Easter 2012

9 Apr

 Celebrating on Saturday with our extended family suited everyone’s busy Sunday schedule allowing us to enjoy each other with out the after church rush. Additionally we were able to eat lunch at Olive Garden after the third Easter service on Sunday. In case you were wondering, Little Italy serves up a tasty Easter dish! We hope you enjoy this picture recap of our celebrations.

We dyed Easter eggs on Friday evening and the kids acted as if they were going to Disney world. To say they loved it would be an understatement. I am considering buying more discount egg-dye at Walmart to surprise them.

Easter service ready then a kiss and out the door.

 

He lives, he lives,

Christ Jesus lives today!

He walks with me and talks with me

Along life’s narrow way.

He lives, he lives,

Salvation to impart!

You ask me how I know he lives?

He lives within my heart.

 Happy Easter 2012!

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To Scoop Them Up

16 Mar

The days flee and the nights escape us. Little ones, while tucked in, grow and develop when our eyes are closed and our thoughts rest.

Each day we see them and know they are growing. Each night we check on them one more time, finding them in their most precious, peaceful positions. Why is it that children are most peaceful when sleeping? Why do we want to kiss them until they wake up?

Little-lisped “s’s”, normal for their developmental age flow out of, “Yeth it ith.” “I thee it.” We melt and smile.

Pages turn unfolding stories as in turn we are writing our own.

Even unspoken, blank portions of our story can become a writing down. A working in and out of the Holy Spirit. As all things can if we seek Him.

These memories and moments I want to scoop up. All the hurts and chaos I want to let flow on like water off a duck’s back.

To have eyes that see; ears that hear; understanding. These are gifts from God. In this temporary home may we seek after such as we choose to pursue Jesus. Let us scoop up the memories and live eyes on the eternal.

Two memories we scooped this week:

Joshua caressed my hair on the way out the door Wednesday night and said, “Like your hair,” as he tilted his adorable two-year-old head to the left and lifted his shoulder. Prince charming?

Emily asked, “Can some people be blind and not hear?” I told her of Helen Keller, one of my favorite people to read about in grammar and high school. I thought we had a book at home about her.  Emily asks, “Is it a children’s book or one of your books mommy? I don’t think I could sit for one of your books.” The wisdom!

Linking my favorites with Rachel as she celebrates one year of Friday Favorite Things:

friday favorite things | finding joy

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For Emily, On Your Birthday

6 Feb

I Remember You

I remember you puddled in pink, taking your baths in the kitchen sink.

I remember you, flowers in your hair, waking up to your daddy’s loving stare.

I remember you with your eyes shut tight, balling fists and toes in the long dark night.

I remember you, Nana’s little shadow, following her and carrying horses’ red apples.

I remember you all words and whys, becoming more wise in this present world’s eyes.

I remember you pedaling tricycle in the warm morning sun, then pushing your baby carriage just like I had one.

I remember you covered in pink, pedaling your bicycle with a smile and a wink.

I remember you dancing and singing, putting all your dolls to bed like a good mommy in training.

I remember you holding brother at first meeting, gazing at the present and blessing counting all I was seeing.

I remember you reading books in your bed, replacing them under the mattress stead.

I remember you teasing you had no more kisses, and throwing them away in the waste basket like the tissues.

I remember you as the little girl you are for this present day as you turn four.

Happy Birthday Emily Elizabeth!

Love,
Mommy

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Things I Should Know

13 Jan

As I re-wipe counters that were morning clean, fold and put away the same shirts and underwear as last week, and re-sweep floors that were a few days ago Swiffer fresh, I should know…

Since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, everything here on planet earth is temporary.

Man is like a breath, his days are like a passing shadow. ~Psalm 144:4

That I like Moses should pray,

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

~Psalm 90:12

Feet will not always dangle from seats too high.

Imaginative play lasts only for a season.

Even tantrums, the “no” stage, and time-outs will eventually fade away.

Then the little girl and little boy stand up and take their place in God’s world.

Time on earth is temporary and fleeting. Eternity lasts forever.

Shouldn’t I work for the eternal? See my children and their fleeting days till adulthood as a gift and a heritage to be cultivated in tiny hearts? Seek to serve the poor and the persecuted?

Indeed.

I should know that each assignment the Lord gives me on this earth will last, at most, only a lifetime. Perhaps that is why I was drawn to the quote in a Joan Walsh Anglund book this week:

Where is the yesterday that worried us so?

I should know that today is a gift, yesterday a memory, and tomorrow is a hope yet unrealized. I want to be a good steward of today and the resources God entrusted to me within it.

There is pressure in this knowledge, but also freedom.

Dear Father,

Please teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Help us to live for the eternal, hold onto things loosely, and work for Your glory and fellow man’s good. Help us to seek the things that are above and remember that all victories or defeats in this life are but fleeting. Help us to delight in You and spread your fame through all the earth. Help us to be rich in good deeds and pursue a godly and peacful life. Let us do the work you give us with joy and sow a godly heritage in the children you have blessed us with.

In Jesus Name, Amen.

 

 

 

 

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The Water Ripples and Wrinkles Time

6 Jan

I had not been there in years.

The creek at my father’s birthplace.

A few miles from the house that he and my mother now call home… yet really a world away.

Standing on the slippery, wet rocks took me back to elementary years when trips were more frequent and apprehensions of falling in ran a bit higher. Reminded of the thoughts of long ago that only encompassed myself and held no room for the two that we now call our own.

The water ripples and wrinkles time and this home is temporary.

A few decades back would have found my father and his family here playing and bathing in this same creek; full of water to the brim then. Yet now it finds him the grandfather of three and one on the way.

Present. The present is all that we really have and it is ever fleeting. Yet we choose to run ahead to grayer hair and “the day when,” although I dare say that day will not find me all “caught up” and content unless I choose to abide in the this day.

Our trip to Daddy’s land was a gift on the cusp of the new year, as was visiting with a cousin. Both I will treasure these next twelve months and in years to come.

Linking up with Rachel.

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