Feast Day Fun

As a family, we have been trying to celebrate the Liturgical Year in our home, in order to learn more about our faith.  Now that it's been going on a few years, I realize that I often forget "what we did last year", and am having to reinvent the wheel.  Also, the children don't remember "what we did last year", and it bugs me, because I put the effort into doing these things - it should at least  ring a bell. 

As such, I have decided to formally document our feast days here on this blog, so that I can refer back, and my children will someday remember that we actually DID try this Domestic Church thing.
Introducing Essentially Aho's periodic installation of "Feast Day FUN!" 
Season 1, Episode 1.  Kind of.

So, last weekend was Pentecost, and after church in bustling White Pine, Michigan (we were camping) we came home to a barbecue in Grandma and Grandpa's back yard.  Cooking over flames, you know.  Afterwards, we made campfire doughnuts over a bonfire, to keep with the flame theme.  No pictures from that, unfortunately.   But it was fun.

 This Sunday is Trinity Sunday.  We did an object lesson, explaining the Trinity using three candles, but one flame.  Then we feasted on Trinity Tacos, three-berry fruit salad, and rainbow sherbert for dessert.  Three types of meat (chicken, pork, and hamburger), three salsas (pineapple, verde, and mild), three cheeses (mozzarella, cheddar, feta) and three toppings (guac, sour cream, and lettuce).  Should've had three types of shells to keep on-theme, but... I only had flour and hard shells.  No one seemed to mind. 

 

Tacos were a big hit.  Waiting through a lesson on the Trinity BEFORE tacos was not such a big hit, but no one seemed to die of starvation, so I think it's all good.

 

Three Sunday feast days in a row this time of year.  Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, and then Corpus Christi!  So installation #2 of Feast Day FUN is coming up.... Stay Tuned!

 

A Long Time Ago, in a Land Far Far Away.....

Reagan somewhere dug up this photo.  Young.  Tan.  Skinny.  Who ARE they????

The Yard In Bloom

I love this time of year - minus the mosquitos.  The leaves have returned, the apple trees and lilacs are in full blossom, and everything is green, and new, and full of LIFE. 

The Porkies... Again.

Since we had so.much.fun. last week, we packed up and decided to do it again.  Off to the Porcupine Mountains.  There may have been a few grumbles from the peanut gallery, but Daddy boldly declared that weekends were FAMILY TIME, and thus-forth, and heretofore, the Ahos would enjoy nature and each other, dang it.  So we did.  Time to camp once more.

 

 

 

Unfortunately, sometime between last weekend and this, there was a mosquito and biting fly hatch of plague-like proportions.  Last week, we struggled with gnats, which were annoying but tolerable.  This weekend, we were being dive-bombed and stalked like a horror movie.  The weather was PERFECT, the scenery was breath-taking.  And yet, kazillions of little vampires less than a centimeter long threatened to ruin our bliss.  Welcome to the U.P., where there are two seasons: SNOW and BUG.  Bathing in bug spray did not seem to slow the buggers down.  We're all covered with welts.  But that which does not kill us makes us stronger.  Right????

Luckily, down by Lake Superior, where it is breezier, we had pockets of time that were bug free.  This kept us moving and enjoying the lake.  A Naturalist with the state park system (whose name was, I kid you not, "Bob WILD") took us on a tour of a ghost mining town lost in the woods, that disappeared completely for unknown (but suspected) reasons.  We went agate hunting on the shores of the lake.   We oohed and aaahed at Lake of the Clouds.  We skipped rocks, and carved our names into sandstone and shale.  We marveled at a dazzling sunset, the kids waded in the lake.  We ate steak, and at night, we played pinochle. 

 

 

 

Camping in the Porkies

So Daddy surprised the family a few weeks back with a new toy - a truck camper.  This was the inaugural weekend, breaking it in.  Couldn't ask for a more perfect weekend!!  Weather in the mid-seventies, light breeze, no traffic, woods in full bloom.  Just gorgeous.  We did a six mile hike on day one, and the kids did GREAT.  The Pinkerton trail is now one of our favorites, winding through old growth hemlock and ironwood trees, and ending up at the mouth of the Little Carp river where it enters Lake Superior.  Our pictures, unfortunately, do not even begin to do justice to the beauty we experienced. 

 

 

Sleeping in the camper was cozy, but warm and bug free - and you can't ask for more than that when camping!!!  We played trivia games, ate brats and burgers, and read "Little House on the Prairie" aloud until we all fell asleep.  Such great time as a family.   I have a feeling we'll be doing a lot more of this camping thing over the summer!!