Easter Celebration 2012

The best part about Easter was when one of the cousins asked Micah what he got from the Easter Bunny.  He said, "Nothing."  Followed by a shocked look, Micah then said, "We don't believe in the Easter Bunny.  We celebrate Easter because Jesus died on the cross for our sins and gave us new life.  The eggs are new life in Jesus."   Um. Wow.

Micah is right.  We celebrate a risen Savior!  For Christians on this day, it's a big deal.  I won't fully understand the magnitude of what Christ did on the cross for me, but my life has forever changed and I am thankful and I have reason to celebrate.

And celebrate we did.  We kicked off the weekend by serving at our Easter play at church called Conversations.  We were ushers at the grand hotel.  Patrick even passed out mints to everyone during the "turn down" service.

 

Next stop:  Neighborhood Egg Hunt.  The egg hunt however was over before we got there.  Um, it said 10 AM sharp, we got there at 10:01 AM!  That's okay, Scott and Julie (our neigbors) and friends Gene and Victoria did an impromptu egg hunt in Julie's backyard!   Someone said, "Go!" and they were off for the hunt!

Sunday morning, we made resurrection cookies.   See this blog post for an awesome Easter idea with kids.  After our service on Sunday, we headed to my brother's home for some Easter brunch.  

My brother is a fabulous cook and we feasted on the passover lamb.     Within an hour of lunch, we don't know what happened...but we put Tristan down and then Patrick and I fell asleep and then Ivey and Ya fell asleep, Halys crashed and we think Seyla might have watched all five of them, who knows?   My younger brother had cuddle time with youngest nephew.

Halys prepared a fun Easter egg hunt with the kids, um..after family nap time. :)

Here's our Springy attire picture.

Happy Easter from our family to yours!  He has Risen!  He has risen indeed!

Resurrection Cookies

For Christmas, it was always fun to do some sort of craft or baking to celebrate the birth of our Savior, but never for Easter.  Why not? It's the celebration of what Jesus was born to do.  We made resurrection cookies.  Warning:  Not the best tasting, but...it's not so much for the treat.  It tells a story and Patrick read scripture verses to the kids.

Here's how to make them----recipe is at the bottom.  1) Preheat oven to 300 degrees and place almonds in a bag.   Patrick and I reminded them that Jesus was beaten by Roman soldiers. 

Isaiah 53:5

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.


2) Next, allow each child to smell the vinegar, which was given to Jesus to drink when he was on the cross.

John 19:28-30

 ²⁸ Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” ²⁹ A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. ³⁰ When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

3) Add egg whites to vinegar.  The eggs represent life life.  They remind us that Jesus gave his life to give us life abundantly.  

 

John 10:10-11

¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.  ¹¹ “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

 

4) Put a pinch of salt in your child's hand.  Allow them to taste it.  The salt represents the salty tears cried by the women who followed Jesus.

 

Luke 23:27

²⁷ A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him.

Up until this point, the ingredients have been bitter. 5) Now we get to add the sugar!

 

Psalm 34:8

⁸ Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

John 3:16

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

6) Beat the mixture and remind the kids the whiteness of the mixture reminds us of  purity and the cleansing of our sins because of Jesus' death.  Supposed to be painful for Jesus, and not for the three of them, geesh!

7) Drop the dough onto the cookie sheet.  The mounds represent the tomb where Jesus was buried. And the over is the tomb that is "sealed" with a large rock.

Matthew 27:59

⁵⁹ Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, ⁶⁰ and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away.

8) Leave the cookies in the over overnight.  The kids felt sad about the cookies being there, but we reminded them that Jesus's followers were sad when the tomb was sealed.

John 16:20-22

²⁰ Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.²¹ A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.²² So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.

In the morning, open the oven and have some cookies!  The inside will be hollow and that reminded Micah and Caelan that the tomb was empty!!!  Jesus is Risen!!!

 

Resurrection Cookie Recipe

Supplies:

• 1 cup almonds (or pecans)
• 1 tsp. vinegar
• 3 egg whites
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup sugar
• Zipper baggy
• Wooden spoon
• Mixing bowl
• Mixer
• Cookie sheet
• Spoons
• Tape
• Bible

Source: http://www.motherhoodonadime.com

The Rings in Spring

With the unusually warm spring weather, we got ambitious and tore out the existing landscaping and put in plants that make me happy.  Seriously, Patrick asked me what kinds of flowers I wanted and the only answer I gave him was, "The ones that make me happy!"

