Palm Sunday 2009: The Week in Review

For the first time perhaps in our entire family history, we got to church early enough to get seats for Palm Sunday. I love it when we can get a whole pew for our family. Usually there is a solitary person sitting at the end of the pew, and they look like their peace was disturbed when all six of us trip past. Then they have to tolerate all the bumps and nonsense that occurs throughout the mass. Often the person disappears right after Communion. I wonder if they found a better spot or left entirely.

“Wasn’t it worth getting there ten minutes early?” I ask my husband as we leave.

“What’s the difference? We have to stand for most of it anyway,” he replies.

He’s not the one the little one usually goes to, so if we are forced to stand I wind up holding all 30 pounds of her, while wearing heels. Just knowing we can sit if we need to is a relief.

So I enjoyed our Mass. As soon as we got home, my ten-year-old daughter and I went to get our raggedy hairs trimmed. Then we all went for a bike ride.

The kids and my husband spent what seemed like hours washing the cars. They haven’t been cleaned for the entire winter, so there was lots of scrubbing to do. Meanwhile, I worked in the kitchen, making up my own special dish I christened Chicken Extravaganza, which will be featured in this blog tomorrow.

I also helped my eleven-year-old daughter with her Hungarian culture project. There was research to be done for the report, and for the class food sample we made these lovely little cookies that are similar to Linza Tarts. These also will be displayed on this blog this week.

We got some fun shopping last night. I am not big on shopping, but I do enjoy buying Easter dresses for my girls each year. I took my two older girls to Kohl’s where they each tried on about twenty dresses. They were really hysterical, laughing and commenting loudly to each other through the stall. I wondered how many people outside were listening to the songs they made up.

They finally settled on what they called “seaweed mermaid dresses”. They are matching, flowy, green and blue dresses with thick straps, which they will wear with white sweaters on Easter. They reminded them of mermaids because of how flowy they are, and of seaweeds because of the surreal mixed green and blue pattern.

This week at softball practice I commented to another mother on how cute the girls were at this age. She looked at me like I was crazy. She looked at my toddler and said, “I’d like to bottle them up at this age and keep them that way forever.”

What I thought adorable was the pure enjoyment that girls take in their friends and teammates. My girls have been playing in the same league since they were five, and have played with each of the other girls on the same team at least once, and against their team on the other years. When they met for the first practice, they literally jumped into each other’s arms, hugging one another.

God made babies to grow up, and watching them fulfill their potential as they grow through each stage is such a blessing.

Painting by Fra Angelico, 1450, Entry into Jerusalem