And celebrate we did as the girls woke up to an empty tomb this morning!

Our celebration consisted of dying Easter eggs last night to prepare for Easter morning After we talked about the tomb being empty and that Jesus is alive, we told them the rest of the day was a party to celebrate that Jesus is stronger than death. The first fun thing was their Easter baskets and an Easter egg hunt around the house.Our celebration then moved to an incredible time of worship at Northwood Church  followed by an afternoon with some family friends and their families.

At the afternoon party, the kids got another Easter Egg HuntHours filled with playing with friends and some play time with some ducks and a chicken (notice the little man’s arm stuck through the fence trying to reach the animals) The kids are now exhausted, but I think they have decided they like these kinds of celebrations where they get lots of candy

Overall, I think our week of intentionally drawing our family into thinking through what the cross means has been good.  The oldest finally understood that she is sinful which was my biggest prayer through this whole thing.    Through all the talking this week, she has heard the gospel quite a few times and one day in the car she said, “mommy, I know I’m a sinner and my only hope is Jesus.  He alone can forgive me.”   We praise Christ that he is softening her heart but we also know she is a bit young to truly understand salvation.  The foundation is being laid though, and I pray Christ continues to work in all my kids’ hearts and minds as they grow older.

Jesus Praying in the Garden and telling God “not my will but Yours be done”.

Day Six: Two part series =)

Part One:  Jesus died on the cross

We then left and went to Good Friday Service.  The youngest and the oldest have croup so we spent the majority of the service in the cry room (sigh).  It was still an amazing service though…even if it was observed from the cry room.

Part Two:  Putting Jesus in the tomb.

We came home, discussed how Jesus would now be dead, put him in the tomb and blew out the last candle.

The oldest is already itching to get Jesus out of the tomb.  I know tomorrow is going to feel like an eternity to her!

Truth by told, Day Three got a little rushed.  All day long, I thought it was Wednesday so planned the wrong story.  Then I realized my mistake right before we were starting our devotions so we scrambled to remember what Tuesday’s lesson was supposed to be.  Then Brent and I had plans so the babysitter showed up as we were about to start.  All that to say, Day Three was a bit rushed.  I redid it again this morning after breakfast =)

Day Three:  Judas betrays Jesus for money

Day Four:  The Last Supper.

As we talked through the last supper and had the little people act it out, I told the girls they could not participate in communion at church on Friday night until they were ready to make a decision about Christ.  The 2 year old is still a bit young to truly get it.  She responded, “okay. I’ll do that and then I get crackers at church?” Understanding dawned in the 4 year old’s eyes though.  She asked “I have to believe that I can’t be good on my own and its only through Jesus? “ She then thought for a minute and said, “maybe I’ll sit and talk to daddy about it tomorrow.” My heart is bursting with prayers for her tonight as she thinks through my words while laying in her bed.

We blew out one more candle tonight as well.  Two more and then we’ll be sitting in darkness to symbolize Jesus was in the tomb.

If you missed Day One, click here

Jesus washing the disciple’s feet.

“Jesus” would be the blue pipe cleaner and is washing “Peter”, the yellow pipe cleaner man’s, feet just in case you were wondering =)

Its Palm Sunday today.  In an effort to teach our kids that Easter is a BIG deal, we began our week leading up to Easter like this:

Before church we made play dough and formed it into Golgotha, poked some holes into it for the cross, found sticks outside to make a cross, and baked the play dough in order to harden it while we were at service.

Spent some time after church coloring our mountain and talking about Easter

Tonight family worship was spent discussing and acting out the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem.

We blew out one of the six candles we have lit to symbolize that the time for Jesus to die was approaching.  (By Saturday night, we’ll be sitting in the dark to represent that Jesus is dead)

Our oldest is quickly approaching the age where both Brent and I accepted Christ.  Our hope and prayer this Easter is that she begins the process of thinking about Christ and his sacrifice for her.  She has yet to truly understand she has a sin nature and needs a Savior.  Although she wholeheartedly loves Jesus, we pray this Easter she begins to see the reality of the cross and the destruction that sin causes.

