Easter Story Cookie Recipe! (perfect for littles)

A dear friend of mine just sent this Easter Story Cookie recipe to me today and we are going to put it to use tomorrow with our littles. I think that the idea sounds wonderful and that it is a perfect end of Lent/Easter activity for little ones. It is also a beautiful way to emphasize the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ on the last day before Easter. I can definitely see this becoming an annual Holy Saturday tradition in our home.  Enjoy!

Easter Story Cookie Recipe

EASTER STORY COOKIES

To be made the evening before Easter.

You Will Need:

1c. whole pecans

1 tsp. vinegar

3 egg whites

pinch salt

1c. sugar

zipper baggie

wooden spoon
wax paper

tape

Bible

Preheat oven to 300 (this is important--don't wait until you're half done

with the recipe)

Place pecans in zipper baggie and let children beat them with the wooden spoon to break into small pieces.

Explain that after Jesus was arrested He was beaten by the Roman soldiers.

Read John 19:1-3.

Let each child smell the vinegar.  Put 1 tsp. vinegar into mixing bowl.

Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross he was given vinegar to drink. 

Read John 19:28-30.

Add egg whites to vinegar.  Eggs represent life.

Explain that Jesus gave His life to give us life.

 Read John 10:10-11.

Sprinkle a little salt into each child's hand.  Let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl.

Explain that this represents the salty tears shed by Jesus' followers, and the bitterness of our own sin. 

Read Luke 23:27.

So far the ingredients are not very appetizing.  Add 1c. sugar.

Explain that the sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because

He loves us. He wants us to know and belong to Him. 

Read Psalm 34:8 and John 3:16.

Beat with a mixer on high speed for 7-10 minutes or until stiff peaks are formed.

Explain that the color white represents the purity in God's eyes of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus. 

Read Isaiah 1:18 and John 3:1-3.

Fold in broken nuts.  Drop by teaspoons onto wax paper covered cookie sheet.

Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus' body was laid.

Read Matthew 27:57-60.

Put the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and turn the oven OFF.

Give each child a piece of tape and seal the oven door.

Explain that Jesus' tomb was sealed. 

Read Matthew 27:65-66.

GO TO BED!

Explain that they may feel sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight.

Jesus' followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed.

Read John 16:20 and 22.

On Easter morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie.  Notice the cracked surface and take a bite. 

The cookies are hollow!  On the first Easter Jesus' followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty.

Read Matt. 28:1-9

Happy Easter!
He is Risen!!!

Divine Mercy Novena...Pray With Us!!!

Today is Good Friday. It marks the beginning of the Easter Triduum and "day 1" of the Divine Mercy Novena.

for the history of this image click here.

My Mr and I have a great devotion to The Divine Mercy Message (as revealed to St. Faustina). In college, we were blessed to be able to visit the Divine mercy shrine in Poland (!!!) and St. Faustina's tomb. Several years later, we were engaged before Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament in the Mother-house of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception (an order of priests dedicated to spreading the devotion of Divine Mercy). We were married by a friend and priest (Fr. Mark) from the same order. And at the tail end of our honeymoon we visited the National Shrine of Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, MA.

These days, we TRY to remember to say a short prayer during the 3 o'clock hour each day (for the souls in most need of God's mercy) and we also love to sing the divine mercy chaplet together as we put our littles to sleep at night. This year we will be praying the Divine Mercy novena as a family and would love for you to join us!

Our Lord asked St. Faustina to prepare for the feast of Divine Mercy (the Sunday following Easter) with nine consecutive days of prayer for souls. On each day of the novena we are asked to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet for a different group of souls:

Day 1: All mankind, especially sinners

Day 2: The souls of priests and religious

Day 3: All devout and faithful souls

Day 4: Those who do not believe in God and those who do not yet know Jesus

Day 5: Souls who have separated themselves from the Church

Day 6: Meek and humble souls and the souls of little children

Day 7: Souls who especially venerate and glorify His mercy

Day 8: Souls detained in purgatory

Day 9: Souls who have become lukewarm


I can remember praying this novena with my family each year as I was growing up and am so looking forward to starting this devotion in our home.

Resources:

• To listen to the chaplet (in song) click here. NOTE: I could not find the version that we usually pray but I think you can download it off of the MIC's website. I'll edit this post to include it in the next couple of days.
  
• For instructions on how to pray the chaplet, and for more information on the history and devotion, click here.
• For daily prayers of the novena click here.
• If you would like daily prayer reminders by E-mail, sign up here.

"Those who sincerely say ‘Jesus, I trust in You’ will find comfort in all their anxieties and fears."

 "There is nothing more man needs than Divine Mercy – that love which is benevolent, which is compassionate, which raises man above his weakness to the infinite heights to the holiness of God."

—Shrine of Divine Mercy in Cracow, Poland on June 7, 1997

Phew! What We've Been Up To...

Over the last couple of weeks we have been SO BUSY!

We've had a HUGE birthday bash (for our two boys), visited the E.R. with our 2 (long story...and he's fine after 4 stitches), mourned the loss of a dear student, packed 30+ boxes to get ready for our big move, searched our entire home (every closet, shelf, and drawer) to find things to get rid of at our moving sale, had a very successful ($$$) moving sale (and got a great big, blistering, burn...very appropriate and right in time for Palm Sunday Mass...my face matched the red vestments...no pics. Sorry.), went on a date with my Mr <3 <3 <3, visited the dentist 2 times for fillings (ARGH!), detailed our cars (well, my husband did while I watched the kids...and then of course I "oooed" and "ahhhed" at how sparkly clean everything looked), sold one of our (2) cars, made painting smocks (for the kid's Easter baskets...tutorial to come), altered some jeans, and sewed the top of a baby quilt (pictures after Easter)...PHEW!!!

