I'm sitting here feeling the tiniest bit guilty. It's "Earth Hour" (I'm not sure how many places do this, whether it's a local thing, a national thing or bigger but for an hour, we are all supposed to not use electricity - I'm on my laptop using the battery so technically I'm not plugged in) and I'm online looking up ideas for celebrating Holy Week. I hate the fact that in the busyness of life, I can't focus enough of Easter week. I wish we had a week now so that I know we could really focus. I have a bunch of ideas that I've decided I want to try to the next week but I hope they don't get lost in the shuffle. I have an evening thing at work on Wednesday and my parents-in-law most likely coming to stay on Thursday so we may not have a whole lot of time for focus and contemplation. Anyway, I want to try...
Here are my plans for this year:
Palm Sunday (tomorrow) - get up and read the story to the kids and possibly watch it on our Jesus video before we go to church to set the story, make pretzels and talk about the story of pretzels (great idea click here). I'll send a pretzel in each of their lunches each day this week to remind them of what is coming (and, for that matter, maybe I'll make some Easter-themed lunchbox notes)
Holy Week - Clean (as per Jewish tradition before Passover) and make Matzoh with the kids. We did this last year and they loved it. We have a set of Resurrection Eggs and I might sit down with the kids with them each morning. I've also got an Easter playlist I made up years ago and I think that will be our listening for the week.
Maundy Thursday - I'd like to go to church myself (our church doesn't do a service so I'm looking to see where I might go) but I'm not sure it will work. I think we will do a Messianic Seder (there are lots of links for a Christian Seder online and we have done them for the last three years or so).
Good Friday - church. I think we will do the rock idea from this blog - we can go for a walk on Good Friday to find our rocks to prepare and write our sins on them. I think I might make it a t.v. free/screen free day for everyone, just to try and keep us a bit quieter and focused on the meaning of the day. The kids and I will probably make hot cross buns - I love the homemade ones and the house smells so good.
Easter Saturday - this is really a waiting time. I think we are going with friends to the town Easter Egg hunt (the kids go store to store in our tiny town and do crafts and activities), we have family coming for a meal and I suspect we will decorate eggs. My one niece did resurrection rolls with us one year and LOVED them and I think we might do that again, too, which she's here.
Easter Sunday - I will definitely do the Easter basket idea from the blog referred to above with the rocks, we will decorate with all of our Easter decorations (I never put them up until Easter morning). We will celebrate at church, watch The Easter Carol Veggietales (my daughter's favourite movie of all time) and go to the city to visit my parents. I have seen lots of cool Easter egg hunt ideas and I'm thinking about doing the glow in the dark eggs with the glow stuff inside at my parents' house if we are there when it's dark - my brother is totally crazy about doing stuff like that. It sounds like I have a plan!
And the plan for me personally? I think I will work my way through Holy Week from Common Prayer - I adore this more than I can say and it will help me to keep my focus.
How will you honour Holy Week?
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