Resurrection Sunday/Easter Day!

I stepped outside at sunrise this Easter morning, and this is what I saw...a golden sun rising in the east...

I changed the cloth on the cross from the purple robe to the white robe, and added the sign that says

"Alleluia, Jesus Lives!"

This song was in my heart to sing out loud:

Low in the grave He lay

Jesus my Savior!

Waiting the coming day

Jesus my Lord!

Up from the grave He arose

With a mighty triumph o'er His foes

He arose a Victor from the dark domain

And He lives forever with His saints to reign

He arose! (He arose)

He arose! (He arose)

Hallelujah! Christ arose!

Vainly they watch His bed

Jesus, my Savior!

Vainly they seal the dead

Jesus my Lord!

Up from the grave He arose

With a mighty triumph o'er His foes

He arose a Victor from the dark domain

And He lives forever with His saints to reign

He arose! (He arose)

He arose! (He arose)

Hallelujah! Christ arose!

Death cannot keep his prey

Jesus, my Savior!

He tore the bars away

Jesus my Lord!

Up from the grave He arose

With a mighty triumph o'er His foes

He arose a Victor from the dark domain

And He lives forever with His saints to reign

He arose! (He arose)

He arose! (He arose)

Hallelujah! Christ arose!

I was hoping we would sing this in church today, but it was not one of the hymns chosen. However, these same words were actually sung in one of the songs our choir sang in the cantata, "Redeeming Love Has Been My Theme"...you can listen to the whole program right here if you would like:

This was recorded at our dress rehearsal earlier in the week.  I think all things considered we did a pretty good job and I pray that God was glorified in this presentation of His Word in song. We had a packed house this morning at church...a very glorious and lovely Resurrection Day!  

I hope you have had a wonderful Easter day with your loved ones and/or your church, or however you choose to celebrate the day. We had a quiet day today after church because we actually celebrated with our family yesterday (Saturday).  Our daughter in law Rose had to go to work today right after church, so it was best to have our dinner yesterday.  Here's some pictures from our family celebration:

This little Easter decoration was actually one of those foam art kits from Dollar General. Rose put it in my Easter basket, and she and I had fun putting it together. Isn't it cute?  I love it!

We had a delicious ham dinner...the ham was cooked by Rose, along with the deviled eggs. I made the scalloped potatoes au gratin, peas and carrots, and bought the Hawaiian Rolls. It all turned out great.

For dessert we had this "Bunny Cake", a.k.a. an Oatmeal Cake.  HERE is a link to a post that has the recipe for this delicious cake!

Of course, if you've been around me for a while, you know that our family tradition (ever since I was a little girl) is to hunt for our Easter Baskets! No, not just the Easter eggs, but the whole basket!  It's a lot of fun that our grown up kids look forward to every year! They would be really disappointed if this was left out of our Easter celebration!

And true to course, Rose found her basket first! She has a real knack for searching these things out no matter how difficult the hiding place...

Next came Scott finding his basket...

And finally Benton found his.  It was all good fun and lots of laughs.

And this year Benton and Rose turned the tables on us and hid baskets for hubby and me too:

Hubby found his right away

And then I found mine.  They had packed them full of fun things and games...and no candy 'cause they know we can't really eat candy...so they were very thoughtful of us old folks!

After dinner and basket searches, we went outside and did our annual family picture:

Son Scott is good at setting the timer thingy on my cell phone camera and then running into place before the picture snaps...that's why he looks so excited...he had just run and jumped into place really fast!  Oh, do you see our sweet grandpups? Benton is holding Sugar and Rose is holding Spice. We couldn't leave them out of the family portrait!

Now do you remember the other day when I told you about some surprises?  Remember Lily Grace had received a lovely package in the mail with a beautiful yellow parasol for Easter? She was so excited to get that sweet gift and has had such fun with it!

