My 10 Personal Objectives of Motherhood

I'm always a little leery of posting my thoughts on this blog (outside of the day-to-day happenings) because I worry that people will think I see myself as an expert, or worse, they may think I actually am one. I'm not. I'm a mom (which requires a great deal of expertise in and of itself, along with a heavy dose of on-the-job training), trying every day to improve in places that I see in need of improvement. While I hope my efforts to improve, learn and grow through motherhood will bless me with the knowledge I need to bless my family, I still shy away from the word 'expert' because I have a lot to learn. But let's make a few things clear though; I love motherhood. I love being a mom. And I aim to magnify my calling as a Mother for the benefit of my children, my family and those around me.

And that brings me to the point of this post. Early on in my motherhood journey I was trying to more diligently focus on my role as a mother and I realized I was lacking a great deal of direction. The desire was there, but with no destination in mind, that desire was only fuelling motivation that was running me in circles or getting me places that I didn't really want to be. Not fun. So I sat down and did some serious thinking.

I'm big into goals. I love writing them, breaking them down, working towards them and, especially, achieving them. My personality matches well with that kind of progression. When I think of times in my life where my progression was really magnified and I excelled it was when my life had clear expectations and plans set forward (like projects at work or assignments at school). So it became clear to me that I needed to set forth clearer expectations/objectives for myself that I could work toward to strengthen my confidence in mothering and, therefore, my abilities. I found the best way to come up with those objectives was to know where I wanted to end up.

Quite simply, when my children are grown, what do I hope they will say of how I raised them, of the example that I set for them, how I loved them, the time I spent with them or the way that I made them feel? I set to work making a list of several things that I would hope they would say. Some examples of that are: She always gives us heartfelt compliments, she listens and understands, she always sets a good example, she hugs us - a lot.

Then, I picked what I felt were the 10 that I felt the most drawn towards (some of them could be easily combined with other items on the list) and I transformed those from being words from my children to being objectives/affirmations for myself so that, hopefully, they will one day be the words from my children!



Everyone's list will probably look a little different, but here is what my final list of 10 looked like:


1. Give compliments and praise - not just for a job well down, but for the efforts, skills and desire.

2. Say 'yes'.

3. Have a vision and share that vision - of the gospel, our family and each of its' members.

4. Give love abundantly. Give hugs.

5. Take time for me - learn, relax, breath.

6. Smile often. Forgive easily. Laugh.

7. Listen. Enjoy every moment of their little voices. Encourage thought. Validate their thoughts.

8. Lead by example. Make choices that I would be proud to have my children emulate.

9. Take take to teach. Be patient and understanding. Clarify and expound with love.

10. Be consistent.


Now, the process doesn't stop with the list. This needs to be an active list or there won't actually be any progression towards my vision. Which means I need to be working on it - all the time. So at the beginning of the week (usually on Sunday evening) I sit down with my list and I ponder it. I ask myself questions such as; where am I feeling particularly weak? or,  What do I sense my children could use more of right now? Then I set little goals, that usually pertain to one of my objectives, that I plan to specifically work on that week.

It's a work in progress. But the key is that I am progressing and that feels good.  It has a positive effect on me, my family and my ability to bless my family in my role as a mother.

Motherhood can be tough and oh, so wonderful. It isn't meant to be a perfect journey, it's a progressive journey and it's awesome.

Moments to remember

I just want to write a few things down to help my mind remember these sweet little moments that I have been having with Milayla this week. Milayla has been teething and it hasn't been a particularly fun time for her, but she has still been the biggest sweetheart. When she is teething she gets really cuddly and wants to stay nice and close. This desire to be close means a little girl who held on to the bottom of my long sweater while I made breakfast this morning. A little girl who held tightly to my hand as we explored the sand at the lake and clung to my leg when it got a little too chilly outside. It has also meant lots of naptime cuddles, books and kisses. It has really required me to focus in on Milayla and see all the diversities start to emerge in her personality. It's incredible. I love being a part of this process. I love being a mom. I love being her mom. I love having her on a chair next to me in the kitchen, breaking up cauliflower for dinner, not because it's the most entertaining thing in the world but that's because it is where I am and she wants to stay close.

These are all just simple little things but I can feel them adding strength to the communication and relationship between us. Even though our little chats aren't much right now, I hope these moments and chats are laying the groundwork for many future moments and great conversations to come. She is so incredibly special, talented and smart and I know she will only continue to build on that.

