Easter Warm-Ups

The kids had several pre-Easter activities leading up to the actual holiday.

Jake had his annual egg hunt at school....his LAST one (gasp!).

It's not an Easter party at VK until there is a bucket on the head...


The Saturday before Easter we did egg dying at the house. Surprisingly, as crazy I am about messy activities, egg dying doesn't bother me.

I did have the kids wear snow gloves to help minimize the dying of the hands. It semi-worked.


They did a great job!


Lots of fun "spring activities" leading up to Easter! I can be a sucker for holiday traditions.

March Moments

While we all know how I feel about March, we did have some sweet moments...

Brooklyn's Girl Scout troop attended their area's Thinking Day celebration where they "visited" a ton of countries and learned so much about international culture.

Brooklyn and Claire had some girl time on Gramma's floor...
...and then Claire played "squish the Brooklyn."

The kids and I tried our hand at ugly selfies...


And Brooklyn validated me on social media as a "super cool mom."

(Though don't try to "friend" her on Instagram. She is not allowed to have followers and I think she already forgot that she has an Instagram account. It was important to her for about 2.5 days.)

The cousins had one of their regular dance parties...

And Jake and Brooklyn enjoyed some indoor swimming with Nanny and Grandpa.

Can we just go ahead and jump into Summer?! I'm ready for pool time, too!

Church Egg Hunt

The kids were so excited to participate in their first egg hunt of the season on Sunday, March 29. Thanks to the best church ever for giving my kids a fun morning!







This was one of three hunts for Jake and two for Brooklyn so it was a great "warm up" with our church family. :-)

This Man

Happy Easter, blog readers!
I presented the following scripture and personal message last Sunday at Shout and in honor of Easter Sunday today, I thought I would like to share it with you all...

The Scripture: Mark 15:1-39 The Message (MSG)

Standing Before Pilate
15 At dawn’s first light, the high priests, with the religious leaders and scholars, arranged a conference with the entire Jewish Council. After tying Jesus securely, they took him out and presented him to Pilate.
^2-3 Pilate asked him, “Are you the ‘King of the Jews’?”He answered, “If you say so.” The high priests let loose a barrage of accusations.
^4-5 Pilate asked again, “Aren’t you going to answer anything? That’s quite a list of accusations.” Still, he said nothing. Pilate was impressed, really impressed.
^6-10 It was a custom at the Feast to release a prisoner, anyone the people asked for. There was one prisoner called Barabbas, locked up with the insurrectionists who had committed murder during the uprising against Rome. As the crowd came up and began to present its petition for him to release a prisoner, Pilate anticipated them: “Do you want me to release the King of the Jews to you?” Pilate knew by this time that it was through sheer spite that the high priests had turned Jesus over to him.
^11-12 But the high priests by then had worked up the crowd to ask for the release of Barabbas. Pilate came back, “So what do I do with this man you call King of the Jews?”
¹³ They yelled, “Nail him to a cross!”
¹⁴ Pilate objected, “But for what crime?”
But they yelled all the louder, “Nail him to a cross!”
¹⁵ Pilate gave the crowd what it wanted, set Barabbas free and turned Jesus over for whipping and crucifixion.
^16-20 The soldiers took Jesus into the palace (called Praetorium) and called together the entire brigade. They dressed him up in purple and put a crown plaited from a thornbush on his head. Then they began their mockery: “Bravo, King of the Jews!” They banged on his head with a club, spit on him, and knelt down in mock worship. After they had had their fun, they took off the purple cape and put his own clothes back on him. Then they marched out to nail him to the cross.

