Happy Easter

Hallelujah, He Is Risen!

Thanks to the wonders of technology we joined in with the Triduum services from Maundy Thursday through to the Easter Vigil.  Here are some photos from the past few days:

 Our cherry tree in the front garden, Dave has been tracking its progress with a daily photo, I will have to make a montage and share later in the week.

 Home made lemon meringue pie, by golly it is long drawn out process!  Make the pastry bake it 'blind' then make the custard from scratch (separate the egg yolks, grate and juice two lemons, dissolve sugar in water, mix stir and heat) pour the custard on the cooked case, whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks, top the pie and bake on a low heat for 40 minutes.  It was totally worth the effort :-)

Doorstep delivery ~ a lovely friend dropped off some items that were missing from our online shop and here I am wiping everything down with a bleach solution.  To the right of me is our veg box delivery from Bradshaws.

A birthday room awaiting the birthday girl in the morning ...

... and here she is, seven years old, how did that happen?!!

Dave's mum challenged the family Whatsapp group to a virtual Easter bonnet parade.  Mary was off the bat with her rabbit crown and the rest of us finished our efforts either late last night or last minute this morning :-)

My lovely but very weary Mum wearing her crown, she had been up most of the night in terrible pain (currently awaiting a hip replacement that has obviously been pushed back).  It was a real family effort, my Dad made the crown, my nephew Craig aged 24 did the lettering and Mum added the artistic touch with the colouring.

In the absence of her usual Easter branches Mum niftily utilised all her Easter decorations that had been made over the years and three summer hats to complete this ensemble, genius idea!

And here I am wearing my attempt, thanks to the wonders of Pinterest, a home school craft cupboard and a friend sharing on FB how she had fixed her daffodil conundrum!

Here is the hat also doubling as our Easter table centrepiece.

 Thanks to Ben we had a delicious Lamb casserole, creamy mashed potato and broccoli.

 Our lovely church family at St T's dropped off this goody bag of treats, the card was drawn by the Vicars wife, Sara.  She is a really accomplished artist and author.

The crochet window yarn bombing continues, happy flower number one is complete and number two is currently a work in progress.  Hope the decorations in the window provide some cheer to passers by.

I hope and pray that you have encountered some moments of joy in your day xx

Happy Easter

Our Easter celebrations were very different this year as not only did we attend the Easter vigil, but we also witnessed Tom enter the church.  The evening was made all the more special because Fr Phillip Smith celebrated the mass and he was our parish priest when Em, Kath and Sara were small!

Receiving the Spirit and the confirmation name of Matthew.

The whole evening was quite special and one we will treasure for sure.

In order to prevent a late night drive we made the decision to stop with Sara, Tom and Ollie overnight.  It was lovely to spend the day with them and the kids in particular loved hanging out with their nephew :-)

Breakfast Fun

 Ollie Bear

 Grandpa reading.

 Pip and Sara two peas in pod both in looks, temperament and crazy sense of humour.  Tom looking on with steamed up glasses!

Uncle Ben feeding Ollie Bear.

Easter Catch Up

Easter blessings from our house to yours and I hope you are still celebrating since Easter-tide lasts until Pentecost!

Due to health constraints we were unable to attend the triduum services at our church but we did manage Easter Sunday Mass.  In addition to hearing the Hallelujah once more we also renewed our baptismal promises, it is quite something to hear a church in unison rejecting Satan and his lies and to make a stand for God :-)

Once home the Hoppity Bunny had left an Easter trail for Pip and then she, Tom and Sara had some fun painting the eggs:

We have had a higher than usual round of hospital and clinic appointments these past few weeks.  On the Monday of Holy Week both Dave and Pip were at hospital appointments twenty miles apart!  I did a fair bit of driving that day :-)  Dave's appointment was first around lunch time for an MRI scan.  Pip and I went in search of drinks and a snack and when we returned we could hear the machine making a banging noise.  Dave was in the mobile scanning truck which was parked in the car park.  I must admit I felt for him being inside such a noisy and claustrophobic machine.  He doesn't mind confined spaces but is needle phobic so the injection part is the worst :-(  

We had time to snaffle some lunch parked in a shopping area car park before travelling to the next hospital for blood and urine tests for Pip.  I was more than apprehensive since Benedict has had some really bad experiences in this department.  Thankfully the anaesthetic cream worked a treat and Pip was suitably distracted with a game on the ipad!  

On Thursday of this week, we travelled another twenty miles to a specialist clinic so that Pip could be fitted with her hearing aids.  She did really well throughout the whole procedure but it was a bit daunting taking her into a restaurant on the way home for some lunch.  We managed to find a quite spot and thankfully the place was not overly busy.  The hearing aids are meant to self adjust according to the background noises but still it was incredibly overwhelming.  After all Pip was hearing sounds she had probably not heard in quite some time.  Only yesterday she remarked that the keys on the lap top make a clicking sound when they are pressed.  As with a lot of medical conditions we were given a heap of information including the contact details of our local children's deaf club.  I think it is important that she meets other kids with hearing loss as only another person in the same situation can truly understand.  

 A gluten free goats cheese and red pepper pesto tart, with side salad and chips.  I asked the waitress three times to check that the dish really was gluten free!  I did not want a repeat of my hospital stay from a few months back but in all honesty it is the first time I have ever seen a gluten free pastry dish being offered on the menu.

It is interesting to read that hearing aids help to magnify sounds as best they can but they cannot ever truly replicate the fine balance between the ear and the brain.  Crowded and noisy public places will always be a nightmare for her as she is unable to filter out the background noise and concentrate on one individual speaker.  Pip is really good at lip reading otherwise her work at school would have suffered but that too comes with a price to pay and the level of concentration required is quite exhausting. Also hearing aids are no good in traffic situations since they are unable to pick up the required sounds and on her favourite bike ride on Morecambe prom, she is totally oblivious to people or bikes behind her, so it is pretty useless another cyclist dinging their bell for her to move out of the way!  I have seen a high visibility jacket that has " caution deaf rider" emblazoned across the back, it does make me feel a little uncomfortable that her disability is being drawn attention too, but in reality the safety aspect wins hands down.

Despite the difficulties of the past few weeks Pip has still made consistent strides with her home school programme and Benedict has finally shown an interest in a history project, which is all good.  I did however spare them the onerous task of dissecting this poor creature:

 We have lived in this house since 1992 and never once have we encountered a rat!  Field mice yes but not a rat.  I think it might have been poisoned and had some how made its way into our garden.  Our compost bin only consists of vegetable peelings and grass cuttings and since we do not have any pets there is no food source for vermin.

As for dissection, I remember our science teacher at Our Lady's Convent Grammar school keeping rats preserved in formaldehyde in the science lab fridge!  That classroom always had a peculiar smell :-)

Never a dull moment at this end, eh?!