Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! I hope everyone had a joyous, blessed celebration today. We had a leisurely morning at home, having decided to attend the second service. One of the first things we did was take the Easter Story Cookies out of the oven and sample them...a very sweet way to start the day and a great reminder of the empty tomb! Ted made our normal Sunday pancakes and strawberries while I tried to stay out of his way as I worked on dishes for dinner. Ted and the older kids had gone to a squadron egg hunt on Saturday, and I knew they were going to load up on candy and goodies at the party. So we went very simple for our Easter goodies and just got chocolate crosses for each of them. Of course I did a little stamped goodie, too--either a punch art sheep, bunny, or chick with a chocolate. (We had made them at our stamp camp a couple of weeks ago!)

The worship service this morning at Faircreek was fantastic. I loved all the songs we sang. There was a stage full of people--lots of singers and instruments, and the worship center was full as well. A little taste of heaven, right there!

We had been thinking of going out to eat for our holiday meal, but my thrifty nature got the better of me, and last night I ended up deciding to make these yummy pork chops instead. I followed the tips on the third review shown on the web page and marinated the meat first, then baked at 325 instead of 350. I also made garlic mashed potatoes with red potatoes and green onions from our Happy Box. Yum! Buttered peas completed our simple meal, which was well received by everyone except Kenna, who had managed to sneak away and eat most of her chocolate cross right before we sat down for dinner. Sigh.

Somehow we decided that watching the Veggie Tale Jonah movie was appropriate for Easter Sunday, so we did that in the afternoon while Lucan had a 3-hour nap. Actually, it made sense--Tobin asked a good question during breakfast: How do we know that Jesus rose on the THIRD day? (As opposed to the second day or right after they laid His body in the tomb.) We talked about how Jesus foretold this would happen and how He compared it to the three days Jonah had spent in the belly of the whale. At this point Ted burst into the Newsboys song "In the Belly of the Whale," and we couldn't get it out of our heads for awhile, so the only natural thing to do was watch the whole movie together. :-)

After the movie the kids headed outside to play with neighbors--the weather is absolutely gorgeous. Ted relaxed with a Mythbusters DVD his mom got him for his birthday, and I watched along and folded our Easter letters. Ted helped me get some of them stuffed, and then it was time to get ready for dinner. I made these egg salad sandwiches--thanks, Tina, for the link! It was a good way to use up some of our boiled eggs, although with 4 kids who LOVE boiled eggs with salt on them, that really isn't a problem here, LOL. Charis and Kenna were our egg dyers this year. It was SO nice to turn that job over to Charis and let 'em at it!

It's finally getting dark outside, and we just gave the kids the 10-minute warning. The public school kids don't have school tomorrow, so we're letting our kids have a bit of a free-for-all this evening, too. They would normally be in bed by 8 p.m.! I'm just so happy to hear birds singing and see flowers and sunshine again, and I know the kids are thrilled to be able to get out of the house as well.

This week will be a fun adventure as we prepare for 2 grandmas to come spend some time with the kids while Ted and I head out to the homeschool convention in Cincinnati. There's a lot to do to prepare--I essentially will be making "sub" plans, LOL, so that the kids can have some structured time and get some schoolwork done. I'm not as concerned about the schoolwork being finished as I am keeping structure and routine to the days; that will make it much easier for our moms, I think.

So, I guess that's it for our Easter. To see more of our Easter pictures, you can go here. I have a couple more I need to add to the Easter album, but most of the ones from the day are already there.

Rejoice! One day we'll celebrate our own resurrection with our Lord and Savior!