Easter Sunday

With Easter on its way, I assured him that we do not serve our version of hot-cross buns even one day after Easter Sunday. We do sell them before Good Friday, but only for two weeks. The joy of eating with the seasons – fresh produce, religious or otherwise – is that it varies our diet subtly, yet profoundly. Seasonality teaches us patience and restraint during the lean months and educates our palates about what proper fruit tastes like during times of harvest.  -- Claire Ptak

Since the boys will be serving the 7am Easter Mass as usual, we need a quick but celebretory breakfast. I've decided to serve whole milk Brown Cow yogurt and make hot cross scones that I found on the blog post above, to be eaten at 5:30 am.

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I lied. I made the usual scone recipe but with Zante currants and hot cross bun spices. I'm sure they'll be great and won't require me to make mascarpone cheese. :)

Easter!

Charles had to narrate the Tortoise and the Hare to me for an end of the year evaluation for Mother of Divine Grace School.  First I read him a very simple version of the story, only about 10 lines long.  This is what he "retold" to me immediately after.  

One day a hare said to a tortoise, "You are so slow.  I think I could beat you in a race on Sunday."  So on Sunday the hare and the tortoise went to Mass with their families.  When they got home, there was a letter from the judge asking them to meet him at 2 o'clock in the woods.

So when they got there at 2 o'clock, the judge was there with a lot of other animals.  So they began the race.  And the hare went faster, and they were trying to go for the biggest tree and back.  And the rabbit got to the biggest tree, and he was tired.  And then he ate his lunch, drank some water and went to sleep.



Thirty minutes later the tortoise arrived, and he did not disturb the rabbit so he could win the race.  So he started back and then the race had only 30 minutes to go on for. So the tortoise did a little bit faster so he could be there earlier.  When he got there, the rabbit was behind him, and the judge said, "Slow and steady wins the race."  And he got the first place cup, and then they went home.

The End.

Pysanky Eggs

My friend Jenn graciously invited us over last week-while the boys were at basketball camp near her house--to learn how to make Pysanky eggs. I know she will explain it much better when she posts about it, but in an eggshell, these are beautifully decorated and dyed Easter eggs which originated in the Ukraine.

A few days before we had our workshop, Jenn's son Gregory shared his favorite Pysanky picture books with us. The only one we already knew was Rechenka's Eggs. We enjoyed the other books so much that they're going to go on our wishlist.

When you think hot wax, candles, raw eggs and children, "fun relaxing day" is not what pops into your head, but that's exactly what it was. As the little kids created chaos at our feet and all over the downstairs, Jenn clearly explained the steps to make a pysanka. First she drew a design on a raw egg and showed us how to heat a kitska in the candle flame so we could write over the lines with melted bees' wax.

Gregory and Charles had fun just swirling the bees' wax on the eggs and then dying them.

Cecilia wanted a lot of help with her egg--using a kitska is the same skill as using a pencil and Cecilia lacks confidence--so Jenn and I stepped in to help when she asked.

Maria was entranced by the pysanky. She made several eggs, some with traditional designs and some of her own design.

While some kids ran off to play, Maria patiently wrote on her eggs, moved them in and out of the dyes, and asked questions. At the end of our day she stayed behind to learn how to remove the wax and reveal the artwork hiding beneath. Jenn even let her bring some supplies home to show Bill and the twins how to make them.

Best of all, we had so much fun with our friends, we are planning a second pysanky art day before we move.