Good Friday .....



Crucify Him! Crucify Him!



Agnus Dei ... Lamb of God

Remembering the sacrifice Jesus made for us .....  via art....



Clean Sweep Jesus







Heart Exchange

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Check out this Youtube video of Taize music: Jesus Remember Me When You Come Into Your Kingdom.
(Turn off my playlist songs before playing this music video).

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One of the things I love to do, and we used to do with Youth Group kids, is look at what we consider "secular" songs, and ask yourself.... "Where is God in this song, or in the lyrics?"

I have found, that if I add God into the songs I love to listen to that aren't necessarily hymns or Christian songs, that it can still give a powerful message, sometimes in a more contemporary way that may mean more to people if they also did that .....  Here is a song, that just often reminds me of the hymn above (Jesus Remember Me...) ......this song is by Tim McGraw, titled...."Please Remember me."

Try putting God into this song ... if you take the song as if it was one of the criminals who were crucified next to Jesus, and they are the ones singing, as if to Jesus, One who loves them (as well as us), more than life... and knowing that we know Jesus is going on to "better love"...to be reunited with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, as well as uniting all of humanity back to God ....well, it just fits, at least to me. *S*  (skip the ad if there is one on this video ... and turn off my playlist music to listen to it too.)

Maundy Thursday - All Night Prayer Vigil, Altar of Repose

Tonight I signed up for the prayer vigil from midnight until 2 a.m. The Chapel looks beautiful decorated as a garden, with the Easter Flowers for the Altar of Repose. Here's a short video of the prayer space... turn off my playlist music to hear the praise music playing for the Vigil.

Here is also another photo from "The Lenten Experience Art Show - In the Eyes of a Child" which is on display just before entering the Chapel Altar of Repose area.

Lenten Experience Art Show - Through the Eyes of a Child

Our Sunday School kids have been making artistic expressions of their faith, and things they've learned over the last weeks of Lent. Tonite was the start of their Art Show following the Maundy Thursday Service.

I've been busy the last couple of days finalizing the set-up and putting their art together for people to come and see and experience. GREAT JOB KIDS!!

The photo slide show on the TV are pictures of the kids as they created their art over the last months.

The Art Show will continue through Easter Sunday, when the kids will be able to take home their art... come and check it out before then!

The Altar of Repose....

This morning and afternoon we set up our Altar of Repose for the All Night Prayer Vigil that will be happening after the Maundy Thursday Service tomorrow night.  We use the Easter Flowers that were donated in memory of and thanksgivings for loved ones... (then after the Good Friday Service, we transfer them all to the Church Altar for Easter Services).

Altar of Repose before the
blessed sacrament is added.

Altar of Repose in the Chapel

Here are some photos of the Chapel set up and ready ... it's so beautiful... looks like a garden.. it's also one of my favorite times during Holy Week - The Prayer Vigil... tomorrow night when it is lit by candles and has soft meditative hymns playing, it's truly a sacred space to be in and know that "GOD IS", and realize God's love for us all.



Altar of Repose

Congrats to BIL, Mel - Re-Elected Mayor!

Yay!! Mayor Mel was re-elected yesterday as Mayor of the City of Delavan, vote totals were 976 to 807. The last 10 years having Mel as Mayor have been a blessing to the residents of our city! Here's to our future years too!

Congrats brother-in-law Mel, happy and proud for you!

Spring is in the air.... and in the backyard....

My first bouquet of Spring "flowers" picked from the backyard this afternoon.... the bright yellow of the dandelions looks great to me, until they go to seed and spread, that is.. *lol*



....and here is my second bouquet ... I LOVE violets!!


... a great day all around...weatherwise and productive too! Thankful for that!

April Fools is Past... and Who's the Biggest Fool at Last??... Dad?? *lol*

So, this was a prank I pulled on our Sunday School class... but, my Mom had come to help yesterday morning with Sunday School, and I had a few extra bags of "cheetos", so I gave one to her to give to my Dad.

This morning at 6 a.m. (my Dad who is an early riser, usually up before 4 a.m., so I knew he must have been chomping at the bit to call me SOOO late at 6 a.m). ... he calls and he says, "What a mean trick to play on your father!" ..*lol*

Seems he loved Cheetos more than I knew, and after doing some chores around the house, he sat down to have a beer and some of those cheetos ...*heh* ... he informed me that carrots and beer just do NOT go together! Who knew?? ha!

