Lift Up Your Heart

Sunday, April 26, 2020

He is Risen

but it only sort of feels like it... Easter was hard. No Eucharist, no Mass, no extended family. We enjoyed each other but it definitely felt like something was lacking. The sounds and smells and experience of the Vigil aren't the same through a computer screen. Easter egg hunts with just your siblings, who you have exclusively spent almost a month with, aren't as fun. And Easter dinner, no matter how good your first ever spiral ham turns out, aren't the same without the aunts and uncles and grandmas and grandpas around the table. And while I know all those things are not the core of Easter, they contribute to the special-ness of the day. And we missed them. But Christ is risen, He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

We dressed up for the Easter vigil

Easter egg hunt

Easter brunch

Easter dinner

Holy Week at Home

Julia made unleavened bread for Holy Thursday. She thinks it's delicious.

We watched the Holy Thursday Mass from Rome that the Pope celebrated. It was mostly translated. You'd think we could follow along the Mass parts even when they are in Italian and Latin but without a starting reference it's hard.

We had a modified Passover dinner: pork, unleavened bread, grapes and salad.

Good Friday was quiet. We watched the Good Friday service that an old college priest friend of ours celebrated but didn't do any activities.

On Holy Saturday we did potato stamps. We cut them to look like Easter eggs.

Julia made cookie dough brownies to enjoy after the Vigil.

I made Easter Egg cookies and was happy with the robin's egg look I achieved with light blue frosting and a dusting of cocoa powder.

I also almost ruined our traditional lamb rolls by turning on the oven to preheat it for the cake Nicholas decided we had to have while the rolls were rising in there. Fortunately the melted plastic peeled off.

Nick's cake did turn out cute. He cut out some of his potato stamp eggs and drew cute bunnies. Then over night the Easter Bunny added the chocolate carrots.

The evening of the Vigil we had our own Easter fire and dinner outside before we went in to watch the vigil from our the kids' school's parish.

It was an unusual Holy Week. Sometimes it felt great and sometimes depressing but we made it through to the alleluias of Easter!

Sunday, March 29, 2020

Our Quarantine in Pictures Weeks 1 and 2

Well this is before we knew we'd be home indefinitely but close enough.

This too

Philip's green crusted pizza for his at home birthday.

And a nice cake Grandma Susan sent home with us.

Thankfully, I thought to get his present while out shopping the weekend before. I'm not always organized like that.

Banana Cream pie for Jeremy's birthday.

I made the crust but Julia did the rest because I had to go to school for supply pick up night.

We borrowed this fun building set from the cousins and Nicholas watched Sunday Mass from his very own church.

He picked up trash in the ditch. With a plastic baggie over his hand. It all went directly in the burn barrel.

No one's played with these in ages.

They had time to make a little fort in the burn pile.

Puzzle and devices.

School work

Baking. I love having time for more baking. I've made two batches of rolls so far. They're all gone.

Jeremy went to his parents'. Apparently he's been away from civilization so long he thinks this hat is a good choice.

Working in my quiet classroom. I'm making tutorials on an app called Educreations. I record my voice while they see what I write on the screen. I've been putting selfies at the beginning so they can see me at least a little.

Sorting Legos. Looks like a disaster to me.

Nick in Thomas's pants.

Air frying bacon.

Ball pit.

We borrowed this from the cousins too. Sam likes it best. You bounce a bouncy ball off the upside down boxes into the one that is right side up.

We aren't bored yet!

COVID-19 The Beginning for Us

We heard the talk. We knew it was happening, but in a small town in rural America you wonder if it will really come to you. And then suddenly it jumped. From far away to the town next door. But it was just one person, with limited exposure. That town closed its schools and even though we'd been at one of them over the weekend for the little boys' wrestling tournament it still felt remote. The week passed and our lives went on as normal. There was hubbub about the kids who didn't get to finish their brackets or wrestle at all and updates on the few cases in our state.

