...then Christ died unnecessarily

I love remembering the verse at the end 

especially this time of year...

As Easter is less than a week away and the isles are filled with gobs and gobs of colored grasses,  chocolate in every shape, shiny eggs, and peeps.  I thought I 'd take a moment for myself to reflect before I get ready to celebrate our own traditions and be sentimental about little girls running around with pigtails and tinkerbell baskets for eggs and heading over to seattle to enjoy one of my very favorite things: THE TULIP FESTIVAL!   The chocolate is easy for me to rip on since I somehow was born with an aversion to chocolate unless it's in butterfinger form.

 (I know-not very american or woman-like)

And I've heard that my love of peeps would grow if I opened the package and let them grow a bit of a stale crunch on the outside.

Either way.....Those of you who know me and my sweet tooth,  know that I have no problem incorporating sweets into just about every facet and minute of my life.

So it's not the baskets and eggs filled with treats.

* IT'S THE BUNNIES * 

I'm just gonna say it; this is my 2nd year going public on facebook and my blog with the whole:

"I think Easter bunnies can be a hideous decoration."

No judging.  I just think they're not my cup of tea! 

Sooooo, they don't live here. 

Thanks. 

I explain to my girls along with the story of the cross, that Easter is an exciting time when the people who loved Jesus got to go to His tomb and when they

"opened it" there was a "surprise inside" (no dead Jesus)

I know there is no biblical "Egg Sunday" where we open eggs once a month to remember the exciting surprise that day that Jesus was no longer dead in his grave,

but had risen and was ALIVE! 

But for US.... when I talk with my girls about communion and it being a way to remember His sacrifice for our sins.  I figured that opening eggs with a sweet surprise/outcome is a good parallel to the abandoned JOY and excitement I want them to try and grasp would have been going on the day the people discovered their best friend Jesus had risen from the dead, kicked sin and satan's butt once and for all, and with a promise to spruce up a place in heaven for us all (with LOT'S of Playdough Hallé says) and return in His time to get us.

To me, That is exciting news!!!

That's worth squeeling, dashing around a backyard like a chicken with your head cut off

 (or like you magically picked all the march maddness upsets correctly this year!)..... 

 And it's definately worth popping a couple cadbury eggs to celebrate and savor the

"SWEET" gifts we have been given in this life.

 Whatever you believe, whatever your traditions; whether you believe in God or not...Bunnies or not....The sweeter your baskets are filled and the warmer your traditions-the better. I believe we're all on a road to discovering inside of us...what that act of sacrifice and example of unconditional love and gift of eternal life and forgiveness on the cross means as we walk out our  lives with the people and situations around us.   

 Even on my worst days being a temper-tantrum referee or colorfully venting to a best friend;

  I get to rest at night knowing I was created with hope, in the image of ~Christ~ who had Eyes to see the needs of a lost and dying world and made

His life count in the big and small opportunities around Him.

"Open the eyes of my heart Lord"

  

~ Galatians 2:19-21 (The Message) ~

"What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn't work. So I quit being a "law man" so that I could be God's man! Christ's life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. 

Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ.

My ego is no longer central.  It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God.  

Christ lives in me.

The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going back on that.    Isn't it clear that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do it, to repudiate God's grace.

If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily."

Acclimating to the: "Mommy doesn't know" thing

Yesterday Hallé said:

 "No mom, I wasn't burping! My tummy has just been giggling inside of me all day"

I said  "Oh, I didn't know"

She also told me:

"Mom, didn't you know that I'm scared of Hot Air Balloons?"

I said: "Oh, I didn't know"

This weekend Eden asked me:

"Mom, are all worms boys, or are all worms girls; or are there both?"

I told her I didn't know... ?

She also asked me:

"Mom, what year did they start building our city?"

I told her I didn't know...?

 And then THANK GOD......She asked me:

"Mom, I know that the big statues that are all blue or all gray are just cement and no people are in them, but are the ones that are in color and have painted faces the ones that mean they put that person inside there when they died?"

I told her: "I know for a fact that the answer is No"

In all fairness to balance out my stumped mom moments; I did teach Eden last weekend how to read March Maddness bracket results online, refresh the screen for pending games we were waiting to finish, and that we cheer for Gonzaga, WSU, & Vermont no matter what!

"5 Things I Love" Friday -Juvenile CSI

1. I love:  Chalk Art. It always reminds me of the scene from Mary Poppins when they stand there in the park and whimsically jump feet first into the chalk mural of the adventure they decide they want to go on. There are many days I could dive into chalk world....with rainbows, smiling sunshines, no worries except for waddling penguins as waiters playing slip-n-slide next to my bistro lunch table. I could get lost in their little hopscotch that starts out for a mom foot and ends with a box only fit for a citizen from Woo-ville. When it rains, and washes their creations away, it reminds me in the movie of them quickly having to rush back to reality and how tough it felt.  I desire to live in truth and reality but am not above letting my heart or mind jump into chalk murals on tough days.  Can't say I really wanted to jump into the final picture which looks like juvenile CSI visited my house!?!!

(abby, jaedyn, & eden)

2. I love:   Eating homemade raw cookie dough.  usually oatmeal raisin, but butterscotch/chocolate chip works too.  I just don't have a problem with it.  Please don't burst my bubble or  remind me of the risks.  I've calculated and it stands at: WORTH IT!

