I’ve been thinking about Easter and its religious significance, and I wanted to make this year’s celebration a more personal and spiritual experience for myself.  So, when I read Eric Hunstman’s article (here) on how his family observes Easter, I jumped on his tradition of reading in the New Testament each day of the week before Easter about that day on the last week of the Savior’s mortal life.  For each day of the week, he’s posted a simple list of scripture references from the four Gospels detailing what happened on the correlative day of the week of the first Easter.  I’m sure this isn’t a new idea and that I could probably find a similar list in the LDS Bible Dictionary or by googling it, but that’s where I found it and I give him credit.

Each day’s reading so far has only taken a few minutes to read, and I’ve found myself coming away wanting to know and understand more.  So I checked out the New Testament institute manual lessons about that time period here.  It’s really helpful to have the added context of maps and historical details and discussions of how the passages of scripture relate to each other.  I definitely recommend spending the extra time reading about the events of Easter there.

Easter and Passover overlap this year, and I’ve been thinking about their intertwined messages.  Since I was a little girl when we lived in Israel, my parents have participated in a Passover seder every year.  I haven’t been able to join them in a long time, but I remember our seders as some of the most meaningful celebrations of my life.  I miss them!  I really should find a community seder to attend someday.  I wonder if Colin would want to go with me.  I just looked it up and there’s one in Berkeley tomorrow.   That would be a totally appropriate Family Home Evening…but it’s $45 each!  Eeek.   And how would I explain the wine to my kids… and our no alcohol thing to the hosts?  Maybe another year.  And I have a box of Matzah in the cupboard for my own mini-celebration of the Exodus.   There is a lot to be grateful for this week.

Speaking of Family Home Evening, we should have an Easter FHE tomorrow.  If we do, and it were to go the way I planned it (it never does), this is how I’d do it:

Song: Did Jesus Really Live Again?

Prayer

Lesson: Watch the DVD of “To This End Was I Born” (or on YouTube here), or the shorter “Lamb of God” video if we have less time

Talk about what we saw.  Discuss how the symbols of eggs and flowers and Spring itself point to Jesus Christ and the resurrection.

Activity: Dyeing eggs is an obvious one.  Or we could perform our talents for our family reunion talent show–Grandma wants at least one of the kids to recite the 13th Article of Faith. I’m not totally confident that any of them will be able overcome their stage fright, but maybe practicing would help.

Song: I Know That My Redeemer Lives

Prayer

Refreshments:  How about these cute little chocolate “nests” with jellybeans for eggs?  They look super easy.  They have the added advantage of being gluten-free, which is good because we found out a couple of months ago that Colin is gluten-intolerant so he has to eat food that has no wheat in it.  If we wanted to get more complicated, I’ll bet we could use our favorite 5 Minute Cookies recipe to make the nests.

Simpler, we could just distribute Peeps.  I’m not all that into them taste-wise, but have to admit they are cute.  And it would get the kids in bed sooner.

Possibly more yummy, but certainly less dessert-y, would be deviled eggs.

Hey, these bunnies are adorable and look easy and kid friendly!

Can you tell I like dessert?

Where did I go to investigate?  Wikipedia, of course.  The Wikipedia said the following:

It became a federal holiday in 1894, when, following the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the U.S. military and U.S. Marshals during the Pullman Strike, President Grover Cleveland put reconciliation with the labor movement as a top political priority. Fearing further conflict, legislation making Labor Day a national holiday was rushed through Congress unanimously and signed into law a mere six days after the end of the strike.

What?  How could I be ignorant of such a dramatic story that started a holiday I “observe” every year?  Wikipedia’s sources included links to a PBS Newshour segment that says this:

The movement for a national Labor Day had been growing for some time. In September 1892, union workers in New York City took an unpaid day off and marched around Union Square in support of the holiday. But now, protests against President Cleveland’s harsh methods made the appeasement of the nation’s workers a top political priority. In the immediate wake of the strike, legislation was rushed unanimously through both houses of Congress, and the bill arrived on President Cleveland’s desk just six days after his troops had broken the Pullman strike.

1894 was an election year. President Cleveland seized the chance at conciliation, and Labor Day was born. He was not reelected.

In 1898, Samuel Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labor, called it “the day for which the toilers in past centuries looked forward, when their rights and their wrongs would be discussed…that the workers of our day may not only lay down their tools of labor for a holiday, but upon which they may touch shoulders in marching phalanx and feel the stronger for it.”

