Easter 2020

It was a weird end to Holy Week. No in-person services, no visiting friends in their churches (something we like to do this time of year), no new clothes or fresh haircuts. No Easter foods shared with friends. Instead, it was stormy and gray and windy and we stayed home all day, feeding the pellet stove, cooking, playing games, video calling with family, and watching a movie. I don’t think we’ll repeat in in 2021.

Still, there were highlights. They begin, of course, with dessert.

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Carrot cake for dessert this year to go along with our usual cherry-and-pineapple topped ham and other dishes.

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Homemade Easter baskets since I didn’t buy them before the stores closed. Follow me on Pinterest for more great crafts to make your kids feel loved and appreciated!

 

Far fewer eggs this year than usual, since we were dyeing them alone rather than with friends.

 

Some of my favorites. The first two were made by applying the food dye directly to the egg; the third resulted when the kiddo who made the first two picked up a white egg with fingers covered in dye. I’m especially proud of my little bunny and chick eggs. The last one is the interior of a fertilized egg. Yes, my youngest child goes to a farm-based school, so these are the kinds of things he thinks about.

Contenders for our annual egg pun contest: HENrietta Lacks, FRY-er Tuck, and Guy Mont-EGG, the protagonist from Fahrenheit 451, wearing his firefighter’s hat.

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Waited for a break from the wind to hunt for eggs in the backyard.

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The eggs all found.

 

 

Listening Hearts: Day 102

Our family has been working on a new daily practice: listening. Active, reflective, engaged listening that says to the other person. My desire is to understand you as you are, not to correct you or improve you or educate you.

To that end, we’ve been writing questions to help us get to know each other better. Some of these questions are serious; many are silly. Sometimes we laugh at things that are meant to be serious, and sometimes our silliness leads us into serious places. Our goal is to publish one each day on our blog. We hope you find them useful, either as prompts to think about yourself or as questions you bring to the car ride or the dinner table. They’re written by all of us, and you’ll see the diversity of our thoughts and interest in them, so in the questions themselves, you’ll get to know us a little better too.

Subscribe to our blog (or follow our Twitter account @familyfoxhole) to have them appear in your inbox or Twitter feed daily.

Today’s question:

Share a memory you have associated with Easter. If you don’t celebrate Easter, is there a tradition related to Easter that you think looks interesting?

easter

Listening Hearts: Day 101

Our family has been working on a new daily practice: listening. Active, reflective, engaged listening that says to the other person. My desire is to understand you as you are, not to correct you or improve you or educate you.

To that end, we’ve been writing questions to help us get to know each other better. Some of these questions are serious; many are silly. Sometimes we laugh at things that are meant to be serious, and sometimes our silliness leads us into serious places. Our goal is to publish one each day on our blog. We hope you find them useful, either as prompts to think about yourself or as questions you bring to the car ride or the dinner table. They’re written by all of us, and you’ll see the diversity of our thoughts and interest in them, so in the questions themselves, you’ll get to know us a little better too.

Subscribe to our blog (or follow our Twitter account @familyfoxhole) to have them appear in your inbox or Twitter feed daily.

Today’s question:

We’ve had 100 days of question so far. What is one conversation you had because of these questions that you enjoyed?

Our Morbid Little Easter Stories

Most of our Easter decorations are sweetly springtime–porcelain, paper, glass and alabaster eggs, pastel candles, and baskets of brightly colored saltwater taffy.

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Cards from friends and children’s crafts decorate our shelves.

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It’s an overall happy little set up, and if we have celebrated Easter with you before, there is something here now to remind us of those happy moments.

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But then, amid the candles and candy, I found these little scenes of wooden animals–bunnies and chicks and such–illustrating one-sentence stories, written by the middle child in this family. We update their stories regularly, so if you have a suggestion, feel free to offer it.

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Peter and Louis admit it: they’re better as friends than they are as lovers.

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Cameron and Camryn love their little baby bunny but also wonder: Are we really cut out for parenthood? And, since we’re bunnies, are we cut out for parenthood 100 more times?

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Were they good friends, or did they just like gossiping about the same people?

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Uncle Ed watches the twins for the first time. His enthusiasm is sweet but doesn’t replace competency.

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“A prophet is never appreciated in his hometown,” complains Bernard. “I think it’s more personal than that,” suggests Thomas. “It’s possible that people just don’t like you.”

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“But Birdie is our friend!” protests Amanda. “And so he would want us to make this hard decision,” counters Eleanor on this, their eight day adrift at sea.

 

Listening Hearts: Day 100

Our family has been working on a new daily practice: listening. Active, reflective, engaged listening that says to the other person. My desire is to understand you as you are, not to correct you or improve you or educate you.

