The Easter season always creeps up on me. I want it to be as meaningful and well-planned as Christmas is, but for a lot of reasons, it usually becomes an afterthought. It's getting on toward the end of the school year, and I'm tired. Too tired for more creative projects to be added to my life.
This year, however, I was determined that we would do some special things, and we did. A few weeks ago, I sat down and planned on paper various activities for Holy Week and Easter itself.
I wanted a special nature table, and after looking on the internet, I decided that a Resurrection Garden would be a beautiful and fun addition to our table. Sariah and Preston helped me plant grass seeds, make a cave from clay, and adorn it with stones, and then on Palm Sunday, the rest of the family helped plant some small potted plants around the garden.
Here the grass has started to grow, and we added a small caterpillar to the garden.
On Palm Sunday, we talked about Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem and made palm leaves from paper. I'm amazed at how well Sariah knows this story. Her favorite part is where the Pharisees tell Jesus to make his followers stop crying "Hosanna!", and Jesus tells them that if the people were to be silent, the rocks themselves would cry out instead.
I didn't take pictures, but on Monday night, we had a special family night where we talked about Jesus' death and Atonement for our sins and what that means for us.
On Wednesday night, we celebrated Purim. Although it was not part of Holy Week, it is part of Sariah's Old Testament Studies this year, and it is an amazingly awesome "girl power" holiday. I didn't really get any pictures, but we made Hamantaschen (traditional cookies), masks, and then told the story of Esther while wearing the masks, banging our musical instruments and yelling "boo!" every time Haman's name was mentioned.
On Thursday night, we held our annual Jerusalem Dinner. This is one of my children's favorite traditions. We eat foods from Jesus' time, and we eat on the floor without plates or utensils. (We do allow cups...) We talked about the Last Supper. Again, Sariah really amazes me with her ability to recall and reflect upon these stories.
On Friday night, we added crosses to our garden, put a stone in front of the tomb, and wrapped our little caterpillar in a cocoon. Preston insisted on adding a lamb to the garden, which I thought was very appropriate (even though he knows nothing of that symbolism).
On Saturday, the kids went with Daddy to an egg hunt in the morning, and then in the afternoon we decorated eggs at home. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures, so all we got was Preston with his eggs (above) and Sariah's eggs in the carton (below).
On Sunday morning, I had a special surprise for the children. I removed the stone from in front of the cave, added flowers to the garden, and made a little yellow tissue paper butterfly to replace the caterpillar in its cocoon.
We had another egg hunt in our yard after coming home from church.
We have the ultimate yard for an egg hunt. I love it!
I spent most of the week physically incapacitated after fracturing a bone in my foot on Tuesday night. My husband deserves a big round of applause for making it possible for *any* of our traditions to happen this week. I had to let a lot of expectations go, but it was still a meaningful week overall.
Comments