When we celebrate Easter, we celebrate the greatest gift anyone has ever been given. We celebrate the sacrifice and atonement of Jesus Christ; that He conquered our spiritual and physical death. Easter is the gift of hope, of joy, of grace and of eternal life. We celebrate that our Savior overcame our sorrows, our weaknesses, ours sins, our pain and our death. There is nothing more beautiful then that! But unfortunately, even knowing all of that with absolute surety and being so humbly grateful for it, none of that means this life is going to be easy!
On Saturday Riley got a much needed haircut, we visited Kellie and Addie while their parents are out of town, we had a great time fulfilling our beloved tradition of dying Easter eggs, we made rice crispie treat birds nests with Nana and celebrated Hudson’s birthday with dinner at Olive Garden and cake, ice cream and presents at the French’s. A fun but full day that ended with lots of tears with the news of the Fosters house purchase and the sweetest, sweetest note that Keagan left for the Easter Bunny which he tenderly answered!
Easter Sunday, or resurrection Sunday sure was a beautiful and sacred day! The Easter Bunny came and totally spoiled Keags and Rys with our traditional swim suits, games and candy. And as our tradition allows, mommy gifted a new Easter dress. During breakfast we had another beautiful discussion between the three of us about the real meaning of Easter and then we had the most incredible few hours at church where the Spirit was so strong and tender. After church, lunch and good use of the sidewalk chalk and the woopie cushion that the Easter Bunny brought, and way too many confetti eggs that mommy bought, we got ready to host Easter dinner for our family. The Texas Ginn’s, the French’s, Kellie, Addie, Nana and us all had a wonderful meal together talking, laughing and supporting together. During dessert I led a small devotional with the traditional scripture eggs and then Kennedy, Hudson and I hid the 175 eggs for Keagan, Riley and Campbell to hunt. After a lot of fun, we were all so grateful and exhausted at the end of the day after celebrating, focusing on our Savior and hearing about hard things our family members are facing.
We thankfully had school off one more day on Monday and besides Keagan getting another great report at the dentist and continuing her title of no cavities ever, we got to spend a majority of it with the Texas Ginn’s. We were absolutely thrilled to welcome home my nephew Elder Ginn for a stay as he addresses some challenging medical issues. I’m so proud of him and for all of my family that is truly trying to do what the Lord wants them to do!
The last few days have been beautiful in so many ways. But the last few days have been hard, really hard. It has been a long time coming, and the Lord has been preparing me for it, but my sister and brother in law officially bought a house in Utah, sealing the deal that they are moving this summer and taking so much of my life as I know it with them. Unfortunately, my brother Kirk and sister in law Kari that live here also announced they will be moving from here to Austin this summer. And just to round this out in a freaky way, my brother Tyler and sister in law Vicki that love in the city of Chicago are moving to the suburbs of Chicago this summer! Quite crazy huh? Adding to all of this is close family members and friends who are like family are going thru really, really hard things. Despite most of this being what’s best for those I love, and what the Lord wants, it is still incredibly hard for me, Keagan and Riley. So I’m pretty certain I wouldn’t be able to do any of it without exactly what Easter represents. I couldn’t do any of this or everything else that’s hard, like my life in general, without the hope, the joy, the grace, and the peace that only my Savior offers. So this Easter weekend was special. It was especially beautifully hard.
This years Good Friday must have been the best one I can remember. Two weeks ago my friend Dede invited both Keagan and Riley over for a play date with a purpose. Y’all Riley could not have been more excited to be included and it was such a great time! Along with her daughter Audrey, and their best friends Avery, Lauren and Kalee, they all got busy making 75 home made Easter cards for the residents at the Lawrence Street Care Center that we have served lately. They made darling cards plus had pizza and played soccer and games in their great back yard! It was really so awesome and then we had the opportunity on the afternoon of Good Friday to go pass those cards out. But before doing that, who I have now named “The Fab Five” (Keagan, Riley, Avery, Audrey and Lauren) all had a play date at our house. I got to catch up with Chantel while the girls played outside in the gorgeous weather!
