My Favorite Holiday

Easter season has almost come to a close.  So I thought that I would delve on my favorite holiday.  You are probably thinking at this point that Easter is my favorite holiday.  In a way it is part of my favorite holiday.  My favorite holiday is actually the non-commercialized holiday of Maundy Thursday.  It is one of those religious holidays that are not celebrated with much fanfare, but to me it is amazing and unique.

Trillium reminds me of the Trinity- God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit

What is Maundy Thursday?  It is the day that commemorates the Last Supper.  Even though Jesus knew what lay ahead of him, He took the time to commune with His disciples.  He showed them how much He and his Father loved them and loved us.  As an expression of that love, He taught the disciples what we now call communion.  Isn’t God amazing!

One of my favorite Maundy Thursday memories was from my old country church.  It was the last Maundy Thursday service before the church closed, so it would fell on the evening of April 13, 2006.  Instead of having the service in the sanctuary, it was held in the basement (which was small by most church standards).  There were four tables set-up in a “u” shape.  We ate by candlelight and we were served several courses of foods that may have been typical during the Passover.  I remember that we ate bitter herbs, unleavened bread, and grape juice.  I think there may have been a few other items, but they escape me at this point.  We ate a solemn meal with each course being presented one at a time with the meaning of what that course represented.  At the end our pastor led us through Holy Communion and we partook of the bread and cup.  To me experiencing what the Last Supper may have been like gave me a new perspective on the sacrifice of Jesus, God’s amazing love, and humanized the disciples. 

One day I hope for pumpkin and princess to experience this amazing holiday for themselves.  It will be several years down the road, but I look forward to the time they can stay up to experience a Maundy Thursday service.  Until then we will celebrate the true meaning of Easter as well as tradition of the Easter Bunny.

Pumpkin is looking forward to the Easter Bunny’s arrival and princess on the other hand has not quite caught on yet.  Pumpkin cleaned his room this morning, since the Easter Bunny only leaves treats for children with clean rooms.  Then I allowed him first choice of the two handmade Easter baskets that I made for my little ones.  Pumpkin choose the lighter of the two baskets, so princess will get the darker basket.  We will place pumpkin and princess’s Easter baskets on a table in our sun room this evening and then all go to bed in hopes that the elusive Easter Bunny will drop in and leave a few treats while we sleep.

God is Great!  My wish for all who read this post is a Happy & Safe Easter Weekend! 

Life and Thoughts

Pink tulip

I sure do enjoy spring.  Although, I could skip the cold spring rains and the muddy landscape at times.  I do enjoy the trees as they leaf out and the continued blessings of spring wildflowers.  I especially delight in the warming of the air and rays of the sun. 

Trees leafing out and flowering in the orchard

Spending more time taking pictures in the past few months has been a blessing and quite relaxing.  Earlier this week, I was able to capture some lovely shots of the moon in the early evening.  I have also been on a mission to photograph spring wildflowers.  I have seen bluebells, dutchman’s breeches, trillium, trout lily, tulip, hyacinth, violets, among other beautiful flowering specimens in the last few days. 

Lunar glimpse

This week during my photographic adventures I have seen a black rat snake, cricket frogs, bullfrogs, cardinals, tufted titmice, chickadees, gaggles of Canada geese, and many more creatures large and small.  I caught my first frog of the season yesterday- a very muddy but amazing cricket frog.  The call of the male cricket frog reminds me of two marble clinking together.   A sure sign that spring is in full swing! 

Spring beauties

I have not done a lot of new cooking lately, but this evening I am trying two new recipes:  Slow-Cooker Short Rib Stroganoff and Rustic Chocolate-Cinnamon Bread Pudding.  I hope they warm the family up on this chilly, wet spring day.  Both recipes sound delightful and I have been looking forward to making the bread pudding recipe for a few weeks now. 

Dutchman's breeches

I have materials for another Easter basket and I am hoping to create my second basket tomorrow.  Thank goodness I took notes and pictures a few weeks ago during the basket workshop because this time it will be a solo project.  This prospect is both exciting and a bit intimidating, so I am hoping that all runs smoothly.

Trillium

It is nap time right now.  Princess is fast asleep and Pumpkin can be heard talking and singing from his bedroom.  It seems we are getting closer to phasing out naps in his case and Princess is taking shorter naps too, but it is still good for them to have quite time.  Quite time is great for recharging the mind, promoting imaginary play, and just relaxing.  Even after naps are phased out, we will continue to have quiet time just to veggie out by ourselves and to give everyone a short break to just be. 

