Weekly Update: 4.19.24
And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
Luke 22:19, ESV
Here on our homestead, we have had an incredibly busy Holy Week -- the week leading up to Easter in the Christian calendar. Grace and I laughed to each other one evening as the sun set and we were still busy, wondering where our free moments have gone?
While our days have been full from the time we open our eyes lately, the cycle of holidays has forced us to make time for festive moments. With Bonnie-Jean being so busy with her puppies, Grace and I have done a lot more of the cooking this week -- which we have really enjoyed, even if it does take up a lot of our free time.
On Saturday, our family had a seder to commemorate Passover. We are not Jewish, but as Christians, we enjoy celebrating the feast that foretold both the Lord's Supper and Easter itself. It was a nicer meal than our usual simple fare, which did take a bit of extra time -- but we enjoyed the change of pace. Wine-braised beef brisket, matzah bread, charoset, potato kugel, tzimmes (a sweet potato dish), and mákos tészta (poppyseed noodles). We enjoyed the meal at dusk.
When we weren't cooking on Saturday, Grace helped our dad work on the shower. He had cut some PVC board to act as a foundation for the metal roofing we will use to make the bathtub surround. Grace has the best caulking skills of the family, so she went to work with the silicone.
While Grace helped our dad, I went to the spring with my brothers, nieces and nephew. Our watercress had been getting out of hand, so we took advantage of the warm afternoon to clean up the creek. The kids and I uprooted the stuff and threw it into piles on the shore. Levi and Jeremiah gathered it up and moved it away from the creek so it can compost.
After a restful Sunday, we jumped into a busy week. On Monday, Grace and I finished siding our room. Then, Grace began to detail the walls, prepping them for paint. I started painting our bedroom door with the paint sprayer. Our dad worked on trim in the bathroom. Erin worked on sanding our bathroom vanities. Bonnie-Jean prepped trim around the house for painting.
On Tuesday, I went to Springfield with my folks. We had to pick up stainless steel nails for our exterior siding. We had to get orders of it from both of the Springfield Menards, since the nails were low in stock at both stores. We picked up some lumber as well -- more plywood for flooring, and cedar for our shower trim. We also picked up a bunch of groceries for the upcoming holiday weekend.
While we were gone, the rest of the family spent some time in the garden. We are trying to spend every moment we can in there, getting the ground ready for our fast-growing seedlings. Our average last frost date is this week, and judging by the forecast, we should be safe to plant our seedlings as soon as we can get the garden ready. Our nieces especially have been enjoying helping with the garden this year. They have both grown so much since last summer, they can almost keep up with the ladies in the family.
We took a day off of our project on Wednesday to catch up on tasks that were getting out of hand. I cleaned out our old commercial ice maker that we have in our office. We hadn't used it all winter, so it was a bit musty. Bonnie-Jean and Grace repotted our tomato starts. We all did some cleaning and organizing.
While we caught up on chores, we all spent some time remembering our Memaw, since Wednesday would have been her birthday. She passed away almost two years ago, but it still seems like just yesterday we were talking to her on the phone. Wednesday evening, Grace and I helped our mom make one of our Memaw's specialties: Swiss steak, with a side of green beans with crackers. We finished the meal with one of her favorite birthday cake options -- yellow cake with walnuts, topped with applesauce. It's an odd but tasty combination.
Thursday and Friday ran together. I worked on sanding the cedar for our bathroom, then the flooring for we sisters' room. In between, I sprayed coats of paint onto our door. Grace worked in the bunkhouse, caulking blocking and painting trim, while watching over her mini-Aussie, Milly. Since Tilde is so busy with her puppies, Milly has gotten very chummy with Dagger.
Friday morning, I got up early to make hot cross buns, which are a Good Friday tradition. We haven't been able to make them the last couple years, since we didn't have an oven. It was extra special getting to have them this year. We've made many different recipes over the years, but Chef John's has become our absolute favorite. Even though we are so busy, it was a sweet moment to stop, sip coffee, and enjoy the festive treat.
Food is a unique blessing like that. We all have to eat, so making time to cook is a non-negotiable. This week's commemorative meals required enjoyable moments of preparing the food together, talking, and remembering happy times gone by. Passover is an intentional time of reenactment, but in a sense, all traditional meals are that way. In frying my Memaw's Swiss steak, I went through motions she herself had gone through dozens of times. As I shaped the hot cross buns, I did something I've done with my mom many times. There is something beautifully repetitive in family recipes and holiday traditions. This afternoon, I know my mom and I will mix up carrot cake, using a recipe we got from one of my mom's best friends when I was a baby. We will make the dinner rolls my mom has made since I was little. Last night, I poured Jello into the Easter Egg molds we've had for decades. And so, as we pass from the season of Lenten fasting into Easter feasting -- I am reminded about why Jesus calls his people to remember him with a meal. There are few ways to really relive the past. Cooking and eating is one of them.
