Hot cross bun season

I love making my own hot cross buns. Like most things you make yourself, they taste heaps better than the ones from the shop.  I have the dough on the first rise now and I'm going to leave it overnight and finish them in the oven tomorrow morning so they're lovely and fresh to eat for breakfast. This is the first time I've tried the leaving overnight thing. I wasn't sure if I could do that or not but several blogs said it was okay so I am giving it a go. Punching down the dough is my favourite thing to do in the whole process of making them (kneading is a close second) so that will be my first job when I get up tomorrow.

Roll on tomorrow morning.

Easter Bonnets

A fairly basic effort compared with some I've seen on my friends' Facebook profiles today.

I leave early for work on Thursdays so I don't do the school drop off. But Chris said when he was unloading the kids with their school hats, Easter bonnets and trumpets at drop off time, he was complimented by the minister of the local Presbyterian church (parked next to him, I've chatted with his wife a few times but since we go to a different Presbyterian church, I'm not sure if they know we also go to church, one of those situations where I feel like it's a bit awkward to say we go to that other Pressie church up the road) on including the Christian theme and having the cross featured on their hats.

Aidan said some kid in his class asked what the cross was for. Obviously to some, Easter is all about bunnies and chocolate. I'm not sure what Aidan said in response, but I hope it was good.

Easter

We're not doing much for Easter here, except eating more chocolate than we need to. Chris made up a treasure hunt for the kids to find their Easter eggs (we do this every year) but other than that, and going to church, it's been a quiet day.

Yesterday I read the Easter message/advertising in one of the local free papers from one of the larger Pentecostal churches in town. The title of the column was Easter: The Power of Forgiveness. I read on to find it included a couple of quotes from lesser known theologians Suzanne Somers (an American sitcom actress from the 80's if it's the same person I'm thinking of?): "Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself" and Norman Cousins (I don't know him at all, does anyone else?) who said "Life is an adventure in forgiveness."

Jesus did get a mention though: his life, death and resurrection "empower each of us to fully forgive and experience complete forgiveness in our own life." Which I think is actually Biblical but could have been better backed up by references from the Bible itself rather than Suzanne and Norman. Like this one.