Triduum

Today is Holy Thursday, the start of the Sacred Paschal Triduum. I find that there is something extremely peaceful and relaxing about a weekend of going to church. The pinnacle of the liturgical year for Catholics, the events celebrated during Triduum represent our faith.

This year, my husband and I will be celebrating Triduum in our own fashion, separate from both of our families, at least for a time. I have an appointment this afternoon (half day of school) so we will not be able to attend the Chrism Mass, but we have plans to attend the celebration of the Lord's Supper. (We are still searching for a parish where we both are comfortable, so the location is TBA.) Tomorrow, E works, so I'm looking for someone to go to noon services with me. I don't really require companionship to church, but for the last 4 or 5 years, I've been attending Good Friday services with my mom and little sister, so the abrupt change to going by myself this year will be difficult. E did get both Saturday and Sunday off this weekend, so Saturday we plan on attending the Easter Vigil, with Sunday being a day of traveling to celebrate with my family. Of all the holidays, Easter is the one that both families celebrate on the day of, so E and I have to make decisions. We turned down his brother's celebration since we went there last year. My sister's birthday and my goddaughter's birthday also fall during Triduum, so we are including those celebrations on Sunday.

I'm really looking forward to the extra days off of school (Friday and Monday) even though they won't be as relaxing as Spring Break. A little rest is always needed.

Weekends and Time off.

The kiddos

running ahead

sibling love

beautiful sunshine

More Sibling Love

Japanese yumminess

It's not til the end of my Spring break that I get out and about. I spent some time with my cousin and her kiddos, because we are both on break right after Easter. Her family is so much fun to be around. E and I had to meet with the priest, and his church is just down the road from my cousin's house, so I like stopping over there when we meet with him. E & I went with T and the kiddos to the park after our meeting. It was quite the adventure. Being out in the sun was just lovely. 

T's two girls are going to be in the wedding, and the younger one, A, is super shy. So E & I spent some time trying to get her comfortable when we were out. She warms up very slowly, and I think having E around made her quiet, even though she contentedly walked with us and held my hand. 

That evening, E wanted to take me out to a nice dinner, so we had Japanese. It was one of those restaurants where they cook everything in front of you, and it's a bit of a show. Definitely a fun experience. 

And now I'm spending the rest of the weekend finishing up a unit plan for my student teaching, and preparing to go back to school. I love teaching, but I'm so glad that the tedious stuff (paperwork, etc) will be done in 2 weeks. And then GRADUATION! WOO!

Also, there are slow preparations for moving out of the house-- 6 boxes of stuff went to E's house (because his parents have the space, and we're planning on living in his town instead of mine) and there's another stack to go already. About 4 months left to go!

The musical finishes this weekend. Saturday performance is at 7 pm, and our Sunday matinee is at 2 pm. And then I only have 4 days this coming week, with Spring (Easter) Break starting on Friday.

Even though I still have to work, not going to school will be a refreshing change. Going to spend Easter with E's family. His brother & sister-in-law just welcomed a new little girl to the family-- still trying to decide if I ought to attempt to make a last minute new baby gift. I'll have a few things to finish up over this break, but there will definitely be a bunch of crafting time too. I miss my time spent visiting everyone's blogs, so hopefully that will pick back up.

I'm getting so close to the end!!!!

The Sunday Update

That title sounds like the name of a newspaper or something. But as I have not been able to blog as much as I usually like, I'm tossing in an update post to to catch up on everything.
During the week, things usually run quite quickly, with me attending classes, going to work, and driving 20 minutes one way for my field work. It was getting stressful, but as long as I got enough sleep, I was alright. And now it's nearly all done. I finished my last day of teaching this past Friday, and this coming week is my last of classes for this semester (I still have finals and spring semester though). So even though my list of homework hasn't gotten a lot shorter, the end is near, which is comforting.

My crafting has slowed down because of those few hectic weeks, but I am nearly finished with my Lenten blanket. These are the last few squares that I made for it: More V's Please, Forest Chains, Wooly Snowflake and Schoharie Spring.






I've been slowly working on the ripple for Allie's wedding present, and added another ripple project to my list, as I decided that I wanted another one from some of the yarn I just dyed. I'm making steady progress on both, even though Allie's is my only current project with a deadline.



Easter was a quiet affair with my family. We went to Easter Vigil, and on Sunday Mom cooked a big lunch. E came over, which was fun, since my brothers really like him. I caught him playing with my knitting halfway through the day:

You can't really see what was on the needles, but it was my never-ending Citron. (When I finish all these blankets, I'll come back to it)

And since Easter, it's been a huge variety of activities, but mostly school and work stuff, as mentioned before. In 1 1/2 weeks the semester will be over, and I will be able to reclaim my room which has fallen prey to the messy monster! Bags of yarn, half-finished projects, bits of reclaimed sweaters dyed with Kool-Aid, and all sorts of other stuff have built up, and I cannot live in such all small space with all the clutter.

Anyway, that's all for today! Hopefully things will be saner on Wednesday so I can actually share some of what I'm working on.