Easter Reflections

47 days. That's how long the season of Lent is.

As a family, we spent 47 days doing two of the most incredible things to prepare our hearts for Easter.

The first was to draw a name of a person, family or place and to pray for them. We would place their name on a flower and glue it to the cross in our dining room. One of the most incredible sights was to see the cross "beautify" as Easter approached. This was by far, Joel's favorite activity. Often we would sit down for dinner, hold hands in anticipation of our nightly prayer, only to have Joel remind us that we forgot to pull a name to put on the cross. We would always stop, pull the name, pray for the person(s) and put their flower on the cross. It was a beautiful time of reflection.

It was a way for us to pray for people that we love but don't often pray for. It was neat to see how certain names were pulled on days that a certain family needed prayer (God's providence perhaps?).

It caused me to pause throughout the day, say a quick prayer for a name that caught my eye, or the name we pulled for that day, before I continued on with my daily activities.

It helped Joel be mindful of others. He would pray for the "person of the day" during his nightly prayers. Or caused him to ask about who that person is (eg. friends from afar that he hasn't met) and what their needs are.

Joel would play a game where he would ask, "Where's ______?" Inevitably, he knew exactly where their name was on the cross, but would have us guess anyway.  Often, this game would cause us to remember people whom we'd already prayed for and pray for them again.

Sometimes, Joel would ask to pray for a certain person. Inevitably, he would always pull that person's name out. Every. Single. Time.

The second thing we did over the Lenten season, was an activity a day. It could be as basic as reading an Easter story, or a complex craft. The point was to introduce the Easter story to the boys and help them learn the basic points of the story.

I hate to admit it, but we definitely read an Easter story more often than I would have liked. But I went into this season with Grace, because life happens. Needless to say, Joel has the Easter story book memorized. He would recite the book, word for word, to us.

But when we did do activities, they were amazing. We painted, glued, coloured and reenacted. One of my favorite memories, was making palm branches with Joel, Micah and their friend Anaya. We used their hand prints to make palm branches attached to Popsicle sticks. We sang Hosanna, while parading around the house waving our palm branches. We then sat down to reenact it with our play animals. With our palm branches on the ground, we added a leopard as our donkey. A Kleenex was added to the leopard's back, to act as cloaks.  A rubber duck, took the place of Jesus, and various other animals played the crowd. The duck (Jesus) kept falling off the leopard (donkey), so Joel made the duck walk alongside the leopard. We sang Hosanna the entire time. It was such a blessed time for me.

Actually, the reenactments were definitely the highlight for me. We participated in our own version of Resurrection eggs. Twelve eggs, each filled with a symbol of Easter. A leaf, representing the palm branches and the Triumphant entry. Some dice that represented the casting of lots for Jesus' clothes. A cracker representing Christ's body during the Last supper. By far, the best one for me was the three nails. I had the kids take a nail each (luckily, we had a friend for this activity) and poke it into the palm of their hand. "Pointy! Sharp! Ow!" were the words I heard from their mouths. Same when we held a bramble bush  representing the crown of thorns. I asked them to imagine the "crown of thorns" in their head. "I don't like it. That's not very nice. Ow!" Those were the responses the kids gave me. For some reason, this activity really made the story come alive for me. So often, I think, we gloss over the cruelness of Jesus' death. It was awful. But those little tastes of pain were enough to symbolize the agony that Christ went through for us.

We reenacted the washing of the disciples feet, with each one of us taking turns to wash another family members feet. We had the Last supper, complete with pita bread and juice. Humbling times and a great time of conversation with the little boys. Could you imagine your best friend, selling you out for money? Could you imagine washing your friends dirty feet? Ones that had spent all day in the dirt?

The conversations, the crafts, the reenactments, the story readings all contributed to a wonderful Easter for us. Our focus was on Christ and his story. 47 days of prayer. 40 days of activities. 1 Blessed event. Numerous great memories.

