Easter Garden

One of my favorite websites is A Holy Experience. I have found so much encouragement and many good ideas, especially for making the Easter season more meaningful. Last year the boys and I started making an Easter garden. But alas, the tomb we attempted to make was a flop and thus our garden never materialized. This year I was determined to make a garden. George and I picked out the plants then Pete (my gardener) and Tank helped me arrange and plant it and find the perfect rocks to use.

Another idea I found in a book that has become a favorite -- Treasuring God in Our Traditions by Noël Piper, is lighting candles as you would with Advent. But instead of the light getting brighter it grows darker as we draw near the death of God. While it is to be done over the period of lent with 7 Sundays we instead added candles to our garden and starting on Palm Sunday we lit all of the candles to signify Jesus riding into Jerusalem. Each day we will light one less until Good Friday when all is dark as the Light of the World was crucified. Easter morning the candles will all shine brightly as John 1:5 says "The light shines in darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

Preparing for Resurrection Sunday

This year I have been trying to be intentional about preparing our hearts for Resurrection Sunday. While we countdown the days in great anticipation for Christmas and there are festivities everywhere we look, it is not typically the same for Easter. But yet, as Christians the real reason to celebrate is because of the Resurrection. Here are a few of  the books and music we have been enjoying to help us prepare our heart and help us understand the sacrifice the Lord made for us.


Caleb's Colt by Jill Briscoe is a book I found at a garage sale but I did not find a picture online. It is a fun story for children told by Caleb, the owner of the donkey that Jesus rode into Jerusalem.

Joel...a boy of Galilee by Annie Fellows Johnston is a Lamplighter book that was one of our favorite read-alouds. We aren't currently reading it but it is perfect for this time of year as Joel encounters Jesus. You know it is a good book when I get choked up while reading it to the children. While an older child could read this on their own I tend to like to read as many books as possible aloud as a family. It is a truly special time together.

The Very First Easter by Paul Maier has been on our shelf for years and I always like coming back to it. The pictures are well done and it tells the miraculous account in story form with parents explaining it to their son incorporating scripture references. We read through it a portion a day otherwise it can get long for the little ones.

Benjamin's Box by Melody Carlson -- this simple story corresponds nicely with the Resurrection Eggs. The first year we had the book I made my own filled eggs but alas, things always disappear around here and so this year I did buy the eggs as they come in a hard plastic container and I hoped it would help them stay put. The title page of each section has a picture of the colored egg that should be opened for that day.

Our new favorite for this year is Amon's Adventure by Al Ytreeride. We have gone through the Jotham trilogy over the years during Advent and were delighted that he "finally" wrote one for Lent. It is the story of Jotham's son and is filled with adventure and characters you will remember from the previous books. This is one to be read as a countdown to Resurrection day with 28 chapters but it is hard to read only one chapter a day. I have found George sneaking off with it to read ahead more than once.

Passion Hymns for a Kid's Heart by Bobbie Wolgemuth and Joni Eareckson Tada -- While we do sing hymns at our church I really enjoy this series of books helping children to memorize wonderful hymns of the faith and know the story behind them. This is one that we pull out a hymn or two to learn each year. It comes with an orchestrated CD of the hymns sung by children along with Joni and Bobbie.

While I am not a big fan of Veggie Tales we do have A Very Veggie Easter CD and I love the arrangements of the Easter songs and hymns, especially "Christ the Lord is Risen Today". There is a song or two that I am not crazy about and so usually will skip past those. I questioned myself on that the other day and let them listen to a silly song. That was a mistake as what was the song that I heard Missy Blue repeating over and over? It wasn't any of the hymns I was trying to instill. I am not against fun songs but when it completely overshadows the true meaning of Easter then forget it. The individual songs are available for download.


More preparations yet to come this week with hopefully a new tradition that I will share more about. I hope in this next week you too are anticipating Easter.

Spring Flowers

For behold, the winter is past;
the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove
is heard in our land.

Song of Solomon 2:11-12

And after searching our fields with the rest of the kids for signs of growing things my first gift of flowers has arrived from a very excited little boy. :)

Another Grandpa turns 90!

Last Sunday we celebrated my Grandpa's 90th birthday! I am so blessed to have three of my grandparents still with me. And I am so thankful that my children are reaping the benefits of having such a godly example in their lives.

We had a big celebration and one thing I always enjoy at gatherings is a "program" with various family members participating. My grandpa loves singing and has a beautiful voice, although he claims that the stroke he had years back took his voice. He may not be as loud but I still love to hear him. When I was a girl I remember each time my grandparents would visit our church for a children's program or some such thing. No matter where in the sanctuary I would be I could always hear his tenor voice harmonizing with the congregation and it would bring a smile to my face.

Grandpa & Grandma with their remaining children. My Dad is in the burgundy shirt.

This time my Dad and his brothers sang one of Grandpa's favorites What a Day That Will Be and then at the end Grandpa joined in. It was beautiful and I think there were a few tears shed. "What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see..." My Dad, Sister, George and I attempted to sing a song called Leaving a Legacy although we had a few problems with the out-of-tune piano and then at the end my emotions got the best of me and I couldn't sing a word. The favorite was probably when the great-grandchildren all sang the beloved children's song Jesus Loves Me. It was a special day celebrating a special man.

