Even More English Visitors

 

     Well, compared to the purpose, joy and busy-ness of Holy Week, this week felt a little flat.  I did alot of driving around.  Imogen has track practice, and Abigail has extra practices for The Little Mermaid, so between the two of them, either Tim or I were constantly in the car, it seemed.

     And, things were back to normal:  Tim's car broke down, so he had to spend time fixing it, and the hot water tap starting leaking in our bath, so the hot water is turned off.

     But, there were good things as well.  Nelly, who is seven, had to write a research paper for her homeschool course.  She chose to do it on the human body.  She loved it!  We spent two intense hours researching the different body parts, and she remained focused and interested the whole time.  I couldn't believe it!  I love it when kids get absorbed in constructive things.  Makes all the bad days worth it.

     Imogen had a track meet on Saturday.  She came home with four medals!  She has never been awarded a medal before, so she was happy.  She likes to complain a lot about track, but I think I can remember complaining about track as well when I was her age, so I try not to say too much when she does it.

     This past week I worked very hard on my blog, Philosophy for Parents.  I find writing that blog very challenging.  I try to encourage myself by remembering that I am engaged in a rather unique project in applying philosophy so directly to parenting, but I'm not sure how much good it is doing.  Still, in praying about it I feel that I should continue.  I just wish it would get a bit easier!

     Some very good news this week, though, is that I have officially become a columnist for the website The Conservative Woman.  It's a UK website, founded by Kathy Gyngell and Laura Perrins, two of my heroines!  Kathy founded Full-Time Mothers back in the early 1990's, which is now called Mothers At Home Matter.  She felt that mothers at home weren't valued, so she started a group to address that problem.  I found them in 2000 when I was a relatively new mom, and in desperate need of support.  Whenever I read their newsletter talking about the importance of mothers at home, I felt so strongly that what they were saying was right.  But nobody else was saying it! 

     Anyway, Kathy has moved on to different projects, such as researching and writing about drug abuse in Britain, but she is more dedicated than ever to supporting mothers at home.  Laura is younger, with two young children at home.  She is a former barrister but she has taken a career break to take care of her children.  She is a powerhouse!  Last year about this time, the deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was on some radio show saying that women need to be in work, not at home with their children, and she called in and absolutely tore his argument to pieces.  She left him speechless, so much so that she was plastered on the front page of the newspapers the next day, with a headline like 'pit-bull stay at home mom goes for Clegg', or something like that.

     So anyway, I have written a few things on Philosophy for Parents that Kathy really liked, and then she invited me to be a columnist for them!  I was so honored!  I write a 'Letter from America' every week, and the first one was posted yesterday.

     Last but not least, just when it looked like the week was going to end on a rather dull note, I walked into church yesterday and saw one Jill Kirby.  Jill Kirby has been a friend of Tim's family since the 1960's.  She lives now up near Los Angeles, and I had totally forgotten that we had invited her to come to dinner yesterday!

     Jill is very special, because she is the woman who introduced Tim's mother, Shirley to our church back in the 60's.  She was Shirley's roommate. Jill had joined the church a few years before, and the missionaries asked her to fast and pray about someone with whom she could share the gospel.  Somehow she decided it would be Shirley, although from what I can tell Jill was never sure how it was going to go!  It's a very touching story, but apparently Shirley went from arguing a lot with the missionaries to agreeing to be baptized in a very short space of time. 

     So, if it wasn't for Jill, my family would not exist.  Tim's parents would not have met, my husband would not have been born, he would not have been raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and I would not have met him.  So there you go.  We loved having her for dinner.  She kept saying, 'You don't know how happy I am to see you all'.  It was a wonderful evening.

     By the way, menu was roasted chicken with rosemary, garlic and lemon, mashed potatoes, carrots with orange, asparagus with lemon, brussel sprouts, Yorkshire puddings, and Italian Easter cake bread and butter pudding for dessert.  Awesome.  



 

 

Tim with Jill Kirby

Jill Kirby with The Tim and Holly Bleakley family, minus Imogen (who was taking the picture)
 

Holy Week, Part 2

     The rest of Holy Week was busy and amazing and wonderful.  I'm still basking in the joy from yesterday - Easter Sunday. 
     On Thursday, we had our egg dying session.  Lots of dye, paints, eggs, newspaper, and mess.

