I would be hard-pressed to tell you my favorite part of this day, so I'll start with the parts that were not my favorites:
1. Natalie waking with a slight fever and then getting something in her eye/scratching her eyeball early this morning. Easygoing Nat has been a crank today - with good reason - a whole lot of tears have fallen from those eyes today.
2. The seemingly inevitable pre-church rush during which we all get testy with one another because we love each other dammit and we need to get out the door NOW so that we can enjoy church! Or is that just our family? I totally thought I was ahead of the curve today with the kids' clothes ready to go and us being up early. But no. Wyatt + early dose of Easter candy = crazy boy who gets in trouble while Mommy & Daddy are trying to get ready. Add in previously mentioned cranky baby and you've got yourself a winner.
3. Attending a church service where Christ the Lord is Risen Today was not sung and the phrases, "He is risen, He is risen indeed" were not spoken. To me, the omission of those two items equals Easter FAIL. How can we possibly be celebrating the resurrection without those two?
Church was pretty much our low point. It's a stretch to say we attended - we were there in body but Natalie & Jeff spent 90% of the service in the narthex; Wyatt & I joined them for about 30% because some three-year-old faked me out with a faux gag and a panicky, "I need water!" With his poor track record in the gag category I decided it was best to not test him and we bolted. On the upside? Our diaper bag sat quietly through the whole service. It seems refreshed.
Luckily, the rest of the day was fantastic. My favorite parts:
1. Our weather is nothing short of perfect. Literally not a cloud in the sky, cool in the morning, upper 70's this afternoon, nice breeze. Perfect, I tell you.
2. The standard-issue ham dinner (ham, cheesy potatoes, green bean bundles, strawberry spinach salad, cheesecake) and some great friends with whom to share the bounty and it's good stuff.
3. Jeff started to say a blessing at lunch and Wyatt quickly took over. He mumbled a bit and then said something about "thanks for being raised from the dead and I love you" and that was it. Apparently he's retaining some of what he's being taught.
4. Sitting outside all afternoon, watching the kids play baseball, soccer, running, riding bikes, doing sidewalk chalk, etc. and just having a relaxing day. We don't sit down and enjoy often enough.
5. Watching Wyatt sprint all over the front yard, picking up eggs, shaking each one and getting excited because it has stuff inside!
6. Dinner = ham sandwich on homemade roll followed by chocolate peanut butter egg. Mmmmmm.
7. Thinking the dog was lost (technically, I guess she was since we left her outside for I don't know, about an hour?) but then discovering she was hanging with the neighbors while they drank their bloody marys. She was in good hands.
8. Wyatt running downstairs to give me one more hug and kiss while wearing the yellow Mickey Mouse t-shirt that was mine when I was a kid. He loves that shirt and I love that kid.
So by my tally, the good excessively outweighs the bad and that's about as much as we should hope for. I hope your Easter was great, too.
3 comments:
Well, our Easter church service was definitely a winner--with the "right" music (and LOTS of it) and a resounding "He is risen, He is risen indeed" to begin the service! Laura and Bob, however, blanched noticeably when Holly grabbed the mike during the children's sermon to respond to a question asked by the story teller. They were remembering when a preschool teacher was asking Holly's class to identify different fruits, and Holly was the only one who raised her hand when a lime was being shown. Her response. . ."Well, I don't know the name of it, but my dad puts them in his beer all the time!" So when she started her response this morning with "My dad. . ." I thought Laura was going to faint, and Bob was ready to bolt out the door. But it turned out she was only saying it was a good surprise when her dad picked her up from school one day! Anyway. . .glad the rest of your day turned out well, and hope Natalie's eye heals quickly. We had 14 here for Easter dinner on the patio, with some of the same things you had along with Pineapple Stuffing, Cranberry Salsa, a yummy broccoli salad and the scent of orange blossoms in the air! I LOVE Easter! And glad the diaper bag got "refreshed" at least! Love to all 4 of you!
Great recap of the day. Sorry your church service fell a little flat--wish I could have bottled the music at Plymouth and sent it your way--the chancel choir, the brass choir, the handbell choir, the children's choir all performing the right music complete to the Hallelujah chorus and the postlude of "Toccata from Symphony No. 5" by organ and brass choir. But a different twist for us was Mary Magdalene (didn't recognize her-must have been a theatre major from KU!) rushing in from the back during the children's sermon to breathlessly tell (shriek??) the whole story of finding the empty tomb. Those kids were wide-eyed, and she sure had Thomas CLINGING to his older brother. And you're right, the left-over ham sandwiches are a highlight of Easter dinner.
It's good the diaper bag had time to reflect. Just think, next year Thomas can cling to Wyatt when Mary Magdalene arrives.
Post a Comment