And I am writing all this down so that I can better remember how important it is to focus on those moments that I get with each of the children. That I am in the moment; the unplanned moments as well as the planned ones. That they feel my presence and my love. That, together, we are building relationships that they know will always be there to support, guide, and uplift as they grow and learn to navigate this life. And I want to solidify my knowledge that when those moments are happening - nothing else matters. Because those hands won't always be little, and they won't always be tugging on my sweater while I am in the kitchen - so I will use these moments now to build the moments of tomorrow.

April Date Night

We picked our outing in April based solely on the venue for this very small, intimate concert. Luckily, the concert was incredible! I have never been that close (2nd row) to such amazing musicians. They were so truly talented, and Jason and I felt pretty blessed to be two of a very small audience sitting in the classic salon (that operates as a small art gallery) of an historical Bremer house. The details of the house were amazing!

The concert lasted 3 hours and I wish it had kept going. There was a violinist, a classical guitarist and a renaissance guitarist. It was unique and absolutely beautiful.

see that funky picture on the bottom left? That is a new feature in downtown Bremen that had us a little perplexed as to why it's there. Not sure if you can see it, but it is light up laundry strung between the buildings. Hmmm... interesting.

So happy Jason and I got to go to this little concert together. The building was beautiful, the concert was incredible and I got to enjoy it all with my best friend. Perfect.

Look at that handsome guy! ;)

As a Mom Thinketh

Life has been so hectic lately that I have found the most calming time to make dinner preparations is during nap time. It's not that I don't appreciate the two very helpful pairs of hands that love to set the table and stir anything they can get those adorable fingers on, but I saw nap time dinner preparations as an opportunity to turn on some audio books that I had wanted to listen to for a while but had failed to find the time to do so.

So over chopping onions I commenced to listen to the first of many books on my list: As A Man Thinketh written by James Allen. Many consider it a classic but it was one that I had never read so I was excited to see what I thought. And there were no shortage of thoughts about it. The most poignant thoughts came to me after a rather stressful morning; we had had many errands to run that morning, cleaning to get done, dinner guests to prepare for and books I had promised to read to the kids. Not an easy morning for two little toddlers to handle especially when they have a frazzled mother at the helm.

As I was chopping and half-heartedly listening to the audio, I reflected on the morning and thought of all the ways I could have handled the inevitable bumps in the morning better when the audio, that had become nothing more than white noise in the background of my thoughts, echoed in my mind crystal clear;

“Self-control is strength. Right thought is mastery. Calmness is power. ” 

Calmess is power. It felt like those words were being etched into my mind as I thought to myself, "man, if that is the case then I am missing out on a lot of power that could be mine and I need to find a way to do better". 

In general, I feel like I do quite well at staying calm on the outset, but on the inset I am anything but. I share a common problem with many other moms out there - my mind never turns off. I saw an eCard the other day that said something to the effect of "Men: if you ever want to know what a woman's mind feels like, imagine a browser with 2857 tabs open. all. the. time.". Yes, that's me (my mind AND my browser!). 

The promise of greater power, if I could get that inner calmness into check, is great and all, but what exactly am I supposed to do to get there? Because, as a mom, I greatly value the idea of being the source of strength, grace and serenity no matter what the pressures of motherhood bring (a lofty goal, I know) I really want to figure out the answer for this (which may not be universal for everyone).

I really enjoyed this Power of Mom's article where Allyson (the author) focused on some great ideas in her article about appreciating the now that would definitely help. And Saren and April (also from The Power of Moms) did a phenomenal job in their radio episode about 'Your Deeper Yes' on how to zero in on what is important for you, as an individual, to give your time to. And while all their suggestions for actions to take were incredible they didn't address the core problem for me; I am constantly applying the actions but yet there is a seemingly continuous reoccurrence of the problem. For example, how many times can I say 'yes' to too many good things while the quality (and quantity!) of time I have for the best things in my life falls inevitably short? It is is a feeling like I am pulling out the same weeds again and again without ever getting to enjoy the beautiful flowers in my garden; a frustrating cycle for someone who likes to enjoy the beauty of the moment.

So where do we find the root of this lack of calmness, balance and focus? In the words of James Allen, “As [a mom] thinks, so [s]he is; as [s]he continues to think, so[s] he remains.”. 

All of our actions, everything that we are, begins as little seeds of thoughts in our mind - we must weed out the bad and plant and nurture the good to live a centred, peaceful life.

