WARNING: This blog post is jam packed with lots of stuff because well, lots of stuff has happened since my last blog post :)  If you have been following my blog's Facebook page, Instagram, or Twitter pages, you know our family has been busy :) So sit back, relax and enjoy "A Slice of Smith (most recent) Life."

First, Happy Easter!  Alleluia! He is Risen!  Just like Christmas is a season and not just one day, Easter is also not celebrated in just one day in the Church's liturgical calendar, but rather Easter is a season called Eastertide.  So keep celebrating for 50 days until Pentecost!  And if you are looking for ways to celebrate the 50 days of Easter, be sure to visit Nicole's post 50 Ways to Celebrate the 50 Days of Easter With Your Children. 

I'm jumping way ahead of myself now...more on how we celebrated Easter 2016 in a bit.   It's time to back track to the beginning of Holy Week, Palm Sunday, March 20, 2016.

I ran my first half marathon in March 2012.  And you may or may not know that I have been training for my second half marathon since late December 2015.   I won a "Challenge" where I was one of 2 people to win a free race registration and free 12 weeks of training and coaching!  I've had awesome coaching with great and encouraging team training workouts to prepare for the March 20th race!  It was great to run the race to raise money for seminarians in our diocese!    It was also the first race where I got a blessing from our parish priest the night before the race after the Saturday vigil Mass. :)


The Quintiles Marathon/Half Marathon Weekend on Sunday, March 20, 2016 came fast!  I woke up at 3:30 AM the morning of the race with little to no sleep due to excitement, nerves and stomach "issues."  The race began at 6:40 AM and I, along with about 3,000 other runners, lined up at the start line in the dark each ready to reach our personal goals, despite the cold winds and light rain.  I finished the race strong and achieved many goals!  One goal of mine was to finish 13.1 miles under 2 hours (my time was 1:59:07 to be exact)  It was a very fun race and I was grateful to race with friends and see my parents and family at the finish line!  My college-aged niece also ran the race and finished ahead of me by 2 minutes. :) Here's some photos from race day:

This year we didn't have our traditional bread making gathering and big celebration for St. Joseph's feast day for several reasons, but our family did get together with my parents and friends to have a big lunch after the race and pray the Litany of St. Joseph on Sunday afternoon. Oh it was so good to enjoy good food after the race!  St. Joseph's feast day is on March 19th, but we celebrated it a day late because of the race schedule. 

On Tuesday morning of Holy Week, we visited the "Via Cruces" (Way of the Cross) which is a beautiful prayer garden made by a couple that attends our parish.  It has a lovely wooded path in their side yard and the Stations of the Cross can be prayed as you walk.  This is the third year we have visited this garden and it has become a beautiful way to reflect on the meaning of Holy Week.   

In the middle of Holy Week, our family received a pleasant, unexpected Easter blessing when our mail lady left a pink plastic egg in our mailbox with a little note inside and a small bottle of bubbles.  Our 2 year old loved playing with the bubbles!  It was just so sweet and kind of her to remember the families on her route.

Wednesday of Holy Week is called "Spy Wednesday" because it's the day Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.  We read Matthew 26:1-16  then I hid 30 coins (last year it was quarters, this year it was dimes) and my kids have to go find the coins.  Below is also a photo of the "Spy Wednesday" page from the Holy Week in Handprints book a few of my children made last year.

On Good Friday we had our Good Friday symbolic lunch, a tradition we started in 2014.  It's a tradition our family looks forward to now.

After the Good Friday service at my parent's church, we saw the live reenactment of the Lord's passion, death and resurrection again which is something my kids remember from when we first went several years ago.  It is put on by the Hispanic youth and adult community at the parish and although we don't understand the Spanish, you certainly know what is going on.  It's a very powerful presentation as the audience followed the presentation to the various stations and locations around the church grounds.   There were "guards" taunting Jesus as they kept the crowd away from where Jesus was walking.   This year there were real horses which made a big impression on my children. 

