Happy Easter

Happy Easter! Christ is Risen, just like he said he would!

Even though being without internet service for almost a week almost killed me, the fact that the outage occurred during Holy Week was not lost on me. Sometimes I wish the Lord would speak a little louder when He wants me to do something. Sometimes He speaks loudly enough. I guess He thought I’ve been spending a bit too much time on the computer.

On Holy Thursday we got a chance to attend Mass. We’ve got a great pastor who explains many of our traditions to us. I had never realized that at Holy Thursday Mass, the Blessed Sacrament is removed from the church and that mass will not be celebrated again until the Easter Vigil. The significance of the empty church really hit me.

Pumpkin Girl has been using her new subscription to Magnifikids to follow along with not only the usual parts of the Mass, but with the readings, too. I’m hoping this helps her focus on the Mass more. I always enjoyed following the readings in the missalet as a kid. Actually, I still do, but more and more churches have stopped supplying them. I know they want us to be listening to the readings, but hey, some of us learn best by reading! Our family has a Missal that I like to use, but it’s hard to use while I’m in exile in the crying room with Bip.

I’ve actually seen a real increase in Pumpkin’s faith over the last year. She has a new notebook that she uses to write stories and draw pictures in. Most of her pictures during Holy Week were of scenes of Jesus’ life – His cruficixion and Resurrection, the story of Lazurus (complete with Him saying “Open the toom”), Jesus sleeping on the boat during the storm and the shephard going after the lost lamb. Today, while reading Leading Little Ones to Mary, I let her draw while she listened and her pictures were of the life of Mary. Well, that is, Pumpkin’s idea of the life of Mary. You know, Mary swinging from monkey bars, jumping rope and helping her teacher clean the white board.

So anyway…On Good Friday, our parish had an outdoor Stations of the Cross. The adults took turns carrying the large, wooden cross from station to station, while the children held pictures of each station. It was bitterly cold, and I felt bad for our poor pastor who came dressed as a priest, not as a soldier, so he had no hat. It was a nice to walk the stations, even if it was cold.

Saturday morning, we woke up to…

Just ten days earlier it was 80 degrees. Gotta love Spring!

We braved the elements to go in search of dressy sandals for Pumpkin Girl. Good dressy shoes for little girls are getting as hard to find as modest clothing is. Why in the world do shoe makers think that heels on a girl of 6 is a good idea? The same shoes, heel and all, are even available for toddlers! Fortunately, we did find a suitable pair – in her size even! We then came home and decorated our Easter cookies.

Yes, we make chicken and bunny Easter cookies. This year I took the time to explain to the children why we see things like bunnies saying Happy Easter and how we can look at these things as symbols of Christ’s Resurrection. We also talked about how some children enjoy the Easter Bunny and we should never ruin the game for them by telling them that he doesn’t really exist. However, it is OK to tell them that the Easter Bunny isn’t really what Easter is all about.

Philip went to sing in the choir for the Easter Vigil and Boo went bowling with his best friend, leaving Pumpkin Girl, Bip and I to watch “The Sound of Music” on TV. When Boo returned around 8pm, we made Resurrection cookies. We were interrupted by several loud bangs and then I remembered that Saturday was the firework display for the Cherry Blossum Festival! We grabbed coats and shoes and ran out to enjoy the rest of the fireworks!

Easter morning dawned bright and cold! The church was decorated beautifully, and this year Pumpkin Girl was well dosed with her allergy medicine, so the lilies didn’t bother her (the children insist on sitting in the front row). We sang my favorite Easter song – “Jesus Christ is Risen Today” and one that always makes me cry- “I am the Bread of Life.” We sang that one at the first Easter after Rebecca was gone. The last line – “and I will raise you up on the last day” just chokes me up. Sometimes it makes Boo cry too, so I left the crying room early to check up on him. He was fine, but he gave me a big hug, because I was not. I was fighting back sobs during the last verse. Don’t worry, I’m better now.

Back at home, we had our annual family Easter egg hunt…

…and dyed eggs.

One of these years I’m going to get organized enough to get those eggs dyed before Easter!

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