pictures, outtakes, eggs, and the color orange.

Where did the weekend go, my friends? I think, perhaps, I am just a bit more tired now then before the weekend began. We've been busy, and celebrating Easter, and spending beautiful time with family. Family is absolutely critical to who we are -- it's bonds, life, connections, and importance.

So today, I'm sharing with you my sweet and most favorite moments from our Easter weekend.

1. Easter Egg Dye 2012. Every year we make a big deal out of dyeing our eggs. And, sigh, every year, I go through those moments of thinking if we're going to really go through with dyeing the eggs -- the mess, the clean-up, the work, and yet, by the time it's done I'm absolutely grateful for those moments spent with messy hands, spilled colors, broken eggs, laughs, and joy. My table covering? Brown postal paper - we write the year and get autographs - and then easy clean up.

2. Samuel loves orange. He went way beyond his seven egg quota and was seen wandering around, grabbing other siblings' eggs and quickly, and not very quietly dunking {but rather dropping} those loan eggs into our very bright orange dye. Ah, yes, those hands of his? Rather orange...

3. 5 Dozen Eggs. 60 total hit the water. 56 were dunked in color. {We might have just tested several before} All together they make a beautiful spectrum of color. This morning? We have 2.5 dozen eggs left. Breakfast has been way too easy the last two days -- could I have an egg mom? Absolutely yes!

4. Organized eggs. Yes, I organized  our eggs by color as they went back in the boxes.

5. Family Pictures. I tried this year, again to capture some pics of all seven of my kids looking together at me and smiling. Not going to happen. In fact, that is an incredible task to get them to all line up, smile, not wiggle, and look at me. I am way impressed with those photographers of the past who could get those whole families {of course they aren't smiling because they had to stand there} to take pics. See exhibit a {pictured below} why taking pictures was a bit challenging.

6. Brothers. My oldest three boys. I love this picture. It captures who they are. Right now in life.

7. Hannah and Brennan. A classic {and perfect} shot of the older sister sneaking a kiss on her younger eight year old brother. His face? Priceless. Those two have the best relationship -- he loves to write, draw, and make up stories just like she did when she was that size.

8. Elijah {in case I haven't established that point} has a mind of his own. He decided he was done with pictures and began wandering off. Brennan looks like he might be done as well. :)

9. I've decided the girls were not the reason the family pictures didn't turn out perfect. It might have had something to do with the little boys. Case in point? Picture below. This was the first one. And, by the way, the best {at least most posed} of the older boys. :)

10. Some more. Those are my amazing wonderful funny crazy busy life-enjoying fabulous kids. And, oh my, do I love being there mom. More pics will come -- between Hannah and I we estimate we took at least 350 pictures yesterday. Love. :)

And now, it's Monday. And that crew pictured above? Well, they've got history, science, math, and more to do. And me? I'm blessed to be the one to spend time with them, teaching them, laughing with them, reading to them, and just being being there for them.

Enjoy today. Monday, April 9, 2012. It's the only one of today that you will ever get. :)

Also, try to pop over to hiphomeschoolmoms to read my post/interview with my  Hannah about homeschooling the highschooler. Click words from the highschooler.

linking with my lovely inreal life friend carissa. By the way, which pic above was your fave?

Happy Easter

******

to all of you

God's Richest Blessings on your Easter

Alleluia!

Christ is Risen today,

 He is Risen Indeed

Alleluia!

a sneak peek at the eggs

I've been pretty quiet social media wise today. Besides resting {I was up most of the night several nights ago when I was at the hospital with my lovely friend and her sweet baby}, grocery shopping, and cleaning we did our annual Easter Egg Dye. Complete with the Ugly Egg Contest. Yes, yes we do that. Can you guess which 4 eggs were entered? And, sigh, my egg was not the winner...

Here's a sneak peek {via Instagram -- thank you droid for finally getting the app} of our eggs. We started with 5 dozen. Yep, sixty eggs. And ended with 5 dozen minus seven. We had to test them, right? And that Samuel? He was quite partial to orange. So, needless to say, we have a large volume of orange eggs and a little two year old with now very orange fingers. :)

Full post coming. Soon. :)

Do you dye Easter Eggs? And, by the way, next year I'm going to make natural dyes -- a couple of my dear friends tried it this year and I'm so intrigued! Did any of you do that?

Enjoy your Saturday night and have a blessed Easter!

lessons from my children

Walking together.

Sharing life.

Bonds.

Teaching and learning.

Living fully in the moment.

Embracing the now.

Fully.

Vibrant.

Curious.

Joyful.

Determined.

Fighter.

Yes, a fighter.

Cherished.

Snapshot of time.

Beauty in living.

Learning.

Let me watch them.

Understand them, encourage, love.

Let them teach me about joy.

About wonder.

About opportunity.

About life.

Tell me little ones of mine, tell me how you see the world.

I want to remember.

I really want to remember.

Teach me how to get right back up after you fall.

To keep going.

To keep going.

Yes, to keep going.

Moving forward, not looking back.

Full of hope.

Faith.

I want to remember.

Teach me.

What do you learn from your children?

tradition

My family is steeped in tradition.
In fact, I work very hard to instill tradition into our lives.
Because tradition = memories.

One of our traditions? Which was passed down to me from my parents?

The annual Easter Egg Dye.

And I must confess. Every year prior to boiling those eggs I have a moment where I think, "maybe I won't do it this year." And then realities and memories take over. And I take out my grandmother's old pot, fill it with water, and wait while my kitchen begins to fill with steam as the eggs boil away.

The boys were running around, Gracie was taping paper to our table, and I was standing there waiting in the midst of utter chaos. Loving every crazy moment. Watching. Helping. Rejoicing. Grateful. Savoring the tradition.

And so we dyed our eggs. And made a mess.

And it was beautiful. 

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To view the entire photo-journal of our entire egg-dyeing day please visit my daughter Hannah's blog {click - Aspire- } Once there you'll be able to discover exactly how many eggs we dyed -- and then let me know if that amount makes us a tad bit crazy. ;)

Have a joyful and blessed Easter. 

May you rejoice in the glory of our risen Savior! 

Alleluia!!