Sunday Scripture

Happy Resurrection Day to you all!

He is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed!

Praying you all had a wonderful day, remembering the sacrifice that Jesus made for you and for me and the Victory over death that His resurrection gives us!

"For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith."  1John 5:4

"But thanks [be] to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Chronicles 15:57

A Day at the Zoo, a Pinterest recipe and a Birthday

 

 For Christmas the grandparents gave us a zoo membership. Memberships are always such a great idea since they last all year long and give us something to do as a family when we are wanting to do something as a family. B#1 and his wife are here for a visit so we thought this would be a great time to go. It was fun, but we didn't take into account Spring Break so it was quite busy.

It was so great to have two more hands to add to our helpers so we could keep up with the little ones while we were there. B#9 just loved having her "Bubby" push her through the zoo.

 

 

After smelling the Elephant ears at the zoo, knowing how expensive it would be for all of us, we decided to make some of our own when we got home using a Pinterest recipe. They were actually funnel cakes, but either way they were yummy.

Even B#8 ate some. He is a picky eater so we never know what he will like and what he won't.

We decided to celebrate B#1's birthday while he was here even though it isn't for about 10 days or so. He is a BIG 22! They do grow up:).

Sunday Scripture

Well I actually managed to sit through church today. Dad kept the little ones home in hopes that no one will get sick this week. B#1 and his wife are coming for a visit and we want to be healthy.

What stood out to me today at church was actually a hymn so I thought I would post the words to the hymn today. Read the verses carefully, especially with Easter being next week. If you don't know Jesus as your personal Savior then the words will be especially meaningful for you.

There's Room At the Cross for You

The cross upon which Jesus died
Is a shelter in which we can hide
And its grace so free is sufficient for me
And deep is its fountain as wide as the sea.

Chorus
There's room at the cross for you
There's room at the cross for you
Though millions have come, there's still room for one
Yes there's room at the cross for you.

Though millions have found him a friend
And have turned from the sins they have sinned
The Savior still waits to open the gates
And welcome a sinner before it's too late.

Chorus

The hand of my Savior is strong
And the love of my Savior is long
Through sunshine or rain, through loss or in gain,
The blood flows from Calvary to cleanse every stain.

Chorus

I tried to find a link so you could hear it if you wanted but being the technologically challenged person that I am, I gave up.

Easter

A few things we have been doing for Easter...

                                                     Making our Resurrection Garden

                                                         
                                                        It is starting to sprout

                                         We made these yummy empty tomb snacks.

                                                    Jesus paid our debt in full.

For Easter week, starting tomorrow, which is Palm Sunday we will be reading through the Easter story in the Bible. Instead of doing an Easter basket I planned out some things we will do each day after we read.
                     Sunday we will read about Palm Sunday. Palms make me think of coconuts so I bought Almond Joy and Mounds candies for the kids.
                     Monday we will be reading the Scripture where Jesus talks about the parable of the Fig Tree so I bought Fig Newtons(YUM).
                     Tuesday we will be reading about Judas agreeing to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver so we will have chocolate coins.
                     Wednesday we will be reading about the Last Supper so we will have oyster crackers(mini-saltines) and grape juice.
                     Thursday will be the betrayal in the Garden by Judas, where he kisses Jesus so I will give the kids Hershey Kisses.
                    On Friday we will be reading about the crucifixion and making a crown of thorns out of pretzel sticks and chocolate, also we will make our Resurrection Rolls which is a tradition. If you have never made them you really should try them. They are so yummy. You can find the directions HERE if you are interested.
                    On Saturday we will be reading about the soldiers securing the tomb with a stone. We found some candy rocks in the bulk section at the grocery store. It really looks like little rocks. Who knows how it will taste though.
                    Sunday will be church and a big meal although I don't know what we are having yet. Probably ham, which somehow seems wrong, since Jesus wouldn't eat pork but that just seems like what we usually do.

How about you? What plans do you have for Easter?

B#8 Turns 4!

                                   He really wanted a baseball cake for his birthday this year.

 He bought this storm trooper with some of his birthday money from family while having a fun shopping and lunch day out with Dad.

                      Four is such a fun age. I suppose most ages are fun though, most of the time.

