Easter Blessings

In our family, holidays are always about spending time together as a family – our little family of four – and finding ways to connect and celebrate the people in our circle. I have had people ask me why we do that and the answer is simple – contribution starts when you look beyond yourself and it is important to invest in other people. We try to be fully engaged in meaningful contributions to others. The most important things we do in a lifetime start small (like spending time with our little people) and are almost always directed at others. This Easter we gave out crocheted bunny baskets, chocolate eggs and bunnies and paska – fun Easter baskets for our own BIG kids and LOTS of great food. (Ihave included the recipes at the end).

Easter is more than just chocolate and paska and food, it is a deeply spiritual time of reflection. Spirituality to me, is not about religiousity – it is more than showing up to church to participate in a “season” while not attending any other time. We don’t attend church – we have had MANY bad experiences in churches and we have turned, rather to a more personal spiritual journey – through reading, reflecting and focusing on make positive contributions to humanity – avoiding being judgemental and simply being kind, all the time. The Easter season is definitely a time to reflect on sacrifice, risking love on those who don’t really deserve it and giving of yourself to a humanity who definitely sometimes doesn’t act particularly grateful and can often be cruel and insensitive. The example of Christ is the understanding and example that “life is not about you. It’s about what you do for others. The key to creating collective well-being is to start by improving the life of another person, not your own.” – It’s Not About You by Tom Rath

So, below is our Easter – focusing on the people we love and doing our best to give to others…
It all starts with the preparation….crocheting bunnies, baking paska, colouring eggs, making lamb croquettes and tomato tarts and salad…preparing Easter baskets and buying chocolates…and baking that Italian Rice Pie…

Then there was the VERY fun Easter Egg Hunt that we got included in by our friends, Jayde and Chris and so, we took our neighbour girls on an adventure (while mom and dad had the morning off) to hunt for eggs and visit a new playground…

Then there is Easter Sunday with our sons, Zachary and Sebastian…Easter baskets, brunch, a lovely walk and Easter dinner and just being together. Also, a little final install for our newly renovated kitchen – putting up the pot rack. We decided to add some plexiglass behind it to protect the new paint from the banging pots – it was a great adventure putting it up followed by food, food and more food.

While Sebastian and Charles returned to work on Monday (not everyone gets Easter Monday off), Zachary and I took our friend, Helen out for breakfast…a perfect end to an amazing weekend of celebrating friends, family and life!

Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Cinnamon Butternut Squash with Pecans and Cranberries
3 cups of brussels sprouts trimmed and cut in half – mix in salt and olive oil and air fry for 22 minutes

1 – 1/2 lbs of butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cubed into 1-inch squares (about 4 cups) mixed with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 3 tablespoons of maple syrup, 1/2 teaspoon of cumin and cinnamon and air fry for 20 minutes.

Mix everything together with 2 cups of pecan halves, 1 cup of dried cranberries, 1/2 cup of pepitas and 2 tablespoons of maples syrup – delicious

Cabbage Rolls were from M&M Meat Shoppes – and they are gluten free.

The Tomato Tarts are from a cookbook that Jayde gave me called, Gluten Free, Naturally – They are called Tomato and Buckwheat Tarts and the appear on page 57. The book is available for $20 on Amazon and it is full of amazing gluten free recipes. I have used many of them.

The lamb croquettes are from the cookbook, Together, Our Community Cookbook with a forward by HRH the Duchess of Sussex. This is also available on Amazon for $20, with a portion of the proceeds from the sales of the book going to help the Hubb Community Kitchen to strengthen lives and communities through cooking. The lamb croquettes are on page 33 and there are MANY recipes in the book that are delicious and can be easily modified to become gluten free.

Enjoy and always remember, keep celebrating – in the end, you are what you have contributed to the world. Always find ways to celebrate people’s lives and contributions while they are still alive. Most meaningful contributions in life start at home. Keep focused on the daily moments that matter.