 

     On Thursday evening - Maundy Thursday - we always have a 'passover' meal to commemorate the Last Supper and the advent of the Easter weekend.  I serve a meal that is similar to what they would have had for a Passover meal in Jesus's time.  I make up little 'seder' plates for each person, with a piece of lamb, a piece of unleavened bread, haroset, horseradish (for the bitter herbs), and parsley.  We talk about what the Passover is, and what it symbolizes.  When Moses was trying to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, God said he would send a destroying angel to kill the first born son of any house that did not have the blood of a sacrificial lamb upon the door.  So the Passover celebrates that the destroying angel 'passed over' the homes of the families that had the blood of the lamb upon their doors.  It also celebrates the exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt, and how God made the Israelites His people.
     The foods on the seder plate all represent something from the Passover.  The lamb represents the sacrificial lamb, and the blood which saved the Israelites from the destroying angel.  The haroset represents the mortar that was used by the Jews to build the Egyptian pyramids when they were slaves.  The bitter herbs represent the bitterness of their slavery.  Unleavened bread represents the haste with which they left Egypt when Pharaoh gave his permission for them to leave.  And parsley represents spring and the new life that it brings.
     We also talk about the Christian symbolism of Passover:  Jesus is the sacrificial lamb, and it is His blood saves us from the destroying angel of our souls.  Egypt represents the slavery of sin, so the haroset and bitter herbs could represent the bitterness of a sinful life.  The unleavened bread represents the haste with which we should abandon sin, and parsley represents our new life in Christ.
     We always have another family over for Passover meal. This year it was the awesome Sommers family, and we had a great time. 

 

 

     Sadly, Good Friday is not a holiday in America, so it makes it a bit harder to observe properly, since Tim and Abigail were away with work and school.  So, we started out by making hot cross buns:

 



    And then going on to a very well organized Easter egg hunt with some friends:

     We came home and had a little devotional where we ate hot cross buns and talked about the events of Good Friday.  Then it was off shopping for Easter outfits for Easter Sunday.
     On Saturday we had an Easter brunch with all the family, where we had our traditional Good Friday menu:  smoked salmon, omelettes made with manchego cheese and topped with hollandaise sauce (didn't get to the sauce this year), fruit salad and hot cross buns. 

 

 

     On Saturday, the kids got to work and finished our Easter craft.  They did Golgotha, the Garden Tomb, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the Via Dolorosa.  I was really proud of them:

 

 



     On Saturday night we had our beloved friends over, the Kilmers, for a 'Jerusalem' supper.  We had a dinner with middle-eastern foods to remind us of Jesus's time and place.  Brandi made a fab salad of dates, almonds and spinach, and a butternut squash dip.  I made a lamb and saffron stew and some tilapia fillets.  We had unleavened bread and cheeses as well. 

     During dinner we did a little activity called 'Easter story in eggs'.  We had 12 plastic eggs, each with a scripture and a little item that in some way represented the Easter story. 
      For dessert, I made an Italian Easter cake, called a Colomba di Pasqua.  It is supposed to be in the shape of a dove, but I didn't have the right pan, so I just used a round cake tin.  It's a yeast cake - a very interesting recipe.  It was so much fun to try it out:

     Then it was time for the big day!  I lost count of how many times I had to clean up the kitchen this week, and I was rather sleep deprived.  But we had a lovely Easter Sunday devotional where we read and discussed the account of the resurrection as a family.  The kids then got their baskets and Easter clothes (I have lots of girls):

      One highlight of the week for me, I have to say, was making Greek Easter bread for Easter Sunday brunch.  I have only done this once before, and that was about 12 years ago.  So it felt like something of an experiment to try it again after so long.  I was SO PLEASED with the results!

     After brunch, it was off to church. I was a bit nervous because we were having an Easter Cantata, and I was in charge of the whole thing!  I wrote the script, assigned the speaking parts, chose the music, and, as the choir director, I was in charge of making sure the choir practiced the music as well.  We had been working really hard, but I wasn't sure how everything was going to come together.  But everything worked perfectly.  I had lots of compliments, and some commented that it was quite a spiritual experience for them.  I felt so relieved and so happy.
     And just when we thought we were done ... nope!  For Easter Sunday dinner we had two families come to visit us - the Leatherens from England, and the Kennedy's from Arizona.  Lisa Letheren and Gemma Kennedy both knew the Bleakleys in Tunbridge Wells, so it was great to see them, catch up, and swap Tunbridge Wells stories. 
     Anyway, I served dinner to 20 people.  Menu included roast lamb, mint jelly, baked potatoes, asparagus, and for dessert a strawberry rhubarb saffron trifle - what I always serve at Easter.

