Forgiveness, Grace, Frogs and Library Love

Happy Eastertide! It's been a long while with little Library Lovin'. Time to remedy that. There's really only one book that I wanted to come on here and share, but first a confession...

We have become "those people".  You know, the ones who say that they have to limit their children to only checking out one laundry basket full of books. The ones who are actually considering buying this bag (in dark navy, please) because they've had book bags break on them once too often and the metal grommets are looking like they just might do the job they're advertised to do. The ones who interrupt writing their blog post to go renew books online, so as to stop accumulating more overdue fees.

Yeah. That's now us.

I don't know how it happened. It's like one day I was priding myself on "only bringing home books that we'll read over and over again" and then the next day, I was like, "Whatever. Throw it in the basket. Let's go." Maybe trying to go the library with a 5 year old, 3 year old and 6 month old is what caused it.

In any case, here we are with our laundry basket of books. It's a good thing I'm actually caught up on the laundry, otherwise we might be in trouble. Also to all you who are in the we-haul-our-books-in-baskets club, I hope you will forgive my arrogance! I get it now! Carry on, warriors.

Where was I again?  Oh yes, a really fun book with a message so appropriate for this Easter season!

Yes, Mo Willems of Pigeon, and Elephant and Piggie fame. At first his characters in this book threw me... what were they supposed to be? Not quite human... somewhat green like amphibians... oh! Frogs! Of course! Because baguettes are French and French people love (to eat) frogs (and baguettes). You gotta love Mo.

The story is all about Nanette's first trip to get the baguette, an errand of great responsibility given to her by her mother. But (spoiler alert) she ultimately fails because she can't resist the baguette's alluring smells. I don't blame her. Who can resist freshly baked bread? I have a friend who is borderline celiac, but didn't learn it until her 20's. Once she did and she gave up all gluten, she would still, from time to time, ask to smell my bread roll or other freshly baked item. Gluten cravings die hard, people.

And for Nanette, they proved too much. Poor girl-frog ate the whole thing before realizing her mistake. What would she do now? I love how the book depicts all the angst she experiences before telling her mom the truth, but what I love more is how her mother forgives her. It's such a perfect picture of grace, told in a way that I think kids can really get. Little Dude loves to read this book and then ask for a baguette afterwards. So I think that means he gets it... right? We're three baguettes in and I'm hoping yes! Though if his understanding of grace and forgiveness is predicated on us buying baguettes then maybe not. However, you gotta admit, it's a pretty yummy way to go about it.

What's been your favorite book lately? (Children's or otherwise?)

Easter and NEW Life - My Sunday Best - 03

There were so many reasons I was looking forward to Easter this year - and (rather amazingly) they weren't all related to ending the Lenten fast! Actually, I think what brought me the most joy this year was related to the almsgiving part of Lent. Because of the plan for giving that I had made*, I was able to give freely and generously to the people and causes near and dear to my heart. The "free" part was what brought the most joy. I didn't even have to think twice about giving - I could just do it. So I'll definitely be thinking about how to somehow continue that through the year.

But mostly, I was looking forward to Easter to celebrate and share the New Life God brings...

Bump as of 13 weeks... or 14 depending on who you consult ;)

Here's announcing Baby #3, due to arrive end of October! Like with the wee girl - who was also due end of October - I am still hoping this one will *not* be a Halloween baby, but an All Saints baby would be cool.

(Oh, and to make this officially a MSB - the maternity skirt is compliments of my younger sister and the top is from Kohl's.)

At first, we were planning on surprising my husband's father with the news... we're seeing him in June and I thought the sight of me waddling off the plane would be a fun "Surprise! You have a new grandbaby on the way!" But then I found that trying to keep this information off the internet was even more of a mortification than the fast from my morning "cuppa". So after sharing the news with him yesterday, I gave my hubby a high five and got to work on this post. ;)

So I hope, now that I've shared this, I can get back to writing a little bit more. There were so many things I wanted to share during Lent - but because almost all of them had to do with being pregnant and since we were trying to keep that a surprise - I felt stymied. I suppose though, that it was probably for the best that I didn't post much anyway... the first trimester for me is pretty miserable and I'm sure most of the posts would have been just a outlet for complaining. And that ain't encouraging for anyone to read!

