Easter Thoughts

It's Easter.

Here are a couple of my thoughts.  Videos speak to me:



One of my favorite hymns say it better than I ever could:

Behold the Great Redeemer Die (Hymn #191)

Behold the Great Redeemer die, 
A broken law to satisfy.
He dies a sacrifice for sin,
He dies a sacrifice for sin,
That man may live and glory win.

While guilty men his pains deride,
They pierce his hands and feet and side.
And with insulting scoffs and scorns,
And with insulting scoffs and scorns,
They crown his head with plaited thorns.

Although in agony he hung,
No murmuring words escaped his tongue.
His high commission to fulfill,
His high commission to fulfill,
He magnified his fathers will.

Father from me remove this cup,
Yet if thou wilt I'll drink it up.
I've done the work thou gavest me,
I've done the work thou gavest me,
Receive my spirit unto thee.

He died and at the awful sight,
The sun in shame withdrew it's light!
Earth trembled, and all nature sighed,
Earth trembled, and all nature sighed,
In dread response, "A God has died!"

He lives--He lives. We humbly now,
Around these sacred symbols bow,
And seek, as Saints of Latter Days,
And seek, as Saints of Latter Days,
To do his will and live his praise.

What a beautiful blessing to have a Savior who willingly died for us. 
I know He lives.
I know He died for me.
I know He is my elder brother and He loves me.
What a beautiful blessing this is.
 Have a wonderful Easter season.

Cheers

10 Things

Did you know this weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving?

I am Canadian...so this is my weekend to remember what I am thankful for.

To celebrate I would like to tell you 10 things I am thankful for.  (because it is on the 10th)

1.  My Membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

2.  Being sealed for time and all eternity to my family. 

3.  My DH.  I am blessed to have a husband that loves and understands me in all my quirks.

4.  My boys.  I have three amazing young men and they make me proud each and everyday.

5.  The fact that I have clean water, plentiful food, and a safe place to live.

6.  The free country that I live in. 

7.  Wonderful friends and extended family.  I am blessed to make new friends and have friends that have been around for a long time.  I have a wonderful extended family that loves and supports me and my family.

8.  Free Agency.

9.  The Scripture we are blessed with, both the standard works, and the new truths we are blessed to receive as we read, listen and pray.

10.  Our Savior.  He lived and died for us. 

What a blessing to be living at this time.  I am so blessed.

What are you thankful for at this time? 

Cheers

Christ in Christmas

....Make Room....

Buttons, Collections, and Gingerbread Men

Please tell me I am not alone in my collection.  I have a large pickle jar of buttons.  You know the size right?  The HUGE jars that LOTS of pickles come in?!

Today we sorted buttons. 

I love buttons...the shapes and sizes and colors and textures...

Did I mention I love buttons?! 

I get really excited to find a new bag of assorted buttons...or get some really cool ones from friends (like that HUGE white one above)  Buttons are really great!

I had to part with some of my buttons today though because we made a variation of these:



Found here via here

Ours were made of paper because I didn't want to do the work of sewing them, and buying supplies.

I think that they did pretty good.  I didn't help at all except to thread the buttons.  Super easy and cute craft to keep the boys busy this afternoon.  Maybe I will do real gingerbread....

Please feel free to share your collections with me...I will not judge, so far you have seen 2 of my pickle jars...the jellybellies (here) and now my buttons.  :)

Cheers

Christmas Baking

Last night we had a Christmas party and I was to bring dessert.  I love cranberries.  Christmas is cranberry flavored things in my mind.  :)  So, I made this little recipe by putting a few different recipes together...and it really does taste better than it looks. 

Cranberry Pie Squares

1 C Butter or Margarine
1/2 C Brown Sugar
21/2 C Flour

Mix and pat into a large cookie sheet (and of course I used my stone).  Bake at 350 F for 15 min.

Filling:
1/2 C Butter or Margarine (melt)
2 C Brown Sugar
2 Tbsp Flour
3 Eggs
4 Tbsp Milk
2 Tbsp Vanilla
1 pkg of Cranberries (3 C)
1 tsp Cinnamon

Mix and spread on crust.  Bake at 350 F for 25 min. 
After cooled you can drizzle chocolate on top for a fancier square, these are sweet, but tart.  It was the perfect pairing (my opinion) of yummy filling with cranberries.  I ate LOTS to test it before we took them.  :)

Cheers

The Star

For Christmas there are many decorations out there that people love.  Personally I love the star.  I have so many nativity type decorations, but my ultimate favorite is the star. 

