Year 4, April 19th-21st, 2019: Easter Weekend

Friday we finished up school and laid low knowing the weekend was going to be filled with company again.  Because of my mood (see previous post), I hadn't planned much in the way of Easter celebrations, but Leah asked what the kids' favorite candy is at the moment.  I did buy some candy intending to fill eggs, but I don't know when we'll do a hunt because the weather is nasty outside.  Like December weather in Indiana nasty.  We did go to church on Friday night, and the floor/bottom level was full of people! Yeah! Good service, and I didn't cry.  I think I was emotionally spent by that time though.  Then it was home, clean up, play some video games, and get everybody settled down for bed.  Luke is staying overnight with us, so he and Justin can spend time together.  It's kind of weird because it's hard to be a good host when you are gone in the evening to church both evenings that the guests are here.  Leah is cooking a big Eater dinner for Sunday as well.  It's just one of those weekends that ministers' have a hard time being a normal family, lol.  I wish I could say that it will get easier, but it's actually going to get worse as Gary's travel schedule ramps up.  It's amazing how much he's going to be gone!  Eek!

Speaking of which, we have a lot of things to figure out for next school/work year.  We haven't even planned vacation yet.  It's crazy!  But, we just need to get through the next week, and make sure we shore up some plans in the beginning of May before Gary and Leah go into hiding for the next three months.  Well, sort of, but they will be in and out doing things.  That's all I can say for now.  But hopefully Benaiah will get his drivers' license soon and we can all breathe a sigh of relief.  He had to first find his SS card, then make an account at the BMV, and finally get in some parallel parking practice before I would even think about setting up a time for his drivers' test.  He said on Thursday how adult-like he is, and yet wanted to push a lot of that on me to do.  Um, no, you do it.  If it's important to you, you'll find the time.  And he did get two of those things done.  Now it's up to him and Gpa to practice the parallel parking on Monday. THEN I'll sign him up for a time that is convenient to ME.  Sigh.

I was in the kitchen and I thought I heard Benaiah's duck call alarm going over.  Come to find out, it was a lady duck creating all that noise outside my window in the sunroom!  It was a steady, "Quack, quack, quack" kind of like a warning to her mate that something was up.  Jared said another male had been nearby earlier.  Oh boy!

Then she flew up to the top of the shed and continued her alarmed sounds.  Eeek!  And all the while, Benaiah didn't hear it!

Lookin' cozy.

Best I can do with my phone camera and the crazy lighting.  I'm going to try to sit in the balacony at the 11am service after  I serve at 9:15 so I can get some pics.

Last acrostic!  Has everyone heard the Good News? The way to God is ONLY through Jesus.  The resurrection is powerful and eternal.

Saturday was a lazy day for some of us.  Abishai woke up as usual and jumped all over Luke and Justin trying to get them up.  Then they went to breakfast at Gary and Leah's house so Gary could take Luke and Justin to see the Shazaam superhero movie.  Keturah got up late and puttered around the house.  Benaiah had a 3 hr shift at CFA as being the CFA cow in costume.  He said it was so hot in the headpiece!  He had to ask for the day off yesterday and today because of Easter services.  I took him back to church at 2pm and then took Keturah to Meijer to do a little "I'm growing up and need womanly things" Mommy and Me shopping trip.  We spent the rest of the day with Ron and Nina while Gary and Leah and Benaiah were at church.

Lots of crazies happened at the in laws, but it was all good.  Here's the proof.

20th Anniversary of the shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado.  Michael W. Smith soon after wrote a song, This Is Your Time, for the memorial service.  20 years, wow.  And I graduated from high school just a month later.  Again, wow!  20 years!

Bwahahaha, he definitely does! Although technically he is a preschooler....

I took Keturah to Meijer to get "womanly" things like training bras and shaving equipment.  I also bought her special bodywash and a new loofa poof thing, just for her.  She wasn't very excited about, but I tried to make it as special a time as I could.  She didn't want Starbucks, so she got a pop instead.  She choose different kinds of flavors of Sprite like peach, cherry, and raspberry.

Cousin Luke with his buddy Abishai.  Abishai woke up the boys super early as usual and he plays the little sidekick.  It's a good thing that kids like Luke have littler siblings and don't mind Abishai's antics.  I do try to pull Abishai away when the others seem to need space.

I wanted to do something somewhat physical today because I've been lazy this week about home projects/cleaning.  Well, Jared took over and cleaned the parts to the toaster oven for me since he knows it's a lot of work and hard on my shoulders.  What a great job he did!  That allowed me to have time to write up the extra blog posts.

Spending time with family is always interesting. Here the boys are playing "bar tender/water" and taking orders.

Abishai joined in and sometimes got real food to serve to us.  He allowed Aunt Nina to have one grape for $5.  Lots of fun and laughs watching this kid play.  He refused to change his clothes and we didn't even bother put on socks or shoes to come over to Gma's house, lol.

He did bring his brand new car Jared got him this morning at Kroger on his way back from dropping Benaiah off at work to be the CFA cow.  Uncle Ron tried to steal away the new car.  So cute!

