Easter Sunday 2013

Why did she awake bright and chirpy at 5:30 a.m.?

This was my first and only formal family shot I took (with a timer) as the process was already so chaotic that I was quickly becoming snippy with my family. I decided that my being cross wasn't worth having a good photo!

After a fancy breakfast of brown sugar--oatmeal pancakes, bacon (which I burned black: notice a theme in my cooking?), fried eggs, and strawberries, we had an egg hunt inside the house due to inclement weather.

Opening gift baskets from parents and godparents

Our new weekly Latin Mass is at 12:30, which is a bit of an awkward time but we are becoming accustomed to the shift in our Sunday routine.

After Mass, we enjoyed an extended time of visiting with friends at church, the children all racing around happily on the grassy hill. Then we came home where the children played outside under Daddy's supervision while I cooked dinner.

Laughing at her brother's antics

Today was one of the rare holidays in the last seven years when I was hosting, I was not pregnant, nor did I have a toddler, which is, in a sense, more difficult than a two-month-old whom I just strap on all day and forget about. These factors meant that I was able to clean and cook! I am grateful for the opportunity.

My dinner menu was: meatloaf, deviled eggs, mashed Yukon gold potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese (from the deli), green bean casserole, strawberry-spinach salad with homemade dressing, rolls (from the bakery), raisin pie (from the bakery), cherry pie (by Grandmom), and cheesecake (store-bought).

Dinner with Grandmom and Pop-Pops visiting from Atlanta

It was a very long day, especially for a certain two-year-old who woke at 5:30, had no nap, and ran outdoors at length. She couldn't stay awake through dinner!

Holy Saturday 2013

Joseph, hangin' out with Mama

Margaret getting a closer look

We made a paschal candle for home using the very simple plan offered at Catholic Icing. We plan to light the candle at dinner or perhaps during family Rosary each night during the Easter octave.

I made great effort this year to assemble not one but two Easter baskets (one a gift for our cloistered Poor Clare nuns) in the traditional Polish style, as described here. I pulled the children away from their outdoor play, digging in dirt, in the fresh, breezy weather. I gave the children a catechism lesson about the symbol represented by each type of food. I got the children cleaned up, coiffed, and loaded in the van. I had thought it strange that the church changed the time of the Blessing of Food this year to three o'clock when it had every year been at noon . . . .

You can guess the punch line: I had written the time down wrong, so we missed the blessing. The children were quite concerned that we couldn't eat food not blessed by the priest but we assured them that it would be okay!

I have no Easter basket picture with sibling #4 because he wouldn't stop crying. But I do have this cute pic of two "cowboys" taken earlier that morning!

My assistant while assembling the family Easter basket

I learned that traditionally Lent ends on Holy Saturday at vespers, around 4:00 p.m. This means that when I was assembling the candy-laden Easter baskets for the children, I could sample the candy for Quality Control purposes. After a long Lent without desserts, it's rather a surprise there was any candy remaining to put in the children's baskets after I got my mitts on it!

Before: beans

After: jelly beans!

My mom and her first grandchild John, March 2007

We began the Divine Mercy novena and chaplet, a prayer brought to us by Jesus through St. Faustina and particularly promoted by Bl. John Paul II. This year, the novena has special meaning for me as my mother died last year--in one sense, so unexpectedly--during the week of Divine Mercy. I was so shocked to find her and, after barely sleeping that night, made my way shell shocked to the 7:00 a.m. Mass at my former parish. I had only the company of my 13-month-old baby and a dear friend of my mother who rushed to stay with me that night, as my stepfather was in the hospital and my husband and children were at home 3,000 miles away. So I woke up and, as a Catholic, thought that the only place I could cling to some comfort was in a church, at the Mass. While driving there, I was able to call my friend T--- who I knew would be at the parish at the crack of dawn and she was able to find the priest as he was vesting and have my mother made his intention for the Mass which, mere hours after her passing, has great meaning to a Catholic. Then I pulled into my parking spot and who should pull in her car nose-to-nose with me at that moment but my maid of honor who didn't even know I had arrived in town the day before? Just when I needed a friend, I was able to collapse tearfully into A--'s surprised embrace. We walked into the church and I laid my eyes on the large banner of the Divine Mercy image hanging from the ambo and I was so comforted to think of my mom passing away during that particular week. So, praying the Divine Mercy novena when we are two weeks shy of the first anniversary of her death has a lot of meaning to me.

Well, it's not as fancy as I had envisioned, but this is the cute breakfast table that awaits the children when they wake!

Good Friday 2013

Maundy Thursday marked John's first attendance at the Mass of the Last Supper with Daddy: I realized that I don't think I've ever gone to that particular Mass because I've always been pregnant (so couldn't stay awake that late) or had a toddler (so stayed home on toddler night duty). This is my season!

We began Good Friday with some spring cleaning as a family to prepare for Easter, which I thought both practical (we have guests coming) and somewhat penitential for the day. However, I too-late discovered that Maundy Thursday comes with a tradition of spring cleaning so I will try to do that next year!

"Maundy Thursday's emphasis on ritual washing also gave rise to the ancient tradition of spring cleaning, evidently related to the Jewish custom of ritually cleaning the home in preparation for the Feast of Passover. Everything was to be cleaned and polished in preparation for the Easter celebration. You can tell children about this tradition and ask to them to clean their rooms in order to observe Maundy Thursday. (Be sure to let us know if this works!)"

