Happy Easter

My irises are blooming, and so are my azaleas. I have a few lily of the valley flowering, and some other perennial with little white bell shaped flowers blooming right now. Sweet husband checked the lawn mower for maintenance for me and then decided to go ahead and mow the front yard. How sweet! My daffodils are all finished. The 4 purple tulips the girls planted in their planter are blooming. I have a climbing rose bush (I think that is what it is....I usually call it my wild rose bush since there is no trellis and it looks wild and bushy no matter how I have tried to shape it) that is getting ready to bloom with dark pink fragrant blooms. I got most of my leaves raked up and whatever is left will probably get mulched into the grass when it is mowed. I know people usually rake their leaves in the fall, but sometimes I get it done, and sometimes I don't. I just try to uncover all the little budding perennials after the frost so they have a chance to bloom. At this point it doesn't look like the blue irises I planted in the fall will bloom this year, but I will wait and see. Maybe they will bloom late. Husband mowed over the little sprouting green leaves of the black-eyed susans that bloom in July and August. I hope they will still bloom, but if not, they will bloom next year.

My husband's brother said he would pick us up so we could go to church for Easter. The mechanic gave me a tentative Monday finish date on the van, so we will wait and see.

Yesterday the girls and I spent a lot of time outside, and then spent the afternoon watching movies. Outside they were fascinated with following a fuzzy caterpillar wherever he went.
We watched the older versions of Freaky Friday, Pollyanna, and the Parent Trap on the Hallmark channel. I know children are only supposed to watch 2 hrs of television a day, but it nvere hrut me :) . I was the valedictorian of my class so I guess I survived it, and they will too. We talked to Grandma (motherkitty) on the phone, and she has Hallmark on her satellite, so she "watched" Pollyanna with us. Check out my dad's blog for more updates.

Yesterday, the girls were not interested in making easter eggs, so we didn't do it. I was a little surprised, but we had a fun day, though not much in the house got done. I haven't even got all the suitcases unpacked from when we got home last Wednesday. They are still piled up on the couch right inside my front door.

Despite all of this, my mind keeps going back in time, trying to imagine what it was like for Jesus and his friends. What it was like for them to have that last Passover meal together. What it was like for Jesus to pray, asking if there was any other way, knowing his friends were falling asleep on him. What it was like to be captured and treated poorly, knowing you have done no crime. I have tried to imagine the pain of the cross, and cannot. I try to imagine the feelings of those who thought Jesus thinking he was God was the most terrible blasphemy of all.

I know it must seem crazy to claim you are God's son, let yourself be killed for this cause. I must seem even crazier because I believe that it is true. I believe that Jesus, whose earthly parents were Mary and Joseph, was God's son from heaven, and that after he became alive again, he went back to heaven. He is getting ready for us, He is praying for us, and preparing places for us to live. God knew that Jesus was only one person, and could not physically be with every single person, so when he left the earth, God sent the Holy Spirit to us, to comfort us and remind us of Jesus and to teach us, and to be with us in ways that Jesus, all by himself, couldn't do. You may say I am crazy, but I am glad there was a cross and a resurrection from the dead. It gives me hope.