Dear Dad, April Fool's is past, and who's the biggest fool at last?? *g* xoxoxo ...love it when I can "get" my Dad!!


But.... I was warned... Dad's out to "get" me back .. "BEWARE", he said! *L*

More Resurrection/Empty Tomb/Easter Garden updates...

Besides doing our Hosanna paintings this morning, we also added to our Easter Gardens, which on day 7, have sprouted so much we also needed to "mow" them..*lol*

The kids, who couldn't be here last week, added their small pebbles, and picked out a large stone to be rolled away from the "tomb". They added their 3 crosses, empty burial cloth, and some little white flowers and a butterfly. The other kids also added the flowers and butterflies too. Then I trimmed them, and spritzed them with water, and they are looking GREAT!




Even those slow growing gardens I had to move to another window are starting to sprout well now too! Soon they'll catch up to the others!





I have a feeling I'll need to "mow" them all again before the Art Show later this week..*L*

Hosanna! Celebrating Palm Sunday...

HOSANNA!! Check out how our Sunday School kids made these awesome paintings today!

This idea was one I found at Catholic Icing, a great site for fun Christian crafts!




Being Palm Sunday, we had the traditional blessing of the palms, and procession into church singing our Hosanna's, and Sanna's, etc. The Sunday School class made pictures/paintings based on our sharing the story of Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem, on a donkey, as people waved palm fronts, laid cloaks in front of him as he rode, and shouted "Hosanna"!

Our paintings started with the kids getting the bottom of one their feet painted gray..*lol* ... and then imprinting their foot onto cardstock paper.

This is my sister, helping with today's class, thanks to her and my mom for helping today!



After painting their foot, they also had to be washed off, so we tied that into the story of when Jesus washed the feet of His disciples, sharing a bit of the Maundy Thursday/Last Supper experiences with them too.

After getting all the imprints, we dried them with a hairdryer so we could go on to the next step... which was painting in details, ears, eyes, muzzle, tufts of hair, and of course, painting the palms of the kids hands green so they could symbolize palm fronts being waved as the donkey, carrying Jesus, came into view...





It was a hectic, fun morning of paint drying detail, kids running to the bathroom sinks to wash up (often!), and back to more painting ....



The kids did a GREAT job, here are some of them showing off their paintings! They made one to take home, and another to keep at Church for their upcoming Art Show later this week.

What a difference a day makes!

WOW!! Day 6 of the grass growing on the Resurrection/Empty Tomb Easter Gardens that our Sunday School is making.... showing the photo from yesterday and then today... can't wait for the kids to see them tomorrow, and to add more things to them!




I hope the grass stays nice and green like this for a long while... the Art Show is still a week away.....

"Now the green blade rises from the buried grain..." Easter Garden Update

Yay!! The Empty Tomb Easter Gardens are sprouting grass, after just 4 days on some and 5 days on the others!

Click this link for my blog post, from a few days ago, of how we made them.

The green shoots coming up reminded me of this Hymn that we'll be singing during this coming Holy Week and Easter Season....

Now the green blade rises from the buried grain,
Wheat that in the dark earth many years has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.

In the grave they laid Him, Love Whom we had slain,
Thinking that He’d never wake to life again,
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.

Up He sprang at Easter, like the risen grain,
He that for three days in the grave had lain;
Up from the dead my risen Lord is seen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.

When our hearts are saddened, grieving or in pain,
By Your touch You call us back to life again;
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.

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This Sunday the kids will be adding more to their gardens, maybe even having to trim their grass a bit too? *lol*

We'll have them in their upcoming Art Show during Easter Weekend at Church too.... can't wait to see them finished!

April Fool's Day Prank... Shhhhhh...

Shhhhh... don't let this slip out ... I'm doing this joke on my Sunday School class this coming Sunday, April Fools Day.. heh heh.

Assembling Some Holy Week & Easter Decorations

Just a few things I put together, haven't had much time for art, but hopefully after Easter I'll be able to get out some of my treasures and create some things.

I had a few glass domes that I thought I'd use this year for decorations.

I'm calling this assemblage "Denied Him Thrice", it's more a reminder of Maundy Thursday/Good Friday events, and Peter's denial, that Jesus predicted, (this one from Mark 14:30) "Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, Peter--this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny three times that you even know me."




