foods and festivities of the christian year: April 2023

Christ has Risen! He Has Truly Risen! Alleluia!

Since my last post for Mardi Gras, I have been busy writing a companion book to Celebrating Advent and Christmas with Children. The book focuses on observing Lent and celebrating Easter with children. My audience is moms, grandmoms, teachers, and catechists. The first chapter begins with reclaiming Mardi Gras. The chapter is dedicated to getting the right balance of wholesome fun while focusing on preparation for Lent. I am asking for your prayers as I work on this next book.

Along with writing this Lent, I have added some pictures of other events and activities I have been involved with. The first is two podcasts that I was interviewed for by Priscilla Smith McCaffrey, a friend from my graduate school days. Priscilla interviewed me on the topic of Senior Living and on my book, Celebrating Advent and Christmas with Children. She and her husband, Roger, have been involved in Catholic book publishing and media communication for years. I am including the link to my interviews. I think you will find many of Priscilla's other podcasts of interest, too. To locate the interviews go to Senior Living & Home School Scroll down in Senior Living to #10 podcast and in Catholic Homeschool Radio #106.

Of course. preparations for Easter would not be complete without some time spent with the grandchildren. Bob and I traveled to Indiana to see Patrick and Becca's family. We did a variety of fun activities with the grandkids during their school break at the end of March. Here is one of my favorites, decorating Easter cookies.

Over the years we have baked and decorated lamb cakes and made small cupcake Easter baskets. This year we did simple sugar cookies with lamb, Easter egg, chick, and bunny cookie cutters. The children chose the colors and decorations and, of course, had a few nibbles!

We were able to attend Palm Sunday Mass with their family which was a special part of our visit. They belong to a large, thriving family oriented parish with lots of little people filling the pews. The choir was excellent and the liturgy well-executed with many strong readers taking the parts in the Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion.

We arrived back home for Holy Week. Sharing is common in family life, so we found out anew as we both caught head colds from our smallest grandchild. We were down for the count for much of Holy Week but managed to rise for the great feast of Easter.

The Saturday before Divine Mercy Sunday found me in Jacksonville giving a talk at the Catholic Writers Guild Jacksonville chapter. It was both an in-person and ZOOM talk on Celebrating the Feasts through the Seasons. I enjoyed doing the talk and focused on Lent and Easter especially Divine Mercy Sunday. I shared with them the pictures and description of the Divine Mercy celebration at home with families that my daughter and her friends from the Catholic Women of the Chapel did in Fort Lee, VA, and again in Vicenza, Italy. We don't have any pictures from this year's Divine Mercy Sunday/Chaplet and Sundaes, but the CWC had a retreat the day before for the moms and I included a photo below. You can go to the archives here to see earlier pictures: Divine Mercy Sunday/Sundaes