A Cherished Easter

     Even though we missed being with family and church family (both near and far) this year, Easter was somehow extra-special.  It's a reminder that death has no victory.  Life's circumstances don't need to be our barometer for joy.  Jesus is risen!

     Our kids' spring break fell right between the U.S. and Russian Easters.  Having no school gave us extra time to reflect on Holy Week and to do special activities together.  On this day we made resurrection rolls.

     It's the first year we've ever made them because we don't usually have marshmallows.  But sweet Nettie surprised us with a bag of marshmallows as a gift.  You roll up the marshmallow into the butter-covered roll.  Then when you take them out of the oven, they're empty, just like the tomb Jesus was in!

The kids made a manger for this photo.

     On one day, I sent the kids on a photo scavenger hunt.  They did such a great job with it and put all of their pictures into a powerpoint to show the story of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.  These are just a few of the pictures.  It was so fun seeing them work together.

     I thought this one was so creative!  It's Jesus getting baptized by John , with the bird representing the Holy Spirit coming down in the form of a dove.

The kids with the cross they made.

          We also dyed eggs.  This year we dripped wax on them as we dyed, which made some pretty cool designs.  Ike loves anything with fire, so this kept his interest much longer than most egg-dyeing years.  😉

Their masterpieces!

     Anneka gave each of her eggs a name.  She said that we were allowed to eat any of her eggs as long as we called it by its name.  One of her eggs was named "Princess".  Leif's egg had a crown, so he named his "King".  

     All throughout the week, we read and acted out the various parts of Jesus' last week on Earth.  On this day, we acted out Palm Sunday.  Ike on his bike was Jesus on the donkey.  Everyone else layed down clothing and branches for him to ride on.

I sent the kids on a scavenger hunt.

     We surprised the kids by driving to a nearby field (but far away from any people) and having a picnic.  This was amazing for bringing great cheer after having been home every day.

We played some fun games with our own rules, like frisbee baseball.

The weather was so nice, and it felt so nice to do something active as a family.

     On Good Friday, we had a special dinner outside. These crown-of-thorns cookies were a reminder of how Jesus suffered and died for us.

     On Saturday we had an egg hunt.  To make it fair, each of the kids had a a specific area to look for their eggs. We also hid resurrection eggs. We wanted to try out with them a lesson we had planned for English Club the next day.  Each egg had a symbol (along with Bible passages) that put together told the story of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.  We also had riddles in each of the eggs.  The kids helped us to weed out which ones were too hard to use for English Club and to tweak them a bit.  We were able to clearly share the good news about Jesus in two of our English clubs this week!

Ella was the first to find all of her eggs.  

Leif hid some hard ones, and they were all good "finders".

Ella, checking out her rewards.

The kids traded some of their candies with each other.

      The kids also got an Easter basket of goodies on Easter morning that they all shared. We made an Easter basket for our neighbor girl, too.  Each of the kids made her a special card.  Ella wrote that she prays for her every day and that God loves her so much that He died for her. When it was all ready, they called their friend and passed the basket over the fence (because of the lockdown). She was sooooo happy and wrote us several text messages throughout the day.  It was an answer to prayer that it was so well-received.

We had a special breakfast together with Nettie.

       



     Then we had our own interactive church service. We read about how Jesus washed His disciples' feet and washed each others feet.

It was a special time for everyone.

     The next part of the service was to reflect upon how serious and dirty our sins are.  Each person took turns with a white cloth, making it dirty.  Ella was first, and she wiped it all over our dirty car.  Ike took quite a while to make mud, bury the cloth and stir it around in the dirt.  Anneka made a paste of thick cocoa mixed with vinegar (so that it would smell bad). Leif used shoe polish, and I used coffee mixed with green food coloring.  Then Nettie took the cloth to the grossest place she could think of- our rotting compost pile.  Of course, by then, the cloth was already looking pretty disgusting, but the compost made it so that no one wanted to even go near it or touch it.




     We then hung the gross cloth on a cross to represent what Jesus did with our sin.  Then we put the clean, white cloth on ourselves (pictured at the top with Anneka).

It's so amazing that Jesus would do this for us!

     We ended our special service by roasting hot dogs together, reflecting on what it must have been like for the disciples to eat with Jesus after He rose from the dead.  Such joy and awe they must have felt!  

     We, too, feel joy and awe for what Jesus has done for us and for this week that God gave us to celebrate Him in these special ways!

A Look into Our Lockdown Lives

     This is such an interesting time in the world.  A time of both grief and a time of hope.  A time of isolation and yet a time of connecting.  We've been praying about how to live well in this time and to make the most of opportunities God gives us.  We're blessed to share a house with Nettie, which gives us a personal connection with one more person outside of our family. Leif, Nettie, and I get together in the mornings to pray. And Nettie and I go to the store together once a week.  I find that I really like having to get everything for the week in one trip.  I like rationing our food and cutting fruits and vegetables into the perfect number of slices to be divisible by the 5 or 6.  I like having to be organized with my lists and having to be flexible if we don't have all of the ingredients.