My Grandpa is not quite the same as he once was. Obviously he has grown older and with age comes change especially with the many physical struggles he has overcome. My cousin read a poem she wrote with all of the memories she remembered about him while we were growing up and I couldn't help but wish that my children could know the same man that I have known.

My cousin Jen, my sister and I used to have sleepovers at our grandparents house and oh the fun we'd have as Grandma brought clothes from the thrift store and we'd put on a fashion show with wigs and all. What a riot and Grandpa always had his camera and egged us on. Mornings we'd sneak down to catch him with his hair all a mess and flopped in front of his face as he combed it back and once in awhile he'd do his "tarzan call" for us. Around the breakfast table he would always lead in a devotional time and prayer. And a time or two he even took us on a shopping trip. So many years past but so many wonderful memories that are too numerous to write here.

Happy 90th birthday Grandpa! I am so thankful for you! I know you have had an influence on who I am today.

Words for Wednesday

I was reminded of this verse today.

Proverbs 14:4 "Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean."

In other words -- if I have no children filling my house I have no mess.

While I dream of a day when my house is no longer constantly needing to be picked up, I am relishing these days when I have young children to make those messes and create a lot of noise. I LOVE it! I know all too soon days of stepping on legos and washing marker from counters will be over... And I will miss it.

Chai Tea Latte

While the calendar tells us it is officially spring, it certainly does not look or feel like it. Wednesday brought us a mix of weather from rain and hail to snow mixed with thunder and blowing wind. Each time I looked out the window it seemed to change. But I was reminded that spring will indeed come as I photographed a robin in the blowing snow trying to eat the frozen berries on the tree.

Look how the feathers are blowing. I took it through the window so not as clear as I like.

Being that it was so cold and I am always cold I was in the mood for a hot drink and tried a recipe for Chai Tea Latte that I had written out and stashed away. I made it again today. This is for two servings which is all I need for myself but it would be fun to make a batch for guests.

• two tea bags
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ginger
• 1/4/ allspice
• (I added cardamom too)
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 brown sugar
• 2T vanilla creamer (I just used a splash of vanilla)

Place tea bags and spices in a coffee filter of a drip coffee maker. Add water; brew. Meanwhile in a small saucepan, combine the milk, brown sugar, and creamer/vanilla. Cook and stir over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. I kept whisking mine to make the milk foamy. Add milk to mugs; stir in tea. Dollop with whipped cream and sprinkle with nutmeg.

This was SO tasty and very economical as it tastes just like you'd buy in a coffee shop.

Enjoy!

Baby's First Picture

Baby is smiling at us! Taken at 16 wks. 1 day

I had my "dating" ultrasound Monday to make sure that baby's measurements match-up with my due date and they do. As you can see by my baby ticker above I am now 16 weeks and time is flying. I can't believe I haven't blogged about my progress before. The first trimester was fairly good. Thankfully I never really have gotten sick with any pregnancy but I typically do feel nauseous from time to time throughout the day. It helps to keep snacking and I also find that sucking on ginger root candy works great. (Probably the only time I can stand the stuff as it is strong!)

I do have food aversions which makes it so difficult to plan meals when so many favorites no longer appeal to me. I haven't been able to eat onions in anything which is hard because it seems that I put them in almost everything. Even looking at a recipe with them gave me a yuck kind of feeling.Thankfully that is now starting to diminish so hopefully we'll be able to enjoy some favorites like Chicken Potpie before too long.

I am exhausted and somehow forgot that is what happens. After breakfast I am ready for a nap and if you know me, I do not like taking naps. Now that I am in my 2nd trimester I am waiting for my energy to return.

The biggest problem I have in pregnancy is round ligament pain and also pain from stretching scar tissue. It started early and I know it will only continue to get worse the bigger I get. The thing is you never know when the pain will hit and it can vary from mild to an intense stabbing feeling. I had hoped that the length between pregnancies this time would have maybe helped with this but I guess not.

My belly has popped and did early on. It seems it comes out sooner with each pregnancy probably because I have a pooch to begin with. This time it caused quite a few people to question if I was having twins. Missy and Seppy insisted that we were having two babies. A girl for Missy and a boy for Seppy. All the comments started to make me wonder too but no, God is blessing us with one baby and I am quite happy about that. The thing I find funny about popping out and outgrowing my clothes so soon is that I look back to my first pregnancy when I couldn't wait to be able to wear maternity clothes. I was itching for people to look at me and know that I was expecting. By this pregnancy I long to stay in my normal clothes as long as possible. Oh how time changes things.

This time around I had to switch doctors for my prenatal care which is turning out okay. Although I reached the magic time of life when I am of "advanced maternal age" and so had the whole discussion on all of my risks now that I am older. What a strange feeling. No matter, I don't feel old in the least! I will have another ultrasound in four weeks and I look forward to seeing our baby waving and moving all around again. I think they do 3D too which will be fun.

John and I decided not to find out what we are having. We have done it both ways for different reasons but last time when I was lying on the table waiting to be cut open for my c-section I found it a helpful distraction to ponder if we were having a girl or a boy. I also think it will be fun for the kids when Daddy comes walking out with the baby in his arms and can say "It's a ....!"  All but Tank hopes we are having a girl for Missy. (Well, Seppy changes his mind from time to time.) I think they realize how very different she is from them and how much she would enjoy a sister. I am guessing another boy because the odds are really good in that direction. Either way, I am looking forward to holding a baby in my arms again!