Before, there was this brick container (Front Center) that really didn't work with the brick on the house and it was holding overgrown azalea bushes.  

Well, husband and firstborn decided enough with that.  They removed all of the bricks by hand and dug everything up including the old water hose.

 

Before

And...DRUMROLL PLEASE...

After.

I chose perennials because I'm lazy, but they are supposed to grow like mad by next year. Can't wait!

Before there was a yucky patch with ugly bricks and a dead-looking bush.  This was the first day we moved in.

And today...oooh, makes my heart happy!  We relocated an azalea bush from the previous owner.  It seemed like the only healthy one.  It's starting to bud now.

Unexpected surprise.  This tree which is not ours, bloomed last week, 

and gives us a beautiful view outside of our living room.

It's so worth it that every time you look at your flowers, you just smile.  Now, onto the backyard!  

No Time For Flashcards

As part of our homeschool preschool, Micah and Caelan have been busy at their uppercase and lowercase letters.  I have been so proud of them as they learn their letters.   Here are some we did recently that I managed to keep!

O is for Owl

The supplies were very easy:

 

Micah's class did all their uppercase letters already, so now they are recognizing their lowercase.

I think that's pretty advance preparation for kindergarten!

In case this one is hard to figure out.  If you figure out what the bug is, you can see where the lowercase letter is. :)

 

We got our ideas each week from a website called notimeforflashcards.com

I'm glad they can have this on the blog so they can see some of their fun creations!

Keep a Straight Face

A really busy week at our house---so I'm just going to post some funnies for you.  Hope you can keep a straight face, too.

Who can make the saddest face when poked and provoked?

First picnic with the provokers and he's happy he's not being poked.

Um, short lived reaction as our mega-crawler has been imprisoned by newly installed baby gates.  You ain't nothin' but a hound dog.  Crying all the time.

Daddy keeps a straight face.

 Daddy loses his straight face.

 

Tristan loves to eat.  Pho Noodles. 

Oh my goodness, just look at those CHEEKS!

 

My almost 5 1/2 year old clown decides to get into Tristan's high chair.

  

Tristan thinks it's the most hilarious thing.  Ever.

Oh, steal my heart....look at that one tooth one-der!

Honest moment:  Did you keep a straight face?  I sure hope not!

Ruler of My Heart

I am still picking up my chin from off the floor.  I still have so much to process through and so much work to do.  This past weekend, I had the privilege of going to the Women's Retreat at Reston Bible and I did not have any clue how impacted I would be by the experience!

One thing is clear:  The Lord delights in revealing Himself to you, especially your wrong thinking.  Just when you think you know a lot, you realize you don't know very much at all.

The topic of the retreat was Ruler of My Heart.  The speaker was Margaret Ashmore (above) from Denton Bible Church in Texas (pastored by Tommy Nelson) and she spoke about PRIDE through the CONTROL we have in our hearts that belongs to God.  We often try to control through either lust (obtaining and wanting things--material things, status, personal goals....or that one other thing you think you need to make your life complete.  You stop at nothing to get it) and control through fear of rejection or withdrawal of love (manipulating situations, your friends, your spouse, through anger or the silent treatment) so that we don't get hurt.  Instead of feeling joy, abundance and contentment, our burden to control fails---- and we are left with a sinking depression.  The kind that robs us of what Christ came to do in our lives.  Than the inevitable happens:  other people look at Christians and they see how defeated we are and who would want to live a life like that?  A bunch of victory-less hypocrites.  So the question you are left with is who is the ruler of your heart? Who is in control?  And if it's not God, what things do you have to relinquish? 

It was so powerful and so impacting.   I desire to live a life of freedom and humility---not a life burdened by fear and control, which ultimately is rooted in pride.  I am grateful for the things I'm learning so I can have a better marriage and can be a better example to my little guys.  This is changing lives.

As an aside, I am totally impressed by the women of Reston Bible.   Many of them are exactly who I aspire to be.  I feel so grateful to have met them!

Inspiration to Organize!