What started out as a “mom can we please wash your car?” turned into a fundraising car wash to raise money for the Care Center! They couldn’t have been cuter with their excitement, their signs including ones at the end of the street and their readiness to work! I loved it all except for the “car wash” screams coming out of the karaoke machine that had been brought outside to wake up the neighborhood! I’m such a mean mom for stopping that right away, but everything else was darling! Unfortunately a culdesac doesn’t see lots of traffic but after Mrs Krenek and I paid for our car washes, a sweet neighbor donated, Lauren donated her $10 and Keagan her $25, the girls had raised $50 dollars in total to donate! We met Mrs Dede and Will at the center and the girls were busting at the seems to hand over their money and pass out cards! What we didn’t know was that we were kind of tricked into coming during the volunteer appreciation ceremony where the girls were introduced and applauded for their efforts and abundantly hugged and thanked by Mrs Karen the activities director. Then the cake and ice cream was almost as sweet as how much the girls loved passing out their cards! There was no question they felt great about what they had done and they definitely should have! They did a lot of good on Good Friday! Then we topped off the day eating dinner outside and playing at Ever Bellies with Mrs Taryn, Hudson and Lauren.
On Saturday Riley got a much needed haircut, we visited Kellie and Addie while their parents are out of town, we had a great time fulfilling our beloved tradition of dying Easter eggs, we made rice crispie treat birds nests with Nana and celebrated Hudson’s birthday with dinner at Olive Garden and cake, ice cream and presents at the French’s. A fun but full day that ended with lots of tears with the news of the Fosters house purchase and the sweetest, sweetest note that Keagan left for the Easter Bunny which he tenderly answered!
Easter Sunday, or resurrection Sunday sure was a beautiful and sacred day! The Easter Bunny came and totally spoiled Keags and Rys with our traditional swim suits, games and candy. And as our tradition allows, mommy gifted a new Easter dress. During breakfast we had another beautiful discussion between the three of us about the real meaning of Easter and then we had the most incredible few hours at church where the Spirit was so strong and tender. After church, lunch and good use of the sidewalk chalk and the woopie cushion that the Easter Bunny brought, and way too many confetti eggs that mommy bought, we got ready to host Easter dinner for our family. The Texas Ginn’s, the French’s, Kellie, Addie, Nana and us all had a wonderful meal together talking, laughing and supporting together. During dessert I led a small devotional with the traditional scripture eggs and then Kennedy, Hudson and I hid the 175 eggs for Keagan, Riley and Campbell to hunt. After a lot of fun, we were all so grateful and exhausted at the end of the day after celebrating, focusing on our Savior and hearing about hard things our family members are facing.
We thankfully had school off one more day on Monday and besides Keagan getting another great report at the dentist and continuing her title of no cavities ever, we got to spend a majority of it with the Texas Ginn’s. We were absolutely thrilled to welcome home my nephew Elder Ginn for a stay as he addresses some challenging medical issues. I’m so proud of him and for all of my family that is truly trying to do what the Lord wants them to do!
Y’all know I love quotes and a new favorite quote and an old favorite quote have been ringing in my ears and heart this entire weekend. First of all, Dieter F Uchtdorf said “On Easter Sunday we celebrate the most long-awaited and glorious event in the history of the world. It is the day that changed everything. On that day, my life changed. Your life changed. The destiny of all mankind changed.” And finally an old favorite by C.S. Lewis, “I believe in Christ like I believe in the sun- not because I can see it but by it I can see everything else.”
I’m so grateful for Him, Jesus Christ. And so grateful that because of Him I can see all the hard things and all the beautiful things clearly with the right perspective. I know we can conquer all with His help. And I think we are going to need that help soon. Isn’t that beautiful? Beautifully hard.
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