Easter 2011

With the help of my artistically gifted friend Kristin, Douwe and I learned how to dye and decorate real eggs, something I tried once at age 10, and haven't done since. We ended up with a dozen, and I also bought 6 dozen plastic ones to put some candy in. I volunteered to set up a little egg hunt at our family Easter gathering, and this turned out to be a much better experience than the city of Hammond fiasco I attended last year. After that chaos, I thought I was done with this whole business, but now I have a new perspective on how nice it can be if it is well executed and with a reasonable amount of children involved. We had cute little baskets (instead of plastic bags), only three children (instead of 300) and a huge rambly lawn with oak trees (instead of a fenced off portion of a soccer field) to make it feel like a hunt rather than a scary lawn mob scene with tramplings upon toddlers in their own territories and toddler mommies yelling (yes I did) at the invasive 12 year olds who ignored or didn't hear the rule about staying in their own age territory. The scene of yesterday was much more serene, (if you count out a few of the excitable Groen grandpas and grandmas who were screaming at the two boys to move faster and go the other way . .the poor boys didn't know which way to go and why they had to rush!)


I am much more of a syncretist than I was brought up to be, partly because I have chosen to let my child enjoy some of the child-oriented traditions I was not allowed to enjoy when I was young, but also because I no longer buy the argument that secular and sacred rites of our calendar are mutually exclusive. An abundance of eggy shapes celebrates the gift of reproductive life that our Creator has built into our world, and the birds and the bees and the eggs and the seeds are getting it on for the benefit of all and the glory of their Maker! And also, the crazy idea that a bunny and eggs go together is just about as crazy as the Easter reality that a grave is now a type of garden that will sprout up resurrected bodies someday all because Jesus defeated death and The Pit. Both impossibilities are embraced unquestioningly by young children and a little more playful fantasy and imagination is just what needs to be nourished if you want to grow a child into an adult who is able to believe in the impossible miracle that resurrection life is so fruitful that it can swallow up death.

Death is powerful and pervasive, but true Love persists and endures, and all creation is telling us that story each spring. I also think that many popular cultural practices and artifacts, even if they seem to contradict each other on a surface level, will converge to tell us that story, no matter whether they have their roots in sacred or secular spheres.

We had a wonderful holiday gathering at Jeff's parents and Douwe made a new friend out of a 3rd cousin and Hazel put smiles on everyone's face all afternoon long.

Pool time

Spent a few days in Holland< MI with my friend and her daughters, and one of the highlights of our visit was an excursion to the Holland Aquatic Center. It is very refreshing to be in city that seems to function enough to pool its resources (ha ha) to build and maintain such a nice place that can be used by all ages and recreational/competition levels. It was a great time for children and us moms!

March May September 2010

Here are a couple photos from last summer's growing season:

March: indoor seedlings



May: new plants




September: a forest of plants.


Watching edible things grow is one amazing experience.

We have 4 beds that are 3x 6 ' and 1 double length that is 3x 12' , they are different heights for interest and we use square foot gardening tools like the kitchen gardener planner on gardeners.com to help us figure out how many plants of a kind can go in 1 square foot. It is a small area of our yard but amazing how much can be grown, and we haven't even delved into the trick of using one space twice for early and late crops! That seems complicated to me but we'll get there eventually

First spring nature hike

We visited Sand Ridge today to learn about beavers and see the engineering work of a beaver. The Nature Preserve has a new beaver who has built a large lodge very close to the walking path. The resident naturalists are excited, but a little nervous because many trees are coming down each night. I learned that a beaver digs canals in the waterways to make an easier floating path for the trees it uses to build dam and lodge. Amazing animal.

We enjoyed seeing many early spring wildflowers on the soggy walk.

Great Day!

We were outside all day long on this beautiful Saturday, bagging dead stuff from the winter, riding bikes a bit and planting a few things in our veggie garden. . so glad this weather hit us on a Saturday!

Peas, lettuce, spinach, beets, arugula, endive, leeks, chives, onions sets strawberries and rasberries are growing outside now in their designated square foot spaces . .
and tomatos peppers carrots basil sunflowers and swiss chard are enjoying their little spot under the lamp indoors. such a fun time of year. life is persistent!

Trees Down

Our street lost 32 huge trees in preparation for some street repairs. . a sad day on 172nd St. We are no longer a street shaded with a canopy of trees.