A New Hiding Place

Last week, I was at Target. This is nothing new as I practically LIVE at Target. Target and the Dollar Store. I do love the Dollar Store.

Anyway...

As I meandered through the isles, mentally redecorating my entire house, a burst of aqua flashed across my peripheral view. I turned my head to behold a couple of turquoise vases that were ON SALE. I immediately hugged three of them into my grasp and set them in my cart with childlike excitement to get them home.

I love them.

Meanwhile, Izzy lost a shoe. I'd been searching high and low for that dern shoe and I couldn't find it anywhere.

My girls are obsessed with shoes and will literally don 4 or 5 different pair in one day. We have dress up shoes, church shoes, flip flops, yard shoes and tennis shoes. Lots of shoes for them to change their minds lots of times in the course of a day. I tell you this because Izzy is equally obsessed with hiding things lately.

So, she hid her shoe. And I couldn't find it for days.

And then I dusted.

And I found her shoe.

I am Giddy

I love getting mail. Love it like I love getting a present on my birthday. Even if it's only the latest Bed, Bath and Beyond coupon, if it has my name on it, I'm happy. I love to get mail. It means that I must hold some importance of some kind to someone.

Even better, a package IN the mail! My friends can attest to the complete and utter glee that spreads across my disposition when the Fed Ex or UPS guy shows up at my door. It is so fun for me.

Simple minds...

Moving on, last week, I got a package in the mail from someone I love. Best kind of package EVER!

My dear sister-in-law, Lina sent me a box full of goodies. Really good goodies.

There were 6 different flavors of gourmet tea,

3 different kinds of biscotti and Pepperidge Farms Milano cookies (be still my heart),

Organic Agave Nectar sticks,

cute little tea bags,

and even a Chai flavored Luna bar and some tea for "on the go."

I was one happy girl.

Thank you so much, Lina! This was such an unexpected treat and I am going to savor it slowly!

Busy Season

Life has gotten busy. Like, really busy. Like, so busy that I barely have time to read my favorite blogs much less actually write for my own!

But I'm grateful for the quickened pace. It keeps me from dwelling on the stuff I can't control. It's also taught me to prioritize. And you wanna hear something CRAZY?!? Vacuuming is NOT a priority. Whereas I used to be, at very least, an every other day kind of gal now, it's more of a once or twice a week kind of thing. It has to be, or I won't be sane...not that I'm the definition of sane anyway, but moving on...

The other reason that I haven't been all bloggy is because it's just so dern perty outside! I mean, really pretty. Like I just want to sit and do sidewalk chalk and blow bubbles. And we've been doing that...a lot. I have no regrets.

In fact, it's been so nice that the other day, my next door neighbor kidnapped me while our girls were napping. She came and knocked politely on my storm door and said, "You wanna play camera?!?" as she shares in my love of photography.

So we did. We each grabbed our Digital SLR's and walked all around our little circle taking pictures of anything that caught our fancy. And it was fun!

About 45 minutes into our afternoon escapade, babies started to wake up, beginning with her little Victoria.

Our photographic escape was over but man did I ever love walking around in the grass barefoot and capturing all the things I love about our neighborhood in springtime on camera.

Beth Moore Beat Me Up...and I Liked It

I'm semi-participating in a Beth Moore study. The "semi" part is because I live in Maryland. And the study is taking place in Colorado Springs, CO.

My dear friend, Kasey is fully participating in the study and she called me and asked if I could help her out with a few of the questions. I was glad to oblige as I am a huge fan of Beth Moore studies and that turned into my ordering the book and jumping right in for myself!

We're doing "A Woman's Heart; God's Dwelling Place" and let me tell you sister-friend, it is some deep stuff. I love it. I've gotten chill bumps more than a few times and I'm only in week two.

It can be a bit overwhelming, though. Yesterday, I sat down with the intent of doing two days to make up for a day that I had missed and I couldn't do it. After finishing one day of the study I was pooped! Mentally exhausted. But also, rejuvenated in a sense.

All this to say that 1) I highly recommend this study or any Beth Moore study and 2) My mind is so tired from all the scripture readings and deep parallels that I have nothing to give you today.

