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Saturday was a balmy 72 degrees. Balmy, I tell you! After a full day of packing, we let Lydia strap on her helmet and rider her skuut bike in the driveway. It was so incredibly fun. After that we played with sidewalk chalk and ran around in the yard.

And I felt my heart and spirit buoyed. I am not kidding. I honestly felt like I came out of a fog yesterday. I remember posting once about connecting with God when I’m surrounded by nature. Now don’t be decieved, I am not an outdoorsy girl. I don’t hike or swim or garden. But just being outside surrounded by birds and flowers blossoms dead grass was rejuvenating!

The only, I repeat, ONLY thing I’m going to miss about this house is our tree. Remember our tree? It’s the most beautiful white and pink dogwood surrounded by pink and white and fuschia azaleas. I almost ache thinking about leaving it. A few months ago, I posted some pictures of our tree in every season. I’m going to frame those for our new house. As a reminder of this beautiful season of our lives. A season that is ending–just like winter. And like yesterday, my heart is being opened and is getting ready for Spring—this new season in our lives! I am excited to see what blossoms!

I Didn’t Know I Had The Winter Blues Till The Sun Came Out is a post from: ohamanda.com

“Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these!” Matthew 6:29

Can You Believe This Is My Front Yard?! is a post from: ohamanda.com

Easter is four days away! Four days and we are still wearing coats outside! What happened to spring sandals and sleeveless Easter dresses? I guess Lydia and I will be stylin’ on Sunday with tights and hats!

I have a thing about Easter. It started a long time ago—when I first heard that the word “easter” wasn’t in the Bible. I just assumed it was like “trinity” or “rapture”, not actually in the Bible, but it just meant something else that was for real. Well, not so. According to the wiki, which I don’t entirely trust, there are several etymological roots for this word. But the one that most interests me has to do with the goddess Eostre, who is pictured with lots of pet bunnies. (Ring a bell?)

I know back in the day, Christian holidays got mixed up with pagan holidays. I get it. I know the missionaries were just trying to get people into “the fold”. So, yeah, combine your pagan feast with the day we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, whatever, just stop worshiping the bunny rabbit god. I know there is not one thing I do in my Christian walk that isn’t tainted by American tradition or a completely random pagan history. I understand it.

And I really didn’t mean to ramble this long about it. I’m not an expert. I haven’t studied it extensively. But anyone with half a brain has to wonder what eggs and bunnies have to do with Jesus coming back to life.

But I never knew what to do about it. I mean, I love a good hard boiled egg colored pink. I pine all year for a Cadbury egg. And I simply adore a little girl in a flowery dress! Last year, I read a post by Shannon about this very thing. She and her family have a First Day of Spring party and do all the “easter” traditions—then on “Easter Sunday” they celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. What a great idea!

So, this year, we had our first Spring Party! It wasn’t a big huge party–just Lydia and Nora playing together.  We just celebrated Spring like we’d celebrate Back-to-School or the first snow! It was perfect!

We dyed eggs.

We made lamb, bunny & chick puppets. (I like the bunny best.)

We even had an egg hunt. Lydia and Nora were so polite–Nora would show Lydia where an egg was, then Lydia would put it in Nora’s basket!

Then we decorated cupcakes with marshmallows and m&ms. It was really cute…and apparently really yummy!

I know in the grand scheme of things, eggs and bunnies aren’t going to ruin Lydia’s spiritual formation. But in an effort to do my best for her and for the Lord, I like this Spring Party idea. I didn’t feel like we were pushing so much into one day (or skimping on the chocolate eggs). It was just perfectly balanced. I can already tell on Resurrection Sunday, we’ll be able to just talk about Jesus and hang out with our families.

Of course, she’ll probably get an Easter basket from her grandparents. Oh well.

Springy Eastery Type Party! is a post from: ohamanda.com