Joy and Hunting

What a range of emotions are experienced traveling through the Easter weekend.


Good Friday; somber and sorrowful. It makes me so sad to imagine how painful it must have been for Jesus' disciples to have all of their hopes ripped from their grasp as Jesus died on the cross. Jesus, the Messiah, the one who performed miracles and wonders, dead, and buried in a tomb. Heart wrenching!


Easter Sunday; wonder and celebration! It must have been a crazy roller coaster ride of emotions from shock to elation for the disciples when they learned of Jesus' resurrection. 


I'm always amazed by the joy and tears as our church congregation sings He's Alive Hallelujah on Easter Sunday and what a blessing to continue to celebrate with family throughout the day!


Egg hunt!

Some eggs are easier to find than others. Thank goodness Grandma makes a map and leads the search for the most elusive (too well hidden) eggs and treasures!

Found!

The sun was too bright for Emma bean to open her eyes!

Victory!

My sister's youngest boy. I love him!

It was a good day to be outside!

My sister's oldest, (I can't call him a boy anymore. He's a man. That happened too fast!) and my brother-in-law! I love them too!!

Yes, it was a very good day to be outside!

I hope you too had a joy filled Easter! 


Christine

Not the Boss of Me

It still makes me laugh to this day.


This sweet girl, my little cousin, the flower girl in my wedding, became very fidgety during the ceremony. Who could blame her. I'm sure after the first few lines of what she heard as...wah wah wah wah wah wah...she'd had enough. After she had danced around for several minutes, one of the bridesmaids asked her to be still. She boldly replied, "You're not the boss of me."

Look at me in all of my wedding fluffery!

It was very funny! And understandable. She didn't know the person who was telling her what to do. All she knew was that waiting was very difficult. She had probably become uncomfortable as well. This was not what she had expected. 


Sounds a lot like life.


I understand how she was feeling. I've had times in my life when I'd like to have said, "You're not the boss of me!" to someone I didn't know very well, and whose intentions I didn't really trust when they were trying to tell me what to do.


Do you ever consider who you allow to be the boss of you?


Who do you trust when the world doesn't make sense? When your own feelings don't make sense? 


Who do you trust to give you wise counsel?


Who comforts you when your heart is broken?


Who guides you when the path of life is lost and you don't know which way to turn?


Who helps you accomplish what seems impossible?


Is it the One who loves you with a Great Compassionate Love?


Is it the One who is full of MERCY and GRACE?


Is it the One who is ALL KNOWING, ALL POWERFUL, and willing to HELP you?


Is it the One who knows all of your sin, and offers to cover it with HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS?


Is it the One who suffered and died on the cross, bearing all sin, while still asking Father God to forgive us?


Is it the One with the POWER to rise from the dead and CONQUER death?


Is it Jesus Christ, who says believe in me and be saved, follow my commands that it will be well with you, that gets to be the boss of you?


He gets to be the boss of me! I will follow Him! Not only does He deserve the right, He has earned the right to be the boss of me.


And though I will stumble and fall short of following Him well, He will say, "Rise up! I will HELP you! I will be your STRENGTH! I will give you HOPE! My sacrifice is SUFFICIENT for you! Your sin is not greater than my righteousness can cover! Your sin is not too small that it does not need to be covered!" 


He will declare, "I LOVE YOU!" That is the reason He died on the cross for all sin, making today Good Friday!


He is ALL POWERFUL! That is how He rose again. The celebration of Easter Sunday!


May you be overwhelmed this weekend by the LOVE of Jesus! 


May you have a very Happy Easter!


Christine

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for...Frozen Yogurt

The girls are the only ones who screamed. The Husband and I did not. We were crazy excited though!


Excited for Cherry Berry frozen yogurt!

They say it's the best on the planet!! I agree!

We experienced Cherry Berry frozen yogurt for the first time while in South Dakota. The girls were sad we did not have Cherry Berry in Minnesota.


Well we do now! Hence all of the screaming!


Cherry Berry's self serve yogurt bar is the berry best and now in Minnesota.

Grab a cup.

Fill it with your berry favorite flavor, or flavors, of yogurt.

Add your choice of berry yummy toppings, of which there is an abundance to choose from!!

Of course this all happens after you have taste tested the many different flavors of berry yummy frozen yogurt.

Oh yes, they give you several little sample cups for trying out the berry many delectable frozen yogurt flavors! White chocolate, chocolate lovers, strawberry, blueberry...the list goes on and on, and each one is berry better than the last one!!


Once filled, your cups of frozen yogurt are placed on a scale. Cherry Berry charges by the ounce, you'll want to watch your little ones whose eyes are much bigger than their stomachs!!

Finally park your berry happy self on a brightly colored couch and enjoy!!

