On March 10 in CCD, Leah received a "rice bowl," which is a little cardboard bowl for CRS (Catholic Relief Services) Operation Rice Bowl campaign. It was a nice little project for Lent. We learned that CRS distributes 75% of the donations it receives globally and 25% in the US. The money helps with food pantries, food donations, clean water, micro-loans, etc. The rice bowl came with a poster, which we hung on the pantry door. There were stories, one to be read each week of Lent, about families from around the world explaining their challenges and how the CRS donations helped. There was also a meatless recipe from that region of the world accompanying the story. While we did not try any of the recipes (did you expect anything different from us?), what I really liked was the awareness the project raised. That first night, while we were eating dinner, I read the first story. I told Leah and Aaron how a $10 donation, which was less than what we spent eating lunch out that day, would feed a family of six for two weeks. We talked about how lucky we were to be able to not only have enough to eat but enough money to eat at a restaurant. Or how we can turn on a faucet and get clean water while some people have to spend a good portion of their day having to go find clean water.
That night at dinner we came up with a plan of how we could help. The three of us decided that for the remainder of Lent we would not go out for lunch after church and instead donate the money we would have spent instead. Leah decided that she might want to donate her weekly allowance. (She didn't but it was nice she considered it.) Aaron did not like that idea. Leah and I also decided we would give up "Popcorn Friday" for the remainder of Lent and donate that money too. Aaron really did not like that idea. (Popcorn Friday, btw, is a morale booster Leah's school's PTO does on Fridays after school. They sell popcorn, cookies, ice cream treats, etc. for $0.50 - $0.75 each.) Because of Easter and Spring Break following we ended up having to turn in the rice bowl on Palm Sunday, only a couple weeks after we had received it but we still managed to donate $24.00. And we kept to our Lenten promise for the final week even though we weren't donating the money. I was really proud of Leah because she was the one who always brought it up saying things like, "No Popcorn Friday today so people who can't afford food can eat. I will definitely do this project again next year even if our church here doesn't distribute the bowls again. It is a great lesson for both Leah and Aaron to learn to be thankful for what they have and to learn about the world around them.
If you want to learn more about Operation Rice Bowl, go to their website at: http://www.crsricebowl.org/.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Happy Easter!
Our first Easter in Japan was very nice. Since only about 2% of the Japanese population is Christian, Easter is not celebrated here. However, in the Rich household, Easter is very much celebrated.
Our Easter celebrations actually started about ten days before Easter when the commissary sponsored an egg hunt. Many people I know did not want to participate because they said last year's egg hunt was awful, that there weren't enough eggs for everyone. I decided to give it a try anyway hoping that maybe there would be less people because of bad memories. I must preface this by saying, there is virtually no grass around the commissary. Just a couple little strips. I'm sure if they did it in a large field and the kids could spread out there would be plenty for everyone. One thing they did this year is separate the 4-and-under crowd. They let the little kids start earlier and off to the side. That was a good idea because they, including Aaron, will stop, stoop over, slowly pick up an egg and examine it before putting it in their basket. For the older kids, it was all about quantity. They just sprinted and grabbed as many eggs as possible. Luckily for Leah, at the start all the kids ran to the strip of grass with the eggs but in the bushes next to the starting point, there were eggs too. Leah was able to just stay there and gather eggs, which is good, because I think if she was in that melee she would have ended up with no eggs and lots of tears. All in all, both Leah and Aaron ended up with 8-10 eggs each, The eggs were filled with chocolate so the kids considered it a success.
We have lots of decorations, but I was surprised to find out we didn't have any window clings (since we seem to have them for almost every other holiday). We do have a large sliding glass window in our dining room, and the dining area is where the bulk of our decorations are so we decorated with window markers.
On Saturday (March 30), after breakfast, we started decorating Easter eggs.
First, we just dyed them in various colors.
After lunch, when they were all dry, we decorated our eggs to look like bugs. (I bought a decorating kit at the Exchange.)
In between the decorating, while I was watching Duke beat Michigan State, I made the kids "clean mud" to play with. I read it in a magazine. It's made with shredded soap, shredded toilet paper an water. Leah and Aaron called it "squilch," which is a goo that was in an episode of Transformers Rescue Bots. It didn't take Aaron long to lose his squilch privilege and have to leave the kitchen.
We went to Mass Saturday evening and even though it started late for the kids (7pm) and it was two hours long, they did really well. They really liked the candlelight portion of it and that peaked their interest enough to overcome some boredom. And although there were lots of people there, it is nothing like Christmas and Easter in the US where it is standing room only. We had enough room where Aaron could actually lie down using his jacket as a pillow. (Normally I wouldn't let him do that but since his bedtime is 7:30pm, I cut him some slack.) With the long Mass and then the drive back from Main Base, the kids didn't get to bed until about 10:15pm. Needless to say, they fell right asleep making it much easier for the Easter Bunny to visit the house.
On Easter Sunday, Leah was the first to wake up and she quickly found an egg hidden in her room. It was all I could do to keep her from running around to find all the eggs until I could wake up Aaron.
