Celebrating the Easter Triduum 2012 ~

The Holy Triduum is the longest liturgy in the year.  We begin with the sign of the cross on Holy Thursday and close with the sign of the cross at the end of the Easter Vigil.  It is truly a blessed liturgy leading up to the holiest day of the year!

We were blessed to stay healthy and make it to church each day!

Holy Thursday ~

Today we celebrated The Institution of the Holy Priesthood and the
Mass of the Lord's Supper.

Before we headed out to Mass we had our

Christian Seder.  This is something we all look forward to each year.  I've heard mixed reviews of having a seder.  For us it is a holy experience to see how Our Lord fulfilled the old prophesies.
Each child had a question to ask.  We look at our unleavened bread and remember that by His stripes we are healed.  We talk about Jesus being the Lamb of God and how the Israelites marked their doorpost with the blood of a lamb and were saved from death.  We taste bitter herbs and think of how bitter our sins are.  We dip them in salt water to remember tears wept.  Then we dip the herbs into applesauce and thank God for the sweetness of hope in Christ.

This year we had Angel Food Cake with Cool Whip and talked of the sweetness of Eternal Life and the purity required to get there.  We also discuss the shape of the cake and how it being round reminds us that there is no end to God!

After Mass and the little ones were tucked in, we watched The Passion of the Christ with House Cat and Snuggle Bug before bed. 

What a moving way to prepare for Good Friday!

Good Friday ~

On their own, Buck and Honeybee made these scenes with playdough and Playmobil.

The Scourging at the pillar ~

Our Lord's Crucifixion.

Jesus is placed in the tomb.

Once again they made this craft from the Seton Art1 book.  (I have the original pages filed in my Liturgical Notebook and make copies for them each year.)

Our Lord dies on the cross and is placed in the tomb.

At 3:00 we began praying our Divine Mercy Novena.

Afterwards we went and prayed Stations of the Cross at our parish.

Then we came home and made Passion Pita Pizzas.  (I hope to post those soon.)

Pita ~ Our Lord's Body

Olive Oil ~ Brushed on to remind us of his burial

Sauce ~ His Blood Shed for us

White Cheese ~ Purity

Onion ~ Tears Wept over His Death

Bellpepper ~ New Life

We were all so thankful for food in our tummies after a day of fasting. 

Back to church for Commeration of the Lord's Passion. 
~ The girls sang the most beautiful song with the choir called "My Savior, My Friend."  It was so moving! The refrain says, "On the wood of the cross hung my Savior, my Friend.  Now I come, here I adore and give praise to my Lord without end."

Family Read Aloud ~ Amon's Adventure

We started reading this last year and got busy and didn't finish it.  This year we picked up at Palm Sunday and finished on Easter.  It was wonderful!

Holy Saturday ~

Candy Crosses ~

Easter Eggs ~

Paschal Candle ~

Beautifully painted by The House Cat. 

The five cloves represent His wounds.

We pray ~ 

By His Holy and Glorious Wounds May Christ Our Lord Guard us and Keep us!

My mom came and went to the Easter Vigil Mass with us.  The girls sang with the choir again.  It was a beautiful evening! 

We were so glad to have NaeNae there with us!

Easter Sunday ~

He is Risen!

For breakfast we had Friendship Bread with a precious little butter lamb given by a dear, sweet friend.

Everyone was happy with their Easter Baskets!

Filled with journals, pens, bubbles, playdough...

(notice the bag over the cast :) 

Surprises for Mom and Dad ~

The girls were so sweet to surprise us with these!

Then we were off to have Easter Lunch and Easter Egg Hunt at NaeNae's - made these pics with mama's camera.  Hope to post those soon!

Later that afternoon we came home and finished watching Jesus of Nazareth. 

Thank you Jesus for ALL YOU did for us!

The Good Shepherd's Garden ~ Week One

Easter Week One

I'm really enjoying sharing more about the Good Shepherd with Buck and Honeybee during this Easter season.  I took Jessica's advice and laminated the stickers for the Garden of the Good Shepherd activity.  I cut them out and placed them in a small basket near the garden poster. We are using mounting putty to hold them in place.

Now for our "Garden Party"...

This week's focus ~

The Good Shepherd's Pasture

~ Snack time ~

Popcorn (sheep)

The sheep in the sheepfold with a few gone astray.

Our Good Shepherd patiently watching and waiting to bring the lost back into His sheepfold.

Snuggle Bug's Gate to the Sheepfold

&

Lamb's Wool

to drink.

