Holy Thursday

Holy Thursday is the beginning of the Holy Triduum. Today is an important day because Jesus Instituted the Eucharist and the Holy Orders. We lit our candle that we have placed as our centerpiece with the Crucifix Prayer card. In honor of this holy day, I put together a symbolic meal for the kids and read the story of the Last Supper and the Agony in the Garden from the boys' Children Bible as they ate. This was an amazing experience for me and the kids I hope to make this a Holy Thursday tradition for us!

Here was the menu:

Vegetable Beef Soup: I didn't want a huge main course since it is still Lent so that was really the only reason for soup as our entree choice

Sparkling Grape Juice: Wine and the Blood of Jesus (I even let the older kids drink their juice from a wine glasses and they were super thrilled)

Salad with cucumber and tomato: Garden of Gethsemane (Today is also known as Green Thursday in Germany)

Grapes: Work of Human hands and wine

Strawberries: Kiss of Judas

30 Crackers and Cheese: 30 pieces of silver Judas received for betraying Jesus

Olives: Mount Olive

Olive Oil: Special oil Mary used to anoint Jesus

Bread: The Institution of the Eucharist and the Body of Christ

I had plans to allow the boys to wash each others feet but everyone fell asleep while watching the Veggie Tales Jonah. I wish I knew someone who has completed a Jonah Project, I am extremely interested to try it out but I don't know how to go about it. Well I hope you enjoyed your Holy Thursday and may God bless everyone as we enter into the solemness of Good Friday. Remember to start your Divine Mercy Novena.

Holy Week Road

Here is an updated picture of our Holy Week Road

To make your own check out Raising (&Teaching) Little Saints blog!

Palm Sunday 2012

Yesterday was Palm Sunday and the start of Holy Week. The Mass was absolutely beautiful! Father John came riding a donkey into the front of the church to bless the palms. It was quite exciting for the kids and I think helped them understand the importance of this day. I wish I could have taken a picture of the blessing and procession but I didn't bring my camera. Little Man and Squishy were very content holding their blessed palms throughout mass. We placed them on our home altar when were got home but I am hoping to try my hand at weaving them into crosses sometime today.

To celebrate today we created a family palm leaf made from our hand prints and hung it above our Lenten Calendar.  I also had helped the kids make caterpillars that will transform into butterflies on Easter Sunday. To make the caterpillars we used pom poms. I had the kids glue 5 pom poms together and add googley eyes to create a face then used a small pipe cleaner and bent it to form an antenna. I think they came out cute! The butterfly is a symbol of the ressurection and I hope that my boys will think of Jesus whenever they see a beautiful butterfly.

We have a butterfly house nearby and I plan on taking them during the Easter Season to have a hands on experience.

Something else I had to try was this adorable map I found at another blog called Raising (& Teaching) Little Saints you can find the post here.  Obviously from the picture I'm not quite done but I will update with a new picture soon. I printed the Holy Week cards from the above blog and I pasted the days of the week along the left side of the "road". As each day in Holy Week progresses I'm adding the corresponding card along the right side of the road and reading the bible passage from the children's bible. I think it is a nice way to finish our Lenten journey as a family and really reflect on what is important.

 To end the day I had hoped to make some palm tree shaped sugar cookies and place them in an ice cream sundae, therefore creating palm sundaes! :o) However, we had a playdate that the kids were enjoying so much I decided to lengthen the playdate and we had fig newtons as our dessert instead. Palm Sunday is also known as Fig Sunday since Jesus ate figs as he entered the city of Jerusalem. I wasn't sure if the boys would like these cookies since they weren't chocolate chip but they ended up eating them all! We had such an amazing start to Holy Week. I hope everyone else did too!

