It is late, and I have about a hundred bunny cookies staring at me with no eyes (if that is possible). But I felt a need to do a post...since ya'll have been so sweet to wonder where in the world I am! I have had e-mails from sweet friends who are just making sure I am o.k. since I haven't posted in over a week. And I have a husband who has begun to nag me to do a post (the same husband who thought I was crazy for starting a blog!). I have missed doing posts, but life has been so full in the last week or so...such a wonderful fullness...that I just felt the need to take a little break. 
I love Easter. I have always loved Easter...the bright colors, the pastel colors, the bunny crafts, and the candy (preferably panned marshmallow eggs). But I am seeing Easter in a whole new light this year. It is creating in me an infatuation with Jesus, with my church, with those who use their talents and their lives to follow the Lord, and with wanting to use my talents and my life for praising Jesus. It is giving me this sense of who Jesus really is and what He really did for me.
Jesus came from heaven. He left the most wonderful place that has ever been and will ever be to live on this earth...and not just to live, but to die. For me. And for you. Jesus was picked on, spit on, talked about, laughed at, ridiculed, and tortured while on this earth. For me. And for you. He was an innocent man hung on a cross...a crown of thorns placed on His head, nails driven through His hands and His feet...left to die one of the most gruesome deaths ever imaginable. For me. And for you.
I love Easter. I have always loved Easter...the bright colors, the pastel colors, the bunny crafts, and the candy (preferably panned marshmallow eggs). But I am seeing Easter in a whole new light this year. It is creating in me an infatuation with Jesus, with my church, with those who use their talents and their lives to follow the Lord, and with wanting to use my talents and my life for praising Jesus. It is giving me this sense of who Jesus really is and what He really did for me.Jesus came from heaven. He left the most wonderful place that has ever been and will ever be to live on this earth...and not just to live, but to die. For me. And for you. Jesus was picked on, spit on, talked about, laughed at, ridiculed, and tortured while on this earth. For me. And for you. He was an innocent man hung on a cross...a crown of thorns placed on His head, nails driven through His hands and His feet...left to die one of the most gruesome deaths ever imaginable. For me. And for you. 
As I sat through our church's Easter service this past Sunday night, all of this sunk in. It washed over me like it had never before. I was humbled and broken by the magnitude of all of this. And then I felt a sense of peace like never before. A sense of peace that was a comfort. It was a healing for my heart...my heart that has been hurting. My heart that wishes things in years gone past would have been different. It hit me like a ton of bricks Sunday night that my heart has been made whole again...and it is all because of Jesus. Because of the blood He shed, because of the death He endured, my heart has been made whole.
This past Sunday was just a special day. It was special for our family. It was special for so many of the people with whom we worship. The day created a sense of awe in me that I am still feeling. I realized that things have happened the way they have happened because that is the way they were supposed to happen. While my heart has been full of regret because some decisions I have made recently weren't made sooner...decisions that have affected my whole entire being...longing that they had been made sooner...I realize that they happened just when they should have. Had these decisions been made at a different time, I do not think I would have the full appreciation of how they have transformed my life.
I have faults. I will always fall short. I will never be worthy. There will still be hard times. There will still be people hurting. Bad things will still happen. But God is bigger than the biggest of problems we face. He is bigger than our shortcomings. God is there for us when those whom even we love aren't. God is there for us when we have been broken. He is the one who picks up our pieces and puts us back together. It is by His grace and mercy that I walk through my every day...no matter what the day holds, He is there. Ever present and ever ready to carry me. I feel that what I experienced on Sunday has changed me...made me different. A good different. And I will be forever grateful for that day. My cup overflows. 
These 2 pictures crack.me.up. I had no idea they were on my camera until I was uploading my pictures tonight. Apparently during the one phone call I had today, Lucy hijacked the camera. The picture above totally makes me laugh...see Macy peeking around the corner? You can tell a lot about us in these pictures...my Saturday morning do (which I am still sporting on Saturday night)...the fact that I have pictures (some very large!) of my girls everywhere...we have colorful mismatched chairs around our family table (my table that my grandmother bought for five whole dollars at a garage sale probably 50 or 60 years ago)...my iron and ironing board are still out from my ironing day early this week (and Jason's pink shirt has been sitting there ever since)...and we need a light bulb in our light fixture above our table. And Macy in the next picture running from her sister with the camera...too funny with those pigtails =)
The pigtails had come down at this point...and little sister had lost her cameral privileges after taking 59 pictures and was giving her sister fits.
Where else is there to meet in Winona than at McDonalds? O.k., there is a Huddle House and a KFC...but you know, McDonalds is McDonalds, so that is where we decided to meet. Macy and Lucy had so much fun with Lilly. The last time we saw Lilly was back in July...has it really been THAT long?? Lucy kept saying "Lilly is different." That was her way of saying that she has changed so much!! But she is still absolutely adorable, looking just like her Uncle Tom =)
Where's Lilly?
We went to see "Alice in Wonderland" with my sister-in-law, Leslie, and my nephews, Carson and Cade. It was a really good movie...and I am not one that likes mystical movies too much. But something about it was just fabulous...like on the edge of my seat fabulous. There are a lot of different opinions about the movie, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Macy and Lucy enjoyed it too. The moral of the story...good always prevails over evil. It may not always seems to be that way in life...but in the end, good always wins. And how wonderful it that??!!
I really don't like it when my children don't feel well. I hate either one of them being sick, but it gives me a good excuse for just laying around with them and holding them and comforting them. Today, while I was laying down on the couch with Macy, I told her (like I tell her ALL of the time) that I loved her. To which she replied, "I love you, too." And I said, "I love you more." She got me when she looked at me with those ginormous brown eyes of hers and said, "I love you higher than heaven, Mama." Like she REALLY got me. I was a puddle of mush laying right beside here. My sweet Macy =)
