Home Sweet Heart

Grace of Faith to be Shared

" ... We know what comes the day after The Last Supper.

We know that thorns and stripes and pain and blood and crucifixion comes.

We know He goes.

We know that He comes back in three days.

We know He is coming again--for His family of Believers.

We know! "


" ... So, what are you going to do with that knowledge?

With that knowledge of the real meaning of Passover and Resurrection Sunday? Hold it tight like a precious gift? Or rip open the wrapper and wildly fling it onto your family, friends, neighbors, strangers... Perhaps even knocking over a few tacky plastic baskets and spilling the tattered shiny grass?"

By A Simple Country Girl at Aspire to Lead a Quiet Life

HT:  Ann Voskamp

Celebrating Easter - Week 2

Continuing with our celebration of Easter, Jessica has plans for Week 2 that are fantastic.  I am not even going to "rework" them to fit our schedule this week.  They already will work nicely.  Plus, all my kids like to bake, so they will really enjoy this week!  Come join in the fun!

Easter Collage

 

 

Baking and decorating sugar cookie cutouts!

 

 

  

 

Anticipating the Easter Bunny!

 

He arrived!

  

Everyone minus Billy ... our first Easter without him.  We celebrated Easter on Holy Saturday with him in Annapolis.

 

Our traditional bunny cake for Easter dinner at Grandma's.

 

Our annual Easter Egg hunt for all my parents' grandchildren (38).  This year, though, the big kids (10 and up) went on a scavenger hunt instead (covered two miles!).  That way, the little kids had less competition!

Blessings to you and yours this Easter Season!

Celebrating the 50 Days of Easter

Like Christmas, Easter is not just a day.  It is a season of the Church!  Easter consists of 50 days from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday.  And like the Christmas season, I want to celebrate and live the Easter season in our home.  I want it to instill this idea in my children so that they can fully experience and learn to love the richness and treasures of their Catholic faith. 

Practically speaking, this also helps take away so much of the stress I feel leading up to Easter to "get it all in".  It's so hard to do all the things I want to do with the children to learn and celebrate the traditions of our faith during Lent.  Knowing that Easter is fifty days, gives me that extra time to do all the things we could not get to before Easter day.   This Lent most of my plans had to be set aside due to unexpected events and circumstances.  I have decided to incorporate many of these projects, crafts, books, recipes, etc. into our 50 day Easter celebration.

One way to do this is our family's Garden of the Good Shepherd.  We found "The Garden of the Good Shepherd:  A Sticker Calendar to Count the Fifty Days of Easter" at the suggestion of one of my favorite bloggers.  Using Dawn's idea, and incorporating ideas from Charlotte and Jessica, I have come up with a simpler version for our family.  I know from experience, that planning too many crafts and field trips in one week, will do me in quickly. 

First my daughter gathered 50 plastic eggs and numbered them 1-50.  We found a pretty basket for the eggs to set on our kitchen table (replacing our crown of thorns).  Then I planned out something special for each day the sticker calendar that would relate to the theme for each day.  Some of the entries don't match with the theme, but that's okay.  (Again, some of the activities are projects that relate to the entire Easter season. We still will read the Bible verse and discuss how it relates to the days sticker.)  Then I typed out the entries, cut them out individually and placed them in the corresponding numbered eggs.

I hung the calendar scene in our kitchen as a daily visual for the children.  Then, I cut out and laminated each of the stickers for the calendar so that we could reuse this from year to year.  Each day the children apply tape to the back of the sticker to put it in place on the calendar scene.

Every morning at breakfast, one of the kids reads the Bible verse for the day and the entry in the booklet, provided with the Garden calendar.  Then another child picks the day's egg and reads the surprise entry for the day.

Here are my entries for the first week:  The Good Shepherd's Pasture

Day 1:  The Good Shepherd - Read John 10:14-15 - Celebrate Easter with our extended family; call Billy at school.

Day 2:  The Shepherd's Crook -  Read Psalm 23:1-6 - Discuss the purpose of the Shepherd's crook.  How does that relate to the crook (crossier) carried by our bishops? 

Day 3:  The Sheepfold - Read John 10:1-6 - Make God's Sheep Popcorn for a snack.  (This is Jessica's idea.  Thank you for sharing!)

