Holy Week: Otherwise Known as My Favorite Week of the Year

Today marks the beginning of, what has become, my favorite week of the year. I've always loved the celebration of Easter but since I started observing Lent on my own, and then later on with our family, the joy of the Resurrection has become that much greater for me. For five weeks now, we have prepared, waited and watched for the resurrection of Our Lord. It has been a colder and frostier winter than usual for our part of the country. We're tired........wearied by the cold. On the calendar, spring arrived over a week ago. In our hearts, a new season is about to dawn. We can all sense it coming and the excitement is building.

This year, especially, the anticipation feels very great and very emotional to me. Maybe it's because I was confined to the couch a year ago and had to experience it all in stillness from home.

This morning at church, all the crosses were shrouded in preparation for the observances of this week. It was unsettling not to have those crosses as visual reminders of our redemption. I felt uncomfortable, almost vulnerable. And I thought of all those who, everyday, live without the hope of the cross in their lives.

My prayer, at this sacred time of year, is that the hope of Jesus's blood poured out for you and me will be experienced in a powerful way in our hearts.

Last year, I posted some links for observances of Stations of the Cross. I heard from friends who were blessed by those links so I'm posting them again this year.

Stations of the Cross

The Cross as a Journey: Stations of the Cross for Protestant Worship

Lord Jesus, come in glory!

Whose Kids are They Anyway???

Spoken robustly by one of the girls during a family vacation-planning discussion at lunchtime today:

"I'd rather go camping than to the beach!"

Huh?! Anyone that knows me well can appreciate the humor of this situation. I think I have my very good friend Susan and her husband "Eagle Scout Jim" to thank for this.

Guess I'd better go dig out my sleeping bag and bug repellant. ;-)

Happy, Happy Birthday Eliza!

Sweet Eliza, I polled Daddy and your sisters this morning about words that describe you. Here's what they came up with. I couldn't agree more. You are a delight to have as a daughter, student, kitchen helper, cuddler, and more!

We love you!

Mom

Entertaining,

Spunky,

Competitive,

Silly,

Eager,

Willing,

Crazy,

Ambitious,

Curious,

Cheerful

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Hi, everyone. This is Marina and Olivia. Mom knows that we're posting right now but doesn't know what we're posting about.

Mom is 42 today.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!

We love you!

New Page on our blog....

This is Juliette.

I wanted you to know about the new page we have put on our blog. You can get to it by clicking "Duct Tape Designers" in the right side bar.