Little House of Ady

Hello everyone ! Welcome back on my blog! As you probably know, Easter is coming very fast and this week is Holy Week. So today, I wanted to share with you some recipes, DIYs and my Holy Week Routine for Easter Time. I hope you enjoy it and let’s get started right now !

#Easter Mushrooms-Leeks Recipe

To be honest, I’m obsessed with this recipe recently, I make it all the time. It’s so delicious! 😀

For this recipe, you’ll need one leek (a medium one) and the same quantity of mushrooms (of your choice). Wash and cut them into pieces. Then, roast them in pan with butter (on medium heat, or they will burn). Add some spices (I add some paprika and garlic). Add water. Cover with a lid and put on low heat. Check it regularly and when cooked, remove the pan from the fire. This dish is perfect served with fish or chicken.

 

#Cocoa-Coffee Milkshake Recipe (because Easter with no chocolate is not Easter anymore 😉 )

For this recipe, you’ll need one tablespoon of cocoa powder, two teaspoons of sugar, one tablespoon of instant coffee powder, a pinch of cinnamon and about 500 mL of milk. Mix all these ingredients together. You can drink eat hot or cold, as you prefer. 🙂

 

#Paper Flower Rosettes and Accordion Rosettes

You’ll need, for these DIYs, papers, glue or tape and thread.

For the Flower Rosette, cut off strips of paper.Make a buckle(see pictures) with each strip. Glue the edges. Glue all the buckles together(see pictures) to make a flower.Between two buckles, glue a thread(we’ll use it to hang up the rosette).

For the Accordion Rosette, cut in half a sheet of paper. We’ll need 3 pieces of paper of this size. Make an accordion with each. Fold them(see pictures) and glue together thses 3 butterfly-accordion parts. Glue a thread to the rosette to hang it up. 

 

#My Holy Week Routine

Of course, if you’re not Christian, it probably means nothing to you. Nevermind, this is not the most important. 🙂 In my case, I’m Christian, and Holy Week and Easter are very important to me. Concerning the Lent Time, I may not be as straight as other Christians. Usually, during Lent, you don’t eat fat food or even meat. In my case, I do sometimes eat some meat or some unhealthy food, but if you consider the fact that most of the year I barely eat(in general), I may be excused. 🙂 Another aspect of Lent, is that you should practice charity, forgiveness, mutual aid etc; more particularly than the rest of the year. I still have to work on this, I know quite well that I’m not a selfish person, but no one is perfect and everyone has steps to make in that direction( =perfection) Furthermore, that’s the most difficult part of Lent, because sometimes it’s not easy to forgive, it’s not easy to think about only others all the times. 

So, that’s why I say that I don’t practice Lent as well as a true Christian should.  But I do catch up with the Holy Week. You guessed it, that week is quite special for me. Special because of the religious meaning and special because I got a slightly different routine for that week. And it’s the same every year. Absolutely. So, what is that Holy Week routine I’m talking about ? I’m gonna explain.

Everything starts on Palm Sunday. One week before Easter, before chocolate 😉  When I was a child and lived with my parents in the countryside, I used to collect lots of  branches with pretty green leaves. I would store them in a basket. Our yard is quite big(several acres) and there is a path joining the road(or the mailbox) to the other edge of the yard, passing upon the front of the house. So, with my basket full of branches, I would tramp this path and regularly throw some branches on the ground. And in the same time, I would recite prayers or hum songs(religious or not) or just have thoughts for people you wouldn’t have enough to eat, wouldn’t be able to go to school etc I know it may sound quite religious but I loved doing this on Palm Sunday and nobody did tell me to do so. I just wanted to do so. My parents used to tease me about that( theu said it was a curious game of mine), but as it was harmless, just curious, they would let me. Today I’m a grown up and I don’t leave with them anymore( not all the time, and not for Easter time) so my routine is not quite different. I don’t collect branches anymore, I don’t tramp a path anymore. But I still “celebrate” that day. So now, I spend that day reading a chapter of the Bible(usually on the morning when eating my breakfast), going for a walk(like “normal people” =D ) and making some Easter DIYs ( everything is a good excuse to make some DIYs 😉 ) So, yeah, it sounds like a normal Sunday, but on that day I try to meditate, to relax and think about others, more than the other days.

