Psalm 32:8-9
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you. (ESV)
Just a quick update: Marcus started doing "tracking chains". They help him with his phonemic awareness. He's caught on quite well, and when I see his success I'm encouraged at progress with his reading.
So, it's almost spring and Easter is Sunday. I love spring and I love the focus during this time of year...not the world's focus but at our church with the hymns and songs, and in our home. One of my favorite CD's is Cindy Morgan's The Loving Kind. It's a great CD to listen to around this time of year as the whole album is about the week before the crucifixtion and then on through the resurrection. It's a beautiful piece of work. If you can...listen to a copy of it this week and read the liner notes.
I'll be scrapbooking on Saturday with my friend Joy and her sister in law Chastity. I'm really looking forward to learning a lot from these girls who know a lot more about scrapbooking than I do. I think it will be a lot of fun.
When I get home on Saturday night, we will read with the kids, do our homemade version of resurrection eggs, and then color eggs with the kids. I will hopefully get Michael to sing "Up From the Grave He Arose" as he has done since he was a little guy of the age of two. (We have video!) We do these things every year and maybe I will even make scones and lemon curd for Easter morning breakfast. (Or I may buy lemon curd this year...I found it at the commissary) (grin)
Everyone got new Easter clothes this year. (except for me...so far) I always wait until the last minute. It surprises me all the time at the choices my boys make. They made some fun choices and will look sharp as we go to church on Sunday. I love that they love to dress up. It's fun. We went out for the trek for Easter clothes last Friday night...this is how it went....
Our excursion for Easter clothes this year all started on Friday night after our annual Lent trip to Sorintinos. We love their pizza but for some reason we usually only go there during Lent. It's because that they are usually less busy on Friday nights then, because all the Catholics are at the fish fry's all over town. But this year Sorintinos caught on and are now offering fish sandwiches and some other seafood choices, so I'm afraid to say it was still crowded but a good time was had by all!
Then we headed to Burlington Coat Factory. I don't shop there often, but we've had success there at Easter for several years. Marcus wanted a suit again this year. When Michael was his age he never wanted a suit, but I love that Marc wants to look like our Pastor, so again we got him a suit. Now, he had a certain color picked out and I will leave that as a surprise, but he'll be stylin'. Maddie started trying on dresses in the girl's deparment and this was our realization that we had to move to juniors. As soon as we walked into the juniors deparment, Mickey said, "Oh, when they get to this age, they wear a lot less clothing, huh?!" How true but how sad. He showed Maddie an article of clothing and commented about it being a nightie, and Maddie had to correct him and tell him it was a dress. Poor Mickey. However, Maddie knows all about modesty and has good guidelines for herself. She picked out a cute little number and we headed to Kohl's to take care of Mickey and Michael. I always get Michael and Mickey a new shirt and tie for Easter. This year, though, Michael got something extra and Mickey decided he needed a new pair of khakis. Mickey doesn't ask for new clothes very often, so when he mentions needing something I try to jump on it and buy it for him.
So I am left to buy for new clothes for Easter. I figure I'll go out on Thursday evening and do my annual CJ Banks trip. Maddie said she would accompany me. She is great about running back and forth and getting me different sizes. She's a good little matcher too. I showed her how to look at the color lots on the CJ Banks tags and she's become quite adept in helping out picking things and putting them together.
These traditions of Easter shopping are our own. When I grew up I always had a new dress for Easter but it was never store bought. My mother is a master at making clothes and she would sew all four of us girls new Easter dresses every year and managed to do so on a budget. These days material/pattern prices are sometimes outrageous, but my mom was always thinking ahead and bought things on sale and still had time to make everything. Back in those days, she would even make suits for my brothers as polyester was a big deal and everyone had polyester suits. I don't know how she had time for it all and was still able to be a good Pastor's wife to my dad and keep our house neat and clean. It still amazes me. I had some great Easter dresses too. Two of my favorites were a mint green peasant dress with an very pretty inset in the bodice. I loved that dress. Another was one Mom worked on even the day before Easter. Crunch time sewing is not fun for me, but Mom did that year and it was another blue/green patterned dress. It had swirls or a feathery pattern to it. I loved it. I don't know if our kids will remember their Easter outfits the way I remember mine. They are just store bought clothing, but I do hope they remember the fun we had while out shopping and eating out together as a family. We have a good time when we are together.
