Busy Days!

Wow, despite the fact that spring refuses to come around here, our schedule hasn't let up much. Mitch is playing baseball, Jake is playing Lacrosse, and Madeline is playing soccer--that equals 5 practices and 4 games a week. This Saturday, we have soccer at 10:15am, baseball at 11:00, and Lacrosse at 11:00am, all at different places. I'm not sure what we'll do when Tyler is old enough to be added to the mix! Anyway, it's all fun.

We've had crazy weather in this part of the country. Tulips are blooming, trees are blossoming, but we have snow on the ground. I'll admit, it's a bit depressing. I've got to figure out some way of not letting it get to me--I'm willing to mow the lawn and weed again, if we could just have some sunshine.

We had a fun Easter weekend. Pete was on call for most of it, so we stayed home until Sunday after church, when we headed up to the cabin to catch the last lift so that we could stay over at the cabin with our friends the Harmsen's. You may recall my struggles skiing in to the cabin last weekend. For our family to ski into the cabin, Mitch, Madeline and Jake are all on their own (and they are great little skiers), although Jake was loaded down with a backpack. I also carried a backpack with food in it, we all wore pajamas under our ski gear so that we wouldn't have to pack much, and then Pete carried Tyler in the Kelty backpack. He dropped us off at the cabin (much easier this time around, and sunny), then he headed back down the mountain to help our friends. Amy, the wife, had only skied one time before, they had two little ones to ski on their own and twins to carry in backpacks, plus their backpack full of clothes. Pete ended up carrying one twin on his back and the backpack on his front. They all had a good laugh about it and we had a fabulous time hanging out in the evening and then skiing all day on Monday. Thankfully Jake remembered that he and Mitch had practice Monday night, so I headed out at 2pm with my boys. Pete got the cabin cleaned out and helped our friends down from the cabin. It was quite an adventure!

We also had a fun Easter egg hunt and brunch on Saturday afternoon with the Wolfenbarger's and Hopkin's, some of our friends from high school. It's fun to see our kids playing so well with our friend's children, plus they got all sugared up and that's always fun. Sarah is the cookie master, she made these delicious sugar cookies that were decorated so cute, my cookies never look or taste like that!

As for the more important aspect of Easter, the focus on Jesus Christ, we had a great sacrament meeting/testimony meeting in our ward. Pete bore his testimony about the inspiration of his Uncle Lowell, diagnosed with MS 25 years ago, but who managed to stay positive and teach anatomy to med. students at the University of Michigan, despite being a quadriplegic. When we lived in the same ward, Pete's uncle and aunt spoke on Easter Sunday one year, and we were both extremely moved by his uncle referring to a scripture in which we, after this life, will stand to be judged. That may seem a strange scripture for Easter, but Lowell described how grateful he was that he would one day "stand" before God. Something I take for granted sometimes, but such an amazing promise. Anyhow, another dear friend, who recently lost a second baby during her second trimester also bore her testimony of the comfort of knowing about eternal life and the strength of community we have in helping one another with our burdens. I have felt that so keenly, with all of the kindness extended to my family as I recovered from my surgery, the blessings of friendship and family in my life. It was a nice way to focus on the spiritual aspect of Easter.

One last thing to report--Jake was a smashing hit as Paul Bunyon in his school play! He even got to sing a solo. He has a great little voice and turns out he's a pretty good dancer too! The whole class did a great job!

Well, it's 2:30pm and I'm still in my pajamas--it's always better to clean in pajamas, plus, I kept thinking if I didn't get ready for the day, I might actually exercise. I think I'll give up on that idea for today!