Friday, April 1, 2016

7qt: Holy Week Hangover Edition

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While it can be stressful in some ways (flying solo with preschoolers for extra-long Masses), the fact that DH works for the Church often suits my procrastinating self just fine. While the (amazing) domestic church goddesses are posting their Paschal candle projects or recipes for empty-tomb cookies, I have a legit excuse to say, "Hmm. We're in survival mode. But, hey, fifty days of Easter!"

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Not kidding about the survival mode. DH worked during Palm Sunday Mass, and then I saw him for 10 waking minutes out of 64 hours from Sunday night to Wednesday evening. Just go ahead and remember to say a big thank you to your priests, musicians, sacristans, etc. during Holy Week. If you've never seen it from the planning side before, it's intense, y'all.

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For all that, I could probably get some crafts done, but I have this insane urge to sew new Easter clothes (then again, Bean got a new three-piece suit and tie, exactly how he wanted them, for $23). I just wrote kind of a mega-post on that, so for the best way to sew a boys' bow tie and other minutiae, head on over there.

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For all the domestic slacking, we do do the liturgical side of things pretty intensely. I've always said I'd rather take a kid (maybe not a baby) to a three-hour liturgy with darkness/fire/processions/sprinkling/etc, than a regular Sunday Mass without a lot of effort put into it, and I have yet to be proved wrong on that. We read the stories out of our children's Bible and talked a little bit about what they'd see beforehand, but mostly I just let the liturgy do its thing, and was rewarded with reactions like an audible gasp when the deacon announced the first "Alleluia," or a bit of smart-alekry when I'd told him we wouldn't hear the pipe organ on Good Friday, and then they did use it to give the singers their pitches. But at least I knew he was paying attention.

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So, what did we actually get done around here? Well, for the first time in a decade or more, I actually braided palms on Palm Sunday. There was the one year of shame where I meant to, then forgot they were in the back of the fridge and they got slimy, but I didn't want to just toss them because they were blessed, and I didn't want to admit my mistake to DH, so I had to try to sneakily find a place to bury them in the yard where he wouldn't notice them. So, this time, I just snagged some (presumably unblessed) from the basket after Mass, and did the blessed ones first, and I'll put them all in the same arrangement once they're dry. So, it's half a sacramental, anyway.

I took a class on palm braiding as a kid, so I only needed a refresher, but it seems like the internet tutorials on the subject (in English, anyway) are surprisingly sparse. Would it be of interest to anyone if I got some strips of construction paper and put together some instructions before next year?

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A photo posted by Emily MacMichael (@emilynd06) on

Bean and I got around to dyeing Easter eggs Monday and Tuesday. Pastels aren't really thrilling to anyone in this house, so we used the Greek method of coloring the eggs with onion skins, bright red to represent the blood of Christ. I actually did an Easter basket this year, but most of the candy was from grandparents, and I have yet to find a good home for the knitting I dumped out of said basket...

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A photo posted by Emily MacMichael (@emilynd06) on
Feasting on Easter itself was really important to us, though, since we'd gone vegetarian for Lent, and because Monday was another long work day. Brunch included some really fantastic Polish sausage and mackowiec brought by my folks. Dinner was the highly traditional grilled pork chops with applesauce (and NO vegetables!), followed by homemade vanilla bean ice cream and strawberry rhubarb pie.

So, what do you do for Easter? We've got a bit of time and energy, and fourty-five more days to fill here!


 For more Quick Takes, head over to Kelly's!

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