Easter

I am enjoying the spring time weather.  We are seeing many flowering trees in bloom.  I also think it is fun to see tulips.  I also look forward to seeing lilacs in bloom and let my kids experience smelling them.  Things we didn’t get to see and do in Texas.  I am enjoying going for walks and Caleb likes all the play grounds around us. 

Last week end we had General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  It was wonderful to listen to our leaders and hear their messages on family.  Being separated from Neal at this time has had me thinking a lot about family and how important it is to have a mother and father in the home.  I have been reading “The Work and The Glory” series by Gerald Lund.  I am on the last volume now.  I realized that they went through many times of separation from families.  The men would serve missions or travel for work and be gone from their families for weeks or months at a time.  They didn’t have ways to keep in touch.  How thankful I am that I can call Neal every evening, see his face when we do FaceTime and even write emails.  We are able to stay connected.  How blessed we are to live at this time.  

Saturday I did some fun Easter activities with with kids.  Between the sessions of Conference we did an egg hunt in the back yard.  The kids filled the eggs with candy and I spread them around the back yard.  Then they gathered them up, getting a random supply of candy.  They loved it.  I also had Easter baskets for them with a few special treats. I hid them in the house and they had to find their baskets.  They enjoy that tradition too. I am glad we could do that together.  We missed going to the Waco 2^nd ward spring picnic and egg hunt and also participating in the elementary school picnic, games and egg hunt. I am glad we could do something together as a family here at the house.  

Then we did something new, colored eggs.  I think it was in 2009 when I colored eggs with Ruth, Andrew and Spencer.  They don’t remember it.  I remember the stress of it.  I had the dye out and then there was so much grabbing and dipping going on I was so worried that everything would break or spill.  It was a stressful enough event for me that I didn’t do it again.  This year the kids asked why we didn’t color eggs.  I told them about the last time I did it and they said they were older now.  I decided to give it a go.  They did great with it.  They all enjoyed seeing the eggs turn colors in the dye and experimented with different techniques I showed them.  It was actually fun and low stress.  I am glad we did it.  Now, I just need them to help me eat the eggs!

Easter Sunday was a beautiful day.  We got up and before breakfast I talked to the kids about Jesus Christ, we watched a little video from the LDS Bible video collection.  I bore my testimony of my knowledge that Christ lives and loves us.  It was a good way to start the day.  We also enjoyed watching conference again, at least I did.  The kids did pretty good at being quiet so I could hear.  We also liked that we could watch it on the TV, not the computer screen, because of our new set up.  Again, I am thankful for technology.

They found quiet spots to listen to conference.  Spencer enjoyed his so much he fell asleep and slept for over an hour.

While I was watching conference Andrew was trying to melt crayons.  He had some broken pieces that he had in the sun shine and they were getting soft, but not melting.  So he had the wise (or not so wise) idea to heat up the glue gun and touch the crayons with the hot tip.  It did melt the crayons, all over the glue gun.  Thankfully he did this bright idea in the bathroom and didn’t get any crayon on the carpet.  He did get in trouble when I found it and has been told he can’t use the glue gun for a long time.  I think he was sadder about loosing the glue gun than getting caught.  We still need to clean off the gun. Just another thing that keeps me busy, trying to keep up with what everyone is doing. 

Ruth's chalk art, she is getting good at it.  This was a pretty picture of flowers and trees she did.

 

Andrew's chalk art work.  He made a solar system, but not ours, complete with a "butterfly nebula" (in the center with yellow around it)

Monday evening we had our Family Home Evening night.  I was teaching the lesson this week.  We were looking at our family history.  My dad had told me about an audio recording of his grandma that was put on Family Tree.  The recording was made in 1948.  We listened to it.  It isn’t that clear but I could tell she had a beautiful voice.  We read some things about her and then I asked the kids why we needed to learn our family history.  I liked Andrew’s answer, he said “so when we go to heaven we will know who they are.”  I am thankful for that knowledge that we will see our family again after this life.  It will be wonderful to see them and know them there.

Yesterday I went to the library and Caleb enjoyed story time again.  He has really enjoyed going there this year.  I am glad that they have the preschool story time, without parents.  I think it has been a good thing for him to go without me.  Then in the evening I got an email saying a book Ruth has wanted for a couple of weeks, that we had on hold, is finally in.  So I will make a quick trip back to the library today.  This afternoon Caleb has a birthday party to go to for his friend Justin.  He is so excited about it.

I have been cleaning and going through things and trying to prepare myself to move again.  It is still overwhelming to me.  Like Spencer asked the other day “can we stay in Albuquerque for a long time?”  I hope so.