Like many years before, Holy Saturday was filled with egg dying...

The salt dough crown of thorns with toothpicks that we used during Lent was painted once again with gold paint and jewels were placed on the crown to symbolize that Jesus is the King of Kings after making sacrifices for Him during Lent. 

We made chocolate birds' nests.  Very easy and fun Easter dessert! 

My children look forward to making resurrection rolls each year too!  They are really yummy and it's cool how they resemble an empty tomb after the marshmallow melts away while baking.
And for many, many years we have made Easter Story Cookies which tell the story of Jesus' suffering while you mix the ingredients, then you seal the tomb (put tape over the oven). The next morning you remove the tape and see that the cookies are hollow inside like an empty tomb.



For the first time since 2006 our family attended the Easter vigil at our parish. The last Easter vigil we attended was when my husband and his cousin came into the Catholic Church in 2006.  This was a first for the Smith family since we usually go to 7:30 AM Mass on Easter morning.   It was such a blessing that our parish had the nursery available for our 2 year old.  Something tells me she would not have lasted through the 2.5 long vigil mass.  Congratulations to all the newest members of our universal Church! 

Easter morning brought many smiles and photo opportunities as everyone checked out what was in their baskets and saw how our sacrifice beans "turned" into jelly beans.



In the evening on Easter Sunday, we traveled to my in-laws house for dinner and my 2 youngest daughters decorated the annual bunny cake and we also had an egg hunt in the house since it was a very rainy Easter Sunday.

We had a wonderful Holy Week and Easter Sunday with family and friends!  May you continue to have a joyous and faith-filled Eastertide!

Easter blessings from our family to yours!
 
Be sure to read other #WorthRevisit posts during the rest of the week, hosted by Allison at Reconciled To You and Elizabeth at Theology Is A Verb. So many great posts!  

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This is a busy week this week for several reasons: husband's birthday, St. Patrick and St. Joseph feast days, and my Half Marathon is almost here!

Husband's Birthday: March 16:  We will be celebrating my husband's birthday on Wednesday, March 16.  He shares his special day with his fraternal twin brother.

My husband is the cute curly head one on the right with the big black bow tie.  Aren't they adorable?



Last year we celebrated my husband's birthday and had some St. Patrick pretzel treats to go with our celebration.

St. Patrick's Feast Day: March 17:   To celebrate St. Patrick's feast day we will probably just eat our sweet pretzel treats and watch another one of our favorite CCC of America DVDs, Patrick Brave Shepherd of the Emerald Isle.


I hope to also read some books on St. Patrick from our collection to help celebrate this special Saint.
Some of our favorites are:  St. Patrick's Alphabet, The Story of Saint Patrick's Day, The Adventures of Saint Patrick (I read this book during our fun Catholic VBS week), and The Story of Saint Patrick.


And Jessica at Shower of Roses just posted this beautiful and simple Blessed Trinity Shamrock "Glory Be" Prayer Poster and free printable that maybe I'll have my kids do.

For more information about Saint Patrick be sure to visit Saintnook, where the Saints are always online!



To find out more about St. Patrick of Ireland, you can read his profile and biography. 

Be sure to view his Directory filled with links, crafts, recipes, books, DVDs! 


SaintNook also has a great selection of videos, trailers, prayers and music on St Patrick of Ireland.

St. Patrick of Ireland has his own Pinterest board!  Check out his many beautiful images/statues!

The SaintNook team spends many hours with the Saints online updating their profiles and the site is a work in progress so be sure to check back in often either at the website or the SaintNook Facebook page!  

From St. Patrick's Breastplate Prayer: 
Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

Saint Joseph's Feast Day: March 19:  For the past several years our homeschool group has gathered to make bread for our annual St. Joseph altar, but this year neither is going to happen for many reasons.  This is always a fun tradition and maybe next year we can celebrate with breadmaking and an altar!  St. Joseph's feast day is on Saturday, March 19th this year and our parish is having a 9:00 AM mass for this special feast so we will attend the mass as a family.