     Nettie is registered to be an official volunteer.  She takes medicine and groceries to elderly people that aren't supposed to leave their homes.  She also hears of lots of opportunities to serve.  A few of the local churches have teamed together to make these packs of food for people who have nothing.  The value of the ruble has dropped because of oil prices, so we are thankful for extra money for things like this at this time.  We want to be God's hands and feet.

     Since we started getting groceries once a week (on Fridays), we started a tradition of a Friday night barbeque.  The weather has been exceptionally warm this year.  I see pictures of this same date on several different years, and we were making snowmen!  I feel like the warmth is a special gift, as we aren't allowed to leave our yard.  We're SOOOO thankful we have a yard, and aren't in the city in an apartment!!!  I told Leif that if we still lived in an apartment, we would be getting a dog, just for a reason to get the kids outside every day!

     Being home so much and spreading out our food for a week has given us all such grateful hearts.  We don't know how long we'll have certain foods available (one week the store was out of onions!), so each week feels like a huge gift and we savor the fruits, vegetables, and barbecued meat.  This weekly feast is also a great end to the school week, as the kids have been working so hard on their lessons.

Side note: it has definitely been warm, but Ella and Ike tend to wear tshirts even if it's 40(F) degrees! I think it just feels so warm to them compared to the winter!!   

     Ella's neighbor friend slid this bucket of kittens through the fence.  How can you resist those little furry faces?!?

     We sent the bucket back with some kitten food and said we'd think about and also try to find homes for the kitties.  

     We never would have imagined our trip to the well would be such a source of excitement!  This three minute drive each week is a highlight for the family.  We have to wear masks, even with standing outside.  The kids have been motivated to drink lots of water so that we can go more often.  Our trips are pretty much once a week, sometimes  a little longer.

     The first week of the lockdown (before we started doing everything over Zoom meetings) and during the kids's spring break, we had some extra time. We painted this mosaic on this wall one afternoon.

a picture before we peeled the masking tape off

We just love how cheerful it is!  It was definitely a group project.

We've also been trying to clean up the yard a bit, moving wood to more concrete piles.

We had a big pile of gravel that Leif dumped along the side of the house to make a walkway.

We all smoothed it out.

Ella and Ike often think of creative projects of their own.

Homemade juice popsicles!

     We've been studying the Bible as a family.  Right now we're reading about the life of Elijah.

     We're so grateful for the Blakers' continued lessons with the kids over Skype.  Leif has taken over with helping the kids with math during this time, and we both help them with other school questions.

The kids have had a lot of homework.

     The kids have taken a few extra classes on Outschool, too.  Anneka really enjoyed a digital drawing class.  She learned how to take a sketch...

...and turn it into this! She's been experimenting, making all sorts of cool digital art.

     Ella has had a lot of homework for her dance class.   Sometimes we have to send in videos and it takes a long time to get it just perfect.  The teacher is quick to point out if something isn't perfect.

     She also has  homework for her drama class.  On this day, she had to send in pictures of herself displaying varying emotions.  She was supposed to be in a play, but now the teacher had everyone send in videos clips with each of their lines and she will put them all together.

Ike has been doing a study on Robinson Crusoe.  He made raisins out of grapes.

And he made butter out of cream.

Cuddle times with Boomerang, the cat.

     The kids are always thinking of creating things to do and build with things from the yard.  Here's a little fort they made.

     They stacked had me stack these tires over them until they were completely overhead.

A kid-made teeter-totter

     We've played some outdoor games, too, and made up variations of games we've played in the past.  It really helps to move our bodies and get outside to prevent going stir-crazy!

   The kids made an obstacle course and timed everyone to go through it.  It was great fun watching Papa go through it!

They kept adding tires for us to jump over.  

Family Dance Competition!

... and dance party!

     Ella and Ike took a one-time class on how to make illusions.  After the class, all three kids looked up different tricks on YouTube and performed them for us.  

Listening to an audio book outside.

Enjoying lunch and the view

Throwing the Frisbee

Experimenting with Different Hairstyles

Making a basket out of twigs

Digging a hole to make a "zipline" for our dog.

     Leif decided to make a bike shed from materials we have around (as none of the construction stores are open).

Measuring the wood

 

Putting on the Roof

     The kids are learning skills that we probably wouldn't normally be focusing on, if it weren't for this lockdown.  We're definitely getting a bit stir crazy, staying home all the time.  But at the same time, we're thankful that we get to be together and create these memories, too.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, 

not lacking anything.  James 1:2-4