(sidenote: I completely stole this idea from Noel Piper’s book Treasuring God in our Traditions. )

The last couple weeks, the girls have started fighting…real knock down drag out fights. The kind that last all day and the kind that makes you want to scream “stop the drama!!  You’re not even prepubescent yet!”

In the exhaustion following the week of sickness, I’ve been dealing with the girls’ fighting by sending them to the corner and taking away toys.  It was all I had the energy to do.

Today was the day to quit dealing with the wrong behavior and start dealing with the heart issue behind the behavior.

“For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks”  Matthew 12:34

Its amazing.  Simply defining love as the Bible defines it  and then writing down every time they show certain aspects of love has completely changed our day.  Its also helped us memorize I Corinthians 13:4 faster =)

Over the last 6 months or so, I have been attempting to practice some of the spiritual disciplines I’ve been implementing in my life with my kiddos. Prayer and worship are the two disciplines we’ve decided to just focus on for now. Here’s what we’ve come up with =)

After dinner every night, we sing songs and read one story out of a children’s Bible. We dance and sing fast and fun kids songs and then sit and sing slower songs as well. All while talking about worshiping Christ. We try to ask lots of questions about the Bible story because the girls are very literal at this point! For example, last night, after some probing questions, Avery truly believed that if she lied, God would send her away from her family like He did to Cain! oops…need to remember to think literally about all the stories we read to avoid instilling fear in our kids =)

Every morning after breakfast, I get two candles out and give the girls a word to think about. (obey, truthfulness, self-control, etc…) Its usually a characteristic we have been working on. The word stays the same for the whole week. I then ask them to close their eyes, be really still, and pray in their hearts and ask Jesus to help them practice that characteristic throughout the day. Whenever they think they are done praying, they blow out their candle. They decide how long this lasts, and its usually a 30 sec to a minute thing. And the candle means nothing, except its fun for them to blow out the candle, and they tend to sit in stillness and silence longer when they have something to blow out when they are finished.

Not that they get what spiritual disciplines are and not that I expect them to, but we just want them to understand how to sit in silence with God or how to be still and just know He’s God. One day we pray that these disciplines will be a channel for them to eventually discover not just salvation but the abundant life and relationship that Christ offers.

So I said I would post this last Tuesday…oops. Christmas fun got in the way of remembering to do anything!

I had talked about wanting to start serving as a family outside of the church. I’m still searching for something permanent, but in the meantime, Brent and I decided to start doing small things together. Last week was our first attempt.We took the girls to a nursing home and sang carols for the residents as they were getting ready to play Bingo. The girls were really excited when we practiced at home, but a little overwhelmed once we got there! After a couple songs, Elliana warmed up though and started dancing for everyone. Avery just stood stone faced and sang very quietly. But, once we got back to the car, both girls were bouncing off the walls with excitement and couldn’t stop singing. I think they really enjoyed it.

Now for the next opportunity…tune in to see what we come up with next =) Feel free to give me some ideas if you have any!

Our team (Bible Study) at Northwood got together last night to decorate a Christmas tree for a teenage mother. We put all sorts of baby stuff on the tree and then started a basket for a pregnant teenage mom as well. It was so fun to just hang out, talk, work on this project together, and watch all our kids play together.While the girls sorted all the toys and baby items and decorated the tree, the guys entertained the kids with the Pampered Chef apple slicer and some caramel to dip it in. The kids loved it and I think all the dads had a pretty good time as well!This was the perfect activity to occupy 8 kiddos fingers while we worked away in the other room.
We didn’t get to finish the tree, but we got a good start on it. Here’s a picture of our half finished tree. I’ll post some pictures of the finished tree and basket after we finish it next weekend.