Well, this week brought her another special surprise!  One of the ladies in our church, who happens to be a snow bird and only here for a few months, told me last week that she loves to make doll clothes and she asked me what size my doll was that she has seen on my blogs and Facebook page. I told her that she's a 14" doll. She asked if there was anything she needed, and I jokingly said that she needed a new Easter Dress since the one she was wearing is several years old and she's "outgrowing it." Of course, I never expected anything more to come of it, because I know this lady is getting ready to go back north in a few weeks and their time here is short and busy.  Can you imagine my surprise this past Friday night before the Good Friday service when she dropped a bag in my lap and disappeared quickly before I could look inside or say anything.  When I looked inside the bag, there was this absolutely perfect little Easter Dress and Jacket made to fit Lily Grace! I was so amazed I had to go find the lady and hug her and tell her how surprised and thankful I was. She was like, "Oh, it's nothing! I just wanted to do it!"  My goodness...this would've taken me a month to figure out! LOL. Look at this darling outfit:

Here's Lily Grace modeling her new dress and jacket.  Isn't it just adorable?  Oh, and her yellow parasol goes very nicely with this dress as well!!

Of course, Lily Grace was just ecstatic and had to write a note to the lady right away to thank her. I think the lady thinks I'm a little bit kooky, but hey! She must be just a little bit kooky too, because it was her idea!  Anyway, I love all the special friends that Lily Grace has attracted over the past three years that's she's been here with us.  She hasn't been writing her own blog for a little while, but maybe we just need to get back to doing it, because there really is something very special about her, don't you agree?

Oh, another follow up to the story about the beautiful red flower that suddenly appeared in our yard...Yesterday I was in the yard with Scott looking at some little magnolia trees that are sprouting up in places where they need to be moved from before they get too big, and I was showing him the flower too, and our neighbor lady was over in her yard on the other side of the fence, so I called her over to the fence and showed her the flower and asked her if she had ever seen one like it before. She said that yes, she actually has some in her yard, and apparently this one must have "migrated" under the fence or squirrels planted some of the seeds from it or something. These flowers have bulbs, and they do have a tendency to spread underground, so that must be what happened!  Here is how it looks today:

It has more buds getting ready to open up and bloom!  It really is a beautiful flower and quite a fun surprise, but at least the mystery has been solved! Still, it's a blessing from God especially for Easter!!

Here's a couple of the small magnolia trees that are sprouting up and need to be moved. There are more if you want to come dig them up and move them to your house! Just let me know when you are coming and I'll put the tea kettle on!

Today after church hubby and I came home and before we changed our clothes to fix a quick leftover lunch  and take a much needed nap, I said we need to take a "selfie" of us in our Easter outfits.  Well, I guess we didn't figure out how to get much of our clothes in the picture, but we have our smiling faces for you to see. LOL>

 Since we couldn't figure out how to do a selfie of both of us with more than just our faces showing, hubby took a picture of me in my new Easter dress that I bought last week at Beall's Outlet for around $10.00 after all the discounts. It was comfy and cool under our choir robes, which of course I had to wear for the whole service, so there really wasn't much point in having a new dress, but it still felt nice and wasn't too hot, which was key.

So now we have come to the end of this beautiful Resurrection Day, and some may be wondering, like the Disciples of old wondered, "What's next?"    After Jesus had shown Himself to them, some were fearful, others doubted, and mostly they worshiped Him and wanted Him to stay...but here's what He told them before He ascended back up into heaven:  (Matthew 28:18-20)

18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 

20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” 

Amen.

This passage has come to be known as "The Great Commission", giving believers everywhere instructions for what we are to be doing until Christ returns again....Go and make disciples, baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all things that He, Jesus, has commanded us...  Just because Resurrection Sunday is over doesn't let us off the hook for another year...we have our work cut out for us...there are still many lost souls out there who do not know Jesus or believe in Him as Savior and Lord.  I do believe that Jesus is coming back soon to take us, His Bride, the Church, up to heaven with Him...and we need to be ready to go at any moment. The signs of the times are everywhere you look...so let us spread the Good News everywhere...He is Alive!