~ Supper Time ~

Delicious Mini Shepherd Pies

Shepherd's Crook Breadsticks

and cute little lamb cupcakes.

During dessert we discussed who the Good Shepherd was to each of us.

What a fun and meaningful way to celebrate the first week of Easter.

Visit Catholic Cuisine for more Garden Party fun!

Wordless Wednesday ~ Easter 2011

Happy Easter!

Join in the fun at WW!

Christ is Risen!

Rechenka's Eggs ~ Book and Activity

Rechenka's Eggs is such a wonderful book!

Honeybee wanted me to read it to her yesterday.  So, I asked her and Buck to join me on the couch to read.  As usual, Buck gave me lip about it.  "Do I have to?"

Yes, I told him.  Poutingly, he sat down beside us girls.

About half way through the book, he leaned over and rested his head on my shoulder, looking as I read.  When I was finished, I asked him to choose a book for me to read.

Guess what he said???  "Let's read this one again."

Of course, I opened it right up and began to read again.  This time I stopped when we got to the page where Babushka is blowing the inside of the egg out and asked if they would like to try this.  "Really?"  Yes, really :)

You'll want to wash the egg first

Then poke a tiny hole in each end.  I used a small pocket knife and a needle.

Then blow, blow, and blow so more....

I've since learned they make hand tools for this :)

Once the eggs were empty inside, I washed them with cool water and put them in an empty egg carton to drip dry.  The empty egg shells are so light!  Everyone thought that was really cool.

We watched this video of a real Babushka painting the eggs in a special way called psyanky.  This is an amazing form of art!

I knew this was more than I could do at home, so I broke out the "special - permanent" paint that the kids had been begging to use for some time.

Here are their creations and the meanings of the symbols they chose.

Honeybee

Brown Cross for Strength in Jesus

Blue Swirl for protection inside a triangle which represents the Holy Trinity

White represents purity

Buck

Blue Swirl for good health and defense

Green Saw for spring, new growth, and loyalty

Brown Net for endurance as a fisher of men

Snuggle Bug

Red Rose for happiness, love and caring

Ribbons for everlasting life

Brown Ladder for strength and endurance in prayer

Yellow Cross for Christ's light

Red swirls for Hope in God's protection

Purple nets for denying yourself and searching out the lost



This was definitely a fun activity.  We are all hoping to make more for Easter Sunday.  I think they will really add to the Easter dinner table both in beauty and conversation.

You can also visit Homeschool Share for a ton of activities that go along with this book.

A Blessed Woman's Daybook

Outside my window ~ Rain.  Nice, soothing rain.  We are enjoying a slower pace around here this morning.

I'm thinking ~ We may need to adjust our daily Mass schedule and go to noon Mass every other day. 

Around the house ~ Easter has arrived!

These beautiful little wildflowers are the perfect bandaids for the holes  wounds left from the crown of thorns.

Out of doors ~

the snowdrops are finally blooming.  I wonder if our daffodils will? 

There are so many pretty little wildflowers scattered about.  Or are they weeds? I have no idea and am not having much luck identifying them.  By the way, these photos were taken by Snuggle Bug who would much rather be outside doing this than sitting here with her math book :)

Hothead ~ Our Red-Bellied Woodpecker

Dixie ~ Our old girl

Max and Ruby ~ Our Cardinals ~ Dining together

In the kitchen ~

Honeybee helping with our popcorn lost sheep snack from The Garden of the Good Shepherd daily activity.

(check out my top left hand sidebar for the link)

Weight Watchers this week ~  Starting the Walk It Challenge.  Bought myself a pedometer.  Time to move more....  down 12 pounds so far.  I guess I'm about where I was before my surgery/recovery.  White Bean Turkey Chili's on the menu for tonight.  Yummy!

Plans for the rest of the week ~

• 
  
  Confraternity of Christian Mothers meeting/Mass tonight
• 
  
  Friday morning Mass and then maybe head up north about 30 miles to my parents new mini-farm.  They just closed on it yesterday.  We are all excited and the kids have already a mile long list of the different farm animals they want :)
• 
  
  Saturday morning Buck has a baseball game.  He's on the Bucs team again this year.  God definitely has a sense of humor! Then maybe home to do some yard work.
• 
  
  Sunday morning ~ Mass, Atrium of the Good Shepherd, Tea Party with The House Cat and Snuggle Bug to finish up our Beautiful Girlhood study.  We've had a wonderful time together!  I'd love to go back to church at 3:00 for the Hour of Divine Mercy to finish up our novena but, I think everyone will be too tired.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Visit Peggy for more daybook inspiration