A Jew, a Catholic and an Athiest walk into a bar...

Holidays with my family always seem like the start of a good joke.

A Jew, a Catholic and an Athiest walk into a bar... except its not a bar, its a dining room. Usually on a holiday. Of a religious nature. That only a small minority are actually celebrating for religious purposes.

My aunt is Jewish. My dad, her big brother, is Episcopalian. My mom is God Hating UU and of her three daughters, I am a formerly Buddhist observant Catholic, my big sister a lapsed Catholic and my little sister... a strange mix of Epsicopalian, liberal United Church of Christ and her own version of "Just Be A Good Person".

Naturally, we discuss religion and politics at every gathering. God help us all. Especially those of us who dont believe in Him.

The tension vibrates tangibly, and interestingly enough each person seems to be an expert on the other person's religion. I regularly receive questionable, but juicy information about the Catholic church, while I regale my aunt with my latest learnings of Judaism. My mother insists on reading her ecumenical and politically correct prayers- oh wait! I dont think we call them prayers- they are meditations! So she reads her meditations at the beginning of the meal and then offers up a frightening and intimidating call to "any other prayers we DARE to utter." Generally there is silence while my children and I cautiously cross ourselves and murmer a short mealtime prayer. My aunt hautily announces that there IS no Jewish prayer for Easter.

There is something comforting about eating the same foods year after year. And apparently, we also find comfort in telling the same tales, complaining about the same political issues, and when politics become too far removed from my parents' day, they just start venting about how the neighborhood is going to pot.

That is pot as in people of controversial skin coloring are moving in, not the pot of my generation: the kind one might enjoy smoking. This would also be the point where I escort my children, the only kids there, into another room to play a game. Trust me. They have, by this time, heard enough.

Until grandma actually died, there was always the discussion about how this might be grandma's last Easter... That went on for a good three decades. Now each year its, "Your grandmother would be 102 this year!" This is never said with joy but with a strange bitterness that smacks of dysfunction. People cant say what they mean. We must hedge. That is the dysfunctional tradition.

Sometimes I think our differing religious beliefs are merely the only acceptable form of dissent we can tolerate in each other. I guess that is the best we can do for religious tolerance; tolerate our differences not due to any respect of another's choice, but rather out of an exploitive need to laugh at the other. Its a strange thing my family.

And now I am supposed to write a charming and sentimental conclusion stating that crazy as they are, I wouldnt trade my family for the world. But truth be told, I would definately go for a few trades. Maybe not the individuals themselves, who I really do love, but in the attitudes and bite of their sarcasm. Maybe this is why my sisters take turns smoking outside during half of each family gathering. I think I need a bad habit that involves getting the hell away from the dining room table.

So a Jew, a Catholic, and an Athiest walk into an Easter brunch... 

Lesson Learned

Lesson learned: Check the oven before you preheat.

Because one may have decided to toast some French bread with olive oil and mozzerella to go with the crock pot meal one made the day before Easter.

And one might have observed a wonderful, yet sickly sweet smell wafting from the kitchen and thought MMM! That's neat!

And there is a chance that due to the small size of one's kitchen and lack of storage space one may have placed the peepshi IN the oven the day before in order to keep it free from cat hair, lick marks and other curious fingers.

Dont panic. The peepshi is ok.

Stress!

Making Our Home

Someday I will finish painting the walls...

Putting out icons for Easter!

Mary Magdalene and her red egg.

A brick from the old homestead along the Holsten River, Washington County, Virginia.

Little Brother whittled a cross with his Swiss Army Knife.

And a spear for the wound in His side.

Some recently inspired contemplation: The Mass, the Sacred Heart, and the Sacred Heart crucified.

Today's experiment: Making higher and lower pitches with water in a glass jar. Ding!

Peepshi!

These were seriously too fun! We love sushi maki. We love... well, I dont love peeps, but the kids do. Anyway, this was win-win.

Start with supplies. Rice crispie treats. I was going to make mine from scratch, but frankly it cost the same to buy them pre-made. And that saved me time and energy.

Other supplies: at least two colors of Peeps, a scissors, and fruit roll ups. Try to get green for nori. But any color looks cool. I found that the ribbon style really worked well.

End product. Too cute for words!

Eggs

Boiling onion skins to create a deep rusty red.

After 30 minutes, strain and get all the liquid from the skins.

