royal fun

somehow i knew our daughter wouldn't make it up at 5 am to watch

{i didn't either}

but i had a royal wedding favor ready for her when she did stumble downstairs this morning

and it made our grumpy-morning-girl give up a royal giggle

been busy with this growing up girlie...


{does this camera rock or what?}

really does seem like last week she was crying her eyes out in preschool...

daddy had to sit with her for 3 weeks (a first for the school) until she could manage the 2.5 hours without sobs

{looking back, she IS young for her class...what were we thinking?!}

i made the invitations and sent them out

of course, at last count "78 facebook friends are coming, mom"

but we're having italian...which can stretch if need be

the more the merrier


to celebrate that cap and gown day


after all, life's big moments are meant to be shared

hosanna

worthy is the lamb

happy easter

xoxo

w o r d

so my "had to have it" this holy week seems appropriate

isn't this just the most adorable Bible ever?

truth be told, i bought several for graduation gifts

but sometimes, you open that box and you just have to gift yourself

turns out i love the inside, too...good size font for my aging eyes

good contrast between page color and font color

{am i the only one who notices this stuff?}

lays flat...lightweight (for traveling to the last frontier...we are limited to 40 pounds each)...and the words of Christ in red (love that)

now the important part...using it daily!

i must admit i'm lazy...but there's nothing like the WORD to fill me up, satisfy, comfort, direct, correct, remind...it's a gift, alright!

and here in the USA we can buy all the bibles we want!  not so in many places in the world

my prayer is that before long, its pages are dog-eared and worn from use

may it be so!

Holy Week

google image


sometimes studying the Bible is just a wild, exciting ride for me


friday afternoon i was blown away by the following information...and because i am a total "light girl" (ever since i can remember i've turned on all the lights in a house, opened drapes, lit candles), i was simply ah-mazed at God

during the feast of tabernacles (also called booths), jews would set up temporary homes on the jerusalem hillsides

this would have been their third pilgrimage of the year to jerusalem and it was a trip to acknowledge the harvests and God's provisions during the jews' 40 year wilderness trip in the desert


jesus would have made this trip every year with his family


how odd that along with the thousands of other pilgrims the savior himself would have chanted H O S A N N A! (meaning "save, please")

you can imagine what the jerusalem hillsides must have looked like at night with all those shelters being lit by lamps...breathtaking!

another feature of the feast was illumination of the temple. the pilgrims who came to the temple would bring lights and torches. further, the golden lamps stands would also be lighted illuminating the temple. this, too, prophetically looked forward to the coming of the Messiah. (bibletruth.org)

at the end of this joy-filled feast, tents and shelters would come down as people began the long trips back home. the huge menorah, kept burning by young priests climbing ladders to replenish the oil, would be extinguished

little by little, the once blazing hillsides would become darker and darker

i suppose it would have been a real downer to have had made the long journey on foot and experienced an amazing time of fellowship and thanksgiving...laughter and joy...good food and wine...visiting with people you love --

only to have it end all too soon and have to begin the exhausting trip back home

the increasingly darker hillside (like taking down the Christmas lights) as people left must have been a depressing sight indeed

and so it is amazing to find out that one of jesus' most familiar statements was actually spoken at this very time of let-down...such powerful and personal meaning must have hung from each word he spoke

"when Jesus spoke again to the people [at the end of the feast of booths], he said i am the LIGHT of the world. whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."


1. He understood their feelings of sadness that such a joyful time was ending


2. And He let them know Messiah had come...it.was.HIM

it was palm sunday yesterday...always a bittersweet service for me, knowing what's around the corner. the murder of pure and good Light.

this year, hosanna will have a different meaning because of what i've learned about the feast of booths

Holy week gets darker and darker...


but then...


EASTER LIGHT

would you take 50?

our son looked at me standing in the lady's driveway and said

"you have to have it, huh?"

do you know the brown eyed fox?

oh, you just M U S T grab your pocketbook and head right over if you haven't met!

carissa started a tuesday post series titled

had to have it . . . tuesday

since i LOVE carissa's taste in all things decor (and the angles she shoots her treasures), i am loving tuesdays at the fox den

i asked carissa if i could join her and she said "sure-shootin'! go for it! that would be fun!" 

{ok, she didn't really say sure-shootin'}

so here is my "had to have it...tuesday"

my antique settee i snagged at a garage sale for 50 bucks

our 15 year old man-child likes to lay on it with the iPad and rest his head on the wooden arm...

our dog knocks it over if he stands up on two legs to look out the window...

i could have saved for a big comfy couch

but i love my little settee...i just had to have it

simple gifts

i shared some sunshine with my neighbor as the moon peeked through the trees last night

{giving can be so simple, really}

plucked a stem of yellow from my grocery store bouquet 

took a water bottle out of the recycling bucket

and 

delivered 

the 

sun

It is more blessed to give than to receive 

-jesus

mmmmmmm....

oh. my. goodness. gracious.

i've been baking homemade brownies since a glamorous flight attendant friend gave me her recipe when i was a career girl living near dc

but, dear Lord, someone on our AK team made these brownies for us 

and i nearly heard angels singing when i took my first bite

{they're best after totally cooling}

i've named them "heaven's brownies" 

although now that i think of it, they made me think of L O V E when i first tasted them (notice my "xoxo" on the recipe card)

is that weird?  ahhh, i suppose not if you're italian, like me

food is love. love is food.

so consider this {below} my little love letter to you