Happy Easter, friends!

I hope your day is filled with the joy and hope that is ours because of Christ's triumph over death. Truly, this is the day that the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!

(Psalms 118:24)

(Isabel, five years old, lovin' on some Easter chicks)

Plans

I am a planner.

I love to make plans.

Vacation plans, house plans, gardening plans...I love 'em all. Making lists, gathering supplies, getting organized; I am in my happy place when I am in charge of planning.

Having kids made planning an essential part of my everyday life. There's so much to plan each and every morning: meals, school projects, volunteering, after-school activities...the list goes on and on. I love it; truly, I do.

When I'm making these little plans, I usually don't involve God. I feel like He's probably way too busy to concern Himself with whether Isabel should take another art class, or I should volunteer to drive Gabe's preschool class to the zoo. Seriously, I think I can handle the small stuff.

It's when the big stuff comes up that I turn to Him. Last summer, when I had decided to try for a new position at work, I totally put the plans in His hands. I can't say I wasn't disappointed when His plan involved me NOT getting the job, but I did trust His decision (after a few minutes of discussing it with Him...)

Turns out I was right to trust Him. I stayed in the SICU, I helped certain patients that I think I was meant to help, and I have landed a dream job.

On Tuesday morning, the nurse recruiter at my hospital called me with good news. I was chosen to be the new nursing supervisor, helping to replace one of the current supervisors who is retiring.

What does this mean for me?

More money. Same hours (20/week). Back to evening/night shifts, which I love. No more poop clean-up. No more lifting 500-plus pound patients, breaking my back and who knows what else. Did I mention more money? Oh, and a bit more responsibility. To be chosen for this job is a dream come true; please excuse me while I float on cloud nine for a few minutes...

Okay, I'm back.

Tonight, Joe took me out to dinner to celebrate while Kay watched the kids. We had a great date, and it felt so nice to bask in the pride that Joe feels for me. I graduated nursing school fifteen years ago, and this feels like a culmination of all the experience I have gained over that time. I've been so content to be the one cheering for everyone else's accomplishments in my family...it's fun to be the one being cheered on, even it's just for a moment.

God proves Himself to be a loving, faithful god over and over again. Maybe I will start giving over my daily plans to Him; clearly, He's good at His job :)

(Don't worry, Michelle; you'll have a new source of gross hospital stories soon...right, Danielle?)

Oh, those two little words!

Day Two of spring break.

Isabel has finished reading Twilight.

Elijah has played Runescape and PS2 and Wii to his heart's content.

Gabe has crashed and revved up every Hot Wheel he owns.

It's too cold and wet to play outside for more than five minutes.

Joe and I are trying to redecorate our living room and have spent all day priming the walls.

Guess what two words I've heard all afternoon...






"I'm bored..." (in a very whiny tone of voice).

"There's nothing to do around here" is another one.

I swear, the next kid to utter those words is gonna be scrubbing the toilets. (I'm not kidding.)

How old are we, anyway?

What do you get when you mix two pitchers of pomegranate martinis,



a newly released DVD full of teenaged angst and rock-hard marble vampires (ahem),

and a group of thirty-something women (three Twilight virgins, one Twilight newbie, two newly-addicted Twi-moms and one Twilight expert)?

You get a night filled with eating, drinking, giggling and sighing, sharing personal stories of teenage angst and first loves.

If your names are Heather and Monica, you get a hell of a hangover, the likes of which haven't been seen since high school.

If your name is Jenni, you have a "little headache", which you cure with an eight mile run at 8am the next day. (Lovingly I say to you, you suck!)

Now we are counting down the days to New Moon (November 20th, mark it on your calendar)... Even if Lula fails on her mission of "fasting and praying for a better New Moon", we will all still have a great time that night; of this, I am certain.

Now, where did I put that Excedrin?

(p.s. I found the recipe for pomegranate martinis on foodnetwork.com. They were delicious. However, my hangover cured me forever of wanting this particular drink. Looks like I'm sticking with Mike's Hard...((that's what she said)).)

Finding Spring!

On a breezy March day, Gabe and I set off on an "avenchur" to find spring.

The sun is shining, the robins have returned, the tulips are poking up...does that mean spring is here? Gabe was not convinced, so off we went, through our neighborhood and up the hill...


to a nearby subdivision that has not one, but two, playgrounds to explore. Along the way, Gabe demanded that I photograph each clover and dandelion, every pear and weeping cherry tree in bloom (I won't bore y'all with each one of those pics, though).

The walk was long, and Gabe needed to take a rest on the swing.


Quickly restored, we walked on to the second playground, where Gabe climbed and slid and swang (swinged, swung?) to his heart's content.

After looking high and low, Gabe finally decided we found spring, after all. Hooray!

Spring in our area means ducks and worms and fish (and lots of duck poop). And you know he wouldn't rest until we saw some of that...

Gabe is such a good sport, he even took off his jacket (despite the chilly breeze) and let me take his picture for his senior (preschool) portrait:

The joy of "finding spring" through Gabe's eyes is an experience I won't soon forget.

Truly an "avenchur" worth taking!

BBS

aka "Blog Bible Study".

Once again, my big sis, Michelle, beat me to the punch. Why on earth I can't keep two little dates (1st and 15th) in my head is beyond me...

After reading through several verses, this is the one that struck me today:

"Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ."

Galatians 1:10

My concordance explains this verse as such:

"Do you spend your life trying to please everybody? Whose approval are you seeking--others' or God's? Pray for the courage to seek God's approval above anyone else's."

Life Application Study Bible, NIV

Talk about feeling convicted. Too often I feel that I am indeed trying to please everybody...my kids, my husband, my friends, my co-workers, my boss. God is not usually at the top of that list, where He clearly belongs. Something to work on.

Anybody else feel that way?

Call me crazy...

but I've decided to make some changes in my life.

Set new priorities.

Give certain things up.

Like coffee.

and Coke.

Maybe even (gasp) Mike's Hard Lemonade.

And with spring upon us, and all the yardwork to be done, not to mention baseball and running and other outdoor activities, I've also decided to give up blogging.

I don't come to this decision lightly.

I've given it a lot of thought.

But I think it's the right thing to do.

I'll miss you all.

Happy April Fool's Day!

Did I fool anybody?