Lent: Our Families Overview

We shared this in church on Sunday as part of our Corinthian worship service. Its an overview of how our family is observing lent this year.

*special thanks to Indelible Grace for the song, "Out of my bondage/Jesus I Come"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWy--nZgJgI

(its not loading properly, so try the youtube channel instead)

The (embarrassing) things they say

Oh Joel! Oh Joel!

"Sometimes I have boogies inside my nose. And sometimes I have boogies on the outside of my nose. Sometimes I use a tutu (tissue) to get them out. Sometimes I use my finger."

Gross buddy. Gross. But utterly honest.

The "Last" Curse Continues...

2 for 2. Yep, the odds are in our favour. Or rather the dentist's favour. I'm pretty sure if we have another child, their first visit to the dentist will also be for an emergency visit, not a checkup.

 

Joel had his first visit around two years of age. His poor tooth was pushed backwards after a fall. And his second visit about six months later for the same reason.

 

Every one of my brothers kids have also chipped a tooth, or pushed one backwards. We call it the "Last curse."  Just take a peek at their coffee table. There are three separate corners with three separate indents, one from each of their kids.

Micah on the other hand, decided to one-up his brother and his cousins. It was a big spectacle. He had climbed off the couch and onto a side table. The table tipped and Micah ended up tooth first into the fireplace. I rescued him and the half turned table. I picked him up and immediately the blood started to pour. Dan and I frantically looked for the source. It was then I caught a glimpse of our fate. There was no tooth.

 

I immediately got on the phone with the dentist (which after two "busy" signals and a frantic prayer, I finally got through) to get an appointment. They told me to come on over and they'd take a peek.

 

Nothing. That is what they could do....unless we had the tooth. We searched the floor before we left, but we assume that he swallowed it. (He had gagged when we picked him up).

 

So now Micah has a new look, similar to that of a hockey player. He will sport his look until his permanent tooth makes its appearance (in 3-4 years!!!) 

 

Until then, he'll be singing, All I want for Christmas is My Missing Front Tooth!

 

Those little things

Sometimes its the small everyday memories that I want to remember. The little games the boys play, or the things that they say to one another.

This week, I was reminded of one "games" they play. Joel always starts it, but Micah enjoys it too.
Joel turns to Micah and says, "I say bun, you say butt. BUN!" Inevitability, Micah will respond, "Butt." (emphasis on the T).
(Side note: This game started because butt happens to be one of the words that Micah can say. There aren't many more, although that is changing daily. Joel came up with this all on his own.)


Another thing that they boys do is go and see the lions. Literally, Joel will take Micah by the hand and tell him, "Let's go see the lions." And they'll walk off hand in hand. Usually they get distracted by a toy along they way and they never make it to the lions. But I love the way Joel takes care of Micah and includes him in his games.

Sweet, sweet moments

Reading together on a rainy Saturday afternoon

Post nap time snuggles with mom

Blue Heron

Sometime last week, Joel picked up this stick while we were on a walk. I thought nothing of it.

 But sometime later that week, I began to notice that this stick was coming along with us everywhere.  When I asked about it, he told me that his stick was a blue Heron. He would dip the tip in a puddle explaining that it was drinking. Or in a bush and explain that it was eating. Or drag it along the grass and tell me that it was playing or eating bugs. This blue Heron is left in the garden to sleep while we are in the house and is immediately picked up when we go outside. Joel loves his blue Heron. I must admit, I'm becoming rather attached to it as well.  Its neat to see Joel's caring personality taking care of his blue Heron. Its kind of like having pet, except without the mess!

Puddle Jumping

The other night, we got a large dumping of rain. After being cooped up in the house all day long, the boys needed to get out. So, the entire family headed out to jump in puddles. The boys loved it....unless Dan or I jumped and got rain water in Joel's face....or Joel fell in the puddle...but other than that, they had a great time.

Micah loved it so much that its all over his face!

Literally.

 Muddy puddle water splashed all over his face.

