Spring Break- Easter Weekend, April 11 & 12
A strange Easter for sure... Remember when President Trump said he hoped the country would be up and running by Easter? We knew well before Easter that wouldn't be happening but it was nice to have hope that Easter would culminate with the stay at home orders to end and businesses/ schools to open up again. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. But, Easter did and that's the most important thing.
Saturday morning was a different one for me. Normally, I wake up and run first thing in the morning. But, my left leg was hurting so I skipped my run. The past two (or three?) Saturday mornings, I've gone to the grocery store in the morning. But, since I went to the grocery store on Friday morning, I had no need to go on Saturday. The kids slept in, Donnie worked out in the basement and I did some reading.
In the early afternoon, we went to Patricia Allyn Park to walk. The weather was nice- not super warm but comfortable enough to be in long sleeves if moving briskly. By the end of our walk, the sun came out and it became much warmer. The forecast had called for a good chance of rain and overcast skies.
When we got home, Donnie decided it was warm enough to nap outside on the deck. The girls laid out on the deck. I stayed inside and read. Jacob had school work to do. For dinner, we walked into downtown Springboro and picked up bourbon chicken from a food truck that's selling its food at a fixed location each weekend since it can't go around to festivals like it normally does in the spring. We all love bourbon chicken so this was a treat. Bonus that we walked together to get our food (not a bonus from the kids' perspective AT ALL!).
Sunday morning, Easter- Our church was live streaming our pastor's Easter sermon at 10:00 am Sunday morning so we made sure all the kids were up and out of bed before 10:00 so that we could watch the sermon together. It was a great message and so timely in this time of uncertainty. Our pastor wanted everyone watching to take communion together. Before the sermon started, Abby got all of our communion supplies ready- she cut up bits of crackers for everyone and poured ginger ale into little cups.
After the sermon, I worked on getting our Easter meal ready- decided we'd eat on real china at the kitchen table, not in the dining room. Fancy, yet informal :). It was strange to be preparing a turkey for just our family. I almost always make a turkey when we host Christmas. I have to think about when to put the turkey in the oven based on when people are coming over which is based in part on when some people need to leave our house to go to another celebration. For just our family to be eating the meal, the time that we ate mattered not.
For our meal, we had turkey, steamed carrots, homemade rolls (Texas Roadhouse roll copy cat recipe- mine didn't turn out so well), mashed potatoes and gravy and that was it! I forgot to make the green beans I planned on serving. Donnie purchased two desserts for us when we was at Walmart the day before. The best part of the meal was all that turkey still attached to the bones... I spent quite some time after we ate cutting every bit of meat off of the carcass. I was looking forward to turkey leftovers for upcoming meals :).
We gave the kids their Easter baskets after we ate. The baskets were lackluster- I'm blaming the pandemic and the fact that the kids aren't little anymore. It was far easier to buy small things for them back then. Literally, the pandemic has made shopping more difficult as not all stores are open.
Abby and I were just about ready to go on a bike ride in the late afternoon/ early evening when it started to rain. Radar indicated that the rain would not be letting up any time soon. So, we settled for watching a show.
That was Easter 2020 in all of its earthly celebratory oddness- thankful for the eternal significance of the resurrection that ensures a future in heaven with Jesus one day.
Three Rineer Kids on Easter- I asked them to dress up just a little bit. Obviously we weren't going anywhere but I thought it would be a nice change (and look better in photos :)). Jacob, well, struggled with that request... This was the picture that convinced me to change the blog format. I wanted to use this picture with the old layout of the blog but because the orientation of the photo is vertical and not horizontal (like I normally use for the main picture), when I added this photo, it was grossly too large for the space. I tried to find a way to post it smaller but I couldn't. So, I found a new blog layout. I don't like the new one as much as the old and may change it. The picture I used for the main photo in the old layout was a good one of the kids but seeing the Christmas tree in the background every time I saw the blog was making me twitchy.
I have this photo on display from the only year where the kids had coordinating Easter outfits and one of the only ones where they posed with an Easter bunny. My kids never believed in the Easter bunny (how do parents even try to convince their children that a bunny brings gifts on Easter??). The only reason they posed with this fella was because he was at the restaurant where we had Easter lunch that year.
Some Easter decor- I like the little bunny in front of the picture of my grandpa and great uncle posing in the ship out of which they emigrated from Germany.
Easter baskets, as sparse as they were...
