It's Been a Lovely Easter Weekend

(this is my Easter bunny with his basket of eggs~
he was made by a family friend and given to me when I was 9)

We have had a lot of fun this Easter season! This year is the first in seven years that we have not been on a church staff at Easter. And while there are many rewards that go with that, it makes for a very busy time. Each year afterwards I always think, "well, we didn't have time to...(dye eggs, hunt eggs, do any Easter crafts...etc)". So I think I decided to do it ALL this year since we didn't have extra commitments. And we did try to do it all! lol!

Saturday Vince and the kiddos made a giant egg puzzle by coloring it on foam board and then he cut it into pieces with a hot knife (Vince LOVES to play with syrofoam in case you don't remember the puzzle from Mr. B's birthday last year). The egg puzzle turned out cute and we hid the pieces along with the eggs in the yard today for the egg hunt.

Next on Saturday's agenda was sugar cookie baking! I cheated and used refrigerated Pilsbury cookie dough since I already had some:) We made a huge mess, of course, cutting them out an decorating them, but it was totally worth it!

On Saturday evening we took the kiddos to see an Easter drama at some friends' church. They really enjoyed it and it was a fun family outing. They have been enjoying looking at our resurrection eggs and I think it helped make the story come even more alive for them.

Today was a beautiful day (even though it's pouring outside now). The kids just had to dig into their Easter baskets before leaving for church.

After morning worship we came back home for our Easter dinner (for some reason I always call Sunday's noon meal dinner, even though it's lunch the rest of the week). Our friend Song joined us for the meal. It was so yummy! And I'm not totally bragging on myself because half of it was grilled by Vince:)

Then came the backyard egg hunt. It really took me back to my own childhood egg hunts with all of my cousins in Arkansas. So fun!

The rest of the afternoon and evening was been pretty low-key with way too much candy-eating. ha! I hope you all have had a wonderful day, too.

The Making of an Egyptian Death Mask

We are learning all about the ancient world this year with Story of the World I and loving it! We've been learning a lot about Egypt, of course, which is completely fascinating. Most recently we have studied the New Kingdom of Egypt, which includes the story of King Tut. So we decided making an Egyptian death mask in the style of King Tut's would be a fun project. First since it was too cold at the time to paper mache in the garage (it probably would have frozen instead of dried-ha) and it was too messy to do it in the house, we decided to pick up a couple of cheap craft masks at Hobby Lobby. Next we cut out cardboard shapes to complete the shape of the death mask, attaching them with hot glue. Vince even put a little detail on the *beard* with the hot glue per The Princess' request. Then the kiddos started to paint them with this metallic gold tempera paint. It worked okay for the cardboard, but would not coat the plastic of the mask. We thought maybe a second coat ...

One Way I Refresh During the Summer as a Homeschool Mom

As our homeschool takes some time off this summer, my mind almost never stops thinking of and planning ahead for the upcoming school year. This is probably because I'm Type A and an obsessive planner...lol Whatever the reason, I do enjoy this season of planning. But I also need to be refreshed as a homeschool mom. Homeschooling can be incredibly exhausting and all-consuming. It's not easy and it's a lot of responsibility. And I take that very seriously when I am researching curriculum and planning toward the next school year. So also taking some time to rejuvenate and refocus myself is very important. How do I do this? Each summer I take some time to read something inspiring and motivating that speaks to me as a homeschool mom. Some of my fave reads from past years--that I have nearby on my shelf and refer to often--are Educating the Wholehearted Child, The Well-Trained Mind, The Charlotte Mason Companion, A T...

Door Hanger Chore Charts

My kids have had a chore chart for a while. It's one of those magnetic boards and they share it. However, it's not by their rooms and often they (and I) forget to update it. Plus it's a little bulky. When I saw the concept of a door hanger chore chart on Pinterest, I loved it! It was compact, right there were the kiddos could see it coming out and going into their rooms, and it costs almost nothing to make. I headed over to one of my favorite stores: Hobby Lobby, of course. They have these little wooden door hangers for .79. I also grabbed a couple of packets of decorative buttons for $1.99 each. I already had the clothes pins and the paint so those cost me nothing. I began by painting the door hangers (I used tempera paints because that's what I had). Then I grabbed a fine point Sharpie and the clothes pins and started writing chores on them, making sure to write them correctly so they will ...

my blessed life

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