Bunnies & Baskets & Blessings – oh my!

This Easter has been the BEST Easter I think we have ever had as a family.  Not because of the egg hunts and candy and parties, (although that stuff is always fun) but because of the BLESSINGS, given and received! We started this year’s Easter weekend early, on Thursday by having the amazing opportunity to bless a family in need.  For the past 3 years we have been a part of our church’s Thanksgiving outreach and have delivered Thanksgiving dinner to the same family each year in Elsberry, MO.  This year God laid it on my heart to “adopt” the family for the whole year.  Our first opportunity of 2013 came when I decided that we should take all of the kids Easter baskets!  The 4 of us had so much fun going to the store and picking out all the goodies for the other kids.  We delivered the baskets to the family and had the opportunity to talk to and pray with the mother of the home.  She’s such a sweetheart.  Her name is Helen.  I wonder sometimes who is blessed more by the visits, their family or ours!  Here is a picture of me and Helen from our Easter visit:

Then it was Good Friday.  Our church showed the movie Passion of the Christ and served communion afterwards.  It was a powerful experience to be a part of.

Then, on Saturday, I took the kids to a family Easter egg hunt in our old neighborhood of North County (actually it was at our old house where my step-sisters now live).  They had a blast!  Instead of the eggs being filled with just candy, most of them were filled with MONEY!  $2 bills, $.50 coins, $1 coins!  And Jaxon found the golden egg which had $5 in it!!  Here are a couple of snapshots from Saturday:

Jaxon with his GOLDEN egg Zoe sitting in the car with her basket where it was warm…it was a chilly raining day!

And then came EASTER! Our church had 2 services (which were awesome) followed by another egg hunt! They had the egg hunt inside this year because of the muddy grass and unpredictable weather.  It actually worked out great!  They dismissed the kids by age to go downstairs and grab as many eggs as they could.  The cool thing was, the eggs were empty! Except a few special eggs that had slips of paper in them with a number.  If a child got an egg with a paper inside, they were able to go redeem their paper for a special prize.  Zoe got an airbrush sidewalk chalk kit, and Jaxon won the GRAND PRIZE!!  A Nintendo DSi!!  He has actually been praying for and dreaming of owning a DSi so he was STOKED!!  It really was pretty cool, and no, it wasn’t rigged!  So Jaxon made out really well this Easter, won the $5 golden egg at the 1st hunt, and then a DS at the 2nd hunt. Here are some pictures from our time at church:

  Zoe & her friend Zyla All the eggs for K-2nd grade Jaxon getting ready to go! On your marks, get set… GO!

And our day still wasn’t over!  We got a surprise visit from Kory’s grandparents and they took us out to lunch after church!  That was a nice treat!

When we got home, the kids got to open their Easter baskets from us.  This year, their baskets were really special because they came from an auction at a trivia night my step-mom Janet put on to raise money for her missions trip to Zambia this summer!  So, we not only got to give our kids some super cool Easter baskets, we got to help out with her trip!  My dad won the basket for Zoe, and we won the one for Jaxon. 

Zoe’s “girls only” basket Jaxon’s “all cars” basket The Easter bunnies I hand knitted for my kids :)  The brown one is Jaxon’s and still needs clothes (I ran out of time) but I think they turned out pretty decent for my 1st attempt. 

Easter this year was AWESOME!  I loved every minute of it!  Just to be reminded that my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ died & rose again for ME is enough to make me smile ear to ear.  Then we got to spend some time blessing others and being blessed.  What more could a girl ask for!? HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE! HE’S ALIVE!!

Women of Faith Conference

I had the privilege of going with a group of ladies from my church to the Women of Faith Conference!  We got to hear two awesome women speak.

First, the hilariously entertaining but down-to-earth Patsy Clairmont:

and the amazingly passionate Sheila Walsh

They both had completely different approaches to sharing God’s word with us, but I enjoyed both very much. 
We also got to join in worship with the group “Selah”.

I felt like sharing a few things I took away from the conference:
Sheila talked to us about conviction vs. condemnation. Conviction brings you closer to Christ, while condemnation pushed you away. She talked to us about the woman in the Bible with the 12 year long bleeding issue (Mark 5:24-34) and how God healed her.  The woman wanted to be healed, but God wanted to make her whole! She said “Peace is not the absence of trouble, but the presence of God.”  I really like that…
Patsy told us that emotions don’t have brains. :) And talked about how we can’t let our emotions control us.  She said the word NO is a complete sentence! She talked to us about taking our thoughts captive and making them pleasing to God.  We are to use our tongue to speak LIFE, and not death…
I’d say one of the biggest things I took from the conference is the fact that you never know who is taking notes on your life. 
It was a great weekend.  Here are a couple of photos of our group :)
Day#1
Day#2

Blueberry Stuffed Toast!