Saturday morning was a different one for me. Normally, I wake up and run first thing in the morning. But, my left leg was hurting so I skipped my run. The past two (or three?) Saturday mornings, I've gone to the grocery store in the morning. But, since I went to the grocery store on Friday morning, I had no need to go on Saturday. The kids slept in, Donnie worked out in the basement and I did some reading.
In the early afternoon, we went to Patricia Allyn Park to walk. The weather was nice- not super warm but comfortable enough to be in long sleeves if moving briskly. By the end of our walk, the sun came out and it became much warmer. The forecast had called for a good chance of rain and overcast skies.
When we got home, Donnie decided it was warm enough to nap outside on the deck. The girls laid out on the deck. I stayed inside and read. Jacob had school work to do. For dinner, we walked into downtown Springboro and picked up bourbon chicken from a food truck that's selling its food at a fixed location each weekend since it can't go around to festivals like it normally does in the spring. We all love bourbon chicken so this was a treat. Bonus that we walked together to get our food (not a bonus from the kids' perspective AT ALL!).
Sunday morning, Easter- Our church was live streaming our pastor's Easter sermon at 10:00 am Sunday morning so we made sure all the kids were up and out of bed before 10:00 so that we could watch the sermon together. It was a great message and so timely in this time of uncertainty. Our pastor wanted everyone watching to take communion together. Before the sermon started, Abby got all of our communion supplies ready- she cut up bits of crackers for everyone and poured ginger ale into little cups.
After the sermon, I worked on getting our Easter meal ready- decided we'd eat on real china at the kitchen table, not in the dining room. Fancy, yet informal :). It was strange to be preparing a turkey for just our family. I almost always make a turkey when we host Christmas. I have to think about when to put the turkey in the oven based on when people are coming over which is based in part on when some people need to leave our house to go to another celebration. For just our family to be eating the meal, the time that we ate mattered not.
For our meal, we had turkey, steamed carrots, homemade rolls (Texas Roadhouse roll copy cat recipe- mine didn't turn out so well), mashed potatoes and gravy and that was it! I forgot to make the green beans I planned on serving. Donnie purchased two desserts for us when we was at Walmart the day before. The best part of the meal was all that turkey still attached to the bones... I spent quite some time after we ate cutting every bit of meat off of the carcass. I was looking forward to turkey leftovers for upcoming meals :).
We gave the kids their Easter baskets after we ate. The baskets were lackluster- I'm blaming the pandemic and the fact that the kids aren't little anymore. It was far easier to buy small things for them back then. Literally, the pandemic has made shopping more difficult as not all stores are open.
Abby and I were just about ready to go on a bike ride in the late afternoon/ early evening when it started to rain. Radar indicated that the rain would not be letting up any time soon. So, we settled for watching a show.
That was Easter 2020 in all of its earthly celebratory oddness- thankful for the eternal significance of the resurrection that ensures a future in heaven with Jesus one day.
Three Rineer Kids on Easter- I asked them to dress up just a little bit. Obviously we weren't going anywhere but I thought it would be a nice change (and look better in photos :)). Jacob, well, struggled with that request... This was the picture that convinced me to change the blog format. I wanted to use this picture with the old layout of the blog but because the orientation of the photo is vertical and not horizontal (like I normally use for the main picture), when I added this photo, it was grossly too large for the space. I tried to find a way to post it smaller but I couldn't. So, I found a new blog layout. I don't like the new one as much as the old and may change it. The picture I used for the main photo in the old layout was a good one of the kids but seeing the Christmas tree in the background every time I saw the blog was making me twitchy.
I have this photo on display from the only year where the kids had coordinating Easter outfits and one of the only ones where they posed with an Easter bunny. My kids never believed in the Easter bunny (how do parents even try to convince their children that a bunny brings gifts on Easter??). The only reason they posed with this fella was because he was at the restaurant where we had Easter lunch that year.
Easter lunch at home- fun fact- we've never had the main Easter meal at our house prior to this year. My mother in law used to have us over to her house to eat on Easter. Then, when she decided she didn't want to cook for a crowd, we started going out to eat on Easter.
This guy (or gal) was tasty... and at 18 pounds for five people, he was the gift that kept on giving. We had leftovers for days which made all of the mess of prep before getting the bird in the oven and after well worth it. Making a ham would have been so much easier but too many people, er, kids, don't like ham so that wasn't a good option for us.
Some Easter decor- I like the little bunny in front of the picture of my grandpa and great uncle posing in the ship out of which they emigrated from Germany.
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