I am looking forward to Easter and a lovely Eastertide. It seems to me as if the land is awakening from slumber and the signs of life are so encouraging – the apple tree blossoms, the greening of the pastures, the spring frolicking of the horses. It’s a beautiful place to be.

This month has things worth celebrating! This feeling, along with gratitude, is something to really hold on to in these tight economic times. I think our grown children feel pretty uncertain about the future with the way the economy is. It’s hard to make ends meet, even as one young adult has a good job, and our other child working in a niche industry. Our fifteen year old isn’t quite there yet with having to think about all of that, and I am happy for him to be in high school land for a little longer. The advantages we have as present parents to be able to talk about finances and how to make life flow with our children cannot be overstated. I am so happy all of you are helping to guide your children so well. It’s really invaluable!

Our main festival dates in our family this month include:

13- Palm Sunday

Holy Week

20- Easter Sunday and the start of Eastertide

23- St. George

25- St. Mark

29- St. Catherine of Siena

and I am looking ahead to Ascension Day (Thursday, May 29th) and the Rogation Days that precede Ascension Day ( the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday prior to Ascension Day).  There is also a Novena of 9 days that begins on Ascension Day and ends on the Eve of Pentecost.  Pentecost is June 8th! Seems like far away, doesn’t it? Do you have summer plans already?

The other thing to look forward to is Screen Free Week the first week of May! Do you celebrate this? https://screenfree.org/how-to-celebrate/

These are a few of my favorite things this month for my family:

• Since we will be in Easter and Eastertide here,the  dyeing of eggs, thinking of the Paschal candle and light in our home, indoor dish Easter gardens, Easter carols (yes, they are real!) and attending church are in my heart, This is growing my own garden in my heart.
• Gardens outside as well – especially leading up to Rogation Days which is a wonderful time to have seeds, gardening tools and homesteads blessed.
• Spring cleaning, decluttering, and moving ahead with some simple decorating I have wanted to do in our home. We recently built an additional bathroom upstairs, but the amount of projects left at the farm is a bit mind-boggling.

These are a few of my favorite things for small children:

• Ramping up all kinds of physical activity since the weather is generally nice…hiking, kayaking, roller blading, walking.
• Incorporating more and more loose parts play and re-arranging indoor and outdoor play areas. If you freshen things up, children are likely to want to play with those things and in those new areas of your home!
• Need more ideas? Try this back post! https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/03/03/celebrations-of-spring-in-the-waldorf-home/
• Stories galore: https://theparentingpassageway.com/2010/03/17/favorite-spring-tales-for-the-waldorf-kindergarten/

These are a few of my favorite things for grades-age children:

• Spring handwork – wet felting, making beautiful spring crafts
• Movement outside and exploring nature
• Adjusting our rhythm to the seasons, but sticking to strong awake, rest and bedtimes, along with regular nourishing whole foods mealtimes.

These are a few of my favorite things for teens:

**Exploring new interests and possibilities for summer. There are many wonderful camps for the summer. Sometimes by age thirteen or fourteen, the appeal of going to camp dissipates and sometimes it doesn’t, so you can carefully observe your child. It can be hard to know how hard to push.

** Sleep! A lot of teens really need sleep over the summer as they tend to grow over the summer a lot!

These are a few of my favorite things for my own inner work:

• In the past I had created a Sacred Hour – half to be spent in personal study, and half to be spent with our children in sharing the Saints, the Bible and Anglican traditions. This Eastertide, I plan to devote some time to Anglican Studies and also using the Venite App for daily readings.  I am feeling very happy about this.
• (This is one way we incorporated Spiritual Studies into our homeschooling. https://theparentingpassageway.com/2016/04/17/spiritual-studies-in-the-episcopalanglican-homeschool/)
• I have been thinking a lot about this time in general. I will be 55 in August, and biography and development is still at work in my life. https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/04/27/more-inspirations-from-tapestries-ages-49-56/
• This post is from 2009 and still holds true!

In our family:

• I love to get the vast bulk of my planning done over the summer. Our youngest is in a classical hybrid high school and will be a sophomore in the fall. The singular focus is to get him ready for university and for possible military service, which is his goal right now. So legally we are homeschooling, but I feel as if my planning is done as the off days are following the plans laid out by the hybrid school. Bittersweet!
• We do have a little work to do in writing over the summer as our high schooler needs to be a bit better in that area.
• Our oldest two children are adults and we are glad to see them frequently.

Happiest of Spring to you and your family,

Carrie