everyday Ann

living the ordinary seeing the extraordinary

Easter People

I figure the title is still relevant being we are technically still in the Easter season. We have been adhering to the mandate of celebrating the last few weeks, leaving me a bit exhausted along with looking more 30 weeks instead of 19. In the past I have been a strict no caffeine person while pregnant and nursing, not even a drop. Not sure if it’s my advanced maternal age, chasing around four other children or the lack of sleep that has driven me to enjoy cups of the fully dieseled kind.

Well we made it, hosted two major celebrations both of 30 people or more all within a two week time frame and came out free of any major meltdowns on my part. What I learned, hosting makes you keep your house clean and beyond. Cleaning out of the normal routine; washing the outside of windows, scrubbing down outside doors, washing the walls and no matter how hard I try my patio door will always have little hand smudges on it.

In addition to Easter, this past weekend Ethan made his First Holy Communion. He was sooo excited and kept saying, “this is the best day of my life!” With all the rush of preparing for the weekend I hadn’t taken a lot of time just to reflect on his day not to mention Mass always being a circus in our pew, so I was taken a bit off guard by my emotions. I was surprised when I found my eyes filling up with tears of joy as I watched him receive Jesus for the first time. In that moment all seemed to stand still there was a beautiful period of silence in our pew and I was able to just close my eyes and bow my head as I prayed for my son.

The psalm from today’s readings spoke poignantly to my heart as I reflected on the words.

Shout joyfully to God, all the earth,
sing praise to the glory of his name;
proclaim his glorious praise.
Say to God, “How tremendous are your deeds!”

Psalm 66: 2-3

As I reflect on the past few weeks, months and years how can I not say how tremendous are His deeds, how can my very being refrain from shouting joyfully. The weekend after Easter I happened to run into a priest who once served at our parish. He knew Aaron and I prior to children and asked how my family was doing. My mind quickly raced back to Holy Saturday Vigil eight years ago. I had just found out I was miscarrying for the third time and I remember the exact pew we were sitting in.

During the homily the priest talked about how in our lives after every Good Friday there is an Easter Sunday, although we may not always see the Easter Sunday in our lifetime. I sat there holding Aaron’s hand so tightly as tears ran down my face. As my heart questioned when I would ever see Easter Sunday, when would I experience the joy. All I know is Good Friday as once again another baby is taken from me. Will there ever be an Easter Sunday in my life to follow all of this pain?

There I stood now years later telling him we were preparing to welcome our fifth child. I had to recount bodies in my house as five children sounds unthinkable to me. This, this is my Easter Sunday.

Easter Prep

(source)

It is hard to believe that we are almost halfway through Holy Week and Easter will be upon us soon. My kids are counting down the days and Grace and Caden are practicing up their Alleluias!

I feel like so many efforts I wanted to work on during Lent didn’t all come to fruition, including making Lent more applicable for the little ones. So we are throwing everything into Holy Week.

I ordered Resurrection Eggs for the younger ones, although the older kids enjoy reading it as well. I debated about saving them for Grace’s Easter basket, but I am so glad I didn’t. These are perfect for Holy Week and telling the story of Christ’s Passion leading up to Easter. Grace asks to read the Jesus story before nap time instead of a book and we have gone through them at least twice a day since getting them in the mail last week. I highly recommend them for anyone with little ones.

We made it through Palm Sunday Mass without too much sweat, two long Triduum Masses to go. I wrote about taking our little ones to Mass a few weeks ago over at Catholic Mom in case you are in need of some encouragement before embarking on Mass during bedtime and naptime.

Ever since our first Easter with Kolbe and Ethan we have done the Risen Jesus search Easter morning. On Good Friday the kids will make a picture of Jesus on the cross. They will then put their picture in a tomb (decorated shoe box). Easter morning they will find the boxes open and empty and will need to go in search of the Risen Jesus. When they find Jesus they will also see another surprise, their Easter basket!!

Easter morning the kids wake up to the house transformed and full of bright color. I wait until they are asleep Saturday night to put up any Easter decorations or flowers and also set out a nice table setting for breakfast. Come Easter morning I always wake up insanely early to make a nice brunch and a pan of sweet pecan rolls for us all to sit down and enjoy before heading out to Easter Mass at 8:30am. This year I am going to add virgin mimosas to the early morning brunch menu, something I think the kids will really enjoy.

The following are true and tried family recipes that my Mom has made every Easter morning since I can remember. Since we won’t be traveling this year for Easter, but will actually be hosting some of Aaron’s family I will be making sure to keep the tradition alive.