And some "washed" off his face before this picture. He threw an epic tantrum because he didn't want to come inside and get ready for bed. Tears washed away part of the dirt.

Oh well!

It was worth every minute of it.

Nope.....

....no poopies!

 

Glad I got a little helper to assist in sniffing out the stenchies.

Not so glad when he walks up behind me, stretches out my waistband, takes a big sniff and says the same thing. "Nope, no poopies! Good job for staying dry mommy!"

 

Oh, the things kids say!

Shrove Tuesday and the much anticipated Lent

One of the downsides of having such a hard year last year, was that we were just trying to survive. There wasn't much time for looking outside of our own family and looking at the needs of others. We didn't have many 'large dinners' for major holidays (or perhaps we did...I literally cannot remember). We addressed many 'in your face' needs (eg. meals for new moms), but lacked in spontaneous giving. And we have noticed. We feel the desire rising up in our souls to give. Give more. Give because we can. Give because we want to. We have felt the desire to invite others over for dinner. To bring cookies to friends. To surprise people with some of the "desires of their hearts." To watch our friends kids, so couples can go out on a date. We feel like we are ready to look outside of our own family and look to the needs of others. Its such an empowering time.

So, today, on Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Tuesday/Lent-eve, we are inviting a few select people over for a pancake dinner. We are excited to start our 'giving' journey with a meal. But aside from this desire to be hospitable again, we are excited for Lent.

Last year for Lent, I decided to "give" every single day. Whether it was a card or a meal, cookies or a night out, I wanted to give. Except, I made it about 10 days before LIFE happened. Micah cut open his finger, stitches, antibiotics, no sleep. Giving, gave way for life. Luckily, there is grace. And I accepted that with two little boys, and an unexpected injury and no sleep, that giving every day for Lent was not meant to be.

But this year. Oh this year, I am excited! The boys are older. I'm amazed at what I can accomplish on little sleep. So this year, instead of giving something up, or even giving every day, we are doing 40 days of Lent activities. I will be gracious with myself, since LIFE happens. But the goal is to do an activity with the boys every weekday.  Instead of sacrificing something for Lent, we are adding to our lives.

The boys loved the Advent activities leading up to Christmas. I realized that the busyness of life got in the way during that time, yet candlelit dinners and reading books often made up for my laziness/tiredness/busyness. But I also know that Lent is much calmer time of year. There aren't many pressing "Easter" activities to clog up my schedule.

So, we will proceed. Forge ahead with activities. Things that will hopefully bring us closer as a family, and force us to look outside of ourselves and see the needs of others. My desire is for the boys to learn the Easter story, learn to pray for others, and have fun doing Easter crafts and activities.

I have set up the Passion week timeline on a wall in our house. I wanted a visual representation of the Easter story, so the boys could "see" what happened.  Since they cannot read yet, its hard to just write down the story. So there are words and pictures as a reminder to me and Dan about all the details of what happened.

We hung a large cross in the center. Our plan, and the activity that I am most excited about (and Joel too), is that we will pull a name out of a jar EVERY day until Easter (that's 47 names, since we included Sundays) and pray for that person/family or place. We will then write their name on a flower that I have cut out of construction paper and place it on the cross.  I am excited to see the cross "beautify" as time goes on.

 

I am excited to do some Easter/Lent related activities. Simple things, like colouring Easter pictures. To do crafts, like making palm branches. Going through the Easter story with the Resurrection eggs and adding to the chaos with follow-up activities. And to do more difficult things like making paska or baking and decorating cookies to give away to neighbours.

 

Lent and Easter is my favorite time of year. I love the anticipation of what is coming. The sorrow of Good Friday and the grace it brings. The joy of Easter morning and the empty tomb. I love that there is less chaos and consumerism around this time of year. I love that there are DAYS worth of celebration.  I love that this time of year is about Christ, and Christ alone.

 

So, today I look forward to tomorrow and the beginning of Lent. I look forward to 40 days of activities. To 47 days of praying for our family and friends. To six weeks of giving and grace.