Random Thoughts and Pictures

I’ve been feeling very behind lately.  Last week was one of those weeks where I just don’t know where it went!  Well, I know we did do a lot. 

On Sunday (April 1) we had the extended family over to celebrate my son’s 5th birthday.

On Tuesday we went to a new portrait studio to have pictures taken.  We got some good shots, too!  On Wednesday we went to the Kohl Children’s Museum.  If you are ever in the Chicago area, I highly recommend it!  We had a great time.  Many of the exhibits are in somewhat closed rooms, so I just posted myself at the entrance and let the 4 older ones roam and play.  (I had the baby in a front carrier.)  When we got into some bigger areas, I got a bit nervous that I was going to lose one of them.  So, I had to limit where they played somewhat.  But they had a blast.

On Thursday we had our Small Group over.  We have had so many difficulties lately in the lives of many of our members that we decided to spend the whole time sharing our needs and praying.  It was a beautiful time.  Many of the people in our group have problems with their adult children (divorce, prison, drugs, alcoholism, eating disorders, etc.).  It makes me want to try even harder to do the right things with my kids and pray that they will follow the Lord in everything.

On Friday our family celebrated a Passover Seder.  I have a great book called Celebrate the Feasts (Of the Old Testament in Your Own Home or Church) by Martha Zimmerman.  So, I made the preparations and we did it!  I have to tell you that some of it was quite humorous.  I couldn’t find a lamb shank bone at our local grocery store, so I just drew one on a piece of paper.  Thirty seconds after starting my 3 yo daughter announced she had to go potty.  The baby and 2 yo were fussy almost the whole time (I stood during most of it jiggling the baby.)  And almost at the end my 5 yo fell over backwards in his chair!  But it was a beautiful time, too.  We saw so much symbolism in this incredible celebration.  Jesus truly is the Passover Lamb who was the ultimate sacrifice for our sins.  I loved seeing how he celebrated this same way during the Last Supper.  He held up matzoh, pierced and striped and unleavened, just like his body would later be pierced with the nails and sword and striped with the whips.  And, of course, he was without sin (which is what the leaven symbolizes.)  Next year, I think my husband and I will rewrite the “script” in a way that our younger children can better follow.  My 6 yo son loved it, though.  He is such an incredible reader all of a sudden, so he followed right along in the readings.  And he loved getting to use my nice crystal glasses!

On Sunday we celebrated Easter at a wonderful service at our church.  Later in the day we went over to my husband’s brother’s house.  The kids had an egg hunt (always fun!)

As I said earlier, my 6 yo is a great reader all of a sudden.  It’s so much fun to see him pick up any book and just read it.  He saw a book yesterday where a frog on the front was wearing a shirt that says, “I love to jog.”  He said, “Mom, this frog likes to jog as much as I like to read!”

Oh, and by the way, it snowed 5 inches today!  Ugh.  My baby turned 6 months old today.  And I remember that it snowed the day after he was born.  That’s 6 months of snow–too much!  I’m hoping for Spring to come soon!

Here are a couple of pictures from my daughter’s 2nd birthday.  We had to hold her hands back so she wouldn’t touch the candles.

My husband took our boys on a maple syrup hike a couple of weeks ago.