This one is titled "The Lord Will Fulfill His Purpose", which is what is inscribed on the cross in the dome. His purpose being to bring us new life in the sacrifice He gave for us all. (the eggs and green grass symbolize new life.)

And this Easter Dome is called "He is Risen!".





Using some of the secular Easter decorations can have a place in bringing the real message of what our Easter celebrations are all about, especially when explaining the events of Holy Week and celebration of Easter Morning too! .... Alleluia! He is Risen Indeed!

An Assemblage of Roasted Veggies and Bacon Wrapped Asparagus ...yummm!

I decided to experiment again with some recipes ... the family being my guinea pigs again! I had made this recipe before, but hadn't used yams in it before, so I thought I'd see how they tasted ... delicious!




Before, during and after photos ... I used regular potatoes, yams, zucchini, tomatoes, onions, some herb and garlic seasonings and some olive oil, stirred it all together, then arranged them in a baking dish, alternating them to make it look cool.

I like how peeling a stripe on the potatoes and zucchini, makes it look "fancy" after it's sliced.



Here is my dish, ready to pop into the oven at 375 degrees ...covered it with foil for the first 25 - 30 minutes, then uncovered it and sprinkled some grated parmesan cheese on top, and put it back in the oven (uncovered) for another 15 - 20 minutes.

The last few minutes, I turned the broiler on low, and toasted the top of the veggies just a bit too... Here's the finished dish ... it was deeeelicious!!




While the veggies were roasting, I also prepared the asparagus.



Cut off the ends, then coated them with a little olive oil, sprinkled on herb and garlic seasoning, and wrapped two or three spears together with one piece of bacon. (I used an apple wood flavored bacon just to give it a unique taste).





I popped these into the oven during the last 15 minutes or so of the baking time (at 375 degrees) with the roasted veggies. Then turned the boiler on low, and watched as the bacon browned under it. It doesn't take long to crisp the bacon, and you have to watch so that they don't get burned too when doing this.




Here are the finished spears with the crisped bacon... YES, it IS true, everything is better with bacon! *lol*

And it made the leftover chicken wings I served with these dishes so much better too! ... Dinner is served.....

My Eclectic Assemblage of Wine Glasses!

After seeing a beautiful eclectic place setting using vintage mix and match china plate settings the other day, it inspired me to pull out a few of my many wine glasses. I usually use these 5 - 6 times a year for entertaining... my friends seem to love to pick out their own special glass from my collection of mismatched wine glasses. I've picked them up over the past 10 years at garage sales, rummage sales and Goodwill (of course!). I love them all! (I have about 10-12 more I didn't put out for this photo).



Kasey and I also use them for non-special occasions to have water or juice or soda in as well ...makes us feel fancy schmancy! Ha!

Now, where's the wine??

Resurrection / Empty Tomb Easter Gardens

Jorden rings in the kids to come to the classroom, which is all set up for them to make these Gardens...





We talked about the events of Good Friday, Jesus death on the cross, with the two robbers also being crucified on either side of Him. And how Jesus was buried in a tomb, carved out of the ground, with a large stone rolled in front of it to seal it. And what happened on Easter Day, when Jesus rose from the dead, and the tomb He had been buried in was empty.

Then we started to make our Gardens creating some of the items from the story of Good Friday and Easter ...a tomb, three empty crosses on the hill, a stone rolled away from the entrance to the tomb, and an empty burial cloth inside.





We planted grass seed on the hill area, that will need to be spritzed and soaked with water twice a day while it sits in a sunny location. So we have them sitting in the window in the classroom at Church... and guess what I'll be doing in the mornings and afternoons this next 7 - 10 days!

The grass should sprout in about a week to 10 days, and next Sunday the kids will be adding more items to their Easter Gardens.


There are extra ones we partly finished, for the kids who weren't here today, and other extra ones for Fr. Bill to take on his visits to the homebound when he takes out Easter communion after Easter.




These will be in the "Lenten Experience Art Show - Through the Eyes of a Child", held during Holy Week at Church, and then they'll be able to take them home on Easter Sunday.

Can't wait to see the grass start growing on them and have the kids finish them next Sunday to be displayed in the Art Show later during Holy Week! More photos to come in a week or so....














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UPDATES:  What a difference just a week to ten days make!  Check out these other links for MORE on the Resurrection Easter Gardens as they grew grass!


And as they were featured in the Lenten Experience Art Show...