Good Friday 2018

On Good Friday morning, I served pancakes without syrup or sugar of any kind: I offer this mom tip for whomever has a Costco nearby (or Amazon): Kodiak pancake/waffle mix contains very high protein. If one uses one egg plus whole milk per cup of mix, then three 4" pancakes offer 21 grams of protein! I wanted to offer a high protein breakfast to last through a long day at church, but that's tough for my picky kids who live on bread and meat, when you take away the meat on Good Friday.

Chris and I made a spontaneous decision while flipping pancakes due to being inspired by his mother, who had said she does this at her parish: We decided to make a whole lotta sandwiches to set out for the families who attend Stations at 12:00 followed by long lines in Confession and the Passion from 3:00 to 4:30. It's four and a half hours standing around at the church, longer for the altar boys and their parents who arrived early.

Chris whisked away to Aldi's and I cleaned up the kitchen and disinfected all the counters and table before he got back. Our kids donned latex gloves for Food Service and we set up an assembly line.

We made one tray of PBJs, one tray of egg salad sandwiches, and two trays of tuna fish sandwiches, plus we served raisins and bottled waters.

This may be a new tradition for our family--we shall see--especially in light of the fact that the place where the Latin Easter Triduum is offered in our diocese is at a high-school without any cry rooms and, as I discovered last year, it isn't feasible for me and small children to participate. This service is one special way Mom and younger kids can participate and serve those who can participate in services.

Last year I wrote to my future self this note on my Good Friday blog post (click here):

Do not even attempt to attend any portion of the five hours of Good Friday liturgies. Stay home near your hearth and take care of the young souls God has given you. Do not let pride drag you to church because 'surely a good Catholic mother SHOULD be able to take her it-doesn't-matter-how-young children to this lengthy, challenging event.' Just stay home. No really, I am serious.

Signed, Katherine of 2017

P.S. I swear, I am serious. Stay home.

So, this year I stayed home! Margaret (7) graduated to attending services with Daddy and she mostly did very well, even with the sit, stand, and kneel. I let my little boys nap and so actually had a Very Quiet stretch within the noon to three o'clock hours when some Catholic families traditionally try to avoid unnecessary speech and sound.

Daddy brought home the girls briefly in between the various services, so they joined Joseph and I for the reading aloud of the Passion from The Golden Children's Bible and making pictures out of special Easter stickers I bought at Oriental Trading Company (click here and here). It was small, easy, and peaceful. My five-year-old asked me many questions, which was my hope.

Speaking of reading aloud the Passion, I have realized over the prior years that it really takes a long time when read from The Golden Children's Bible. I read it in segments at times like bedtime and quiet time over the course of days. I read The Last Supper on Thursday night bedtime, I read about the Passion in several segments over Friday, and I read about the Resurrection on Holy Saturday--a little bit in advance of Easter but so that the youngest children know what all the hullabaloo is about on Sunday.

Pearly found again!

In a bit of a Good Friday miracle, we found Pearly, Joseph's precious tiger with whom he sleeps. Pearly had been missing for an entire month, which made bedtimes a sorrowful affair as he picked some other, lesser stuffed animal to sleep with each night and lamented the missing Pearly.

After making sandwiches in the morning, the day was filled with quiet housework (penitential for Good Friday) to prepare for Easter Sunday: cleaning the whole house and doing three loads of laundry. I had already wrapped Easter gifts a few days earlier, and I hard boiled the eggs in anticipation of coloring them on Saturday. At the end of the day, Chris and the older kids eating out at a fish restaurant with some church friends, I took the Three Amigos (little boys) on a gorgeous spring walk and we stayed outside pruning dead branches.