While the absoluteness of that last sentence is still something I have yet to fully accept, I certainly do believe that there is a correlation between our thoughts, our actions, the quality of our relationships and the quality of our life. 

For example; if I begin the day worried about how much there is to get done and not having enough time to get it all done my actions are typically hurried, frantic and just plain stressed. Approaching it this way does not save me any time, in fact, it usually takes more time as I cannot focus on the important things to get done, I don't take time to exercise the wisdom of putting first things first, nor are my children particularly keen on cooperating with a crazy person. 

Alternatively, if I begin the day with a few deep breaths, put the most important things firsts, then allow and accept things to unfold in the natural rhythm of that particular day, magical things happen. The kids are happy, I'm happy, and all the important things get done with a whole lot less worrying. As a wonderful, added bonus, I find I even have extra time on days that are approached like this (and that is certainly not a byproduct of having less items on the to-do list). 

So, how do we actively plant seeds for days like the second alternative? We choose our thoughts. 

Just like we choose what clothes we want to wear, buy, keep or get rid of, we can choose the thoughts that we wear, buy, keep or get rid of. If certain thoughts do not help us come closer to our goals as who we want to be as mothers, women or even wives we can plant thoughts that do and weed out the ones that don't. The aim is to have a mind that is a clean, beautiful, serene and peaceful garden because that is precisely the kind of mind that will be able to create a clean, beautiful and serene home.

This is all part of my journey to focus and feel an inner calm no matter how crazy life can sometimes get. I'm sure some of these thoughts seem incoherent and I may even babble on occasionally but I feel it is important for me to get them out there - so here they are, at least the first part of them. I am hoping to sit down and write more thoughts on this as they formulate (in other words; I hope to write some more soon). Until then, I'm sure there will be plenty of other wonderful things posted here :). 

A few things from my iPhone in April

I'm working on kicking my iPhone picture-taking-addiction, I really am. But in the mean time, enjoy these photos from April (and yes, we were still in our winter coats in APRIL). 

I am grateful for children who make the most of boring trips to the mall and enjoy the little vehicle section. None of us are shoppers, so it makes a world of difference that the kids are so positive about being there (it helps that we keep our shopping trips short and infrequent so these things really are a novelty). 

Milayla is pretty comfortable behind the wheel, even with an eery Mickey riding in the backseat. 

 In hopes of Spring we bough some new shades and had way more fun trying them on than most people probably do.

I've started up vocal lessons in a building with the craziest identity crisis I have yet to see. The exterior is in the original, rather ornate gothic style (not completely sure if it dates accurately back to the 15th century, but I know the surrounding buildings do). The stairway and hallway all look like they were renovated in the 70's complete with deep brown tiling on the floors - and walls. Then you step through the doorway into this white abyss. The sensation of walking through that doorway almost feels like you are falling. Crazy. Seriously. Fun acoustics though.

 The sun has been shining enough to get in some serious play time and the park. Thankfully, as I am writing this, I can confidently say that all of our winter gear has been packed away - spring is here :). Of course, in Bremen that means I have also brought out the kids' rain boots, mud pants and rain coats - but hey, with happy, sunny days and no more freezing temperatures - I'll take it!

Which brings me to rainy days. They happen, a lot. And since we bike around to get places, it isn't always as simple as heading to something indoors (like the museum). It does mean that we have plenty of fun doing Mommy School, running experiments, and taking funny pictures/video to send to Daddy at work during out free-play time.

And, of course, there are plenty of trips to the library. I'm kind of in love with how much the kids enjoy the library. And I love getting to watch the puppet shows that they put on there. Sorry that the pictures are a little blurry, these puppet shows are pretty high-energy.

And, last but certainly not least, the kids wanted me to make sure that I put on pictures of a few of the crafts they did to kick off Spring (and Easter, in this case). They were pretty anxious to make sure that the Grandparents got to see their awesome colouring AND cutting. So be sure to 'oohhh' and 'ahhh' because these kids put some hard work into their crafts.

I have a few more on my phone, but those are going to have to wait for another day because I have a sick little girl that I get to cuddle the afternoon away with (and that is infinitely more important). 

Birthday Girl!

Milayla turns 2 today. How did that happen? 

Hard to believe it has already been 2 years since she first entered the world.

 She is pretty excited about it though, and so are we because it is a celebration of having her in our family, and that is something that we consider a great blessing. And we love her so much!