My favorite is a combination of white chocolate, chocolate lovers, and strawberry sprinkled with KitKats. So berry delicious!


But beware!

Addictive it may be, but you will leave Cherry Berry, berry berry happy! 

You are berry wonderful Cherry Berry!


Christine


P.S. Speaking in berry is only a temporary side effect!

Shenanigans

I am not a huge fan of April Fool's Day.


The Family is another story.


The fooling began the moment their feet hit the ground!


The Husband started the shenanigans by giving the girls spoons when they needed forks for breakfast.


He placed drops of food coloring in the bottom of their glasses, causing their milk to turn green the moment it was poured into the glasses.

And he strategically placed this monster.

In retaliation the girls hid fake snakes and frogs to catch the Husband by surprise.

Fortunately, I am left mostly unscathed by all of their tomfoolery.

I, in fact, become the voice of reason and good sense on April Fool's Day. The girls come to me for approval or disapproval of potential tricks.

Rubber band around the kitchen faucet sprayer so that the next person to turn on the faucet is sprayed in the face with water?

NO!

Fake snake on Dad's office chair?

YES!

This apparently gives me enough of an air of superiority that tricks are not played on me.

That, unfortunately, does not mean that I do not occasionally stumble onto a trick meant for another.

The spider dropping into the fridge when the fridge door was opened...unsanctioned! And found by me! Stinkers!!

To be honest, once the rest of the Family gets going with all of their silliness, all I have to do is say something like, "who turned off my curling iron!?" The Family goes into a frenzy of blaming each other. I walk away smiling with the knowledge that I had not yet turned the curling iron on.

I'd say I pretty much won April Fool's Day, but the reality is...

Today I'm putting away snakes, frogs, and spiders that were not discovered yesterday. And I still have a monster to evict!

Did you get April fooled?

Christine

Magnolia

Ahhh the Magnolia,

So very lovely in bloom.

It's enough to make one swoon. (kinda rhymes...right?)

SIGH!


OK, so I didn't actually faint.


But you know what they say.


A rhyme a day,


keeps all bad moods away!!


Have a happy one!


Christine

Science Fair

Miss Emma Bean was all atwitter yesterday because it was time for the science fair!


She and her schoolmates couldn't wait to show off all of their hard work and creativity.


Our school has held their annual science fair for about 6 years now. I think this year's fair was the best one yet!


The students are really thinking through their ideas and trying to perfect their experiments. Many of them created hands on experiences, allowing others to try out the experiment for themselves.


I checked out...

Very fun!


I was fascinated by the study in robotics and this soda can robot!

Very clever!


I enjoyed the carnations in colored water experiment.

I was impressed by this model of the water cycle. 

Nicely done!


I've always thought the lemon or potato battery is a very interesting experiment. I have never seen one as impressive as this though!

We've got to put this kid to work on alternate energy sources! He's ready!!


My friend's son, Andy, experimented with magnets and electricity to create a motor. 

If the experiments I saw last night are any indication, the future of energy is looking good!


And Miss Emma Bean experimented with amplifying sound. She created a balloon-a-phone.

It was interesting to see how the different amounts of air inflation in the balloons affect the volume of the music. And the kids enjoyed listening to music and doing a little dancing!


All-in-all the kids did a great job! No wonder they were so excited. It's also possible that the expectation of going to DQ for ice-cream afterward added to their excitement just a little!


Christine

Origami Pikachu Tutorial

Recently I posted a photo of an Origami Pikachu. 

Since the girls learned how to make them, I have been finding the little critters everywhere! They're in the car, on shelves, on the kitchen counters, on my desk, EVERYWHERE!

Some of you have expressed an interest in learning how to make this little guy, so Miss Sofia graciously agreed to star in a short little video tutorial for you. 


I'm going to tell you straight away that this is the first video of this sort we've ever done. Actually, it's pretty much the first video we've taken in the last 13 years. We don't tend to take videos. 


We have exactly two videos of Miss Sofia that were taken when she was one year old. They were taken with one of those old, gigantic video cameras. Remember those? That's all. Not a single video more. We're just not much into taking the videos. Now photos, that's a different story. We have truckloads of those. Videos, not so much. Go figure.


All of that is to say, we're not practiced in the art of film making. At all! You're going to hear an assortment of whispered directions, sniffs, and some general clammer in the background of this video. We did manage to edit out moments of giggling and general silliness however. woohoo?


I want to give a big thank you to Miss Sofia for being a good sport about showing everyone how to make an origami Pikachu! And a big thank you to the Husband for video editing and for figuring out how to post a video to the blog! 


Applause applause!!

Happy origamiing everyone!


Christine


P.S. If your house becomes overrun by origami Pikachus, I take no responsibility!