The Wikipedia article also linked to the US Dept of Labor which had this to say on the holiday’s history:

Through the years the nation gave increasing emphasis to Labor Day. The first governmental recognition came through municipal ordinances passed during 1885 and 1886. From them developed the movement to secure state legislation. The first state bill was introduced into the New York legislature, but the first to become law was passed by Oregon on February 21, 1887. During the year four more states — Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York — created the Labor Day holiday by legislative enactment. By the end of the decade Connecticut, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania had followed suit. By 1894, 23 other states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers, and on June 28 of that year, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.

Hmmm…the Department of Labor sure glosses over the history of Labor Day’s passage through Congress, no?

Anyway, while I believe the people must have the right to organize themselves in a free country, I’m generally not a fan of labor unions.  And I’m really not a fan of politically strong-arming or compromises made in election years in order to get a union to vote for you (or not tell people to not vote for you).  I am a fan of hard workers, of recognizing accomplishments, and the American Dream.  And I am a fan of a day off near the end of summer.

So today, since we’ve got the day together as a family regardless of the origins of the time off, we did some playing.  Sonja and I took advantage of a Labor Day Sale and did a little frugal shopping for Christmas (yes, I’m already thinking about Christmas).  Then we all went to a local burger joint for lunch and headed to the cheese factory 20 minutes away and enjoyed the sunshine and the pond with some lovely strangers who shared a fishing pole with Degen.  Just before we left, Sonja discovered one of her favorite earrings had dropped somewhere during our adventures and we headed back to the burger joint where the management had found and saved her earring in case she returned for it.  Thus, a celebration was in order and ice cream cones were ordered for everyone.  Heidi had her first all-to-herself cone (strawberry flavored), Degen had rocky road, Maggie orange sherbet, Colin mint chocolate chip (arguably his all-time fav), and I had chocolate chip cookie dough.  Now that we’re home, Degen is playing Xbox, Maggie is using a small bud vase as an instrument, Colin and Heidi are napping.  Very pleasantly un-labor-y if you ask me.

It won’t last much longer.  I have about four (maybe five?) loads of clean laundry to fold and put away, a bathroom to clean, and a dinner that I think I’m not actually going to make.  This week I need to sort through kids clothes (again!) to pull out the ones that don’t fit.  I really want to get going on some sewing projects this week; my advent calendar, quiet book, and Christmas pjs are the ones that keep poking at my brain.  And I HAVE to do something with those berries we picked in the next 24 hours.  Plus, I just took on the Emergency Preparedness team lead for Degen’s school and already have a meeting with his Principal coming up (I spent three hours this morning doing online training for that role).  And I want to work on filing, finances, and Foomusic.com.  Good problems to have, no?

Happy Father's Day!

So, what’s been going on here?  Hmmmm…

Thanksgiving in Arizona with my parents and some of my siblings was divine.  We had all sorts of good food, including a cheesecake flan made by my very own Chef Colin.  My brother, Uncle Nephi, was a hit with Degen and Maggie as expected.  They just can’t stop talking about him and how wonderful he is.  We did some yard work together, which really means everyone else did yard work while I sat in the sun and kept them company.  I tried to lift a shovel of dirt once and immediately thought better of it with my very large belly and confused sense of balance (not to mention my healing sprained knee and very loose ligaments).  I got to see my sisters Ruth and Eliza pass their road tests and receive their driver licenses on the same day!  Yay Liza and Ruthie!  The test proctor was impressed with both of them and their driving skills.  We cooked and talked and my mom adjusted all of our backs (she’s a DO so she can do that stuff) and went to the park and the kids played with Grandma and Grandpa and their aunts and uncle.  It was really ideal, except that a couple of my sisters were missing (on the other side of the country for Thanksgiving this year). My mom cut Maggie’s hair for the first time (with bangs so she can see without pigtails) and trimmed Degen’s to a presentable length, then Mom and I went to a nearby salon and had our hair cut too.  I really love spending time with my mom, even when she has to study for her next qulifying exam part of the time.

Just before Thanksgiving I was officially diagnosed with gestational diabetes, and just after Thanksgiving I was put on a low dose of insulin overnight to take care of that stubborn fasting number, just like when I was pregnant with Maggie.  My current OB, Dr. Klekman in Santa Rosa, is wonderful and is very laid back about the whole thing while also vigilantly watching and listening for any possible problems.  The diabetes educator I’ve been assigned to, Astrid Ortega, is also friendly and relaxed, even when my kids are running around her office in circles.  I do have to have weekly consults with her, weekly appointments with Dr. K, weekly nonstress tests, an ultrasound at 36 weeks to check the baby’s size, and they want me to induce at 39 weeks if the baby doesn’t arrive before then.  They only have me testing my blood sugar four times a day (compared to seven plus when I was pregnant with Maggie) this time and I don’t have to check my ketones in the morning like I had to last time around.  It’s really helped me this time around to have relaxed providers who explain things slowly and listen to me when I have concerns.  It also helped to have some past experience to compare it to so I had some idea of what was coming.

