Happy Easter

I didn't get one single picture of the kids on Easter morning in their cute little spring outfits. Bummer. I did get some fun pictures of the other festivities in the day. After church we headed to Fort Worth to spend the day with some new friends of ours. We had a blast. Who wouldn't when the eggs were filled with money?!!!! I was bummed that I forgot MY basket!

Let the hunt begin!


Cait had some major help from sweet Mr. Jimmy!


Cait getting more help from "Mr. Lewis"
Cute, huh?


Tyler showing off his bounty. He has $15 in those eggs!!!


Tyler's mommy, Ms. Kristi


Benjamin showing off his enormous duck!


Cait showing me her huge Bunny that she "won" for finding the most eggs. Hmmm...I wonder if Mr. Jimmy had anything to do with that? She found 31 when her brother found only 19. HA!

I hope everyone had as fun of a day as we did!

A word of encouragement

A friend of mine e-mailed me a few days ago with encouragement. She of all people can encourage me because her situation is the same as mine. If you only knew how many precious ladies I am friends with that are in my same situation! It is crazy, y'all! Some days it feels pretty discouraging! I mean, what is going on??!!

Anyway, this post is about encouragement, not DIScouragement!!!

A few months ago I kept having this thought run through my head..."I feel like spring is almost here." Now, I don't man literal spring, as in the season, obviously. I was talking about the spring of my life. Winter has come and stayed a long time. Winter is not my favorite. Not in the least. I hate the cold. I think the bare trees are depressing and the staying indoors all the time (because I hate to BE cold) gets so stinking old after a few months. I think I get vitamin D deprived. Loneliness is a common thing in the winter. I hate that feeling. I am a social person and I hate feeling all alone. But all that said, I kept feeling like winter was coming to an end. Spring was near.

So interesting, because this friend e-mailed me with some encouraging words and a verse from Songs of Solomon. How interesting, huh?


“My beloved responded and said to me, ‘Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, And come along.
11 ‘For behold, the winter is past, The rain is over and gone. Song of Songs 2:10-11

Oh, let it be so! Come spring! Please come. I'm tired of the bitter coldness of winter and its bleakness. I'm ready for the warmth and the newness that so perfectly follows the cold and rain.

Easter party

Benjamin's class has the neatest little parties. They are not only for the kids, but also for the parents. I love that! Here the kids are singing some little songs they learned about Jesus and about spring. They also recited Psalm 121 using their sign language. So precious!
B's face lit up when I walked in the room. It made me feel good and sad all at the same time. I have to admit that it's been hard for m to be a part of everything the Kindergarten has put on this year because of my own class. That is a bummer. However, it works out most of the time, which I need to be so grateful for.


Here Benjamin is telling me about his box. They read a sweet book called, Benjamin's Box together as a class. The main character, Benjamin, tells the story of Jesus' death and resurrection through the eyes of a child. As he tells the story, he collects little keepsakes along the way and puts them in his box. They are items that help retell the story behind the gospel. Each of the students made their own box with those same items to help them tell the story over and over again. He was going piece by piece telling me the story. Makes me tear up just thinking about it now.


Wednesday when they had their class party, a monsoon swept through Addison. Seriously, it was mega rain like my kids have never seen! Because of that, the egg hunt was indoors. Here is B taking a peek in one of eggs.

Happy Easter!

So many pictures, so little time to post

Last weekend we went to the lake house to celebrate sweet Eli's birthday and Easter with the family. Heeere's the birthday boy...all of 3 years old! Can it be possible?



Danyel threw the coolest Curious George party. Look at this table, would ya?


Unfortunately, this is what the cake looked like when it arrived at the lake house. Bummer! It completely cratered. After a little bit of touch up, it almost passed as looking normal...from just the right angle, anyway!


All the monkey celebrating got our kiddos in the mood to act like monkeys! Here they are jumping on GiGi's bed! Actually, one DID fall off and bump his head. How ironic!


Here's the gang with empty baskets right before the hunt began.


Ready,set, hunt!




Comparing the goods


Does it get cuter than this, folks? I seriously doubt it.




YAY!!! Full baskets with tons of candy and treats!


Mom...glowing from all the grandbaby exposure.


Mia checking out what is in her eggs. Look how impressed she is!


Daddy..isn't he handsome?

Our twinkie girls. They look like they could be sisters, don't they?

Grandparent's Day

What a fun day! Mom and dad drove all the way from Tomball to be here for Grandparent's Day. Benjamin was SO stinking excited ro have his GiGi and Poppa there to show them what he does everyday at school. Mom and Dad brought him lunch and then let B show them around the room. The pictures are priceless!

Pictures taken at JUST the right moment!

Danyel sent these pictures to me. It made me laugh so hard that I just had to share! There are more, but the rest involve more poop or otherwise embarrassing situations. If you want to see them at your own risk, just e-mail me and I'll forward!!!

Let the laughing begin...


Click on this on to enlarge. Poor kid!

Struggling to find Hope

Several weeks ago I really started to wonder how someone was supposed to find hope. Ya know, doesn't it seem like such a cliche?

Hope...

Well I set out to really try and get my arms around the meaning of hope. I started by looking up as many verses as I could find. Maybe that would help me understand.

I Cor 13:7 "Love always hopes"

Job 13:15 "Though He slay me, yet I will hope in Him."

Psalm 25:3 "No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame."

Psalm 33:18-22 "But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear Him, on those whose hope is in His unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them from famine. We wait in hope for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. In Him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in His holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you."

Psalm 42:5 "Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God."

Lamentations 3:19-25 "I remember my afflictions and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, 'The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.' The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him."

So...I listed verse after verse, many more than the ones I put here. Then I thought about it and prayed about it and still didn't get it! Help me Lord!

Finally, I resorted to the dictionary. This is where things began to come into focus for me.

Hope: 1) feeling that something desired is possible 2) confidence, full trust or assurance

AHHHH..... I think I'm starting to get it. Hope means two different things!

Okay, so I remember my pastor, Hal, preaching one time on the difference between faith and hope. We can have faith that God will do what He has promised. He tells us so many things in His word that we can count on with 100% certainty. We can expect them!!

However, we can only hope for other things. We can hope for things that He might give us, things that are good, but they are not things that we are guaranteed to receive from Him. In my case, I think often about the gift of a husband. Can I have faith and believe with 100% certainty that God will give me what I desire in that particular instance? NO! He has not promised a spouse to me in His word. He has promised to give me good things and to do what is best for me. He is the only one who gets to define what that looks like.

I can hope in something like a husband if it is in alignment with His word and His character. Is it consistent with gifts that He says are good? Would it be like God to bless me with that desire? Yes! So therefore, I can hope for it!

Now what Webster helped me to understand is that there are two different types of hope.
1) Hope FOR something and 2) Hope IN Someone...in God

Hoping FOR something: Feeling that something desired is a possible reality

Hope IN someone: complete confidence and trust IN Him

So then I went back to all of those verses that I originally looked up and tried to decide which type of hope applied to each. I can HOPE for good things from His hand. I can hope for certain circumstances and the things that my heart longs for secretly. But, my hope cannot ever be IN those things! My hope needs to be in my Savior alone, not His gifts or blessings that come from His hand. Hope that gives makes me have complete trust that He is what He says He is and He will do what is good and right is hope IN Him. His definition of what is good needs to become my definition. I will pray that my desires will be conformed to His so that whatever He gives me in this short life will be the desires of my heart...because my heart is aligned with Him and the things His heart wants.

I'm hoping for some things. You can hope with me. But SO much more importantly, let's put our hope IN Him. Let's focus on His face instead of His hand and what we hope comes from it.