We had a short week the next week. My school got out Wednesday for spring break and we didn't send anything with the kids. The possibility of shutting down didn't seem likely. The kids got out Thursday for Spring break and didn't bring home anything either. Schools in the bigger cities announced closures for the upcoming week on Friday but it seemed like sending our kids to school was better than giving them time off to drive into the city and expose themselves and bring it home. We made it to Sunday night before they called off our school.

Greta, Lynn and the boys came out to play on Monday. Half way through the day the 10 people or less restriction was announced and we were over capacity. We enjoyed the rest of our day together playing and starting a family group chat before they headed home.

Tuesday to Thursday I spent at school in meetings and figuring out how to teach remotely. It was fun to explore technology I wouldn't normally have time for. The building was oddly quiet, occasionally ringing out with a cheerful teacher voice recording a message "Hi kids! I miss you! Try these activities while you're at home!" By Thursday night we had everything ready for a week of work to pick up.

On Wednesday Jeremy was told to start working from home. The kids picked up their school work Thursday also but up to then they'd just been enjoying an extra long spring break. We took Julia to stay with my parents on Friday and played at their house and then with the cousins again for a bit at their house.

Once we got home from there we didn't go anywhere for a week. Well, Jeremy went out to get the Sunday paper. I ran to church for a drive through Confession (hard not to giggle for both me and the priest. He called it a "grace deal" because the way he had it set up, drivers side to drivers side but 6 feet away, looked like a shady drug deal or something.) We went to the lake for a walk and a bike ride. I met my dad half way between our houses to pick up Julia on Wednesday. But we didn't go in anywhere. We worked on school work and chores and played and did puzzles. Drove each other crazy, argued, and broke up fights. I felt like I made a meal and then ran the dishwasher every time I turned around. We celebrated Philip and Jeremy's birthdays.

It's weird. I know it's a big deal. I know people's lives and livelihoods are at stake but it kind of feels like summer just came a little early. It's not that different from when I was a stay at home mom. It's odd that Jeremy is working upstairs. It's unusual to have the big boys around so much. But at the same time it's familiar because it's how I lived for 14 years. Playing, learning, taking care of the kids and the house, except now we all have school work, we've discovered our internet, while fine for surfing and game playing is not so good for uploading or multiple users at once and we aren't leaving to run errands or go to the pool or see friends. So much the same but so different too.

We're touring churches from our living room, watching Masses from churches and priests we have connections to. Not everyday but most. Tomorrow I think will be the longest I've ever gone without receiving the Eucharist. It's not remarkable, but I don't think I've ever missed two Sundays in a row. So 13 days would have been the longest, assuming that at some point I was sick on Sunday and then didn't go during the week. And now I'm on day 13. Jeremy and I went Monday morning March 16th and later that day all public worship was cancelled. I've never really doubted Jesus's presence in the Eucharist but sometimes I wonder, do I really believe or do I just go through the motions? Not being able to receive Him tangibly is hard. It's a silver lining to know it really does matter to me. Some days maybe I'm not good at really realizing what's going on at Mass but yep, I do believe.

So that's my story so far. Praying for a happy ending.

Little Boy District Wrestling

Both Philip and Nicholas wrestled at Districts this year. Top four go to state.

This is one they have to make weight for. Nicholas wrestled in the 1st/2nd 56 lb weight class at 54 lbs.

He wrestled and lost all three matches. He was pretty sad after the last one but less because he wasn't going to state and more because he lost them all. We were proud of him anyway! He had a great first season. And honestly, I didn't really want to take my 1st grader to the craziness of State Wrestling anyway.

His friends Will and Ben cheered him on.

Philip on the other hand won all three of his matches and took first in his weight class! That means he qualified for state. He was very excited. He came a long way this season. He improved his wrestling and his mental toughness and worked hard. We're proud of him too!

He wouldn't let me take a picture of his weight and class until afterward. He wrestled in the 3rd/4th 80 pound weight class at 75 pounds.

Philip is a heavy 4th grader. His bracket was big but not huge. He got done earlier than many other brackets so we left. And about half an hour later they closed down the whole tournament, before it was even close to finished because it was announced that someone with COVID-19 had been in town a few days before. Not at the school where we were but she had unknowingly exposed members of the community and they closed down all the schools in the town immediately. And so it began for us...