Easter

The Easter Bunny did not visit our house this year.  He was going to but Mike and I asked him not to come.  Our boys are pretty grateful individuals and always do well at thanking us for things but they are really bad at taking care of the things that belong to them.  It's been pretty frustrating for Mike and me.  We are trying hard to teach them to take better care of the things they are responsible for but still we have such a problem with it.  So we told the boys that the Easter Bunny would not be coming to our home because we didn't feel that the boys had shown us that they cared enough about the things they had.  I was uncertain if that was the right punishment for the behavior but we both felt that we needed to do something serious enough to get through to the boys.  And honestly, we don't do much of the bunny part of Easter anyway.  We color eggs and the boys get to have an Easter egg hunt here at the house and we generally have one basket that the bunny brings.  But I don't really decorate for this holiday, I don't buy them new outfits, and I don't take them to any community Easter egg hunts.  I just want to keep that part all pretty low-key.  So, it wasn't like we were really taking away too much from them.  But anyway, Will prayed that the Easter Bunny would change our mind and would show up anyway.  He was disappointed to find that the Bunny could not persuade us.  We are so mean.  

I boiled some eggs for dinner and Mike let the boys hide those for each other so they still got to do some searching.  And I made these cute nests.  So they still got some of the fun.  Ironically, when we asked them to clean their room we heard a big bang and Isaac came running down the stairs confessing that he had broken Eli's bed.  He had jumped from Will's bed (the top bunk) to Eli's bed (across the room) and broken the bed.  This bed was given to us from my little brother.  He used it for years and then we got it and used it for about eight years.  And now it's broken.  Grr.  At least that was all that was broken and it appears that all Isaac's body parts are still in tact.  But this is just what we were talking about.  We were disappointed that our declaring the Easter Bunny would not be coming today did not encourage more responsible behavior on their part.  

Bird nests

 That said, it was still a good day for most of us (Will threw up after dinner and he declared this the worst Easter ever. Poor guy).  Aside from the bunny part of Easter I wanted to make this Easter more meaningful.  We went to the grave on Saturday and visited Laila, of course, as well as Ashleigh Cox, Isaac Cooper, and Laila's neighbor, Nathan Tuttle.  Then today for dinner I decorated the table with a picture of Laila and lit my lantern.  We talked about how Easter is the holiday we celebrate because of Jesus' sacrifice and resurrection.  We explained the significance of Christ and light and talked about how the earth was completely dark when he died but how he is the source of all light and life.  And then we talked about Laila and how she can be resurrected.  We wondered if the spirits are allowed to come visit their families on Easter (my belief is she is near us more than just Easter but I also believe they are very busy and probably don't just hang out around us all the time).

 After dinner we showed the boys the Easter video Because of Him and then had them write in their journals their feelings about the video.

The night ended with birthday blessings for Eli and Will (we forgot to give him his on his birthday).  I feel sad that it was a bad day for Will but grateful it was an otherwise good day.  Easter has been somewhat of a bittersweet day for me for the last few years.  I am thankful, so thankful for the resurrection and feel a more personal testimony and gratitude for it now that Laila is gone.  But also, I wish she was here, and that I wasn't celebrating getting to see her again.  I'd rather just see her now.  But since I can't, I'm eternally grateful that it isn't the end.  I'm grateful that because of him Piper will get to meet her sister someday (though I believe she probably knows her well and will just forget over time).  I'm grateful that my body will be healed and that I can overcome my weaknesses, all because of him.  It's a sacred holiday.