Easter

April 21, 2014 By Laura Leave a Comment

Easter

Before I forget, I received all the Noonday items which we will be giving away in order to help raise the funds for purchasing 5 tables and 30 chairs for our carepoint Ngungwane in Swaziland, Africa. You guys, this giveaway is going to be huge. Like gigantic. Like $704 worth of awesome. I would love to get the giveaway fundraiser posted this week, but I’m still looking for a good way to accept donations…a safe, secure site that is tax deductible would be crazy good. If you have any recommendations, I would love to hear about them.

On to Easter. This year may have been one of my most favorite Easters. I don’t know if it was just how relaxed it was…easy going…not crammed to the brim or maybe it’s this place of waiting God has our hearts or maybe it was how much fun Amon was this year or maybe it was going to our night service vs. a morning service or maybe it was singing In Christ Alone in which I always burst into tears or maybe it was a combination of it all. Yes. Most definitely a combination of them all.

Hunting eggs and eating candy far too early in the morning thanks to Nina & Baba.

(I might have been doing some yellow spray painting)

I didn’t even take very many pictures. Was a little bummed about my lack of photo documenting, but sometimes you’re just having a bit too much fun. You may remember how I am about our kids clothes…you may die, but Easter is the same. We wore our regular clothes…we even got fancy and the kids had donut holes and yogurt for Easter dinner.

And seriously…our church had a dude taking everyone’s pictures. I love this picture…not because I think we look all hot and fancy and cute, but because this is just us. Every Sunday. Susan goes to church with us and we’re a big bunch of yahoos marching in there each week, so I loved documenting our little group on such a special occasion.

So how was your Easter? I hope it was great. And now we’re ready to take on another week. I have a feeling it’s going to be a really good one.

Happy Monday.

April 18, 2014 By Laura 3 Comments

Good Friday

On Monday morning as Harper was putting her shoes on by the back door, she was looking over her classroom calendar for the week. She noticed that Friday was Good Friday and they were out of school. My kids know the resurrection story and well. Hudson has always been very much interested in every last detail of it. We read about it and they have videos about it too. Harper sat there a moment and then asked, “Why is it called Good Friday? I don’t understand why it is good at all.” I looked at the sincerity on her face and as I spoke I got all weepy. I explained to her that even though Jesus died an unimaginable death which is so sad and not good, it is Good Friday because He took on the sin of the world…mine & hers included…so we can be free in Christ and that is actually very, very good.

She said, “So it’s okay to be sad that He still died, but it’s good news for us.” Yes. A gift undeserved.

And what good news it is. Today I’m thinking about the greatest gift ever given to me, you and the entire world. He took on the sin of the world…He took on death…and won. Love wins. Always. How humbling and amazing and incredible and I just will never grasp the magnitude of His love for me and you. We don’t deserve it. We’re ugly sinners and yet in Christ, we are new creations. We are beautiful. Loved. Cherished. Valued. Redeemed. Renewed. Restored. It absolutely floors me and I am beyond grateful.

Matthew 27:50-51 “And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”

And with the most amazing sacrifice the world will ever see, we were all made righteous and all were welcomed to His table. Nothing stood between us and the Lord of Lords…the King of the World…our Father…anymore.

Good Friday indeed.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Easter, Good Friday 3 Comments

April 15, 2014 By Laura 9 Comments

Simple Easter Treats

I’m on a big “Let’s simplify our entire lives!” kick and it’s kind of taking over my brain. Less, less and less. When I was thinking about what I wanted to get the kids for Easter I knew I wanted it to be easy and simple. They don’t need a whole bunch of new stuff and they really like just the whole fun surprise part of waking up to a little treat.

We go through eggs like nobody’s business, so I set aside 4 of our leftover egg cartons and then used some paint I had on hand to paint the tops of each carton.

This paint dries super fast so it was very easy to cover the tops in no time at all with just a few coats of paint.

Every year I keep a small box of empty plastic eggs because every Easter we have to send in stuffed eggs for school. I always keep the really obscure eggs too the kids get from their Easter egg hunts…animal shaped, sports themed, girly ones and this year the camouflage ones I kept from last year are beyond perfect for the boys. So I already had some extra random plastic eggs leftover to use. I also already had some Easter grass. I’m really weird about certain things, but the Easter after Mom died one of her friends gave the kids all these amazing Easter baskets with the prettiest paper grass and since then, I have reused the grass and plan to continue to do so. So yes, I’ll toss Amon’s crib which all 4 of our kids slept in without even thinking, but I plan to keep and reuse a small bag of paper Easter grass for years to come.

I went to Target and picked up a few items to fill their cartons with: one bag of pretzel M&Ms, 1 bag of sour patch kids, a small transformer trinket & a $1 bin measuring tape for Hudson & Solomon, a lip gloss & earrings for Harper, one $1 bag of carrot chocolates and a fun chocolate egg for each of them. I put some of the M&Ms, Sour Patch Kids and chocolate carrots in the leftover plastic eggs for each kiddo and filled their cartons with their treats.

And just like that, I’m ready for Easter. Easy, simple and fun. And they are going to totally love these!

Happy Tuesday!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Easter, egg cartons 9 Comments

April 3, 2013 By Laura 2 Comments

Easter

Easter was pretty laid back and simple this year. We actually went to a Saturday service which left Sunday pretty low key indeed. It was funny because one Wednesday night I was at my small group Bible study and we were talking about kids and Easter outfits. I admitted to never buying special Easter outfits…literally I just pull regular every day clothes out of their drawers and away we go. A few days later one of Mom’s very dear and insanely sweet friends had her crazy kind husband bring over brand new Easter outfits for all the kids plus tons of other Easter goodies. It was an Easter miracle. I cried…of course.

The outfits were all super cute. I had to switch some out for different sizes. You would think Sol would be good to go in a size 4 by now, but no…dude still needs a 3 apparently…and actually could have probably gone with a 2. He’s a little guy. Anyways I was determined they were going to wear their new digs come rain, snow or shine. And of course, it rained. But Saturday night we all loaded into our van looking fine.

My attempt at a good picture failed miserably. Consider the evidence. I finally just gave up.

Sunday we went to Josh’s parents. It was still raining…and hard. Big mud puddles everywhere. So we did the Easter egg hunt on their porch. It was pretty funny.

We hid the eggs all over their two porch areas. This one was my favorite. Nothing says, Happy Easter, like a little shock of electricity 🙂

Everyone loaded up with eggs. I like the aftermath when they all empty the eggs and the trading and switching of treats begins. Too fun.

There was also some hitting of jello eggs with a baseball bat. What? You’re family doesn’t do that too? You should. It was quite hilarious. Especially when people got splattered with pieces of jello. Fun.

And lastly…remember out leprechaun dog…well the holiday stranger was creepin’ outside our house again and prepared our dog for Easter. The eggs even had change in them. The kids were all floored. I had to promise up and down that it wasn’t me. Thank you Holiday Stranger.