Easter Wrap-Up

So this past Sunday was Easter!  It's one of my favorite holidays, mostly because it's all about spring, new life, pretty dresses and spending time with family. 

And of course, Jesus.  Growing up, my favorite church service was the Easter Vigil mass.  Watching the entire church lit up with candles as a child was just magical.  When I was older, I sang in the choir and even participated as a lector. Let's just say that when I was growing up, going to mass was a big, big part of my life.  

Now, I would like to share that love with my girls, but it's hard for me to do.  I keep finding excuses to not participate fully, and I feel like the kids still can't sit still long enough for me to get something out of the mass.  Easter Sunday mass this past week was so, so crammed with people, I couldn't enjoy it.  We were squished.

And out Lent Challenge to not watch tv was a success at first (you can read about it here), then a few weeks in my husband suggested a family movie night.  Which we did.  And then that lead to some tv watching. Which lead to a lot of tv watching, which lead to less tv watching, which lead to playing video games. Ironically, I never wanted a video game system because I didn't want a bunch of video games junkies, sitting around playing video games all day.  Now, I actually like it, provided we are all playing together and it's not just one of kids sitting by herself playing alone.  At least the mind is engaged and it's way better than listening to those snotty girls on the kids movies these days.  (Does that comment make me sound old?) (Side note: someone asked me to write them a letter of recommendation the other day.....it really hit me that I am an adult--yikes!)

Anyways, we did participate in the church's Easter egg hunt after mass, after we stood and waited in the hot sun (and the chocolate candies in the eggs all melted).  We then went to a friend's house and did another egg hunt, had brunch, and let the kids play the afternoon away while the grownups chatted.  It was really nice! Except for the 2 potty accidents.  I could have gone without those.  Every time one of the kids pees her pants, I think of that country song--"You're gonna miss this"---and I think.....No. No, I will not miss this.

I will miss painting and doing crafts with the kids.  Here are some photos of Easter eggs we painted the day before Easter.  We did "partner painting" because M was getting super tired and would start to cry every time her painting wasn't perfect. So I made up "partner painting," which basically just meant that every time she got frustrated, I'd switch paintings with her.  

Problem solved.

The bottom is the first one we did, then I got smart and added lines with a permanent marker--much easier!

Painting an egg....eating an egg.

You might think that I printed the eggs off of some fancy website I found on Pinterest, but no, I just free-handed some eggs and gave the kids some watercolors and away we went. 

Easy and fun. My kind of craft. :)

Hope your Easter was just as relaxing as ours!

~Patricia

The Egg Gallery

Surviving Saturday (#1 with no tv)

So my friends, it's that time of year again: Lent. When kids give up candy for 40 days in thanksgiving of Jesus dying on the cross. I'm saving my candy for Easter morning Jesus, thanks!

This year, I decided that my kids should give up screens. But especially our tv screen and Wii screen.  My kids said I should give up my phone screen too, but ironically, that's what I'll using to write this....so I told then I'd cut back and try not to hide and check Facebook while they want to play with me. I'm actually hoping this causes them to play more with each other, because honestly, what else are they going to do?

So usually our Saturday mornings consist of me running out of the house at 9:40 to pick up a box from the produce co-op I'm in, and the kids watch tv from 8am (they are up so early and love tv so much that I had to make the 8am rule or they'd get up at 6, just to watch tv) until I get tired of listening to it and shout at them until they finally shut it off. Then there's a lot of "I'm bored" and "I'm hungry" and "Can we play on the Wii now?". Le sigh. It's exhausting.

So today I was really curious to see how they'd do....And surprisingly, it actually turned out great!

In the morning, instead of watching tv, they painted. Mostly the table, but on paper too. Then they met our neighbor's daughter and her dog outside and chatted with her for awhile. Then lunch. Then begging to go in our unheated pool, and finally playing next to it for a few hours. Their Barbies got to go swimming though, good for them! Then, more playing outside, watering the plants, chalk drawing on the driveway, racing Dad on the road, dinner and then playing a game with Dad, which they were soooo excited about!

Honestly, it was a good day! Once, in the afternoon, they came to me with their best sad faces (they've been practicing-no joke), and asked to watch tv.  But, I was strong and didn't give in, and to my surprise, we lived!  My husband wanted to watch a movie with the kids, but I think he enjoyed playing a game with them, just as much as they did.

So that's Day 4 / 40 technically of no tv, and we've made it so far! Are you giving up anything this Lent?