Here is a really simple decoration I am taking to my VT sisters this month.

Very simple.  Here are a couple steps you can follow.  (sorry for the lack of pictures, to be honest I didn't think about it.)  I know I got the idea somewhere, maybe familyfun?  Sorry I can't remember what source it came from.

1.  Find a cookie cutter the same shape you want your stars (or other shape) to be.
2.  Wrap thicker jewelry wire around a few times (we did about 4) to get the shape of your cookie cutter.
3.  Carefully remove and wrap around the shape to re-enforce it.  (the edges, if you click on the pictures you can see it in the detail that there is a wrap to make all the layers stay together)
4.  Using thinner wire (I use florist wire) start randomly wrapping around your star.  I placed a few beads on some, used gold wire on some as detail, and left some plain.  I like them all so choose what you like best.
5.  If you are hanging them, add a hanger.

My kids made the ones on the floor picture.  They loved it.  I could make 2 to their one, but they were easy enough that almost any age could do it. 

I love Christmas.  I am hoping to post quite a few different Christmas themed things this year, just a mish mash like always. 

What are your favorite things about Christmas? 

Cheers

Scary

On Thursday my dh had a hernia repair (just like last years...) and is still in bed.  (Sort of)

 Today was a bit boring for the boys so at 5pm dh had an idea. "You guys really should go and support the primary and do the Trunk Or Treat. Its not as if you don't have any candy."

So off we went. 

Oh ya, we didn't have costumes or anything planned because I am a halloween scrooge.  So in half an hour, look what we came up with....

Albert was thrilled to have found some hair dye.  He always felt that his white hair needed a bit of "ooomph"!

The pirates tried to attack us...but our lookout was on guard and we spotted them way off.

Happy couldn't make it so he sent his brother grumpy.  He got lots of candy and smiled once! 

The ref was on hand to make sure that there was no funny business going on.

Even a halloween scrooge can make allowances for her dh and kids when they are really board.  (or just want a little peace and quiet so that he can get a nap!)

Cheers

Why I am a Halloween Scrooge...

....OR Why my family chooses not to "celebrate" halloween.  :)

The other day my dear friend momma4 called and was worried about offending me if she invited us to a murder mystery party.  She was worried about not respecting our wishes to not celebrate halloween.

I thought that maybe I would clarify some things so that maybe I can save some others that same feeling.  I really didn't want to write about this because I was afraid of making myself seem preachy or holier than thou.  So, please take this in the spirit it was intended.  (plus, I realized it would be great to keep in my journaling...so it is going to be as straight up as I can be)

My children have grown up dressing up for halloween and going trick or treating.  When they were in public school we really didn't want them to be alienated because their parents were weird.  So we had costumes and took them trick or treating, often having lots of fun in the process. 

(what a totally gorgeous elephant "eh"?! It is his eyes and super cute face!)

About 5 years ago we were realizing how incredibly commercialized Christmas was getting and decided to try to center our Christmas celebration more on Christ and less on Santa.  This lead to celebrating Christ on Easter not the big bunny, then us giving prizes/money instead of the Tooth Fairy.  When we realized that the holidays were becoming MORE for us and not lessening in their importance, we took halloween right out.  We go to the store the day after and buy up candy for the kids (on the super cheap) and get some costumes for our large dress up box.  The only rules?  It has to be nice.  No skeletons, gruesome things, mummies, gross dripping blood, stuff like that.  Anything else goes. 

Our kids don't miss the halloween stuff.  This year my G even chose to stay at home instead of going to his Cubs party.  He really didn't want to go.  His choice, not mine.

This year there is a trunk or treat at our church on Saturday.  P and I talked about it and decided that because it was a primary party type thing, they could go if they wanted to.  They chose not to.  We will be having a family movie and pizza night instead.

We respect others choices to do halloween.  We choose not to. 

We have found that our families spirituality has increased in celebrating the "real" reason for the season.  Halloween just didn't fit for our family.  (although Heather's tradition for celebrating Dia de los Muertos has always held a great appeal for me...maybe we will substitute it sometime...)

Make sense?  I hope that makes it clear to others.  I know that for us it works, just like homeschooling, our religion, or even our eclectic food choices.  Maybe it wouldn't work for you...but if it does, then great, I am glad I shared.  :)

Cheers