Alleluia! Happy Easter!

How awesome it is to move from Lent to Easter.... to our 50 days of celebration of the Resurrection of Our Lord! Alleluia!

We have been enjoying our Easter celebrations so far.... with plans for more in the works.

On Easter Sunday morning the boys enjoyed finding their baskets and hunting for eggs around the house.

Our prayer table was transformed from this ---

to this ---

I got the idea and design for our Paschal Candle from Jessica at  Shower of Roses. I forgot to get a close up picture of it... but I'll post one soon.

The boys both got remote controlled hex bugs in their baskets.

We enjoyed a nice breakfast casserole and coffee cake and then the boys played, I read the paper, and Jon went back to bed! (He was so glad to have a day off! He really needed the break and some rest.) We enjoyed a quiet morning and then went to Mass at noon.

Here's the best picture we were able to get of the boys after Mass. I'm bummed that I didn't get a picture of Jon and me. He even bought me a lovely Easter corsage! (I guess I just haven't been too on the ball with the camera this week. Sorry!)

After Mass, my mom and my sister Colleen and nephew Carter came over. We had a nice Easter dinner and an outdoor egg hunt.

All in all, it was a very relazing day. Just what we needed!

The View From My Bedroom Window

Amazing! I just love this tree, especially at this time of year!

A Happy Holy Thursday

We had a really nice, holy, fun day today. It was a beautiful, cool spring day. We had my nephew Carter with us for the day. The boys got up and quickly did their basic school work before Carter arrived. The boys played and played while I enjoyed getting some long-overdue chores done around the house.

At lunch time, I placed this basket in the center of the table....

Immediately, Carter picked up the unleavened bread and said the words of Jesus.... "Take this all of you and eat it. This is my Body which will be given up for you." The boys loved tasting the bread and talking about why it's unleavened and what that means. Then we talked about wine being made from grapes and why Jesus chose bread and wine to become the Sacrament of His Presence among us. We talked about Passover and Eucharist. We had quite a theological lunch! And the best part was how natural it was. I was not lecturing them or trying to get their attention. They were so prayerful and thoughtful and peaceful. Although we aren't yet able to do the late/long Holy Thursday Mass with them, we did enter into the rich, beautiful meaning of this day.

We seem to be making a tradition of having Carter with us for the coloring of our Easter eggs. (His mom hates eggs, so the poor kid would be deprived of this experience if it weren't for us!) The boys decided they wanted to color the eggs with Sharpies and crayons before dying them. They had a lot of fun.

Check out Carter's Ninja eggs!

We also did a cool science experiment! We filled several cups with a variety of liquids.... and then plopped a Peep in each cup. The boys really used their observation skills as they kept coming back to the counter all day to check on the Peeps.

 We tried to get some pictures to show results... but I'm not sure that you can really see much.

 Our main observations so far are that the laundry detergent broke down the Peep the most. The salt water caused its Peep to completely lose its color and shrink. The Peep-in-vinegar's eyeballs are floating around the cup. Heavy duty science, huh? ;) Those poor Peeps are still floating down there. We'll see what they look like in the morning. Jon will really laugh when he walks in and sees our "laboratory."

Tonight Ray had dance class (post on that coming soon) and we had to take Carter home. When we got back home, we did one more quick Science experiment. We predicted what would happen if we microwaved a Peep.... and then we observed it in action. The boys loved watching the Peep puff up and then immediately deflate.

I fully expect a visit from "PETP - People for the Ethical Treatment of Peeps" after this post!





I think the most touching moment of the day for me happened when we walked in the door tonight. The boys saw the leftover matzo bread and grapes on the counter and they went over and "acted out" the Last Supper again. They were so sweet and sincere. We spent some prayer time "in the garden" with Jesus and called it a night. 

Thank you, God, for all of your blessings,

epecially for your most awesome gift of the Eucharist.

Thank you for days like today.

And for drawing me closer to you

through the love and wonder and words of my children,

through the celebration of the liturgical year -

each year the same commemorations

but new and deeper experiences.

You are the same.

I am different.

I walk with you.... again, still.

As you stretch out your arms for me - for all of us - once again,

may we still ourselves enough

to accept your ultimate gift of your life and your love.

Amen.

One Day at a Time

Well, we're now in full-on tax season madness. That basically means that Jon is at work 95% of the time he is awake. And he seems to be sleeping less and less each night. I am so thankful for how hard he works to support our family. He doesn't really complain. He loves his work. But he comes home with red eyes and can hardly even have basic conversations with me. It's really hard to know how to help him and be supportive. Fortunately, his firm is really good about bringing in food and whatever they need to keep going.

I am so thankful that Jon has this job.... and I'm so thankful that this is not our year-round schedule. I bow down in awe to single parents. It's really challenging to be the one doing everything with the children and the house.... meals, laundry, school, cleaning, mowing, driving to activities and practices,.... and then bath and bedtime. It's not  impossible, but it's really challenging. The most difficult thing at this point, though, is just missing him. Just feeling so disconnected. So out of our regular routines. The days seem really, really long.... and when I get the kids to bed I do not feel like doing the projects I normally would do.

So I'm just trying to let it all be OK.... to not feel too stressed out... to not pressure myself to make things perfect or keep going when I'm too tired. To enjoy each day and face the challenges as they come.

This week is Holy Week of course. The boys and I have been working on our Jesus Tree and reading and discussing all of the events of Holy Week. It's so awesome to see how they are understanding and entering into our stories and traditions more and more each year. Yesterday we attended a beautiful Living Stations Prayer Service put on by the eighth graders at our parish school. Today we read the story of Jesus washing the disciples' feet at the Last Supper. I was touched by how much they loved washing each other's feet. We all three had quite clean feet by the time we were finished!

Although I've tried to put off the "Easter stuff" as we continue to observe Lent, we did have a great time with a "Money Egg" activity yesterday. The boys each had to find 12 eggs and count and record the money inside. They loved this so much that we had to do a modified version of it today and I had to promise that we'd do it again tomorrow!

This has also been a week filled with evening activities! Karate. Soccer Practice. Cub Scouts.... Last night Adam and I got to accompany Ray to his Tiger Scouts den meeting --- a first for both of us! It was really fun. The boys made pinecone bird feeders, had an M + M hunt, and played outside. I had to laugh, though, at how different it is to be in a room full of dads. I'm so used to running programs with (mostly type-A) homeschool moms. The dads just do things so much differently. I'm glad Ray and Jon have the experience to be part of Cub Scouts. Adam's really looking forward to jumping into it next year as well.

Wow! Jon just came home... and it's only 11:00! Maybe I can actually spend a few minutes with him before he falls asleep!

States Study Update

Our Monday co-op has continued to be lots of fun for us! Adam's class is all the way up to the letter V in their "Patriotic Alphabet Parade." I don't have pictures from that because I teach this fun group of third and fourth graders ---



Along with the first and second grade class (which Ray attends), we are working our way across the country.... studying two States each week. Here are some of our recent projects ----

We made salt dough maps of Colorado!

We learned about Yellowstone Park and set off our own "geysers." We used the soda and Mento's geyser tubes.



We learned about the Great Salt Lake.... and observed an experiment with eggs and water and salt. Surprise! The egg floated in salt water.

We learned about different mining techniques and "mined" for chocolate chips in some yummy cookies! (Idaho is the "Gem State.")

We made Idaho potato people.

Everybody wanted me to post their potato people on the blog.... so here's a little gallery! :)

We've learned a lot and had a lot of fun.... Just seven States left!