Passover 2011

This week I've really been thinking about my Savior and how grateful I am of His love for us.  In honor of Him, I wanted to acknowledge Passover (remembering when he caused the curse of death to  "passed over" His people, the Israelites, and brought them out of Egypt from underneath the bondage of Pharaoh).  So the kids and I enjoyed preparing our 2nd ever family Passover seder a few days ago.

We used the above book from our local library.  In the back were some easy recipes for our passover meal.

Ny helps to stir the meal for the matzah ball soup.

Our main Passover dish consisted of lamb, parsley for dipping in the salt water, an egg, and charoset.  We didn't have the bitter herb, so we reused the parsley  dipped in a bitter sauce instead.  Our side dishes (or just-in-case meals) were dinner rolls and wild grain rice.  Because we are not orthodox, nor are we Jewish, we didn't keep "kosher"- in case you were wondering about the dinner rolls!

Last year we created our own matzah.  This year it's store bought and surprisingly tastier.

Our humbly simple Passover meal completely set with a Haggadah printout (to help us follow along with what to say).

This year our meal is at a smaller table in a smaller home...and yet there was something so beautifully rich and grand about the entire process- from cooking and singing songs about the exodus with my kids to finally setting the table and sitting down to pray and  eat as a family.  My husband told the story of the Israelites' suffering and deliverance out of Egypt- with passion, I might add!  The kids loved it.  When it was Z's turn, she asked "the questions", and although Ny is not the youngest she had a turn at the questions as well.

Z finds the "afikomen"- the matzah wrapped in cloth which is hidden for the kids to find.  When they find it, they get a prize.

The main thing I wanted our family to get out of this special time together was to have the story of God's rescuing power be at the forefront of my children's minds as we are lead into the Resurrection weekend.  I want them to understand how important we are to our Lord- enough for Him to bring us out of Egypt.  He did this by delivering us through the power of the Cross-ultimately.  Today, we can be rescued out of our "Egypt" because of His submission to God's will by laying down His life on the cross.  For us.  It's too much for me to understand, but I receive it.  I can hardly fathom it, but I believe it.  And I want my kids to know as much as they can possibly understand at their tender ages of 3 and 8, that God loves them dearly.  Enough to "pass over" their sins and offer them true, everlasting life.
Again, as I mentioned earlier, I enjoy occasional fellowship with my Messianic brothers and sisters, but we are gentiles, not claiming a jewish identity.  So, we don't get all the "rules" just right.  But we celebrate Passover in the spirit of honoring God. 
I look forward to Sunday, the day we will remember Jesus and how He was resurrected from the grave.  It's a day of rejoicing-- it makes me very happy.  Reason?  Because I know that in Him I can have life too.  It's as though my life is wrapped in His, covered in His.  Whatever mistakes I've made are covered with His cloak of forgiveness.  Whatever needs I have- He's got me covered.  Where I falter, He lifts me up.  When I am confused, He takes away the cloud of confusion and brings clarity.  When I feel sad, His presence brings me joy.  When I want to throw in the towel and call it quits, the Lord gives me a renewed energy that I can't even explain.  It comes from Him.
Happy Passover, and Happy Resurrection Day.

Another easy lunch- quick and healthy chicken salad sandwhiches

Okay, you gotta know our family loves chicken! :-)

And since we always have leftover (as is typical for us)...I thought...why not create yet ANOTHER YouTube video about using leftovers for kids' lunches?  Plus, it was a healthy meal.

So...here is a video I made today right before our lunchtime to show you how I make a QUICK and HEALTHY chicken sandwhich (or chicken salad) for my kids' lunch during a busy day at home with them.

Mini Pizzas – A Kid Friendly Homeschooling Lunch

Here is a quick and easy lunch I like to make in the middle of homeschooling during the days when I'm running low on ingredients.  In between grocery shopping I like to make our food pantry s-t-r-e-t-c-h...so here's something your kids might like...enjoy the video (pls. rate and comment!!  I LOVE comments!)

