It's Mud Pie Season

Seasons.  Springtime is here -wait, I meant winter is here...but that was yesterday, oh my gosh now I think it's summer! Let's drag out all our shorts and box up our winter clothes! What?!?! It's only 30 degrees today? Let me unpack my box of winter clothes.  Arkansas!!! What is up with your schizophrenic weather lately?!?!

Technically it is spring.  I personally love spring - it probably is my favorite season only because it follows my least favorite season which would be winter.  I wish winter was a two day season - lasting Christmas eve and Christmas day. The only positive thing about winter is living in sweatpants and hoodies and hiding all that extra "warmth" (technically called "blubber" if you live in the Arctic and you are a polar bear).  It's been such a rainy season this time around.  It's funny, we pray it won't rain so our ball games won't get postponed, and our field trips won't be cancelled.  In the summer, we hold revival type prayer meetings FOR it to rain so we can get a break from the heat, our crops won't ruin, our grass to come back to life. 

Well, all I'm gonna say is I got a 20 month old that is probably stormin' the gates of heaven with "Jesus! Bring on the rain!!!"  Nothing makes my daughter happier than a good mud puddle.  Or a lake about 4 inches deep that she can splash around in - preferably in our back yard. And lucky for her I am that kind of laid back (tired) mom that says "Go for it! Play in that mud! Drag your brother out there!" And I love the 20 minutes of peace and quiet I get while she happily splashes around and ruins three sets of clothes.
And she and I both are pretty darn lucky she has two brothers that pretty much give her what she wants.  And if they don't- well, she literally bites them on the head.

"Oh Jacob, why don't you come play in the back yard with your sister.  She really, really wants to play." (And I am seriously not wanting to get mud all over my clothes)  I think Jacob figured me out.

"Bubba is teaching me how to make mud-pie's! And yes, they taste yummy.  Because I like to eat dirt."

I can't raise a "girly girl" to say my life. She doesn't mind one bit that mud is covering half her face.

 "Don't even think about praying for this rain to stop.  It makes my back yard better than Disney World."

I have actually started a picture album on my computer and I just labeled it "mud 2013."  I have about 100 pics of her in the mud with whoever  I  she can con into playing with.  But I love it.  After a good solid night of rain we once again have a fishing lake in the back yard (it would be funny to put some gold fish in it and advertise our house with a "stocked pond").  I'll kinda be sad when spring is over and the yard is back to normal. And that will mean she will resort to finding a new way to make a huge mess - probably IN the house.

Life is centered around seasons.  The literal seasons and then the chunks of time we find ourselves in.  Some seasons are messy and hard or cold and dark and we can't wait for them to get over.  Some seasons in our life are beautiful and fresh - we have hit a good stride with our family or marriage or ministry.  Everyone is getting along, we have extra money, our ministry is showing results. One thing that is sure, good or bad, seasons change. Summer turns to fall, fall turns to winter....The bad doesn't last forever.  And unless you are the one person out of a million, the good doesn't last forever either. It's an ebb and flow. It keeps us dependent on the Lord.  Life changes. We just gotta roll with it.

Ecclesiastes  3:1-8

There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under heaven.

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep, and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

But oh my goodness.  As I am typing these verses out it hits me that good always follows bad.  Hang tough if you are in that dark time.  Seasons DO change.  It WILL get better. 

"Weeping may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning." -Psalm 30:5

And life according to Elisabeth is that  "messy, dirty mud makes the tastiest mud-pies."  The bad is what makes the good - oh so good!

The $20 Easter Egg

Holidays are always eventful at our house.  I think it's the whole 4 kid thing.  You would think Easter would be a highly spiritual celebration of our risen Savior in a minister's house.  And it is...once you get passed the chaotic getting everyone ready for church in their fancy clothes (with candy stains already on them by 8:30 a.m.), Easter grass all over the house, and 5 chocolate bunnies eaten for breakfast etc...