While it is definitely not possible to pack how much we love this little girl of ours into just one itty-bitty blog post but I'm pretty sure between all the nonstop hugs, kisses, time together and hearing how much we love her that she gets the point. And I hope she never forgets that point.

This last year has been an adventure for all of us, especially for Milayla, but that has never dimmed her beaming personality or the joy that emanates from those big blue eyes and beautiful smile of hers.

We have picked out some family activities to do with Milayla that we are pretty sure she is going to love (will post pictures later), so while we are off showering the birthday girl in attention you can enjoy reading 10 (of the MANY) reasons that we love Milayla.

1. She is incredibly sweet. There really is no way to describe her sweetness that will do it justice.

2. She has a massive amount of determination packed into her little toddler-sized body. 'Where there is a will there is a way' seems to be the motto with which she attacks tasks that are just slightly out of her current abilities. And I love that she keeps trying until she gets it!

3. She is helpful. She has just hit the 'cleaning phase' and I hope it never ends. When the time comes for chores she grabs her cleaning cloth and gets to work (without even needing to be asked). And when we tell her that it is meal time she marches on over to the kitchen and starts helping with the plates and place mats. It's wonderful!

4. She loves music and is creative. Dancing, conducting music, playing the piano, bedtime songs with Mommy, action songs, family singing, music at church; any time with music puts a smile on her face. It's great!

5. She holds her ground. Perhaps this is just the Momma in me overanalyzing simple situations, but Milayla seems to have a knack for knowing when to hold her ground and when to just walk away.

6. She is affectionate and thoughtful. Hugs, kisses and cuddles from her are absolutely lovely. And when she whips up salads or smoothies in the play kitchen she always offers them to others first. And bedtime cuddles for the reading of her favorite book (which is 'More More More' at the moment) are a favorite thing around here.

7. She shares. Snacks, toys and hugs are meant to be shared, right?

8. Those eyes and that smile. Man, do they ever sparkle and light up a room.

9. Her outgoing nature. While she does know when to stay close to Mommy or Daddy, she has no issue heading into a room with new kids and making friends.

10. She's smart. She makes connections between objects easily. She has been using her baby sign language to answer more complicated questions.

Bonus: She's just awesome!

I could really keep going, but what it all comes down to in the end is that we are just crazy about this girl and are blessed to have her in our nutty little family. She's incredible and we LOVE HER!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MILAYLA!

Atticus & Milayla update

Okay, so iPhone is not exactly the best way to capture life's wondrous little moments, but often times when I want to snap a photo to help preserve the moment, my camera is much further away than my phone and I would not want to miss the moment for the sake of having my camera. That makes sense, right? 

Well, when it comes to these kiddos, life is full of moments that I wish I could capture on camera all the time. The other downside to using the phone...blurry children. They just move too quickly :).

But I did manage to capture (to some degree) when they decided that Atticus was going to wash Milayla's hair in the bath. They were both pretty excited about the idea. Check out those big, blurry, smiles.

It was when Atticus started demonstrating how he was going to wash her hair that Milayla started to look like she was having second thoughts.

But they went forward with their plans anyway and Milayla took it all in a very patient, cheerful, stride.

As successful as the hair washing was, I think it turned out to be a one-time-only kind of deal especially considering that Atticus has declared that he is much too big a boy for baths and would like to only shower now. Keep in mind, he's only three. Pretty sure he's turning 14 in June and not the alleged 4.

And then there is the fuzzy picture of my closest. This is where I would find the kids running off to so that they could stash all the lovely things that they thought Daddy would enjoy for his birthday. They put some of their favorite toys and books in there, I was so impressed that they were able to go without them for over 2 weeks while they waited for Daddy's birthday.

And then, if you can believe it, I actually captured a couple photos on a real camera. Like this one of Milayla taking off with Daddy's shoes. She loves trying on everyone's shoes but I think it has more to do with the idea of heading outside than it does with the shoes.

And I snapped a quick photo of these two kiddos when they went on their "train ride". Milayla looks really impressed, doesn't she? Atticus had tried to explain the idea of facing forward to her, which did not go over too well.

I really need to have my camera out more, but I feel like it hinders my ability to be truly present with the kids, hence why the convenience of the phone is so much easier. I guess it's all about balance. At least I caught a few moments and I know the rest of those moments are stored away in a special spot of my memory somewhere :).

