Hold Me Down

Have you heard the Robbie Seay Band's song "Slow Me Down?" It's a recent favorite of mine and should probably be made my life theme song seeing the pace I've been flying at lately. You can stream it by clicking on the bottom right of the band's website http://www.robbieseayband.com/rich-and-poor/streaming/. If you've never heard it before, listen! I was introduced to it for the first time at our church a month or two ago and it has stuck with me. Or at least a version of it has.

A couple of weeks ago, I was running around the house like a crazy lady, trying to get all of us girls up, showered and dressed and over to Seattle by 9 AM for church where Graham was doing the music. I was closely mimicking a hurricane when I caught myself singing "Hold me down oh Lord hold me down. Help my heart to hear Your sound. Speak in too my life Lord speak now. Hold me down oh Lord hold me down." I knew I hadn't sung the song quite right but it took me a while to figure out what I'd done wrong; I'd replaced the phrase "slow me down" with "hold me down." Honest mistake, I'm sure.

But then over the course of the past 2 weeks, I've found myself singing these incorrect lyrics on numerous occasions, most often when I was attempting to do no less than 5 things at the same time. Then it struck me. Some people need to be slowed down. But some people, some people (ahem- ME), require being held down to truly stop and tune in to what the Lord is doing in their life, to see the gifts and blessings He freely gives. When I first sang these words, I laughed. But then I realized it was no mistake but rather the Lord was speaking to me. I needed to STOP! 

This weekend was wonderful because I did just that. I stopped. I got my first sunburn of 2012. I played with my kids. I talked to my husband. I read a book. I socialized with friends. I celebrated the Sabbath. I didn't grocery shop or run errands or freak out that I hadn't done either of the aforementioned and it was wonderful. This weekend, with temperatures in the 60s, was a gift!

So I'm officially changing the lyrics of this song in my house. I'm giving God full permission to put me in a head lock and tackle me if that's what it takes to get my attention and make me to stop. I need it. "Hold me down oh Lord, hold me down!"

Sunny Saturday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easter 2012

I'm still figuring out what I want Easter to look like for our little family. I wrestled a bit this year, attempting to reconcile the secular (bunnies and eggs and hunts and candy) with the scriptural, Jesus' resurrection, the true reason we celebrate Easter. How we as a culture became so obsessed with all the sugary fluff is beyond me. I mean, why can't everyone do egg hunts and stuff their faces with chocolate on May Day or something? Why Easter? I long to show my girls the real reason we celebrate this day without letting it become watered down by how the world celebrates. Of course, I have no idea how to do this really and so I sort of pressed "pause" on the thought, and decided my girls were still young enough this year to not know the difference. And so now I've bought myself one more year to make a decision. :)

Does anyone else feel this same disparity? Of course, I don't want to be bah humbug about all the fun activities that kids so look forward to although I will admit I threatened to fill the eggs with "only things that bunnies eat" (i.e. lettuce and carrots) this year. But I didn't. I splurged and told my mom we could do raisins and Cheerios and goldfish crackers. :)  Anyway, if you have any brilliant suggestions on how to celebrate, I'm open to hearing them!

All this being said, we had a wonderful day together this year with family, basking in the sun and celebrating together. I'll let the pictures tell the rest!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dyeing Eggs

Dyeing Easter eggs this year was so much fun! Isla was totally into it which made it wonderful experience. Every part of it thrilled her which was fun to watch. She loved lowering the eggs into the water on the spoon "elevator" and then giggled with glee when they would emerge a completely different color. She loved the yellow eggs best (may go hand in hand with her love of Ducky?) Anyway, let me back up a bit. This year, I finally identified that dyeing eggs really stresses me out. I'm serious. I am too much of a perfectionist I guess and there is no perfection when it comes to dyeing eggs. Instead, there lots of asymmetry and eggs that reject color in certain spots for whatever reason. And I don't handle either of those things very well (or at least haven't in the past). Silly, I know, but the first step is admitting it. Anyhow, the beauty this year, was that Isla was did an amazing job and I was freed of the responsibility of making beautiful eggs. Win-win!

 It was Gideon's first year dyeing eggs and he showed us up with his unique technique. Don't judge! He's free-styling! Sometimes he's too cute for words.

 

 Gideon wore one of my Dad's shirts and Isla wore the old shirt that I used to wear to protect my clothes when I was little (probably also my Dad's). Isla overheard me telling Gideon he looked a little like Jesus in his robe and she proceeded to pull down a kid's coloring picture of Jesus from the fridge to show him. :)  Kids are such a joy!