3. I love:  That for a few more days I can still write that I'm 31.  Might as well type it and take advantage of it while I can.  Will probably not be writing that I love being 32 for appx. 365 days.

4. I love:  What it feels like to drive down 10th Avenue right now from Union towards Columbia Center Blvd.  since all the Cherry Blossom trees lining both sides of the road have blossomed. 

5.  I love:  That in trying to explain to Hallé about the daffodil buds I put up in my last post and how she needed to stop popping the tops off and peeling back the layers with her own hands; nothing we could do would help that transformation or those flower come to life any quicker.  It would hurt them and ruin the end result to peel off layers quicker than the flower was ready for.   Only God.  He shields even the daffodils with His perfect timing, protective layers, & realistic expectations. Never Early...Never Late.

~Made for deep discoveries and grace for my own heart & hurts~

Wordless Wednesday

"5 Things I Love" Friday

My "super super cool" friend Danielle T. in SC along w/ some of her other blogging friends there and in NY started a thing called "5 Things I Love" Friday.   They take time out each Friday from the miracle working behind a mom's multi-tasking life to randomly reflect on the things in life they love....
So here's my random west coast attempt at it...

1. i love:  The inspiring & mostly accurate way my 3yr old rattled off the Easter story last night with unreserved joy and cheering when she gets to the parts about an empty CAGE! (cave/tomb) and "He's gonna come back  to get ME...Yaaaaaaay!"  and "He's making me a beautiful house with a room and a door and lot's of playdough." 

2.  i love:  Putting on brand new socks to go run away from home on tough days (a few miles)...and then run back.

3.   i love:  Technology. Call it too much?  But I love during this season in my life what unlimited cell phone minutes, picture texting, and facebook have done in regards to God loving me in such detail through some amazing long lost friends and supportive family he's plopped into my life.

4. i love: What it feels like to walk through the garden center at any store right now!

5.  i love: That the day I became a mom it came along with new eyesight....specifically eyes that see "BEAUTIFUL" when i see my kids scribbles, artwork attempts, name writing chicken scratch, randomly placed stickers, globs of purple elmers glue w/ glitter mashed in, poster board murals painted w/ bingo stampers, and fringe edged pictures when they each learned to use scissors and were obsessed. I got to enjoy all of eden's creations on some type of paper product or even rocks until her sister was born. She hauled that little 4month old baby out of the bouncy seat she was buckled into, across the house (gasp!), undressed her down to a diaper (wait to gasp), & in her words-"made her beautful" to go out to dinner that night. She did this by means of infant tattooing her with the Hello Kitty arts & crafts ink stamp set; then connected with her purple marker each of those dozen non-fully-washable baby tattoos  from scalp to forehead to belly (with certain things circled on the way down).... Yes, i was oblivious-partly a good and troubling confession??! Yes, Hallé giggled and was thrilled with the masterpiece of art she'd become in the hands of her big sister.  All that to say: Hallé's favorite art canvas remains to this day....her  body.  So if you don't understand why i love, encourage and giggle inside each time i pull up hal's shirt or change her sock & shoes and see "body graffiti"~~ it's because it always reminds me of those naked little artists bonding in that hallway 3yrs ago...

~ i am blessed ~

Wordless Wednesday (by eden & mom)

Whose That Chick With Rockin' Kicks?

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's off to our 2nd Home we Go...

This is us last Saturday 03.06.10 cracking out the bikes for the first time and taking our first visit to the Sprinkler Park...(minus visiting the sprinklers to Hallé's massive disappointment.  She had a swimsuit on under her clothes in case I was wrong about the water not being turned on yet!???)

if we can do a weirdo face...

and get to take a picture of you afterwards...

then sure, we'll do a cheesy posed smile...

enjoying her need for speed before she got a flat.... 

Curses to desert Goat Heads!

Saturday we brought Hallé's bike but since she decided she only wanted to ride it in the grass (meaning-me push her while hunched over);on Sunday I opted for the scooter to come with us on our desperately needed Day II-escape to the park.

I love this place....I could (and do) spend hours here; with my kids and alone.  It has the most beautiful rose and flower gardens, walk paths, benchs,  tennis courts, (goal: i will go make a fool of myself at some point on those courts this year~please feel free to volunteer if you think you're worse than me!~), SUNSHINE,  and best of all if you time it just right and go there when your kids are hungry (appx. every 30minutes) then in the summer there is this man with the most endearing yet annoying little old ice cream truck who is a persistent lip reader...he can see me about 150yds away say: "no, no ice cream today girls" and sure enough he'll pull into a parking spot and blast away the hypnotizing fog horn melodies.  Sometimes we're lucky and it's not the genre: "FIESTA"

So for this trip to celebrate the park getting it's first of many weekends of love from us; we stopped at Baskin Robbins and could have probably bought half his ice cream truck for the same price.... it matters not...nobody else sells Pink Bubble Gum ice cream....AND ...it was essential on many levels.

Thanks Hallé for the detailed instructions about exactly where our hands needed to be for your photo shoot..."sure is a good thing nobody was standing around watching this take place"

I took these last two pictures to remind me of this moment and Hallé's beaming smile.  Moments before,  a stranger to Hallé's left had just walked up and said...and i quote..."GIRLFRIEND...you are ROCKIN' those boots,

you show that park them awesome  rockin' boots!" 

They were Eden's pink sparkly boots. She also wore them everyday and everywhere...I'm not sure which of the 3 of us have loved them more?

~ THE END ~