May God bless you and yours in this joyous Easter season. Good night friends!

Friday Foto Friends: Good Friday and a couple of surprises!

 It's Good Friday, the day we remember the great sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for us for our salvation. There's more about that further down in this post, but right now I want to share with you a couple of nice surprises from yesterday!

Last evening our "kids" came over and we had an impromptu supper of chicken quesadillas with black beans, refried beans, salsa, sour cream...you know..."the works".  It was spontaneous and fun...they popped in and said "what's for supper?", and one thing led to another, and we had such a good time. And yes, the grandpups came along for the fun too.  After supper Rose was taking the pups out for a walk and she called me outside to see something that I had not ever seen before in my yard:

Way over beside the fence that separates our property from our neighbor was this gorgeous red flower blooming!  We have lived here almost 5 years, and this is the first time I've ever seen this flower in this yard!  I did not plant it. It has never popped up before!  

At first I thought Rose was playing a trick on me and that she had snuck this flower in and set it over there when I wasn't looking, but she said no, she did not do that.  Then I wondered if my neighbor had planted it at sometime when I wasn't looking, but then I thought, no, she wouldn't have done that, as there is a fence there between us.

I really was at a loss for words, because when we moved to this house there were NO flowering plants or shrubs growing anywhere in the yard.  The former owners used this home as a vacation home and did not do any kind of gardening or yard improvements in all the years they had owned it.

But there this beautiful red flower was blooming, just in time for Easter!  At first glance we thought it was an Amaryllis, but on closer look I realized it was different from the Amaryllis.  So I looked it up on my handy dandy "Google Lens" on my cell phone.  And here is what it says it is: 

Hippeastrum "Hippeastrum (/ˌhɪpiːˈæstrəm/)^[17] is a genus of about 90 species, and over 600 hybrids and cultivars, of perennial, herbaceous and bulbous plants, native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas, from Mexico south to Argentina and on some islands in the Caribbean.  Hippeastrum is a genus in the family Amaryllidaceae (subfamily Amaryllidoideae, tribe Hippeastreae, and subtribe Hippeastrinae).^[18] For many years, there has been confusion among botanists, as well as collectors and the general public, over the generic names Amaryllis and Hippeastrum; the former is a South African genus of plants, while the latter is a new world genus. However, the common name "amaryllis" has been used for Hippeastrum for years, especially for the ornamental cultivars (sold as indoor flowering bulbs around November and December, for Christmas, in the Northern Hemisphere). Within the genus Hippeastrum exist many epiphytic species, as well, which may be found living in natural debris and leaf litter on the crooks of tree branches; by comparison, Amaryllis is a primarily terrestrial, southern African genus of perennial bulbs."

So there you have probably more information than you ever wanted about this flower! But isn't it amazing how it could suddenly just appear in my yard after living here for almost 5 years with no sign of it?  I'm still scratching my head over that one, but I will accept it as an Easter gift from God.  I especially appreciate it because my own Amaryllis plants did not bloom this year. They are some that I have planted and they are way over on the other side of the yard, far away from this plant, so they could not have spread over there.  'Tis a mystery, but I love this kind of mystery and surprise, don't you?

The next surprise was that Lily Grace (see link for more about her story) received a surprise package in the mail from her "Auntie Debbi and cousins Tracie and Amybelle" up in South Carolina. And along with some sweet pictures and an Easter card was this sweet little yellow umbrella (or "parasol"?) for Lily!

Her Auntie Debbi is always full of fun surprises and this was certainly one of them!

If you don't know the story, "Auntie Debbi" is the sweet friend who sent Lily Grace to me in the first place, and we've had so much fun together ever since.  And "Auntie Debbi" has become a very dear and friend, who is also a blogging friend, btw.  You can read more about her at her blog HERE, at Debbi's Front Porch". We also have met in person and had the greatest time together.  Blogging friends are the best!!!

