Celebrating Easter 2020- Good Friday

Happy Good Friday, Friends!

We made it through the week! Many of us have now made it through 4 weeks of quarantine/schooling/full-time-at-home-life with kids!

Congratulations! Seriously.

One of the highlights of my day yesterday was facilitating a Zoom call with some of my momma friends from our church (theWELL Buffalo). There were babies running around, toddlers screaming and older children popping in to "wave" hello. We shared stories of homework woes, the ups and downs of the last four weeks at home, and our hearts on the good, the bad and the in-between in regards to this current, unique,  stage of life.

It was SO good to connect. It was so needed to hear each others stories-- because as moms, we can so often feel alone, even though we're rarely physically alone. And as moms in quarantine, with husband's still working (some from home and some not), and the extra stress of more meals, noisy hours, and anxiety invoking grocery shopping trips, we are all in yet another phase where the days can seem very, very long...but I will say the 4 weeks, in some ways, has already flown by (like the infamous analogy for young motherhood that the days seem long, but the years are short!).

This is going to be my last post for the week. I'm going to spend tomorrow and Sunday coloring easter eggs, prepping casseroles, prepping Easter dinner with my husband and kids (it's always a family affair around here!), catching up with friends and family via Zoom and FaceTime and hanging with my peeps (not the marshmallow kind, but maybe some of those too!).

We've enjoyed our time at home this week, although Ava still wakes up every morning lamenting the fact that we were supposed to go to Florida in 5 days. 4 days. 3 days. 2 days...

I'm not kidding. Every morning we hear about it.

Sigh.

It didn't help that the ground was covered in snow this morning...Lol. 

I keep telling her that she's going to survive and there will be plenty more Florida trips! 

But all in all, we are healthy and have had fun together. I even organized a salad bar at lunch yesterday and got a whole bunch of, "Wow, mom(s)!" from my kids (the shining standard of mom compliments!). 

Yesterday we finished writing Easter cards (not something we usually do, but wanted to send some extra love this year because we can't see anyone). Finally made and decorated our Peep houses (photos below), and freshened up our Resurrection Eggs, which we'll use at some point this weekend while talking with the girls about the Easter story.

We are planning to watch a Good Friday service through a local church here tonight, and will watch Easter Sunday services through our church on Sunday morning (as many of you will, I'm sure!).

All in all, it's a strange April for sure. A memorable Easter. A different kind of year altogether...

But one thing remains the same: 

Hebrews 13:8-- my key verse during this time of quarantine: 

Jesus Christ remains the SAME yesterday, today and forever! 

Blessings to you all. Have a Happy Easter. I'll be back early next week with some encouragement on surviving l-o-o-n-n-g-g days at home with your kids from a momma who has 10 full-time years of stay at home mom tricks up her sleeve! 

Celebrating Easter: Day 5 (Thursday)

Yesterday was a whirlwind of a day, so much so that I never made it over here to post. Sorry about that. Though I have a feeling that many of you, like me, are finding your days so full with meals, and groceries and navigating the kid's school work that finding time for other things that you hope to get to (crafts, blogging, reading, whatever-you-like-doing) is proving challenging. 

It dawned on me this week week that even though our schedule has changed dramatically that our days still feel very, very full. Initially, when the schools announced that the kids weren't going back to school and that everything was shutting down it felt like we were going to have ALLLL of this time. I suppose we do have more time in some ways, but less in others, if that makes any sense. 

As moms our days are packed to the brim with so much-- we're navigating emotions, and interpersonal dynamics, and meals, and then trying to orchestrate everyone's help to clean up the mess, or at least clean off the kitchen table (which is covered in schoolwork, craft supplies and all other manner of stuff) so that we can eat dinner (at least that's what happened at our house yesterday!). 

Yet, in the middle of it all...

In the middle of it all we make time to love, and connect, and celebrate holidays with as much energy and intention as we can because we know that memories are in the making. 

So, I started my day in scripture (I'm reading through the end of the book of Mark right now)

to center my heart and mind for the day, and then tried to write some intentions down (aka: a very loose to-do list) so that I know what direction I'm heading when everything gets noisy and busy in about an hour. 

