It is a beautiful picture of God's redemption story.  Death of His Son brings us life...He does not waste tragedy and trials.  He uses them in magnificently creative ways to provide new life in our lives!

It is not a show stopping event but to me it is a special famly tradition that I hope to pass along to my children and enjoy with my family for years to come.  Plus, you can never get enough real maple syrup!

My dirty clothes are piled high and I have many suitcases to unpack.
I have two exhausted kids who need their own beds and one exhausted mommy who agrees.
I have a house to get back in order (though my husband truly tried to clean up before I got home).
I anticipate it taking at least a week if not more to get back into a routine again.
Is it worth it?

YES!

Because I also have a ton of memories made, stories to share, and pictures to look through.
I have in my memory many precious moments between my children and my family.
I captured inifinite moments in time captured through my camera lens that will be preserved for the future.
I would not trade this time for all the clean laundry, sleep, or organized houses in the world.

And I promise there will be pics coming...

It was such a beautiful weekend in so many ways...

It was an amazing Friday, a great Friday, a blessed Friday...on Good Friday.

We did not do the traditional Good Friday Service, we served.  We didn't sing a bunch of hymns, we worshiped through relationships.  This is not to say that services and hymns are bad.  But, God brought about an incredible Friday....

I really try to take the kids to story time most Friday mornings to meet up with my friend Stacy and her daughter Anna.  We met at story time and have become great friends.  Usually we grab lunch together and then I rush off to teach class.  We weren't having class today, so on a whim, I invited them over for lunch.  It was sort of a grab what we have type of lunch but we all enjoyed it and then took the kids out to play.  They ended up staying most of the afternoon. 

I know Stacy is Catholic and prayed that maybe God would open the door for some good conversation.  I was able to have a great talk about the differences in our beliefs and discuss the true meaning of Easter.  It was awesome!  I love sharing the story of God's love for us and it is amazing when the opportunity opens up to have such great converstations about it.

Later on a college student friend of ours came to hang out and chat with Kevin.  He had a great time encouraging him and I had fun giving some input on girl stuff from a female perspective.  It is awesome to see college students that love God and want to seek his will.

While Kevin was chatting and Jack had fallen asleep, I slipped over to my good friend and neighbor, Kandis.  I had some Easter treats for Her, Matt, and Theigen.  It has been so exciting to see how God is working in their family and how we have begun to see God answer prayer about different situations they have been facing!  God is soooo good!

People are who Jesus came to save and what a blessing it is to see God working in people's lives...that makes it a Good Friday!

To be honest, I tend to struggle with Easter.  I know this is a shockingly unchristian statement, but I do.  I feel like sometimes I have to work up my emotions for one day to "feel" the powerful thougths about this holiday season.  There are the quotes, the songs, the programs, and the symbols but sometimes to me, honestly, it feels like rhetoric.  I guess I wish it would feel more natural and not so forced and program.  Probably because we try to cram these thoughts and feeling into one little weekend filled with services when the events are so monumentous as to fill our lives.  My finite mind cannot even grasp all it contains even if I watch The Passion five million times and read a million books and quotes.  I feel like I have to wade through the hype to get to the reality and trying to make this be something beyond a holiday season.