So now on to the real story of this solemn day. This next part is a repost of what I wrote back for Good Friday in 2017.  The story is still the same throughout all the ages...so please come back with me as we remember what Jesus did for us over 2000 years ago at Calvary:

Original Post from Good Friday, 2017:

It's Good Friday...and all day I've struggled with what to write.  

The cross of Christ is where my mind and heart have been.  

This is the day that we remember Christ's crucifixion upon the cross...how He suffered and died to save us from our sins and give us eternal life.

These pictures are of the floating cross at the 

Warren W. Willis Youth Camp in Fruitland Park, Florida.

It was at this very cross that I fully surrendered my heart and life to the Lord as a teenager,

and committed myself to serve Him all the rest of the days of my life.

The hymn, "At The Cross", by Isaac Watts says it best.  

1. Alas! and did my Savior bleed
   And did my Sov’reign die?
   Would He devote that sacred head
   For such a worm as I?
2. 
   

Refrain :

At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,

And the burden of my heart rolled away,

It was there by faith I received my sight,

And now I am happy all the day!

1. Was it for crimes that I had done
   He groaned upon the tree?
   Amazing pity! grace unknown!
   And love beyond degree!
2. 
   

1. Well might the sun in darkness hide
   And shut his glories in,
   When Christ, the mighty Maker died,
   For man the creature’s sin.
2. 
   
   
3. Thus might I hide my blushing face
   While His dear cross appears,
   Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
   And melt my eyes to tears.

4. 

   Photo via https://www.facebook.com/pg/warrenwilliscmp/photos/?ref=page_internal

   
   
5. But drops of grief can ne’er repay
   The debt of love I owe:
   Here, Lord, I give myself away,
   ’Tis all that I can do.

   • 

     Photo via https://www.facebook.com/pg/warrenwilliscmp/photos/?ref=page_internal

     
     
   • Refrain :
     At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,
     And the burden of my heart rolled away,
     It was there by faith I received my sight,
     And now I am happy all the day!

Remember friends, It may be Good Friday today...but rejoice! Easter's coming!!!   Praise God!!  May your Easter be filled with joy and  many blessings.  

Update: I added this video below on 4/3/18, which is a video of this same cross, with the sun rising behind it on Easter Morning, 4/1/18.  Since this link comes from Facebook, I'm not sure if everyone can open it...but it is worth a try. I wanted to preserve it here with these other pictures of the same cross.  I did not take this video...it came from the camp website.

https://www.facebook.com/warrenwilliscmp/videos/10155449541667405/

Wednesday Treasures~Easter is Coming!

We started out this week with Palm Sunday...

This photo was actually from a couple of years ago. I did put out our cross with palm branches again this past Sunday morning, but it was still too dark in the morning when I cut the palms and put them on the cross before church, so I couldn't take any pictures. And then when we got home from church it had been so windy that the palms had blown away and it was still too windy and cloudy for pictures, so this one is much better.

And this is our cross decoration inside.  The little palm cross at the top was what we received in church on Palm Sunday.  I will place this crown of thorns on our outdoor cross on Good Friday.

This cross is in the narthex of our church, draped in black in preparation for the Good Friday Service.

Our choir will be singing a song at the end of the service called: "When Hope Fell Silent".

If you would like to listen to this very moving and deep song, here is an audio video of the music and words.  It is very powerful.

We had another pop up rain storm today, and again the mother Sand Hill Crane dropped to the ground and her baby chicks (colts) ran to shelter under her wings...

We read this verse on Sunday when talking about Jesus entering Jerusalem in preparation for the Passover week, and in one place it says He wept over Jerusalem.  In another scripture this is what He says:

Matthew 23:37 NKJV

37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!