Pecan Rolls
3 packages buttermilk biscuits (make sure to buy the regular size, otherwise they won’t turn out)
Pecans
Sugar
Cinnamon
1 cup Brown Sugar
1/3 cup Butter
1/3 cup Cream

  • Grease bundt pan and spread pecans on the bottom. Layer biscuits in pan. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon between each layer.
  • Mix brown sugar, butter and cream in saucepan. Bring to a light boil. Pour over pan.
  • Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

Chocolate Pudding Torte
1 1/2 cups Flour
1 1/2 sticks Butter
2/3 cup Chopped Pecans
8 oz. Cream Cheese
1 cup Powdered Sugar
1 large Jello Instant Chocolate Pudding
3 cups Milk
12 oz. Cool Whip

  • Combine flour, melted butter and pecans. Press mixture into 9×13 pan. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.
  • Beat cream cheese, powdered sugar and half of cool whip until smooth. Spread over cooled crust.
  • Combine pudding mix with 3 cups milk and beat until thick. Pour over cream cheese layer.
  • Spread remaining cool whip on top and refrigerate.
  • Garnish with chopped pecans.

I would love to hear some of your Easter traditions! This is the holiest week of the year and we are about to embark on the greatest moment in history of all time, Christ’s Resurrection!!

The News…..

…………coming October 1st!!!!

We are beyond excited to be adding to the Everts’ crew and incredibly grateful to God and humbled by His faithfulness!! I know I have said this before, but never did I imagine this would be us. Five years ago I wouldn’t have believed we would be maxing out capacity in our minivan and have more than tripled the occupancy of our house.

I am thankful to have made it through the first trimester (officially 15 weeks!!) and to be feeling much better. Morning sickness hit with vengeance right at 6 weeks and was not just in the morning, but all day long with about every food aversion to go with it. I am excited to finally be able to enjoy the taste of coffee again.

Kolbe and Ethan basically knew since I was 5 weeks, since Grace told them I was getting shots and going for blood draws. They easily put two and two together, knowing that I only do that when I am pregnant. I neither confirmed nor denied until around 9 weeks. Upon finding out they exclaimed they were going to tell the entire school. They are very excited, just a little disappointed there aren’t twins.

Grace is positively convinced, absolutely certain, no telling her otherwise that the baby is a girl. She denies any love or affection she will give the baby if it happens to be a boy, although she dotes on Caden constantly.

Caden is still trying to figure everything out. Occasionally patting my stomach saying “ooh baby”, but also patting my behind saying the same thing. He will also touch his stomach and Grace’s and say “baby”. Eventually he will figure things out.

Along with sharing our news I am also thinking and praying for all of you women wanting and waiting. Don’t ever give up hope. God is at work in the silence and has not abandoned you in your pain and longing.

Moms and Lent

It is practically here, are you ready? I know I will be fine tuning my Lenten commitment right until midnight tonight along with enjoying a large bowl of ice cream. I set up the sacrifice jar today and we each wrote down our Lenten commitments on a note card last night. The boys are already thinking of ways to fill the jar, because they know the coffee beans will turn to jelly beans come Easter.

Writing over at Catholic Mom as we prepare to enter the Lenten journey. Let’s be honest, simply by being a mom we are daily met with situations that challenge us and we don’t have to look far for opportunities to make a sacrifice. All in this together!

Latest Happenings

(Don’t mind the purple mittens, they are the only ones he will keep on.)

1.Good thing I don’t make New Year’s resolutions as I would have failed in the department of devoting time to the blog, but I have not been neglecting writing altogether. Nope, I have been doing lots and lots of writing in the past couple of months as I am excited to announce that I am co-authoring a book. Please pray for this project as it will touch many hearts. We hope to have it released in October. More details to come!!

2. Winter. Will it ever end? The boys have now exceeded days off and makeup days. If they have another delay or snow day time will be added on to the end of the school year. Honestly, who wants to be in the classroom any longer in June, teachers and students alike.

3. Thankfully, the winter weather was semi-cooperative recently that we could actually take advantage of outdoor sport including sledding and taking the kids ice skating. The boys even dug out a little fort, which everyone enjoyed including the salty snow to go with it. Enough with winter it makes the headlines nearly every night in this state.

4. Last Fall Caden was diagnosed with Lyme disease so most of the months leading up to Christmas were devoted to finding the best care and treatment for him. We would have never thought Lyme, except he had the rash appear on his arms and legs which led us to go further and have him tested. Thankfully he is off the rigorous course of antibiotics as of a week ago and doing well. Not much slows the little man down! He is convinced he is two and acts like he is four.

5. Lent is right around the corner and although it is much later than normal it still seems to say, surprise your penance awaits you! I am looking forward to reading Searching for and Maintaining Peace and having some discussion with some other moms in the area. There is also a weekly podcast on it. I also considered the Blessed is She devotional, but wanted something a bit more scheduled out to hold me accountable. I found this book that we will be reading as a family, which offers a different daily fast for the family to practice throughout each day of Lent.

6. Happened upon this lovely succulent box for a reasonable price. Thinking of ways to make it green inside since I can only dream of green outside. Perhaps I will soon succumb to “growing” faux flowers in the house, tulips or roses should do the trick.

7. A friend of mine, who is an amazing artist recently started doing custom water color family portraits on her etsy shop for families that have little ones awaiting them in heaven. What a beautiful gift to those grieving and reminder for those of us with little saints already in heaven.

Happy weekend!! Linked with Kelly for more.