Spring at the Zoo

There aren't really words to describe God's glory in His creation, so I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

A---men.

Packages

The children are always intrigued by a package at the door. We are so blessed to always associate packages with "something good," "something fun," or "something interesting."

Can you guess what is in the package that arrived today?

A fragrance wafted out as the box was opened. "It smells....like....marshmallows," says Roks.

"It smells...like...coffee," says Roks

Did you guess?

It smells like honey, and it was sitting in the sun before I found it. It was warm and fragrant when we opened it.

And we hope to make candles with 10 lbs of it.

Inspiration courtesy of the West Ladies.

A Sunny Weekend in the Garden

It was time to work on the garden. Well and truly. And we had a gorgeous, warm, sunny weekend to do it.

The gardening season has been not extremely successful for us so far this year. The deer ate all the tulips.

We have a bumper crop of giant dandelions.

Daddy had rented a tiller a little while ago and tilled up the whole patch along the front of the house. It needed a lot of work, to dig out all the clumps of grass and weeds. So we did that first, and that pretty much took a whole day.

We had planted some perennials, such as lilacs, verbena, hydrangeas, some daisies, lavendar and a rose bush, on Friday. Then on Saturday we planted about 150 annuals.

Everybody helped one way or another.

I made a mistake by purchasing this japanese red maple to go in front of the house, by the front door. The red of the tree blended in with the red of the brick, and it was awful. But we were blessed to have another spot on the other side of the walk, where we lost a pine tree. So Daddy hacked away at years of ivy build-up and planted our little maple tree.

It was so warm and lovely this weekend that the Gater was able to wear her flowery summer dress for the occasion.

The Girls in the Back Yard

The 9 girls are living happily in the backyard.

Rose and Joman faithfully cared for them, each day cleaning out their boxes and feeding and watering them while they lived in the house. Daddy and the older children constructed this area for the chickens to live outside.

I don't know all their names or if they even all have names. Well, I know a couple of them have names. But I have some suggestions. How about, "Madonna," "Gwyneth," or "Perez Hilton?" (C0mmenter Tubs also suggested, "Barbara," "Whoopi," "Joy," "Elisabeth," and "Sherri." Good thought. I like it.)

Aah, but that may require the kind of education my children are not quite ready for yet.

Cute Fix

Brought to you today by The Gater.

Easter Day

Getting the Perfect Easter Photo -- how to

Wash your children squeaky clean, and dress them nicely.

Matching clothes are a must.

Check smiles.

The perfect location is one filled with flowers and a symbol of the season.

Delete middle child.

Seder Meal

First, the children found small pieces of leavened bread, which was scattered and hidden in the house. They scooped up the bread with pieces of paper, and then we burned them all up together.

We washed our hands.

Then we were ready for the Seder Meal.

We used a Haggadah to help us tell the story and know the meanings of the different items on the Seder plate. Roks had his own version with color-in pictures of the Seder plate, Egyptian plagues, Jesus, and other things.

Bert eats the karpas, dipped in salt water to represent the tears and sweat of the Hebrew slaves.

Roks eats the bitter herbs. (Horseradish.)

We did enjoy this long, meaningful meal and time together. It was a wonderful way to explain the sacrifice Jesus made for us to free us from the slavery of sin and death. I hope we can do this again next year.