good friday. grief. hope.

I love how our Coconut Macaroon Nutella Nests turned out!  So yummy!  So eye-catching!  And I loved that the kids were able to actually do some of it with me....not just stir as is their usual task in the kitchen.  A and V placed all the M&M eggs and were thrilled to be a part of it.

Don't be deceived, though.  Today was not as beautiful as this picture depicts.  For example, the boys emptied an entire bottle of cleaner into the guest mattress (I had just stripped the bed to wash the sheets for my friend, Jami, who's coming in town for the weekend.  Thank God for Shaklee.  Haha.  Super-duper gentle, plant-derived stuff.  You can bathe in it, you use it as plant food.  Truly all natural stuff, thank goodness.  Jami, however, will still be sleeping in a puddle.).  This kind of stuff went on all day.  I've been struggling to "pull it together" all week.  Doesn't it seem like the kids just prey on your weakness?  I feel like they totally know when I'm struggling and they do outrageous things.  Hmmmm.

Anyway. I'm still in my jammies (4:30 pm) and we did, somehow, manage to make the nests.  But, even Easter doesn't take away from the realities of good ol' everyday life.

We ate our Hot Cross Buns for breakfast while we read the Good Friday story out of the Jesus Storybook Bible.  I cry every time I read from it and this morning was no different.

A friend of mine stopped by today and she is going through a lot more than anything I've ever been through. Easter is warm and fuzzy for me.  But, for her, it means the anniversary of tragic events five years back.  She is grieving is ways I've never had to.  We both sat here --she on the couch, me on a chair, and the kids running around like wild Indian children-- shedding tears and trying to make something of all this.  And we did make something of all this.  The hurt will be with us as long as we are here, but we remembered that we won't be here for long.  We remembered that death (and all the hurt, failures, sin, brokenness, pain) is swallowed up in victory.
Every one of us will die.  But only One was raised and ascended.

He proved He really is God.

He proved He really meant it all.

He proved that this life is just for a little while, and, soon, everything will be made new.  We have hope.