Easter Monday

 

This has been such a lovely Easter. The whole week, though I struggled off and on with back and muscle pain, was full of meaning. I took the time this year to really focus all week on Jesus' movements through the week leading up to his crucifixion. Our Good Friday service was good, and as always we left in silence.

I spent a good part of the day, on Saturday, preparing food, filling eggs, and making peanut butter eggs (Tim's favorite) for the celebration of the Resurrection on Sunday! 

What a beautiful day it was. I had tears singing several of the songs during worship that have been meaningful to me during this season.

We came home and most of our family and a dear friend joined us for lunch. Ham, potato salad, a smoked pork butt (thanks to my son in law Weston), homemade rolls (thanks Rachel), deviled eggs (thanks Kayleigh!), and macaroni salad. We also had several desserts. 

During the egg hunt Kayleigh found a Robin's nest! Look at these beautiful eggs!

These three cuties had fun finding the hidden eggs! It was pretty special having four generations here to celebrate Jesus' Resurrection. 

I found it interesting this morning to see the news that the Pope has died and that he'd met with JD Vance on Easter. I'd read that it was about 12 hours before his death. Reminds me of Queen Elizabeth II who met with her new Prime Minister at Balmoral and the next day she was gone. 

JD Vance and his family have arrived in India, and received a warm welcome from Prime Minister Modi. It was sweet to see the children so open and talkative, and included. I saved a video and will show it on Friday.

I hope you are all well, and that your Easter was special. I've been seeing a lot of posts about how people feel this Easter WAS special. On X people are sharing conversion stories, people all over the world are out in public participating in Easter ceremonies, the White House has had several special events in the last week.

All amazing. 

In Beatrix Potter Style

 There is a trend on Instagram and a friend asked me to do it. She said, "Your house would be the cutest!" so I gave it a try.

I uploaded photos into Chatgpt and asked it to make pictures in Beatrix Potter style!

Pretty cute, right?

Here are the original photos - 

I like the Beatrix Potter style edits! 

This is Holy Week, and I am not planning to post on Good Friday. I wanted to share a statement that DJT released on the official White House website yesterday.

What an amazing difference from the previous administration, though Biden is a Catholic. Last Easter day he proclaimed it as Trans Awareness Day. On Easter. 

I am thankful for the honoring of God's greatest gift to mankind, the sacrifice of his own son for our sins, and that he rose again to new life! 

Blessed Easter, Friends!

Weekend

 We had a lovely weekend.  Actually, the whole week of Sarah's Easter break was wonderful.

The girls did some needed shopping, watched the Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle version of Pride and Prejudice, had lunch with friends, watched Wives and Daughters. We were able to get tickets through friends to see Esther at Sight and Sound (highly recommend this show!).

Sunday we had a good worship service, came home to have a delicious meal with the family.  Our pastor mentioned Psalm 116:15                  

                        Precious in the sight of the Lord

                             is the death of his saints.

He mentioned that unless we believe this with our whole hearts, we will always live in fear. But because of the resurrection, God's saints don't have to fear death. We don't have to fear death by coronavirus, or by any other means. 

I actually set two table this year. It turned out to be a good thing. We were less crowded at the table, but still together.

The grands had an egg hunt that their grandpa, dad, and two uncles made possible by hiding 122 eggs that had been filled by my mom and I.

The day was warm and sunny and we sat outside watching them hunt for the eggs. In the end, I think there are four eggs that were not found!  Kyle says he'll probably find them when we mows!

We loved having Nicole with us this week. What fun it was to have girls in my home again! 

This was the family who gathered for the meal. Emma and her family celebrated with her in laws in Tennessee, Lindsay and Joseph had other plans for the day.

We later had a visit from our friend Denny, and from Tim's brother and our sister in law.

It was lovely to be together, remembering the resurrection and Christ's payment for our sin. 

I hope you all had a lovely day, too!

Good Friday

   

source

While the cross if filled with horror, the real horror is the depth of my sin, and the fact that I needed a savior. The grace of the cross is that God planned, from the beginning, to allow his son to take on my sin, and die in my place. I'm so humbled and thankful for the cross.

Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone but in every leaf in springtime. – Martin Luther

I Hope You Celebrated, Too

We had a really good weekend.

Tim was goofing off, but wanted to show you that Kyle is taller now.  He loves that!  Tim doesn't mind because Kyle is strong and a good help to him, whether they are chopping wood, working the business, or moving stuff.  He's a good kid!

Most days I'm not even wearing make up.  I use the headphones when there are others using the computer or reading in the living room. I can listen to an audiobook or watch a movie.  Great thing is that they are bluetooth headphones and I can get up and work in the kitchen and still listen.

On Saturday, I watercolored some hardboiled eggs.

 That was fun.

On Saturday we grilled burgers and made fries, and ate on paper plates. Yesterday I cooked a ham, made potato salad, Rachel made a jello salad.  I made several sweet treats (didn't buy candy this year) and set a pretty dinner table.  We are trying to keep special days special, even during a pandemic. 

