Easter Belly
So. Total fail on the reducing the belly thing. Admittedly, it was rather ridiculous to expect much in one week but I had to try, right? I'll keep on trying. Once this headache goes away.
In the meantime, Easter did happen, belly and all.
I've been pondering thoughts about Easter for a while. I hate how the true reason for celebrating gets shoved aside in favor of ham and chocolate bunnies. Where in the heck did the concept of the Easter Bunny even come from, anyway? I mean, Santa Clause at Christmas, I get. An over grown bunny with egg filled baskets? Not so much. Why I'm only questioning this now, I haven't a clue. Must research this, though.
But really, how does the origin of Christianity get so lost and nobody seems to notice? At Christmas Christians are all indignant about how Jesus is the reason for the Season. And yes, that's true. But the whole reason He was born was so that He could die as the ultimate sacrifice and be resurrected to save the world from sin. So I'm thinking, His death and resurrection (the meaning of Easter) is just as important (or more!) as Christmas and His birth. Where's the indignation that a silly wabbit and hiding eggs overpowers the message of Jesus's death and resurrection? And...now the PC police are wishing people a Happy Spring instead of Happy Easter. Where's the outrage and mass emails about that little nugget of silliness? Huh?
Anyway, we had a lovely Easter celebration this weekend. I spent my Good Friday mostly at home. I did venture out for a short shopping trip. My little town basically sucks in the shopping scene, though. The UBS I've been just DYING to check into was a waste of time. The thrift store yielded me two books, though. And the one clothing store I braved was a disaster. They had a decent amount of plus-sized clothing and the clothing was cute. But it was not very flattering or age appropriate so I left it all there.
It was only when I got home that I realized that the reason I didn't find anything I liked was because it's not time for me to buy new clothes yet. I'm waiting for that ever elusive "smaller size" thing to come around. Someday it will, and I don't want to have wasted my cash on the bigger sizes.
'Cause ya'll...I wore a shirt Friday that I had bought at Christmas (the one in the pic that broke the fat girl's back) and it fit perfectly (loose but not baggy) at Christmas but now? HUGE. Like, it made me look ridiculous it's now so big. Which made me feel good but also annoyed because it's basically still a "new" shirt and now it doesn't even look good on me anymore.
So, apparently my subconscious is waiting this time.
Also picked up my groceries and a new water hose box thingy. I've been needing one of those forever and refused to shell out the twenty-something bucks to get one. But I had overbudgeted my electric bill by $30 this month so I took that thirty bucks and plunked down the moolah for a water hose box reel thingy. (whatever it is!)
When I got home, I just had to test it out. It's great! Keeps the hose from kinking up AND makes for a much neater presentation. Maybe when I feel like really torturing ya'll, I'll take a photo of it and post it here. hehehe
How did I test it out, you ask? I washed my filthy disgusting pollen riddled car! I read somewhere that washing your car burns 250 calories. So yeah. I figured washing the car would be an excellent calorie burning companion to the two miles I'd walked earlier. That, and I'd hoped it would help combat the bacon double cheeseburger, fries and Java Chiller I'd brought home from Sonic for lunch.
Naturally, after I finished with the car I was too pooped to pop so the DP and I vegged on the couch and watched 4 hours of Vampire Diaries on DVD. I've just started getting the first season from Netflix and I'm in love. It's like a great combination of Twilight and Dark Shadows with a mix of "good vampire vs. bad vampire" thrown in for good measure. I'm officially obsessed. If you haven't had a chance to watch any of it, I highly recommend it to all my vampire loving friends. Oh, and so far there aren't any werewolves. But here is a witch! And that's actually a lot of fun. I mean, I'm all about some werewolves (Josh, Jacob, Alcide) but I've always been fascinated by witches and witchcraft.
ANYWAY, Saturday was house cleaning, baking and family time. I went ahead and made the chocolate chip cookie dough peanut butter cups I planned on taking to Easter lunch Sunday and then later on in the day I made chocolate biscuits that I wanted to take to Easter breakfast at church. I confess. I'm maybe a little bit obsessed with How Sweet's chocolate concoctions.
Sis1 and Emmy arrived somewhere around the 5:30pm mark--just as I was taking the last batch of biscuits out of the oven. So once they were all hanging out on the cooling racks, I headed to the folks place where we ate grilled burgers and french fries and made each other laugh until my face hurt and tears streamed from my face. I'm really glad I have a family I can laugh with.
Unfortunately, we were having so much fun that I didn't get home until 9:30 and then I sat up until nearly eleven with Sis1 while we waited for her scalp treatment to dry.
I know I've never mentioned it before but over the last year or more, Sis1 has been battling a hair and scalp condition called alopecia which mostly means she went almost completely bald and has had to have steroid shots in her scalp for the past year and use a few chemicals each night to stimulate new growth. She wore wigs for a long time. Or caps. But she's finally grown in an almost full--albeit gray--head of hair. So, yeah. It's important to be supportive.
Just sucks because we had to get up around 5 in order to both get showers and dressed in time for sunrise service at Church. I got up at 5 and she got up at 5:30.