Preparing for Holy Week and Easter

I can not believe that Lent is almost over! I have so many fun crafts and activities to prepare for the next week but it is really exciting getting closer to Easter! I know these plans are very vague but I will elaborate in upcoming posts, I am using this more to organize my thoughts and to take any suggestions anyone may have on these topics

Palm Sunday:

Cover all Religious items with purple cloth for Passion week

Bake Oatmeal date cookies

Make a hand print palm branch

Start our Holy Week Road

Make a caterpillar

Palm Sundaes for dessert

Light candle on table

Holy Thursday:

Easter Break begins

Buy or make hot cross buns for Good Friday's breakfast

Read story of the Last Supper

Create 3D Last Supper Craft

Lenten Dinner

Washing of feet

Good Friday:

Remember today is a day of fasting

Hot cross buns for breakfast

Carry our wooden crosses all day

Make Resurrection Eggs

Make Resurrection Sets

Stations of the Cross

Blow out candle at 3PM

Watch the Animated Passion with the children and Veggie Tales Jonah

Place caterpillar in cocoon

 

Holy Saturday:

No light or fire today

Make Easter Candles

Decorate Easter Eggs

Prepare Easter Baskets

Hang Easter Egg Calendar

Replace beans from Sacrifice Jar with Jelly Beans

Remove caterpillar from bag and replace with a butterfly

Easter Sunday:

Easter Sunday Mass

Celebrate with Easter baskets

Egg Hunt

"Find" and Hang the Alleluia Banner

Bake Resurrection Rolls

Color Resurrection Banners

Easter Feast

I would love any other suggestions to make this a very memorable Easter Celebration for my family so please, tell me about your family traditions and way to celebrate the holiest day of the year!

The Annunciation

Yesterday we had an amazing evening celebrating the Solemnity of the Annunciation as a family! I had to work most of the day so our celebration wasn't as elaborate as I had originally had planned.

To start the celebration, we created an Annunciation Candle:

We used a white pillar candle (symbolizing the purity of the Virgin Mary) and carved a spot in the middle of the candle large enough to hold a small picture of a baby (symbolizing Baby Jesus in Mary's womb). We then tied a piece of blue ribbon over the opening making it seem as if the baby was hidden, like a baby is hidden within its' mother's body until birth. The really fun thing about making this candle is that you can use it for any Marion Feast Day and on Christmas you can untie the ribbon displaying  Baby Jesus. I am really excited about using the candle throughout the year!

After displaying our beautiful candle on the table in preparation for dinner, the kids and I discussed what the Annunciation is about in the simplest way possible. I told them the Angel Gabriel asked Mary if she would be the mommy of Jesus and she said Yes! At that moment baby Jesus was inside Mary's tummy. I also explained that this is why every baby is special because the moment that they are in their mommy's tummies they are apart of a family and they are special and loved. My husband and I are going to be trying to conceive again soon so I think this is a special lesson for our two boys.

I made an Angel Food cake (Angel Gabriel) and frosted it with whipped topping (Mary's purity) and decorated it with blue sprinkles (Mary's mantle). The whole family loved it!
Did you know...In Sweden today is also known as "Waffle Day"? I was hoping to make blueberry waffles for breakfast but today was the first day back from Spring Break. We all had a hard time starting the day but somehow managed to get everyone to school/work on time. I will certainly make them next year, even if I have to make breakfast for dinner! :o)

There are a few other ideas I wanted to touch on for this feast that I wasn't able to complete fully since I was short on time but sound like too much fun not to mention...
I wanted to purchase some marigolds to plant but was only able to get a sunflower seed. I am waiting until this weekend to have the whole family help with this project and hopefully we will have some beautiful sunflowers in our front yard soon!
I would have liked to be able to color some Annunciation scenes or have the kids draw their own interpretation of the story.
Some other crafts I thought about were hand print angels or using butterfly paperclips to create angels.

If anyone has any suggestions for me to try next year please let me know!

Looking forward to the start of Holy Week and Easter

I hope you had a blessed day!

