Easter

We had a lovely Easter weekend! Zachary had one of his last few baseball games on Saturday morning, and then we were finally able to have our photo session with Corey Sewell that afternoon. We were supposed to do it a month ago, but it got rained out. We had beautiful weather this time though, & I can’t wait to see what she got! I could have done without the ½ inch splinter I got in the bottom of my foot. We were taking some family pictures on a wooden bridge (without shoes obviously). I went to stand up, and felt it go in. OUCH! It hurt so bad – pain was shooting up the side of my foot by the time we got home. We finally got it out, but it was not easy. I have never had such a big splinter in my life.

Sunday morning we went to church a little earlier than normal. We didn’t do the sunrise service or anything, but we went at 8:00 instead of 9:30. We decided to go back to 9:30 next year – there just weren’t that many people there, and I know that’s not what it’s about but it just didn’t feel the same. When we got home, the boys’ Easter baskets were waiting for them (we told them that morning that the Easter bunny only comes when you’re at church – he wants to make sure that you understand what Easter is really all about before he brings you treats…they totally bought it). So they enjoyed going through all of their stuff while we cooked brunch – monkey bread, sausage, and fruit…YUM!

While that was cooking, the boys watched a TV show while I went outside & hid all the eggs. After we ate, it was egg hunt time. This is the first time that it really got competitive. Before we started it was like holding racehorses back at the starting line – they were ready to go! They were practically knocking each other down for the eggs. And too bad for you if you dropped one out of your basket, because the other one was right there to snatch it up. It actually got kind of ugly a few times. I’m not sure why, but for the last few weeks, they have just gotten so competitive & argumentative. They will argue over the most stupid things (like whether Hiccup in “How to Train Your Dragon” says, “duh duh duh duh…we’re dead” or “duh duh duh…we’re dead” – see that? 3 “duh”s vs. 4…UGH!) Anyway, once all the eggs were found, they were fine, and I think it ended up pretty even somehow.

After naptime (my nap…not Liam’s, since he never fell asleep…so I took one instead) we headed over to my mom’s house for egg hunt #2 & dinner. They enjoyed the 2nd egg hunt because what was inside the eggs was different than at our house. Our eggs had small trinkets (like silly bands, rubber frogs, bouncy balls, etc.) and a few had snacks (marshmallows, bunny grahams, and jelly beans). My mom’s eggs had money – just coins, but they loved it just the same. After that we spent some time throwing acorns into the ponds where my mom lives. Good times.

It was a nice Easter. Although I did see something on facebook that I wasn’t sure what to make of it. It was posted by a neighbor – I don’t know her all that well, but she friended me, so I accepted. Anyway, she posted this on Saturday: “Went on a day trip to AL today. The highlights of the trip were passing a 100 year old synagogue in Anniston and 5 minutes later a man ‘nailed’ to a cross in front of a church.” I looked at her profile, and she is Jewish. Since I don’t know her very well, I wasn’t sure whether she just didn’t know what the purpose of that was or what. I chose not to comment, because I didn’t want to assume she was clueless if she really wasn’t. Anyway, someone asked her how she explained it to her kids, and she replied that they were engrossed in their DS’s, and that it was kind of “unexpected and scary”. It kind of took me off guard that she found the most holy day in the Christian faith to be "scary".  I think it was her choice of words that really struck me.  Obviously she doesn't understand, and in fact, I was kind of shocked at how many of her friends felt this was atrocious and barbaric…without really understanding why it is the way it is (someone even commented yesterday “I think the man is risen today?”…duhhhh).  I know that people are entitled to believe what they want to believe, but it would be nice if people just accepted that there are different beliefs, and there are reasons why people believe different things. And it would also be nice if people didn’t judge those beliefs – especially not openly on facebook, where you know that everyone you are “friends” with doesn’t believe what you believe.