Then we dyed Easter Eggs, but I made a mental note that I'd like to switch that tradition from Good Friday to Holy Saturday. The Blessing of Food occurs in parishes on Saturday, so one needs the eggs dyed by mid-day, but there should be time on Saturday morning to do it. I'm finding egg-dying to be just a bit too celebratory and fun for Good Friday, so am making a note to myself to rearrange traditions next year.

We figured how to draw out more patience from the children to let the eggs sit in the dye long enough to create vibrant colors: read to them from Easter books while we wait!

Another note to myself for next year: As cute as the girls looked in the springy 'sister-sister' dresses Mary chose for them today, it is appropriate and traditional for Catholics to wear dark, mourning clothing on Good Friday, our most solemn day of the year. Darling springy clothing can make its appearance when He is risen!

We attended Stations of the Cross and Confession as a family. (I am so pleased to see with what joy and a light step John emerges from the confessional. He seems to like this sacrament very much and that bodes well for his future sacramental life as a Catholic.) Confession was notable for me: If you can envision four priests in different confessionals, with lines out the door for each one, in an almost silent atmosphere. Then my two-year-old made a loud and extended bodily noise followed by her own laughter and bursting into loud song using her own invented potty talk lyrics set to the tune of 'Mary Had a Little Lamb.'

After we came home, we watched a children's movie of the Passion: certainly not as traditional as attending the Passion reading at church at three o'clock, but better than missing the Passion altogether! (Note to myself for next year: the children did so well today that, barring illness or something of that nature, I think they could last long enough, with playing in the grass and a picnic snack in between services, to get through the three o'clock Passion play as well, making a four-hour total visit to the church.)

For dinner I made fish, rice with veggies, and an onion frittata: I lost half of the frittata to the bottom of the pan by burning it black (not entirely uncommon when I cook, but I come by it honestly, as my mom always said), but I thought the remainder had a good flavor and fluffy texture!

In the evening, Chris took John and Mary to Tenebrae, which we affectionately call "the boom-boom Mass" because that is what three-year-old Mary excitedly named it after attending last year.

Normal Feels Good

It has felt so lovely these last two days to get back to normalcy . . .

. . . like doing school and crafts, and playing outdoors in the sun.

I've been making John his favorite foods and he's gained back two pounds of five lost!

 Drowsy John listening to "The Hobbit" while watching the sun set outside his window

Joseph the Little Man

'I am 10 weeks old tomorrow and my Mommy estimates that I weigh 11 pounds now! Last night she switched out all my clothing for the three- to six-months sizes, so now I'm looking like a Little Man.'

John in the same outfit at 12 weeks old: already a bruiser at 14 pounds!

John Feeling Awesome

On the morning of Day 14, John bounced downstairs and said, "I feel awesome!" He had his appetite back and ate two waffles and a leftover garlic knot. He showed some mischievousness (after my not having had to scold him for two weeks because he was just listless and apathetic) and then he bounded up to the bonus room to do some schoolwork on his own initiative, our not having done any during this illness.

John is back!

We began slowly reintroducing dairy with seemingly no ill effects.

Made with creativity instead of instructions: John does his best building that way!

After two weeks of no routine at all, simply "putting out fires" as needed, it felt great today to step right back into our well-established and comfortable routine waiting for us: breakfast, dressing, family morning chores, school time, snack time, crafts at the kitchen table, lunch time, Quiet Time, tea time, family afternoon chores (whipping this house back into shape!), then the kids rewarded with a TV show.

During Quiet Time, Margaret was left napping, the children building with Magformers, and Daddy on conference calls while I got to leave the house--yippee! Chris had done all our errand-running during the illness, so I stayed in these four walls for more than a week. Departing today to do a leisurely shopping trip for Easter basket candy made me feel like the spring sun was bursting and birds twittering to welcome me back to the Outside World.

Celebrating Margaret's Second Birthday

Today makes thirteen days of Norovirus sweeping through our family. It hit John and Margaret worst of all and, thankfully, has thus far spared Joseph (2 months old). The last "incidents" were yesterday afternoon and midnight so we are not out of the woods yet: the children are still on Zofran. Today John is showing some pep after at least four days of laying in his bed staring quietly, feeling too yucky even to listen to a story. He got dressed in daytime clothing today and remained downstairs: big improvement!

So we decided to celebrate Margaret's second birthday in a very small way. Margaret was excited to learn that it was her birthday! (Grandmom and Pop-Pops will be pleased to hear that immediately Margaret began jumping for joy that "Grandmom and Pop-Pops coming!" because those grandparents always and faithfully come for birthdays. We had to explain to her that they couldn't come this time because of our sickie germs.)

Margaret had a lovely time at her party but I noticed that every picture reveals brows furrowed in concerned observation. That expression reminds me so much of myself as a child!

Note the exultant expressions of John and Mary upon seeing a new package of Magformers.

Paddington!

A ladybug backpack! Now Margaret has her very own "pack" like big brother and sister.

Having a wardrobe malfunction with her party hat

For dessert I served sorbet whose ingredients are water, cane sugar, and pectin--which I figured couldn't hurt recovering tummies too much. (No dairy!) Pray I made the right call.

Party games consisted of playing with the new Magformers--and fighting over them and throwing tantrums!

 

John is clothed here and my viewers don't know his body like we do, but he's lost 10% of his body weight so far. Perhaps you can see that in these photos because we sure can. It's so alarming! But we've been to Urgent Care plus spoken by phone to the doctors twice and John does seem to be hydrated, which is what is critical.