Our Family Passover Seder Night 2010

So, last week we celebrated Passover and it was the first time for us.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, we have begun to really explore the Hebraic roots of our Lord, Yeshua - Jesus, and have been learning so much about how the Christian faith is deeply rooted in the early beginnings of Judaism.  It is something that we cannot get away from even if we attempt to close our eyes and ignore it.  For us, they are intertwined.

Lately I have been feeling the pull to draw closer to this aspect of our faith and to really search the scriptures and become more knowledgeable about this area , and really making certain my beliefs and convictions are backed up with Truth...

Here is what we did to prepare for Passover and how we integrated this into our school lessons: (keep in mind this is a somewhat loose Messianic version of the traditional orthodox seder...so not all elements were in place, but it was a wonderful experience nonetheless!!)

Again, as in my previous post about how we celebrated Purim, we used Robin Sampson's Biblical Holidays book to jumpstart us:

We started by getting our tablecloth prepared. I hunted all over town for a nice, lacy tablecloth and finally found some material at Walmart which I simply hemmed the corners, and voila- a tablecloth! NyGirl helped me with the hemming process.

NyGirl helps me prepare the meal for the matzah bread with no yeast. In order to keep it kosher we had to make sure to get it in the oven before 18 minutes so that the dough wouldn't naturally rise.

The dough is formed and ready to roll...

Time to prick the dough and form stripes. We are reminded that Jesus was pierced and received stripes for us.

When done our Matzah looked like this:

Next we make Charoset. This will remind us of the mortar used by the Hebrews, , and also the sweetness will serve to remind us later that Jesus takes away our bitterness. To make charoset, we need apples, which I cooked until a bit soft. Then I added the following ingredients (minus the raisins):

I blended the cooked apples in the blender with all ingredients, and lastly added the whole walnuts. Refrigerated.
Done.



 

Next, I cooked the turnip greens. I put some raw turnips greens aside for the Seder plate later. Horseradish would have been a good choice, but I couldn't find that at the grocery store this time...so turnip greens were next best choice.




Finally the food is all cooked, and I set the table.




Each plate receives a Hagaddah (a small booklet taking us through the ceremony). Each plate also receives a kiddush cup for the grape juice. In the middle is the seder plate – one shank bone of lamb, matzah, bitter herb, and charoset (added later).

Ny reads the four questions:

I keep BabyZ busy while my husband assists in leading the Seder:

Time for fun- I hide the “afikomen”- a piece of matzah bread wrapped in a linen cloth- for the kids to find. Whoever finds it redeems a prize. We are reminded that Jesus’ body was wrapped in a linen cloth, and when we find Him we find eternal life, our True Prize. He died as a ransom for our sins and has redeemed us…

Of course, NyGirl finds the afikomen first so she got a prize.




A Purim Feast

This past week on February 28th, our family celebrated a typical Jewish holiday, Purim.

Although we are not Jewish I find myself constantly wanting to learn more about the Jewish background of our Christian heritage, and I felt that it would be a wonderful  concept to explore this year for our whole family.

So we decided to include it in our curriculum.

After much searching the web for good resources on how to incorporate Jewish studies into a Christian curriculum, here is what I came up with:

Hebrew4Christians- we began using this site extensively to help us learn the Hebrew alphabet, especially for handwriting.

TorahTots-Now this is a cool little site for kids that help them learn about the Jewish holidays, background on each, coloring pages, fun online games, and other little odds and ends that help bring the celebration of Jewish holidays into a realistic point of view for kids.

But probably the most helpful and insightful of all of my findings was the company, Heart of Wisdom.

Here is what owner and author of A Family Guide To The Biblical Holidays has to say about the Jewish aspect of our Christian faith:

We study a Hebrew book-written by Hebrews; we serve a Hebrew Lord-who had Hebrew disciples; we desire to follow the first century church-which was first predominately Hebrew; and through Christ, we are grafted into a Hebrew family! It makes sense to study our fascinating heritage.

During this season of my Christian journey I find myself completely in agreement with Robin and am very grateful to her for writing this book (along with co author Linda Pierce).  This book is an EXCELLENT resource for any Christian family wanting a gentle Messianic approach to incorporating the Jewish holidays, culture, and background into your home school or family life.