Easter started like this.  Jonathan wanted his first suit to wear on Easter morning.  We jumped all over that since his usual Sunday morning attire is shorts and his Aero shirt (vs. a t-shirt).  We rearranged our whole schedule for the week so we would NOT have to hit JC Penney's on the weekend before Easter.  We went Thursday night and found him a great suit, and Jacob a shirt and this really funky bow tie (his idea) -which is totally him and I love it.  I think we are ahead of the game until Saturday afternoon when Jonathan realized the security tag was still on his suit jacket.

The last time I tried to take off a security tag at home (once again a shirt from Penny's) I ended up getting this huge ink stain from it and ruined it.  If you are wondering what is in those hard plastic security tags it is black ink that will spray all over your clothes when you take it off.  Do not attempt at home.  So guess where we ended up ON Saturday? Yes. JC Penny. But Sunday morning they looked so spiffy and grown up I just wanted to cry. Totally worth it.

My boys are totally being dorks in these pictures but that is what I love most about them - their humor.

Got Elisabeth dressed right before we walked out the door. After I already had to cut a big wad of gum out of her hair. Sarah looked adorable as always.  I tried to get their picture together but I seriously couldn't get a shot without E having a finger stuck up her nose.

                        At least it wasn't in her bangs.  The girl has already got bang issues as it is.

Notice the photo bombers. 

Someone was trying to take picture at church and of course E had her finger up her nose.  So Chris and Sarah thought it would be funny to put their fingers up their noses. And of course as soon as the shot was snapped E took her finger out and there is Chris and Sarah at the front of the church with their finger up their noses.

My great aspirations of Easter dinner was pretty much chucked out the window.  I always get these grandiose plans and come up with all these fancy recipes only to throw a bag of frozen corn on the stove at the last minute.  My fancy green beans that were going to be little bacon wrapped "haystacks" and my baby glazed carrots are still sitting in the fridge growing mold.  The ham was a little over cooked but put a starving college student at the table and its the best home cooked meal you have ever made.

We always have an Easter egg hunt every year after lunch.  It started as candy and itty bitty toys and quarters in the eggs and that was the best thing ever.  Then the kids got older and I started putting in coupons like "get out of chores for a day" or "Pick the restaurant" or "Pick the movie" and that was fun for a few years. Last year I spelled out the word C-H-O-R-E-S and put each letter in an egg and whoever found the entire word would get out of their chores for an entire week.  (That was a huge deal because that is when Chris had his famous chore spread sheet attached to the fridge).  This year I was stumped at what to do since Sarah didn't have chores and wasn't around for a free sonic or whatever.  So I decided to hide 38 Easter eggs and I put a number on each egg with a Sharpie. Once all the eggs were found I drew a number between 1 and 38 and whoever had that egg would get a $20.00 bill.  Oh man,  attach a $20.00 bill to an Easter egg that would be hunted by a starving, POOR, college student and all I'm gonna say is watch out - GAME ON!! It got a little intense.  While Chris is giving the instructions and getting on them about not trying to look while he's giving the instructions Elisabeth sticks her hand in the ice cooler and pulls out the first egg  wrapped in a little baggie. The kids start flipping out making sure that egg doesn't count if it gets drawn for the $20.00 bill.  So funny.

Notice the poor starving college student.  Yes. She took this egg hunt very seriously.  There was twenty bucks at stake.

Elisabeth decided to make the Easter egg hunt a little more entertaining than it already was.  We had just taken off her Easter dress and before we knew it she had her diaper off and she was out the door butt naked streaking across the yard with a plastic bowl.  I think she was trying to rile her brothers and sister up and find more eggs. (And get the neighbor's attention which she accomplished.)

I couldn't have asked for a better Easter.  We got to worship our Risen Savior as a family with my mom joining us.  Sis was home.  Good food.  Great memories.  I can't imagine life without Christ. He is the Creator of love and laughter...and because He lives, we live. Truly live. Fully. Abundantly.

                                     What is up with the whole nose picking thing Elisabeth?!?!
                          
Oh, and just in case you were wondering.  Jonathan found the $20 egg.