I realize that at some point each of us may get the virus, and if so, I pray we will have mild cases that give us immunity.  I know a family who are recovering from Covid 19 and dealing with symptoms still.  Each one had it a bit different than the rest.  Mom and one daughter have the pneumonia and while feeling better, they are still dealing with fevers and getting the pneumonia cleared.  Some kids are back to normal, other than a cough, a few still have intestinal issues from the virus.  The virus can look very different in each person even in the same family.  I hope you all continue to be well.

Happy Monday, Friends!

Good Friday

source

Weekend

Saturday Tim and I went on a driving date.  I had not been away from the house for weeks (I do get outside), so we decided that we would take a drive to a wildlife management area.  (We didn't get out of the car)  It was a lovely day to drive.

Our church is sending out study guides and links for us to use on Sunday mornings.  We are preparing for Easter from the book of Isaiah.  It's been good as we read and discuss the scriptures, and sing, too.

I can't believe Easter is next week.

In the evening, Tim made a campfire and some of us went out to sit by it and enjoy the beautiful evening.

I hope your weather is fine today.  We have a chance for rain the next few days, so I'll be savoring the sun today!

Thinking About Easter

This photo of Kamryn and Kyle came up in my memories on FB yesterday.  He was seven and she was two.  You can tell Easter was early that year, by their Easter baskets on the piano behind them.

I'm thinking about what Easter will look like this year.  It will be different for sure, but I still want to keep some traditions.

I'll get some candy with my groceries, and a ham.  We always have green bean casserole.

Part of my life goals are to be flexible and to adjust to how things are, and not how I want them to be! (sometimes it takes me a while to get there)  It makes for a happier and more contented me.

 Maybe we'll go for a drive after our Easter luncheon, if the weather is fine.  We don't need to stop or come into contact with anyone else, so that's doable.

I think I'll still color some eggs to enjoy.  One of these days, I'll make some pretty decoupage eggs that I can use year after year!

The things I'll miss are all of us gathering here with guests, too, to celebrate the Resurrection. We will still celebrate the it, and rejoice in Jesus victory over death, but it will be a smaller group.  That's okay, really. 

On that day all over the world, Christians will be celebrating, and that is a lot of people.  We are not alone.

What are your plans for Easter, this year?  

Home Keeping: New Recliner For The Living Room

We finally have replaced all the broken furniture.  We looked around this past weekend for a chair to replace a small scale recliner, and couldn't find anything we liked.  So we looked online, and found this one.  It has all the comfort my reclining loving family members want, and the style I love.

I really like the nailhead trim on this chair!

Today is Ash Wednesday.  We don't practice Lent, in our faith tradition, but I wanted something to read as preparation for Easter this year, and found this book a few months ago.  I'm a fan of C.S. Lewis and am looking forward to reading it.

From the inside book cover

" Preparing for Easter is a collection of beautiful gems discovered amidst Lewis's essays, poems, letters, and other works that are not as familiar to most of his readers.  But all of them serve the same purpose that pervades Lewis's work, the goal of going "further up and further in" in our relationship with God."

I trust that as we prepare our hearts and look to Easter, that foremost in our mind is that Christ gave his live, willingly, out of love.  There is nothing we can do to earn it.  Salvation is a gift of God.

Beautiful Easter

We had a wonderful Easter.  It started with Rachel surprising us on Thursday evening.  Our church had a really special Good Friday service, we went to breakfast on Saturday morning.  Yesterday, Nate and Kayleigh came to the Easter service, and then we all came together for lunch at our house.

We had 15 people here for lunch - our family, Wes and his brother Reeve and sister in law Faith, Nate and Kay and the girls, my parents, and our friend Denny.

I set two tables.

 I really enjoy setting a beautiful table!


Kamryn and Klaire's places had their special bunnies!

The weather was mostly sunny and warm.  These clouds just moved through and we had no rain.  It was perfect for the egg hunt, this year just the grandgirlies did participated.

We served ham, potato salad, broccoli salad, pasta salad, green bean casserole, jello.  Everyone brought something.  For dessert we had a Key Lime pie, and I made a low carb lemon yogurt cake.  It was delicious.

Here is the recipe - Lemon Yogurt Cake

I whipped up a little heavy whipping cream, and put some sliced strawberries with it.  It was wonderful.  I did make a substitution of THM Baking Blend for the 1/3 cup each of almond flour, coconut flour and ground flax seed.  (the baking blend has those ingredients in it)

Not only did Sarah, my Mom and I enjoy it, but our guest Faith is doing a liver cleanse and has to be careful what she eats.  This cake was completely on her plan and so she was able to enjoy dessert too!

This morning, we sent Rachel back to school.  She is getting so close to being finished with her academic portion of her year; just about four weeks.  Then she'll have a three week break and she'll go back for summer ministry.  She'll graduate in August.  We are all looking forward to that!

Today, I'll be getting the house back in order, and getting us all ready for a quick trip down to Florida.  We are having a family reunion on Tim's side of the family and getting to see our friends.  We have housesitter/animal care all taken care of, and Kyle will mow tomorrow before we leave.  The grass is growing fast these days and is so green!

I trust you all had a really good Easter, too.  I'm so thankful for the Resurrection!