Post by by Jerusalem Jackson Greer

Happy Spring Break friends!

If you are like us, Spring Break has suddenly snuck up on us, along with a long to-do list. So today I am going to take the easy way out and share a little bit from my new book A Homemade Year; The Blessings of Cooking, Crafting and Coming Together, with you. The first bit is from the preface, and the last bit is from the chapter on Holy Saturday- the Saturday before Easter. The book is due in stores in just one short week, and I could not be more excited to share a little sneak peek with each of you today.

In my mid-twenties, cut free from the tether of a school calendar year, I found that I was attracted to—craved, even—the rhythm, internal and external, that liturgy seemed to bring to those who leaned in and embraced it. Once I had my own children, like so many other mothers around the world, I thought long and hard about what sort of traditions I wanted our family to have. I love a great celebration. I love party decorations and special menus and taking the time to do things up right. I even love the anticipation. To me, the preparation is half the fun because it is often in the doing and preparing that the best memories are made. So I set out to find a way that would create traditions of faith for our family through the rhythm of the liturgical calendar, using fun, modern, colorful crafts and recipes. In our home I have found that even the most common tactile acts such as kneading bread dough, threading a needle, or gluing paper can be important spiritual practices, especially when paired with intentional conversations and repetition over many years. A Homemade Year is a book written out of this experience…and out of my experiences as a busy, working mother, all too often burning the candle on both ends, and looking for a third .

In a recent post, blogger Penny Carothers wrote, “I’ve always elevated the lives of others above my own spiritual aspirations.…This mistaken belief parallels my long-held view that spirituality has to look a certain way to be legit.” I loved reading those words, because I too have gone through seasons of thinking that legitimate spirituality only fit into one very tight fitting box. My prayer is that A Homemade Year is the kind of book that will free you from just that sort of mistaken belief, from that phantom one-size-fits-all box. Instead I hope that this book inspires you to seek and experience God in a different way at your own pace. This book is meant to act as a guide, to encourage, and to teach—but never to induce guilt, to depress, or to intimidate.

Sailboat Easter Baskets
I am always trying to create new crafts that my boys will enjoy making and playing with as well. I designed these boats with Easter in mind, but they have also played host to Lego and Star Wars characters on the occasional bathtub excursion. When we made these for Easter, we talked about all of Jesus’s friends—the disciples who had been fishermen. Although the Bible gives us some indication of what some of the disciples did on Good Friday and on Easter Sunday, not much is said about their actions on Saturday. I like to think that a few of them went fishing to sort things out. To sit, to pray, to hope, and to wait. I know that is what Sweet Man would have done.

Materials Needed:
Red plaid paper food baskets (you can get these at most restaurant supply stores or online)
Modeling clay (2-inch square)
Bamboo skewer
12 x 12-inch scrapbook paper
Scrapbook paper scraps
Tape
Glue stick
Scissors
Easter grass
Plastic eggs or fuzzy chicks

 

Directions:
Place your square of clay into your food basket, off to the left side, toward the edge. Press down until the clay is stuck well enough to what is now the sailboat floor. The clay will not adhere permanently.

Print the pattern provided at the Paraclete Website (http://www.paracletepress.com/a-homemade-year.html ) to make your sail. Fold a 12 x 12-inch sheet of paper in half and place pattern (cut out) on the fold. Cut triangle out. To make a second, smaller triangle for a layered effect, reduce the size of the pattern by 1/3 and print and repeat all other steps.

Next, secure your sail to your bamboo skewer. Lay the skewer on the inside of your sail in the center crease, fixing it in place with a small piece of tape.

Using the glue stick, trace the inside edges of your sail. Once all edges have a thick layer of glue, close your sail around your skewer and press flat, smoothing out any wrinkles. This makes a double layer of sail for strength.

Embellish your sail with extra bits of paper, stickers, glitter, ribbon, or other ephemeraFinally, stick the skewer into the clay and voilà! You have a sailboat.

Fill with Easter grass, candies, and Easter eggs or fuzzy chicks.

A Homemade Year is available from all major bookstores online and will be in Barnes and Noble stores nationwide.

For more spring and Easter inspired crafts visit me at http://jerusalemgreer.com and search “Easter” or “Crafting”

A Homemade Year:The Blessings of Cooking, Crafting, and Coming Together
by Jerusalem Jackson Greer
©2013 by Jerusalem Jackson Greer,
images by Judea Jackson http://www.judeajackson.net/
Used by permission of Paraclete Press, www.paracletepress.com