Sunday Scripture

Well now that it is Tuesday I thought I better come clean about my missing Sunday Scripture...I don't have one. I did make it to church but ended up taking B#10 out of the service because he was being loud and the speakers to hear the sermon where I was sitting with him aren't working. So sorry to say I didn't get to hear anything of the sermon, thus nothing from it to share with you this week. But never fear, there is always verses memorized that can be shared. At the dinner table every night the B#7 and B#8 qoute a couple of verses for us. Every night they are the same two verses even though they have others they could say....

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1

"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23

Hopefully we can get them to branch out a little soon:)

Travis Nathaniel

Our oldest son and his wife have been dealing with a possible miscarriage for the last week...waiting on blood tests and ultrasounds to tell them whether or not their first child would make it. Unfortunately yesterday it was confirmed that the baby, indeed, was not alive. We are very sad for them. I asked my daughter-in-law if they had thought about doing something to honor the baby such as a name or a special letter that they would write. Understandably, she said they hadn't really had time to process it all and therefore hadn't thought about it.

Today she told us that they decided to honor the baby by naming him Travis Nathaniel. I think that is a lovely name.

Society would have us to believe that at 6 weeks it isn't really a baby yet. Just a bundle of tissues. From the above picture, I beg to differ. This clearly looks like a baby to me.

The Bible is particularly clear on this. One of the most well known verses about babies, Psalm 139 says this..."For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest part of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they were all written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.

We are very sad that this little one will not be joining our family this side of heaven but maybe someone somewhere who might be considering an abortion will stumble upon this little post, see the picture of the 6 week old baby and change their mind.

Sunday Scripture

Today in our sermon the topic was comparing all of the animal sacrificing that the Isrealites had to do in the Old Testament to the One-time Sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. So I thought I would share a bit of Scripture from the book of Hebrews...

"And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgement, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many.  To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation." Hebrews 9:27-28

This is a good verse to think on and there are many others that can start us to getting ready to celebrate Resurrection Sunday(Easter).

Remember..."Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, " 1 Corinthians 15:3-4

First Picnic of the Year

 

 

 

We have finally had a couple of really nice days. The kids(and mom) have been outside most of the time. Today they wanted to have a picnic. It was a great day for it.

 

Dangerously Yummy!

 

 

Yesterday the girls and I made these yummy doughnut holes. We have made several different recipes of doughnuts over the years but I think I can safely say that these have been the best ones yet. The recipe came from HERE. I won't say that it is the most well written recipe but it wasn't too difficult to figure things out. We doubled it for our family and it still didn't make a whole lot. I did find out that they puff a good bit while they are cooking so with the remaining batches I pulled each of the dough balls apart and made two balls. That helped alot with the size of the finished doughnut hole. We will definitely be making these again.

 

Things we are doing for Easter and Keeping Busy

Well I managed once again to let there be a lag in posting. I had planned on staying pretty current on posting but life sometimes just gets busy.  I have been getting things ready for Easter already and working on some projects. I started remaking a skirt that I had in my closet but didn't like into a maternity skirt and bought a yard of flannel to make cloth diaper wipes. I managed to get 30 cloth wipes out of one yard of fabric for $2.50. Not too shabby.

The kids made some of these water color crosses to hang up. They were so easy to make and actually turned out the way the instructions said. We used masking tape to make the crosses, then they used water color paints to paint around the tape. Once it was dry enough we gently, very gently, peeled the tape off to reveal the crosses.

This is one of the projects we are planning to make. Isn't it cute? It is a tomb, which of course will be empty. So far I have most of the supplies ready to start it but need to find some grass seed. Walmart didn't have theirs out just yet. Hopefully Lowes will. You have to let the grass grow for at least 10 days so you have to plan ahead on when to start this one.

Our family typically does the usual Easter type things like coloring eggs on the first day of Spring. I am not against coloring eggs and hiding them. The kids love doing it but I do want them to focus on Jesus at Easter and not bunnies and eggs so we just do it a bit earlier. I suppose I should be gettting busy on that matter but I have also been preoccupied with planning for B#8's birthday which is coming up in a week or so.

Life is just busy...