We'll be working on the Easter cards we started yesterday-- the girls colored pictures and paper eggs  to put in some of them, and signed their names in all of them. The plan is to mail cards to close friends and family (today) and put them in the mailboxes of many of our neighbors on Saturday as well. 

For us, the card making and delivering is a small act of worship during this Easter season.

As I was reading through Mark 14 this morning I was moved by the story of Mary pouring her most expensive oil over Jesus' head to anoint him-- an act of worship towards him in his last days. What struck me most profoundly was that as others gasped at her actions, Jesus says this, "Leave her alone. Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing...She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare me for burial." 

She did what she could. 

The whole story is a beautiful reminder of what it looks like to worship Christ wholeheartedly.

Mary did not have much, but she gave what she had. She might not even have been sure of how to express her heartfelt love for Jesus, but she did what she could. 

During these times of our own uncertainty,  when it feels like we're not sure what to do or how to celebrate because so much as changed, I'm reminded by this story to simply do what I can to express Jesus love to those around me. To do what you can to worship Him. 

Doing what we can will look different for each of us-- we all have different family dynamics, personalities and resources. Perhaps it's making a phone call or dropping a card off at an elderly relatives house. Perhaps its finding a way to say Happy Easter to your neighbors. Perhaps it's spending a few quiet moments reading the gospel stories on your own today to prepare your heart for the Easter weekend, and then praying about how you can share these stories with your family in a way that is age appropriate for them. 

Whatever it is, do what you can. 

After our cards are done we're going to be working on our Resurrection Eggs today. As I mentioned earlier this week, we made these a couple of years ago and they have been well loved and used (so much so that they are now a tradition in our Easter celebration each year!). We're going to freshen them up with new craft paper and re-fill some of the eggs that have lost their pieces along the way. 

The very best instructions I've found for making them are in this website right here: 
http://playeatgrow.com/2012/03/play-and-grow-homemade-resurrection.html/

We will probably sit down and walk through the Easter story with ours on Saturday night, and then bake resurrection rolls with the girls on Sunday morning (another favorite tradition). 

If you are local and you haven't downloaded the "Walking Through Holy Week" packet from Eastern Hills Wesleyan Church I would highly recommend it (remember, scroll down to "download swag bag printables"). There are still a lot of great suggestions and activities that you can do with your kids/family this weekend to celebrate Easter, including a beautiful summary and description of a traditional Seder Passover meal (which is what Jesus would have been sharing with is disciples at the last supper). 

Eastern Hills is also passing out Good Friday kits from 12-5 today-- it's a drive-thru pick up and the they'll be broadcasting adult and children's (separately) Good Friday services tomorrow. You can find the details here. 

We'll post before and after pictures of our Resurrection Eggs tomorrow! 

Celebrating Easter: Day 3 (Tuesday)

Good Morning Sweet Friends!

It's going to be a beautiful day here in Buffalo today (sunny and 60!) and that is a very good thing when you're home with kids. I suppose it's a very good thing for anyone who is home (which is EVERYONE right now), but when you're cooped up in the house with three kids and your husband is trying to work from the basement it's a whole different level of crazy.

Needless to say, mom (and Dad!) are happy to see sunshine in the forecast today!

So, about yesterday... out of ALLLL of the links/ideas I posted the only thing we got around to was reading through the tiny Monday section of the "Walking Through Holy Week" PDF we've been using (I'll put the link to the PDF at the end of this post), talking about the Monday Bible verse from my Easter Week Scripture Plan (also linked at the end of the post), and making string eggs (which were just as messy and fun as we anticipated!).

Aren't these cool though?! Granted, they don't all look like easter eggs, which was the idea, but they were still fun to make!

Here is the link to the website where I found them again...all you need is string (we used the friendship bracelet kind), Elmer's glue and some balloons.

Back to what we were going to do and we we actually did do yesterday...

