Monday, March 28, 2016

easter













  

That first picture is my favorite up there at the very top.  It just seems to capture the personality of each of my children.  Millie's beautiful laughter, Lyddie looking too grown up and Rosie just waiting for her moment to entertain everyone.  We have our rough moments in a day but ultimately I am really proud and amazed at who each of these girls is and who they are becoming.  And considering the Easter dress pictures came from a three minute photo shoot before scrambling into the car for church this morning, I am relieved some of them at least are passably good. 

Saturday morning saw the departure of our last spring ministry team.  Although I am not technically involved on a daily-work basis when Sacred Road hosts teams, the girls and I did spend a few hours of every afternoon the last three weeks in the park doing children's ministry alongside Jesse, the teams and some others from our church and staff.  It is a big priority for me to have our girls participate with us in this way and I have the great privilege of seeing some lovely fruit developing in the growth of my children's faith and their hearts because of our time at Kids Club.  Each of them have their own unique challenge areas and strengths and I enjoyed find ways to stretching them in new areas.  One of their assignments was to say "hi" to two children each day and I was so excited to see those initiations spontaneously grow into spending time with a younger child or a friend their own age.  One afternoon Lyddie and Millie spent the whole time with two much smaller little girls blowing bubbles for them and digging rocks out of the dirt with sticks (which is apparently just as much fun as doing the crafts or jumping rope). They didn't realize at the time but that also freed up the two older sisters of these girls, mid-elementary age girls who probably spend a lot of time caring for their younger siblings, to participate in the activities without having to worry too much about what the little ones were doing.   My girls were so excited and really proud of themselves for helping.   I love to see the spark of joy at helping others developing in each of them. 

Because it has been such a busy month (losing two and a half afternoon hours each day means my house and life is in a bit of extra chaos) I decided to go slow with our Easter traditions.  We decorated eggs Sunday afternoon when I knew we would have the time to really enjoy it together and I'm so glad we decided to do it that way.  Maybe we will always do that.  We watched "Prince of Egypt" over a simple dinner of pasta (we had an Easter ham meal at church for lunch) and that movie was an excellent choice for Easter.  If you haven't seen that animated family film, you should stop what you're doing, stop reading this, just go find it and schedule a time to watch.  Doesn't matter if you have kids to watch it with you or not.  For a long time it was streaming on Netflix but I'm not sure if it is right now and we decided to buy it on Amazon Prime for $10.  Considering how many times we watch it a year, it's worth the money.  The animation is lovely and the story is really excellently told - embellished but not in a way that seems to dishonor Scripture but rather draws out the imagination to think what it might have been actually like to experience the Exodus.  

All told, it was a peaceful Easter celebration.  Now that April is nearly here we can reset back into our normal routine again soon. I can't say I'm sorry about that but I will be missing all my little friends in the park until we do summer ministry again.  I hope this week is full of sunshine, growing green things in your garden, and spring time joy as things come alive again.  

4 comments:

  1. Precious moments. Your girl are lovely in their Easter finery. It's amazing how fulfilling it is to be helping others, no matter how young or how old you may be. I am grateful to parents like you who are teaching your children to watch over others and to care for their needs. Hallelujah! He Is Risen!
    Blessings,
    Betsy

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  2. beautiful photos!! I love the first photo as well :)

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  3. Anonymous10:19 AM

    Lovely easter pictures, your girls are beautiful, that red hair!!!

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  4. omgoodness.....they are the sweetest faces!!!! ps...i have a red headed great niece, lorelei, she's a firecracker!!!!

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