To that end, we’ve been writing questions to help us get to know each other better. Some of these questions are serious; many are silly. Sometimes we laugh at things that are meant to be serious, and sometimes our silliness leads us into serious places. Our goal is to publish one each day on our blog. We hope you find them useful, either as prompts to think about yourself or as questions you bring to the car ride or the dinner table. They’re written by all of us, and you’ll see the diversity of our thoughts and interest in them, so in the questions themselves, you’ll get to know us a little better too.

Subscribe to our blog (or follow our Twitter account @familyfoxhole) to have them appear in your inbox or Twitter feed daily.

Today’s question:

What is your favorite thing about your religion? If you don’t have a religion, what is one thing you like about someone else’s religion?

Listening Hearts: Day 99

Our family has been working on a new daily practice: listening. Active, reflective, engaged listening that says to the other person. My desire is to understand you as you are, not to correct you or improve you or educate you.

To that end, we’ve been writing questions to help us get to know each other better. Some of these questions are serious; many are silly. Sometimes we laugh at things that are meant to be serious, and sometimes our silliness leads us into serious places. Our goal is to publish one each day on our blog. We hope you find them useful, either as prompts to think about yourself or as questions you bring to the car ride or the dinner table. They’re written by all of us, and you’ll see the diversity of our thoughts and interest in them, so in the questions themselves, you’ll get to know us a little better too.

Subscribe to our blog (or follow our Twitter account @familyfoxhole) to have them appear in your inbox or Twitter feed daily.

Today’s question:

Would you rather have a dozen siblings or be an only child?

Listening Hearts: Day 98

Our family has been working on a new daily practice: listening. Active, reflective, engaged listening that says to the other person. My desire is to understand you as you are, not to correct you or improve you or educate you.

To that end, we’ve been writing questions to help us get to know each other better. Some of these questions are serious; many are silly. Sometimes we laugh at things that are meant to be serious, and sometimes our silliness leads us into serious places. Our goal is to publish one each day on our blog. We hope you find them useful, either as prompts to think about yourself or as questions you bring to the car ride or the dinner table. They’re written by all of us, and you’ll see the diversity of our thoughts and interest in them, so in the questions themselves, you’ll get to know us a little better too.

Subscribe to our blog (or follow our Twitter account @familyfoxhole) to have them appear in your inbox or Twitter feed daily.

Today’s question:

What’s your favorite raw vegetable?

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Listening Hearts: Day 97

Our family has been working on a new daily practice: listening. Active, reflective, engaged listening that says to the other person. My desire is to understand you as you are, not to correct you or improve you or educate you.

To that end, we’ve been writing questions to help us get to know each other better. Some of these questions are serious; many are silly. Sometimes we laugh at things that are meant to be serious, and sometimes our silliness leads us into serious places. Our goal is to publish one each day on our blog. We hope you find them useful, either as prompts to think about yourself or as questions you bring to the car ride or the dinner table. They’re written by all of us, and you’ll see the diversity of our thoughts and interest in them, so in the questions themselves, you’ll get to know us a little better too.

Subscribe to our blog (or follow our Twitter account @familyfoxhole) to have them appear in your inbox or Twitter feed daily.

Today’s question:

What is one thing you like to do on a rainy day?

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Popcorn Time: Gochujang Caramel Corn

Regular readers of this blog know that we love popcorn in just about every form–including spicy caramel corn! Tonight, we imagined Korean fried chicken as popcorn by making use of gochujang paste, a slightly sweet and spicy paste made from chili peppers, fermented soybeans, barley, and glutinous rice. You can find it in the Asian aisle of the supermarket.

Ingredients:

  • 12 c. popped popcorn
  • 1 bag of Kraft caramels, unwrapped
  • 3 Tbs butter
  • 1/4 c. gochujang powder
  • 1/8 c. soy sauce

Directions:

  • Heat oven to 300 degrees. Grease roasting pan or 9x 13 pan.
  • Melt caramels and butter over low heat; add gochujang paste and soy sauce, stirring until smooth.
  • Pour caramel sauce over popcorn. Stir until coated.
  • Bake for 10 minutes, then stir, and bake 10 minutes further.
  • Turn out onto greased wax paper, breaking up any big clumps. Allow to cool completely before eating.

 

 

 

Popcorn Time! Gochujang Popcorn

Regular readers of this blog know that we love popcorn in just about every form. Tonight’s recipe was inspired by the fact that I was also making Brussel sprout kimchi and had just opened a new container of gochujang, a spicy paste of fermented soy beans, glutinous rice (the kind for making sticky rice), barley malt, and chili peppers.

Ingredients & Directions

Pop 1/3 c. of popcorn.

Whisk together 2 Tbs melted butter, 2 tsp gochujang paste, 1 tsp sesame oil, 1 tsp light corn syrup. Pour over popcorn.

Add a light dusting of salt mixed with red cayenne pepper to taste.