An Ethical Easter?

The joyful news that He is risen does not change the contemporary world.  Still before us lie work, discipline, sacrifice.  But the fact of Easter gives us the spiritual power to do the work, accept the discipline, and make the sacrifice.  ~Henry Knox Sherrill

I find it quite difficult to eat chocolate comfortably these days knowing that a child may have been ill-treated as a slave in the cocoa farms which were the origin of my chocolate.  Indeed this is the possible origin of 70% of the world's chocolate.  How did you feel at Easter consuming your chocolate Easter eggs?  Or perhaps you bought Fair Trade chocolate so you could indulge knowing that the economy of some family somewhere was being aided by your purchase in an equitable way.

We enjoy consuming Haigh's chocolate because they are superbly made, taste delicious, have brilliant displays in their stores, are local to us in South Australia and also support quality local causes.  They make a lovely Easter Bilby as seen above.  (Yes, it is still in the plastic wrapper and I really did take that photo just this morning.  Our family shares our chocolate and we enjoy it in the weeks following Easter.)  Part proceeds from the sale of Haigh's Chocolate Bilbies helps protect the Bilby's habitat through the work of the Foundation for a Rabbit Free Australia.  They also produced a Murray Cod this year to support this vulnerable species.  These were our Easter treats.

I was not entirely satisfied however, that our indulgence would be "child slave free" so I wrote to Haigh's indicating that "we are becoming increasingly concerned about the means by which chocolate is farmed.  We cannot sit comfortably with the fact that for us to indulge in chocolate a child has possibily been enslaved."  I asked them why they were not on this Good Chocolate Guide to Australia presented by World Vision.

http://www.donttradelives.com.au/dtl/Issues/Chocolate/files/pdf/ChocolateGuide.pdf

The little white bunny in the photo will soon be given away as a random act of kindness on our behalf.  Ess and I didn't read very many kindnesses which were made before Easter.  We hope this is due to the fact that you simply didn't get back here to let us know rather than that there were no kindnesses carried out! So keep being kind and perhaps a little less busy ;)

Haigh's passed my email onto the Confectionery Manufacturers of Australasia who responded promptly to let me know what they are doing to change the lives of cocoa farming families in West Africa.  I find it quite encouraging but I still am not guaranteed that children are not being harmed.  Apparently "all Australian chocolate manufacturers are part of building an ethical supply chain through a holistic process called Certification that assesses labour and farming practices, implements remedial measures and then goes back to check on the progress."  The chocolate industry, local aid organisations and the governments of Ghana and Ivory Coast are working together to educate and break the poverty cycle.  More details can be found on the CMA website - candy.  (The name leaves a little to be desired, would you agree? sshhhh, you cynic).

So it seems that work is being done.  Did you know about it?  Is the media telling us this?  Am I ignorant of the positives?  Or is it simply that the work is supposed to be being done so that we can continue to be ignorant consumers and indulge in chocolate no matter where and how the cocoa is being sourced?  We just need to be told that improvements are being made and trust that hopefully they are??

It comes down to publicity doesn't it.  We can only believe what we are told and then what we discover when we question this information.  Unless we actually go to Ghana and the Ivory Coast and see the children and the families working to make a living on their cocoa farms, we will never actually know the truth of the situation.

What are your thoughts? Do you buy Fair Trade chocolate?  Are you happy enough with the situation to leave it to the authorities and the government to sort out what they think is best?  Did you eat your easter eggs and give a second thought to where they came from?

Blue...

For I remember it is Easter morn,
And life and love and peace are all new born.  ~Alice Freeman Palmer

Wide expanses of sunny, crisp blue skies...

clear, vivid blue seas, stretching as far as the eye can see...

beckoned us outdoors.

We heard the call.  We responded.

We took our bikes and rode the paths on the foreshores of Semaphore and Largs Bay.

Largs Bay Jetty

Largs Pier Hotel

It has been a long time since we have ridden.  Two years ago I was pregnant.  We have waited and waited for little Eee to be big enough to ride in her seat on Dad's bike.  We have waited for ideal weather ~ cool mornings, warm days.  We rode and rode and rode and rode... Ess did so well on her own.  Finally, at the end of the day, we returned...

revitalised, energized, renewed.

Hoping Easter was the same for you.

Eggs in Our Basket

Where man sees but withered leaves, God sees sweet flowers growing.  ~Albert Laighton

A circle of rainbow-coloured tiny Easter eggs of salt dough were the order of the day for me and my girls.

We had such fun, all afternoon, stirring the salt dough, colouring it, pressing it, pulling it, making little handprints...

Eee's handprint inside Ess'

We formed them into tiny eggs to be dried... 

...and placed into an Easter basket, handmade and decorated by Ess...

...with a little help from little Eee.  The putting in and out of the basket was a great hit for her.

All to remind us of the gift of new life.

Thanks for your inspiration Mel, we loved Bella's basket of eggs.

Children's craft...perhaps sometimes looking a little wilted, a little laboured, a little skewed (particularly after returning from a day at school where most of the eggs were given away to classmates) yet God sees the flowers growing, the little hands learning about making, creating, preparing, giving, increasing their abilities, developing motor skills along with attitudes about themselves and their gifts and abilities.

Daisy Jane Duck: A Tutorial

Easter spells out beauty, the rare beauty of new life.  ~ S.D. Gordon

Inspired by the various Easter symbols of New Life including my baby bunnies, bilbies, and ducklings etc.,  I searched for a nice template to make a cute little duckling for my daughters to enhance our Easter celebrations and decorations.  All to no avail.  Thus I set about creating my own.  After many discussions and drawings in our family on Saturday morning we have come up with a template we love which we'd like to share with you to make your own duckling.  I am very excited as this is my very first tutorial to be able to share.  

