Luke 24- New American Standard Bible (NASB)

The Resurrection

24 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. ² And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³ but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴ While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing; ⁵ and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living One among the dead? ⁶ He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, ⁷ saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.” ⁸ And they remembered His words, ⁹ and returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. ¹⁰ Now they were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James; also the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles. ¹¹ But these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them. ¹² But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he *saw the linen wrappings only; and he went away to his home, marveling at what had happened.

Happy Easter. He is Risen. He is Risen Indeed!!

We have just returned from a whirlwind trip to my parents’ house. We wanted to be home for Easter, so the visit was short. Hopefully we can do a longer visit sometime soon. The kids enjoyed the walk we took this afternoon in a field that was covered in dandelions as far as the eye could see. They’ve been grabbing every dandelion puff in sight for the past few weeks, so you can only imagine how large their eyes got when they saw ALL those puffs to pick! They were in dandelion heaven! (Shh… don’t tell them they are weeds!)

Then we celebrated Big E’s birthday with a few presents and cupcakes and then headed home. It was a lovely visit, but as I said, too short!

The last two nights Big E has had nightmares, or perhaps night terrors. I lean towards the latter because he is very difficult to wake up and has no recollection of what has transpired. This evening he was very agitated, getting up in his bed, twitching, calling for Baby E, soaked in sweat, etc. The whole episode lasted about five minutes before he finally came out of it. He looked at Tim and nodded back to sleep…

I’m praying he’s done for the evening and gets a good night’s sleep! 

My house is incredibly silent this evening. My husband is still at work and all three of our children are visiting their grandparents. I’ve watched some television, I made myself dinner, and I put together the kids’ Easter baskets. Next I’ll fold some laundry and make my way to bed. What a quiet, uneventful evening. 🙂

This is a rare sight… Baby E voluntarily letting his sister cuddle with him. Baby E likes to cuddle, but on his terms only. C likes to cuddle a lot and often tries to force the situation, which inevitably ends in Baby E screaming and C having her feelings hurt. So imagine her delight when Baby E invited her to cuddle with him in his bed this evening. That was one happy girl. 🙂

“Don’t panic,” I whispered to myself when I saw the eight legs attached to the grotesquely large spider standing between me and the outside. I had just brought Big E in to use the bathroom when I turned around and saw it. “Darn it, I’m the adult here. I can’t freak out.” Guys, this spider was huge. Really, really large. He stared me down with all of his eyes while I stared him down with the only two I have. I had to think fast, Big E would be finished in a moment and there’s no way that this thing could still be here. I grabbed the closest thing I could find, C’s sandal she left lying in the entry way. Naturally I should have struck a fatal blow, but my squeamishness and fear rendered me temporarily useless, and the tossing of the sandal towards the beast did little, but make it angry. It lunged forward, past the shoe and straight towards me. I screamed. Big E screamed. We both screamed in unison. I found my tennis shoe next, and with all the courage I could muster I slammed the shoe on top of the moving target. Dead. Splattered. Legs strewn across my floor. And there his carcass would remain until my husband came home… OR SO I THOUGHT.

Upon returning from the beach this evening, having totally forgotten about the dead creature that lay within our walls, I told the kids to put away their shoes. As I entered the house, I realized my error too late. I looked down, but there was no spider. “Where did he go?” Surely the children would have screamed in horror had their bare feet come in contact with it. Surely I would have known. But they stared up at my confusion with innocent ignorance. No, they did not step on it. What happened? I scoured the entry way only to find him, well, most of him… On Big E’s back pack. More specifically smeared along the closed zipper of his bag, legs pointing here and there, spider entrails hidden in shadows.

And that, my dear friends, is where he will remain until my husband comes home.

The End.

I slipped into bed around midnight last night. Tim had misplaced his phone and we had spent a few hours tearing apart the house until at long last we figured out where it was. I set the alarm for 6:30, knowing I would be dreadfully tired when it went off. I, however, was not prepared for the five (count that, five) times I was woken up in the middle of the night. First Big E had problems with his blanket. Then C had an issue that I can’t even remember. Then Big E again. Then Baby E fell out of his bed. And then Molly kitty barged into our room. By the time alarm went off I had gotten precious little sleep. And so began my day.

I remember those early days of motherhood, when I lived off of no more than 2-3 hours of sleep in a row, going to work in such a tired stupor and doing it all again the next day. Except for the occasional all night sickness, our children have been sleeping quite well for the better part of a year. I had forgotten how draining those early days were until I crawled out of bed this morning and had to function!

This evening I was texting my sister in law when I had a momentary panic that I couldn’t find my phone. Yup, I’m that tired. Thankfully it was MOPS night, though, so I got a nice respite and a chance to see some of my wonderful mom friends. And surprisingly, my children were charming when I picked them up, brought them home, and got them to bed! And now I am heading there too!

C had a Daddy-daughter event with her American Heritage Girls Troop this evening. After she woke up from her nap, we spent some time picking out the perfect dress, doing her hair, finding some jewelry, and getting her ready for her date with her daddy. She couldn’t wait to show off her new dress to him. While we were waiting, we went outside and took a few photos. When he opened the door and saw her, his reaction was perfect and her response was priceless. She couldn’t wait for their evening to begin.

After they were gone, I decided to take the boys on a date as well. They wanted to go to the beach, so the beach it was!

What a wonderful day with so much sunshine and no sick kids! I’ve been waiting for months for this! 🙂

This is my tribe… well, part of it. These are the women that are journeying with me through the crazy and somewhat uncertain trenches of motherhood and beyond. Some of them are outgoing and some of them are quiet. Some have lots of kids, others only one or two. Some of them work outside their homes, some of them don’t. Some of them are my sisters-in-law, while some of them are not. But we share a common bond of Christ and motherhood- and that’s enough, because those two topics transcend any of our earthly differences. These are among the women I love, the women I pray for, and the women I try to encourage, and in turn they do the same for me.

My dear sister in law will be having her fourth child in a few short weeks, so we decided to take her out, to celebrate her and enjoy her company before a newborn baby consumes much of her time. It was good to laugh, good to smile, good to just be. There is great comfort in friendship, knowing these women are all traveling the same road, making some of the same mistakes, and rejoicing in the same victories. It’s good to know we aren’t alone.