We talked about making the bread from the Holy Week packet, and never got around to it. We also talked about the girls making a video from yesterdays verse, which was John 3:16, because the know the verse so well and I thought it would be a fun way for them to personalize it. 

But, just as in my teaching days, when I had WAY to much jammed into one lesson plan, we'll continue we're we left off today.

We'll be making bread, coloring the easter egg printables I also printed out yesterday, and the girls are excited (and have already started planning for!) their John 3:16 video-- I told them to keep it a total secret and that they could reveal it to Scott and I at dinner (which they're thrilled about).

They're also very, VERY excited to make these Peep Houses I found online. Lol. We make a LOT of jokes about Peeps because he girl's grandmother (Nanner!) absolutely HATES them. Like, really, really things they're gross. So much so that we usually find a way to sneak some into her lap, or onto a plate, or in her purse at Easter time.  I also think they're pretty disgusting, but if ever a Peep had a good use, this would be it. 

Aren't these cute?!

https://www.smartschoolhouse.com/holidays/peeps-houses

(This is a GREAT website for crafts and homeschool ideas as well)

If you don't have the wafer crackers, I would imagine you could build a house out of graham crackers or whatever you have around the house and decorate them with frosting. Frosting always covers over a multitude of sins (hey, I think there is an Easter metaphor in there!).


Lastly, I wanted to share my Easter Pinterest Page with you-- just in case you, like me-- love to browse creative ideas (even if you never get around to them!).  I've pinned a bunch of crafts and coloring pages, some of which we'll use throughout the week, many of which we'll never get around to, but nonetheless, they were fun to look at and now I feel resourceful when the kids are driving me nuts...ahem, I mean, need something fun and productive to do this week. 

That's it for today! 

Blessings to you all.


Tomorrow we're going to work on making cards for many of our family members and neighbors. I picked up 30 cards at the Dollar Tree last week (for .50 each). We'll mail some, but plan to use Saturday to pop many of them in people's mail boxes.

Our Easter Scripture for Today: 

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 

1 John 4:9

Links

Link to Walking Through Holy Week: Bring the Easter Story to Life For Your Kids (scroll towards the bottom where it says "swag bag printables"- this is one of the swag bag items).

Link to Free Printable: EASTER 2020 SCRIPTURES

Have a great day!

Celebrating Easter 2020: Day 2

Happy Monday Morning Friends! 

It honestly feels like a strange Monday morning-- it's foggy here, and Mondays feel a little bit, hmmm...what's the right word right now? Ambiguous?

Monday's feel a little bit ambiguous these days.

Where are we going (with school work)? What are we doing (with school work and around the house)? Who needs my laptop at which hour of the day for which Zoom call or Google classroom assignment? 

And, maybe we should attempt to fold the laundry that we had good intentions of folding and putting away this weekend.

Maybe. 

I'd be lying if I said I feel fully ready for this Easter week with the kids-- this Easter week at home. 

I do a really good job at being the mommy cheerleader with a smile on my face in front of the kids. I've told them (with my super big mom cheerleader smile) that this is going to be a GREAT week and a WONDERFUL Easter, despite all of the changes that have happened, but on the inside...

On the inside, I'm feeling a little bit unsure. Not about Easter itself...the truth of Easter is profound and powerful and never changing, and that is something that we can communicate to our children over and over this week. 

But it is a year without all of the hoopla (Easter egg hunts, activities, Easter bunny visits, the Broadway market (if you live in Buffalo), etc.), and for better or worse our children have grown up with all of these traditions that are suddenly not part of their experience this year (as hoopla-ish as they might seem to us).

My girls also still wishing we were going to Florida and Aubrey was lamenting yesterday that we won't be eating the corn soufflé made by grandma, or Aunt Katie's potato casserole.

"Ooohhh, that corn thing, Mom," Aubrey said of Grandma's corn souffle.  "And the potato thing...they're SOOO good! And we're not going to Grandma's," she said sadly.

"I know, kiddo, but we'll still have a great dinner here! I'll try to make all of those things," I promise... with my cheerleader smile.