Then we did a little Easter egg hunt when Grandma and Grandpa got back from church.  Sparkle eggs had little hints in them to the bigger candy prizes.  Grandma and Aunt Nina set up everything.

Abishai was super excited to find all the eggs!

Counting eggs to make sure we got them all this year.  We still had a hard time finding them all!

Even Benaiah found his own candy prize.

"All mine!"

A little bit of candy in the eggs, and then everybody got a big version of their favorites.

Twix for Justin, hot tamales for Luke.

Mm's for Justin, cookies and cream for Benaiah.

Peanut butter eggs for Keturah.  None for me or Jared, boo!

yup

I wish I could join them!  Epic concert for sure and in all their years of touring, they've never shared the same stage before!

Hilarious video by our youth staff!  Oh my word! Crazy Fortnite dance and everything, oi!

Sunday Funday: I had nursery duty at 9:15, so although we originally we were going to stay home, I went up to the balcony for all of the 11am service and Jared and Abishai joined me about halfway through the sermon.  We both wanted to be there as Dad walked off the stage as the main "communicator" for the last time.  I took lots of pics and vids and wasn't embarrassed by it because I kept the phone down low and I had already worshiped on Friday night.  Gary did see us because Abishai was right up against the glass and he said he got teary eyed.  I wasn't emotional because I didn't have any energy left.  In fact, after dinner with Ron, Nina, and Luke, we came home and crashed.  Ron, Nina and Luke got on the road back to Michigan right after dinner.  A friend from Illinois, Elizabeth, (whose son in law is the upper elementary pastor, and who was baptized and married by Gary in his first ministry) stopped by to say hi as well.

Benaiah slept for like 6 hrs.  I took a nap on the trampoline to enjoy the gorgeous weather (with something over my head so I wouldn't get sunburned) for a little bit and then spent two hours on the couch because I felt crummy with neuropathy, overall pain, and stomach upset.  Justin puttered and then went to his friend's house for the evening.  Keturah read and read and read because I wouldn't allow her to turn on the TV because it was so nice outside.  And Abishai busted his lip open on his big bus, so after we got him settled down, he fell asleep with Jared for two hours.  We were all beyond exhausted socially and physically.  When we got up, we had some supper and then Jared and I walked around the block twice with Abishai first in the stroller and then on Jared's shoulders.  Keturah rode her bike around the block 3 times.  And now everyone has settled back down in a normal routine.  We will be doing school tomorrow as normal (10 days left!) but Benaiah has the day off of school.  He still has to go into work though.  Sigh.  Back to normal life.

Update: Final stats for 7 Easter Services, 5 at Franklin Rd and 2 at Shelby St.: 7,344 people and 14 baptisms including one at Shelby St.!  Praise the Lord!

Just a sneak peak of the numerous pictures and videos I took during the 11am Easter service.  They will all be on the next blog post including a YouTube playlist.  Enjoy!

My grandpa!

Last walkout after preaching.

Ready to sing and dance!

Motly crew who don't know how to dress up for a holiday.  There's bigger fish to fry than clothes these days.

When you have lots of guests, you set out the fancy chinet! But I like the baby blue tablecloth!

Dinner prayer time.

Luke, Ron, Nina, and Keturah.

Long time friend from Waynesville, IL, Elizabeth.  Gary baptized her when she was 11, married her to her first husband, and they've hosted her and her kids before.  She then divorced, but her daughter is the wife of our 4th and 5th grade student pastor.

Abishai put Luke in jail!  And Justin helped him escape!

Friday and Saturday were rainy and gloomy, but check out those gorgeous blue skies and perfect temps!

Some kiddos were running through wet grass with shoes on.  Those footprints look huge!

Abishai fell on top of his big plastic Tonka bus and bit the inside of his lip and right below his lip on the outside.  Boy did it hurt!  He's doing an excellent job of not picking it, and for the most part, it doesn't hurt when he eats.  Poor guy!

Doesn't he look like the boy on "A Christmas Story" who gets his tongue stuck to flag pole and then comes in the classroom with paper towel in his mouth?  He was so tired from the weekend's socializing, too.  Aww....

He looks so big!

We love our yellow and purple weed flowers!  And they continue to pop up no matter how much we mow.  The magnolia tree has now lost all it's flowers, too.

Walking around the block time!  In his pjs, without shoes, king of the world, our Abishai!

3 laps in the opposite direction as us.

More weedy flowers.  But they are kind of pretty!

Sweet!

He's getting a little too long for Daddy's lap!  I think he's grown a ton recently.  All his pj bottoms are too short!  But his waist doesn't grow, so we'll see if he sizes up or not.

Making himself a quesodilla while listening to a sportscast.  But what sportscast?  Esports of course!  He's listening to commentary on how his favorite video game teams are doing.  Oi!

Benaiah's been sitting down at the piano more and more to practice chords, so I joined him.  One advantage of volunteering and using the planning center app is I can go into the worship and creative arts section (via the website) and click on the pdf of any song we sing and print it off for free.  It's usually in chords format, which I prefer real piano sheet music, but it works.  I also know what next Sunday will look like, Gary's last Sunday on staff, but I won't be sharing that info, sorry. 

The End