Interestingly, the dye will appear yellow or orange. Add uncooked eggs and boil for up to 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, if the eggs are not as dark as you like, leave them in the dye and remove to the fridge for up to 12 hours. I left mine for 2 hours after boiling.

Dry the eggs and polish them with a dab of olive oil!

Paschal eggs

According to tradition, during a dinner with the emperor Tiberius Caesar, Mary Magdalene was speaking about Christ's Resurrection. Caesar scoffed at her, saying that a man could rise from the dead no more than the egg in her hand could turn red. Immediately, the egg turned red. Because of this, icons of Mary Magdalene sometimes depict her holding a red egg. Also, this is believed to be an explanation for dyeing eggs red at Pascha.

Boiling eggs for PAAS dye.

Artificial dyes are vibrant!

Yes, they are more vibrant colors, and I enjoy their brightness! However, the onion skin dyed eggs are so much more beautiful in both their tradition and the depth of color.

Maundy Thursday & Good Friday

Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos.

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you.

Good Friday

Maundy Thursday

I wish I had gotten a picture of the 'Garden of Repose' at the side altar where Jesus in the Eucharist was kept Thursday night. Incredibly beautiful.

Completely Random Learning

Today the kids have been completely 'on their own' in their drive to learn. I think we call this being "self directed".

• Lego celebration of the Mass
• Experiment comparing table salt and sea salt
• Drawing with foreshortening and shadows
• Reading aloud
• More meditations on the Eucharist
• Sewing
• Working with herbs and spices
• Writing and spelling

No imput from me. They just enjoy doing these things. Life is good.

addenum:

•  Singing as a duet (to Jesus Christ Superstar and Cats!)
• Biographic research of Mem Fox
• Assistance with making Chicken Noodle Soup
• Drawing, learning about the effect of the horizon line
• Draping our crucifixes with purple and red cloths

Felting Fun

A friend showed us how to use real sheep's wool for felting projects earlier this week. What a rewarding medium to work with!

We simply purchased some felting needles, which are basically long skewers with little barbs that snag the wool fibers, creating a snarl. Just like in real hair! Wool is so fine, however, you get felt instead of dreadlocks. We find that working with a single needle is much easier than working with the type of needle tool that spaces out five needles at a time and does a large area. The reason being that we are making very small creations so far.

You can use roving wool and also wool yarn that is loosely spun. I simply 'unspin the wool to make it a strip of roving wool. Its less expensive this way. Plus I found some varigated colors of yarn that allow us to get many colors in small amounts.

So far, Big Sister and I have created two pieces. Really sweet!

Its a flower? Spiral? Just really pretty?

Do Fairies hatch from spring colored eggs?

The flower together with a next of three Fairy eggs.

And then there is Little Brother's project for the day....

Crayon shavings. Rice Chex. Water and some sort of sieve system.

I am not sure what the experiment was all about, but he did discover that some pieces flowed through the homemade sieve and some collected on top. Little Brother was very satisfied with his work.

New Stove and Other Things

The boy-child can write PERFECTLY upsidedown. Weird talents my chidren have.

In preparation for the first food cooked on our new stove!

Love! Love! Love! Boiled eggs!

After three years of making a really sad stove and oven work, I finally get a new one!

This fancy label makes it look like a brand new car is parked in my kitchen.

Finally! A decently sized burner! The old stove had three tiny burners and one medium sized burner that only ran on high or low. Cooking was a constant challenge to keep the burner at some sort of consistent temperature but flipping back and forth.

Dual burner!!! Need I say more?!

My two every day use items. 12 inch cast iron skillet and stainless tea kettle.
I also have an awesome steel stock pot, but I would like it to be a little bigger. A shopping date is in order.

Our first official meal. This oven is BIG inside! I never could have gotten this much in the old one. And you might notice that the heating element on the bottom of the oven is protected by the easy-clean pan! Brilliant!

Big Sister loves to make books. This one is a humorous guide to making an orb spider web.

Reusing a paper plate for a chore list. I have been spending an extra five bucks a month on paper plates and paper bowls. Without a dishwasher, its hard to keep up on dishes. This is a fair solution, and I think the cost is equal to the rise in water cost and detergent cost. (Not to mention the dishwasher itself.)

And we are back to a coupon system for screen time. Each child gets one 30 minute coupon per day. Period. Brains are turning to mush over here and we have to get a grip!