When Women Gather

Saturday morning my church hosted a ladies brunch.


Tables were beautifully set and adorned with floral center pieces.

The men prepared,

and served,

My Man!

an incredible meal.

From the three cheese scrambled eggs to the raspberry, white chocolate scones (oh the scones)

the entire meal was heavenly!


Yes, ALL prepared by the men from my church! Including the chocolate mousse dessert!

And to top it off, they, the men, cleaned up the whole shebang afterward. We ladies really appreciated all of their hard work to make a lovely morning for us.


The men were very attentive and efficient. Some maybe a little too efficient as they reached to remove what they thought were empty mousse cups. Oops! Not empty mousse cups. Warning! Never try to remove a mousse cup from a lady if she has not finished her mousse! Enough said.


Even more wonderful than the food, which truly was spectacular, was the time spent with some ladies who are very dear to my heart.


And very appropriate for a gathering of women, my good friend's lovely Mother-in-law spoke about the importance and blessings of our relationships with each other and with God. 

God created us to be in relationships with others. To support and be supported. To give love and be loved in return. To bear one another's burdens. To be sheltered from the storm and encouraged to take the leaps of faith.


Not all relationships are easy though. We are broken people causing some relationships to be more difficult than others, and making some relationships seem less rewarding than others. But all relationships matter to God. The one we have with Him in particular.


It is being in a relationship with God, experiencing His love and compassion, that makes it possible for us to love when loving isn't easy. It God's strength and His joy that allow us to encourage and build each other up even though we may have done it a thousand times already. It's realizing God's selflessness towards us that helps us to put another's needs before our own. And it is because of God's goodness and patience in His relationship with us, though we are not always easy to be in relationship with, that helps us to continue to love and work on the relationships with those in our lives who may need a little extra patience from us.


So the next time I see a posting on Facebook or Pinterest that encourages dumping any relationship other than the ones that serve me and my interests alone, I will lift my difficult relationships to God in prayer, and I will remember that it is highly likely that I am the most broken person of all and that I may be God's most difficult relationship and He has not dumped me!


Christine

In Which I Fess Up

There may have been some concern yesterday about my indulging in too many scrumptious, delicious, chocolate and peanut butter craving satisfying treats. Were you able to follow that? I'll clarify. I implied that I ate a LOT of Reese's peanut butter cup eggs yesterday!


The Husband, who read yesterday's blog post, asked me, upon arriving home from work, if I had actually eaten that many peanut butter cup eggs during the day.

Yesterday's blog photo

Count em. Three empty wrappers and two unopened peanut butter eggs. Five! Mmmmmm.


Here is my confession...I did not eat all of those peanut butter cup eggs. I didn't them all in one day anyway.


I have eaten one, sometimes two a day since Sunday. Maybe three on Sunday.


Yesterday, only one.


I may be prone to occasional exaggeration.


I confess, I had to dig through the garbage to find the wrappers for the photo. I washed my hands after! I swear I did!!


I confess, I DO have a stash of peanut butter cup eggs in the cupboard. They remain, as yet, unopened.


I confess, I do add peanut butter cup eggs to Miss Sofia's Easter basket fully knowing she does not like them, she will not eat them, and she will not care that I take them and eat them myself. I do not otherwise swipe candy from babies!!


In truth, I walked through the clearance Easter candy aisle in Target Yesterday, I did not not not purchase anymore Reese's peanut butter cup eggs.


I confess, it was NOT NOT NOT easy!


In conclusion, Reese's peanut butter cup eggs ARE my weakness! I DO imagine eating tons of them! And I always wash my hands after digging through the garbage! 


Now I will distract you with a cute animal photo!

Photo found on styledip.com

Christine

Chocolate and Peanut Butter

It isn't the jelly beans. 


It isn't the giant, chocolate bunnies.


It isn't the Peeps.


It's the peanut butter goodness coated in chocolate in the shape of an egg that gets me every Easter.


Oh Reese's peanut butter cup eggs, what you do to me!

I don't crave Reese's peanut butter cups any other time of the year. Sorry Reese's! I do enjoy your Reese's pieces all year long! But your peanut butter cups hold little power over me until you make them in the shape of an egg for Easter. That's when I can't get enough!


I swipe them from my children's Easter baskets!


I scarf them down before anyone else can get them!


I keep a secret stash in the cupboard! Please don't tell!!


I should hang my head in shame.


I should have an ounce of self control!


I should share with the Family!


So that's it!


I will not eat another Reese's peanut butter cup egg! Once these last few are gone.


I will never again eat another Reese's peanut butter cup egg! Until next Easter.


While I quickly finish off the last of this Easter's Reese's peanut butter cup eggs...mmmm...check out my post, Shag Pillow Hack on DIY Lady Hacks, by clicking here.

Christine

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