He is Risen!

Happy Easter! It is always hard to get back to work on Easter Monday.  We're trying.  We had a great time at the beach last week, followed by an interesting sleep study Thursday night. Joseph actually slept without waking up.  The tech said he did not see any apnea events, but that we'd have to wait to see if the doctor sees something he missed.  He also reported that Joseph was rough on the wires!  Said he had to recalibrate things through the night because he was so restless in his sleep.  The last thing he said is that Joseph had a lot of leg movements that the doctor may want to treat, but we'd have to see what the report says.  The tech thinks the leg movements and limb movements may be what wakes him up.  We just have to be patient and wait for the sleep study report.

It was the first Holy Thursday we missed in years. Matthew made it and served. Friday, he and Sean served...and then Joseph and Matthew served at the Easter Vigil.  I love Easter!  Saturday, I made my traditional lamb cake and was a little sad that none of the boys wanted to color Easter eggs.  *sniff, sniff* They are all grown up.

My white irises started blooming on Holy Saturday and the purple ones bloomed on Easter Sunday. So very pretty.  Our cherry tree is no longer blooming, the tulips have died out but other flowers are starting to pop up.  I love spring! I made a pop-up daffodil card and will share the tutorial video here later today.  It is the size of a real daffodil and I made it using a heart shaped punch.  I also worked on a more complicated bouquet pop-up card for the Twosday's Techniques site this week.  It is so pretty... once I got how to make the flowers pop up and fold in neatly, I was very excited. It is perfect for Mother's Day!

I'm happy to also report that I lost just over 23 pounds over Lent.  I am going to try to keep away from sugar... well... only two more weeks to complete the diet with my friend, then I am going to try to be sugar free Monday-Thursday, fast on Fridays and do what I want on Saturday and Sunday.  I figure this would be a god balance to keep the weight off.  I really like the taste of sugar and detest sugar substitutes.   Well, here's hoping!

Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks of spring:

Lamb Cake. I make one every year!

Sean in our Cherry Tree

Henry on Easter Morning

Henry checking out the baskets...maybe he smells the Easter bunny!

Sean with my lamb cake pan

Purple and White Irises

Lilac Bloom

White Iris

 

Valentine sleeping on Sean during spring break

Embossing and Dying Easter Eggs Tutorial Video

This past Easter, I embossed and dyed Easter eggs. I created a video for a website and thought I'd share it here (since I own the rights to my video, I can do that! ~smile~) Happy Egg dying! Happy Easter

Ebossing and Dying Easter Eggs from Pattie Curran on Vimeo.

Holy Saturday

We're preparing for the wonderful Easter celebration that begins at vigil Mass tonight.  Hubby has the oldest out buying a pair of dress shoes for Easter.  Their feet grow too fast!  I'm busy boiling eggs, because even with the boys being older, a few of them still want to color Easter eggs. 

We have lamb every Easter that we are able.  Yum.  I roast garlic in the oven and then mash it with fresh herbs.  Coat the lamb with this and let it sit in the fridge overnight.  It makes the best lamb ever!  It really is simple to do.  Simply put whole heads of garlic in a crock, drizzle with olive oil, cover and bake.  Once it cools, I remove the cloves and mash them into the oil.  Crush fresh rosemary and oregano with a mortar and pestle, add to the mix with a bit more garlic.  Massage into the leg of lamb and let it sit overnight in the fridge (covered, of course). 

We are also preparing our lamb shaped cake.  One of my favorite cake pans! If you click on the "Easter Activities " label, you'll see where you can get the lamb shaped pan and also see some of our naturally dyed Easter Eggs from years past.  We love to do neat things with our eggs,  This  year will be simple, though.

