memorial, such as the Transfiguration or the Feast of St. Luke.  And full disclosure: my oldest still grumbles most days that I had the audacity to change our regular morning prayers by adding this (apparently excruciating) ten seconds of recited prayer.  But I'm sticking with this one.  ;-)

God is good...all the time.  May he continue to bless us, everyone, as we live His love throughout the year.