Monday, April 25, 2011

Easter 2011

Good Friday marked the end of my lent. My family celebrated Easter then because it was the only day our schedules worked together. I was not about to pass up my Easter celebration just because it came two days early.

Lent held successes and failures for me. I doubt that is the right word to explain it but I can't think of anything else right now. I concentrated a lot on the self-denial part. I had given up all meat, except for seafood, and sugary foods. It was surprisingly easier than I thought it would be. I would get cravings every once in a while, more in the later weeks, but it was very manageable. The thing that actually got me through it was thinking of Sofie. She doesn't have proper nutrition, why should I get to eat meat and sweets?

A gross fact that kind of makes me want to stay off meat and sweets is that my body actually had to detox. I had the worst gas and bm's of my life. Since having my first taste of paska (Easter bread) with my family's incredible cream cheese spread earlier today, which are both very sugary, and maybe an once of ham with our dinner, the same symptoms have begun! So wrong! What am I/we putting in to my body? I'm definitely not ready to swear of meat or sugar but it definitely will be making me think more and cut back a lot!

The alms giving part of Lent also had a lot of progress for me. I finished some much needed paperwork for Chosen Children and have officially begun working with the designer to start the website. It will be a long process writing all the content but we are slowly progressing now!

I did not finish my Henri Nowen book. I really wanted to and still intend to in the future, but I did not get past the first chapter. Much to my husband and mother's horror, I am not a reader and do not generally enjoy it very much. I also didn't get very far with the penitence part. I didn't have big hopes for this portion of Lent. I'm not ready to reconcile with the people in my life that come to mind here. Honestly, I'm not sure if reconciliation is an option on either side so I don't know where to go with this part of Lent.

Good Friday was my baking day. I made a double batches of dinner crepe batter, dessert crepe batter and paska, plus a triple batch of cream cheese paska spread... a favorite for everyone :) My side of the family decorated eggs and had a delicious dinner of crepes. Ham, broccoli and cheese crepes for dinner, fruit crepes and whip cream for dessert. Livi had a horrible fever all day, up to 101! She was my little angel though and was healthy by the next morning. Even with a fever she had a fun little Easter basket hunt and her Marmie and Oma gave her some really cute books to read and trace in. Her writing is really taking off!
 Concentrating on getting the color just right. 

 Fun times had by all!

 Putting the stickers on. She was really in to it. 

 The finished products! Marmee's was the most creative. 
She thought out of the box to make her flue face and didn't follow the pattern!

Books from Marmee and Oma :)

 Found her basket! 

By the way, how do you tell a 2 year old about Easter? I haven't really introduced the idea of death to her yet. I like letting my daughter believe in the Easter bunny, tooth fairy and Santa Clause. I think it adds to the wonder and magic of childhood. I don't know how to meld the Easter bunny with Jesus' resurrection though. Basically, I ended up telling her the Easter Bunny brings chocolate because Jesus is alive. I know it doesn't quite cut it. We'll need to figure this out before next year :) When do you tell a kid about death too?

Saturday, Jon and I went to a cousins wedding. Livi went for a sleepover to her Gramma's. She doesn't see her very often and Livi was SO EXCITED to go for a sleepover. We even bought her a little Tinkerbell suitcase of her own. She was outgrowing the diaper bag we had been using. Sunday we picked Livi up and had breakfast at Denny's with Jon's mom. Livi and I then joined my mom at her church. My views on that will be on another post. We got a long nap in the afternoon and even made it out to our own church!

On her way to Gramma's house! 
Is it me or does she look way to grown up here?

Monday my immune system gave in to the flu that Livi fought off. Darn kids and their germs! I had planned to clean and make a yummy supper but I ended up sleeping and lazing about. Some out of town friends stopped in for a few minutes on their way home from a family Easter weekend. It was a nice relief from my self pity.

Anyway, Happy Easter!

1 comments:

LeAnna said...

My earliest memory, and younger than Livi is now, is of a funeral. I don't know what my parents told me, but I grew up with death and funerals (lots of aged relatives) and I'm sure mum gave me some explanation about how they were 'sleeping' with Jesus, or something like that. It was just part of life.