Oddly enough, Rosie's got a "new family member" announcement on her blog too - do stop by and congratulate her as well!

*For the curious, I did a "reverse" tithe with the money I make from tutoring students in math: giving away 90% and keeping 10%. While not as stringent as A Gentle Mother's Buy Nothing Lent, it did kinda end up taking on that flavor, as I realized that's what most of my income goes towards. And of course, I won't take credit for coming up with this plan - I really feel God led me to it.

Easter, Divine Mercy and Våffeldagen - a Seven Quick Takes

Happy Easter to you all!

- 1 -

I love that we will get to say this for 50 days! Prior to starting to live along with the liturgical calendar I was only aware of the church celebrating Easter for - oh, I don't know - maybe a week or so after the actual date. But now this will be the first year where we try and hold space for the season for all 50 days. One of the ways that I've considered doing this is by greeting fellow believers with "Happy Easter!" all Eastertide long. So far, it doesn't sound too weird to anyone I've wished it to this week, but I'm thinking that next week I might start to get some strange looks... that is if I don't chicken out by then.

- 2 -

In any case, Easter was lovely! So much so that my children decided they would rather look at the beautiful church than the camera...

We had my sister and her family over, as well as another guest, but it still wasn't enough to take care of The Ham. Once again, I overbought (though not in the same way as I did at Thanksgiving - a story for another time) and brought home a ham that could feed 10-12 people. Which wouldn't be too bad if we were feeding 10-12 people. But, really, we were feeding 5 (the kids hardly made a dent here). Oops. So that got me looking for ways to use the ham...

- 3 -

And while poking around the internet looking for hamspiration I came across this tremendously yummy looking recipe for Monte Cristo waffles...

Yummmmmmm...... (photo from The Kitchn)

... which triggered my memory about eating waffles for dinner for the Annunciation. Bingo! A way to use the ham and live liturgically! I love it.

- 4 -

This year we celebrate the Annunciation on April 4th. Back in January when I was planning our Liturgical calendar I didn't know any better, so I didn't catch that this was actually not the normal day that we celebrate it. It's normally celebrated 9 months before Christmas on March 25th - but this year that day was also Good Friday. Laura from Mothering Spirit wrote an achingly beautiful piece on this overlap of days here. I shared it on Facebook (since I could - Lent was finished on Holy Thursday night, after all) but I feel it's so worth reading, it deserves a second shout-out.

- 5 -

So someone might ask, why waffles on the Annunciation? Well, because Kendra does it. (Obviously. That's why we do anything around here. ;) ) But in addition to that, the tradition comes from Sweden and anything that comes from Sweden has a small piece of my heart. Still confused? Here's the deal: in Sweden, March 25th is called Vårfrudagen (literally, "Our Wife day" or "Our Lady's day") but if you say it quickly/mumble it a bit, it can sound a bit like Våffeldagen (literally, "Waffle day"). So there you go. Våffels till Vår Fru. Var så god.

- 6 -

When sharing all this with my younger sister she asked if I had seen the Alton Brown episode on waffles. I hadn't. But then I looked it up and YouTube...

Skip the opening bit. It's too corny for words. But would you believe that, in a way, we even have the Catholic church to thank for waffles?! Look for the bit with the nun (about a couple minutes in) to get the lowdown.

- 7 -

This Sunday is also Divine Mercy Sunday. Paul and I have been praying the Divine Mercy Novena, and I think the Divine Mercy chaplet has become one of my most favorite prayers. To celebrate we will either have this cake from Better Than Eden or these Divine Mercy Sundaes from Catholic Icing. If you'd like to read just a wee bit more about Divine Mercy Sunday, click on that link from Better Than Eden above. And if you've made it this far in my 7QT, I welcome your vote! Cake or ice cream?

Head over to This Ain't The Lyceum for more 7QTs, and again... happy Easter! :)