I LOVE stuff French toast from IHOP so I decided to make my own version today.  My kids loved it!

First I lightly buttered two pieces of whole wheat bread and placed it on my electric griddle. Then I mixed cream cheese with a small amt of powdered sugar (not too sweet) and spread that on the bread:

(I later put the cream cheese mixture on both sides)

Then I added fresh blueberries and grilled just like you would a grilled cheese, just until the bread was lightly toasted:

Wha-La!

Vermi-What?

This year I have big plans for my garden! One thing I struggle with each year is our terrible dirt.  It is so hard to grow anything in our neighborhood because when the homes were built, they stripped off all of the good topsoil.  So this year I have done lots of research on how to have good soil. The first thing I’ve decided to try is composting. You can compost with just dirt and food scraps and paper products, or you can add worms. When you compost with worms, it’s called Vermicomposting. The worms eat the scraps that you add to the dirt and in turn, “fertilize” the soil.

My husband has been juicing, which leaves lots of unused fruit and vegetable pulp which is great for composting.

Here is what I’ve done so far:

Step#1 Get a container. We went to the Wal-mart and found the PERFECT compost container:

  

You are supposed to drill holes in the top so that nothing molds.  My husband did this but as soon as he started drilling the lid cracked :(  Oh well.

Step #2 – throw the pulp in the bucket:

 

(this is from juicing several times.)

Step#2 – add good soil & mix (you could do this first but I didn’t have any when I started)

Step#3 – add worms!  I was going to go to our local bait store but we ended up having a rainy day so my kids and their friends went up and down the yard collecting them for me :)

Hopefully over time (and adding more dirt and scraps) this will make some super great compost! 

Here are some things you CAN compost with worms:

food scraps (including things like melon rinds, roots, stems, leaves, cores, husks, seeds, skins, peels, etc)

egg shells (not the egg protein), seaweed and rinsed seashells (like oyster shells; not shrimp peels)

old natural fiber clothing (old t-shirts, socks, boxers, etc)

natural yarn, twine and string

non-glossy paper products (cardboard boxes, newspapers, magazine inserts, most junk mail, envelopes, etc)

tea leaves and bags, coffee grinds and filters

dead plants, grass clippings, pine needles and leaves

natural non-treated wood and byproducts like wood ash, sawdust and shavings (no coal ash)

feathers and hair (human, cat, dog, etc.)

dryer lint

produce that is wilted or browned and slightly rotten (not to the point of moldy)

Here are some things you can NOT compost with worms:

• meat, fats, grease, bones or oils (no butter, lard, stocks, soups, etc)
• plastics and plastic coated paper (like glossy magazines)
• stickers, including veggie stickers (remove stamps from envelopes)
• bread or yeast products (no crackers or cakes)
• salt, pepper, and other spices (or only in VERY limited amounts)
• milk, dairy, or dairy products
• cat or dog droppings
• lemon, lime, orange or other citrus peels and juice (in excess this will make the soil too acidic)
• onions and garlic (a good rule of thumb is if it makes you smell, it makes your worm bin smell)
• diseased or infested plants
• treated wood products

Incognito!

Thursdays are always our “family day”, but this week we decided to have a date day with each of our kids.  I took Jaxon and Kory took Zoe.  We each took the kids to different places to eat lunch.  Then Jaxon and I decided to go see a movie.  I texted Kory and asked him what they had decided to do and he said they had decided to go see the SAME movie and the SAME theatre.  Instead of deciding to do something different, Zoe had the idea to go back home and dress up in disguises so that wouldn’t be recognized!  So that’s what they did! Zoe dressed as a boy - even put her hair up under a hat. Kory played right along with her, dressing in his own disguise.  I knew they were coming to the theatre but Jaxon had no idea.  There were only a handful of other people watching the movie so I was able to see when Kory and Zoe walked in. Jaxon never recognized them, but I was smiling inside with delight.  It was awesome – especially that Kory played right along with her. I couldn’t ask for a better dad to my kids!  Although I didn’t get a picture of them in disguise, I did get these pictures from our day together :)