Three things that made me cry in the last week

1. We are moving! But that is not what made me cry. We are moving to a bigger house (4 bedrooms--yay!) jusst down the street. In packing up, we are trying to de-clutter ("Fight the hoard!") and get rid of things we no longer need by donating them to a local shelter. Rebecca, at the wise old age of 7, decided she is ready to get rid of "her" play kitchen. The play kitchen Jessica and Mikayla got for Christmas 9 years ago, when they were almost 4 and almost 2. At first I was hesitant to let it go, because I remember giving my toy kitchen away in a move, and how much I missed it. But I figured she should know if she plays with it or not, so whatever, right? One less thing to move.
Until Mike actually started to pick it up. I jokingly said, "Let me have a moment," and patted it lovingly. The next thing I knew I was crying like a baby! I'm talking cry-ing, not just teary-eyed and choked-up! Jessica asked if I was really crying, and I tried choke out, "No..." but she said, "You ARE!" and put her arms around me and held me, which just made me cry more. I said, "I'm so silly," and she said, "No, you're a woman."
Their watching Toy Story 3 on Saturday morning didn't help at all!

(Then)
Look at my sweet baby! *sniff*

(Now)
Here it is in the driveway awaiting transport, being used to hide Easter eggs.

2.  The girls and I took part in our church's Easter presentation, "Living Last Supper: Portraits of a Savior," over the weekend. We had a performance Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and Sunday night. It is a musical drama telling the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, and even though we were at the church practicing or performing almost every night last week, it was worth it. We had a great time, and even more importantly, we know of 4 people who prayed to follow Christ as a result! I sang in the choir, Jessica was a leper who got healed, Mikayla was a crowd person, and Rebecca was a child who got to see Jesus (sat on his lap on Saturday!)

Well, naturally the crucifixion and resurrection scenes choked me up (it was almost too realistic on Sunday night--the actor's wife was in front of me and she kept cringing) but I was surprised at how moving Jessica's healing scene was. Her "mother" and "sister" were healed, too, and her mother looks at her 2 healthy girls and screams for joy--oh, I can't even do it justice trying to describe it, but every time it made me cry.

This picture isn't the best quality on facebook, but it was the closest.

3. Last night I was vacuuming the kitchen. Barefoot. And knocked this...

off the wall and onto my ankle bone, which it bounced off of onto the top of my foot. I don't often cry from physical pain, but...ouch. If I knew how to use the pictures on my no-data-plan phone, I would show you how fast it swelled up. It looks (and feels) much better today. :)
(By the way...is it time to get rid of my wooden calendar? I enjoy changing the numbers and holidays out each month, but those country blue hearts and the geese...hmmm...what do you think?)

He is risen!

This morning as I was getting ready for church, I imagined what the women on their way to the tomb must have felt like. I never really thought about it before, but they weren't on their way to a lovely, green, landscaped cemetary with flowers to lay on a loved ones grave. They were on their way to clean up the bloody body of a loved one who had been flogged, tortured, and crucified. And they had to get past soldiers of the army who had done it to him. Don't you imagine they dreaded going, but grimly went on anyway, out of devotion to Him?
What a contrast was the reality they found--soldiers? Gone! Bloody body? Gone! But not just gone...alive!! Hallelujah! He lives!

Why is this night different from all other nights?

Several years ago Mike and I got to watch a Jews for Jesus presentation of a Passover Seder from a Messianic, or Christian, perspective. We were just enthralled by the symbolism and completion of it all, so when we saw a book they were selling to help families have their own Passover seders, we snapped it up. We started having our own family seder right away. The girls were still so small that we simplified it quite a bit, but have added a little each year so that by now we do almost the whole thing. There are some years we don't get to do it at all, but we've done it often enough that Rebecca will ask, "When do we get to sit on our pillows to eat, and drink sparkling grape juice?"
Last Saturday night our home school group got together at one of our local churches for a seder led by the pastor, one of our home school dads. Mike was out of town, but my Mom was visiting! So we had an all-girl table.

A lot of work and preparation goes into these, so it was nice to just have to set up the table and show up! This year the part that meant the most to me was the "afikomen"--a piece of matzo that is taken out of the middle of three pieces, broken, hidden, then found again and eaten as "dessert." It is what Jesus was holding and talking about when He said, "This is my body, which is for you..." He is sweeter than the sweetest honey.
It made the Lord's Supper at our own church the next morning even more meaningful.

Verse 2

Summer with no mosquitoes,
Conversations with no cussin',
Bodies with no weakness,
And family with NO FUSSIN'!

(I will refrain from sharing the inspiration for this verse. But Cathie, thanks for filling in the missing line.)

Poetry...?