This Lenten season was very dry for me.  I suspect it is because of many reasons.  In the fall, we lost another unborn little one.  Our 17th.  Seeing the heartbeat and then having to be in the hospital just brought back so many memories of the many other losses.  That coupled with getting the muscle biopsy results back just as Lent began, made it difficult to concentrate on Lent.  Try as I might, this was just a difficult Lent to get through!  We've had many Lenten seasons where we've gotten abnormal results, bad medical news, etc, but this one was just different.  I think I hit a wall.  My brain was already too full before we got this added diagnosis of Mitochondrial disease.  I have no more compartments left!  Trying to focus on Lent was exceedingly difficult as I waded through medical literature, learned about the new supplements and we worked on getting the boys to take the new "fish pills" as we call them.  We tried the cherry flavored liquid version, which they hated even more!  I am happy to report they are now taking the pills without a problem.  Just an occasional scream from us to hurry up because the smell is taking over the kitchen! Even when we feel completely overwhelmed, God is with us.  This Lent, I had to remind myself that Jesus felt every emotion we would ever feel and He knows our hearts.  I may feel as if this Lenten season was not very productive for me, but I know He was still at work-- even when I don't see or "feel" it.

I realize we are completely and utterly blessed.  The boys started some of hte Mito cocktail back in November after the muscle biopsy.  After the results confirmed Mitochondrial disease, we started the prescription supplement called Levocarnitine.  We have seen some positive results after being on the supplements for just over 4 months now.  There is no cure for Mito.  The only treatment available is high doses of vitamins and supplements.  The FDA recently approved the first Mito drug, but it hasn't been studied in many Mito patients (my understanding here), but it does look promising.

J's swallowing has gotten better and we have noticed in the last few weeks he is less clumsy.  He isn't tripping going UP the stairs or coming down.  He still has some choking and aspirations, but not at every meal like he was before the Mito Cocktail.  We are very thankful for these improvements.  We have several things we wish for.  One is that the government would allow us to deduct the cost of the supplements from our taxes.  There is a bill in Congress to allow this.  My beef is that we shouldn;t need Congress to tell us we can deduct it from our taxes!  A doctor has prescribed these supplements and has checeked their blood levels and increased their dosages, etc.  If a doctor prescribes it, we should be able to deduct it. 

I'm back to preparing for Easter.  I hope that you are all having a blessed Holy Saturday as you prepare for Easter Sunday.  Something that I did reflect upon yesterday was that with every Good Friday in our lives, we always have an Easter Sunday.

Making Eggs with Natural Dyes

The pictures were loaded out of order. We're still letting the eggs soak in the lemon peel and orange peel dye in the fridge. Actually, we've got quite a few colors in the fridge tonight. J proclaimed this to be the coolest thing in the world.

Joseph trying to make lemon zest for boiling.

Sean making orange zest to boil.

Our first batch of finished eggs. From the top left to the right the egg colors come from: The Repub;ic of Tea Rasperry and quince tea-- makes a dark gray/black, purple cabbage (sitting overnight), purple cabbage sitting a shorter time, spinach, purple cabbage, red onion skin. The next row: coffee?, beet juice, red onion skin (overnight), tea, red onion skin, spinach. Last row: Rasp. Quince tea, beet juice, tea, blueberry, raspberry, spinach. The second carton has the cumin eggs and paprika eggs with various others. The colors vary-- even when using the same dye. Very interesting.
These eggs are blueberry eggs, red cabbage, red bush tea, raspberry quince tea (came out green in a second batch)

Joseph checking out the beet juice egg.

Sean with a coffee egg (after a short time)-- front egg in tea.
An egg that just came out of the red cabbage dye.
more eggs........ the red onion skin egg is the red looking egg in the middle.
Joseph with the lemon peel before boiling.

Sean mashing blueberries

Matthew taking a turn mashing.

Joseph mashing raspberries

Sean with the cabbage before we boil it.

Sean with a blueberry egg....

Seder Eggs

The Jewish Book of Why says this:

Q: Why is a tray of symbolic foods placed at the head of the Seder table?

A: A Passover tray (Seder tray), which usually has six circular indentations, is placed on the Seder table so that the various symbolic foods can be displayed individually and prominently. They are pointed to during the reading of the Seder service and the symbolism of each is explained. The symbolic foods are:

Maror (bitter herbs)
Karpas (a vegetable)
Chazeret (a second more bitter vegetable)
Charoset (a nut and apple mixture)
Zeroa (the shankbone or neck of poultry, roasted)
Baytza (a hard-boiled egg, browned in its shell)


Q: Why is a roasted hard-boiled egg (baytza) placed on the Seder tray?

