"Faults are thick where love is thin."

           -Spurgeon

Wait, it is almost May right?

Okay, just checking.

He is risen! He is risen, indeed!

What a lovely Easter! We had a great service that morning with our church and a brunch potluck following that. Then we went next door and had a wonderful afternoon with family. The food was plentiful and amazingly delicious, the kids searched and found about a bazillion eggs,  and it didn't rain. :) Yes indeed, a fine way to celebrate our Lord's victory over the grave!

Exactly.

“It’s not fair to compare a silly, boring drink like a vodka martini to a flavour bomb like The Manhattan. Even worse is the dirty vodka martini. If your desperation for flavour has you drinking olive brine, just drink gin. Please. Gin is vodka’s smarter, classier, more worldly older sister. Vodka wants to go clubbing and hook up with Johnny Redbull, that hot guy she met last week (who’s not actually that hot and wears too much cologne). Gin wants to have dinner, a little wine and really talk about stuff, like politics and indie rock.”

-Jen Agg

Our Greatest Day

"We should be taking steps to celebrate Easter in creative new ways: in art, literature, children's games, poetry, music, dance, festivals, bells, special concerts, anything that comes to mind.  This is our greatest festival.  Take Christmas away, and in biblical terms you lose two chapters at the front of Matthew and Luke, nothing else.  Take Easter away, and you don't have a New Testament; you don't have a Christianity; as Paul says, you are still in your sins.  We shouldn't allow the secular world, with its schedules and habits and parareligious events, its cute Easter bunnies, to blow us off course.  This is our greatest day.  We should put the flags out."

-- N.T. Wright,  Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church, pg. 256

Why haven't I thought of this before?

I loved this idea. It's so colorful, festive, and only slightly grotesque.

                                  Poor peeps. Oh well.

Seriously looking forward to this

Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl Movie Trailer from Gorilla Poet Productions on Vimeo.

Where thy victory, O grave? Alleluia!

Spring. Things are blooming, rivers are flowing, babies are being born, and the most important celebration for the Church is being planned for. It's Easter week. Our family has over the last few years started traditions for various celebrations with both food and liturgy, and a silly little one I started are "resurrection rolls" for Easter. They are hollow in the center, to symbolize Christ's empty tomb. They're fun and easy to make, and kids love them. Here's the recipe:

Resurrection Rolls

  

Frozen Bread Dough Rolls or your favorite dinner roll recipe

Large Marshmallows

Melted Butter

Sugar & Cinnamon Mixed together

1. Prepare rolls to thaw according to package instructions. After they are fully thawed but before they rise, flatten the roll to about a 3 inch diameter.
2. Place a marshmallow in the center of the dough and fold dough around it to cover the marshmallow.  Pinch edges of dough together to completely seal your marshmallow in its dough "tomb".  .  
3. Roll dough covered marshmallow in the palm of your hand to smooth it out.
4. Brush on or roll dough in melted butter.
5. Sprinkle on or roll in cinnamon and sugar mixture.
6. Place dough balls on greased cookie sheet.  Spray plastic wrap with non-stick cooking spray and cover the rolls.
7. Let the rolls rise until they are double in size.  This takes about 30-60 minutes. 
8. Remove the plastic wrap and bake your rolls at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.  Remove the rolls from the pan and cool on wire rack!
9. Tear them open to see your "empty tomb". 

Happy Easter planning everyone!

Signed and Sealed

We had a wonderful, joyful weekend as our newest nephew

received God's sign and testimony of baptism this past Lord's Day.

 To celebrate, we hosted a cupcake and coffee open house
and had close to 100 of our dear family and friends over.
Here's some pictures of the party (well the food at least).

But You are He who took Me out of the womb;

You made Me trust while on My mother’s breasts.

I was cast upon You from birth.

From My mother’s womb

You have been My God.

-Psalm 22:9–10

Prayer and Love

“People admit that it’s hard to pray. Yet they think it’s easy to make love. What nonsense. Neither is worth much when it is only the out-cropping of intermittent enthusiasms. Both need to be done without ceasing; and that puts a premium on the minor manifestations.”

-Francis Farrar Capon, Bed and Board

A few little projects.....



Baby blanket





new pillow covers



Sewing, sewing, sewing!

Pictures forthcoming.

Shakespeare was the man.

The quality of mercy is not strained,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's,
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.
~The Merchant of Venice

Oh Me, Oh My!

Style Me Pretty truly is THE ultimate wedding blog. I confess I steal my fair share of ideas from them. The photography is beautiful, and the ideas are unique but classically well done. If you're planning a wedding, or just want ideas to spiff up your next party, you'll do yourself a favor to check them out.

“Anyone can be passionate, but it takes real lovers to be silly.”
                                                             -Rose Franken

Black and White = FABULOUS!

Love it.

It's been busy around here! Here's a recap:

Monday:

I worked regular day, then my SIL started the labor process. We all thought the baby would be surely be born SOMETIME that day, but alas, God had other plans. After being there for most of the day, I went home at 11:30 pm to wait on the couch for the call. Not much sleep was had.

Tuesday:

The morning came and still no baby. I stopped by to check in on things and since her status hadn't changed much, I decided to go to work. At around 1:00 pm, my other SIL called saying things were progressing and to get there as soon as I could. Finally at 2:30 pm my amazing sister-in-law gave birth to a whopping 11lbs, 23 3/4" strapping boy, Asaph Leighton. He's quite a cutie.

As a side note, he makes me an aunt for the 21st time! :)

Then I came home and made this. Pretty good if I do say so. 

Wednesday:
Worked, ran errands for our St. Patrick's Day party, had dinner at my parents, ran more errands, and caught up on sleep.

Thursday:
I put in some volunteer time at Lifeline (a local Christian crisis pregnancy center), worked, and then raced home to get stuff ready for our party. We decided to do something long overdue; invite all of our neighbors over (we've only lived here going on 5 years....sheesh.). St. Patrick's Day seemed to be the perfect occasion, and we ended up having a great turnout and got to know some of our neighbor folk, some of them being quite colorful characters. It was fun, and hopefully opened up some doors and dialog for the future.

Friday:

Got a much needed massage from a friend (ahhh), ran errands, went to work, and came home and started baking for a cake I had due the next day. Caleb went to a concert that night, and I enjoyed my first quiet evening at home in what seems like forever! I took a bath.

Saturday:

 Actually slept in! =) Finished my cake, went to a birthday party, came home and worked on some stuff for the wedding I'm doing in the summer, and then tried to catch up on my book club book until I fell quite dead asleep.

Sunday:

Enjoyed worship in the morning, had a late lunch with some new friends, and came home for a quiet evening. Just the kind of day you want your Sabbath to be.

So all in all, a wonderful week. We'll see if I can keep up with this next one though.......

That about sums it up....



Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!



True Revival

"Not until God put it into the hearts of men to go forth among our heathen at home with the same zeal and enthusiasm which are expected of missionaries who go abroad, will there be anything like a revival of religion throughout the mass of our city families." ~Thomas Chalmers

I'm back!

I'm home again after nine days with six great kids (and their dog, who was equally good), double ear infection, doctors visit, church, baby shower planning, work, and a blizzard. I can't complain of boredom! Now my SIL just needs to go into labor! :)
In all the busyness we really should take a step back and enjoy the story God is telling with our lives, right now mine's pretty funny! And I plan on enjoying it. :)