The Accidental Pastor's Wife

We made some of these a few years ago because we didn't care for the ones you can buy (and I knew I could make a set for each kid in my Sunday School class for the price of one set from Family Life). I'll just give you the link to the website I used to make them.


http://www.rainbowcastle.org/resurrectioneggs.html

Have fun!!

*reposted from March 22, 2007

C h r y s a l i s: Practical Life: Easy Christian Seder Supper

While I've never done a Christian seder, I'm curious. This website is a great start to help you understand what it's all about. I'm excited to implement some of these ideas this year as we anticipate Easter.

It's getting to be that time again, so I decided to repost my traditions posts from last year. Check back often as Easter is about a month away and I'm looking for new inspirations for my own family, too, so there should be some new stuff in the mix!

We love bunnies and candy and baby chicks...but we also love to make Easter more than that around our house. For the past few years we've tried hard to incorporate the Gospel into every aspect of our Easter celebration, especially during the season leading up to Easter Sunday. Sure, we have Easter baskets and sometimes a hunt in our yard that day, but we try to emphasize why we celebrate.. So I'll be posting some of our unique celebration ideas in the coming weeks with the hope that you, too, can use these to magnify Christ in your family.

Some of my inspiration has come from Noel Piper's outstanding book Treasuring God in Our Traditions, so I can't take all the credit. If you haven't read this book, I'd encourage you to. She has chapters on celebrating birthdays, Christmas, and Easter and makes the case that our children will remember our family traditions so we must use them to glorify God and point our kids to Him. Though not necessarily an Easter tradition, I will say one of my favorite ideas from her book is to give each child a special hymn that you sing to him or her each night at bedtime. Our oldest one loves There is a Fountain. Our second child requests And Can It Be (just about every night of his entire life he's asked for it!). I've decided our new baby girl, Grace, will hear Grace Greater Than All Our Sin. I don't want the next generation to lose the value of these rich, old songs.

So, check back here periodically to help get your own creative juices flowing as we approach Resurrection day!

*originally posted March 3, 2007

I love to do big holiday dinners so I thought I'd share with you our menu (I am having friends bring stuff, but this was my original menu before I started inviting people). If something sounds good to you, let me know and I'll send you the specific recipe!

Stuffed Mushrooms (with garlic, cream cheese, parmesan and cayenne pepper)
Buffalo Chicken Dip (courtesy of the Pastor's Wives Forum) with tortilla chips
Rolls
Strawberry Spinach Salad with Poppyseed Dressing
Mashed Red Potatoes
Marinated Green Beans
Ham with Cherry sauce
Carrot Cake (so moist and delicious with homemade cream cheese frosting)

(can you tell I love cream cheese??)

Easter Blessings!

This is such a cool tradition! My husband came up with it once when we were in college, eating our Easter dinner by ourselves at Red Lobster (we were too far away from family for a real dinner).

We eat fish and bread for breakfast (I will qualify that and say that I do sneak a bowl of cereal beforehand!).

Why? At the end of the gospel of John, Jesus is hanging out on the beach watching Peter and some buddies fish. Peter realizes that it's the Risen Lord calling to them, and he jumps out of the boat and swims to shore. Jesus prepares some fish and bread for them, and they eat together.

We fry up some fish on the stove and slice some french bread for our breakfast. We then read the story out of the Bible. It's a little wacky, but just another way for us to reinforce for our kids the Easter story.

We finally got our tree out yesterday. We cut three branches off our budding forsynthia bush and put them in a vase with the rocks and nickels. I wanted to list some of the ornaments we use (now that I've seen them after a year in a box!).

clip art of:
crown of thorns
rooster
cross
heart
bread and wine
lamb

swatches of fabric I mentioned in the first post (see Easter Traditions)
grapes
a crocheted cross christmas ornament
gold ribbon (Christ's royalty)
a rose (Jesus as the Rose of Sharon)
using string, we made a "scourage" type thing to remember the wounds of Christ
a nail
a piece of sponge

Hope that gets your imagination rolling. Comment and let me know if you think of some other ideas for your Easter Tree.

We have an Advent wreath for Christmas, so I came up with this idea for Easter.

Take three pillar candles and arrange them on a plate. Different heights look nice. On Good Friday, light all the candles at dinner, then at the end of the meal, blow them out and cover them (once cooled, of course) with a square of black cloth. Leave it this way over the weekend.

On Easter morning, before the kids come down for the day, light all the candles and enjoy breakfast (our traditional Easter breakfast is another post) in the light of Jesus' love. He's RISEN!