The Crucifixion

²¹ There was a man walking by, coming from work, Simon from Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus. They made him carry Jesus’ cross.
^22-24 The soldiers brought Jesus to Golgotha, meaning “Skull Hill.” They offered him a mild painkiller (wine mixed with myrrh), but he wouldn’t take it. And they nailed him to the cross. They divided up his clothes and threw dice to see who would get them.
^25-30 They nailed him up at nine o’clock in the morning. The charge against him—the king of the jews—was printed on a poster. Along with him, they crucified two criminals, one to his right, the other to his left. People passing along the road jeered, shaking their heads in mock lament: “You bragged that you could tear down the Temple and then rebuild it in three days—so show us your stuff! Save yourself! If you’re really God’s Son, come down from that cross!”
^31-32 The high priests, along with the religion scholars, were right there mixing it up with the rest of them, having a great time poking fun at him: “He saved others—but he can’t save himself! Messiah, is he? King of Israel? Then let him climb down from that cross. We’ll all become believers then!” Even the men crucified alongside him joined in the mockery.
^33-34 At noon the sky became extremely dark. The darkness lasted three hours. At three o’clock, Jesus groaned out of the depths, crying loudly, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
^35-36 Some of the bystanders who heard him said, “Listen, he’s calling for Elijah.” Someone ran off, soaked a sponge in sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down.”
^37-39 But Jesus, with a loud cry, gave his last breath. At that moment the Temple curtain ripped right down the middle. When the Roman captain standing guard in front of him saw that he had quit breathing, he said, “This has to be the Son of God!”

My Message:

Murder. Spite. Mockery. Nails. Whipping. Spit on him. Quit breathing.

These words. These words from our very scripture that describe what is happening to Jesus.

I don’t want to read these words out loud. I don’t even want to THINK these words. But then I have to remember that Jesus LIVED these words.

Most of you know that my children worship here in Shout almost every week. In the last few months, my five year old has started asking questions and started tuning in to key parts of the service. And when someone says something startling, his poor Gramma is usually the one deflecting the questions.

So, when I read today’s scripture, I read it with Jake in mind. What is his little brain going to glean from this? What can my thirty-something brain glean from this? The story is the same. It hasn’t changed. I hear it every year. But as a parent, you want to protect your children. You become highly sensitive to the world around you- the world around your children- and sometimes when you can barely comprehend something, the idea of helping your child comprehend the same thing is daunting.

So, what did I do this week? I hit Google. I googled “how to tell the Passion story to children.”

I found a little bit of information from a blog, Worshiping with Children: The chief question children seem to ask about the passion narrative is “Why did people hate Jesus that much?”  They simply cannot fit this story with all the others about Jesus being a friend, a healer, and a helper.  One Sunday School teacher explained that “Jesus said they had to share and they didn’t want to.”  Jesus called people to share, to forgive each other, to take care of each other, even to love people who do not love us back.  None of this is easy on the personal level.  Because people did not want to do those hard things, they wanted Jesus to stop saying them or go away.  Since he wouldn’t stop saying them, they got rid of him – or so they thought. 

Seems like a pretty good explanation to me. But there is still no good way to explain the jeering. The spitting. The nailing. The mockery.

And I realized...is it for Jake that I am trying to find a good understanding of this story?

Or is it for me? 

Am I trying to make the Passion story more kid friendly for ME?

When Google ran dry, I turned to music- specifically YouTube- and found “This Man” by Jeremy Camp.

“He held the weight of impurity 
The father would not see 
The reasons had finally come to be to 
Show the depth of his grace flowed with 
Every sin erased he knew that this was 
Why he came”

The Passion story- the story that demonstrates God’s ultimate grace. A grace that is freely given to us.

I recently saw a quote about Grace that said:
“Grace is when somebody hurts you and you try and understand their situation instead of trying to hurt them back.”

The Passion story- a story that tells of Jesus paying the ultimate price, but instead of retaliating and hurting them back, he showed them understanding, grace, love and mercy.

The song continues to say:
"And we just don't know the blood and 
Water flowed and in it all 
He shows just how much he cares 
And the veil was torn so we could have 
This open door and all these things have 
Finally been complete"

“The open door.”

And since I’ve been so focused on making the message child friendly, I may as well end with a reference to the movie “Frozen.”

We all know the song “Love is an Open Door,” right? :-)

The Passion story- and Jeremy Camp's song- show us that love- and grace- is that open door for us. The door has been flung wide open by Jesus, and Jesus is saying, “I’ve paid the price for you. Now you go, be with my people, love one another, and extend that same grace and mercy to all you meet.”

While none of us can fathom taking the place of Jesus on that cross, we can do just as well by taking the place of this man in his kingdom as a leader of faith, a deliverer of the good word, and as a disciple to His people.

May you all have a wonderful Easter Sunday! He is risen indeed!

Claire's TWO!

This little peanut (and my birthday twin) turned TWO on April 1! We celebrated her on Saturday the 28th with a sweet Peppa Pig themed party.