I gave a little Time Organization talk to my moms group one day--- and before I knew it, I was asked to speak to a rather large group, MOPs (Mothers of Pre-schoolers) at the Mclean Bible Loudoun chapter.  I was really nervous giving my talk, but I was encouraged at all the feedback afterwards.  I had tips for managing time as a busy mom of young kids and also I gave ways to help organize your home so that you can have MORE TIME and ministry moments with your kids.

Here are a few  organization tips from my presentation, as they come with inspiring photos from PINTEREST!

1.  De-clutter high traffic areas!  Wish you had a mudroom for when your kids drop their backpacks, shoes, coats---everywhere??  Or how about things they leave all over the house?  These are called CRAP BASKETS.  Even daddy gets one.  At the end of the day, you can empower children and enable them to put away their stuff in the right place. Homegoods, Ross,  TJMAX, Tuesday Morning all have great inexpensive baskets.

 2.  Do it Yourself Laundry.  Ever feel like you're constantly sorting clothing?  Wouldn't it be nice to just take a basket and go?  Here's a great way to set a system up for your family to do the work for you.  Even your toddlers can put dirty clothes away by color: lights, whites, and colors. 

3.  Purge, purge, purge.  One thing I taught in Franklin Covey's time management course was when you get information, you either File, Act, or Delete.  So, your choices are:  Keep it, Act on it, or Throw it away.   That's it.   One way to encourage purging is to keep a large basket to give a way to a charity or thrift store.  You can also practice giving away toys they don't play with to other poor children who are in need!










4.  Picky Preschoolers.  I waste tons of time arguing with Micah about what he's going to wear.  A great system is to have your picky preschooler pre-pick the clothes they want to wear at the start of the week.  With mommy's approval, they can put the clothes away AND learn the days of the week at the same time.  Note to moms with babies:  You can also put away five outfits you like so daddy doesn't dress your princess in the plaid and polkadot combo!   Sweater rack is $10 from Walmart.

 

 5.  Toys, crafts, clutter!  This is a great idea.  A good friend of mine picked up an armoire FREE on Craigslist.  She then painted it white and voila!  She had a new storage area.  You can make your own office, scrap-booking center, or gift-wrapping station.

6.  Papers Galore!  Do you have tons of digital photos just stored away on a disk drive? Or kid's artwork that you can't bring yourself to throw away?  Here's a great idea!  One mom took a photo of all her favorite kid's artwork and then made a wonderful picture collage from it.  That way, junior will always have this memory.  You can do one for every year! For the digital photos, a great tip is to find a sale at Shutterfly.com or a Groupon for a photo book and all you do is download the photos and hit a button and it will AUTO populate a photo album for you.  Literally, it takes 5 minutes and then you pick it up from the store.  It's a quick way to ensure you have all the photos for display for each child, each year.  Done!  It's in the little victories. 

 7.  Are you a basketcase?  I am.  Another clutter area is your pantry and linen closets.  One idea is to use baskets.  You can never have enough baskets at our house.  Baskets hide things and also gives everything it's designated place.  The neat idea with these baskets is you can use them for anything.  Use a glue gun and clothespins and then change out the labels!

8.  Speedy Lunches.  One thing that slows time down is finding everything I need to make their lunches.  One great idea is to have this basket (Dollar Store) in your refrigerator ready to go!  It's got your yogurts, your mayonnaise, mustard, carrots, cheesesticks.  Pull it out over your bread box and your ziploc bags and go, go, go!

9.  Book it!  I love it when things are repurposed.  These are spice racks sold at IKEA for $3.99 and they make great book racks for a small nook in your playroom or kid's bedroom.  It's so much fun for the kids to see a display of new books each week so you can encourage them to read!

10.  Mommy, can I have a snack? One way to be more efficient is to reduce the number of times the kids ask for drinks or snacks.  They still have to ask for a snack, but they are big enough to get it themselves!  One great idea is to have a cabinet just for them.  When the kids are older, this will be great to have "approved" snacks to share with their friends that come over.  Bonus!  Put their plates, cups, utensils in there and they can set the table for dinner!

So top ten tricks are about all you can handle in one blog post!  Believe it or not, I have a TON more!!!  Hope you can use these ideas not because you want to manage your home, but because when you manage your home better, you can use that precious time to actually be with your kids!