103/365 Easter

I know you are thinking, really Easter?  Yes Easter.  It will be here shortly.  Today in my Mom2Mom group we put together baskets for families who are at risk of the parents losing their child to foster care.  We filled the children's baskets with all kinds of goodies.  We also included Jesus eggs (I'll explain later).  With the mom baskets we filled with goodies, hand written encouraging cards, etc.  What a great project? I had a blast. 
Also we talked about great ways of sharing the meaning of Easter with our children.  I going to share those with you now.
-Jesus Egg- Fill Egg with 8 jelly beans (in the following colors) and this note:
Black is for the evil planned that night.
Yellow is for God's Son Who is the Light
Red is for the precious blood that Jesus gave
Green is for the grass that grew by the grave
Orange is for the setting sun as soldiers slept
Pink is for the rising sun as Mary wept
Purple is for rulers who couldn't win
Whit is for the cloth He left within
An egg full of jelly beans; help us tell
A story of love, we know so well
Share the candy:share the joy
Jesus died for each girl and boy!

Resurrection Rolls
1 can of refrigerated crescent rolls
8 large marshmallows
1/4 cup of melted butter
2 tablespoons of cinnamon
2 tablespoons of sugar
Dough=the tomb
Marshmallow=body of Christ
Dip marshmallow in melted butter and roll in the sugar/cinnamon mixture=oils and spices on Christ's body
Put marshmallow on the dough and wrap it around the marshmallow.  Make sure all seams are pinched together well.
Place rolls on baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray and bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees.
Let them cool.  Break open the tomb and see the body of Christ is no longer there.

Empty Egg
Tell your child that you have the best gift ever.  It is worth more money than anything.  It is more valuable than you can imagine.  Hand them the egg.  Let them guess what's inside.  Whatever their answer is tell them that it's better than that.  Have them open the egg.  Ask what is inside.  They'll say nothing.  You tell them, "Oh my that's the best.  It shows that Jesus body is not in the tomb.  That He loved you enough to die for you. That is the best gift ever." 

102/365 cooking

One of my favorite activities is cooking with my daughter.  Growing up I had no interest in cooking.  When I first moved into my first apartment there was lots of pizza and tacos.  As I grew confidant I start cooking more and more.  Now I feel more comfortable and sometimes make up recipes.  Gabrielle loves to help cook.  She doesn't care if it is tacos (like tonight) or sweets.  She is my cooking partner.  She's really good. 

99/365 carnival

I am so proud of my husband.  He umpired 2 games back to back.  Then he came straight to Hoose to help with the school carnival for over 3 hours.  I am so happy.  He is an amazing partner in life.  I got to help in 4 different areas-tickets, food, bozo game, and book walk.  It was a lot of fun.  I was really pleasantly surprised that Gabrielle got to come too.  So it was a great night all around.

98/365 Addy and Gabrielle

Tomorrow will be a month since Pumpkin died.  While I still miss him deeply, I know getting Addy was the best for Gabrielle.  They have become fast friends.  They play and have down time.  Gabrielle needed Addy.  Addy helped Gabrielle move forward.  I'm glad we got Addy.  She's not Pumpkin but she is a good addition to this family.  I still say she can't replace him.  But she helped my daughter heal.  That's the important thing. 

97/365 tickle fights

One of our favorite things in this house is tickle fights.  I tried to catch it.  I'm sorry for the blurriness.  My favorite part is Gabrielle saying, "Bring it on" followed by fits of laughter.  I love the moments like this.

95/365 friendships challenge

I have 3 BFF that I have known since jr high and high school.  It gets so easy to be lazy and stay in touch with texts or e-mails or fb updates.  I have a boy best friend.  We have known each other since 7th grade, but we became best friends in high school.  He recently did this radically thing.  He deleted his facebook account. I know shocking! He said he was realizing that he was being less in touch with his friends.  He would meet them for dinner and have nothing to talk about because they read it all on each other's facebook pages.  So he took a month off.  He realized he didn't miss, so he deleted it! I am still in shock, but with him doing that it made me realize I do the same thing.  Instead of picking up the phone or dare I say it actually meeting up with friends, I would facebook message them or text.  I'm trying to get better.  So in the last week I had an almost 2 hour talk with him.  Then I called a girl best friend and caught up.  My other girl best friend from high school and I set a time and we are going to have a phone chat.  I did this because all three of them live out of town or state.  I made conscious efforts to invite my local good friends out to lunch or a drink.  Some are still stuck in the facebook on-line world and don't want to go to lunch or do anything.  But I am making an effort.  So I dare you to pick up the phone and actually call someone you haven't in a long time.  Get reconnected.  Hear their voice.  See them in person.  It will make your day so much brighter.  And I am speaking from experience on this one!

Gabrielle's friendship bracelet is my picture of the day.  I remember making and giving friendship bracelets.  Now I'm trying to reach out and make calls instead.

92/365 How grocery shopping plays into my marriage

Marriage is about compromises.  Learning each other's strengths and weakness.  It is about helping each with their weaknesses and making them stronger.  My husband can't grocery shop.  He will not be upset by me saying that.  Before we were together he didn't shop at all.  He ate out every meal.  So it was an adjustment for him to go grocery shopping.  We use to do it together.  We have learned this just doesn't work.  He hates grocery shopping.  Don't get me wrong it's not my favorite thing to do.  I would much rather be shopping for gabrielle, clothes, shoes, or purses.  But he really hates it.  We have learned it is better for me to do it on my own.  Being married is all about figuring out what works and what doesn't work.  I hate mowing or taking out the trash.  He hates cleaning the bathroom.  You help each other.  You do what the other hates.  When one is sick you pick up and do more.  It's a balancing act.  You find out what annoys each other (ie grocery shopping, leaving socks everywhere, popping knuckles) and you work on accepting those quirks and improving your own quirks.  Marriage really is a give and take.  It's work.  And it is worth it. For the rest of my life I get to be with my BFF, my true love, my better half.  So if I have to grocery shop on my own it's worth it.