The Last Supper

Last night, was the Thursday before the crucifixion of Jesus and as such it is traditionally referred to as Maundy Thursday and is celebrated as the night that Jesus instituted the Last Supper. The Last Supper would have taken place during the Passover Seder meal - so we had our own "Last Supper" last night in the form of a Passover Seder (and yes I do know that last night was not Passover). We loved it so much and we are definitely going to make it a yearly tradition.

I hear often from people when I mention the things we are doing to diligently teach our children about Jesus that what we are doing takes way to much effort but we don't think so. The world has time to decorate with bright colors, bunnies and eggs. They buy candy and baskets and presents. They take the time to be with family and enjoy food. They dress up and take pictures and sometimes they even go to church on Easter. Of all the times to be able to celebrate (and I love a good celebration!) Easter is definitely one to go all out to impress upon the hearts of my children why we celebrate. Last night we celebrated and it was wonderful. We celebrated and praised our God who redeemed his people from Egypt and we celebrated the even bigger rescue of his people from sin with the death and resurrection of his Son Jesus.

Tonight on Good Friday we will reflect on the Crucifixion. Then bring on the celebration of the Resurrection! Bring on the colors and my kids would say the eggs and candy (and why not?)! Bring on the time with family and the good food (can you say fajitas with Granny?)! We probably won't dress up with boys why bother - they'd just ruin their clothes. Bring on the celebration with the church gathering at a park (pray it doesn't rain)! We will celebrate and it will be bigger and better than the worlds celebration because we understand the reason we celebrate - it is because He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

Passover Meal special elements (complete with frogs from the 10 plagues...).

Blessing to begin the meal.

Following Jesus' example of washing feet.

Reading the Passover story from Exodus.

My visuals for the 10 plagues.

 Plagues all over the table. 

 Flies, locust, frogs, hail, water to blood, death of livestock...

Poor Asher got boils.

Jude loved the lamb - this is before he knew it had to die.

Painting the doorframe with the Lambs blood.

Explaining the matzah.

A treat for finding the afikomen. 

Poor Asher still had boils.

Boys and the things they love

Boys are pretty great. They are easily and cheaply entertained (at least at this age). I think this has to do with the fact that most things boys love are free (with the exception of food, which can get pricy...Jude is only 4 and oftentimes I put as much food on his plate as Chad and he eats it all and sometimes wants more...). My boys can be entertained for hours with dirt and mud. Free though messy. Bugs and frogs, I mean "pets." Outside only please. Water. In spray bottles. In buckets. Out of the hose which helps make mud so it's a win win for the boys. 

So yesterday at granny's house the boys were very content because they got to do all the things they love. 

Birthday Celebrations

We had two birthday celebrations for Mr. Asher. The first was a joint birthday party for Justin (14) and Asher (1) at The Rainforest Cafe. The kids had never been there and they loved it. The second was at our house with homemade burgers, cupcakes (don't tell but I made them from spinach and avacado), and chocolate ice-cream (or really coconut milk cream...yum)! We had us some happy days!

1

Happy birthday Asher!

Asher,

Mommy loves you so much! Just like Leah in Genesis 30:13, I can say "happy am I! ...So she called his name Asher."

You are such a happy little guy. You have a great smile and a contagious laugh. You have to do everything your big brothers do. You walk you, you climb, and you play with so much happiness it is a joy to watch you. You love to make others laugh.

God said to Abram in Genesis 12:2, "I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing." Asher I pray that as you bring joy to others you will know that you are greatly blessed by God. 

Daddy and I chose the name Asher which means happy or blessed in hopes that God would use you to bless others and that you yourself would be blessed. I pray that Psalm 1 will give you a picture of what it looks like to be blessed or happy: 

"Blessed is the man
    who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
    nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
 but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and on his law he meditates day and night.

 He is like a tree
    planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
    and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
 The wicked are not so,
    but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
    nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked will perish."

We chose to give you the name David as your middle name. David in honor of your Pops, David. And David after the David in the Bible about whom God says in Acts 13:22, "I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will." It is my prayer for you that you would become a man after God's own heart and do his will. 

I love you so much baby, happy birthday!

Garden Boxes

Gardening is turning out to be quite a good bit of work. Yesterday we built some raised beds. It sounds simple and I suppose it was but it was a lot of work. 

Plants need a couple of things to grow: soil, sun and water. In our yard the most sunny place is the side of the house, evidence for this is the best grass in our yard. But to place the beds the grass had to go. We didn't want to waste the grass though so I dug it up and transplanted it to sections in the yard that were lacking grass. I am so sore :) added to digging and carrying grass I also helped carry the 40lb bags of soil from the truck to the back yard. Did I mention I'm sore?

Chad built the beds and we placed them in the area I dug up grass and we filled them with soil. We have 3 4'x4' boxes but intended to build one more. I figure if we are going to garden might as well go full out :)

Soon I will be planting my seedlings in their new home!!!

Chocolate on the side

We eat clean around our house and so avoid added sugar. One thing we switched to was plain ful fat Greek yogurt instead of your normal full of sugar variety. Though it's not quite as yummy to kids so I entice them to eat by sprinkling the yogurt with a couple of chocolate chips. Funny things said as a result of our choice:

One day I bought some flavored Greek yogurt that was on clearance -
Jude: "can I have some more of that good yogurt, the one with sugar that's not good for me?"

This morning:
Shiloh: "is there chocolate?"
Me: "yes."
Shiloh: "is there yogurt?"
Me: "yes."
Shiloh: "can I have my chocolate in the side?"

Bwhahhahaha! No he can not have chocolate on the side the whole point of the chocolate is to entice him to eat the yogurt.