Easter

Happy Easter!

My, how the meaning of Easter has changed for me in my lifetime.

It almost brings me to tears as I consider my past Easters and how earlier on I was completely focused on my easter basket, candy, my easter dress, easter egg hunts, etc.

And that's just where my children are. Try as we may to teach them well about the death and resurrection of Jesus, they are drawn to the culture.

They are drawn to the candy, the fun, the gifts.

We had a wonderful Easter with our family, don't get me wrong. We enjoyed our devotions leading up to Easter - we enjoyed discussing what the children learned in their classes at church approaching Easter Sunday - we enjoyed the Palm Sunday and Easter worship anticipating a crucified and later, RISEN Lord.

But...

I am in a place of reflection today.

As I consider the week ahead, my tasks ahead today,

I am caught up in truth that I live today in light of a RISEN Lord.

He fought death...and won.

He bled, freely for us, and He died horribly, horrifically.

He took all my shame with Him to my cross.

And then everything said about Him and that He said about Himself came true when He rose from the dead.

He conquered death.

And I am free.

This IS the guarantee for my own resurrection.

I will not stay dead when the Lord calls me.

I will live again in His presence. Forever.

and so my prayer for my little ones is that they, too grasp this wonderful truth in our Christian faith. That they embrace the knowledge of Jesus as Risen Lord. In the Lord's perfect timing. As their sweet little hearts get there in their unique ways...as the Lord patiently and graciously lead me there.

Happy Easter to you and yours.

May you live today in light the one and only Risen Lord!

The Past Months...

why apologize?

we've been here before. I've made apologies before but there is no reason to. ultimately this is simply a blog about someone's life.

its been busy b/c its just been life.

And life with a family is very busy.

we celebrated walker's (4th) birthday a month early as his birthday is a week after baby's due date. instead of a party we took he and wyatt to a pirate show at myrtle beach and stayed at wes' folks' place down there.

he loved the pirate show!

he felt very special and loved as we don't do 'big' things like this hardly ever.

i also made him a pirates' ship cake.

he was so grateful for it.

(my middle child has gratefulness in his heart that both convicts and encourages me.) I suppose it is the grace of the God and his disposition in life - always having a sibling. I am so thankful for him. he is precious to me.

happy birthday, sweet child of mine!

in preparation for a family of six, God provided and blessed us with a mini-van. i have had friends that have gone through "the crisis" with becoming part of this population that says "we are family" but I did not experience that.

I expected to and so I was waiting for the grieving.

but it never came.

i suppose it is because we squeezed as much use as we could out of our crv without putting future baby on the roof that to say that we were "ready" for this van would be a completely understatement.

entry into our van goes like this:

doors open by themselves

Wyatt buckles Lalla, then himself.

walker can now buckle himself b/c he can see his buckle.

none of my children are touching.

who wouldn't want that!?!

my little girl is growing up fast. she is 19 months. oh my prayer for her is that she would transition well to not being baby anymore. even that her transition would be fast from baby to older sister and taking part in caring for the baby.

all in all, our days are pretty much the same. this particular day (above) walker was getting over being sick and all 3 were watching a video together. As my children get older I treasure them partaking in the same activities together. I am thankful for Wyatt's leadership with his brother and sister. In his first homeschooling year he has grown tremendously as an older brother - he has grown in responsibility/independence with his school work as well initiative with household work. I am so thankful for his disposition.

We are anticipating baby boy.

We are deciding between 2 names: William and Waylon.

His middle name will be Rex.

He will have the same initials as his older 2 brothers, his father and his grandfather.

We have not been able to make a decision about his name and decided to wait and meet him before we decide.

Those are the highlights - theres been plenty of hard/sanctifying days as my body feels older in this pregnancy and the demands of being a stay at home mom and homeschool teacher can be overwhelming. But I look to the Lord to lead me. To patiently guide me in my being a wife to Wes and a mother to my 3 children. He has been so faithful to me in both the good and the bad days.

I am thankful most of all for Jesus.

that He has saved me.

that He knows me.

and He still loves me anyway.