Monday was Colin’s birthday.  Happy Birthday Colin!  We spent it, just the two of us, in Los Angeles at a training for a new product Colin was researching for his company.  It was the first time we’d been (relatively) childless overnight since Degen was born, so it was fun for me to have a little break from my “job.”  It really was amazing to have a room to myself and several meals in a row with no squeals of “Mommy Mommy Mommy!” requesting a refill of plate or cup.  Thanks so much to Sonja and Dick for the time off!

Wednesday was my sister Abby’s birthday.  Happy Birthday Abby!  We celebrated Colin’s birthday with his parents, sister Kim, and her boyfriend that evening.  I gave him 2G of RAM for his laptop, which he’s apparently very happy about but accidentally found out about in advance because I wasn’t sneaky enough to delete it from the history of my browser.  So, no surprise, but a good gift anyway.  Kim and Colin’s parents surprised us with an awesome gift–an overnight stay in Kim’s downtown San Francisco apartment after Christmas (hopefully before baby), complete with local restaurant reservations, spa treatments, babysitting, and touristy touring recommendations.  And I thought our LA trip was a vacation!  Definitely a surprise, and a very cool gift.  No, I wasn’t bothered that his birthday present was pretty much half for me (and neither was Colin, as far as I could tell).  Who needs Christmas presents when your husband gets birthday gifts like that?

Maggie chipped a tooth this week, so I’ve got to get her to a dentist to check and see if we can/should do anything about it in the near future.  We’ve got to finish off the Christmas shopping and do some seriousgift wrapping.  And I need to have the car serviced right away (of course the regular maintenance would fall on this month).  And our renters of our house in Utah gave notice, so we’ve got to find a new family to live there, preferably starting in January.  And I really should get appointments for teeth cleaning and doctor checkups and eye glasses for everyone in the family before the end of the year.  I don’t even know if that’s possible, but if it were it’d be ideal.

It’s always busy around here, even when I have no energy.  Actually, I’m usually okay as long as I don’t have to stand up for long or carry anything and I get a nap in the afternoon.  Any guesses on how often those three things coincide?

To all of you moms out there, happy Mother’s Day!  My mother is definitely one of the best mothers ever, and I dare anyone to try to top her efforts or results.   Really, try it, you’ll be happier for it.  My mom is a great teacher and nurturer without being smothering or pedantic.  It’s a tough line to walk, but she does it gracefully and I’m grateful for her example.  Thank you for all you do for me and my little family, Mom.

I’ve had an awesome, though atypical, Mother’s Day so far.  Usually Sunday mornings are full of me rushing around trying to get everyone else to rush around to get ready for church.  This morning was calm and relaxed with no rushing, yet we all got to church early–and completely dressed!  And I even had time/took the time to curl my hair, so I felt relatively pretty.

At church some kids and the EQ president helped me set up the Primary room, so I got to sit down in plenty of time for Sacrament Meeting with my family in the pew instead of in the hallway.  Although neither of my counselors were at church today, my secretary was at church after a few weeks of travel and was soooo wonderfully helpful.  Two kids actually begged me to let them give the talk and scripture (which coincidentally hadn’t been assigned in advance this week) and we’d asked a member of the bishopric weeks before to do Sharing Time, so all I had to do was conduct and patrol the halls.  My patrolling was fun because we had some exciting “emergencies” like a little boy with his foot harmlessly stuck under a chair that I got to un-stick.

Near the beginning of Primary, my husband came in to let me know that he was going with some of the rest of the EQ to go help a family in the stake whose house had been severely damaged in a tornado last night.  So, after Primary I headed home alone with the kids and called some of my sisters and my mother.  Then I got to go visit my Primary counselor who recently got home from the hospital and had a great time talking with her, despite the kids’ unsuccessful attempts to destroy her home.  Colin called me on the way home from that to say he’s on his way home.

