The beauty of Holy Saturday, our Lenten prayer basket, schoolwork, and a yummy mac and cheese recipe (7 Quick Takes)

~1~

Holy Saturday is such a powerful day. It’s a day of quiet. A day of transition. Today we stand between the sorrow of Good Friday and the joy of Easter. It is a peaceful, hopeful, expectant day.

Today, we know how the next part of Jesus’ story goes. But His friends and followers did not know. They hoped, of course. They had great faith. But they did not know exactly how Jesus would fulfill His work on earth with the resurrection. So, I think of them in this day, and I think of us.

We do not know exactly how and when the darkness ends. As Christians, we know how it ultimately ends—because we believe that life is greater than death, that Love wins over evil. But we do not know how the next chapter of this particular story will unfold on earth. And so, we wait, like the apostles—with hope, with uncertainty, with trust.

In the quiet, we wait and watch and pray for what will come tomorrow.

~2~

The only thing that has been consistent for us this Lent is our basket of prayer intentions. Again this year our intentions will continue past Easter, as we have added to the basket during these 40-some days.

I glanced into the basket the other day and realized it has more than intentions. Just like every other horizontal surface or container in this house, the basket has magnetically attracted ordinary life to it. It made me smile. It’s still a basket of prayers, but they’re interwoven with the chaos of life—fake coins and sunglasses and whatever else.

It’s like a still life of my jumbled Lenten prayer life.

~3~

Our sons have gone back to knitting—and in a big way. I’m so proud of them. They knit and knit and knit. They watch knitting videos on YouTube, and then they try a different way of knitting. They run out of yarn, so I order more, and it arrives, and they dive back into knitting.

My mother taught them to knit at the beach two summers ago, but they had to reteach themselves a bit because it had been so long. I am not a knitter, so they are self-taught, and it’s wonderful to see.

 

~4~

I’m not a fan of this emergency remote schooling. Not at all. I have little good to say about it. But it is sweet that our fourth grader dresses up for his video classes. And our principal robo-calls every morning with the announcements.

I may write more about this at some point, but not in a quick take. All I can say is: God bless our teachers. God bless those trying to salvage this school year. God bless the parents who are throwing their whole heart into this and teaching their children common core math and whatever else.

And God bless the parents like me who are just trying to get through each day and know that the 1,000-word emails about how to upload our children’s work into an online learning system are, quite simply, not meant for us. Our children are learning lessons in flexibility and resilience that will matter much more than that math worksheet about fractions.

Let’s all just try to keep our families safe and healthy and not stress ourselves out.

~5~

For the first time in more than 15 years of marriage, I am making baked potatoes. I’ve never had time to bake potatoes before. Dinner is usually a bit of a scramble after I get home.

But one of the benefits of working from home is that you can stab a potato with a fork a few times and throw it in the oven an hour before you’re going to eat.

I am failing in numerous ways, but I’ll get a pass for my potatoes.

~6~

Did you see the pink moon earlier this week? It was gorgeous and so, so bright. I went for a walk just as dusk was arriving, and I watched it rise through the trees of our neighborhood.

What a gift God gives us with this extraordinary spring as the backdrop to our lives.

I am in awe of how He is surrounding us with His love in such magnificent ways.

~7~

For a few weeks, John has been asking me to try my hand at homemade macaroni and cheese. Somehow, I had never made it. But we had all the ingredients for this recipe, as long as I took all the little creamers we got from Dunkin Donuts a while back and used them as the half and half.

It was delicious. I used parmesan cheese as the topping and cooked it a little longer because I made mine in a pie plate, and I wanted to make sure it was cooked through. I highly recommend it!

Read more quick takes at Kelly’s blog, This Ain’t the Lyceum, and have a happy Holy Saturday and a joyous Easter.

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