We had a great time, though. The sunrise service was cold...we were standing outside in front of the cemetery where we have three wooden crosses displayed...but the sermon was great and it made us grateful for the hot breakfast that awaited us.
People were mostly confused by my chocolate biscuits. No one had seen me bring them in so they weren't sure what they even were. The pastor was the first to break the ice with them. I was standing in line waiting to get at the sausage gravy when I heard him. "What....Wait, are these...These are biscuits. Chocolate biscuits." A few seconds later, "And they're GOOD."
hehehe
I never said a word about them being mine but I did quietly bask in the glory. *cheesy grin*
Once he declared them yummy for consumption, they flew off the plate like hotcakes. The pastor loved them so much he mentioned them in the 8am sermon! lol So I guess I owe Miss How Sweet a big thanks for making me the star of the Easter church breakfast! :-D
Had similar reactions from the family with the peanut butter cups. I'm an all around super star. hehe
Anyway, the following are the pic we took after church all dressed up in our Easter "frocks."
No pics with Bobo. He's still attending a separate church and their services didn't start until 11am so he was gone by this point. I know he'd hoped I'd attend with him like I did last year. But things just didn't work out that way this year. I had some cooking to do and well, to be quite honest, I'm not terribly fond of the church he attends. I want him to come back to our little church. But a lot of things would have to change before that will ever happen. Things like the Apocalypse, probably. *sigh* Men are so stinkin' stubborn.
Anyway, for fear this post has gone on too long, I'll post the rest of it (and the pics of the kids and their egg hunt!) tomorrow. Until then, distract yourselves from my belly with this:
Emmy the super model. She's so stinkin' cute.
In the meantime, Easter did happen, belly and all.
I've been pondering thoughts about Easter for a while. I hate how the true reason for celebrating gets shoved aside in favor of ham and chocolate bunnies. Where in the heck did the concept of the Easter Bunny even come from, anyway? I mean, Santa Clause at Christmas, I get. An over grown bunny with egg filled baskets? Not so much. Why I'm only questioning this now, I haven't a clue. Must research this, though.
But really, how does the origin of Christianity get so lost and nobody seems to notice? At Christmas Christians are all indignant about how Jesus is the reason for the Season. And yes, that's true. But the whole reason He was born was so that He could die as the ultimate sacrifice and be resurrected to save the world from sin. So I'm thinking, His death and resurrection (the meaning of Easter) is just as important (or more!) as Christmas and His birth. Where's the indignation that a silly wabbit and hiding eggs overpowers the message of Jesus's death and resurrection? And...now the PC police are wishing people a Happy Spring instead of Happy Easter. Where's the outrage and mass emails about that little nugget of silliness? Huh?
Anyway, we had a lovely Easter celebration this weekend. I spent my Good Friday mostly at home. I did venture out for a short shopping trip. My little town basically sucks in the shopping scene, though. The UBS I've been just DYING to check into was a waste of time. The thrift store yielded me two books, though. And the one clothing store I braved was a disaster. They had a decent amount of plus-sized clothing and the clothing was cute. But it was not very flattering or age appropriate so I left it all there.
It was only when I got home that I realized that the reason I didn't find anything I liked was because it's not time for me to buy new clothes yet. I'm waiting for that ever elusive "smaller size" thing to come around. Someday it will, and I don't want to have wasted my cash on the bigger sizes.
'Cause ya'll...I wore a shirt Friday that I had bought at Christmas (the one in the pic that broke the fat girl's back) and it fit perfectly (loose but not baggy) at Christmas but now? HUGE. Like, it made me look ridiculous it's now so big. Which made me feel good but also annoyed because it's basically still a "new" shirt and now it doesn't even look good on me anymore.
So, apparently my subconscious is waiting this time.
Also picked up my groceries and a new water hose box thingy. I've been needing one of those forever and refused to shell out the twenty-something bucks to get one. But I had overbudgeted my electric bill by $30 this month so I took that thirty bucks and plunked down the moolah for a water hose box reel thingy. (whatever it is!)
When I got home, I just had to test it out. It's great! Keeps the hose from kinking up AND makes for a much neater presentation. Maybe when I feel like really torturing ya'll, I'll take a photo of it and post it here. hehehe
How did I test it out, you ask? I washed my filthy disgusting pollen riddled car! I read somewhere that washing your car burns 250 calories. So yeah. I figured washing the car would be an excellent calorie burning companion to the two miles I'd walked earlier. That, and I'd hoped it would help combat the bacon double cheeseburger, fries and Java Chiller I'd brought home from Sonic for lunch.
Naturally, after I finished with the car I was too pooped to pop so the DP and I vegged on the couch and watched 4 hours of Vampire Diaries on DVD. I've just started getting the first season from Netflix and I'm in love. It's like a great combination of Twilight and Dark Shadows with a mix of "good vampire vs. bad vampire" thrown in for good measure. I'm officially obsessed. If you haven't had a chance to watch any of it, I highly recommend it to all my vampire loving friends. Oh, and so far there aren't any werewolves. But here is a witch! And that's actually a lot of fun. I mean, I'm all about some werewolves (Josh, Jacob, Alcide) but I've always been fascinated by witches and witchcraft.