So, here is what we did:

• I am not much of a sewer, but decided to use the sewing version for creating the symbolic flags for our dinner centerpiece.  They are found on pages 72-73  of Robin and Linda's book, A Family Guide to the Biblical Holidays

My daughter and I decorate with rhinestones:

There was a learning curve involved for me.  I had no clue I was supposed to iron these studs on, so initially I had my daughter attempting to peel some "backing" off them individually.

Funny.  But we got a hang of it and figured it out.  We eventually got all the studs ironed on the correct way.  This will be good experience for me whenever I do learn how to sew, for real.

Now, on to the multi-holiday centerpiece flags.  We created two of these for Purim but will need to create a few more for future holidays.  I got all the fabric I needed for the upcoming holidays.  Here I cut out a few squares, made a photocopy of the pictures of the Star of David and Cup of Bread, provided in Robin's book on page 75.  I did a little painting on the fabric for decoration, added the wooden dowels, but instead of sewing I just ended up gluing them on.

Along with my styrofoam base, here is what my final product looked like for my centerpiece (on a small table, that is-crown and sceptre to be added later):

Now for dessert, where NyGirl insisted on using the beater for the cookie mix.  We decided on Hamantashen cookies (page 427 in the book).  Basically they mean "Haman's pockets" and are supposed to resemble the hat Haman may have worn.  Another traditional food she mentions in her book is Esther's Banquet Bars. We have the ingredients for this, but decided to wait until next week to cook this set since we had so much batter from the Hamantashens left over:

So, to wrap it up:

We cut the batter into circles using a cup, filled the middle with raspberry preserves, folded into the shape of hat, then cooked.

The next day, our feast was beautiful.  My two girls, husband and I enjoyed a yummy meal of baked chicken with rice and snap peas cooked in turkey bacon.  Yummy.  We had our Hamantashens for desert with sweet tea, and my husband enjoyed reading the girls a book about Esther.

In all, it was a beautiful Purim feast.

Cooking Italian Bread- Eating Healthy

I have always wanted to learn how to bake bread.  It is one of those earthy, connecting with the homemaking part of me that yearns to leap out in the middle of all of my techie interests...

I think NyGirl caught my bread-baking bug, and she decided one school morning she wanted to help me bake italian bread sticks for that day's dinner.

Forming the dough into shapes

Finally on the pan (not perfectly shaped, but the best we could do!)

Oh, and the pot on the back of the stove top is lentils.  We have begun a new healthy eating regiment in our family that I think is working out okay...though, I won't say perfectly.

The way it works is very similar to the ideas found in Deceptively Delicious.

The basic philosophy behind the book and my ideas of how to incorporate veggies into my kids' diets is pretty much all about camouflage.

For example, today I used one of the recipes found in the book that helped me to get some spinach into my girls' tummies.  Here is a paraphrase of the Pita Pizzas recipes and how I got my kids to eat spinach for lunch today:

Pita Pizzas (with hidden spinach)

• Whole wheat pita pockets
• About ½ cup spinach puree
• About 2 cups of tomato sauce or pizza sauce
• About ½ bag of mozzarella cheese
• About ½ bag of cheddar cheese

Set the oven to 400 degrees.  Spread spinach puree  on each pita (if you don’t want your kids to detect the spinach only spread it to about ½ inch from the edge).  Spread the sauce over the spinach.  Cover the sauce with cheese.  Bake for about 10 minutes.  Let the pizzas cool for about 5 minutes so the cheese doesn’t pull off and expose the spinach!

My kids love these, I like it...and I even think hubby likes it too- which makes it a hit in our house!

As for the Italian bread...it turned out really well that evening last week. We paired it with plates of spaghetti and pasta sauce (blended with a puree of steamed broccoli- another hidden green!)  Turned out well :-)

And though I haven't turned full fledge into a bread baking mama, I am enjoying skirting around the idea of it.  Meanwhile, I get a kick out of baking up cupcakes, cookies, and other sweet treats.  My next goal: to find fun ways to "healthify" our sweets.  I think I may try some sweet potato purees...

We shall see.

And I promise, in one of these next few posts I am going to get back to the techie stuff!  So hang tight. :-)