We made some of these a few years ago because we didn't care for the ones you can buy (and I knew I could make a set for each kid in my Sunday School class for the price of one set from Family Life). I'll just give you the link to the website I used to make them.

http://www.rainbowcastle.org/resurrectioneggs.html

Have fun!!

These are cookies that you make the night before Easter. Each step represents a different part of the Easter story. I think these are so cool.

Here's what you need:
1 c whole pecans
1 tsp vinegar
3 egg whites
pinch salt
1 c sugar
zip lock baggie
rolling pin
waxed paper
cookie sheets
mixer with mixing bowl
tape
Bible

Preheat oven to 300.

Place pecans in baggie and let kids beat them with the rolling pin. Explain that after Jesus was arrested, he was beaten by the Roman soldiers. Read John 19:1-3

Let each kid smell the vinegar. Put 1 tsp vinegar into a mixing bowl. Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross, He was given vinegar to drink. Read John 19:28-30.

Add egg whites to the vinegar. Eggs represent life. Explain that Jesus gave His life, taking God's wrath upon Himself for our sins, to give us new life. Read John 10:10-11.

Sprinkle a little salt into each kid's hand. Let them taste it, then brush the rest into the bowl. Explain that this represents the salty tears of Jesus' followers ad the bitterness of our own sin. Read Luke 23:27.

So far, the ingredients aren't very appetizing. Add 1 c sugar. Explain the sweetest part of the story: Jesus died and took the punishment for our sins because He loves us. He wants us to repent of our sin and have faith in Him. Psalm 34:8.

Beat with the mixer on high for 12-15 minutes until stiff peaks form. Explain the color white represents the purity in God's eyes of our Lord Jesus Christ as well as the purity of those whose sins have been forgiven. Read Isaiah 1:18 and John 3:13.

Fold in the broken nuts. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto waxed paper covered cookie sheet. Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus' body was laid. Matthew 27:56-66.

Put the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and turn the oven OFF.

Give each kid a piece of tape and seal the oven door. Explain that Jesus' tomb was sealed. Read John 16:20-22.

Go to bed!

On Easter morning, open the oven door and give everyone a cookie. Notice the cracked surface and take a bit. The cookies are hollow! On the first Easter, Jesus' followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty! Jesus had risen!
Matthew 28:1-9.

As I mentioned a while ago, I wanted to share one of our favorite Easter traditions with you: The Easter Tree. Here's what you need:

3 or 4 long branches
thread
1 quart size mason jar
30 nickels
1 handful of rocks
small strips of fabric in the following colors:
red (for Christ's blood shed for us)
black (for his death)
white (for his purity)
purple (for his royalty and for the clothes they gambled for at his feet)
1 nail
small plastic grapes
a small piece of sponge
clip art you've printed in color of things such as these, then mounted onto small pieces of lightweight cardboard:
bread and wine
a dove
a cross
the tomb
a rooster and anything else you think might represent parts of the Easter story

Fill the jar with rocks and the 30 pieces of silver. Arrange the branches in the jar, held in place by the rocks. Using the thread, tie on everything else, discussing what each means in the story.

This is not an absolutely original idea, but we've made our tree our own using these kinds of things.

Hope this sparks your imagination!

We love bunnies and candy and baby chicks...but we also love to make Easter more than that around our house. For the past few years we've tried hard to incorporate the Gospel into every aspect of our Easter celebration, especially during the season leading up to Easter Sunday. Sure, we have Easter baskets and sometimes a hunt in our yard that day, but we try to emphasize why we celebrate.. So I'll be posting some of our unique celebration ideas in the coming weeks with the hope that you, too, can use these to magnify Christ in your family.

Some of my inspiration has come from Noel Piper's outstanding book Treasuring God in Our Traditions, so I can't take all the credit. If you haven't read this book, I'd encourage you to. She has chapters on celebrating birthdays, Christmas, and Easter and makes the case that our children will remember our family traditions so we must use them to glorify God and point our kids to Him. Though not necessarily an Easter tradition, I will say one of my favorite ideas from her book is to give each child a special hymn that you sing to him or her each night at bedtime. Our oldest one loves There is a Fountain. Our second child requests And Can It Be (just about every night of his entire life he's asked for it!). I've decided our new baby girl, Grace, will hear Grace Greater Than All Our Sin. I don't want the next generation to lose the value of these rich, old songs.

So, check back here periodically to help get your own creative juices flowing as we approach Resurrection day!