He is Greater.....John 3:30 says He must become greater, I must become less"

 Here is a list of what Holy Week is not..... 1.  It is not spring break. 2.  It is not permission to go shopping for a new dress/hat/shoes. 3.  It is not more time to sleep in or relax or plant bulbs or go on vacation. 4.  It is not bunnies and chocolate. 5.  It is not time off of work and school 6.  It is not packing away winter gear and taking out sandles and shorts. 7.  It is not easter egg hunts. 8.  It is not family gatherings. 9.  It is not a big meal at noon this coming Sunday with ham and deviled eggs and rolls and pie. 10.  It is not.  about.  us. It is about Jesus.   I am taking the rest of the week off from work and taking our kids for a mini-vacation and we will buy new spring clothes and we will relax and we may visit a garden center to get inspired for spring planting.  We may eat chocolate bunnies.  We will not work or be in school.  We will enjoy not taking out stocking caps and gl...

 Sunday morning in church, I felt that God was asking me to write through Holy Week....sometimes He tells me stuff like that.  I've learned through so many years of running from His will when I was young, that it's just better and more efficient to listen and obey right away.   I don't have any funny stories to tell tonight.  I don't have any deep and profound truths to share....its just the end of a Tuesday and the end of March.....tomorrow is March 31.  I'm going to do that pause and benediction for the month of March.  I've started something this year so I'm gonna try see it through.   March.  In like a lion, out like a lamb....whatever....how do those cliches start anyway?  There are parallels to the lion/lamb metaphor of the bible but it's not accurate is it?  So much of what we do in the world is familiar but not exactly biblical....we have done such great disservice to the Word of God with all of our worldly words.... A ...

 I didn't sleep well last night.  The "mid-life change" is brutal....hot flashes at night, leg cramps, restlessness....and it goes on and on and on and it is my season for this brutal suffering.  I knew I had a crazy busy week because I am trying to cram all of my work into 3 days so that we can enjoy a few days away later this week as a family.  I carefully planned my responsibilities for the 3 days I had to work with kids in school.   We started off well this morning with waking kids up on time, getting everyone up and dressed.  Precious needed to study for a quiz....Roger was already on a work call at 7am.  I pulled the cereal bag out of the cereal box and it exploded and fruit loops spewed everywhere...yes, fruit loops.  Don't judge.  I was picking up froot loops and barking orders at the kids to find shoes and coats, like we do on Mondays.  I packed a lunch and snacks for aftercare times 2 kids....and Precious wanted orange jui...

 This is Holy Week for Christians.  It is the week before Easter and the journey to the cross and resurrection of Jesus.  I have a new opportunity this year with extra Kredit.  XK didn't have a Jesus Easter before....this is his first.  He's been learning at school and so he had a start.  Last night I helped him watch some videos on kids Easter stories and he was captivated.  He paid attention.  He learned.  At bedtime we talked about Jesus and the betrayal of Judas and his trial by Pontius Pilate and where his mama was when this was happening.  We prayed before bed, thanking Jesus for all he had done.  Today in church he watched the kids parade in with palm branches waving.  He sat on my lap and watched them sing Hosannahs to Jesus....and he was captivated.  He paid attention.  He learned.   After church we came home as we do every week and I started lunch.  He wanted to watch the same videos again....

       What's everyone making for dinner tonight?  Over here it's sausage and butternut squash enchiladas and some plain ole taco meat for the littler kids who are super picky.  Thank goodness Roger and Jeremiah and sometimes Josiah will eat just about anything I prepare.  I'm a meal planner.  I try to plan for 4-5 meals a week and shop accordingly so that if we are home that many evenings, there is a well-balanced meal ready to serve.  I actually enjoy meal-planning a lot.  I don't even mind buying groceries....     Recently I took inventory of my freezers.  We have 2 fridges with a freezer, and then one deep freeze.  That sounds really extravagant except the one freezer is not trust-worthy so it can only contain ice packs and frozen pizza and popcycles in case it doesn't seal properly.  The other small one is in our kitchen and has mostly waffles and ice cream and a few more ice packs because we tend to get inj...

 Often in the morning I choose to wake the kids up with music.  They have little amazon speakers in their rooms so I can quietly and gently ask the music to start to play so that they can wake up in the dark to something beautiful summoning them into the day.  Those mornings often go the best in our home, as opposed to the ones where a child wakes up first and starts banging around and wakes everyone else up in a more hostile manner.  Those mornings don't go so well.  This morning we had a bit of both....extra kredit awake before me, being too loud, but me able to get into Precious' room and get music going before she got super mad about the noise outside her door...... We had a brief, hard rain pass by at the time I was rousing her from her sleep....and I said a quiet prayer.  Please, please, Lord, can you make the rain stop just long enough for the kids to get to the bus stop and on the bus?  Standing in the cold rain waiting for the bus has to be on...