It was so much easier taking pics when she was immobile. :-)

Dear Claire,
You are the third child I always wanted but did not want to raise myself. (j/k) You are the perfect addition to our family and your uncle, cousins, and I love you soooo much (but I am the only one with a blog to tell you publically). The way you say all of our names is PRECIOUS, your giggle is infectious, your tea parties are delightful, and your songs are THE BEST. Keep talking on that pretend phone, rocking your baby dolls, and we'll work on that whole sharing thing this year. I love you so much, and you will always be my most favorite birthday present ever.
Love,
Aunt Jaclyn

A Mini Staycation...just what March ordered.

On Saturday, March 28, Chad and I celebrated absolutely nothing and spent the day at the Spa at Grandover. We just needed some time together, so we did just that.


We were good and started the day off in the fitness center with a little Johnson Boot Camp.

Post-facial and lunch poolside...and yes, we even #splitaplatelosesomeweight.

Post-massage.
Spa hair is the best hair.

Time together is so valuable (and rare) these days. We soaked up those 24 hours and had a great time on our mini Staycation. Any local friends, I highly recommend taking a trip out to Grandover. Few people know that locals can come and enjoy the spa amenities any time any day they schedule a service, and it is WELL worth it.

March Update: #splitaplatelosesomeweight

Month 3...CHECK!

#splitaplatelosesomeweight is still, as my grandfather would say, "alive and kicking!"

In March, Chad and I split 6 meals.

The good news? That's one more less meal than February (headed in the right direction).

The bad news? We are still obsessed with burritos and cheeseburgers.

We used our holiday freebies on St. Patrick's Day (belated) and the "bonus day" on our date night on March 27. (I held strong and did not include Palm Sunday or Daylight Savings as cheat holidays.)

I think it's getting easier, and both Chad and I have said, after NOT splitting, that we wished we would have. I would say that's DEFINITE progress. :-)

 

Dear April...

Dear April,

Hey. It's me.

Thanks for coming.

Oh, and hey March,
Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Love,
Jaclyn

A year of grief...and another thank you

"Grief is not something to be fixed. It's something to be borne, together. And when the time is right, there is always something that is born from it. After real grief, we are reborn as people with wider and deeper vision and greater compassion for the pain of others. We know that. So through our friend's grief, we maintain in our hearts the hope that in the end, good will come of it. But we don't say that to our friend. We let our friend discover that on her own. Hope is a door each one must open for herself." -Glennon Doyle Melton, Carry On Warrior


For the last year, you all have walked the path of grief with us. You have opened your hearts to us. You have expanded your prayers to include us. You have shown us those doors of Hope...but allowed us to walk through at the times when we were ready. Sometimes you knew we needed you to hold our hands and walk through with us. Just like sometimes you knew we needed to walk through some doors alone.

In thinking about this day, I had thought about just reposting the "Thank You" post that I did last year. Many of the sentiments, if not all, still ring true today.

But I would be remiss if I didn't say another thank you again today.

For the prayers.
For the meals.
For the talks.
For the tissues.
For the laughs.
For the memories.
For the songs.
For the letters.
For the voicemails.
For the cardinals.
For the texts.
For the runs.
For the shoulders.
For the love.

Thank you.

Thank you for loving us. For loving Larry. And for standing by us this past year.

We could not have made it through each holiday passing day without you.

And we carry you all with us in our hearts as we walk through those Doors of Hope into the next year.

Thank you.

Love continues to hold us ALL together.

Finishing up the February happenings...

March 8th...not too bad to be wrapping up February.

Several weeks ago, Jake attended a birthday party for his friend, Ella. It was a superhero party and Jake had a BLAST.


For Black History Month, Jake had to write a "report" for school. His person was Harriet Tubman. He wrote a sentence about her contributions, the dates she lived and drew a picture.



Friday, February 13, we met our family for dinner. Claire had a great time with her cousins.
And Aunt Jaclyn ordered ice cream, which didn't hurt matters...

Brooklyn came to work with me during a teacher work-afternoon, and I gave her an Excel job. I mean, when you are in 4th grade, your days of coloring in Mommy's office are over.
(And yes, I realize that last sentence is ironic since Brooklyn is sitting in front of two posters in my office that have been colored. But that's what they pay ME the big bucks to do.)

So, welp, that's February in a nutshell.

And you all know how I feel about March...