Sonlight Garden

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!! How was your day? Ours was nice and quiet. Mass was beautiful. I cried. I always do. 

We came home and had our traditional breakfast of hard boiled (colored) eggs, Polish kielbasa, and nut roll. Every year, since I was a child, (actually, my Dad did this when he was a little boy) we have egg wars. Each person tries to crack the other persons egg. The one with the un cracked egg wins. There are no set rules for this game so it is hard to explain. Grampa seems to win every year. Hmmm. Maybe it is all those years of experience. I look at these pictures and it makes me smile. I am sitting here with a big grin on my face. I LOVE them all soooo much. 

The house is in shambles right now as we are trying to pack up the house. This is moving sooo slowly. We ate our Easter feasts in the kitchen because we moved our big farm table up to the new house. We are trying to figure out where that big table is going to fit in the new house in regards to kitchen layout. We are renovating, and so far it has been a little bit stressful.

Did you see my baby bump in the first picture? Actually it's more like a baby basketball. I am starting to feel this little guy rolling around and giving me little thumps. I am cherishing each one of those. We have a name picked out for him, which has been wonderful for the children. It is nice to call him by name when we pray for him and talk to him. I am going to do a separate post on that. It deserves it. 

Thank you all for your kind words and prayers. I am truly, truly, humbled that so many people are praying for us. Dear, sweet Jessica linked me up on her blog and I got so much traffic here on my blog and so many people read about our baby and prayed for us. It made me cry. I don't think I could thank you all enough. 

Happy Easter!!

 

Well Happy Easter! I didn't mean to give up blogging or blog reading for lent. It just kind of happened. I have just had no desire to be sitting in front of this screen. At all. Pure grace. We have been dealing with our share of life around here. Nothing bad. Just life and the demands of a growing family and the "stuff" that comes along with it. 

We are busy with soccer and track and ballet. Five kids participating in all. Some of them in a couple of those. I have been training for my half marathon that I will be running in at the end of the month. The training is a team effort, because when mama is out running, someone is with Henry, and Henry loves his mama. I ran in a 10-mile race last Saturday. I did it! I ran the whole way! That was the first time I have ever run that far and it felt incredible. The last two miles the endorphins kicked in and I felt like I could have run forever. I took the week off from training and will start back today. 

So that has been all with us. We are on spring break this week after a beautiful solemn Holy Week. I love the High Holy days. Our church offers so much, we are so blessed. 

Have a beautiful day friends. Be back soon I hope, but I make no promises. ;0)

 

Easter 2011

How was your Easter? Ours was beautiful. We had a nice meaningful Holy Week that started on Wednesday evening with a Christian Passover Seder meal. We did this a couple of years ago and the children were so excited when we told them we were going to do this again. My Dad was here to join in the meal with us.

The seder plate

The eldest man says the opening prayers

"The Passover/Easter stories have been told over and over for thousands of years, stories about miraculous change from misery to peace, slavery to freedom, sin to grace. One of the last things Jesus did with his disciples was to celebrate Passover and retell the story to them. It's no coincidence Jesus chose the Passover meal for what the Church now celebrates as the Mass and Eucharist. God gave us the Passover celebration and He used the same celebration to teach us even more about His love. God cared for His people, our ancestors, long ago and He cares for His children today. Tonight we will be able to see, hear, and taste the great love God has for us!"

Washing of the hands

"The Scripture says only the person who has clean hands and a pure heart can stand in God's presence (Ps.24:3-4). When we wash each others hands, we remember how Jesus, on the night of His last Passover supper, poured water into a bowl and washed the disciple's feet for them, like a servant. He asked them, "Do you understand what I, your Lord and Teacher, have done for you? Now in your hearts you should be willing to do the same kinds of things for each other" (Jn.13:12-14). (Each washes hands to the right.)"

Dipping the parsley

"The Passover/Easter holidays come in the spring, when the earth turns green with new life. Only God can create life and keep it alive. This green parsley is the sign of life. (Holding up the salt water): But while the Israelites were still slaves in Egypt, their life was miserable. The salt water stands for their tears. We know our life can be miserable and full of tears when we live in Satan's world. We dip our parsley in the salt water and eat it to remind us of our ancestor's tears and of how miserable our own sin makes us. We also remember how God parted the salty Red Sea to lead His people to new life."