Currently, we are trying to focus our minds and hearts on the passion and death of Our Lord and (with great anticipation) look forward to the great celebration of His Resurrection this Sunday. (I had so many things I wanted to share on this blog for Holy Week and Easter Sunday...but soooo little time...I'll have to post them all next year)

Have a blessed Holy Week and a Happy Easter everyone!

Top 15 Yard Sale Advertising Tips From All Things Thrifty

 We have been super busy all week preparing for our HUGE moving sale. Since this is our 4th yard sale (we have been having one every year since we moved here) I was planning on writing a post on how to have a successful yard sale...but Brooke, over at All Things Thrifty, beat me to it! I liked her ideas so much that I'm attaching her link so that you can hop over there and soak in all her creative geniusness.

All Things Thrifty Home Accessories and Decor: Top 15 Yard Sale Advertising Tips

The only things I'd add to her list are:
1)Provide plastic grocery bags for your customers
2)Have lot's of change (quarters, 1's, 5's, and 10's) and
3) sell some food/beverages. You could sell coffee and donuts, or chips and soda, have a bake-sale or whatever you'd like. AND, it really helps reel in customers if you have a cute little person sitting behind the food table! ; )


Have a fabulous day!

Wild West Birthday Party

Well folks, this here mama is happy to announce that my Mr and I now have a new "2" and a new "3" in our household! We had a great big western party this past weekend and had a rootin' tootin' time! Here are some photographs...

 The Invitations:

Note: Personal info changed for privacy

The Decorations:

 

Inspiration for birthday banner found here and here

Inspiration for Western town found here and here

Real cowboys love their mama!

The Favors:

Cowboy (kettle) corn, Sheriff badges, and the lovely plastic cowboy and Indian figures pictured on the table above

The Food/Drinks:

The Mess Hall

The Candy/General Store

The Cake Station

The Watering Hole

The Fun!

And now for a few little details (since you want to know)...

The Invitations read:

WANTED

ALL COWBOYS AND COWGIRLS

WE NEED A STRONG POSSE TO BRING IN THESE HERE GUNSLINGERS

THEY ARE WANTED FOR THE CRIME OF GROWING UP TOO FAST

ROUNDUP IS APRIL 10, 2011 AT THE BIG M RANCH

(ADDRESS) 

SADDLE UP IN YER JEANS AND WESTERN DUDS AND BE READY TO RIDE OUT AT 4 PM SHARP

GET YER MA OR PA TO GIVE US A HOLLER BY APRIL 8 - (phone #)

The Decorations:

There were so many awesome ideas for decorations on the web and there were so many things that I would have loved to do with this theme...BUT, since we are moving in a couple of weeks, and on a tight budget, we didn't want to go out and buy/accumulate a lot of extra stuff for this party. that being said, guess how much we spent on decor???

$20 buckaroos (give or take a couple bucks)! I thought that was pretty impressive!

How did we do it? Glad you asked.

• For the birthday banner I used fabric, paper, string, and hot glue that we already had (it would have been A LOT easier to just print it out on paper like the 2 examples I shared above but, alas, I didn't have any fancy scrapbook paper on hand).
• For the western town we just called up our local appliance store and they gave us 4 washer/dryer boxes (for FREE!). We already had tempera paint and brushes on hand so I just painted them up!
• For table coverings we used material and packing paper that we already had (I bought three yards of checkered fabric for the food table)
• For the dining table we already had the boots, bandannas, and straw so all I purchased for this were the flowers (Wal-Mart) and the plastic badges and figurines (dollar store)

The Food:

Again, since we are moving,  we asked that our guests bring a specific side dish (fruit tray, veggie tray, potato salad, etc) rather than birthday gifts (i.e. lots of extra stuff to pack up in a few weeks). We provided the hamburgers, hot dogs, condiments, toppings, buns, drinks, desserts, and snacks.

The Fun:

We had planned an outdoor party but unfortunately it snowed the morning of our get together. So we improvised and had it at the local KofC hall.

We planned on having several games for the little ones (including Sharpshooter (shooting down cans with a rubber-band gun) Horse Race (a stick horse relay) Pin the Tail on the Horse, and Lasso the Bull (with a light rope tied to a hula hoop). However, since we had to change locations, we forgot to bring the game stuff with us (oops!). Luckily, the kids had so much fun playing with the western town and balloons that I don't think they noticed!

We also planned on having a game of horseshoes for the adults, which we nixed since we were inside.


 If I had to do it again, I think I'd take more (and better) pictures and make a few changes here and there, but overall, I'd say it was quite a success!

3 Years Ago Today...

Three years ago today,...

our first precious child was born...

 

what a gift he is to us all...

A Boy is...
Scuffed up knees, a freckled nose
with dimples here and there.
A daring, caring, sharing heart
a mass of tousled hair.
Boundless curiosity
the spirit to explore.
Two twinkling eyes, a smiling face
and energy galore!
A love of life, a bit of sass
a source of untold joy.
A wonderment, a dream fulfilled
God's miracle...a BOY!

by Angie

 Happy Birthday little one...

I love you with all my heart.