It’s been a great day.  Not because of all the thoughtful gifts my husband and kids did or didn’t get me, and not because I’m a great mother, and not because everything fell into place the way I would have imagined it if I were designing the perfect Mother’s Day.  It’s been a great Mother’s Day because the Lord has blessed me with gratitude today.  I’m grateful for the silk flower corsages the young women and young men at church gave to all the women in the ward.  I’m grateful for the Mother’s Day handprints my kids made for me in Nursery today.  I’m grateful to have two good, healthy kids–a huge blessing that I’m more aware of since I’m often in the company of women who don’t have children at all.  I’m grateful that Colin did the dishes last night just to make me happy.  I’m grateful to have the kind of husband who will cheerfully leave a meeting to serve strangers far away doing the manual labor he normally dislikes so much.  I’m grateful to be healthy and strong and to be able to move around and do almost anything I want to do and to have had a full night of sleep last night in a safe place.  I’m thankful to have plenty of food in the house for our family.  I’m thankful to have a family that loves me and accepts me, flaws and all.  I’m thankful for my mother and her mother and my father’s mother.  And today is perfect.

We had a lovely Easter, including egg dying and hiding and finding, pictures of which you can find here.  Both sets of grandparents sent boxes of goodies–thank you!!–that all of us loved.  I made little baskets for everyone and decided that next year I’m going to make myself a better basket since I did the classic martyr-mom thing of giving myself the leftovers.  Or maybe I’ll assign Colin to do a basket for me next year…  In any case, I loved seeing the surprised faces of the adults when they found out they got baskets too! 

Thanks to Phoebe and Jon, our wonderful Dallas hosts, for provinding a warm, comfy place to sleep and lots of food to eat.  One never need fear hunger when spending time with them!  Phoebe’s wisdom teeth seemed to be healing up a little bit better by the time we left, but it was nice to be there with them to help out a little.  We also got to spend some time with Ashley and Justin, our long-time friends from college and before, and see their sweet little girl who is no longer a baby.  How does that happen so fast? 

Colin did our taxes yesterday!  Thanks to Tina and Aunt Caite and Rachel for the taxes encouragement and resources.  Believe it or not, we get money BACK!  I live in a weird state of fear of owing the IRS more money and I’m totally excited that it’s the other way around.  Once I heard how much money we’re getting back, I quickly made a list of where the money’s probably going and it looks like we’ll be able to pay down some debt and maybe do a little bit of emergency kit/food storage supplying!  Woo-hoo!!!!!

I came home to a relatively clean house, which motivated me to unpack and do the laundry quickly to maintain the order we had already.  Road trips are my great self-evaluation times, and I decided (again) that I MUST get better at taking care of my body and at organizing my life with goals and rewards and such.  Colin is very supportive and I decided to go back on my “diabetes diet”–the meal plan the doctors put me on when I was pregnant with Maggie and could hardly keep from losing weight.  I also decided to go to our apartment complex gym early in the morning and work out.  All this is supposed to start on Monday, but Colin encouraged me to start working out today, so I did!  I spent almost an hour and more than 400 calories on the treadmill this morning listening to upbeat teeny-bopper Disney music.  It was so fun!  I walked three miles in 35 minutes and I’m quite pleased with myself.  I forget how happy exercise makes me.  Yesterday I picked up a sticker chart at a teacher supply store and I’m working on my goals and rewards for motivation.

We had a lovely Easter, including egg dying and hiding and finding, pictures of which you can find here.  Both sets of grandparents sent boxes of goodies–thank you!!–that all of us loved.  I made little baskets for everyone and decided that next year I’m going to make myself a better basket since I did the classic martyr-mom thing of giving myself the leftovers.  Or maybe I’ll assign Colin to do a basket for me next year…  In any case, I loved seeing the surprised faces of the adults when they found out they got baskets too! 

Thanks to Phoebe and Jon, our wonderful Dallas hosts, for provinding a warm, comfy place to sleep and lots of food to eat.  One never need fear hunger when spending time with them!  Phoebe’s wisdom teeth seemed to be healing up a little bit better by the time we left, but it was nice to be there with them to help out a little.  We also got to spend some time with Ashley and Justin, our long-time friends from college and before, and see their sweet little girl who is no longer a baby.  How does that happen so fast? 

Colin did our taxes yesterday!  Thanks to Tina and Aunt Caite and Rachel for the taxes encouragement and resources.  Believe it or not, we get money BACK!  I live in a weird state of fear of owing the IRS more money and I’m totally excited that it’s the other way around.  Once I heard how much money we’re getting back, I quickly made a list of where the money’s probably going and it looks like we’ll be able to pay down some debt and maybe do a little bit of emergency kit/food storage supplying!  Woo-hoo!!!!!