2013 April General Conference

We like counting down to things around here. It just adds that extra aspect of anticipation that makes a world of difference when trying to get little kids excitement about an upcoming event. Visuals work wonders! Typically, we do a little more comprehensive of a countdown to General Conference, but with Jason's Birthday, Easter and Conference happening on consecutive weekends I did not want the count downs to overlap and just get confusing. So a nice, 5 evening countdown it was.

I picked 5 different talks from October General Conference that stood out to me. Restudied them. High lighted things I felt were applicable for us and put them on little coloured cards with a small illustration that I felt would be a good cue for the talk (and a good little visual for the kids).  I'm certainly not an artist, yet my little doodles seemed to do the trick. So, with the talk summaries tucked away in numbered envelopes I hung them on the wall next to the dinner table with the pictures of the general authorities underneath it. And each night, at dinner time (since dinner time affords us some pretty undivided attention from the kiddos so we use it as best we can), we would take a look at the next talk and find the picture of the person who said those wonderful things. The whole thing went brilliantly. The kids loved it and even retained some of those little pearls of wisdom, not to mention it was an awesome review for us adults :). 

When General Conference rolled around, the kids each had a little General Conference notebook, and a couple coloring pages from the Friend. I know some families do things a little more elaborate but just a couple things that promoted listening seemed to do the trick for us here. In the end, Milayla spent nearing every song conducting and most of the talks trying to find the corresponding picture on the paper on the wall.  

I recorded a video of Milayla conducting because we happen to think it is one of the sweetest things ever. She loves music. She tinkers away on any instrument that she gets her little fingers on and it's not just banging away; she tries to be quite deliberate about it. In any case, hopefully I can figure out how to upload the video (though shortening it may be asking a bit much...) 

(I FIGURED IT OUT! Yay! I love the faces she makes.)

As for Atticus, he loved listening for key words in each talk and drawing the speakers. 

Because of the time difference between here and Salt Lake City, the kids needed to head to bed on Sunday night before they got to hear President Monson speak and they were pretty sad about that, but I think the anticipation made it even better for them. They both sat through President Monson's entire address - now, that was a blessing :)!

Now, typically we would be busy making cinnamon buns amidst all these conference sessions, but not this go around. We simplified (something we've been trying to do a lot around here). Jason found a Gelateria not too far from us that makes Sorbet with only fruit and water and pitched the idea that we celebrate conference by going for ice cream. It was an easy sell; a treat we could all eat, an outing as a family, and an opportunity to talk a little bit about conference. Yes, please!

We didn't tell the kids where we were going beforehand, so they were pretty anxious to find out. Atticus was just excited that he was going to get to bike down there. He is getting so good on his Laufrad and has been pointing out to us nearly every time he gets on his bike that he is good enough for pedals. Perhaps there is a new bike in his future, his birthday is coming up...

Milayla went in the stroller, though she would have preferred to walk - or to ride a bike. She is just anxious to get on a bike and get moving. She is going to be one happy girl when her birthday rolls around...

In the meantime, she is pretty patient and makes the most of the stroller when we are traveling a little too far for her to walk. 

And after a very looooooong journey (according to Atticus), we made it. I don't know what kind of machine they use to make blueberries and water taste so delicious, but I love it. 

Milayla was not too pleased about the ice cream. We really never have it around here (though she is quite fond of green smoothies!) and I think she was a little surprised at how cold it is. 

 Certainly no problems or complaints from these boys though.

While enjoying our treat we each talked about our favorite parts of conference. The kids picked the music - big surprise ;). Though, Atticus went on and on about how we got to watch President Monson just like when we saw him in person! So perhaps that was his second favorite part; watching and listening to President Monson. I know I feel pretty blessed to listen to the words of a living prophet and to have the technology at our fingertips that allows us to hear those words no matter where we are living. I am so grateful for that. And I am so grateful that conference is every 6 months. I never quite realize just how much I need it until I have an entire weekend packed full of inspiring and uplifting talks that help me to be a better person, wife and mother. 

And with our ice cream complete (and our insides sufficiently frozen), we snapped one more picture and continued our conversation on the way home. Jason and I always seem to come up with lots of wonderful ways to enrich our marriage and our family that we fine tune and put into action. We're definitely not the best about putting them into action, but we're trying and getting better at it!