ANYWAY, Saturday was house cleaning, baking and family time. I went ahead and made the chocolate chip cookie dough peanut butter cups I planned on taking to Easter lunch Sunday and then later on in the day I made chocolate biscuits that I wanted to take to Easter breakfast at church. I confess. I'm maybe a little bit obsessed with How Sweet's chocolate concoctions.
Sis1 and Emmy arrived somewhere around the 5:30pm mark--just as I was taking the last batch of biscuits out of the oven. So once they were all hanging out on the cooling racks, I headed to the folks place where we ate grilled burgers and french fries and made each other laugh until my face hurt and tears streamed from my face. I'm really glad I have a family I can laugh with.
Unfortunately, we were having so much fun that I didn't get home until 9:30 and then I sat up until nearly eleven with Sis1 while we waited for her scalp treatment to dry.
I know I've never mentioned it before but over the last year or more, Sis1 has been battling a hair and scalp condition called alopecia which mostly means she went almost completely bald and has had to have steroid shots in her scalp for the past year and use a few chemicals each night to stimulate new growth. She wore wigs for a long time. Or caps. But she's finally grown in an almost full--albeit gray--head of hair. So, yeah. It's important to be supportive.
Just sucks because we had to get up around 5 in order to both get showers and dressed in time for sunrise service at Church. I got up at 5 and she got up at 5:30.
We had a great time, though. The sunrise service was cold...we were standing outside in front of the cemetery where we have three wooden crosses displayed...but the sermon was great and it made us grateful for the hot breakfast that awaited us.
People were mostly confused by my chocolate biscuits. No one had seen me bring them in so they weren't sure what they even were. The pastor was the first to break the ice with them. I was standing in line waiting to get at the sausage gravy when I heard him. "What....Wait, are these...These are biscuits. Chocolate biscuits." A few seconds later, "And they're GOOD."
hehehe
I never said a word about them being mine but I did quietly bask in the glory. *cheesy grin*
Once he declared them yummy for consumption, they flew off the plate like hotcakes. The pastor loved them so much he mentioned them in the 8am sermon! lol So I guess I owe Miss How Sweet a big thanks for making me the star of the Easter church breakfast! :-D
Had similar reactions from the family with the peanut butter cups. I'm an all around super star. hehe
Anyway, the following are the pic we took after church all dressed up in our Easter "frocks."
No pics with Bobo. He's still attending a separate church and their services didn't start until 11am so he was gone by this point. I know he'd hoped I'd attend with him like I did last year. But things just didn't work out that way this year. I had some cooking to do and well, to be quite honest, I'm not terribly fond of the church he attends. I want him to come back to our little church. But a lot of things would have to change before that will ever happen. Things like the Apocalypse, probably. *sigh* Men are so stinkin' stubborn.
Anyway, for fear this post has gone on too long, I'll post the rest of it (and the pics of the kids and their egg hunt!) tomorrow. Until then, distract yourselves from my belly with this:
Emmy the super model. She's so stinkin' cute.
Comments
(Jana rolls her eyes while drolly thinking, "Of course you do.")
Ahem...
It all stems back to when Christianity was attempting to take over the world. The Church tried to stamp out pagan traditions by assigning many high holy days to coincide with pre-existing 'holidays'.
Hence, you have Halloween and All Saints Day occurring during Samhain. You have Christmas and Epiphany occurring during Yule, though many biblical scholars argue that Christ was not born in winter. Many saints' feast days occur on what used to be pagan celebrations.
The same happened with Easter, the name of which comes from Eostre, pagan goddess of springtime. Umm...I'm going to C&P this next bit, to make sure I get it right.
Anglo Saxons worshipped Eostre, the goddess of springtime and the return of the sun after the long winter. According to legend, Eostre once saved a bird whose wings had frozen during the winter by turning it into a rabbit.
Because the rabbit had once been a bird, it could still lay eggs, and that rabbit became our Easter Bunny. Eggs were a symbol of fertility, in part because they used to be so scarce during the winter. There are records of people giving each other decorated eggs at Easter as far back as the 11th century.
And that is why colored eggs are delivered by a rabbit.
To go on...
The symbols of rabbits and eggs were adopted by Christians to symbolize Christ. Because rabbits are so prolific, they symbolize 'new life'. Eggs also symbolize new life, and the opening of the egg to present a chick is believed to represent Christ leaving the tomb.
Because eggs are/were traditionally not eaten during Lent (eggs being rather scarce during winter centuries ago), a hard-boiled egg was considered a special treat at easter, and were originally died red.
End lecture. *grin*
So basically us Christians are the ones who ruined other holidays for the rest of the world. We're so cheeky like that, I guess. lol
I wouldn't say Christians 'ruined' other holidays, but I do think it shows how difficult it is to completely stamp out a peoples' religious beliefs (or any beliefs, really). Instead of abandoning the 'old ways', they merely incorporated some of the old traditions into the new theology.
Your photos are cute! I liked your 'frock'. Esp the ruffles around the neckline.
BTW, Heather, thanks! I enjoyed that!
Oh, and I really loved that the church totally loved your biscuits. That is so rewarding!
Thanks, Jen. :-)