Skip to main content

happy easter.

I hope your Easter Sunday was wonderful.  Of course it was. It's Easter.

We attended Easter Vigil Mass, like the optimistic idiots that we are, geared with a backpack full of glow sticks and goldfish snacks and jungle animals (toys, not the kids).  We discussed on the way, "The vigil mass is awesome: no lights, open flames, lots of singing, loads of people... the kids will love it."
our first attempts at an Easter family picture
Greg even had a gameplan, "I'm going to take the kids to the beach and to the market.  We'll come home and they'll get a bath and eat dinner.  They'll be worn out for mass." He was gone for 5 whole hours with BOTH boys.
Sidenote - During that time I cleaned the entire house and cooked dinner.  It's astonishing the amount of work you can do when you're all alone.
Jimmy fell asleep on the way in the car. Mass began at 8:30pm. We got our candles lit and marched into the dark church, along with the rest of the small number of vigil attendants... only one of whom had a child, a tiny baby.
Then they turned on the lights right after we came in. Ray got to wave a candle around hold a candle for a while since the glowsticks-as-nifty-distraction were now useless.
Then Jimmy woke up before the readings even began, just in time to see Ray with the candle, getting to blow it out, and Daddy putting it away. As we all sat down to hear the readings, Jimmy went straight for the candle and Greg took it away and Jimmy screamed... ssssscccrrrrrreeeeeeeaaaaaaammmmed.
we decided to let someone at Church take them. 
"I'm going to take them for a walk," Greg whispered.
And that was the last I heard from him for a while.
I went to make sure they were still alive somewhere between the 4th and 5th readings.
They were outside.  We traded places.
I brought the backpack and Jimmy got a hold of the glowstick pack, spilling them everywhere. Ray helped me pick them up, "Here Mommy, I'll crack them!" and then I blinked and every glowstick we owned was lit.
which never happened.
Anyway. Ray fell asleep 20 minuted before Mass ended. Jimmy decided he wanted to play quietly in the pew by himself 5 minutes before mass ended.
It was 11:30 when we pulled out of the church parking lot.

After tucking the kids in their beds, sharing an entire jar of Talenti ice cream, and eating a few Reese's eggs, we declared the night an overall success and vowed to do it again next year.
so here you go.
The next morning the Easter Bunny brought way too much sugar... Peeps and all. Ray found all the plastic candy-filled eggs hidden in the house. We trooped outside to search for our dyed eggs.  Ray found a bunch. Jimmy found one, picked it up and threw it on the sidewalk. Picked it up. Threw it. And did it again, until the blue shell was littered everywhere. Greg grabbed it before the entire egg was smeared into the concrete. Good save, Daddy.
Later Jimmy repeated his Easter egg demolition inside the house when we weren't looking. I noticed just as the egg smearing shifted from the tile floor to the wool rug.
Good save, Mommy.
We ate way too much candy. Greg made amazing sausage and gravy that helped keep the family from turning into sugar-zombies. I took a three hour nap. Greg took a power nap. We felt like crap and swore we would never ever eat any sugar ever again.
Greg took the boys outside while I cooked.
did you know there's a tennis court here? I didn't.
Easter dinner consisted of lamb, roasted garlic and onion mashed potatoes with lamb gravy, and asparagus.
Then we ate more of our Chocolate Easter bunnies.

Since beginning this post Jimmy has taught himself to remove his own diaper. So, I'm off to finish my chocolate bunny remains...











PS- I'll try to add more pics later after I get a hold of Greg's phone... try checking back tonight or tomorrow.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

let them be bored

Schools are cancelling.  Kids are home. Kids are homeschooling (at least for a couple of weeks). For those parents "stuck" at home with your kids (assuming they are healthy), I have one request, one social experiment I would LOVE to see play out.  Let your kids be bored! Shut down electronics. Turn off phones. Keep the television off.  Let your kids be bored out of their minds.  After a day or two of whining and complaining that will push you to your limits, they WILL find something to do. They will wander outside and play some ball, or bike, or dig in the dirt.  They will find art supplies and create something.  They will play board games. They will play and fight with their siblings.  They will read and go on literary adventures.  They will talk with you, your family and their friends.  They need to be bored out of their freaking minds before they hit a wall and decide to DO SOMETHING with their time.  Let them be bored and watch them come alive. 

hello 2020

Hello 2020, You have already brought plenty of excitement. We brought Cocoa into our lives shortly after Christmas. The vet predicted she'd be 60 or 70 lbs, Wisdom DNA says you're Chow and Chihuahua... she looks like a Chow, German Shepherd, Pomeranian, Australian Shepherd and Chihuahua all mixed up. She's so fluffy!!! We had the flu for a couple of weeks. We didn't go anywhere while we were sick. It gave me time to actually get our school routine up and running. Last year I always felt behind. Not now. Reusable sticky post-its have been a game changer for the syllabi and school books. Chalkboard checklist has been awesome for keeping track of each boys' subjects. I'm finally feeling a little more on top of their academics.  The latest news is that Bernadette has decided to use the toilet. I asked her last week if she wanted to poop in the potty and she said yes. And she did. Since then Toby has been

little prayers

It's 4:30am. I can't sleep.  I'm laying here thinking of the day and what is going to happen tomorrow.  All week long the forecast called for rain. All winter long one little boy has prayed for snow. It never came.  Today there were a few frozen rain drops I'd like to call snow falling on my car as we loaded up for Mass.  The blessed sacrament was exposed when we got to church. One little boy asked to go up front to pray. I brought all four kids up to the third row and one little boy knelt down and prayed. He knelt for a long time. He turned to me and whispered, "Can you ask my brothers to pray for snow?" I did. And he knelt back down and kept praying. We left Mass and Greg texted pictures of Dahlonega, where snow was dusting the picnic table outside his office. We drove to DD in Dahlonega and saw little flurries there.  We drove home and flurries continued. I sent that little boy to play outside in the snow as long as it was falling. "It may be the last