All the eggs were quickly found and then it was on to their baskets.
While the #1 gift was their chocolate--a Hershey's bunny for Leah and a Reese's egg for Aaron--they were both pleased to receive baseball gloves and a ball. (They start t-ball in a couple weeks.)
Perhaps their biggest and best Easter surprise, however, was finding out Matt was home. His ship pulled in at 12:30am Saturday night/Sunday morning and he got home at 2:30am. (Thankfully he got a ride home with one of our neighbors.) I didn't tell the kids he was coming home. They only knew he'd be home soon. I didn't wake Matt up when the kids woke up (since it was less than 5 hours since he'd gotten home after a 20-hr workday) so they went through egg hunt, basket discoveries, etc. without knowing he was home. As my friend Kathy would say, "They were soooooooooooo excited to see Daddy."
We topped off the morning with bunny, chick, egg and basket-shaped pancakes for breakfast. (Since it was still Passover, Matt had peanut butter and matzah instead.)
The rest of the day we just played. (Leah is big into Uno at the moment.) I hope your Easter was as good as ours although it's pretty hard to top having Matt home for the holiday at the last minute.
Our Easter celebrations actually started about ten days before Easter when the commissary sponsored an egg hunt. Many people I know did not want to participate because they said last year's egg hunt was awful, that there weren't enough eggs for everyone. I decided to give it a try anyway hoping that maybe there would be less people because of bad memories. I must preface this by saying, there is virtually no grass around the commissary. Just a couple little strips. I'm sure if they did it in a large field and the kids could spread out there would be plenty for everyone. One thing they did this year is separate the 4-and-under crowd. They let the little kids start earlier and off to the side. That was a good idea because they, including Aaron, will stop, stoop over, slowly pick up an egg and examine it before putting it in their basket. For the older kids, it was all about quantity. They just sprinted and grabbed as many eggs as possible. Luckily for Leah, at the start all the kids ran to the strip of grass with the eggs but in the bushes next to the starting point, there were eggs too. Leah was able to just stay there and gather eggs, which is good, because I think if she was in that melee she would have ended up with no eggs and lots of tears. All in all, both Leah and Aaron ended up with 8-10 eggs each, The eggs were filled with chocolate so the kids considered it a success.
We have lots of decorations, but I was surprised to find out we didn't have any window clings (since we seem to have them for almost every other holiday). We do have a large sliding glass window in our dining room, and the dining area is where the bulk of our decorations are so we decorated with window markers.
 |
| Difficult to see but on the left, Leah drew an Easter Bunny w/ basket. On the right I drew the Easter Beagle, Woodstock and Charlie Brown. Aaron is coloring and adding grass, eggs, etc. |
First, we just dyed them in various colors.
After lunch, when they were all dry, we decorated our eggs to look like bugs. (I bought a decorating kit at the Exchange.)
In between the decorating, while I was watching Duke beat Michigan State, I made the kids "clean mud" to play with. I read it in a magazine. It's made with shredded soap, shredded toilet paper an water. Leah and Aaron called it "squilch," which is a goo that was in an episode of Transformers Rescue Bots. It didn't take Aaron long to lose his squilch privilege and have to leave the kitchen.
We went to Mass Saturday evening and even though it started late for the kids (7pm) and it was two hours long, they did really well. They really liked the candlelight portion of it and that peaked their interest enough to overcome some boredom. And although there were lots of people there, it is nothing like Christmas and Easter in the US where it is standing room only. We had enough room where Aaron could actually lie down using his jacket as a pillow. (Normally I wouldn't let him do that but since his bedtime is 7:30pm, I cut him some slack.) With the long Mass and then the drive back from Main Base, the kids didn't get to bed until about 10:15pm. Needless to say, they fell right asleep making it much easier for the Easter Bunny to visit the house.
On Easter Sunday, Leah was the first to wake up and she quickly found an egg hidden in her room. It was all I could do to keep her from running around to find all the eggs until I could wake up Aaron.
All the eggs were quickly found and then it was on to their baskets.
While the #1 gift was their chocolate--a Hershey's bunny for Leah and a Reese's egg for Aaron--they were both pleased to receive baseball gloves and a ball. (They start t-ball in a couple weeks.)
Perhaps their biggest and best Easter surprise, however, was finding out Matt was home. His ship pulled in at 12:30am Saturday night/Sunday morning and he got home at 2:30am. (Thankfully he got a ride home with one of our neighbors.) I didn't tell the kids he was coming home. They only knew he'd be home soon. I didn't wake Matt up when the kids woke up (since it was less than 5 hours since he'd gotten home after a 20-hr workday) so they went through egg hunt, basket discoveries, etc. without knowing he was home. As my friend Kathy would say, "They were soooooooooooo excited to see Daddy."
We topped off the morning with bunny, chick, egg and basket-shaped pancakes for breakfast. (Since it was still Passover, Matt had peanut butter and matzah instead.)
The rest of the day we just played. (Leah is big into Uno at the moment.) I hope your Easter was as good as ours although it's pretty hard to top having Matt home for the holiday at the last minute.
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