Eggs, Tornados, and an Empty Tomb

We have so much to be thankful for!

A band of storms came through our little town this past Friday, and a total of 7 tornados touched down with one of them doing significant damage to many homes and businesses in our community. You hear of devastating, natural disasters on t.v. and the radio, and you feel bad for people, but it never really has the impact that it probably should until it hits close to home. We thankfully had very little damage to our home or yard, but hundreds of people in our area were not so fortunate. And, can I just brag on our church for a second...there was a disaster relief team of volunteers on site within an hour of the tornados hitting, and many more went out all day Saturday to love on people and try to help with the clean up. So refreshing to see the "church" being the "church."

Ryan and I watched the Passion of the Christ for the first time on Saturday night. I know. I know. How can we not have seen it yet? It originally came out in the theaters during a very dark time in our lives, and we chose not to watch it at that point, and then somehow have just never watched it since. We borrowed the dvd from some friends a few weeks back and then finally sat down to watch it on Saturday night. My heart had been heavy with the meaning of Easter and it's impact on our lives since early in the week last week. Going into "Good Friday" my heart and mind were heavy with the idea that the day represented the day that my Savior was beaten, tortured, and crucified to a cross for MY sins. So, I knew that it was definitely not going to be a "feel good" watch. And boy was I right. I had said to myself from the beginning that I will not turn away, I will force myself to watch every second of it. And I am not going to lie, I couldn't. The beating and torture was truly awful to watch, but what haunts me even now is the point where the Father turns His back on the Son. Why? Because He could not look upon the sin that had been laid on the sacrifice--His Son Jesus. What sin? MY SIN. God, who knew no sin was made sin for me. Ridiculously undeserving, sinful me. I was truly broken. The weight of my sin was upon me. Heavy. Sickening. Disgusting. Father, forgive me! It was difficult but needed. "Oh praise The One who paid my debt, and raised this life up from the dead!"

Before the movie we had a little egg coloring extravaganza with the P and M. Here are a few pics of our artists...





















The pic with Mason reaching and his Daddy pulling his arm back is how the little guy spent most of the night. Bless him. They had a blast, and we will be eating hard boiled eggs for days to come.

Praise be to the Risen Lord!

M

Presidential Report and Dioramas

Our resident first grader has had a few school projects as of late. During January she had to do an oral report on a President of the United States.
Here is the first practice of her oral report for her President project. It is a VERY rough trial run, but it has some hysterical moments, so I had to post it. She actually got it down very well by the time she had to preform it at school and got a fantastic grade from her teacher--the highest in the class, in fact. We are a very humble people around here!


And then in February she was given a project on an influential African American. She had to do an oral report and create a diorama. And I know, if you are anything like me, you are saying a dio-what? But we consulted google and her Daddy and got to work.

Here are some pics of the finished project...


























Please note the choice of p.j.'s in the last picture--We are also a very stylish people around here!

Man, do I love this kid. She can sure make her Momma laugh!