Easter Weekend

Happy Easter!  My weekend was filled with work and play and worship!  And despite a mad lightening/thunderstorm Sunday night, we had a HOT and beautiful Easter weekend!

Saturday was work up front, which always is followed by play time, so I'll suck it up at first.  Jeffrey had a pump suck up the (lake) water in the pool, and I scrubbed on my hands and knees handed him whatever he asked for from the bottom of the pool, like a mop or bucket or broom or clorox until it was sparklin' clean.  Then we threw all the hoses we could find in and started fillin' 'er up.

I also had to water my garden.  Oh, wait....I should show you!  You're gonna 'peer die' as mama says!  In two weeks, these puppies have grown like, well, veggies!  It must've been my TALK I gave them....

The zucchinni squash have prospered well!

 Look at my precious little okra (okree--says Mimi), who were just little bebe seeds 2 weeks ago!

And I believe I see jalepeno poppers in my future!  And possibly some stuffed bell peppers!  Mmmmm!

Grow tomatoes, grow!

Now, let me take a minute here to tell you I learn something every day out here.  My most recent lesson was in planting my green beans.  Too.close.to.the.duck.pen. 


This papa duck has apparently been sticking his squirmy little neck through and ate every last seed on the back row of beans!  Next recipe to try:  GRILLED DUCK.  Sometimes a farm can have one too many animal.  Just sayin....

After a long day of cleaning the pool and yard work on Saturday, because I'm so impatient with prizes, I the Easter Bunny decided to make a special delivery early to the cute yard boy.  :)

Full of his favorite candy bars (Zeros-yuck), gum, a smell good candle, a movie we've talked about a lot and I finally found!  (Who doesn't love, and CRY at Where the Red Fern Grows...and Old Yeller!)

And an awesome new cookbook called Wild Abundance, a collection of recipes from the south's finest hunting clubs!  This one kept him entertained for a while!  The pictures in here are just a gorgeous as the recipes sound....and I'm hoping he picks out a good DUCK recipe soon (if you know what I mean!)

We watched a breathtaking sunset, and enjoyed a ride around the farm, and I anxiously awaited Sunday....the stone is rolled away!  With skies like these, plants that grow, and animals all around, it's so easy to see how GOOD God is!  How ALIVE He is! 

Sunday morning started unfortunately with a migraine--but we medicated and ignored with a wonderful service at Calvary Baptist where Brother Don told us to watch our punctuation!  Never put a period (or a question mark?) where God has put an exclamation!  So let me say this, He IS ALIVE!!!

I convinced my sweet thang to take a few Easter pictures with me, because we are usually grungy, and I rarely have on lipstick.  Much less hot pink pumps.  Jeffrey calls this my Betty-Boop dress.  I hope that's a compliment. 

Roscoe and I even took a few glamour shots for my love.  :)

After church Jeff ran to pick up the kids from their mama, and I met up with them at my house where the Easta' Bunny had dropped off a few prizes for them there....

Can you go wrong with iTunes and candy?  And for Kyle, a serious slingshot...maybe for my benefit mostly...there are some seriously pesty birds in our ferns...  And Emmy's been dying to read "90 Minutes in Heaven," a tear jerker, but so sweet.  But the best was they thought they'd dug through it all, but Daddy had hid one plastic egg in the bottom of both...they looked over it....until one found it....with a 50 dolla bill ya! 

Next it was over to Grandmama's (Jeff's grandmother's) for lunch.  Lot's of people.  New people for me.  But I already felt like family.  No handshakes, only hugs.  The way I like it.  I'll be back, that's what I told Grandmama.  But what I loved the most were these faces.  Hands down.

A work in progress, no doubt.  The trial of my life.  It's like the test I never knew to study for, but want to pass more than anything I've ever wanted.  And I will.  Those smiles up there, and this smile below, are...and will be...my whole world.  I am so grateful I am beginning to see little glimpses into theirs as well.  I think they're some kind of special.

This Easter was so special to me.  I met some very kind people, who love Jeff like I do.  Who made me feel so welcome in their family.  I spent time with the clowns.  I missed my family terribly, and wanted to call them every hour.  Growing pains are hard.  I cannot wait to go home next weekend!  So as I thought about all the family I have, and miss, and met, and love, and want, I watched this sunset over the farm.

And thanked God for his Son.  For his sacrifice.  For my sins.  For that ol' rugged cross.