 

     And that is the end of our amazing Holy Week.  Off to bed!

Holy Week, Part 1

 

     Just a quick post, because it's so busy around here at the moment!  It's Holy Week, and it's all go around here.  About 9 years ago now I started thinking hard about how we could celebrate Easter more meaningfully.  Some traditions have now evolved in the Hamilton-Bleakley household, but every year I'm a bit daunted by the prospect of pulling it off.  So I try to take it slowly, and thoughtfully, trying not to take on too much.  But, honestly, there is a lot going on.  Just take it day by day ...

     Before Holy Week, we do a little Easter tree.  We make paper Easter eggs to hang on the tree.  This year, I bought a little olive tree as our Easter tree.  Since Jesus suffered for our sins in the Garden of Gethsemane, which was a garden of olive trees, I couldn't think of anything more appropriate:

 

     So, during Holy Week we do things to remind ourselves of the last week of Jesus' life.  On Palm Sunday, we read and discuss the account of Jesus's triumphant entry into Jerusalem.  We also get out a stack of illustrations which I have detailing the events leading up to the crucifixion, and put them up in chronological order on the wall.

     On Monday, we read the account of Jesus cleansing the temple, and discuss how that can apply to our lives.  If Jesus came to our house, what would He want to cleanse?  This year the kids decided He would cleanse the criticizing and the tattle-telling that has been happening as of late.

     On Tuesday, we talk about some of the parables that Jesus taught during this week.  This year we talked about his criticisms of the scribes and Pharisees, who 'strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel'.  I asked the kids what they thought that meant, and Eleanor said, 'Umm, they have small eyes but big mouths?'  We also had some friends over this year to make Easter crafts.  We made - well, tried to make - oil lamps out of clay, from the parable of the 10 virgins.  

 

 

 

We also made homemade marshmallow eggs and decorated them.

 

 

 

 

     On Wednesday, there is more discussion of the parables.  This year we also started our Easter craft.  We are making a model of Golgotha, the Garden tomb, and the Garden of Gethsemane.  We looked up pictures on the internet of Golgotha and the tomb, and the kids got really excited about trying to replicate them.  We just use newspaper, paper mache made of flour and water, and rocks.  Super cheap and, because I am not a perfectionist when it comes to crafts, easy.  

 

 

     Now it's Thursday, and things are really speeding up.  We have a Passover meal tonight which I have to prepare for today, and lots of preparations for Good Friday and the Easter weekend.  Easter walk, dying eggs, making hot cross buns ... it's all happening.  Wish me luck.

 

    

General Conference Weekend

     This past weekend was General Conference weekend.  'General Conference' is a semi-annual event for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Over the first Saturday and Sunday of every April and every October, the leaders of our church gather in the Conference center in Salt Lake City and give talks to the general membership of the church.  These talks are very important, because we believe that we are led by inspired men and women, who receive revelation from God.  These talks therefore are messages to us from God as to how He would have us live our lives.
     As you can imagine, conference might not be very fun for little ones.  The talks are rather long and well, you know, it's church, so it isn't exactly a dog and pony show.  However, we had a fabulous family friend in England, who invited us every conference weekend to her house.  She would make the weekend special - she would cook lots of amazing food, give pedicures to the girls, let the children play, etc.  She took over child care duties as well, so I could sleep in! 
     She would also give each child a 'conference pack', which consisted of a notebook, glue stick, pencil, and small pictures of all the general leaders of the church so that the children could paste the picture of whichever leaders spoke into their books, and then take notes on what they said.
     We have been going to her house for years to conference, so my children know all about conference.  They know how important it is, and they look forward to it because we've managed to make it fun for them.
     This year, however, we didn't have the option of going to our friends' house.  I had to make conference fun myself!  I did it by buying two dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts to mark the occasion.  The response I got from the kids was incredible.  You would have thought that they were told they were going to Disneyland or back to England for a visit.  I didn't realize they were so easy to please!
     Anyway, there were two two-hour sessions on Saturday to watch, which we did.  We always try to go for a walk in between sessions, to let them let out some energy.  We went for a walk around an English riding center, which is near our house.  It really is a beautiful place.  Here are some pics:

     The track is huge, and reminds me of the Circus Maximus in Rome!