The other day as we walked past our buzzing azalea bush, Mikayla said that she liked the flowers but wishes there weren't any bees. I said, "I wonder if in heaven there will be azaleas with no bees..." and it inspired the following poem. Ahem:

In heaven,
There will be roses with no thorns,
Azaleas with no bees,
Hellos with no good-byes,
And dogs with no fleas.

Quit laughing! I know I'm no Chris Tomlin. :D But I had fun. And today at my Revelation Bible study, we read Rev. 21:4--"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Which brought to mind a better, if older, song, and I sang it the rest of the day.

"No More Night"

The timeless theme, Earth and Heaven will pass away.
It’s not a dream, God will make all things new that day.
Gone is the curse from which I stumbled and fell.
Evil is banished to eternal hell.


No more night. No more pain.
No more tears. Never crying again.
And praises to the great "I AM."
We will live in the light of the risen Lamb.
...

(I looked for a good video, and found several of David Phelps singing it, but the pictures were a little cheesy to me. You should listen to one if you've never heard it, though.)

Even so Lord Jesus, come quickly!

10 on the 10th: 10 random pictures

violin practice

student choir on youth Sunday

plastic egg eyes

imitation attempt

Mike coming home from Alaska!

washing the van with friends

saying good-bye to the doll high chair I got for Christmas when I was, oh, 9 or so

azaleas and rose buds

mother/daugher date to the art museum

both front teeth gone!

Rebecca's Fancy (Nancy) Tea Party

I always stress myself out before a birthday party, wanting everyone to come and have fun and for it to be just what the birthday girl wanted. It doesn't help that I usually wait 'til the last minute to do anything! This year was no exception, as you know if you saw my quest for feather boas on facebook. I spent Friday night and Saturday morning making the cake, making our house fancy (with blue and purple tulle I got on clearance when wallyworld closed their craft department and dollar store spring things), cutting fruit and veggies, and making little tea sandwiches in cookie cutter shapes. But I have to say, this was one of my favorite parties ever.
Eight little girls came, in grades 1-4. Half of them are home schooled; the other half go to our local Christian school. 3 of them go to our church. And they all got along, with no drama! No tears! O happy day!

When they first came, they made plain placemats fancy by adding sparkly foam stickers. (Placemats=purple construction paper with prettily punched edges. In hindsight, foam stickers don't make good placemats.)

The hats were on loan from a party guest who had a similar party a couple of years ago.

Then Jessica took them into the living room to play a name game ("My name is Rebecca. I'm going to Paris and I'm taking my raccoon." "My name is Kecia. I'm going to Paris with Rebecca, and I'm taking my kitten." etc.) while I set up lunch.

Rebecca has been special friends with these 2 since they were all 3 years old.

Everyone seemed to find something they liked and had enough! The sandwich choices included pb/j, pb/banana, pb, fluffernutter, ham, and turkey. Plus we had crackers and cheese, and that yummy fruit dip for the fruit. I ate it all.day.long. I didn't even want cake with that stuff around!

Mikayla took most of the pictures. Including this one. :)

And this one her sister didn't want her to take.

This is the only one I'm in. One of the hats matched my shirt!

After lunch Mikayla took them into the next room for a dress-up relay. I didn't get to watch, because I was clearing the table and getting the cake and ice cream (and sprinkles!) ready, but it sounded like a lot of fun, and I got Mikayla to take more pictures.

Then back to the kitchen and Happy Birthday to You!

Then it was present time...

I love the anticipation in this one!

...followed by an impromptu tissue paper fight!

We had other games planned, but Rebecca got so many outside toys, and it was such a beautiful day, that we went outside instead.

bunnies

trampoline

bubbles

swingset

croquet

chalk

And before we knew it (or even had time to limbo, one of Rebecca's chosen games) parents were coming and taking our guests away. And I got to eat more fruit dip!

So...

...when I put in my April contact lenses, I absent-mindedly put in 2 lefts. And I can see better. I guess it's time to visit the ol' eye doctor.

...Mike took 15 students to Passion in Ft. Worth this weekend. Before he left, he mentioned how our grass needs mowing to one of his students. That student called me last night to find out if he could come mow at 8:30 or 9:00 this morning!! Isn't that the sweetest thing?!

...Is "Pray that I won't kill my husband before he finishes his doctorate" a legitimate prayer request? (Just kidding--sort of--the worst is over and he tried very hard not to take out his frustrations on anyone but the computer. Poor computer.)

...I have an extended family-member who is a hoarder. And I'm not kidding. Or exaggerating. At all. So my mom and brother and I have started telling each other and ourselves to "Fight the hoard!" when we ponder keeping stuff we should THROW AWAY. I used it several times today cleaning up after Rebecca's party, about left-over tulle, etc. Yay, me!

...Rebecca's party was wonderful and is wonderfully over! I'll try to write about it soon, and there are pictures on facebook. Here's a little teaser. :)