Easter

Thankfully a quiet day!  After days of noise and loud music playing outside all day for hours, Sunday brought some peace and quiet.  There was still a bit of boat and water toy traffic out and enjoying the sunny day, but no loud music and craziness today.  That made for a peaceful Sunday.

We are sad to say we did not make it to church.  The closest branch is in a town about 20 miles away called El Estor on the North bank of Lago Izabel.  20 miles does not sound far, but here in Guatemala it is.  It is too far for us to reach by boat in a reasonable time- it would take us 2.5 hours to travel 20 miles,  or by dinghy- our limit is 5 miles in smooth conditions, 3 miles in choppy water, which is typically how we find Lago Izabel.  And the road, from what I read is a small dirt road.  We could have found a Taxi or shuttle driver to take all of us, but the one who’s number we had, only had a small car that would not fit us. The kids asked why we didn’t ride the bikes there. cute kids!  If we are here next Sunday we will really have to try harder to make arrangements to get there and back.  

Last Monday for FHE we were able to stream over youtube The Lamb of God.  Benjamin has been describing portions of the video in his prayers all week.  He is remembering that Easter is about Jesus dying and then living again and folding his clothes.  He brings a smile to our faces each time. Through out the week as we have watched the busy activity in town increase we have had a chance to discuss again with the kids Easter and what we will remember on that day and this time of year. 

I had prepped the kids a few days before that we would not be celebrating Easter this year as we had in the past.  I think they were most disappointed with there being no egg hunt, or any kind of hunt at all.  They really just like to hunt and search for things. Then I told them there would be no candy either, and they were a little sad, but not too much.  They then asked if they could dye eggs, and I said “of course, but we only have brown eggs”  and they then asked if we could wait till we got home to Idaho to celebrate Easter. They were quite concerned about dying the brown eggs and didn’t think it would work.  We reminded them at this point that Easter is really about Jesus being resurrected, not all the other Easter activities.  It was nice to really be able to focus on what Easter was about without all the outside pressure from friends and neighbors and all that they are getting from the Easter Bunny. 

 

 

 

We did color eggs as a family activity.  I used my cake decorating gels to make the dyes, that was a first for me, but it worked out really nicely.  I haven’t seen white eggs in any store since we left the US, so brown eggs is all we ever buy.  I boiled 4 eggs for each of the kids and 2 for me.  They turned out quite pretty.  The kids of course had a great time dipping and redipping their eggs, coloring them with crayons for designs and redipping again.  The brown eggs were a little bit harder to dye and Calvin and Isabel took to using a timer to help them leave their eggs in the dye longer.  They all came out colored in these earthy tones.

After we each picked and egg to peel and eat.  I don’t think I have ever let my kids peel and egg before.  This was a first for each of them, and it was fun to do together.  We of course had egg salad for lunch and I used the last of our marshmallow supply to make a batch of rice krispy treats.  In the afternoon Savannah taught a primary class and they sang primary songs.