Then, there are Holy Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I don’t have very special activities on these days except that I eat no meat, no fish, no pasta, no rice, no sugared food etc, only fruits and veggies. So, let’s say that every year during 3 days I’m an extreme vegetarian ! 🙂 And I make my best to help people, more than usually, to send messages to dear friends etc Another thing I do during these Three days, is that I sort my things( clothes etc) and get some to donate. ( It’s like my Spring Cleaning 😉 )Why I chose to eat less on that week ? I just want to think about something else, like helping people. I just remove “material” thoughts(food, shopping etc) from my head and leave lots of space for more important things. It’s kind of a “detox” week for me, physically and spiritually.

Following these 3 days, arrives Holy Thursday. On that day, I get further. For me this day is special because it was the day when the Christ got his last meal with his friends. And at this point, the bread got importance. That’s the reason why on Thursday I only eat one piece opf bread( not a gigantic one 😉 just a normal one ) And I make more efforts on my temper on this day than the other days. You guessed, it’s an increasing process, less and less food and more and more work on my behavior.

Finally, the week’s culmination. Holy Friday. That is fast day. No food, no drink etc. Lots of meditation, reading etc. I use that day to write down my Holy Week balance sheet, how I’ve improved my behavior, what I did to help others, how many good deeds I made etc And I compare it with the previous year balance sheet and see if I improved.

And on Holy Saturday. It’s rest day and last preparations for Easter. Hiding in my fake plants my chocolate eggs =’D (just kidding) I just display them in a cute basket near my fruits basket. Preparing my cat’s Easter snack(s) ( Yes, I do prepare something for my cat for Easter, did I ever mention I’m kind of a crazy cat lady ? 😉 ) Eating again, but not too much, after fasting it’s not good to eat a lot, and as it’s still Holy Week, I still have to restrict myself.

And… Finally Easter has arrived ! On this day, I absolutely do nothing for school/ work. Only enjoying my day. 🙂 How ? Eating chocolates(not too much, or I would get sick), watching one of my favourite movies, playing with my cat, going out for a walk, meeting with friends etc

Now, you know everything about my Holy Week Routine. 🙂

I just realize this process isn’t that religious as I used to think. There is nothing religious about working on your behavior, trying to be a better person, to help more people etc The only religious aspect is that I used a religious time to practice. That’s all. 🙂 Once my brother told me I was doing in one week what other people do during 40 days( Lent), maybe a little bit further than them. It probably sounds very easy to carry out but it may not be that easy. Why ? First of all, it’s quite hard to combine this process with your social life, expecially if your family or friends don’t understand why you’re doing this and don’t respect it. That’s the hardest situation. For me it was a little bit stange on the beginning because friends of mine wanted to go out and eat something in town. Going out wasn’t a problem for me, going to the restaurant was, especially on Holy Thursday and Friday. So I had to explain that I couldn’t eat on these days and so couldn’t go with them to the restaurant, only stroll in the streets. I got different reactions, most of them would first say “But, why don’t you eat ?” Then, some of them would say ” OK, no problem, we’ll meet later then 🙂 ” And others wouldn’t understand and tell me ” But what’s the point of doing this ? Why don’t you just give money to  charity associations ? There is no need to starve yourself, it won’t help others ……” And so on. The point is that these people and I just don’t think the same way. And surely, they got more money than I do. So yeah, why don’t I just give money to charity associations ? Because I don’t have lots of money, I’m not rich, and then, does giving money means that your really care ? I don’t think so. It’s very easy to give some coins to strangers, but it’s less easy to restrict yourself, to fast etc I’m not saying giving money to charity associations is a bad thing! But if you just by rote give money and keep going on not helping people near by you, not thinking about others, buying lots of unnecessary stuff, eating a lot etc, what’s the use ?? Let’s not forget that money doesn’t make everything. Happiness isn’t about money. Money may be useful, money is necessary in today’s world, but it shouldn’t get so much importance.We all should try to go further about helping each others, thinking less about ourselves etc That’s is what Lent and Easter are about ( for me), about working on yourself.

If you want to make the world a better place, first make yourself a better person, don’t try to change others to make them better. Only you can make you a better person, others cannot This way, if everyone on earth does the same, the world would be a better place with less efforts.

One last thing I want to tell you. Don’t mind that much what people may think about your religious believes, about your deeds etc Because there will always be dissatisfied people in the world, and there is no way they should control your life. As long as you are in peace with your conscience, with others, as lon as your deeds don’t threat society, other people, just keep going on. That is very important. That’s the message I wanted to relay today. 🙂

 

That’s all for today’s post. I hope you enjoyed it, it gave you recipe and DIY ideas for Easter and it broadened your outlook on Easter, mutual aid etc 🙂

I’ll talk to you soon in a next post,

Until then, take care of yourself and others ❤

Ady ❤