Easter

Easter was a trip this year. It fell on Conference Sunday so we had our ward, Easter talks the week before. I was the only speaker for our ward. And it was the day after Jefferson's wedding. I spent at least 6 weeks preparing. But then the two weeks prior, I really buckled down and spent every spare second working on my talk. I was SO stressed out. It's my favorite holiday and favorite time of year so you'd think I'd be excited to speak about it (and I was!) but the responsibility of it all... the desire to do it justice... weighed on me. How could I spend just 15 min. talking about the greatest event in all of history? What should I focus on? What angle should I take? I'm telling you, it just about killed me. And even after spending the whole day at Jefferson's wedding, I still came home and worked on my talk until early morning hours. I prayed SO hard for the Spirit. I knew that if any good came from my talk it would have to be because God intervened. And I think He did. My parents came to listen and sit with our kids and Camilla brought her whole family to hear too. Rachel watched it over Zoom. It was so nice to have all of their support. It was also fun to sit with Travis on the stand. He can't sit by the other members of the bishopric because of covid so I got to sit by him! I felt good about how it went. I shared some traditions our family likes to do during Holy Week. I also talked about different aspects of Holy Week and Christ that I've learned from studying His life and focusing on celebrating Easter. Sharing my heart about Christ was the best part. Testifying of Him is something I could do everyday. I love my Savior. Without fail, every year these traditions and celebrations change me. Teaching my children and studying His life has CHANGED ME. I bought a shirt from the new TV series "The Chosen" and it says "I was one way, and now I am completely different, and the thing that happened in between was HIM." I love it so much. And even better, the words form a cross on the shirt. I am so grateful for Easter. 

We started our normal Holy Week traditions with Palm Sunday, acting out the arrival in Jerusalem. And making sugar cube temples on Monday, talking about him cleansing the temple. On Tuesday we made our clay temples and talked about different parables he taught. I liked that in the morning we read scriptures and had more of a formal lesson on the topics for that day, then in the evening we did the fun activities. However, on Thursday morning when we were reading about the Last Supper, I brought out a little tub of water and a sugar scrub and took turns washing all of the kids' feet. That was something new I've never done before. That night we had invited Reddin and Karen's family and Brendon and Carrie's families over for our Passover dinner. I had taught the older kids' Prenda class that day and was completely exhausted. It was about 3 hours before everyone was supposed to show up when Tanner started throwing up. Tons. He didn't stop for at least 6 hours. Every 15-20 minutes or so he'd start puking again. It was awful. The poor boy. So everything got canceled. In a way, I was almost relieved. I was so tired. Not that sick kids is much of a break, but not hosting a huge dinner was. I forget the details of it all, but it spread through the whole family. Christopher's kids had it first and had been puking earlier in the week. I tried to keep Tanner away but he was around them at my mom's house while she was watching him while I taught. Then Marcie's kids caught it too. It was a nasty, very contagious bug. I'm writing this months later so I can't remember the exact details but basically, Collin, Olive and Travis got it over the weekend and were extremely sick on Sunday, And then Weston caught it last on Monday, but wasn't quite as bad off as the others. I was the only one who didn't get it. Thank the heavens. Tanner was sick the longest. From Thursday til Sunday night. The other ones were more like a day and a half. But it sure put a damper on Easter Sunday. We stayed home all day and sort of watched Conference. Tending to all the sickies didn't leave me much time or energy to watch. I tried to pull together something of an Easter dinner for Weston, Tanner and I. It was all very sad. Especially not being with our extended family that evening. But I will say, spreading the Easter activities out over the next couple of weeks was amazing! I didn't feel rushed or overwhelmed. We just did them as they fit into our schedule and it was so enjoyable. We had our Passover dinner with just our little family and we went to the cemetery the following Sunday and had our final devotional. It was so nice to spread the Easter love out. My heart was so full for all of it. 

One of the saddest days of my LIFE will be when I no longer have a preschooler greeting me in bunny ears!! I DIED. He is the cutest thing ever ever ever. 

My egg tree makes me HOPPY!!

Resurrection Rolls! 

We gave bags of crescent rolls and marshmallows out to everyone we minister to, plus friends. I also loved reading Emily Belle Freeman and Dave Butler's new book, "The Unexpected Deliverer" and gave several copies of that away. I wish I had hundreds of dollars to buy all the inspirational books and CD's to give to everyone I know! There is SO much out there! My goal this year is to organize all our activities and traditions into a book of sorts, that I can give out. Just call me the Easter Bunny.