I came home to a relatively clean house, which motivated me to unpack and do the laundry quickly to maintain the order we had already.  Road trips are my great self-evaluation times, and I decided (again) that I MUST get better at taking care of my body and at organizing my life with goals and rewards and such.  Colin is very supportive and I decided to go back on my “diabetes diet”–the meal plan the doctors put me on when I was pregnant with Maggie and could hardly keep from losing weight.  I also decided to go to our apartment complex gym early in the morning and work out.  All this is supposed to start on Monday, but Colin encouraged me to start working out today, so I did!  I spent almost an hour and more than 400 calories on the treadmill this morning listening to upbeat teeny-bopper Disney music.  It was so fun!  I walked three miles in 35 minutes and I’m quite pleased with myself.  I forget how happy exercise makes me.  Yesterday I picked up a sticker chart at a teacher supply store and I’m working on my goals and rewards for motivation.

In the meantime, I’m packing and cleaning.  I’m also watching my friend’s six-month-old, Blake, for a couple of hours while she’s on a trip with her mom and her husband is in class.  He’ll come pick up the baby, and then we’re off to see the Hemingways!  Maggie and Blake are in their cribs and Degen is watching Finding Nemo, the laundry is drying in the drier, and all I have to do is put some stuff in suitcases. 

I’m sooooooooooo ready for a change of pace, and so is Colin.  Sleeping on the floor or not, it’s better to spend the time with our families than to sit at home trying to think of ways to entertain ourselves.  Actually, we have plenty of arduous tasks to occupy our time, but not much to entertain.  Plus, as much as I love it, it’ll be nice to have a little break from Primary presidenting. 

We’re going to an Easter egg hunt with the kids on Saturday, then we get to go to church with Phoebe and Jon on Sunday.  I’m hoping that we’ll get to see our friends Ashley and Justin while we’re there.  We were talking about maybe spending the rest of Colin’s Spring Break week on a road trip around Colin’s mission (San Antonio), but we decided that probably won’t work for us and we’re headed back home early in the week. 

In the meantime, I’m packing and cleaning.  I’m also watching my friend’s six-month-old, Blake, for a couple of hours while she’s on a trip with her mom and her husband is in class.  He’ll come pick up the baby, and then we’re off to see the Hemingways!  Maggie and Blake are in their cribs and Degen is watching Finding Nemo, the laundry is drying in the drier, and all I have to do is put some stuff in suitcases. 

I’m sooooooooooo ready for a change of pace, and so is Colin.  Sleeping on the floor or not, it’s better to spend the time with our families than to sit at home trying to think of ways to entertain ourselves.  Actually, we have plenty of arduous tasks to occupy our time, but not much to entertain.  Plus, as much as I love it, it’ll be nice to have a little break from Primary presidenting. 

We’re going to an Easter egg hunt with the kids on Saturday, then we get to go to church with Phoebe and Jon on Sunday.  I’m hoping that we’ll get to see our friends Ashley and Justin while we’re there.  We were talking about maybe spending the rest of Colin’s Spring Break week on a road trip around Colin’s mission (San Antonio), but we decided that probably won’t work for us and we’re headed back home early in the week. 

We’re not Catholic (obviously), but I think it’s fun to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.  I was thinking about having a treasure hunt and explaining about the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  Then I thought that’s not a great religious lesson for the kids, how do I tie it back into the gospel?  So, how about if we talk about Noah’s Ark and the rainbow at the end of the story?  My kids love talking about animals and boats and I think they’d love to talk about colors in the rainbow, and all that tied in to God showing his love for us with a rainbow works pretty well, I think.  So, here’s the plan:

Song: The Wise Man and the Foolish Man (CS, 281)

Prayer

Lesson: Noah’s Ark (Genesis 6-9)

Show a picture of Noah building the ark and talk about how the people were wicked and God told Noah to tell them to repent and to build an ark.  Talk about how Noah was obedient and built the ark, and put two of each animal on the ark.  God sent a flood and all the people died except those on the ark because they were obedient.  The earth dried up again and God made a covenant with Noah and the rainbow is a sign that God promises to never destroy the earth with a flood again.  God makes covenants with us because he loves us.

Activity: Treasure hunt for a treat at the end of the rainbow.  I think I’ll use different colored papers as clues–the kids look for the new color of paper.  At the end there’s a rainbow made out of all the colors and our treat.

Song: Love One Another (CS, 136)

Prayer

Treats: Green cupcakes, or green pudding, or something else… here are a bunch of ideas: www.perpetualpreschool.com/stpat_snack.html