- I have a cold, durnit.
- Conflicts are being worked through.
- The divine miss m was downright giggly all evening.
- Little she-who-is sounded out “no” on a sign.
- I am doing chapel for the three-year-old classes at preschool tomorrow.
- In past years the chapel teacher has done a very generic “Easter means new life, spring and flowers and butterflies” message because the crucifixion is a scary story for little children.
- It is scary.
- But if we don’t tell the story, who will?
- I want to put it in terms they can understand, not avoid it altogether.
- So I will focus on the Easter part of the story.
- Focusing less on how he died than the fact that he is raised.
- He had died, and Mary went to the tomb to remember him.
- But he wasn’t there anymore. So now he can be everywhere.
- That’s the best I can do.
- And I’m not doing the jelly-bean bags because it would take too long to sort them into the right colors and bags.
- For 80 kids.
- Even though they’ve done them in the past.
- Oh well.
- I’m not even sure we’ll get it together on the Easter basket thing for the girls, either.
- Gotta give the kids something to tell their therapist.
- But don’t worry, there will be plenty of candy.
Published by reverendmother 1 year, 8 months ago in holidays, things/life/whatnot
13 Responses to “thursday”
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» The latest on SBJ: at one year, he weighs 30.5 pounds (99%), is 32 inches tall (97%) and is 100% cute.
» I have been remiss in posting SBJ’s latest stats: 23 pounds and 27 inches at six months. Yes, I’ve got the big mama biceps.
» Aaaaaand little she-who-is lost another tooth this week!
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
There *will* be Easter baskets for the girls…who says it has to be the parental EB?…why not the Mamala/MaDear EB?
Umm… because the girls don’t need five pounds of candy each?!?!?!?
one year extra ebs appeared at our door on easter morn—one for each child. we suspected our next door neighbors, but they swore it must have been the easter bunny. i preferred to leave it at that. some mysteries don’t really need to be solved!
this week someone reminded me of a wooden egg i gave her (and her whole new member group) a gazillion years ago to symbolize the new beginning and possibility that they were undertaking. take aways sometimes reinforce the take-away message we hope to leave folks w/, but the easter story take away doesn’t need to be jelly beans.
speaking of take-aways, i often keep the palm frond from palm sunday all year long to remind myself of 2 things:
—that i need to be less reserved in my offerings of thanks and praise
—that the approval of “the crowd” is fickle thing and i shouldn’t expend too much of my effort going for the “big entrance on a donkey” part of my life, which would leave me w/o energy for the “be still and know that I am God” part of my life.
and finally on to the topic of colds. they are a very frequent theme here. have you spoken w/ your health-care providers about whethere there’s any help for your immune systems? seems like your immune system must be running close to empty. i hope it can be boosted in some way so you don’t have to deal w/ so many colds/earaches/gastric disorders etc in your home.
Crap!! It Easter? Already!?
anne-
My current pet theory about the colds: between the two of them, the girls are exposed weekly to four independent “germ pools”: daycare 1, daycare 2, preschool, and church nursury / sunday school. Not to mention the fact that MaryAnn and I both have jobs where we are in contact with the “general public” daily. We’re heavy Purell users, but still…
Besides warmer weather, the light at the end of the tunnel is that the girl’s childcare situations will start consolidating soon. As for the ear infections, the ped says it’s just a matter of anatomy… M’s got a facial / head shape that seems to correlate with lots of ear trouble (blame it on the eustachian tube orientation).
they have SUGAR FREE PEEPS?!?! That’s a crime against humanity.
I have to chime in that at 3-5 the crucifixion is pretty heavy- or at least for my kidlet. We had a simple book with a generic pen and ink picture of Good Friday, but then it went on to explain about Easter. But many, many days of processing and looking at the page showing the “very sad day” took place. Maybe just say he was killed instead of the how at this point?
Ok.. here I go again, but Oriental trading (www.orientaltrading.com) has this thing called a Colors of Faith interwoven ball. Basically it is what the jelly beans are without the sugar, but it is a tangible reminder and appropriate for the age group (3-5). I picked up a few dozen to hand out at the boys baptism in April. Take a look.
Coming from a very heavy handed Catholic upbringing (which I am recovering from - talk about therapy) We had the crucifixtion represented all around us all the time (huge crosses with the representation of Christ on them.) I remember hearing the story soup to nuts, 39 lashes included, from a very young age. I remember watching Jesus of Nazareth and Jesus Christ Superstar, being told.. “see this is the sacrifice that HE made for you to be here” (see why I need therapy???). I don’t know if there is a kinder gentler way to explain the crucifixtion/death, unless you don’t really focus on that. I guess its a question on what to expose a child to and what are they ready to be exposed. Ahh the quandries of teaching….
Beth
When my kids were little, my version of Good Friday was that Jesus died, and everyone was very sad. They thought his life was all over, and they would never see him again. Then, I went to the miracle of the resurrection and how Jesus came back to us. They can only understand that Easter is a big deal if they understand the sadness and loneliness that led up to it. But the gory details, well, I left out a lot. They absorb some from church, and ask more questions as they are ready.
Sue, that’s exactly what I did this morning—he died and his friends were very sad. The teachers responded very positively to it. I don’t think they were ever comfortable with glossing over the meaning of Easter altogether, but as one of them put it about Good Friday, “There are some weights that are just too heavy for a child to carry.”
And Beth—yikes.
This is too funny. Now you have raised my anxiety even more for Easter Sunday. My kids must be hearing the story somewhere, because they keep repeating it to me. Help.
We’re doing our egg hunt and bunny stuff on Saturday. I know this is theologically problemmatic, but I will require hospitalization if I have to preach my second sermon at my new church, my first ever Easter sermon, and do the whole nine yards at home. My four year old has taken to saying that the Easter Bunny comes early to kids whose moms are ministers- talk about leaving people at the grocery store speechless.
I hear you on the multiple germ pools. I think kids are just exposed to much more now, which in theory should make them very healthy adults, right? Everyone at our house managed to get well just in time for the yellow-green pollen tsunami that is spring in the southeast. I hope your cold is short lived.