A: The egg is symbolic of the regular festival sacrifice brought in days when the Temple stood in Jerusalem. On Passover, in addition to this regular sacrifice (Korban Chagiga in Hebrew), the paschal lamb was offered as a second sacrifice. Some authorities have interpreted the roasted egg as being a symbol of mourning for the loss of two Temples that once stood in Jerusalem. (The first was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E., the second by Romans in 70 C.E.) With the Temples destroyed, sacrifices could no longer be offered. The egg symbolized this loss and traditionally became the food of mourners. In some Middle Eastern communities, eggs are very popular on Passover. Kurdish Jews and Libyan Jews, in particular, eat large quantities of eggs at the Seder.

The Origin of the Easter Egg

The boys and I had fun discovering the traditions associated with the Easter Egg. This year we are going to write "He is risen" on our eggs and try to follow some of the traditions we learned about. The Origin of the Easter Egg

Today we are trying to get a few eggs colored using natural dyes. I am sure that by the time all is said and done, my kitchen will be colored as well!

Lamb Cakes

Back in the Spring of 2001, I was blessed to attend a conference on Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome that was being held in Verona, Italy. I flew into Milan and had to stay the night there before taking a train to Rome and then on to Verona (no trains leaving until morning). I found a hotel near the train station and walked around a bit. Wonderful grocery stores and bakeries. In the bakery there were these gorgeous lamb shaped cakes. I fell in love with them. I just happened to be in Italy the week before Holy Week, so Easter items were all over the place. Walking around Rome, I saw the same lamb cakes in the bakeries and again I saw them in Verona. One afternoon, I left the conference a bit early and decided to walk back to the hotel instead of taking the bus that had been chartered to bring us back and forth. I found myself wandering through the neighborhoods and streets of Verona. I was soaking up all the sights, sounds and smells. I walked into this tiny grocery store and bought a few items. I was excited to be there!

When I returned home, I decided to find a lamb cake pan and the rest is history. Each Easter, we make a lamb shaped cake using a pan similar to this: Lamb shaped cake pan

Spring is coming.....and we're stuck inside.

All homeschoolers have off days. Like the article I wrote the other day basically says-- we don't live in Perfect. While we do have the added medical challenges that creep into our school days (today we are doing SCIG as I type), they are not always the most frustrating part of homeschooling.

Sometimes I wonder about the children! They know what is expected of them and they know what they have to do.....yet they still whine, complain and drag their feet. (Sounds a bit like many of us when following the Truths of the Catholic Church, huh?) We don't want to do what Jesus calls us to do and when we finally do what He asks, we sometimes whine and complain....and even drag our feet when following His commands.

We're still stuck inside today because we had a lot of whining and complaining this morning. Everyone seems to be working hard now, and hopefully we'll make it outside to enjoy the nice weather before the sun goes down.

I found some interesting books at a garage sale a few weeks ago. Last year, Joseph was really into seashells. Grandma and Grandpa gave us a neat book because we did not have any on seashells (imagine that!). Now we have two. This one I picked up at the garage sale is a Science Nature Guide titled Seashells. It includes more than 12 easy to do science projects and has a few crafts that can be made. It is fairly easy to use-- it is divided by the beaches around the US coast. I can't seem to find it on-line to give you a link. The ISBN number is 1-85028-264-1

We're also getting ready for Holy Week. My oldest has to present the live Stations of the Cross again tonight at church. He has also volunterred to be in the live Passion play at church next week, too. I hope to plan a few family activities for Holy Week to help prepare us for Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The boys are excited about coloring the eggs this year using color found in nature. We've done it before, but the two youngest don't really remember doing it. Of course, we have our Resurrection Eggs tradition that I have posted on before.

Resurrection Eggs

Many, many years ago, we started a family tradition with Resurrection Eggs My boys love these eggs-- they are plastic eggs with trinkets inside-- each trinket helps to tell the story of Jesus' Passion and His Resurrection on Easter Sunday. Spend some fun time with your kids hiding egss and help them learn about Jesus at the same time!

We usually hide the eggs, have the boys hunt for them and find them, then we sit and read from the Bible before going through the eggs in order. We've done this for years and each year they still look forward to this tradition!