Lent and Spring Cleaning

Lent is a time for cleansing your soul by fasting, praying and alms giving in preparation for Easter, the greatest celebration of the year! This is why spring cleaning normally falls during this time period. The additional time you take to cleanse your household in preparation can be offered as a sacrifice to God and all your "junk" can be donated (if its in decent condition) for alms giving. Yesterday my boys went for a visit with my in-laws, so I am home alone for a couple days this week. I decided I would use this time to complete all of my Spring Cleaning! I know this makes me seem like such a dork but I honestly couldn't think of much else to do with my free time. Normally Spring Cleaning would take me several weeks but since I don't have my children here I have some extra free time to get these tasks done. Today I am cleaning the down stairs since it is the most "used" part of the house. If anyone would like to use my Spring Cleaning Checklist I will try to convert this into a document for download if anyone is interested in a copy when I am finished with the actual cleaning.

Living Room

1. Dust: All pictures, frames, fan, light fixtures and artifacts on the wall.
2. Clean window and French Doors
3. Polish furniture: TV stand, side table, desk
4. Clean couch: Sweep out under cushions and wipe down with furniture polish
5. Organize Desk
6. Vacuum
7. Clean walls
8. Make note of things that are in need of repair or replacing: new light bulbs, candles, window blinds etc.
9. Pack anything that is no longer needed in a bag to donate

Dining Room

1. Dust: All pictures, frames, fan, light fixtures and artifacts on the wall.
2. Clean window
3. Polish furniture: Table, chairs, water font, wine rack and home altar
4. Clean Booster seat
5. Vacuum
6. Clean Walls
7. Make note of things that are in need of repair or replacing: candles, window blinds, etc.
8. Pack anything that is no longer needed in a bag to donate

Kitchen

1. Dust: greenery, clock and artifacts on the wall.
2. Clean out refrigerator inside and out
3. Clean oven inside and out
4. clean microwave inside and out
5. Clean dishwasher inside and out
6. Clean all cabinets and polish with cleaner
7. Clean coffee machine
8. Clean trash can
9. Wipe all counters and surfaces
10. Organize pantry closet
11. Sweep the floor thoroughly
12. Mop with sanitizer
13. Make note of things that are in need of repair or replacing: light bulbs, shelving, cooking utensils, etc.
14. Pack anything that is no longer needed in a bag to donate

Half Bathroom

1. Dust: Pictures and artifacts on the walls
2. Clean mirror
3. Clean sink and toiletries
4. Polish shelf and restock toiletries
5. Clean toilet inside and out
6. Wash rugs and towels
7. Sweep the floor thoroughly
8. mop with sanitizer
9. Make note of things that are in need of repair or replacing: light bulbs, toiletries, towels, etc.
10. Pack anything that is no longer needed in a bag to donate

Linen Closet

1. Remove old shoes and products to trash
2. Organize shoes, vacuum, carpet cleaner
3. Make note of things that are in need of repair or replacing: shelving, linen, etc.
4. Pack anything that is no longer needed in a bag to donate

Steam Clean Carpets and Allow to dry overnight

Well the list for my downstairs area sounds pretty redundant doesn't it? Dusting, Organizing and Sanitizing! Cleaning the upstairs will take much longer! I'm going to get started while I'm feeling inspired and I will elaborate on the other half of the house soon.  The other rooms upstairs include...

Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom
Laundry Room

Squishy's Bedroom #1

Little Man's Bedroom #2

Kids Bathroom

I hope every one's Lenten Season is progressing well! Good luck to all who are undertaking their Spring Cleaning too!

Becoming Beach Bums

We moved closer to the beach about 2 years ago and we still had never gone to the beach together. Yesterday before my boys left for vacation we had our FIRST family trip to the beach. Although it took us a long time to go together as a family...it was an AMAZING DAY!

 The kids were super excited to get going on our beach adventure....

 They passed out 10 minutes into the trip :o)

I am such a lucky lady with these little men to love!

Squishy wasn't really interested in the water but the sand was absolutely amazing