Of course I will attempt to re-create the dishes that my family makes, but they always taste better in community made by the family people who usually make them, and as we struggled to create an intentional Live Stream church experience in the middle of the living room with the kids yesterday morning, I was lamenting the fact that we couldn't be in a sanctuary worshipping and listening in real time, with our real, in-life worship leaders, and pastors and Sunday School teachers.

 I keep reminding myself of this though, if this time is teaching us anything, it is teaching us to not take many, many things for granted: People. Life. Time together. Fellowship at our churches...and the list goes on. And that's a very good thing.


In the meantime, despite some ambiguity and uncertainty, we do what we do best as moms...we jump in and make the most of what's in front of us, with a smile on our face, for our kids. 

So, here's what we're up to to celebrate Easter today and this week: 

*For My Own Quiet Time: 

I'm using the YouVersion Bible App Devotional

If you search "Easter" in the Bible App on your phone, you can find quite a few reading plans. I picked a simple one to use in my morning prayer time, along with my own reading of the scriptures where I'm moving between the gospel accounts of Holy Week.

*With the Kids: 

Eastern Hills Wesleyan Church Family Resources:

We are using the "Walking Through Holy Week: Bring the Easter Story to Life For Your Kids" booklet that we received from a local church (Eastern Hills Wesleyan) during an online family Easter event they did last week.

I thought the booklet was posted online, but couldn't find it when I looked this morning. I'm going to reach out to their children's director today to see if I can get the link and post it here for you (so check back later today if you're interested).

They do have some great resources posted on their Children's Ministry page that you can access from home though:

https://easternhillschurch.org/kids

And here some links to other FREE Family/Children's resources I found online to help you celebrate Easter as well: 

-Saddleback Church's Kid's YouTube Channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEbM1vIWVubIANRR54YuS0g


-Children's Ministry.com Website:

If you search "Holy Week devotional" in their search bar, a list of links to multiple family activities and reading plans comes up. Here is the link to that search:

https://childrensministry.com/?s=holy+week+devotional


-Focus on the Family:

This Holy Week Family Activity Guide also offers some great suggestions for activities and readings you can engage your kids in throughout the week (broken down by age). I really like the white t-shirt activity suggested in the "Tween" section.

https://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/holy-week-and-easter-activities-for-the-whole-family/

-Some other Easter activities we're going to try today,  just for fun:

Paper Easter Egg Templates

 I found these Easter Egg templates online. I'm going to print them out on cardstock and have the girls decorate them with markers, glitter glue, washi tape, and whatever else I can find around the house later (photos to come tomorrow!)

https://www.firstpalette.com/printable/easter-eggs.html


String Eggs

This craft description actually uses the word "messy", but hey, we're home, the house is kind of a mess anyways, and these look really cool if they actually work! (Again, pictures to come tomorrow!).

https://craftwhack.com/cool-craft-string-easter-eggs/

Resurrection Eggs

These have become one of our favorite ways to talk about the Easter story with our girls. We made ours three or four years ago and they are in need of some updating, so we're going to work on them this week. We always pull ours out on Good Friday as a kid-friendly way to talk about the Easter Story.

Here's a photo of our well-used Resurrection Eggs that we're going to update this week:

This was my favorite link to making them online. We'll be working on ours on Thursday, but I wanted to share the link today so you could start looking for the items around the house, or add them to your list if you're heading to the grocery store (though please don't go out on an extra occasion for anything you weren't planning on this week):

http://playeatgrow.com/2012/03/play-and-grow-homemade-resurrection.html/

One last thing...

One of my favorite sources for online printables is a website called the Hope Ink Blog. I don't know Emily Hope, but I love her work and when I popped into my email this morning I saw this link to her free Easter Printables. I've ordered cards from her website before, and have printed out a number of her Images for use around the house. They feel like little rays of sunshine to me when I need some visual encouragement in my week. Here's an example of one of her printables (that I LOVE), and the link to them online:

https://www.hopeink.com/printables/

Lastly, here are our crafts from yesterday...our palm leaves and coloring pages (mine is the one that is still unfinished!):

 I hope you all  have a fun and blessed day!