 

Here are the kids, getting out their wiggles:

 

 

     After the two Saturday sessions, we then had the rest of the day reserved to spend at the science museum at Balboa Park in San Diego.  Tim has ranted and raved about Balboa Park for months now, and I had never had a chance to see it.  Balboa Park is a complex of buildings and gardens that were built in the early 1900's as part of a sort of 'world's fair' exhibit, where San Diego could show off what it had to offer to the world.  Tim was right to rave about it; it is a beautiful place with stunning buildings.  The buildings are in a 'mission' style so the whole place has this Spanish feel to it.  Some pics:

 

 

       ..... AND what I didn't realize was that they have re-created Shakespeare's Globe Theater here!  All I can say is:  COOL!  Last February we visited the recreation of the Globe Theater in London, and having seen that, I would have to say that the one here in San Diego seems a bit smaller.  But, hey, it's Shakespeare, and I am SO EXCITED to see Othello there this summer.

 

 
     After we wandered around the Park, we finally got to the science museum.  There were tons of hands-on activities for the kids, plus we got to see an IMAX theatre production - the kids had never been to one of those.  Anyway, they built, stacked, shouted, pulled, pushed, stared, listened, and all the other things you do in a science museum:

     Sunday was two more session of conference, and then choir practice at our house with a potluck dinner afterwards.
     I always find conference to be so inspiring.  The talks this time were no exception.  Elder Jeffrey Holland talked about enduring persecution as Christians, as did Elder Lawrence Corbridge and others. 
     As church members we have experienced alot of ill-will and opposition lately - as I think many other Christians have as well  - particularly regarding our stand on same-sex marriage, but in general just regarding our belief in God, as aethism seems to be 'trending' at the moment in much of the world.  I was moved when Elder Corbridge spoke of the persecution and sufferings that Christ endured, and asked 'Why did they not leave Jesus Christ, the Son of God, alone?  Because He is the truth, and the truth will always be opposed.'  So, prepare for more opposition ...
    Another point that struck me was made by Sister Linda Reeves.  She talked about how she struggled as a mother of 4 young children.  She and her husband went to the Lord in prayer with their difficulties, and recieved that answer that what was important in raising a family was not so much whether the house was clean or other things of that nature, but that they used their time to talk with their children, listen to them, and rejoice in the gospel of Jesus Christ with them.  I love that idea!  Important reminder.
     Finally, my favorite quote from conference was by Sister Jean Stevens: 'The gospel of Jesus Christ is not a checklist of things to do; rather, it lives in our hearts.  It is not weight, it is wings. It carries us!'  Absolutely.
 



Georgie's Birthday

     It's been a big week.  It was Georgiana's birthday on Thursday.  Yes, I know it's a good thing, but it's also an exhausting thing.  The older I get, the less I can seem to handle these things with grace and dignity. 
     Georgiana's birthday is always near Easter - in fact, she was born on Easter Sunday - so we have certain traditions associated with her birthday.  At her party we always have an Easter egg hunt, and she always has a carrot cake covered in cream cheese frosting, decorated with gold Lindt chocolate miniature bunnies sitting in green-colored coconut with candy flowers and miniature chocolate eggs. The decorations are always Easter/spring decorations.
     Birthdays in our house start early.  Tim likes to open his presents first thing in the morning (which is the opposite to me - I like opening mine near the end of my birthday), so we somehow started a tradition of giving the birthday person breakfast in bed, and presenting them with all of their presents.  Georgie requested crepes with lemon, sugar and nutella, along with bacon and maple syrup.  So I was up at 5:30 getting her breakfast sorted, trying to find my happy face for when I woke the birthday girl.
     Breakfast, cards and presents:

 

     Since we have only moved here a few months ago, Georgie didn't feel she knew enough people to have a proper party, so she decided to invite a family from our church instead.  That's always the best kind for me - there's more adults to help out and to keep me company.  But it was still stressful preparing a party buffet for 14 people.
     Here's Georgie on her ninth birthday:

 

 

     Georgie has made me very proud this week, actually.  I was exhausted this past weekend, and so I hadn't done my usual brunch for the choir members after choir practice on Sunday, which takes place at our house.  I was apologizing for my sins of omission and sending the choir members out the door, when Georgie informed me that she had made brunch and it was waiting on the dining room table.  And indeed it was!  There was a big bowl of canned peaches, a bowl of nutella mixed with miniature marshmallows, and yogurts.  I loved her catering style and I was touched that she could see a need and was willing to meet it.