~ God's Sheep ~

"We all, like sheep, have gone astray; each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him all our sin. Isaiah 53:6"

Air-pop the popcorn and serve it warm, if possible. Butter, if desired, can be melted in a saucepan on the stove. Popcorn is white and fluffy, like sheep, and when air-popped, sometimes a piece of popcorn comes flying out of the popper and flies across the room, like a lost sheep. Remind the children that, like sheep, we wander astray sometimes.

Day 4:  The Gate of the Sheepfold - Read John 10:7-10 - Act out The Good Shepherd.

Day 5:  The Ewe and Ram - Read John 21:15-17 - Visit the sheep at Frying Pan Park Kidwell Farm or any local farm or petting zoo.

Day 6:  The Lamb - Read John 1:35 - Color the Lamb of God and discuss the symbolism of the lamb.  (I have a great coloring book, Christian Symbols, that has a beautiful framed image of the Lamb of God.  I can't find a source for it anywhere.  It must be out of print.  You can find an image of the lamb of God probably in a coloring book or make one yourself.)

Day 7:  The Wolf - Read John 10:11-12 - Make Resurrection Rolls today.

Week 2 - Coming soon! 

I also want to figure something out for my older set of kids ... maybe reading a book together and discussing it.  Any ideas?

Enjoy the first week of celebrating Easter!

EASTER!

*April 12 - Easter

Thought:  “This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." (Gradual)

Practice:  I will thank God for His suffering, dying, and rising from the dead for me.  I will give up my own time or comfort today for the good of someone else.

*Taken from "Steps to Easter" based upon A Practice for Each Day of Lent, by Sr. Mary Theresita, SSJ.  From the Daughters of Mary February 2009 newsletter.  To learn more about the Daughters of Mary, please visit their website and maybe even consider a donation!

Easter Egg Dioramas

Searching for a new Easter craft, I found this in Family Fun magazine and decided to give it a try.  It seemed challenging enough for the older kids and doable for the younger set (with some help from mom).  It turned out to be so much fun for everyone and allowed the kids to add some of their own creativity to the project.  I think you will agree looking at the finished products that it was success.  We plan on bringing one to Grandma and Grandpa for our family Easter celebration.  

Here are the directions, with some added comments from our experience making the eggs. 

MATERIALS NEEDED:  colored tissue paper, white paper,  balloon,  newspaper, cup, small bowl, 1/4 cup white flour, 1/2 cup water, tape, jar lid, ribbon, rickrack, ribbon rosebuds, lace, Easter grass, glue, items for the interior (available at craft stores or dollar stores).

Allow 2 days for the project to be completed. 

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cut the tissue paper and white paper into 1 1/2- to 2-inch squares. Inflate the balloon to the size you'd like your finished egg to be (ours is about 7 inches tall), then knot it. Cover your work area with newspaper. Set the balloon on a wide mouthed cup while you work. In a small bowl, stir the flour and water together to make papier-mâché paste (I doubled this mixture).

2.  Working with one square at a time, dip the tissue paper into the paste and smooth it onto the balloon. Cover the entire balloon, making sure the squares overlap slightly. This will be the inner wall of the egg.

3. Using the same dip-and-smooth method, add two layers of white paper squares on top of the tissue paper, then add a final layer of tissue paper.

4.  Let egg dry overnight.

5. When the egg is completely dry, use a pencil to mark a window opening on the side, then cut it out with scissors. If you managed to avoid popping the balloon up to this point, pop it now and discard it.

6. Next, decorate the sides of the cut edged opening.  Rickrack, ribbon, lace and/or ribbon rosebuds are ideal for this. 

7.  Tie the ribbon into a bow, tuck the knot into the hole left by the knot of the balloon, and secure the ribbon on the inside with tape.

   8.  Now, decorate the egg's interior. Ideas for the interior are fuzzy chicks, rabbits, plastic Easter eggs, religious statues, birds, etc.  I got lots of ideas surveying what was available at the craft and dollar store.  

9.  Display the egg on an upside-down jar lid.  We covered the lids in foil so they looked nicer.

Have fun!

 

Happy Easter, Happy Spring with Jan Brett

One of my favorite children's book author and illustrator is Jan Brett.  On her website and blog this month, she is offering lots of fun activities and coloring pages for the kids.  Our favorites are the videos of Jan Brett showing the viewer "How to Draw a Chick" and  "How to Draw a Bunny".  These are wonderful.  Enjoy!