The True Meaning of Easter

This is what I celebrate at Easter. It is so much more than bunnies and chocolate, or even new outfits. This is what I tried to teach my girls and now Ellie and Hunter. Because of Christ, I can live a hope filled life. I can repent. I will live again. I receive strength and comfort.

I will forever be in debt. I will show by love through obedience and service.

Elder Holland:  “Brothers and sisters, one of the great consolations of this Easter season is that because Jesus walked such a long, lonely path utterly alone, we‍ do not have to do so. His solitary journey brought great company for our little version of that path—the merciful care of our Father in Heaven, the unfailing companionship of this Beloved Son, the consummate gift of the Holy Ghost, angels in heaven, family members on both sides of the veil, prophets and apostles, teachers, leaders, friends. All of these and more have been given as companions for our mortal journey because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ‍ and the Restoration of His gospel. Trumpeted from the summit of Calvary is the truth that we will never be left alone nor unaided, even if sometimes we may feel that we are. Truly the Redeemer of us all said: “I will not leave you comfortless: [My Father and] I will come to you [and abide with you].” ²⁰

My other plea at Easter time is that these scenes of Christ’s lonely sacrifice, laced with moments of denial and abandonment and, at least once, outright betrayal, must never‍ be reenacted by us. He has walked alone once. Now, may I ask that never again will He have to confront sin without our aid and assistance, that never again will He find only unresponsive onlookers when He sees you and me along His Via Dolorosa‍ in our present day. As we approach this holy week—Passover Thursday with its Paschal Lamb, atoning Friday with its cross, Resurrection‍ Sunday with its empty tomb—may we declare ourselves to be more fully disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, not in word only and not only in the flush of comfortable times but in deed and in courage and in faith, including when the path is lonely and when our cross is difficult to bear. This Easter week and always, may we stand by Jesus Christ “at all times and in all things, and in all places that [we] may be in, even until death,” ²¹ ‍ for surely that is how He stood by us when it was‍ unto death and when He had to stand entirely and utterly alone. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.”

March Collage

Here is our month in photos for March.

Spring break and Easter crafts: jelly bean butterfly, wind sock, resurrection garden; Hunter was student of the week and he lost his two front teeth; renaissance festival and Ellie and Hunter’s first time at the temple.

Easter Eve

We brought back an old tradition—coloring eggs. That was directly due to Ellie and Hunter being with us. We gave up coloring the eggs a few years ago, when our excitement for that waned. It is a little funny, we had to look up online how to do it because none of us could remember for sure. And I didn’t have red so, they were all in the blue and green family!

But it was fun just the same.

And while they were doing eggs   , I was decorating cupcakes.

Spring Is Here

I took a walk around the yard with my camera to document the appearance of spring. I was having fun playing with the aperture settings on my camera as well. 

Renaissance Festival

It is another year and another day spent at the Renaissance Festival. I think we have seen everything we have wanted to see and will take a break for a few years before going back. I have loved going, and have loved going with my family-enjoying our time spent together, laughing and making memories. This year as I walked around I couldn’t help but feel the stark difference of how I want the world to be and how the world is. At one point, I even thought, if Christ comes today, this is not where I want him to find me. Kind of silly, maybe even a little dramatic…hey, that could be a description of me…but the thought made me stop and evaluate. We had a great day and enjoyed watching our favorite shows: the nuns, the whip guy, the balancing act and finding interesting character and fun things to try as we walked around the town that takes you back in time.

 

    

Weekend Away

We went to the Renaissance Festival again this year, with a little twist. Not only do we have the kids with us, but we decided to stay at a hotel the night before for some added fun. Maryn met us after work and the first thing we did was get into the pool. It was heated so we didn’t have to worry about the water, but it was hard to get out because it was windy! After we finished swimming we went to a restaurant that was close and after our meal, vowed to never return! It was just not that great of food or service. Dangerous dining doesn’t always work out, but it is still fun.

It turned out to be quite a bit of work to get the permission and work out the details to have the kids go with us, but it turned fun. I think we will have to start a lot earlier to be able to have them go to the reunion with us in July. 

Resurrection Gardens

I found this idea on the internet as I searched for projects to make during spring break and I loved it right away. I knew the kids would love it too. I planned to do it today in hopes that the grass to grow in time for  Easter Sunday. I love that it can teach so many of the important lessons we learn from the wonderful gift of the atonement-his time on the cross, the service rendered for his tomb, the grass that can represent re-birth and of course, the emptiness of the tomb that fills our life with hope. It is a special way to honor our Savior.

                                                       

Tooth Fairy Visit

Hunter finally lost his front tooth today. It has been hanging on by a thread, as they say, for a couple of weeks. He would try at different times to try and pull it out but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. Tonight it happened when he hit his mouth just by accident and out it popped. We were all at the table, reading scriptures I think, so we were able to share in his excitement.

Immediately, I was wondering how we would handle the tooth fairy here and still let his parents be a part of this. I feel like I was instantly inspired with the answer. I told Hunter that he needed to write a really nice note to ask the tooth fairy if he could keep his tooth to show his mom. We went on with our activities and I figured we could take care of the note as he went to bed. We did out usual routine and as I walked into his room to tuck him in, I found that he had written the note and had it all set up on the table by his bed! It was so sweet and cute that I had to take a picture.

Jake’s Mission Call

Marlin was able to hook up a live feed, like skyping, through facebook so that we could watch Jake open his mission call! It was so fun to see everyone wave to the camera and hear his exciting news…London England! He will leave August 8th and do the training over there as well. We will have two missionaries out with Brianne leaving for Brazil soon.