Bluebells

Time for a Change

The flowers are blooming. 

And the weather is become warmer. 

 

Spring beauties

It is time to think about packing away the winter clothes. 

It is time to unearth the spring and summer apparel.

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Pumpkin and Princess will be moving up to the next size in clothing within the next few months.  I find it is always so much more enjoyable to wade through the children’s clothes than my own.  Children grow so fast that is really is a shame to pay full price for clothes just to play in.  We have clothes that we have bought new, clothes that have come from garage sales, and my favorite . . . hand-me-down clothes. 

We have been working with Pumpkin on learning how to dress himself.  He has been able to undress himself for a very long time now, but has never wanted to master the skill of getting dressed.  He is one of those children that if he can get someone else to do it, then why do it himself.  He still needs some assistance with putting socks on, and has overcome the challenge of putting the shirt over his head (which would reduce him to tears).  But overall, he is doing a great job and we are very proud of him.

With short season coming on, we will also start working on potty training Princess.  It is so much easier to train while they are wearing light weight clothing.  We have the training pants ready and waiting.  I’ll think that we will wait until after Easter, then we will start work on our new goal to become a diaper free household.

The wardrobe of my husband and I usually do not get updated too frequently.  It is so hard to think about buying clothes for yourself when your children need clothes too.  Thus we fall into the typical parent attribute . . . always putting ourselves on the backburner.

I think this summer I will try to wear shorts more often.  Growing up, I use to wear shorts everyday from the time it was warm in the spring until it was cold in the fall.  The house we lived in did not have air conditioning, so we spent as much time outside as we could growing up.  It wasn’t until college that I lived in a place with air conditioning and then my job required long pants at all times so I adapted to not wearing shorts at all.  I think it is time to break my long pants habitat and have fun in the sun again with shorts.  Of course this means that I will need to get a few more pairs of shorts that fit.  I feel some “me time” lurking around the corner.

The Joy of a Basket

Who would have known that basket weaving would 

be so much fun!  I had so much fun at the 

workshop making my very first basket. 

The project was an eight by six inch Easter basket.   

Materials included a wooden handle, reeds, sea grass, 

and spray sealant.  Tools included clippers, a ruler, 

a pencil, a whole lot of clothespins, a small screwdriver, 

tubs of water, towels, and me.

I brought my camera along and snapped pictures 

whenever I got a chance and remembered.

First few rows and the base

Starting to look more like a basket

Adding some color

Ready to start the finishing touches

Trimming and tucking

Added sea grass

Binding the top

Just needs the sealant

All done & home sweet home

 My first basket took me three hours, but I am sure to 

improve on my time for my next venture into basket making.

Dr. Seuss and All That Jazz

During the summer of 2009 my mom had obtained a treasure trove of sixteen Dr. Seuss books at a garage sale and stored them away.  Grandma found the books and gave them to us shortly after mom past away this past fall.  As with any loss of a loved one, it takes time to be able to dig out personal items that have connections to the loved one as was the case here.  

Last week I rediscovered those books when I was tidying up our basement.  Pumpkin has fallen in love with quite a few of the books.   

His favorite one of the bunch is Green Eggs and Ham.  I think this fits my son perfectly; he absolutely hates to try any new foods.  It cracks me up that he enjoys the book so much and wants the character to eat the green eggs and ham, but he will not do the same thing.  Spaghetti- Forget about it!  Homemade macaroni and cheese- Nope!  Hamburger- No way!  Carrots- Yuck!  I know with time, he will warm up to new foods, but at times it can be a challenge to us parents.

Another favorite of Pumpkin is Bears In the Night.  He likes to help me read this book.  “Out of bed”  “To the window” “Down the tree”  I have him fill-in the underlined words and pick different ones throughout the book.  If he needs help, I point to the object.  He has lots of fun with this book and loves the source of the mysterious noise.

His first vivid enjoyment of Dr. Seuss inspired books was Go. Dog. Go!.   He fell in love with this book when he was 18 months old.  We were visiting family along the west coast and they had a copy of this book on their shelf.  We read it almost every day during our visit.  He could quote parts of the “Do you like my hat?” pages.  As soon as we arrived home, I ventured up to a locally owned family store and bought a copy for my little pumpkin.

Princess is not quite as impressed with Dr. Seuss yet.  A few books she gave up on quite early in the reading process (One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish), but seems to enjoy In A People House and The Cat and The Hat. 

I like Dr. Seuss books for a variety of reasons- some teach lessons, some have funny rhymes, my favorite aspect is the illustrations, and best of all they are just fun!