Yes, we are siting outside, bundled up and eating ice cream. We felt sufficiently crazy Canadian while doing it. Though, I think our Canadian friends and family would laugh at us if they knew we bundled up like this and it was above 0 degrees Celsius.  

 And of course, upon arriving home Milayla had to make it up all three flights of stairs on her own. Her determination is adorable. It doesn't matter how she has to get up those stairs, she is making it up them and will conquer them. She is pretty good at walking up the first couple flights, but the third one sometimes ends up more of a crawl. Particularly sweet is that he big brother stands at the top of the stairs cheering her on. Making it up all those steps is a BIG accomplishment and we are pretty proud of her.

 And then another conference weekend had come and gone. We've set a plan forward to do better at reviewing conference talks this go around. Jason and I will be rewatching and relistening to them in the coming weeks and talking about them more. Then we are planning on having more family home evening lessons focusing on conference talks that we feel would be good for our family to learn about together. I'm excited. So much goodness! I love the gospel.

Easter Weekend - Monday

You know those days where things work out so unbelievably perfect that you know your choices for what you did that day were guided by a source far greater than your own? I wish we had more of them. I wish I had the inner stillness requisite to feel those inner promptings all day, every day. I'm not there yet, but I am working on it. When we were trying to plan our Easter weekend, I was pretty stumped when following through on our tradition of heading to the Keukenhof gardens in Holland did not feel right. I wanted to push forward, but I didn't and I am so glad that I listened to that feeling of needing to stay here. The result was a wonderfully harmonious, pleasant, memorable, friend-filled Easter weekend that I know the kids enjoyed every minute of, and so did we. 

Easter Monday was the perfect way to wrap up the weekend. It could not have gone better. The sun was shining, the kids were enthusiastic and excited about the surprise outing and we were all well-rested (which feels like a rarity some days around here..). 

Since we weren't going to be in the Keukenhof gardens in Holland we still wanted to keep with the tradition of being in a garden so we headed to the Rhododendron park here in Bremen. 

Of course, the flowers weren't quite in full bloom there, which was fine with us since we had figured that would be the case and planned to visit the Botanika indoor gardens that are nestled within the Rhododendron park.

The kids (and us) were pleasantly surprised when they learned that there were chocolate eggs hidden throughout the garden that they could find. So with baskets in hand, we set out to explore the lovely flowers. 

They even had some animals that we could visit! Bunnies, hens, roosters and even tiny, freshly born baby chicks. What a great chance to talk to the kids about new life!

The kids loved visiting the animals. And we loved the amazement on their little faces.

Though, that said, neither of the children were particularly keen on petting the bunny.

Jason did though :).

Atticus was more concerned with celebrating his success of finding the first chocolate egg. Yep, he's pretty excited.

The flowers inside were stunning. Atticus asked about the types of flowers and Milayla loved finding out the different colours of each flower.

They had the place set up in a nice, adventure sort of way like we were exploring the lands that these flowers come from. Anyone up for heading to Burma?

What about Mt. Kinabalu?

Since this was our first time visiting the Botanika, we really didn't know what to expect and were really excited to discover that they had other features that made it feel like it was partially a museum as well. The details in all the displays were lots of fun to discover. It gave us a few opportunities to talk to the kids about different countries, cultures and religions. So fun!

Pretty sure that we explored every nook and cranny of that place.

And just when we thought we were done it turns out that there was a wonderful little science centre/museum building to finish it all off. It was perfect, with lots of interactive learning centres. And when it was all said and done, Atticus could not resist asking for a rolled coin with flowers on it. He is starting quite the little collection of coins from places we have visited.

Milayla was pretty content to keep exploring while Atticus rolled his coin. I love watching Milayla run around, it is so cute. 

Before we headed off we sat down with the kids for a few minutes and talked about why being in a garden on Easter weekend can remind us of the Saviour. It was a nice, little chat.

And with that we were headed back to the bikes (snacks in hand) for a sunny ride home.

I really cannot emphasize enough how much we enjoyed this outing or the rest of our Easter weekend. It was special for us, yet nothing over the top or too complicated. The kids really enjoyed it and were able to grasp more about the spiritual aspect of Easter as they learned about Jesus and we were even able to share it all with friends. I'm so grateful we listened to that gentle prompting to change our plans from the usual outings this year, because what resulted was an Easter experience perfect for our family and has us all feeling a little bit closer to our Saviour and looking forward to next year. I love Easter. And, most importantly, I love my Saviour.