Day Ninety Four

He Is Risen!

We have been a bit lonely. This is the first Easter we have spent without our oldest daughter. Sigh. We have two still at home. But we all feel the hole!

  So we made our way to church this morning at Antioch. 

Besides missing my girl, the day was amazing. I love this church!

The challenge is that we are called to give our lives away, and at the end of that is authentic, sustaining joy.

We shared a fun lunch at Red Robin, complete with comic relief from my son who, when presented with his second root beer before the meal was served, commented about our server (when she was probably not quite out of earshot), "Wow. She's really on it! Dad, you should give her extra."

After, we went home and prepared for the Sunday ritual of lazy.

But I was so pleasantly surprised to get a call from my brother, whom I see not nearly often enough. He and his love were in the neighborhood and wondered if we were doing anything...

It's amazing what light family who are friends can bring to a cloudy, snowy, lonely kind of day.

We played Wii. We laughed. We shared love and eggs.

All this and a raspberry limeade made for a beautiful Easter.

(yep. Still with the noise issues at only 400 iso...?)

Day Ninety Three

This Easter...

This year is like no other before it for our family. My husband was a pastor until last Spring. We have been in both senior pastor positions and associate/youth pastor positions (always a slash). In any case, there have been Easter preparations and service plans that have always ended up, in the end, trying to take over any real time I may have otherwise spent actually reconciling the meaning of the holiday in my heart. Add to the obvious pressure as a pastor's/staff wife, many of these years I also was worship leader/choir director (see, the slash. And the slash goes on...) and the pressure tripled. At least. I believe I even remember a year, not too long ago, when we hit the mother lode and celebrated a Sunrise service celebrating Christ's resurrection followed by a choir performance that had been MONTHS in the making AND daylight savings time all on the same bleary morning. Sure, I'd always manage to pull out the teary "thank you Jesus"and did, most definitely come to a moment of  impact. But I was always feeling the frenzy. That "I'll have to get back to You later, God. But, really, thanks" thing ...

Not this year.

This year has been intentionally, decidedly low key as far as the busyness goes. We, as a family, are no longer on that treadmill. It's a good thing.

The story is long and we're very happy to be on this side of things this year. And the fact that I had the time to take a shot of an egg that my husband (with the kids) took time to design for me speaks volumes concerning the miracle of this family fully taking time to be a family in this most blessed of seasons.

Thank you, Father for the cross. 

And thank you for this moment... this peace on a Saturday.