Welcome Happy Morning!

My favorite Easter hymn...and I got to sing it in my favorite church...well, close to it.  Irving Hall.  It was good to be home today.

But I get ahead of myself.  Chris and I started out early with a cup of coffee in the dark on the porch.  It's a rarity because generally on the weekends we relish the time for a long run.  Today we just enjoyed the quiet and each other.  Soon, we heard some noise and came inside to find all four boys pouring through their Easter baskets!!

Time to play, hunt eggs in the yard, and off to church.

Finally home for dinner.  I cooked my first ham!  And thankfully, everyone else brought sides.  A great meal. Great family.  Truly blessed this Easter and always.

I'll end with this.  You can only keep little boys dressed up for so long!

Easter Festivities and Life

It always seems crazy to me how the Easter festivities heat up during Holy Week.  Lots of egg hunts.

We had one at some friends' house for the church since our grounds aren't quite safe for egg hunting.

William also had a Easter party and egg hunt at school.

Finally, we dyed eggs tonight for the Easter bunny to hide!

Time to get ready for the big day!

Rainy Day Entertainment

How do you spend a rainy afternoon?  My dream is a good book on my sun-porch ..all alone.  It rarely comes true.  Today, it was spent vacuuming 

But I had to smile as I made it from room to room.  Here's what I found.

Guess it runs in the family!  Happy (wet) Friday!

An Adventure

Philip, Daniel, and I have been reading Uncle Wiggly's Adventures every night before bed.  There are 30-something tales about a "bunny rabbit gentleman" that leaves his "hollow stump bungalow" each day looking for adventures.  There's always a moral, but each tale leaves the impression of helping others generally comes full circle.

Today, as we were driving up the hill for morning carpool, the boys begged me to go straight instead of turning into St. Paul's.  "Let's go on an adventure, Mom."  Yea, right.  Your mom was not made for adventure!

Then while cleaning the shower today, I got a call from Father Bailey.  Apparently the construction workers and our Sexton, Amos, were so touched by the boys' generosity yesterday (the doughnuts) that they wanted the boys to come put their hand prints in the wet cement in front of the church.

I typically do not pull the boys out of school for anything.  Tuition's just too expensive to waste!  But this was an adventure that I could not resist.

I chose to not let them write their names.  Chris and I have often said that we do not want our name anywhere in the church for so many reasons.  But now, I know that these four prints belong to my four boys.  And, sweet Trinity, my home away from home, I will always smile when walking in your doors.

Let Your Light Shine

On the Friday before Mardi Gras break, I received an e-mail from St. Paul's explaining a new school-wide campaign..."Let Your Light Shine."  It is based on Ann Curry's campaign to complete 26 acts of kindness...one for each victim of the Sandy Hook shootings.  It is also based on scripture.

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16

(An aside, but I found it interesting that this scripture is part of the Taize worship service.  Philip, Daniel, and I have attended this service at All Saints each Wednesday night during Lent.  It was such a wonderful reminder.)

This e-mail is one of those that makes writing the tuition check just a little bit easier.  I thought it a great idea and decided the boys and I would participate.  I had a few ideas of things we could do and asked them for their help too.  Off we went to do good.  I didn't count, so I'm not exactly sure we made it to 26, but I'm guessing that isn't the point.

Some things we did at home...William making his bed by himself without being asked...Philip cleaning his room simply because he saw me vaccuming and knew I needed the floor picked up...Daniel giving William his balloon when William's floated away...and probably more that I can not remember.  Kindness has to begin at home!!

We did a lot of cleaning out...coats, clothes, toys...and donated those to others.

We did lots of baking...Valentine's cookies for the nurses/aids at Big Mama's nursing home...lemon muffins for the staff at All Saints...cookies for Susan and Rob and GranGran and PopPop.

To All Saints, Daniel wrote: Thank you for sharing your church.

We helped others...taking GranGran to the doctor and even babysitting Campbell for a little bit so Aunt Susan could take a shower in peace!

We delivered doughnuts to the construction workers at Trinity...after having a few ourselves!

Such a wonderful idea.  I wondered if it made any impact on the boys...until I got this e-mail from Daniel's teacher this morning.  Part read:

Daniel told me about taking doughnuts and muffins yesterday.  He wants to share about the experience tomorrow for Shared Journal.  It obviously made an impact...

I hope so!

A Perfect Afternoon

That included planting our garden....

enjoying the spring-like day outside...

and ended with a shrimp boil dinner.

Love the warmer weather.  Love little boys playing outside.  Love dinners cooked with the husband.  Love.  Love.  Love.