But I bet you Beth might have something to say. She seems to never be at a loss for words.

Request

Just so that I can earnestly say that I have made this declaration numerous times; Just so no one can blame me for not verbalizing my needs/wants; Just so everyone (Paul) knows that this is no matter of indecision on my part...

I just thought I'd say one more time,

that I want a puppy.

There.

I've said it.

I've thrown it out there yet again.

Hopefully, something will come of it this time.

Paul?

Our Easter

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday this year. Nothing too fancy or overly traditional, just easy-peasy and simple and fun. Just the way I like my holidays to be.

We began the morning with Easter baskets full of goodies for the girls (thank Heaven for Target's dollar bins!) and a story about Easter. Eva and I talked about the Resurrection and although I know she doesn't fully understand it's importance at such a small age, it's important to me that my girls always equate this monumental day with it's true intent.

The opening of the Easter baskets in and of itself was enough to satisfy me for the entire day! I was so impressed by the level of kindness that Eva showed Izzy and vice versa as they discovered their own special prizes in their baskets.

Eva's favorite goodie was the 5 different kids of flavored lip gloss she received. She was ecstatic to have them and I could see Izzy eyeing them, dreading the potential squabble. But there wasn't one. Izzy held out her hand and asked "pease" and Eva immediately placed one in her hand and said, "Here ya go, Izzy Bee. You can have this one." Be still my heart! And that was followed by Eva giving Izzy a quick lesson on how to correctly apply the lip gloss once she noticed Izzy rolling the sticky, clear liquid all over her face.

Once the Easter baskets had been thoroughly disassembled, it was time to get ready for church. The girls were so excited to don their "bootiful dresses wif perty fwowers on it" as Eva refers to them. And I was pretty excited to wear my Easter dress too. Once we were all decked out, we took a few pictures and were on our way to the Easter Sunday service at our church.

After church, we came home, ate eggs, sausage and tortillas for lunch (Masie would be proud) and laid down for a few afternoon winks. While the girls were sleeping, I snuck outside and hid a few plastic easter eggs filled with My Little Pony stickers at the park across the street.

We were joined by our friends, Becca, Merrin and Eden a little while later for an Easter Egg hunt and each of the girls had a blast searching for eggs amongst the colorful playground equipment.

Later that evening, Eva and I spoke about how much fun we'd had that day and how happy she was to have her lip gloss. Once again, I tried to impart to her the eternal importance of this day. The hope and the victory that comes with this day. I want so badly for my children to grasp that at a young age. Perhaps 3 is still too young, but my earnest prayer is that my girls come to know their Savior early on in their lives. For a life lived with the victory of the Resurrection in it's sights, is a life lived with hope.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend full of the grace and renewal that Christ has offered.

No Everyday Friday

When Paul and I first set out to start our little family, I believed that children would make each holiday richer, fuller and more meaningful. And they most certainly do. There's nothing like watching your child's face light up on Christmas morning when she comes down the stairs to find a mountain (at our house, more of a mole hill) of wrapped gifts just waiting for her to tear through them. And that part is so fun, but with all that excitement also comes a huge responsibility.

As Christians, there are certain holidays that are about SO much more than just the sheer joy of the child experiencing them and as much as you want your children to experience them with a sense of innocence and excitement, you also want them to know why we really have this holiday.

Christmas is not about presents or Santa and Easter is not about the Easter Bunny or egg hunts. Those parts are super fun and there's nothing wrong with enjoying them, as long as we don't lose sight of the WHY.

And then there's today. Such a quiet holiday for most of the world and even for Christian's caught up in their daily routines of going to work or staying home with the children, this day can slip past without notice.

But this day, is a very important day. This day has a very big WHY.

On this day, someone paid the price for me, for you, for all who will seek Him. He suffered and He died while not once asking "why?" He knew why. He knew it was the only way.

Do you know why? Do you know why He died? Do you know why He had to? Do you know that He did it for YOU? I hope you do. And if you don't, I pray that you seek the answer to the WHY.