The matzoh

"During this Passover/Easter, let's break our old habits of sin and selfishness and begin fresh, new, and holy lives. (Holding up the plate of matzoh): This is the bread of suffering that our ancestors ate. The three matzoh in one napkin show us the special unity of the Lord God, the Messiah, and His Spirit. The Holy Trinity, three-in-one. The matzoh itself is a symbol of the promised Messiah, Jesus. See how it is striped, as Jesus' back was marked by the scourging before his crucifixion."

We had such a nice long evening. This meal takes a couple of hours but is so memorable. The entire script came from Domestic Church.

For Holy Thursday I went to my "go to gal", Jessica at Shower of Roses. We had a Holy Thursday Tea with my girls and a couple of their friends. Which turned out to be 14 girls in all including Catherine and Amelia. This group of girls are sister sets meaning all of Julia's friends have younger sisters the same age as Mary Jane.

Catherine and Amelia helping me set up the table

We also dyed Pysanky Eggs

We went to Holy Thursday Mass that was packed and absolutely beautiful. Good Friday and Holy Saturday were quiet as they should be. We did color Easter eggs and we did some baking. I made Nut Roll, which is a must for Easter. Yum!

And we celebrated Easter Sunday going to morning Mass. The music was so beautiful. The opening hymn brought me to tears. Our church was built in the late 1800's and the acoustics are incredible. It has a beautiful pipe organ and our choir is out of this world. We are truly blessed to experience this every Sunday. But this Sunday it was extra loud and everyone was singing. It made me think of how Heaven must be with us all praising God together one day. 

Here are pictures after Mass. It stopped raining long enough to get some pictures :0)

We then tried to get a picture with Grandpa and the kids but John Paul was done.

This was about as good as we could get

Happy Easter from our family to yours!

 

Happy Easter!! Christ is Risen!!

h/t Jessica

A Christian Passover Seder

Following the prayers over at Domestic Church.com we had a beautiful Christian Passover Seder meal. We invited my Dad over and we all feasted on lamb.This meal really is a prayer. If you have a moment click on the link and read the prayers, they are beautiful (when on the site click on fridge art and then Lent and Easter. The Seder meal is included there). The participation of the family in the meal makes it so special.

The Seder plate

 

lighting the candles

 

washing of hands

 

 

 

and on it went around the table washing every one's hands. (Catherine's expression here cracked me up. I think she was a little embarrassed. hee hee)

 

roasted leg of lamb

 

 It was a very memorable evening. My favorite part was in the concluding prayers:

"The extra cup also reminds us to pray for our blood brothers, those Jews still seeking the Messiah Who has already come to them and Who waits longingly for them. The empty chair reminds us, and every household observing Passover tonight, that there are still those who cannot celebrate as free men. We pray that someday soon all may freely rejoice in the majesty of God everywhere in the world. Someone open the door to welcome the Prophet of God to our Seder! "(referring to the prophet Elijah)

and this part:

"Our Passover celebration is complete, just as God's plan for our salvation through Jesus is complete. Now it's up to us to go and live His Word. Let's end with the traditional wish that next year we will celebrate face to face with Jesus! "Lashanah haba'ah bi Yerushalayim!"

Easter Sunday

So sweet!

Happy Easter! from our family to yours.

Grandpa and his Grandkids!

egg hunt

  Happy Easter

Psyanky Eggs

Well we made pysanky eggs ALL DAY on Saturday. It is tedious work that requires a tremendous amount of patience, especially when working with children. There are raw eggs, candles and hot wax involved, but it was fun and we will definitely do this again next year. I had a kit that had the beeswax, dye and kystkas which are the tools you use for "writing" the design on your egg with beeswax. the kit is the way to go if you are going to ever try this project. My Lithuanian grandmother had these eggs around her home at Easter time. Doing this brought back some wonderful memories. I am so glad my children were able to experience it.