Wind Socks

Today’s craft was wind socks. I bought sheets of that foam paper and showed them a few pictures and then let their creative juices flow. They cut out different shapes and created a scene on the main body, which was a very large foam sheet. After they were finished we glued all the pieces in place and let that get completely dry. We formed the tubes, punched holes down the sides and then laced them together with plastic thread. Then we punched holes along the bottom and ties long strips of ribbon in the holes, so that they would flap in the wind. These were a big hit, even Kelsey wanted to make one when she got home from school.

BTW, Ellie made one too, but she wouldn’t let me take a picture of her!  

Spring Break

This week we are off for spring break. I have to admit I am very nervous about how I am going to entertain them this week and if I can make it through with my sanity. I have been searching and decided on a craft for every day. Some of them are just cute spring crafts, but I also found some great things for preparing for Easter. They are like little sponges when it comes to anything with the gospel, so I am finding this part of the week’s activities exciting, it is a real opportunity to share what is so important to me. I love Easter and the feeling of hope and peace it brings.

So I made a makeshift calendar for the next two weeks, planning each day of spring break and the week to countdown and celebrate Easter. I went shopping with a huge list to buy everything I needed. I spent over $100, and when Kelly’s mouth dropped at that news all I said was. “It is about my sanity” and miraculously he was perfectly fine with it.

Actually, he is truly amazing at how he supports me.

I also revised the chore charts to add some reading time, and spring cleaning acitivites for the week. To help keep some sort of routine so that after spring break we are still on track.

Today’s craft was from the Friend magazine and it is to celebrate Spring. We made jelly bean butterflies.

Kind of Random

This week my photos are a bit random.

Ellie was walking around with her jacket on and her hair became so tangled and staticy (is that a word?) that when she took her hood off she was left with this lovely hairdo!

Hunter was chosen as student of the week in his class. He was so excited and we had some assignments to get him all prepared for the special honor. We filled out this large poster of information about him and gathered some picture to send. He came home from his visit and not much was colored on the poster, but he didn’t want any help. Finally he let us help, but just a little to get the poster colored b bed time. I think he did a great job!

Lastly, we made rainbow cupcakes on St. Patty’s day, which I didn’t take pictures of. I colored parts of the batter from a cake mix and let the kids fill the cupcake papers with the batter all willy nilly. Well, that activity inspired Kelsey to make this mini cupcakerainbow. It is so fun and creative!

Trusting My Belief

C.S Lewis said this:  ”You never know how much you really believe anything,” he confesses,  until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to [tie] a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn’t you then first discover how much you really trusted it? . . . Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief. [Lewis, p. 25]

I read this quote and thought it was interesting, very thought provoking. I tried to imagine each of my beliefs in a way that it was a matter of life and death, and answer honestly in my heart if they were strong enough. I am not sure that I can really be successful with that, that I can put myself in an “as if” state of mind. One decision those thoughts left me with is that time spent strengthening my beliefs is not time wasted so that when the time comes, it will be strong enough. I think life is pretty much alternating between a time of strengthening and a time of testing.

The Book of Mormon has so many examples of people who were tested and it was a matter of life and death. Their example strengthens me. There are also examples when it didn’t feel like life or death at first, but by the end of the road it was life or death, even eternal life or death. I can see that even though I am not in a life or death situation, I need to live what I do believe “as if” because eventually it becomes life or death. Living what I believe will strengthen my beliefs.

Another thing I have been noticing as I read is the stark difference between obedience out of fear and obedience out of love. Where am I on that scale? Do I obey because I fear the consequences or out of pure love? The answer is probably both—I think that I obey different principles for different reasons. And hopefully always moving toward the best side of the scale.

Plainness

It has been a while since I posted about my studies of the gospel. It has been a while since I felt like I was inspired to write I guess. Lately, I have found the most comfort in the basics of the gospel, in the simple thing of the gospel, so when I read Nephi’s words today, they resonated with me.

Nephi teaches that God teaches in plainness. I found that interesting after spending so many chapters quoting Isaiah. I don’t feel like Isaiah is very plain, but I love the promise that if we study his words we will receive help and understanding through the Holy Ghost. We are promised that he can teach us ALL things.

I am grateful that the gospel is clear and simple. Live and living the gospel are not always easy, but the path is clear to see.

Thru His baptism, Jesus showed us 1. to be humble before God, 2. that obedience is the key, 3. that baptism is required for entrance into the Father’s kingdom and 4. that He is our example in all things. Then He said “come follow me” making it clear that we are to do those same things to follow Him. We are to be humble, repent, and get baptized so that we can receive the Holy Ghost who will help u s endure in following Christ so that we may have eternal life.

One of my favorite scriptures is 2 Nephi 31:20 where we learn exactly what enduring is:

• keeping faith and hope in Christ = believing the atonement
• loving God = obeying His commandments
• loving mankind = service
• feasting upon the word = studying the scriptures and following the prophet and apostles

When we falter we repent through the atonement. When we feel weak we find strength through the atonement.

Plain, simple, clear path back home.

Temple Trip

We took Ellie and Hunter to the temple for their first time. While Kelly and I did some sealings, Maryn and Kelsey took them around the grounds and to the visitor center. They loved the temple. They loved seeing it, walking around it and feeling the spirit of it. They can’t wait to go back.

My favorite part….it smelled HEAVENLY! There were so many flowers in bloom that even in the open the air was so fragrant.