Bunnies or Bitter Herbs

After capturing this on camera yesterday morning...

Lily trying to empty the entire contents of a candy-pooping chicken into her mouth

...I have declared war on our Easter candy.

Sage hasn’t been the problem. In fact, following an Easter egg hunt with her cousins, they all sat down and traded their goods. She ended up the proud owner of four packages of microwave popcorn (“for our movie nights, mom!”), having traded and given away her chocolate and quarters. I had to resist the urge to lecture her about the value of money and the abundance of popcorn residing at our house already, in honor of the Easter spirit (which, incidentally, has nothing to do with chocolate, quarters or popcorn).

As for Eliza, well, she hasn’t eaten more than 3 mouthfuls of stable food (without being bribed) since we stopped by the Easter’s Bunny’s hutch last week (aka Sam’s Club).

And Lily is obviously happy with chicken poop candies that are hard as rocks and were probably assembled somewhere in China five years ago. Though she hasn't been known to discriminate against sugar in any other form, either.

On the spiritual side, thanks to my dad’s emphasis on Easter, Sage and Eliza can tell about Passover (going all the way back to Joseph in Egypt), and name many of the events of Jesus’ last week (even if Eliza thinks he suffered in the Garden of Eden.)

As I took the chance to tell stories about Moses and the plagues, the raising of Lazarus, Mary at the empty tomb, and more, I was astounded at the kids' interest. What I thought would be a quick scripture thought about Passover turned into a 45 minute storytime for kids who listened with fascination.

Mark and I (and my sister, Suzy, who is knows a lot more about bitter herbs!) fielded many questions that tested our knowledge of the scriptures. (You try naming all the Plagues without a cheat sheet). And while I was a little uncomfortable over Sage's interest in Judas' suicide, I had to hold back a chuckle when Eliza drew pictures of Jesus on the cross and Mary at his feet today on our white board. [Incidentally, Eliza told me Mary was counting, since Eliza's pictures came rather close to Sage's math problems.]

I'm confident that once all the Easter candy runs out around here and all our cavities are filled, Sage and Eliza will still remember about Jesus' Atonement. And maybe next year they'll want to hear stories about the Last Supper as much as they want to see if Peeps are really as gross as they remember.

"He is not here, for He is risen." It's not too late to celebrate the Easter message. This is a great video. And so is this.

Happy Easter.