Easter, Step by Step

Our Easter this year has been fun so far. We have done eggs, church, hunts and right now, working on the ham dinner. Hope your Easter has been blessed and reflective as we remember, the death and more importantly, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Went to the store, and no Easter egg dye kits! Ugh! Guess what, for pennies you can do eggs without a kit using food dye and vinegar. I know this is how it was done long before Paas kits, but I had forgotten.

The Easter bunny came and of course Tyrone had to check out the prizes.

Easter egg hunt spoils.

The beginnings of scalloped potatoes..

Literally, less than a minute later. I seriously still use my Salad Shooter that I have had since the first year I was married. It makes short order of thinly slicing potatoes.

It looks icky now. The potatoes with a butter white sauce on top, but give it an hour in the oven.

Honey glazed ham, waiting for its turn in the oven. This is the first time I have done a spiral cut, glazed ham. It's a little involved, so here's hoping!

Picasso Family Portraits

Okay, humor needed. My four year old first brought me his rendition of me. He saw how funny I thought it was, then he went to the far reaches of our house and brought everyone else.

Here is our family portraits through the eyes of our son, enjoy!

Me

Four year old's self portrait

Daddy

Big brother

Much to Share

Yesterday was a very long day. Our school had it's annual "Capital Day". We got up at 5:30 am so we could pick up another family by 7:30 am, and be at the capital by 9 am. That was only the beginning. I am formulating the blog post in my mind for that day.

I also came home and had a huge deadline for my work right in front of me. Several thousand dollars in gross sales needed to be submitted to my company by 9 pm, and two people weren't calling me back with credit card information. I hate it when I have deadlines like this but it does happen occasionally. By the time 9 pm came around, my deadline was met, but I was physically and emotionally exhausted. Usually I see 9 pm as catching up on some tv time, read a book, or do some laundry. I am usually wide awake at that time. Not last night.

But I wanted to leave you a slice of heaven I received this morning. I was in bed, trying to pry myself awake when my little four year old left me a "card" by my nightstand. I love it when our kids do little things like this. It comes from their heart, not from their dad making them sign a card on a certain day, etc.

Christmas Perspective

Have you had one of those holiday seasons like mine? One where all I want to do is hide somewhere to escape, and I am not kidding, the bickering. The bickering over who gets to use the red crayon even though we have a dozen red crayons, the bickering over who gets the most presents or over who is giving Dad the biggest present. Or how many pieces of paper we can use to send Santa our wish list, and who gets the red piece of construction paper to do that. Maybe your bickering might include what gifts should be opened on Christmas Eve as opposed to Christmas Day......and it gets infuriating, and you want to escape.

That is our household to the nines this year, and I am ready to pitch whatever is under our tree out the door. I am hoping the project I forced the family to participate in sinks in a bit. Here is the project from behind the scenes. It begins with our great Susie, at church, who spearheads this orchestra. First, she gets a list from the local elementary school of families who are in dire need this year if the family wants to have a Christmas. Our church takes on four families. Two of the families this year were displaced by a recent apartment fire and have been homeless since April. The family I am focusing on for this post is a mother and a ten year old daughter. They are homeless and couch hopping at friends homes while they struggle through the social services departments to get low income housing help. The plan was to deliver each family their load of gifts and food this last weekend, but for Julie and Sierra, they didn't know where they would be. It was hoped they would be in their apartment by Christmas. So Susie asked Julie (the mom), "Do you have a car?" Thinking that maybe we can have her meet us at the church to give her these things. Julie's response, "No, I have a cart." And then the tears flowed from all who heard that conversation. It was agreed we, the church, would hold onto the items this week to see if she got her apartment. It wasn't to be. So we delivered them today at a friend's basement apartment where Julie and Sierra are, again, couch hopping.

Julie and Sierra, you are gems. It was our honor and pleasure to be Santa for you this year. God bless you.

Sunday morning gift wrapping. Each station has wrapping, tags, tape, scissors. The table also has each family's gifts with each one labeled. Hats off to Susie!

Julie and Sierra's table.

After our great church members have come in and wrapped, it looks great. I also wanted to include this photo because it has a sliver of a certain teenager's bum
who wouldn't turn around but would only give me his best side.

Today, our sleigh (mini van clunker) getting loaded up.
No, the chicken feed isn't for Julie and Sierra.

Our van is full, and more was put in another vehicle.
I am so proud of our church for making sure these folks get a Christmas to remember.

JM and my hubbie loading into Julie and Sierra's current apartment.

And suddenly the bickering gets softer and softer and softer......

A whole lot of gained perspective.

Our "Kitties" First Christmas

No, Tyrone is not helping....he is supervising.

Ditto.

I just think this is a great pic of my kids.

Tasha doesn't supervise. She just finds the most comfy spot.

A Hundred Numbers?

My four year old is a crack up. He makes me laugh daily.

He loves to be tickled. I have never seen a kid who loves to be tickled, relentlessly, for hours. I am not joking. He will walk up to you, raise his arms to show you his armpits, and want you to tickle him.

So today, I tickled him, for a long time. I think it was probably for thirty minutes or so. I was wiped out. So I usually tell him something like "I am all done" and give him a few hugs and kisses and then I am done. I did that today but asked a simple question, and here is how that conversation went:

Me: Do you know how much I love you?

BH: Hmmm......A hundred numbers?

The Annual Pumpkin Patch Trip

Soccer Season 2009

First games, on the first Saturday of games. The weather had been in the 90's just hours before this self taken picture was taken. Not today! Our first miserable and wet game for the little kids. They all looked up at us parents with the look in their eyes of, "You're my parent! You want me to play in this! Are you nuts?"

h

In Munchkin league, there are always little girls in pony tails on the other team that have skills.

He'll outrun them every time.

The younger kids love the parent's tunnel at the end of the games.

Who is that big boy?? Good Lord have mercy, when did he grow up?

JM going down hard.

Soccer season is well under way. It has been nothing short of a project to have two kids in soccer. We have run from field to field, carpooled, and relied on good friends just to juggle this schedule. It has been worth it, but we as parents feel like we have earned a trophy for our efforts in this as well.

How are the kids? Well, for JM, this is his fifth year playing, and it's hit a competitive level at this point. We aren't just kicking it around and hoping one of our teammate gets a goal. The coach has had the same challenges we have had having several kids in sports, yet he has definitely been great at teaching the kids strategy and skills. The game last weekend, he came running full speed across the field to make the last half of the game.

For JM, he has found his niche this year. He is the goalie, and he is good at it. I noticed big time this last weekend as he got traded in and out of the goalie position. What makes him good at it is two things 1) he has good hand eye coordination and can predict where the ball is going to go by watching the kick 2) he is not afraid to take a hard kick in the gut or face. As I watched other kids play goalie, I saw several times where the goalie hesitated and a goal was scored. As a proud mom, I saw my kid take a few hard hits of a ball to the gut, and scores were blocked.

For BH, he is a born runner. If you ever see him sprint, he is the lean mean running machine. He gets his arms pumping like an Olympic sprinter and for a four year old, you will be impressed. He is loving soccer. His one hardship is that is he four. Many times he will be doing leaps across the field, talking to himself, looking up, etc. What cracks us all up is how distracted he can be, but at the right time, he will engage with the ball and suddenly he'll score a goal. It's quite cute and fun to watch.

It's been fun so far, and the season is half over. I am proud of my boys.