Wow what a wonderful and full weekend we had around these parts. Much of it is thanks to our church, which I can honestly say now feels almost like family. They had events Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Really though we did a lot of relaxing and enjoying each other at a slow pace. I’m a big believer in doing that once in awhile, not needing to fill the time with busy-ness.
Friday the kids had off school so we didn’t do much other than go to the YMCA so I could get a quick 3 mile run in. It’s getting very hot and humid outside so I opted for the treadmill, but I really dislike running for that long without getting anywhere. I start out a bit faster, which is good, but I get bored quickly and that affects my stamina. I might need to try running outside this week just to condition myself to the heat a bit more.
The evening brought a very powerful church service. John and Lori sang Beautiful Scandalous Night, a favorite of mine, and What Have We Done, by Mars Hill Seattle worship leader Joe Day. It was hard hitting and perfect for the evening. Then Pastor Jerry walked us through the events of Holy Week in dramatic fashion.
Saturday morning I was feeling photographically inclined, so I took the boys to a local nature trail, cameras in hand. They love taking pictures, each with their own camera. We searched for alligators but only found turtles, and I had a painful run-in with a bunch of fireants. I am an idiot for not wearing sneakers. The point of the adventure was to leave Mike at home in peace, during which he skillfully knocked out a 3200 word article for his We Are Penn State annual preview.
In the afternoon we headed back to church for the annual community egg hunt, with 10,000 eggs and a ton of kids and parents. Nathan was pleasantly surprised when his best buddy from school showed up, and I’m happy his family decided to stay for the kids Easter program after the hunt. That was fantastic, with an original script written by my friend Vanessa and amazing acting by another friend, Adam. There was also music, sung by John with dancers encouraging crowd participation. I think I enjoyed it more than even my kids did. I shot some video and you can catch the closing number (which has been stuck in my head all day) here.
Then of course there was Resurrection Sunday, when my boys woke us up at 6am sharp to see what the Easter bunny had left them. I dressed quickly and headed to church solo to serve in the baby nursery for our 7:30 service, but it turned out we only had one baby so they let me go and I sat through the service twice…once by myself and once with Mike. I don’t mind, I could sing praise to Jesus all day long, and the sermon was pretty good too. I actually wrote a piece of a song during the first service, inspired in part by the message, which is cool because I’ve been wanting to write music for a long time now and this is the second song in a month. It’s not done yet, but it’s progress.
Most of the day today we literally chillaxed. My grandparents came over for a yummy ham dinner and I managed to get a little video of them chatting about their childhoods for posterity. They’ve known each other since they were five years old and now they are 91. They’ll head up to their house in Boston for the summer in just a few weeks so we are enjoying their time with us now.
If you’re still reading this…thanks! Sometimes I just feel the need to capture memories like this weekend before they disappear.
So how was YOUR weekend?
sounds like a great weekend! The boys are SO adorable!
Hillary
That is a GREAT picture of your boys all dressed up! It’s great to hear that you church feels close to family now, that’s something that I missed for a LONG time!
Our weekend was pretty laid back, church on Thursday, Friday and Sunday, dinner with the family on Saturday and NOTHING but church yesterday!
Thanks Hillary!!
Thanks Heather. Yeah we’ve been here in Houston and at our current church almost 3 years now. It’s taken awhile, and it’s a pretty big church, but I like it a lot.
I love laid back holidays.