When the Pastor read that verse, I couldn't help but visualize this mother Crane and her babies doing exactly that.  What a beautiful picture of what Christ wants to do not only for Jerusalem, bur for all of mankind.  This is what Easter is really all about. Christ coming to rescue and save us from our sins. May we continue to remember this picture in our hearts as we go through the rest of this Holy Week.

Meanwhile, I know this is a big gear switch, but then again, Easter is also about new life and renewal and hope.   And we humans like to decorate our homes for Easter with happy Easter bunnies and other signs of spring and new life.  Here are my Easter bunnies, collected over the years for each family member.

I finally got around to decorating with more of a springtime look here and there...

Happy Bunnies on swings and little fairies and birds make us smile and rejoice in the joy of the resurrection and new life that Easter brings because Jesus overcame death and lives forever!

Our immediate family will be having our Easter dinner on Saturday because our DIL Rose has to work on Sunday afternoon at Home Depot. You'd think they'd be closed for Easter!  Sad.

But as far as dinner is concerned, it works better for me since we leave for church on Sunday by 8 a.m. for Sunday School and then our choir is presenting our cantata during the worship service, and to be honest, by the time I've stood for about 40 minutes singing I am worn out and ready for a nap when I get home!  I know there is also a sunrise service in our community at 7 a.m., but this gal just can't quite get her act together for that too!  Getting old isn't for sissies! LOL.

Oh, this is a different picture. I had to share this last piece of St. Patrick's Day decor with you because I just got it the other day...why? Well, it was actually a door prize from our Women in Faith meeting a couple of weeks ago, but I left before they drew my name and so I didn't know that I had won this! It got to sit out a few days before I packed it away until next year.

Lily Grace and her friends are all getting ready for Easter:

Lily is "in the pink" with this cute little pink and white dress and pink shoes. She has her Easter basket all ready and waiting for it to be filled with Easter eggs and treats.

Speaking of new life. and eggs...I guess Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird have finally gotten serious about laying some eggs and sitting on the nest to bring about new life:

I took this series of pictures of Mrs. Bluebird today as she stuck her head out her window to breathe some fresh air and begin her time of waiting while her baby birds develop safely in their eggs in the nest.

I'm not sure if she is smiling at me or telling me to please give her some privacy as she waits...

I think she has a sweet face. I hope these eggs produce a happy brood of new baby bluebirds.

And speaking of new babies...Look at how big our young Sand Hill Crane "colts" are getting already! They are barely a week old and it looks like they've grown about 3 inches taller already!

Mom and Dad are getting more adventurous and taking the youngsters Abe and George closer and closer to the street out in front of our house.

Although this makes me nervous, I promise not to interfere with their parenting.  They know what they are doing.

I don't think they crossed the road just yet, but it won't be long and then they will be taking them to explore many different places in our neighborhood in search of more good food.

Interestingly, This Canada Goose pair also stayed out in the front yard and beside the road all day long. They are so funny. They are like hovering Aunts and Uncles, keeping a close watch on the activities of the Sand Hill Crane family as if they had something to say about what they do and where they go!

They were the official greeters in the neighborhood today!  Our friend Pamela came by for a quick visit, and they stayed right in our yard and welcomed her.  Speaking of which, Pamela has now sold her home here and is packing things up to move back up north by the end of next week.  We are going to be sad to see her go, but she knows it is time for her to go back to her home roots and closer to her own family. On Sunday after church a group of us took her out to eat at our local "Hog Wild Country Cafe'"

(Pamela is the one with the bright orange scarf around her head. She's always so colorful and full of fun!)

We had a great lunch together, even if it was a bit chilly and windy on the back screened porch of the restaurant, the only place they could accommodate our large group together...

Thankfully they did have some big heaters that they turned on for us as it was a much cooler day than expected. But we warmed up once we got talking and eating.

It was a great time, and I know Pamela enjoyed it.  We are really going to miss her here.

Well friends, it's time to close for tonight. I hope you and your family have a blessed Easter in some special way.  

See you again soon.