We were inspired by one of our favourite ducklings in this house - Daisy from the collection of books by Jane Simmons commencing with Come on, Daisy!. Thus, our little duckling is named Daisy Jane in honour of her inspiration.  I am very grateful to my Generous Gentleman who has a very good ability for bringing the image in his head to paper.  Curiously he is also more talented than I am at penning the image in my head as well (hmmm a husband who can read my mind, I wish!) so I give all due credit to him for the body of Daisy Jane.  All else is my very own creation, penned with my own hand.  Can you tell I'm just a teency bit excited to present my first tutorial?!

You will find the template and tutorial here.

If you decide to make your own Daisy Jane Duck please leave a comment here so we can come and visit you to see yours.  You will also find some more of mine on flickr.

Do you need a few more ideas for Kind Deeds to surprise someone special with to participate in my Easter Giveaway: a bouquet of flowers from your garden or the florist, a song written for someone, a few lines of what someone means to you in prose or poetry, a phone call to someone you'd like to be back in touch with.  Please come back to comment about how you surprised someone with something kind.  It will indeed make us smile to see your kindnesses shared.

Preparing for Easter

I think of the garden after the rain;
And hope to my heart comes singing,
At morn the cherry-blooms will be white,
And the Easter bells be ringing!  ~Edna Dean Proctor, "Easter Bells"

A sneak peak of something which took my creative energies and time on the weekend.  A little something which I rather fancy would enjoy a splash in the rain, of which we've had only a smidgen last week when I was busy story writing.

So now I am busy writing some instructions so you can make one of these little friends to help you and your little ones celebrate Easter in a more frugal, more ethical, less fattening kind of way ;).

You should see me back here soon...I hope.

In the meantime be sure you visit my last post for my Easter Giveaway.

A Special Kind Deed for Easter Giveaway

The great Easter truth is not that we are to live newly after death - that is not the great thing - but that...we are to, and may, live nobly now because we are to live forever.
~Phillips Brooks

In a couple of weeks from now we will all be celebrating Easter.  So the period of Lent is almost over.  There is still a little time however for you to be involved in doing something special during this unique reflective time of the year.  In her Reception class my daughter has been encouraged to complete good deeds and kind tasks during the period of lent rather than focus on giving something up (like chocolate which so often people seem to do. They then binge on Easter Sunday with choc eggs.  Now tell me what is the point of that!!  You must read here for more info about An Ethical Easter).  I have really enjoyed watching her blossom and grow and perform kind deeds for us here at home.  Yes, sometimes she needs to be reminded but she is still growing and learning about life.

I have also been inspired by this concept and thought it might be nice if a little baby bunny would hop into your door to celebrate the New Life which Easter represents.  In order for you to receive your little bunny you simply need to do something unique and special which will surprise another and cause them to feel loved and appreciated.  When you have completed this task please share with us the surprise your recipient received by leaving a comment here.  On Easter Sunday Ess and I will read through all the kind deeds which have been performed and choose a winner for a precious bunny Easter Giveaway.

If you haven't yet read the story of some of the kind deeds in our home have a look here for Part I, II, III and Finale.

Wishing you a meaningful preparation for Easter time.

Bunnies for Easter and The Princess and the Garden (Finale)

"Here comes Peter Cottontail right down the bunny trail..." ~ Beatrice Potter 

The bunnies are multiplying.  This morning we found this sweet little bunny outside little Eee's bedroom door awaiting her arrival.  

So they join us to delight a couple of very precious girls as we begin our preparations for Easter.

Easter is only a couple of weeks away now.  I have been inspired to create by Mel and Fiona who are having an Egg-ceptional Egg-xtravaganza for Easter creating.  I absolutely fell in love with Fiona's adorable soft cuddly white bunny trimmed with chocolate and pale blue.

So here is my version of the little Betz White bunny.  I have used some fleecy lined soft pink fabric inside out (I hope that doesn't come back to haunt me).  I wanted that lovely soft feeling of fleece.  It is a very frugal bunny as everything came from my stash which was started many many years ago.  I think I probably wore this fabric as a comfy warm top in my teens!  The felt heart is blanket-stitched onto the bunny's rump and the eyes are simply stitched on with black embroidery floss. I absolutely fell in love with Fiona's stitched-on eyes and decided this would be the best idea for my little bub.  Although she loves the "beepys" (buttons which make this sound when you press them), so one remains on the heart.

I'll conclude today with the final section of the story of The Princess and the Garden which I am presuming (hoping;)) some of you have been reading with your daughters.  So as not to keep them waiting...Early the next morning as the sun rose to shine the dawn’s light softly in her room, the little girl woke and was delighted to see the fairies she’d played with the afternoon before approaching through her window.   “Come quickly”, they called to the little girl, “we have a beautiful place for you to see.  A lovely lady would like to share her garden with you for all your days.”

The little girl moved on with the fairies.  She could not believe the sight she beheld at the gate of the garden.  It was beautiful!  As she walked through the gate she felt a familiar feeling – it felt like home! 

The Gardener gasped in delight to see and then to hold her beautiful princess. 

The Princess revelled in the hug she received, the warm embrace, the hug that held her tightly.  She would always remember that first hug, the very first time her mother held her close and she knew she was loved, with a love like no other.

For me this story has an obvious meaning but there is always something underlying this speaking to me.  Now here is my challenge for you.  Can you find any hidden meaning in this story??  Does it remind you of another story close to heart?  What are your interpretations of this story? I'd love to hear any ideas you have or stories to share.   Now I can hear those cogs turning!

Tomorrow I'll have an easier and beautiful task for you to complete.  See you then.